
| Extreme Research My work in extreme physiology, or environmental physiology, is the study of how the human body works during exposures to extremes in the environment - cold, heat, altitude, immersion, high G-forces, injury states, exercise, weightlessness, high and low air pressures, how to perform better in these environments, and other work which funding sources have gone out of their way to meticulously ignore. My scientific interest began as a child as I sat in the snow in winter, watching my grandfather, the oldest member of the "Icebergs" walk barefoot over the ice to go ocean swimming every day. |
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Photo of Dr. Bookspan by CDR Jim Caruso, MC, US Navy Undersea Medical Officer
Fixing Injury and Pain Research
My career as research physiologist took me to military, university, and top training centers from undersea to mountaintop to jet cockpit. I was given the toughest assignments to find why common training and rehabilitation methods don't work, and what does. Strong brave men got hazardous duty pay just to have a day with me. Methods I developed are the ones that are learned in school by doctors, trainers, physical therapists, Navy divers, chamber operators, combat swimmers, police and military, and top athletes. Doctors, and instructors yoga, PIlates, Alexander technique and others have all come to me as patients to find out why they have back and other pain and what to do about it. I was the first person to develop fitness programs aboard cruise ships, and was told it would "never catch on."
- Not all exercise is medicine. Not all medicine is healthy. We change that. See exciting new ways to think and do fitness through the Academy of Functional Exercise Medicine.
- PREVENTING NEED FOR SURGERY - surgery.
- AGING - Don't limit the person to limit the pain. You can do more, not less. Click aging for Fitness Fixer articles.
- MILITARY FITNESS - military fitness.
- MARTIAL ARTS training and medicine - martial arts.
- LORDOSIS and HYPERLORDOSIS - lordosis.
- DISC INJURY AND RECOVERY - disc.
- SPRAINS and ANKLE HEALTH - sprains.
- FUNCTIONAL BALANCE TRAINING - balance.
- FIXING HEALTH of MIND and SPIRIT - better mental abilities, healthier spirit.
- READER SUCCESS - read exactly what my patients, students, and readers did that worked and didn't and why - Reader Inspiring Stories.
- A few summaries of my research studies on core muscle function, and why crunches and flexion-based abdominal training isn't useful as commonly thought - on the Ab syllabus
Diving and Extreme Environment Research
Since I was a child, I wanted to study science under the sea. I grew up to study decompression physiology, diving maneuvers and countermeasures for SEAL teams and combat swimmers, oxygen toxicity and exercise during submersion. I lived and worked in laboratories underwater, competed in cold water middle distance swims, taught SCUBA, studied the Ama-San diving women of Japan, and researched barometric effects on human performance. I have studied combat swimmers and done extreme swims with them for fun. For military survival protocols, I blasted pilots in ejection towers and spun them in centrifuges and other scientific thing-a-ma-bobs. I put men in vats of freezing water to see how we can keep pilots alive after bail-outs and how to get covert swimmers to their objective, and, I found out, an entire separate topic to get them back again.
- SCUBA diving science and medicine. Click for my short and quick articles on scuba on Fitness Fixer.
- HYPERBARIC science and medicine - hyperbarics.
- SWIMMING science and medicine - swimming.
- PULMONARY EDEMA/OEDEMA science and medicine -pulmonary edema.
- COLD science and medicine - cold.
- HEAT science and medicine - heat.
- FORENSIC science and medicine - forensics.
- AEROSPACE science and medicine - aerospace.
- ALTITUDE science and medicine - altitude.
- g-FORCE and ACCELERATION science - g-forces.
A good book for divers is my Diving Physiology in Plain English. Suitable for all levels of diver, dive instructor, and others interested in scuba medicine and science. See it on the BOOKS page of this web site.
Physicians who want a handy review and summary of all hyperbaric medicine, and to prepare for board exams in hyperbarics, can try my book Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine Review For Physicians. Chamber techs and nurses saw the physicians book and asked for their own separate edition to prepare for certification and know their stuff - Hyperbaric Medical Review For Board Certification Exams, CHT/CHRN. See it on the BOOKS page of this web site.
I am working on a public education program to educate about diving and hyperbarics. Watch this space. Qualified practitioners are invited to apply to contribute in their specialty.
| Are
there not... Two points in the adventure of the diver: One --when a beggar, he prepares to plunge? Two -- when a prince, he rises with his pearl? I plunge! -- Robert Browning |
![]() Dr. Jolie Bookspan lived and dived with the Ama of Japan |

(yes, click the penguin to
see who Jolie is)
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