Deep insights. Simply put
Carefully curated. Deeply researched. Free of ads and shackles.
There are brilliant content producers with the finger on the pulse. So we won’t regurgitate the news just to keep up with the crowd, except if the news needs an urgent second opinion. And this is not a rarity. We take our time to see through commercial biases, and noodle on the nuances behind the headlines. Always in an easily digestible form. An individual human may be pear-shaped but is never bell-shaped - meaning, statistical evidence for whole populations may not fit well with you if you’re an edge case or working in extremes. Like many of our patients. While on the programme or alumni membership we’ll take the topics you ask us about and tailor what it means to those like you. And while we use AI tools to help us search and type faster, rest assured, we don’t rely on anyone except the experts.
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We geek out on:-
Preventive & therapeutic medicine
Leadership & relationships
Health-span research
Human Performance Science
Nutrition and 'Notrition' (fasting) and Nootrition (cognitive enhancement)
Sleep, Jetlag and circadian biology
Fitness & Physique
All things Psyche...
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Why “normal” testosterone does not always mean normal function
Why is it that testosterone looks normal but you still have symptoms consistent with low testosterone?
Low libido.
Reduced energy.
Blunted drive.
It is tempting to conclude: Testosterone is not the problem.
That is a conclusion too easy to arrive at.
This is one of the mismatches we often see in clinic, and it is not peculiar to testosterone.
Someone can be within the lab’s normal reference range, sometimes comfortably inside it, and still describe symptoms that are discordant with what the results are saying.
The evidence does not support diagnosing testosterone deficiency from symptoms alone. But it also does not support asserting that a normal total testosterone is the end of the conversation either.
Current guidelines require symptoms plus unequivocally low testosterone for diagnosis, while the physiology tells us that total testosterone is only one part of a wider system.
Furthermore, there is no consensus amongst specialist bodies as to what the lower threshold of total testosterone or free testosterone below which individuals will notice symptomatic improvements.
High performance and high HbA1c: fitness does not guarantee protection from poor sleep
Here’s a conundrum.
You are fit, with high VO2peak, low visceral fat, and reassuring lipids.
Yet HbA1c sits high normal, or drifts into the prediabetic range.
The default explanation is insulin resistance.
In some lean, high performing people, that explanation does not tally with the rest of the data.
I think this is one of the more interesting mismatches I see in my practice. You can have obvious signs of good “peripheral” metabolic health and still see suboptimal blood sugar levels.. The current evidence suggests that sleep, stress, and insulin secretion may explain part of that gap, although the phenotype is not yet defined as a formal syndrome in the literature.
Autonomic Balance: A Mediterranean Prescription for a Healthier Heart
Feeling that post-holiday slump? You're not alone.
As the pace of work accelerates again, the calm you found on holiday can feel like a distant memory. But what if that feeling wasn't just a mood, but a measurable state of your nervous system?
Dr Andrew explores the science behind autonomic balance, revealing how simple lifestyle shifts - inspired by the world's longest-living communities - can help you hardwire resilience and peak performance into your daily life, long after the suitcase is unpacked.
The Solution that Triples Problem-Solving Ability
New evidence shows that naps, particularly those including N2-stage sleep, can sharpen reaction time, strengthen memory, and make leaders up to three times more likely to generate creative breakthroughs [PMID: 40569931]. For those under constant cognitive load, naps are best understood as a deliberate performance tool rather than an indulgence.
Sauna? Ice bath? Both? What the science tells us about these recovery and health enhancing strategies.
In all walks of elite athletes, hot and cold therapy is a core recovery tool for sustaining performance under pressure. But how much of that science translates into benefits for those in other high-performance environments? The application of sports science to those individuals in these critical roles is a foundation of our approach at WellFounded. Recovery strategies that help you train hard, travel the next day, and perform at your best are valuable, but knowing how to time them to avoid blunting the gains from hours of resistance work is just as critical. Below is a brief primer on some of the core, more robust findings from recent studies looking into these strategies.
Sleep Quality Over Time Predicts Heart Risk:
A new 7-year prospective study, with 55,335 person-years of follow-up, has found that adults who had consistently poor sleep duration or quality had up to a 55% higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) - heart attacks or strokes - even after adjusting for confounders like physical activity, BMI, and comorbid conditions (PMID: 40186318).
It’s easy for bad habits to creep in around work; eating late, after we get home from work and put the children to bed, going back to do just a little more work after, which then turns into a few hours. Insights into both duration and quality of sleep gives us an additional vital sign that evolves with stress, ageing, and workload.
Navigating Sleep and Brain Health: Insights from the UK Biobank Study
In the ever-evolving field of sleep research, the recent study published in the journal 'Sleep' titled, "Comprehensive assessment of sleep duration, insomnia, and brain structure within the UK Biobank cohort" marks a significant leap in understanding the complex interplay between sleep habits and brain health. Dr Andrew Crockett delves into this research and provides a critical analysis; shedding light on a subject of paramount importance for founders and professionals who grapple with the delicate balance between work demands and rest.
Sleep consistency vs duration: the underdog wins.
The emerging science of sleep has long emphasized the importance of sleep duration, typically recommending seven to nine hours per night for optimal health. However, the latest study published a few weeks ago in the journal Sleep offers a game-changing perspective. This isn't about clocking in more hours under the covers; it's about the rhythm and regularity of your sleep pattern.