Greg Macpherson

My exercise routine, the here, and more importantly, the is why. Swimming every second day. Swimming is low-impact, full-body, and one of the strongest drivers of BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Pro-neurogenesis, cardiovascular, joint-friendly. At 56 with Crohn's, this matters. Calisthenics on alternate days. Bodyweight resistance builds functional strength and stimulates mTOR in skeletal muscle without systemic mTOR overactivation. Push-ups, pull-ups, dips, squats. Nothing fancy. Sauna 4-5x/week. Heat stress activates heat shock proteins (HSP70, HSP90), supports mitochondrial biogenesis, and mimics aspects of moderate exercise. A 2023 Finnish study linked 4-7 sauna sessions/week to 40% lower all-cause mortality. 4-day water fast every quarter. This is my most powerful reset. Valter Longo's research shows 72+ hours of fasting triggers stem cell regeneration. Autophagy peaks. Senescent cell clearance accelerates. It is uncomfortable but worth it. A nice reset on the waistline as well. Supplements augment this. They never replace it. No ammount of supplement stacking compensates for sitting all day. Move first, eat well, sleep enough, manage stress. Then optimise. Focus on that hierarchy. #Healthspan #Exercise #Fasting

@mikefutia Agents

Anthropic just shipped Claude Managed Agents 🤯 Here's how any DTC brand can deploy one in a single afternoon: Cloud-hosted, always-on agents that pull your Meta + GA4 + Shopify data, write a daily performance brief, and post it straight to Slack every morning before you're out of bed. Perfect for DTC brands and agencies who are sick of logging into 4 dashboards every morning, exporting CSVs, and trying to piece together what actually happened yesterday. Here's the 4-hour onboarding path: → Hour 1: Create your first agent via the API — model, system prompt, MCP tools (Meta, GA4, Shopify, Slack) → Hour 2: Spin up the cloud environment the agent runs inside → Hour 3: Run a test session, verify the Slack brief posts correctly, tighten the system prompt → Hour 4: Wire up a daily cron schedule, set your spend limits, walk away By 5pm you're done. By tomorrow morning, you have a brief in Slack written by an agent that knows your brand. No CSV exports. No dashboard tab hell. No "let me loop in our data person." What this builds you: → A cloud-hosted agent Anthropic runs for you, not something you babysit on your Mac → Daily performance briefs posted to Slack every morning before you sit down → Tool access to your real accounts with scoped permissions and full audit logs → A foundation to build 4 more specialist agents on top of (creative reviewer, competitor monitor, review digester, weekly exec brief) → Pricing that costs less per month than a single Klaviyo seat I put together the full onboarding playbook: the Claude Platform setup, the MCP connection steps, the system prompt for your first agent, and the spec for 4 more agents to build next. Want it for free? > Like this post > Comment "AGENTS" And I'll send it over (must be following so I can DM)

⚠️ECONOMIC DAMAGE—A new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), published on April 8, 2026, projects that Long COVID will cost OECD economies up to USD 135 billion (€116 billion) a yearover the next decade (through 2035) The report, which examines 42 countries (including all OECD members and EU-27 countries), forecasts this financial burden to persist through at least 2035, serving as a structural drag on productivity.   Key findings of the 2026 report: •Total Economic Cost ($135B): While direct healthcare costs for treatment are estimated at roughly $11 billion a year, the vast majority of the $135 billion total is driven by indirect costs, such as reduced productivity, absenteeism, and workers dropping out of the labor force. •Workforce Impact: Long COVID is projected to reduce GDP by up to 0.2% annually across OECD countries due to continued virus transmission, which is swelling the ranks of those with long-term symptoms. •Comparison to Other Diseases: The long-term economic impact is comparable to that of major chronic conditions, such as multiple sclerosis. •Prevalence: Although the prevalence of Long COVID has fallen since 2021, it is projected to affect 0.6% to 1.0% of the population from 2025 to 2035.  The OECD report highlights that these impacts are likely to be underestimated. 🔥

Fisetin just crossed from petri dish to patient. First human trial data presented at MOASC 2026: fisetin reversed chemotherapy-induced frailty in breast cancer survivors. A natural senolytic found in strawberries. The clinical translation of senolytics is finally here.

JUST IN: “Long COVID” reportedly projected to cost OECD economies up to $135 billion a year over the next decade.

Behind the Moon, where no human eyes had recently ventured, the crew of Artemis II captured this: our pale blue planet slipping behind the lunar landscape. Let this view inspire unity, wonder, and the courage to explore further.

Your body rebuilt itself today. New blood cells, gut lining, skin. But minute by minute, over a lifetime causes the stem cells doing that work to run out of steam. What does it mean when your body's repair crew starts to retire. Stem cell exhaustion is one of Hallmarks of Aging (Lopez-Otin et al., Cell 2023). With age, your stem cells lose their ability to divide, differentiate, and replenish tissue. The result: slower healing, weaker immunity, declining organ function. New research identifies five cardinal features of aged stem cells: deeper dormancy, reduced self-renewal, altered differentiation, lower stress resilience, and increased population variability (Cell Stem Cell, 2025). Not one dimension declining over time. Five. Mount Sinai researchers just showed they can REVERSE aging in blood stem cells by fixing lysosomal dysfunction. The cell's recycling centre breaks down with age. It turns out that if you fix the recycling mechanisms you restore the stem cell. A remarkable proof of principle. Valter Longo's lab demonstrated that prolonged fasting (72+ hours) followed by refeeding triggers hematopoietic stem cell regeneration. Fasting drops IGF-1 and PKA signalling, flipping a regenerative switch. This is why I water-fast for 4 days every quarter. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), the ones that maintain bone, cartilage, fat, show rising p16 expression, ROS accumulation, and SASP with age. SIRT7 decline accelerates the process. NAD+ supplementation matters here. Stem cell exhaustion connects every other hallmark. Your repair system failing is not a symptom of aging. It IS aging. The question is what we do about it. More this week. #Longevity #StemCells #Aging #SRW #HallmarksOfAging

I spent 6+ years as CEO of MitoQ and over that time I became convinced of something: Mitochondria are not just energy producers. They are the connector Hallmark of Aging, upstream of inflammation, senescence, DNA repair, and stem cell aging. Here is what the latest research confirms. Mitochondrial dysfunction triggers: -> NLRP3 inflammasome -> inflammaging -> cGAS-STING via mtDNA leak -> senescent SASP -> NAD+ depletion -> impaired DNA repair and sirtuin activity -> Energy deficiency -> stem cell exhaustion You can fix these cellular engines by supporting them with a mitochondria-targeted antioxidant to reduces pressure across the system. Long COVID has shone an interesting light on the issue. 2024 Nature Communications: Long COVID patients showed measurably reduced Complex I activity 6+ months post-infection. Complex I is step one of the mitochondrial electron transport chain. Its dysfunction explains why Long COVID is systemic not just respiratory. What actually works to support your mitochondrial: -> Exercise (PGC-1alpha activation, mitophagy via PINK1/PRKN) -> Sauna (HSP70/90, reduced NLRP3, endothelial protection) -> NMN (restores NAD+/NADH ratio) -> Mitoquinol concentrates 1,000-fold in the mitochondrial inner membrane to restore antioxidant capacity. -> Time-restricted eating (AMPK/mTOR -> mitophagy) -> Periodic prolonged fasting (mitochondrial clearance) Mitochondrial aging may not be reversible yet. What we do have though, right now: interventions that slow decline, reduce the damage signal, and support clearance of dysfunctional mitochondria before they become inflammation sources. Published data (Macpherson et al., Aging 2025, PMID 40096467) shows 5.71-year mean biological age reduction using multi-hallmark intervention -- mitochondrial support at its core.

Most people who get regular blood tests have no idea what their Absolute Lymphocyte Count (ALC) means. They should. 1 in 5 adults are below the threshold associated with significantly elevated all-cause mortality. Here is why its important and what drives it down. I have been developing a concept I call Personal Viral Burden or PBV. Your PBV doesn't describe acute infection. It describes the cumulative lifelong load of latent herpesviruses: - CMV (60-90% of adults) - EBV (~95% of adults) - HHV-6, VZV, HSV-1 Each one extracts an ongoing immunological tax. CMV, a virus from the herpes family is the dominant driver. Chronic CMV stimulation expands terminally differentiated CD57+ T cells cells with no proliferative capacity. They crowd out naive T cells. The immune repertoire narrows. Your immune system gets slower and more rigid. This is one of the primary mechanisms of immune aging. New research (Nature Immunology, March 2026) identified a specific monocyte state called LC-Mo in Long COVID patients. Driven by AP-1/NF-kB1. Elevated CCL2, TNF. Persistent profibrotic inflammation. Preliminary data suggests prior viral burden may predict who develops this state. Your ALC is a window into this. It is on every standard blood test. Most people never look at it. Below 2,000 cells/uL = significantly elevated all-cause mortality (multiple large cohort studies). What drives it down? Viral reactivation, poor sleep, low zinc/selenium/D3. What brings ALC up: + Consistent exercise + Zinc + selenium + Vitamin D3 optimisation + Quality sleep (7.5hrs+) + Managing reactivation events This is accessible. It is in a test you probably already have. The goal is not to eliminate latent viruses. They are there for life. The goal is to reduce reactivation frequency and the immunological tax keeping the immune system adaptive and functional for as long as possible. Are you tracking your ALC?

I swim every second day. At 56, after years in health science, here is why I think it is one of the most complete longevity interventions available and why I chose it over running. The brain case: Swimming elevates BDNF, the neurotrophin that drives hippocampal neurogenesis and protects against cognitive decline. 2023 BJSM meta-analysis: sustained aerobic exercise at 60-75% max HR is the most potent BDNF stimulus. Swimming hits this. Zero joint load. The joint case: Running loads joints at 3-5x bodyweight. Cumulative stress over decades damages cartilage, accelerates inflammation. Swimming removes ~90% of bodyweight loading. At 56, it is a smarter choice for long-term training capacity. The mitochondrial case: Sustained aerobic exercise is the primary activator of PGC-1 alpha, the master switch for mitochondrial biogenesis. Swimming at moderate sustained intensity signals mitochondria to multiply, improves NAD+/NADH ratio, upregulates Complex I. The inflammation case: Regular moderate aerobic exercise reduces IL-6, TNF-alpha, and CRP. I have Crohn's disease, exercise is one of my primary systemic anti-inflammatory tools. Swimming is high-frequency compatible because recovery demands are lower. Hierarchy reminder: Exercise is the foundation. Supplements augment what lifestyle makes possible not the other way around. Pick the aerobic modality you will actually do consistently.

Apigenin is in the Huberman sleep stack, every longevity protocol, and half the senolytic formulas on the market. I pulled every human and preclinical trial behind the three biggest claims. drwilliamwallace.com/notes/apigenin…

Stem cell exhaustion is evitable. However, the process is modifiable and with simple effective steps you can slow the process down and keep your vital stem cell bank account topped up so that they can assist you with cellular repair, maintenance and that extend yur healthspan.

The hierarchy: 1. Protect your stem cell niches from chronic inflammation 2. Support mitochondrial health (stem cells are highly mitochondria-dependent) 3. Use periodic fasting as a regenerative stimulus 4. Exercise regularly one of the most potent activators of stem cell renewal

What drives stem cell exhaustion and what slows it? The hallmark does not arise in isolation. Several upstream factors accelerate it:

A 2025 Nature study revealed a surprisingly simple way aspirin might help fight cancer metastasis. Researchers discovered that cancer cells trick blood vessels into releasing a substance called thromboxane A2 (TXA2). This chemical then sends a signal that basically tells our immune system’s T-cells to “stand down,” making it easier for cancer to spread. Science nugget: In mouse models of breast, skin, and bowel cancer, aspirin blocked TXA2 production. This freed up the T-cells to attack more effectively, resulting in significantly fewer metastases. When scientists genetically removed the key protein (ARHGEF1) that receives the signal, metastasis dropped sharply — and aspirin had no extra effect, proving this is the main pathway. The study helps explain why some earlier human observational data showed potential protective effects (especially for colorectal cancer). However, these promising results are still from mice, and experts stress that we need proper clinical trials in humans to confirm who might benefit and what the risks are. Any use of aspirin for cancer-related reasons should only happen after talking to your doctor, due to side effects like increased bleeding risk. It’s a fascinating reminder that an old, cheap drug might still have hidden powers we’re only beginning to understand. Does this aspirin-cancer connection surprise you, or does it make you curious about what other everyday medicines might have undiscovered effects?

@mikefutia SEO

I just built a Claude Code SEO agent that replaces your $200/mo. Ahrefs subscription 🤯 One prompt → keyword gaps found, competitors analyzed, content written in your brand voice, rankings tracked weekly. All inside Claude Code. Perfect for DTC brands and agencies who know SEO matters but never have the bandwidth to actually do it consistently. This agent runs the entire loop for you: → Connects to Google Search Console and pulls your real ranking data → Finds your "gap zone" — keywords sitting at positions 5–20 → Scrapes who's outranking you and breaks down exactly why they're winning → Interviews you once about your brand, customers, and positioning → Writes content in your voice — not generic AI slop that tanks after 90 days → Tracks rankings weekly and feeds results back into the next cycle No expensive tools you barely open. No freelancers writing content that sounds like everyone else. No manually checking rankings and forgetting to act on it. What you get: - Keyword cards with a specific action for each gap zone opportunity - A competitive breakdown showing who's beating you and the exact fix - A weekly content plan generated from your real GSC data - A brand voice profile Claude uses for every article it writes Built 100% in Claude Code with Google Search Console. I put together a full playbook with the skill files, brand interview, and the exact weekly workflow. Want it for free? > Like this post > Comment "SEO" And I'll send it over (must be following so I can DM)