Golf Science – Functional Medicine With Dr. Ara Suppiah

Most people imagine that the PGA TOUR and LIV Golf have nothing in common. They would almost be right, but there actually is one entity that both organizations share. And that is the person who has been the head of Tournament Medical Services for LIV Golf for the past three years. Once 14 of his PGA TOUR players moved to LIV Golf, that’s where he went, too, after having first worked with PGA TOUR, LPGA Tour and DP World Tour athletes (including three Ryder Cups with American golfers and three with Europeans) since 2002. 

He is none other than , who is, according to his website (functionalsportsmedicine.com), a “Sports physician with a diverse and comprehensive background in allopathic medicine, functional medicine, nutrition, biomechanics, strength and conditioning, genetics, acupuncture and sports science.”

It all began when Dr. Ara was disappointed to have to tell a tennis-player patient that he did not definitively know when that athlete could return to his sport. That incident fueled his interest in sports medicine through a functional perspective. Now, as Founder of Functional Sports Medicine, he is able to not merely take a patient’s history, do some physical exams, order imaging and bloodwork, but also ask and interpret three important questions that he has devised: why this athlete (what is unique about him/her), why this injury (e.g. ankle but not hip or knee) and why now (what predisposed or provoked the injury)?

The basic tests can quickly reveal the specifics, but when it comes to return-to-play, Dr. Ara likes to better understand why the injury happened in the first place. There is a lot of technology to help with that answer.  Today he is able to use Dari markerless motion capture to see where a dysfunctional joint is with relation to all the other joints, and variable data about sleep and sleep duration, recovery, resting heart rate and heart-rate variability to better assess the overall situation. An injury might recover quickly but the entire body may not be fully recovered, or the original cause of an injury (say glutes for a knee injury) may not have recovered. The cause of the injury must be addressed before a return-to-play can be determined.

So what exactly is functional medicine and how did a British-trained allopathic doctor become a functional medicine expert in the first place? Functional medicine looks at the root cause of a disease or ailment. 

“My training was based on understanding disease and how to treat it with pharmaceuticals,” Suppiah said. “I never studied, or was taught, health. I never looked into why a person got an illness. It is more important to look at what person has an illness than what illness a person has. Athletes have issues that allopathic medicine cannot explain, because the absence of disease does not equal health or performance (an athlete might get out of breath climbing stairs) and the presence of disease need not indicate a lack of health or performance (many great Olympians suffer from asthma or diabetes).”

Does this mean he only uses functional medicine methodologies on his golf athletes? No, he practices allopathic medicine when needed. “I do not paint with only one color – I use multiple colors to paint in, and multiple shades of each color including black and white,” he said. 

For instance, if an athlete has full-blown flu or bronchitis, there will be a need for medication plus nutrition, supplements and other treatments – a multi-pronged approach. 

“I still work as an ER physician five days a month in a hospital; I’m not a true functional med practitioner,” he said. “I use a combination of treatments that include Chinese medicine, acupuncture, even neuro linguistic programming (NLP).” 

An additional area of focus that Dr. Ara has developed is that he requires bloodwork to be within a specific narrower range, as general laboratory results are not good enough for performance. “Your blood tells a story of where you came from, where you are now (regarding training phase, menstrual cycle, nutrition etc.), and where you are heading.” 

Things like blood sugar, or thyroid for males and females. Of the approximately 200 biomarkers collected, from a performance and recovery perspective, this doctor would most closely monitor white blood cell count, anti-oxidant capacity, inflammatory markers and hormone profile for recovery. And vitamin D. This amazing vitamin controls 5000 human genes, and it should not get too high or too low but be within an ideal, tightly controlled range of between 45-55 ng/mL (typical is 30-100 ng/mL).

What would be some instances when a Tour player used Dr. Ara’s functional approach to perform well in a tournament? One male golfer had been playing and traveling a lot and barely made the cut on Friday. He went to Dr. Ara complaining of extreme exhaustion, and knowing his genetics, the doctor said he needed more carbohydrates to avoid getting tired. “Eat ⅓ of a tub of good-quality ice cream every night” the athlete was told. “Ice cream has carbohydrates, fats, proteins, tastes yummy, and eaten at night will put you to sleep.” The athlete went from just making the cut to finishing third on Sunday. 

Another time a golfer playing in Saudi Arabia was very fatigued. How could he be dehydrated despite drinking sufficient water with electrolytes? As the golfer had a wearable sensor on, Dr. Ara could tell that from the time of starting his warmup to the time he finished golf for the day, his heart rate had been 25 beats per minute higher than normal for an entire six hours. The issue, Dr. Ara explained, was not the fluid intake but the calories. The golfer did not feel like eating, but was told he must increase caloric intake by 1000 calories per day, between breakfast, on-course snacks and dinner. Within two days, the golfer went from being sick and nearly withdrawing, to finishing in the top 20.

So why did this doctor, able to offer multiple performance and injury solutions to some of the best golfers in the world, go from PGA TOUR to LIV Golf? He was an independent practitioner acting as support staff for specific golfers on the PGA TOUR, but being the head of the medical team at LIV Golf has given him tremendous satisfaction and massive personal growth from the unique opportunities it has offered. He was able to set up a great medical service from the ground up. Not only did he develop anti-doping policies from scratch, he also hired expert physios, required cold plunges at all events, and even ensured the provision of pasta stations and smoothie bars at all venues, given the international nature of both players and venues. 

“I love all my patients and will do anything for them,” he stated. 

No wonder then, that Dr. Ara Suppiah, with his personable manner and extensive repertoire of medical solutions (that you can check out on his social media platform @draraoncall), is in ever-increasing demand and now works with more golfers than he ever has before. Perhaps this Orlando, Florida-based doctor can help you, too.