Longevity Live | September 18, 2025
Cardiac imaging is the gold standard, how to read nutrition labels, eight sleep raises $100m, and more
Welcome to Longevity Live where every week I react to trending longevity news and answer the Longevity Hotline where I give a pick a social media post looking for longevity help and give my expert opinion.
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Timestamps
0:00 Intro
1:05 Hotline - how risk does elevated Lp(a) alone add?
10:50 Nutritionists are not experts
13:25 Reading nutrition labels
15:04 Eight sleep raises $100m
18:45 A healthy 90 year old got there with habits, not genes
21:18 New tech to detect heart rate via any wifi device
22:08 Longevity in the home is the new luxury
Longevity Hotline
A Reddit user shows his clean vascular imaging (coronary CT angiogram and carotid ultrasound) despite his elevated lipoprotein a aka LP(a) - what can we glean from this?
They got this imaging to determine their ASCVD risk due to elevated Lp(a) values. I chose post because it highlight a few important topics.
Since this is the hotline though, we will start with the advice! These results are great news and since this type of imaging (the CCTA in particular) is the gold standard for assessing cardiac risk, you are seeing a clean bill of health.
I would suggest repeating a CCTA in 1- 3 years, depending on cost, convenience, changes in lifestyle, and how on top of health one wants to be
I would also continue the lipid lowering therapy regimen as this person is planning to, though you could make an argument that since the CCTA is the gold standard it’s not necessary
A few points to emphasize
Lp(a) elevations alone are not always enough to get you significant disease.
CCTA is the gold standard of cardiac risk - regardless of your calcium score score or apoB this is what matters the most
Carotid ultrasound is a lot easier to do since it’s non invasive and no dye is required, but it's not quite as good and it's also not 100% correlated with what is happening in your coronary artereis
Management and retesting decisions come down to risk / reward - this patient could choose to go off his meds and monitor imaging and it would be reasonable. It comes down to one’s personal decisions.
Longevity News
This article on the top 8 healthy drinks is a great chance to learn how to sense check wellness info. Notably, what is a nutritionist, and how to read nutrition labels.
A nutritionist is a self proclaimed title - there is no training or anything required for it. A dietician is someone who has to go through schooling and a certification process, and are called RDs = registered dieticians. So off the bat I'm a bit skeptical when a nutritionist is giving out information. It doesn't mean that they are wrong, it's just odd to appeal to authority with a non-credential.
The other key piece here is reading nutrition labels. Any of the drinks in the article (including water) can be unhealthy if sugar or processed substances are added.. This is why I always check the label for calories, added sugar, and ingredients that seem artificial. Luckily in the US and in many countries there are requirements to share what you are including in products.
Eight sleep raises $100m for AI powered tech sleep, but how much more will the AI really do?
I enjoy the business side of Longevity because it gives us a sense of where the industry is going. Eight sleep was the first company to create a cooling device that goes on your bed and is the market leader, super useful and a ton of people swear by it (I'd love to get one, but need a discount, hook it up Eight Sleep!).
It looks like they are raising money to throw a bunch of compute power at their data (over a billion hours) and see if they can use that data to further optimize sleep (e.g. knowing exactly when to change the temperature for you). Even more ambitious, they hope to expand into the clinical realm and get FDA cleared as a medical device. I suspect they'll aim to get sleep apnea diagnoses first, which makes sense since it's a widespread problem.
A good friend works at Happy Health, which has an Oura-ring type company that has achieved this approval, so that space might get busier.
What's missing for all of these companies and will be crucial is linking this data to actual patient outcomes. Can you get the cardiologist to share that data? Or really the EMR companies? Once we have the link between consumer health data and clinical data we'll really be in business. Something I've had on my mind for a while.
(As an FYI Chilipad is a good alternative for those looking for one.)
Another healthy 90 year old who attributes habits (not genes) to their longevity.
"You don't stop lifting when you get old, you get old when you stop lifting" - brilliant. Additionally she had a very active life and a strong community
The article also mentions Super Agers by Eric Topol which found that genetics do not seem to play a part in people living to their 90s without chronic disease (recall: delaying disease onset is the key to longer life)
Rather, those who live long without disease have similar lifestyle habits - being social, staying busy especially with hobbies, being optimistic, etc.,
Oh and she didn't have an incredible amount of muscle mass either!
My key reminder - your choices now can make a long term difference, not to mention they typically make you feel better now. A win-win.
Emerging technology to obtain your heart rate from any wifi device
Super cool technology they are calling "Pulse-fi" that has the potential to democratize wearable data. With whoop at $25 / month minimum and these devices routinely costing > $200, it's great to see an alternative.
Now of course the consumer devices have much more data, but I love to see this trend towards helping us catch disease early and in a more widespread, democratized way
Luxury homes are getting more longevity amenities, and I love to see it
I've been obsessed with the idea of getting a barrel sauna in my back yard, which actually isn't crazy expensive ($5k-$10k) and I imagine the price will come down. In fact, none of the features mentioned in the article are super expensive despite the title of the article and only referencing CEOs.
I think it's a great thing as awareness of how to keep healthy, and importantly feel better, continues to spread. Now let's hope that demand drives down prices for some of us everyday folks!
Thanks for reading - please send me any questions or stories for next week!
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The Longevity Medicine Essentials Series - an end to end framework for all things Longevity
1 | What is Longevity Medicine, Why Should You Care, and How to Start
3 | The Pillars of Longevity Part 2 - Lifestyle Areas and Biomarkers