The bad news first. The average American begins experiencing physical decline in their mid-20s, leading to dysfunction and dependence in later years. The good news. This is not normal. In this lecture by Dr. Doug McGuff, we get more good news, and good advice. Our ancestors and modern hunter-gatherers maintained high physical functioning well into old age, barring injury or illness. Dr. McGruff will present the concept of “physiologic headroom,” the better way of using ourselves today so that we retain normal, healthy functioning throughout our lives. This means focusing on a life measured not just in years, but in quality based on maintaining high physiologic capacity throughout a long lifespan. There is work to be done, however, and Dr. McGuff will tell you what that work is, and why it’s well worth doing. He will discuss how brief, high-intensity exercise many of us can do can reverse modern diseases, and how myokines—hormone-like substances released by working muscles—play a key role in this process.

Dr. Doug McGuff is an Emergency Physician at Prisma Health, Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, and owner of Ultimate Exercise. He graduated from the University of Texas Medical School in 1989 and completed his Emergency Medicine training at the University of Arkansas, where he was Chief Resident. He has also served as faculty at Wright State University and as a staff Emergency Physician at Wright-Patterson AFB Hospital.