Dr. Veloso has always been passionate about science and wanted to help people with his role as a gastroenterologist. He spent his college years focusing on understanding how the digestive system works to later help people make healthy lifestyle choices. He encourages future generations to get experience in order to find their passions.
The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What inspired you to become a gastroenterologist?
I always knew that I loved science. At first, I wanted to go into marine biology, but when I was in college, I didn’t see it as a long-term career. I saw the premed track and thought, ‘This is something cool that I can enjoy and love to read about.’ At the same time, it was something that I could do well in, and I could help people. So I went through the whole track, and I ended up doing an undergrad in biology. Eventually, I went to medical school. It was a big commitment–14 years. When I was in school, it was so much fun that the amount of years was an afterthought. I switched my specialty from neurology to surgery and, eventually, GI. Many doctors don’t even know what specialty they want until they’re in medical school and they’re rotating. The cool thing is it’s such a huge field, and there are so many specialties that it gives you a lot of options. I knew I wanted it to do medicine to help people, make decent money, and because I had the interest. But when it came to GI, it was the thing that was easy to learn.
For those who may not know, can you explain what a gastroenterologist does?
We specialize in the GI system. It’s how the body functions. Not only that, I specialize in the GI tract. I do procedures such as endoscopies and colonoscopies. I look at everything from the esophagus to the colon as well as the liver, pancreas, gallbladder, and bile ducts–everything that’s involved in the digestion of food and the absorption of the nutrients as well as the breakdown of food and metabolism of the body.
How can lifestyle choices, like diet, stress and sleep, impact digestive health?
Lifestyle is very, very, very important. In fact, most of my day when I talk to patients, I provide them with some type of pamphlet or information about proper diet to help with whatever condition they came in for. Most people have issues because there’s something they’re doing wrong with their diet. So even though a lot of patients just want a quick fix and want medication, most people just need to modify their diet a little bit, and they can get a lot better. For example, with reflux, most people tend to eat a lot of fatty food. They eat very late, and they go to bed right away, not giving time for their body to digest. Also, the amount of coffee we drink is crazy. That’s a major trigger for reflux. Exercise is important too because the GI tract is dependent on being ambulatory and moving around. People that are just stagnant and sitting at their desks the whole day or at home on the couch don’t digest food. Stress and hormones also affect anxiety and depression. Hormones have receptors in the GI tract, so people who are stressed and have depression often have GI problems. In fact, there are some medications that we give for anxiety and depression that we also give at lower doses to people who have abdominal pain, even if they don’t have any anxiety or depression. The same hormones affect both things. They call the gut the second brain.
What advice would you give future generations who are interested in gastroenterology?
I think if anyone wants to go into medicine, they should expose themselves to the field, shadow doctors, and explore different specialties. There’s so much information out there, especially online sources, but you really don’t know until you shadow a doctor and see what they actually do.
