Rhythms and Routines – Susan Payrovi

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Susan Payrovi, MD, is a triple board-certified physician in anesthesiology, hospice and palliative medicine, and integrative medicine. Payrovi is also certified in functional medicine and medical acupuncture. She is a clinical assistant professor at Stanford University, where her clinical practice focuses on non-pharmaceutical lifestyle treatments of chronic disease. As part of her commitment to support the MS community, she has created an online wellness program called “TRUE Medicine” to ensure everyone has access to the lifestyle treatments that reliably improve immune health from the root cause.

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A night on the dance floor reminded me of the power of seeking joy

At 50, I’m realizing there are a lot of things I’ve stopped doing: nightclubs, late nights, obsessing over my hair, changing my outfit three times before leaving the house, staring at my phone waiting for a boy to call, and caring way too much about what other people think. That’s…

Susan Payrovi

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Estrogen, aging, and MS: Notes from the front lines of midlife

It’s official: This is the year I aged — physically, emotionally, visibly. With menopause on the horizon and multiple sclerosis (MS) quietly lurking in the background, I’ve been thinking a lot about how best to care for my brain, body, and beyond. Aside from the 3 a.m. hot flash…

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Overcoming shame and finding my new normal after an MS diagnosis

Last week, something unexpected happened during one of my shared medical visits with patients. I wasn’t expecting shame to show up. We were deep in conversation about how a diagnosis can unravel a person’s identity and how grief often follows when our sense of self begins to slip away.

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Why, oh why, did I go on this roller coaster ride?

I despise theme parks, and I feel zero guilt about depriving my kids of Disneyland, Six Flags, and the general horror of standing in long lines to be terrorized. Why do I hate theme parks? It’s not the shameless commercialism, the overpriced food, or the fact that the tickets for…

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Embracing the helper’s high: How I learned to thrive with MS

I was driving home the other day when something in my rearview mirror caught my attention: A giant pickup truck had flipped over in the fast lane of the highway. It did not look good. I pulled over on the left shoulder and ran to help, completely forgetting the back…

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How setting an intention helps me live well with MS

If it weren’t for multiple sclerosis (MS) and my practice as a lifestyle medicine physician, I’m not sure I’d be chasing after better health so vigorously. There simply wouldn’t be enough momentum to push me into action. But as there are silver linings to everything, MS has positioned me…

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It takes a force of nature to fortify me against MS

While most people dread the longer nights of autumn and winter, I embrace every single minute of darkness added as we crawl toward the longest night of the year. As darkness takes over, that’s my cue to gather up all the energy I expended during spring and summer to…


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