Good morning! We feeling refreshed from the week off MTI and a long weekend? Or still catching up on sleep from your holiday festivities?

Fun fact: Research has shown that making up a sleep debt isn’t very effective and takes a long time. But if you get ahead of it and bank some sleep before you know you’re going to have a short night’s sleep, you can draw from that and not be as affected!

Something to keep in mind next time you have an early flight or late night event coming up.

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Update: My Journey of Aging in Reverse

I’ve set a goal this year to be the fittest and healthiest I’ve ever been. Since I turn 30 at the end of the year, I want to enter my next decade with robust health and vigor that will propel me into many more healthy decades of adulthood.

The goals I’ve set for myself include running a marathon, reaching my highest VO2max yet, achieving bench press and other strength PRs, and attaining my best body composition yet (muscle to fat ratio, basically). 

I believe that what gets measured gets managed. I had another round of Function Health testing completed a couple weeks ago! Over 100 biomarkers checked. It’s been nearly a year since my first tests, and I retested about half of them six months ago, so let’s have a look at the major findings, how I got there, and my takeaways for what’s next.

What changed?

With so many biomarkers tested, many stayed about the same or stayed within optimal range/moved in the right direction. I won’t mention everything here but will highlight some of the most important or significant findings.

Biological Age: Decreased to 26.5!

• Last November, when I was 0.5 years younger, my biological age was 0.7 years higher. This means that thanks to the healthier habits I’ve been implementing, I’m continuing to age in reverse on the inside!

• With my biological age of 26.5 now a full three years below my chronological age of 29.5, I’m curious to see if this trend continues.

Heart Health (of my 15 biomarkers out of range, 7 lie here—ugh)

Apolipoprotein B (ApoB): Decreased 13% in 6 months. Now in range. Big win! This is a major marker of cardiovascular risk.

Triglycerides: Decreased 37% in 6 months and 50% in a year. Well within target range. Also a major win!

LDL Cholesterol: Decreased 9% in 6 months. Now just 5% over target.

Total Cholesterol: Decreased 9% in 6 months to remain in range. 

LDL particle number: Decreased 15% in a year. Closer to optimal but still above range.

Small LDL count: Decreased 35% in a year. Closer to optimal but still above range.

Large HDL count: Increased 16% in a year. Closer to optimal levels but still below target range.

Metabolic Health

Leptin: Decreased 53% in one year, signifying decreased inflammation and less excess fat tissue.

Insulin: Decreased 32% in 6 months. In target range, just slightly above optimal.

Male Health:

Estradiol: Decreased 24% in one year. Went from too high to optimal range.

Testosterone (total): Increased 18% in one year. Remains in optimal range.

Thyroid:

Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies: Decreased 78% in one year! This is a marker of some thyroid autoimmune disease. I’m still above range now, but not by nearly as much. 

Nutrients:

Ferritin & Iron % Saturation: Both dropped to suboptimal levels, so I need to watch my iron and vitamin C intake.

Kidneys:

Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN): Increased 13% in 6 months to just above range. Need to watch.

Creatinine: Decreased 12% in 6 months to finally be in range! 

Biometrics:

Waist circumference: Decreased 6% (2 inches) in one year. Nice!

Weight: Decreased ~12–15 pounds.

If you got through all that, good on you! If you want the “tl;dr,” it’s that most things improved, some significantly, and there are just a couple other less serious things that popped up for me to keep an eye on! 

Heart health has been my biggest crutch, so it’s very encouraging to see significant progress made in almost all of those biomarkers. Making Drs. Mark Hyman & Peter Attia proud!

How did I do it?

Honestly nothing fancy or crazy! Practicing what I preach, for the most part.

When I started Function Health about a year ago, my body weight had gotten up to about the highest it’s been. I was coming off a stressful Fall and depressing Winter. I was working to build back consistent exercise and healthy dietary habits.

For the most part, I’ve just maintained those this past year! While I do stay consistent with exercise, it’s not like I’m hitting the gym hard 7 days a week. Most weeks, I lift 2–5 times and do some form of cardio probably 2–5 times. I don’t stress about it when I miss days or have to travel because I know I can get right back on track soon without losing progress. 

I have no doubt that adhering to a hybrid approach—prioritizing both resistance and cardiovascular training—has helped propel my internal health to better outcomes. 

As far as diet goes, I still don’t eat perfectly “clean.” I’ve made a concerted effort to include several of the key foods my Function plan suggested (salmon, chia & flax seeds, beans, green veggies, etc.) in addition to my normal diet on a regular basis. As far as what to avoid, I’m not overly strict, but I do make an effort to limit sweets—especially sugar-sweetened beverages—and confine indulgences to lower frequencies and quantities than before. 

Diet and exercise habits are the primary needle-movers. Other smaller changes include adding a couple recommended supplements, prioritizing morning and post-meal outdoor walks, therapy, and just general stress management and life enjoyment!

I plan to essentially just keep up the good work. It’s amazing and encouraging to see that good diet and consistent exercise are exceedingly more effective than even the greatest, most effective medicines on the market! If a new drug could achieve all (or really even any) of the results above, it’s be a best-selling, multi-million-dollar-maker!

I know this was a more personal sharing type of newsletter, but I hope it sparked some interest, curiosity, and hope within you. We should feel empowered that simple but consistent actions we take can have remarkable impacts on our health and drastically decrease our risk of numerous diseases.

I love numbers and am a visual learner, so tangibly seeing so many of my numbers improve is an extreme motivator for this journey I’m on. Again, what I’m measuring, I’m managing!

If you’d like to take the next step on your own journey and sign up for Function Health, reply to this email! This is not sponsored and I get 0 kickback, but do have five referral links for friends and family so you can skip the 200k-person waitlist! (Hmm… @FunctionHealth, maybe you should sponsor me??)

✅ Take Action

Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.

Level 1: Measure something. Anything! Pick something to start tracking and see how your awareness of it helps you manage it.

Level 2: Set some goals around measurable outcomes. It could be internal biomarkers, waist size, blood pressure, mile time, anything. Measure it and move to improve it!

Level 3: Go all in and DM me for a link to sign up for Function Health to live 100 healthy years with me!

This newsletter is brought to you by… me!

Interested in becoming a sponsor? Know someone else who might be? I’d love to get to know you and/or your business and see how we can partner together. Reply to this email!

✍️ Drew's Picks:

• Do it all: Listen to this podcast about hybrid athletes and prep yourself for an upcoming edition of Move to Improve about the topic.

• Age backwards: Dr. Hyman discusses strategies to reverse your biological age.

• Eat the rainbow: Listen for the benefits of fiber and how to get more of it.

See y’all next week. Take care of yourselves, get out and move to improve, and share the newsletter with a friend who would benefit!

Keep moving,

Drew

The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).