[antifragile 4 🔥] a blood panel that added years to my life, the most patriotic thing you can do, Thich Nhat Hahn on washing dishes, JRR Tolkien's holiday tradition

#28: a weekly 4-item newsletter created to inspire dads to use the challenges of fatherhood as fuel for building an incredible life & an antifragile mind.

Welcome to the 28th edition of the antifragile 4 🔥.

It’s a weekly 4-item newsletter created to inspire dads to use the challenges of fatherhood as fuel for building an incredible life & an antifragile mind. Some weeks will have a theme, others will meander. Expect it every Friday.

Here is this week’s antifragile 4 🔥 :

1. a deep-dive blood panel 🩸 that probably added years to my life.

2. an incredible stand-up 🇺🇸 on the most patriotic thing you can do for your country

3. a passage from Thich Nhat Hahn 🍽️ on washing the dishes

4. a holiday tradition 📝 from JRR Tolkien to his kids

+ AI Image of the Week 🤖 🎨

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1.) a deep-dive blood panel 🩸 that probably added years to my life.

TL;DR - Function Health. If you’re a dad, you need to consider getting it. It’s not cheap, but it’s worth it. It will almost certainly add years you get to spend with your kids and/or sipping mojitos.

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For years, I’ve found my annual physicals to be largely useless. It would typically go something like this:

1. I’d arrive and wait 45 minutes past my appointment time.

2. Get shown into a room.

3. Wait another 30 minutes.

4. Doctor would enter, ask how I was doing.

5. I’d say “good”.

6. He'’d say “well that’s good”.

7. Then I’d leave and get a blood test.

8. They’d tell me my iron was low.

9. I’d say “oh”.

10. They wouldn’t follow up.

11. Next year’s physical would come.

Rinse, repeat.

Despite how exhilarating I found this tradition, I thought I’d start poking into other options that might, oh I dunno, tell me something actionable about my health.

This is when I found Function Health.

Co-founded by, among others, Dr. Mark Hyman - Function Health is a service that offers deep-dive blood panels focused on longevity 2x per year. The idea is to identify potential problem areas and then track progress as you address them.

At first glance, it's not cheap at $500/year. But the information I got from mine will likely add years to my life. And that, as Mastercard taught us, is priceless.

Ok - after 2 separate blood draws (per test), this is what I got:

1. 100+ Biomarker Tests - Autoimmunity, heart, blood, thyroid, stress, liver, kidneys…there’s not much that’s missed here. My favorite part is that they’ve created their own standards - so whereas your PCP may say you don’t have a cholesterol issue, Function Health may disagree…as was the case with me (more on that in a second).

2. Clinician Notes - Explaining your results and making suggestions on what to look into to address problem areas.

3. Biological Age - Part marketing gimmick, part ego trip, part awesome. I am (allegedly) 10.2 years younger than my 37.4 calendar years. Suck it calendar. Time is relative anyway.

Here’s my dashboard:

After getting over how impressed you are that 27.2-year-old can write such a thoughtful newsletter, you may notice the eight “Out of Range” metrics under the “Heart” category.

😅 Ruh roh.

Wait a minute. I eat quinoa and salmon and spinach and goddamn stuck-in-my-teeth chia seeds just like they say I should! I run and bike for hours. I drink at least my body weight in water every day.

I can’t have heart issues.

Or…can I?

Turns out…I can.

I do lead a healthy lifestyle. I do exercise a lot. And the metric used by most PCPs to evaluate cholesterol (LDL-Cholesterol) is even in the healthy range.

Which is why it’s not surprising this was never brought to my attention before.

But ask anyone in the longevity space, and they will tell you that the most impactful metric for cardiovascular health is Apolipoprotein B, also known as ApoB. And mine is out of range.

Turns out I have a family history of cholesterol issues. Two grandparents suffered massive strokes. Both my parents and my sister are currently on cholesterol medication.

I thought I was immune because of my healthy lifestyle. But I thought wrong.

Now, is this reason to panic? No.

But is it a reason to make some changes? You bet your tight 27.2 year-old ass it is.

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This is unfortunately where Function Health’s value comes to a halt and you’re back on your own. They provide you with the data and a dash of analysis, but then it’s back on you to decide what to do with it.

You can certainly take it to your PCP, which despite my shit-talking I’m going to do.

But you can probably guess who else I talked to about it: ChatGPT 👋

And unsurprisingly, it was incredibly helpful. It helped identify diet shifts and additional supplementation that could help address the cholesterol (ApoB) metrics plus the remaining “Out of Range” areas (Iron, Vitamin B). And frankly helped my caveman brain understand quite a bit in what is a very big-word-heavy space.

Here’s what I’ll end with: I have not been happier with a purchase in a long time as I have been with Function Health.

It’s not only fascinating but just might add a few more mojito-drinking, great-great-great grandkid-swinging years to your life.

2.) an incredible stand-up 🇺🇸 on the most patriotic thing you can do for your country

One of the best things I’ve seen in a very long time.

3.) a passage from Thich Nhat Hahn 🍽️ on washing the dishes

The plight of the modern father is that he is cast from one urgent task to the next with no reprieve. This leaves very little opportunity for mindfulness.

We have shit to do, after all.

But Thich Nhat Hahn says, not so fast my friend.

If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not “washing the dishes to wash the dishes.” What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future—and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.

Thich Nhat Hahn, The Miracle of Mindfulness

Next time you find yourself picking up toys, folding clothes, putting away groceries, driving to pick-up, or even washing dishes - see if you can steal just a moment to be completely present in exactly what you’re doing.

Don’t be anywhere else but there. I think you’ll find that even the “dullest” of moments can be magical if you let them.

4.) a holiday tradition 📝 from JRR Tolkien to his kids

“A true love-of-the-game storyteller”. Something wonderful about that.

AI Image of the Week 🤖 🎨

“create an image of JRR Tolkien & Thich Nhat Hahn sitting next to each other getting blood drawn while on a stand-up comedy stage but make it look old-timey”

What a time to be alive.

Two last things for you this week:

1. Be present washing the dishes.

2. Be fire and wish for the wind 🔥

With love,
Chris

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