Meet Dr. Saru Bala

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Saru Bala. 

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Growing up, I had a lot of struggles with my own health- I was diagnosed with IBD at the age of 13 and was on and off harsh medications that made me feel awful for months before deciding this wasn’t going to work long term. I was able to turn to naturopathic medicine and by changing my diet and adding in herbs/supplements, I was (and still am) able to manage my IBD with none to minimal symptoms, without any medications. 

My biggest turning point with naturopathic medicine was when my mom battled stage 4 ovarian cancer while I was in college. I watched her get told by multiple doctors over and over that she only had a few months left to live. She turned to naturopathic medicine and was able to be in complete remission. Seeing the hope and life come back to her after finding integrative options made me realize this is exactly what I wanted to do for others. I wanted to be able to give people hope when they felt like they didn’t know what else to do. 

My most recent inspirations have been other women suffering with the lack of knowledge about their bodies and feeling dismissed by their providers. Currently, the only option presented for a majority of hormonal concerns is birth control. I wanted to be able to give women the understanding of their body, their health, and their LIFE, so they could feel more connected to themselves and know ALL their options. Health shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all model. Every individual is unique, and their treatment plans should be too. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not quite. I think naturopathic/integrative medicine gets a lot of backlash from many people not understanding what it is. So, a lot of my struggles have been in overcoming obstacles of stigma around integrative medicine and what it is we do. We’re trained in all the basic and clinical sciences as a primary care doctor, and have extra training in herbal medicine, nutrition, and we look at patient from a whole-body perspective vs symptom management. 

Naturopathic medicine is mainly about disease prevention. If we do our job right, you’ll never know what illnesses you never had. My goal is not only to prevent long-term hormonal issues in women but also to educate. One of the biggest issues in healthcare is that patients don’t get enough time to ask questions and really get a good understanding of their body. I typically get to spend about 30-60 minutes with every patient to make sure we get a full and thorough history, along with addressing ALL of their concerns and questions. 

As far as the road for starting a practice/business that has definitely had its ups and downs. I started my own practice just a couple of months before the pandemic shut everything down which forced me to start a virtual practice. That grew into an in-person practice once things started opening up. I’m so grateful that I got to have both experiences and now get to see both in-person and virtual patients. It allows me to reach a wider community of women. 

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a Naturopathic Doctor, specializing in women’s hormonal health. I work on regulating hormones from an integrative approach. I work with patients on nutrition, exercise/movement, gut health, liver health, stress, and other foundational health pieces in order to achieve worry-free, regular periods. 

I work with women of reproductive age, from menarche to menopause, on things like fertility, postpartum, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, PCOS, irregular periods, painful periods, heavy bleeding, fibroids, and any other hormonal concerns they might have. 

What sets me apart from other women’s health providers is that I like to look at each patient as a whole, instead of just their diagnoses. I’m not treating their PCOS or painful periods. I’m treating their gut, their liver, their stress, their adrenals, addressing sleep, nutrition, etc. to ensure that their body can get back to a natural homeostasis. Our bodies know what to do if we give it the right environment and tools to do so. 

Up to 90% of women suffer with period pain and get told it’s normal- it’s NOT. I don’t want women to have to suffer for no reason other than they weren’t informed of other options. My mission is that every woman understands what’s happening with her hormones, periods, what’s normal, what’s not, and what factors THEY can control that can help regulate all of these. We don’t have to just accept birth control as our only option for hormonal issues. There’s so much more we can do and I want everyone to know that. 

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
That more women get autonomy and education about their bodies. Women have been marginalized in healthcare for decades, and what I hear most often from my patients is that their providers never listened to what they wanted. They ask for other options, only to receive the same answers: “Try a different form of birth control,” or “Come back when you want to get pregnant,” or “You can get a hysterectomy.” 

I’ve heard countless times that women stop going to their doctor because they felt dismissed and they felt like they weren’t heard. 

As a woman having dealt with many of these issues myself, I was so tired of being dismissed and given little to no options. Knowing that there’s so much we can do about all those hormonal concerns makes me feel really passionate that I need to make hormonal health accessible and educate as many women as I can. 

Pricing:

• $275 for the online course: Integrative solutions for period pain and heavy periods. Right now it’s 20% off with code “20OFF”
• I also include women’s health packages for those who want to see me in person. There’s different pricing options depending on what they’re looking for. More information is on my website about it.

Contact Info:

• Email: info@drsarubala.com
• Website: www.drsarubala.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drsarubala
• Facebook: Facebook.com/drsarubala
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@drsarubala