In this end-of-2025 Optispan Podcast episode, Matt shares his personal, current approach to health optimization across lifestyle, supplements, and medications. He frames the discussion with a clear philosophy: focus on the foundational “big levers” and avoid getting distracted by incremental hacks and social-media-driven trends. Everything discussed is explicitly personal—not a template for others—and he emphasizes consistency, sustainability, and individualized decision-making rather than constantly changing protocols.

He starts with Optispan’s four pillars of healthspan—eat, move, sleep, connect—and describes his own self-assessment within that framework. For him, nutrition and movement are largely dialed in, sleep is solid when not traveling, and “connect” remains the weakest pillar and an ongoing growth area. He also highlights lifestyle risk reduction outside the pillars: no smoking, no recreational drugs, sharply reduced alcohol intake (largely by keeping it out of the house), and a pragmatic approach to environmental exposures like pollution, microplastics, and pesticides—without turning it into anxiety-producing obsession.

On nutrition (Eat), his rule is simple: prioritize whole foods and avoid ultra-processed foods, especially those with added sugars—starting with label literacy. Vegetables are the foundation; he includes nuts, legumes, and whole grains selectively. He mentions using keto bread/bagels (Royo) as a practical way to increase fiber while keeping glucose impact low. For protein, he leans heavily on salmon, poultry, and occasional red meat, avoiding frequent protein bars and largely dropping protein shakes because they no longer fit his routine. On movement (Move), he’s consistently active: frequent Zone 2 cardio, regular walking (often paired with connection), 3–4 weekly resistance training sessions focused on basic compound lifts, plus a weekly higher-intensity session (stairs/HIT-style intervals). Sleep hygiene is steady and conventional—routine schedule, cool room, white noise—while emphasizing that reducing alcohol meaningfully improves sleep metrics for most people.

He then transitions to supplements, stressing that he is broadly skeptical of the supplement industry due to misaligned incentives, weak evidence quality, and deceptive marketing. His standard is a clear rationale plus biomarker monitoring where possible, and he discloses conflicts: prior work with Novos (no longer taking their products; critiques their marketing around direct-to-consumer epigenetic tests and NMN), and current advisory involvement with PDL Therapeutics (he takes their calcium alpha-ketoglutarate product, Rejuvant, which he receives due to that role). His current daily supplement list is short and tracked: omega-3 (with quarterly omega index monitoring), vitamin D (with quarterly monitoring and adjusted dosing), Rejuvant (CA-AKG + vitamin D; personally no strong subjective effects), lithium orotate (5 mg/day, driven by observational data and mechanistic plausibility for neuroprotection), methylfolate (based on an MTHFR-related genetic variant with homocysteine as a monitoring marker), and creatine (5 g/day for resistance training, with possible additional cognitive benefits). He notes a consistent personal theme: supplements rarely produce “felt” changes, unlike lifestyle improvements.

Finally, he covers medications, emphasizing a preventative risk/reward framework and regular biomarker monitoring. His medication list includes testosterone therapy (120 mg/week, moved to more frequent injections to reduce peaks and potentially mitigate hematocrit/RBC increases; monitored with a comprehensive hormone panel and symptoms), Jardiance/empagliflozin (10 mg/day, with significant improvements in glucose-related biomarkers), and Repatha (a PCSK9 inhibitor chosen after detection of early soft coronary plaque plus suboptimal ApoB; awaiting follow-up labs). He also describes a brief trial of low-dose tirzepatide primarily for firsthand experience; it reduced appetite slightly and caused modest, temporary weight loss. He plans to resume cyclic rapamycin (likely 8 mg/week for ~12 weeks) and explains why he’s not swayed by influencer-driven narratives. He notes he stopped tadalafil mostly due to stack complexity rather than new concerns, and closes with his stance on metformin: useful for diabetes, but not compelling as a longevity drug in metabolically healthy individuals—especially given weak animal longevity data and emerging evidence it may blunt some exercise adaptations.

Key takeaways: prioritize pillars over hacks; treat supplements as incremental unless you can justify and monitor them; be cautious with stacking due to interaction risk; and use a rational, individualized risk/reward model—especially for preventative medications—guided by biomarkers, symptoms, and a proactive physician who can interpret both.