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Today’s Health Upgrade
The APC gift guide
Make your life a little lighter (and happier)
Are there too many minerals in your water?
Your heart needs to relax (here’s how you can help)
Better Every Day
A Different Type Of Gift Guide
You might be thinking it’s a little late for a gift guide. But there are two reasons we waited until now to send out ours.
First, we’re confident that with more than a million of you reading these emails each day, we figured a few of you might be scrambling for some last-second ideas.
Second, and more importantly, the APC Gift Guide has a different purpose.
It’s not just about celebrating the holidays. It’s a way to build momentum for the upcoming year.
The final week and a half of the year is when most people throttle down and tend to forget about their health until the new year.
We want you to celebrate, socialize, and enjoy. At the same time, we don’t want you to set aside your health.
This gift guide identifies the few items we think will help you stay consistent, build better habits, fill the gaps, and make it easier to stay on track and feel your best — all while giving you some special discounts you won’t find anywhere else. Download the gift guide here.
Instant Health Boost
The Once Per Week Habit That Makes Life Feel a Little Lighter And Happier
Good habits might be boring, and they won’t transform your life overnight, but they can have a dramatic long-term impact on your mindset and happiness.
Scientists found that setting aside a few minutes each week to create a short gratitude list can reliably improve your mood and happiness.
Researchers had participants write down one of the following: what they were grateful for, what irritated them, or neutral daily events. People who wrote down the small blessings in their lives reported more positive emotions, higher life satisfaction, and better sleep. In one study, people even exercised about 1.5 more hours per week than those who listed their hassles.
Too often, it’s easy to be weighed down by the stressors and struggles that are a part of life. And even if you feel you can tolerate them, gratitude shifts your attention away from daily hassles — the stuff our brains love to fixate on — and toward what’s going right. That small reframing creates a psychological upward spiral: a little more positivity, a little less stress-reactivity, a little more motivation to take care of yourself.
The beauty of the research is that it doesn’t need to be something you do every day (although that could help, too).
Better Today: The 5-Minute Habit That Matters
Once a week, write down five things you’re grateful for. It can be anything, whether a friend who checked in, a good cup of coffee, or the fact that you made it through a rough week. The goal isn’t to feel euphoric. It’s to gently redirect your attention toward what’s supporting you, not just what’s draining you.
Together With Jolie
Does Your Water Have A Mineral Problem?
We wash our hair so often that we stop noticing the water itself. It’s automatic: turn the tap, step into the shower, rinse, lather, repeat. But the thing we use the most — the water running over our scalp every single day — might be quietly working against us.
Scientists found that very “hard water” can weaken hair strength over time, but simple swaps and treatments can help protect your strands.
The minerals inside hard water can build up on each strand like microscopic armor plates, not the helpful kind. Over time, that buildup stiffens the hair, weakens its structure, and makes it far more likely to break.
Researchers tested this by collecting hair samples and dividing each sample into three groups: one left untreated (baseline), one washed with deionized water, and one washed with very hard water. Every other day for three months, they treated the samples and then measured tensile strength, essentially, how much force a strand could withstand before snapping.
Hair exposed to very hard water became about 8% weaker than baseline. Hair washed in deionized water didn’t change at all.
Naturally occurring metals and minerals (like calcium and magnesium) in water can collect on the hair shaft, disrupt your hair quality, and may make strands more brittle.
The good news: you can take simple steps to protect your hair or offset the potential effects of hard water.
A weekly chelating or clarifying shampoo can help remove mineral buildup. Slightly acidic rinses — like diluted apple cider vinegar — may make it harder for minerals to bind to the hair in the first place. And leave-in conditioners add a layer of protection that helps reduce friction and breakage.
For a more permanent fix, a showerhead filter designed to reduce water hardness or a whole-home softening system tackles the problem at the source. But standard pitcher filters like Brita won’t remove these minerals.
If you need a new showerhead filter, Jolie’s filtered shower head is the best at removing chlorine and heavy metals without affecting water pressure. In fact, it’s the only lab-tested and clinically trialed filtering showerhead we found on the market.
The research found that the Jolie filter was lab-tested to protect your hair’s surface layer and overall health and help maintain color retention.
As an APC reader, you can get an exclusive 20% OFF, enjoy free shipping, and try it for free for 60 days or get your money back, no questions asked. The Jolie filter installs in minutes, fits all showers, and has great pressure.
Health
How Exercise Helps Your Heart “Relax” As You Age
As the years go by, your heart doesn’t just pump blood; it also has to react to everything life throws at you. From stress to excitement or a poor night's sleep, your heart has a lot to manage. But with age, your heart becomes slower to adjust. It doesn’t speed up or calm down as easily, which can make recovery harder and everyday stress feel heavier.
A new analysis suggests something encouraging: regular movement can help your heart stay responsive and flexible, even in your 60s, 70s, and beyond.
Researchers reviewed 15 high-quality trials in older adults and focused on how consistent physical activity improves the heart’s ability to respond to stress and then relax. Think of it as a way to measure your heart’s adaptability, which is your rest-and-recover system. The more adaptable you are, the stronger your heart, because it’s better at adjusting from moment to moment at whatever life throws at you, rather than feeling stuck in a stressed state.
Exercise helps “reset” your heart’s ability to switch into a calmer, recovery-focused mode. It appears that being fitter shifts you toward a healthier balance between the “gas pedal” (your fight-or-flight response) and the “brake pedal” (your calming system). That balance is one of the clearest indicators of long-term heart health.
This is important because, as we age, the body naturally becomes more “on edge” — the stress side of the nervous system ramps up, and the calming side weakens. Exercise acts like practice for your heart’s brake pedal. Each workout teaches your body how to rise to the challenge and then settle back down. Over time, this makes your heart more resilient and better at recovery.
You don’t need any particular workout to unlock these benefits. The studies included walking, strength training, cycling, and mixed programs. What mattered most was consistency. Your heart might be aging (that’s inevitable), but its ability to adapt isn’t lost. It just needs regular practice.
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell
