Siimland

A 2025 meta-analysis shows a non-linear lean-mass-to-mortality relationship where the benefit comes from avoiding sarcopenia rather than endless accumulation. Excess muscle raises resting heart rate, increases cardiac workload, strains the kidneys, and raises sleep apnea risk, partly through the food intake needed to sustain it. Strength and power are stronger mortality predictors than mass; the practical target given is under 15% body fat for men with functional strength.

Cited human data show people with a robust insulin response had significantly lower risk of developing pre-diabetes or diabetes over 3-5 years than those with weak responses. A study of over 350,000 adults found 2-hour post-glucose blood sugar strongly predicted Alzheimer's risk, while average blood sugar and fasting insulin showed no statistically significant association.

Research cited shows believing stress is harmful raises premature death risk by 43%, while a neutral or positive framing blunts the physiological damage. He documents orthosomnia, orthorexia, and exercise obsession as real harms; notes that extreme dietary strictness produces overtraining rather than better blood work; and points out that total sun avoidance as practiced by some biohackers is associated with higher all-cause mortality. Bryan Johnson's extreme protocol does not yield proportionally superior biological age metrics.

High- and moderate-intensity exercise activates AMPK to drive both mitophagy and mitochondrial biogenesis, and urolithin A and polyphenol supplements are characterized as far less potent than exercise. In the Mitopure teardown, the product's own pre-registered primary endpoint on T-memory stem cells came back null and was downplayed, effect sizes were tiny, and a JAMA endurance study saw the placebo group catch up by four months.

A crowdfunded, blinded cycling trial run in New Zealand unblinded to show the placebo group improving more than the rapamycin group, consistent with rapamycin blunting exercise adaptations in older adults. Adverse events included a pneumonia case, with minor rises in LDL and HbA1c, and the analysis suggests the common off-label 6 mg once-weekly protocol may simply be too high a dose.

Longitudinal analyses of changes in dairy intake show people cut back because they are already getting sick, which manufactures the apparent protection. A December 2025 Sports Medicine study of 25,000 Norwegian adults found abstainers and quitters had higher survival than regular drinkers, and once cardiorespiratory fitness entered the model, fitness — not alcohol — was the dominant predictor.