Carlon M. Colker (born June 21, 1965) is an American physician and celebrity doctor, whose practice specialties include internal medicine, integrative medicine, medical nutrition and applied nutritional science, sports medicine, human performance, injury rehabilitation, and longevity medicine. Colker is a former champion bodybuilder, powerlifter, and MMA fighter and coach. Colker has appeared as a medical correspondent on Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends. Colker has appeared on such shows as The View, The Today Show, ESPN Outside the Lines, NBC's Health Segment, Court TV, Bloomberg TV, and ABC's World News Tonight, offering medical advice.
Colker is also a contributing editor and columnist in the health and fitness press for such popular publications as Muscle and Fitness, Muscular Development, Flex, and Ironman magazines.
He is the founder of Peak Wellness, Inc., a private practice and consulting company in Greenwich, Connecticut, and was the chief medical officer and executive vice president for the dietary supplement company Atlas Therapeutics (doing business as MYOS Corp.).
Colker is an industry consultant and clinical researcher. As a published clinical researcher authoring a number of journal publications, Colker is also credited with numerous lay-press articles and books. He has served as board member, product developer, and/or spokesman for other companies including Microsoft, Hanes, Nielsen Corporation, Summit International (KK), American Media, GNC, Health Sciences (HESG—Chairman Scientific Advisory Board), LifeVantage, Atlas Therapeutics, ITV Ventures, Cytodyne Technologies, Muscletech Research and Development, Metabolife International Vital Basics, FairwayMarkets, R Baby Foundation.
In addition to his career as a physician, Colker is a supporter of, and active participant in, law enforcement.
Early life Colker was born to parents of Ukrainian Jewish descent. His father, Edward Colker, was a graduate of New York University, a lithographer, a maker of rare hand-bound books, and a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient. His mother, Elaine Galen, was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and an abstract painter.
Colker received his medical degree from Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. He received residency training in internal medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, New York.
Career In 1996, Colker was employed first at Park Avenue Medical Nutrition and then later that year, by Affiliated Physicians, both located in New York City. In January 1996 he established Peak Wellness, a company with locations in Greenwich, Connecticut and Beverly Hills, California that provides integrative medical services. Colker is an affiliate of Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut. and is an attending physician in the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in New York City. Colker also serves as a faculty member (clinical assistant professor of medicine in neurology) at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.
In 2000, American snowboarder Chris Klug received a liver transplant and with the assistance of Colker as his personal physician and performance training coach, in 2002 Klug became the world's first transplant recipient to compete in the Olympics, winning a bronze medal in parallel giant slalom.
May 20, 2003, Colker appeared on ESPN's "Outside the Lines” leading with a report on the death of teenager Sean Riggins from a heart attack caused by his use of ephedra, followed by a panel discussion with Colker and UNC Wilmington Health Coordinator Mike Perko.
In 2005 Colker published his first of three additions of the bodybuilding epitome Extreme Muscle Enhancement: Bodybuilding's Most Powerful Techniques, with 8-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman commenting that Colker's book is “…the first book that reveals the real mass building secrets of bodybuilding’s top pros. In fact many of the techniques in this masterpiece are the same ones that I've used to win 8 Mr. Olympia titles".
In 2006, Colker began training and coaching UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. On December 27, 2008, for a key comeback at UFC 92, Jackson faced Wanderlei Silva who remains the only fighter to defeat Jackson twice, both in an impressive knockout fashion. UFC 92 would see Jackson avenge his losses, knocking out Silva with a vicious left hand.
In 2007, NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal has had a long and well publicized association with Colker stating "Carlon Colker, a guy I used to work out with. A guy that helped me win championships." In 2007 Colker, physician and trainer, appeared alongside Shaq on the ABC reality TV program Shaq's Big Challenge. The premise of the show was to use proper diet and exercise to turn around the unhealthy eating and lifestyle habits that led six school-age kids to morbid obesity. Shaq's long-time "personal physician and trainer", Colker served as the shows "medical advisor" for the series as set out "…to attack the ongoing obesity epidemic among children and help promote health and fitness over the gamut of American kids." Described as Shaq's "right hand guy", even into retirement, Shaq continues to work with Colker well into retirement, stating "Back with Carlon Colker, M.D. again, my personal physician and trainer of nearly 20 yrs!" As reported in the December 2007 issue of the Holtz Report, "medical advisor" for Shaq's Big Challenge, Colker gave his take on childhood obesity stating, "It's a problem. We've got to do something about it. It's systemic. It's epidemic. It's a disaster. And we've got to intervene. It's part of our school system, with the school lunches, as we showed. It's the fast-food businesses and those kinds of organizations coming in and sprinkling their fish food around the schools and trying to poison our children. That may sound harsh to say, but that's just what I believe. When there's cookies and soda and all sorts of stuff that's cheap and accessible to these kids, they're going to eat it. It doesn't have to be this way, but we have to hold everybody to task on this. There's no reason we shouldn't have physical education in every school system for every child."
Immersed in mixed martial arts (MMA) as both participant and coach Colker has helped a number of MMA stars excel. In 2008, former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson enlisted Colker's help in his preparation for UFC 92. Colker was also the longtime personal physician, cornerman, and training partner for former UFC middleweight Champion Frank Shamrock, under which Colker is a Shamrock Instructor.
In May 2007, Sports Illustrated Senior Staff Writer Jon Werthheimm interviewed and quoted Colker as claiming that MMA athletes are "the best athletes in sports".
In 2008 preparation for UFC 83 Colker treated former 2x UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre in preparation for his successful rematch against Matt Serra in which he reclaimed the championship. Since 2008, UFC fighter Mike Dolce has been training with Colker. Among other MMA fighters, Colker has trained are welterweight Neiman Gracie and heavyweight Daniel Gracie.
In May 2008, for the Children's Aid Society and Boys and Girls Club of America, "Former Supermodel and mother of three, Christie Brinkley, and celebrity physician Dr. Carlon Colker" were teamed up by Microsoft (makers of Xbox 360) as spokesmen "to promote healthy and active lifestyles for children and families". Colker and Brinkley hosted the inaugural National Family Fitness Day (a now annual event "designed to promote healthy and active lifestyles for children and families").
In October 2010, Colker narrated the award-winning documentary Lunch, a film by Avis Richards, which explored the effects of the National School Lunch Program on America's children in schools in order to shed light on the current situation through candid interviews with doctors, teachers, farmers and various specialists.
In February 2011, Colker served as chief medical officer and executive vice president of Atlas Therapeutics Corp. (OTCBB: ATTH; formerly Marvin's Place, Inc.; dba MYOS Corp. as of May 2012; OTCBB:MYOS.
In June 2011 Wayne Gretzky, a proponent of Colker's MYO-T12 muscle building product, stated "I am hopeful that the product will help a lot of guys who are trying to find a natural and safe way to feel young and to stay active and fit despite their age ... including me". According to Consumer Reports, Gretzky said he takes Colker's product every morning. In June 2012, Colker resigned his position and became a member of the company's scientific advisory board. In 2008, it was announced that Colker would be serving on the advisory board of the multi-level marketing company LifeVantage. In 2005, Colker was named as head of the scientific advisory board of the dietary supplement company Health Sciences Group (OTCBB:HESG), and in 2006 the company announced that Colker would be assisting in the formulation of the supplement product Sequestrol. Colker was also a product developer and spokesperson for the dietary supplement Lipistat, marketed by ITV Ventures.
In December 2012, working with the Taylor Hooton Foundation to dissuade performance-enhancing drug abuse among school-age athletes, Colker publicly stated his position on the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs and how he is firmly against it. While underscoring the need in patients with medical necessity, Colker described in detail how he is against the abuse and misuse of these drugs.
In 2013, after more than a decade working with tennis legend, career grand slam and Olympic gold medalist Andre Agassi, Colker reunited with Agassi to promote Agassi's BILT line of exercise equipment, stating about Colker "You've seen it from the beginning you've been there in the trenches when I was out there on the court".
In 2014, Bradley Cooper enlisted the help of Colker for his iconic transformation into Chris Kyle for his role in American Sniper. Cooper stated "The transformation had to be completed quickly, in about three months' time, before filming began. "It was a heavily regulated regimen," Cooper told the Navy Times. "I had a goal of 30 pounds of muscle. Not bodybuilding, but to be like Chris. He was a very big, thick, strong man."
In 2015, for his Avengers role as Ant-man, actor Paul Rudd enlisted the help of Colker for his nutrition. "He hired the famous nutritionist Carlon Colker to help him with the perfect diet. As we know, the nearly 50 years old actor did very well."
In 2016 NBA All-Star Kristaps Porzingis began working with Colker during his rookie campaign when his older brother and agent, Janis Porzingis, contacted Colker "in hopes of finding answers that weren't arriving elsewhere". Janis referred to Colker as "the craftsman". Porzingis was laboring through, among other ailments, a painful shoulder that forced him out of the final seven games. Colker became "the power forward's personal physician and trainer". In a New York Daily News article on December 20, 2017, Colker himself acknowledged his "controversial" methods "Colker says his strategy of using squats to build up strength in big men – which he also utilized with Shaquille O'Neal – is considered taboo in the industry." Colker himself was quoted as saying "My perspectives are unusual, my methods are novel, and my techniques are unique. That doesn't come without a price. When one lone beast raises his head to takestock of a situation, turns and goes a different direction, it draws the ire of the herd." It was into his rookie season that Kristaps gave himself over to Colker's methods, seeing the results first-hand. As Kristaps put it, "That's where I gained so much trust in him." Aftera year of working with Colker, Kristaps was named an NBA All-Star for the first time in his career.