THE PHYSICIAN
Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP is an interventional pain physician, anesthesiologist and addiction medicine specialist in St. Louis. He treats chronic pain as a metabolic disease.
He spent twenty years telling patients their numbers were fine
That is the part worth leading with, because it changed everything that came after it. He was a doctor trained the usual way. He told pre-diabetic patients that a rising A1C was something to watch, not something already doing damage. He treated pain as a mechanical problem with a mechanical fix. He has said in public, again and again, that he was wrong. As a result, he rebuilt his model around metabolic inflammation.
It matters here for a practical reason. A practice that has dropped its own model in public once is more likely to drop it again when your case does not fit. Most people with years of headache have had the opposite experience.
Where did Dr. Padda train, and what is he board certified in?
- BA in Biology and MD, University of Missouri–Kansas City.
- General Surgery residency, Cook County Hospital and University of Illinois–Chicago.
- Anesthesia residency, Illinois Masonic; anesthesia residency, Washington University–Barnes, with pediatric anesthesia at St. Louis Children’s and Chief Resident 1991–92.
- MBA in International Business Studies, Saint Louis University. Certified Physician Executive.
- Board certified in anesthesiology, pain medicine, interventional pain management, addiction medicine and obesity medicine, and a Diplomate in Metabolic Health Practice.
Academic and leadership record
- Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and of Pediatrics, Cardinal Glennon and Saint Louis University.
- Associate Director of Pediatric Anesthesiology and Director of the Pediatric Acute Pain Management Service.
- Deputy Director, Saint Louis University Institutional Review Board.
- Chief Medical Officer, Center for Interventional Pain Management, since 2001.
- President, Missouri Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.
- Faculty, KCU Freeman Health System psychiatry residency, in pain and addiction.
- Two ASIPP keynotes on metabolic inflammation and interventional pain, and a 2025 talk on outcome measurement.
- Peer-reviewed publications in Neuromodulation, Pain Medicine, Critical Care Medicine and Pain Physician; review editor for PharmacoEconomics.
Why does a pain physician look at metabolism to treat headache?
Migraine is a disorder of a brain that handles change poorly. Insulin resistance widens the blood sugar swings that brain has to absorb. Chronic metabolic inflammation lowers the point at which a swing becomes an attack. Neither shows up on a scan. Neither is addressed by an abortive (a drug taken to stop an attack). That is a large part of why treating attacks alone tends to stall.
The third driver is about money and social life, not biology. He says so more bluntly than most. A shift no one can cover, a job with no sick leave, and the isolation that follows canceling on people again and again all feed the same loop. This practice sees health and money as one system. That is also why prices are not published. Cost is treated as part of the medical decision, not as something separate.
Service
He founded the Sevadar Foundation, a 501(c)(3) he now funds himself. Its programs cover patient safety, veterans and neighbors experiencing homelessness, and opioid safety. Seva means service given with no expectation of return. He has served on medical missions to Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. He has served on the boards of Exoneration Nation and Arise Veterans and on March of Dimes committees. From 2023 to 2026 he also sat on the boards of directors of two real estate development funds, Grocapitus Investments and UGRO.
Where is Dr. Padda licensed?
Licensed in Missouri and Illinois. National Provider Identifier 1427035955.
Where that approach shows up
- What happens at a headache clinic
- Headache specialist or neurologist?
- Headache clinic in St. Louis
- How many days did you lose last month?
- What to bring
- Connect with us
BOARD CERTIFICATIONS, SOCIETIES AND AFFILIATIONS
In the press
- Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD Puts the New Low-Carb Guideline to Work in Pain Care: Medicines Change Before Pain Does (EIN Presswire, October 7, 2026). How Dr. Padda applies the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners’ 2026 low-carb guideline, including why the salt and water loss of the first few days, the cause of the familiar start-up headache, calls for a doctor to review every prescription.
The appointment
If the diagnosis is settled and nothing has held, bring the diary and the record of what has been tried. That is the history that decides what is left to try.
12174 Natural Bridge Rd, Suite 304
St. Louis, MO 63044
Next to DePaul Hospital, off the I‑270 and I‑70 junction, west of the airport.
