Welcome to the positive corner of the internet. Every weekday, we help you make sense of the complex world of wellness by analyzing the headlines, simplifying the latest research, and providing quick tips designed to help you stay healthier in under 5 minutes. If you were forwarded this message, you can get the free daily email here.
Today’s Health Upgrade
The stealthy existential crisis
Houston, we have a supplement problem
The best of 2025
The vitamin that slows aging?
Why your fat loss program didn’t lead to fat loss
How many drinks are safe (before they harm your health)?
Arnold’s Zero Negativity Diet
Your Phone Might Be Giving You an Existential Crisis
Some habits drain your energy. Others drain your hope. Doomscrolling has a way of doing both, and not just in the moment, but in how you see yourself and your future.
Emerging research suggests that frequent doomscrolling is associated with deeper worries about meaning, mortality, and whether your life is on the right track.
As we continue Arnold’s Zero Negativity Diet, this study is a reminder that what you consume doesn’t just influence your mood, but it may also shape your worldview.
Researchers wanted to understand whether exposure to negative news is linked to deeper psychological patterns that go beyond temporary sadness or stress.
Higher levels of doomscrolling were associated with significantly higher existential anxiety. In other words, the more you consume negative news, the more likely you are to feel uncertain about life’s meaning and your place in the world.
We can’t say doomscrolling causes anxiety. It may be that anxious individuals are drawn to negative content. Either way, the relationship is strong enough to warrant attention.
If you find yourself worried or stressed more often than you’d like, taking a one-week break isn’t just a challenge; it’s a protective measure for the good of your mental health. A pause can disrupt a cycle where anxious thinking leads to more scrolling, which leads to more anxiety.
A short break from the feed could help restore your baseline sense of safety and remind you the world isn’t as dark as your phone suggests.
Together With SuppCo
The Supplement Accuracy Problem (And How to Protect Yourself)
Here's something most people don't realize when they open a bottle: the dose on the label is often not the dose in the pill.
Independent testing and analyses published in the Journal of the American Medical Association have consistently found supplements that contain far less — and sometimes far more — than what the label claims. In some categories, nearly half of the tested products were off by significant margins. A few contained none of the active ingredient at all.
That's not a theoretical risk. It's happening in bottles sitting in medicine cabinets right now.
The deeper problem isn't that supplements don't work. It's that you rarely know if the product in your hand is the real thing.
Here's why this keeps happening: supplements are regulated as food, not drugs. Companies don't have to prove accuracy, purity, or effectiveness before selling millions of bottles a year. Labels can legally say "supports immune health" without showing a single clinical result. And when independent labs do test products, they routinely find contamination, mislabeled ingredients, and doses that don't match what's printed on the bottle.
This doesn't mean all supplements are worthless. Some are genuinely helpful. Vitamin D for deficiency, folic acid during pregnancy, creatine for strength, omega-3s for inflammation — these have real research behind them. But even the useful ones only work if what's in the bottle matches what's on the label.
Experts from Harvard and Johns Hopkins have been saying the same thing for years: the goal isn't to avoid supplements entirely. It's to choose smarter.
So how do you actually do that? Here are three things that help:
Look for third-party certification—NSF Certified for Sport, USP, or Informed Sport. These verify purity and accuracy.
Ignore miracle claims. If a pill promises to "detox," "melt fat," or "boost testosterone," it's marketing, not medicine.
Stick to brands that publish clinical research or transparent testing data.
If that sounds like a lot of detective work, we agree. That's why we use SuppCo (It’s free, which makes it even easier to access and use).
SuppCo grades over 30,000 supplements across 29 quality attributes — purity, dosing accuracy, contamination risk, clinical backing — and gives each one a TrustScore so you know what's worth taking and what to skip.
You can scan the products you already own, compare alternatives, and get a full report card on your current routine based on dosage and efficacy guidelines built from thousands of clinical studies.
The part that matters most: SuppCo isn't trying to sell you any particular product. They're not a supplement company. They're a research tool that helps you become more informed, save money, and avoid the products that aren't what they claim to be.
In a world where the label doesn't tell the full story, SuppCo does the detective work for you.
The app is free. Pump Club members can upgrade to SuppCo Pro, which includes personalized recommendations and deeper analysis, for 50% off using this link.
If you take supplements, this is how to make sure they're actually working and that you’re not buying a product that’s hiding the truth.
Best of 2025
Throughout the week, we’re sharing some of the most popular items of 2025. Whether you’re new to APC, missed them the first time, or need a reminder, each day we’ll highlight the tips, research, and advice you clicked on the most.
Best of On Our Radar
Can Vitamin D Slow The Aging Process?
Vitamin D might be the most polarizing supplement. Some studies suggest numerous benefits, and others find that it doesn’t do anything.
The honest answer might depend on what your blood says is happening within your body. And if your levels are low, making a change could give your longevity a vital boost.
A new 4-year clinical trial suggests that daily vitamin D3 supplementation could help reduce biological aging by slowing the loss of telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of your DNA.
Researchers randomly assigned about 1,000 participants either vitamin D3 (2,000 IU/day), marine omega-3 fatty acids (1 g/day), both, or a placebo. They measured a marker of cellular aging after 2 years and again after 4 years.
Participants who took vitamin D3 experienced significantly less telomere shortening than those taking a placebo. At the same time, Omega-3s had no significant effect on telomere length.
Telomeres naturally shorten as we age, and shorter telomeres have been linked to increased risk of diseases like cancer, heart disease, and cognitive decline. The researchers suggest that vitamin D’s anti-inflammatory and DNA-repair roles may help preserve telomere length and slow the aging process.
That said, this is not a call to megadose vitamin D. The average person in the U.S. already gets enough Vitamin D from sun exposure and diet. But for those who are deficient or at higher risk of inflammation, targeted supplementation may help.
Ask your doctor for a blood test if you suspect low vitamin D. If supplementation is needed, the study suggests 2,000 IU/day. And remember—supplements are support, not a substitute for a healthy lifestyle. Get your movement, manage stress, and eat plenty of plants and protein. That’s the real age-defying strategy.
Best Of Weight Loss
Struggle With Fat Loss? You Might Be Focusing On The Wrong Type Of Exercise
Many people still believe that if you want to lose fat, cardio is the best tool to deliver results.
However, new research suggests that if you want to reduce body fat and improve glucose control, packing on a little extra muscle could provide the boost you desire.
Scientists recently reviewed 122 studies to understand the relationship between muscle, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
People who increased their muscle mass by just 2 to 3 percent saw an average 4 percent reduction in body fat and improved metabolic health (lower fasting glucose and HbA1c).
These results suggest that even modest muscle gains can meaningfully reduce fat stores and improve markers of glucose metabolism.
The researchers believe this happens because muscle acts as a metabolic sink: bigger muscles use more glucose, increasing insulin sensitivity and improving glucose disposal. This means more sugar is pulled out of the blood and stored in muscle, where it’s burned for energy — instead of building up in your bloodstream or getting stored as fat.
In other words, building muscle not only reshapes your body but also rewires your metabolism to work in your favor.
You don’t need extreme programs or bodybuilding-level gains, just a customized program that will work for you so you can stay consistent. Start by adding resistance training at least 2 to 3 times per week, focusing on major muscle groups (such as squats, deadlifts, presses, and rows).
Small, consistent increases in muscle can lead to significant changes in fat loss and blood sugar control — and that’s a prescription anyone can fill.
Best Of Health
Is Any Amount of Alcohol Safe?
If you like having a drink with dinner or on weekends, you’re not alone. But are a few drinks here and there putting your health at risk?
A recent meta-analysis found that low levels of daily alcohol consumption may increase your risk of early death, but it did not suggest that all drinking was problematic.
Researchers reviewed 107 studies covering more than 4.8 million people to assess the relationship between alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality.
Many past studies suggested that moderate drinkers live longer than non-drinkers. But this new review found those studies were riddled with “abstainer bias” — meaning they lumped former drinkers (who may have quit due to health issues) into the same category as lifelong non-drinkers. When the researchers adjusted for this error and accounted for other lifestyle factors, the picture changed dramatically.
Drinking less than 25 grams of alcohol per day (about two drinks) did not lower your risk of dying early. Once people exceeded that amount, the risk began to rise. Women who drank 25 grams or more per day had a 22% higher risk of death.
That doesn’t mean you should have drinks daily. But it does mean that any amount of alcohol does not guarantee an increase in health problems.
At the same time, the researchers concluded there is no protective effect or health benefits associated with low levels of alcohol consumption.
Instead of viewing small amounts of alcohol as a heart-healthy habit, researchers now believe it’s best understood as a dose-dependent toxin: low levels may not kill you, but more is harmful and even "moderate" amounts carry risks that were previously underestimated.
If you drink alcohol, cutting back — even slightly — can meaningfully reduce your risk of disease and early death.
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell
