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Women In Wellness: Dr Kavita Desai of Revivele On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Follow your passion. If you are interested in something and passionate about it, do it without hesitation. Don’t second guess your knowledge and talent. If you aren’t an expert, you can always read up on it and take courses. Information can be learned; passion is within you. And passion is what will make you successful.

As a part of my series about women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Kavita Desai.

Dr. Kavita Desai is an accomplished pharmacist and the founder of female-focused health and wellness brand, Revivele — a company dedicated to educating women about disease prevention and cognitive health and providing tangible solutions and resources. Originally from Ontario, Canada, Dr. Desai earned her Doctorate in Pharmacy from Ohio Northern University in 2000, after which she went on to pursue a career spanning hospital and community-based pharmacy settings — ultimately launching her private integrated clinical pharmacy and medical center in 2006. After 13 years in practice, Dr. Desai was faced with the unimaginable when her mother was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. After witnessing the decline of her mother and prioritizing her own cognitive health, she redirected her clinical skills and decided to focus on brain health, neurologic disease prevention and how these diseases affect women. Today, she’s a tireless advocate for women and strives to consult with leaders in the field to help women address the many contributing factors in their lives and within their bodies that can impact their risk of developing diseases that affect women to a greater extent than men. In 2021, Dr. Desai launched Revivele, a company with a mission to give women a sense of community while focusing on disease prevention, education, and long-term health. Revivele is bringing various products and solutions to market. In early 2023, the first product to launch will be a specially formulated, comprehensive supplement line designed for women. Kavita is also completing her first published book on the topic of women’s health.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

I am originally from Canada, but went to Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio to obtain my Doctorate in Pharmacy degree (Pharm.D.). I have been fortunate to have had a varied career ranging from clinical hospital work, founding a cardiac risk-factor prevention clinic, to opening my own integrated medical center with an in-house clinical pharmacy.

Amidst all of that, I lost my beautiful mom to early onset Alzheimer’s. Although one of the hardest things I have faced, her illness also shaped me into who I am today. I started Revivele because of her, my concern for my own brain health and long-term wellbeing, and also because her story is not dissimilar to most women. Women need to prioritize their health, feel heard when they are experiencing symptoms that are worrisome, and deserve solutions that are designed specifically for them.

I am also extremely fortunate to have an amazingly supportive husband (of 20 years!), and three beautiful children on this journey with me.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

When I look back, I see such a difference in how I was perceived at the start of my career compared to now. I obtained my Pharm.D. at a very young age. I was recruited within a year of graduating as the clinical coordinator and educator of the pharmacy department in a large teaching hospital. The pharmacy department chief left on maternity leave literally a couple of weeks after I started (which I had not been told prior to starting my position), and I found myself not only taking on the daunting role I was hired to do, but also oversee her obligations as department head, such as running the Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee. I was the youngest person on staff, and I got a firsthand look at reverse ageism. Although I was essentially running that department and adding value to the team, I was often treated as a subordinate and too young to matter. Being a young female in the workplace is hard enough, but when you are in a position of authority it is particularly challenging. It certainly didn’t feel like I was in a management position at times. But I knew I had to be tough, and it taught me to be assertive and stick to my principles and skills — despite having almost constant resistance from higher ups as well as the rest of the staff. I learned so many useful skills from this experience. I really had to know myself and trust my instincts. It also gave me insight into dealing with varying personalities and inspiring my team to find areas of interest in their own practice and helping them hone their experience and knowledge to suit those interests.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The biggest mistake I tend to make when I embark on a journey is listening far too closely to the opinions of others. If it is beneficial advice, that’s wonderful. But oftentimes, especially in business, it’s not. When I first conceptualized Revivele, I knew I needed and wanted to come up with convenient solutions for women. So, the first product that I am currently working on is a comprehensive supplement line with over 40 vitamins and herbs blended down into the fewest capsules and tablets as possible, in an easy-to-follow system. But it was a huge, uphill climb to find a manufacturer that would agree to make it exactly as I wanted with the doses that I had researched and requested. I also wanted glass bottles and finding a company that could make me beautiful bottles that avoided the use of plastics was challenging. Along the way, I was repeatedly told that I should reduce the number of ingredients I wanted to include or use standard formulas that already existed which aren’t beneficial to long term health at all. I was told my concept would never work, and that I should just use the same plastic bottles we find at the grocery store. I almost listened to this negative feedback numerous times. I second guessed myself repeatedly because over 100 manufacturers refused to even give me a final quote, and I struggled to find a company that could custom make my glass bottles in an era of post-Covid supply chain issues. But my gut instinct was that this was worth pursuing. I knew that I needed this product to be exactly as I envisioned, and anything less was a disservice to women’s health. After a year of contacting many companies and hitting dead ends, I found the perfect manufacturer and an amazing bottle company that can not only create my vision but also believe in it. So, I would encourage any female entrepreneur who has a gut instinct that she is on to something to follow that feeling and tune out the naysayers. It might take a little longer, but the end is so rewarding when you accomplish exactly what you set out to do.

Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

The women’s care doesn’t fit into a single, tidy checkbox when it comes to their health. We truly are complex organisms, with biological systems that fluctuate from day to day and week to week. I am on a mission to help change this blanket approach that has been taken on women’s health. The healthcare system has been broken for women and we must no longer accept this situation.

Women make up half of the world’s population (and in certain age groups, the majority of these populations). Peri-menopausal women (between ages 35–55) will make up about 15% of the global population by 2030, so I am really focused on the unique needs and concerns of this group. The hormonal changes that perimenopausal and menopausal women experience can be so uncomfortable and even debilitating. And yet, we dismiss these symptoms as normal, or oftentimes even mock them. That’s incredibly heartbreaking. There are solutions available, and women should be educated and aware of these solutions.

I am set on combining the very best in nutraceuticals, education, medical devices, diagnostics, artificial intelligence and data analytics all with the goal of making a big impact on women’s overall wellbeing and long-term health. And of course, making it elegant and accessible for all women.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

  1. Change your diet! Probably one of the most challenging things we face is the idea of giving up the foods we love. We are constantly being lured to processed foods because they are easy to grab and consume, but those foods contain many chemicals and inflammatory ingredients that make us sick. Sometimes we don’t even realize how poor they make us feel until we stop eating them. We need to be consuming more whole foods such as vegetables, fruit, healthy fats, and clean sources of protein. So, try your best to make smart choices you can stick to for the long term, even if it’s just small changes at first. Maybe make a salad with supper each night or try a green smoothie each morning. These little modifications in diet will make you feel so great!
  2. Know your body and advocate for your health. We need to be aware of when we feel well and when we don’t. And when we don’t, we should be noting what feels “off”. No one knows your body better than you, so it’s important that you understand what you might be experiencing and then advocate for yourself when you see a healthcare practitioner. If you know something is amiss and not normal for you, it’s okay to seek help, or even get a second opinion if you feel you aren’t getting the answers or solutions you need. Your health matters!
  3. Build Muscle. Incorporating strength training is essential at all ages for boosting metabolism, and for maintaining posture, vitality, and bone health. For women who reach their perimenopausal years (ranging anywhere from age 35 and up), the body is already under a great deal of stress, so it’s often beneficial to avoid strenuous workouts that leave you feeling exhausted and injured and do lower impact strength training with weights or yoga. Even just taking the stairs at work or doing a few standing push-ups against the counter while cooking supper is a great start!
  4. Prioritize your Sleep. Chronic poor sleep is linked with reduced productivity and long-term disease risk. Getting a good night’s sleep is so important for the brain to function effectively and for the body to recuperate after a hard day. So, take the time to create a healthy sleep routine and aim for at least 7 hours of restful sleep. Turn off devices at least an hour before heading to bed, and if possible, leave devices out of the bedroom altogether at night. Reduce or avoid caffeine and alcohol later in the day, as both substances are very disruptive to sleep. And lastly, try to make a list of tomorrow’s “to-do’s” before heading to bed to make sure your mind is clear, and you can achieve a more restful, worry-free sleep.
  5. Get your probiotics. Probiotics are no longer optional. We now know that our gut microbiome, or the healthy bacteria that live in our intestines, are necessary to prevent illness. Everything you consume will impact your gut microbiome. Heavily processed foods, refined sugars and alcohol negatively impact our healthy, protective bacteria. So, it’s important to incorporate prebiotic foods into your diet that feed the good bacteria (e.g. bananas, onions, asparagus and garlic), and probiotics which help rebuild your gut microbiome (e.g. fermented foods like kimchi, kefir, yogurt and sauerkraut, or probiotic supplements).

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

As I stated earlier, I believe it’s time we put women back into the center of their health story. Women constitute half the population and the healthcare system up until now has not been geared to specifically study and treat women and their nuanced needs. Throughout my career, I have seen so many women struggling to find answers and solutions to their individual, unique problems. So often, if a woman has anxiety, she is told she is depressed and put on medication. Or if her menstrual cycle is irregular in any way, birth control is given to help regulate it. But we haven’t looked into why these issues are occurring and how we can actually help and prevent it from happening in the first place. It is time women’s health needs are prioritized.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

I am incredibly grateful for the varied career I have had, and have learned so much along the way, not only about my goals and aspirations, but also about myself as a person. These are just a few pieces of advice I wish I’d had early on and would pass along to others now.

  1. Follow your passion. If you are interested in something and passionate about it, do it without hesitation. Don’t second guess your knowledge and talent. If you aren’t an expert, you can always read up on it and take courses. Information can be learned; passion is within you. And passion is what will make you successful.
  2. Don’t take NO for an answer. We live in a world where we hear “no” more often than “yes”. No is the easiest answer, so people tend to give it by reflex. But, as the saying goes, “the squeaky chair gets the grease”. So don’t take no for an answer and demand what you want until you get a yes.
  3. Know who you are. We all evolve over time and change, but it’s essential to keep sight of your own principles and goals along the way. It’s easy to be swayed by others and their opinions. But your opinion and aspirations are unique and equally valid. So don’t lose sight of who you are and what you want out of life and your career.
  4. Seek out mentors more often. Successful people are often genuinely interested in helping others, especially to avoid the mistakes they made in their own careers, or to share their wisdom. Don’t be afraid to ask for guidance!
  5. Pay attention to how others support you when you are experiencing success. It’s amazing how often you may find yourself surrounded by friends in tough times, but then completely alone when you achieve success. It’s okay to walk away from people who cannot be supportive and genuinely happy for you in both good and bad moments.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

Without hesitation, it would be mental health. Our mental health and wellbeing, faculties, and consciousness are at the center of our being. My mother lost everything that made her who she was due to a degenerative disease of the brain. If there are simple and effective ways we can prevent and reverse this situation for the currently millions of people at risk, then I can’t think of a better topic to focus on.

What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?

Instagram: @revivele.inc

Website: https://www.revivele.com/

Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.

Women In Wellness: Dr Kavita Desai of Revivele On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.