Dr. Michael Roizen

Dr. Michael Roizen is an anesthesiologist and internist, an award-winning author, and the chief wellness officer at the Cleveland Clinic. Known for developing the RealAge concept, Dr. Roizen has authored or co-authored five number-one New York Times best sellers. He has served on FDA advisory committees for 16 years and chaired an FDA advisory committee.

Dr. Roizen completed a tour of duty in the Public Health Service, has 165 peer-reviewed publications, 100 medical chapters, 14 US patents, and has started six companies. He is also credited for co-inventing a drug called methylnaltrexone (MTNX, trade name Relistor), which received FDA approval for marketing in the United States in May 2008.

A graduate of Williams College and the University of California–San Francisco School of Medicine, Dr. Roizen performed his residency in internal medicine at Harvard's Beth Israel Hospital and completed Public Health Service at the National Institutes of Health in the laboratory of Irv Kopin and Nobel Prize winner Julius Axelrod. He is certified by the American Boards of Internal Medicine and Anesthesiology.

Following nine years on the faculty at the University of California–San Francisco, he chaired the top-ten-rated Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care at the University of Chicago. He also served as Dean of the School of Medicine and Vice President for Biomedical Sciences at SUNY Upstate. After serving as CEO of the Biotechnology Research Corporation of Central New York, he accepted a position as Chair of the Anesthesiology Institute at Cleveland Clinic, responsible for over 180 operatories, 124 critical care beds, and 28 pain therapy intervention units. In 2007, Dr. Roizen was named Chief Wellness Officer at Cleveland Clinic, the first such position in a major healthcare institution in the United States. He also serves as Chairman of the Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic and is a professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.

Dr. Roizen is a co-founder of RealAge and serves as its chief wellness officer. Among his written works are titles like "RealAge: Are You as Young as You Can Be?", "The RealAge Diet: Make Yourself Younger with What You Eat," "Cooking the RealAge Way: Turn Back Your Biological Clock with More than 80 Delicious and Easy Recipes," and "The RealAge Makeover." His book, "YOU: The Owner's Manual," written with Health Corps founder Dr. Mehmet Oz, debuted in May 2005 and became a #1 New York Times bestseller. He coauthors a daily newspaper column with Dr. Oz and has initiated various wellness programs, including a farmer's market and smoking cessation programs, while advocating for exercise and healthy living.

Dr. Roizen continues to practice anesthesiology and internal medicine, using the RealAge metric to motivate his patients. He takes patients at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute who are struggling with tobacco, heart, diabetic, or arthritic problems, and coaches them with simple lifestyle changes to be able to live, feel, and look years younger. He is also known for criticizing politicians for misusing health funds and speculating about aging research breakthroughs.