Vitamin Z: What the readers are saying
It was my birthday on July 4. I did what I always do on my birthday: I went to a dance party in Venice Beach with 200 of my closest friends. The event is hosted by Venice Tribe DJs, a Burning Man inspired arts and music collective. There’s music, dancing, beach games, red-white-and-blue costumes, and fireworks.
I’ve been thinking about the healing power of dance, music and play—as covered recently in The New York Times (The Joy Workout: Six research-backed moves to improve your mood)—a topic I’ll explore more in a future issue.
I was reminded of a quote I heard from Chip Conley at Burning Man, on why arts and music festivals matter:
“Your sense of ego separation diminishes, and what comes in its place is communal joy. We’re looking for the highest expression of the human spirit.”
This week I’m sharing reader feedback. It’s been inspiring to see the Vitamin Z community grow to over 3,000 readers.
It’s a community of doctors, nurses, yoga and meditation teachers, tech leaders, venture capital investors, creative professionals, and more—all committed to optimizing their physical and mental health. Thank you for being part of this journey.
Here’s what you’ve been saying:
How egg freezing is changing the way we make babies
“Always enjoy reading your newsletter! Would be interested to see you cover the other half of fertility (i.e. men). A company called Legacy does sperm freezing and is growing rapidly—they just raised a Series B recently.”
-B.J., VP at a health food company
“I like this space. I invested in Gaia, which offers a predictive tool comparing your personal information to millions of past IVF treatments to calculate your chances of a live birth.”
-D.R., Venture capital investor
“Totally agree on making sure women have access to fertility treatment and egg freezing. But sadly, the conversations from professionals forget the harsh reality about egg freezing: Your chances to conceive decrease at every stage of the process.
Not many women get the right number of eggs necessary, then the eggs have to be good quality when you want to use them years later to be a good candidate for IVF (I couldn’t for years).
I think young women need to be educated about this. Know that the sooner they do it the better, BUT it doesn’t guarantee a pregnancy in your late 30s. No one told me and my friends this when we had these conversations with professionals.
We are often pushed to do it without considering the psychological impact of the process failing, which happens often. And it’s very sad :((((( And traumatizing for us. And having 2 or 3 rounds of treatment, only to be told years later it won’t work, is extremely unfair when you spent $40k thinking this will give you options and freedom in your reproductive journey.”
-L.C., Public speaker and environmental activist
How to build a meaningful online community
“Amazing! Now I know who to contact when I’m in NYC in LA. And, I’m doing something similar (creating community) in the Hudson Valley. Thanks for sharing your inspiration.”
-R.S., Art school founder & author
“Congrats on the NYT article. I recently moved to Miami and am working to build a community down here. I am focusing on those from government, philanthropy, art, tech and the rest who want to be part of building the Miami ecosystem so it’s home of the modern-day renaissance (artistic, innovative and humanistic). Thanks for your tips.”
-E.A., Product builder and early-stage investor
“This validates the need for Pivt (a new social app designed to reduce turnover and improve the well-being of relocated, mobile, & remote employees).”
-M.P., Early-stage investor
“This is great and so happy to see the resurgence of Vitamin Z. I think it might be time for you to create a curated shared experience in nature for your groups. You have a number of facilitators; yoga, meditation, storytelling that could contribute.”
-M.S., Creator of Travel With Meaning
How can we get people to eat healthier foods?
“Chile’s labels sounds like a great idea. Although I anticipate processed food companies to fight back much like the soda size fight in New York.”
-S.A., Cultural nutrition therapy for minorities
“My view is that it’s often about price. We subsidize cheap sugar, so sugary drinks and other junk foods are cheaper relative to healthy stuff. And poor people struggling are steered toward cheap calories. If sugar were priced higher, that $0.99 Arizona Iced Tea would cost more.”
-J.B., Urban farm manager
“I’m reducing the amount of sugar intake for me and my family. I think one of the takeaways of the history of sugar in America should be a recognition of our hubris in manufacturing food products. Anything that we (1) never or very infrequently ate in our evolutionary history, and (2) is backed by an industry that can be considered “Big” warrants some skepticism.
I assert that seed oils fit into this bucket. I’m in an only-in-moderation-until-proven-otherwise camp when it comes to things like canola oil and vegetable oil. What are your thoughts?
I convinced my parents to reduce their seed oils by sending them a video I saw that was just a matter-of-fact, how-it-works clip of the production process of canola oil. It’s kind of ridiculous how they make it, and when you see all the stages of bleaching and chemical refining and sludge, it’s just a little harder to keep putting it in your body.”
-A.G., Tech executive
The healing power of sound and music
“I’m a big fan of Brian Harris at MedRhythms, and I’ve heard great things about Murray Hidary, though I’ve always just missed his live experiences. Gotta catch one, one of these days.”
-J.P., Digital health startup founder
“As a yoga instructor it’s odd that I’m not into “anything”, yet my recent yoga classes end with sound meditation… amazing! Sound bowls, guitar, chimes.”
-E.L., Yoga teacher
“Music has always been a central part of my life...violin, piano, guitar, singing, show tunes, folk, jazz, classical....all good!”
-R.Z., My mother
What I learned working at a biotech hedge fund
“You say ‘Government funding of basic science is critical for advancing health.’ This struck me as an unexpected (and I think wrong, but reasonable people can disagree) assertion. Government funding of research (even things that take a decade or two to materialize) hasn’t been nearly as beneficial as we’ve been led to believe in America.
If governments hadn’t stepped into funding basic research through academia, then other funders would have done it in different, more flexible ways.
Our systems clearly have put some points on the board, but I’d like to see us moving much faster when it comes to the big biotech challenges: Aging, cancer, autoimmunity, etc.”
-A.G., Tech executive
How tech is transforming home care for seniors
“Great piece, Daniel. Really respect the work happening at DUOS as well—they connect older adults and their caretakers to a network of service providers to help members with their social needs, care navigation needs, and physical aging needs.”
-S.L., VP marketing for a behavioral health company
“Thanks for including Papa! For our members, the service is covered by the health plan or employer—so cost won’t be a barrier. Tech is indeed a transformer…as is the human touch it enables.”
-E.H., VP at Papa (senior care technology)
[Note: After I published this piece, a company called Tomorrow Health announced they’d raised $60 million for their home-based care coordination platform.]
Top 10 LA Health and Wellness Trends
“Fun read and an accurate reading of the LA zeitgeist.”
-A.B., Author and public speaking coach
“I disagree with your placement of functional medicine doctors. They should be placed closer to medical doctors. It all starts with what you put into your body. Functional medicine doctors treat the root causes, not just the symptoms.”
-L.B., Fitness and nutrition coach
“Functional or integrative medicine is nonsense. Snake oil, tomfoolery, BS. They check random lab values that don’t have any meaning to try to explain your ailments. Some of them are MDs, but it’s all BS.”
-A.G., Medical doctor
“I had a very similar experience being from NJ and living in LA for 4 years. Ended up living in a house where we threw wellness events with acupuncturists, breath work practitioners, etc.
I work with music festivals and can see a big shift as psychedelics are legalized. I’ve never seen more mushroom symbolism around. I think as these things are integrated more into everyday life for people, music festivals won’t be focused purely on alcohol and music will even shift.
In 2020, music as wellness was Spotify’s fastest growing genre. The number of people listening to binaural beats, meditative music, and spatial audio now in the mainstream is on the rise. I can definitely see those shifts happening in LA first. Great points!!”
-S.S., Creative strategist & producer at Coachella
I’m hiring a marketing specialist
A few of you have suggested ways for me to grow Vitamin Z and reach new audiences. With that goal in mind, I’m looking to bring on a marketing assistant. If you know a recent college graduate who’s proficient at social media marketing and has a passion for health and wellness, please send them my way!
Suggestions for future issues?
In the coming weeks I’ll be writing about:
Anxiety and panic disorder
Fitness and nutrition
Plant-based diets
Health influencers on TikTok
Psychedelic therapy
What other topics would you like me to explore? I’d love to hear your ideas and suggestions. Please let me know!
Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Vitamin Z.
Until next time,
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