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News, research and guides
348 articles from our editorial and science team.
GuidesThe Biohacker's Home Medicine Cabinet — 10 Supplements With the Strongest Evidence
Store shelves and online supplement rankings are overloaded with promises, but only a handful of substances have genuinely solid, repeatable scientific evidence behind them. This guide organizes 10 supplements with the strongest research support — from creatine to vitamin D — along with realistic doses, situations where they make sense, and situations where they're a wasted purchase.
AKdr Anna Kowalczyk12 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesIntermittent Fasting 16:8 or 5:2 — Which Eating Window Should You Choose
Intermittent fasting has spawned dozens of variants, but two protocols have dominated the public imagination: the daily, restricted 16:8 eating window and the cyclical, stronger calorie restriction of the 5:2 method. This guide compares both approaches based on real clinical trials, showing that the choice between them rarely comes down to which one is 'better' — and more often to which one you can actually stick with for longer than a few weeks.
PZdr Piotr Zieliński12 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesHow to Read Cosmetics Labels — Ingredients Worth a Closer Look
The ingredient list on a cosmetics package looks like a string of incomprehensible Latin names — yet it contains real, practical information about what, and how much of it, you're putting on your skin every day. This guide teaches you to read the INCI system step by step, points out ingredients worth a closer look, and shows, based on a real intervention study, that choosing products deliberately can measurably reduce exposure to certain substances within just a few days.
AKdr Anna Kowalczyk11 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesSleep Tracking Apps and Devices — What They Actually Measure, and What They Guess
A wrist watch, a finger ring, a mat under your mattress, or an app listening through your phone's microphone — each shows you a neat sleep-stage graph the next morning. The problem is that a large part of that graph isn't a measurement at all, it's algorithmic guesswork, and a study comparing eleven popular trackers against polysomnography shows just how much that guesswork can vary.
JWJulia Wiśniewska11 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesHow to Optimize Your Bedroom for Sleep Quality — a Step-by-Step Guide
The air temperature in your bedroom affects sleep quality more than most people realize — and it's just one of several environmental factors you can genuinely control without spending a fortune on a new mattress. Here's a practical guide to optimizing temperature, light, sound, and air quality in your bedroom.
JWJulia Wiśniewska11 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesElectrolytes During Exercise — When Plain Water Isn't Enough
Drinking large amounts of plain water during long, intense exercise sounds like an obviously safe hydration strategy — yet a study of Boston Marathon runners found that for some of them, it led to a dangerous dilution of blood sodium. Here's a practical guide to when and how to replace electrolytes during exercise.
MNMichał Nowak11 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesHow to Prepare for a Fasting Blood Test — What to Eat and Drink the Day Before
An analysis of results from 209,180 people found that fasting duration before a blood draw had a surprisingly small effect on total cholesterol — which challenges some common beliefs about how strictly you need to prepare for a routine blood test. Here's a practical guide to what actually matters the day before and on the day of the test.
PZdr Piotr Zieliński11 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesSupplements for Long-Distance Runners — What Actually Has Evidence Behind It
Store shelves and running influencers' profiles are groaning under supplements promising better long-distance performance, but the International Olympic Committee's official position points to only a handful of substances with solid evidence of effectiveness. Here's a guide to which ones actually matter for a long-distance runner, and which are marketing with no evidence behind them.
MNMichał Nowak12 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesHypothyroidism Symptoms That Are Easy to Mistake for Something Else
Fatigue, weight gain, hair loss, a worse mood — each of these symptoms on its own has dozens of other, more "obvious" explanations. That's exactly why hypothyroidism often gets diagnosed months, sometimes years, late. This guide shows step by step which symptoms are worth putting side by side and when it's actually worth getting a TSH test instead of blaming everything on stress or age.
PZdr Piotr Zieliński11 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesStrength Training for Women Over 40 — Where to Start
The decline in muscle mass, bone density, and metabolic rate after forty isn't a life sentence — it's largely reversible with strength training, even if you've never picked up a barbell before. This guide shows how to start safely, how much load you actually need, and what to avoid in the first few weeks.
MNMichał Nowak12 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesHow to Read Your Lipid Panel — Total Cholesterol Isn't the Whole Story
You get your lipid panel back, see "total cholesterol: normal," and close the topic? That might be premature. Total cholesterol is the sum of several fractions with very different clinical meaning, and a growing body of evidence suggests that the number of LDL particles (or apoB) says more about actual cardiovascular risk than the overall figure. This guide shows how to read a lipid panel line by line.
PZdr Piotr Zieliński11 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesThe First Week of a Ketogenic Diet — A Practical Guide
Headaches, fatigue, irritability, and "brain fog" in the first few days of a ketogenic diet have a name — keto flu — and a specific, well-documented cause. This guide shows, day by day, what to expect in the first week, how to actually ease the symptoms, and which mistakes to avoid so you don't quit on day three.
AKdr Anna Kowalczyk11 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesAn Evening Routine for Better Recovery — A Step-by-Step Guide
Recovery starts long before you close your eyes. What you do in the last two hours before bed — a screen in your hand, one last urgent email, a coffee "for the road" — has a direct effect on how deeply and how long you sleep, and therefore on how well you recover. This guide shows how to build an evening routine step by step, grounded in what sleep research actually shows.
JWJulia Wiśniewska10 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesImmune Supplements Before Cold and Flu Season — What Actually Works
Every autumn, pharmacy shelves fill up with a wave of "immune boosters." Some have real, evidence-backed grounding — the rest is marketing with no substance behind it. Here's a practical guide to what's actually worth focusing on before cold and flu season starts.
AKdr Anna Kowalczyk11 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesHow to Dose Caffeine to Match Your Body Weight and Tolerance
"Just have one coffee before your workout" ignores the fact that the same caffeine dose acts very differently in someone weighing 55 kg versus someone weighing 95 kg. Here's how to calculate a caffeine dose per kilogram of body weight, instead of guessing based on cup size.
MNMichał Nowak10 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesThe Wim Hof Breathing Method — What the Science Actually Says
Controlled hyperventilation, cold exposure, and mindset — the method popularized by Dutch extreme athlete Wim Hof made the jump from viral videos to one of the more widely cited studies on conscious control of the immune system. Here's what that study actually showed, and what's already marketing overreach.
JWJulia Wiśniewska12 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesHow to Prepare for Donating Blood — Diet and Hydration Before and After
Donating blood means losing roughly 450 ml in one sitting — including a meaningful amount of iron — yet most donors get no guidance beyond "eat something first" and "drink plenty of water." Here's a practical, step-by-step guide to what's actually worth doing before and after donating.
PZdr Piotr Zieliński11 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesCollagen — Hydrolysate or Peptides, Which Should You Choose? A Guide to the Forms
Collagen supplement shelves promise "hydrolysate," "peptides," "low molecular weight," and dozens of patented brand names — and most shoppers have no idea these terms largely describe the same process. Here's a guide to what actually separates these terms and what to look for when choosing.
AKdr Anna Kowalczyk11 min
September 3, 2026
GuidesQuercetin and Allergic Rhinitis: What Does the Clinical Trial Show?
Quercetin, a flavonoid found in onions, apples, and capers, has circulated online for years as a "natural antihistamine" for hay fever. A randomized, placebo-controlled Japanese study tested that claim in 66 people with pollinosis symptoms — and found a real, if modest, improvement. We look at exactly what was measured, what dose was used, and where the limits of this conclusion lie.
AKdr Anna Kowalczyk11 min
September 2, 2026
GuidesCholine and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD): What Does the Framingham Heart Study Show?
Choline is essential for transporting fat out of the liver, and its deficiency has been shown experimentally to cause fatty liver in humans within weeks. A new analysis of Framingham Heart Study data, covering more than 1,400 people followed for six years, shows that higher choline intake is associated with lower risk of developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) — with one important caveat regarding eggs as a choline source.
PZdr Piotr Zieliński12 min
September 2, 2026
GuidesN-Acetylcysteine (NAC) and COPD Exacerbations: What Does a Meta-Analysis of 13 Trials Show?
Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are the leading cause of hospitalization and worsened prognosis in patients with the disease. N-acetylcysteine (NAC), best known as a mucolytic, has a meta-analysis of 13 trials in over 4,000 patients behind it, showing a significant, dose-dependent reduction in exacerbation frequency. We look at what dose actually works, and for whom.
PZdr Piotr Zieliński12 min
September 2, 2026
GuidesVitamin D and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): What Do the Studies Actually Show?
The theory linking low winter vitamin D levels to seasonal affective disorder (SAD) sounds intuitive and gets repeated readily in popular media. A randomized clinical trial designed specifically to test it, however, produced a result that rarely makes headlines: no significant difference between vitamin D and placebo. We take an honest look at what this hypothesis has going for it, and what still hasn't been proven.
JWJulia Wiśniewska11 min
September 2, 2026
GuidesProbiotics and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS): Which Strains Have Real Evidence?
"Probiotics for IBS" is one of the most frequently repeated, but also most oversimplified, recommendations online. The largest meta-analysis to date — 82 trials and over 10,000 patients — paints a much more nuanced picture than supplement packaging suggests: a real benefit was confirmed only for select strains, and the certainty of that evidence was rated low in most cases.
AKdr Anna Kowalczyk12 min
September 2, 2026
GuidesMelatonin and Migraine in Children: Can a Supplement Replace Preventive Medication?
Migraine in children can seriously disrupt school, sleep, and daily life, and parents looking for a gentler alternative to prescription drugs increasingly come across melatonin as a preventive option. A carefully designed, randomized, placebo-controlled trial from the University of California, San Francisco, however, tells a much less clear-cut story than popular articles suggesting a ready-made solution.
JWJulia Wiśniewska11 min
September 2, 2026