Dr. Mark Kelly, Author at MedFitNetwork

What is a Systems Approach? Use It to Train Others and Yourself

Dr. Mark Kelly/23 May 2022/ All MFN blog/

When I was in graduate school I discovered in my readings, the differences between open-loop systems and closed-loop systems approach. I fell in love with the Open-loop systems descriptions in business and how it contrasted with the closed-loop. In this blog, I will explain what these systems are and how you likely operate in both but you need to invite the open-loop systems into your practice and perhaps your own training.

A closed-loop system is as you might think — closed to the influence and energy of outside sources. While this seems efficient, in the long run- it is not. A closed-loop system is similar to the thermostat in your living space. The temperature goes down, it is detected by a thermometer. This is sent to an “integration center” which processes the information and sends a signal to an “effector” which would be a heater or air conditioner to “turn on” or not. In training, this might be where you train someone and they begin to get stronger with weights. Say you have them doing a bench press between 8 and 15 repetitions. Once they can do 15 reps easily, you “raise the weight” and they no longer can do. Job done… or is it?

In an open-loop system, there is “new energy” coming in and adaptations must take place. So when a tree is growing there is a normal system, where leaves go through photosynthesis, they make glucose and oxygen from carbon dioxide and water they provide energy to the plant and everything is “honkey-dory”…or is it?

Actually, the leaves that were getting a high amount of light send a signal to the integrating center, and the leaves that were getting very low light also send a signal to the integrating center. The tree adjusts its growing pattern to maximize the light pattern. It was capable of adaptation. It was capable of pulling in new positive energy and adjusting the system to accommodate it, thus survive.

Our bones must constantly have new incoming stimulus to grow or even “stick around” especially in older age. The natural process of the bones is to “lose mineral density” but by introducing new stimulus and the proper nutrients, you can maintain or even grow bone mass.

To develop a system, you must include all 3 aspects of the homeostasis cycle. You must do an assessment to understand the current state of the client. This is a receptor or detector. If you don’t have a good assessment system that is understood by the integration center, then the system is broken. If you do not understand the scientific background, then you as a trainer, are not a good integration center. Finally the effector. In the case of this analogy, the effector is exercise. Exercise will change the stimulus to the bone, thus it “effects” the result.

In my Osteoporosis Fitness Specialist online course, I provide a comprehensive assessment system using the ABCDEFF. It assesses someone’s agility, balance, coordination, dexterity, endurance, force, and flexibility. Throw in someone’s bone density (T-score) and if they have broken a bone, as well as a nutritional and medical intake and you have a really good picture of your client’s status. From there, a solid education on bone physiology and how exercise influences bone physiology sets up the integration center. Finally, the exercise programs are highly adaptive to not only the location (gym, home, or park) but the level (1-4). Thus, great adaptability exists to allow new energy to flow into the system.

Webinar with Mark Kelly: Kick Some ‘Ass’essments!

Assessments… most trainers are scared of this word, and many clients don’t want to go through them. A good assessment should not be feared, and actually it should be embraced because it may give critical information to guide your training program. What if you went to the medical doctor and he or she just guessed at what you might have, and then gave you a drug or wanted to do surgery on you! You would think they are crazy! Why should setting up a training program be any different, especially for someone with a medical condition.

This webinar will go through the different tests that are easy to perform, very informative, and well within a trainer’s scope of practice. It will also discuss how to use clinical tests in conjunction with your own to advance your assessment and accurately deliver a program specifically guided to help your client improve their condition and life!

Dr. Mark P. Kelly has been involved with the health and fitness field for more than 30 years. He has been a research scientist for universities and many infomercial projects. He has spoken nationally and internationally on a wide variety of topics and currently speaks on the use of exercise for clinical purposes and exercise’s impact on the brain. Mark is a teacher in colleges and universities in Orange County, CA., where Principle-Centered Health- Corporate Wellness & Safety operates.

Healthy-Lifestyle-Nutrition-Exercise-Medicine

Natural Prescription – An Alternative Approach

Dr. Mark Kelly/18 March 2022/ All MFN blog/

One of the best things we can do for our bodies is to “get out of the way”! Believe it or not, our body can actually do a great job of healing itself, or functioning quite optimally when it’s allowed to do so. The body does this by reacting to what “stresses” are put upon it and finding homeostasis through temporary changes or more permanent adaptations. Even the brain will make quick reactions to things in the form of neurotransmitters and neural firing or long term adaptations in adopting new ways of perceiving things or hard-wiring changes.

A statement capturing the above sentiment is from Goodheart (1989) on healing, “People are healed by many different kinds of healers and systems because the real healer is within. The various healing modalities are merely different ways of activating the inner healer.”

Are you of the Mechanist (Rationalist) or Vitalist (Empirical) Approach?

The standard or “orthodox” medical practice in the U.S. follows a mechanist approach, where symptoms are perceived as bad and should be minimized or suppressed through surgical or pharmaceutical means. This seems great at the surface level. If something is causing me pain or discomfort let me do something to relieve or eliminate that pain. If I am having nausea or diarrhea because of something in my gut, let me take something to stop the vomiting or diarrhea. Underlying this “quick fix” of symptom alleviation is THE PROBLEM. The body is trying to rid itself of the “problem” by expelling if forwards or backwards! There are many medical conditions for which it is okay to consider treating symptoms, and for some this is vital. However, it is preferable for this to be done in conjunction with identifying the source of the problem, so a long-term fix can be explored.

A Vitalist approach views symptoms as part of the healing process, not a problem that should be hidden. Many branches of health care use this philosophy including: chiropractors, osteopaths, naturopaths, and practitioners of Chinese or Indian medicine advocate this Vitalist approach. By suppressing the symptoms, the practitioner may actually be extending the illness or exacerbating the problem. Researchers at the University of Maryland found taking aspirin for the flu may prolong the illness up to 3 days. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) or aspirin interferes with the normal fever response that fights the infection (Burke, 2000).

Listening to the Symptoms tell you Where the Problem Lies

Rather than reducing or eliminating the symptoms, what if we tried to increase our sensitivity to it. For example, if we took antibiotics to fight a bacteria, are we enhancing the body’s immune response to this foreign agent or “giving it” something to help, much like a crutch. A quote from unknown origin:

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

This is at the heart of the Vitalist approach. The body is great at adaptation but we have to let it “learn” to adapt- not “feed” it some drug that forces it to do something. A quote from the Nobel Prize winner, Rene Dubos, Ph.D. remarks, “Good health is a process of continuous adaptation to the myriad of microbes, irritants, pressures and problems which daily challenge man.” This is also at the heart of exercise training. You must “overload” a system in order to get an improvement in function. You literally must stress it, and let it endure that strain in order to get the adaptation. Likewise, by putting your body in destabilized environments, you will gain a better sense of balance, in order to stabilize yourself. Recent evidence has found that anti-inflammatory agents actually weaken the endurance training effect.

Fortunately, medical advances have allowed us to treat many illnesses effectively and safely, and it is always advisable to follow the advice of your doctor. Allowing your body to adapt to certain stresses can be very positive in certain scenarios, but it is important to recognize when this doesn’t come at a risk of increasing morbidity, mortality, or increasing the likelihood of illness complications.

To Drug or Not to Drug: that is the Question

No one likes being depressed. About one in 10 Americans takes some sort of antidepressant medication. It is the most commonly prescribed drug in the U.S. according to a report published in the Archives of General Psychiatry (2009). While the U.S. may not be a Prozac Nation, as popularized in 1994 by the author Elizabeth Wurtzel, the rates almost doubled from 1996 to 2005 (5.84% to 10.12%). A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association found it to work best in only severe cases of depression and exercise had similar effects in the short term treatment and better effects in long term treatment! The difficulty lies in getting someone to exercise when they are depressed. Thus, an integrated approach is often the best, and this includes psychological counseling as well .

Sometimes Less is More

A take away from this article should not be that standard medical care is bad. Far from it. Many M.D.s are very knowledgeable in areas outside of their standard practice and advocate expressive, rather than suppressive therapies. The take away should be to not rush for a drug to hide or mask your symptoms, but focus on what is the root of the cause, and take action to address this. The term iatrogenic is used for the inadvertent problem caused by a medical treatment. In fact, reports estimate it to be the third leading cause of death in the U.S. with 225,000 to 250,000 dying from iatrogenic diseases annually! While it is hard to say how many of these deaths could have been avoided, it is quite obvious that minimizing invasive treatments until they are necessary is the best plan of action.

Complementary or Integrated Medicine can possibly have the answer to a majority of the health issues presented. The MedFit Network believes those professionals are the future of health care.

Free Webinar with Dr. Mark Kelly

There are a ton of misconceptions surrounding obesity and being overweight. Join Dr. Kelly for this webinar to learn what is actually dangerous about obesity, and how to rethink and reprogram your brain and life toward fun and re-creation, not fitness.

Dr. Mark Kelly Ph.D., CSCS, FAS, CPT has been actively involved in the fitness industry spanning 30 years as a teacher of exercise physiology at academic institutions such as California State University, Fullerton, Louisiana State University, Health Science Center, Tulane University and Biola. He was an exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise, a corporate wellness director, boot camp company owner and master fitness trainer.

The Evolution of Truly Personalized Medicine: Epigenetics, Food, and Fitness

Dr. Mark Kelly/9 April 2021/ All MFN blog/

Most would not argue that there is an ongoing transition in how our healthcare is being delivered. This article will examine some of these transitions as a result of breakthroughs in technology, as well as how genetic information, exercise, and diet will play an increasingly greater role.

When medical science was first getting its start, a more holistic philosophy was taken on how to treat illness and maintain health. Hippocrates has often deemed the father of modern medicine, and even today the allopathic physicians (M.D.s) take the Hippocratic Oath – to do no harm to their patients. Hippocrates knew, even in 400 B.C., that the best healer of the body is the body itself. For the most part, the best treatment is to create a strong body and get out of the way. Five guiding principles used in his philosophy for treatment include:

Walking is man’s best medicine.
Know what person the disease has, rather than what disease the person has.
Let food be thy medicine.
Everything in moderation.
To do nothing is also a good remedy.

The second and fifth principles emphasize the power of knowing the individual and getting out of the way! The first and third principles show the power of exercise and food for healthy living. Even the genius, Thomas Edison, realized that a health maintenance organization (HMO) approach was the best method of healthcare both practically and financially. His quote, “The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease,” is evidence that a holistic, preventative approach is what he advocated. He is also quoted, “…you can’t improve on nature.”

One size does not fit all

Personalized medicine is now at the forefront and it utilizes the genetic and epigenetic data of a person to guide medicines and treatment plans. Cancer drugs have probably harnessed this advantage to the greatest extent, thus far. Former President Jimmy Carter received Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for his brain cancer and it boosted his immune system and beat cancer. While most of America (71%), still doesn’t even know about personalized medicine, those who were familiar with it did not know it would yield better results with fewer side effects. The different directions of personalized medicine are still being realized, but the field of pharmacogenetics is the first to really jump on the bandwagon of highly effective, precision-based treatment.

The reasons some drugs work for some people and not for others, or why side effects occur in some individuals and not others, is due to individual variability in metabolism. Why are some people lactose tolerant, or some can drink alcohol with no problem, and others have severe issues? It is usually because of enzyme differences, which are under the control of our genes. Interestingly, our enzyme genes can often be turned on or off by “inducible sequences” known as promoters or suppressors of operons, respectively. These “switches” can be repressed or induced depending on our environmental stimuli. Thus, we actually have some control over our gene expression, and this field is known as epigenetics.

Knowing what gene variants someone possesses or not will guide the personalized medicine physician on which drug to use or not. By knowing allergic reactions in advance or which medicines may have side effects will help physicians to not make a bad situation worse. Unfortunately, the cost of personalized medicine drugs is much higher than alternative treatments. There is still a lot of exploration to be done on all the various applications of this technology, but the bottom line is that understanding individual variations and enabling the body to do what it is designed to do is a very good thing! Companies like Toolbox Genomics is one of many companies that use your genetic information to then tell you what foods and supplements to eat or avoid, and which exercises may help you the most, and ones that you may not respond to so well. The reason physicians do an intake on family history or run various tests is to collect information that will guide their treatment. A genetic test on certain gene variants is simply taking this a step further.

How do exercise and diet apply to our epigenetics?

Did you know that exercise is highly beneficial to not only help with fighting cancer once it is already present but also to never getting it? Physical exercise or movement, in general, will shift the epigenetics so that genes that suppress tumors are increased, and genes that cause cancer (oncogenes) are decreased. It does this by changing the number of certain reactions called methylations. Things go wrong when there are too much or too few methylation reactions. Exercise has been shown to reduce or even reverse the epigenetic mutations that often result in tumorigenesis or tumor production. Exercise has also been shown to reduce genetic factors associated with aging like telomere length.

The fields of proteomics and metabolomics as well as pharmacogenomics, are all emerging because of the knowledge on how our genetics affects proteins, metabolism, and reactions to drugs, respectively. The field of nutrigenomics is rapidly expanding, and several companies are capitalizing on studying the relationship of how our genes affect how we process and utilize foods, as well as how food can affect our genes. Vitamins A and D, certain fatty acids, especially medium and short-chain, some sterols (derived from cholesterol), and zinc have been shown to directly influence gene transcription. Indirect effects include how diet affects gut bacteria, which in turn influences gene expression. Soon when nutritional recommendations are given, it will likely be “for this individual.”

The future of medicine will be taking our genetic information to a whole new level. Soon “smart” watches, clothes, hats, and other common devices will collect information that can benefit our health in many ways as the way healthcare is delivered continually evolves.

This article was featured in MedFit Professional Magazine

Exercise and Nutrition: A Marriage Made in Heaven, But for our Bodies

Dr. Mark Kelly/24 March 2021/ All MFN blog/

Many trainers are very well aware of the power of both exercise and nutrition to influence not only our performance but our health as well. Unfortunately, many trainers have made themselves experts in nutrition and are practicing nutritional therapy illegally. Yes, illegally. The nutrition police are not likely to catch you, but just like an unauthorized person can not dispense drugs legally, a trainer should not be giving advice on SPECIFIC diets, designed by themselves, to cure or relieve SPECIFIC diseases or conditions.

You see how the word specific was capitalized. This was done because trainers CAN give general advice to “apparently healthy” people on what foods can do. They can advise people on a certain diet designed by a nutritionist or physician. They can even advise clients on a supplement’s intended function, but not tell them which SPECIFIC ones to take, or the amounts, especially if there is some clinical condition. The vast majority of trainers are guilty of violating at least one of these conditions.

Okay, off my soapbox and back to the marriage. Our bodily processes require fuels and use enzymes to perform almost every reaction in our bodies. The vitamins and minerals that we need are known as “essential” because the body either doesn’t produce it, or produce enough of it, to sustain healthy living. Vitamins are organic molecules and are sometimes referred to as coenzymes, and minerals are sometimes referred to as cofactors, because both are needed for different enzymes, or even hormones, to properly function. You probably know that if you are low in iron, the hemoglobin in red blood cells will not properly form, thus, it will not carry oxygen and will result in anemia. The same with iodine and thyroid hormone, and many, many other examples are well known to the public at large.

Exercise on the other end will stimulate processes like bone-building, and then the calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulfur, calcitriol (Vitamin D3), can step in and “do their thing” in depositing a new, stronger bone matrix. Without the stimulus of exercise, there is minimal use of the nutrients and they will be excreted. By the same token, the better the nutrients we put into our body, the better we can perform exercise, recover, build muscle, improve enzyme function, and a whole bunch of other things!

MedFit Classroom’s Osteoporosis Fitness Specialist online course is also known as “Project BONE” for Beating Osteoporosis with Nutrition and Exercise. It’s these two simple tools that we can use to actually reverse osteoporosis, not to mention prevent or delay its onset. Many disease conditions can be prevented when we “obey our blueprints”. When we follow the advice of geniuses like Thomas Edison – to have the physician of the future be interested in the food and care of the human frame, or Hippocrates believing walking and food as medicine were essential components of any health care plan.

The trick is not appreciating the marriage of nutrition and exercise, but getting your client to actually change the way they eat or activities they do. Radical changes almost always end up in radical termination of any change. The popular Transtheoretical Theory of Change, with the various stages of readiness for change, discusses how any major change in behavior is a process, and sometimes a slow, painful one. It takes a lot of effort, both mentally and physically. The Osteoporosis Fitness Specialist course includes a video component called “EAT this, NOT that.” It was named after a popular Men’s Fitness book series, discussing how to substitute one food that is good for you with another that is not. For example, eating a baked potato with yogurt versus French fries.

By knowing the “why” you are eating something, and knowing “what” foods have them, as well as “how” to look for it in certain foods, it makes the “when” and “where” to purchase the foods easier. Often people will acquire new favorite foods and perform new “favorite” exercise when they are fun and easy to access. Help this marriage last and spark the romance of exercise and diet in your life.

Become an Osteoporosis Fitness Specialist Course

Dr. Mark Kelly/5 January 2021/ All MFN blog/

I am excited to finally bring you the Osteoporosis Fitness Specialist program. It started about 3 years ago as a presentation on the MedFit Tour in Phoenix. It was then developed into a webinar, then short continuing education product, and now a full 10-hour course! It has been nicknamed Project B.O.N.E. for Beating Osteoporosis with Nutrition and Exercise.

It is a unique course in the fitness world because it is a total turn-key format. It starts in the first module with education on bone anatomy and physiology. It then delves into what osteoporosis and osteopenia are and how our bone mass naturally changes across time. It then goes into some of the mechanisms of how bone adapts to the stresses we put on it as well as the interrelationships between joints, bones and movements and how they can improve or decrease with movement or lack of it.

The second module goes into the role nutrients play on bone health. It is interesting that you can approach this from four different perspectives. First, you can attempt to integrate certain foods into your diet that help you obtain calcium, vitamin D, and other bone-building nutrients. Second, you can try to avoid foods that actually decrease calcium absorption and even the stores in your bone. These are termed calcium-robbing foods.

I have developed 13 short video segments that are entitled “EAT this, NOT that” to help guide people with substituting good food for a “bad food”, or one that potentially depletes calcium. Taking in the right nutrients is key because the exercises that strengthen bones are not able to do their “job” if the nutrients that can build bone are not available. Trying to change the way someone eats is one of the more difficult things in life. By making gradual changes and by substituting one food for another, the transitions become easier, and before you know it you are eating well!

The third module is about how exercise can change your bone health and why it works. One common misconception is that weightlifting is going to stress your bones more than body weight movements that use ground forces. This is simply not true. The target spots and how to work them are combined into the SHoW ME pneumonic — which informs which body parts to focus on (Spine, Hips, and Wrists) and what exercise modalities to use, with Multiplanar activity and Eccentric contractions being the best for bone-building if the client can handle it. Another pneumonic is the SAFE exercises, which represents Strength, Agility, Flexibility and Equilibrium or balance.

The fourth module is on assessments. This is one of the keys to the innovation of this program. Not only does the assessment encompass personal traits, habits, demographic and activities of daily living, but it has a comprehensive physical assessment which is named the ABCEDEFF battery. The agility, balance (both static and dynamic), coordination, dexterity or deftness, endurance, force or strength in both upper and lower regions, and flexibility in both upper and lower regions are part of this assessment program. The tests are simple to perform and the individual will fall into one of four categories, with some having male and female standards separately. The proper way to perform the assessment tests are demonstrated in videos.

The fifth module is putting it all together meaning you’re using: a) the results of your assessment and b) the client’s intake information, which includes their c) needs, limitations and preferences to combine it into a comprehensive, highly-personalized and effective. Clientas will likely not be at the same level for all the variables tested, so you may have a client who is strong but inflexible or a client that is flexible but weak. You address the weak spots and monitor progress easily.

Why is it so effective? Because the assessment will categorize the client one of four levels. Each exercise has four levels for proper progression or regression. The client is getting the right exercise for them depending on their skills, bone density and any limitations. Exercises are similar in each of the three workout venues — a gym, a park, and at home — but vary with the equipment available and surroundings. Each of these venues has pros and cons and in the current age of COVID, it is important to have alternatives to turn to.

The final module addresses some business aspects. Marketing and promoting your skills and knowledge are what keeps you in business. There must be a balance between the training skills and knowledge as well as how to manage the logistics and getting the word out.

I believe this program will set a new standard in training programs and how to carefully train a client with the knowledge gained from an assessment and thorough intake questionnaire. The disease of osteoporosis is only going to get bigger. With 54 million Americans already with low bone density, the numbers are already huge!

What Does the Future Hold?: Emerging opportunities for trainers and coaches in medically oriented wellness

Dr. Mark Kelly/6 July 2020/ All MFN blog/

Four years ago, almost to the day, I made a keynote presentation at the California Clubs of Distinction annual meeting in Palm Springs. It was not long after the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was approved and launched. I decided to make this presentation because the landscape for medical health was at an all-time high, and the certification organizations knew this as they were all scrambling for their market share of this emerging opportunity.

I was making presentations in healthy aging and how to train elderly people in 2014, joined with and became a master trainer for an emerging group at the time, and got certified in functional aging. I had met with this energetic woman in Orange County who was starting a network for medical fitness — any guesses? Yes, Lisa Dougherty was super passionate about it and was busy enlisting all kinds of groups to collaborate with her. After working for the American Council on Exercise and knowing their interest in this market sector, I too saw an interesting niche in the fitness and health market that was not getting filled. The gap between an allied health care professional’s treatment and true functional health for any individual, but especially an aging one. Phil Kaplan has written and spoken quite a bit on this and labeled it as the “new blue ocean.” As he mentions, it is not a small niche, but a huge market opportunity, and it is driven by people valuing their health and quality of life.

Market Changes: What does the future hold?

Fast forward four years in what will go down in history as the COVID-19 year for the U.S. “We are all in this together” but six feet apart and in our own homes! There is a lot talk out there about what the future holds. Our country has not seen this level of unemployment and losses of income since the Great Depression. Our government is bailing out people and companies to the tune of trillions of dollars. Large companies such as 24-Hour Fitness is considering bankruptcy and has closed all 448 of their gyms. The social isolation has changed the landscape toward medical fitness even further! The other trend it is causing is online services to be popular. The stay-at-home quarantines we all are supposed to obey has meant a huge upsurge for education and training done online or virtually, respectively.

In an interview with Chris Rondeau, the CEO for Planet Fitness, he was mentioning how their facilities were always practicing good cleaning practices but felt the “personal cleaning etiquette” will now likely change amongst members. Thank goodness! No one wants to be on a piece of equipment where another’s sweat was left. This factor and the personal space will likely be in the forefront as the fitness clubs are part of the Phase 1 of the U.S. government’s reintegration policy. He also mentioned how the public understands that fitness is good for the immune system, and the lower price point of the Planet Fitness facilities are something the public will need to consider with the losses of income. He also mentioned how the company’s app and virtually lead fitness is exploding. He called it the digital content consumption and said it is at an all-time high for the company.

So what factors were part of my “perfect storm” as I labeled it? The Affordable Care Act, the baby boomers becoming seniors, people living longer, medical costs going out of control, ROI on preventative services being realized and new opportunities for corporate wellness as well. Now we have a new perspective on staying healthy during pandemics, keeping ourselves and our families away from large crowds, and watching our budget. There has been a shift in society for quite some time now from a “volume incentive” or paying a fee for a service, to a “value incentive” or paying for outcomes.

So several questions the public is asking;

Are the big box gyms doomed? No but they may need to serve the two ends of the spectrum, with clubs like Equinox serving the high-end client and clubs like Planet Fitness serving low-end clients.
Are group classes going to go away? Not likely, but the need to have six feet of spacing and therefore smaller classes are likely to change the way group classes are run, and that is “when” they come back.
Will online or virtual training increase? No doubt they will. This trend was already going strong with Peleton (stationary bikes) and other fitness devices having the virtual coach.
Will wellness and health coaching services increase? Also, no doubt. People, like me, have been not been in a standard gym for almost two months and are realizing the importance of their mental and physical health over just looking fit and trim.

What is next?

It is believed that the fitness marketplace will change over the next decade, and that the pandemic has sped this change along. 24-Hour Fitness was going through financial problems prior to the COVID-19 shutdowns. The evolution of “gyms” becoming “health care” facilities is happening. You should position yourself to either deliver a variety of wellness services or have a network of people you work with who can deliver these services. I believe the future health center will be a place offering several services and most will be proactive in nature.

You will need to join organizations that expose you to people who desire these services, like the MedFit Network. Be sure to take advantage of this “downtime” to “gear up” with education and new business plans that include specialties in disease conditions like osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease and obesity. Others like women’s health or cancer or multiple sclerosis are available through MedFit Classroom as well.

This article was featured in MedFit Professional Magazine.

Interesting Times for Interested People

Dr. Mark Kelly/6 April 2020/ All MFN blog/

So, we are all shut in our homes and are not supposed to go to work, movies, or restaurants to dine in, and we can’t even watch live sports on TV. Life is so bad, and unfair… or is it?

I have decided to look at the bright side of this event, and see it as an opportunity. While many are not in my particular position, and are actually out of job and income due to this pandemic, I want you to reframe it. Change the paradigm of this being a negative, to this being a time for catching up, reflecting, and perhaps actually changing yourself.

We all have parts of our lives that need attention. In today’s current society, it is basically impossible to be all things to all people, including ourselves. We must try to balance job, family, social contact, social media, our own diet, hobbies, medical attention, our education — professionally or otherwise, our spirituality, and even our environment. Having balance in a variety of areas is true wellness! We are often so busy teaching and preaching the benefits of fitness and wellness to others, we deny it to ourselves. I remember doing a self-survey several decades ago by some program discussing the “wellness wheel”, which many of you have probably heard of. The survey was showing areas that needed attention. (Back then I had a very lop-sided wheel, and it is not much better now.) The wheel consisted of a mnemonic (6 components. It has shifted slightly in past few decades, but the pneumonic still works well: SPICES.

Old Wellness Areas	New Wellness Areas
S-ocial	Social – all interactions with people outside of ourselves
P-hysical	Physical – our physiological status
I-ntellectual	Intellectual – includes cognitive and emotional health
C-ognitive	Career – includes educational and skill acquisition and financial health
E-motional	Environmental (could include emotional) – clean, organized?
S-piritual	Spiritual – interactions with entities beyond people

I want to use this as a time to clean up many things that have been neglected — both around my house and inside “my house”, my physical body and mental space. I may even use this opportunity to shift my professional pursuits away from academic teaching to wellness coaching. Maybe I can chat on the phone more, spend time with my daughter, or spend more time cooking or reading. Whatever it is, start doing it now!

If nothing else, this has opened the world’s eyes to the need to stay healthy. It has shown people the need to be sanitary and practice good old-fashioned health care techniques, like washing hands and not running out of toilet paper! (Sorry, had to throw that one in!)

As an educator in both physical health and medical applications, we are perfectly positioned to show the communities we live in how to harness the power of exercise for both preventative and rehabilitation purposes. I have learned many new applications for teaching online and most people are focused on coming together for the “greater good”, and this is a breath of fresh air.

Good luck and stay healthy as you address the holistic health agenda in our society.

Times Change, So Must You To Some Degree

Dr. Mark Kelly/19 March 2020/ All MFN blog/

By the time this article is released, things will have changed in society, for better or for worse. I seriously doubt anyone predicted what is going on in society worldwide. I have been on planet Earth over a half a century and have never seen anything like this! The COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings, the emotions, and literally the panic that people are experiencing is unprecedented. While everyone has their opinion on the seriousness of the issue to them or to their health, the impact on their current lifestyle is undeniable.

For Better or For Worse – Your Perspective

The old analogy “Is your glass half empty or half full?” is good for this issue. Interestingly, people will vary in their opinions on this, depending on the issue and circumstances surrounding the issue. Sure, some people will see the bright side of life in most circumstances, and others seem to be the Darth Vader of life, and go to dark side. Given enough time and bad or good circumstances, or given the proper intervention, most people can shift perspectives.

The Human Side and Technology

I am currently a teacher in colleges and universities. My various schools have shifted their level of isolation from one to three times! It started off as a delayed move to the online environment, then to lab classes (which I teach) meeting but not lectures, to then all classes are online. Things shifted because circumstances did. I enjoy teaching face to face or “on ground” as it is labelled. This is the human side of me. I like seeing faces, making people laugh, making people think and answer my questions. I like finding out about them and then letting them know something about me. Could this be done in an “online” environment? Yes and no.

By using the conference applications, I can see my student’s faces and they can see mine. They hear my voice and I can have them ask questions and so forth. But their presence, their energy is not in front me, and their separate environment creates a gap that can’t be erased. As fitness professionals, be it with groups or individuals, I know you understand what I speak of. The ability to “tap into” another’s psyche and see them interact to you and you to them is golden, it’s magical, it’s what our humanity is all about!

I have learned new skills, worked with colleagues during this time of desperation on a common solution, and had time with my family I would not have had. Interestingly, I have enjoyed what this horrific event has presented in my life. I am a Hurricane Katrina evacuee. I lived in New Orleans during it and it flipped my life 180 degrees, to say the least. I now live in Southern California, got married and started a family and many, many other things presented themselves because of this event.

We need to be able to learn from these “life-changing events”, grow and see the benefits of them. We need to learn new skillsets to be able to adapt and remember to embrace humanity in the midst of the trauma. People need us and we need people. Be a trainer who engages people with technology and with humanity.

Adaptive Health Paradigm: A Principle-Centered Perspective for Medical Fitness

Dr. Mark Kelly/4 February 2019/ All MFN blog/

I hope to give you some insights to both how the human body works as well as why medically-based fitness is not only valid, but absolutely necessary to reverse, assist, or prevent various chronic and acute disease conditions. Wow, that is a “mouthful” to say the least. I feel so strongly about this perspective that I hope to create the Adaptive Health Model as a major “brand” of fitness. My company (Principle-Centered Health) for the past couple of decades has always had a systems-based approach to health and fitness. This approach ties a lot of different facts into a common theme, usually called a theory in science. Even my dissertation looked at how people adapted to the physical, mental and social issues in their lives using exercise, self-efficacy, and social support, respectively, and levels of strain and burnout. How humans adapt to the stresses put on them is very specific and can go in good or bad directions.

What is the Adaptive Health Paradigm?

Like most theories, paradigms or what people consider “original thought”, this “adaptive” paradigm builds on the “regenerative medicine” framework, and some disease models; thus, is not original at all. What may be new, or unique about the adaptive perspective is taking the old phrase from physicist Isaac Newton and his third law of motion, “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The body will respond to stresses by reacting in a “defensive” manner. If we break something down, the body builds it up (opposite reaction). If we are too low or too high in some function, the body will try to correct this. This negative feedback loop controls most systems in our bodies. I have often described our bodies as fragile but resilient. It is our fragility that signals the resilience to kick into gear!

Luckily for us, fitness is based on this exact principle. If we do endurance training, we are going into a lower oxygen state and there are many mechanisms or functions that kick in (sympathetic nervous system) when we push or stress our bodies. The body is responding to what is known as an “acute insult” by increasing the ability to transport and use oxygen, so that this “insult” doesn’t hurt us next time. The same “specificity of training principle” occurs with resistance training. We breakdown muscle and the body builds it back stronger to tolerate that “insult” the next time. When multiple acute exercise stresses are added up, the body changes and we call this “training”.

If stresses are really high, either too intense, too long, or too often, the body gets injured due to this overload, or it needs a lot more time to heal back up. This is why overload needs to be done gradually and progressively. Even our brains use this idea as a guiding principle. We push our mental capacities to learn more, but if we stress it too much, it will repress memories or shut down (burnout).

This same principle applies when we give our body bad things, or a lack of good things, it adapts with a dysfunctional state or disease state. Chronic inflammatory diseases, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, coronary artery disease, emphysema and heart disease are just a few of the examples of how the “garbage in and garbage out”, or “use it or lose it” works. If we sit and work at the computer too much we develop dysfunctional postures and upper cross syndrome may develop. If we do not constantly stress some system, it reverses the training changes, and goes into the “default” state, which is untrained and unable to respond to daily stresses. We simply need to obey our bodily blueprints, we need to constantly use our bodies to maintain function, and overload it to improve function. We need to have the right nutrients in place to allow this to happen, and then basically – get out of the way!

Intelligence in the Body: Applications the Adaptive Health Paradigm

The perspective being proposed in this article shares much with the more holistic medical practices. The human body is really good at healing itself when is it given the right factors to do so, and when we “get out of the way” for it to do so. I know many people who strongly believe in using alkaline water to “cure their ills”. They believe that the body does not know how to regulate itself with its own pH. Most of these same people don’t know what pH even stands for! They don’t know that it is actually the inverse log of the hydrogen ion concentration relative to the hydroxide ions, and that the respiratory system and renal system will go into action as soon as blood pH goes 0.05 pH units high or low!

In other words, these people believe their own bodies are naïve or incapable of curing itself, and like a young child or baby, their body needs constant care and guidance. Most people are so stressed about “taking care” of their bodies that they are doing more harm than good via the stress hormones, especially cortisol being constantly secreted and their adrenal gland is getting fatigued. In reality, the body is really good at healing itself, when we keep it strong and in good operating condition (via exercise and movement) and when we give it the right components to do the healing (via nutrition), and we get out of the way of the immune system (by managing our daily stress levels).

The mind works very much like a muscle. It must be trained and kept strong and when injured it will react in dysfunctional ways, and fight to protect itself. I recently heard an expert in human behavior change speak on how to keep a resolution. He said, we can’t keep a resolution without changing the underlying behaviors which caused the bad habit or lack of a good habit in the first place. By changing the way we think, we change the way we act, and changing our actions will change the way we think!

“What Goes Around, Comes Around”

The quote often stated by Thomas Edison in 1903, which was to give rise to the HMO concept, “The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.” Medical doctors (M.D.s) upon completing medical school and prior to practicing take the Hippocratic Oath, which is to do no harm. Even back in Ancient Rome, Hippocrates understood the importance of individualized medicine and the power to “get out of the way” (#5) and give the body what it needs to take care of itself. He had five rules that are still relevant in today’s medical practices.

Walking Is Man’s Best Medicine.
Know What Person the Disease Has Rather Than What Disease the Person Has.
Let Food Be Thy Medicine.
Everything in Moderation.
To Do Nothing Is Also a Good Remedy.

Integrative and Functional Medicine – Highly Inclusive and Holistic Perspectives

A philosophy of practice using these practices is integrative medicine. A brand of medicine created or at least popularized by Andrew Weil. The University of Arizona has this “brand” of medical school. Again, the academic requirements are similar to the M.D. and D.O. but expands its scope to other areas. From the website, Integrative Medicine (IM) is defined as a “healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person, including all aspects of lifestyle. It emphasizes the therapeutic relationship between practitioner and patient, is informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapies. many different ways in the patient.

A new type of medicine is emerging from this functional perspective which is called personalized medicine. Again, the two are basically two sides of the same coin.

Figure 1: A diagram above showing the greater scope of each medical perspective- Integrative and Functional medicines are close in their holistic perspectives, with differing points of emphasis

What is going on within the individual to cause the disease or prolong its existence?

Sometimes disease hits simply because we were genetically predisposed to get it. However, very often if our system is strong and in good operating condition, we resist it from every occurring or overcome it quite quickly. Cancer is a prime example of this. We all have cancers in our bodies all the time. It is the strong immune system that fights it off. This is amongst the reasons that many, many chronic diseases hit us when we are old. The various system have lost their capacity to fight the dysfunction off, or recover from its destruction. Soon cell death (necrosis or apoptosis) or neoplastic (cancer) growth kicks in.

Harnessing the Power of Exercise and Diet to Fight Chronic Disease

Many, many chronic conditions that the MedFit Network and MedFit Classroom address are helped by exercise and diet because the ability of body to adapt and regenerate itself is enhanced. Most systems in our body fall under the “use it or lose it” scenario. High sugar, alcohol, smoking, and lack of movement are culprits in our health. Our body is not designed for an overload of these factors and across time, many different symptoms will develop because our body can no longer compensate or regenerate.

It is important for the medical fitness professional to understand the power of exercise and nutrition, and the proper application of these tools given the client’s or patient’s current condition. The field of physical therapy developed because many musculoskeletal conditions are helped by movement therapy or exercise. Many chiropractors believe that proper spinal alignment delivers proper neural signals throughout the body, which allows the body to optimize its regenerative capacity. Thus, an expert in medical uses of exercise to combat disease is critical to a healthcare team.

References

Center for Integrative Medicine, Univ. of Arizona (n.d.). What is IM/IH? Retrieved from: https://integrativemedicine.arizona.edu/about/definition.html

Science Daily (n.d.). Personalized medicine. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/personalized_medicine.htm

Good Reads (n.d.). Retreived from: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/13639-the-doctor-of-the-future-will-give-no-medication-but

Kalish, N. (2018). Hippocrates’ Diet and Health Rules Everyone Should Follow. Reader’s Digest. Retrieved from: https://www.rd.com/health/wellness/hippocrates-diet/