Meet Dr. Alan Christianson

As a child raised in rural Minnesota, Dr. Christianson was an avid reader. He loved spending time with his family’s encyclopedias and medical textbooks. His body, however, was a source of struggle. Cerebral palsy left him with seizures, poor coordination, and obesity.

A devastating comment made by a classmate in 7th grade gym class spurred him into action. He became determined to reset his health and his life. Over the next few weeks he devoured dozens of books on nutrition, fitness, and health and created his own recovery plan.

Dr. Christianson gave up sugar and developed an exercise routine that was easy enough for him to start on. He stuck with it and built on it. With no prior sports experience, he became a varsity football player and his classes’ best endurance runner by 9th grade. This experience taught him that being healthy transformed both how you feel and how others treat you. He also learned that the tickets to health were knowledge and persistence.