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BOB BROWN: What’s Fitness Got To Do With It?

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Author:

Bob Brown
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Date:

August 6, 2025

One word answers today’s question, “What does fitness have to do with it?” EVERYTHING is the correct reply if the “it” refers to LIFE itself.

Quantum computers may tell us that the unhealthy weight of Americans in pounds is ten times the national debt in dollars. We are blessed with good appetites.

Medical research is finding ways to achieve optimal health, including healthiest weight. No one with a weight problem is free of shame. I will be the last to criticize or judge others.

Many with unhealthy weight are genetically predisposed to metabolic disorders. In the near future, gene alteration treatment will assist those with genetic inheritance to weight dysregulation.

I was in medical school when President John F. Kennedy (1963) was assassinated. I was an intern when his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, former Attorney General (1968), was assassinated. Sadness and shock struck America like bolts of lightning, leaving permanent scars.

RFK Jr. was 9 when his uncle was killed and 14 when he lost his dad. RFK Jr. is the third of eleven children born to Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel.

The sudden traumatic death of a close relative, followed by the sudden traumatic death of a father, is a lifetime burden for a son.

Today, RFK Jr. is Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). His dad and uncle would surely be proud of him.

He was sworn in on February 13, 2025. RFK Jr., a former independent presidential candidate who previously challenged President Biden, suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump in August 2024. 

While the exact intensity and duration of his workouts might be debated, the evidence suggests that RFK Jr. actively engages in physically demanding activities. 

At 71, RFK Jr. is likely among the most physically fit members of President Trump’s Cabinet.

As Secretary of Health and Human Services, RFK Jr. also leads the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission—created by executive order under President Trump—to tackle rising rates of chronic illness.

President Trump signed an Executive Order bringing back the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, along with the Presidential Fitness Test. RFK Jr. oversees the test, and the Council includes leading athletes and experts.

Politically, I am a Southern Democrat, which is defined today as a Conservative, but I vote for the person, not the party.

I have never met RFK JR. He has no reason to know or care if I exist, but I am a self-appointed member of his fan club.

RFK Jr. is triple-fit, an ideal example of physically, mentally, and spiritually fit.Publicly, he said he is spiritually aligned with his faith in God as a devout Catholic. He is well educated and an accomplished attorney and author. When he takes off his shirt, the evidence of excellent physical fitness cannot be denied.

In my 10th year of life, I was in the 5th grade at James Madison Grammar School, Norfolk, Virginia. Shy, anxious, and ashamed of poverty that I could not hide from my classmates, I preferred to remain in the background, alone.

Ms. Bailey, my teacher, took the class to the playground. We were required to run 100 yards. A physical education teacher measured each student’s run with a stopwatch.

I was the most surprised student on the playground when I was told I ran faster than my classmates. The teacher’s encouragement about running had a positive, lasting effect on the rest of my life. It cannot be more appreciated.

Knowing I could run fast gave me a platform on which to build the confidence, with the help of teammates and coaches, to play community league baseball, football, and basketball.

Before I was a running back for the Maury High School Commodores and ran dashes on the Track Team, our community team, the Lamberts Point Rangers, were untied, undefeated, and unscored upon champions.

With the help of Theodore Garnett and Nicholas G. Wilson’s families in Norfolk and Bus Male of the UVA coaching staff, I was given the opportunity to try out for the UVA Cavaliers football team. One of the great regrets of my life was not trying hard enough to make the team.

I tried to build my life on the scaffolding of the sense of well-being associated with physical, mental, and spiritual fitness. There were many misses. Painful, arduous failures taught me the priceless value of second chances, a form of forgiveness.

Each of the three forms of fitness renders its unique satisfaction and joy. This unique satisfaction and joyare available to everyone. “Everyone?” Yes, let me explain, using physical fitness as an example.

Any physical exercise is better than none. If you are confined to bed, a wheelchair, awalker, or a family member, friend, or physical therapist can move parts of your body for you. You may have weakness or paralysis from a stroke, for example. With your doctor’s approval, passive movement may help.

All serious exercise is best performed after discussing your plan with your physician.

The first question to ask your physician: “Doctor, how much regular exercise do you perform daily?”

The second question for your physician: “Doctor, tell me all you know about BDNF.”

If the good doctor hedges, make him or her read this article or refer you to a doctor who takes better care of him or herself.

I had little free time in medical school for exercise, so I used the Royal Canadian Air Force Exercise Manual… mostly running in place with calisthenics.

Later, I was on a committee drawing plans for the new UVA Hospital. I was joined by others in having a fully equipped gym in the new building.

The sense of well-being from physical exercise is too real to be dismissed as “just something in my mind.” I taught a Mental Health course at UVA. Pledged exercise three times weekly was offered as an elective. Vital signs, weight, height, and a 2-mile timed run at the beginning and end of the semester were measured.

Fourteen students enrolled in the first class. Soon, the enrollment increased to 800 students. At the demand of the dean, the class was finally limited to 500 students per semester.

All students were required to take a midterm and final exam. Besides the Exercise elective, students were offered a Reflection Journal or a Dream Journal elective. By far, the Exercise option was the most popular.

Occasionally, I will meet a former Mental Health student. Five decades may have passed, but I ask, “What do you remember about the course?” The answer is always the same: “You told us that you have never treated a physically fit depressed patient!”

Shakespeare confirmed my observation about the cause and cure of depression in Hamlet’s terrible ambivalence, driven by severe depression: “I have of late–but wherefore I know not–lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise.” Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 2, Scene II.

Several times, I was called upon to meet UVA deans to “tell us just what is going on in your classroom. This is an academic institution, proud of its reputation, and frankly, we fail to see any place for physical exercise in your class.”

Nothing I said was acceptable. I always left the meetings with their disapproval.

Mental Health ended after four decades in 2023. The Cavalier Daily wrote a nice article about the Mental Health course, “Gone but Not Soon Forgotten.”

In the meantime, Dr. Fred Gage, Salk Institute, discovered an enzyme released by the brain with moderate exercise.The enzyme, BrainDerived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF), converts stem cells in the brain into neurons or brain cells. The newly created brain cells migrate into the hippocampus, where emotional memories are stored.

Many additional favorable changes in the brain occur with exercise. Hyperthermia, for example, increases circulatingblood (carrying Oxygen) in the brain. The core body temperature may increase to 104 degrees with prolonged, vigorous exercise.

In July 1978, Time Magazine wrote an article called “Jogging for the Mind.” Jack Carpenter, a local photographer, took a photograph of my backside, perhaps my best, jogging with a patient. I have often wondered why I agreed to the article, having never jogged with a patient. It is far too intimate.

I have been known to refuse to prescribe medication until fitness training proved unsuccessful, a rare event.

Twenty-first-century fitness research has proven its effectiveness in a wide range of disorders from depression to dementia.

Walking, for those physically capable, is high on the list of pleasurable and therapeutic exercises.

For his depression, Wordsworth walked with his sister, Dorothy, when he saw daffodils dancing in the breeze: “Ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance.”

As a Second-year medical student, I studied Pathology. The course was well taught. It included participation in post-mortem examinations (autopsies).

Three young men, killed in an automobile accident, were being examined. “Take a look at this,” said the Pathology Professor. The coronary arteries of the decedents were showing the beginning of scarring that will ultimately lead to clogged coronaries, incompatible with life.

“This is evidence of lifestyle disease… life habits of poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and poor stress control. They died young in a car accident, but they would have suffered critical heart disease in their 40s had they lived that long.”

The Bible does not mention “fitness” as we understand it today, but it does address caring for our bodies, minds, and spirits in various ways.

1. Stewardship of the body

Bodies belong to God: “19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.”

Glorifying God includes making choices that honor the gift of our physical beings. 

2. Moderation and self-control

Avoid overindulgence: The Bible promotes moderation in eating and drinking, “Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, 21 for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.” Proverbs 23:20-21.

Discipline and self-control: “24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control,[a] lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27.

3. Physical activity

Physical training is beneficial, though godliness is of greater value. “for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8.

Jesus and his disciples walked long distances as part of their ministry, suggesting a level of physical activity. 

4. Rest and rejuvenation

God rested on the seventh day. This establishes a precedent for the importance of rest.

Rest is vital for our bodies and spirits. Sleep is encouraged in the Bible to recharge and rejuvenate. 

5. Healthy diet

God’s original design included a plant-based diet: “29 And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.” Genesis 1:29.

Daniel’s example: Daniel chose to eat only vegetables and water, with positive results.

Importance of whole foods and avoiding harmful substances: The Bible indirectly promotes focusing on natural, wholesome foods while discouraging unhealthy habits.

In summary, one can make the argument that fitness is biblical. American Christians who ignore fitness, sadly, the majority, are stumbling blocks for those who earnestly seek righteousness.

Dr. Robert S. Brown Sr. (Photo from 2016)

Robert S. Brown, MD, PHD a retired Psychiatrist, Col (Ret) U.S. Army Medical Corps devoted the last decade of his career to treating soldiers at Fort Lee redeploying from combat. He was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Education at UVA. His renowned Mental Health course taught the value of exercise for a sound mind.

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