Heart doctor and bestselling author Sandeep Jauhar, MD, took a moment to reply to us from the frontlines of the pandemic at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, where he has directed the Heart Failure Program for more than 13 years.
Dr. Jauhar visited UAlbany in February 2020 to talk about his bestseller, The Heart: A History. That book's insights into the importance of emotional health for physical well-being appear to be particularly important in the present crisis:
“Do you want to live a long, healthy, and prosperous life?" he writes. "Don’t smoke. Exercise. Eat right. But also take good care of your interpersonal relationships and the way you deal with life’s inevitable upsets and traumas. Your mind-set, your coping strategies, how you navigate challenging circumstances, your capacity to transcend distress, your capacity to love – these things, I believe, are also a matter of life and death.”
Q: How are you, Sandeep?
A: Crazy time-- hope you're well!
Q: What is life like for you?
A: I’m spending much of my time in the hospital. New York City, as you know, is an epicenter of the pandemic, and Long Island has been particularly hard hit.
Q: What do you do to stay sane?
A: A daily jog for 15-20 minutes. I’m a mess without it (especially on weekends when I’m hunkering with my 15 and 11-year old!)
Q: Any reading recommendations?
A: Just read a lovely little novel called Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff. Recommend it.
Here's our webpage about Dr. Jauhar's visit, which was cosponsored by UAlbany’s RNA Institute and School of Public Health, UAlbany’s Women in Science and Health network (WISH), and the Hudson Valley RNA Club:.
Dr. Jauhar talks about the relationship between emotional stress and heart health in this excerpt from our YouTube page:
You can view Sandeep's TED Talk, "How Your Emotions Change the Shape of Your Heart," here:
Sandeep Jauhar's first book, Intern: A Doctor's Initiation, was a national bestseller and was optioned by NBC for a dramatic television series.
His second book, Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician, released in August 2014, was a New York Times bestseller and was named a New York Post Best Book of 2014.
Dr. Jauhar recently contributed an op-ed piece about "The Hidden Toll of Untreated Illnesses" during the COVID-19 pandemic to the Wall Street Journal. He writes, "As Covid-19 overwhelms doctors and hospitals, patients with other conditions receive less care, leading to a rise in mortality."
You can visit Dr. Sandeep Jauhar's website at sandeepjauhar.com/,
follow him on Twitter -- twitter.com/sjauhar-
and Facebook -- www.facebook.com/sandeepjauhar