From viral TikTok posts to direct endorsements from the Secretary of Health and Human Services, people are talking about peptides as the next big thing in the field of medicine. Let’s start by clarifying that a peptide is simply a short chain of amino acids (typically in the range of 2-50 amino acids), whereas a protein is a longer chain of amino acids (typically 50+). Just as proteins are an incredibly broad, diverse class of molecules, the same is true about peptides. Thus,

What if I told you the health metric most consistently associated with longevity is essentially never even tested at annual physicals or doctor's visits? That's right: you've likely heard us comment before on VO2max as an incredibly important number to know for predicting both your lifespan and healthspan. This number has long been neglected by modern medicine as it has historically been thought of solely as a marker of exercise performance. Additionally, as we'll see in a mo

If you have trouble sleeping, you’re far from alone. Around 30% of U.S. adults  report such difficulty, and it’s one of the most common things that we are asked about in the clinic. In terms of what we can do about it, our starting point is always the same. Adequately addressing sleep hygiene (sleep environment, sleep timing, diet, caffeine, etc.) leads to improvement in many cases. Beyond this, cognitive behavioral therapy focused on insomnia (CBT-I) is far and away the most

Hopefully the case has been made in my last post  for why diligent cancer screening is imperative for long-term health, and readers were able to gain effective guidelines and insights regarding colorectal and breast cancer screening. Today, we’re going to focus on cervical, prostate, and lung cancer screening guidelines. 3. Cervical Starting off with cervical cancer, for which we have fairly straightforward recommendations and understanding of the disease. This cancer is stro

Every two minutes, an American life is lost to sudden cardiac death (SCD) . As the name suggests, SCD can strike without warning, and is often the result of an abrupt change in the heart’s electrical rhythm. While a heart attack (myocardial infarction) can lead to sudden cardiac death, these terms are not interchangeable. People can (and frequently do) survive heart attacks, whereas sudden cardiac death represents the loss of life due to a cardiac cause, within one hour of sy