Ben Greenfield’s Weekly Roundup: May 22

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

🌙🍽️ Eating Before Bed—Not So Bad?: A new study suggests eating closer to bedtime may not harm sleep as much as we thought, but context matters. The comparison was between stopping food 4.5 vs. 2.5 hours before bed, not late-night snacking in bed. For most people, it’s the what and how much that disrupts sleep, not just timing (full study here).

🦠🥔 Butyrate & Metabolism Boost: Emerging research shows butyrate, a compound produced from fiber fermentation, may amplify the effects of calorie restriction by improving metabolism and regulating appetite and blood sugar. Think resistant starches like green bananas, cooled potatoes, rice, and peas (read the study).

🧠⚡ Testosterone & Brain Tumors: A surprising NIH-backed study suggests testosterone may actually suppress brain tumor growth in males, highlighting a complex and often misunderstood role of hormones in disease progression (full study).

🏋️🔥 Lift Heavy, Reap Heat Benefits: You don’t need a sauna or hot climate to trigger heat shock proteins. Intense resistance training, like heavy squats at 85%+, can stimulate similar cellular stress responses that support recovery and resilience (read more).

Key Takeaway: From meal timing and gut-derived metabolites to hormones and training intensity, this week’s research reinforces a core idea: context matters. It’s not just what you do, but how, when, and in what environment you do it that shapes your results.

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

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Most health testing shows you what’s happening in your body right now. That’s useful, but it’s only part of the picture. 

Standard bloodwork can help you understand current levels of glucose, lipids, nutrients, hormones, and inflammation markers. 

But epigenetic testing looks at a different layer of biology: DNA methylation, which is how your genes express themselves. These methylation patterns can reflect how your body is responding over time to factors like sleep, training, nutrition, stress, toxins, recovery, and aging.

TruDiagnostic’s TruAge test analyzes over 1 million sites on your DNA to estimate your biological age, pace of aging, and the age of 11 key organ systems, including your brain, heart, liver, lungs, immune system, and metabolism.

The test’s real power lies in its use of advanced AI-driven epigenetic science, developed with Harvard, Yale, and Duke. Instead of looking at a single lab value in isolation, TruDiagnostic helps translate large-scale methylation data into personalized insights about how your body is aging and where you may have opportunities to optimize.

The goal isn’t to replace bloodwork, but to add a deeper, long-term layer of insight, so you can stop guessing, track whether your interventions are working, and make more informed decisions with your practitioner.

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Podcasts I Recorded This Week:

Gas, Bloating, Fatigue & Other Post-Meal Issues? Discover The NEW Autoimmune Protocol With Mickey Trescott

Light Engineering That Makes You Look YOUNGER (& Beauty Lasers Vs Face Masks!) With LYMA’s Lucy Goff