350: REWIND | Dr. Rizwan Bukhari - Exploring Vascular Surgery and Lifestyle Medicine

Maya Acosta  00:00

Hi Friends Maya here again. All right, welcome back to another episode of the segment we call doctor in the house. So for today, I thought what I do is do a little bit something a little different in case you haven't had time to go back and listen to every episode where Dr. Riz has been featured as a guest expert. I thought I would give you like a compilation of some of my favorite sound bites by Dr. Riz. And so today you're gonna hear some of the highlights some of the insights as to what Dr. Riz comes on the show to share about and just in case you're not familiar with Dr. Risk, he is my husband. He's a vascular surgeon here in the Dallas area. He has been practicing now, gosh, probably overcoat close to 30 years. And he has a vascular practice. But he also services to hospitals in the mesquite area in Sunnyvale. And so, our goal with having this segment of doctor in the house is to give you nuggets, soundbites, important tips that you can do to take control of your health. As always, my friends, I thank you so much for tuning in. I hope that you enjoy this segment. This is the healthy lifestyle solutions podcast and I'm your host Maya Acosta. If you're willing to go with me, together, we can discover how simple lifestyle choices can help improve our quality of life and increase our longevity in a good way. Let's get started.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  01:27

My profession is that of a vascular surgeon specifically, that means I treat disorders of the blood vessels which are the the veins, arteries in the lymphatics. As a vascular surgeon, I treat the veins and arteries and blood vessels that are outside of the heart and outside of the brain. So there are specialists that treat the blood vessels of the heart. And there are specialists that treat blood vessels inside the brain. Specifically, that would be the cardiologist for the heart, and the neurosurgeon for the brain, diagnose, manage and treat all the disorders of those blood vessels outside of those organs.

Maya Acosta  02:01

Tell us your story of how you learned about lifestyle medicine and the benefits of plant based nutrition.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  02:09

I went into vascular surgery because there's a lot of satisfaction in making a therapeutic intervention in someone's life and improving their life. But very interestingly, a few years back, I began to be exposed to the concept of like concept that this disease I treat the one I treat the most, which is atherosclerosis, was it a disease that didn't have to happen, that it was a preventable disease. And that was a concept that's not really well described, in our vasculature. It's not talked about, when we go and train to become vascular surgeons, we just assume we have this disease. And, and now we're learning how to treat it. But in that curriculum, there isn't anything about, oh, this disease is preventable. And so therefore, you could, and the reason that became so meaningful to me is because what I treat is horrible, horrible stuff. But by the time someone gets to me, they are on the verge of losing their limbs, and they have life threatening problems. And these are end of life issues. And they typically have multiple chronic diseases as well, diabetes, and hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia and obesity. And so the overall health of the patients I treat is not good either. So again, getting back to this concept of oh, this disease that I treat is actually preventable, that that had a major impact on my psyche, my thought processes. When I started to realize that this was a preventable disease, I did more research, and I did more reading, and I looked at the scientific literature and the evidence based medicine. And I was actually quite blown away. And it was hard for me, because this was a, this was new information that was being presented to me nearly 15 years into my practice, and maybe a little more, maybe 1718 years into my practice. So I couldn't imagine that I had never been exposed to this before. And it's for me, it's some sort of kind of weird, crazy secret that exists out there or something that people don't care to share or know about. But basically boils down to the fact that the that the risk factors that lead to atherosclerosis, are largely lifestyle related. It's basically due to the choices we make in our lives. And so about, you know, current estimates are that about 80% of the disease, the atherosclerosis that I treat, doesn't have to occur. And so that made me very interested in learning more about these lifestyle choices. I learned about the blue zones that exist around the world, and and the characteristics of those people and how they live longer and healthier. And then that led me To the American College of lifestyle medicine, which has a very similar philosophy and looking at lifestyle related issues, and how we can prevent disease, and even treat disease through changing people's lifestyles. And that had such a profound impact on me that I went and got board certified. I went and studied and learn and then got board certified in lifestyle medicine, by the by the board of American Board of lifestyle medicine. And so now today, I incorporate lifestyle changes as a significant component as what I teach my patients, the vast majority of my patients who have heart disease to some extent, most of them have some fairly significant heart disease. So I deal with that on a regular basis. So I'm not a cardiologist. I'm not a heart surgeon, but I have extensive experience with heart disease and you know, some of the diseases we treat

Maya Acosta  05:53

overlap, what is the difference between a cardiologist and a vascular surgeon? And then how do you work together at times?

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  06:01

Well, that's a very good question. They are two different specialties. A cardiologist is a medical specialty and a vascular surgeon is a surgical specialty. That means a cardiologist goes through an internal medicine pathway. And then they after that they do one two or three more years in cardiology, depending on what they want to specialize in, to become a cardiologist. And their specialty is that is the diseases of the heart. Okay. And then a vascular surgeon is a surgeon. So he'll go through five years of general surgery, and then one or two more years of specialization and vascular surgery. And I'm actually utilizing my previous experience, those those pathways have changed now. And so they're different from what what I trained 25 years ago, I think the the pathways for vascular surgery are now five or six years depending on what you want to do. And so what you've got is, we are actually two different very different specialties. One is a surgeon, one's a medical specialist, their cardiologist treat specifically treats diseases of the heart. And those diseases might be heart failure issues. Rhythm management issues, and or atherosclerotic issues atherosclerosis, meaning the buildup of plaque or blockages of the arteries that supply the heart, okay. And then a vascular surgeon treats the disorders of the blood vessels of the body, outside of the heart, and outside of the brain, the neurosurgeon does it inside the brain, the cardiologist does it in the heart. And then I as a vascular surgeon, treat all the blood vessel disorders everywhere else. And that might mean that I treat the blood vessels of the neck, the blood vessels in the chest or in the arms, or in the abdomen, or in the legs. And blood vessel disorders are come of varying types just like heart disorders. Blood vessels, disorders can include aneurysms, which is areas where the blood vessels dilate and get bigger, much like a blood on a tire where they can rupture. other disorders include in inflammatory disorders, like vasculitis and then there can be disorders of the lymphatic system and disorders of the vein systems. We can treat blood clots in the veins, and then all you know, probably one of the primary main areas of vascular surgery is treating the buildup of plaque or atherosclerosis inside the arteries, okay, and plaque can build up inside the arteries in the neck, in the arms in the artery supplying the intestines and in the legs. And that's where there's overlap in the specialties of cardiology, and vascular surgery. The cardiologist treats the atherosclerosis or plaque of the coronary arteries or the arteries of the heart, I treat atherosclerosis of all of the other arteries in the body. So we both have a common area, we retrieve a common disease. But the cardiologist treats that disease in the heart. And I treat that disease everywhere else

Maya Acosta  09:05

interesting is a cardiologist, not necessarily a surgeon, that would be a heart surgeon.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  09:11

So so a cardiologist is not a surgeon, so they

Maya Acosta  09:14

don't go in and open. They do open heart surgery.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  09:17

No. So there's two specialists in the heart that treat the heart. There's the cardiologist, and there's a varying degree of what those cardiologists might do. And then there's the cardiac surgeon, wow, the cardiac surgeon does the operative or surgical interventions of the heart? Okay, the cardiologist will do the medical therapy and the minimally invasive things, treatments of the heart. And then when I say minimally invasive, that means when you go through a puncture in the arm or the groin, and you go up and you do an angioplasty with a balloon or a stent or something like that in the heart. And so on the vascular surgery side, there's not a medical therapist and a surgical therapist. The vascular surgeon does To do all of that, okay, so as a as a as a practitioner, I diagnose, I manage, and I treat. And my, my treatment might be the minimally minimally invasive route, or it might be the surgical route.

Maya Acosta  10:17

Okay. Wow, the more you come on the show, the more that we'll be able to talk about chronic diseases that you treat, how do patients end up seeing you? Instead of referral system? Yeah, most

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  10:29

patients come to me from other specialists.

Maya Acosta  10:32

So they just can't walk in the office and say, Hey, Dr. Risk, can you treat me?

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  10:35

Well? I mean, you can you can, you can make an appointment to see me. But it's, it's a it's a very advanced specialty, where it's, it's, it's not a simple diagnosis. And, and most people don't know how to diagnose their own problems. Sure. I do. Certainly, I do believe that, you know, diabetics and people with foot wounds, all deserve a vascular evaluation. And if you have those kind of problems, you're always more than welcome to contact me and we'll do everything we can to help assess you and help you get better. But oftentimes, these patients already have doctors, primary care doctors, cardiologists, family practice physicians, podiatrists who are already seeing them for those issues. And then that's where I typically get my patients from. But, but if you're a patient without, you know, a primary care doctor and you got a foot wound, you know, I encourage you to seek care somewhere. And hopefully, you'll eventually get where you need to be. And one of those places is with me for an evaluation of your circulation.

Maya Acosta  11:36

If you're interested on getting on Dr. Mises mailing lists and you want to learn more, we do have a newsletter, I'll put a link so that you can join it. And then one more thing I want to add is just reminder for our listeners that you lead a monthly walk here in the Dallas area, we have a page for that. And you basically every third Saturday of the month, you walk with a group, anybody who wants to come and you start with a 15 minute, hell topic. And then you lead people around the area, we walk at least one mile, but depending on the energy and the strength of the group, we can continue walking, and you're available to answer questions as well.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  12:13

Yep. It's a it's a nice, very easy one mile route. We don't we don't, we don't jog it. We take a nice pace where we can walk and talk and you can ask questions. And some people go around a second time some people go around a third time. And there's been interest from my colleagues, we have an orthopedic surgeon who wants to join us we have, we have registered dieticians who join us. We have health coaches who join us. I've got an anesthesiologist who wants to join us so you not only have the opportunity to sit in or walk and talk with me, but other people as well.

Maya Acosta  12:50

That's right. All right. Dr. Reyes. As always, thank you for joining us today.

Dr. Rizwan Bukhari  12:54

All right. See you next time.

Maya Acosta  12:57

You've been listening to the healthy lifestyle solutions podcast with your host Maya Acosta. If you've enjoyed this podcast, do us a favor and share with one friend who can benefit from this episode. Feel free to leave an honest review as well at rate this podcast.com forward slash HLS. This helps us to spread our message. And as always, thank you for being a listener.