Part 2 with Dr. Ruan Qing Zhao — Hyrox training, VO2 max, treating chronic pain in veterans, a brutal personal back-pain story, surviving exams on 3 hours of sleep, and advice for Singaporeans weighing a career overseas.

In this second part of our conversation with interventional pain specialist Dr Ruan Qing Zhao, we step outside the hospital and into everything that happens around it — the marriage that keeps him grounded, the home-cooked feasts, and the spontaneous decision to sign up for Hyrox. We geek out over VO2 max, and why it might matter more than your cholesterol panel.

We also get into the harder stuff: treating veterans carrying both physical and psychological trauma, what it's like to genuinely feel a patient's pain after one very bad 24-hour stretch with his own back, and how "Dr. Google" has quietly become "Dr. GPT." Al ...