Elena

@pmitu I can’t even break 100 😢

reply, if you are still under 89,577 followers

Sunlight is the most underrated antidepressant

The “just lower your cortisol” girlies are sending me this morning. Cortisol isn’t a feeling you can meditate away. It’s a hormone on a 24-hour cycle regulated by your HPA axis. It’s supposed to be high in the morning. That’s literally how your body wakes you up. The problem isn’t having cortisol. The problem is when the pattern is off. And the only way to know that is testing it. A 4-point saliva cortisol test. That’s the move. Not another $35 ashwagandha latte.

I'm not here to sell you on peptides or tell you what to take. That's between you and your doctor. I'm here to make sure you have access to the same research that guys on Reddit have been quietly using for years. Because this science doesn't belong to any one group. It's just science.

So why don't more women know about this? Honestly? The peptide space online has been dominated by male bodybuilding forums for years. The language is intimidating. The culture can feel unwelcoming if you're not already "in." I'm trying to change that. Not by dumbing it down but by making the door wider.

"Peptides are sketchy bodybuilder stuff." I used to think the same thing honestly. Then I actually started reading the research and realized I'd been gatekept out of some of the most promising science in recovery and longevity. Here are 5 things most women get wrong about peptides 🪡

I know this will make people mad and that's fine. Seeds are nutritious. Eat them. But eating them on a schedule is not "balancing your hormones." That framing keeps women from getting actual lab work done because they think they already have a plan. A $40 bag of pumpkin seeds is not a plan. A hormone panel is a plan.

unpopular opinion: seed cycling is the astrology of hormone health. flax seeds on day 1-14 and sesame seeds on day 15-28 is not moving your estrogen or progesterone in any measurable way. there is literally zero clinical evidence behind it. NONE. I've looked.

“i fixed my hormones with a smoothie recipe i found on instagram” girl. you blended a banana with chia seeds and called it medicine 😂 you know what actually moves the needle? a real hormone panel. estradiol, progesterone, DHEA-S, free testosterone, full thyroid with antibodies that’s the smoothie your endocrine system actually needs

ok can we talk about this for a second because i genuinely took the wrong one for like two years ashwagandha and rhodiola are not the same thing and nobody told me that ashwagandha = chronic stress, sleep, long game. it’s the one you take when your nervous system is just… tired rhodiola = acute stress, focus, fast acting. it’s the one you take before a big day when you need to be sharp not calm i was taking ashwagandha before work wondering why i felt like i was moving through mud 😂 one calms you down. the other sharpens you up. which one do you actually need right now? ⬇️

totally fair pushback on the ketones point but the tryptophan piece is a bit more nuanced than just whether it crosses or not. it competes with other large neutral amino acids for the same transporter and carbs help it win that competition by clearing the queue via insulin. low carb keeps the competition high and uptake drops. Wurtman at MIT has been publishing on this since the 70s if you want to dig into it

@biohackingher @ShootingWeather @AlpacaAurelius This is bullshit. If it would been true human as a species would be non existing today. About brain health, first of all there are ketones that are elevated in low carb and also; tryptophan reaches brain regardless u eat high or low carb.

Unpopular opinion: you need to be eating 100- 300g of carbs for optimal health. Your brain alone needs over 100 grams of glucose a day. Then your gut, thyroid, adrenals, gonads, muscles, hair all require glucose too. Making this glucose from protein is very stressful and slows your metabolism. Eat easily digestible carbs

the delayed reaction piece is so real and so underdiagnosed. you feel fine for six weeks and then wonder why your gut is a disaster and never connect it back to the magnesium glycinate you started in January. fillers and binders in capsules are usually the actual culprit more than the active ingredient itself which is why form and sourcing matter way more than most people

Supplements are very sneaky sources of inflammation and intestinal irritation. They're even sneakier than food because 1) they're small, so you underestimate how much they can fuck up your gut, and 2) sometimes the irritation takes weeks or months to develop, so you think the supplement is safe and don't consider it as a suspect. But in my experience (keep in mind my gut is ridiculously sensitive), every supplement causes digestive irritation.

one year of lifting and your brain is still younger two years later. basically the work outlasted the actual training period which honestly reframes what consistency even means. if women in perimenopause are already facing accelerated brain aging from estrogen decline, do you think the protective window for starting strength training matters or is it always better late than never?

Lifting weights makes your brain look younger. One year of either heavy- or moderate-intensity strength training reduced older adults' estimated brain age by 1.4-2.3 years on average and enhanced functional connectivity between brain networks. What I find remarkable is, while the training lasted only one year, the effects on the brain were still noticeable at the two-year follow up. So many benefits of going to the gym, and not just for your muscles.

@lindseyvonn the fact that you know the dark is coming and you’re walking into it anyway is exactly what mastery looks like. heal well

Today was a hard day… my physical battle began the second I got hurt but the mental battle started today. It hit me like a ton of bricks. It’s a battle I’m used to because I’ve done it so many times. I have always learned from every injury. Each one has made me a better and stronger person in different ways… but the battle of the mind can be dark and hard and unrelenting. Someone I care about said I am a “master at the psychological game of life…” I don’t know if that’s true…. I do know hard days are coming but I will find a way back to the top of the mountain of life.