The Beginning
In early 2020, I began suffering from chronic fatigue. I found myself getting winded just walking to my car in the morning. My symptoms progressively got worse and worse. Getting out of bed became a struggle. I could easily sleep for 19 to 20 hours a day.
I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on medical bills, visiting some of the best doctors in the country. Every promising diagnosis that gave me hope eventually led to a dead end. Every visit to a doctor or specialist started to feel like Groundhog Day. I was taking the same tests and trying the same solutions over and over again. Eventually, it became clear that I had only two options: I could spend the rest of my life in misery, or I could figure it out myself.
Finding a Pattern
The only thing I was certain of about my fatigue was that it was variable. Some days were completely debilitating, while others felt like mild sleepiness. Because of that variability, I was confident there was something in my daily routine either causing or exacerbating the problem.
My background is in tech, and I knew technology was the only realistic way I was going to figure it out. I started with a spreadsheet and tracked my daily routine, what I ate, what I drank, how much I slept, my exercise, everything I could think of. It quickly became clear there were too many variables. A typical meal might contain 40+ nutrients, vitamins, and additives. All possible culprits. The more data I added, the less clear anything became.
That's Where AI Came In
Since 2022, I've watched AI's progress with wide eyes. What stood out to me most was its ability to recognize patterns, especially patterns too complex for a human to see. I formulated a plan. I would turn my spreadsheet into a health tracker and run it through AI to see if it could find any possible correlations. I trained the AI to compare what I ate, when I ate it, how much I slept, how active I was, and how severe my symptoms were afterward. It didn't just look for obvious triggers, it looked for repeated patterns across weeks and months.
What kept showing up was sugar.
Not just large amounts of sugar, but even relatively small increases. Days where my sugar intake was higher, sometimes only slightly higher, were consistently followed by worse fatigue. Even more telling was the timing. When I consumed sugar earlier in the day, my symptoms would often spike hours later, long after I would have made the connection myself.
This wasn't something I ever would have caught manually. It seemed like a long shot, but it was the first real answer I had gotten in years.
A Real Answer
I cut sugar completely out of my diet. It wasn't easy. Sugar is everywhere. It's in bread, fruit, vegetables; often in amounts that don't seem significant. But within about a week, I noticed a drastic improvement.
For the first time in years, I started to feel normal again.
That didn't mean everything was suddenly perfect. Avoiding sugar turned out to be its own challenge, and staying consistent required constant awareness. But the difference is undeniable.
A Bigger Question
Once I realized what had helped me, I started asking a bigger question: how many other people were struggling the same way I was?
I began researching chronic health conditions and quickly realized the scale of the problem. Hundreds of millions of people around the world are dealing with symptoms that doctors can't fully explain. Fatigue, pain, brain fog, digestive issues, often cycling through tests and treatments without clear answers. What struck me was how familiar their stories sounded.
That's when it clicked. What I had built for myself didn't have to be just for me.
Building TakeCare
I started turning my personal tracker into something more robust. Something that didn't just log data, but actually helped people understand it. That's what led to TakeCare.
As it evolved, TakeCare naturally became more than a tracker. It became a complete health companion. One that combines detailed tracking, AI-driven pattern analysis, and personalized health coaching. The goal was to give people ongoing, 24/7 guidance tailored to them.
The health app I wish I had years ago.