How I got younger while getting older.

Three years ago, I was that guy who thought he was “pretty healthy” because I worked out sometimes and didn’t eat fast food every day. I was 45, weighed over 200 pounds, and my idea of health optimization was taking a multivitamin…sometimes.

I’d been reading about Dr. Peter Attia’s work on Medicine 3.0 — precision medicine focused on longevity rather than just treating disease. But when I tried to get comprehensive testing through the traditional healthcare system, I hit wall after wall. My primary care doctor wasn’t interested in going beyond basic annual labs. Getting the kind of biomarker tracking that actually matters for optimization? Nearly impossible.

That frustration led Dr. Jared Pelo and me to start Bionic Health — we wanted to build what we couldn’t find anywhere else. And I figured I should probably practice what we were about to preach, so I got my first comprehensive blood panel.

The results were a wake-up call.

My ferritin levels were at 851 ng/mL. For context, anything over 300 is considered dangerous iron overload that can literally damage your organs. That’s when I realized our healthcare system isn’t designed to optimize anything — it’s designed to wait until you’re broken, then try to fix you.

Here I was, building a company focused on health optimization, and I was walking around with potentially organ-damaging iron levels. The irony wasn’t lost on me. But it also became the perfect real-world test case for what we were building: treating health like any other system you want to optimize, with data, goals, and systematic improvement.

What 2.5 Years of Actually Paying Attention Taught Me

Here’s what consistent tracking delivered (you can see all of my labs here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gSyc84U5c3_i2RHXlAu0WM8-sS9B7dAIpVAiJ2vqXmE/edit?gid=564008547#gid=564008547):

The scary stuff I caught early:

• Fixed dangerous iron overload (ferritin: 851 → 78 ng/mL) through targeted blood donation
• Caught early plaque buildup on a CT angiogram and addressed it (ApoB: 115 → 50 mg/dL)
• My biological age actually went backwards: 39.16 → 36.3 years old

The vanity metrics that kept me motivated:

• Lost 30 pounds, gained 10 pounds of muscle
• Body fat went from 29% to 12.5%
• Bench press: 195 → 250 lbs (finally hit that goal from college)

The stuff that actually matters for how I feel daily:

• VO₂ Max improved to 48 mL/kg/min putting me above the 80th percentile for my age group
• Cut visceral fat by 78% (the dangerous stuff around your organs)
• Max push-ups went from 30 to 50. Max dead hang went from 45 to 90 seconds.

The Hard Truth About “Healthy”

The biggest mindset shift? Realizing that “normal” lab ranges are based on sick populations. When your doctor says your cholesterol is “fine” at 224 mg/dL, they mean it won’t kill you this year. But optimal? That’s a different conversation entirely.

I started getting bloodwork every 1–3 months instead of annually, DEXA scans every 4 months, and comprehensive performance testing. Sounds excessive? Maybe. But you optimize your business metrics monthly, not yearly. Why should your health be different?

The hardest part wasn’t the testing — it was changing my relationship with discomfort. I had to start doing regular blood donations (which wasn’t fun), completely overhaul my diet (goodbye, daily ice cream), and actually stick to a consistent workout schedule.

What I Wish I’d Known Starting Out

1. Your body is lying to you. I felt fine with iron overload, terrible cholesterol, and way too much visceral fat. Subjective feelings are a terrible health metric.
2. Annual checkups are health theater. By the time problems show up in basic labs, you’re already behind. Get comprehensive testing and track trends, not snapshots.
3. “Normal” isn’t optimal. The reference ranges on your lab work are based on average sick Americans. Aim higher.
4. Data without action is just expensive entertainment. The measurements don’t matter if you’re not willing to change based on what they tell you.

The traditional healthcare system treats symptoms, not root causes. It’s designed for sick care, not optimization. But here’s the thing — you don’t have to wait for permission to start optimizing your most important asset.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. And most of us are flying blind when it comes to the metrics that actually predict how we’ll age.

The specifics of what I did (training protocols, nutrition changes, supplements, even some prescriptions) matter less than the systematic approach: measure, optimize, repeat.

Bottom line: In 2.5 years, I didn’t just get healthier — I got younger by every metric that matters. And the best part? I’m just getting started.