Guineapiggery

Surely most supplement-savvy adults have since grown wary of products touting extreme health benefits. It's never quite as easy as popping a pill and sprouting abs, or taking a swig of some vegan probiotic slurry and establishing rainforest-tier microbiomic diversity in your small intestine, right?

The FDA certainly makes an admirable attempt at regulating the supplement industry, but the burden of informed consumption mainly lies on the consumer, given that so many products manage to slip through the cracks. Purchasing supplements feels like a game of Russian Roulette. Except the bullet maybe comes months later when you've developed pathological serum levels of Vitamin E and you fainted at the wheel of your car (this didn't actually happen).

And yet, so many factors go into our personal response to any food, drug, or supplement - in fact, I would argue that these three substance categories are more alike than they are different (I'll save that argument for a later post). Environmental factors (e.g., sleep, activity level, etc.) interact with genetic factors (e.g., susceptibility to obesity, hypercholesterolemia, etc.) to influence the end result of your dietary habits or pill-popping adventures. Alas, I've a curious mind - I often can't resist the opportunity to experiment with my metabolic profile to understand how I respond to different foods and supplements.

The difficulty, of course, lies in parsing science from personal bias; how do I know if my expectations regarding the effects of a substance are influencing my reaction? The mind is a powerful thing, and might play a crucial role in our metabolic response. More on that later, too - I want to investigate the influence of meal dynamics on postprandial hormones.

In any event, I'll have access to a lot of cool nutritional research resources at Cornell University next year! Life on the hill will provide me with plenty of opportunities to explore the effects of different foods and supplements.

In the meantime, I shall engage in responsible guineapiggery. Er, what?

guineapiggery: self-experimentation with one's biological makeup

Join me as I get to know myself a little bit better! I should note that I do not participate in the consumption of illegal or even regulated substances, and I always do my homework in advance. I'll err on a conservative approach after doing a cost-benefit analysis for any supplement. I play it safe. I'll probably recruit my doctor in this adventure to monitor my health and blood profile, too. 

Stay tuned.