Articles

Subtractive Medicine

The Focus Pouch Question: What a Nicotine Habit Actually Costs

Nicotine pouches promise focus with almost none of the harm. That is true only if your comparator is smoking, and for someone who has never smoked the pictur…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Subtractive Medicine

TB-500 Is Not the Peptide You Think It Is

Most marketing borrows human evidence from a different molecule, thymosin β4, to sell a short synthetic fragment that has barely been tested. Here is how to …

By Dr Ran Crooke

Biochemistry & Nutrition

Fibre for women: a simple change to live longer?

In postmenopausal women, higher fibre intake is associated with meaningfully lower mortality, but the benefit concentrates in the move from low to moderate, …

By Dr Ran Crooke

Physiology & Exercise

Does fish oil actually speed up training recovery?

The evidence for omega-3 in recovery, and the dose worth trialling if you decide to. A small, low-risk lever that works through recovery, not a direct perfor…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Subtractive Medicine

When a "natural" supplement is not: red yeast rice and the four questions before you buy any supplement

A four-question test for any supplement, worked through on the one with the strongest evidence and the most underappreciated risk: red yeast rice is a statin…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Biochemistry & Nutrition

Retatrutide the wonder drug: What's Established, What's Plausible, What's Still a Hypothesis

How to look at the retatrutide data without confusing weight-loss results for the cardiovascular, kidney, or cognitive benefits that have not yet been proven.

By Dr Ran Crooke

Physiology & Exercise

The Physiology of Breath: Separating the clinical mechanics of nasal breathing from the wellness narrative

Breathwork has become mainstream wellness. The case for it is now firmly established in bestselling books, viral sleep hacks, and a steady stream of people a…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Brain, Mind & Flourishing

Stepping Out of the Noise

How stress, recovery, and reframing shape the quality of judgement under pressure, and why holding the pause is part of the work.

By Dr Ran Crooke

Subtractive Medicine

BPC-157 and the Difference Between an Evidence Gap and a Cover-Up

What the entire human evidence base for BPC-157 actually looks like, and the questions to ask before you believe the suppression story.

By Dr Ran Crooke

Biochemistry & Nutrition

Part 2. ApoB & Preventing Heart Disease. How low can you go?

ApoB is closer to the causal biology than LDL-C, but no primary-prevention trial has tested treating healthy adults to an aggressive apoB target. What follow…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Biochemistry & Nutrition

Part 1. ApoB & Preventing Heart Disease. Your cholesterol looks fine. Are you sure?

LDL-cholesterol can look normal while the number of atherogenic particles is high. ApoB counts those particles directly, and when the two disagree, apoB is u…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Subtractive Medicine

NAD⁺ in humans: can you raise it and does it matter clinically

Human trials show you can raise a blood marker. They do not yet show reliable functional benefit in healthy older adults, and IV NAD+ sits lowest on the evid…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Hormonal Health

From pre to post menopause: how we underestimate cardiovascular risk in women

A low 10-year risk score can coexist with meaningful lifetime risk. Around menopause, blood pressure, lipids, insulin sensitivity and vascular function shift…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Hormonal Health

Why “normal” testosterone does not always mean normal function

Symptoms can persist even when total testosterone sits comfortably in the normal range. Free testosterone, sleep, stress, and central brain regulation all sh…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Physiology & Exercise

High performance and high HbA1c: fitness does not guarantee protection from poor sleep

Good VO2peak, low visceral fat, reassuring lipids - yet HbA1c still runs high. Sleep, cortisol timing and blunted insulin secretion may explain the mismatch …

By Dr Ran Crooke

Biochemistry & Nutrition

Does eating late actually raise cardiovascular risk, or does it just correlate with other risk behaviours?

A large French cohort links later meal timing to modestly higher cardiovascular risk - but late eating clusters with sleep, alcohol and other behaviours, so …

By Dr Ran Crooke

Physiology & Exercise

Morning or afternoon exercise: is one better for cardiometabolic health?

Consistency beats clock-watching, but emerging trials suggest morning training may edge out afternoon sessions for blood pressure and insulin sensitivity in …

By Dr Ran Crooke

Physiology & Exercise

The Truth about VO2max: what it is and why it matters

The number became a longevity badge, but the strongest mortality data actually measured METs, and a watch estimate is not a clinical test. What VO2max really…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Biochemistry & Nutrition

Building Muscle What Wins: Vegan or Omnivorous Diets?

A controlled feeding trial found no difference in daily muscle protein synthesis between vegan and omnivorous diets, or between balanced and skewed protein d…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Physiology & Exercise

Can we believe the headlines? Why exercise isn't much help if you are trying to lose weight

A viral headline is technically accurate on scale weight but misses the point - exercise protects muscle, improves body composition, and shifts mortality ris…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Physiology & Exercise

The Race Against Time

VO2peak declines with age even in trained athletes, but performance does not have to follow the same slope. Masters and senior competition data suggest a 25-…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Brain, Mind & Flourishing

Can You Train Your Brain to Boost Vaccine Response?

A pilot trial found that people better at upregulating brain reward activity tended to show bigger antibody rises after vaccination - a modest correlation, n…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Brain, Mind & Flourishing

The APOE gene: how one genetic variant might shape Alzheimer's risk

Modelling across 450,000 adults suggests 72-93% of Alzheimer's cases would not have occurred without common APOE variants - a powerful population-level signa…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Brain, Mind & Flourishing

Rapid amyloid clearance in hours: what this 2025 mouse study shows us

A 2025 mouse study halved brain amyloid within 2 hours by repairing the blood-brain barrier's clearance pump rather than attacking plaques directly - strikin…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Physiology & Exercise

Why Exercise "Intensity" Matters More Than We Thought

A 2025 study of 73,000 people found one minute of vigorous exercise can equal 4-9 minutes of moderate effort, not the old 1:2 rule - but that doesn't mean dr…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Biochemistry & Nutrition

How to Enjoy the Holidays Without Carrying It On Your Waistline

Ways to stay roughly the same weight over the holiday period and still enjoy yourself.

By Dr Ran Crooke

Subtractive Medicine

Rapamycin: does the evidence add up?

Rapamycin matches dietary restriction for lifespan extension in animals, but human data are narrow, formulation changes blood exposure threefold, and PEARL t…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Foundational Medicine

Leaders in Health 2025: Making Medicine Personal Again

Reflections from the Leaders in Health 2025 summit on ultra-personalised medicine, prevention as a system, misinformation, and why the most powerful moments …

By Dr Ran Crooke

Subtractive Medicine

Elamipretide the Mitochondrial Peptide

Elamipretide is the first therapy approved to structurally repair mitochondria rather than just manage symptoms - a proof of principle from Barth syndrome, w…

By Dr Andy Crockett

Foundational Medicine

The Invisible Risk: How Air Pollution is Quietly Driving High Blood Pressure

A meta-analysis of 42 million people links chronic PM2.5 exposure to a 21% higher risk of developing hypertension - and the effect is stronger in outdoor wor…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Physiology & Exercise

Kicking-ass into your 90s...optimising for future muscle function

Muscle function, not mass, is the strongest predictor of healthy longevity. A practical breakdown of training load, protein timing, anabolic resistance and t…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Hormonal Health

Creatine for Female Health: Don't Fall Into the Trap of Thinking It's Just for Elite Athletes

Creatine isn't just a bodybuilding supplement. The evidence shows real benefits for women's muscle, bone and brain health across every hormonal life stage.

By Dr Ran Crooke

Foundational Medicine

What is suPAR? An Emerging Biomarker in the Longevity Landscape

A stable, slow-moving inflammation marker that may capture the cumulative wear and tear conventional blood tests miss.

By Dr Andy Crockett

Brain, Mind & Flourishing

Beyond Optimisation: How Extreme Environments Build Ultimate Resilience

What happens when the data runs out? Why curated, extreme experiences build a form of resilience no biohack or wearable can replicate.

By Dr Ran Crooke

Sleep, Rest & Regeneration

The Solution That Triples Problem-Solving Ability

New evidence shows naps including N2-stage sleep can sharpen reaction time, strengthen memory, and make leaders up to three times more likely to generate cre…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Physiology & Exercise

Sauna? Ice Bath? Both? What the Science Tells Us

Hot, cold, and contrast therapies can meaningfully improve recovery, soreness, and cardiovascular health, but the benefits are highly context-dependent on ti…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Sleep, Rest & Regeneration

Sleep Quality Over Time Predicts Heart Risk

New 7-year data shows up to 55% higher heart disease risk from persistently poor sleep, even when other lifestyle factors stay the same.

By Dr Ran Crooke

Subtractive Medicine

How Safe Are IV Drips? Microplastic Exposure From Infusion Products

A new study finds IV infusion equipment can release tens of thousands of micro- and nanoplastics into every litre of fluid, raising questions for elective IV…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Hormonal Health

Better Bone Health: Resistance Training and HRT

A new systematic review shows combining low-dose HRT with resistance training delivers real, additive gains in bone mineral density that neither strategy ach…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Brain, Mind & Flourishing

Mitigating the Cardiovascular Risk of Stress and Depression

Meeting recommended activity levels roughly doubles the reduction in cardiovascular events for people with depression, new research on stress-related brain a…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Biochemistry & Nutrition

Time-Restricted Eating for Cardiovascular Health: Controversy and Complexity

A headline-grabbing study linked time-restricted eating to a 91% higher cardiovascular death risk. Does it hold up, or does it expose the pitfalls of nutriti…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Biochemistry & Nutrition

Too Much of a Good Thing? The Latest on Omega-3 for Heart Health

The MHRA flagged a dose-dependent link between omega-3 and atrial fibrillation. Here is what the wider evidence actually shows about risk versus benefit.

By Dr Ran Crooke

Sleep, Rest & Regeneration

Navigating Sleep and Brain Health: Insights From the UK Biobank Study

A large UK Biobank study challenges the strict 8-hour sleep rule, finding both longer and shorter sleep durations are linked to distinct patterns of brain st…

By Dr Andy Crockett

Sleep, Rest & Regeneration

Sleep Consistency vs Duration: The Underdog Wins

A 60,977-person UK Biobank study finds the regularity of your sleep-wake schedule predicts longevity more strongly than how many hours you actually sleep.

By Dr Ran Crooke

Biochemistry & Nutrition

Reduce Hunger, Boost Mood and Improve Sleep With One Simple Tool: Time

A 37,545-person study found that simply eating within a 10-hour window, without changing what you eat, improved hunger, mood and energy levels.

By Dr Ran Crooke

Physiology & Exercise

Drop Your Blood Glucose and Improve Your Mood

A short walking break every 30 minutes lowered blood glucose, blood pressure, fatigue and mood more than sitting uninterrupted, or any other break pattern te…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Physiology & Exercise

How to Put on Muscle: Why Less Might Be More

Blood Flow Restriction training delivers strength and hypertrophy gains with a fraction of the load of traditional resistance training.

By Dr Ran Crooke

Sleep, Rest & Regeneration

The Circadian Advantage: How to Make Smarter Investment Decisions With Your Body Clock

Aligning decisions, meetings and communication style with your chronotype, whether you are a morning lark or a night owl, measurably improves decision quality.

By Dr Ran Crooke

Physiology & Exercise

VILPA: The Secret to a Longer Life Could Be in Your Daily Routine

Just three to four one-minute bursts of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity a day are linked to large reductions in premature death and cardiov…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Foundational Medicine

Sunshine In a Pill: Can We Truly Bottle the Benefits of Light Exposure?

Vitamin D supplements can outperform sunlight at raising blood levels, but light exposure may carry benefits beyond vitamin D that a pill alone cannot replic…

By Dr Ran Crooke

Biochemistry & Nutrition

Are We Forgetting "Hunger Diabetes"?

Switching to a low-carbohydrate diet can cause an exaggerated glucose spike on a subsequent carbohydrate load, risking a false diagnosis of poor glucose cont…

By Dr Ran Crooke