The Daily Valet. - 1/31/23, Tuesday
✔️ The Serious Pursuit of Youth
Tuesday, January 31st Edition
By Cory Ohlendorf, Valet. Editor
I look much younger in candlelight.
Today’s Big Story
The Serious Pursuit of Youth
You can Be 18 Years Old Again, But it’ll cost you $2 Million a Year
I can't say it's not tempting. What if you could genuinely turn back the clock on your physical body—keep all your wisdom and experience, just give back the wrinkles, the grey hair and strained eyesight or the knee that pops when you stand too quickly?Because the science of anti-aging is quickly coinciding with our intense need to stay young and virile for as long as possible. It's definitely what's keeping top athletes in the game longer. Novak Djokovic hangs out in a pressurized egg to enrich his blood with oxygen; while Tom Brady and LeBron James spend millions each year to keep Father Time at bay.But that's nothing compared to the 45-year-old tech mogul Bryan Johnson, who outlined for Bloomberg, what he and his team of 30 doctors are doing to reboot his body back to the 18-year-old version of himself. They're more than a year into their experiments, which they collectively call Project Blueprint. This includes strict guidelines for Johnson’s diet (1,977 vegan calories a day), exercise (an hour a day, high-intensity three times a week) and sleep (at the same time every night, after two hours wearing glasses that block blue light).There are some obvious signs that Johnson is at least healthier than most 45-year-olds. The dude is way beyond ripped. His body fat hovers around 5%, which leaves his muscles and veins on full display. But it's what has happened inside his body that most excites his doctors. They say his tests show that he's reduced his overall biological age by at least five years and that he has the skin of a 28-year-old and the lung capacity and fitness of an 18-year-old. All for about $2 million a year. It makes the $31,000 that legendary menswear insider Nick Wooster pays to stay fit seem like a bargain.Of course, cutting edge science never comes cheap. But headway is being made. Earlier this month, Harvard researchers announced a decade-long experiment that not only uncovered how our bodies age, but the ability to reverse the aging of cells. And with lab mice, they were able to reverse the effects of that aging and restore some of the biological signs of youthfulness to the animals.
Meanwhile:
Here is why Hawaii has the longest life expectancy in the country.
A Light at the End of a Long Tunnel
WHO says Covid pandemic could near its end in 2023
The World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday the world will likely transition to a new phase in the COVID-19 pandemic this year. It'll be marked by lower hospitalization and death rates, as well as health systems that can manage the pandemic in “an integrated and sustainable way,” Tedros said.The WHO estimates that at least 90% of the world's population has some immunity against Covid due to prior infection or vaccination. “We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic. We are not there yet but the end is in sight,” Tedros told reporters.Meanwhile, President Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the twin national emergencies for addressing COVID on May 11, as most of the world has returned closer to normalcy nearly three years after they were first declared. The declarations have been extended multiple times since enacted by the Trump administration in 2020.
FYI:
The Secretary General of the International Federation of the Red Cross said that the pandemic should be “a wake-up call” to prepare for future pandemics.
San Francisco has just about had it with autonomous cars clogging up intersections, driving on sidewalks and even escaping arrest.”
- Jalopnik on the robot-taxi revolt
A Major Ice Storm
15 million Americans are under winter storm and ice storm warnings as Arctic air surges south
A slow-moving ice storm is impacting large parts of the country extending from Texas to West Virginia. Multiple waves of freezing rain, which will deposit a dangerous glaze of ice on roadways, structures and vegetation, have the potential to cause serious damage, power outages and dangerous travel conditions across several states.About 50 million people were under winter alerts as of Monday evening. But the hardest hit will be Texas, where up to two-thirds of an inch of ice buildup is likely to bring down power lines and tree limbs over the next 48 hours. Almost two years ago, freezing drizzle caused a 133-car pileup in Fort Worth that killed six people, and with a more widespread and significant ice storm looming this time, the effects could be serious.Tomorrow will bring a third round of wintry precipitation across much of the area and could be the worst and most impactful, because the rain will be the heaviest and temperatures the coldest. It's all due to arctic cold moving down from Canada—causing temperatures to drop to 40 degrees below average. The system will keep spreading east through the week, eventually making its way to the Northeast by Saturday, when morning wind chills are expected to hit the minus 10 to minus 20 degree range.
BRRRRR:
It was -59°F in Peter Sinks, Utah, yesterday—the coldest temperature recorded in the state in more than two decades.
Athleisure In a Can
the latest entrant in the functional beverage arms race
We're entering the “alt sports drink” era. Which makes sense, I guess. During the havoc wreaked by the pandemic, many people, confronting their own mortality, started to pay more attention to their health and well-being. Drinking water trended, while vitamin and supplement sales surged. Today, the global sports and electrolyte drink markets are booming, with market research firms projecting considerable growth over the coming years.According to Punch, the “après-sport” drink is the latest entrant in the functional beverage arms race. Billed as refreshing beverages to crack open after leisurely activity with friends, the new sports drinks aren't all that different from the ones we grew up with. Just a little cooler. Think an Outdoor Voices spin on a Gatorade.A few that they introduce are Courtside (a line of effervescent coconut water–based beverages), Sap's (enhanced coconut water with a suite of stress-fighting adaptogens) and Supa Water, (a New Zealand–based line that uses a proprietary electrolyte blend and natural sugars found in apple juice).
In Other News
The “everything store” has gotten junkier and more chaotic.
Have you heard about ...
Stop Envying Your Friends
How beat back the natural feelings of FOMO and jealousy
When you’re scrolling through your social feeds, it can feel like everyone's out there living such fun and fascinating lives. Of course, we know deep down that those influencers aren't always showing the reality behind the gloss. But what about our friends and colleagues? We see and hear about their lives all the time and it's only natural to start comparing yourself to them.It's not that we're not happy for our friends. Even our “internet friends” who we only know marginally. It's simply that in those low, boring moments of life, it's easy to look around and wish you were doing that, or wearing this, or hanging out with them. Hell, that uneasy swirl of emotions even birthed a modern idiom, FOMO—the fear of missing out ... on anything or everything.But you can take comfort in the fact that this is all normal. Humans crave social belongingness. Our emotional need to feel connected and accepted by those around us is actually hardwired into our DNA and essential to our health, happiness and sense of self. So what can we do about it?
Read:
Shopping
What We’re Buying
Black Denim
There’s always been something so “punk” about black denim. To some, it symbolizes that you're going against the grain since the jeans aren't the traditional blue. I know a lot of guys that steer clear from black denim because they have thoughts like, “what do I wear with them? Will they get insanely linty?” Black denim is often my first choice because they're so easy to wear—they look great with just about everything, especially anything in a navy-blue wheelhouse. Also, if you have to dress up for a special occasion, black denim is the answer; they make your legs look slimmer, are an excellent substitute for dress pants on more laid back occasions, and they patina just as well as blue denim—if not even better.Of course, well-made black jeans often come with an expensive price tag because of where and how they are made. Things like specific needle stitching and the type of cotton being used can quickly jack the price up. But it doesn't always have to be that way, especially if you're looking to dip your toe into the black denim game. There are now some excellent pairs that you can pick up for well under a hundred bucks. We've pulled together a few of the best and most affordable black jeans right now, so take your pick. Just make sure you try them on so that you're happy with the look and feel—there are few things worse than ill-fitting jeans.
Get It:
501 original-fit jean, $79.50 by Levi's
Morning Motto
Give it time.
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