Authority Magazine interviews HSS academic rheumatologist Ashira D. Blazer, MD, MSCI, about her career journey, passion and inspiration for patient care, and lifestyle tweaks to help support people’s journey toward better wellbeing.

Dr. Blazer explained her background and passion for lupus. “As an African American woman with a large, Texan family, I grew up with a ton of family around. When I learned that one of my cousins had lupus during medical school, I became intrigued and committed to helping patients like her. Over the years, I have seen my patients through the lens of family. Understanding how their wellness practices influence their overall well-being is near and dear to my heart.”

Dr. Blazer explained, “I would say the most transformative period of my career happened when I started to do research in West Africa. I’m interested in lupus as it affects people of African ancestry and started to study a genetic risk factor for kidney disease as a rheumatologist in training. I wanted to understand how this genetic risk impacted lupus outcomes throughout the African diaspora. One of my mentors helped train the only rheumatologist in all of Ghana and connected us.”

She continued, “As a scientist, learning and building pipelines of information about African ancestry lupus patients was fascinating. Learning with my Ghanian colleague with a unique perspective to mine was all the more gratifying. I learned that I am much bigger than my perceived limitations. I definitely broke barriers that I had no idea I was capable of breaking.”

Dr. Blazer advised practicing daily gratitude as a lifestyle tweak to support better wellbeing. She said, “As humans, our minds often fall on the loudest or most negative aspects of our lives. This coupled with the constant outside chatter can really contribute to stress. One of the best remedies is to practice gratitude every day. Keeping a gratitude journal to give thanks for what went right in your day, doing a short meditation, or even a nightly prayer can all be ways to center attention on your blessings. This can foster health and well-being.”

Read the full interview at Medium.com/authority-magazinblae.