I'll never forget the pain and confusion I endured momentarily losing my health in my teens. An injury changed my outlook on life and brought with it various issues related to weight management and wellbeing. I lost touch with my body forcing me to get to know it again.

I tracked calories, cycled macros, tested out various diets. Through trial and error, I got back to balance. Stronger than ever.

Throughout the journey, I experienced firsthand, the pain of using the poor and ineffective tools, the misinformation, and the one-size-fits-all guidance of nutrition. And also how the healthcare system is unwilling to transform and *actually* help us get healthier.

Funnily, ever since my teens, I've been captivated to solve the crisis of poor health. It started with me fighting my own battles. Today it's us helping you fight yours. To help you intrinsically know your body. Realize how unique it is and what it favors –and then finally unlock a new level of wellbeing.

Thinking back now, my misfortune has been my biggest blessing.

As a cardiologist and culinary medicine specialist practicing in the epicenter of heart disease, it's vividly clear to me that a new and disruptive approach to the expansive metabolic health pandemic is critically in need. The prevalence of diabetes continues to rise in every global region, such that it will become normative in our society to have diabetes in the coming decade.

I take care of people who are at the end of the line every day –advanced cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, heart failure, strokes, hypertension, and diabetes. Seeing death and suffering day in and day out have compelled me to step back and look for new ways to help people so that they don't develop chronic health issues. Why wait for the house to burn down when you can put the flame out?

My North Star has been the foundational principle that you cannot know where you are headed unless you know where you are coming from. We need to understand our body better at an individual level.

This is precisely what we are passionate about at Veri: A simple tool that allows you to introspect and gain deep, actionable insights with your own data. The experience we have built is one that genuinely empowers you to take your health and wellbeing into your own hands.

Ulcerative colitis struck me out of the blue at 14 and left me with more questions than doctors could answer. My curiosity to get to the root of the condition was met with apathy at best, and hostility at worst.

The pharmaceutical approach landed me in the hospital with recurrent pancreatitis, and left me unable to eat solid foods, sometimes for weeks on end. Faced with a lifetime of drugs and life-altering surgery, learning about health became easy.

Turns out, what you eat actually matters. Changing what I ate saved my life.

The complete loss of my health, and the solitude of having to find my own answers, shaped me in ways I could only appreciate years later. It's now clear a burning passion to understand human health and a desire to help others avoid the pain of losing it have guided me ever since.

This is the genesis of Veri, to bring transparency to health, to allow anyone to understand the complexity of their body, and to empower everyone to live better.