Dr. Grethe Stoa Birketvedt MD, PhD is an internationally renowned speaker and author who spent her distinguished 30-year medical career devoted to appetite regulation focused on the gut-brain axis and treating overweight, obese and morbidly obese individuals. She was an attending physician at the prestigious Oslo University Hospital in the Department of Medicine, the Center of Bariatric surgery and Morbid Obesity. Additionally, Dr Birketvedt spent five years at the University of Pennsylvania as a Visiting Professor in the Weight and Eating Disorder program studying the Behavioral and Neuroendocrine characteristics of the Night Eating Syndrome (JAMA 1999). She spent an additional five years at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City studying Physician Acceptance of Point of Care Devices in Cardiovascular Risk Factor Management. She also studied the impact of the World Trade Center Disaster on Blood Pressure Level and Depression in a Primary Care Practice in a hospital in New York City. She has been a PI for several studies internationally and served as a supervisor for Medical Students in their 5 year projects and MD’s in their PhD doctoral thesis. Dr. Birketvedt’s doctoral dissertation entitled “The gut-brain axis in appetite regulation in treatment of obesity” is from the prestigious University Hospital of the Arctic where she is still an active researcher belonging to the Gastrointestinal and Nutritional group. She has published several books and Textbook chapters on the topic of weight loss and obesity including a textbook for General Practitioners and Medical students on how to prevent and treat obesity. Her latest book, sold in Norway, The Body in the Brain (Norwegian language) focuses on how to make behavioral adjustments by teaching the readers how the body hormonally interacts with the brain when losing weight.

Dr. Grethe Stoa Birketvedt's research is focused on Eating Disorders with special emphasize on obesity and target organ damages. Nutrition and appetite regulation, the gut brain axis and hormonal release of leptin, melatonin, ghrelin, cortisol and serotonin.