Ken Berry is a family physician with over 20 years experience in Emergency medicine, obstetrics and clinical practice. He is the owner of a family practice treating chronic disease, acute injuries, dermatological, gynaecological and office orthopaedic procedures Ken is also a health/Nutrition You tuber with over 2.3 million subscribers with 600 videos of health, nutrition, medical conditions, medications, weight loss, fatty liver reversal and Type 2 diabetes reversal. Ken received undergraduate degree at M.T.S.U in 1996 with a major in Biology and a minor in Psychology, graduate with honors He then received his M.D at U.T.H.S.C and accepted into accelerated family residency. In 2002 he graduated residency program at St Francis Hospital with a focus on procedures, obstetrics and advanced family medicine Ken has published works such as the Lies my doctor told me and common sense labs With his vast experience in the integrative health space, Ken is the Health Quest Chief Medical Officer and works closely with our executives in the company on steering the growth of the company.

Dr. David Diamond received his Ph.D. in Biology in 1985 from the University of California, Irvine, with a specialization in neuroscience. He recently retired as a career scientist at the Department of Veterans Affairs after 30 years of service and is currently a Professor in the Department of Psychology, Cognitive, Neural and Social Science Division, at the University of South Florida. Dr. Diamond has been funded by the VA, NIH, DoD, NSF and pharmaceutical companies in his neuroscience research, with over 150 publications, reviews and book chapters. In the past decade, Dr. Diamond has expanded his research program with publications addressing controversial issues in cardiovascular disease and nutrition. Dr. Diamond has delivered lectures on-line with over a million views addressing how the public and healthcare workers have been misinformed about the risk of elevated levels of serum cholesterol and the purported benefits of statins, which lower cholesterol. Dr. Diamond sits on the Health Quest Advisory Board.

Dr. Philip Ovadia is board certified in Cardiothoracic Surgery and General Surgery. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and is a founding member of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners. Conducting over 3,000 heart surgeries taught Dr. Philip Ovadia that good health comes from lifestyle and nutrition, not from surgery. He is now on a mission to help people stay off his operating table by giving them the tools and mindset to never need a heart surgeon. After growing up in New York, Dr. Ovadia graduated from the accelerated Pre Med/Med program at the Pennsylvania State University and Jefferson Medical College (now Sidney Kimmel School of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University). He then went on to complete a Residency in General Surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a Fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Tufts-New England Medical School. Dr. Ovadia has practiced Cardiothoracic Surgery in Beaver, PA and Clearwater, Florida. ​ In 2020 he established Ovadia Cardiothoracic Surgery and now works as an independent contractor Cardiothoracic Surgeon in various locations throughout the United States. In an effort to overcome his lifelong struggle with obesity, Dr. Ovadia adopted a low-carbohydrate focused way of eating in 2015. He has maintained a weight loss of nearly 100 pounds and since March, 2019 has maintained a mostly carnivorous way of eating. He has extensively researched the health benefits of low-carb with a focus on heart health through many hours of reading the medical literature, books and listening to podcasts, as well as personal discussions with many of the physician leaders and citizen scientists involved in the low-carb movement. In his recent book, Stay Off My Operating Table, Dr. Ovadia discusses the principles of optimizing metabolic health to prevent heart disease and other chronic diseases. He also hosts the Stay Off My Operating Table Podcast, is a frequent guest on other podcasts focused on metabolic and heart health, and has delivered lectures at conferences focused on metabolic health. Dr. Ovadia has also established Ovadia Heart Health, a Telehealth practice that focuses on the prevention and treatment of metabolic and heart disease utilizing lifestyle and dietary modification. He incorporates his hands-on, clinical experience with heart disease and the personal insights he has gained in his own struggle with obesity and poor metabolic health.

Robert Lufkin MD is a Medical School Professor who has served at both UCLA and USC Schools of Medicine. In addition to being a practicing physician, he is author of over 200 peer reviewed scientific papers and 14 books that are available in six languages. His honors include serving as President of the Society of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, President of the American Society of Head and Neck Radiology, and numerous other professional affiliations. Among his many inventions including several patents in artificial intelligence, he developed an MR-compatible biopsy needle which is used worldwide today as the “Lufkin Needle.” Robert studied computer science at Brown University and completed his medical degree at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He is currently practicing with an academic focus on the applied science of longevity. He is also Chief of Metabolic Imaging at a large medical network in southern California. Robert has given invited lectures/keynotes around the world and was named one of the ‘100 Most Creative People in Los Angeles’ by Buzz Magazine. His latest book "Lies I Taught In Medical School" is in preparation.

Amy Berger, MS, CNS, is a U.S. Air Force veteran and Certified Nutrition Specialist who helps people do “Keto Without the Crazy.”™ She writes about a wide range of health and nutrition-related topics, such as insulin, weight loss, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, thyroid function, and more. She has presented internationally on these issues and is the author of The Alzheimer's Antidote, The Stall Slayer, and co-author of End Your Carb Confusion, written with Eric Westman, MD. She is the Lead Nutritionist for Adapt Your Life Academy, where she helps create course content and coaches people through implementing low-carb keto diets safely and effectively. She helped create the American Nutrition Association’s Ketogenic Nutrition Training Program curriculum and is on the BCNS exam review committee, which writes the credentialing board exam for Certified Nutrition Specialists.

Dr. Cywes is Dual Board Certified in General Surgery and in Pediatric Surgery. He specializes in Metabolic Healthcare including Pediatric and Adult obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance,N lipidology, metabolic brain development including Autism Spectrum Disorder, PCOS, Lipedema and other endocrine disorders. Dr Cywes received his medical degree from The University of Cape Town, South Africa in 1987 where he interned and did an anesthesia/trauma surgery residency. He moved to North America and studied at Ohio State University's Columbus Children's Hospital before moving to Canada where he completed his general surgery residency and specialized in minimally invasive surgery at the University of Toronto. Dr. Cywes earned his PhD in liver metabolism and immunology and the effect of glucose metabolism on vascular endothelium inflammation and coagulation working with Dr David Jenkins, the father of the Glycemic Index (the current standard of care used to treat diabetes). After completing his pediatric surgery fellowship at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, Dr. Cywes was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Pediatric and Fetal Surgery at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee where he did hepatic stem cell research. His focus is helping people understand and treat the true cause of their endocrine/metabolic disease including obesity and diabetes. He is increasingly working with high performance athletes as well. Dr Cywes is a strong proponent of Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction and is comfortable anywhere along the continuum of lowcarb vegetarian to pure carnivore ways of life. Dr Cywes works in a private practice alongside lowcarb specialist RD Dieticians, Certified Diabetic Educators and psychologists and psych Nurse Practitioners focused on behavioral health transformation. During this time, Dr. Cywes became increasingly interested in adolescent obesity and the impact of carbohydrates on the liver and endocrine/metabolic syndrome in young patients. Dr. Cywes’ research led to a comprehensive understanding of the toxicity of chronic excessive carbohydrate consumption as the primary cause of obesity and so-called obesity-related co-morbidities, particularly diabetes and vascular inflammatory disorders. In the late 1990s Dr Cywes understood that the prevailing treatment of obesity using a Calories in, Calories out (CICO) model was erroneous, and he developed the Carbohydrate Insulin Model of Obesity and Diabetes (CIMOD). Using this model in combination with his understanding of the psychology of addiction, he developed a clinical Metabolic Health program and put together a team of practitioners to treat obese children, adolescents and adults using this approach. In 2004, Dr. Cywes established Jacksonville Surgical Associates to continue his work in both adolescent and adult obesity and endocrine/metabolic treatment, and in 2013 opened a practice in West Palm Beach, Florida. He now works with a highly experienced team of professionals from a variety of medical sub-specialties to better care for metabolically ill patients. He has developed the practice into an internationally recognized Center of Excellence for obesity and metabolic management. The practice uses a cognitive behavioral therapy approach addressing carbohydrates as addictive substances to help patients manage the cause of their disease and establish remission. Based on his extensive clinical research and observations, Dr. Cywes lectures internationally regarding the physiological impact of carbohydrate consumption as the primary cause of the worldwide Chronic Non-Communicable Disease (CNCDs) epidemic including pediatric brain development, PCOS and gestational diabetes. He also lectures on the behavioral aspects of carbohydrate addiction as the cause of obesity and obesity-related co-morbidities and the use of substance abuse methodology, rather than a diet and exercise approach, to the effective long term treatment of obesity. Dr Cywes firmly believes that metabolic disease, obesity and diabetes are not treated by drugs or surgery, however, medications such as GLP-1 agonists and bariatric surgery may be invaluable tools along the journey of becoming carbohydrate-free. Dr. Cywes is a Founder Member and on the Board of Directors of SMHP the Society for Metabolic Health Practitioners. He is a member of ASMBS (American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery) and is a member of the ASMBS Childhood Obesity Committee. He is a member of APSA (American Pediatric Surgery Association) and sits on the APSA Childhood Obesity Committee. He has earned a Centers of Excellence designation by the Surgical Review Corporation. Dr. Cywes trains healthcare workers in developing a CIMOD aftercare model to help patients maintain changes to their lifestyles. Dr Cywes has become one of the foremost clinical authorities in the treatment and management of obesity and metabolic disease in adolescents. He is active in clinical research. He has written several lowcarb book chapters and co-authored a book, Diabetes Unpacked outlining an effective approach to understanding and treating diabetes into remission. Dr. Cywes' vast experience in pediatric and general surgery serves him well in using bariatric surgery to treat obesity in adults and children. Dr Cywes has collaborated with Dexcom, Inc and is engaged in several prospective trials. Dr Cywes maintains an active clinical practice in Jupiter and Jacksonville, Florida as well as conveying the CIMOD message on social media and through his websites – He has many podcasts freely available on YouTube at carbaddictiondoc. His website is Obesityunderstood.com and he is active on Facebook, Tiktok and Instagram

Advisory Board Member

Rod has over 45 years experience in building sales and marketing companies having worked at some of the largest investment companies in the US such as Met Life, US Bank, Symetra. Rod was also President & Co Founder of Independent Financial Marketing Group through 1985-2001 which assisted several banks, insurance & mutual fund companies into bank distribution selling fixed and variable annuities, mutual funds. IFMG was the largest bank distributor with over 200 banks. Rod has been responsible as a senior executive for raising over $20b in various companies overseeing the distribution, sales and marketing of these organizations. Rod has managed local sales teams throughout the US from East to West Coast covering the Institutional and Retail markets within the Bank, Insurance and Broker Dealer channels. Rod has a BA from Whitworth University and a MBA from University of Montana.

Kashif Khan is Chief Executive Officer and Founder of The DNA Company, where personalized medicine is being pioneered through unique insights into the human genome. He is also the host of the Unpilled podcast. Growing up in Vancouver, Canada in an immigrant household, Kashif developed an industrious entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. Prior to his tenure at the DNA Company, Kashif advised a number of high-growth start-ups in a variety of industries. As Kashif dove into the field of functional genomics as the CEO of The DNA Company, it was revealed that his neural wiring was actually genetically designed to be entrepreneurial. However, his genes also revealed a particular sensitivity to pollutants. Now seeing his health from a new lens Kashif dove further and started to see the genetic pathways that led to his own family’s challenges, and the opportunities to reverse chronic disease. His measure of success is not in dollars earned, but in lives improved.

Michael is an industry veteran consultant and entrepreneur of over 30 years in the employee/patient health improvement segment serving large employers, health plans and health care providers/systems. In 1983 he co-founded CareWise, developing the first commercial health advocacy nurseline, which was combined with biometric testing, health risk appraisals, blood pressure control, self-care books, “wise buying of health care” education and wellness. CareWise held the Montana Power Company’s trend to zero for three straight years in an 18% trend environment that the state of Montana had during the same period. Michael was instrumental in the formation of the first health case managers association, and pioneered the development of early condition management programs. Seen as an industry visionary with practical execution capabilities, he is often quoted in the national media and sought after by many consumer health service companies for advice and strategic counsel. Michael began his 30+ year career in the trenches of public health departments, first in a very poor urban ghetto where he learned to deal with high-risk pregnancy management, sexually transmitted disease, drug & alcohol abuse, family planning and basic nutrition; and later in a middle-class, mountain community with typical American chronic diseases and maladies. He also consulted with Alaskan health education projects serving Native Alaskans and the general population. After CareWise, Michael was the chief business architect of Aetna’s Informed Health line of business, which included a nurseline, early disease management programs, high-risk pregnancy management and new wellness initiatives. He received an award from Aetna’s own HR department for exemplary customer service and results. From there, he did a 3 year stint at Mercer (employer consulting), 3 years at Accenture (large health plan consulting) and 9 years at Towers Watson. Michael was a leader in innovation and intellectual capital development at TW, where he was a Senior Consultant and worked with household names Fortune 500 companies, hospitals and miscellaneous industry employers. He was an official representative of Towers Watson for the National Business Group on Health, one of the authors of the TW-NBGH biannual survey Staying @ Work and a frequent interviewee of the national media. His clients have included Disney, Microsoft, Expedia, Amazon, Tyson Foods, JB Hunt, Methodist Hospital, United Airlines, Total, McKesson, BC/BS of Florida/North Carolina, Medical Mutual of Ohio and vendors such as Welltok, Catapult Health, Sapphire Digital, Virgin Pulse and Limeade. Today Michael is an independent consultant, through Michael Wood Health Consulting, Inc., to employers, health plans, providers and vendors in the health space. He has a special interest and skill set in improving metabolic health and diabetes/obesity remission. He has a network of associates with expertise in various sub-specialties in health/health care.

Maria has over 20 years of design and marketing experience from studios and agencies to in-house with some of the world’s largest financial institutions. Maria was Marketing Manager at Sanlam Global Investment Solutions, where she was responsible for rebranding the business, and designing all company’s marketing materials and email strategies, for markets in regions such as the Americas, the Middle East, Australia, Africa and Europe, in multiple languages. Prior to Sanlam Global Investment Solutions, Maria was Head of Production at 72dpistudio, a financial services communications and marketing firm. In this role Maria oversaw the production of print and web materials for large US and Bermudian financial services companies that supported some of the top 50 largest financial institutions ​ ​ Maria is Head of Marketing for Heart Quest and lives in Canada with her husband and children

I am a former electrical engineer and both military and civilian pilot. I flew 3 operational tours on the RAF's C130 tactical transport aircraft before joining Virgin Atlantic to fly the Airbus A340 and A330. Alongside my aviation pursuits I developed parallel academic interests in the sciences and mathematics. ​ I have a BEng(Tech) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering From the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST) Cardiff. I have a DipMus in Theory and History of Music, a PGCE in Secondary Mathematics, a BA in Mathematics and Science, an MSc in Applied Mathematics, and a PhD based in aeronautics From the Open University In 2014, an unexpected heart attack abruptly ended my flying career and I found myself with a stent in my circumflex coronary artery and a cupboard full of medications. In addition to atherosclerosis, I was suffering from pre-diabetes, obesity, and alleged hypothyroidism. Approximately 9 months after the heart attack I realised that the drugs I was taking were making me very poorly and, after a period of intensive independent research into their biochemistry, I unilaterally decided to stop taking them all. Turning my attention to diet, I then discovered that the whole narrative around cholesterol and heart disease was baseless, and so embarked with some confidence on a ketogenic dietary regime, a move that would rapidly transform both my health and athletic performance for the better. In 2017, I began training to compete in the 2018 Ironman UK race to prove to myself and to the mainstream medical establishment that diseases such as atherosclerosis, type-2 diabetes, and obesity, could be reversed or managed naturally through lifestyle adjustments alone, and that an event such as a heart attack did not imply an end to athletic dreams and aspirations. At the end of a very warm day in July 2018 and after approximately 15 hours of continuous exercise, I crossed the finish line in Bolton and achieved my goal. In 2019, my fitness continued to improve and I competed in a plethora of running, swimming, cycling, and triathlon events, including a second Ironman race; I also managed to qualify for the GB age-group triathlon team. My key performance metrics were matching those of an ‘above average’ teenager despite being in my late 50s. A fascinating aside to this physical transformation was the impact on my general health. From the moment I decided to stop taking all allopathic medications, reduce other toxicities in my life, and generally bias my diet away from carbohydrates and towards fats, to this day, I have experienced unprecedented wellness. In fact, a period of over 5 years elapsed without me encountering any illness whatsoever, not even a headache or common cold. Given the proven and obvious health and fitness benefits I had demonstrated, I naively expected the mainstream medical world to be keen to understand exactly how I had achieved the transformations, but nothing could be further from the truth. I was congratulated but told to go away because my methods and outcomes contradicted almost all of the concomitant ‘official advice’. I considered this attitude completely unscientific and a shocking indictment of the true nature of general medical practice and so decided to do my best as an individual to make a positive difference to the lives of others who may have found themselves in similar positions to the one I found myself in 2014. My time these days is thus divided between commitments as a university lecturer and examiner (to pay the bills), triathlon training, and helping as many people as I can understand why they may be poorly and find natural pathways back to health. We live in an era in which legitimate scientific endeavour has been usurped by dogma and agenda. Medical science in particular has suffered this fate. Too many medical careers have been built on fallacies and too much of the relevant research has been hijacked for profit or is intrinsically of poor quality. The education of those in healthcare has also been corrupted, particularly in the realm of nutrition, with this crucial aspect of health marginalized in favour of the allopathic paradigm. The human body is incredibly complex and resilient. Ordinarily, disease should be the exception, but modern lifestyles and medical practices have served to normalize sickness. The Heart Quest platform aims to help those who are seeking a more balanced vista of current thoughts on what may be the causal factors in promoting heart disease and the various routes that are available to put things right; there is no ‘one way suits all’ in this domain. If I have a strength, it is being able to identify the meaning or otherwise in scientific research. Too often, correlation is confused with causation. Too often, the sponsors of the research determine the nature of its conclusions. Too often the results of various tests are misconstrued. Too often, ‘expertise’ is assumed where none exists. Too often, mathematics and statistics are used as weapons of mass deception. Too often, there is an assumption of ‘fact’ when the reality is fiction, hypothesis, or conjecture. Too often, dogma, cognitive dissonance, and groupthink present artificial barriers to innovation, common sense, and logic. Heart Quest that has the potential to educate, stimulate, guide, nurture, and offer real choices to people who are looking for alternative pathways through the intricate maze of heart disease.

I have a BSc Mechanical engineering from Bosphorus University, Turkey I was born and raised in Istanbul. My grandfather was a psychiatrist. He was the top military doctor managing major hospitals. He told me not to be a doctor and not to be in military and respecting his experiences I graduated from Bosphorous university as a mechanical engineer. I played water polo in my youth and became national champion 10 years in a row with my team Istanbul Yüzme Ihtisas. My education was not a technical mechanical training, but it was mainly analyzing issues, formalizing solutions and solving problems. My first job after university was in Kodak. My responsibility was to make the feasibility studies, formulate business plans and launch lines of businesses, other than consumer photography as it was already established. Among the many lines of businesses I launched, there were two relevant ones for where I am at now. The first one was x-ray films, and the most interesting film in that line was the heart catheterization movie film, which gave me the opportunity to sit in and watch how doctors made their decisions to treat with medications, put in stents or make bypass surgery. Another interesting line of business was blood analyzers. I had many courses in many countries for those different lines of businesses, and learned a lot of things about the health industry. Five years later, thanks to my new business generating capabilities, I was head hunted by the World Gold Council for the Country Manager position. My task was to liberate the gold market and develop the jewelry business in the country. When I took the job, the jewelry industry was costing about $1 billion for the country every year due to imported gold. After 20 years of work our jewelry industry became the major exporter of jewelry in the world together with tourist sales earning $2 billions. One of the major milestones in achieving that great success was the privatization of the gold imports, which used to the be under the monopoly of central bank. The project was to privatize the gold imports through forming a gold exchange, and it allowed banks and gold bullion dealers to be able to import gold with the world market prices. This system gave a level field for the Turkish jewelry manufactures to be able to compete in the world market. We provided technical expertise and support to improve the manufacturing quality of the jewellery industry. We convinced major universities and technical schools to create programs for jewelry design. We helped major jewellery manufacturers to create their brands. We held design competitions to motivate talented designers to go into jewelry field and jewelry manufacturers to make their own collections rather than copying leading companies in the world. This integrated approach helped me guide our jewelry industry to become the world leader after 20 years of work. Right at that time I lost my father and realized that my mother was in a very bad shape in her mid 80’s. She was unhealthy although she was following the advice of her doctors strictly and using tens of different medications every day. One day she was extremely bad and asked me to take her to emergency. I took her to the most advanced hospital and they held her for five days and used all the diagnostic equipments on her trying to find what can be done. One after the other, groups of doctors from different specialities visited her with their diagnostic results and none of them came up with a solution. They all said the same thing. Continue with whatever medications you’re on. They were all looking at her situation from an extremely narrow perspective and none of them were seeing and evaluating her health as a whole. I suddenly realized that unless I started a new education for myself on human health, I wouldn’t to be able to save her and later save myself, because the sick care system is designed to focus on at best alleviating symptoms and keeping the patient sick with chronic either recurring or worsening illnesses as a loyal customer in need of more medications, procedures and operations. Focusing on myself at that point, I realized that although I was playing tennis every day, I was getting fatter reaching 25% of body fat and I was already 11 kg higher than my fighting weight when I was a water polo champion. So I started listening to various podcasts and trying to read research. At first it was very difficult because I didn’t know who to follow and I realized that it will take a lot of time to understand what is helpful and what is not, and realized even some were misguiding. I decided to retire from the World Gold Council and I started studying health full-time on my own. I decided not to go through the medical school curriculum which was always told to be 50% wrong by the time one graduates. And I decided that I should read, evaluate research and try the diet and lifestyle improvements and experiment on myself to see their results. From my cultural heritage my prejudice was that if you want to lose weight, you should drop eating bread, pilav, börek and pasta and again my prejudice from historical tales of oil wrestlers that if you want to be strong, you need to eat meat. My father was in the US for business late 1940s to mid 1950s several times. And he used to relay the message from the US, the three white poisons that were sugar, flour and salt that should be eliminated from diet to gain health. All these in my mind I stopped having breakfast in my late 20’s for convenience. Then I stopped adding sugar to my tea or coffee in my early 30’s. Then I stopped eating bread with meals in my early 40’s. And although I was playing tennis every day competitively, I was still getting fat may be due to a lot of business lunches and dinners, stress and a lot of exceptions for sweets or pasta that happened nearly every day with a different magnificent dish thanks to our delicious Turkish cuisine. That’s when I decided to cut down on exceptions, and moved further into lower carb. Seeing the success, my mother followed me to go lower carb. In time I learned how to read pubmed research directly, being able to distinguish between good and bad researches and realized that going even lower carbs and reaching ketogenesis and focusing on animal meat and organs with select plants would be even more helpful for metabolism, physiology and mental health. After trying this way of eating, my mother also followed me and the diet changes took care of her root causes, relieved her symptoms and she just did not need the medications anymore. She started dropping her medications that she was taking for decades without seeing any results. A couple of years after she started changing her diet, she dropped all of the medications and she was feeling very healthy and happy. She lived physiologically and mentally healthy until she passed in her 97’th year most probably as a result of being locked down at home due to the pandemic. I continue reading researches and trying different foods, supplements and activities on myself to see their effects on my metabolism, physical and mental capacity and make the fine tuning adjustments to feel better, have more physical energy and mental capacity. I will continue experimenting with different things where the new information and scientific evidence takes me to.

I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and have lived in Northern California my whole life. At 18-years-old I became an emergency medical technician, driving an ambulance, responding to 911 calls and assisting my paramedic partners with patient care. I went on to obtain my paramedic license at age 21 and continued working in the field for another 13 years. Wanting to deepen my ability to care for patients, I became an emergency department nurse at age 34, which I continue doing full-time in a level 2 trauma center. I've spent countless hours on the hiking trails in the hills and mountains of the Sierras. I snowboard and paddle board every year and regularly run Spartan Races. I've always been into fitness, nutrition and health, but by the time I was 21, all of my biological grandparents were dead. Strokes, heart attacks, and type 2 diabetes cut their lives short. None of them saw age 75. With this family history, I've become obsessed with assessing and understanding my own health in a way that very few people, even doctors, ever do. Over the years I've become increasingly frustrated with our current medical paradigm. I remember asking my colleagues on the ambulance when I started my career: “Why don't doctors prescribe nutrition and exercise plans to their patients? Isn't that better than just giving them pills?” The question was always met with blank stares. 20 years later the question remains unanswered. Using my medical background as a base, I've delved deep into the world of nutrition, metabolic illness/diabetes, cardiac disease, and autoimmunity. I continue reading and learning every day and have been astounded to discover in the literature how so many of these conditions are reversible or ameliorated through simple dietary changes. Throughout my years as a paramedic and nurse, I have come across thousands of patients who are suffering from these conditions, yet the only solutions given by their doctors are more pills, more procedures, and more hours spent in the hospital. I want to change that. I'm here to help others figure out their medical problems, find solutions, and end the revolving door between the pharmacy and the physician's office.

Patty has been studying diet related to heart disease for 45 years. She added Alzheimer’s to her area of study a decade ago. She has a significant family history of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke and Alzheimer’s. Her family was the subject of a research study back in the 1950’s with Harvard University and Children’s Hospital as it was found some family members have a rare blood antigen in the MN blood group, including Patty. This rare blood antigen is associated with early onset heart disease. At age 18, after watching multiple members of her family suffer the ultimate consequences of heart disease, she decided to change her diet from that of her family of origin. This decision set her on a long journey of self study which included reading books, medical research and participating in online forums. She tried many of the early versions of a ketogenic diet. She has incorporated multiple natural health modalities and targeted supplements and has been seeing a Naturopathic Doctor for over 10 years. She eventually found The Rosedale Diet by Ron Rosedale, MD, and her health trajectory continued to improve. She tested for genetic variants and confirmed her suspicion that she has several variants for all the above medical issues. She has eaten a whole, real foods ketogenic diet on and off for the last 35 years, becoming much more serious at age 52 when a close family member suffered a significant cardiac event. At age 65, she has seen some amazing improvements in medical issues that are confirmed in testing. In the past six years, her heart has improved, both in valve regurgitation and Ejection Fraction (EF) as highlighted in two echocardiograms from 2014 and August of 2022. She no longer has evidence of valve regurgitation in the three coronary valves found in 2014 and her EF improved by 10% to 65%, She has other medical testing that shows improvement as she ages and stays true to her way of eating. She follows the 80/20 rule, allowing for special treats on holidays, birthdays and special occasions. She is a firm believer in eating seasonally and eating as close to our ancient ancestors as possible in our modern age of processed, junk foods. Her diet primarily consists of free-range red meats & poultry, wild-caught fish, pastured eggs, butter, heavy cream & limited cheeses, organic low carb vegetables and berries, olives, olive oil, and nuts and nut butters in moderation. Patty founded several Facebook groups for people with heart disease, one for APOE4 & Alzheimer’s and helps Admin a Zero Carb group as a way to share the information she has learned in her quest to better health, wellness and longevity. She considers her contributions to the heart disease/Alzheimer’s communities to be an important way to give back, particularly given the confounding and conflicting information one encounters when dealing with chronic metabolic disease(s). Despite her family history and her genetic variants, she is the outlier in her extended family and is relying on Epigenetics to continually improve her health, her quality of life and longevity. Patty has worked in her family commercial real estate business for the last 20+ years, managing the finances and some construction projects. She has two grown children, a daughter and a son. She currently lives in a coastal fishing community in Massachusetts with her dog and three cats. She stays active by jogging with her dog, walking and dancing. She loves to travel, particularly international travel and has been traveling internationally since her early 20’s.

Rod has over 45 years experience in building sales and marketing companies having worked at some of the largest investment companies in the US such as Met Life, US Bank, Symetra. Rod was also President & Co Founder of Independent Financial Marketing Group through 1985-2001 which assisted several banks, insurance & mutual fund companies into bank distribution selling fixed and variable annuities, mutual funds. IFMG was the largest bank distributor with over 200 banks. Rod has been responsible as a senior executive for raising over $20b in various companies overseeing the distribution, sales and marketing of these organizations. Rod has managed local sales teams throughout the US from East to West Coast covering the Institutional and Retail markets within the Bank, Insurance and Broker Dealer channels. Rod has a BA from Whitworth University and a MBA from University of Montana.

In 2008 at age 58 my identical twin brother developed heart disease and underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery. That got my attention, because growing up as identical twins, we always got the same diseases at the same time. My brother got through it but the whole experience made me feel very vulnerable. I became a “student” of heart disease and began to learn everything I could to avoid my brother’s fate. ​ I feel a desire to share my knowledge and that’s why I’m pleased to participate in the Health Quest journey. The emphasis is on using natural health remedies as much as possible. There are often a wide range of choices and opinions on managing health problems. Health Quest will encourage discussion and sharing while guiding people toward viable health solutions. Getting back to heart disease, most people probably know that it is often a completely preventable problem caused by their incorrect and poorly managed lifestyle choices. It’s easy to obtain unhealthy, processed foods that are readily available, inexpensive and convenient. It’s easy to ask your doctor for a prescription to mask whatever symptoms are bothering you. It’s easy to take a drug that will lower your cholesterol, or lower your blood pressure, or boost your libido. Those are all band-aid solutions that will never get you to the “heart” of the matter. ​ Growing up, I knew enough never to smoke cigarettes, and being active and playing sports just came naturally. But I ate candy and junk food all the time and never gave it a second thought. And that continued well into my adult life. I never liked alcoholic beverages, but I definitely consumed loads of soda, candy, gum, chips and other munchies, sweet desserts including cookies, pie and cake and ice cream, and lots of white sugar in my tea, along with high carbohydrate breads and bagels, rice and potatoes, and too much fruit. I believed in a low-fat diet based on information I read by doctors and other health experts. For example, I avoided eating eggs because the experts warned us about cholesterol. And with my aversion to fat, I would put jam on my toast instead of butter. ​ In May 2008, after my twin brother’s quadruple bypass surgery, a cardiologist told me to follow the “DASH” diet, which recommended low fat intake and ample servings of grains like whole wheat and brown rice. When my cholesterol levels were rechecked in November 2008, some of my values were worse. Although my total cholesterol and LDL were somewhat lower, my triglycerides were higher (not good) and my HDL had dropped (also not good). Everything changed in December 2011 after my wife gave me a Christmas present. It was the book Wheat Belly, by Dr. William Davis.Dr. Davis is a cardiologist who, prior to writing his book, had spent years tracking cardiovascular risk factors in relation to diet. Patients who eliminated grains and substituted more protein and fat would improve their cholesterol profiles as well as other inflammatory markers of heart disease that many doctors don’t even look at. I adopted the Wheat Belly approach and believe it could support the intentions of Health Quest. ​ In July 2010, even though I had no symptoms, I decided to get tested for cardiovascular disease. I opted for a 64-slice coronary CT angiogram. The results revealed I did indeed have heart disease, although not yet to the same extent as my twin brother. Although I made changes to improve my diet and lifestyle, I too experienced an angina event early in May 2016. My symptoms were quite mild, but I knew I had to seek medical care, so I met with my doctor and a cardiologist. By mid-May 2016 I had undergone successful triple bypass heart surgery. I continue to remain healthy and active, and I never stop learning, tweaking and sharing my knowledge about preventing heart disease. ​ I’m married and live in Calgary, Alberta with my wife and our wonderful dog.I enjoy golfing, if you can classify hacking my way around a 9-hole course once a week as really being a golfer.My favorite sport is hockey and since I was born and raised in Montreal, the Canadiens are the team infused into my DNA. I still lace on the skates to play recreational hockey in the winter. I played lead guitar in a rock band from 1995 -2005 and haven’t ruled out the possibility of resurrecting that interest again in the future. For now, however, Health Quest is my passion and helping others with my knowledge and experience will be my pleasure.

I am a forty-one-year-old father of two from central Pennsylvania. I am a musician, martial artist, whitewater kayaker, snowboarder and outdoor enthusiast. At the age of thirty-three I suffered a myocardial infarction while snowboarding with friends. This came as a total shock to myself and my family. I have no family history of heart events and I thought I had been in decent shape at the time. After being taken to the ER, I was fitted with three stents and given what I have come to call the big five medications. I was told that I just needed to take my medications and I would be fine. Fast forward five years, I was experiencing chest and jaw discomfort while working out and went in for a stress test. Two days later I was given two more stents. I began to realize that the treatment advice I had been given may not have been everything I could do about my health issues. I jumped into researching and quickly found that I was drowning in a sea of conflicting information. It seems mainstream medicine may have been wrong. I discovered success stories from individuals who had strayed from the beaten path and changed their trajectory. I decided this would be the way forward. With the support my wife, I adopted a ketogenic diet, lost thirty-five pounds, and came off most of my medication. I began to find new information and tests for other signs of issues in my body and ways that I can improve my health, cardio and otherwise. I continue working to improve myself as much as possible and stay around for my family as long as I can. It can be a lonely road to travel when doctors do not agree with most of what you are trying to do. There is a vast amount of information out there, and I have joined together with others like myself to form Heart Quest. With our efforts combined, we are working to build a platform that can help everyone get the information they need to make informed decisions about their health and find their own path to take.

Ken Berry is a Medical Doctor with over 20 years of clinical experience in emergency medicine, obstetrics and clinical practice. He is the owner of the Berry Clinic that is a full spectrum family practice treating chronic disease and acute injuries. He performs Dermatological, Gynaecological and office orthopedic services. Ken is also a Health/Nutrition You tuber with over 2.3m subscribers and over 600 videos about health, nutrition, medical conditions, medications, weight loss, fatty liver reversal and reversing Type 2 diabetes. Ken has published works such as the Lies my doctor told me (victory belt publishing 2019) and common sense labs (Self published 2022) He received his B.S in Biology at M.T.S.U with a major in animal biology and a minor in Psychology and graduated with Honors. He then got his Medical Doctor degree at U.T.H.S.C and accepted in accelerated family medicine residency. He received his residence certification at St Francis Hospital and graduated with a emphasis on procedures, obstetrics and advanced family medicine. Ken is the Health Quest Chief Medical Officer and works closely with the management team in steering the growth of the global platform.

Dr. Philip Ovadia is board certified in Cardiothoracic Surgery and General Surgery. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and is a founding member of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners. Conducting over 3,000 heart surgeries taught Dr. Philip Ovadia that good health comes from lifestyle and nutrition, not from surgery. He is now on a mission to help people stay off his operating table by giving them the tools and mindset to never need a heart surgeon. After growing up in New York, Dr. Ovadia graduated from the accelerated Pre Med/Med program at the Pennsylvania State University and Jefferson Medical College (now Sidney Kimmel School of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University). He then went on to complete a Residency in General Surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a Fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Tufts-New England Medical School. Dr. Ovadia has practiced Cardiothoracic Surgery in Beaver, PA and Clearwater, Florida. ​ In 2020 he established Ovadia Cardiothoracic Surgery and now works as an independent contractor Cardiothoracic Surgeon in various locations throughout the United States. In an effort to overcome his lifelong struggle with obesity, Dr. Ovadia adopted a low-carbohydrate focused way of eating in 2015. He has maintained a weight loss of nearly 100 pounds and since March, 2019 has maintained a mostly carnivorous way of eating. He has extensively researched the health benefits of low-carb with a focus on heart health through many hours of reading the medical literature, books and listening to podcasts, as well as personal discussions with many of the physician leaders and citizen scientists involved in the low-carb movement. In his recent book, Stay Off My Operating Table, Dr. Ovadia discusses the principles of optimizing metabolic health to prevent heart disease and other chronic diseases. He also hosts the Stay Off My Operating Table Podcast, is a frequent guest on other podcasts focused on metabolic and heart health, and has delivered lectures at conferences focused on metabolic health. Dr. Ovadia has also established Ovadia Heart Health, a Telehealth practice that focuses on the prevention and treatment of metabolic and heart disease utilizing lifestyle and dietary modification. He incorporates his hands-on, clinical experience with heart disease and the personal insights he has gained in his own struggle with obesity and poor metabolic health.

I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and have lived in Northern California my whole life. At 18-years-old I became an emergency medical technician, driving an ambulance, responding to 911 calls and assisting my paramedic partners with patient care. I went on to obtain my paramedic license at age 21 and continued working in the field for another 13 years. Wanting to deepen my ability to care for patients, I became an emergency department nurse at age 34, which I continue doing full-time in a level 2 trauma center. I've spent countless hours on the hiking trails in the hills and mountains of the Sierras. I snowboard and paddle board every year and regularly run Spartan Races. I've always been into fitness, nutrition and health, but by the time I was 21, all of my biological grandparents were dead. Strokes, heart attacks, and type 2 diabetes cut their lives short. None of them saw age 75. With this family history, I've become obsessed with assessing and understanding my own health in a way that very few people, even doctors, ever do. Over the years I've become increasingly frustrated with our current medical paradigm. I remember asking my colleagues on the ambulance when I started my career: “Why don't doctors prescribe nutrition and exercise plans to their patients? Isn't that better than just giving them pills?” The question was always met with blank stares. 20 years later the question remains unanswered. Using my medical background as a base, I've delved deep into the world of nutrition, metabolic illness/diabetes, cardiac disease, and autoimmunity. I continue reading and learning every day and have been astounded to discover in the literature how so many of these conditions are reversible or ameliorated through simple dietary changes. Throughout my years as a paramedic and nurse, I have come across thousands of patients who are suffering from these conditions, yet the only solutions given by their doctors are more pills, more procedures, and more hours spent in the hospital. I want to change that. I'm here to help others figure out their medical problems, find solutions, and end the revolving door between the pharmacy and the physician's office.

Amy Berger, MS, CNS, is a U.S. Air Force veteran and Certified Nutrition Specialist who helps people do “Keto Without the Crazy.”™ She writes about a wide range of health and nutrition-related topics, such as insulin, weight loss, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, thyroid function, and more. She has presented internationally on these issues and is the author of The Alzheimer's Antidote, The Stall Slayer, and co-author of End Your Carb Confusion, written with Eric Westman, MD. She is the Lead Nutritionist for Adapt Your Life Academy, where she helps create course content and coaches people through implementing low-carb keto diets safely and effectively. She helped create the American Nutrition Association’s Ketogenic Nutrition Training Program curriculum and is on the BCNS exam review committee, which writes the credentialing board exam for Certified Nutrition Specialists.

ER Nurse, Forum Leader

Dr. Cywes is Dual Board Certified in General Surgery and in Pediatric Surgery. He specializes in Metabolic Healthcare including Pediatric and Adult obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance,N lipidology, metabolic brain development including Autism Spectrum Disorder, PCOS, Lipedema and other endocrine disorders. Dr Cywes received his medical degree from The University of Cape Town, South Africa in 1987 where he interned and did an anesthesia/trauma surgery residency. He moved to North America and studied at Ohio State University's Columbus Children's Hospital before moving to Canada where he completed his general surgery residency and specialized in minimally invasive surgery at the University of Toronto. Dr. Cywes earned his PhD in liver metabolism and immunology and the effect of glucose metabolism on vascular endothelium inflammation and coagulation working with Dr David Jenkins, the father of the Glycemic Index (the current standard of care used to treat diabetes). After completing his pediatric surgery fellowship at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, Dr. Cywes was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Pediatric and Fetal Surgery at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee where he did hepatic stem cell research. His focus is helping people understand and treat the true cause of their endocrine/metabolic disease including obesity and diabetes. He is increasingly working with high performance athletes as well. Dr Cywes is a strong proponent of Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction and is comfortable anywhere along the continuum of lowcarb vegetarian to pure carnivore ways of life. Dr Cywes works in a private practice alongside lowcarb specialist RD Dieticians, Certified Diabetic Educators and psychologists and psych Nurse Practitioners focused on behavioral health transformation. During this time, Dr. Cywes became increasingly interested in adolescent obesity and the impact of carbohydrates on the liver and endocrine/metabolic syndrome in young patients. Dr. Cywes’ research led to a comprehensive understanding of the toxicity of chronic excessive carbohydrate consumption as the primary cause of obesity and so-called obesity-related co-morbidities, particularly diabetes and vascular inflammatory disorders. In the late 1990s Dr Cywes understood that the prevailing treatment of obesity using a Calories in, Calories out (CICO) model was erroneous, and he developed the Carbohydrate Insulin Model of Obesity and Diabetes (CIMOD). Using this model in combination with his understanding of the psychology of addiction, he developed a clinical Metabolic Health program and put together a team of practitioners to treat obese children, adolescents and adults using this approach. In 2004, Dr. Cywes established Jacksonville Surgical Associates to continue his work in both adolescent and adult obesity and endocrine/metabolic treatment, and in 2013 opened a practice in West Palm Beach, Florida. He now works with a highly experienced team of professionals from a variety of medical sub-specialties to better care for metabolically ill patients. He has developed the practice into an internationally recognized Center of Excellence for obesity and metabolic management. The practice uses a cognitive behavioral therapy approach addressing carbohydrates as addictive substances to help patients manage the cause of their disease and establish remission. Based on his extensive clinical research and observations, Dr. Cywes lectures internationally regarding the physiological impact of carbohydrate consumption as the primary cause of the worldwide Chronic Non-Communicable Disease (CNCDs) epidemic including pediatric brain development, PCOS and gestational diabetes. He also lectures on the behavioral aspects of carbohydrate addiction as the cause of obesity and obesity-related co-morbidities and the use of substance abuse methodology, rather than a diet and exercise approach, to the effective long term treatment of obesity. Dr Cywes firmly believes that metabolic disease, obesity and diabetes are not treated by drugs or surgery, however, medications such as GLP-1 agonists and bariatric surgery may be invaluable tools along the journey of becoming carbohydrate-free. Dr. Cywes is a Founder Member and on the Board of Directors of SMHP the Society for Metabolic Health Practitioners. He is a member of ASMBS (American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery) and is a member of the ASMBS Childhood Obesity Committee. He is a member of APSA (American Pediatric Surgery Association) and sits on the APSA Childhood Obesity Committee. He has earned a Centers of Excellence designation by the Surgical Review Corporation. Dr. Cywes trains healthcare workers in developing a CIMOD aftercare model to help patients maintain changes to their lifestyles. Dr Cywes has become one of the foremost clinical authorities in the treatment and management of obesity and metabolic disease in adolescents. He is active in clinical research. He has written several lowcarb book chapters and co-authored a book, Diabetes Unpacked outlining an effective approach to understanding and treating diabetes into remission. Dr. Cywes' vast experience in pediatric and general surgery serves him well in using bariatric surgery to treat obesity in adults and children. Dr Cywes has collaborated with Dexcom, Inc and is engaged in several prospective trials. Dr Cywes maintains an active clinical practice in Jupiter and Jacksonville, Florida as well as conveying the CIMOD message on social media and through his websites – He has many podcasts freely available on YouTube at carbaddictiondoc. His website is Obesityunderstood.com and he is active on Facebook, Tiktok and Instagram