Who does it better?
Bryan Johnson at 46, spending $2M per year trying not to age?
https://t.co/QPZBPCB42s
Or me at 48, embracing aging and spending nothing, outside of a gym membership?
Life is cyclical. Sometimes you're on top of the mountain, sometimes you're sleeping at the bottom of it.
That chapter of my life was a very good 20-year run. Nice cars, beachfront house, 10,000 square feet, 8-car garage. From the outside it probably looked like I'd figured everything out.
Then life had other plans.
A few years later I went from all of that to being homeless. For about three years, McDonald's was a luxury I couldn't afford either.
That's why I never judge someone by where they are today. The wheel turns. Sometimes faster than you'd imagine. 😉
From 1987, through the 1990s, I drove a black 1987 560SEC AMG that most people mistook for just another Benz.
What they didn’t know is that it was a six-figure sleeper with tech that would confuse radar guns, shut off brake lights, and melt your soul with DAT audio before anyone knew what a DAT was.
Let me walk you through it.
$130K build. Real AMG, back when it was still a rogue tuning house in Germany. Full AMG kit. Slammed. Murdered out. No badges. Just a low, rumbling threat on wheels. Most people didn’t even know what AMG meant. That was fine by me.
Radar jammer? Oh yeah.
I installed the Remote Systems ECM5446, probably the best radar jammer ever made. No snake oil. No passive junk. It actively transmitted X and K band signals that would feed false readings to police radar guns.
I had a hidden control head in the folding ashtray, with a digital readout where I could literally dial in what speed I wanted the cop’s gun to display. Looked stock. Worked like black magic.
Front transmitters were hidden behind the grill. Rear ones tucked deep. I even had a brake light kill switch wired in. No glow, no signal, just gone. Useful when you’re doing 140 in the fast lane and tapping the brakes would give you away.
But the real flex was inside.
My friend Ginger Miller, the 25th Anniversary Penthouse Pet of the Year, got a Kenwood DAT head unit as part of her prize package. Yes, that Kenwood. A digital audio tape deck in the early 90s? Unheard of.
I bought it from her, then hunted down a DAT recorder, built my own studio-quality tapes, and used that head unit to run a $12,000 custom system. Crystal-clear highs. Perfect imaging. Thunder you could feel.
Every wire was hidden. Every panel custom-fitted. It didn’t just play music, it transported you.
Interior? Sheepskin seat covers so plush it felt illegal. $800 floor mats, yes, floor mats, because you don’t drop $130K on a rolling fortress and skimp on your feet.
That car wasn’t loud. It didn’t beg for attention. It didn’t need to.
It whispered.
And if you were a cop trying to clock me, you’d see 55 on your gun and wonder why your radar felt off. If you were a passenger, you were floating on wool, drenched in digital fidelity. If you were behind me, you never saw brake lights.
To this day, I’ve never driven anything like it.
It was one-of-one. Built in silence, for speed. Tuned for discretion. Wired for control.
And no one ever caught it.
If you'd driven this car in the 90s, you wouldn’t have told anyone either.
But now it’s just a damn good story.
A Mediterranean-style diet is probably the best place to start for elevated Lp(a), along with keeping ApoB, blood pressure, inflammation, and the rest of your cardiovascular risk factors under control.
At 67, you're elevated, but you're not in the range that really gets my attention. Once you get north of 75, and especially into triple digits, I start paying much closer attention.
I have a friend who came back at 156. He had already suffered a cardiac event at 60, and not one doctor had ever tested his Lp(a). I pushed him to get the test. That number explained a lot and may have saved his life.
Fortunately, everyone in my family, including my wife, is below 8.2, which is essentially no risk from an Lp(a) standpoint.
Pure speculation on my part, but when I look at a family full of people living into their late 90s and beyond, I can't help wondering if extremely low Lp(a) is part of the reason.
Every day on X it’s the same debate:
"LDL is bad!"
"LDL is fuel!"
"LDL doesn’t matter!"
"LDL is a scam!"
Everyone’s fighting about the wrong thing.
The real killer is Lp(a), and most don’t even know what it is.
For decades, doctors didn’t test for it.
Why?
Because there was no treatment.
No treatment = no drug.
No drug = no money.
No money = no test.
Insurance ignored it.
Doctors skipped it.
Patients never heard of it.
Meanwhile, people with perfect LDL dropped dead.
Lp(a) is genetic.
1 in 5 have it high.
It’s untouchable by diet, exercise, or statins.
And it silently builds plaque, thickens valves, and blocks arteries.
Now that pharma has drugs in the pipeline, suddenly doctors are testing for it.
Labs are bundling it.
Guidelines are mentioning it.
Funny how that works.
It was never just LDL.
It’s LDL + high Lp(a) that kills you.
Get tested once. That’s all it takes.
@tobi47rieper@Kristinartz That was one of my all-time favorite cars, and I've owned nearly 100 over my lifetime. Not many I kept over 2-3 years. That one I kept 10. I even wrote a post about it. Love to have it today, only problem is probably worth around $250k today.
https://t.co/cAu2L6q944
From 1987, through the 1990s, I drove a black 1987 560SEC AMG that most people mistook for just another Benz.
What they didn’t know is that it was a six-figure sleeper with tech that would confuse radar guns, shut off brake lights, and melt your soul with DAT audio before anyone knew what a DAT was.
Let me walk you through it.
$130K build. Real AMG, back when it was still a rogue tuning house in Germany. Full AMG kit. Slammed. Murdered out. No badges. Just a low, rumbling threat on wheels. Most people didn’t even know what AMG meant. That was fine by me.
Radar jammer? Oh yeah.
I installed the Remote Systems ECM5446, probably the best radar jammer ever made. No snake oil. No passive junk. It actively transmitted X and K band signals that would feed false readings to police radar guns.
I had a hidden control head in the folding ashtray, with a digital readout where I could literally dial in what speed I wanted the cop’s gun to display. Looked stock. Worked like black magic.
Front transmitters were hidden behind the grill. Rear ones tucked deep. I even had a brake light kill switch wired in. No glow, no signal, just gone. Useful when you’re doing 140 in the fast lane and tapping the brakes would give you away.
But the real flex was inside.
My friend Ginger Miller, the 25th Anniversary Penthouse Pet of the Year, got a Kenwood DAT head unit as part of her prize package. Yes, that Kenwood. A digital audio tape deck in the early 90s? Unheard of.
I bought it from her, then hunted down a DAT recorder, built my own studio-quality tapes, and used that head unit to run a $12,000 custom system. Crystal-clear highs. Perfect imaging. Thunder you could feel.
Every wire was hidden. Every panel custom-fitted. It didn’t just play music, it transported you.
Interior? Sheepskin seat covers so plush it felt illegal. $800 floor mats, yes, floor mats, because you don’t drop $130K on a rolling fortress and skimp on your feet.
That car wasn’t loud. It didn’t beg for attention. It didn’t need to.
It whispered.
And if you were a cop trying to clock me, you’d see 55 on your gun and wonder why your radar felt off. If you were a passenger, you were floating on wool, drenched in digital fidelity. If you were behind me, you never saw brake lights.
To this day, I’ve never driven anything like it.
It was one-of-one. Built in silence, for speed. Tuned for discretion. Wired for control.
And no one ever caught it.
If you'd driven this car in the 90s, you wouldn’t have told anyone either.
But now it’s just a damn good story.
Nope. Not a medication or supplement will affect Lp(a). It's a genetic LDL with a clotting hook.
You can't treat it (yet) but you can not feed it ammunition. Whatever you do, don't go carnivore or keto. Limit fats.
The good news is there are three treatments in Phase 3 studies. Expected to be approved soon. Phase 3 has shown in some cases a 98% reduction.
@TBakowsky@Kristinartz Brother, I have no need to post BS at 65 years old. Kit car? Seriously?
I guess this pic of me in 1989 with the Ferrari, limo and Jag all all fake too?
Or my car collection in the 2010's?
Dumbass
The best place I've found is that IndianM site. Back in the day my doctor gave me a prescription. Couldn't get it filled because Bayer never got FDA approval so it's not available in the US. Not even compounding pharmacies can make it.
Black market it's stupid expensive $1+ per pill. I pay $160 shipping included for 400 pills.
@whiteflashkid@SavvySwings It depends. Roughly two weeks. There have been times where my wife arranged an unscheduled weekend trip. I scaled to 100 mg in three days. 😆
I'd say ApoB is more important for tracking actual cardiovascular risk because it's measuring the number of atherogenic particles in circulation.
Lp(a) is still important, but it's genetic. I looked at Lp(a) once to see what cards I was dealt, then follow ApoB over time to see what I'm actually doing with them.
My best friend of 53 years had a 98% blockage a year ago. Stents saved his life.
Cardiologist never tested Lipoprotein(a).
No one mentioned it.
Fast-forward: he applies for an Alzheimer’s study. They test Lp(a).
It comes back: 156.
More than twice the threshold for very high risk (75).
Still, no one says a word.
Yesterday he calls me. I ask if they ever checked Lp(a). He had no idea what it was.
Because of one question, he now knows he has one of the most dangerous, underdiagnosed risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
Lp(a) isn’t touched by diet, exercise, or statins. It’s genetic, and it kills silently.
I’ve lost friends. This time, I didn’t.
Check yours.
Talk to your doctor.
Ask the damn question.
@whiteflashkid@SavvySwings Bruv, bump it to 100 mg. You'll thank me later. Total game changer.
Two days at 100 mg and you'll get that Grrrr feeling again.
The only draw back is you won't want to cycle back down. 😔
I've been using Proviron on and off for over 30 years. I always cycle it. Start at 25mg, gradually work up to 100mg, run it for a month or so, then taper back down and take a month off.
At 100 mg my libido is like a twenty year-old. And thats saying something at 65.
The biggest benefits I notice aren't muscle gains. It's lower SHBG, higher free testosterone, increased libido, harder muscles, and an overall better sense of well-being. It tends to make whatever testosterone you're already taking work better.
As for lean mass, I wouldn't put it in the same category as Deca, Primo, or Equipoise. By itself, it's not a powerful anabolic. The value comes from improving body composition and making your existing hormones more effective. Oh, and did I mention libido? 😆
Liver-wise, it's one of the milder oral compounds.
For context, I took my first steroid in 1982, cycled anabolics for roughly 20 years, and have been on enhanced TRT for more than 25 years. I get labs every month and let the numbers tell me what's happening.
After all these years, if someone told me I could only keep testosterone and Proviron, I wouldn't complain.
I almost took early retirement myself.
From 62 to 65, I figured I'd collect about $125,000. On the surface, it seemed like a no-brainer. Then I started looking at my family history and realized my situation isn't the same as most people's.
My mom turns 100 in three weeks. My dad lived to 98. I had nine aunts and uncles make it past 95, and most stayed pretty healthy and active.
When longevity runs that deep in your family, the math changes.
For many people, taking benefits early is the right move. But if there's a decent chance you're going to live into your 90s, delaying starts looking a lot more attractive. The real advantage doesn't show up at 70. It shows up at 90, 95, and beyond.
That was the part I hadn't fully considered until I sat down and ran the numbers.
At 61, it's probably worth looking at your family history before making the decision. Genetics aren't everything, but they're definitely part of the equation.😉
I didn't notice the rise in resting heart rate until I saw people discussing it on X and checked my Oura data.
Sure enough, there it was. The first month of Reta my resting heart rate jumped, then slowly started dropping.
I did notice a subtle increase in anxiety though. Nothing major, just feeling slightly more keyed up than usual.
Found a simple fix for both.
5mg of Inderal (propranolol) in the morning.
instantly, the anxious feeling disappeared and my resting heart rate dropped off a cliff, right back to baseline.
At least for me, it completely solved the issue.
What do I miss most about growing up before social media?
Going to the gym and seeing people actually train.
Today it feels like 75% of the gym is sitting on machines scrolling through Instagram, TikTok, or texting between sets long enough to qualify as a lunch break.
Back then, you walked in, did the work, and left. No tripods. No influencers. No filming every set from three camera angles. No spending 90 minutes in the gym to get 20 minutes of training.
The gym used to be where people escaped distractions.
Now people bring all of them with them...