Rewind to my 20s, early in my medical career as a doctor and the 90-hour work week. I was chronically exhausted, unfocused, out of shape, and perpetually suffering from joint stiffness, neck and back pain. I never seemed to have any extra energy to enjoy life outside of work. I relied heavily on caffeine to keep going and frequently took NSAIDs to keep my pain at bay. The cloudy haze of tiredness always got in the way of enjoying time with friends and family.

I had chronic neck and back pain, and I wore knee braces beginning in my late 20s (embarrassingly under my scrubs and clothes so no one would know) because my joints always hurt. I knew my career and life would only get more demanding over time. Something had to give, so I decided to focus on learning what science tells us about how I could optimize every aspect of my health by making simple lifestyle changes over time so that I could once again move without pain, maintain natural energy throughout the day, reverse joint stiffness and have mental clarity outside of work to be happy and present and enjoy life. The hardest part was that these changes had to work seamlessly into my super-busy work schedule and lifestyle.

It started as a hobby but soon became an obsession, something that I truly loved to learn and talk about with my patients, friends, and colleagues. Over the past 16 years, I have devoted thousands of hours researching every facet of medically optimizing the human body and mind. I have sought out best practices taught by medical doctors, physical therapists, naturopathic, eastern, and functional medicine, high-performance coaches, and nutritionists. I have tried an unfathomable number of diets, social media “health hacks,” supplements, exercise programs, and pain relief techniques, many of which claim big promises to make people feel better, yet never seemed to deliver or were unsustainable for people with busy lives.

I added the habits that worked and discarded even more than I would like to admit over the years that didn’t. I constantly review the most up-to-date medical literature to refine what works best and what doesn’t, and I love teaching others my findings in real-time.