Common Sense Prevails

Dr Altaf Patel is a brilliant individual who practises what he preaches, viz. exercise, plenty of sunlight and eat right. The renowned internal medicine specialist of Bombay makes sufficient time for it all in the midst of his hectic schedules, donning many hats

Text & Photograph:  Farzana Contractor

Dr Altaf Patel is a realist. And his counsel is based upon, apart from deep medical knowledge, common sense. The kind you and I can relate to. When asked to expound on what one should do to keep oneself in a good space health-wise, he simply states, “Exercise. Take in sunlight.” And what he preaches, he practises.

This good doctor is 72 going on 52. His exercise routine: every morning he swims for an hour at the Willingdon Club and, every evening he walks for 40 minutes on Altamount Road, situated right behind where he lives. “The road goes up and down and offers me the perfect cardio, if anything will be wrong, I will know immediately” he laughs and tells..

“What about food and diet?” we ask him. “That is important, but I am not a faddist. We don’t have to kill ourselves, starve to stay thin. Eating right is the trick. Carbs in a controlled manner, the right amount of protein, balanced with fruits and vegetables, and all will be fine. Don’t overeat, just enough to ‘kill’ hunger! Caloric restriction helps you live better and longer.” Common sense, like we said. He also adds, “And please don’t worry overly about eating fats. Cholesterol is not a bad word. We need a certain amount of the good kind. Don’t forget the brain is made up of 60% fat and fatty acids are among the most crucial molecules that determine your brain’s integrity and ability to perform!”

Dr Altaf Patel hails from a family of doctors. His dad was one, so is his brother and his sister – who practises speech therapy in London. But it’s his distinguished grandfather who has had the most influence. Dr Rajabally Patel, freedom fighter and doctor to Mahatma Gandhi. The man who started life studying under a streetlight and who eventually had a street named after him, Dr Rajabally Patel Road (right opposite Breach Candy Hospital) and many beautiful buildings in Bombay, including the Art Deco, Rajabally Mahal opposite the Oval Maidan and Shiv Shanti Bhuvan, which was once called Zainab, named after Rajabally’s wife.

“No doubt my granddad was a great man, apart from his medical prowess, it was his business sense that took him from being a penniless person to becoming a wealthy construction magnate. He actually left Rs.50,000 in the Congress exchequer, at the time of his death just before Independence,” says the grandson.

Well, Dr Altaf Patel, in his early years, had two career options. To become an aeronautical engineer or a doctor.  “I loved mathematics and was very good at math. But then I opted for medicine which itself is deductive logic. Take a symptom, analyse it, and then like a detective arrive at a conclusion.” But from another perspective, Dr Altaf Patel should have chosen some other field. He is a rare breed of doctor. He does get emotionally involved with his patients. ”I cry when they die…,” he says.

Well, he went on to become what is known as an 'internist'. A medical specialist in internal diseases. A physician trained to diagnose and treat an entire spectrum of medical issues, acute and chronic, for adult patients, through non-surgical means. One who understands the inter-functioning of all body parts and organs. “That’s right, an internist develops a comprehensive and deep expertise on many conditions which could be related to any organ of the human body. Could be the heart, kidney, liver and lungs…,” explains Dr Patel.

Apart from his consultancy practice, Dr Patel is also an academician. He is invited as examiner to the Royal College of Physicians, UK, every year. Here, along with other local examiners, he assesses medical skills of students over two days. That apart, he also lectures interns and resident doctors at Jaslok Hospital and medical students at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Parel.

However, what is interesting is that he is a medical columnist for over 25 years. His loyal readers have spanned three newspapers, Mid-Day, Mumbai Mirror and Times of India, the last mentioned is where his column appears now, in digital format. In his columns he touches upon varied interesting medical and quasi-medical subjects such as heart diseases, diabetes, kidney stones, high blood pressure, erectile dysfunction, dementia, forms of cancer, etc. A recent one we found particularly interesting was, 'when should one really see a specialist'. Let’s ask him to expound on that.

“You see, that’s a very tricky subject. The moment something is wrong, like say a fever, sore throat, back pain, stomach ache, even a palpitation of the heart, we immediately rush to a specialist who makes us first undergo numerous tests, studies the results and then arrives at a conclusion. I say, WAIT, give your GP or an internist a chance to assess the situation, treat the symptoms, and observe the changes. Let me illustrate with an example.”

“I once saw a patient who had severe breathlessness at night and was better sitting up. This is the cardinal symptom of a failing heart. However, all tests, including ECG and echocardiogram were normal. But there was a problem. One would expect that in the case of a failing heart, if one has symptoms at rest, the symptoms would appear during exertion as well. That was not the case, the symptoms were absent during exertion. Nevertheless, I put the patient in hospital and treated her for a failing heart. She felt much better. However, the kidney function slowly began to deteriorate. One of the medications used for a failing heart is a diuretic. It helps to increase the urine output to take the load off the failing heart. When there is an overdose, the kidneys weaken and the blood parameters for kidney dysfunction begin to rise. This is what happened in her case. In my absence, the house physician called in a nephrologist who stopped the drug for the failing heart and the original symptoms reemerged. I was livid the next morning. I explained to the junior doctors that this could have caused the patient her life. On restarting her medicine and judiciously using the diuretic, she settled down and was soon discharged. Here was clearly a situation where a super specialist was concerned about the kidney but overlooked the other organs of the patient.”

“So an internist should be your first port of call if you are feeling unwell. They will decide if your symptoms are manageable or will require the services of a super specialist.”

Dr Altaf Patel  is also a chelating physician. And pray, what does chelation mean? The doctor enlightens us. “Quite simply it’s a method of removing heavy metals from the bloodstream, used especially in treating lead or mercury poisoning. When metals like lead, mercury, iron and arsenic build up in your body, they can be toxic. In fact they are the main cause of blocking arteries leading to heart attacks. Chelation therapy is a treatment that uses medicine to remove these metals so that you do not fall prey to any illness.”

But how do we get ‘chelated’, so to speak? “Mainly drinking ground water contaminated with effluents, percolation of mercury, iron, aluminium, etc., from discarded cells, phone batteries and so on."

And what does the treatment involve? “Chelation can be done with intravenous or oral therapies. Several chemical agents could be used.” We learn the symptoms for chelation could be as varied as diarrhoea, nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting, shortness of breath, tingling of hands and feet, chills, and sudden weakness. “I would simply state a good intake of lemon and coriander is a natural defense against chelation. In any case, exercise, eat right, don’t worry, live happily and you won't need us doctors on a day-to-day basis!”, signs of Dr Altaf Patel, most helpfully.