We were lucky to catch up with Raj Singh, Md recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Raj, thanks for joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

In 2017, I was experiencing tremendous stress in my personal and professional life. I worked a relentless schedule as a kidney specialist, and was going through a divorce. To say things were hectic and complicated would probably be an understatement. To deal with my personal relationship crisis and the stresses of work, I did what a lot of other people do. I turned to coffee, alcohol and smoking in order to cope.

I knew I was hitting a crisis point and my body could only take so much. So, I began exploring ways to heal my mind and body. I did my own research, attended anti-aging conferences, mindfulness, and other wellness seminars, and I was growing curious about how to incorporate what I was learning into my practice. For my personal health, I didn’t want to depend on prescriptions and while I was interested in natural remedies, I also found too many naturopaths were caught up in selling supplements. I’m a physician, not a salesman. I needed my approach to my personal and my patients’ health to be simple, practical, and not rely on either of these two extremes: drugs or supplements. I wanted a balanced approach that integrates both traditional and alternative care to get the best outcomes possible for myself and my patients.

Even though I was learning things, I wasn’t making much progress yet with making changes of my own. There was a day that finally changed things forever. I was with a very patient friend who spent a lot of time listening to my struggles. It dawned on me that he was probably too giving and too patient. I was constantly complaining with no forward movement. I looked at him and said: “I can’t even stand to hear myself complain anymore, I can’t imagine how this must be for you.” From that day on I decided to put plans into action.

Personally, I began tackling my own nutrition, using some supplements, while incorporating mindfulness and other practices to improve my health. I left my solo nephrology practice and opened HEALOR in a small 600 square-foot office. I start every patient relationship with a lot of basic and simple questions that sadly so many people are surprised to hear. I ask about sleep patterns and habits, their sexual health, energy levels, so many subjects previous physicians never even bothered to ask them about, but quickly prescribed a medication to “help.”

My goal with Healor is to change this way of practicing medicine, not just on the practice level, but in the entire wellness industry. A few years ago, I was approached at an anti-aging conference and was asked how I felt about what I was learning. I gave a frank answer: “this could be better.” I’ve been presenting at wellness conferences for other physicians ever since.

Today, I’ve navigated my divorce, found a new relationship and built a successful practice that has expanded beyond my wildest dreams, and is now operating out of a 10,000 square foot facility. I still work as a kidney specialist at times, but in my primary practice, I find so much joy in getting patients off long-time medications and seeing how they feel better and get excited about their life. The changes may be as simple as improving hormone levels, better nutrition and lifestyle choices or some other way of tapping the body’s immense power to heal itself. My work is so gratifying now, and I’m feeling better than I ever have.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As the Medical Director at HEALOR, I bring expertise in both Internal Medicine and Nephrology. I’m proud to say I was educated locally at the UNLV School of Medicine, and complemented my academic experience with specialized nephrology training at the University of Kansas. These experiences are the foundation for my comprehensive approach to patient care today.

One of the most rewarding aspects of my work comes with educating other healthcare professionals. I enjoy learning more about anti-aging, medical weight management, advanced nutritional science, sexual health optimization, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, and other novel approaches to health. I present my learnings at prestigious medical conferences in the U.S. and internationally.

I’m driven to do this work because I want more people to do what we’re doing at HEALOR. When I teach, I typically have 50 to 60 medical providers in the audience. I’m inspired because they’ve chosen to at least consider different ways of practicing medicine from a wellness perspective, and this work gives even more purpose to being able to say I’m a physician.

When it comes to practicing medicine, to me, it’s about asking a lot of questions, starting at the surface and then digging deeper. If you look at, for example, a patient with sleep problems, it’s not enough to simply prescribe Ambien because they say they can’t sleep. You need to ask about sleep hygiene, whether falling asleep or staying asleep is the problem, and dig down into the root cause of the problem, not just the symptoms. The solutions may be simple sleep hygiene changes, a supplement, adjusting their sleep schedule, hormone therapy, it can be a number of things. The whole idea is that at HEALOR we want to heal not mask symptoms, and sleep is just one example.

I also see a lot of patients for weight loss, and many of them think it’s all about eating organic food. Well, you could be eating all the best food all the time, but if your gut health is compromised you may not be absorbing anything. This could also affect mental health and many more things. I always say if you want to treat depression, treat your gut.

These are just two examples of ways I approach patient care in my wellness practice. Overall, I’m dedicated to holistic wellness. I’m committed to fostering optimal health through comprehensive strategies. I know effective healthcare can transform lives, and I integrate traditional medical expertise with natural healing approaches to support the body’s innate healing capabilities.

This comprehensive approach has delivered remarkable results for my patients. I am honored to have been the recipient of numerous top doctor awards from prestigious publications including Health Tap, Las Vegas Magazine, Phoenix Magazine, and Healthcare Quarterly. I have been a featured medical expert on major television networks including NBC, ABC, and CBS, and have been recognized as a trusted medical authority in publications such as National Geographic, Forbes, New York Post, Success Magazine, Paper Gown, and other respected media outlets.

As a proud father, I cherish quality time with my two sons. I love animals, too, and share my home with two dogs and two cats. I also have a thrill-seeking side and like to sky dive and scuba dive, and hold an NAUI certification. I also enjoy horseback riding and traveling around the world.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In September of 2023, I was involved in a major car accident. I fractured my left thumb and had it in a cast for a couple months. This made it impossible for me to do cosmetic procedures for my clients. Within a week of the accident, I also lost one of my cats and my father passed away unexpectedly a week after that. I had three traumatic things happen in a two-week period.

With my hand out of commission, I was also overstretched on the business side of things. I didn’t have much help at the time and no one to step in for me when it came to procedures.

I attended a business conference, and that helped me realize I had to let go of control of some things in my life. I focused on adding people to my team and hiring other physicians, too. That way, if something like this were to happen again, I would have others who can step in for me. At the same time, I was feeling a little lonely, and felt it was time to start seeking a relationship again, after my divorce. I addressed issues on both personal and professional fronts, and I have to say it was the best decision I ever made. It took about a year, but I was finally able to reset, and I now have a great team to run both my medical practice as well as my medical spa.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

As a doctor, you are an intellectual and a perfectionist and you think you know a lot, and when you go into business you quickly learn how much you don’t know. Just because you are getting the medicine side right doesn’t mean the business side is right. Having a business has been a very humbling experience, and I’ve had to figure out how to take care of the business side of things, not just the medicine side.

I enrolled in the SBA’s Thrive program, a six-month business training program because I realized my practice was very busy but struggling because it was poorly managed. I needed help maintaining the finances and expenses, marketing, legal things, and so much more. After COVID, I realized many of my expenses were climbing and it was taking longer for people to pay. The SBA program was like a mini MBA and it helped me see that my business finances were not sound. I had to quickly unlearn that just because you are a good doctor doesn’t mean your business is in good shape.

I used my training to hire a better team that is able to supplement the skills I did not have. I hired someone with a master’s degree in health administration who knows how to manage a medical practice and deal with insurance compliance. I learned to budget better. What started this journey was the fact that I applied for a small business loan and was denied. They said my books were not good. I’m doing a lot better now. I have four other full time providers and about 15 employees, and I learned to let go of a lot of responsibility, especially when it came to accounting, payroll, and bookkeeping. Now, instead of working in the business I’m working on the business more, and that’s a good thing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://healor.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healor/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Healor1
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/healor/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@healor
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/healor-las-vegas
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@healor1

Image Credits

Photos courtesy of Healor