This was the busiest week I've had since my surgery at the end of March. I took a shotgun trip to Ashland, Oregon (that is Mt. Shasta in Northern California in the photo) to see a dear friend who turned 90, catch up with my dad who was in town, see one of my daughters, siblings, and celebrate my niece's graduation. If that sounds like a lot—it was—and it was 104 degrees out!

Yesterday, June 12th, marked the 20th anniversary of Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech (check out the great archive put up), and a story over on Wired reaches back and reminds us all what we lost and gained from having Steve Jobs in the world. As a side note, Steve passed away at 56, just 5 years older than I am now and looking back at all that I've gone through, I feel like I'm finally coming into my own.

Researchers at UC Riverside found a genetic mutation associated with Crohn’s disease can impact iron absorption and could be responsible for chronic anemia (and related fatigue) for people with Crohn's. I've often been told that my anemia is likely due to micro-bleeding associated with Crohn's, but my low hemoglobin and ferritin levels have persisted even in remission. I looked into my genetic data and found I had a SNP (rs1893217) on the PTPN2 gene locus with a moderate association with Crohn's disease (C;T). Interestingly, data on this SNP points to a potential reduction in autophagy—the body's ability to "clean up" damaged cells and cell material—and could be a contributor to the onset of IBD.
What can we do about it? A study from 2020 suggests that spermidine could act as a PTPN2 activator, which makes sense as it is gaining speed in the longevity world for its ability to induce autophagy. There are several things I take for metabolic health and longevity, but I have not done any experiments with spermidine yet. Stay tuned!

I just posted my deep dive into the latest ingredient now being marketed for lower-calorie/better metabolic health, called EPG, on Medium as a members-only post. The TL;DR version is that there is a fat engineered to survive digestion, giving you all of the mouthfeel and flavor of the fat, with none of the calories, allowing brands to make lower calorie, great tasting, "healthy foods". There are nut butter brands, as well as ice cream, and protein bars being made with EPG, which gets fused with a petroleum-based molecule, that are being funded and pushed by some of the biggest names in health and longevity. In two weeks, I will make this post free on my site.

I started experimenting with making my own ketone compounds from mineral-bound bHB ten years ago as I trained to ride 50 miles on a single speed. A few years later, I gave up on my own as some really good products started to come on the market. HVMN still makes the gold standard for exogenous ketones, but I've been reaching for Kenetik's sparkling ketone drinks for about a year now. The drink is not an ester like HVMN's product, nor is it a "salt" as some of the powdered products have been referred to. I find the taste to be quite good (the new watermelon lime is my favorite), it has electrolytes and uses allulose as the sweetener, which I'm a fan of. I drank Kenetik while in the hospital pre and post-surgery for the neuro-protective benefits while undergoing anesthesia and have been drinking one several times per week in my recovery.
You can save 30% with my discount code: SUMMERCAMP at drinkkenetik.com

My family hangs out by going to the movies, so it wouldn't have been a visit with my dad if we weren't in a dark theater watching some action go down. This time it was Ballerina, the John Wick spinoff. I had a good time at the movies, but it was far from the franchise's best and despite the totally inventive action, it kind felt like they've maybe jumped the shark. I also caught a few films on the plane, Blink Twice (I enjoyed), September 5 (so good!), and The Accountant 2 (not so good).

I've been in some koans lately in my meditation on The Way app and today's seemed to capture where things are for me right now.

Which feels like a way of saying, "I am enough" or, enlightenment is right here in my ordinary way of being. There are lots of exciting things on the horizon that I'm excited to talk about and while the koan sounds quite plain, it feels liberating and loose in practice. If you're interested in meditation, I've used a lot of apps and this is my favorite guided experience. You can use the link above to get 30 days of meditation free.

Topping up is a weekly post rounding up what's going on in my world and things that have caught my attention. You can subscribe to my newsletter by clicking on the paper airplane icon on the right side of any page.

The most boring Mortal Kombat character 

My favorite coffee in the world 

Sushi + Tamari with my oldest