5HT: 5 Healthyish Things, including cold plunge gender reveals and my healthyish travel protocol

While at SXSW last month, I went to a dinner with the who’s who of women’s longevity. Rhonda Patrick, Kayla Barnes-Lentz, Dr. Amy Shah, and a bunch of others were there. And over dinner, I was surprised to hear that basically everyone at the table is taking 10g of creatine a day. 

Not (just) for muscle 💪, but for brain health 🧠. 

What really surprised me wasn’t just that all these killer cool ladies are taking 10g of creatine, but that some of them go up to 20g (!!) when they’re sleep-deprived, under high cognitive demand, or even jet-lagged. Not as a daily habit, but as a short-term strategy when they need to perform under stress. 

We already know creatine can support muscle function. But there’s now a growing body of research suggesting it may also help with processing speed, attention, memory, and maybe even neuroprotection. One (very) small study even looked at Alzheimer’s patients and showed improvements across several cognitive tests at 20g of creatine. 😮

What’s especially interesting is that the benefits seem to show up most when the brain is stressed, kind of like how muscles respond when they’re under load. Buuuut, as Patrick pointed out, muscles tend to soak up creatine first, and the brain is harder to load because of the blood-brain barrier. That’s partly why higher doses are being explored. 

Now, it’s early. Some trials show benefits. Some show no effect on young, healthy adults. It’s promising, but optimal dosing for brain benefits isn’t settled—yet. Still, I think there’s a very real chance we'll stop thinking of creatine as just a gym supplement and start thinking of it as a brain energy supplement.

That potential upside was enough for me to bump ⬆️ my daily dose from 5g to 10g. (For context, 3–5g per day is the standard range.) Frankly, if all these ladies are doing it, I feel pretty comfortable with that. I mayyy even consider taking more when I’m sleep-deprived or mentally taxed. Perhaps in a creatini???

I traveled to Florida this week with my wife and our two girls. We do a lot of traveling as a family and (after learning some things the hard way 😬) my wife and I have gotten pretty good at optimizing our travel protocol. 

We have three non-negotiable rules:

✈️ Avoid red-eyes so everyone arrives at least somewhat rested. 
✈️ Build in movement so the kids can burn energy. We make a point to walk the kids up and down the aisle every few hours and take every flight of stairs.
✈️ Try to eat healthyish so our gut arrives happy. That often means bringing our own healthy snacks. Current go-tos: LesserEvil Popcorn, Bob Snail & BEAR Fruit Snacks, and New Primal Snack Mates Sticks. I also travel with Jacob Protein Bars & Maui Nui Venison Sticks.

Over the years, we’ve also come up with a few more optimizations:

✈️ Hydrate harder. Travel is dehydrating, and we’ve discovered hydration matters even more when traveling with kiddos. LMNT electrolyte packets have become a staple for us, though now I’m personally all about that Morning Water! 
✈️ Make some noise. We use white noise on the kids’ iPads. It’s also surprisingly helpful for curbing jet lag (if traveling far). It helps mask noise and makes it easier to fall asleep even in new environments. (Yes, I still sometimes use my Ozlo’s.)
✈️ Bring a travel supplement case. As most 5HT readers know, I take a looot of supplements. I bring a pared-down version of my usual stack in my trusty Ikigai travel case—usually vitamin D, omega-3s, probiotics, and B-vitamins. 
✈️ Skip the free wine. My wife and I try not to drink on travel days since alcohol can make dehydration worse and mess with sleep. One true mystery in life to me is people who drink a bunch on the plane. Please explain.
✈️ Keep bedtime roughly the same. Once we land, we try to stick pretty close to the kids’ usual bedtime. (Though we loosen up a little on vacation.)
✈️ Wear sleep masks. These are gamechanging, especiallyyy for longer trips. Basically, light signals to your brain to stay awake, suppressing melatonin. When light is blocked, it’s easier to fall asleep. Simple hack. And FWIW, my wife and I both use the Mantra PRO.
✈️ Pack sticker books & tape. We bring sticker books so it’s not all screen time. My greatest buy last year was a 6-pack of colorful painters’ tape, which the kids played with for hours and was shockingly easy to clean up.

Oh—and after a truly disastrous trip last December 😅, we’ve also started packing a mini pharmacy: acetaminophen, ibuprofen, digital thermometer, and saline spray.

I’m sure there are still gaps here. When I asked our 5HT+ Slack channel what they turn to, oregano oil drops, masks, propolis spray (which I wrote about here), and earplugs all came up. Some other things I’ve been hearing about are compression socks, this jet lag app, infinity-style pillows, and lymphatic drainage tools.

What healthyish travel hacks do you swear by? Hit reply + tell me what I’m missing!

This might be the most wellness-pilled (and unhinged) gender reveal I’ve seen. 😅

Okay, so… every morning, I drink an iced coffee from Costco. (Sometimes I enjoy a cup of black coffee, but only when my wife brews it.) Annnd about 10-20 minutes later, I’m on the loo doing the NYT Mini Crossword Puzzle. TMI? Just sit with it for a second. 😆 (Sorry.) 

I’ve long known coffee gets things moving. I just never really knew why. Of course that’s what 5HT is for, right? Finding out! Here’s what I’ve learned:

Oh—and if add milk or cream, that can also contribute to bowel movements—especially if you’re even a little 🤏 lactose intolerant. I now drink my coffee black (though I didn’t always) because once your coffee starts looking more like a milkshake, you may poopoo on all these benefits.

So yes, your morning coffee-to-poop pipeline is real. You’re welcome for really getting to the bottom of this 💩!

Last week I wrote about having the MTHFR gene variation and what I’m doing about it. While going down the rabbit hole on how to make sure I’m actually absorbing nutrients (nutrient-maxxing?), it got me thinking about how genetics can give us incredibly useful answers…to questions the healthcare system frustratingly still isn’t asking. 🤷‍♂️

Genetics can affect how you process nutrients, metabolize medicine, and respond to treatment. Some treatments can even cause an adverse reaction if you have a particular gene variation. Broadly speaking, two people can take the exact same supplement or medication and have completely different outcomes. Same input. Different biology. Different results.

Yet if you end up in the hospital, likely no one is going to ask for your genetics. (FWIW, I can absolutely see a world where that happens. Buuuut we are not there yet.)

This idea also came up on a new podcast I keep recommending, Drug Story with Thomas Goetz, where he was talking with Eric Topol (another fave) about how genetics and treatments still barely talk to each other in modern healthcare. It feels like such a missed opportunity, especially now that so many people have their genetic data sitting around and plenty of gene-drug interactions are already well documented.

The biggest exception I’m aware of is cancer care. Some cancer drugs are highly dependent on your genetic code, and it’s becoming increasingly standard to use genetics to personalize treatment. But outside of that, I think we’re still pretty early in connecting the dots.

My hope is that, eventually, it’ll be much clearer what you should be taking, what you shouldn’t, and what your body is most likely to benefit from. And, actually, this could be something we see once somebody finally nails a personal health OS. 

In the meantime, MTHFR is arguably one of the easier examples to act on—at least if you know you have the variant.

Directions: Copy, paste, and fill in the prompt below to create a hydration protocol.

👋 Who are you again? I’m Derek Flanzraich—founder of two venture-backed startups in Greatist (👍) and Ness (👎). I’ve worked with brands like GoodRx, Parsley, Midi, Ro, NOCD, and Peloton. I now run Healthyish Content, a premium health content & SEO agency (among other things).

Every Thursday, I share 5 health things I feel strongly about so you can live healthyish. (Disclaimer: I’m more your friend with health benefits. None of this is medical advice.) Also some links are affiliate links, but they influence my decisions zero.

Oh, you also feel strongly about some health things? Hit reply—I’d love to hear it.