Meet the Levels Advisors
The Levels Advisors include key thought leaders, clinicians, and researchers in metabolic health.
Ben Bikman, PhD
Benjamin Bikman is the author of Why We Get Sick, which makes the case for insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction as the underlying cause of many of our modern health problems. He earned his Ph.D. in Bioenergetics and was a postdoctoral fellow with the Duke-National University of Singapore in metabolic disorders.
Currently, his professional focus as a scientist and associate professor (Brigham Young University) is to better understand the role of elevated insulin in regulating obesity and diabetes, including the relevance of ketones in mitochondrial function.
Dom D’Agostino, PhD
Dr. Dominic D’Agostino is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. He runs the website Keto Nutrition and has been on more than 200 podcasts talking about metabolic health.
He is also a Research Scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC). His laboratory develops and tests metabolic-based strategies for targeting CNS oxygen toxicity (seizures), epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases, brain cancer, and metastatic cancer.
The main focus of his lab over the last 12 years has been investigating the anticonvulsant and neuroprotective mechanism of the ketogenic diet and ketone metabolite supplementation.  This approach can be used to treat a wide variety of pathologies linked pathophysiologically to metabolic dysregulation.  Other areas of interest include researching metabolic-based drugs for cancer.
He was a research investigator and crew member on NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operation (NEEMO 22) and has a personal interest in environmental medicine and methods to enhance safety and physiological resilience in extreme environments. His research is supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Department of Defense (DoD), private organizations, and foundations.
Sara Gottfried, MD
Dr. Gottfried is a physician-scientist who graduated from Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed residency at the University of California at San Francisco. Over the past two decades, Dr. Gottfried has seen more than 25,000 patients and specializes in identifying the underlying cause of her patients’ conditions to achieve true and lasting health transformations, not just symptom management. She is more likely to assess a patient’s multi-omic profile together with next-generation biomarkers and then prescribe a personalized protocol, using primarily nutrition and lifestyle (occasionally drugs) plus other proven interventions to optimize the gene/environment interface. Her focus is executive health and elite athlete care. For nearly every patient, she designs an N-of-1 trial to provide rapid information on whether the personalized plan will improve outcomes. It’s not one method fits all. It’s not disease-centered. It’s a mission to transform healthcare, one patient at a time.
Dr. Gottfried is a global keynote speaker who practices evidence-based integrative, precision, and functional medicine. She is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Integrative Medicine and Nutritional Sciences at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, and Director of Precision Medicine at the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health. Dr. Gottfried’s research focus is metabolic phenotyping. Her three New York Times bestselling books include The Hormone Cure, The Hormone Reset Diet, and Younger, and her new book, Women, Food and Hormones, is now available for preorder. Learn more here.
Mark Hyman, MD
Mark Hyman, MD, has devoted his life to helping others discover optimal health and address the root causes of chronic disease through the power of Functional Medicine. Dr. Hyman is an internationally recognized leader, speaker, educator, and advocate in the fields of Functional Medicine and nutrition. He is the founder and director of The UltraWellness Center, the Head of Strategy and Innovation of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, a fourteen-time New York Times best-selling author, and Board President for Clinical Affairs for The Institute for Functional Medicine. He is the host of one of the leading health podcasts, The Doctor’s Farmacy. Dr. Hyman is a regular medical contributor to several television shows and networks, including CBS This Morning, Today, Good Morning America, The View, and CNN. He is also an advisor and guest co-host on The Dr. Oz Show. Through his work to change policy for the betterment of public health, Dr. Hyman has testified before the Senate Working Group on Health Care Reform on Functional Medicine. He has consulted with the surgeon general on diabetes prevention and participated in the 2009 White House Forum on Prevention and Wellness. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa nominated Dr. Hyman for the President’s Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health.
Additionally, Dr. Hyman has presented at the Clinton Foundation’s Health Matters, Achieving Wellness in Every Generation conference, and the Clinton Global Initiative, as well as with the World Economic Forum on global health issues, TEDMED, and TEDx. He is the winner of the Linus Pauling Award and the Nantucket Project Award. Dr. Hyman received the Christian Book of the Year Award for his work on The Daniel Plan, a faith-based initiative that helped the Saddleback Church collectively lose 250,000 pounds that he created with Rick Warren, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Dr. Daniel Amen. He was inducted into the Books for Better Life Hall of Fame. With Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Michael Roizen, Dr. Hyman crafted and helped introduce the Take Back Your Health Act of 2009 to the United States Senate, which promotes reimbursement for lifestyle treatment of chronic disease. With Tim Ryan in 2015, he helped introduce the ENRICH Act into Congress to fund nutrition in medical education. Dr. Hyman plays a substantial role in the major 2014 film Fed Up, produced by Laurie David and Katie Couric, which addresses childhood obesity. Please join him in celebrating the power of food as medicine at drhyman.com, follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and listen to his podcast The Doctor’s Farmacy for conversations that matter around health, wellness, food, and politics.
Robert Lustig, MD
Dr. Robert Lustig, MD is Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology and Member of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He specializes in the field of neuroendocrinology, with an emphasis on the regulation of energy balance by the central nervous system. His research and clinical practice have focused on childhood obesity and diabetes. Dr. Lustig holds a Bachelor’s in Science from MIT, a Doctorate in Medicine from Cornell University Medical College, and a Master’s of Studies in Law from U.C. Hastings College of the Law.
Dr. Lustig has fostered a global discussion of metabolic health and nutrition, exposing and debunking some of the leading myths that underlie the current pandemic of diet-related disease. He believes the food industry, by pushing processed food loaded with sugar and devoid of fiber, has hacked our minds to pursue pleasure instead of happiness fostering today’s epidemics of addiction and depression, and hacked our bodies to generate insulin resistance to foster our current diabetes pandemic. Yet by focusing on real food, we can beat the odds against sugar, processed food, obesity, and disease.
Molly Maloof, MD
Dr. Molly’s mission is to radically extend healthspan—the number of years free from disease or disability—and maximize human potential by promoting wellness lifestyles that generate optimal health. She is a lecturer within the Wellness Department of the Medical School at Stanford University where she created a course entitled, “Live Better Longer: Extending Healthspan to Lengthen Lifespan.”
Shaping the future of healthcare in her pioneering Silicon Valley medical practice and work with leading companies, Dr. Molly Maloof is on the frontier of personalized medicine, medical technology, health optimization, and scientifically-based wellness endeavors. Since 2012, she has also worked as an advisor or consultant to more than 40 companies in the digital health, consumer health, and biotechnology industries needing help with clinical strategy, product development, clinical research, and scientific marketing.
In her concierge practice, Dr. Molly provides health optimization and personalized medicine to high-achieving entrepreneurs, investors, and technology executives in San Francisco, and Silicon Valley, as well as, award-winning Hollywood actors and musicians. Unveiling the future of patient care with actionable insights on adopting the latest practices in personalized medicine, Dr. Molly challenges healthcare practitioners as well as industry influencers to re-think health and healthcare in order to reduce costs, improve patient outcomes, and improve the human condition.
David Perlmutter, MD
Dr. Perlmutter is a Board-Certified Neurologist and five-time New York Times bestselling author. He serves on the Board of Directors and is a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition. He writes and speaks extensively about the impact of metabolic dysfunction on brain health and overall health.
Dr. Perlmutter received his M.D. degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine where he was awarded the Leonard G. Rowntree Research Award. He serves as a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and has published extensively in peer-reviewed scientific journals including Archives of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and The Journal of Applied Nutrition. In addition, he is a frequent lecturer at symposia sponsored by institutions such as the World Bank and IMF, Columbia University, Scripps Institute, New York University, and Harvard University and serves as an Associate Professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Dr. Perlmutter’s books have been published in 32 languages and include the #1 New York Times bestseller Grain Brain, The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs and Sugar, with over 1 million copies in print. Other New York Times bestsellers include Brain Maker, The Grain Brain Cookbook, The Grain Brain Whole Life Plan, and Brain Wash, co-written with Austin Perlmutter, M.D. He is the editor of The Microbiome and the Brain, authored by top experts in the field and published in December 2019 by CRC Press.
Gerald Shulman, MD
Dr. Shulman is the George R. Cowgill Professor of Medicine and Cellular & Molecular Physiology at Yale. He is also Co-Director of the Yale Diabetes Research Center and was an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for 21 years. Dr. Shulman has pioneered the use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy combined with mass spectrometry to non-invasively examine intracellular glucose and fat metabolism in humans and transgenic rodent models that have led to several paradigm shifts in our understanding of type 2 diabetes (T2D), including the molecular mechanisms by which ectopic lipid promotes liver and muscle insulin resistance, as well as developing new drugs for the treatment of T2D, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.
Dr. Shulman is the recipient of the Stanley J. Korsymeyer Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Outstanding Clinical Investigator Award from the Endocrine Society, the Solomon Berson Award from the American Physiological Society, and the Banting Medal for Lifetime Scientific Achievement from the American Diabetes Association. Dr. Shulman is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Inaugural Fellow of the American Physiological Society and he has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
David Sinclair, PhD
David A. Sinclair, PhD, AO, was recruited to Harvard Medical School where he has been teaching aging biology and translational medicine for aging for the past 16 years. His research has been primarily focused on the sirtuins, protein-modifying enzymes that respond to changing NAD+ levels and to caloric restriction (CR) with associated interests in chromatin, energy metabolism, mitochondria, learning, and memory, neurodegeneration, and cancer. The Sinclair Lab was the first one to identify a role for NAD+ biosynthesis in the regulation of lifespan and first showed that sirtuins are involved in CR in mammals. They first identified small molecules that activate SIRT1 (such as resveratrol) and studied how to improve metabolic function using a combination of genetic, enzymological, biophysical, and pharmacological approaches.
Dr. Sinclair is co-founder of several biotechnology companies (Sirtris, Ovascience, Genocea, Cohbar, MetroBiotech, ArcBio, Liberty Biosecurity) and is on the boards of several others. He is also co-founder and co-chief editor of the journal Aging. His work is featured in five books, two documentary movies, 60 Minutes, Morgan Freeman’s “Through the Wormhole” and other media. He is an inventor on 35 patents and has received more than 25 awards and honors including the CSL Prize, The Australian Commonwealth Prize, Thompson Prize, Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Award, Charles Hood Fellowship, Leukemia Society Fellowship, Ludwig Scholarship, Harvard-Armenise Fellowship, American Association for Aging Research Fellowship, Nathan Shock Award from the National Institutes of Health, Ellison Medical Foundation Junior and Senior Scholar Awards, Merck Prize, Genzyme Outstanding Achievement in Biomedical Science Award, Bio-Innovator Award, David Murdock-Dole Lectureship, Fisher Honorary Lectureship, Les Lazarus Lectureship, Australian Medical Research Medal, The Frontiers in Aging and Regeneration Award, Top 100 Australian Innovators, and TIME magazine’s list of the “100 most influential people in the world.”
Terry Wahls, MD
Dr. Terry Wahls is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa where she conducts clinical trials. She is also a patient with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, which had her using a tilt-recline wheelchair for four years. Dr. Wahls reversed the progression of her MS using a diet and lifestyle she designed specifically for her brain. She now pedals her bike to work each day.
She is the author of The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles, and the cookbook, The Wahls Protocol Cooking for Life: The Revolutionary Modern Paleo Plan to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions.
Dr. Wahls conducts clinical trials that test the effect of nutrition and lifestyle interventions to treat MS and other progressive health problems. She also teaches the public and medical community about the healing power of the Paleo diet and therapeutic lifestyle changes that restore health and vitality to our citizens. She hosts a Wahls Protocol® Seminar every August, where anyone can learn how to implement the Wahls Protocol® with ease and success.
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