If you are having a medical emergency, stop reading and call your local emergency number — 911 in the United States, 999 in the UK, 112 across the EU. Do not use this website, and do not wait for a reply to an email. Chest pain, difficulty breathing, sudden weakness or numbness, confusion, and thoughts of harming yourself are all emergencies.
Last updated: 8 August 2026
This is education, not medical advice
Everything on drgily.com — the articles, the calculators, the apps described here — is general health information for the public. It is not medical advice, it is not a diagnosis, and it is not a treatment plan.
Medical advice is specific to one person. It takes account of your history, your examination, your medications, your test results and your circumstances. A website has none of that. However carefully written a general article is, it cannot know that you have kidney disease, or take warfarin, or are pregnant, or that your symptom means something different at your age than at someone else's.
Always consult your own physician or another qualified health professional before acting on anything you read here, particularly before starting or stopping a medication, beginning a new diet or exercise programme, or making decisions about a diagnosed condition. Never disregard professional medical advice, or delay seeking it, because of something you read on this site.
No physician-patient relationship
Reading this site, using its calculators, subscribing to the mailing list, or sending me a message does not create a physician-patient relationship between us. I am not your doctor.
This is why I do not answer personal medical questions by email — not reluctance, but the fact that answering them responsibly requires an examination, a history and a chart. Correspondence sent through this site is not part of any medical record and does not carry the protections that apply to one. There is more on that in the privacy policy.
About the calculators
The tools on this site are built on published, peer-reviewed equations, and each page names the equation it uses and explains why that one was chosen. That is more than most calculators do, and it is still not enough to make a result a clinical finding.
- Every estimate carries error. The Rockport equation has a standard error of about 5 ml/kg/min. Metabolic rate equations routinely differ from measured values by 10% or more in an individual. Height prediction is a genetic estimate with a range of several inches. Where a margin of error is known, the page states it — please read it.
- Population equations describe populations. They tell you what is typical for people resembling you on a few variables. You may legitimately sit outside that range without anything being wrong.
- Nutrient data is reference data. Food composition varies with variety, soil, season, storage and cooking. Database values are averages, not measurements of the food in front of you.
- Fitness tests carry physical risk. The walk tests ask for genuine exertion. If you have heart or lung disease, uncontrolled blood pressure, chest pain, or you have been inactive and are over 40, speak to your doctor before attempting them. Stop immediately for chest pain, severe breathlessness, dizziness or palpitations.
- Nothing here screens for or diagnoses disease. A reassuring number is not a clean bill of health, and a worrying one is not a diagnosis. Both are reasons to talk to your doctor, not to conclude anything.
Commercial interests, stated plainly
You should know where my incentives lie when you read what I write. I would rather tell you than have you find out.
- I own and profit from NutriRank and VitalFill, the two apps described on this site. Both are free to download with an optional paid subscription. When I recommend them, I have a financial interest in your doing so.
- I intend to sell digital guides — a Type 2 Diabetes Remission Guide and a 21 Days Biblical Diet Program — and this site collects email addresses partly in order to market them to people who ask.
- This site carries no advertising, takes no sponsorship, and has no affiliate arrangements. No company pays me to mention its product, and no product is featured because of a commercial relationship.
- I take no payment from supplement manufacturers, which is worth saying given how much I write about supplements — and given that what I write is largely unfavourable to them.
Where an article recommends one of my own products, it says so in the article. I have tried throughout to make the free version genuinely useful rather than crippled, and to say plainly what the paid version adds.
Accuracy and currency
Articles are referenced, and where a claim rests on a study, the citation is there so you can check it yourself. Every article shows when it was published and when it was last revised.
Medicine changes. Several articles here were first written a decade ago and have been substantially rewritten because the evidence moved — in at least one case, reversing advice I previously gave. Where that has happened I say so in the article rather than quietly editing the text. But no site can guarantee that every page reflects the very latest evidence at the moment you read it, and older content may have been overtaken.
If you spot something wrong or out of date, please tell me. Corrections are welcome and I act on them.
External links
This site links to journals, government agencies, professional bodies and app stores. Those links are provided because they are useful; they are not endorsements of everything on the destination site, and I have no control over their content, accuracy or privacy practices.
Limitation of liability
This site is provided on an “as is” basis, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including as to accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose, or uninterrupted availability.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Gily Ionescu and Dr Gily's Health Solutions LLC accept no liability for any loss, injury or damage arising from use of, or reliance on, anything on this site. You use the information and the tools at your own discretion and risk.
Nothing here limits liability for anything that cannot lawfully be excluded.
Copyright
The articles, tools and design are © Gily Ionescu, MS MD, all rights reserved. You are welcome to link to any page, quote briefly with attribution, and print pages for personal or educational use. Republishing articles in full, or reproducing the tools, requires written permission — just ask.
Food composition data is from the USDA National Nutrient Database, physical activity values are from the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities (pacompendium.com), and nutrient reference values are from the National Academies' Dietary Reference Intakes. Those sources are cited on the pages that use them.
Governing law
This site is operated from the United States and these terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Hampshire, without regard to conflict of law principles.