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Chapter 1 crest — compass rose
Chapter 1 · Timeline

Three years. Three cohorts. One n=1.

A chronology of the work, told year by year.

Like a lot of people I had been watching the longevity scene closely. David Sinclair, Peter Attia, Bryan Johnson — all of them publishing, podcasting, building businesses. I was fascinated by the science but I had two practical problems with most of what was on offer. The first was cost. The second was that parts of the science being marketed were dubious — over-extrapolated from small studies, or built on associations that do not survive a replication.

My father was a geneticist. He died in 2015. What he drilled into me was simple: go back to first principles, demand peer-reviewed evidence, and be honest about what the data can and can't tell you. So that is where I started in Q2 2022.

What follows is the chronology of that work. The same arc is reflected in chapters 2–5 as decisions. Chapter 6 is the results.

The arc
  1. 2022 · Q2 GI molecular diagnostics

    The program began narrowly. Microbiome panels and a small set of inflammation markers — the cheapest, fastest way to start collecting useful signal. The over-40 finding that drove the focus: inflammatory load shifts substantially in the fourth and fifth decade, often silently.

  2. 2022 · Q3 First AI model

    An ensemble of smaller specialist models, not one monolith. The pilot cohort showed roughly 15% weight loss in the initial group — enough signal to justify formalizing the work.

  3. 2022 · Q4 Trial 1 begins

    Program formalized into three data layers. Recruitment skewed over-40. That is where the program has the best fit and where the public-health need is largest.

  4. 2023 · H1 Genetic layer online · Trial 2

    Three sequencing approaches tested head-to-head: microarray, exome NGS, and whole genome. Exome won on information density per dollar. The program now received roughly 4,000 features per person to consume.

  5. 2023 · H2 Signal confirmed

    Meaningful weight loss, cardiovascular improvement, measurable HRV gains, real sleep-quality changes. Numbers, not anecdotes.

  6. 2023 · Jun 15 Trial 3 launches

    35 enrolled, 18 completed. 49% dropout — compliance, not science, is the rate-limiting step. The trial is where gender-differentiated models became a requirement: men and women respond differently, and women with prior structured race history were already near-ceiling on HRV headroom.

  7. 2024 · Q1 VO₂ max & structured nutrition modeling

    Program iteration off Cohort 3: better VO₂ max optimization and behavioral-science-informed dietary layering.

  8. 2024 · Apr 30 Program formalized on paper

    The five-step structure: comprehensive assessment → Module 1 Baseline → Module 2 Adaptive Health → Module 3 AI Targeting → Coaching and Support.

  9. 2024 · Jun Headline numbers stabilized

    3–5x HRV improvement (12–18 month protocol windows). 9–57% reduction in GI inflammatory markers. +30–40 minutes of sleep per night. >10% average weight loss. The biotin case study emerges from this period: 45+ lbs lost, 9-year biological-age drop.

  10. 2025 · Mar Personal n=1 retrospective

    My own result: biological age dropped 10 years, currently more than 5 years younger than chronological. Total out-of-pocket: under $3,000. No insurance fights, no premium clinic, no proprietary supplement subscription.

  11. 2026 · Apr Public release

    This cookbook. The reason it is public: the barrier to real control of your longevity is not money — it is knowing which tests to order, what to ignore, and how to turn the results into the next ninety days of decisions.

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If you want the decisions rather than the chronology, start with Chapter 2 · What to Test. If you want the playbook in one sitting, go to Chapter 5 · Protocols.