# Episode 19 - GenZ Series: Dr. Farzon Danesh

- Podcast: GenX Adulting Podcast
- Published: 2025-02-11T02:00:00.000Z
- Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398379/episodes/16599904-episode-19-genz-series-dr-farzon-danesh.mp3
- Page: https://genxadultingpodcast.com/transcripts/podcasts/genx-adulting-podcast/episodes/episode-19
- Source: https://genxadultingpodcast.com/episodes/genxadultingpodcastepisode19.html
- People: Dr. Farzon Danesh (guest), Brian Barker (host), Nicole Barker (host)
- Topics: GenZ

## Summary

In Episode 19 of the GenZ Series, Dr. Farzon Danesh shares his unique perspective as a member of the Zillennial micro-generation, discussing his upbringing in a Persian immigrant family and the impact of technology on his life. He reflects on his educational journey, the challenges of balancing fun and responsibility in college, and his current role as a doctor of audiology, where he helps patients manage tinnitus and hearing loss.

## Key takeaways

- Dr. Danesh identifies as a Zillennial, a micro-generation between Gen Z and Millennials.
- He experienced a technology-free childhood, gaining exposure to technology in high school.
- Dr. Danesh's family background as Persian immigrants shaped his values and work ethic.
- He transitioned from a carefree college lifestyle to focusing on his education and career in audiology.
- Dr. Danesh emphasizes the importance of addressing hearing loss to prevent cognitive decline.
- He uses innovative technology in his practice to help manage tinnitus and improve patients' quality of life.
- Dr. Danesh believes in the significance of personal growth and the impact of family support on his career.

## FAQ

### What is a Zillennial?

A Zillennial is a micro-generation that falls between Millennials and Gen Z, typically born in the late 1990s. They experienced a childhood without pervasive technology but transitioned into a tech-savvy world during their teenage years.

### How does Dr. Danesh help patients with tinnitus?

Dr. Danesh utilizes innovative technology that stimulates the auditory nerve and helps create neurophysiological changes, alongside cognitive behavioral therapy to manage tinnitus symptoms effectively.

### What are the risks of untreated hearing loss?

Untreated hearing loss is a significant risk factor for cognitive decline, including dementia and Alzheimer's disease. It can lead to social isolation and increased anxiety and depression.

### What is the significance of family in Dr. Danesh's life?

Dr. Danesh credits his family, particularly his immigrant parents, for instilling strong values and work ethics in him, which have greatly influenced his career path and personal growth.

### What role does technology play in Dr. Danesh's practice?

Dr. Danesh employs advanced technology to assist in tinnitus management, including devices that stimulate the auditory system and help patients adapt to their hearing challenges.


## Referenced links

- [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEom_WEeru4)
- [Listen on Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-19-genz-series-dr-farzon-danesh/id1764838823?i=1000690985579)
- [Listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6sk6ijCaPzuELjQlSOjEpz)
- [Listen on Buzzsprout](https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398379/episodes/16599904-episode-19-genz-series-dr-farzon-danesh)

## Transcript

[Music]
Welcome to GenX Adulting and today we
have Farzahn with us. Welcome.
Hello, thank you so much for
having me. It's a pleasure.
It's a pleasure to have
you here with us tonight.
So our first question we always ask
everyone is what year were you born?
Right. So I was born in 1997 just before
the cutoff of the 2000s.
Okay, so you're Gen Z. Did you know that?
I think I'm right on the cutoff actually
of between generations.
So I really haven't focused
on it. I'm going to be honest.
So I'll tell you a little snippet.
You are part of a micro generation within
Gen Z that's called Zillennial.
So you are the oldest Gen Zs, but the
little group of you,
you can't really totally relate to the
Gen Zs of now that are younger,
but you're not totally
with the millennials.
You're kind of in between
both of those generations.
You had a childhood that
was pretty technology free.
Technology more hit you guys
high school, early high school.
You don't really have phones in your
hands through your childhood.
So you got kind of that old fashioned
technology free childhood.
And then you also experienced technology
in high school college.
So you kind of have a foot in the
millennial world and a
foot in the Gen Z world.
So you guys are called Zillennials.
Yeah, I always think about how blessed I
was to be in that time.
Yeah.
I remember when I was
like 13, I had a razor.
It was just a flip phone and you were the
coolest guy on the block.
Like my I when I was like 10 years old, I
don't even remember.
Like I bought my parents were like, you
could buy a ringtone.
And I bought my humps by Ferdy.
I had no idea.
I had no idea what she was even singing,
but it was like a 30 second snippet.
I would play for my friends.
It's a good tune though.
It's a good tune.
Nothing says that time
frame like that song for sure.
Oh gosh, I forgot about buying ringtones.
That was a thing.
Yeah, that was a big deal.
Yeah.
So you kind of got the
best of both worlds in a way.
Whereas the younger Gen Z's, I mean, some
of them only know technology and social
media, you know, so, you know, I always
think the Zillennials get a little bit
of little bit of both
worlds and it's a nice balance.
Oh yeah.
You know, when I started high school,
that was like the start of Instagram.
So it was, you know, people were just
posting pictures of what they were
eating that night and, you know, it was
not even taken too seriously.
My parents had no idea what it was.
Yeah.
Stop wasting your time.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And now they're on Facebook every day.
Yeah.
It was just that. Yeah. It was just that
transition, you know?
So I'm always, I feel so blessed to have
lived in that time when social media
was not, didn't play so much of an impact
in our lives as it does now.
Yeah, absolutely. For sure.
So did you grow up in one
town through your childhood?
Yeah.
So I was born in Memphis, Tennessee.
No way.
Yeah. So, you know, my dad was an
immigrant from Iran.
So how he kind of got by in
the U.S. was through education.
So my sister is three
years older than me.
She was born in Pocatello, Idaho.
Oh, wow.
And then my dad got his PhD in Memphis.
And so I was born when he was a student
in Memphis, Tennessee.
Okay. So when he came
over here, how old was he?
So when he came, I think he
was in his early thirties.
He was just given the ability to get an
education in the U.S.
Right.
So he came with my mom and, you know, we,
they worked a bunch of jobs to make
things work. They only came with about
three hundred dollars in their pocket.
Wow. And so did they start in Idaho?
Yeah. So they started in
Idaho. My dad got his masters.
He was working several jobs to provide
for not only his wife, my mom,
but their new daughter,
which is my older sister.
Right.
Yeah. So, you know, their
story is really remarkable.
And so they were working a bunch of jobs,
like creating roads in the street,
getting paid like four dollars an hour to
make things work. So in the
U.S. or in Idaho, Idaho. Okay.
When my dad was a student, he was like a
parking ticket officer, you know,
just trying to find ways to get his ass
off. Exactly. Yeah. So,
so he applied for a visa to
come over here for school.
Did your mom also come over here for
school or she was able to just come with
them because she was his wife? Yeah,
exactly. That's what happened. Okay.
What, why do you think they wanted to
come over here? Oh,
it was just, you know,
education in the U.S. is something that
is not really available elsewhere.
You know, everyone from all over the
world is always trying
to come to the United
States to get a good education. That's
typically, that's why they came.
And even to this day, I actually have
some people in my family that are always,
you know, they're trying to come to the
U.S. to get an education.
It's something that is probably taken for
granted considering the ample amount
of opportunities that we have here and
just, you know, it's not available
elsewhere. So you still have a lot of
family over there. Not, not a lot.
I have an uncle who's
still there. His son,
which is my first cousin came actually
studied at FAU and he ended up now he's
working in Silicon
Valley in SF. Yeah. It's just,
he worked really hard. It's like just
that immigrant spirit. Yeah.
So then did your dad get his
undergraduate in Idaho?
Is that how that worked?
He got, I think it was his master's and
then he ended up getting his PhD in
Memphis. Okay. Yeah. And then how long
were they in Memphis?
They were in Memphis for about, I would
say, I think it's about two years.
And after he was done with Memphis, my
mom, she's so funny.
She told them, she, she said, I only want
to go to two places from here.
It's either going to
be Hawaii or Florida.
She wanted the warm weather. Yeah. She
wanted to, so my dad was like, all right,
well we're not going to
Hawaii. I need to look for some jobs.
And he actually got an opportunity to
teach at Florida Atlantic University in
Boca. Okay. So that's what actually
brought our family down here. Okay. Okay.
So then how old were
you when you moved here?
I was about a year
and a half old. I mean,
I'm pretty much grown here completely.
I'm a South Florida boy. It's all I know.
Okay. So how was it having, you know,
being that South Florida boy, this is you
and your sister, you know,
are born here, American, American life.
But then I assume your parents still have
a lot of their culture from Iran.
Did you grow, did they
maintain that within the home?
Yeah, they were very, they,
so how I consider Persian values,
it's just very family oriented. You know,
I, it was so hard to,
for example, to explain to my friends how
I can never be available for New
Year's because, you know, things like
that, it's all about family. So,
especially with my family specifically,
we have a very family oriented
environment where, you know,
my mom's mom or my grandma,
she had nine siblings. So that family
tree kind of just came down and,
once my mom came here, she decided to
bring a lot of her family here.
Even to this day, like our thanksgivings
and our family, you know, holidays,
it's usually with like 30,
40 people. It's in this area.
Everyone lives in this area. Oh yeah.
That's wonderful. Yeah.
It's pretty cool. And
especially being Persian,
there's almost like a sub
community here. So it's,
we take care of each other.
It's something that I was discussing with
my friend how, you know,
it's like, if you understand that someone
has the same background as you,
it's, you guys will
immediately connect and,
it's just like something
that I don't take for granted.
It is nice to be able to connect to
people with a similar background as your
own.
100%. And so is there a, there's a decent
Persian community in South Florida?
It's not decent, but it's there. There's
places in the US, like LA.
There's a lot, even some parts of like
Texas, but you know,
Florida really is not one of those
places, but you know, it's there.
Yeah.
The most important question then of the
whole time here is going to be,
where's the best Persian food locally?
Shahs of kebab.
And where's that at?
They actually started in
Miami. Um, but you know,
there was never really good Persian food.
And so that was always something that
bothered me because I was,
I would go to places like Toronto and
there would be tons of different
restaurants and places to go.
So I was never able to get a good
culinary experience in
my culture other than
my, in my home. Right now,
there's this place
called Shahs of kebab. They,
it's very authentic
and delicious. I mean,
it's not that there weren't places to
eat, but they just, it wasn't that good.
Where's the closest one?
It's right here on federal and near fifth
app shops. It's really, yeah. Oh yeah.
Oh, okay. I know what we're doing this
weekend. Absolutely.
Nathan actually went, um, Nathan went and
he, he was like, what should I get?
He told us.
He sent us pictures.
Yeah. Yeah.
And you know, I'm
Armenian and it reminded me,
I think there's a lot of similarities in
Middle Eastern food because I make
pilaf and I make
hummus and all that stuff.
He was sending pictures
of his food and telling us,
speaking of taking pictures of your food
and telling us you have to come here.
It's phenomenal.
You're going to have to
make farzana when your,
your meals come over for Doma.
I'm sure his mom, oh yeah, I love Doma.
Well you found a market too. There's a
market here in Boga.
Um, Damascus. Oh yeah.
I've heard of it. Yeah. Yeah.
They have some good stuff. Okay. We're
going there. Cause yeah, that's what,
didn't you, are you the one that told
Nathan to go there? No, it's funny.
He, he just texted me. He said, what
should I get a shot of kebab?
And I, I told him what to
get. He's like, he's like,
I already ordered and
that's exactly what I got. Yeah.
You're going to have a great
time. He said it was insane.
Yeah. It's my barber
actually, um, off topic.
He is all about that Mediterranean food
and he, he ate there. And now,
he tells me every single
person who he cuts their hair,
it's like the first thing he says. Yeah.
That's hilarious. Is it family owned?
I don't know. Um, I'm not sure, but it
tastes authentic. Yeah.
And they are Persian there.
Okay. So you will actually,
it's nice cause I never get
to speak Persian, you know,
it's other random people, but I'll walk
in there and you know,
sometimes someone will be Persian. So you
speak Persian. Yeah. I'm fluent. Um,
I did not know that. Yeah. I'm fluent. I
could speak Persian.
I could read and write a little bit.
That's something that my parents
ingrained in me when I was young,
especially my grandma, I would always
say, you know, grandma,
why do I need to learn how to read
Persian? And you know,
I think it was more of like a way of
showing our culture and love to me and
keeping that with me. And I
never use it, but I, you know,
I know how to do it a little bit,
probably at like a
third grade level. And you
know, it's nice.
Absolutely. So in the home,
did you only speak Persian?
So my two grandmas don't speak English.
So we have to include
them and speak Persian. Um,
but you know, we, it's,
it's a mix. Okay. Yeah.
My, me and my dad speak
English to each other mostly. Um,
but it's also nice cause it's like a
second language. I mean,
I'm sorry, a secret
language. So, you know, you,
can you interchangeably go back and forth
and say one sentence, go
English, Persian, English and flip flop.
Oh yeah. That's cool.
Yeah. We do it all the time. That is
really cool. So then growing up here, um,
and having such a strong
ethnic background and, uh,
your parents being immigrants, how did
that affect you at all?
Going to school, um,
socially, how did you,
I know for me growing up
Armenian, I grew up in Portland,
which is all white and I had a very
unusual last name for people.
And so I, I kind of felt a
little, um, separate, you know,
because of that background.
Did you experience that down here or is
it so diverse that it didn't affect you?
No. Um, you know,
anyone as a child will experience these
things when they feel like they're a
little bit different. Yeah. Um,
you just want to kind of go with the
crowd and be the same.
So when you're younger, you kind of think
to yourself, you know,
can I be more similar to my peers? You
don't want to stick out too much. Yeah.
My first name is Farzahn. I mean, right,
right. Everyone's like, what?
So, um, you know, with
that being said, um, you know,
there's some challenges with culture,
especially when
you're young, but you know,
as you mature in age,
you realize how much of a beautiful thing
it is to have two perspectives. Um,
that's definitely something that I don't
take for granted, but yeah, growing up,
it was, my parents were
really good. Um, I was able to,
my, my friends actually make fun of me
because you know, I am Persian,
but you know, I like played
the cross and right. Right.
Like a lot of things that
are is like super, you know,
I was like on homecoming court. Right.
You know what I mean? So it's like,
it did. My friends will like make fun of
me. Like you're like, like, what?
So you had a very all American, you know,
you were able to have
that all American, uh,
childhood and high school experience and
didn't really run into feeling like a
little bit, um,
different than everyone else.
No, we're able to simulate no problem.
Yeah, no, not at all.
My parents did a really good job of, um,
not only showing us our culture,
but, um, allowing me to kind of be myself
and do what I wanted. Yeah.
They were not very pushy on
pushing, um, their culture,
which you know, it does happen
unfortunately with a
lot of kids, but you know,
they allowed me to explore, do things
that I wanted. I had
a very free childhood.
Yeah. Um, they did allow me to do a lot
that I felt like, you know, yeah,
that's awesome. I wanted to. That's
wonderful. It was great. Yeah. Yeah.
So you said you played lacrosse in high
school. Did you play any other sports?
Um, you know, I like played football, um,
recreationally. Um, I,
I tried to stay active as a kid.
It was something other than school then
that I took seriously. And you know,
my whole idea was to just continue to
better myself, not only, you know,
for myself, but you know,
I always had ambitions to do big things
like go to college and things like that.
So, you know,
finding ways to put things on my resume
and build myself was always a priority
for me.
Did you have any idea where you wanted to
go to college when you were in high
school? Yeah, that's,
that's a good question. I,
I was obsessed with Florida state. Yes.
As, as most kids here are. Yeah.
So, you know, I think I just wanted to
have like a fun college experience.
So I would always, you know, go and it's,
it's what I thought I wanted to do.
But once I started applying to schools,
I ended up realizing that it ended up not
being a good fit for me.
So I studied biotechnology and it was,
you know, it's
basically genetic engineering.
And unfortunately at FSU
their program wasn't good.
And for some reason I decided to switch
to the university of central Florida at
last second. And it's all
like divine intervention.
I do believe that that was the best thing
that could have happened to me because
you know, everything that I've wanted to,
to happen in my life relatively has
happened. And so I do think that it is a
plan that is out of my control.
100%. Although, although I did decide to
choose to go to that school,
it was, ended up being the best decision
for me. And of course I don't,
I can't go back and switch to going to
the other school, but you know,
I do think everything
happens for a reason.
100% as do I God's plan, you know, you
can't end and free will.
That's also part of God's plan. So
changing at the last minute,
but with that guidance for sure. When you
were in high school,
did you know what you wanted
to study or well you must have,
because you made that decision for UCF
instead of FSU. When in high school,
did you have an idea? That's what you
were going to study.
Yeah. So, you know, in my culture,
one thing that is ingrained is you're
either going to be a doctor or lawyer or
an engineer. Right. So it's, you know,
my parents always say, you know, you
shoot for the stars and you know, if you,
if you miss your, at least you're putting
yourself in a good position for other
things. So I come
from a family of doctors.
My dad is a doctor.
His three siblings are
in medicine as well. Wow.
I felt like it was a good path for me and
I did have my reservations at points
and I, I was confused on what I really
did want to do. And you know,
when you, when I actually
ended up going to college,
I had a couple of options of
career paths and everything.
And I'm sure we'll get into it later in
the pod, but everything,
I think everything just worked out as it
should. It should have for me.
So you had an idea and mainly that was
from your background, your childhood.
And I kind of kind of helped guide you a
little bit into that.
What'd you say?
Bioengineering, bioengineering.
So you kind of gave you at least some
boundaries to work with them and to help
you choose UCF. During that freshman
year, I assume, was it,
since you went where you went to school,
I assume you earned some college credits
because I know where you went to school.
So some of those classes,
did you meet some of your prerequisites
already in your high school and you
didn't have to take
them your freshman year?
Yeah. I mean, I took a
lot of those prerequisites,
only like two classes
transferred. Oh, really? Yeah.
It's a very specialized field
that you got into. Yeah. My,
my field is very specialized. It was the
one thing about my field is that it was
very, it had a lot of the hard sciences.
So I did all of the biochemistries,
organic chemistries,
and it was part of the reason why I chose
it. I thought that if I put my,
if I did the hard work and, you know,
did those more difficult courses and had
that under my resume,
that it would just show me in a better
light to whatever job I wanted to go to,
whatever school. So I
always tried to challenge myself.
And you know, I do think that because I
did challenge myself,
even though my GPA could have been better
doing an easier major or something
like that, that it did
end up going into my favor,
not only with the ability to show my
credibility,
but also that I ended up learning much
more about myself and what,
how to study and, you know,
actually learn because I feel like very
often people tend to do things to make
them look better on
paper. And although it's true,
you're, you're also missing an
opportunity to grow within yourself. And,
you know, when I went to college,
my experience was my main priority,
not only with, you know, the connections
I would make in my life,
but also the things that I could learn.
So, you know, I had a,
I feel like I did a good job with putting
myself in a position to do those
things.
Did you do it right from the
start? Like, did you jump in?
A lot of kids when they
get their freshman year,
it's challenging to
balance independence, partying,
going to class. If you don't
know people, making friends,
living in a dorm, there's
a lot of variables there.
And then you're taking
this, this major, that's major.
And it's very
challenging. How was freshman year?
Did that make it more
challenging for you?
Yeah. So my first year of
college was an interesting one.
So everyone I knew went to Florida state
and I went to a different college.
I didn't know anyone.
So it was almost like I was going to
school in a different state. I mean,
I had almost no connection. So, you know,
when I started school,
I met who's now one of my
best friends, his name's Alex,
but we ended up rooming
together. And my freshman year,
we were partying all the
time. I mean, it was nonstop.
And it was a great time. I don't regret
it. But after my first semester,
I lost my scholarship.
So it's like, yeah, yeah.
The bright futures. Yeah. The bright
futures is gone. So I was like, man,
whatever. How did that land at home?
How'd your parents deal with that? Oh
man. It's so, it's so far away.
I don't remember, but you know,
I just got it like a 2.75 GPA my first
year and it wasn't cause
I didn't, you know, I just didn't care
honestly as much as like,
I did put myself in those
positions, but you know, like,
psych one, you know, those
intro classes. Yeah. US history.
So you don't care. So I just, I just
didn't go. And at UCF,
those are probably some really big
classes like with people, right?
Are they the type where you walk in? It's
a whole auditorium vibe. Yeah.
It's a big lecture hall with, which is
good if you want to skip class.
But you know, when there's not that
sensation of, um, you know,
you know, the fact that there's hundreds
of people in your classroom,
you're just like, okay, well, no one's
going to notice if I,
I don't go and I wake up at, you know, 12
in the afternoon. Right.
So yeah, my experience
was, was very fun. It,
it did involve, you know,
partying and drinking and all
that stuff. And, um, you know,
do I regret it? No,
I don't think anyone does in college, but
after that first semester,
so for second semester, did you make an
adjustment or did you just kind of
finish out freshman year
and join yourself? Yeah.
I finished out my freshman
year, um, enjoying myself.
And I will say that having that
experience as a child has helped me,
um, quote unquote lock in
into my career today. You know,
I feel like a lot of people that didn't
have that experience tend to try to feel
that experience later in
their life. And, um, you know,
I think of life as chapters, you know,
that chapter of my life was my quote
unquote fun chapter where, you know,
I prioritize drinking and making friends
and, but being able to,
you know,
have that experience and then move it
behind me was something that has
helped me grow a lot because if I didn't
have that sensation of, okay,
I've done that stuff, then, you know,
there's so many people that were serious
in that stage of their life.
And now they're trying to figure that
out. And as an adult,
it's a little bit more dangerous because
you're just not a kid anymore.
You have a lot more.
So true. It's so, it's
almost like, especially the,
the first year of college, it's almost
set up. So you can do that.
It's a usually a pretty
safe environment and you know,
you're not on the road driving. You're
not, you're not, you don't have a job.
You have to worry about maintaining. So,
um, it does make it easy.
Did you continue into
sophomore year with that same vibe?
Yeah, I did.
I think I, when I really
logged in was my junior year. Okay.
So the first two years
we had a good time. Yeah.
And then what made you,
well, what did you do?
So did you do anything
different sophomore year?
I assume you moved off campus. No, I
moved into my frat house,
my sophomore year. Oh, right. Okay. Okay.
You lived in your frat house sophomore
year. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Um,
I will say I did end up taking school
more seriously, but you know, again,
I, my priorities were, um,
my experience. And that's,
you know, that's a big reason why most
people go to school today. It's,
for a lot of people, it's not about that
education. You're right.
So it's about quote
unquote finding yourself and, um,
becoming an adult.
I can't tell you how many people that
haven't had that experience and you know,
are either still looking for it or
regretting it. You are so right.
I've always said,
I think college is half
academic and half finding yourself.
And I think it's important to
go away to do that. You know,
you can stay in your hometown,
but I think you'll get a lot more out of
it if you go away to go to school.
I think it's just like 300,
200, 300 miles or something.
Something. Yeah. It doesn't mean out of
state, but out of your town,
it helps you grow a little
bit more. Yeah. You know,
a distance that's far enough where your
mom can't just come check in or show up.
Okay. So you're, I'm impressed that you
made it through, I mean,
living in your frat house sophomore year,
that's pretty young to
jump right in to that.
So the fact that you maintained your
grades and school and all that, I mean,
that had to have been a balancing act
because I assume from what I know,
he was maintaining a 2.7.
My first semester. First. Okay. Okay.
Moving up from there.
Yeah. It was like, it was
probably like the threes. Um,
did you also work at all? Yeah. So I was
a DJ in, in college,
which did not help. It just,
it actually kind of did help in a sense
because I separated. I, I,
that party lifestyle became
a job and when it's a job,
it's a different outlook. It's not all
about fun you're
going, you're setting up.
And yeah, you have a good time, but it's
also how you pay your bills.
So I think that's actually a big reason
why I was able to grow into the man I
became my junior senior year. It's
because I was able to,
you know, um, work and you know, those
weekends where everyone was going out,
I, I had a place to be, you know, I was
working and where did
you work as a DJ? Um,
I did pretty much all the
local bars and my college.
So, um, you know, any
bar that was close to UCF,
I was DJing on the weekends. Did you
change bars every weekend? Okay.
So I would go places downtown. I would do
the clubs in Orlando.
So it was actually funny. I, I didn't
want to become a DJ. Um, I, yeah,
it was fun and I wanted it,
but I have a musical background.
And I think that really elevated my
ability to understand music and DJ.
So wait, we have to pause
there. A musical background.
Explain a little bit
more on that. So, you know,
my dad's an academic,
he understands what music can do to the
brain and how people can benefit from
that. So my sister played the violin. I
started with the piano.
I played that for
about two and a half years.
And then I switched to the drums. I
played that for five years. Wow.
So I was even in a rock
band. Were you really,
were you in one in high school? You're
almost drawing a memory for me here.
No, I used to play in high school. Um,
okay. I actually, I,
it wasn't serious like it was
when I was younger, but yeah,
my parents really ingrained in me, um,
the importance of music and you know,
something like, you know,
playing the drums requires a lot of
integration of the brain,
moving your legs and the hands and you
know, that rhythm, it's,
it's something that's great. And it
actually opens up a lot in the brain.
So definitely. Yeah. So,
so how old were you when you were in a
rock band? I was, um,
I think I was like 12, 13 years old. So
like middle school. Yeah.
Did you play in places
around here? Um, not really.
Um, you know, we
didn't get the gigs. Right.
I'm just asked cause Kaya was too. Yeah.
Our daughter, who, you know,
she was the lead singer of
a rock, but did you ever,
did Nathan ever drag you to one of her
shows? Man, I'm not sure.
You know, I, I've done a lot with Nathan,
but that's true. I know he used to,
I think Tommy had, he used to drag
different people to, cause she,
I don't know if drag is the right word.
That's probably not,
she wouldn't like to hear that. They were
actually pretty good.
They were good, but she
played at Packies out West.
She played at beer
garden and um, Royal, yeah.
Royal Palm or whatever. She played at a
few different, that's why I'm asking,
but they would book it for them. Like
they didn't get paid.
It was more, they were given the
opportunity to play in public.
She played at the amphitheater and
Meisner for something.
So that's what I meant.
Did you play in any local
places where people could go,
your family and friends could go watch
you like in a restaurant or a bar?
Yeah. You know,
I kind of stopped because I just wanted
to be cool in high school.
I think she stopped for the
same reason. She did. Yeah.
She stopped in middle school. That was
it. When you're
older, it's just like, man,
why didn't I just keep
going? Who cares? Yeah.
But that's a hard one. You know,
there's very few kids that have that self
confidence at that age, you know,
what your peers think is everything.
I do have a question.
So you see your dad's an academic and
he's a doctor and your parents
found the value of music. We, we are avid
music listeners, right?
In our family, but you're talking about,
they took it to the next level to have
you actually make music. Right.
Is there, was that, was
there academic mindset there?
It'll help build
neurons or connections or
develop the brain further type of thing.
Yeah, it does. Um, there are things,
um, you know, there's neural firings that
can occur through music.
And there's a lot of studies that show
the development of the brain when it
comes to musicians,
especially at a young age. So I,
I don't know if they did it for, you
know, the cognitive brain,
but they did know that it had some good
benefits on, on those things.
So it was a priority that may
have been the main priority.
Honestly, I can't answer that.
That would make sense. Now
did have you played as an adult?
Have you gone and sat back down at the
piano or at the drums and played again?
Yeah. So I played a
little bit, um, as an adult,
my form of expressing
music came from DJing.
Okay. Okay. All right. So,
so that's where you were saying you kind
of tunneled that into DJing. Yeah.
And you know, I never like really cared
or tried to push myself,
but what actually happened was I would DJ
one place and then people there would
say, okay, this guy's good.
And then they would say, Hey,
can you come here and that? And then I
know growing that web into, you know,
working at multiple places. And you know,
it was like a fun time in my life because
you're a college kid,
you're getting paid a couple hundred
bucks to DJ night. And you know,
it's like you feel cool. And so I think
that part of my life was pretty funny.
And I definitely don't regret it at all.
And I know in college like every night
has a special night typically.
So I doubt was this only Friday,
Saturday or were you doing this on a
Wednesday and on a Thursday and on a
Friday and on a, you know what I mean?
Depending on what's going on, what theme
is going on or was it mainly just
weekends? Um, so it did start on the
Tuesday, Wednesdays.
So Tuesday was tank
Tuesday. What was it? Tank Tuesday,
you were a tank top and you
get in for free. Okay. Um,
so it just started with
those, but then eventually there,
there was a Saturday night where I don't
know who it was supposed to be.
They couldn't make it and they asked me
to come and I had maybe DJed four times
in public at that. Wow.
So a big thing that even I was talking
about with my staff today was how
I always find myself putting myself in
these positions where I am very,
very uncomfortable, but I do it because
you know, why not? It's growth.
Yeah, exactly.
So that's something that I feel like I
have always done to an extent.
That's excellent. You know,
they say the older you get,
the more uncomfortable you
should get. And as you age,
you should make sure you do something
uncomfortable on a regular basis. Yeah.
I, I loved being
uncomfortable. So when I got that call,
I'd even have like a hundred songs in my
computer and I, and I said, you know,
let's do it. So I think I remember I went
to my buddy's room and I was just like,
okay, what songs should I download? And
he's like, for what? I said,
I'm about to DJ this bar for five hours
tonight. Wow. And he was like,
all right, well you
better start downloading.
So I think what ended up happening was I
ended up playing a couple of songs more
than once. It was a good experience
because after that night,
the person who managed that place was
like, Hey, you're pretty good.
Keep coming on Saturday nights. So if I
didn't make myself uncomfortable and put
myself in that
position, you know, God knows,
I feel like that's something that has
been a theme in my
life where I know I love
feeling uncomfortable. I want to push
those boundaries. So, you know,
being, being able to do that and given,
being given that opportunity is, you
know, it was amazing.
Well, and it's a great habit that you,
have you always had that?
Do you remember even being in middle
school feeling that way?
Or is this something that
as you got a little older,
you took on that habit really?
Yeah, I think I got that from my mother.
My mother, it's funny. She,
she doesn't have a plan usually, but she,
she gets it figured out.
So being around her,
I was able to learn a lot and see how,
see her outlook in life. So when I end up
having these opportunities,
I try not to pass them
down. You know, there's a,
I never think about the
opportunities that I've taken.
It's really the opportunities that I've
missed that have always bugged me.
And even to this point, I can,
I don't even remember all the
opportunities I took,
but the opportunities I
missed, I think I remember them all.
Wow. So, you know,
that's probably something because it's
been ingrained with me from my mother
that, you know,
I've just tried to always take advantage
of those opportunities because you
never know when opportunity comes
knocking again. Right.
Well, it's an interesting thing because
them coming from Iran to the US,
that's uncomfortable, but it's
also such a huge opportunity.
So it's probably part of your DNA, your
upbringing to take a chance, go for it.
Yeah, they've comfortable. Yeah. They've
always taken opportunities.
So it's probably something that I've
learned from my parents.
Yeah. It sounds like
that they have a life,
live life to the fullest attitude and
take advantage of every day,
really. And don't take
anything for granted.
Even now, my dad is 60 years old.
He's always taking all these
opportunities and, you know,
he's pretty successful at this point. And
I always tell him, you know,
why are you taking all of these
opportunities? You know,
why don't you just relax at home a little
bit? He just, it's part of his DNA.
Yeah. And it's,
I think it's that immigrant mindset where
you come somewhere and you're told that
you can really get what you give.
So my dad's always
been a very hard worker,
something that I've been around. My mom
has always been very supportive of him.
So I think being in that environment and
we had a very healthy family dynamic.
So I was able to see that.
And, you know, it's motivating.
Absolutely. Was she home with you guys?
Yeah. So she was home.
We had the luxury of having both of our
grandmas at home too. So.
Oh, that's wonderful.
Yeah. I was pampered as a kid.
My laundry and stuff. But.
Listen, so was Nathan.
It's just how we feel our
love. That's fine. Yes. So they,
you know, even my mother always,
she stayed home to take
care of us for the most part,
but she also worked at our school, you
know, in middle school, she,
she works at our office right
now. She's our office manager.
I kind of think of it as she's my
father's manager. She has the last say,
but she manages his clinic.
She takes care of everything
at home and she, in my opinion,
maybe worse harder than my father. So.
I don't doubt that at all. Now it sounds
like both of your parents in their own
way have been exceptional role models and
inspiration for you.
And I've given you such a beautiful
balance of your Persian culture and pride
and being an American. And
it's probably like Brian said,
where you learned how to challenge
yourself and tackle
opportunities and make
yourself uncomfortable and has led to the
growth of where you are. So,
and so much of where a child
comes from and their family
dynamic, you can see how it affects how
successful a person is and
how happy they are in life. You know, so.
I would agree. Yeah,
absolutely. My, you know, my dad,
he worked really hard. He
was not always available.
You know, like some sports games and
stuff, he wasn't always there.
And you question that you're you're
asking, you know, dad, where are you?
He was there for the most part, but, you
know, he was just always so busy.
And I didn't realize how much he was
doing to provide for our family. So.
Especially when, you know, his father got
sick with lung cancer.
He died about 10 years ago. He was
providing for not only, you know,
his kids, but also his parents. You know,
those forties can become really, really
overwhelming for a lot of people.
Is that that would happen
when he was in his forties?
He was like in his 40 late
forties, early 50s. Yeah.
Now the 40s decade is
can be totally chaotic.
I don't know what it
is about that decade,
but a lot of things can go down during
that time. Yeah. It's,
it's viewed as a bell
curve. So interesting.
In terms of stress, when
people are in their forties,
that's actually when they feel their most
stressed because in the science,
but it's not even science,
but it's really because people tend to
care for both their parents and their
children at that time. And of course that
could be stressful financially,
time wise. And so, you know,
all I've been trying to do,
I really tried to think
ahead as much as I can.
I'm just trying to make
those forties as easy as I can.
No, that's smart. You know, they call it
like right now for us Gen Xers.
There's a lot of us that are called the
sandwich generation,
because like you said,
we're in between raising kids and taking
care of elderly parents.
And it can be very high stress
financially,
emotionally, mentally, you know,
so yeah. And you're right. Everyone kind
of ends up there at some point.
So the fact that you're thinking ahead is
way more than any of us
did at your age. So
it's very impressive. Okay.
So you're having a wonderful time DJing.
You're using that as also a musical
outlet, making money.
And are you managing your
grades at the same time?
Yeah, it's actually funny.
So you would think I was
having like the time of my life.
But when I reached that point where I was
DJing every night and,
you know, everyone would think, OK, well,
this is like you're kind of plateauing.
I actually I wasn't as
happy as you would think I was.
I think when you reach that point and
you're there, you know,
you expect more. And once you're there at
a plateau, you kind of think, OK, well,
now what? And that's actually when I
started thinking way
more about education.
So there was actually a study done where,
you know, with like NHL players
and NFL players of when
their happiest moments were.
And it was always when they won that
Stanley Cup or that Super Bowl,
because once you reach that point, you
think to yourself, OK, well, now what?
So, you know, as an individual, you
people are just
naturally hunger for growth,
whether they believe it or not, or
whether they actually
push themselves for that.
When I reached that point, I was I was
not that happy with myself, honestly.
You would think that I would be the
happiest person on the planet.
But man, I just was
lacking a lot of, you know, that sense of
like pride in myself.
So interestingly enough,
although I was DJing and partying,
you know, I don't consider that the the
happiest time of my life by any means.
You know, once you work in a profession
where, you know, like me, you know,
I'm in the medicine route and I get to
help people every day,
it's way more gratifying.
I am working harder, but I am definitely
happier now than I was before.
Did it did it get dark
for you at some point?
Or was there a turning point?
Did something happen
or a catalyst of any?
I was always happy.
I was. I was I was a happy kid.
But yeah, it was that was probably my
darkest point, because,
you know, before then, I
wasn't my grades were not the best.
So, you know, I always thought, OK, well,
what am I going to do?
And that sense of
hopelessness where you're 22 years old
and you're transitioning
from one chapter to the next.
You're just so concerned about your life.
It does bring out
that aspect of, you know,
self doubt and feeling insecure.
And, you know, that
definitely happened with me.
So even though a lot of people from the
outside in, you know,
I thought I was having a blast, I just I
didn't have that sense of,
you know, feeling as maybe like my
purpose in life was not
where it needed to be.
It wasn't meaningful anymore.
Yeah, it was not meaningful. Yeah.
You know, you go, you do the same thing.
You play the same songs.
And, you know, everyone goes
home at the end of the night.
You get your 200 bucks and you go home.
And then, you know,
what's the meaning in that?
Yeah, it's fun, I guess.
And I did have a good time doing it.
But, you know, after it's a big reason
why a lot of these DJs
who have made it so far,
you know, they commit suicide.
Like there's a lot of substance abuse to
maybe not necessarily for you,
but I might be
drinking beers or whatever,
but the people you're surrounding
yourself with who
knows what they're doing.
Oh, yeah.
You know, there's
definitely a lot of of those things.
So a lot of people using
substances and abusing them.
And I was never really into that to that
extent, but it was always around.
Yeah, I think it ties in.
It ties into the whole scene.
Well, probably also after you talked
about how you like to be uncomfortable,
you probably got too comfortable.
It wasn't challenging you in any way.
It was just it was it was kind of going
nowhere at that point.
Yeah. No, that's exactly what happened.
So actually, towards the end of college,
all I was trying to do was get fired.
I was doing the most outrageous things
for them to for them to get me to say,
OK, you're done instead
of just quitting. Yeah.
I don't know why I actually this is
something that, you know, instead of
me actually quitting, I always try to get
whoever it is or whatever it is
to try to end the
relationship with me, because in my head,
I think that maybe that's a
better way of getting past it.
I are you non-confrontational?
I'm trying to get better.
But at least at that time, were you
non-confrontational?
What would you have viewed
quitting as a confrontation?
I just you know, I was always a guy who
thought that, you know, I
my life was like I was very blessed.
So, you know, for me to quit, it felt
like I was ungrateful.
So even though it was
quote unquote my darkest time.
You know, I didn't want to feel
ungrateful for what I had in front of me.
Right. So in a way, did you feel you
didn't have a right to quit?
Yes, that's the best way to put it.
You know, because I did work.
I did work to get to that point where,
you know, I was headlining
these things and whatever, but
it did get to the point where.
Yeah, exactly what you said.
So did they end up firing you? No.
I ended up just fading away.
No. What happened?
You know what you want
to know what happened?
Yeah. COVID happened.
Oh, great. When COVID happened, you said
divine intervention.
You talked about
divine. It all ties back.
Yeah. Wow.
So this was your
COVID experience actually
changed the trajectory of your life
positively in some ways.
Oh, absolutely.
Again, it's divine intervention.
So once that happened,
I told myself, you know,
I actually was
contemplating continuing that career.
And thank God I didn't because I would
not be the man I am today.
I'm probably the happiest I've ever been,
even though I'm working way harder
than I ever have in my life. Right.
And it's just that sense of purpose when,
you know, you get to help people.
You know, my job is all
about making people feel better.
And that gives you a
lot of purpose. Yeah.
So when COVID happened, I
had to think to myself, what?
What I should do.
And it was definitely
prioritizing education
and trying to pursue further education.
So that's actually when I
decided to pursue a doctorate.
OK. And become a doctor of audiology.
So so that's a huge change.
So did that change your
life socially as well?
Like, did you have to kind of did you
have to make a big change,
not just academically, but socially?
Yeah. So I'm going to backtrack a little.
My senior year of high
school, I'm in college.
I definitely faded away
from all of those things.
So I did really prioritize school.
And the beauty of applying for a doctor,
it is for a lot of places.
They only view your last 60 credits.
So it was amazing.
I really just really focus on education.
Those last that last like two years.
And luckily, it worked out for me.
I was able to get into a
school down in South Florida,
Nova Southeastern,
where I got my doctorate.
And again, divine intervention.
I actually met with
the dean of the college
and I was so scared of failure and being
rejected that I didn't
submit my application.
But I had met with the dean and she
actually emailed me and
asked me why I didn't do it.
And I said, I regret it.
Can I please still apply?
And she actually allowed me to apply
after the deadline, which is crazy.
Wow. Again, divine intervention.
So after sophomore year, you made a
mental decision to
start focusing on school.
And at that time for your junior year,
did you know you were going to pursue
becoming a doctor in audiology?
Yeah, once my junior year started, I was
all in on my education.
I cut off a lot of people in my life.
I cut off a lot of things.
I was not going out other than to work.
To me, working was still
going out and having a good time.
But truly, I was just so focused on my
growth at that point.
And luckily, I became serious enough at
that point because if I didn't, I don't
know if I would be where I was today.
So although I didn't take advantage of
that opportunity I had in college, it
ended up flourishing in my junior and
senior year when I kind of said, OK,
I got to really lock in and kind of focus
on my career, because
if I don't do it now,
you know, I don't know what's going to
happen in the future.
And, you know, even before I applied to
my doctorate, I was thinking of other
ways to prove myself, such as getting a
master's and things like that.
But, you know, I just really focused and
I did cut off a lot of people.
I had my close knit friends that were by
my side the whole time.
To me, that's really
what always mattered.
I think when you're young, you want to
impress and, you know, be quote unquote
what they would call face, you know,
popular and things like that.
And at that point, my junior senior year,
I just said, I have my close friends.
I love them to death.
I don't need anything more than this.
I'm very happy with this.
And when it comes to the other side of
that, where people just want to be
popular, it's just very superficial.
Everyone's there for themselves.
And realistically, they
will forget about you.
I mean, yeah, that's not the true
relationships that
matter are your close friends.
My two roommates, Alex and
Dylan, were my best friends.
And I had a bunch of close
friends that lived by me.
And, you know, we, I was able to focus on
my career and but
still having a great time.
I mean, it was not any
worse than how it was before.
Well, it's impressive that you maintained
the DJing as a job and made such a mental
change, change or trajectory towards
medical school at the same
time that you were doing that.
Oh, I think you stopped the
DJing and then I kept going.
You kept going.
But yeah, that's two different worlds
that you're managing there, you know.
Yeah, I treated it more as a job.
I still had fun.
Yeah, it was just a way to
pay the bills at that point.
That's impressive.
That's very impressive.
So then you go to interview and you why
why didn't you apply?
So what happened was I
actually got a job in medical sales.
I had a connection with one of my buddies
and, you know, he was
like, you would be a great fit.
And for some reason, I thought that going
through with my father's footsteps in
medicine was just I was ignorant.
Realistically, it's ignorant to see what
was actually in front of me.
My dad, he's very well known in the field
and he has a great reputation.
So but I just in my head, I thought that
maybe I should just do my own thing and
kind of, you know, like my father did.
He came from a different
country and figured it out.
Maybe I don't need to have that, quote
unquote, you know, jumpstart to others.
But I just think that's
an ignorant way to think.
Sometimes you got to understand the
opportunities that are in front of you.
And so although I did take that medical
sales job and it was a great job, I was
going to go for my
onboarding and everything.
And I just really rethought about it.
Once I had my discussion with that dean,
she was very
supportive of me applying again.
And again, I thought that
was divine intervention.
Once 100 percent, once that opportunity
opened for me again, I
said, OK, I can't mess this up.
Yeah. So although I was onboarding for
this other job in Atlanta, Georgia, which
my life would have been completely
different compared to what it is now.
I jumped on the opportunity and I applied
and did everything I needed to do.
And, you know, I will say
that my self-esteem and my.
That confidence I had in
myself was very low, but.
I just I was just so scared of failure.
I think that's what it was.
At what point was it low when you were
applying or when I was when I was
applying because, you know, I did I did
have a hard major, but my GPA when I
ended was a little bit
lower than other candidates.
I had like a three to and
in medicine, that's very low.
You do a lot of people, like I said, were
really focused in
their undergraduate time.
But so I guess I wasn't as focused, but I
was able to apply and
they liked me and I got in.
Now it's amazing you had
the best of both worlds.
You had a real college experience.
You were in a frat and then you were able
to pull it together to
get into medical school.
And so in a way, you had a
very balanced college experience.
Yeah. And I don't regret it at all.
And that's that's awesome.
Because now when I was in my doctorate,
especially now as a young
doctor, I am so able to focus.
Whereas a lot of people I know who never
had that experience are trying to do
these things like they're still trying to
party and go to Miami and this and that.
And God, it's just so taxing.
Yeah, yeah.
It's out of your system.
You know, now I'm I feel grown.
I mean, I have my girlfriend who I love
and probably get married, hopefully me
and her are very focused.
She also had a great college experience.
But being able to put that behind us and
really focus on our careers now has been
like a huge blessing.
Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense.
I think it's great to have
that realistic college experience.
And then if you and then
hopefully pull it together.
So then how old were you
when you started medical school?
So it was a little
different than medical school.
It was it was a doctorate in audiology.
So whereas a med program is multifaceted
with a bunch of different rotations, I
had four years dedicated to years.
And, you know, the ears play a vital
role, a role in our lives, not only for
hearing, but it's where we get our
sensation of balance.
Sometimes if there's dysfunction in your
inner ear, you have vertigo and other,
you know, balance, dizziness,
so we diagnose and treat that.
And my clinic is really known for its
tinnitus management.
So a lot of people are told that there's
nothing you can do for your tinnitus or
tinnitus, tomato, tomato.
But we've done research in our clinic.
It's our main priority where we help a
lot of people and see a lot of people
from honestly all over the world.
This year I had someone not this year
this week, I had someone from Egypt.
I had someone from Peru last week.
I had someone from Brazil and Mexico.
So a lot of people are coming for
management now because we're finally able
to show the benefit that people can have
from tinnitus management.
And that's something that, you know, they
were hopeless with and they thought there
was nothing you can do.
So when you were going to school, did you
know you wanted to focus on?
I call it tinnitus. Did you know you
wanted to focus in that area?
Well, I like I said, my
father was a big role.
So that's where he has a lot of his
research and his focus on.
And, you know, my first job actually when
I was 16 was working in that clinic.
So I was able to understand the practice.
I was able to understand how
it's ran and how to work it.
I never actually
experienced the clinical side.
But when you are working in any job or
anything of that, it's really important
to understand the different components
that could play a role in that job.
So right now as a clinician, you know, I
work in a practice
that's it's a family practice.
Being able to understand the different
components of that practice and not being
so one dimensional is important in my job
and probably every other job there is.
Yeah.
So being able to understand, you know, as
a doctor, what it's like to be someone
working secretary or, you know, front
desk or someone who's calling to make
appointments or working with insurance.
You being able to just understand that it
makes you much better at your job.
Yes.
So you understand the
workings of the machine, basically.
Yeah.
Although all the working parts.
Exactly.
And, you know, in medicine, a lot of
people are one dimensional.
So they see their patients and they leave
and they're really good at their jobs.
But if you want to grow, especially when
it's your business, you
really do need to know everything.
No, that makes perfect sense.
Now, as far as your office specializes in
tinnitus, why did your dad choose?
Do you know why your dad chose that area?
Yeah, because he has it.
Oh, interesting.
How long did he, has he had it always?
Well, to be fair, he had an interest in
it before, but what happened was he was
at a tinnitus conference and he was going
down the Eiffel Tower in an elevator and
he got a sudden hearing loss.
Because of that sudden loss, you know,
any damage to the auditory
system can cause tinnitus.
So tinnitus is not a disease.
It's just a symptom.
And in about 72% of people, hearing loss
is the leading cause of tinnitus followed
by loud noise exposure
followed by medications.
Interesting.
Loud noise exposures are
around 23% of tinnitus patients.
Medication is around 10%.
But then there's also neurological
conditions like Meniere's
disease that can cause tinnitus.
I had that.
Meniere's?
Yeah, I was diagnosed with Meniere's back
in what, 2004, five or six?
About 20 years ago.
Yeah.
And do you still deal
with your Meniere's symptoms?
I, fortunately, it stopped.
And I think my theory is, I think it, my,
the neurons or nerves
in my ears probably died.
They stopped functioning.
Because I think one of the treatments,
and this sounds very archaic, but I think
one of the treatment options back then
was to do ear drops.
Um, put ear drops in to kill the nerves
to help prevent the vertigo.
Yeah.
That's something that happens to some
people with like acoustic neuromas or
like a tumor on their auditory nerve.
Once it becomes a certain size, they
often end up just having to snip the
nerve, which does help with the
vestibular symptoms.
But a lot of people
lose hearing due to that.
So I went through
this whole thing, right?
Cause for anybody who doesn't know what
Meniere's disease is, for me, it's, it's,
I had, uh, extreme vertigo.
If the vertigo, anyone who ever drank too
much and you got the bed
spins, that's, that's vertigo.
And I would get it.
The worst was like driving and having
what would be like a kind of a drop
attack, I think they called it.
Oh yeah.
And all of a sudden you're the world
spinning and you're driving.
It's like, whoa.
Yeah.
Um, the way they diagnose Meniere's is
you need at least one significant episode
of 20 minutes of vertigo or more.
Yep.
So it has to be a duration of
20 minutes of vertigo or more.
And I believe after you have five of
those episodes, that's when they consider
that you actually do have Meniere's.
So there's actually testing that we do do
in our clinic to determine whether
someone does have Meniere's or not.
So I've been, I haven't had any symptoms
for at least five years now,
six, seven years, actually.
I don't remember the last time.
Thank God.
I mean, you don't even know, like,
Do you want to hear a story that Nathan,
uh, when, when he's
listening to this, he'll know.
Yeah.
He, uh, they were in a, uh, canoe.
Yeah.
Um, out on a lake in New Jersey and he
had a Meniere's attack and flipped the
canoe and they both went in.
And Nathan was probably six, five.
And, uh, he came up and he couldn't find
Nathan for a few seconds.
And it scared the shit out of me.
Yeah.
And Nathan's fine.
Nathan remembers it too.
Yeah.
But thank God I was, we, he had a life
jacket on, but we were in the shallower
part of this lake and north of the lake's
like a hundred feet deep.
It's like an old quarry.
We were in the shallow part.
So when I fell in, um, I could stand and
I was totally disoriented, right?
And, um, but I could stand, but all of
our gear fell into the
water and almost died.
It was crazy.
And that was probably had to have been
rock bottom in terms of,
of vertigo and Meniere.
So I actually went to
an ENT got diagnosed.
Um, we thought it cause part of
Meniere's, you get
pressure within your ears.
Um, I w I actually had tubes
inserted in a little tubes.
You'd give a child with, um, so I had
your tubes put in four year Meniere's.
Yeah.
Wow.
It was an approach.
It was like, what do we do?
I can't do this.
Cause like I say, I remember once we were
driving, um, coming home or going to the
airport or home, I don't remember.
And she's with me and I
was like, take the wheel.
I can't see.
She grabbed the wheel.
So, um, you know, she's like, all right,
go slow, speed up until we
got to the, to the shoulder.
That crazy, but you know, not a big
believer in God, but there's some divine
intervention that finally stopped it
because it was, it's so dysfunctional.
Oh yeah.
Vertigo is very scary.
And when it comes with something such as
Meniere's, it comes unprovoked.
So you don't know, you could be on a
canoe, you could be driving.
Driving is the worst case scenario.
Yeah.
And you're lucky that you had her because
when it, when it hits you, there's, you
have very limited control
of what you can see or do.
And it's, it's scary.
So, um, again, with Meniere's, it
accompanies with some
low frequency hearing loss.
So low frequencies where we get our
volumes and tinnitus.
So it comes as a roaring sensation.
It's, it's like one of the
hallmarks of the condition.
And you usually end up having to treat it
with, um, a dietary chain.
And some people take water pills.
Did you end up having to
do any of those things?
I did.
I tried everything.
Um, I, I had these, uh, this homeopathic
thing that was like,
Compostedum something you may have heard
of it, but you put it under your tongue.
That seemed to work, um, taking, uh,
antihistamines, but it, none
of it really totally worked.
Um, but it finally stopped.
And I do, I agree with you in, in, in
what I've noticed is
I still have tinnitus.
Um, but it's, it's not that bad actually,
but what I do notice is if I don't sleep
enough, if I make poor food choices,
drinking alcohol, um,
all of those things,
all of those stressors around cigarette
smoke, cigarette smokes, a huge trigger.
Yeah.
So with tinnitus, there is a difference
between a tinnitus patient and someone
with tinnitus, so 50 million people in
the U S have tinnitus, but around 25
million people seek professional care.
So, you know, like I said,
tinnitus is not a symptom.
It's not a disease.
It's just a symptom.
It won't hurt you, but for a lot of
people, it can actually get to a point
where it really affects
their quality of life.
So exacerbating factors of tinnitus, and
this is what I tell my patient.
There's three big things.
It's the stress you have in your life.
It's your sleep quality and your anxiety.
So none of those can cost tinnitus, but
when you have those things, um, it can
really be a detriment to your tinnitus.
And you're really going
to feel that a lot more.
Yeah.
What it does actually is elevating your
autonomic nervous system or your
fight or flight response.
So, you know, when you hear something
like tinnitus, it can be perceived
as a threat to your body and because it's
perceived as a threat to your body,
your body's always looking for threats.
You know, it wants to keep itself safe
and make sure that
nothing is hurting you.
And because you're always seeking for it,
you know, you end up noticing your
tinnitus much more and you just get stuck
in this feedback loop of noticing
it, having it bother you, your body
looking for it, and it's just nonstop.
So there's ways to break that loop.
And we do focus about that in our clinic
and we have some pretty great results.
Um, we're able to work
with the newest technology.
There's new devices that actually create
neural anatomical changes in the auditory
system that can cause you
to hear your tinnitus less.
My clinic is maybe one of 100 clinics
that have that
technology and it's because
we've really been focusing on tinnitus.
So I was looking at your website and I'm
going to, I'll put this in for our
listeners, I'll, I'll, uh, I'll add in
the, um, your links and stuff.
Cause I do think you guys
are doing important work.
And I noticed that you have that machine.
Can you talk about what that
machine is and how it works?
And you think it would work for me in a
with mild, is it for mild cases extreme?
How does, how does that work?
Yeah.
So it's called the linear and it's a
very, um, cool approach.
The technology has been out since 2019,
but it's, it just got a
de novo approval with the FDA.
But a de novo approval is when something
or a type of technology that hasn't been
used before is now being, um, introduced
into the United States and the people in
the U S so what it does is you're
stimulating to NURBS.
So you're wearing headphones, which is
stimulating your auditory nerve.
And it's usually programmed
based on your hearing loss.
So as we know, hearing loss is the number
one cause of tonight
is in about 72% of patients.
Then you put a tongue tip on your tongue.
So it's actually sending electrical
pulses through the second
nerve that it uses
called the trigeminal nerve.
So the trigeminal nerve is actually a
nerve that branches all across the face.
And the best way to
access that is the tongue.
So, yeah, I don't know.
I mean, these people must have been
really trying to find
any way to figure this out.
But what it does is you're hearing sounds
that are similar to your tonight
is through the auditory nerve.
And these electrical pulses are actually
going through the auditory pathway and
specifically affecting a part of your
auditory pathway called the
dorsal cochlear nucleus.
And in layman's terms, it's the most
malleable part of our auditory pathway.
So when you're hearing these sounds,
you're, we're creating neurophysiological
changes into that pathway and it's been
shown to dramatically reduce
tinnitus in most people.
I won't say all because I always tell my
patients your tinnitus is like an onion.
There's always so many layers.
I said sleep, stress,
anxiety, drinking, smoking.
All those negative aspects actually can
play a role with how
larger tinnitus can be.
Yeah.
I found that weight loss, exercise, sleep
and diet are my treatment really.
Well, it probably brings down all those
things, bring down inflammation.
Does inflammation have
something to do with this?
So there can be
inflammation of the auditory nerve.
That's usually after like
a sickness or something.
It can lead to it, but like a healthy
lifestyle has been shown to dramatically
reduce the effects of tinnitus.
You know, I had a patient today who was
34 years old and he's like, man, this
tinnitus is really killing me.
I have to drink so much
every night to go to sleep.
Like alcohol.
Yeah.
And I'm just like, all right, well, well,
that's probably where you should start.
Yeah.
And you know, a lot of my patients, just
by having this discussion and
that frontal lobe and that, you know,
that reasoning part of your brain, it
really does help them with their tinnitus
because you know, tinnitus is very
emotionally based.
It's something that if you think about it
and you're very sad about it and you get
into that negative feedback loop that I
discussed about with you earlier, you
can make your symptoms a lot worse.
But you know, when you teach the brain
and mold the brain to
think about it less,
you notice it less and then it in
retrospect becomes less severe.
So a lot of the approaches that we use in
our clinic involve cognitive behavioral
therapy, which is essentially removing
those negative thoughts that you may
have with your tinnitus.
That is amazing.
Yeah.
We, we try to use an
approach that's multifaceted.
We try to, you know, with tinnitus
there's a couple of
great people that I've had as
mentors, but they always say that if
you've seen one tinnitus patient, you've
only seen one tinnitus patient because of
all the different factors that can play a
role into that exacerbation.
Yeah.
So for most people, I'm sorry, for most
people does it, is there, is there
symptom from hearing loss?
Yes.
In most people it is, but not always.
Um, a lot of people can have completely
normal hearing, but realistically any
damage to the auditory
system can cause tinnitus.
I've had patients like my patient from
Egypt, she was doing
a surgery for her TMJ.
And I think the surgeon
hit a nerve because of that.
Now she has constant ringing in her left
ear and she came all the way from Egypt
for management and, you know, I wish I
had a pill, but I don't.
So it's really all about
management and reducing symptoms.
I'm sure you, it's amazing that you're
dealing with a
cognitive aspect because I'm
sure there's some mental
health issues here too.
I'm sure you're seeing, I don't know.
I'm assuming you see a
lot of depression from this.
Yeah.
Suicidality.
A lot of people, it's because they feel
like they don't have control over their
condition.
It ends up feeling like a sensation that
they have no control over their life.
So, you know, sometimes people will
commit suicide because of it.
The owner of Texas Roadhouse, he actually
killed himself because of tinnitus.
Really?
Yeah.
It's, and you know, actually it's funny
this week, February 3rd to the 9th is
tinnitus Awareness Week.
I got a week.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I got a week.
You have a week.
I got a week.
And we'll get your episode out during
that week, which is
kind of cool actually.
Yeah, that'll be great.
Yeah, that'll be great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So when it happened with your dad, was it
from the change in pressure?
No, he had a sudden hearing loss.
So a sudden hearing loss can occur
sometimes due to reactive oxygen
native species in the ear, which
basically means that,
you know, there can be an
imbalance in oxygen or chemicals in the
hearing organ, which can cause a sudden
loss and about sudden losses, you're
actually on the clock.
So when you have a sudden hearing loss,
you need management as soon as possible.
The quicker you get management, the
better of a chance of
getting your hearing back.
And that management usually revolves
around use of corticosteroids.
So steroids that are injected into your
ear to strengthen your ear.
But for a lot of people, sometimes,
especially men, they tend to kind of put
these things, they
don't go to the doctor.
Yeah, they don't go to the doctor.
And people don't understand the
importance of early
detection, not only with
ears, but things like cancer.
And of course, so
100%, you know, people have white coat
syndrome, which is they're scared of the
doctors, but realistically, if they don't
get that care soon, their life can
dramatically change.
I would say that's really sage advice
because my first bout of vertigo was a
mild case back when, before we even had
Nathan or maybe Nathan was a kid and I
was working at the nursery.
And I remember I gazed across the nursery
and all of a sudden I was like,
Oh, and it got diagnosed
as a, as a near infection.
And I think it went away, but then I
probably should have pursued it a little
bit more and maybe I'd
have been able to hit it off.
I don't know.
Yeah.
As much as I think it's important to see
doctors, I think it's even more
important to get a second opinion.
I can't tell you how many
things are misdiagnosed.
It happens way more than you think.
I would never trust the opinion of one
doctor unless you have a lot of faith in
that doctor.
Sure.
But would you say that like for Brian, he
has genetic issues with their ear, they
on his dad's side, they all have lost
their hearing getting older.
Would you say that genetics
has something to do with getting
manears or tinnitus as well?
Yeah.
Um, you know, people can, like I said,
tinnitus is just a symptom.
It's not a disease.
So people who are predisposed to hearing
loss genetically can definitely have
tinnitus because of that.
So yeah.
Now, so, um, when do, does air pressure
affect your ears like that?
Like an airplane when you're on the
airplane and you have that period where
your ears are weird and then they get
normal again, can that, can that cause
damage to your ears long-term?
Not damage.
Um, there is a tube called the Eustachian
tube that helps pressurize that ear.
Um, it's just annoying, but it would
never cause permanent
damage unless it's to a
very severe level, but even like people
who skydive, for
example, I mean, they can,
that dramatic drop in pressure, um, can
cause pain, but, um, I don't think it
would cause permanent damage.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it's a big, you
know, our ears and the
pressure that's within
it, it's very important to, um, you know,
have an approach that is safe for your
ears.
So for example, a lot of divers can
rupture their eardrum and cause permanent
hearing loss and ruptures in the eardrum.
They don't always, um, heal.
So your ear will naturally heal, but, um,
in about 80, 70 to 80% of cases it will.
So I'm sorry, but are you, do you see a
lot of that down here since we're in a
scuba area?
Oh yeah.
All the time.
Yeah.
I don't do surgery.
I'm not surgical.
Yep.
Um, which is the beauty of my job.
I, a lot of people in medicine who have
more of a, um, you know, more of an
intense job than me, they don't have
weekends, you know, they have to answer
to emergencies.
So there was also a reason why I was
inclined to go into audiology.
It was, um, an environment where I can
still maintain a life where I could have
a weekend, you know, I have a lot of
friends who are studying and in residency
to become orthopedic surgeons, but man,
it's just very hard.
They really do deserve every penny that
they get because it's too much.
I mean, I don't, they don't even give you
an eight hours to sleep.
It's just truly good to work at four.
You leave at 10 PM and then, you know, if
you, I don't know how you cook dinner
or goes to the gym and have a balance
life, a healthy life.
Um, my, my biggest mentors in my
profession have
ingrained to me, you know,
that you work to live.
You don't live to work.
I will say right now, I've been trying my
hardest to stay motivated and work as
much as I can, because
ideally this is my chapter.
I always think of my life as chapters.
This is my chapter where I'm really
focused at least for
the next four or five
years, because when I have a family, I do
want to be available.
And I do want to be a good father because
to me, that's a priority that I would
definitely put over, you know, driving
the nicest cars or yada, yada, yada.
Yeah, no, it's, it's, you can
only raise your children once.
So you can't go back and redo it.
So yeah, you want to, it's, it's good
that you're already
thinking about that now.
And, um, having that vision, because by
the time you get there, you'll know how
you want to do it to some degree, but
then they're born and then they throw
everything off and you don't know what
you're doing anymore, but you'll
at least have an outline.
Yeah.
I'm a big advocate of the, what you're
doing is terms of you, you're young now.
Work your butt off, get to a point where
you're, you're financially okay.
And mentally okay.
You've achieved something, your, your
level of satisfaction.
And you kind of back off a little bit and
you, you focus more on the family or
different aspects of what you're
interested, interested in professionally.
Yeah, I know.
Um, you know, one of the leading causes
of divorce is financial hardship.
So, and I just, I'm trying my best to not
have to deal with that.
Um, and yeah, it's, it's a lot of
sacrifice right now.
I'm working pretty much, you know, nine
hours in the clinic and then another
three, four hours when I'm home writing
reports or finding ways to grow my
practice, it's, it's pretty much nonstop.
And I'm lucky to be part
of a team with my father.
That's how I was going to ask you.
Is it, is it just you and your dad?
No, we have two other doctors on staff.
We're four doctors total.
Um, we also have some assistants who are
able to perform some of our
jobs just to like a 20% degree.
And we have a great staff of young
students actually who run our front desk.
And my mother is, is the office man.
Right.
You sound that they are.
That's great.
So it's truly a great, um, experience to
build something like that with my family
because, you know, I am on salary on them
and I'm not asking for a lot.
I do tell them that I feel, I almost feel
like I owe something to them because of
everything that they've provided for me.
So I'm really just trying to focus on
growing the practice with the, also the
understanding that
hopefully one day it will be mine.
Right.
Right.
So is every doctor there specialized in
tinnitus and that
everything, like, do you
see anyone that has an ear issue or do
you only see people that have tinnitus
or manures, it's things like that.
Yeah.
So in audiology, there's a bunch of
different subspecialties.
So the number one
specialty is hearing loss.
So, you know, you have your geriatric
patient or whatever people who have
difficulty with communication.
One thing about hearing loss that a lot
of people don't know is this significant
impact it has on overall brain health.
So the number one modifiable risk factor
for cognitive decline is actually
untreated hearing loss.
Yeah.
If you're at a moderate hearing loss,
you're at a 3x chance
of cognitive issues.
You jump to a severe
level, it becomes 5x.
So it's not always about communication,
but it's also about
those neural firings in
the auditory cortex or the brain that are
dampened because realistically what's
happening is your cochlea or your hearing
organ is declining, but that doesn't
mean your auditory nerve is declining or
the auditory cortex where sound is
process is declining.
And because of that decline, you know,
the brain is very malleable.
So where energy isn't
being used, it'll go elsewhere.
So a lot of people actually develop
cognitive issues because of an untreated
hearing loss.
So does that mean that they're more prone
to dementia and Alzheimer's?
Yeah, absolutely.
The number one modifiable risk factor for
cognitive issues like dementia is an
untreated hearing loss.
So yeah, that's something that's new.
A lot of people don't know that and it's
been proven through
research more recently.
Yeah.
I feel like I've just
started seeing stuff about that.
And is it mainly kind of like if you
don't use a muscle at
atrophies in a bit away?
Atrophies is the best way to say it.
Okay.
It is an atrophy.
Okay.
It's part of me.
Thanks.
You know, when you think about it more
globally, yes, that
auditory cortex is not
being stimulated as it used to be.
But people with the hearing
loss often tune out of life.
You know, they aren't active anymore.
They tune out of conversation.
They are more lonely, which leads to more
anxiety and depression and things like
that. So also just being tuned out of
life in general may
result in a lot of these
issues. Now, I'm not sure how well the
studies that show this were able to
identify whether it was actual hearing
loss in terms of the brain or the things
that may occur due to a hearing loss.
But yeah, it's very interesting.
And it's a reason why we do cognitive
tests and screenings in
our clinic for a lot of
individuals with hearing loss.
It's even as a baseline.
So it makes sense.
Yeah.
Like if you think about it, it makes
sense because you're not
your brain is not having
to use that part.
It just to me, when I heard
that, I was like, that's it.
That makes sense.
And it makes me wonder, is that why I
don't know, is that why
we have more of an increase
in Alzheimer's dementia or do we not?
And we're just more aware.
Like, has it been always been an issue?
But now it's becoming more identifiable.
But that that match with the hearing loss
and an increase in
dementia or Alzheimer's,
it makes perfect sense.
It's honestly my biggest concern.
As I think about as I'm aging, dementia
is a big deal because
I've got poor hearing and
all these studies
have come out about that.
So it's a fascinating thing.
And it's kind of like the question I have
is as we get older,
right, we're encouraged
to exercise, obviously.
But one, there's big, you know, new
interest on strength
training, resistance training
for folks as they get older.
Do you have therapeutic effects or
therapeutic approaches
that exercise your hearing and
your, you know, that kind of thing?
Yeah, there are some programs that we
provide that it's basically
auditory retraining therapy
where we almost simulate difficult
situations for a lot of
people who have processing issues.
So when you have a hearing loss, what
happens is the processing declines.
Yeah.
There are ways to improve it.
You know, there is something called LACE
that is basically an
auditory retraining therapy
app that we give to our patients.
So those who have difficulty with
processing can have access
to therapy because, you know,
the brain is very smart and valuable.
So if you do put in the time to improve
that, it can definitely
lead to more positive outcomes.
And, you know, we try to think of hearing
loss and the treatment
of that as a treatment
plan.
It's not a transaction.
So you can go to places like Costco and
you could buy a device
and they'll send you home.
But it really is a treatment plan because
with all the
cognitive aspects that play a
role in that, it's really difficult for a
patient who doesn't have that support.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So basically, it's kind of like I go to a
chiropractor when I
first started going to him
because I was in horrible shape.
I was going three times a week and then
two times a week and
then one time a week.
And now I'm in maintenance, but I still
go because I want to
hold on to all the progress
I've made.
So is it that kind of concept you're
saying is you guys help,
but then you need to keep
the maintenance going to
hold on to those results?
Yeah, the maintenance is pretty easy
because once you get to a
level where, you know, you
functioning well, all you have to do is
continue to simulate to maintain that.
So how we stimulate is just wearing
devices like a hearing aid.
So when you wear a hearing aid, what
you're really doing is
you're continuing to stimulate
that auditory cortex and it's not
something extraneous or
something that requires a lot of
effort because our ears are
always actively listening.
So you are doing the work just by being
alive and wearing your
hearing aids to watch
television or, you know, talk to some
friends or going to a restaurant.
So when you get to that level, that
constant simulation can help maintain.
But going back to it, when it comes to
cognitive issues, there
are things that are not
modifiable, you know, age,
obviously, things like that.
So, you know, there are it's there's so
many different aspects,
but overall, we end up
seeing that the profound impact that
untreated hearing loss may
have on someone's cognitive
health.
Yeah, no, I think it makes like I said,
it makes so much sense.
And to me, it feels like a breakthrough
and a lot of I wonder
if you're going to start
seeing more and more people who were
resistant to hearing aids
and to even dealing with their
hearing. But as this information comes
out, it may motivate
them to be proactive and and
seek preventative care.
I don't know if you've even
started to see that already.
Well, I think, too, just the way you're
talking about it, it's a
processing event that's
happened. Right. And I've noticed that if
we were talking about
that earlier, if if Nicole
comes in, if she says something to me and
I don't have a context for
what she's talking about,
it takes me longer to process.
But if we're mid conversation, I might it
takes me a little
longer to process sometimes,
but at least I can piece it together
because I have the context.
So just the way you're talking about it
in the medical terms of
the cognitive relationship
between hearing and comprehension,
really, I don't know if
it's I've ever heard it.
I have recently because I've researched
this. But the way you're
talking about it, I don't think
that's common. Would you say that the way
you're talking about it
now is different than, say,
what how your dad might have been talking
about it five, 10, 15 years ago?
Yeah, so that's great. There is
definitely a negative
stigma with hearing aids.
My worst patients are
men who are in their 80s.
They're just like, you
know, I don't want to look old.
That's what's making them look old.
Yeah, you are old. Yeah,
I'm sorry to break it to you.
And so they end up not doing these things
to help themselves because
of this whole vanity thing
you know, I don't want to feel old, but
then I'll have a patient in
his 20s or 30s who's just so
active and, you know, loves his devices,
understands the utility of
them. So, you know, it's so funny
how it's different with that perception
and how people view it. And,
you know, of course, hearing
aids make you hear better. You could hear
your wife better. I can't
tell you how many people come
with their wives and, you know, they're
like, oh, she brought me
here. And yeah, but there's just
way more than that. Well, I think
something that probably doesn't get
discussed enough and maybe
in your practice it does. But there is
frustration in a relationship
when you're living with someone
and I'm not I'm not making this personal,
but I'm I'm just no, but I
remember even just being I think
there's a frustration when a person is
always having to repeat
themselves. There's a breakdown
as people age together and the hearing
gets worse and worse than
maybe the person, the other
partner stops even trying talking as much
to them. Maybe there's less
communication, less conversation.
So then there's a breakdown in the
relationship that leads to that dementia
too, I think in that
cognitive impairment that withdrawal from
society or interacting with people.
Right. Then even on the
depression. Yeah. But even on an
interpersonal level in your own, because
that's I think of when
you're at a restaurant, I forget them all
or whatever. But in your
interpersonal home, it can
really affect, you know, if you're 80
years old and you've been
married to this guy and he you're
screaming, it's that's exhausting. Yes.
You know, hearing loss is a secondary
condition in which it
affects everyone around you. But going
back to that feeling of exhaustion for
the person that has it.
The thing is with that exhaustion is that
when people have a
hearing loss, they end up
tending to withhold a lot of their
feelings and things like anger tend to
compound. So, you know,
it continues to build and build on top of
each other. And, you
know, something like a hearing
loss can lead to a lot of issues. Yeah,
no, I'm sure I'm sure
there's a whole psychological
aspect of this and emotional and mental
and and it all ties back
to the hearing loss because
there's a disconnection because you feel
disconnected from your I remember I would
watch his dad and we'd all be sitting at
the table and I know his
dad was not following the
conversations and he wasn't participating
unless someone really said
dad, dad, you know, and I just
kind of would watch him be disconnected
from the event. And so if
that happens enough, that can be
very depressing and feel and feel you
feel alone, I would assume. Yeah, it's
sad. I can't tell you
many people are depressed because of it.
And those people are
depressed. Some people are just
still concerned over their vanity. What I
always tell my patients is
it's much more noticeable
to not be a part of a conversation than
it is to have something in
your ears. And realistically,
nowadays, they're pretty discreet. I
mean, they're not designed to be seen. I
had someone say, you
know, she was a boca lady. Oh, they
should make Gucci hearing
aids. I'm like, all right, well,
no one's supposed to see them. That's the
whole point. It's not
designed to be seen, you know.
Oh my gosh, that's so funny. I can
actually I can actually
or Beverly Hills. Probably I can vouch
for the Apple AirPods. I
got the new ones for Christmas
and they're pretty good. They're do a
little hearing test. You
kind of look cool. And now I
look like that that that dude with, you
know, the AirPods. Yeah, they're
functional. Check those out
No, I have. And it's been really good
even for my clinic. A lot
of, you know, obviously we give
hearing aids and some people will think
that it's a form of
competition to me, but it's actually
brought a lot of people to the space of
hearing health care. That
makes sense. Yeah. There's
actually been a study that shows the
success success rate of
clinics that are next to a Costco
because Costco is quote unquote a big
competitor. But audiology clinics
actually perform much better.
And it's because this continuing to bring
people into the
hearing health care space.
It's almost a bridge. Yeah. And about
hearing health care, it's always a
growing demand. It's
been growing so much. But the there's
only about 14,000 providers
in the US and that number is
actually declining. So it's it's one of
the fields where although
there's a growing, you know,
consumer space need. Yeah, growing need.
It's just there's a lot
less people getting into it.
I mean, my graduating class was only like
12, 13 people. Why do you
think that is? I don't know.
Is it is it more challenging than other
areas of medicine? I
mean, you know, optometries,
you know, the eyes. Yeah. Yeah. The
optometry class that
graduated with my class had over 100
students. And then you come to my class,
we did start with 25
people. We ended up with 12 to 13
people. I don't remember the number.
Seriously. Yeah, it was challenging. It
was not easy. Is that
normal? And all the schools around the
country would you say to have such a
small class? I don't
think so. And if I had to bet, I'm sure
the management up top was
was kind of annoyed about
the low retention because it was hard.
But, you know, it is a
business for them to, you know,
students need to come in and pay to get
an education. Yeah, yeah.
So but it is. And I think
as us Gen Xers, you know, we went to
concerts and didn't protect
our ears at all. We were the
generation, the first generation with
Walkmans where you put
something in your ear and listen
to music. No one talked to us about
volume control. Like we, you know, we're
the generation to new
sunscreen and all that. So we certainly
did not take care of our
ears. So I feel like you're going
to have a whole nother group of elderly
Gen Xers coming into the
office. I'm a fan and an advocate
because I'm telling you know, you kind of
touched on I don't know
what it was, what you said, but
I can for 250 bucks, I think the cost of
those AirPods, I got them
to test them. And it's giving
me hope because it's like, oh, my gosh, I
put them on, I walk
outside, I can hear a lawnmower
three blocks away. I can hear a dog
barking that I never heard. If I scratch
my shirt, I can hear
the fabric that normally I just wouldn't
hear. So talk about
being disconnected. Now, when
she wants to go in on something, I think
there is an advantage. No, but for you,
it's created a bridge
and interest at least because for a long
time, he's that typical
patient that has never wanted
to go in on a hearing aid. And I probably
for the reason of vanity, I would think
in some ways, right?
I don't know if you had to
really be honest about it.
Maybe a vanity play because they've you
know, until recently,
they've been these big,
almost robotically type of things. You've
got a big contraption in
your ears and the tubes hanging
out. I think they've found it's very
different now. It's way
different. Yeah. Yeah. One thing
I will say is that it does take people an
average of seven years to
seek help once they find out
or realize that they have a hearing
issue. So the average time
it does take is seven years.
Another thing about hearing loss is that
it does occur over such
a long period of time.
So it's very gradual. It affects people
over the course of their
whole life. It's insidious.
It's very slow. And yeah, and you're
living life, right? You're raising kids
or you're doing things
and it's easy to push it aside. And oh,
yeah. Yeah. Once I stopped
having vertigo, it's like,
well, I'm good. Yeah. And and you know,
when it occurs over
such a long period of time,
you know, when I have a patient that
comes in and they realize
that they have an issue,
you know, putting a device in their ears
and turning it on, it's
what I use in my clinic.
And what I tell my patients, it's very
similar to being in a dark
room and turning on a light.
Yeah. You know, the way the brain gets so
excited, it almost can't
handle it. So we always have to
start at a comfortable level. We don't
try to replicate what would
be considered normal hearing,
because if we were to jump from that
gradual decline and then go
to what would be considered
normal, it can be very overwhelming. So
we take a comfortable
approach. It does take time for the
brain to adjust. But again, you don't
really know what you're
missing. I had a patient who
called me and she was like, you know, Dr.
Dinesh, I just hear this
whistle every time I go into my
kitchen. I said, you know, maybe it's
just something in your
kitchen that you never heard
before. And it was her tea kettle. And
she was like, you know,
I've never heard my tea kettle.
Oh, my gosh. It's like, I mean, I have
like 100 stories of things
like that where people will
call me, you know, what's this whistling
that I hear in my in my ex?
Yeah. That's me. If I throw
those AirPods on, I'm in a whole new
world. It's a trip. Have
you? Do you guys have pediatric
care at your office? Like, would you have
babies come in where you
get hearing aids for them? Yeah, I have a
history working in a pediatric hospital,
Nicholas Children's in Miami. It's just
not my main focus. You
know, there's so many sub
specialties in my field. So pediatrics is
just its own specialty. My
clinic, we do focus on almost
everything. And we do see pediatrics
occasionally, but it's just not what
we're really passionate
about. Right. We do have people that we
can refer to. And, you
know, we do help kids, but
infants not not really. Right, right. I'm
sure when you were
talking about how when you start
opening up people's hearing, you start
slow so the brain can
adjust. Have you witnessed like a
lot of emotional reactions to being able
to hear something as you're in the
process of doing that?
Oh, yeah, I've cried. I'm at my job.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Giving
someone the ability to hear.
I have a patient who I'm thinking about
right now. He was in a
trucking accident where he was
at a rest stop and a semi truck hit him
and he was in a coma for
several weeks and he woke up with
no hearing. And when I say no hearing, I
mean, just like probably 20
percent of his hearing left.
We don't like to use percentages in our
field, but it was it was a
big impact on his life and his
relationships. And when he came to my
clinic, I was he was very, very
standoffish. He did not want
anything to do to me. He was like another
doctor's office, you know,
because he's dealing with this
legal case because someone hit him and
caused issues with his gait
and his cognitive function
and everything. And I said, hey, just
give me a chance. You know,
that's always what I tell my
patients who are standoffish. Just give
me a chance and I can help
you. And he said, you know,
sure, whatever. He had some influence
from his wife as well. But,
you know, we did the hearing
test and the whole evaluation. And, you
know, I wanted to put
something in his ears. Again,
he was standoffish. And I just said, hey,
listen, like I'm here to
help you. I'm on your side.
Please allow me to do this. And he said,
fine. And I put the devices
in just about 50 percent of his
prescription. And he was just telling me,
you know, I can hear. Oh,
my God, I could hear. And he
started just crying. Everyone in the room
started crying. And it's
goes back to school. Yeah,
it's awesome. It's amazing. It goes back
to, you know, that lack of
purpose I had with being a
DJ like none of that mattered. You know,
being able to just help
people and make it your career is
just something that should never be taken
for granted. And that's why I always look
forward and advocate for people to be in
medicine. Yeah. Yeah. No, I can only
imagine that every day
is meaningful and also at times gives you
that discomfort you
crave because every a lot of
patients are probably a challenge. So
then it forces you to
challenge yourself and and get out
of your comfort zone too. Sometimes I
would assume. Oh, yeah. That's why I'm
into tinnitus. You know,
you're someone told me there's nothing
you could do for tinnitus.
And I said, you know, me and my
dad are like, bring it on. Right. It's
right. It's what we focus on.
Did it make sense? I'll start
calling. I'll start calling it tinnitus.
But did your dad ever
regain his hearing? You mentioned
it was sudden sudden hearing loss, but he
did it. Did he get it back?
Yeah, he knew what to do. He
ended up getting some corticosteroid
shots in his ear, which was gave him some
hearing back, but that
tinnitus always stayed. And he has
learned to adapt and it doesn't bother
him anymore. He did use a
hearing aid to enhance the habituation of
his tinnitus. And a lot
of tinnitus management is
enhancing that habituation and kind of
cutting out that negative
feedback loop of you hear it,
it bothers you, your body interprets it
as a threat, and your
body's looking for threats. So
you hear it again. Is that what that new
machine does with the
tongue and the headphones there?
And you kind of trying to, from what I
read, it sounds like
you're, it's trying to make that
positive, almost retrain you instead of a
negative association. It's
either neutral or positive. Yeah,
so other than what the, so what it does
is, you know, it's
creating actual neurophysiological
changes to you. But part of your
treatment, which I think has a huge role
is that for 30 minutes,
two sessions, two 30 minute sessions a
day, you have to sit down
and you can't work, you can't
email, you just have to sit down and put
your headphones on and you
relax twice for 30 minute
sessions a day. And you know, how much of
an impact does that have
on tinnitus management?
You know, probably a decent amount. So
with that being said, the
treatment plan with Lanier is not
always about the neurophysiological
changes, but your ability to
sit down and relax and focus on
understanding that you're doing something
for yourself. That is
something that is often taken
for granted. And a lot of my worst
tinnitus patients are my
patients who are what we call
our perfect personalities, you know,
they're very anxious, and they need
answers, and they're always
looking for answers. However, it's just
being able to just sit down and
understand that sometimes
you don't need the answer and you just
need to be okay with that. Yes. Is half
the battle, you know,
something I've doing that, you know,
sitting down, relaxing, it's almost you
get into a meditative
state. I've recently been cold plunging.
And I've noticed I think
that has had a positive impact.
So it's, you know, I don't know if
there's any research on that
or not. But you get into a cold
plunge, half the battles the mind
fighting through this shock, right? And
then I get out, I feel like
million bucks and my head's not ringing.
My head is clear. And it's
an interesting experience.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I saw research that
said the the chemical
changes that happen in your
brain after a cold project are the same
as doing cocaine. Yeah. So
I moved from Coke to this.
No, he definitely perks up for sure after
every cold plunge. So how
is it working alongside your
dad? Is it just a dream come true? Yeah,
it's it's great. I know
he's proud of me. I, you know,
and my mom too. Of course. So that's
true. I am learning from
them. And it is a great experience
to be able to work with your family on a
common goal. It's something
that I'm very blessed to be
able to do. And to be able to work
alongside my father who, you know, he's
he's pretty well known
in the field. I didn't know until I was
in the field. I'm still
referred to Dr.elnisch's son.
And when I go to conferences and things.
So I just hope I just hope that I can
continue to work and,
you know, fill his shoes because you know
I may not have the same
motivation as him, coming to
a new country and supporting a family.
You know, I was born and
raised in the US and I had a very
normal childhood. But, you know, I just I
look up to his work ethic.
Even now he's he's a full
time professor at the at the
university to he works at Florida
Atlantic University. He
teaches multiple classes.
And believe it or not, Florida
Atlantic University is one of is a very
well known college for
audiology, and they don't even have a
program for it. It's
just it's funneled through my dad. He
really yeah, he's, he's
several, several times in a row. I mean,
he's published too much
research. He probably has
close to half a million citations.
Wow. So he considered
a pioneer in the field.
Oh, yeah, especially with
tinnitus and sensitivity
disorders.
I bet I've read his articles
that didn't even know that I
did.
Yeah, I mean, if you if you
just search his name, Google
Scholar, you'll see a bunch.
Now, you're also teaching or
lecturing at FAU, too, right?
Yeah, I'm just doing a clinical audio,
audiology course. What
that is, is I'm teaching people how to do
my job, mostly so they
have a better understanding of what the
job of an audiologist
is and how it kind of be can be
integrated in a whole health
approach. I'm really teaching master
students who are studying
to be speech pathology students. And, you
know, with a hearing
loss, it can lead to a bunch of speech
issues. So yeah, just
teaching them how to do it
and understand my job. It's been
really gratifying. You know, I work from
I work the clinic all
day. And I teach from 530 to 730. I go
home. It is busier. And
yeah, it's, it could be tiring, but it's
very gratifying to be
able to teach the next
generation. Absolutely. Even
when I just graduated, right?
Yeah, because you really just finished
school what less not
even a year?
Yeah, so my academics was done in 2023.
And then I took 2023 to
2024 to work at the VA in
Miami. Yeah, I always had passion
helping veterans and with
their history of, you know, noise
exposures and PTSD and tinnitus, which is
what I wanted to do, it
was, it was the perfect
environment to learn. And also,
when you work for the
government, it's your it's a very
strict environment as well.
You know, if I was done at four
o'clock, I would have to sit
into my in my chair until 430
when it was my time. Oh, my goodness.
Yeah. So that's why I
do love private practice.
Did you see a lot of were
you able to help a lot of the
veterans you worked with?
Yeah, I've had veterans come up to me and
tell me that, you know,
they wanted to end their lives. So it's
really tough because the
way it works in our country
is, you know, typically, they're,
they're just following orders, a lot of
these people are being
taken advantage of, because
they are just looking for an
opportunity after high
school, you know, yeah, they're not
given a lot of opportunities. So a lot of
people end up going to
the military, because
they're trying to find ways to make
something out of themselves
and be a good person. Yeah, sure,
you have the patriot who loves our
country and wants to fight
and, you know, support our
country. But a lot of people end
up going to the military because they
don't know what to do.
Yeah. So with that being said,
I've had a lot of young people
who are deployed to Iraq,
Afghanistan, who have now
crippling PTSD affected their
marriages, their relationships
with their families. So, you
know, and the worst part is I
deal with a lot of people with survivor's
guilt, or dealt with,
I don't work at the VA anymore, but a lot
of Vietnam and Korea
war veterans who came out alive, but, you
know, a lot of people
that they knew, they passed away. And,
you know, I can't tell
you how many times a patient
would just come and just start
bawling and, you know, why am I alive?
And that's very sad. That
survivor's guilt can be very
taxing. But I feel like we have
them well, no, they should
have asked, they should have
connections for everything,
hearing, psychological help,
like therapy or like everything, not just
medical, but a whole
holistic approach to when they come back.
It's just
do you, did you find that
that does exist, but they're
resistant to come see the doctor because
of all the things we
talked about earlier?
No. Well, the thing is, I
don't think the VA is available to
every veteran. So that's number one, I
think you have to have a
certain, a certain social
economic status to be eligible
for VA care. I will say that, in my
experience, they're getting
better with mental health care and things
like that and things
that they can provide for
veterans. But yeah, it's getting
better, but it's still nowhere near where
it should be. I mean,
you know, I don't know the
number, but the amount of
homeless veterans in our
country is, it's very, really
sad, because not only do they go to serve
their our country, but
once they come back, the mental impact
that that has on them,
right? It's just to get back
into normal life and learn how
to get a career and
everything. It's, it's, it's almost
unrealistic.
Yeah, no, I agree. Hopefully,
and that'll continue to improve
and change because
we need to stop going to war.
Well, that too, stop going to
war and creating
this conversation took a turn. Well, if
people weren't getting
rich off war,
that's exactly you. I do have a question
agreed. Just bring it
back to your office in the
educational part of it. You had
mentioned that you have a lot
of students that work in your
clinic. Are they FAU students or where
are they students from?
So some of them are FAU
students who are trying to build the
program. So working in a
practice that is, it's a pretty
reputable practice, especially with my
father, it's something
that they can put on their resume.
Another thing is, we do
take residents from Nova
Southeastern, which is where I
graduated. Yep. And we have some
residents that come and do like
an internship for a year. And
it's, it's a great opportunity
not only for us, but for them, because
they get to see the side
of the private practice and a lot of
private practices really
focus on just hearing aids.
We focus on every aspect of
audiology other than PEDS.
So we focus on hearing loss,
tinnitus, but also vestibular, which is
the balance portion of
audiology. So, you know,
a patient with manures or
positional vertigo where they're rolling
in bed and they get a
severe sensation of spinning,
we diagnose and treat that. And
also some auditory processing issues. So,
you know, some, some
kids may not be doing good in school,
having trouble listening
in noise. So we can do
evaluations for their auditory
processing to see whether that may be
playing an impact on how
well they're doing
academically or, you know, in noise.
Yeah, no, that's really cool.
So it's really a student seek
out to it's an honor to be able
to probably work at your,
your office for them or a great
opportunity.
It's very educationally based, I would
say, we do prioritize
education. And I would say that we do
find ourselves to be very
genuine in our care. And I think that's
why we've been doing so
well. You know, I don't think people are
stupid. So as long as
you're there to be genuine
and help someone with their
condition, because ideally, they're
coming there because they
know they have a problem. If you focus on
why they're coming and
helping them. That's how you become a
good doctor. Yeah, I
can't tell you how many people become a
doctor for the money.
A lot of people who are doctors should
not be doctors. And there
are a lot of doctors in our
society that should not be able
to treat patients. No, truly. So with
that being said, you know,
I found that just being genuine is the
best way to not only
build your practice, but to seek every
other thing. I don't think
you should have any other,
you know, like focus in medicine
other than to help people feel better.
Yeah, everything else
will come after that. Yeah, if
a patient feels truly seen by
their physician, it's life
changing for them. And they will
continue to stay with that
physician and that builds a
practice. Yeah, our patients
are walking billboards. We, you
know, we understand that. If we could
help people, then they
would be happy. And not only
will they be happy, but they
will bring people who are also having an
issue. Yeah. And so,
you know, our it's tough
being in a private practice,
especially in my position,
because I see a full patient
load a day. But also, I need to find ways
to build our practice
advertise and, you know, build a
business. So it is tough on
the aspect. But a great way to advertise
is to, you know, make
sure your patients are having a great
experience or feeling
word of mouth word of mouth is huge. So
many I mean, that's I
talked to all my friends before I go to
any if I'm looking for a
doctor, I say, Who do you like? Who do
you go to? So word of
mouth is huge. Now, I know
you said that right now you're,
you're grinding and working
hard with the hopes of in the
future. Maybe you won't have to be going
as hard when you have
a family. But what would you say your
five year goal is right
now? Yeah, so I do always think about my
life as in chapters. My
five year goal is basically
so 27. Which I'm sorry, our
listeners are going to be
shocked that you just I mean, I
know you said what year you were born.
But after everything,
just discuss, and then you
dropped I'm 27 is gonna blow some
people away better hurry up because
you're just getting too
old to know about what you've
accomplished, what you've
accomplished that only 27 and your
outlook on life is very
impressive. But anyways, I'm
sorry that I interrupt. No,
thank you. I do appreciate
that. So, man. So in five years,
that's probably what I'm gonna have my
first kid. So, you know,
just like the revolutionary era of the US
where, you know, it's
just work, work, work, whatever. I'm
really just focusing on
building my practice and
providing as much to my patients
in my career as possible. It is a selfish
approach. But I'm okay
with that because I am planning to be
selfless the rest of my
life. So right now, I'm focusing on
myself and my health, as long
as the success of my girlfriend who is
likely going to be my
best friend, we're really building our
future together. So,
you know, I'm just really
selfish, and it's okay to be
selfish. I don't feel bad about being
selfish right now. You
know, I've, I feel like I've
pulled apart from my friends and
even lost relationships. But
it's really because I'm just so
focused on building my career. So I could
do things that I'll be
able to enjoy for the rest of my life.
And where I'm getting that
whole idea of selfishness is
when I just talk to people who
are in the older generations,
like Gen X, you know, they, I
can't tell you how many people I've
spoken to who's in their
40s. And they're like, you know, I still
feel young, I could still
do things.
Oh, totally. Like I'm we're 53. And we
feel like we did when we
were 30, as far as our mental or your
age, like our, we're how we
think feels the same.
Yeah, no, I would agree. I was gonna say
we're still waiting to
grow up. And we're halfway
there. More than halfway there.
Yeah, exactly. So, you know, I think
wisdom is the idea of
understanding knowledge and
implementing it into your life
without having to experience
it yourself. I so you know, I've
just a lot of my friends want to have fun
and experience things
when they're young. And I think we
discussed about this a little
bit before just the whole idea that
social media has played a
role in this, where, you know, you will
go on social media, and
there's a 27 year old guy
with a bunch of $100 bills and a
Lamborghini, you know, swipe
up if you want to make seven
figures in a year. And I come on. Yeah.
So, you know, with that
whole idea of people living
these lavish lives and all all
those things, it's really
easy to focus on that rather than
building yourself. I mean,
you know, I feel like I've been
really focused with my
priorities in terms of what I
see for my future. And with that being
said, you know, going back
to it, yeah, I'm going to be
selfish right now, with the
idea of being
selfless with my life later.
Oh, it's you're working for your future.
Yeah. And you're, you're
setting yourself up. And it
isn't selfish as one way of
putting it, but you're also
setting boundaries, you're
setting, you're creating your outline,
your boundaries to work
in so that you accomplish those goals.
And without goal setting
and without doing that, you
won't end up there. It just
won't happen.
Yeah, I know. And I understand
that it's a process. And, you
know, I am working hard. But again, this
is probably the best
time of my life. You know,
it's a lot of work, but it's very
gratifying. And, you know, yes, I am 27
years old. But I can't
tell you how many people who started a
venture like I have at
a age rather than when I was
younger. So, you know, I can't
tell you how many dentists I know who
started at a much later
age, and are, you know, and still are
doing an amazing job.
My uncle, he actually got his dentist
dentistry degree three
times, once in Iran, once in
Ukraine, and once in Canada. Oh,
my gosh. Yeah. Imagine getting your
dentistry degree three
times. Did he have to go through the same
amount of schooling each
year? Yeah. So nothing
transferred over where you only
have to go two years. I don't I don't
believe so. But I could be
wrong. But when he came to
Canada, he interviewed with
someone in the Canadian border customs.
And they asked, what do
you want to do? And he said, I
want to be a dentist. And the
guy was like, Good luck,
you're probably going to be a taxi
driver. And then he said, All
right, I'll show you, you know,
yeah, it was almost like a challenge
where he's like, Okay,
yeah, let me show you what I
can do. And now he owns his own
practice. He just, you know,
he's really built an amazing
life for his family and kids.
But when he was going to school
in Canada, he would go to school during
the day as a student. And
then at night, he was a
night security guard. So he slept
through like four hours
during the day every day in dental
school. Wow. So the reason why I bring
that up is because as
someone who comes, you know, that
immigrant mentality, it's
and you know, yeah, I'm 27. And I'm
starting my career. But man,
you you can still do it.
Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah,
absolutely. I mean, and I
think you know, I know you say, you
see, you want to get to a point where
maybe you're not working
as much because you have a
family and everything. But I
foresee, because you do like to challenge
yourself, you do like
to feel uncomfortable. So I
think I foresee that you're
gonna find a balance, but I
think you're going to continue
find ways to be uncomfortable to
challenge yourself. But it'll
be your choice won't be
because you have to you're setting
yourself up now. So the next decisions
you make are on your
terms.
Yeah, and you know, I really
hope that's how it turns out.
You never know in life. You
know, but one thing I will say
is, hopefully, you know, at this point,
I'm content with what
I'm doing. I'm working really
hard. And it's what I'm just
kind of focusing on what I
can do at this moment. Yeah. You
know, the whole idea of anxiety is
overthinking of the future.
And what if this can happen? Is that I'm
just taking everything a
day at a time, you know, my
girlfriend, she can think a
little bit ahead. And I'm just saying,
hey, just take it day by
day. That's, that's our motto. You just
Yeah, do you say you've
said several times you're
working really hard? Do you view
it as work? Given the passion? You're
very passionate about
what you're doing? Does
it work? Or is it passion?
It's funny, it was, it was
work. And how I actually ended up
rationalizing my, my work and how much I
enjoyed it or not is,
you know, I'm not gonna
lie, come Tuesday night, you're
thinking, Okay, I got to wake up early
three more days. Yeah. But
every Friday, I always ask
myself, you know, can I go to
work tomorrow? Right? And if the answer
is, yeah, I could wake
up and go to work tomorrow, then you
probably like your job.
Yeah. If you're saying, no, absolutely
not. Maybe, maybe it's
not the job for you. Yeah, a lot of and
the thing about America
America and how things are
run in the US. You know, it's
everything is determined or
people have these pre convinced
notions in life, based on
everyone else's path, you, you
go to school, you go to
college, and a lot of people after
college stay in the same
career forever. It's a reason why I
brought on my uncle. I
mean, I can't tell you like, how
important it is to maybe explore other
career paths. If you feel
like on a Friday, you cannot
stand work and you just don't
want to go anymore.
No, that's never too late to start
another, another journey.
I think the woman who
founded Girl Scouts was 51 when she
founded Girl Scouts. And look at the like
McDonald's. Yeah, look
at the impact. So you can
always keep starting a new
chapter. And that's great advice.
I do have one last question
actually for you because we've
we've had some interactions with our
listeners around the
corporate world. There's a lot of
disenfranchisement in the
corporate world. But I think you just
said something that's
really critical. And I'm
curious, you know, there's it's
never too late to start
something in. But would you
have advice for kids say
younger than you that are coming up?
And what they how they would get into
their career and get it
going? And just any advice for them?
Yeah, that's a great question. So when I
was young, I studied
biotechnology. And it wasn't for the
purpose of me learning how
to do genetic engineering. It was
strictly the purpose of if I
do this, a lot of more
opportunities will open because
people will think, okay, he, he developed
in a strong, you know,
difficult academic environment. And that
truly did open doors
for me. So when I was actually in my
major, I was contemplating
just doing a normal health science
degree. And I called my
sister and everything. And, you know, she
was kind of like, hey,
do what you want. I call my
dad, he said, no, absolutely not,
you got to finish. And that
was the best. You know, that was,
that was me continuing to
push myself in uncomfortable
positions. Yeah. If I decided to go with
the pack, I can't tell
you how many friends I had that were in
that basic degree where
it was just like to pass and
maybe get a good GPA. But I
continue to put myself in that
uncomfortable position. So if
you're young, and you're
listening, the importance of
allowing yourself to put
yourself above others, not just
with GPA, but the opportunities that you
could give yourself is
huge. When I was in my
fraternity, I was vice president.
You know, I've always tried to take
leadership roles so that I
wasn't just someone in the pack, I could
be viewed as a leader.
Even, um, you know, I when I was in high
school, I was tear I was
not good at lacrosse. I wasn't, but I
still got a bunch of votes
to be team captain. And it's it's not
because I was good. It's
because I showed up every day
and I did give it my all. So
people do see that. It's the
same reason why when I am, you
know, when I go to work
every day, I could be wearing
scrubs. But you know, I
dress up, I dress nice, because I
tried to hold myself to that standard
where I care, and I'm
willing to come here and given my all.
And that's why I even
brought up how I dress, you
know, it's things like that,
where I care and people do see that
people are not stupid.
Yeah. No, you're separate
advice. Yeah, it is great advice.
You're separating yourself
from the pack. You have to. Yeah.
Yeah. That's truly the best way to
separate yourself from the
pack. So, you know, how did
you decide to be a leader and and
separate yourself from the pack? Yeah.
And lead leadership also
is a huge aspect of that. And in any
situation, like you said,
in lacrosse, even, you know,
you took the leadership role. I
think most situations present a
leadership opportunity. And it's
recognizing that too. Where's the
leadership? I do. All right.
So I have another question for you. You
had mentioned the role
your dad played in terms of probably
getting you interested
in this field. There's no
doubt, your mom played an equally
critical role. What was that for you?
What how do you how did she
influence you in that kind
of getting to where you are?
Yeah. You know, my mother played a
profound impact in my life. I'm
this boy. I am. She is a
woman who will always take an
opportunity if it arises. So
with that being said, she did
help in the fact that, you
know, even if I feel like I'm not
ready, you just got to take that
opportunity. That's really what
it boils down to. And, you know, those
opportunities can, you
don't know when they're going to come,
but, you know, and the
thing is, you think they're
going to come organically, like
a lot of the times you do have to create
those opportunities.
And it's really, really
uncomfortable. There was
something that I saw online
where, you know, people were
working from home and there was a girl
who was every FaceTime or
Teams meeting where the team will all get
online and, you know,
talk, she would always turn on our
camera, look nice, whatever.
And she got promoted and
someone who was in that same team
meeting who always had their
camera off said, you know, she
went online, I'm so annoyed. This girl
who's always showing
her face is, you know, getting this
recognition. And I've been
in at this company for, you know, three
more years than her.
It's like, all right, well,
where have you showed that you
want that opportunity?
Because when you continue to hide,
you're just going to be placed in the
shadows. You know, how
are you going to be able to feel
comfortable, feel okay with
being uncomfortable and
putting yourself in a position to be
seen and recognized and all the above.
So that's been a theme for you become
uncomfortable. You're
saying that's more from your mom, maybe?
Yeah, definitely. I would say I have to
give credit to my dad
too. But my mom is very go with the flow
in the sense that she
answers, she's able to create those
answers, whether it leads
to her being in an uncomfortable
situation or not. And I think I
just that's something that you get from
an immigrant family.
It's like, they never had answers,
especially when they
came in here. So with that being said,
they're okay with being
uncomfortable. I mean, even when it comes
to the business they
created or their house and
everything, I mean, they really
never had answers or any sort of clarity.
So to be okay in that
divine intervention that
we talked about earlier and
understanding that it's okay if you don't
have those answers and
that if you just continue and
understanding that yeah, it's
uncomfortable, but maybe
it's something in your benefit.
Well, and to sum it up, it sounds like
she instilled in you.
Let your faith be
stronger than your fear.
Yeah, yeah.
That's what it sounds like.
Yeah, go for it.
My parents, I won't say that
they're very religious, but they
do believe in a higher power
and God. And that's the power of
faith really. And, you know, am I a full
on believer of God and
everything? I can't answer that. But what
I can tell you is as a
doctor, our patients who
have faith, and who believe in a
higher power, they perform much better.
And it's really just
hope and that faith, especially with
something like tinnitus, I
was a patient who had terrible
tinnitus. And she was working
with me for, you know, a couple, like a
couple months, honestly.
And, you know, she was actually using
this linear device. And,
you know, the linear device is a new
technology. It's kind of a
shot in the dark. There's
not that much clinical evidence
compared to more traditional
methods. And around the eighth
week, she wasn't noticing that much of a
benefit. And she said,
you know, Dr. Dinesh, I feel really
annoyed. I feel like I
spent all this money, and I'm
not getting anything out of it.
I said, you know, you know, you should do
you should continue.
And I know you're you're
religious, just read the Bible
while you're while you're
doing this. And then three weeks
later, her tinnitus completely went away.
Wow. Can you believe
that? And she said, I can't believe it.
It's completely gone.
It's amazing. And for
someone who's told that there's no
answer to this. And to, to have that
outcome. I mean, she put
herself in that uncomfortable position to
seek help and to get
that outcome. Yeah, that's
cool. I know it was it was truly
incredible. It's one of the parts of
being in the medical field
where, man, it's just it's just that
purpose. And so rewarding.
It's so rewarding. Yeah,
cool. No, that's that's amazing. I
can't wait to see where you are in five
years. I'm excited. And
I hope that you'll come back and catch up
our listeners on where
you are as a follow up. And
it'll be nice for you to kind of
see how far you've come in those five
years and where you're at.
Yeah, I can't wait. The whole idea is
just continuing to just
be a genuine person. I'm
never going to stop doing that.
Because I know that that's
the true path to success. Well,
authenticity, we're big
believers. Authenticity is the
key to most things. That's the basis of
this podcast, honestly.
It's real people, real stories and, and
authenticity. And, and
we definitely have portrayed that. And,
and we've known Farzan,
I think we met you when you were a
freshman in high school, find
a guess. I think I was 14 or 14 or 15. So
we've been privileged
to watch him grow up. And
he's a good friend of our son,
Nathan's and keep track of him and
everything that's been going
on. But to listen to it from your to hear
it, all the experiences
been wonderful. So we're, I'm just gonna
say, we're very proud of you.
Yeah, thank you. It's, it's been like
amazing to just talk to you guys.
And even seeing your son Dylan, like how
much he's grown, it's,
it's crazy. And, you know, you know, I
don't feel like it's been
that long, but you know, I see your son
and he's almost he's like,
what, six foot two?
Yeah, well, not yet, but almost, but
he's, yeah, I think Farzan
watched him pretty much grow up in a lot
of ways. Like he, you
experienced his younger years. So now to
watch him walk in, and he's
already six foot in high
school is a bit of a jump scare.
He comes in with a slow bit. Hey, mom.
Yeah, Brian's voice.
What's funny is, um, being a kid, he goes
through shoes, he likes
a pair, then he doesn't like
them. So I get his old shoes.
They have the same shoes.
Yeah.
His.
They look nice.
Yeah. So, but again, thank you for
sharing your story. And, um,
you know, I know, I know that there are
listeners out there that
this is going to reach that will give
them, especially with the
tinnitus, I'm going to keep saying that.
This is what I'm used to, but, um, we'll
give them some hope.
Just hearing what you had to say and
reach out to your, actually,
what is the official
name of your practice?
So our practice is called labyrinth
audiology. So labyrinth is
a maze, but, um, part of our ear is
considered a labyrinth.
So my dad actually made up that name and
when he was 19 in Iran.
Wow.
And, um, so he came and called a
labyrinth audiology and I've had
people come and tell me that we should
rebrand, but I'll never
change that name. It means
too much to me. I don't care.
So yeah, we're a clinic
based out of Boca Raton, Florida.
Um, we are very
educationally based and we just try to be
genuine people. And, um, you know, we've
had a lot of success as of late.
And, you know, we're just continuing to
just provide the best product
for our patients. Although we are mostly
known for our tinnitus,
we do everything. Um, but I think we just
like tinnitus, like we said,
because of the challenge it has. So, um,
yeah, it's, it's been good.
And there's a lot of people out there
that need help with it.
So, um, just putting this out there, um,
can reach some people and give
them some hope. So thank you.
Tonight is scarce. It comes up as
nothing. There are no cures, really.
It's been the
historical perspective on it,
but I do think you're
offering a shot of hope really.
Yeah, I don't have a pill, but I have a
plan. Yeah. Yeah. That's,
and, and like you said, a lot of people
are just barely holding on. So again,
thank you for sharing that and sharing
how you got there. So it's all very,
it's all very fascinating and impressive.
And you've motivated me to continue to be
uncomfortable because that's something
that I've been really working on, um,
in my fifties to try to challenge myself
to be uncomfortable.
Cause I know it will help with slowing
down aging and just having this
conversation has inspired me to continue
to do that. Cause it's not,
sometimes I don't want to do that.
I don't do new year's resolutions,
but that's my theme for the
year is to be uncomfortable.
That's why I've been the cold plunging is
the epitome of being on.
Oh yeah. And you, you have time. I, you
know, you have time. Yeah.
I can't stress that enough. Your time is
done when you are dead. Yeah. Yeah.
No, I'm a big believer in that too. So,
so thank you to our listeners.
And if you have any questions or concerns
or comments, please leave them.
We always welcome them. And, um,
thank you again Farzan for sharing
everything with us and we look forward to
having you back again. It's been a blast.
Thank you. Yep. Thank you so much. Bye.