Ziad Ali, MD

Name: Ziad Ali, MD
Age: 35

Hometown: London, United Kingdom

Specialty: Cardiology & Weight Management

Place of Practice: Columbia University, New York, NY

Why did you want to become a doctor?

Because it's the only job that you get to where your pajamas to work! In high school my favorite subject was biology. My elder brother went to medical school and I loved hearing about the things he was doing and learning. After that it was a no-brainer.

What sets you apart from other doctors in your field?

I am one of only a handful of doctors in the USA and probably the world that spends half of his time doing detailed molecular and cellular research trying to understand why our blood vessels get blocked up and why the treatments that we use to treat blocked arteries don’t last forever. We have all heard of the oxidants and how antioxidants can help our bodies, but the other side of oxidative stress is a totally new field called reductive stress. I am working on whether antireductants can also have a benefit for our hearts and bodies. Stay tuned!

The other half of my time I spend seeing patients in my office and treating there blockages in the catheterization laboratory. Doing basic science and treating patients puts me in a unique position to be able to bring things that we learn from the lab bench to the patient bedside. This is what we like to call translational medicine. Also having trained in cardiovascular surgery prior to embarking on my career as an interventional cardiologist gives me a very unique perspective on what is truly the best option for patients – surgery versus catheterization versus medical therapy.

What are your 5 tips for living longer?

1. No leftovers! Leftovers are rarely enough for a full meal so we end up snacking on the leftovers during the day and then have a full meal. That’s unnecessary calories which leads to weigh gain.
2. The Rule of Thirds: If you are trying to lose weight before your meal you should get rid of 1/3 of whatever is on your plate. After your meal you should have 1/3 food, 1/3 drink and 1/3 air in your stomach.
3. Fasting. For one month a year I don’t eat or drink anything from sunrise to sundown. This teaches you how to break out of the routine of day-to-day life and teaches you discipline. Caloric restriction is one of the few effects that has universally been shown to make all types of organisms live longer.
4. Learn to feel guilty when you eat the wrong things. You have to train yourself that it’s a betrayal against your body.
5. Take all the medicines your doctor prescribes and learn what they do. Ask your doctor to explain. It is pretty unlikely that you would put anything else in your mouth if you didn’t know what it was and what it does to your body, so why do we do that for medicines?