Ben Greenfield’s Weekly Roundup: October 16

Welcome to Ben Greenfield’s Weekly Roundup!

In this weekly post, I share with you my most interesting discoveries of the week, including the latest news on the fronts of fitness, nutrition, health, wellness, biohacking, and anti-aging research. I also recap my upcoming events and special announcements so you can keep up with opportunities to learn, giveaways, discounts, and more!

New Discoveries

Study Shows Creatine May Help You Gain Lean Mass Without Working Out, Plus a Closer Look at the Cancer Question 💪🧬

You probably already know creatine is one of the most studied supplements for muscle, strength, and performance. But two recent studies caught my eye.

The first suggests creatine can improve your body composition even if you’re not working out. The second tackles the creatine-cancer scare head-on.

Let’s start with muscle. In a 2026 randomized controlled trial, researchers took 64 adults between 45 and 65 and gave them either 10 grams of creatine a day or a placebo for 12 weeks. Some also followed an exercise and diet program. Some didn’t.

The creatine group gained lean mass, strength, and muscular endurance. That held true even for the people who skipped the exercise program entirely. The people who paired creatine with exercise and a better diet did even better. They gained lean mass and dropped more body fat. The researchers also saw some improvements in blood sugar, cholesterol, and cognition, but those were exploratory, so I wouldn’t lean on them too hard yet.

One caveat: not all of that “lean mass” is new muscle. Creatine pulls water into your muscle cells, and that shows up on a scan too. But the strength and endurance gains are real, and if you’re trying to stay strong and capable as you get older, that’s what really counts.

Now, the cancer question. The worry: creatine might increase heterocyclic amines (HCAs), compounds that can be carcinogenic.

Researchers tested creatine’s effects in humans in a controlled study published in The Journal of Physiology. Neither low nor high doses of creatine, taken for a single day or for 30 days, meaningfully raised the HCAs they measured. Diet mattered a lot more. That doesn’t prove creatine has zero connection to cancer in every possible scenario. But it does knock out one of the main arguments for the concern.

You might also have seen headlines about creatine fueling tumor growth through platelets. That research is worth following, but the one specific study that’s getting attention involved transferring platelets into mice that already had cancer. That’s a long way from showing that a normal daily scoop causes cancer in a healthy person.

So where do I land? Creatine keeps impressing me: it supports muscle, strength, and probably healthy aging, even in people who don’t exercise much, and the human research to date doesn’t show that it causes cancer. That’s enough for me to keep taking it, which is why Kion Creatine (get 10-20% off auto-applied at checkout) is a staple in my routine.

If I had an active cancer diagnosis, though, I’d handle it differently. I’d run creatine and every other supplement by my oncology team instead of assuming that what works for a healthy person is automatically right during treatment.

For most healthy adults, creatine is still one of the best-supported supplements you can take, especially if you pair it with regular strength training. Want to dig deeper into creatine’s effects on muscle growth, brain health, longevity, and more? Check out some of my favorite creatine-related articles, podcasts, and resources below:

The Book I Wrote for My Sons—20 Years of Hard-won Wisdom, And Now I’m Sharing It With You 📖 

Everyone has wisdom worth sharing. The problem is, it usually dies with them.

I’ve spent decades collecting lessons about productivity, faith, purpose, physical health, and how to actually live well. Most of it was scattered across journals, sticky notes, and the margins of books.

Then I thought: if I never came back, what would be left unsaid?

I wrote Precepts for my twin sons. A hundred lessons. Ten minutes a day. Designed to deliver you focus, purpose, and motivation in life. 

Each daily lesson includes:

• A short personal essay grounded in real moments that inspired my writing
• Scripture passages, inspirational quotes, and outside citations for deeper reflection
• Closing, probing, vulnerable questions with ample space to journal your own answer
• QR code for each day that links to a companion video reflection from me

You don’t have to repeat the mistakes others have already made. That’s the whole point.

Whether you read it on your own, with your spouse, or as a family, Precepts gives you 100 days of short daily lessons, about 10 minutes each, for building wisdom and leaving a legacy. Each day pairs a lesson on faith, health, purpose, and intentional living, along with a video reflection from me and space to record your own insights.

These are the same lessons I wanted to leave for my sons, and now I’m excited to share them with you.

Precepts releases in early November. You can pre-order your Kindle copy on Amazon now.

One Coach and a Plan Built Around Your Life: Work With a TRIUMPH Coach One-on-One 💪

You can know a lot about health and still feel stuck. Podcasts, apps, and protocols often contradict each other, and it gets harder to stay consistent when life gets busy.

TRIUMPH Coaching is built on my Boundless method and delivered by my coaching team. 

You work with one coach who knows you from your first call through the duration of your program, starting with a focus on foundations like sleep, strength, and real food, then adding smarter tools once the basics are in place.

Each month, you get two 1:1 video calls with your coach to review your progress, work through obstacles, and adjust your plan. 

Between calls, you get weekly training, nutrition, and lifestyle programming, weekday messaging with your coach, and a quarterly deep health check to make sure you’re on track.

To start, fill out a short assessment (about 10 minutes), then talk with the coach who would work with you. They’ll tell you honestly whether TRIUMPH is a good fit.

If you want a coach who knows what matters to you and a plan built around the life you have, apply for TRIUMPH Coaching here.

It’s Official: Boundless Is HERE & Ready to Stream 🔥 🎬

After years in the making, Boundless: The Man Who Became Human is officially available to stream on Apple TV and Amazon.

For two decades, I measured nearly everything I could about my body and performance. I built my life around optimization, longevity, better biomarkers, and pushing the limits of what a human being could do.

And a lot of it worked.

But Boundless is about what none of those numbers could measure, and what that relentless pursuit nearly cost me.

The film follows my journey from extreme self-optimization and physical mastery to a much deeper reckoning with my family, relationships, faith, purpose, and what a life well-lived actually looks like. 

Losing my father and nearly losing my family forced me to confront a question no protocol, wearable, blood test, or biohack could answer: What are you optimizing for in the first place?

So if you know me for biohacking, fitness, or longevity, you may be surprised by this film. It’s ultimately less about mastering your body and more about everything that mastery can’t reach.

Watch Boundless: The Man Who Became Human now on Apple TV or Amazon.

This Week in Health & Performance: What the Latest Research Says

🧠👁️ Could Contact Lenses Treat Depression as Effectively as Prozac? Scientists have developed experimental contact lenses that deliver gentle electrical stimulation through the retina to influence brain circuits involved in mood regulation. In a 2026 study, mice receiving 30 minutes of stimulation daily for three weeks showed improvements in depression-like behaviors comparable to those treated with fluoxetine, the active ingredient in Prozac. Researchers also observed improvements in brain connectivity and depression-related biomarkers, although we can’t say yet if the effects would translate to humans. (full study here).

🌿🧠 Does Long-Term Cannabis Use Actually Lower IQ? A landmark study following people from childhood to age 38 found that persistent cannabis use was associated with declines in memory, processing speed, and overall cognitive function. The most persistent users who started during adolescence experienced an average IQ decline of approximately eight points. Even quitting didn’t fully reverse the deficits in this group, suggesting cannabis might affect how the brain develops. (full study here).

🌙❤️ Could a Little Light in Your Bedroom Be Changing Your Heart? Here’s another reason to keep your bedroom as dark as possible. A major 2026 study involving more than 10,000 adults found that nighttime light exposure was associated with measurable changes in heart structure and function. Compared with people who slept in near darkness, those exposed to more light at night had thicker heart walls, larger left ventricles, and slightly weaker heart contractions. And in a larger group of more than 73,000 adults, researchers also linked nighttime light exposure to cardiovascular events. (read the research here).

🥩💪 Does Going Vegan Make You Lose Muscle? Not Necessarily. In a 12-week randomized trial involving adults aged 65 and older, those who switched to a self-selected vegan diet lost more muscle mass and had lower muscle protein synthesis than those who continued eating an omnivorous diet. But here’s the catch: the vegan group also ate roughly 20–28 fewer grams of protein per day, making this an unequal protein comparison, and resistance training helped reduce muscle loss. The takeaway? A well-planned vegan diet with resistance training could potentially support muscle health, but getting enough total protein and essential amino acids takes more planning, and animal proteins generally make that easier (full study here).

Key Takeaway: From experimental contact lenses that influence mood-related brain circuits to the long-term cognitive risks associated with heavy cannabis use, brain health research continues to reveal some fascinating connections. Meanwhile, keeping your bedroom dark may be a simple way to support cardiovascular health, and preserving muscle as you age comes down to adequate protein, essential amino acids, and resistance training, regardless of your dietary preferences.

Want to dive deeper? Click the links above to explore the research, and click here to follow me on X for all the latest health and performance news hot off the press!

Product Of The Week

::: Regulate Your Nervous System, Don’t Just Mask the Symptoms of Stress (Save $50 on Harmoniq FLOW) 🧠⚡ :::

“Dysregulation” is one of the hottest words in wellness right now. But what does it actually mean, and why should you care?

It means your nervous system has trouble shifting gears, so you stay revved up when you want to wind down. Burnout, chronic stress, and poor sleep can leave your nervous system stuck in overdrive, which is why you can feel wired and exhausted at the same time.

You might lean on caffeine to push through your day, then reach for melatonin or another sleep aid when you can’t wind down at night. Those tools can help in the short term, but they don’t necessarily address what’s happening underneath.

Instead of another passive tracker, Harmoniq FLOW is an active intervention.  This wearable neckband uses patented ulRFE frequency technology to support nervous system regulation, going beyond just tracking stress to deliver stimulation intended to help you shift it.

Open the app, choose your state (Calm, Focus, Relief, or Sleep), and the device does the rest. That gives you a way to act on your physiology, whether you want to relax or sharpen your focus.

Of course, no wearable replaces quality sleep, movement, sunlight, and other fundamentals, and independent research on FLOW’s specific benefits is still limited. Still, it’s a solid option for supporting relaxation, focus, and stress management without another stimulant or supplement.

Want to try it yourself? Click here to save $50 on Harmoniq FLOW, backed by a 45-day money-back guarantee.

Podcasts I Recorded This Week:

Ex-CIA Officer: How To Beat A Polygraph, Recover Like A Spy & Read Anyone, With Andrew Bustamante 

How To Fix Loose Skin After GLP-1 Weight Loss, How Much Protein To Eat In A Calorie Deficit & 8 Bodybuilding Myths, Busted.