CROSSFIT HEALTH

What if we think about mental illness as a metabolic disorder of the brain? Harvard Psychiatrist, Dr. Chris Palmer and Michael Giardina of CrossFit Health sit down to discuss this theory, which fills in gaps in what we understand about mental health, draws new connections across the scientific literature, and lays the groundwork for new treatments that use diet and exercise to change brain metabolism.

Dr. Jaime Seeman and CrossFit Health discuss some common criticisms, misconceptions, and advice for women utilizing a low-carbohydrate diet.

Dr. Aseem Malhotra sits down with CrossFit Health at the 5th annual Metabolic Health Summit and discusses “Real Evidence-Based Medicine” and the roadblocks healthcare professionals face when trying to apply this type of care.

Dr. Robert Lustig is an endocrinologist and professor of pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California-San Francisco. In this video, he sits down with CrossFit’s Rory McKernan to explain sugar’s toxicity, outline the stakes of sugar consumption and offer suggestions for addressing the ongoing sugar crisis.

Stephan Guyenet, Ph.D., describes how the brain plays a role in regulating appetite and maintaining body weight. A few systems are at play here: the energy homeostasis system, the reward system, and the hedonic system.

In case you missed it: Alessio Fasano, MD, joined Mike Giardina for a live Q&A-style webinar focusing on the connections between the human microbiome and health.

Exercise is broadly known to support health and longevity, but the specific mechanisms by which exercise helps us live longer are not widely understood. Dr. Tommy Wood will review the specific capacities of aerobic fitness and strength — and their combination — to improve health and longevity and reduce the risk of specific maladies such as neurodegeneration. Dr. Wood will provide practitioners with a more informed understanding of how to apply exercise most effectively to improve specific and general health outcomes in patients and athletes.

Is our gut metabolically flexible? In this article, Jonathan Sholl, Lucy Mailing, and Thomas Wood challenge the assumptions that only diets high in fiber are beneficial and high-fat diets are detrimental to our gut microbiome. Instead, they argue our microbiome can be metabolically flexible as long as our food choices consist of whole, natural foods.

In "Gut Feelings: The Microbiome and Our Health," Alessio Fasano, M.D., and Susie Flaherty point to a number of environmental factors that influence obesity, including “sleep deprivation, disruption to circadian rhythms, chronic stress, changes in food composition, labor-saving devices, drugs (including antibiotics), and endocrine disruptors” as well as socioeconomic factors. They also add another variable to the mix: the gut microbiome, the ecosystem of microorganisms in and on the human body.

On Friday, April 22, at 4 p.m. PT/5 p.m. MT/7 p.m. ET, Alessio Fasano, MD, will join Mike Giardina for a live Q&A-style webinar focusing on the connections between the human microbiome and health. Dr. Fasano is a world-renowned pediatric gastroenterologist, research scientist, and entrepreneur who directs the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children (MGHfC). He is also Division Chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition and Director of the Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center at MGHfC. A professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Dr. Fasano is author of “Gluten Freedom,” a book for general readers about celiac disease, gluten-related disorders, and the gluten-free diet. He is also co-author with Susie Flaherty of “Gut Feelings: The Microbiome and Our Health,” published in March 2021 by MIT Press. Space is limited. If you would like to join this webinar, please register.

Mary Dan Eades, M.D. reviews the evidence supporting the use of lower-carbohydrate diets to improve health before explaining the proper formulation of healthy low-carbohydrate diets and how to apply them safely and effectively with patients and athletes.

In part 1 of this two-part series on stress, we discussed the differences between the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the nervous system, the importance of finding balance between the two, and how prolonged stress sends the sympathetic response into overdrive, resulting in chronic inflammation and illness. Now we’re going to talk about how to regulate the stress response in real time as well as techniques for long-term stress management to bring the two systems back into balance.

A balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the nervous systems is required to keep us on an even keel. Unfortunately, the prolonged stress and chronic illness so prevalent in our society keep the scale tipped in favor of the sympathetic response, turning what would in the short or medium term be a beneficial response into a harmful chronic issue.

Caffeine: It’s likely the most widely used mood- and performance-enhancing drug. Mark Goodman, MD, explains why some people are wired all day from one cup of coffee while others can drink it right before bed. He also shares how each individual can discover their own unique timing and dosage formula for optimal athletic benefit.

Mike Mallin, MD, shares the basics of fasting, including why fasting is beneficial, the difference between time-restricted feeding and periodic fasting, and who should or should not consider adding fasting to their routine.

Behavior scientist BJ Fogg, Ph.D., and his colleague Stephanie Weldy, M.Ed., joined Julie Foucher, MD, for a Q&A-style webinar on why celebrating small habits is the key to creating huge transformations. Catch the full conversation here. Dr. Fogg is the author of the New York Times bestselling book "Tiny Habits" and director of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University. He has spent over 20 years researching and teaching insights about human behavior with a special focus on health and productivity.

It probably comes as no surprise that alcohol has a negative impact on sleep quality, but why does something that seems to help you drift off actually turn out to be problematic? Mike Stone, MD, shares why alcohol and sleep don’t mix and offers strategies to minimize the negative effects while still enjoying the occasional cocktail or glass of wine.

Behavior change expert Stephen Rollnick, Ph.D., joined Julie Foucher, MD, for a Q&A-style webinar focused on how motivational interviewing can help clients and patients achieve their goals.

”Obesity, and especially childhood obesity, is a significant and growing public-health crisis. According to Storoschuk, healthy habit formation, particularly among children and adolescents, can play an important role in the prevention of obesity and related metabolic conditions. Research shows early formation of healthy habits can promote lifelong health and happiness."

Heart rate variability (HRV), or the variance in time between the beats of your heart, can provide insight into how your body is responding to the many different stressors in life. This is a valuable tool to help guide women’s training through pregnancy and postpartum. When HRV is low, it opens up a conversation on what other life stressors are going on and indicates a need to reduce training load.