Weekly Blog

Dec 26

It's been almost a full year since we shared our plan for 2025. We were going in with an eye toward 3 significant health themes that we thought would be worth watching closely. Broadly, they fit into the categories of "building reserve capacity", "improving metabolic health with emphasis on gut health", and "the power of the people" - keeping up with the latest on how those around us influence our energy, motivation, and ultimately health. 

We started with a focus on metabolic health by stepping into the experience of wearing a continuous glucose monitor for 30 days. My wife, Lindsay, and I acted as the guinea pigs and tracked the results from a variety of small changes known to have an impact on blood sugar spikes; one of the physiological reactions that, if left unchecked, can be a precursor to metabolic health decline. We drank vinegar water and monitored the impact of exercise. We saw how fatty foods threw us off for hours, even while sleeping, and got a much better sense of how it "felt" to be spiking and crashing (spoiler...TIRED). We found that some of the tactics were good enough to keep and others that fit better as temporary. For Lindsay, shifting her breakfast routine to include more protein has stuck, and for me, short exercise bursts immediately prior-to or following meals have become a more regular part of my pattern. Perhaps not surprisingly, neither of us stuck with the vinegar water...but we liked the results of the entire effort enough to plan on a second round after the holidays.

By mid February, it was time to set the glucose experiment down and pick up the topic of building and maintaining "reserves". These are the extras, the capacity that we have but don't need all too often, and a bit like the shoulder of life's highway, act as a margin that we can rely on to provide the space and time we need to reassess and course-correct before a close call becomes a catastrophe. We know it as one of the most important themes we track, and so we cover it often and hope to be comprehensive. While there was plenty to reaffirm the tried-and-true, like aerobic fitness, strength, and power (which we hit on a combined 13 times this year), we also discovered a few new wrinkles that we will certainly be keeping a closer eye on. "Gait Speed Reserve" (the difference between our top-end walking speed and our typical walking speed), which we discussed in July, is super intriguing. As a predictor of both future physical and cognitive abilities, there is a strong case for maintaining our top gear. When we overlay the massive (5X) benefit gained by fast-walkers compared to slow-walkers, which we touched on in August, and the impressive benefits of doing so in bursts of activity that last at least 15 minutes (as reported on at the end of October), the case for MOVE continues to be strong and getting stronger. 

For those who might struggle to find the right physical activity formula, all hope is certainly not lost. 2025 also provided a heaping helping of FUEL research for those who feel they are best to focus on their plate. In fact, the ever-growing mountain of evidence that connects a healthy diet to the body's ability to thrive was featured more than any other topic this year, 15 times, eclipsing physical activity by 2. However, when it comes to building reserves and maximizing the margins, 2025 might have been the year of the combo-platter, with some really fascinating studies showing the cumulative power of combining ELEMENTS emerging this year. Whether it was the "DO HEALTH" study, which we reported on in March, or the two Sleep, Physical Activity & Nutrition (SPAN) studies (here and here), which we reported on in August, the power of combining was certainly clear. And while we might never know exactly why there is such a compounding effect, we are finding more and more evidence that these are not stand-alone domains but parts of a whole, each interrelated with the next. 

By Fall, the volume of evidence on the wide-reaching impact of the "big 3" (MOVE, FUEL, RECOVER) on just about every mind and body injury, illness, and disease risk we face ensured they would be the most prominent again. But among the more fascinating evidence of the year were studies that shed light on the third theme - the power of and between people - and findings that cannot be overlooked. It turned out that "little things" which might seem easy to ignore, like word choice as mentioned at the end of November or the incredible health benefits that come with strong relationships (mentioned just 2 weeks ago), dramatically increase our odds of living a full and meaningful life...it's not all CONNECT, but it is definitely all connected.

On behalf of the entire team, thanks for another great year. We can't wait to see what 2026 brings us to learn and share.

Have a great weekend and wonderful holidays,
Mike E.