The Stack

These are the eight protocols I follow. Not supplements I've tried. Not things I read about. The ones I've kept for years because the numbers support them and I feel the difference when I stop.

1. Morning Light
First thing every morning, I go outside and put sunlight in my eyes. No sunglasses. Five to ten minutes, within an hour of waking. This sets the circadian clock — the master timer that governs cortisol, melatonin and melanin, sleep quality, and metabolic function. Andrew Huberman's lab at Stanford has done the most rigorous public work on this. I was doing it before I knew the mechanism. The mechanism confirms what I noticed.

2. Cod Liver Oil
One tablespoon of lemon-flavored cod liver oil every morning. Omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), vitamin D, vitamin A — the whole package, in the form the body recognizes. I use Carlson's. I've used it for years. My inflammation markers reflect it.

3. Kefir
One-half cup of whole-milk kefir daily. Kefir delivers live bacterial cultures — significantly more diverse and numerous than yogurt — directly to the gut. My Viome results have tracked the improvement in my microbiome over time. The data is not ambiguous.

4. Vibration Plate
Ten minutes every morning on a whole-body vibration plate. Bone density. Lymphatic movement. Balance and proprioception. The research on vibration therapy and bone density in older adults is solid. I notice it most in my balance.

5. Red Light Therapy
Ten minutes daily in front of a red and near-infrared light panel. Mitochondrial function, cellular repair, inflammation reduction. This is the protocol I've added most recently. The research base is growing fast and the mechanism — photobiomodulation at the mitochondrial level — is well-established.

6. Viome
I've been a Viome subscriber for five years. Viome analyzes gut microbiome RNA (not just DNA — what the microbes are actually doing, not just what's there) and produces a personalized supplement protocol. Sixty supplements in one morning packet, calibrated to my specific biology. This is P4 Medicine (Predictive, Preventive, Personalized, and Participatory) made practical.

7. Vagus Nerve Activation
Every morning: humming, cold water on the face, slow diaphragmatic breathing. The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in the body — it runs from the brainstem to the gut and governs the parasympathetic nervous system. In 1973, a professor at Stanford told a room of first-year medical students it was vestigial. It is not. I've been activating it deliberately for years.

8. Cold Exposure
Cold water at the end of every shower. Not an ice bath — a deliberate cold finish. Norepinephrine release, brown fat activation, mental resilience. The body's adaptation to controlled stress is one of the most reliable mechanisms in the physiology literature.

These protocols are what I do. They are not prescriptions. Run anything you want to try past your own doctor first.