Joel Kahn, M.D.

What is your wellness philosophy?

"Extreme in Diet, Moderate in Exercise, Abundant in Love." I do not buy into the "moderation in everything" or the "do what works for you" as a fall back. Wellness takes work and discipline 90% plus of the time. Health is not an accident for most of us. It is a conscious decision to get to the gym or mat, to choose a side of greens over fries, to skip dessert or an entire meal, and to express gratitude daily. The only place results come before work is in the dictionary and that applies to wellness to. You hope to get back proportionate to what you put in. How would it feel to wake up every day, have energy until bedtime, have no pain, take no medications, and feel like you were 20 even if 40 years past that? If that is worth it to you, work it, don't wait for it to fall in your lap.

What brought you into wellness?

Nutrition opened the door. My upbringing on a Kosher diet led to a choice in freshman year college to eat only a salad bar diet. Then reading "A Diet for A New America" in medical school and the publication of research by Dean Ornish, MD expanded my view to the prevention and reversal of disease and protection of animals and the environment. I keep nutrition in the center of my approach but achieved a university certification in functional medicine/cardiology to apply therapies focused optimization of sleep and stress management, nutraceuticals, mind-body practices, and even sauna therapy as a routine part of my patient care.

What does You. We. All. mean to you?

No person is an island. Nearly 2,000 years ago Rabbi Hillel said "If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?" I think You, We, All is of the same view that no person is an island. We are better together but at the same time must be strong to pull others up. We are a community of mindbodygreen, accepting of differences, celebrating the success of others, students, and friends focused on the improvement of ourselves and our fellow person.

What gets you up in the morning?

I wake up with gratitude, spend a few minutes reviewing that gratitude with prayer, and then focus on my MTP (massively transformative purpose) which is to prevent, detect, and reverse the #1 killer in the Western world. There is much to do, whether lecturing high school students, seeing patients from around the world, writing and speaking, doing interviewing, reading for self improvement, or loving on my family and family of rescue dogs. The energy lasts from AM to late in the PM, usually ending at my restaurants in suburban Detroit. It is a full but very fulfilling life.