Morning, long-lifers. Here’s what’s new:

Low water intake makes stress hormones spike - basically turning every Monday morning into a survival test your body didn’t sign up for.

Turns out, your brain isn’t overreacting—you’re just under-hydrated.

Don’t keep longer. a secret - share it with your friends!

This week in longevity:

Read time: 5 minutes

THIS WEEK IN LONGEVITY

A new study shows that people who drink very little water each day release far more cortisol (the body’s main stress hormone) under pressure than those who drink plenty. The difference? About 55% higher stress hormone levels — just from everyday hydration habits. It’s like running your stress system on overdrive because your glass stayed empty.

What to know:

Why it matters: Cortisol helps you push through challenges, but when it stays elevated, it quietly chips away at long-term health. This study suggests that something as ordinary as daily water intake can shape how reactive your stress system is.

What this means in practice: You do not need to drink four liters a day, but you do want to avoid the low end. Using urine color as a guide — keeping it light rather than dark yellow — may be one of the simplest, most practical tools for moderating your body’s stress response.

Viome’s Full Body Intelligence Test looks at your microbiome, cellular health, and biological age to show what’s really going on inside.

Then it builds personalized supplements based on your results - only what your body needs, nothing extra.

Better sleep. Better energy. Better digestion.

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Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy reduced the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death by 57 percent compared to Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide in patients with obesity and heart disease, according to new real-world data. Unlike its rival, Wegovy already carries an FDA approval for lowering cardiovascular risk, making this a decisive win in both medicine and market positioning.

What to know:

Why it matters: Heart disease remains the top cause of death for people with obesity, so drugs that reduce weight and protect the heart are a rare double win.

What this means in practice: For patients with obesity and cardiovascular risk, Wegovy may offer more than weight loss. Choosing the right drug could shape not just the scale reading but long-term survival.

💡 Want to break down a research article? Try this prompt in ChatGPT:
“Explain this in plain language. Avoid science terms. Keep it under 5 sentences. Then give 5 takeaways based only on this summary—no extra info or guesses: [Paste the article here]”

MONEY MOVES IN LONGEVITY

💰 Frontier Bio raises funds from Immortal Dragons, builds clot-free vessels, blood flow meets capital flow.

💰 Leal lands $30m to push neuro-metabolic drugs into trials, fresh fuel for tackling brain energy crises.

💰 Minovia wins $350k grant from Countdown For A Cure, builds MitoScore to make energy health measurable.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

1. Art boosts brains and values
College students who took weekly art classes improved memory, focus, and creativity far more than peers. They also began valuing kindness, tradition, and achievement. Turns out, a little paint and music may shape sharper minds and softer hearts — not just prettier portfolios.

2. Cutting calories, slowing brain aging
Mice on calorie restriction showed fewer inflammatory brain cells, stronger neural precursors, and reduced stress and DNA damage markers. Cognitive genes stayed active longer. It’s like giving the brain a tune-up — fewer squeaks, smoother wiring, and better memory circuits running well past their usual mileage.

3. Sleep starts in the cell’s power plants
Oxford scientists found that leaking electrons in brain cell mitochondria trigger sleep, acting like circuit breakers to prevent energy overload and cell damage. Think of it as your brain flipping the lights off before the wiring burns out — nightly rest is a safety feature, not just downtime.

THE NEXT BIG THING

A new era of beauty is blending aesthetics with wellness through treatments, supplements, and preventative routines.

Consumers are shifting toward collagen support, microbiome balance, subtle tweakments, and holistic skin therapies. The goal: lasting skin health and confidence, not just short-term anti-aging fixes.

True shift in beauty or just another cycle?

WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS WEEK

💻 Skin Science: San Diego biotech Debut raised $20M to expand its AI-driven discovery of anti-aging skin ingredients. Its platform screens 50 billion molecules, predicting effects on 30,000 human genes with 99% accuracy.

⚡ Healing Switch: Trinity College Dublin showed tiny electrical pulses can reprogram immune cells (macrophages) to cut inflammation. The treatment sped healing by boosting blood vessels and stem cell repair.

💊 Brain Boost: ProHealth Longevity released a pharmaceutical-grade methylene blue capsule to support energy, mitochondria (cell power plants), and focus. Each 15 mg dose is GMP-certified, third-party tested, and safer than liquid versions.

🧹 Cell Cleaner: Kyoto University scientists built a protein tool called Crunch that reprograms immune cleanup cells (phagocytes) to target harmful living cells. In mice, it cleared cancer and autoimmune cells, reducing disease signs.

🧠 Brain Shield: A new Nature Communications study shows metformin boosts myelin repair by rewiring mitochondria (cell power plants). In human–mouse models, it thickened nerve insulation, offering hope for multiple sclerosis.

WHAT WE’RE BOOKMARKING

📱 Social

🎧 Podcasts

📰 Articles

⚙️ Tools to Try

See you in the next issue.

Anna