Betsy Keller

Betsy A. Keller, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Exercise & Sport Sciences at Ithaca College in New York. She is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), past member of the Board of Trustees of ACSM, and past president and former department chair of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Chapter of ACSM.

Since 2005, she has provided 2-day cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) for persons with ME/CFS for purposes of research and/or to provide an objective assessment of functional capacity and ability to perform and recover following physical work for disability reports. She studies the effects of physical activity in ME/CFS on parameters of physiological and immune function.

In 2015 Keller said "Given what we have learned in the past eight years about this illness, it is intellectually embarrassing to suggest that ME is a psychological illness."

In 2017, Dr. Keller became an exercise physiology researcher at the Center for Enervating NeuroImmune Disease, Cornell University, New York, an ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center partially funded by the NIH.

Institute of Medicine committee
Keller was one of the experts on the "Committee on the Diagnostic Criteria for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" that was convened for the 2015 Institute of Medicine report.

ME/CFS Common Data Element (CDE) Project
Member of the Post-Exertional Malaise Working Group and Quality of Life/Functional Status (CPET)/Activity Working Group of the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Common Data Element (CDE) Project sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Notable studies

 * 2014, Inability of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome patients to reproduce VO₂peak indicates functional impairment (Full Text)
 * 2016, A Pair of Identical Twins Discordant for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Differ in Physiological Parameters and Gut Microbiome Composition
 * 2018, Eukaryotes in the gut microbiota in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2018, Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test Methodology for Assessing Exertion Intolerance in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Abstract

Talks & interviews

 * 2013, ‘A Foreign and Illogical Result': Dr. Betsy Keller on Exercise Testing in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)
 * 2016, 12th International IACFS/ME Biennial Clinical and Research Conference, Emerging Science and Clinical Care, How Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Informs Pathology and Treatment(Workshop given with Christopher Snell, Ph.D. and Mark VanNess, Ph.D.)

Online presence

 * PubMed - Betsy Keller

Learn more

 * Ithaca College - Betsy Keller
 * 2012, Exercise Testing and Using a Heart Rate Monitor
 * 2014, NEW DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS FOR ME/CFS