Editor
Julien Malet
Julien Malet writes about supplement labelling, cost-per-serving economics, and the gap between what a product claims and what its panel discloses.
Published by Julien Malet
You Are Almost Certainly Taking Too Much Melatonin
The typical US gummy carries 5–10 mg. The dose used in sleep research is closer to 0.3 mg. More is not better here — it is measurably worse.
Explainer · Stress & FocusAshwagandha: What the Trials Show, and Which Extract Matters
The adaptogen with the most respectable human evidence. Also the one where the extract name on the label decides whether you got the studied ingredient.
Explainer · LongevityHow to Measure Your Blood Pressure Properly
The most predictive number in medicine, the cheapest to measure, and the one most people get wrong at home in the same four ways.
Explainer · NutritionCreatine: The Most Boring, Best-Evidenced Supplement You Can Buy
Hundreds of human trials, five grams a day, about fifteen cents. The only real decision is not to buy the expensive version.
Explainer · Supplement ScienceProprietary Blends: Why They Are Always a Red Flag
A blend is legal, common, and makes a product impossible to evaluate. That last part is the point.
Explainer · Skin & GroomingRetinoids: The One Skincare Active With Real Evidence
Decades of human trials for texture and fine lines. Also the active most likely to make you quit in week two, for reasons that are avoidable.
Explainer · SleepThe Problem With Sleep Gummies
A convenient format that delivers sugar, unverifiable doses and a bedtime glucose spike — in a product sold to fix your sleep.
Explainer · LongevityMorning Light Is the Free Intervention Almost Nobody Uses
Light timing sets nearly every daily rhythm in your body, it costs nothing, and the same sunlight is also the main driver of how your skin ages. Both things are true at once.
Explainer · LongevityApoB vs LDL Cholesterol: Why the Newer Number Is Better
LDL-C measures the cholesterol inside the particles. ApoB counts the particles. Where they disagree, the particle count wins.
Explainer · Stress & FocusCortisol Is Not the Villain It Is Sold As
An entire supplement category is built on lowering a hormone you need. Here is what cortisol does, when it is genuinely a problem, and what "cortisol face" is really about.
Explainer · NutritionFiber Is the Nutrient Almost Everyone Under-Eats
Roughly 5% of adults hit the recommended intake. The evidence for fixing that is stronger than for most things sold as supplements.
Explainer · Peptides & GLP-1GLP-1 Drugs, Explained Without the Hype
Semaglutide and tirzepatide are the most effective weight-loss drugs ever brought to market. They are also prescription medicines with real side effects and a large grey market growing around them.
Explainer · SleepMagnesium, Recovery and Sleep: What Overlaps and What Doesn't
Magnesium is genuinely involved in sleep and recovery, most people fall short, and the category still oversells it. Where the honest line sits.
Explainer · Skin & GroomingWhat a Moisturizer Is Actually Doing
Three mechanisms, three types of ingredient, and why the $12 tub is usually as good as the $90 one.
Explainer · Supplement ScienceWhat Third-Party Testing Actually Verifies
NSF, Informed Sport and USP test different things. "Made in a cGMP facility" tests nothing about your bottle.
Explainer · Supplement ScienceThe Only Supplement Price Comparison That Works
Cost per serving, adjusted for whether the serving contains a real dose. Everything else on the shelf is designed to prevent you doing this.
Explainer · Peptides & GLP-1GLP-1s and Muscle Loss: What to Do About It
A large share of the weight lost on a GLP-1 is lean mass. Two interventions blunt it, and both are things you would want to be doing anyway.
Explainer · Stress & FocusMagnesium: Which Form to Buy and Which to Skip
Roughly half of adults fall short of the recommended intake, and the cheapest form on the shelf is the one your body absorbs worst.
Explainer · Skin & GroomingSafety Razor vs Cartridge: The Actual Trade-Off
One blade costs cents, five blades cost dollars, and the reason multi-blade cartridges exist has more to do with patents than with your face.
Explainer · SleepWhat Sleep Trackers Actually Measure
Your ring is not reading your brain waves. It is inferring sleep stages from movement and heart rate, and it is better at trends than at last night.
Explainer · LongevityVO2 Max and Grip Strength: Two Numbers That Predict How You Age
Both are strongly associated with all-cause mortality. Both respond to training. Neither requires a lab to start improving.
Guide · NutritionHow to Buy Protein Powder
It is food, not a supplement. Buy on cost per gram of protein, third-party testing, and whether you will actually drink it.
Explainer · Peptides & GLP-1NAD+, NMN and NR: What the Human Evidence Actually Shows
The mechanism is real and genuinely interesting. The human outcome data is thinner than the marketing, and one of these was pulled from the US supplement market.
Explainer · SleepSauna and Sleep: Why Heating Up Helps You Cool Down
The mechanism is not relaxation. It is a rebound drop in core body temperature — which is also why timing matters more than temperature.
Guide · Supplement ScienceSupplement Safety: The Interactions Worth Knowing
Supplements are not inert. These are the combinations that actually send people to hospital, and the ones worth a call to your prescriber.
Explainer · Peptides & GLP-1BPC-157: What We Know, and Why It Is Not a Supplement
A peptide with encouraging animal data, almost no human trials, and a specific regulatory status that most sellers do not mention.
Guide · Peptides & GLP-1Peptide Safety and Sourcing: A Buyer's Checklist
The compound is rarely the biggest risk. Where it came from usually is.