FitMed FAQS: our health, fitness, and age management programs

Charleston SC FitMed Partners: Frequently Asked Questions

Who is FitMed Partners?

FitMed Partners™ is a group of healthcare professionals, based in Charleston, South Carolina, who translate the most current, up-to-date medical and health findings into practice, providing personalized and proven health and wellness solutions for those seeking optimal fitness, health, and performance at any age.

FitMed offers monitored programs in weight loss, age management, nutrition, hormone optimization, and fitness and athletic performance optimization.

The FitMed medical and clinical teams use comprehensive health profiles and professional assessments in the areas of nutrition and exercise performance to tailor programs that safely guide you toward renewed energy, enhanced fitness, and overall physical well-being.

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What are the advantages of using FitMed Partners?

FitMed Partners offers safe, natural, and medically-based age management and weight management programs in a more personal and unhurried healthcare environment. Working with comprehensive profiles as well as nutrition and fitness assessments, we utilize the latest research and scientific knowledge to guide you to optimal performance levels and a higher quality of life. We draw on the best evidence and latest research to design a personalized plan for your optimal health and fitness.

What are the qualifications of the FitMed team?

FitMed Partners was founded in Charleston, SC by Bright McConnell, III, MD, a board certified orthopedic surgeon with subspecialty expertise in sports medicine and human performance and certification in age management medicine. Dr. McConnell leads a team of professionals with training and special expertise in nutrition, weight and age management, and exercise performance. FitMed's registered dietitians and exercise physiologists provide expert advice on nutrition and exercise prescriptions.

Will FitMed Partners work with my physician to manage my health issues?

Yes. FitMed Partners firmly believes in partnering with primary care physicians and other healthcare professionals to improve your overall health. We believe it is essential to effectively communicate with your primary care givers, both to receive pertinent health information and to make your other physicians aware of any programs or treatment that may have an impact on your overall health and wellness program.

FitMed Partners: Charleston SC innovators

What products and services do you offer?

We offer two primary programs: a comprehensive age management program and a comprehensive weight management program. We also offer a comprehensive age management profile, a comprehensive weight management profile, and two assessments: a comprehensive nutrition assessment and a comprehensive fitness assessment.

What is the comprehensive age management program?

Using safe and natural evidence-based treatment, this program combines hormonal optimization with both nutrition and fitness counseling. As the aging process occurs, hormonal levels decrease in both men and women. This program allows you to optimize cardiovascular and metabolic capacity, leading to enhanced energy and a reduced risk associated with age-related diseases. The program includes the initial comprehensive age management profile, periodic monitoring of lab results, physician follow-up, and annual nutrition and fitness re-assessments.

What is the comprehensive weight management program?

For individuals seeking to attain a healthier body weight, we utilize the HMR at Home® weight management program, which offers an at-home option using portion-controlled food, food journaling, and optional weekly support. Individual nutritional counseling is also available with one-on-one consultation and follow-up with a registered dietitian.

What's in my FitMed profile?

Our comprehensive age management profile includes a full work-up of an individual's nutritional and fitness status with a registered dietitian and exercise physiologist. It includes the American Heart Association/American College of Sports Medicine Risk Stratification, determination of resting metabolic rate, comprehensive exercise testing with physician supervision, and advanced DXA body composition testing. FitMed uses the Cognitive Stability Index and the Beck Depression Index to assess baseline cognitive function and risk of clinical depression. The Arterio Vision™ CIMT Test (carotid intima-media thickness), available in the spring of 2009, helps identify the risk of heart disease and stroke. Comprehensive laboratory testing, including a hormone screening panel, metabolic panel and cardiovascular risk panel, is included. All results and program recommendations are reviewed in a lengthy face to face discussion with the physician.

Our comprehensive weight management profile includes a full workup of your nutritional and exercise status with a registered dietitian and exercise physiologist. Also included are the American Heart Association/American College of Sports Medicine Risk Stratification, comprehensive exercise testing with physician supervision, and advanced DXA body composition testing. Laboratory testing options include a hormone screening panel, a metabolic risk panel, and a cardiovascular risk panel, which are available for an additional charge. All results and program recommendations are reviewed in a lengthy face-to-face discussion with your physician.

How long will my FitMed profile take?

For our comprehensive age management profile, the total time involved is six hours, which includes 1.5 hours of one-to-one physician time. If desired, the total time can be divided among separate days.

For our comprehensive weight management profile, the total time involved is five hours, which includes one hour of one-to-one physician time. The total time can be divided among separate days.

What does a comprehensive assessment involve?

Our comprehensive nutrition assessment includes baseline testing of your resting metabolic rate (caloric needs at rest), body composition (percent body fat), and other measurements. A series of questionnaires will be completed prior to the visit with the registered dietitian (RD). The dietitian will then review your goals, lifestyle, and obstacles to change in order to develop a personalized nutrition plan that is optimal for you.

Our comprehensive fitness assessment, administered by an exercise physiologist, evaluates your current fitness level, including body fat, cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength, balance, flexibility, and range of motion. A series of questionnaires will be completed prior to this visit. Once testing is complete, your exercise physiologist will review the results and provide you with a personalized exercise prescription and medical fitness program recommendation.

How long does an assessment take?

Our comprehensive nutrition assessment requires two and a half hours. Our comprehensive fitness assessment also requires two and a half hours.

Are initial assessments or profiles required before signing up for a program?

A nutrition assessment may be recommended, but not required, for the weight management program. The age management profile is required to participate in the age management program.

Can I choose FitMed services a la carte?

Yes, you may choose from any of our profiles, programs, or assessments, though the age management program does require an initial profile, which is included in the fee. In addition, you may choose to have nutrition counseling, a resting metabolic rate, body composition, or VO2 max exercise test.

The FitMed age management program

What is age management?

Age management is a scientifically sound medical approach that treats aging as a manageable process. This approach does not claim to increase longevity or reverse aging at the cellular level. Rather, certified physicians will help you gain and maintain optimal health through an integrated approach that focuses on weight management, nutrition, exercise, lifestyle changes, and hormone optimization. Meanwhile, our physicians will provide you with a thorough evaluation and devise a personalized plan based on your age management goals, health status, and disease risk. These plans are designed to optimize an individual's fitness, performance, and health at any age. When clinically indicated, physicians may also provide you with a personalized hormonal optimization program.

How does age management work?

The aging process is continuous and linear beginning in the early thirties and continuing throughout life. Symptoms of aging include female menopause, male andropause, and growth hormone somatopause, heralding a reduction in most of our hormones. As essential hormones diminish, two hormones, insulin and cortisol, may increase to harmful levels. Hormonal optimization, together with proper nutrition and exercise, creates the triad of medical scientific principles of age management medicine, designed to minimize the negative effects of the aging process and return your body to its optimal state. By surveying in-depth your clinical and lifestyle history, with clinical examination and laboratory and diagnostic testing, your disease risk can be assessed and the appropriate treatment initiated. Follow-up is essential to monitor progress and changes, assess safety, and make treatment adjustments. Follow-up may also require repeated laboratory and diagnostic testing to achieve optimal treatment results. FitMed's age management program includes an initial comprehensive age management profile, monthly supervision, and follow-up and monitoring of progress, with program adjustment as needed.

Does age management apply to men and women?

Yes. Although there seems to be more focus on aging in women and the resulting phases of menopause, men experience many similar changes and fluctuations in hormone levels known as andropause. FitMed Partners is equipped to address and treat these changes and guide both men and women toward a healthier, happier level of fitness, performance, and vitality.

At what age should I start thinking about age management?

Many studies have shown that most adults will have experienced significantly lower levels of critical hormones by age 40. FitMed Partners performs initial baseline evaluations on adults of all ages, including comprehensive laboratory, fitness, and nutrition testing, to determine a specific program of hormone optimization, regular exercise, and nutritional supplementation.

What is hormonal optimization and how does it work?

Hormonal optimization refers to the science of restoring hormones to clinically appropriate levels. As the aging process takes place, hormone levels tend to decrease. Men and women rely on a proper balance of estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, DHEA (dihydroepiandrosterone) thyroid, cortisol, insulin, and growth hormone. Optimizing hormonal levels provides you with the best opportunity for a healthy and active life.

What kind of results should I expect to see?

Participants in our age management program should experience improvements in energy, body composition (decreased abdominal body fat and increased lean muscle), bone strength, skin tone and elasticity, memory, cognition, cardiovascular fitness, sleep, libido, and an overall heightened sense of well-being. Some participants begin to experience results within days of beginning the program, although for most, positive results become apparent within the first three to six months after beginning the program.

What is andropause?

As men approach mid-life, typically between the ages of 40 and 55, they often experience a phase similar to the female menopause, called andropause. Although there is not a definitive signal such as the cessation of the menstrual cycle in women, there is a similar drop in hormone levels (testosterone for men; estrogen for women). This may cause bodily changes and be accompanied by changes in attitudes and moods, fatigue, a loss of energy, sex drive, loss of muscle strength and size, less physical agility, and erectile dysfunction. Studies show that this decline in hormones also can affect your health, increasing the likelihood of heart disease, overweight or obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, and weak bones. Fortunately, recent developments in testing make it much easier to diagnosis this phenomenon, allowing you to pursue appropriate therapies of hormone optimization and other treatment that will lead you back to a healthier, more vibrant life. Learn about FitMed’s hormonal optimization programs.

What is menopause?

Menopause is defined as the time when a woman ceases menstruation, caused by the natural decline in ovarian function and a corresponding decrease in hormone levels. For most women, natural menopause begins between the ages of 45 and 55, although it can occur as early as in the thirties or as late as in the sixties. Until a woman is considered menopausal (12 months after her last period), she is considered perimenopausal. This is the phase where most women experience the most significant side effects of this transition: night sweats, hot flashes, mood swings, weight gain, "brain fog", anxiety, loss of skin tone, vaginal dryness, and urinary tract infections. Once a woman has become menopausal and hormone levels have leveled out, some of these symptoms may subside, though for some this may take more time than others. During this phase and beyond, hormone optimization can help to return hormones to their clinically appropriate levels.

What are the benefits of hormone supplementation therapy for women?

Beyond offsetting many of the typical symptoms of menopause and getting back to a normal, healthy life, hormonal optimization can help offset the chance of developing osteoporosis, as loss of estrogen has been associated with a drop in bone mass. Further, women who take estrogen early after the onset of menopause have been shown to significantly cut their risk of heart disease. Also, estrogen supplementation can increase insulin sensitivity, which can ward off adult onset diabetes. A recent Nurses’ Health Study showed women had a 20 percent decrease in the incidence of diabetes among those who took estrogen.

What are some of the benefits of hormone supplementation therapy for men?

As men age, they lose bioavailable testosterone, the most important of two testosterone forms. (The other form is known as total.) There is much medical literature out in support of raising testosterone levels to optimal (the upper range of normal) levels to provide protection against heart disease, diabetes, loss of bone density and muscle strength, and to raise energy levels, libido, motivation, cognition, and memory. Additionally, testosterone has been shown to decrease cholesterol and to protect the brain against the protein deposits that lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

Men lose about 25% of their lean body mass by age 85 and many suffer hip fractures. Testosterone increases bone mineral density and increases lean body mass. Far earlier in life, men in their mid-40s often experience the realization that things that once were easy—a healthy sex drive, and the ease and duration of erection—have taken a significant downturn due to losses in testosterone. This can affect mental outlook as well. Helping men regain a more positive and youthful outlook on life and reducing the risk of age-related disease can take you a long way toward living life better.

Does FitMed Partners prescribe natural or synthetic hormones if needed?

Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT), prescribed and compounded in a pharmacy specifically for you, is utilized to restore hormone levels to an optimal range. Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy utilizes hormones with a chemical structure identical to hormones naturally produced in the human body. These should not be confused with synthetic hormones, which have been shown to have adverse affects in several studies. Human Growth Hormone (hGH) is only utilized in documented cases of adult onset growth hormone deficiency. Periodic laboratory testing is utilized to monitor all of your hormone levels and to keep them in a safe and optimal range.

How does FitMed Partners help identify the threat of heart disease and stroke?

FitMed employs the Arterio Vision™ CIMT Test (carotid intima-media thickness), which is administered with the age management profile. Available in the spring of 2009, the Arterio Vision CIMT Test helps identify the risk of heart disease and stroke through an ultrasound procedure that measures the thickness of the first two layers of the carotid artery in the neck, where atherosclerosis (the underlying cause of heart attacks and strokes) develops.

How does FitMed assess cognitive function?

The Headminder Cognitive Stability Index™ (CSI), administered with the age management profile, is a web-based screening tool designed to monitor cognitive status in healthy, at-risk, and afflicted populations. At its core is a series of repeatable neurocognitive tests of attention, memory, reaction time, speed of information processing, and executive functions. Using this "baseline" model, in which an individual's scores are compared to his/her own prior scores, small decreases of cognitive function can be identified very early.

Weight loss and management: the HMR program at FitMed Partners

Why has FitMed selected the HMR dietary program?

HMR® (Health Management Resources) is a weight loss and weight management leader, offering the number one program for medically supervised weight loss used by physicians in major medical centers throughout the United States.

What are the benefits of meal replacement?

More than 60 references have found that meal replacements result in significantly greater weight loss and weight loss maintenance. Those using meal replacements lost an average of three times as much weight than those on traditional diets. In fact, not one study has found that non-meal replacement diets exceed the performance of meal replacement diets. Meal replacement provides structure, cuts down on the number of choices and decisions a person has to make, provides excellent nutrition, and participants typically see immediate results, which is highly predictive of longer term success.

What is HMR at Home?

HMR at Home® is a weight management program offering an at-home option. It includes portion-controlled meals, snacks and beverages, food journaling, and optional weekly support.

How successful is HMR's program?

HMR's program for medically supervised weight loss enjoys higher weight loss results than any other ongoing weight loss program, based on published weight loss results. Participants using the HMR at Home program lose an average of 15 to 30 pounds. Moreover, HMR participants typically see their blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipids decrease.

Are HMR participants typically successful in maintaining lost weight?

Yes. HMR participants are among the most successful in maintaining their weight, based on published studies on weight maintenance.

How long do people typically stay on the HMR program?

The average length of participation in the weight loss phase of the program is nine weeks.

Is phone support recommended while on this diet?

While not required, phone support is recommended by FitMed Partners. A University of Kansas study that compared two self-directed weight loss programs over 12 weeks found that those who engaged in weekly 10 minute phone calls lost 41 percent more than those who did not engage in weekly phone support.

Is the HMR diet affordable?

One of the benefits of the HMR program is that the cost of the diet is not in addition to what participants are already spending on food. The total food cost is approximately $13 per day, and many people report that they actually save money on this diet.

FitMed's nutrition and fitness programs in Charleston, SC

What does your exercise plan involve? What might I expect?

All exercise plans are individually developed and include the frequency, duration and intensity of the intended exercise. In addition, you will be given exercise progression guidelines to optimize your results. Improvements in physical activity and cardiorespiratory endurance have been found to produce significant health benefits.

How does FitMed Partners measure metabolic rate and body fat?

We measure actual resting metabolic rate (resting caloric needs) using the MedGem device, which assesses resting metabolic rate (RMR) for accurate determination of daily energy needs for individuals participating in weight management programs. We measure body composition using the BOD POD Body Composition Tracking System, which uses patented air displacement technology for highly accurate, fast, and safe results. We also use the GE Lunar Prodigy DXA, which is a testing device that measures body composition with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. This device can look beyond weight and the traditional body mass index to determine body fat distribution, lean tissue mass, and bone mineral content.

General questions about FitMed programs

How long do FitMed programs last?

The length of each program depends on your individual needs and goals.

How much do the programs, profiles, and assessments cost?

Depending on the type of services selected, costs can range from a hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. For more information on pricing, please call us at 843.284.5720.

Can I expect any insurance reimbursements for the services you provide?

Because most of our assessments and treatment recommendations may be considered preventative in nature, many insurance companies and government programs (Medicare) do not cover professional fees, prescriptions, or labs. FitMed does, however, facilitate reimbursement for non-Medicare clients by providing them with the information needed to file for out-of-network insurance benefits, if applicable, although payment is expected at the time of service. Additionally, various programs designed to give individuals tax advantages to offset health care costs are available.

Will Medicare benefits cover your services?

We do not file for or accept Medicare.

Does FitMed Partners offer any payment plans?

Payment is collected at the time of service. Long term programs allow for monthly payments.

What are your hours of operation?

FitMed Partners is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Where is FitMed Partners located?

FitMed Medical Partners is located on Daniel Island, across the river from Charleston, South Carolina. Click here for our address, phone number, directions, and a map.

Learn more about FitMed’s programs to enhance your life TODAY:

Age Management Program
Healthy Weight Loss & Weight Management Program
Natural Hormonal Therapy
Fitness and Peak Performance
Healthy Nutrition