Metabolic health, explained.
Evidence informed articles on weight loss, insulin resistance, nutrition, and getting the most from your metabolism. From our physician team.
Ivermectin and Mebendazole, and What the Cancer Research Shows
Two old antiparasitic drugs have become the most common thing patients ask me about. Here is what the preclinical work found, what the few human studies found, and why the honest answer today is unproven.
Read articleAOD-9604, the Growth Hormone Fragment That Slimmed Obese Mice and Disappointed in People
AOD-9604 is a modified piece of human growth hormone designed to burn fat without growth hormone's side effects. It worked in obese rodents, and its largest human trial missed its weight-loss endpoint and was never published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Read articleThe Ancestral Diet, a Practical Food Guide With 50 Meals
What ancestral eating actually means, what the evidence says, and 50 meals built on meat, organs, eggs, fish, stable fats, and fermented foods, with no seed oils and nothing refined.
Read articleDoes the Glow Peptide Blend Improve Your Skin? BPC-157, TB-500, and GHK-Cu Together
Patients ask about the Glow blend of BPC-157, TB-500, and GHK-Cu for skin quality and recovery. No study has tested the three together, so I explain what each contributes in theory and which skin treatments have human trials behind them.
Read articleCJC-1295 and Ipamorelin, Two Accelerators in One Vial
The most popular peptide blend in longevity clinics presses both growth hormone accelerators at once. The pharmacology is well described, and no published trial has tested the combination in humans.
Read articleMOTS-c, the Exercise Signal Written Into Your Mitochondrial DNA
MOTS-c is a 16-amino-acid peptide encoded inside the mitochondrial genome. It rises with exercise and improves metabolism and physical performance in mice, but no randomized trial has given it to humans.
Read articlePT-141 (Bremelanotide) for Sexual Desire, and What the Trials Found
PT-141, or bremelanotide, raises sexual desire through melanocortin receptors in the brain instead of through blood flow. The trials show a real but modest effect, nausea in about 40 percent of users, and no evidence yet for the vitamin B6 that compounders add.
Read articleTesamorelin and the Fat Around Your Organs
Tesamorelin is the best-studied molecule in the growth hormone releasing family, with FDA approval for abdominal fat in HIV-associated lipodystrophy. It shrinks visceral fat and liver fat, and the effect disappears when you stop.
Read articleThe BPC-157 and TB-500 Blend People Call Wolverine, and What the Science Can and Can't Say
Combining BPC-157 with TB-500 is supposed to attack tendon healing from two directions. One rat study has tested the pair and found no added benefit, and the measures with real human evidence are less exciting and more reliable.
Read articleEnclomiphene, Low Testosterone, and the Men Who Still Want Children
Testosterone replacement raises the lab value and shuts down sperm production. Enclomiphene raises testosterone by restarting the brain's signal to the testes instead, and the trials show it preserves sperm counts. Here's what it does, what it doesn't, and why the FDA said no.
Read articleWhat the Copper Peptide GHK-Cu Does for Skin Repair, and Where the Human Evidence Stops
GHK-Cu is a copper-carrying tripeptide from human plasma that drives collagen production in cell culture and speeds wound healing in rats. The human evidence is almost entirely topical, and no randomized trial has tested the injection.
Read articleTB-500 and Thymosin Beta-4, Tested in Skin and Eyes but Not Yet in Tendons
TB-500 is the synthetic counterpart of thymosin beta-4, a protein your platelets carry to a wound. Human trials exist for skin ulcers and the cornea, and none exists for the tendon and muscle injuries most people ask me about.
Read articleSermorelin, Growth Hormone, and the Slow Decline of the Somatotropic Axis
Sermorelin is the first 29 amino acids of your own growth hormone releasing hormone, given to coax the pituitary rather than replace its output. The physiology is sound, the human trials are small, and no trial shows it extends life.
Read articleWhy a Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Can Damage a Tendon Months After You Stop Taking It
Fluoroquinolones like ciprofloxacin injure tendons long after the course ends. The direct damage is well documented, and I think a gut stripped of the bacteria you need to absorb copper, zinc, and magnesium helps explain why the repair stalls.
Read articleWhat a 15-Year Swedish Study Found About Red Meat and the 'Alzheimer's Gene'
A 15-year Swedish study found that older adults carrying the APOE ε4 'Alzheimer's gene' who ate the most unprocessed meat had 55% lower dementia risk, and their inherited disadvantage all but disappeared.
Read articleWhy Outdoor Workers Don't Get More Melanoma
Research suggests sun exposure isn't the cause of melanoma. Intermittent burning raises the risk while steady, continuous exposure doesn't and may even lower it, which leaves an obvious question about whether to hide from the sun or get more of it.
Read articleNAD+ Injections, Aging Mitochondria, and What the Research Shows
NAD+ falls with age, and restoring it revives mitochondria in old mice. Human trials of oral precursors are mixed, and no randomized trial has tested injected NAD+ against a clinical outcome.
Read articleHealthy Skin Starts in the Gut, and in the Minerals It Lets In
Your skin is downstream of your gut. A disrupted microbiome feeds the inflammation behind acne and eczema, and an unhealthy gut also fails to absorb the zinc, copper, and selenium your skin is built from.
Read articleBPC-157 for Tendon and Gut Healing, and What the Research Shows So Far
BPC-157 heals rat tendons, ligaments, and gut lesions in study after study. Nearly all of that work comes from one laboratory, and no randomized human trial exists. Here's how I weigh it.
Read articleHow Statins Can Damage Your Mitochondria
Statins lower cholesterol by blocking the same pathway that builds CoQ10, the carrier your mitochondria need to make energy. That depletion is the real mechanism behind the muscle aches and brain fog many statin users feel.
Read articleArtificial Sweeteners, Your Gut, and the Colon Cancer Connection
Diet soda is sold as a free lunch, but the artificial sweeteners in it reshape the gut microbiome, and that change reaches all the way to the colon.
Read articleWhat Chimpanzees and the Amish Reveal About Cancer
Cancer gets blamed on bad genes or on living longer. Two natural controls, our closest animal relative and a population living off the modern grid, point somewhere else.
Read articleCore Metabolic Labs and the Difference Between Normal and Optimal
A 'normal' lab value only means you fall within the range of the people tested, not that the number is healthy. Here are the core metabolic labs worth tracking and where the optimal level often sits.
Read articleWill You Need a GLP-1 Forever? What Happens When You Stop
GLP-1 medications work while you take them. The harder truth is what happens when you stop, and why a lasting result depends on what you build during treatment.
Read articleWhat the Science Says About the Harms of Synthetic Food Dyes
Synthetic dyes make food look brighter and do nothing else. A growing body of research suggests they are not the harmless additives regulators long assumed, and children take the largest dose for their size.
Read articleWhen Does Cholesterol Become Dangerous? Look at Your Blood Sugar
Cholesterol is not dangerous or safe on its own. Its risk depends on the metabolic company it keeps, and the variable that flips it is blood glucose.
Read articleAre We Turning Into Foie Gras? Fatty Liver and How to Reverse It
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease now affects roughly a third of adults. It develops much the way foie gras does, and the liver is remarkably willing to reverse it.
Read articleWhy You Should Never Take Zinc Without Copper
Taking zinc on its own, day after day, can quietly cause a copper deficiency serious enough to bring on anemia. The two minerals compete, and the way to balance them is food.
Read articleCan Colostrum Help Against the Flu? What the Evidence Shows
Colostrum is an immune package, not really a food. A provocative question keeps surfacing about whether bovine colostrum could help adults fight viral illness, and the evidence is interesting but limited.
Read articleWhy Colon Cancer Is Striking Younger People, and the Microbiome's Role
Colorectal cancer in adults under 50 has climbed for decades. Our genes did not change in a generation, so the environment did. A growing body of research points at the gut microbiome as the link.
Read articleHoney vs Refined Sugar and Its Gentler Effect on Blood Glucose
Honey is still sugar, but research shows it moves blood glucose differently, and often more gently, than table sugar. Here is what the evidence actually says.
Read articleCan Local Honey Help Your Allergies? What the Evidence Shows
A spoonful of local honey is a classic folk remedy for seasonal allergies. The science is more complicated, and more interesting, than the legend suggests.
Read articleWhy the Difference Between Folate and Folic Acid Matters
People use folate and folic acid as if they mean the same thing, but they don't. One is a vitamin found throughout nature, the other a synthetic molecule your body has to convert, and many people convert it poorly.
Read articleCholesterol, Low LDL, and Cancer, and What the Inverse Link Means
Your body cannot live without cholesterol, and very low LDL travels with higher cancer rates. That link is real, but what it means is widely misunderstood.
Read articleCooking Fats by the Numbers, Saturated Fat vs Linoleic Acid
The stable saturated fats people cooked with for generations behave nothing like the seed oils that replaced them. Here's how common cooking fats compare on saturated fat versus fragile linoleic acid.
Read articleWhy Saturated Fat Isn't the Cause of Coronary Artery Disease
Saturated fat has worn the heart-disease villain label for fifty years. The biology and the data point elsewhere, since coronary artery disease begins with injury to the artery wall, and saturated fat does not start it.
Read articleSeed Oils, Linoleic Acid, and Your Mitochondria
Industrial seed oils flooded the food supply with linoleic acid over the last century. A growing mechanistic case says this fragile fat lodges in our mitochondrial membranes, impairs how we make energy, and nudges us toward insulin resistance.
Read articleWhy We Sleep, and the Role of ATP and the Mitochondria
One of the most compelling explanations for why we must sleep starts not in the brain's wiring but in its power supply, the mitochondria and the energy molecule they make.
Read articleCreatine and Type 2 Diabetes, a Mitochondrial Angle
We call type 2 diabetes insulin resistance, but underneath sits a cell that struggles to handle energy. Seen that way, it makes sense that creatine, of all things, may help with blood sugar.
Read articleCreatine for Older Adults, and What It Does for Muscle, Strength, and Memory
Most people file creatine under supplements for young lifters. The people who may benefit most are older adults, who stand to gain muscle, strength, and even memory.
Read articleCan Organ Meats Help an Underactive Thyroid?
The thyroid runs on a short list of nutrients (iodine, selenium, iron, zinc, and vitamin A), and organ meats are the richest food source of nearly all of them. For some people, an animal-based diet built around them meaningfully improves thyroid function and symptoms.
Read articleMinerals in Animal-Based Foods, and What Each One Does
A practical guide to the minerals concentrated in animal foods, including which meats, organs, eggs, and seafood are richest in each and the job each one does in the body.
Read articleWhy an Animal-Based Diet Pairs So Well With Tirzepatide
Protein-forward, animal-based eating is one of the most reliable ways to lose fat and protect muscle. Combined with tirzepatide, it builds the habits that keep weight off after treatment.
Read articleThe Power of Intermittent Fasting, and How Micro-Dose Tirzepatide Helps You Learn It
Intermittent fasting is one of the simplest, best-studied levers for metabolic health. The hard part is hunger, which is exactly where a low dose of tirzepatide can turn fasting from a willpower battle into a learnable habit.
Read articleBody Fat, Muscle, and How Long You Live
The scale and even BMI miss what matters most for longevity, namely how much of you is fat, where it sits, and how much muscle you've kept. Here's what the research shows.
Read articleObesity, Cancer, and Why Fat Tissue Is More Than Storage
Excess body fat raises the risk of more than a dozen cancers. The reason has a lot to do with the fact that fat tissue behaves like a hormone-producing organ.
Read articleInsulin Resistance Is Not One Thing
We use insulin resistance as if it names a single problem, but it doesn't. The hormone still reaches every organ, while the pathways it controls fail selectively, and differently, in the liver, muscle, fat, and brain.
Read articleFasting Insulin, the Metabolic Marker Most Lab Panels Skip
Fasting glucose and A1c are lagging indicators. Fasting insulin often shifts years earlier, which makes it one of the most useful and most overlooked windows into your metabolic health.
Read articleIs Mitochondrial Dysfunction at the Root of Type 2 Diabetes?
Insulin resistance is the core defect in type 2 diabetes, and a large body of research points to struggling mitochondria as an early driver. Here's what the science shows.
Read articleMicro-Dose Tirzepatide and L-Carnitine for Steadier Weight Loss
What tirzepatide actually does, why we use lower micro-doses paired with L-carnitine, and what the trial evidence says about losing weight and keeping it off.
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