Dr Rangan Chatterjee on bringing ‘a bit of rock ‘n’ roll’ to wellbeing

Living across from the Edinburgh Playhouse for many years, Dr Rangan Chatterjee would see the famous venue every day. He was even known to go inside on occasion.

The last time was in 1996, to see Bruce Springsteen perform a three-hour acoustic show. Twenty-nine years on from that memorable gig, Dr Rangan will return to the venue. This time, though, he’ll be the one on stage.

In the years since his almost decade-long stay in the capital, where he studied medicine and worked as a junior doctor, he has become one of the most influential GPs in the UK – Europe, even – and believes the way medicine is practised needs to change.

First coming to prominence on BBC One’s Doctor In The House, he has since gone on to write six bestselling books, and his podcast – Feel Better, Live More – is Europe’s biggest health podcast. The 47-year-old is currently on his first live tour, which comes to Glasgow and Edinburgh next week.

Health: the new rock ‘n’ roll

Following in the footsteps of Springsteen might be seen as appropriate, considering Dr Rangan describes health as being “in many ways the new rock ‘n’ roll”.

“People are really interested in health and wellbeing these days,” he continued. “This is a proper show I’m putting on with lights, music, storytelling, visuals. I’m trying to bring a little bit of rock ‘n roll to health.”

Dr Rangan is a regular contributor to television programmes such as Lorraine.

People have never been more interested in their health and wellbeing, as is demonstrated by the vast number of websites, podcasts, books and TV shows on the subjects. Yet it feels like we’ve never been sicker. The process to book a GP appointment is a frustrating one and queues for procedures on the NHS continue to grow.

“We have more health information than ever before: more podcasts, more blogs, more voices,” Dr Rangan said. “There’s all this interest. Despite that increase in information, our physical health is getting worse and our mental health is getting worse. People say, ‘knowledge is power’. Well, I’m not so sure because there’s all this knowledge out there and it’s not equating to better health outcomes.

“I think there’s a couple of reasons for that. Around 80% to 90% of what we see as doctors on any given day is in some way related to our collective modern lifestyles. It didn’t used to be like that, but most of what we’re seeing now is lifestyle-driven illness. Now, to be clear, I’m not blaming anyone, I get that modern life is tough. There’s a cost-of-living crisis, people are stressed out, they’re under-slept.

“I understand all of that, but at the same time, we know these are the things that drive the vast majority of the problems we have, whether it’s type-2 diabetes, obesity, anxiety, depression, irritable bowel syndrome. Being chronically stressed affects every organ system in our body, our guts, our libido, our brain function, our cognition. The truth is, the way we are still taught to this day as doctors doesn’t really help us with these lifestyle-driven illnesses. It teaches us really well how to diagnose disease and to give people drugs to help manage the symptoms, but it doesn’t teach us the creation of health.

“I love the NHS but I don’t think it was designed for the current health landscape. The NHS is set up well for acute health problems. When you go in for that 10-minute appointment, the option for that doctor is to give you a pill. That’s what the NHS is designed to do. But that will never help you understand the root cause of the problem.”

Dr Rangan tells the story of a 53-year-old patient who came to his surgery with depression. He had a good job, made a decent wage and had a family, yet he was indifferent about it all. His doctor took time to talk with him and came to the conclusion that an antidepressant wasn’t what he needed.

“While they may have a role for some people, we’re overusing antidepressants by far, and there are ways to help people get to the root cause of their problem which doesn’t require antidepressants. He didn’t have an antidepressant deficiency in his life, he had a deficiency of passion.

“I asked him to get the toy train set he used to love playing with as a boy out of his loft and he became obsessed with these trains again. His wife told me he was on eBay buying vintage models and he subscribed to a monthly magazine about it. By correcting that passion deficiency in his life, he started to enjoy his job more, his marriage was better, as was his relationship with his kids.

“Doctors aren’t trained to think like that, so you’re unlikely to get your GP saying ‘Get your train set out of the loft’ when you come in with a low mood. Of course, I was professional and I did all the other things required of me, but this was what his problem was.”

Family experience

Dr Rangan has family experience of burnout. His father, Tarun, was also a doctor. He came to the UK from India in 1962 and maintained an incredible schedule that his son believes led to illness.

“He came here with nothing in search of a better life and ended up sick because of overwork. For 30 years, my dad only slept three nights a week. He was a consultant doctor at Manchester Royal Infirmary, where he would work until about 6pm, then he would come home, have a shave, my mum would give him dinner, and he would go back out at 7pm and do GP house calls all night until 7am, come home, have breakfast and then drive to the hospital.

“There’s no question in my mind that the reason my dad got lupus and then kidney failure was because of overworking. It came at a huge cost. I saw versions of that in my clinic all the time – people who thought they could keep pushing without consequence. But at some point it will come back and bite.”

Dr Rangan with his family. He says his father Tarun, left, also a doctor, suffered ill-health in later years because he worked too hard. He died in 2013 following kidney failure and a lupus diagnoses.

For 15 years, Rangan, his mum and his brother helped to care for his dad, who passed in 2013. It was what caused him to leave Edinburgh, otherwise he might still be there today.

“It’s easy for me to say that Dad made a mistake, but if his whole purpose in life was to provide for his family back in India and to give me and my brother a great start in life, well, he did that. He might tell me it was worth it and that he felt he had no choice. But the tragedy would be if I followed in his footsteps when I do have a choice. Dad sacrificed his life to give us a life, I don’t need to do that.”

Six months ago, after 23 years, Dr Rangan stopped practising as a GP. Feeling he can reach more people through his podcasts, TV appearances and books, he made the decision so he could maintain a work-life balance. He continues to live in the Cheshire town where he was brought up, living with wife Vidhaata and their children, and his mum is just five minutes down the road.

He is a professor at Chester Medical School and also runs a course called Prescribing Lifestyle Medicine to doctors around the world about ways to apply the principles he speaks and writes about. He hopes some of the current students at Edinburgh Medical School will attend his show at the Playhouse. His visit to the city next week will bring back a lot of fond memories.

“Edinburgh feels like my second home in the UK. Some of my best friends still live there. I sang and played guitar in a band, and we were always out playing in Whistlebinkies, The Blind Poet, Bannerman’s. Every Wednesday night we would go out to watch the Stevie Agnew Band, who were good friends.

“Edinburgh has a fond place in my heart. I’ll probably head out somewhere after the show with my mates and celebrate the end of the tour.”

Dr Rangan Chatterjee: The Thrive Tour, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Edinburgh Playhouse, March 28-29