As a specialist in geriatric medicine, preventive cardiology and functional medicine, Dr Lenny Da Costa speaks on his journey and future plans of combining modern and functional medicine to help people lead a better life
Dr. Lenny Da Costa was born and brought up in Goa, did his schooling at Loyola High School in Margao, and followed it up with a higher secondary school certificate from Chowgule College. He did his first year of M.B.B.S from Kasturba Medical College in Mangalore and then came back to Goa to complete his degree from Goa Medical College. Dr. Lenny went on to do his Post graduation in geriatrics from M.S. Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore. Being a geriatric physician, he knew there was nothing that could be done as far as aging disorders were concerned and hence shifted to reversing chronic degenerative diseases including diabetes, heart disease, neurological disorders and the like. This took him to a new journey where he learnt about metal detoxification and how one gets toxic overload from metals which in turn leads to chronic disease like heart disease, diabetes, neuro-degeneration etc. Then Dr. Lenny learnt about how one could balance their hormones if one wants to slow down the process of aging, and later completed his fellowships in metal toxicology, nutrition and functional medicine. Over the last 20 years, he has treated around 30,000 patients where he and his teams have reversed heart diseases and diabetes in most of his patients.
Dr. Lenny’s father – late Dr. Lanfredo Da Costa, was a renowned pediatrician and Dr. Lenny, since his childhood was intrigued with knowing how people got better which set him on his path to becoming a doctor and somebody who helps people. His father was his biggest motivation and is the number one reason why Dr. Lenny chose to get into the medical field.
Having specialised in geriatric medicine after completing his MBBS, Dr Lenny saw that there were a lot of elderly patients coming to him who were prescribed one anti diabetic medicine or hypertensive medicine, leading to a vicious circle of being on those medicines which never resulted in them getting better. It made him curious on how he could reduce this medication as well get them to feel better in order to lead a quality life. He went back to college and earned a post graduation degree in geriatrics which helped him learn that as far as degenerative diseases of the body goes; modern medicine does not have most of the answers. Thus, he began looking into functional medicine which is basically using a lot of modern medicine techniques to treat the cause of the disease rather than just the symptoms. This is what Dr. Lenny commenced and continues doing till date.
In the early years as a doctor, Dr. Lenny’s idea of functional medicine was not accepted well amongst his peers. In a few years, when he began showing results, other doctors began accepting it and motivated Dr. Lenny to treat a large number of patients. In the early part of his career, he would travel to different cities and as the crowds began getting larger; Dr. Lenny decided to stick to his practice in Goa, Mumbai and Pune.
Over the years, Dr. Lenny and his team have undertaken various interventions and procedures. They have worked on patients who have had cardiology procedures done and reversed a lot of their problems which helped them lead a healthier life. His clinic in Pune, even today specialises in reversal of heart failure, and Ischemic Heart Disease. These are two conditions which he has worked on and the third one he is working on is reversing diabetes just by undergoing lifestyle changes. Fasting/diet modification and exercise are the main modalities used by him, coupled with the right nutrition and they have been successful in many cases. Currently, his team is working on those cases where they are not getting the kind of results they want so that they can find solutions to these health issues, as well.
Dr. Lenny has undergone training in anti-aging and preventive cardiology. When he did his geriatric medicine, he wanted to understand how he could reverse any kind of heart disease. One way of reversing this was by getting into preventive medicine, where one had to figure out what was causing the disease and then prevent it. He did a course at that time using detoxification methodologies and completed a full fellowship from International Board for Clinical Metal Toxicity (IBCMT). Here he was taught how to prevent heart disease, and reverse those cases wherein a patient had symptoms due to advanced stage of the disease. In anti-aging, Dr. Lenny states that if one can balance their hormones, they can slow down the ageing process.
Today, he says that women enter menopause at an early age and this can be delayed if one manages their hormones well, which is what Dr. Lenny and his team do on a regular basis.
True anti-aging can be achieved if you remove the toxicities in your body, balance your hormones, ensure good nutrition, keep your body strong and active and keep your mind calm, he says.
The most challenging thing about his profession Dr Lenny says is that he comes from modern medicine. Having learnt it, along the way he had to unlearn a few things and then re-learn it to reach his mission of trying to help people become healthier and happier rather than just treating them for a particular disease.
With time, Dr Lenny has learnt that if one can understand how their body functions, what the body was made for and understand how one can maintain the body, a lot of diseases can be reversed. It took Dr. Lenny these last twenty years of practice to understand that and it is what is helping him today to understand how to reverse certain illnesses.
Having to meet and get to know different people every day is what keeps Dr. Lenny excited. Each person brings a fresh batch of challenges. He handles a lot of degenerative cases in the geriatric field. Giving people the best quality of life is what keeps him going and he sees everyday as a new day with a new challenge. Having a positive mindset is a big plus for Dr. Lenny which keeps him motivated and allows him to handle each case with the kind of care and sensitivity that it requires.
His biggest anchor is his wife who has been supporting him from the start and whatever he went through in the early years of his profession. His son too, he says, is his biggest inspiration and has stood by him through thick and thin.
As far as his future plans go, Dr. Lenny wants to touch a million lives with the kind of work he does and feels that this can be done by sharing his knowledge and experience with others interested in the similar outcomes for their patients. At the moment he is setting up a training program across the globe in association with various experts and colleagues to help as many doctors as possible to understand the concept of functional medicine where one can actually help people reverse chronic diseases and lead a better life. He plans to get modern and functional medicine to work together so that people are healed completely and that is something Dr. Lenny is looking forward to, something he wants to achieve and leave for posterity.
Dr Lenny is currently the President of Society for Regenerative, Aesthetic and Ant-Aging Medicine, India (SRAAMI) and also the President of Indian Society for the Study of Metal Toxicology and Chelation Therapy (ISSMTCT) and has been speaking at various anti-aging and functional medicine meets and conferences both in India and overseas regularly.
