Shilpa Ravella is a gastroenterologist and author. She treats a range of general gastrointestinal ailments and has unique experience in managing complex rare diseases, including intestinal failure and intestinal or multiple-organ transplantation. She is an expert in the field of nutrition and is particularly interested in the interactions between lifestyle, the microbiome and the immune system.

A Silent Fire: The Story of Inflammation, Diet & Disease (W.W. Norton) is her debut book. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, TIME, Salon, Discover and USA Today, among other publications. She has appeared as an expert on national media, including ABC’s Good Morning America and NPR, and in print media outlets, including The Telegraph, CBS, The Times, New Scientist, Nature, Forbes, The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, Food and Wine and Glamour. Her Ted-Ed lesson, ‘How the Food You Eat Affects Your Gut,’ has garnered over six million views. Ravella earned her B.S. in Biology from MIT and an M.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. She holds an adjunct faculty appointment at Columbia University Medical Center and splits her time between mainland and Hawai’i Island, a “blue zone” where she works in rural healthcare.