Augmented Wellness

Surgery as the Last Tool: Dr. Cesar Ceballos on Mobility and Recovery

Betterness — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 21:53:27 -0400

What changes when the surgeon has experienced the pain and recovery that patients face?

Dr. Cesar Ceballos, orthopedic surgeon, sports medicine specialist and co-founder of OrthoMiami, joins Demian Bellumio on Augmented Wellness. He shares his path from a young athlete in Miami to medicine, how his own injuries shaped his approach to care, and why he considers surgery the last tool in the toolbox.

The conversation explores the mental toll of losing mobility, rehabilitation between appointments, needle arthroscopy, and questions surrounding regenerative treatments. Demian also demonstrates Betterness’s patent-pending padel technology, an early watch-based tracking prototype, opening a discussion about the context everyday activity data might add to conversations about recovery.

The prototype readings were not independently validated. Plans discussed in the recording are not announcements of current product availability. Clinical experiences and recalled outcomes are attributed to the speakers, not presented as independently verified research findings.

This conversation is for education and discussion, not individual medical advice. Guests describe their experiences and opinions. Treatment evidence, eligibility and regulatory status vary. State-law provisions do not establish FDA approval or clinical effectiveness. Discuss personal care decisions with a qualified clinician.

Hosted by Demian Bellumio. Recorded at The LAB Miami. On-site production by Podcast Studio Miami. Produced by Betterness.

Production note: the brief opening court animation and announcer voice are AI-generated. The interview footage and conversation are real.

Chapters

00:00 — Surgery, empathy and an early padel technology demo
01:07 — Meet Dr. Cesar Ceballos
02:30 — From a Miami athlete to medicine
07:35 — How being a patient shaped his care
10:32 — Mobility, pain and mental health
12:31 — Choosing the right treatment
13:43 — AI and the time between appointments
16:08 — Regenerative medicine: promise and limits
19:58 — A conversation about preventive orthopedics
24:14 — Florida's rules and treatment questions
27:17 — Understanding needle arthroscopy
31:35 — OrthoMiami and an increasingly active city
34:12 — The changing role of the physician
35:28 — An early watch-based padel tracking demo
41:16 — Looking ahead: recovery, data and care

Music Is the Hidden Therapist | Dr. Michelle Weiner on Ketamine & Whole-Person Care

Betterness — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 16:58:46 -0400

What happens when we stop treating the medicine as the entire treatment?

Dr. Michelle Weiner joins Demian Bellumio for a personal conversation about pain, ketamine-assisted therapy (KAT), cannabis, music, and integration. Michelle is Demian's physician and friend; Demian previously co-founded Nue Life. Their shared interest in accessible, whole-person care runs through the episode.

We begin with Michelle's upbringing and route into medicine, then explore why pain care led her beyond procedures alone. We revisit Nue Life, preparation and environment, music as the "hidden therapist," and the vibrating, music-responsive bed she uses in her practice.

In the show-and-tell, Demian demonstrates a Betterness session interface connecting a heart-rate timeline, recognized songs, and voice notes. No ketamine was taken during this demonstration. Consumer tracking is not clinical monitoring and does not establish treatment safety. Product availability discussed reflects the recording date, September 8, 2026.

The conversation also covers cannabis, provider training, and questions facing psychedelic research. Personal experiences, clinical opinions, recalled figures and forecasts should not be treated as established evidence or guarantees. Treatment responses vary.

Watch and explore the episode: Full episode, transcript and six clips. The demonstration includes a visual timeline and playlist; the video is also available at YouTube.

Chapters
00:00 Cold open: music, pain and whole-person care
00:46 Augmented Wellness
01:02 Welcome and a shared mission
02:23 Growing up: movement, nutrition and medicine
05:28 Moving beyond pain procedures
12:19 Nue Life and expanding access
14:34 Ketamine: what changed in clinical practice
18:37 Preparation, setting and integration
19:29 Music as the hidden therapist
20:53 Comparing psychedelic medicines
28:31 The next wave of psychedelic care
33:03 Why Nue Life built a music service
36:36 Show and tell: KAT, music and voice notes
40:51 The vibrating bed and feeling safe
44:56 Cannabis and different tools
47:22 Safety and provider training
48:39 Psychedelic experience and pharmaceutical research
51:02 The body–brain connection

Guest: Dr. Michelle Weiner. Hosted and produced by Demian Bellumio; recorded at The LAB Miami. AI-assisted post-production with Codex, DaVinci Resolve and ElevenLabs.

Educational conversation, not medical advice. Do not start, stop or combine treatments based on this episode. Discuss options and risks with a qualified clinician. Personal experiences, clinical opinions, recalled figures and forecasts are not verified findings or guarantees.

Listen on Spotify. Watch and explore the full episode, transcript and six clips.

Also available on Amazon Music.

Listen on Apple Podcasts.

P3RSONAL Spotlight: personalized training beyond the studio

Betterness — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:12:56 -0400

What if personalized training did not stop when you left the studio?

In the first Augmented Wellness Spotlight, Demian Bellumio sits down with Diego Duhour, Dean West, and Hugo Videla from P3RSONAL, a longevity and health-optimization fitness studio in Brickell, Miami.

They explore how P3RSONAL gives up to six members individualized programming inside a shared session, why the workout is only one part of the outcome, and what coaches need to understand about nutrition, recovery, biomarkers, wearables, and activity beyond the studio.

The conversation then moves from the operating challenge to a working partnership: how P3RSONAL and Betterness are connecting member context, preferred data sources, outside workouts, lab insights, and coach-authored plans without taking judgment away from the coach.

Watch the full conversation:
YouTube

Explore:
Augmented Wellness
Betterness
P3RSONAL

Chapters
00:00 Share the coach, not the workout
00:51 Augmented Wellness Spotlight
02:28 Meet the P3RSONAL founders
07:06 Why P3RSONAL needed a different model
11:20 Share the coach, personalize the workout
12:37 How coaches prepare every session
16:17 The other 98% of a client's life
17:55 Training, longevity, and life after 40
21:38 Supporting habits outside the studio
25:33 Scaling a high-quality wellness business
27:08 Betterness in practice
27:19 Choosing the right wearable for each metric
29:41 Nutrition in context
32:06 Connecting food, wearables, and biomarkers
33:00 Calendar and location-aware choices
33:43 Outdoor activity and the cycling map
36:31 The partner view of shared client data
37:08 Building a coach-controlled plan
40:06 P3RSONAL reacts to the partnership
41:10 Helping partners help more people

Augmented Wellness Spotlight is produced by Betterness. This conversation is educational and does not replace medical advice from a qualified clinician.

Eduardo della Maggiora: from overworked banker to Ironman and social unicorn

Betterness — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 10:12:30 -0400

Eduardo della Maggiora left a successful investment-banking career, moved to Africa, rebuilt himself through endurance sport, and went on to found Betterfly around a provocative idea: healthier behavior can create financial protection and social impact.

In Episode 006 of Augmented Wellness, Eduardo joins Demian Bellumio to explore the family event that changed his definition of success, the operating principles shared by Ironman and company-building, Betterfly's expansion, and the personal AI system he now uses to learn from twelve years of training and health history.

Watch, read, and explore the episode:
betterness.ai/augmentedwellness/006-eduardo-della-maggiora

Build the companion:
Ironman Brain is an open-source, Obsidian-first system for combining personal context with permissioned workout, wearable, sleep, body-composition, biomarker, and lab data through the Betterness MCP.

Chapters
00:00 Preview
00:51 Augmented Wellness
01:03 Meet Eduardo della Maggiora
02:15 Chile, New York, and a first passion for sport
03:29 The family event that changed his path
05:01 Fifteen years at J.P. Morgan
05:48 Leaving banking for Africa
14:46 How Betterfly began
22:59 Life insurance that grows with healthier behavior
27:45 Building a social unicorn
28:25 Minu, Mexico, and Betterfly's expansion
31:10 From overworked banker to elite Ironman
33:20 Why building a company is an Ironman
35:14 The biggest results arrive after you want to quit
43:55 Building a local Obsidian brain
44:59 Arnold: an agent trained on twelve years of his life
48:49 Medicine, averages, and the n-of-one
49:33 Technology, personalization, and Betterness

Augmented Wellness is produced by Betterness with support from Betterness One agents. This conversation is for education and inspiration and is not medical advice.

Dr. Stephen Nimer: the future of cancer care starts with listening

Betterness — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 09:01:48 -0400

Dr. Stephen Nimer leads Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and has spent his career studying cancer, caring for patients, and building teams capable of moving research into practice.

In Episode 005 of Augmented Wellness, he joins Demian Bellumio to discuss the mentors who led him into leukemia research, what it takes to lead an NCI-designated cancer center, survivorship and wellness, pancreatic cancer, AI-assisted drug discovery, patient-reported outcomes, and why medicine still begins with listening.

Their cycling connection makes the Dolphins Cancer Challenge personal. Dr. Nimer explains what community support makes possible at Sylvester and why progress against cancer will require cures, plural.

Explore the full episode: https://betterness.ai/augmentedwellness/005-stephen-nimer

Build with the episode: DCC Research Navigator

Chapters
00:00 Cancer care, recovery, and the patient
00:30 Augmented Wellness with Dr. Stephen Nimer
00:45 Dr. Nimer's story
03:55 The mentor who led him to leukemia
11:29 Why choose cancer medicine
14:51 Leading Sylvester at scale
16:21 Cancer survivorship and wellness
22:10 The Dolphins Cancer Challenge, cycling, and recovery
27:17 What is changing in cancer treatment
31:16 Why pancreatic cancer is so difficult
33:50 AI, patient data, and clinical research
37:00 The doctor's first role is to listen
39:42 A live conversation with Bett-i
44:36 What patients tell technology
46:13 Closing the conversation
46:34 Making DCC-supported research easier to explore

Produced by Demian Bellumio with support from Betterness One agents. Recorded at The LAB Miami; on-site production by Podcast Studio Miami.

This conversation is educational and does not replace medical advice from a qualified clinician.

Dr. Rabin Rahmani: from wartime Iran to Brooklyn — and where AI can give doctors time back

Betterness — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:10:47 -0400

Dr. Rabin Rahmani grew up in Iran during war, left as a child, became a gastroenterologist, and helped build one of Brooklyn's largest GI practices. He joins Demian Bellumio to talk about resilience, medical entrepreneurship, and where AI can give doctors time back without pretending to replace them.

The conversation moves through endoscopic innovation, AI-assisted polyp detection, colon-cancer prevention, fatty liver, the microbiome, biomarkers, protein, fiber, GLP-1s, IBS, IBD, and EPI. The final section brings a Bett-i nutrition agent into the room for a live research question.

Watch, read, and build
Episode page: betterness.ai/augmentedwellness/004-rabin-rahmani
Build the Digestive Health Context Interviewer
Connect your permissioned health data at betterness.ai

Chapters
00:00 Cold open
00:42 Augmented Wellness
00:58 Meet Dr. Rabin Rahmani
01:17 Growing up in Iran and coming to America
05:49 Why medicine and gastroenterology
08:36 Building a Brooklyn medical practice
13:51 Where physicians need AI
15:14 Doctors as educators
18:11 GI innovation and colon-cancer prevention
22:11 Fatty liver, microbiome, and personalized care
30:21 Biomarkers, normal ranges, and patterns
34:27 Protein, fiber, and nutrition
37:31 GLP-1s: promise, misuse, and unknowns
40:09 IBS, IBD, and EPI
42:47 Live agent research
45:18 Practical foundations for gut health
47:58 Outro

Guest
Dr. Rahmani is a board-certified gastroenterologist and the Medical Director of Gastroenterology Associates of Brooklyn and Brooklyn Endoscopy Center. He is also an investor in Betterness.
Practice: Gastroenterology Associates of Brooklyn
Instagram: @gastrobrooklyn
X: @GastroDoctors

About Augmented Wellness
Augmented Wellness is where we meet the people in pursuit of better: founders, doctors, researchers, coaches, and healers building at the edge of health and AI. Every episode leaves a public system you can use and make your own.

This conversation is educational and is not medical advice. Discuss personal symptoms, screening, medications, and treatment decisions with a qualified clinician.

Dr. Lloyd Camper: stop waiting for the warning light — build your healthspan baseline

Betterness — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 12:42:22 -0400

Dr. Lloyd Camper joins Augmented Wellness for a practical conversation about longevity, sports medicine, Cenegenics, and what it means to build a real healthspan baseline before the warning light comes on.

Lloyd is a board-certified family medicine and sports medicine physician, a former collegiate athlete, a longevity physician with Cenegenics, and an advisor to Betterness. We talk about exercise as medicine, why traditional care often begins only when something is already wrong, how blood work, DEXA, VO2 max, recovery, and habits fit together, and how Bett-i can help make health data easier to organize before a clinician visit.

This episode includes a live look at Demian's own DEXA and VO2 max reports as an example of how a doctor and a personal AI agent can turn scattered health data into better questions.

We also turn the episode into a public artifact: a Healthspan AI Interviewer. It is a markdown system you can use with Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, a local agent, or any LLM to organize goals, history, reports, labs, DEXA, VO2 max, habits, recovery, and clinician questions before a visit. Connect Betterness when you want that context enriched by permissioned labs, reports, wearables, goals, and lifestyle data.

Full episode page: betterness.ai/augmentedwellness/003-lloyd-camper

Build the artifact: Healthspan AI Interviewer

Chapters
(00:00) Welcome to Augmented Wellness
(01:30) Meet Dr. Lloyd Camper
(02:56) Exercise as medicine
(04:47) Longevity, executives, and Cenegenics
(07:53) The gas-tank model of health
(12:11) Blood work: you don't know what you don't know
(14:07) AI, labs, and why context still matters
(16:11) MRI, genetics, and too much information
(20:14) Regenerative medicine, PRP, and stem cells
(26:42) DEXA and VO2 max: fuel and engine
(28:23) Bett-i reviews Demian's data
(37:39) Improving VO2 max safely
(40:47) The plan you can follow for years
(44:04) Cold plunge timing and recovery nuance

Where to find Betterness
Web: betterness.ai
Instagram: @betterness.ai
X: @betterness_ai

Disclaimer: nothing in this episode is medical advice. Use this conversation for education and work with a qualified clinician for personal medical decisions.

Ulisses Abbud: recovery is not the reward — it is the adaptation mechanism

Betterness — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:31:06 -0400

Ulisses Abbud spent 13 years competing as a professional cyclist. Today he is a high-performance coach, researcher, endurance athlete, and physiology thinker working with athletes, executives, and people trying to understand how performance and longevity actually work.

In Episode 002 of Augmented Wellness, we go deep on recovery: why it is not a luxury, why it is not the reward, and why it may be the missing operating system for founders, executives, and anyone whose mind never really shuts down. We talk about HRV, cortisol, resting heart rate, overtraining, metabolism, nutrition, gravel cycling, Girona training camps, community, and the difference between training from fear and training from love.

We also turn the episode into a public artifact: a Cycling + Recovery AI Interviewer. It is a markdown system you can use with Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, a local agent, or any LLM to understand the person behind the training data before reacting to HRV, sleep, fatigue, or training load. Connect Betterness when you want that context enriched by permissioned wearable, training, lab, goal, and lifestyle data.

Full episode page: betterness.ai/augmentedwellness/002-ulisses-abbud

Build the artifact: Cycling + Recovery AI Interviewer

Chapters
(00:00) Cold open: recovery, longevity, HRV, and the agent
(01:01) Brand reveal: Augmented Wellness
(01:20) Meet Ulisses Abbud
(02:45) From professional cycling to riding for love
(04:13) Thirteen years as a pro cyclist
(05:24) Road, gravel, speed, risk, and why gravel feels different
(10:22) The diet trap: why eating less can make the body hold on
(12:12) From engineering to physiology
(14:21) Breathing, HRV, and simple nervous-system tools
(15:53) Why executives think like athletes but skip recovery
(18:54) Chronic sympathetic mode: the founder and vibe-coding problem
(21:09) Recovery is not the reward — it is an adaptation mechanism
(24:13) Cortisol, HRV, resting heart rate, and overtraining signals
(26:13) Longevity: dying young as late as possible
(28:38) Bett-i turns known basics into daily action
(33:56) Girona training camp, stress with intention, and community
(38:22) Recovery routines: cold plunge, sauna, yoga, reading, and mental shutdown
(40:40) Live demo: a breathwork agent reads Demian's HRV
(45:19) Final advice: routine, nutrition, breathing, and sleep

Where to find Betterness
Web: betterness.ai
Instagram: @betterness.ai
X: @betterness_ai

Disclaimer: nothing in this episode is medical advice. This is educational conversation about training, recovery, HRV, breathwork, nutrition, and longevity. Work with qualified professionals for personal health decisions.

Martin Varsavsky: building an AI that aims to pass the FDA — and a genuinely full life

Betterness — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 14:35:16 -0400

Martin Varsavsky has founded six unicorns over 35 years — across telecom, fertility, and now medical AI. In Episode 001 he walks through Certuma — his bid to build an AI physician that earns regulatory trust rather than routing around it, with the stated goal of passing the FDA and a doctor kept in the loop (it is not approved today). He explains how he closed a $10M seed round with AI as his only co-founder, why he cycles 14 hours a week at 66, and how he built "Pedro," a disclosed AI version of himself that posts on his X timeline. We turn it into BetterX: a public, guarded social-autopilot starter kit you can fork.

What runs through it: that AI can legally extend a doctor's knowledge to make care more accessible — Martin's bet with Certuma, on the path to FDA approval with a physician always in the loop — and that an AI trained on you for long enough starts to become you (his disclosed persona "Pedro," two months in the making). Underneath both: risk is relative once you've faced the real thing.

Build the artifact: BetterX — a guarded social-autopilot starter kit (forks with autonomy OFF by default and a review queue, so nothing posts without you).

Full episode page: betterness.ai/augmentedwellness/001-martin-varsavsky

Chapters
(00:00) Welcome to Augmented Wellness — and why Martin is guest #1
(00:56) Origin story: a hard first 25 years in Argentina and 1970s–80s New York
(04:11) The bank that rejected him for a job — then handed him a $9M loan
(05:20) Real estate, pre-money valuations, and rezoning Tribeca lofts
(10:00) A full life across many homes — buying for beauty, not business
(19:30) GLP-1s and Mounjaro: what he takes, why, and where the science stops
(22:32) Cycling at 66 — 14 hours a week, no fractures, and the discipline
(25:53) Building his own app: "U versus U," watts, and racing himself since 2010
(32:04) Data as motivation: Garmin over Apple, audio cues, a radar that talks
(34:00) Certuma: raising a seed round with AI as his only co-founder
(39:50) Certuma Link and Fast Doctor: an agentic doctor, with a human in the loop
(45:02) Pedro: cloning his own voice on X, and what "authorship" means now

Where to find Martin
X: @martinvars
Website: english.martinvarsavsky.net
LinkedIn: /in/martinvarsavsky
Instagram: @martinvars

From Betterness
X: @betterness_ai
Instagram: @betterness.ai
YouTube: @betterness_ai

Credits. Produced by Demian Bellumio with the support of agents from Betterness One — the agentic studio inside Betterness — including specialist agents for content, design, video, photography, insights, brand, and social, coordinated by Bett-i. Recorded at The LAB Miami; on-site production by Podcast Studio Miami.

Made by Betterness. Bett-i — a personal wellness AI, a team of specialist agents tuned to help you live better (Men's Fitness asked if it's “the most ambitious AI health product ever built”). Betterness One — for the businesses doing the helping: one of wellness's most comprehensive analytics platforms and the agentic studio that turns that view into action, seeing and doing in one place. You meet Bett-i live each episode; Betterness One's agents produce the show end to end. Collaborate: partners@betterness.ai

Disclaimer: nothing in this episode is medical advice. Certuma's FDA approval is a stated goal, not a current status, and it operates with a physician in the loop. Opinions are Martin's own.