16 Stocks to buy & hold. July 2026
1. $NFLX in the 70s
2. $CELH in the 30s
3. $NKE in the 40s
4. $ELF in the 70s
5. $HNST in the 3s
6. $AXP in the 300s
7. $NOW in the 100s
8. $CAKE in the 70s
9. $EL in the 80s
10. $SOFI in the teens
11. $META in the 500s
12. $AMZN in the 200s
13. $BBWI in the 20s
14. $CRM in the 100s
15. $WHR in the 30s
16. $PYPL in the 40s
whatcha think
I swear taking zinc in the morning, magnesium at night, and vitamin D+K2 with breakfast changed my life.
I did it for 30 days straight and people around me kept asking why I seemed more alive.
Here's exactly what I did:
1. Zinc (Morning)
Zinc in the morning.
Vitamin D with your first meal.
Magnesium and Omega-3 at night.
Do it for 30 days and tell me your energy, your sleep, your mood and Testosterone levels didn't completely shift.
My cortisol got nuked after I started taking magnesium glycinate at night, ashwagandha in the morning, and L-theanine (+ these 3 habits).
It was wrecking my sleep, my belly fat, and my mood, but now it's fixed.
Here's exactly what I did:
If you’re even remotely interested in fitness (actual fitness) and how to train correctly for endurance and longevity sympathetically, you must follow Alan.
I swear magnesium glycinate at night, creatine in the morning, and vitamin D3+K2 with breakfast pulled my wife out of menopause hell.
We did it for 30 days straight, and she kept asking why her sleep, mood, and energy suddenly came back.
Here's exactly what we did:
1. They don't wait for the weekend to live.
They treat a random Tuesday with the same potential for joy as a Saturday.
They find small ways to celebrate the everyday-a nice lunch, a walk in the park, a call with a friend.
I swear taking zinc in the morning, magnesium at night, and vitamin D+K2 with breakfast changed my life.
I did it literally for 30 days straight & People around me kept asking why I feel more alive.
Here's exactly what I did:
If you can hold a wall sit for 2 minutes, your legs, metabolism, and future self will thank you. One of the most underrated exercises for healthy aging. Here are 7 reasons why: 👇🏻
1) Builds powerful legs
I'm a cardiologist. After 40, stop guessing about your health. These numbers tell you whether you're building a long, vibrant life — or quietly declining without knowing it.
I run these on myself. I run them on every patient I care about. Most are cheap bloodwork. All are available now. And together, they paint a picture no standard annual physical will ever give you. Print this. Bring it to your next appointment. Your 60-year-old self will thank you.
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𝗙𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗻
Target: below 5 μIU/mL. Ideal: 3-4.
This is the 10-year warning bell your standard panel completely misses. Your glucose and A1c can look "normal" for a decade while your pancreas is working overtime to keep them there. Fasting insulin catches insulin resistance 5-10 years before your A1c moves. By the time A1c rises, the damage is already extensive.
𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗔-𝗜𝗥
Target: below 1.0.
Calculated from fasting insulin and fasting glucose. The single best measure of insulin sensitivity. Above 1.0 and your metabolism is already under strain. Above 2.5 and you're insulin resistant — even if every other number looks fine.
𝗛𝗯𝗔𝟭𝗰
Target: below 5.4%.
Not below 5.7% — that's the threshold where medicine calls you "prediabetic." By then you've been metabolically compromised for years. Optimal is below 5.4%. Blood sugar mastery is longevity mastery.
𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗹𝘆𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗲 : 𝗛𝗗𝗟 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼
Target: below 2. Ideal: below 1.
Your metabolic health crystal ball. This ratio predicts insulin resistance, cardiovascular risk, and metabolic syndrome better than any single lipid number alone. A ratio above 3.5 is a red flag regardless of what your total cholesterol says.
𝗔𝗽𝗼𝗕
Target: below 80 mg/dL for moderate risk. Below 60 for high risk.
I've written about this extensively. ApoB counts every atherogenic particle hitting your artery walls. A 2024 analysis found 54% of patients had dangerous levels that standard LDL testing completely missed. If you only know your LDL, you're driving with one eye closed.
𝗟𝗽(𝗮)
Test once in your lifetime.
100% genetic. 1 in 5 Americans are elevated. Triples heart attack risk independently of everything else on this list. Diet and exercise cannot lower it. The 2026 ACC/AHA guidelines now recommend everyone be tested. Most never have been.
𝗵𝘀-𝗖𝗥𝗣
Target: below 1.0 mg/L.
You can have perfect cholesterol and inflamed arteries silently preparing to rupture. hs-CRP measures the fire behind the plaque. The JUPITER trial proved that finding and treating inflammation saves lives — even when lipids look fine. If this number is elevated, your mouth, your gut, your metabolic health, and your visceral fat are the first places to investigate.
𝗩𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻 𝗗
Target: 50-80 ng/mL.
Not the bare minimum of 30 your doctor accepts. Suboptimal vitamin D is linked to higher inflammation, weaker immunity, increased cardiovascular events, worse mood, and poorer outcomes across nearly every disease I treat. Supplement D3 with K2 — without K2, calcium deposits in your arteries instead of your bones.
𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗲 (𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 + 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲)
Men: optimal range 600-1000+ ng/dL total.
Declining testosterone is an independent predictor of cardiovascular death in men. It's tied to insulin resistance, arterial stiffness, visceral fat accumulation, and systemic inflammation. DHEA-S drops 10-20% every decade after 30. Tracking these isn't about vanity — it's evaluating your body's systemic resilience.
𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲
Target: below 120/80. Aim closer to 110/70.
Every point above optimal is cumulative arterial damage. Buy a home cuff. Measure morning and evening, seated quietly for five minutes, arm at heart level. White-coat readings in the office miss what's really happening. The smartest $40 investment in cardiac self-care.
𝗩𝗢𝟮 𝗠����𝘅
Men over 40: above 40 mL/kg/min. Women over 40: above 35.
Cardiorespiratory fitness is the single strongest predictor of all-cause mortality — stronger than smoking, diabetes, or heart disease as individual risk factors. A landmark study in JAMA found that extreme fitness was associated with the lowest mortality with no upper limit of benefit. You can estimate VO2 max with a timed mile, a rower test, or a wearable. Get faster every year.
𝗡𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀
Target: as few as possible.
Every medication you're on should be earning its place. I just wrote about five commonly prescribed drugs that do more harm than good with long-term use. Bring your full medication list to every appointment. Ask: "Do I still need this?" Deprescribing is one of the most powerful and underused tools in medicine.
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Thirteen numbers. Most available through cheap bloodwork and simple tests. Get them once or twice a year. Here's what I want you to understand: these numbers don't just tell you where you are. They tell you where you're heading. A fasting insulin of 8 today becomes diabetes in five years. An ApoB of 120 today becomes a heart attack in ten. An hs-CRP of 3 today means your arteries are inflamed right now — regardless of how healthy you feel. The standard annual physical checks a fraction of these. It was designed to find disease that's already there. This panel finds the disease that's coming — years before it arrives.
What gets measured gets improved. Optimize with the foundation I write about every week on this platform:
Zone 2 cardio plus resistance training 3-4 times per week. High-protein whole-food nutrition. Sleep 7-9 hours — non-negotiable. Morning sunlight. Stress management. And the targeted supplements I've covered in detail — creatine, magnesium, CoQ10, D3+K2, glycine, omega-3, psyllium husk.
The breakthroughs coming in the next decade — gene editing for cholesterol, cellular reprogramming, senolytics that clear senescent "zombie" cells driving inflammation and aging, GLP-1 drugs rewriting metabolic medicine — will be most powerful for people who've already built the metabolic foundation to receive them.
The future of medicine is personalized. But it starts with knowing your numbers today. Print this list. Book the bloodwork. Own the data. Prevention isn't passive. It's the most aggressive thing you can do for the decades ahead.