Fall is here, and winter isn’t far behind.

We’re pulling out sweaters, watching the days get shorter, and making the usual adjustments that come with the season.

Meanwhile, our bodies have been making adjustments of their own, and they’re considerably more complicated than switching out our wardrobes.

That got us thinking about something Mark has discussed throughout Webinar Wednesday: the remarkable ways the body preserves its functions, and what it takes to keep those systems working.

So we went digging through the archives.

We found four webinars that took us from the body’s backup systems to the physiology of cold weather, with a few interesting stops along the way.

Good Thing the Body Has a Backup Plan

Built to Survive: Redundant Systems in the Human Body — June 18, 2025

Have you ever thought about how many backup systems your body has? Mark devoted an entire webinar to the subject in June 2025.

“So the human body is built to survive and it has redundant systems.”

He explores how the body maintains important functions through different pathways, including the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and collateral circulation, which can provide alternative routes for blood flow.

But maintaining all those systems requires something.

“And the more we know how to support them, the better.”

Mark explains that these backup arrangements require additional energy and nutritional resources.

We thought that was worth remembering. It’s easy to appreciate the body’s ability to compensate without giving much thought to everything involved in maintaining that ability.

Apparently, Good Things Come in Threes

The Three Triads of Physical Preservation — January 3, 2024

Mark has a way of taking complicated physiology and finding patterns that help us understand it. In this webinar, he organizes three important areas of physical preservation into what he calls triads.

“But, the reason we go into these threes is because the body just seems to be hardwired that way.”

He explores the triad of immunity, the triad of digestion, and the triad of the heart. Each involves its own relationships among nutrients, organs, and physiological functions. For the heart, Mark identifies three particular considerations:

“So the triad of the heart is rate, rhythm, and tone.”

The presentation also revisits Dr. Royal Lee’s historical teaching about calcium, vitamin F, and the vitamin C complex in relation to immunity.

There is plenty to unpack in this one, especially for anyone interested in how Mark connects nutritional principles with the body’s different systems.

Winter Is Coming. Your Body Has Some Work to Do

Winter Prep — January 4, 2023

This webinar seemed particularly appropriate for fall, even though Mark originally presented it in January. He gets right to the subject of adapting to our surroundings:

“If you cannot change with the environment, then you’ve lost the ability to survive.”

This begins an exploration about what happens when the body encounters cold conditions and why different people may respond differently. He discusses circulation, oxygen delivery, protective barriers, and even chilblains, a condition associated with cold exposure and changes in the small blood vessels beneath the skin.

We usually think about winter preparation in terms of coats, boots, and keeping the house warm. Mark gives us a whole different set of things to consider. And there is considerably more happening beneath the surface than most of us probably realize.

Calcium Is Doing More Than You Might Think

Ionized Calcium + Immunity — January 17, 2024

When someone mentions calcium, what comes to mind?

Bones? Teeth?

Mark has spent decades teaching about calcium’s other physiological roles, and this webinar takes us into one of his longstanding interests: ionizable calcium and immunity.

Drawing on Dr. Royal Lee’s historical work, Mark describes the importance of ionizable calcium as extending:

“…way beyond what calcium is generally thought to do.”

He explores calcium’s involvement in cellular activity, immune cell function, and research involving ionized calcium levels in critically ill patients.

It’s a much broader discussion than the one most of us grew up hearing about calcium.

And it connects back to the triad of immunity from the earlier webinar, giving us another opportunity to hear Mark examine a familiar nutritional subject in greater detail.

There’s Always More to the Story

We started with a simple thought about fall and the changing seasons.

A few webinars later, we had explored the body’s backup systems, three areas of physical preservation, the physiology of cold weather, and some of the lesser-known roles of calcium.

That’s one of our favorite things about Webinar Wednesday. You can start with a familiar subject and discover how much more there is to understand. And sometimes a webinar from several years ago becomes even more interesting when you hear it alongside something Mark taught just a few months ago.

Winter will be here soon enough. We’ve got plenty to learn in the meantime.

Mark Anderson’s Webinar Wednesday sessions take place on the first and third Wednesday of each month, and annual subscribers can explore the growing archives whenever they like.

Register for Mark Anderson’s Webinar Wednesday, and we’ll see you at the next one!

Images from iStock/Igor Barilo (main), bmanzurova (woman in winter), ttsz (nervous system).