Welcome to a New Era of Human Potential
In the 1600’s Dutch spectacle maker Zacharias Janssen is credited with making one of the earliest versions of the microscope.
It could magnify an object up to 20 or 30 times its normal size.
Soon afterwards another Dutchman named Antonie van Leeuwenhoek began making microscopes by grinding his own lenses.
These high-quality, hand-ground lenses could magnify an object by up to 200 times.
We saw our cells, and saw ourselves, for the first time.
This paved the way for breakthroughs in the fields of science and medicine.
From the 1830s, cells and cell theory became the focus of medical and biological research, thanks to the central role of the microscope in laboratory science.
Researchers were able to describe the body at the microscopic level more consistently and with greater confidence in what they saw.
This led to the realization that cells are the building blocks of plant and animal life.
Today we stand at an intersection in our evolution.
Nearly 40% of American adults have prediabetes. Prediabetes rate have doubled among adolescents over the past two decades as well.
More than one in four 12-19 year olds are pre diabetic. The obesity rate for adults doubles from 1990 to 2021 to 40%.
Today, nearly 3/4 of Americans are overweight or obese.
At the same time lifespan is increasing.
The new paradigm of health in the 21st century runs along two parallel roads separated by the intersection of metabolic health.
One road leads to a longer life with reduced health life expectancy-how many years a person can life a good life, taking into account years lost to disease and illness.
To put it bluntly we can simply be sicker, for longer.
The second road leads to an extension of our best years, a literal doubling of our health life expectancy for some people. Below is a picture of Physiology First members Jan, 76 years old at the time, lifting a heavy sandbag at our first campus. Today, Jan is 85 and still weightlifting, cold water swimming, and training regularly at our Freeport, Maine campus.
Her husband Ed has been training at our campus since the day that it opened. Both Ed and Jan have a V02 max-the greatest predictor of lifespan-that is in the top percentile for their age.
Ed performing a V02 max test at our Physiology First campus. We offer V02 max testing at each of our locations in order to provide data-based insights into health and fitness programming.
The intersection of evolution is understanding our own physiology.
Evolution Isn’t Over…
Our new global campaign Evolution Isn’t Over is working to blaze new paths to health and human potential for the next generation.
“There is immense opportunity ahead for us to influence the future of global health by getting ahead of these rising metabolic and dietary risk factors, particularly those related to behavioral and lifestyle factors like high blood sugar, high body mass index, and high blood pressure.”
From Dogma to Data: Understanding the Power of Our Individuality
Today, more than 1 in 5 children are diagnosed with a “mental health disorder.”
The assessment process to determine this health disorder?
A questionnaire designed a half century before the invention of the iPhone.
Oversimplified questions related to how a young person is feeling at a given moment become the basis for a diagnosis, regardless of whether the physical, social, or environment needs of the child to feel anything other than anxious, depressed, or exhausted are met.
This approach assumes that our intuition, formed not only by our individual perspectives about the world, but by our genetic predisposition to thrive in certain environments and wither in others, should silently succumb to whatever circumstances are normalized out of the sake of sheer convenience.
Take a child who is genetically designed for a high degrees of movement, place them behind a desk for 7 hours, and should they still be genetically predisposed to movement, the current model simply labels them with a “disorder.”
The age of data over dogma is here. For the rational, science-minded, future focused parent the notion of a health diagnosis without health data is as absurd as it sounds.
Nutrition, hydration, exercise, sleep-all of these are requisites for cellular function.
If we don’t take care of plant cells, our plants dry up, wither, and die. That isn’t a “disorder.” It’s order.
If we don’t take care of our cells our health declines both physically and psychologically. Neurodegenerative disease is a powerful example of the latter. When brain cells begin to die memory vanishes, mood alters, sometimes unrecognizably. and depression and anxiety can become a default state. That isn’t a “disorder.”
It’s the order of our physiology.
In the first episode of the Physiology First podcast I share a perspective on the future of health that I believe is the key to rebuilding a path to human potential for ourselves, and for the next generation.
Episode one, The Science of Ourselves, shares what I believe to be the 3 most important things that everyone deserves to know about their physiology.
First, our body is made of cells. Maintaining healthy cells takes work. Whether we are referring to brain cells, heart cells, or blood cells, health is the process of cellular maintenance.
This makes healthcare something we have to “do” as opposed to something we wait to “get.”
Second, our cells are packed with DNA-the instruction manual for our individuality.
Millions of DNA differences separate, and distinguish, each individual. This discovery obsoletes the notion of one size fits all health advice, and creates a new paradigm in health optimization designed for your body, your goals, and your genes.
Lastly, our genes are expressed, or silenced, through behavior. Even a single workout can positively impact gene expression.
Understanding that we are a walking, breathing, living organism, comprised of trillions of cells, each encoded with unique and untapped potential for optimal expression, places health in a very different context.
We are the only animal that can adapt on purpose. Knowledge of our physiology is the foundation for our personal evolution, and the evolution of our communities.
The next paradigm in health and human potential is understanding the science of genetic expression. If 99% of our genes are exactly the same for all people, then the secret to unlocking our potential is better understanding the 1% that makes each individual unique.
“If the path before you is clear, it’s probably somebody else’s.” Carl Jung
As I share in episode one of the Physiology First podcast, I believe the secret to life is manifesting the essence of our individuality through the art of living. The DNA revolution offers unprecedented insight into our individuality, for those with the curiosity, interest, and passion to explore the essence of themselves.
One of the greatest breakthroughs in the science of ourselves occurred in 2003 when we sequenced the human genome.
Whole genome sequencing is the process of determining the entirety, or almost the entirety, of the DNA sequence of an organism’s genome at a single time.
The implications for the prevention and cures of illness are awe inspiring.
The myth of “normalcy” championed by industries that thrive on pathologizing individuality, is proven to indeed be a myth.
The creation of the SNP chip, or single nucleotide polymorphism chip, a DNA microarray that can test for genetic variations in hundreds of thousands of locations across the genome, replaces the anachronistic diagnostic manuals of the mental health industry. Or, at least, it should…
“The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.” William Gibson
Whether you are a parent, a young person, or one of the many avid learners who follows our work and seeks to upgrade their physiology, the video below by Robert Palomin will give you an insight into the transformational nature of the DNA revolution.
https://youtu.be/FptGxaxJyms?si=A7qGLnpNCVOtgO_4
Check out Blueprint here.
Key Takeaways from Blueprint
Our DNA makes us who we are. More than any other factor, including parenting, schooling, and early childhood experiences, the code of our individuality is imprinted in the millions of DNA differences in each individual. This evolves a pre-scientific understanding of how we grow to be who we are. It opens the door to a personal evolution by allowing us to identify our strengths, weaknesses, vulnerabilities to illness, and proclivities towards skills, careers, or environments that allow us to manifest the essence of ourselves through the art of living.
In the largest study of twins it was found that twin babies separated at birth and raised in entirely different environments displayed the same traits, both psychological and physiologically, that were coded into their shared DNA. If you were to be raised by a different family in another part of the world, you would adopt the norms of the culture, but you would still be essentially the exact same person. This insight allows us to not only embrace, but evolve, our individuality by working to become the strongest version of ourselves possible.
Genes are turned on and off by behavior. The same genetic differences that make you an individual exist wherever you go, and no matter what you go through. But which genes are turned on and turned off depends on a combination of mindset, environment, and behavior. To sum it up, there is a limitless combination of actions that we can take to express our genetic potential. Just like there are more chess combinations than there are atoms in the observable universe, there is no shortage of opportunities to manifest our potential as long as we continue to explore new environments, new behaviors, new ideas, and new communities.
What Activities Trigger Optimal Gene Expression?
Our genetic code is not altered by our environment or behaviors.
It is our genetic regulation that is modifiable.
Activities that contribute to gene expression turn genes on.
Activities that contribute to gene silencing turn genes off.
Exercise can cause changes in gene expression due to skeletal muscle contraction.
Genes related to metabolism are expressed through many types of exercise.
Our genes can influence what type of exercise works best for us. For example, the ACE-1 gene is through to be better suited for endurance, while the ACE-D gene is better suited for strength and power.
Do I need to get a genetic test to determine what exercise is best for me?
Absolutely not.
While genetic testing is an invaluable investment, a template like the Strength and Resilience Program at Physiology First Online will guide you through the basics of exercise selection and help you design a program that exposes you to your strengths and weaknesses while helping you identify which training modalities you most enjoy.
Exercise influences the code of our potential.
Learning to feel and experience your body growing stronger will enhance your intuition and deepen the inner knowledge regarding what works best for you as an individual.
The core takeaway is that exercise, nutrition, sleep, and new experiences all influence our genetic expression.
Each new behavior, habit, routine, or environment activates the code of our potential in a unique way.
4 Simple Ways to Optimize Your Internal Environment Today:
1.) Focus on nasal breathing vs mouth breathing for the majority of your day. You will increase oxygen delivery to cells by up to 20% while building a deepened sense of body awareness through the process.
2.) Improve your sleep by avoiding sleep blockers. Adenosine, the chemical that makes us sleepy, is blocked by caffeine. The half life of caffeine is 4-6 hours. This means that 4-6 hours after a cup of coffee, or energy drink, half of the caffeine is still in your system. In order to avoid sleep disruptions that prevent your body from fully recharging, avoid caffeine 12 hours before your bedtime to assure that sleep blocking substances are not present in your system. Sleep is the foundation for mental and physical health. Strengthening this foundation is the key to optimal gene expression.
3.) Begin to build lean muscle mass. This is the most valuable investment in improving our metabolic rate. Metabolism is how our body turns food into fuel. The health of our cells depends on vitamins and nutrients from the food that eat. A simple strength training program can consist of 2-3 training sessions per week, focused on 2 sets of eight repetitions, designed to target each major muscle group. Keep it simple, and easy to repeat. If you need help our Physiology First Online community is here for you. Join today and access our in-depth strength and resilience training program.
4.) Don’t drain your dopamine. The more stimulation that we expose ourselves to, the lower out baseline levels of dopamine, the brain chemical responsible for motivation and drive, becomes. Check in with yourself when scrolling online, and if mood or motivation dips, unplug, go for a walk, and replenish your dopamine. In a world of dopamine draining technologies the most valuable skill of the century is learning about our physiology, first.
Join the evolution…
When we remember that we are individuals equipped with a blueprint to thrive in our minds and bodies we can continue to explore our external environment until it is in unison with our internal environment.
The synchronicity between who we are and where we are supposed to be is the secret to unlocking our potential.
It is our individuality which gives us the strength and intuition to know when to leave the environments that inhibit the expression of our potential.
DNA not only makes us who we are, it creates the foundation of individuality for all that we can become.
Learn simple tips to tap into the power of your individuality in our first episode, and subscribe to our Substack for weekly podcast episodes that dive deeper into the future of health and human potential.
I hope you’ll join us in creating a new paradigm in self-education, self-knowledge, and self-exploration that begins with learning about our physiology, first.
David and Physiology First
The future of learning is learning about ourselves. In episode two of the Physiology First podcast I’ll cover the science of energy, challenge myths about “burnout”, and teach you the Energy Equation that we share with youth and families at Physiology First.
Our goal at Physiology First is to share the latest science of health and human potential with the next generation. Learn how you can help support our mission to help youth and families unlock the power our their physiology by checking out our Evolution Isn’t Over campaign.
Join the evolution!
This January we are training leaders in healthcare, education, and performance training to teach the Physiology First Approach in their communities! Join our Level One Certification program and help create a paradigm shift in health and human potential!
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