Since graduating from chiropractic school, Eric's main passion has been and continues to be teaching people about health-related topics, including Healthy Keto® and intermittent fasting as a basic long-term eating plan. He loves dissecting complex health problems, breaking them down so they are easy to understand, and connecting symptoms to a real cause. Eric also wrote the Amazon Best Seller, The Healthy Keto Plan. In Eric's 30 years of practice in Alexandria, Virginia, he had the opportunity to personally work with over 40,000 people using natural methods, nutrition, and the healthy version of the ketogenic diet (Healthy Keto®). His clients have included senior officials in the U.S. Government, medical doctors, actors, high-level executives of prominent corporations, scientists, professors, engineers, as well as nurses, stay-at-home moms, and high school students. People from all walks of life and from all over the world visited Eric. He also devotedly did in-house seminars several times a week, including external seminars in Governmental agencies, including the Library of Congress, Federal Communication Commission, National Institute of Science, FBI, and many others. In addition to his practice, he created monthly training seminars for doctors in which he delivered techniques to over 2,500 doctors and healthcare practitioners. Eric passion for teaching shifted to YouTube in 2008. Over the next 14 years, he compiled over 6,000 videos on just about every health topic that you could imagine. Eric'c YouTube channel, including different languages, finally totaled 26 million subscribers and regularly achieves 100 million views per month. He is constantly searching for underlying reasons why people get diseases—it's become a hobby. So, it’s either doing videos or creating courses. I even created a course on keto and intermittent fasting to train Keto Coaches worldwide. In 2017 and 2018, he hosted the annual Keto Health Summit at the Gaylord Hotel in National Harbor Maryland, where 1,000 people flew in from all over the world to attend and soak up a wealth of keto knowledge. He completed his Doctor of Chiropractic degree in 1988 at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, and am is a  board-certified chiropractor in three states (Virginia, California, and Louisiana). In his earlier years, he completed 2 years of undergraduate pre-med studies at the University of Wisconsin Parkside, as well as training as an X-ray technician through St. Phillips College in Texas. Notable achievements, publications, and appearances: Host of an annual Keto Health Summit in Washington, D.C., sharing my expert knowledge and featuring speakers like Dr. Mercola, Thomas DeLauer, and Dr. Eric Westman. The summit attracted 500 attendees in 2018 and 800 in 2019. Published multiple books, including The 7 Principles of Fat Burning and The Healthy Keto Plan. Trained over 2,500 health professionals in my methods and professional expertise over the course of my career. Featured in countless notable publications and magazines, such as being the cover story of Woman’s World in June of 2019. Journal of Clinical Medicine - Cancer Metabolism: Fasting Reset, the Keto-Paradox and Drugs for Undoing Appearances on various TV and radio shows as an expert in the field, such as Channel 9 CBS Nightly News, Channel 8 News, and more.Eric 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.

Mark is the Founder of Health Quest and was born in Johannesburg, South Africa - raised in a tennis household that eventually led him to be one of the top 3 junior players in South Africa. He later earned a tennis scholarship to UC Irvine in California and soon was ranked #5 in division 1 NCAA in the US by his senior year. Mark went on to receive a BA in Economics and a MBA from University of California, Irvine. After college, he became an ATP tennis Pro ranked # 117 in the world and played the professional mens tennis tour for five years. Mark played all the grand slams and enjoyed wins over top 10 players in the world. ​ 25 years later, at 52 Mark experienced a burning sensation in his chest. He drove himself to the nearest ER. Despite having no family history or prior warnings and being physically fit, he was told that he had experienced a minor heart attack. Mark had a stent inserted in his diagonal off his LAD. Needless to say Mark's family and friends were in total shock. Initially, Mark went the regular route of medications for the first 8 months, until he began developing severe side effects from the statins prescribed him. He suffered from a host of conditions that indluded severe memory loss, extreme fatigue, and an unusually rapid heart rate. It was at this juncture, Mark began his deep dive into learning about heart disease; reading over dozens of books and reaching out to renowned integrative cardiologists, Dr. Stephen Sinatra and Dr. James Roberts Mark quickly joined Dr. William Davis' platform named 'Undoctored', and continued his education in the field. Inspired by what he had learned, Mark began his journey into a new type of testing that included measuring things such as inflammation, metal, microbiome, and genetic testing. Mark then went on a keto/paleo diet and lost 30 pounds — resulting in restoring the majority of his blood to a normal range, including: Trigs, Insulin, HDL, Thyroid, and Microbiome. It was this experience that inspired Mark to develop the HealthQuest platform, with the mission to help patients resolve their health issues as he had — by getting the the root cause of their condition, rather than masking the root condition with petroleum-based pharmaceuticals. By leveraging a highly personalized road map that employs the latest in technology, research, blood tests, a commmunity of healthcare professionals and forums, and expert advise HealthQuest aims to change the way people address their health. Today we understand that the traditional LDL, HDL and Trigs tests traditional medicine employs is not enough to deliver the information we need to address the underlying cause of our health issues. Heart disease is far more complicated than we've been led to believe, so much so, that it's often the root of the myriad conditions we suffer from. In other words, when we address our health of our heart, we address the health of our entire body. HealthQuest is determined to arm people with the right kind of information that will help to distinguish between the often confusing and complex cadre of voices and information, and instead lead them onto a path of real and lasting health for themselves. This revolutionary sea change in an industry that in many ways seems to have lost its way between big Pharma, insurance incentives, and malpractice, is a critical one. One that we intend to facilitate on one platform in a comprehensive and straight-forward manner. Mark Kaplan has spend the past 23 years working in the financial services industry building companies. HealthQuest will be his sixth start up company initiated via his core global investment company Paradigm Capital (operating globally in Americas, Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia.) To view Mark's tennis history (5 year match stats as ATP player), please link here: https://www.itftennis.com/.../800178884/rsa/mt/S/overview/

Jordan is on a personal mission to transform heart health, inspired by the loss of his grandfather to heart disease and his uncle's near-fatal heart attack. At HealthQuest, he harnesses his understanding of human behavior and storytelling to orchestrate the company’s vision. Known for his versatility, Jordan combines creative problem-solving with meticulous attention to detail, excelling in strategic and operational roles. He previously worked at Veritus Holdings, an early stage venture capital firm, where he analyzed the business models and growth strategies of numerous brands in the consumer goods and health technology spaces. More recently, Jordan took on a multifaceted sales role at Axonic Insurance, helping drive revenue and operations from the company’s initial launch. A Bentley University graduate with a degree in Finance, Jordan co-founded the Bentley Blockchain Association, a leading organization focused on the education of blockchain technology. At Bentley, he was the captain and #1 player of the varsity tennis team where he amplified his teammates strengths and supported their growth, a skill he continues to leverage in his career today.

Florence is a trauma-informed Certified Health Coach with expertise in metabolic health and ultra-processed food addiction recovery. Her additional training includes Functional Medicine Nutrition courses, a Metabolic Psychiatry certificate from Dr. Georgia Ede (Harvard), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Focusing, EFT, and more. She is currently being certified as a Somatic Experiencing® Trauma Practitioner with Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing Institute. She has a proven track record of helping individuals unhook from the additive pull of processed foods, better regulate their nervous system, and reverse metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Florence is the founder of the world’s first online conference on the health-harming and addictive nature of sugar and ultra-processed foods (Kick Sugar Summit®), which has touched and transformed the lives of tens of thousands of individuals.

Melanie grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. She studied Optometry and worked as an Optometrist for 4 years. After immigrating to the United States, Melanie worked for Nestlé Waters for 17 years doing project management and leading training, data, communications, and continuous improvement initiatives. The skills she acquired at Nestlé allowed her build expertise to handle complex corporate environments and be able to work with multiple teams to implement projects. Melanie has always been interested in natural health and has helped her family, friends and others reach optimal health. She has studied nutrition for the last 20 years and has a passion for the health care, feeding her family organic food and living the natural way. She has always taken a natural approach to illness and uses alternative remedies to heal.

Dr. Alain Sabri is CMO and Chief Medical Director, EMEA and is a medical professional with 25 years of experience as an Otolaryngologist-Head & Neck Surgeon and Facial Reconstructive Surgeon. He has gained a versatile healthcare management experience in a variety of geographical areas worldwide. He has held several leadership positions including chairing four departments, serving as associate chief of staff, medical director of human resources and Assistant Dean for Faculty Affairs & recruitment at leading international medical schools and medical centers. He has established multiple programs and multidisciplinary teams/centers of excellence and was involved in two major international projects with the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic along with his ongoing clinical and academic activities as an educator-researcher. He lectured extensively worldwide, has organized & chaired many scientific meetings. He is active in research, both basic science and clinical, and has published widely on head and neck surgery. He recently published a medical textbook on the challenges of global sleep disorders management. He has also lectured and conducted research on physician burnout, healthcare professional wellness and leadership. He was granted the title of professor from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner School of Medicine and many leading medical schools in the middle east. At the Mayo Clinic, USA where he practiced as a faculty surgeon, he has received the Teacher of The Year Award. He also received the inaugural ‘outstanding physician-educator of the year award’ at SSMC-Mayo Clinic in the UAE. He was presented with the ‘honor award’ from the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. Dr. Sabri is American board certified in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. He was also awarded the American Board certification in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 2004. His medical educational journey included surgical training, sub-specialization in head and neck oncologic and reconstructive surgery as well as neurotology-skull base surgery at Georgetown, Case Western/University Hospital of Cleveland and Vanderbilt University Medical Centers. He has also completed a master’s degree in health and hospital management from ESA (Ecole Superieure des Affaires-affiliated with ESCP France) business school as well as pursuing further Healthcare Leadership course at INSEAD. In parallel to the above, he was involved in multiple medical humanitarian missions in South America and the Middle East. He serves on educational institutional boards as well as a cancer charity fund in the MENA region where he oversaw the establishment of dispensaries for the less fortunate. He is fluent in many languages. His hobbies and interests include intercultural exchanges & peace initiatives, avid reading, tennis, downhill skiing, padel, squash, motorcycling and antiques.

Jeff Mahony sees opportunities in places where others don't and has had a multitude of successes as a result. From creating aerospace patents to innovating banking that gives opportunities to low-income families, he looks for the gaps in the white space in the marketplace and then searches for an answer. As the CEO and founding member of the global management team, that's how he looks at SaveDaily Holding Corporation and all the companies he acts in a strategic advisor role or active day-to-day operations. Jeff's strong work ethic and thirst for learning landed him at UCLA where he put himself through school as a cognitive science major, what we now know as artificial intelligence. Even before he graduated, he was tapped by the aerospace industry, and was sent all over the world as a troubleshooter, from South Africa to Russia and from Australia to Austria. A pioneer in the fintech space with over 35 years building companies, developing A.I. and leading technology teams, Jeff is now dedicated to fulfilling the promise of blockchain technology and health related services. Since 2017, he has served as the co-founder/CEO of Ubiquicorp, the parent company of BRYT. And, in 2023, Jeff was named Chairman of the Hourglass ($WAIT) Foundation and advises several multi-national financial platforms built on blockchain.

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

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.

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.

Dr. Alain Sabri is CMO and Chief Medical Director, EMEA and is a medical professional with 25 years of experience as an Otolaryngologist-Head & Neck Surgeon and Facial Reconstructive Surgeon. He has gained a versatile healthcare management experience in a variety of geographical areas worldwide. He has held several leadership positions including chairing four departments, serving as associate chief of staff, medical director of human resources and Assistant Dean for Faculty Affairs & recruitment at leading international medical schools and medical centers. He has established multiple programs and multidisciplinary teams/centers of excellence and was involved in two major international projects with the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic along with his ongoing clinical and academic activities as an educator-researcher. He lectured extensively worldwide, has organized & chaired many scientific meetings. He is active in research, both basic science and clinical, and has published widely on head and neck surgery. He recently published a medical textbook on the challenges of global sleep disorders management. He has also lectured and conducted research on physician burnout, healthcare professional wellness and leadership. He was granted the title of professor from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner School of Medicine and many leading medical schools in the middle east. At the Mayo Clinic, USA where he practiced as a faculty surgeon, he has received the Teacher of The Year Award. He also received the inaugural ‘outstanding physician-educator of the year award’ at SSMC-Mayo Clinic in the UAE. He was presented with the ‘honor award’ from the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. Dr. Sabri is American board certified in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. He was also awarded the American Board certification in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 2004. His medical educational journey included surgical training, sub-specialization in head and neck oncologic and reconstructive surgery as well as neurotology-skull base surgery at Georgetown, Case Western/University Hospital of Cleveland and Vanderbilt University Medical Centers. He has also completed a master’s degree in health and hospital management from ESA (Ecole Superieure des Affaires-affiliated with ESCP France) business school as well as pursuing further Healthcare Leadership course at INSEAD. In parallel to the above, he was involved in multiple medical humanitarian missions in South America and the Middle East. He serves on educational institutional boards as well as a cancer charity fund in the MENA region where he oversaw the establishment of dispensaries for the less fortunate. He is fluent in many languages. His hobbies and interests include intercultural exchanges & peace initiatives, avid reading, tennis, downhill skiing, padel, squash, motorcycling and antiques.

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.

Florence is a trauma-informed Certified Health Coach with expertise in metabolic health and ultra-processed food addiction recovery. Her additional training includes Functional Medicine Nutrition courses, a Metabolic Psychiatry certificate from Dr. Georgia Ede (Harvard), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Focusing, EFT, and more. She is currently being certified as a Somatic Experiencing® Trauma Practitioner with Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing Institute. She has a proven track record of helping individuals unhook from the additive pull of processed foods, better regulate their nervous system, and reverse metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Florence is the founder of the world’s first online conference on the health-harming and addictive nature of sugar and ultra-processed foods (Kick Sugar Summit®), which has touched and transformed the lives of tens of thousands of individuals.

Rich Elliott, OR Nurse & RNFA / Forum Leader

Since graduating from chiropractic school, Eric's main passion has been and continues to be teaching people about health-related topics, including Healthy Keto® and intermittent fasting as a basic long-term eating plan. He loves dissecting complex health problems, breaking them down so they are easy to understand, and connecting symptoms to a real cause. Eric also wrote the Amazon Best Seller, The Healthy Keto Plan. In Eric's 30 years of practice in Alexandria, Virginia, he had the opportunity to personally work with over 40,000 people using natural methods, nutrition, and the healthy version of the ketogenic diet (Healthy Keto®). His clients have included senior officials in the U.S. Government, medical doctors, actors, high-level executives of prominent corporations, scientists, professors, engineers, as well as nurses, stay-at-home moms, and high school students. People from all walks of life and from all over the world visited Eric. He also devotedly did in-house seminars several times a week, including external seminars in Governmental agencies, including the Library of Congress, Federal Communication Commission, National Institute of Science, FBI, and many others. In addition to his practice, he created monthly training seminars for doctors in which he delivered techniques to over 2,500 doctors and healthcare practitioners. Eric passion for teaching shifted to YouTube in 2008. Over the next 14 years, he compiled over 6,000 videos on just about every health topic that you could imagine. Eric'c YouTube channel, including different languages, finally totaled 26 million subscribers and regularly achieves 100 million views per month. He is constantly searching for underlying reasons why people get diseases—it's become a hobby. So, it’s either doing videos or creating courses. I even created a course on keto and intermittent fasting to train Keto Coaches worldwide. In 2017 and 2018, he hosted the annual Keto Health Summit at the Gaylord Hotel in National Harbor Maryland, where 1,000 people flew in from all over the world to attend and soak up a wealth of keto knowledge. He completed his Doctor of Chiropractic degree in 1988 at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, and am is a  board-certified chiropractor in three states (Virginia, California, and Louisiana). In his earlier years, he completed 2 years of undergraduate pre-med studies at the University of Wisconsin Parkside, as well as training as an X-ray technician through St. Phillips College in Texas. Notable achievements, publications, and appearances: Host of an annual Keto Health Summit in Washington, D.C., sharing my expert knowledge and featuring speakers like Dr. Mercola, Thomas DeLauer, and Dr. Eric Westman. The summit attracted 500 attendees in 2018 and 800 in 2019. Published multiple books, including The 7 Principles of Fat Burning and The Healthy Keto Plan. Trained over 2,500 health professionals in my methods and professional expertise over the course of my career. Featured in countless notable publications and magazines, such as being the cover story of Woman’s World in June of 2019. Journal of Clinical Medicine - Cancer Metabolism: Fasting Reset, the Keto-Paradox and Drugs for Undoing Appearances on various TV and radio shows as an expert in the field, such as Channel 9 CBS Nightly News, Channel 8 News, and more.Eric is the Health Quest Chief Medical Officer and works closely with the management team in steering the growth of the global platform.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Neel Grover is Executive Chairman to Health Quest Global and currently the Chief Executive Officer of Shop Premium Outlets, a premium and luxury marketplace owned by the Simon Property Group and the Rue Gilt Groupe. Neel previously built and ran 3 other marketplaces as the Chief Executive Officer of Rakuten North America, Buy.com and Bluefly and built and powered BestBuy’s marketplace as a service. Neel has led great teams and his marketplaces have sold over $5 Billion of products online. During his tenure, Buy.com went from losing $100 Million a year to 13 consecutive profitable quarters while competing with Amazon on every product after building the third largest marketplace in the US. Buy.com was sold to Rakuten for over $250 Million. Neel is the founder of a social commerce platform that was acquired, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) and a member of YPO. Neel was formerly a member of the Executive Committee for noon, an ecommerce marketplace launched by EMAAR in Dubai as well as previously on the Boards of PrimeSport, Rakuten North America, Linkshare, Coastal.com (NASDAQ: COA) and Buy.com and an Executive Operating Partner for Clearlake Capital. Previously Neel was a corporate securities lawyer at Brobeck and Jones Day. Neel received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of San Diego School of Law, Order of The Coif, and his B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Irvine where he was a two-time Captain of the Division I Men's Tennis Team that was consistently ranked in the Top 10 in the US.

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.

Doug is CEO and Founder of Low Carb USA an organization founded in the beginning of 2016 with the initial intention of providing a platform, through an annual conference, for internationally renowned scientists and medical practitioners to present the ever-increasing body of evidence on the benefits of reducing carbohydrates in the diet (and adding in healthy fats). He felt that education about the power of the low carb/ketogenic diet for the individual who may not get the information from their medical team or from mainstream nutrition advice, and for practitioners who may then be able to prescribe it in their practice was critical. However, his mission quickly evolved when he realized how important this was to the medical professional community. The tools and resources LowCarbUSA® has been providing, not only includes the live conferences, but also a huge library of educational videos, a growing database of practitioners, and nutritionists and sports trainers who are open to the carb restriction conversation as well as a searchable database for papers and articles covering the research into the evidence supporting this lifestyle. Most importantly, though, he has coordinated the establishment of a panel of advisors to oversee the creation and maintenance of a set of 'Clinical Guidelines for Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction' which was first published in May, 2019. He has worked tirelessly over this period during the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown to now establish this nonprofit, the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners, and this organization will now house most of the above body of work as education and training of Metabolic Health Practitioners and the entire community interested in making a difference in worldwide metabolic health. The aim is to stall and reverse the increasing prevalence of noncommunicable, lifestyle related diseases, influenced by metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance. Accreditation pathways have even been established for practitioners within this society to introduce credibility to the practice of therapeutic carbohydrate restriction and to help establish alternative Standard of Care for those whose metabolisms are different because they don’t eat excessive carbohydrates.

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.

Steven has 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry and is passionate about helping people make better financial decisions and lead happier, meaningful and more fulfilling lives. Steven is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a CFA Charter Holder. After spending three years at EY in Johannesburg, Steven joined a stock broking firm that was subsequently acquired by Deutsche Bank. Steven spent over 10 Years with Deutsche Bank, becoming a Managing Director and fulfilling various roles in South Africa and London including Head of SA Equity Research, Head of Global Banks Research and Head of European Banks Research & Trading. Steven was also a number #1 investment analyst covering the Banking and Insurance sectors. Steven left investment banking to start 10X Investments, a disruptive asset manager offering a simple, low-cost investment solution using index funds, with the mission to become the Vanguard of South Africa. Together with a superb team, we organically grew the business to manage assets exceeding USD1 billion. Steven successfully exited 10X in 2021. Steven is currently launching SWAN Family Office, a fee-only, non-conflicted multi-family office. SWAN’s mission is to help its clients live their best lives, free of financial stress and to Sleep Well At Night (SWAN).

Dr. Tony Royle, PhD / Executive Director

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.

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.

Experienced and hands-on leader and entrepreneur with a proven track record spanning over 20 years, including 6 years as a venture-backed CEO and more than 14 years in senior management, operations, and business development roles. Yori specializes in building organizations to scale, defining and executing go-to-market strategies, implementing end-to-end information systems to streamline business operations, and building and managing teams in different geographical areas. Prior to joining Health Quest, Yori played a pivotal role in launching and overseeing the business operations of Tyto Care, a telemedicine platform coupled with a home examination medical device. He also served as the founder and CEO of InstallFree, where he nurtured the company from its inception into a revenue-generating entity, ultimately leading to its acquisition. As VP of Business Development at Gteko, Yori spearheaded the establishment of Gteko's U.S. operations and played a central role in its business development efforts, culminating in the company's acquisition by Microsoft. Yori is a former Paratrooper Officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), having commanded a unit of 90 soldiers and officers. He holds an MBA from Northwestern and Tel Aviv University in High Tech Management and BBA in Operations Management from Baruch College. In his spare time, Yori is an avid triathlete and endurance sports enthusiast, having completed numerous marathons, over a dozen half Ironman events, and two Ironman competitions, as well as having experience in cross country and gravel racing.

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.

John Clary / Forum Leader

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.

Jeanna Motmans / Forum Leader

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.

Mark Strough / Forum Leader

Rich Elliot / Forum Leader

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.

Fran Leigh /Forum Leader