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Today’s Health Upgrade

• Analyzing the “Japanese cocktail” claim

• Beware of misleading protein supplements

• The regrets that last

• Trending up/trending down: BMI vs. Body fat

Beyond the Headline
There's No "Japanese Cocktail" That Cures Neuropathy (And How To Catch Other False Claims)

Living with neuropathy can mean months of appointments, treatments, and questions that still don’t have clear answers. An ad promising a permanent fix is designed to find people at exactly that point of frustration.

Peripheral neuropathy means damage to nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. Estimates of how many Americans have it vary, but run into the tens of millions.

There is no single treatment for every kind of neuropathy, which means if you’re reading about a cocktail that solves neuropathy, it’s bogus. 

Diabetes is a leading cause of neuropathy in the U.S. And vitamin deficiencies, certain medications, thyroid problems, autoimmune disease, infections, and heavy alcohol use can also damage nerves.

A popular ad floating around the internet claims a “Japanese cocktail” is scientifically proven to cure neuropathy. It borrows the Nobel Prize name and invokes Yoshinori Ohsumi, who won for research on autophagy, a process cells use to break down and recycle their contents. 

However, his prize has nothing to do with any supplement that reverses neuropathy because no such supplement exists. And the scientist isn’t involved with the alleged cure.

Chalk that up to smoke and mirrors, but that doesn’t mean treating neuropathy is a lost cause. If you can identify the cause (often the hardest part), then there are potential treatments. 

Correcting a B12 deficiency or changing a medication that’s damaging nerves may help; managing diabetes can help prevent further damage. Improvement depends on the cause and how much damage has occurred. 

So if you have neuropathy, a complete medical workup offers your best chance to find what’s treatable. 

More importantly, whether it’s neuropathy or another frustrating medical condition, we don’t want you to fall for more fake headlines, supplements, and cures. 

Here’s a quick checklist to double-check what you’re being sold. 

Check the address, not the logo: A Nobel Prize logo on “ushealth.fun” doesn’t make it a Nobel Prize website.

Verify the endorsement: A real scientist’s name can be attached to words they never said. Look for the claim on their own site or a credible institution’s.

Watch for guarantees: “Reverses neuropathy for good” skips the question any legitimate treatment has to answer: Which kind, caused by what?

Be wary of the hidden-secret story: An “ancient ritual doctors don’t want you to know about” offers an excuse for the lack of credible evidence.

Ignore the countdown: A price that supposedly jumps at midnight doesn't affect whether a treatment works.

If an ad makes those claims, save your money and bring it to the clinician helping you investigate the neuropathy.

Together With Momentous 
Are You Really Getting the Protein You Paid For?

Flip over your tub of whey, and there's a number you trust without thinking. The label says 25 grams, but you might not be getting 25 grams of protein.

Protein spiking is a way for supplements to claim far more quality protein than you actually get.

While it’s probably not surprising that supplement companies cut corners, this is another example of why third-party testing matters, since it shows up in common products like protein powders.

With protein spiking, some companies add cheap ingredients that make the protein number look bigger than the real, muscle-building protein inside. You pay for whey. You get part whey, part filler.

This is common because of how protein gets tested for a label. The standard lab test doesn't actually measure protein. It measures nitrogen, then assumes the nitrogen came from protein. 

Protein is full of nitrogen. But cheap junk can be loaded with nitrogen too. Add something nitrogen-rich and the test counts it as protein, even when it does nothing for you. Supplement companies know this, so they add fillers, “hide” it on the ingredient list, and you just look at the supplement facts and think you’re getting the right amount. 

The classic trick is glycine, a dirt-cheap amino acid that's stuffed with nitrogen and close to useless for building muscle. Others exist, but the game is the same: swap expensive whey for cheap nitrogen and keep the big number on the front.

You can't confirm spiking from a label. But you can spot the red flags.

Watch for a "proprietary blend" or "protein matrix." That's a list of ingredients with no amounts attached, and it's the easiest place to hide cheap filler. If a brand won't show you how much of each thing is in there, stay skeptical.

Or, you can do a little math. Divide the grams of protein by the scoop size in grams. 

A whey worth your money lands around 80% or higher, and a pure isolate hits around 90%. 

If a 40-gram scoop only gives you 22 grams of protein, that's barely half, and something else is taking up the space.

You can also watch leucine, an important amino acid that plays a key role in triggering muscle growth. High-quality whey is loaded with it. A 25-gram scoop should have about 2.5 grams or more of leucine. If it's low while the protein claim is high, the "protein" probably isn't the good stuff.

Flip the tub, do the division, check the leucine. A brand with nothing to hide makes all three easy to find.

When we look for a whey that passes its own tub test, the one that checks every box is Momentous Whey Protein Isolate. 

It offers 20 grams of whey protein isolate per scoop, with no proprietary blends and no gums or fillers to hide cheap nitrogen. And you can trust the label because every batch is NSF Certified for Sport and Informed Sport certified, which independently verifies label accuracy and screens for banned substances and heavy metals. 

Don’t settle for second-rate proteins. Trust what you put into your body every day. 

If you want to experience the Momentous Standard, use the code “PUMPCLUB” to get up to 35% off your order. 

Mindset
The Regrets That Last Aren't Your Mistakes

You might have seen that list of the top regrets of the dying. Before you take it to heart, know this: it comes from a hospice nurse's memoir, not a study.

But researchers have studied regret, and what they found offers wisdom that you can cash in before it’s too late.

Scientists found that the regrets that stick around usually aren't old mistakes. They're the things we never got around to doing.

Across six studies, psychologists had hundreds of U.S. adults name and rank their biggest regrets. On one side, the "ought self," your duties and obligations. On the other, the "ideal self," the person you hoped to become. Ideal-self regrets outnumbered ought-self ones by roughly three to one.

We deal with the "I should have" regrets fast, because the next step is obvious. You owed an apology, so you apologize, and it stops nagging.

The "I could have" ones have nowhere to go. "Get in shape," "write the thing," "learn the language" come with no obvious first move. So unless you take action, nothing happens, and it sits there for years.

Duties get resolved. Dreams stay open.

It’s a reminder that if you want to limit your regrets, you need to act. And that means shifting your approach.

A vague goal haunts you because it's vague. Get as specific as possible. Swap "move more" for “I will take a walk around the block after every meal.”

And then, pick the thing you’re most likely to regret when you’re older. And then start. You can figure things out as you go. But you can’t figure it out if you never start and stick with it.

Health
Trending Down/Trending Up: Body Fat Percentage 

BMI is free, fast, and needs nothing but your height and weight. And for a non-active audience, it can be accurate and useful.

But a recent study suggests that how you carry your weight matters more than the number on the BMI chart.

Researchers tracked U.S. adults between the ages of 20 and 49 for about 15 years. Body fat percentage and waist size were both strongly tied to dying early, and the link looked strongest for heart disease.

But a high BMI? In this group, it didn't predict who died.

BMI only looks at height and weight, so it can call a muscular person "obese" while giving a pass to someone carrying real fat around the middle. It guesses your body fat from the outside, and with active people, it guesses wrong a lot.

That doesn't make BMI junk. Across large populations, it still tracks real risk, and it's tied to plenty of conditions this study didn't look at. And, at least for this study, everyone was under 50, so the findings hold best for younger adults and haven't been tested in older groups yet.

Trending up: body fat percentage.

Body fat was the single best indicator of risk in the study, and better than both BMI and waist size for predicting early death. The catch is that it takes some effort (or cost) to measure it. 

A true reading takes a DXA scan or a smart scale that runs a small current through your body (bioelectrical impedance).

If that feels like a hassle, a tape measure is the easy backup. Wrap it around your waist, and you catch what BMI can't: where the fat sits. Belly fat is the kind most tied to health risk, and the tape flags it in ten seconds with no scan, no scale, no batteries.

As a rough guide, a waist over 40 inches in men or over 35 in women is linked to a higher risk of early death.

Next time you measure progress, don't throw out the BMI chart. Add body fat percentage if you can and a tape measure if you can't. Either one will help you be honest about where you stand.

The Positive Corner of The Internet
About Arnold’s Pump Club Editorial Standards

We do things a bit differently here, starting with transparency.

1. The Content: All APC emails are researched, written, and fact-checked by the APC editors (see bottom of the email), with written contributions from Arnold (noted with “Arnold’s Corner”). Links take you to original studies (not second-hand sources).

2. Does AI play a role? Not for the primary content, but it is used in two ways. The main items are original content written by the APC team. The summaries at the end are AI-generated based on the human-written content above. We also use an AI tool to edit and review our interpretations of the research, ensuring scientific accuracy. We don’t assume AI is right, but we use technology to hold ourselves accountable.

3. Yes, we have partners (all clearly noted by “Together With”). Why? Because it allows us to keep the APC emails free. We first test products, and then reach out to potential partners who offer ways to help you improve every day. The bar is set high, and to date, we have turned down millions in ad deals. (Example: we will not partner with any non-certified supplements or those without evidence in human trials). If we won’t buy the product, we won’t recommend it to you. And if there’s no evidence it works, then there’s no place for it here.

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell