Dr. Bookspan's Adventures as Extreme Physiology Research Scientist

Dr. Bookspan's
Extreme Research

My work in extreme physiology, or environmental physiology, is the study of how the human body works in extremes in environment: cold, heat, altitude, immersion, high G-forces, injury states, micro-gravity, environmental forensics, Military maneuvers, exercise, high and low air pressures (hypobarics and hyperbarics) - how to survive and 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, an Ice Swimmer and later the oldest member of "The Icebergs" ice swimming club, walk barefoot over the ice and snow to go ocean swimming every day.

Scroll down for rare photos and free articles about it all from high to low. Don't miss the Dancing Penguin. Keep scrolling and reading.

Here I am out, standing in my field

Dr. Bookspan photo by Robert Troia

Fixing Injury and Pain Research
Functional Exercise and Training

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 now learned in school by doctors, trainers, physical therapists, Navy divers, chamber operators, combat swimmers, police and military, and top athletes. Doctors, and instructors of 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 pioneered functional fitness and functional exercise training. I was the first person to develop fitness programs aboard cruise ships, and was told it would "never catch on." Photos and stories below, keep scrolling.

List of free summary articles to fix pain,
and saner, healthier fitness that grew from patient handouts that doctor
colleagues asked me to write to replace the ones they used
for NECK pain, BACK, KNEE, DISC, healthier STRETCHING, more
Click the Office Page.

Short summaries of some of my research on core muscle function, why
crunches and flexion-based abdominal training aren't best, and what is.
Click the Ab syllabus

Years of research developing functional methods to fix lower limb and knee pain.
See the results, including summary of one 11 year study:
Click the Lower Body Revolution syllabus.

Dr. Bookspan and friend. Photo © Paul Plevakas

I found a bubble component to altitude sickness - back in the 1980s and 1990s.

I wrote my own grant to get the study, and used Doppler ultrasound to detect and score decompression bubbles developed in the bloodstream during altitude exposure during actual flights. A friend pilot flew us in a Comanche. I Dopplered us both during several flights. Before my work, bubbles were assumed to occur only after ascent from underwater to surface. Altitude sickness was assumed to be from hypoxia. I found bubbles when going to altitude from sea level.

With this "pilot" data, I did grant work to study bubbles in human subjects using a hypobaric chamber (altitude chamber) to simulate specific altitudes and at specific speeds of ascent.

I reported my findings to the US Navy where I worked as researcher. They did not like it at all because it would fix some errors and as we all know, the US Navy has no errors. I published some declassified info in articles for dive and wilderness medicine magazines.

Before digital cameras you took a few snaps then waited to develop the film to see what you took. We are in flight. I am removing a precordial (chest) monitor from myself. The lab reversed the print, making it look like I sat left seat (pilot). Funny.

FORENSIC science and medicine - forensics.
I am Science Officer for the Vidocq Society (I'm "The Spock of Vidocq").
A bit about this international cold case think-tank, only allowing 82 full members - www.Vidocq.org. I was honored when they told me that when Vidocq has a case involving severe environment (aviation/ cold, etc.) I am called in and they say, "She's the Man!" For books about us see The Murder Room , The Girl With the Crooked Nose and other creepy true forensics books on my BOOKS page.

For all divers - Diving Physiology in Plain English. 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 all - on the BOOKS page of this web site.

I Test On Humans

No non-human animals are hurt in my work, or used at all (except those wanting to play fetch or sit in my lab coat pockets munching seeds). I have lost grants and been turned down by medical schools of my choice for my work advancing knowledge directly applicable to humans (not testing on animals). Healthy Green Medicine.

Public Education:

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.

Rare Photos of Dr. Bookspan' s Work

I am private and spent a career keeping personal information out of print. Finally, here are a few moments to share:

Dr. Bookspan Examines Movie Star Christopher Reeve

with Doppler ultrasound to detect
decompression bubbles, and other medical checks
after dives to film his television show about scuba diving.

Experts in several areas of diving joined the show to explain the underwater world as he dived and explored it. I was his personal medical expert (this show was filmed before his horse riding accident). The show never aired but we did great things.

I had been in a paralyzing accident (more about that here) and my crutches, scars, and body metal bothered them. We did all possible to hide them.

Invited to Dinner by physicist Dr. Edward Teller

at a scientific conference.

Regardless of politics, his enormous intellect and wit are undisputed. He told me the inside scoop on why the public record of his interactions with Oppenheimer was untrue.

During the conference, he first scowled at me when we met, and asked in his gravely Hungarian accent, "Vat do yoo know about rrradiation?" My heart sank. My chance to talk to this great physicist and he asks something out of my area. I stammered, "Nothing... sir..."

We talked rapid-fire about medical isotopes, his family, radiation, injuries (he lost a leg in a train accident as a student) and his passion and knowledge of hyperbaric medicine. He quizzed me non-stop on all topics until he furrowed his bushy eyebrows and roared, "You LIED to me - you said you know nothing ... but you know - EVVERRRYthing."

First Dr. Teller quizzed me.
When I passed his tests, he invited me to dinner.

Equations With The Great Dr. Ed Lanphier (Edward Howell Lanphier, M.D.)

in his home in Wisconsin.

Dr. Lanphier asked me to live at their house with him and his wife (Mom Lanphier) in Wisconsin in the dead of winter to work on several studies. Dr. Lanphier was a renowned pioneer in diving physiology and medicine, initiating many top US Navy diving medicine studies. He had been very ill and when he needed someone to finish his work, I was told he sat up in his hospital bed and said, "Get me Bookspan."

Heavy body braces were evident even under my thick sweaters, from my paralyzing accident, later recovered. (I'm debating with myself to upload the ugly photos of lying paralyzed looking like a spaghetti. Here is a glimpse). Often I worked lying on the floor - the bracing did not bend for chairs. It did not bother Lanphier, even when others were not hiring.

As we worked, instead me only finishing his life's work, he and his wife got better, and we were able to do other and new work. No matter what topic I asked him about, he had been involved in it in some way, even the first liquid breathing studies. It led me to always say, "All roads lead to Lanphier."

Photo by Mom Karron Lanphier

Worked Over 9 Years with Dr. Chris Lambertsen (Dr. Christian J. Lambertsen)

at UPenn's Institute for Environmental Medicine (IFEM). I hand-reduced the data for his famous Predictive Studies Series. He believed direct capture of physiologic parameters superior to automating, and I tracked every data point straight from strip chart recordings, intimately learning study results for each subject.

Dr. Lambertsen developed the United States Navy's rebreathers in the 1940s for underwater warfare, including the first oxygen rebreather, the Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit (LARU), and was a pioneer in undersea medicine.

I also worked on Dr. Steve Thom's pioneering carbon monoxide studies and was on the Advisory and Review Board for the Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) grant to investigate a number of areas in oxidative stress and hyperbaric medicine, headed by Dr. Thom.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Lambertsen

Living and Working Underwater

in Saturation Habitats. Since I was a small child, I wanted to work underwater. I designed ocean habitats and underwater laboratories for school projects and was told there was no such thing. In the photo above, I am entering the dry habitat from the ocean below through the bottom hatch. I'm wearing a long surface supply hose plus a small 'pony' tank. Yes, I wore blue jeans for diving. In the 2nd photo, also deep underwater inside the habitat lab, a reporter who came to "get a story" demanded that, since I am an underwater research scientist, I use a microscope while in the habitat underwater. No explanations convinced her that my work as a human physiologist doesn't use one. I could barely remember from school how to turn it on. She insisted that I hunch over it to look intensely involved. My actual work was not mentioned in the news story.

Command Performance Teaching Medical Stretches

For Lama Tenzin, Senior Monk and Principal of the
Tibetan Medical School in the
remote region of Lo Monthan.

The kind Lama allowed physical contact for his learning,
teaching me techniques in exchange.

I Pioneered Fitness on Cruise Ships

They said it would "never catch on."

Back then, people didn't exercise on vacation. I developed the program and taught exercise on ships in the early 1980s with the first onboard Parcours (free running all over the ship), yoga on the swaying decks (good for balance training), scuba and snorkeling, stretching at sunrise and sunset, aerobics in best 80s legwarmer style, dance, calisthenics, nutrition, many programs all day for all ages in several languages.

I didn't get royalties on my programs but loved being out to sea.

Few people owned cameras back then. Passengers sent me a few snaps that I am starting to scan and put here

I got sun while stretching, old fashioned, on top deck.

Worked as Able Bodied Crew on Tall Ships

I swabbed the decks, the toilets, the dirtiest of bilges.

Why not?

Good hard work in the hard salt air. The photo at right was sort of a joke as they didn't let us swabbies take the helm. After the photo, I went back to polishing the brass.

I carried loads to ship when we docked in ports for provisions each 2 weeks. We slept stacked on litters 4 high. We worked 6am to midnight, 7 days a week. In between, I studied for my 100 ton licence and dreamed about jellyfish. We sailed exclusively in the Devil's Triangle.

I am at left. Hard work in searing sun and salt
scrubbed me golden. Fellow navigator at right.

Anatomy & Physiology Professor in Mexico

at a college to licence teachers.

I think the entrance exam was getting up the mountain to school without a nosebleed.

I had been living in Mexico teaching scuba and working with locals to start their own gym - more photos here. I mortared and hammered to build the place itself and taught how to teach classes. I worked until my Spanish was good enough to apply and be accepted as Professor at the University level, living and teaching entirely in Spanish.

Many many funny stories. Ask me about them when you come to take my classes sometime

Can you see me? First row with students (in neat uniforms)
Fellow professor at left.

Martial Arts With the Fighting Horseback Muay Thai Monks and the Shaolin Monks

I am a 4th degree Black Belt in Shotokan karate.

The pioneers and Masters were my teachers, including Teruyuki OkazakiSan, who learned from the founders. We were later honored to study in Japan.

Our dojo (training hall) in Philadelphia is pictured at right. I am first on left, then Paul Sensei (Sensei means teacher in this context), who makes a fun optical illusion that I am short. Then our students in order of rank.

I did years of painful rehab after my paralyzing accident (not martial arts related) using my own methods while all around me said I was unreasonable not to accept I would never stand or walk. I started over as a white belt, training for years until earning the black belt a second time.

Paul and I are at the Shaolin Temple (Shaolin Monastery) near Zhengzhou in China. We were glad to attend before it was popular with foreign tourists and before they had a cushy hotel there.

From there, we traveled to the Chen Village, birthplace of Tai Chi, to study from the source. It was a poor backwater with open sewers, requiring a bonecrunching trip by 4 wheel drive vehicle. More photos and stories of this to come. Check back here, or with me.

I trained Muay Thai in The Netherlands and then Thailand, fighting in the ring there. A little about Muay Thai kickboxing classes I taught at Temple University is here.

Years later we traveled by ourselves to the far northern Thai-Burmese border to the Muay Thai Monks on Horseback. They fight drug lords with education and strength. The Monk (Abbot), the Kru Ba, is on horseback. Paul is the tall one in yellow. I am in purple second from right. We stayed with our friend Tiem Pon, pictured first on right. The famous monk is her nephew.

Story on my Fitness Fixer™ - Muay Thai Monks on Horseback. The company removed my photos of the monks and their jungle training when my column ended, so come back here and see me for more. The young monks (nen) thought it was hilarious that my hair is the same color as their Abbot's horse mane. For some, it was the first time they laughed since their families were murdered in border drug wars.

Breath Hold Diving With The Japanese Ama Divers

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

Paul and I are at the Shaolin Temple (Shaolin Monastery) near Zhengzhou in China. We were glad to attend before it was popular with foreign tourists and before they had a cushy hotel there. From there, we traveled to the Chen Village, birthplace of Tai Chi, to study from the source. It was a poor backwater with open sewers, requiring a bonecrunching trip by 4 wheel drive vehicle. More photos and stories of this to come. Check back here, or with me.

I trained Muay Thai in The Netherlands and then Thailand, fighting in the ring there. A little about Muay Thai kickboxing classes I taught at Temple University is here. Years later we traveled by ourselves to the far northern Thai-Burmese border to the Muay Thai Monks on Horseback. They fight drug lords with education and strength. The Monk (Abbot), the Kru Ba, is on horseback. Paul is the tall one in yellow. I am in purple second from right. We stayed with our friend Tiem Pon, pictured first on right. The famous monk is her nephew. Story on my Fitness Fixer™ - Muay Thai Monks on Horseback. The company removed my photos of the monks and their jungle training when my column ended, so come back here and see me for more. The young monks (nen) thought it was hilarious that my hair is the same color as their Abbot's horse mane. For some, it was the first time they laughed since their families were murdered in border drug wars.