🧬 Human Biology BSc
I turn complex health science into simple daily protocols
Sleep · Energy · Recovery · Performance
🔗 Free sleep guide belowperformanceprotocol.beehiiv.comJoined March 2026
Want to feel more energised in the day? 6.4 to 7.8 hours is the new 9 hours
The MULTI Consortium analysed biological-age clocks across 500,000+ people, comparing organ-specific ageing rates against sleep duration
Findings:
- Sweet spot: 6.4–7.8 hours nightly
- Outside that range (both under AND over) almost every organ system ages faster
- The effect was visible in brain, heart, lungs, and immune system
Mechanism:
- Too little sleep impairs glymphatic clearance (your brain's overnight waste removal), suppresses growth hormone pulse, raises cortisol, and crashes immune surveillance
- Too much sleep often reflects underlying disease - inflammation, depression, undiagnosed conditions
Highest leverage protocol - Fix your sleep and wake time
The buried finding is as interesting as the headline...
Muscle strength showed no association with cognitive performance, only cardiovascular fitness did
That points directly to the mechanism:
- aerobic exercise drives BDNF production via PGC-1α activation
- this crosses the blood-brain barrier and stimulates hippocampal neurogenesis
Resistance training produces far less of this signal
BDNF is essentially fertiliser for neurons - promoting synaptogenesis and the prefrontal function underlying working memory and cognitive flexibility
Real protocol:
- Zone 2 cardio
- The BDNF and neurogenesis response is aerobic-intensity dependent, not general exercise
15% correct
Youre misrepresenting what the study actually found
The linked paper actually found glucose control was unaffected by pre-breakfast coffee. The 50% blood glucose increase finding comes from a different Bath study (Chowdhury et al., 2020) - same group, different paper, opposite conclusion to what's cited
The mechanism still holds: black coffee before breakfast blunts insulin sensitivity via cortisol amplification and hepatic glucose release
Real protocol:
eat before coffee, wait 90 minutes after waking
Good catch, taurate does deserve its own entry
Magnesium taurate combines magnesium with taurine, which has independent GABA-A modulatory effects
The combination makes it particularly interesting for cardiovascular support and anxiety - taurine's own calming mechanism stacking with magnesium's NMDA antagonism
Your magnesium supplement is probably doing nothing
Form determines what it does - and most multivitamins use the worst one
The 5 forms worth knowing:
1. Magnesium glycinate - best for sleep, anxiety, muscle relaxation. Crosses blood-brain barrier. 40%+ absorbed
2. Magnesium citrate - best for constipation. Pulls water into bowel. Don't take before exercise.
3. Magnesium malate - best for fatigue and fibromyalgia. Pairs with the malate energy cycle.
4. Magnesium L-threonate - only form that reliably enters brain at scale. Cognitive use only — expensive.
5. Magnesium oxide - what's in 90% of supplements. 4% bioavailable, don't even bother
Dose:
200–400mg elemental magnesium daily, with food (away from calcium/zinc - they compete)
Is Spirulina a "superfood" or expensive pond scum?
Peer-reviewed clinical trials show it’s a legit win for your heart
consistently dropping (bad) LDL cholesterol and lowering blood pressure
The secret is phycocyanin, a rare blue antioxidant that fights cellular inflammation
BUT don't buy the hype about 'instant detoxing' or 'cure-all' energy boosts
Peer reviewed science shows it’s a great daily health optimiser, not a miracle 🌿🧪
🌿 Spirulina – The Superfood from the Sea 🌿
Spirulina, a blue-green algae, is packed with nutrients and antioxidants that can boost overall health. Here’s why it deserves a place in your daily routine:
✔️ Nutrient Powerhouse – Rich in protein, B vitamins, iron, & essential
increasing hepatic VLDL production is a sign of fat burning, not pathology
What matters is particle size, not total LDL
Metabolically healthy people losing weight typically shift toward large buoyant LDL particles (far less atherogenic) even as the number rises
Real protocol:
- ApoB captures actual atherogenic particle burden far better than total LDL
- That's the number worth tracking before drawing any conclusions
The mechanism is real - using your non-dominant hand activates the contralateral motor cortex in ways your dominant hand no longer does. Genuine neuroplasticity.
But "prevents dementia" is massively overstated
What the evidence actually supports is cognitive reserve - the brain's accumulated capacity to tolerate damage before symptoms appear. Novel challenges build reserve, which delays onset and slows progression.
That's meaningfully different from prevention
Real protocol: the strongest cognitive reserve evidence points to learning genuinely new skills over months (instrument, language, craft) not a two-minute habit swap
Gabrielle Lyon thinks the obesity epidemic is being misdiagnosed
The real problem isn't excess fat, it's not enough muscle
📕 Forever Strong - Gabrielle Lyon, MD
Core idea:
- Muscle is the largest endocrine organ, the primary site of glucose disposal, and the strongest predictor of mortality after age 50
- Most chronic disease (diabetes, cardiovascular, dementia) has a muscle quality problem upstream
The biology:
- skeletal muscle drives insulin sensitivity, secretes myokines (signalling molecules that talk to brain, fat, bone), and protects against falls and frailty
- Low muscle = poor metabolic health, regardless of body fat
The protocol:
- 1g protein per lb body weight, distributed across meals (leucine threshold matters)
- Resistance train 3–4x/week, lifelong
- Stop measuring health by the scale. Measure it by grip strength, lean mass, and protein intake.
The takeaway:
- If you're under 30, building muscle now is your single biggest longevity investment
- If you're over 50, preserving it is non-negotiable
The list is correct & the unifying mechanism behind most of it is simpler than people think
Almost every cause listed (poor sleep, chronic stress, overtraining, nutrient deficiencies) works by elevating cortisol, which tells your brain to turn down the testosterone signal
Not because your testes are broken, but because your brain decided the conditions aren't safe enough to prioritise reproduction and muscle building
Fix the stressors and the brain turns the signal back up. That's why these causes are fixable without TRT
Real protocol:
testing LH and FSH alongside testosterone tells you whether the problem is your testes or your brain's signal to them
The ferritin detail is the most important thing in this post
Ferritin measures stored iron. Hemoglobin measures circulating iron. Your body drains reserves first to keep hemoglobin normal - so you can be significantly iron-deficient with a normal CBC for years. That's the diagnostic window where AIG hides, and why Bryan's low ferritin got dismissed for a decade
The thyrogastric connection also matters: autoimmune thyroid disease and autoimmune gastritis co-occur far above chance. Hashimoto's is the flag
Real protocol:
Persistent low ferritin that won't correct with supplementation plus a history of autoimmune thyroid disease - push for anti-parietal-cell antibody testing
One blood draw most doctors won't order unless you ask
The heat is doing specific work that regular yoga doesn't
105°F exposure triggers transient hyperthermia that increases serotonin synthesis and beta-endorphin release - the same neurotransmitter pathways most antidepressants target
The movement adds a separate mechanism: vagal tone activation and BDNF upregulation from physical exertion
Two independent antidepressant pathways running simultaneously is why the effect size here is larger than either heat or yoga alone typically produces
Real protocol:
Sauna followed by gentle movement hits the same thermal and physical pathways at lower barrier to entry than a hot yoga studio
The olive oil and oregano combination is great
Oleuropein in olive oil and rosmarinic acid in oregano both inhibit NF-κB - one of the primary transcription factors driving systemic inflammation
The fat-soluble polyphenols in the oil also significantly enhance absorption of lycopene from the tomatoes
The Mediterranean diet's longevity data isn't about what's excluded. It's about what's consistently included, and this combination hits several of the highest-evidence components simultaneously
The largest alcohol study ever done just dropped
Cancer risk rises at any level of drinking
(843 studies across 20 health outcomes)
Findings:
1. Cancer risk elevated at any consumption level: pharynx, oesophagus, breast, colorectum, liver, pancreas, prostate
2. Also elevated risk: pancreatitis, cirrhosis, lower respiratory infections, atrial fibrillation
3. J-shaped relationships for cardiovascular disease and diabetes (small possible benefit at low intake - but quickly outweighed by cancer risk)
Mechanism: ethanol is metabolised to acetaldehyde, a class 1 carcinogen. This directly damages DNA and prevents repair. It also raises oestrogen levels (key driver of breast cancer risk in women) and triggers chronic inflammation
This just means stop treating moderate drinking as health-neutral
Myth: The probiotic capsule you take every morning colonises your gut
Reality: Most don't survive your stomach. Of those that do, almost none take up permanent residence
The biology:
- your gut microbiome is largely set by age 3, shaped by birth mode, breastfeeding, antibiotics, and diet
- Adult colonisation is extremely difficult - existing bacteria defend their territory
What probiotics actually do (when anything):
- transient passage
- They release bioactive compounds while moving through, which can modulate immune signalling and short-chain fatty acid production
But the effects stop within days of stopping the pill.
What actually shifts your microbiome:
1. Fibre diversity
2. Fermented foods (kimchi, kefir, sauerkraut) - Stanford 2021 data showed dietary fermented foods outperformed pill probiotics
3. Time off antibiotics
4. Resistant starches (cooled potatoes, green bananas)
A $40 monthly probiotic does less than 30g of mixed fibre per day
The PCAC (Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee) reviews four factors before recommending anything for the Bulks List:
- Can the substance be consistently identified and purified?
- Are there compounding-specific safety risks?
- What does the actual evidence show?
- Has it been used in compounding historically?
A positive committee recommendation still isn't final. It triggers a formal rulemaking process that can take months to over a year before anything is legally compoundable
Real protocol:
- "under FDA review" means exactly that, Review
- Not approval, not endorsement, not safety clearance
Under Section 503A, a compounding pharmacy can legally prepare a drug without going through the full FDA approval process IF the substance meets one of three criteria:
- It has a USP/National Formulary monograph
- It's a component of an already-approved drug
- It's on the 503A Bulks List
Most experimental peptides meet none of these
They exist in a gray zone - not banned, not approved, just unresolved
Category 2 flags substances with unresolved safety concerns that restrict compounding
Getting removed from Category 2 just means that specific red flag was lifted. It says nothing about efficacy, and it's not the same as being added to the Bulks List, which is the actual legal pathway to compounding access.
🚨 FDA just dropped the briefing docs: Proposing NONE of the 7 key peptides (BPC-157, KPV, TB-500, MOTS-c, Emideltide/DSIP, Epitalon, Semax + their acetates) get added to the 503A Bulks List.
@CoachDanGo The missing part:
bone density peaks around age 30 and the muscle mass built before 40 acts as a buffer against the sarcopenia that accelerates after 60
Thats why lifting consistently is so important
@edgaralandough Almost correct
D3 just requires a meal with fat for absorption
Magnesium is best in the evening for sleep
and zinc is better on an empty stomach BUT commonly causes nausea (better with food)
Dont take peptides
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