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You can get 90% of the benefit of these longevity clinics for 10% of the cost. First, advanced blood testing can cost <$200. Get ApoB and Lp(a) for heart healt

You can get 90% of the benefit of these longevity clinics for 10% of the cost. First, advanced blood testing can cost <$200. Get ApoB and Lp(a) for heart health. hs-CRP for inflammation, A1c for diabetes, eGFR for kidney health, etc. https://www.empirical.health/product/comprehensive-health-panel https://www.empirical.health/product/comprehensive-health-pa... Then, determine your nutrition goals based on your blood test results. For example, if your ApoB / LDL cholesterol is high, focus on getting more fiber and less saturated fat. If blood pressure is high, focus on potassium and sodium. Exercise & sleep - use an Apple Watch or similar to track VO2Max and sleep stages. MRI - I'd probably skip the MRI for cancer screening. While I think this will be the future, the evidence base is just not strong enough today to know what to do with the results. You can do a FIT-based colon cancer screen at home for <$10 (colon cancer is affecting people at younger and younger ages). Mammography and cervical cancer testing in a regular doctor appointment. CAC scan (assessing calcium buildup in the arteries) - do if ApoB is high. You can book these for $200.

iwontberude 1y ago
I thought Apple Watch doesn’t have blood oxygen sensing anymore.
- brandonb 1y ago
  Blood oxygen sensing is disabled in the US (due to the patent lawsuit with Massimo), but it still estimates VO2Max and sleep stages. VO2Max is based on GPS and heart rate sensor measurements, processed by a deep learning algorithm that uses physiological ODEs (ordinary differential equations). Very cool algorithm. Apple Watch sleep stages (and sleep apnea detection) is based only on 3D accelerometer data.
- infecto 1y ago
  Just as an additional clarification. It’s only on new watches sold after that 2024 date. Only reason I have been reluctant to replace mine.
  - jjcob 1y ago
    Do you get useful insights from blood oxygen data? The measurements seem pretty erratic on my Series 8 watch, and I'm not sure what conclusions I should draw from them. Do you suffer from a health condition that requires monitoring O2sat?
    - kridsdale1 1y ago
      When I had Covid I got value from tracking this metric. If it went below 90 I would have called 911.
    - eitally 1y ago
      Day-to-day, no value at all (I have it on my Garmin). Only in combination with respiration rate + HRV + RHR does it become a useful signal, and frankly, if all four of those are out of whack then the odds you feel sick or run down and don't need metrics to tell you so are very high!
    - devnulll 1y ago
      Due to spending more time in a chair than being active I have a bit more interactions with Gravity than most. :) This has led to fairly significant sleep apnea, which is most easily tracked via monitoring of O2 saturation. The Apple watch data isn't really useful for this at all as the frequency of monitoring is just too low. There are a bunch of ~$100 devices that you can get from Amazon that do a fantastic job monitoring O2 Sat for a night and have nice integrations into Apple/Android. I do wish the CPAP's offered this type of integration - that is, they had a Bluetooth receiver to which I could pair an O2 sensor, and have the data coupled with my breathing analysis. This would be nice to have in OSCAR (the open-source analysis package) or even in Apple Health. Instead, the manufactures like ResMed treat this data as a walled garden and try their hardest to require everything to go through a Sleep Doctor who pays them a non-trivial data subscription.
    - infecto 1y ago
      I really like collecting as much data as possible with my watch. I have found Apples analysis in the health app to be pretty helpful over longer periods of time. o2 probably the weaker of signals and to be honest I just like having it when I am sick. I will convince myself sick in bed I have Covid and then check my o2 and feel better.
- jjcob 1y ago
  VO2max is an estimate of your maximum oxygen consumption per minute per kg of body mass. It is not related to your blood oxygen level.
- Analemma_ 1y ago
  The hardware is still there in all new watches, it's disabled in software due to the ongoing Massimo litigation. It seems likely that one way or another it'll be resolved-- either by overturning the ruling in Apple's favor or Apple just gives Massimo a bunch of money-- and then it will come back.
robbiep 1y ago
what exactly are you going to do with a spot hs-CRP?
- brandonb 1y ago
  Elevated hs-CRP roughly doubles your risk of heart disease. Here's a few things people do to lower it: * Eat anti-inflammatory foods (e.g., blueberries) or use cooking techniques that produce fewer PAHs (e.g., braising or steaming rather than sauteing or broiling) * Drink less alcohol * Medications (e.g., statins and GLP-1s also have anti-inflammatory benefits)
nonameiguess 1y ago
You don't even really need the testing. Everybody will either benefit or at least not be left worse off from eating high fiber and low saturated fat. Getting a sufficient electrolyte mix is not a real concern for anyone who isn't regularly exerting themselves in high heat and is then only a concern during the exertion. Exercising and sleeping well will give exactly the same benefits regardless of whether you also track VO2 max and sleep quality score. Early detection of cancer and CVD are great but fairly standard anyway if you just follow recommendations that already exist.
- brandonb 1y ago
  The advanced blood testing is helpful since about 1 in 5 people with a normal cholesterol will have elevated ApoB (and be at higher risk of heart disease). Getting sufficient potassium (lowers blood pressure) and not too much salt (raises blood pressure) does take deliberate effort. Those with high blood pressure need about 3500mg of potassium per day (about 8 bananas) and <1500mg of sodium; this applies during the whole day, not just during exercise. VO2Max can be helpful for guiding the type of exercise at any given point in the fitness journey. People starting out benefit a lot from low intensity cardio (zone 2), but at some point, their VO2Max will plateau, which is a good sign to start layering in zone 5 or interval training. People who are very dedicated to health can achieve all goals simultaneously, but for the average person, I think measuring your biomarkers and then choosing where to expend limited effort is a good approach.
- dinfinity 1y ago
  > Everybody will either benefit or at least not be left worse off from eating high fiber and low saturated fat. Depends on what you replace the saturated fat with. Remember that the claim that saturated fat is 'bad for you' is based on correlations (nutritional research is hard, yo) and that saturated fat is in a lot of trash food. If you keep eating trash food with low levels of saturated fat, your health will still suffer. If you eat lots of saturated fat from healthy sources, you improve your nutritional situation. tl;dr: 'Saturated fat' is a misleading proxy for 'unhealthy food'. Lots of dietary fiber being healthy is pretty uncontroversial, though.

iwontberude 1y ago

I thought Apple Watch doesn’t have blood oxygen sensing anymore.

brandonb 1y ago
Blood oxygen sensing is disabled in the US (due to the patent lawsuit with Massimo), but it still estimates VO2Max and sleep stages. VO2Max is based on GPS and heart rate sensor measurements, processed by a deep learning algorithm that uses physiological ODEs (ordinary differential equations). Very cool algorithm. Apple Watch sleep stages (and sleep apnea detection) is based only on 3D accelerometer data.
infecto 1y ago
Just as an additional clarification. It’s only on new watches sold after that 2024 date. Only reason I have been reluctant to replace mine.
- jjcob 1y ago
  Do you get useful insights from blood oxygen data? The measurements seem pretty erratic on my Series 8 watch, and I'm not sure what conclusions I should draw from them. Do you suffer from a health condition that requires monitoring O2sat?
  - kridsdale1 1y ago
    When I had Covid I got value from tracking this metric. If it went below 90 I would have called 911.
  - eitally 1y ago
    Day-to-day, no value at all (I have it on my Garmin). Only in combination with respiration rate + HRV + RHR does it become a useful signal, and frankly, if all four of those are out of whack then the odds you feel sick or run down and don't need metrics to tell you so are very high!
  - devnulll 1y ago
    Due to spending more time in a chair than being active I have a bit more interactions with Gravity than most. :) This has led to fairly significant sleep apnea, which is most easily tracked via monitoring of O2 saturation. The Apple watch data isn't really useful for this at all as the frequency of monitoring is just too low. There are a bunch of ~$100 devices that you can get from Amazon that do a fantastic job monitoring O2 Sat for a night and have nice integrations into Apple/Android. I do wish the CPAP's offered this type of integration - that is, they had a Bluetooth receiver to which I could pair an O2 sensor, and have the data coupled with my breathing analysis. This would be nice to have in OSCAR (the open-source analysis package) or even in Apple Health. Instead, the manufactures like ResMed treat this data as a walled garden and try their hardest to require everything to go through a Sleep Doctor who pays them a non-trivial data subscription.
  - infecto 1y ago
    I really like collecting as much data as possible with my watch. I have found Apples analysis in the health app to be pretty helpful over longer periods of time. o2 probably the weaker of signals and to be honest I just like having it when I am sick. I will convince myself sick in bed I have Covid and then check my o2 and feel better.
jjcob 1y ago
VO2max is an estimate of your maximum oxygen consumption per minute per kg of body mass. It is not related to your blood oxygen level.
Analemma_ 1y ago
The hardware is still there in all new watches, it's disabled in software due to the ongoing Massimo litigation. It seems likely that one way or another it'll be resolved-- either by overturning the ruling in Apple's favor or Apple just gives Massimo a bunch of money-- and then it will come back.

robbiep 1y ago

what exactly are you going to do with a spot hs-CRP?

brandonb 1y ago
Elevated hs-CRP roughly doubles your risk of heart disease. Here's a few things people do to lower it: * Eat anti-inflammatory foods (e.g., blueberries) or use cooking techniques that produce fewer PAHs (e.g., braising or steaming rather than sauteing or broiling) * Drink less alcohol * Medications (e.g., statins and GLP-1s also have anti-inflammatory benefits)

nonameiguess 1y ago

You don't even really need the testing. Everybody will either benefit or at least not be left worse off from eating high fiber and low saturated fat. Getting a sufficient electrolyte mix is not a real concern for anyone who isn't regularly exerting themselves in high heat and is then only a concern during the exertion. Exercising and sleeping well will give exactly the same benefits regardless of whether you also track VO2 max and sleep quality score. Early detection of cancer and CVD are great but fairly standard anyway if you just follow recommendations that already exist.

brandonb 1y ago
The advanced blood testing is helpful since about 1 in 5 people with a normal cholesterol will have elevated ApoB (and be at higher risk of heart disease). Getting sufficient potassium (lowers blood pressure) and not too much salt (raises blood pressure) does take deliberate effort. Those with high blood pressure need about 3500mg of potassium per day (about 8 bananas) and <1500mg of sodium; this applies during the whole day, not just during exercise. VO2Max can be helpful for guiding the type of exercise at any given point in the fitness journey. People starting out benefit a lot from low intensity cardio (zone 2), but at some point, their VO2Max will plateau, which is a good sign to start layering in zone 5 or interval training. People who are very dedicated to health can achieve all goals simultaneously, but for the average person, I think measuring your biomarkers and then choosing where to expend limited effort is a good approach.
dinfinity 1y ago
> Everybody will either benefit or at least not be left worse off from eating high fiber and low saturated fat. Depends on what you replace the saturated fat with. Remember that the claim that saturated fat is 'bad for you' is based on correlations (nutritional research is hard, yo) and that saturated fat is in a lot of trash food. If you keep eating trash food with low levels of saturated fat, your health will still suffer. If you eat lots of saturated fat from healthy sources, you improve your nutritional situation. tl;dr: 'Saturated fat' is a misleading proxy for 'unhealthy food'. Lots of dietary fiber being healthy is pretty uncontroversial, though.