Dr. Miriam Zylberglait, a physician with triple Board Certification, began her career in Peru before relocating to the United States to continue her practice. She specializes in internal medicine, geriatrics, and obesity medicine, with a keen interest in promoting well-being, preventing burnout, improving mental health, and fostering leadership development. Her bestselling book, The 3G Cycle of Life: The Secrets for Achieving Joy, Meaning, and Well-Being, has received widespread acclaim. Dr. Zylberglait is a recipient of various accolades, such as the AMWA’s Mentor of the Year award in 2021 and the American College of Physicians Young Achiever award in 2017.
Currently living in the greater Miami area with her husband and two sons, Dr. Zylberglait aspires to empower individuals to enhance their lives with joy, meaning, and well-being.
You’re a successful doctor and author, as well as a wife and a mother. What is the key to balancing these key aspects to your career and life?
I am “successful”, but in the typical definition of success. I have the certificates and roles, and my professional life looks successful on paper, however, the real question is, what is success? And it will absolutely depend on our core values, our goals, and our purpose. On many levels, I achieved my professional dreams, but on many levels, I did it against my well-being, my happiness, and my own real goals. That is why I am redirecting my career, and opening my own practice, to be the physician that I want without having to compromise who I am as a mother, wife, and woman.
Regarding balance, I don’t use that word anymore, it does not exist in this specific context. I like the term harmony. How do we find harmony between our professional and personal roles? How do we integrate those without conflict, without sacrifice, and without regrets? This is something that I am slowly learning. It is challenging, especially for women. And even more challenging for certain cultures.
A big part of the solution to this dilemma is based on asking ourselves what our priority is, and what type of life is more aligned with our values and trying to pursue that. But this is a little more complex when the system is not supportive, when remote work is now again restricted, and when workplaces have no empathy for breastfeeding mothers, sick kids’ situations, or school celebrations for Mother’s Day.
What was your biggest motivation behind writing your book, The 3G Cycle of Life: The Secrets for Achieving Joy, Meaning, and Well-Being?
Pain and anger! After reading that a physician mother died by suicide because was expected to go back to work only weeks after delivering her baby (something that I went through twice) and learning that 400 physicians die yearly (even before Covid), by suicide. I was furious! This got even worse when I learned that 46,000 Americans die for the same reason every year in the US, and of those 500 are kids between 6 and 10 years old (the age of my kids). I needed to vent, and I needed to do something. I refused to be a bystander and close my eyes, and ignore them. I wanted to raise awareness, to find a solution, to do something about this.
Did you always want to be a doctor and be in a position of helping others?
Yes, I always wanted to help, but not as a doctor. I wanted to be a psychologist; medicine came into my life just by chance. But I am very happy it happened like this. At 18 years old I was very far away from being ready to be a psychologist, I used to cry with my sick patients. Can you imagine what type of emotional advice I was able to give at that time? It took me many years to find the perfect emotional place for being caring and compassionate without allowing my decisions to be affected by my feelings.
Now, several decades later, I continue loving medicine, and I am still in love with psychology. In fact, I merge both every time that I approach my patients. I don’t treat lungs or livers, I treat humans, with feelings, fears, and specific priorities and beliefs.
What was the inspiration behind being an advocate for helping to put an end to suicide?
Those that know someone that die by suicide, or that had an attempt, probably know the deep pain that this even causes in the lives of family members, friends, and colleagues. Data shows that one suicide has a ripple effect that affects 150 individuals. Multiply 46000 times 150, that is the number of people affected every year in the US because of a situation that we can prevent.
Now imagine being in a situation where you feel there is no other solution than dying. Imagine being so scared, sad, lonely, or in pain that you feel that there is no reason to continue being alive. In many cases, the situations that take us to think or feel like this are not permanent, are treatable, and have a solution, but we are so overwhelmed, terrified, or sick that we are not able to find the light at the end of the tunnel, and we end doing something that can not be reversed. Nobody should feel like this. Nobody should be in that position. Everyone should have access to appropriate emotional and social support. To treatment. To an opportunity to be alive.
What was the best advice you have ever been given by someone, and why was it so helpful to you?
The best advice came from my son Eli when he was 7 years old. He told me after seeing me unhappy, unmotivated: “This is your life, this is your choice, and this is your journey”. My boy reminded me with that phrase that I have the power of decision, that I am not a victim, that this life is under my control, and that I can decide what I do, how I feel, and how I act. I have that phrase on the first page of my book.
Can you tell us a bit about the new clinic you are opening in terms of why you are opening it and what do you hope to achieve?
As a physician, I have always identified myself as a patient advocate, an educator, and a servant leader. I feel that I have an obligation with my patients that goes beyond providing them with medication or healing their bodies. I believe that I am here to provide them with physical and emotional well-being.
Today in the US, it is very difficult to provide this type of care, when we have limited resources, not only regarding staff, but also regarding time.
Doctors are obligated to see patients fast, one after the other in only 15 minutes just to satisfy the specific financial interest of managers and CEOs. We don’t have the ability to make our own decisions – we don’t have autonomy. Medical insurance decides what can be provided or not to our patients. This is not the type of medicine that I want to practice. This is not the type of medicine that’s representing me or my values .
I want to be able to go back to my roots and to my core values, to what makes me feel happy and proud. I want to treat people with the respect and the commitment that they deserve.
My new practice separates me from the typical healthcare modality. I will be able to be more independent. I will be able to spend 30-60 minutes with a patient, focusing on their needs, not only on the labs. I will be able to create a positive patients-physician relationship that will allow them to not only improve medical conditions, but also achieve mental and physical well-being.
For press inquiries, contact Michael Beas at MichaelBeas@atlaselitepublishing.com