My calendar is full. Where do I start?
Start with the few health actions that survive travel, late meetings, and a bad night.
The Upward ARC
Evidence briefs
Twenty-four reviewed briefs. Each one answers the questions people actually ask, shows the sources in order, and links back to the edition that prompted it.
Start with the question on your desk.
Three short routes through the library. Each one begins with a decision leaders ask about often.
Which tests matter in midlife?
A calm route through bloodwork, cardiovascular risk, and bone health.
My brain is the bottleneck. What now?
Separate ADHD, depleted attention, habits, and the claims made about keeping the brain young.
Sleep and Insomnia: What Helps, What Does Not, and When to Seek Care
Why tired people can remain awake, what to do after a 3 a.m. awakening, where breathing exercises and sleep trackers fall short, and when CBT-I or an apnea assessment is the right next step.
Read the evidence brief →ADHD Diagnosis, Treatment, and Safety: What the Evidence Supports
ADHD, driving, medication, diagnosis and premature mortality. Results from large studies, their limits, and the questions that need an individual clinical assessment.
Read the evidence brief →Fermented Foods, Probiotics, and Food Safety
Fermented food, gut immunity, the Stanford diet trial and home-fermentation safety. What a jar of sauerkraut can do and which claims the studies do not support.
Read the evidence brief →Fish Oil and Omega-3: Testing, Doses, Products, and Safety
What EPA and DHA do, where prescription evidence applies, why Omega-3 Index targets are not universal, and how product, dose, meals, medicines, pregnancy, and age change the decision.
Read the evidence brief →Humor, Stress, and Health: What a Laugh Can and Cannot Do
Laughter, cortisol, pain tolerance and mental health. What small experiments found and why there is no medical dose of comedy.
Read the evidence brief →Alcohol, Wearables, and Social Connection
Stress beliefs, moderate alcohol, wearable scores and social connection. What observational studies can tell you about one imperfect evening.
Read the evidence brief →Traditional Chinese Medicine: Evidence, Safety, and Product Risk
WHO, artemisinin, acupuncture, herbal-product adulteration and tai chi. Five claims that need separate evidence and separate safety decisions.
Read the evidence brief →Midlife Drive, Meaning, and Wellbeing
Career success, Erikson, the 1978 lottery study and dopamine. What these ideas explain about a hollow win and what they cannot diagnose.
Read the evidence brief →Life Satisfaction, Youth Distress, and Screen-Time Evidence
The midlife dip, Facebook's college rollout, teenage screen time and suicide statistics. Which results apply beyond the original study and which do not.
Read the evidence brief →AI Health Advice: What It Can Do and Where Clinicians Matter
ChatGPT, medical benchmarks, diagnostic trials and mental-health chatbots. Where AI can help with health questions and where a clinician is still needed.
Read the evidence brief →Massage and Recovery: Pain, Soreness, and Limits
Massage, soreness, inflammation, performance and lymph flow. Where massage helps, how long it needs, and which claims lack evidence.
Read the evidence brief →Minimum Effective Health Habits for Busy Weeks
The smallest set of health habits that can survive a demanding week. What evidence supports for training, brain health and sauna without inventing a perfect dose.
Read the evidence brief →Adult Neurogenesis and Brain Health: What Is Established
Adult neurogenesis, the 700-neuron estimate and the 2026 Nature paper. What researchers measured and what those results mean for memory and ageing.
Read the evidence brief →Cardiovascular Screening in Midlife: ApoB, Lp(a), and Coronary Calcium
ApoB, Lp(a), coronary calcium and hidden cardiovascular risk in midlife. Which tests answer a clear question and which numbers need more context.
Read the evidence brief →Skin, Hair, Injectables, and Preventive Care
Botox treatment failure, sunscreen, fillers and skin screening. Why treatment can fail and which prevention claims are supported.
Read the evidence brief →Behavior Change Under Load: From Knowledge to Action
Why health knowledge fails under pressure, what chronic stress does to decisions, and how much a short bout of movement can reasonably achieve.
Read the evidence brief →Midlife Mortality Risk: What Actually Moves the Odds
Smoking, weight, sitting, sleep and social connection in midlife. Why estimates from different studies cannot be ranked cleanly from 1 to 5.
Read the evidence brief →Bone Health in Midlife: When to Scan and How to Train
Who should have a DXA scan, what insufficient evidence for men means, which exercise supports bone and fracture prevention, and why supervised trial protocols are not universal prescriptions.
Read the evidence brief →Sexual Function as a Health Signal
Sexual function, cardiovascular risk, testosterone, sleep and common medicines. When a change deserves a wider health review.
Read the evidence brief →Children's Sleep, Movement, Food, and Family Structure
Sleep, movement, food and family routines for children aged 6 to 12. What the evidence supports without turning childhood into medical arithmetic.
Read the evidence brief →Loneliness, Social Connection, and Health Risk
Loneliness, heart risk, immune research and the cold-challenge study. What the population data mean for a leader surrounded by people all day.
Read the evidence brief →Motivation, Habits, and ADHD Under Load
ADHD, rewards, habit timing and the rules people quote without checking. Which claims have evidence when work and family break the routine.
Read the evidence brief →Bloodwork for Healthy Adults: A Decision-First Screening Guide
Which routine checks have guideline support, where Lp(a) and ApoB fit, why broad panels create noise, and how age, symptoms, medication, and risk change the answer.
Read the evidence brief →The Microbiome, Probiotics, and Everyday Gut Health
Microbe counts, gut immunity, serotonin, probiotics and food targets. The microbiome numbers that became too easy to repeat.
Read the evidence brief →