Pooja Amy Shah, MD

01/09/2026

8 YEAR PRACTICE ANNIVERSARY over here!

It’s been so long since I last posted. Time seems to evaporate. How is it 2026?!
(how was a med school graduation 20 years ago 🤯)

2025 was a year of profound challenge and transition for me … unexpected home moves, major professional shifts, a big exam (which I passed 🙌🏽), some deeply transformative changes in relationships, and even weaving generative AI into our work as physicians.

I found myself having to scale back on so many things, energy outflows in particular, from social media to traveling to wider circle friends.

That intensity clarified so much: what truly mattered, what needed care, and what needed to be gently released so I could hear my own inner voice more clearly.

It was also a time of rearranging, reorganizing, and deep seeding. This was some serious unrelenting transformation.

I’m re-emerging with new strength, clearer boundaries, evolving peace, and an even deeper mastery of my integrative and functional medicine work. 🤍

I truly believe our natural state — body, mind, and spirit — is radiant health. Each of us has an incredible innate capacity to heal and thrive when we offer ourselves the right support and daily care.

Let’s make 2026 our most grounded, vibrant, and aligned year yet.

Sending bountiful healing and beautiful energy your way ✨✨


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04/15/2025

INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE REUNION 💫

A little over a week ago I spent a few days with my University of Arizona Integrative Medicine fam/besties. ()

It was half a week of remembering and reinvigorating WHY teaching integrative medicine - to students, residents, and patients alike - is so important now more than ever.

Oh & the connecting with like-minded, like-hearted people you know and miss … pure magic!

Though a big phase of my work there is over, I’ll be back in fresh ways in the years to come, I just know it.

Integrative medicine is amazing! And it’s for you too. Let’s make it happen!! More to come ;)

01/09/2025

7 YEARS AGO TODAY, my INTEGRATIVE & FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE PRACTICE, geared toward the holistic healing of complex chronic medical issues, opened its doors!

It’s mind-blowing to think about the journey to today, my personal evolution as a physician, and the growth of this field … and most importantly, the amazing patients I’ve had the honor of working with and helping along the way.

HOW TO HEAL + THRIVE:

• learn to prevent/manage chronic conditions through healthy lifestyle habits & choices

• nourish your body with fresh, vibrant, whole foods whenever possible and eat more plants

• maintain practices that help you to de-stress your nervous system and improve resilience

• move your body regularly -

• focus on getting high quality sleep regularly, learn how to rest

• hydrate with clean water

• utilize herbs, botanicals, vitamins, supplements & pharmaceuticals / Rx in a discerning way

• prioritize connection & community as well as laughter, joy, creativity, purpose, and love

• learn to be compassionate and kind to all beings, the planet, and most importantly, yourself

• spend time in nature

• employ healing practices like acupuncture/bodywork/energy work, psychedelic therapies, various psychotherapeutic modalities as needed.

• don’t believe everything you read on the internet, be wary of trends that aren’t based in science

• learn to listen and trust yourself and seek out help when things feel out of balance and/or something is not right.

🙌🏽

I believe the natural state of your body, mind and spirit is radiant health. You have an incredible innate ability to maintain this wellness if given the support you need. True wellness can be yours too.

Share in the comments below what you’d like to see more of here - what do you want to know? Learn about? Explore?

Sending bountiful healing and well wishes your way 💚💚💚


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10/11/2024

BIRD’S EYE VIEW, - Patient Endorsement 🦅

“There is a warmth about Dr. Pooja Amy Shah that radiates kindness & safety and conveys a sense that in talking to her you will be heard. And certainly that’s the way that I felt when I first met her 5 yrs ago. I was there to ask for something simple: Increase the chances that my cancer won’t come back.

Maybe it was an unfair request considering that the docs at Memorial Sloan Kettering had no idea why I’d gotten gastro-esophageal junction cancer in the first place. But maybe there was a supplement or an elixir not known to Western doctors that could do the trick? Alas, no. What I got instead was, perhaps, better.

Well, to be honest, I would really have loved that magic pill! In its absence, however, I got a positive, affirmative approach to life. The importance of mind. The importance of thought. Of hopefulness. Of community. Of nutrition. Most importantly, of experimentation, of being willing to try something different, to move away from what doesn’t work and keep searching for what does.

So what I’ve gotten from her is a holistic approach to my illness & to my life. She suggested meditation, for example, to help deal with stress and frightening thoughts. Mediation morphed into breathing exercises. And that grew into yoga which I now also do regularly. Less stress, more relaxation, greater flexibility, better balance. Will that keep cancer away? I don’t know but life is certainly more enjoyable in the meantime.

Nutrition advice. Supplements. Strange sounding roots. All her ideas and suggestions have fueled my own research, my own experimentation which has lead me in directions and to things I’d never thought about before.

Didn’t think of myself as a yoga going, tea drinking, beet root supplementing, ashwagandha taking kind of guy. But that’s where my work with Dr. Shah has lead me. Is it working? Well, the cancer hasn’t come back, I’m running faster than I have in over six years and I can stay balanced on one leg for at least 30 seconds!

Dr. Shah has helped me become a smarter, more observant, more self aware person. She’s a GREAT doctor and an amazingly thoughtful, sweet person.”
— ML

09/20/2024

365 DAYS OF MEDITATION

The thing about meditation is: You become more and more you.” - David Lynch

When I was on vacation in Croatia a few weeks ago, I completed a full year of unbroken daily meditation.

Each morning after waking up, I pull my meditation cushion up to my bed (when at home), set a timer (I used , and meditate for about 25 min, about half silent and half guided.  

This whole thing started when I was in Portugal on vacation last summer with a friend while I was going through deep heartache and other major stressors. 

I realized regular meditating was really helping, so I decided to keep going, thinking I’d perhaps meditate for an entire month.

Well those 30 days turned into 3 months, which turned into 6 months, and you get the point. I never set out to meditate for a year, but it happened and it’s changed my life. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say this. 

From greatly reduced anxiety, to better communication, to more joy, to greater confidence, check out my blog if you’re interested in what exactly I learned. (Link in bio! 👆🏽)

I talk about mediation frequently, because I believe mind-body medicine - all types of practices that allow our nervous systems to function better and that build resilience, compassion and wisdom - are foundational for optimal whole health - mind, body, and spirit.

Good health starts with good habits.

What one, small good habit can you start with today? 💫

03/24/2024

JOYFUL CREATIVITY.

As Rick Rubin says in his book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being: “Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. It’s our birthright.”

I believe this. And I believe that whole health is a function of creativity, however mundane or massive. When we express ourselves in our truest form, we allow what’s stagnant in our body/psyche/spirit to flow, which leads to greater vibrancy and joy — states that inherently are healthier and also lead to better choices and habits.

The art today felt intense, beautiful, heartbreaking, and breathtaking … and delightfully joyful.

What takes your breath away and inspires your creativity?

(Images: Francesca Woodman, me!, Bill Traylor, Eamon Ore-Giron, Gordon Parks x 2, Huma Bhabha, Demian DinéYazhi, Suzanne Jackson, my wonderful artist friend 🤍)

, , & others


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12/07/2023

ESSENTIAL OILS! + BIG SHIFTS!

✨Check out our new research paper on the science of essential oils, link in bio!

✨Big shift! After 13 years minus 1 month, I said goodbye yesterday to my clinical practice at Columbia/New York Presbyterian Hospital. I’ll be keeping my role as academic teaching faculty at Columbia in Integrative Medicine! 🥳

✨Here’s to unfolding new adventures!

04/16/2021

NEW PODCAST, LINK IN BIO — all about love, integrative medicine, nature, meditation + so much more.
Thank you .brief for a wonderful conversation on your brilliant + mind-expanding podcast 💗✨

I shout out some of my faves:

✌🏽TGIF, hope you have a great weekend 💖

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03/22/2021

https://www.drpoojaamyshah.com/musings/the-heal-better-7-3-superior-nutrition

FOOD IS DAILY MEDICINE Unless you’re fasting, you eat every single day. Anything we do daily is a practice -- and practices can either help you grow stronger, more resilient, and buoyant; or they can harm, creating disease, inflammation, and feelings of un-wellness. Regularly eating nourishing, fr

03/15/2021

https://www.drpoojaamyshah.com/musings/heal-better-7-number-2-navigating-stress

OH, STRESS! Stress is a natural part of life. Some stress is useful - it keeps our faculties and brains sharp. Runaway and chronic stress, on the other hand, is problematic, leading to downstream toxic effects like chronic disease, chronic pain, mental health issues, and even death… I really want

03/01/2021

https://www.drpoojaamyshah.com/musings/what-is-integrative-medicine

What is Integrative Medicine? What is Functional Medicine? People often ask me, “hey Dr. S, what is integrative medicine, really?” I completely understand why I get asked this question. If you look around you, you’ll find the terms integrative medicine along with f unctional medicine , and

01/19/2021

WHY EAT THE SAME BLOOD SUGAR BALANCING HEALTHY + DELICIOUS BREAKFAST DAY AFTER DAY?

I skipped breakfast for most of my adult life. As I got older, my genetics started catching up with me — my blood sugar started to creep up + got much worse as our sedentary pandemic lives settled in. Since more than 1 out of 3 adult Americans have elevated blood a sugar levels (in the pre-diabetic range), I know this speaks to more than just me ...

Now, every day I eat some delicious combo of:
• WHOLE or STEEL CUT OATS= excellent whole grain chock full of the soluble fiber beta glucan, blood sugar & cholesterol balancing, can help you lose weight.
• NUTS +/or SEEDS = excellent source of healthy, energy sustaining fats & vital nutrients
• BERRIES +/or POMEGRANATESEEDS (fresh in season, frozen in the winter) = antioxidant punch
• GROUND FLAX / CHIA / H**P SEEDS (best to keep whole seeds & grind fresh at least once weekly) = loaded with omega 3s, fiber, nutrients, helps weight & cholesterol balance.

YES it may seem like eating the same thing every day would get boring — but it’s also totally freeing — takes no thought or additional planning. Kinda like how Steve Jobs wore the same thing every day ...

LMK what you think!


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