Alan Heldman

I’m skeptical about 99% of “longevity” but there’s good reason to track VO2max in your health notebook.

I’m not selling supplements — I’m giving away good ideas!

Why is my endurance fading? Thinking About A Personal Health Record - Part IV: Understanding declining V̇O₂max in active adults and aging athletes.

You’ve heard that VO2max is an important marker of health, and maybe you even have idea of your personal performance.

But what is it, and why does it matter? And if it’s not as high as you want — do you know why? Here’s some answers.

alanheldman.substack.com/p/why-is-my-...

Biomarkers Your Dashboard for Monitoring Your Own Health

You don't have to be an edgy biohacker to gather data about your own metabolism. It's your health. Your data.
What could you do with your notebook?

I’m not selling supplements or anything else. I’m giving away ideas. Read them here:

open.substack.com/pub/alanheld...

Tetanus cases per thousand wounded soldiers in British home military hospitals after being wounded in the manure-rich trenches of WW I France. With the introduction of tetanus anti-toxin in the middle of the second month of this chart showing Sept 1914-Nov 1916, the case rate dropped.

What do Jimmy Buffett lyrics, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, WW I trench warfare, and WW II dogtags have to do with curating your own health? This story kicks off my thinking about the idea of a Personal Health Record. Follow along if you’re interested!
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I Want To Exercise Do I Need A Cardiac Calcium Score CAT Scan First?

This is the “exercise paradox.” How can you figure out your risk, and what can you do about it? Should you get a coronary calcium score CT scan before you start exercising? Get the facts in my latest article. open.substack.com/pub/alanheld...

When you exercise, your heart muscle needs more oxygen, so the blood flow in your coronary arteries can go up 500%! Exercise is generally good for your health & reduces the risk of heart disease, but if you have atherosclerosis plaque in those arteries, intense exertion can trigger a heart attack.

What's happening? It is a powerful story: US women who are 65, 70, or older had limited opportunities for organized athletics as students. Title IX (1972) was the beginning of change. Masters Women's individual and relay records have begun to fall. Watch what happens over the next few years!

Recently I looked at age-group records for sprints, middle distance, and long distance races. Like the rest of us, even the best in the world get slower with age. But it seemed like the Women's 4x400 was an outlier. If you're a data nerd, the full analysis is here: open.substack.com/pub/alanheld...

I'm predicting a bunch of new age-group world records in the Women's 4x400m relays. Just last week, a W65 squad of Cheryl Bellaire, Julie Hayden, Susan Lloyd, and Elizabeth Deak clocked a world record 5:15.97 to slice nearly five seconds off of the existing indoor 4x400 record.

How?

Please Don't Eat the Nano Soccer Balls What level of evidence should we expect before we take a supplement? How I start to learn about health claims.

How I think about whether to ingest some Buckyballs. open.substack.com/pub/alanheld...

As a physician scientist who is trying hard to maintain peak athletic and mental performance as I age, I have looked — and I don’t see any shortcuts.

When you encounter a new product or idea for your health, how do you decide whether or not it’s bullsh*t? Low quality information is easy to find. High quality information is often locked behind expensive paywalls.

Uncertainty Vitamin C is really really important. Does that mean that you should take extra? And if I'm not sure, then what? Things I learned from my breakfast with double Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling.

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Linus Pauling (1901-1994) was the only person who ever won two unshared Nobel Prizes — the prize in Chemistry in 1954, and the Peace Prize in 1962. Over breakfast, he gave our little group of medical students some advice about vitamin C and the search for truth.
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Change is Difficult Why I Folded Over My Racing Bib

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How do you decide what product claims to believe? These are personal choices, but we can all use some help when it comes to thinking about our own health.

Sniffing Out Bullsh*t It's about to get wild out there in the world of health. Having a good nose for unsubstantiated health claims is gonna get even more important.

I am expecting big changes in the competition around health product innovation, personal right-to-try, and regulatory oversight for safety. If you think that your academic institution will take the high road, you might be disappointed. open.substack.com/pub/alanheld...