Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: All right. Welcome to UAC Hot Seat. And today we have Dr. Raj. We’re so excited to have you. Raj, tell us a little bit about how you came into UAC. I want to hear how you heard about us.
Dr. Raj Gupta: So, a good friend of mine, Dr. Fab Mancini, who I’ve known for many, many years referred me to both Stephen and Allen, and thought that I would be a great fit as both a member and speaker to the UAC. So, I got on the horn with both Stephen and Allen a couple times. It was a lot of fun actually. [chuckle] It was a great conversation, high energy for sure and like-minded individuals. So, we definitely hit it off quite quickly.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: That’s awesome. So, tell us about your practice. Where do you live and how do you serve the chiropractic profession?
Dr. Raj Gupta: Oh man. I was born to be a chiropractor. I totally am. I am just ridiculously passionate about helping people really get to the root cause. And where I am now in my career, I really had never imagined for myself as a chiropractor, but, nonetheless, I love getting up in the morning and going to work. So, I live in New Jersey. I am born and raised. And I came back. I was never coming back [laughter], but I got sucked back in family and friends. And so, I started working. I opened up… I associated for a couple of years and then I opened up a practice that was an integrated practice from the get-go in 2003. So, we just celebrated our 20-year anniversary. And we provide totally conservative, we prescribe no medication, never have, never will but we use the Western medicine side for good instead of evil.
Dr. Raj Gupta: So, we use it to complement our chiropractic, physical therapy, occupational therapy, acupuncture nutritional counseling, spinal decompression. We do functional medicine, regenerative medicine. We have a neuropathy program. We do a lot of cool stuff. So, I opened up this practice in 2003 and in 1700 square feet, within 10 months we expanded to 4200 square feet. Because my neighbor moved out in the suite next to me and I thought, well, I’ll never have this opportunity again. So, I knocked down the wall, of course. [chuckle]
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Boom. Yes.
Dr. Raj Gupta: I was young and just really excited. So, we did really well. Sorry, that’s my dog. We did really [chuckle] well and we were there for seven years. And then I had this, well, it was a delusion of grandeur until I made it happen. I materialized it and it was a wellness center that I wanted to build that included the practice I spoke of, a full-service gym, personal training, group exercise classes, the works, and a full service Medi spa. So, I built this sucker against anyone who cared about me. [laughter] Told me not to do this. And so, I built a 16,000 square foot facility from the ground up named Soul Focus, aka dubbed the Raj Mahal. And I had Italian tile in the locker rooms, eucalyptus steam rooms, infrared saunas, juice bar, brain tap, tranquility lounge massage and facial clubs. It was awesome. It was awesome.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: I want to go there. [laughter]
Dr. Raj Gupta: Yeah, you can’t because COVID, here in New Jersey was a killer. So, by the way, we were there for 11 years, and we became a staple of the community for wellness. In the spa, we didn’t do Botox. We did all natural PRP, vampires, facials, it was, we were very holistic in all the services that we offered. But COVID, we were mandated shut while the practice was allowed to stay open, we had to close the gym and the spa for nine months. And then when we were allowed to reopen, it was only a 25% capacity, and I really didn’t know how to do that. So, we had to turn the page and make lemonade. So, I took my practice and downsized. And we’re 8000 square feet now. I mean, it’s by no means a small practice.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: No kidding.
Dr. Raj Gupta: And focus… Yeah. Crazy. But I moved to this really posh downtown town and we are front and center and we are really stepping out. We’re doing physical medicine, rehabilitation, chiropractic of course leading the way, but now we’re specializing in functional medicine. I was just on an NBC show reversing a patient’s diabetes getting her off all her meds. And I would sign on for season two and three and provided three patients for them. So that’s exciting.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Wow.
Dr. Raj Gupta: We use regenerative medicine to create angiogenesis in people’s legs and feet to make new nerves with stem cell and PRP and people donate walkers and canes to us. It’s amazing. Regenerative medicine is like Star Trek today. And getting people just to detox and food logs and so it used to be all physical and outside in, now we’re doing outside in and inside out. We have an entire IV nutrition lounge where we do brain tap and people are chilling, getting IVs. It’s great. I love my job.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Wow. Okay. So, I love all this because it’s all cool and definitely at par, I think, everybody’s alley that’s going be listening to this, which is awesome. So, tell us, the part that I always think about is, where does that vision come from? Like where did you really get started in that whole thought process?
Dr. Raj Gupta: So functional medicine in particular, I was in a mastermind group, not unlike the UAC, where I was having dinner with a couple out from California and she and her husband, she was a chiropractor and she was speaking about reversing Alzheimer’s, cognitive decline. And I just had never heard of anything of the like, and I was blown away so much so that at the next mastermind, I was looking for her, I’m like, “I need to learn how to do this.” And she wasn’t there, but someone else in the group, [laughter] I told someone else in the group, like, “I can’t even believe this.” And she goes, “Oh yeah, you want to speak to this dude, and he’s got an entire functional medicine program.” I spoke to him and that was it. I’m like, “I know I was lucky to get through biochemistry, let alone learning.”
[laughter]
Dr. Raj Gupta: So, I didn’t have the nutrition backgrounds, but if there was a way that I could reverse chronic disease, namely type two diabetes, which they said was a joke to reverse, then I was going to do it. And so, I started that journey about three years ago, well, a little more than three years ago. And I ended up on NBC, God knows how. And that patient I took from an A1C of 12.9, on injectable Lantus, two oral insulins three times a day, 2000 mg of metformin, two blood pressure medications and a cholesterol medication. We eliminated all of the meds. Her A1C is 5.4, and she became a TV star.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Wow.
Dr. Raj Gupta: So, it was… It’s awesome. It’s awesome. The impact that I have as a chiropractor has multiplied by like 100,000%. And that plus the detoxes and IVs. We see dehydration, we give people IVs, we give them supplementation based on testing. We get them eating healthy. We change lives.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Life…
Dr. Raj Gupta: Save lives.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Yeah. So, Raj, you have different providers in your clinic, is that right? What are the other types of providers that you have in your integrated clinic?
Dr. Raj Gupta: So, a nurse practitioner that allows us to do the IVs and the regenerative medicine. We have an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, because occupational therapy actually lends itself more to what the chiropractic profession is about, which is function, ADLs and return to life and being able to perform. Acupuncture. Shoot, what else? That’s really it. We… Yeah.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: So, has it been challenging, because there’s a lot of doctors that have had a big practice in our group, but not everybody has taken that step into integration. And so, I’m really curious, like, how is that communication between the different providers and how have you solved the problem of getting them all to speak the more natural and holistic care?
Dr. Raj Gupta: So that’s a great question, because there’s a big difference between multi-disciplines and integrated. Multi-disciplines is when you have doctors of different backgrounds and professions under one roof, but they don’t speak to one another about the patient. And then integrated is when they’re working together as a team. So, we have morning huddles that are like rounds in the hospital where we sit down, and for 40 minutes before we open our doors to see patients, we review every patient on the schedule. And every provider is there, the front desk is there, assistants and techs are there. So everybody’s on the same page, which helps to navigate… It’s like the huddle before a play on a football game. Okay, this is the play that we’re going to run. Now, you make plans and God laughs, but you at least have a plan, and you go from there.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: That’s awesome. Speaking of plans and how to… Like, just with your story about COVID and navigating that whole situation, what really made you pull the trigger to be like, “This is our pivot, we got to pivot.” What really brought you there?
Dr. Raj Gupta: Yeah, so it’s funny you should even say that word, because my consulting arm is called Pivot Now Consulting. [laughter] And yeah, well, so I’ve always been… My profession, my livelihood, my practice was threatened, and I had to reinvent myself so I can continue to help people. So, taking it to the next level, and lucky for me that I’m fortunate enough to be surrounded like people like yourself, leaders in our profession that are always pushing the envelope with services and ability to help people. So just being exposed to the fact that I could do functional medicine or neuropathy or regenerative medicine or spinal decompression and then learning from these people has been just… I’m humbled by my colleagues and being able to follow in their footsteps and lead the way. I hope that I can eventually do that for others. We need to grow this profession. We’re the only ones fighting for the human race. The rest are drugs and surgery, which just… I’m going to be beaten down the horse. But as you know, we have to rewire hardwired Americans away from drugs and surgery. So, I’ll do my part however I need to. So, I pivoted.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: That’s awesome. I’ve got another question real quick. Just listening to all the things that you’re into and what you’re doing, I read that Life Force, Tony Robbins book have you read that at all?
Dr. Raj Gupta: Yes.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Is a lot of that kind of in alignment with the way that they think? Tell me a little bit about your perspective there because that was kind of… More my first exposure to a lot of this thought process, and I just love it. I’m intrigued by it. It’s funny, I’m having my third baby and I was like, oh my gosh, I can keep my cord blood and I keep all this stuff. [laughter]
Dr. Raj Gupta: I don’t know how I’ve been able to… So, listen, when my first, daughter was born, she’s now 19 years old, they came, they said, “Hey, do you want to bank the cells?” And I’m like, “The stem cells, what do they do?” They’re like, “We don’t know, but it might be able to save her life or someone in your family so I’m like bank them.” Then I had my next child, same thing. And then I recently, so I have a five-year-old daughter as well, and now you can bank the cord blood. So, listen, I’ve been doing regenerative medicine for, now, 10 years. I was really rogue back in the day. I was rogue when we had an integrated office. It was blasphemy for an MDPT and a chiropractor to work together in 2003.
[laughter]
Dr. Raj Gupta: I mean, that was just like, what are you doing? So Tony Robbins, I think he’s playing catch up a little bit but yes, I love the book and it’s the mindset. It is the way stem cells and regenerative medicine. I mean, there is no one can contest that it is the future of medicine. We might be able to, I don’t know, make new limbs and organs yet. But it’s coming. It’s coming. It’s cool stuff. The before and after x-rays that I have, you would not believe. When I first saw them, I thought that they were doctored. Like, no pun intended. But now I have my own and they’re remarkable.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Oh, so cool. Like in the spine from injecting stem cells in different areas in the spine, or?
Dr. Raj Gupta: So, I have joints, typically.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Joints, got it.
Dr. Raj Gupta: Yeah. So, knees and shoulders. So, here’s a perfect example. I don’t think he would mind me telling you because we, we were going try to do a research study on him. Dr. Fab’s brother had a rotator cuff with three of the muscles completely torn, plus the labrum. And he calls me up and he says, “Raj, stem cell.” Like, no way, [laughter] That’s asking way too much. This is a patient I turn away; prognosis is not good. You shouldn’t be able to reattach a fully torn muscle. He’s like, “Raj, I’m not doing surgery. So, if you think that this will help at all, I’m there.” So, he jumped on a plane, he stayed with us, we injected him, he went home. We took a post MRI, his orthopedic surgeon about fell off his chair, said, “You don’t need surgery anymore. I can’t even believe this.” So, he got on a plane, came back, and got a second stem cell injection. And we’re waiting on the third MRI because of the three muscles that were fully torn, two fully reattached, one partially reattached, and the labrum partially reattached after the first injection. That should not happen. That should not happen. I had a patient, I would show you a before and after, like a femoral head mushroom deformity, that one of my associates accepted this patient for stem cell. When he showed me the X-ray. I’m like, “Dude, no that guy needs surgery.” So, we took a post x-ray 12 weeks later and it’s a normal ball-and-socket.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: No way. Wow.
Dr. Raj Gupta: I’ll send it to you. I wish I had it. I think I do. I could probably share it, but like, Oh my gosh. Truly amazing. So regenerative… These things get me excited if you can’t tell. They get me excited.
[laughter]
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Can’t tell.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: But again, it’s so exciting because this is so inside of the chiropractic philosophy and it’s using our own body to heal. It’s amazing. Awesome. So you are still in clinical practice, right? I don’t think I quite got that. I mean, you’re on the ground in the trenches every day.
Dr. Raj Gupta: So, get this, I have not practiced in 10 years and came back in to practice to reboot my practice about nine months ago. And it’s great. And it’s good and bad. I love seeing patients. The hours and being confined to an office is a little difficult for me. I’m used to traveling all over the country speaking and helping others, or other chiropractors. And now I’m down to the basic level but nothing’s better man. I feel like a five-star general has been tested to see if he can still fight on the front line.
[laughter]
Dr. Raj Gupta: I’m like, put me in.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Really still gets you fired up. I love it.
Dr. Raj Gupta: It does. It does.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Stef, you want to ask a closing question?
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Yeah, absolutely. So, since this is all about UAC and we’ve loved getting to know you today, Raj.
Dr. Raj Gupta: Oh, thank you.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: But tell us your favorite thing about UAC and how it’s really like contributed to your life.
Dr. Raj Gupta: Yeah. So, my group, even though they’re going to laugh if they hear this, because I have not been present my accountability group, I have been totally unaccounted for because…
Dr. Lynne Mouw: You got to get in there.
[laughter]
Dr. Raj Gupta: Well, we meet on Fridays and, I started seeing patients on Friday. So, I started to juggle both and it just… I had, I really had to dive back in to reboot this practice. But the accountability group, I love those guys, man.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: And who’s in your group, Raj?
Dr. Raj Gupta: Billy Sticker, Nate Deines and John Davila and, Ben Shamoiel. Just great guys and they’re holding each other accountable but they let me loose. And they know I got stuff to do right now, but I’ll be back. And with the events, I just feel that UAC really is the creme of the crown. As far as I’m concerned, as a chiropractor you have to be in this group. We are leading the profession. The leaders of our profession are in the UAC. The people that are having an effect are in the UAC and the UAC continues to deliver. It’s a great group of people, with the again, like-minded. The moment I spoke to Allen and Stephen, I’m like, oh yeah.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: This is…
[laughter]
Dr. Raj Gupta: Yeah. These are my peeps.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: This is your track.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Yeah.
Dr. Raj Gupta: For sure.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Well, we love having you Raj, and thank you so much. Yes.
Dr. Raj Gupta: I appreciate the opportunity.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Yes. And thanks for sharing your stories and your experiences because we all benefit from it. So, thank you so much for being with us.
Dr. Raj Gupta: Of course. Thanks so much again for having me. Pleasure.
