Meet Roman Lal of Wellness Institute of Southern California in Hermosa Beach

Today we’d like to introduce you to Roman Lal.

Roman, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
From the moment I stepped foot in my residency program I knew that the insurance based model was not a system I wanted to work for. I heard nothing but complaints from seniors, and they grew year after year. No one was happy! One of my attending physicians suggested looking into aging and wellness medicine. Once I began investigating, I was hooked. I reveled in the idea of trying to keep people healthy and out of the hospital. Traditional allopathic medicine does not address this…in the least. They did not teach nutrition or exercise, at all. There was very little effort given to prevent illnesses, since insurance would never pay for it.

They barely acknowledged the existence of hormones. When I began looking into it, I realized that I wanted to spend my life keeping people out of the hospital, and since that time 13 yrs. ago, I haven’t looked back.

I joined the Cenegenics Medical Group out of Las Vegas and opened up their first California Center. Several years ago, I left and started my own practice. I have since dedicated the entirety work to making men healthy and keeping them that way!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In 2009–less than 2 years into my practice–I was diagnosed with malignant brain cancer. As the survival rate for this diagnosis are less than stellar (5% at 5 years and 0% at 10 years), I knew if I did everything my doctors were telling me, I would get that result. If I wanted a different result, we need to do more…. a lot more. We combined many of the alternative therapies with the traditional therapies. We did not ignore anything nor did we choose one over the other. We did pretty much everything we could possibly do. Going through this was a challenge. I started working less than two months later. Working full time, doing active traditional cancer therapy, alternative cancer therapy, and with a wife and two boys…let’s just say it was busy. As tough as it was, it allowed to see the value in the work that I do, and that value increases every year!

Wellness Institute of Southern California – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My practice revolves around helping executive men with their health. I accomplish this by optimizing nutrition, lifestyle, personal health, and hormone balancing when appropriate. I have the privilege of caring for some of the most accomplished and inspiring individuals I have ever met! Most of these gentlemen have more responsibilities than most people could not fathom. They cannot afford to slow down.

My goal is to keep them operating at peak performance. I have a small limited number of patients, and thus the practice has been described as concierge – I never describe it that way, but it is accurate. I do other things as well, such as specialty lab testing, optimizing sexual health, difficult cases that patients struggle with where they are not finding help elsewhere, weight reduction therapy, but optimizing health is what I am passionate about. What am I most proud of as a company? No nonsense, tangible improvements and results in my patients. What am I known for? Several things. Men hormone balancing, testosterone replacement, growth hormone therapy where indicated, and men’s sexual health. I pride my office on no-nonsense tangible results that work.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
There are a few, but one poignant moment occurred awhile back, I had a patient who I had some difficulty understanding why his labs, weren’t changing on some of the meds I had prescribed to him. He was one of the most powerful men in the city, on the boards of several large organizations and one of the most connected people I have ever met. I was wracking by brain trying to figure it out why his body wasn’t changing. Several months later after a 45 min nonstop Q and A with him in my office…he finally confessed. He had a secret drug addiction. I was shocked, and knowing he could ruin me, I did the only thing I could. I called him a drug addict, told him he needed help, and threw him out of my office. I will never forget the look in his eyes…I swear he was going to jump over the table and strangle me with one hand. He didn’t speak. He just stared for what must have been an eternity. He took a deep breath, got angry, and then left. There have a been only a few times in life that I was paralyzed with fear. This, was one of them. Three or four months went by without a word from him. The phone rang and I saw his name. Nervously I picked it up. And then it started. He blared and screamed so loudly that I was wiping the saliva off my ear. He went on about who he was, how powerful he was, his influence, his family, and on and on. After the tirade, he paused (for what seemed like forever) and said “Thank you. No one speaks that way to me. I’m glad you did. I’m done, I kicked it.” The proudest moment, was when my fear that he had relapsed (and the fear for my safety) turned into a sigh of relief when he told me that. I knew that all the months of agonizing and persistence over his file had paid off. To this day, he is still clean.

Contact Info:

• Address: 2200 Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 217,
  Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
• Website: www.socal-wellness.com
• Phone: 310-376-3650
• Email: christine@socal-wellness.com

Image Credit:
Wellness Institute of Southern California

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.