From lab data to daily routine, how one simple addition is improving hydration, HRV, and how I feel every morning.

I’ve tried a lot of electrolyte drinks over the years.

If you’ve ever run a 5K, 10K, half marathon, or marathon, you know the drill. There’s always a sponsor handing out cups along the course. Some are great. Some… you take one sip and immediately regret your life choices.

So I never really thought much about electrolytes beyond race day.

That changed after my labs.

What the Data Actually Said

After my WHOOP Advanced Labs last November, one small thing stood out.

Not a red flag. Not a major issue.

Just a signal.

My BUN and BUN to creatinine ratio were slightly elevated, which often points to mild dehydration or high protein load at the time of testing.

The interesting part is that I already drink a lot of water.

Usually over one hundred ounces a day.

Hydration has always been one of my stronger habits.

But the takeaway was simple.

Water alone is not always enough.

The Adjustment

I did not overhaul anything.

I made a small change.

Electrolytes.

I started adding one scoop of electrolyte powder to about 24 ounces of water each day. On harder training days, or after a sauna or jacuzzi session, I might have two or three.

That’s it.

No complexity. No big protocol.

Just consistency.

What I Noticed

This is where it got interesting.

My HRV started improving.

Not overnight, but steadily.

Recovery scores became more predictable. Morning readiness felt smoother. Less variability.

And one pattern stood out.

If I have a glass of electrolytes before bed, I often wake up with a green recovery on WHOOP.

Not always. But often enough to notice.

There is a tradeoff.

I also wake up at night to use the bathroom more.

Worth it.

The One I Landed On

After trying a few options and doing a bit of research, I landed on:

KEY NUTRIENTS Electrolytes Powder (available on Amazon)

What I like:

• No sugar
• Sweetened with stevia
• No unnecessary additives
• Clean ingredient profile
• Easy to mix and drink

I started with lemonade and now rotate between:

• Strawberry Lemonade
• Pink Lemonade
• Orange
• Lemonade (again, still my favorite)

They also offer a range of other flavors and even unflavored options, which I may try next.

A 90 serving container usually runs around $40, but I’ve seen it closer to $25 when it goes on sale.

Why This Matters

It is about listening to small signals, not about adding another supplement to my daily routine.

My labs did not say “you have a problem.”

They said “there is an opportunity.”

Hydration is one of the fastest levers you can pull, and if your body is human like mine, you’ll feel the results right away!

It affects:

• HRV
• recovery
• sleep quality
• training output
• how you feel when you wake up

And unlike most things, it responds quickly.

Final Thoughts

The biggest improvements in my health this past year have not come from dramatic changes.

They have come from small, consistent adjustments.

This is one of them.

Easy to implement. Easy to maintain. Quietly effective.

And once it becomes part of your routine, you don’t really think about it anymore.

You just feel the difference.

---

🩺 Disclaimer

The content on I Won’t Die is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider with any health concerns.

---

🚀 Get Started with Blueprint

Start optimizing your health today with $25 off your first order! Use our referral code to begin your Blueprint journey and take control of your longevity.

---

🏋️‍♂️ Track Your Sleep, Workouts & Recovery

Boost your performance and recovery with Whoop. Join with my referral link to get a free WHOOP 5.0 and one month free!

---

📲 Download the I Won’t Die App

Stay ahead with the latest news, updates, and insights. Download the I Won’t Die app now on the Apple App Store and Google Play!

---

📩 Contact Us

Have tips, photos, or questions? Want to collaborate? Reach out at [email protected] — we’d love to hear from you!

---

🔗 Stay Connected

Follow us on Don't Die, Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn for Blueprint longevity and Bryan Johnson updates.

---

📬 Subscribe to I Won’t Die Newsletter

Get the latest longevity breakthroughs, Blueprint updates, and exclusive content straight to your inbox — sign up now!

---

From 0.95 to 0.67 in a year, with WHOOP now showing 0.60, the signal is clear: steady habits are changing the trajectory.

A few weeks ago, I took another shot at the Blueprint Speed of Aging test due to a bad sample.

This time, it worked.

No failed sample. No retest request. Just a clean blood spot card, a little patience, and now a result I have been waiting to see.

And it’s a good one.

The Number

My new pace of aging came back at:

0.679503063641104

That means my body is aging at about 67% of the expected rate.

Put another way, for every calendar year that passes, my biology is aging closer to eight months.

What makes this result more meaningful is the trend.

In January 2025, my pace of aging came back at 0.95. Now, a little over a year later, it is 0.67.

That’s a real drop. Not a rounding error. Not wishful thinking. A real shift in the rate at which my body is aging.

Blueprint also says I am aging slower than 98.15 percent of people my age who have taken the same test.

What This Test Measures

The Blueprint Speed of Aging test is based on DNA methylation, which looks at how your cells are changing over time.

It’s a measurement of the rate at which your body is biologically aging at the cellular level, not a broad wellness score.

A score of:

• 1.0 means you are aging at a normal pace
• below 1.0 means you are aging more slowly
• above 1.0 means you are aging more quickly

So moving from 0.95 to 0.67 in a year is exactly the kind of direction I hoped to see.

A Second Signal From WHOOP

What makes this even more interesting is that my other aging data points tell a similar story.

As of this morning, my WHOOP pace of aging is 0.60.

Different system. Different inputs. Different model.

But the message is almost identical.

And to me that matters.

When independent tools start pointing in the same direction, the story becomes harder to ignore.

What Changed: Nothing Flashy

I have stayed consistent with the same core routine I built last year:

• Mediterranean diet
• Same supplements I started last year
• Daily cardio, averaging about 7 miles of running per day
• Strength training 4 to 5 days a week (down from 7)
• Better recovery and sleep consistency

That last one matters more than most people think.

I did this without hacks, rather through repetition, day after day.

Why This Result Matters

The best part of this result isn’t the number itself, but the confirmation.

The work is landing.

The changes I made aren’t only improving how I feel or how I perform, but they are showing up in the biology underneath everything else.

That’s what I wanted to know.

The Bigger Picture

A year ago, I was focused on risk reduction of heart disease.

Lower inflammation.
Improve cholesterol.
Stabilize blood sugar.
Get healthier on paper and in practice.

Now the conversation is a little different. The question is no longer just whether I’m lowering risk, but whether I’m changing trajectory.

This result says yes.

Final Thoughts

Now this becomes the new benchmark.

The goal is simple:

Keep doing what works.
Stay consistent.
Protect recovery.
See if the number keeps moving in the right direction or plateaus.

For me, this wasn’t really about one test. It was about being on a better path.

And right now, the path looks better than it did a year ago. 🙌

---

🩺 Disclaimer

The content on I Won’t Die is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider with any health concerns.

---

🚀 Get Started with Blueprint

Start optimizing your health today with $25 off your first order! Use our referral code to begin your Blueprint journey and take control of your longevity.

---

🏋️‍♂️ Track Your Sleep, Workouts & Recovery

Boost your performance and recovery with Whoop. Join with my referral link to get a free WHOOP 5.0 and one month free!

---

📲 Download the I Won’t Die App

Stay ahead with the latest news, updates, and insights. Download the I Won’t Die app now on the Apple App Store and Google Play!

---

📩 Contact Us

Have tips, photos, or questions? Want to collaborate? Reach out at [email protected] — we’d love to hear from you!

---

🔗 Stay Connected

Follow us on Don't Die, Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn for Blueprint longevity and Bryan Johnson updates.

---

📬 Subscribe to I Won’t Die Newsletter

Get the latest longevity breakthroughs, Blueprint updates, and exclusive content straight to your inbox — sign up now!

---

One year after transforming my cardiometabolic risk profile, my January Function Health labs show sustained gains, a younger biological age, and the next levers to pull for long-term resilience.

A full year into this journey, here is where my data stands.

I had planned to wait before writing this post.

In January I completed my Function Health panel and also sent off my Blueprint Speed of Aging test to TruDiagnostics. I wanted both sets of results before sharing an update.

Unfortunately, Blueprint came back yesterday with this message:

“The lab has reported that the sample could not be processed at this time. While uncommon, this can occur with a small number of samples. We are more than happy to provide you with a replacement test kit at no additional cost if you would like to attempt a retest. If you would like to proceed, please confirm your address here and I will make the arrangements as soon as possible.”

So I am waiting on a replacement kit. That process will take time.

The good news is that Function Health provides its own biological age metric. It is not the same as Blueprint’s epigenetic methylation test, which uses TruDiagnostics and measures DNA methylation patterns directly. That test is likely the more sophisticated aging clock.

But I do have a baseline biological age from January and my current WHOOP Age.

And it tells a strong story.

Big Picture

Function Health analyzed 121 biomarkers.

• 89 in range
• 12 out of range
• 20 categorized as other

Biological age: 35.3
That is 10.8 years younger than my calendar age.

This is not an apples to apples comparison with the Blueprint Speed of Aging test from last year, but it is directionally meaningful. After one year of deliberate health work, my system is not trending older. It is trending younger.

My WHOOP Age confirms this too, sitting this morning at 30.8 years old, 15.4 years younger than my chronological age, with a Pace of Aging at 0.50x.

The cardiometabolic transformation that began in January 2025 has held.

Now the work shifts from fixing risk to building resilience.

Cardiometabolic Health: Am I Out of the Woods?

One year ago my concern was simple: future cardiac event risk.

Inflammation was high. ApoB was elevated. CRP was over four. Triglycerides were triple digits. I did not like where that path led.

Today the picture looks very different.

Here is the full year comparison including January Function Health results.

Marker	Jan 2025 (Blueprint)	May 2025	Sep 2025	Nov 2025 (WHOOP)	Jan 2026 (Function)	Optimal Range
ApoB (mg per dL)	87	72	43	52	51	< 60
LDL Particle Count (nmol per L)	830	861	501	Not measured	979	< 1000
Triglycerides (mg per dL)	113	115	42	59	74	< 100
Total Cholesterol (mg per dL)	161	143	114	132	124	< 150
hs CRP (mg per L)	4.38	3.5	0.4	0.2	0.3	< 1.0
A1C percent	5.4	5.2	5.1	5.1	5.2	< 5.3
Insulin (µIU per mL)	2.4	1.6	2.9	2.7	5.2	< 5.0
Omega 3 Index percent	3.1	4.6	5.2	Not measured	8.4 (OmegaCheck)	> 5.5

What Matters Most

ApoB: 51
Under 60 is considered low-risk. I am there.

hs CRP: 0.3
From 4.38 to 0.3 in one year. That is not cosmetic. That is structural.

Triglycerides: 74
Stable, clean, metabolically flexible.

A1C: 5.2
Insulin sensitive. No drift upward.

If the question is whether I have materially reduced near and mid-term cardiometabolic risk compared to January 2025, the answer is yes.

Am I “out of the woods” permanently? That is not how health works.

But I am no longer walking toward a predictable cardiac event profile.

My engine is clean.

Inflammation and Longevity Defense

CRP remains low.
Vitamin D remains solid at 57.
Liver markers are clean across the board.
Kidney function is strong with eGFR at 92.

This is what you want to see one year into a disciplined protocol.

Inflammation is quiet.
Metabolism is stable.
Lipid transport is controlled.

This is what low long-term vascular risk looks like.

What Is Out of Range

This is where the work shifts.

My out of range markers are not catastrophic. They are performance and reserve markers.

Ferritin: 32

Iron stores remain below optimal. Not anemic. Hemoglobin is strong at 15.5. But storage is light.

This is consistent with high training volume and no red meat intake in over a year. I have already corrected my supplementation strategy and will continue to monitor.

Surprisingly, I’ve been taking an iron supplement since my November WHOOP Advanced Labs where my Ferritin came in at 16. I’ve now doubled my iron stores in about 2 months.

DHEA Sulfate: 45

Low for age. This reflects adrenal reserve and stress adaptation capacity. Testosterone remains strong at 550. But DHEA is the upstream reserve signal.

This aligns with high training load and chronic output.

White Blood Cell Count: 3.2

Mildly low. Platelets at 131 are slightly low as well.

This pattern is often seen in endurance athletes. It can reflect chronic training demand rather than pathology, especially with no symptoms and normal differential counts.

Still, it is worth watching. I may need to dial back my weekly running mileage.

LDL Pattern B and Small Dense LDL

This was the one surprise.

Despite excellent ApoB and low inflammation, Function flagged elevated small dense LDL and Pattern B.

This suggests the lipid profile is strong in quantity but could improve in particle quality.

This is not a red alarm. But it is a signal.

The Aging Question

I wanted to compare Function’s biological age to Blueprint’s Speed of Aging result.

Because Blueprint uses a TruDiagnostics epigenetic test measuring DNA methylation. That is probably the more sophisticated aging metric.

But my sample failed processing and I really made that sample card bloody!

So for now, the only aging metrics I have is from Function Health and my WHOOP Age, each using different methodologies to calculate biological age.

According to WHOOP, I am aging at half the expected weekly biological rate based on recovery, HRV, sleep consistency, and strain patterns.

WHOOP even shows I am aging slightly faster than last week, which is a reminder that this is dynamic. Aging is not a static score. It responds to behavior.

So here is where I stand:

• Blueprint methylation test: pending retest
• Function Health biological age: 35.3
• WHOOP age: 30.8
• WHOOP pace of aging: 0.50x

Different methodologies. Different inputs. And different models.

But all trending in the same direction.

Not definitive.
But encouraging.

When the Blueprint retest comes back, I will finally have the epigenetic layer to compare against these physiology based models.

For now, the signal is clear. One year of discipline did not just lower risk markers. It moved the aging needle.

Am I Healthier Than One Year Ago?

The good news is, yes. Without question.

One year ago:

• Elevated inflammation
• Elevated ApoB
• Triple digit triglycerides
• Higher CRP
• Higher metabolic drift

Today:

• ApoB controlled
• CRP near zero
• Metabolic flexibility intact
• Lipid transport stabilized
• Biological age trending younger

The work now is refinement, not rescue.

What I Need to Improve

1. Increase ferritin into a stronger reserve zone
2. Support adrenal reserve and DHEA production
3. Continue reducing small dense LDL particle presence
4. Ensure training load is not suppressing immune counts

This is optimization work. Not damage control.

Final Thoughts

This is the one year mark. January 2025 was the wake up call. September showed momentum. November confirmed discipline works. January 2026 shows stability.

The biggest risk factors are no longer cardiovascular. They are recovery capacity and long-term resilience. That is a very different conversation.

I am not finished, but I am no longer reacting to bad numbers. I am building margin. And that is exactly where I want to be.

January 2026 Function Health Data

---

🩺 Disclaimer

The content on I Won’t Die is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider with any health concerns.

---

🚀 Get Started with Blueprint

Start optimizing your health today with $25 off your first order! Use our referral code to begin your Blueprint journey and take control of your longevity.

---

🏋️‍♂️ Track Your Sleep, Workouts & Recovery

Boost your performance and recovery with Whoop. Join with my referral link to get a free WHOOP 5.0 and one month free!

---

📲 Download the I Won’t Die App

Stay ahead with the latest news, updates, and insights. Download the I Won’t Die app now on the Apple App Store and Google Play!

---

📩 Contact Us

Have tips, photos, or questions? Want to collaborate? Reach out at [email protected] — we’d love to hear from you!

---

🔗 Stay Connected

Follow us on Don't Die, Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn for Blueprint longevity and Bryan Johnson updates.

---

📬 Subscribe to I Won’t Die Newsletter

Get the latest longevity breakthroughs, Blueprint updates, and exclusive content straight to your inbox — sign up now!

---