Case Study: Jamie, 33 years old

Jamie's Story

How Jamie lost 6kgs, got his blood pressure to normal, lowered inflammation enough to avoid a neck surgery, and is the healthiest he's ever been (and looked!!!).

It all started in Aspen, Colorado in 2014... Well, sort of 😉 2014 was when we met. Jamie is in fact my husband (Gigi - Founder here). Fast forward over 10 years of living in London, Norway, South Africa Bali and building remote companies while doing so, and here we are. So while this is a story about Jamie, it's also about why you're able to read this at all.

Stepping Up

We've always known we've wanted kids. But, we've put it off for years (Jamie is now 33, I'm 32). I've also always been a big health optimizer, and knew that when we had kids, we were going to do it right. Or, as right as we could.

What we realized was that there was a huge impact that Jamie's health would make to the health of our future child. We'd had many conversations about me needing to be healthy, and when Jamie realized he also was responsible, he decided that he'd do everything in his power before we conceived to make sure he was in the best health possible, to make sure that good health was passed on.

Initial Health Assessment

Before he started the program, he was in good shape, exercised a decent amount (~6x per week) and was what most people would consider 'reasonably healthy'. But, when we dug into his data (blood tests, blood pressure readings), it turned out he wasn't as healthy as we'd thought. His blood pressure was about 160/95, which for those of you who don't know, is classified as 'hypertension 2' and pretty darn serious.

Also, while most of his blood biomarkers were in good ranges, he had elevated cholesterol and a number of habits that could present issues for the health of a future child. Armed with his data and lifestyle information, we sat down with our epigenetics and fertility experts to come up with his personalised intervention plan.

Jamie's Personalized Plan

Looking at Jamie's habits, a few clear areas for optimization arose. Remember, every man gets his 5 highest-impact interventions. These are different for every man, based on his current health. For Jamie, a big one was his sleep, which meant tow of his interventions were around this goal. He got his 8 hours a night, but was getting to bed late and waking up tired. Intervention 1 would focus on improving his sleep quality and timing, which both have a big impact on sperm health and fertility.

Next up for him, was hydration and correct supplementation. We'd looked at his biomarkers, activity levels, diet and these needed to be key focus areas for him to optimize his health (missing key nutrients can stunt a child's development and impact their cognitive function).

His final intervention was focused on ultra-processed food (UPFs). Jamie already had a healthy diet, which meant the biggest step-change for him was cutting out UPFs.

He then got to work on his 10-week challenge.

"I'd never have been able to stick with it on my own! I felt so motivated: knowing these were the highest-impact things I could do, with a clear way to track daily progress. There are few things as satisfying as working towards a clear, quantifiable goal."

Final Results

10 weeks of consistency and it's wild how much Jamie's health improved.

1. Jamie lost just under 6kgs during the program (and more in the months after)
2. His cholesterol dropped into normal ranges
3. He got his blood pressure re-tested and it's now totally normal! 

But even more interesting is the differences that are not so obvious...

To start with, Jamie had a sore neck for years. Years! So bad in fact that he'd planned on getting it operated on. Now? Nothing. No pain, no issues. His inflammation levels have plummeted 👀Although likely a combination, cutting out ultra-processed foods was likely the big one for him.

His energy is so much better. He used to have that 3pm dip: now, he's got energy all day.

And then there are the intangibles that effect not only him...If we conceived a child now:

• ✅ We'd have a reduced risk of miscarriage
• ✅ Jamie's sperm would be healthier, and we'd likely get pregnant sooner as a result
• ✅ We'd have much lower chance of our child having genetic abnormalities due to a reduction in DNA fragmentation
• ✅ I'd probably have an easier pregnancy, with less chance of pre-eclampsia and complications
• (The research isn't here yet, but, my bet: women recover faster from pregnancy if the sperm is healthier🤰)
• ✅ Our child would have a healthier blueprint to build their body from. This is from the epigenetic information Jamie would pass on, which would have more 'healthy' genes activated, and more 'unhealthy' genes de-activated

We're not yet trying for a baby, so it will be a while until we have the "final" outcome. But, what I can say is that as Jamie's partner, this already has changed the way we are thinking about children. It feels like a team effort (as it should).

And for Jamie, well, 10-weeks is pretty good for habit formation! His interventions are all now habits. He's much healthier, feels better and knows that he's already started investing in his child's future. What a win.