👋 Welcome to Healthy, Again. I'm Max, and this publication is all about taking your health back: real food, straight talk, and time-tested wisdom, for you and your family.
01 The biohacker chasing 160 got blindsided by an old-fashioned disease
Bryan Johnson, the tech millionaire taking dozens of pills to try to live to 160, revealed he has autoimmune gastritis, where the immune system attacks the cells that line the stomach. He put it bluntly: "my stomach is eating itself." It hid for a decade behind unexplained low iron before a scope finally caught it, and there's no cure. The most measured man alive still missed a disease his gadgets couldn't see. If your iron has been low for no clear reason, get it checked.
02 Fast walking in your 80s may cut brain decline in half
A study of about 4,000 adults over 80 found the fastest walkers had roughly half the risk of losing their memory and thinking skills. These "super movers" kept pace with people 30 years younger, and stayed sharp even when their brains showed the same age-related wear as slower walkers. They may just be healthier to begin with, so pace is partly a signal, not only a cause. Still, a brisk daily walk costs nothing and asks for no prescription.
03 The FDA cleared a gene therapy for kids as young as 2 with sickle cell
The FDA expanded Casgevy, a one-time gene therapy, to children as young as 2 with sickle cell disease, an inherited illness where misshapen red blood cells clog vessels and set off waves of severe pain. It edits a child's own stem cells to make healthy blood, and in trials it erased those pain crises for most, a real lifeline for kids facing a lifetime of hospital visits. It runs around $2 million, though, takes heavy chemo to prep the body, and is too new to know the lifelong effects. Still, for a child born with this and few good options, it's a door that didn't exist a few years ago, worth cheering with one eye on the long-term data.
✿ QUICK HITS — ON OUR RADAR
Frozen organic blueberries sold at Publix were recalled across 8 states after testing positive for E. coli, with 12 people sick and 4 hospitalized. Worth a two-minute check of your freezer for GreenWise lot 60401.
Obamacare premiums are set to jump about 14% in 2027, on top of last year's 20% rise, as pandemic-era subsidies that lowered monthly costs expire. Families who buy their own plans will feel it.
Walmart cut its ground beef price nearly 12%, from $6.74 to $5.94 a roll, part of summer rollbacks on beef, corn, and cherries. A small break at the register on real, whole food.