Physiology, one of our pillars

If there's an adjective that defines the way From Lab to Field (FLF) works, it's cross-disciplinary. The essence of this project is precisely the integration of various branches of knowledge through the professionals who comprise it (physical chemistry, culinary arts, and physiology and nutrition), all aiming to advance the design and development of innovative solutions applicable to the fields of health and physical exercise. In this first post, I'd like to delve a bit deeper into one of our pillars, which, in fact, may even sound somewhat dissonant in this cross-disciplinary union of various branches of knowledge: Why physiology?

By definition, physiology is 'a sub-branch of biology that studies the functions and mechanisms of a living being.' In simpler terms, human physiology is responsible for studying how the human body functions in various situations, such as pathology and physical exercise, for example. But beyond knowing its subject of study, it's particularly interesting to understand why understanding it can help us approach innovative solutions for health and sports performance in a more precise manner. And, of course, to understand why it's one of our fundamental pillars.

It's especially discordant to have the ambition to create solutions for a medium (the human body) without knowing it in detail. Just as, for example, social policies should align with the current social situation, which may seem logically understandable, it should be straightforward to comprehend that any intervention aimed at improving the functions and relationships of the human body must be based on a deep understanding of its capacity for acute reaction and response, and, above all, its mechanisms of adaptation and maladaptation. For this primary and straightforward reason, and because we believe in effective, efficient, and precise solutions that address a need and generate new opportunities, physiology must be a part of our knowledge framework.

Now, how do we truly get to know physiology? This is where our scientific vision and our privileged (we truly believe so) position come into play. In our team, we have individuals educated in the health sciences. We study exercise and disease physiology, and, above all, we actively research new knowledge about physiology, metabolism, and nutrition. We do this daily with the athletes and patients we work with, but above all, we do it systematically through our research activities. Why do we do it? When we set out to create innovative solutions to address 'gaps' in health and physical exercise, we really need to first understand what those knowledge gaps are. To do that, we need to challenge the current state of the art and explore new ways of understanding it.

In our view, the best way to understand a medium is to understand it in its best version (the maximum expression of its capabilities) and in its greatest fault. Only then can we comprehend where we want to go and what those 'gaps' we want to fill are. In human physiology, elite endurance athletes, especially when we're talking about metabolism, represent the best version of 'perfection' that we know. Conversely, individuals with pathologies represent the opposite. Our activity mainly focuses on high-performance sports, which gives us the ability to explore the maximum capabilities of human beings to attempt to find innovative solutions. At the same time, of course, this allows us to understand the gap that pathologies and health represent and learn how we can minimize them. The physiological study of opposing populations brings us closer to understanding deficiencies and proposing effective and precise solutions rigorously.

Our, we believe, privileged position gives us access to this new knowledge, to reconsider and propose new needs, and, therefore, to work on new solutions.