Overview
Happy new year! I just added a lot of new biomarkers with a focus on physical/functional metrics like grip strength, vo2max, and mobility, and I will continue to focus on those more in the near future.
I replaced and removed some supplements, particularly those from DoNotAge and NOW as part of my shift to only use companies that provide third-party CoAs, as well as only taking supplements that are relevant to me and that I have done in-depth research on. I made some diet changes to see if they affect anything.
Before we get to the details about those changes, I want to issue a challenge to my fellow health enthusiasts.
The Challenge
A lot of people in the health/longevity/biohacking space post details like our bloodwork, biological age, protocols and stacks, but there is a real lack of functional biomarkers. I have been growing my list this year and I want to know where you all stack up!
What’s your 100m sprint time? What about squat/deadlift/bench? How about mobility, grip strength, 2km row time, 12 minute run distance, max assault bike power output…? I have added all of those and more. Some of my numbers are impressive and others aren’t, so I’m not cherrypicking only the good ones. I’m actively working on all of them and I think that’s a very important thing for healthspan and longevity – to practice a wide variety of functional movements.
Having great bloodwork is important but so are these metrics that help us maintain quality of life and delay frailty, and a little friendly competition is healthy too, so join me in improving these stats, and I could make a leaderboard if there is any interest. Let me know in the comments, or contact me on my social accounts.
Biomarker changes
Basics
- Added average Withings sleep score, nerve health, and PWV
The average sleep score for this month is 84 / 100, which is an improvement over last month’s 76. Nerve health is 91 / 100, PWV is 6.2 m/s. - Added blood pressure
The average for the month, which itself is also made up of averages of 3 measures taken 2 minutes apart, is 122 / 63.
In reality my blood pressure probably sits lower than this, because if I just sit down and fully relax, the device fails to pick up enough pressure to measure. So this measurement is actually me breathing quickly and getting up in between measurements to make the pressure detectable.
Physical performance
- Added grip strength
I recently started tracking grip strength, for now it’s at 56.8 KG - Added WODProof mobility score
My overall score is 74 / 100, which is 4 points lower than my previous score of 78. My most mobile section is hip internal rotation at 100, and worst is pectoralis at 55, which I’m working on daily since that really impacts certain workout movements like overhead squats. - Added vo2max estimate and 12-minute run distance
My vo2max has always been a weak point but is getting better. The latest measure was 38.1 which is up from 34.8.
When I started running a few years ago I couldn’t run consistently for more than 1 minute.
I have started measuring my estimated vo2max using the Cooper test, which is where you run as far as you can for 12 minutes. The Cooper test was invented in the 1960s for the US Air Force and requires no gear, aside from a timer and the ability to know how far you ran.
I don’t take a pre-workout aside from my daily stack, and I don’t wear special gear like running shoes, with the idea being that I don’t want to artificially inflate my score relative to the people the test was developed on in the 1960s.
Supplement changes
- Added 3rd-party CoA information column
I added a column for whether 3rd-party CoAs exist for that supplement, and if they do, the confirmed dose is written in the Ingredients/dose column. A green tick also means there were no contaminants exceeding the reference ranges. - Replaced Biotest Micellar Curcumin with Transparent Labs curcumin
I contacted Biotest to see what their heavy metal testing revealed, and they responded saying it is less than 1ppm of lead. That’s a normal result, but I compared it with Transparent Labs and my math says theirs with third-party verification is 0.007ppm, or 7 parts per billion1, which is much better, and is impressive for curcumin which is notorious for its lead content. - Removed some supplements
I removed DoNotAge Pure Hyaluronic Acid, DoNotAge CA-AKG, DoNotAge Pure CoQ10, and Healtheries Spirulina, They ran out and I didn’t reorder them, I might restart with other companies that offer third-party CoAs eventually but I also need to research them more to justify that.
I also removed my melatonin supplement, Symphony Natural Health Herbatonin, because it was working too well. It made me so sleepy that I would get sleep apnea, and it has got better since discontinuing melatonin. - Replaced NOW B-50 with Nordic Naturals Men’s Multi
I had a couple of problems with NOW B-50 – it uses the non-methylated forms of B9 and B12, and it’s not third-party tested. The Nordic Naturals Men’s Multi solves those problems, and adds the other usual multivitamin ingredients in much more evidence-based doses than most multivitamins I have seen where you get thousands of percent more than the RDA.
I have genetic mutations to MTHFR, MTR, FUT2, MTRR, COMT and more which make me susceptible to B9 and B12 deficiency, so having its methylated form will help me. - Increased taurine dose
I increased the dose from 1g to 2g per day. I still need to do a real deep dive into it, but last month there was a meta-analysis of 34 randomized controlled trials that showed that 1.5g-3g per day is associated with improved cardiometabolic outcomes2 which builds on the other research I’ve seen, and I feel good when I take it. - Reduced glycine
I reduced it from 5g to 2g per day. It gives me a fuzzy head and headache so I’m experimenting with a lower dose, but if that continues I will have to remove it altogether. - Stopped collagen
I have tried some different types and brands over the years and they all make me feel bad with brain fog, headaches, and nausea, so I have cut them out. Genetically (FTO, TFAP2B) I am efficient at using dietary protein and don’t need high amounts, and I get adequate amounts of the other collagen precursors, so I don’t think I need extra collagen. - Moved fish oil from morning to afternoon
Timing it with food to increase absorption and pair with other supplements, and to be closer to fasted through the morning. - Reduced dose of sulforaphane
After researching for my sulforaphane article last month, I found that DoNotAge SulforaBoost is very overdosed, which is a bad idea for a hormetin. I reduced the dose from 460mg to 77mg by sprinkling 1/3 of a tablet into a drink each day. I will switch to another brand when I run out of this supply, which will take a long time at these doses. - Created a section for mid-afternoon
For supplements that do better without food, to move them away from the morning fast. - Moved magnesium from evening to mid-day
It pairs well with a lot of the other supplements I take at that time (like vitamins B* and D), and I haven’t noticed a difference to my sleeping since moving it. That also means I have removed the Evening subsection from the Supplements section, since that was just this and melatonin. - Moved carnosine to the morning from lunch
It may be slightly stimulating and absorb better on an empty stomach.
Food and drink changes
- Stopped carb loading and drinking electrolytes
I had recently started doing those as an experiment because I do intense workouts and sauna regularly, which makes me sweat a lot, and there is research that carb loading improves exercise performance.
I noticed that the changes correlated with me sweating more than before, and I did seem to perform better during workouts which was nice, but my muscles stopped growing according to my smart scales, I gained fat, and I stopped getting any DOMS after workouts, which matches what the scales were saying.
Now that I have gone back to having my first meal of the day after my lunch time workout, my body composition has gone back to heading in the right direction. - Increased protein
I have historically had low protein intake (~0.6g per KG) and haven’t had problems with strength or muscle development, but I’m experimenting with increasing intake – mostly with fish – to see if my body does anything different, particularly whether it affects biomarkers like lymphocytes because mine are lower than I would like. - Increased daily carrots and strawberries
I usually would have carrots and strawberries most days as part of meals anyway, but I am shamelessly copying Mike Lustgarten here3 and have increased the amount to around 200g of raw carrots and 250g of strawberries per day to see if that does anything to my biomarkers. I’ll post about that when I have data.