In this personal narrative, Nick Norwitz recounts his early fascination with biology, from lecturing peers about giant squid at age five to reading textbooks for fun. While poised to pursue doctorates at Oxford and Harvard, he was struck by severe inflammatory bowel disease that led to repeated hospitalizations, extreme weight loss, and dangerously low heart rates. Through relentless self‑experimentation, he eventually discovered a metabolic health intervention that placed his disease into permanent remission. This transformative experience ignited his mission to make metabolic health mainstream by highlighting it as the root cause of chronic disease, encouraging research, shifting social norms around diet and lifestyle, and rallying a community of enthusiasts to drive change.
Chapters
I wasn't a typical kid. By age 5, I was lecturing my peers about Architeuthis, the Latin name for giant squid. By 10, I'd read biology textbooks for fun, chapters punctuated by sets of push-ups. When I fractured my tibia before the Boston Marathon, I decided, "What the heck? Let's break out the crutches." But it took a personal struggle for me to focus my energies on on my life's mission: to make metabolic health mainstream. As I was graduating college, teed up with positions to get doctorates at both Oxford and Harvard, things went to shit. Literally. I developed severe inflammatory bowel disease, ending up in the hospital repeatedly, sometimes near 100 pounds in an ICU bed with my heart rate in the 20s, only to get bumped out and return back shortly thereafter. Frustrating does not even begin to capture it. But I kept experimenting with new protocols and eventually stumbled into a metabolic health intervention that put my disease into remission permanently. That moment planted a seed in soil that was ripe to catapult me into my purpose: make metabolic health mainstream. What this means to me is forcing attention on addressing the root cause of most chronic disease. Metabolic health. This means inspiring conversation, motivating research, and changing social norms around how we eat and live. And by virtue of each of our bodies being the substrate for experimentation, metabolic health science is something we get to engage in every day. But to change the discussion, I need an army of metabolic health enthusiasts, people who care enough not only to invest in their own health but help us change the world. I hope that's you, and I hope you can join me on this journey. Stay curious.
