
#1 Fourth of July
Here are some do’s and don’ts for your holiday weekend.
✅ Do wear (don’t eat! 😳) your sunscreen.
✅ Do stay hydrated (Spicy Sauv Blanc doesn’t count).
✅ Do use electrolytes. (Pro tip: Add pickles to your plate.)
✅ Do indulge in some BBQ (buuut don’t try to be all Joey Chesnut).
✅ Do put your phone down (because fireworks always look better IRL than on IG).
❌ Don’t pick up this shell if you’re at the beach. 😳😳
❌ Don’t use sparklers carelessly (apparently, 14K+ people were treated for fireworks injuries in ERs in 2024, and more than 1K of those involved sparklers.)
#2 NAD+
You’ve probably heard people talking about NAD+. If not, you’re about to.
NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, if you want to impress someone) is a coenzyme found in every cell of your body. It powers energy production, DNA repair, and cell survival under stress. Buuut, it declines as you age, so longevity docs point to NAD+ supplementation as a way to essentially recharge your batteries to full.
Harvard’s David Sinclair is one of the docs who put NAD+ on the map. His lab is studying NAD-boosting molecules for their anti-aging effects, and he personally supplements with 1g/day of NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide), a precursor your body turns into NAD+. (NMN has shown promising results like reducing inflammation, improving insulin function, and supporting brain health when taken orally.) Another way to supplement NAD+ is with NR (nicotinamide riboside), which similarly shows promise.
Other longevity leaders are in on the hype. Andrew Huberman takes both (NR and NMN), reporting faster hair and nail growth and increased energy. Mark Hyman takes NMN. And Bryan Johnson recently switched from NR to NMN in his quest for immortality.
You can also supplement NAD+ with IV infusions, buuut there's limited data on that approach, and it takes a long time. Plus, all of this ain’t cheap 😅. So… it's good news that you can naturally boost NAD+ through things like intermittent fasting, exercise (HITT and resistance training in particular), heat therapy and cold exposure, eating vitamin B3-rich foods, and getting quality sleep. Basically, things that are already good for you.
I’m sharing my current, full supplement stack below, and you won’t see NMN on it yet, but that’s only because I’m wary of things I’ll need to take forever unless the science is super convincing (or something is super trendy TBH and I want to check it out 😆).
#3 The perfect nap
Okay, last week, we talked about the health benefits of drinking coffee and mushroom coffee. This week, let’s add a healthyish-approved hack: The nappucino.
Even Daniel H. Pink (in his book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing) calls the nappucino a part of a 5-step formula for the perfect nap.
Basically, the idea here is that caffeine takes ~25 minutes to engage in your bloodstream, so if you drink your coffee before you lie down and then set a timer for 25 minutes, you’ll wake up justtt as the caffeine is beginning to kick in. Plus, you’ll have the added benefit of a short nap, which research shows can enhance mood, short-term memory, alertness, and response time.
Pro tip: Pre-schedule your nappucino following the long holiday weekend. 😅
#4 Performance eyewear
I'm lucky to have great vision, but I stare at the computer screen all day. And, like any other muscle, my eyes get tireddd. You’ve probably felt it too 👀, that vague tension creeping behind your eyelids and the mid-afternoon fatigue when focus requires more effort than your coffee’s giving. 🫠
We tend to blame the feeling on stress or poor sleep, but the real reason might be simpler: Our eyes weren’t designed to focus on screens for 8+ hours straight. Enter: Performance eyewear 🤓(aka my latest obsession). I got into it because of my friend Jason Bornhorst’s new company, Subtle Optics. Their eyewear is basically designed for people like me who’ve never worn glasses, but spend 6-10 hours daily in near focus.
In this great article, Jason explains how clear vision doesn’t always = effortless vision and that looking at a screen all day can lead to “quiet overtraining.” Unlike other companies focusing only on blocking blue light, Subtle Optics is about incremental efficiency—like the optical version of adjusting your bike fit or a foam roller for your vision.
Obviously, I begged Jason to let me try them 😅. He recently sent me a trial version, and I'm excited to try it when I return from Europe. Tbh, I’m also hoping that, by putting on glasses, people will not recognize me, and I can pull off a Clark Kent/Superman thing. (Or just be a little more like my man crush, Henry Cavill.)
#5 My personal health protocol: Supplements
You hear me talk about vitamins and supplements a lottt. Now, you finally get to peek inside my vitamin case. 👀
First things first: I'm probably taking too many 😅, and there’s a handful in this list I’m working on discontinuing. I go through phases of trying a lot, then reducing to just the essentials. Partly because supplements are expensive and partly because the areas I’m prioritizing evolve. Like, right now, what matters to me is: Great sleep, cognition, digestive health, and longevity (a little).
And yes, ideally, we’d get most of our nutrients from food. But, unfortunately, we live in an era where the nutritional value of our food has gone way downhill 📉. So, I do believe supplementation makes sense to help fill in gaps, and these are the ones helping me cover the bases I care about most.
Morning supplement stack:
2x Seed Health Daily Synbiotic for gut health & digestion (see here for more)
1x Pendulum Akkermansia 100 million AFU & Chicory Inulin 276mg for metabolic support (see here for more)
1x Pendulum Glucose Control Proprietary Probiotic Blend (Probiotics) for blood sugar balance (see here for more)
1x Thorne Super EPA 425mg EPA and 270mg DHA for inflammation, cogntion, and heart
2x 250mg Nootropics Depot Cognizin (CDP-Choline) Citicoline Capsules for cognition, focus
1x Nootropics Depot Infini-B Capsules (Vitamin B Complex) for energy, mood, and cognition
B1 (Thiamine) 500mg
B2 (Riboflavin) 25mg
B3 (Niacin) 264mg NE
B5 (Pantothenic Acid) 100mg
B6 16mg
B7 (Biotin) 30mcg
B9 (Folate) 680mcg DFE
B12 500mcg
1x 500mg Momentous Acetyl L-Carnitine (ALCAR) Capsules for cognition and energy 1x 100mg Nootropics Depot Smart PS™ Phosphatidylserine Softgels for cognition
1x 100mg Momentous Ubiquinol CoQ10 for cellular energy & heart (and as a complement to taking a statin)
2x 1000mg Momentous Turmeric (as Meriva) for inflammation
1x 50mcg Momentous Vitamin D3 2000 IU for mood, bone, and immunity
1x 100mcg NOW Vitamin K2 (in MK-7 form) Capsules to work with D3 and make sure calcium ends up in the right & not wrong places
2x 10mg Mara Labs Broc Elite Plus Stabilized Sulphorate and 650mg Broccoli Seed Complex for detoxification, but plan to discontinue
1x Tbsp of EVOO (I’ve talked a lot about the magic of EVOO—like here and here—and in this case it actually boosts nutrient absorption. I’ve been digging Kosterina Everyday but have been very tempted to switch to Bryan Johnson’s Snake Oil because come on.)
Afternoon boost (this all goes in my smoothie):
1x 5mg Thorne Creatine for muscle, power, and cognition (though may need to take more for that)
2x Momentous Grass Fed Whey Protein Isolate Powder (Unflavored) Scoops for muscle, recovery, and proteeeeein
1x Agent Nateur holi (mane) for hair, skin, & nails, but plan to discontinue (and will share more on this soon)
1x Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat Sprout Powder for longevity (see here for my write up)
Evening supplement stack:
3x 50mg Momentous Magtein Magnesium L-Threonate Capsules) for sleep and cognition
2x 500mg Nootropics Depot Lion's Mane Mushroom 8:1 Dual Extract Capsules for cognition and focus
2x 500mg Timeline Mitopure Urolithin A Softgels for energy and longevity
1x 50mg Momentous Apigenin for sleep
1x 200mg Thorne Theanine for sleep and cognition
4x 2g Thorne Glycine for sleep
1x 100mg Fatty15 C15:0 for longevity and inflammation
Sooo, what’s in your stack? And is it longer or shorter than mine? 😅
Other things
Goodbye energy drinks, hello energy pouches? 🤔
Hospital food in America is more awful than you may realize. 😬
Move over Erewhon, there’s a new bougie smoothie in town. (Or at least in the Hamptons.)
Over in Canada, NiaHealth raises $5.75M for preventative healthcare.
The TIME100 Most Influence Companies 2025 includes tons of health companies. Congrats to Midi Health (!), Life Time, Oura, Function, Bobbie, and Abbott. 💯
It’s not just hair transplants men are going to Turkey for, but limb lengthening 🦵👀.
Circulate Health just raised $12M in seed funding to accelerate their longevity research.
A new law in Texas will require labels on foods containing 44 dyes or additives commonly found in the country’s food supply.
The NYT talks about why men shouldn’t ignore their pelvic floors.
The “swole pill” has arrived to combat “Ozempic face.”
Most clicked last week: This Entourage clip about strong calves. 😂
If you think being healthyish is cool, share this newsletter with your health-curious friends, fam, and...that one coworker who could use a nappucino.
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👋 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.)
And oh, you also feel strongly about some health things? Hit reply—I’d love to hear it.