What happens when a high achieving radiologist’s body starts shutting down under chronic stress and Western medicine has no answers? Dr. Robyn Tiger shares how yoga, lifestyle medicine, and coaching transformed her life and now help other physicians find lasting wellbeing.
Host Dr. Leo Damasco welcomes Dr. Robyn Tiger, double board certified physician in diagnostic radiology and lifestyle medicine, founder of Stress Free MD, Blue Zone certified physician, and trauma informed mind body expert.
They discuss her journey from classic burnout, complete with migraines, paresthesias during procedures, dark thoughts, and the loss of three physician colleagues to suicide, to discovering yoga, meditation, and lifestyle medicine. Dr. Tiger explains why she left full time radiology, the importance of doing inner work before career pivots, the overlooked need for human connection in telemedicine/remote work, and her five step process for sustainable behavior change. She ends with powerful advice to her intern day one self: “You are exactly where you’re supposed to be.”
Top 3 Takeaways
About the Show
Telemedicine Talks explores the evolving world of digital health, helping physicians navigate new opportunities, regulatory challenges, and career transitions in telemedicine
About the Guest
Dr. Robyn Tiger is a double board certified physician in diagnostic radiology and lifestyle medicine, founder of Stress Free MD, Blue Zone certified physician, and trauma informed mind body expert. She combines medicine, yoga, meditation, and coaching to help healthcare professionals reduce stress and increase healthspan.
Connect with Dr. Robyn Tiger
Website: stressfreemd.net
About The Host
Dr. Leo Damasco – Pediatrician and emergency medicine doctor turned telemedicine advocate, helping physicians transition to digital health.
Phoebe Gutierrez – Former state regulator turned telehealth executive, specializing in compliance and sustainable virtual care models.
Connect with Phoebe Gutierrez:
https://www.linkedIn.com/in/pkgutierrez/
phoebe@telemedicinetalks.com
(mailto:phoebe@telemedicinetalks.com)
[00:00:00] Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Telemedicine Talks. as always, this is your host, Leo Damasco, and I'm super excited to introduce our guest today. I was listening to her podcast on the way over today, and it was amazing. I wanna introduce everybody to Dr.
Robin Tiger. So Dr. Tiger is a double board-certified physician in diagnostic radiology and lifestyle medicine, fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Blue Zone certified physician, and a trauma-informed mind-body expert. She is the founder of Stress Free MD, and she uniquely combines her trainings in medicine, yoga, meditation, and life coaching to teach a whole-person approach to relieve stress while increasing both lifespan and healthspan.
Her innovative coaching courses, presentations, retreats, podcasts, and books focus on creating sustainable behavior change while cultivating physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing and resilience. I understand you're also the author of the book Feeling Stressed Is Optional. You serve [00:01:00] as the lead faculty and subject matter expert in stress management for the Wellness Officer of Women in Medicine, host of Stress Free MD podcast, and is a Western Carolina Medical Society Healthy Healer partner.
a big believer in age is not a cage, and is deeply passionate about successfully guiding others to become the best version of themselves and live their healthiest, happiest, and most fulfilling lives. Love that. It's a mouthful, but, I was listening to your podcast, and you totally believe it.
And thank you so much for joining us. I'm super excited to hear your story today. Thank you. Aloha. Aloha, yeah. I know, I love this. no, it's great. we wanted... Yeah, I was looking at your profile, and we wanted to reach out and you- talk to you. this is telemedicine, right? And I know we were talking earlier, and you're like, I don't practice telemedicine."
I was... And you brought it up. You were a radiologist. you are a radiologist, were practicing radio... You guys were the original, you guys were the OG telemedicine doctors, right? You guys figured out [00:02:00] telemedicine before telemedicine was even that cool, right? But now you're not necessarily practicing radiology, right?
You are doing other things and finding bigger fulfillment in more than just radiology, and this is where we want to talk to you about how... Y- I would love to hear your story and how you transitioned from what you were doing and where you are now. It's so interesting, Leo, because when I think about my career, at this point I've actually spent just as much time practicing radiology as I have in this wellness educating healthcare professional space.
So interesting. Went so fast. And why did it start? I like to think of myself as a burnout thriver. many years ago, maybe 20 years or so at this point, I was practicing radiology. I had two little kids, a great husband, the [00:03:00] house, the car, all the things, the dog. my life looked perfect on the outside, and I was not feeling so perfect.
I had lots of symptoms that I couldn't explain that developed over time. things like migraines with vomiting, tinnitus, vertigo, bleeding gums. Oh, wow. what does that have to do with anything, right? Had reflux, my body hurt, I couldn't digest my food, my bowel habits were all over the place.
I was exhausted. I couldn't sleep. I felt anxious all the time. And I had a really scary symptom of paresthesias where I would be in the middle of a breast biopsy holding the biopsy gun, and all of a sudden I wouldn't be able to feel my hands. And my tech would say, "Hey, Dr. Tiger, you're right at the lesion."
I'm like, "Yeah, I'm just checking it out." But the, the thing was I had to wait for this bizarre symptom to pass so I could actually complete the [00:04:00] procedure. I would be holding a steering wheel driving, and all of a sudden I couldn't feel it. I would be holding a knife cutting up vegetables, and all of a sudden I couldn't feel it.
And so that symptom in particular was terrifying because as physicians, what do we think? Like neurologic disease. Yeah. what the heck is that? Numbness, right As I'm telling it to you, you're probably thinking, "What does she have?" And so I had all of these physical symptoms and then I started having some really dark thoughts like I can't take this anymore.
I don't know if I wanna be here anymore. really scary things. And I saw a lot of specialists, right? So I went to every specialist I could think of, a gastroenterologist, a neurologist, a periodontist. of course after my internist and took all kinds of pills. As we say, a pill for an ill.
Everybody gave me pills. I had a pile of pills I was taking every day. I wasn't getting better. And I had lots of imaging studies, I had lots of lab tests, and everything was normal And over this time period, [00:05:00] sadly, I lost three physician friends to suicide. And so this was really scary, And I kept thinking to myself, "I'm doing everything Western medicine is telling me to do, and I'm not getting better. what is the matter with me? And I don't wanna end up like my colleagues and my friends, so what do I do?" So I started looking outside the box of everything we learned in traditional Western medicine, and I was already running races, working out probably too much.
I was eating a vegan diet, which I thought at the time was very healthy. I came to understand there are different versions of that type of diet, which we can get into. And I'm like, "What else is out there?" And I kept hearing about things like yoga and meditation, which I used to roll my eyes, and if you're listening, you may be rolling your eyes-
because I thought that was weird. I thought I'd be training on the treadmill, looking down the hall, and those people were in that room with the door closed, doing weird [00:06:00] things that I thought they were doing, wearing weird clothes, listening to weird music, all the stuff, these preconceived notions. But I have to say that this anthropology professor at this local university was teaching this Yoga 101 class, and I thought to myself, "I've tried everything else.
why don't I give it a try?" And so I remember that day very clearly. I can't tell you how many cases I read, how many biopsies I did. I came home exhausted. I fed my kids, I bathed my kids, I handed them to my husband and I said, "Okay, I'm going to this class at 7:30 at night" with, one eye open-
wondering, "What the heck am I doing?" I got a lot of things I could be doing except this. And I got there, and I took the class, and at the end of the class, first of all, I was no longer tired, which was crazy. My body didn't hurt. I was clear in my mind, I was calm, and I didn't know [00:07:00] what happened, right?
No therapy, no pills, nothing. Just this. And so my left brain needed to unpack all of this, and this was before we had the internet. This was ... I went home and I started looking through books. And then I went to the library and I started looking through research articles, and I came to understand as I continued to take these classes, Leo, that all of my symptoms went away.
Everything And I realized the diagnosis that everyone was missing was I had a whopping case of chronic stress. And then when I started to learn how to balance my autonomic nervous system and get rid of all that cortisol, and come back into my body and out of my crazy mind, that, that I felt better.
And all those symptoms, even the paresthesias, even the dark thoughts went away, which was amazing. And so that was the beginning of me starting to understand that there are more things that we can do to help ourselves, and I wanted to help other people do the same. And so I just started studying everything I was learning.
It started first with yoga. I [00:08:00] became a yoga teacher, then a yoga therapist, which was a three-year training. And then I got into meditation, which was very helpful, which was another three-year training. And as I'm doing this all along, I am teaching and teaching predominantly other healthcare professionals.
And I learned about thoughts and how do we work with all the thoughts that we have, the 60,000 of them, most of them not so nice, and many of them on repeat. And I got coached by a life coach, which was phenomenal, so I became certified in life coaching and really understood the body and the mind, what I call bottom-up and top-down stress relief tools.
And all along this, I was working on other things, like my nutrition, for example. And when I moved from New Jersey to North Carolina, I learned about this field of lifestyle medicine, which I had never heard about. It was super exciting that there is actually a field of medicine that focuses on the things that I love, stress and nutrition and exercise and sleep, and all these pillars that we call [00:09:00] them.
And we focus on prevention, reversal, and treatment of symptoms, illnesses, and diseases. Instead of working what my healthcare professionals were doing was from the opposite, managing symptoms. "Take this pill. Go get this therapy." It's like, what's the root cause of that problem? And that was really exciting for me.
And so that's how I got out- involved in lifestyle medicine. And so that's where Stress Free MD was born, really wanting to help our healthcare professionals and putting all of the ways that I can teach in one place so that they can feel better, too. That's, that's an amazing story. And it resonates for a lot of our listeners, I think, here.
yeah, we're talking about telomeres and so forth and so on, but, a lot of us started in that place. A lot of us started in a place of burnout, of stress, Looking back myself, I've never had panic attacks, but I noticed, y- especially the years leading into me [00:10:00] transitioning to what I do now, Having panic attacks.
Like, why am I so angry right now? Why am I so activated? And I was never like that. And looking back now, it's like, hey, yeah, it was all the input, everything that I was doing, nocturnist, lack of sleep, you know, managing the family, so forth and so on. But, you bring up a good point too, though, is, h- how do you change your mindset?
How do you change? 'Cause this is the way we were taught, right? Med school, residency, how do you get better? How do you become the good resident, the best resident, the, the senior resident, the top? Study harder, work harder, work the best, so forth and so on. But it takes a toll on you, right? It... And, a lot of us find ourselves here, where we're at, finding a way out.
But what I found was, there's kind of a block, this wall where we can't get over what we've learned, what we've been conditioned [00:11:00] to being what our definition of success is, right? And, how do you tell people, when they're contemplating that jump, contemplating a big life change, and hopefully for the better, how do you con- not necessarily convince them, but walk them through that process where, hey, this is okay to change your whole identity right?
Your whole, how you identified as a doctor, as a practitioner, as a person changed. That's life changing. That's shaking, right? how do you help somebody through like that? It's a great question. and I have a lot of clients that are coming to me saying, "I hate my job. I need to go do this other thing."
I... Whether it's another job in medicine, whether it is, starting a startup or a, a new side gig or what have you, the thing that's really important for everyone listening is you want to make sure that you're not running to that next thing [00:12:00] because you're running away from the thing that you're so unhappy in- Interesting ... but that you're walking towards something that's going to Better serve you. And you need to do the work on yourself first, because you will take with you that same human with all of those thoughts, with all those feelings, with everything that's going on. You'll be taking that same human with you to that next thing.
And no matter what it looks like on paper, you are still that same person who hasn't processed, who hasn't experienced, who hasn't evolved, who hasn't grown to show up as your best self and to fully enjoy that next thing. So lots of times it's doing the work, working on the coaching, understanding how to work with your thoughts, getting better behaviors in place so you can feel your best self, and then let's have the conversation about that next thing.
Now [00:13:00] that you are feeling your best, in the best way possible, while you're still in this job, for example, that you don't think is for you, are you ready? Are you walking? Are you running? Do you wanna stay where you are? let's talk about that. But it's really important to do the work first, because I guarantee you, when you run to that next thing, you're still bringing all of your emotions that you don't wanna feel, all of the things you haven't processed with you, and you're not gonna be happy.
What a great point. when I was coaching people to transition into telemedicine, that was one of their bigger questions, is, "Hey, how do I prevent myself from falling into the same hole that I've been in?" just in a different environment, right? Okay, I'm starting telemedicine, I'm starting these new things, but I'm still stressed out.
What's going on? I thought you said this was gonna be a better life for me, but it isn't. I still find myself running the rat race, loading my [00:14:00] calendar. it's, that's what an interesting concept. it's basically pressing the reset button on your priorities. Yeah, and being educated on that because we're not taught.
And I wanna say one thing about the telemedicine in that, as you said, the OG, like we, when I was a fellow, that's when radiology went from having films that we held in our hands- ... onto the computer. And I was at the beta center for we were beta testing Canon products in, the '90s back in, at Tufts Jefferson University Hospital.
I was doing my fellowship. We were one of the first places to test this. And we wanna really als- really focus on the fact that one of the pillars of lifestyle medicine and in Blue Zones is this c- feeling of connection and being with one another, and humans needing humans. And I can tell you there was a very big difference when I went from being in a reading room with X-rays all around and working with a lot of other doctors [00:15:00] and having that gregarious interaction, intellectual stimulation, and laughter and fun amidst work To sitting in a dark room all by myself in front of a computer with no one around for nine, 10 hours a day talking into a Dictaphone.
And so it's important to recognize that we do need humans, and that if you are transitioning to a job where you are going to be in front of a computer all of the time, it's important to think about ways that you can prioritize that social connection piece. Because Harvard research tells us that is the most important thing for us to have the most fulfilling life and to elevate our health and wellbeing, is being with other people that lift us up.
So please be careful if you do transition out of a place where there are humans to just being by yourself, because I know that was a transition that nobody really told me about, told a lot of my colleagues about, and it's becoming more and [00:16:00] more, how people are working. And so we want to still prioritize and create space for that, that connection piece.
It's so important. Actually, that's a great point. And it's funny 'cause,a lot of us, they, we try to find a way out. M- especially when I start coaching, people go into telemedicine. that was the thing. How do I get out of, the brick and mortar, right? And then that's the whole point.
But you're right, a lot of us find ourselves just staring at the computer, staring at just words, and not necessarily having that social connection. And there's, I know a lot of people that started on this journey taking a step back, rewinding. saying, "Hey, instead of a full-time telemedicine job, now I'm doing, telemedicine three-quarters time.
But I still go back to brick and mortar because I miss that interaction. I miss having people, around." And actually, it's funny 'cause I did go back to the ER and not often, as people know. But really, I go back to say hi to the team and to say hi to friends and, it's, it... To, to your point, it [00:17:00] fulfills me.
It fills that cup , right? So that's, it's an interesting concept. But yes, I've seen a lot of people fall into that trap. And again, they find themselves unhappy with the choice they made because they're not filling their cup up Yeah, and it doesn't have to be work-related.
It could be a phone call. It could be a text message. It could be taking a walk with a friend. It could be meeting someone for tea. it could be whatever it is. It doesn't have to be long either, but I definitely can share that social isolation is really causing an increase in morbidity and mortality.
that's what research shows. So we wanna really be careful if we are working in that space, we're on the computer a lot,to fill your cup by creating space with other people. Now, and what have you found is... yourself, your colleagues, when they made that transition, right? And this is a good kind of tangent on more interested in what have you found.
Is there a certain, criteria that you need to [00:18:00] meet? Or, what do you tell people in terms of that sense, "Hey, you need, this amount of time"? Or is it just, person by person? It's person by person. I meet people where they are. What do you enjoy? Yeah. What brings you joy? What would feel good for you and not like a chore?
what is it? really getting to know the individual in front of me and getting to know yourself. What do you need? and prioritizing that. this year, in 2026, couple things that I wanted to prioritize more for me was sleep. I felt like as I was getting older, I needed more sleep, and so I wanted to prioritize that, which I have, and I feel amazing, and connection.
not being so busy that I'm not spending as much time with the people that I care about or reaching out to the people I care about. So I make an intention to, every month, to text X amount of people and to set up either [00:19:00] in-person time together. it could be female to female, it could be couples, it could be group.
it could be community outreach, whatever I'm doing, but I actually put it in my calendar. Because if I don't put it in my calendar, it doesn't happen. And I am so much better for it because I can tell you, it's gonna be one of the last things that you're gonna think about doing. You're gonna do 100 other things before you do that, but you will feel so much better when you do.
what great advice. Yeah. especially in our busy lives, right? things, things come up and you just push back, right? And,we were talking about this too, is really prioritizing what's more important to you, right? Is, i- is work more important to you? Is family, your free time, you know, getting healthy, sleep, like you said.
and it's great to find that transition. Now, one other question. we were talking about, okay, so you're trying to make these steps. how do you make these changes last? How do you prevent yourself from relapsing back to where you've been? [00:20:00] Yeah, it's a really great question, Leo, and I've really come to understand that the education in behavior change and how to create effective behavior change is really lacking.
There's a big gap there. We could have the best of intentions, and frequently that happens the first of the year, right? So in January you're like, "I'm going to exercise more." "I'm gonna spend more time with my best friend. I am going to, do stuff with my kids. I am going to sleep more."
Whatever it is. Could be anything, right? And it feels great. You get that dopamine hit when you have that, that great intention, and then it doesn't happen, or it only partially happens, and that's not your fault. It's because you weren't taught how to create effective behavior change. And actually, I've come up with a five-step, recipe or process, and it incorporates lifestyle like, life coaching, the mindset work that [00:21:00] we talked about in there.
Because we can't just say we're gonna do something. There's actually a bunch of things we need to do and think about before th- that we, time that we actually do that thing, and then when we do that thing, we're much more successful. So I really feel that education in behavior change is a really important missing piece to the success of people achieving their goals.
No, amazing. Amazing. And I know we're coming up on time, but the one question I like asking everybody that comes on is, hey, looking back, thinking about intern day one, knowing what you know now, what would you tell your baby doctor self? One piece of advice, any piece of advice. What would you tell them, from what you know now?
I would probably say you are exactly where you're supposed to be. And that's because we spend so much time [00:22:00] thinking that we're not smart enough, we're not good enough. If I'm only, if I can only make it to that next step, if I can only make it through my intern year w- I'll be okay. Once I'm a resident everything will be fine.
Once I'm an attending, then I'm gonna be good, and so on. And so really coming back to the now. We spend so much time worrying about the past and thinking about the future that we don't spend time in the now. So telling yourself, "I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be right now in this moment, and everything is okay."
Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, we spend so much time trying to reach the next rung, right? Trying to climb up that ladder, where we forget where we are and what we have. And,and our priorities get so screwed up, so jumbled up. So I love it. I love it. And, I love talking to you. One, you, listening to you and your podcast, you definitely epitomize this whole stress-free part, I just feel great just listening to you. How can people, if they wanna [00:23:00] talk to you more and learn about your life coaching more, how can they reach out to you and how can they find you? The best way is on the website stressfreemd.net, and it's there that you'll find out about the coaching, the online digital programs, the podcast, my book, retreats.
My next one coming up is in Africa in January. I heard that. Yeah. That is amazing. Yeah. Yeah, and yeah, you can earn CME for learning how to take care of yourself. So I try to find as many ways as possible to educate m- people the way they love to learn. And if you have another way that I haven't done yet, please reach out to me.
I'd love to hear it. Hey, if you want retreats out in here Hawaii as well, definitely have recs. Ooh. But no, I've heard... I was listening to your podcast and what, your next retreat is, Rwanda out near, you know- Yeah, Rwanda and Kenya. Yeah. So we were in Uganda. Uganda was back in '25 and it was amazing, and now we're heading back to- Oh my gosh
yeah, Rwanda and Kenya in [00:24:00] January. Oh, gosh. I need to start checking that out. That'd be great. I've always wanted to go out there. Well- We need to make a retreat in Hawaii. We need to talk. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'd love to help plan that out if you want. Dr. Tager, thank you so much for taking your time.
Love talking to you. love your podcast. and, thank you again. And everybody out there, thank you for talking telemedicine with us. Tager, any last words? Anything, you wanna say? Take time just to be today Awesome. hey, thank you so much. And, to all the listeners out there, we'll check you out next time.
Thank you