Meet the doctor who has a gut feeling about everything. This is a pun that gastroenterologist Dr Pal (Palaniappan) Manickam, is well used to. Interestingly, he is also a standup comedian and perhaps that is why, for him, puns are as important as probiotics. He likes to call his genre of comedy MedCom (medical comedy) and his repertoire covers everything from fermented foods and diet plans to menopause, bowel health, and fatty liver. Guest speakers like cricketer S Badrinath and renowned doctors also feature in his Reels to discuss current topics.
Originally from Madurai, and now shuttling between Sacramento (California) and Chennai, the doctor consults and also does stand up shows across the US, and Chennai. He did a few shows in Malaysia, and Singapore, with upcoming acts scheduled in Seattle, Minneapolis, and Chicago in May and in Mumbai in July.
“I like being on stage and talking to people,” says Dr Pal who is in Chennai on a quick visit. “My wife and sons (aged three and five) moved to India last year because my wife wanted to raise our kids in Chennai; she is from here. And we also wanted them to spend time with their grandparents — that bond is important,” he says.
Dr Pal at a standup show
In the next six months, Dr Pal plans to set up a gut health clinic in Chennai. “We practise something called preventive gastroenterology”, he says, adding that he focusses on sustainable lifestyle changes and aims to reverse chronic diseases. A believer in intermittent fasting, Dr Pal says this is something he started doing when he had a health scare in 2015.
“I was working as a full-time gastroenterologist in 2015 in California. While examining a patient, I started getting palpitations and chest pain. I was sitting on a medical bed thinking what did I do wrong? I was 100 kilos. But when I had moved to the US I was 60 kilos. So, I started doing everything from paleo and keto diet to yoga and personal training. I realised everything is scattered around and despite being a medical professional I was not able to follow it. These things need to be individualised for all. I came across intermittent fasting. It is such a powerful method that it could also reverse fatty liver. I learnt about diet, macros, fibres, proteins. My weight came down to 70 kgs and I continue to be the same weight since 2017. Mindful eating is important,” he adds.
Through Medcom, Dr Pal uses his medical knowledge to educate a larger group of people via social media. He has 1.6 million followers on Instagram. And just like the Marvel Universe, there is a Dr Pal Universe with its set of characters. There is Saravana Kumar, his wife Tirupurasundari, and a patient named Aarogyasamy, the earnest Subramani who listens to everything the doctor says, Kapil Sharma, Marc Anthony, Abhijit Chakraborty… “Then to add masala, I made Aarogyasamy, Tirupurasundari’s ex-boyfriend,” he laughs.
During the pandemic, his first video about COVID-19 awareness went viral. It received five million views. The next video he uploaded got an embarrassingly low number of views. “So, I thought I was a one-time wonder,” he laughs. Then in January 2021, he uploaded a video about Covid vaccines and that went viral again. After which he also got a call from Bldg 18, a comedy club in San Francisco Bay Area; they said his content was apt and delivery very natural. I realised comedy is serious business. So, I did a course at Punch Line Comedy Club in Sacramento, on how to write a set. If I deliver something and people laugh, that gives me a high,” he says. Despite his busy medical schedule, Dr Pal puts out three Reels every week. “I am not tied to the outcome of the Reel. As long as I am giving good info, I am okay,” he says.
He adds that there has been a sudden surge in interest in gut health. But there is a misconception that gut means stomach; it is not. “Gut is your large intestine and colon,” he explains. While there are over-the-counter prebiotic and probiotic solutions readily available nowadays, Dr Pal says, the best homemade probiotic is the raita. Add tomatoes to it along with cucumber, spices, and boiled chana or rajma and you will get all the complex carbs with this. “There are 100 trillion gut bacteria. We realised every disease is linked to a particular group of bacteria. Probiotic supplement as a tablet is just shooting in the dark. Even when you know that there is a group of bacteria that might not be good based on your stool sample, we may not know whether that is the bacteria that is causing you the problem. That is why many probiotic capsules may or may not work for many people,” he explains.
He suggests the 30-3-1 rule to boost gut health. “Thirty grams of protein for breakfast (for example three whole eggs and three egg whites), three fermented dishes in a day (maybe idli in the morning, curd in the afternoon, and dhokla, kanji for dinner) and one hour of physical activity,” he says, adding, “Most importantly people should stop looking for quick fixes. There is no quick fix. Bad gut health is directly proportional to the amount of abuse that you have put your gut through in the past. For example, if you have abused your gut for 10 years, you cannot expect it to go back to normal in a week. It is a minimum three-month process and requires a lifestyle change.”
Published – May 08, 2025 11:09 am IST