Good morning. It’s Monday, Aug 15th (Day 1 of Thrive25). Seems like a big day in history - the Pilgrims launched the Mayflower from Southampton, England (1620), the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in Colorado (1870), the Panama Canal opens (1914), the Woodstock Music Festival kicks off (1969), and Tiger outdueled Sergio at the PGA Championship at Medinah (1999). Plus, today Ben Affleck turns 50 - maybe he wants to join Thrive25.

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Let's jump right in with our super power...

The length of the DNA in your body. What, you don't like the metric system? Well, how about this - that's 2x the diameter of the solar system.

The Power Within Us

Every day we make choices that affect our health. Turns out, these choices are way more important than we could ever imagine.

At some point you were probably told that our genes and DNA hold the key to our future health. Some of us have a higher probability for cancer and others for Alzheimer’s Disease - we just need to accept our fate.

It's true - our genes definitely matter. But the reality is that our genes only impact about 20% of our future health outcomes. We control the rest by how we live!

NOTE: Genetic testing serves a very valuable role - 20% of your future health is still significant! Knowing if you have gene mutations associated with, say colon cancer (MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, PMS2, EPCAM), empowers you to know how hard you might have to work to offset the chances of developing a disease in the future. We'll look into specific testing companies in future issues.

Epigenetics

If you can dig way back into your memories of high school biology, you might recall that our DNA has four (4) bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Every single of our 30+ trillion cells has coiled DNA with 3 billion pairs (A-T, G-C, etc.) that decode who we are. It’s essentially the instruction manual for how to build and maintain your specific body.

The DNA in every cell in our body is the exact same - a skin cell, a liver cell, an eye cell. If that's the case - then how do these cells know to create a different organ or function in the body?

The answer…epigenetics. 

So many analogies...DNA is the computer, epigenetics is the software - which can run smoothly or be full of bugs; DNA the piano, epigenetics the musician; DNA the ingredients, epigenetics the chef.

Regardless of how we think of it, our epigenome manually creates chemical tags that turn genes on or off, changing their function - everything from how we see, how we think, and how we heal.

This is happening every second of every day. It might not seem like it - but the daily changes in our epigenome are just as profound for us in adulthood as for our toddlers who seem to be on supersonic growth mode.

Why is this so great for us?

Well it means that we can turn genes on or off by what we do - what we eat, how we move, what we touch, even how we think - and according to Dr. David Sinclair this ability “is what actually controls much of our lives.”

Just how powerful is our diet and lifestyle? The latest science shows a single high sugar meal has a negative effect on our epigenetics for at least 6 days!

In fact, our daily decisions have a profound effect on our:

1. Longevity*

2. Current health

3. Happiness and mindset

*Definition of Longevity

When we say “longevity” we’re not talking about living as long as possible. Our definition is taken from Dr. Peter Attia, which combines lifespan with “healthspan” - our time when we are actually healthy.

Why does this matter? Modern healthcare has extended our lifespan, but to some extent to the detriment of our quality of life. In the U.S., we live 20% of our life with a chronic disease.

It doesn't have to be this way - there's a way to extend both healthspan and lifespan and to bring these numbers closer together and reduce, or nearly eliminate, this gap.

Live to Thrive - 9 Elements to Health & Longevity

We pulled together the very best science from leading experts to create a single framework for how to boost your current health and to optimize your longevity.

We’re not talking about cutting out burgers and beers or working out to lose five pounds.

We’re talking about creating a sustainable lifestyle that optimizes how we feel every single day to live the life we want - today and for the next 25+ years.

This framework includes the 9 Elements that most directly influence our ability to create our ideal life, optimizing our:

1. Cognitive ability,

2. Physical function, and

3. Emotional fulfillment

Each week we'll cover one topic from a single Element...with the goal to make it easy to implement what you need in your life.

Monday Question

What are the top 3 reasons you want to be in optimal health in 25 years?

Might seem weird - guys specifically are often reluctant to do it - but we’re telling you, if you actually write it down you have a 42% higher chance of making it happen!

Wanna share? Send us your answer ([email protected]) and we’ll be your biggest advocate. If you’re up for it, we’ll share with the rest of the Thrive25 crew (either with your name or anonymously) to help get the wheels turning for anyone struggling to answer this question.

Speed Read

Health & Longevity in the News

$100M for Longevity: Korify Capital is putting together a $100 million venture capital fund targeting longevity.

Whole Foods 2.0?: John Mackey, Founder of Whole Foods, has raised $30 million to launch a national network of medical wellness centers and vegetarian restaurants.

Play Ping Pong: It's thought that playing racket sports correlate with a longer lifespan. Maybe the same is true of just playing ping pong. Good thing we did a lot of that in college to offset some activities that definitely did NOT lengthen our lifespan!

Pain Relief: For thousands of years people have used meditation to ease pain, scientists now think they know how it works.

Monday Metabolic Workout

Every Monday, we're going to share a quick 5 min workout to get your week jump-started!

Want to do more? Just double it up for 10 minutes!

Workout courtesy of Connor J. Obrochta. Check out all of his workouts at Playbook! 

For easy access, save this image to your phone or computer in a folder called Thrive25. Tip (iPhone users): hold your finger in the Thrive Blue area to open the picture menu.

Key Call Outs:

• How to do a proper ball slam

• How to do a burpee tuck jump

NOTE: Tomorrow we'll be serving up a recipe in this feature spot...stay tuned!

Product Recs

Got 2 quick recommendations today that we fully support to help us Thrive:

• Life Extension Zinc Lozenges - as school starts up more colds are on the way. Research shows that zinc acetate can reduce duration of cold symptoms by 40%. This brand has a clean product and the slow to dissolve lozenge is best for absorption. Be ready though - can take 20 minutes for it to completely dissolve!

• Phat Fudge (affiliate) - want the key product from the personal chef for the World Champion Golden State Warriors? It's a performance food to replace energy gels and bars when you're working out. If it works for Steph Curry, then I mean...

Thanks for joining us today! Hope you enjoyed it - get ready, tomorrow we'll jump right in to kick off a week on Nutrition.

In the meantime, if you know someone who you think would like Thrive25, we're running a special 2-Week Launch Campaign to help spread the word!

Between now and Friday, August 26th, you can earn tickets for all referrals who join Thrive25. **The winner of the drawing earns a $150 Patagonia Gift Card!

• 1 Referral (Real Pro) = 1 Ticket

• 3 Referrals (All-Star) = 5 Tickets

• 5 Referrals (MVP) = 10 Tickets

• 10 Referrals (Hall of Famer) = 20 Tickets

Why Thrive25

We’re 40-something dads that felt our bodies and minds start to slow down and we’re not ready for that. We found too much information on every subject. So we started Thrive25 to transform what we’ve learned into something useful for the rest of us to spend just 3-5 min a day to optimize our health & longevity.

This newsletter is for you and we truly value your feedback. Never hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].

To health!

The information in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and may not be appropriate or applicable based on your individual circumstances. Thrive25 Labs LLC does not provide medical, professional, or licensed advice. Please connect with your healthcare professional for medical advice specific to your health needs.