5 Healthyish Things, including six-pack abs and U.S. healthcare costs

David Dobrik is one of the OG influencers (who was kinda canceled??). In a recent video, Dobrik bet Mr. Beast that he would get shredded—or have to buy 20,000 Feastable bars. (I’m not big on Feastable bars, so I get what was at stake 🥴.) Dobrik proceeded to get very ripped, like a year's worth of getting ripped. Like the abs on your Abercrombie 2007 shopping bag ripped.

This reminds me of that time I got six-pack abs in six weeks—and it sucked. True story. Back then, I had just started Greatist to make health and wellness more accessible in a world that insisted six-pack abs (or being Gwyneth Paltrow) were the keys to happiness. So I got six-pack abs in six weeks to test it for myself.

I shared my #absperiment weekly, including how isolated and deprived I felt. The whole thing was depressing, and honestly? I wouldn’t do it again.

Despite growing up as the biggest kid in class, getting six-pack abs didn’t change how I felt about myself. Or it did, but it made me feel worse. I had zero interest in maintaining my six-pack after the #absperiment—and lost it in a matter of days. (On the upside, it got me on The Today Show, and Greatist got some great press, too, so there’s that.)

More than a decade later, I stand by the belief that you don’t need six-pack abs to be happy. I mean, maybe David Dobrik does. But you and I can just be healthyish. 😉

Of all the futuristic gizmos and gadgets announced at CES this year, Withings OMNIA Smart Mirror caught my eye and gave us a glimpse into the future of health tech 👀. The AI-powered mirror acts as your personalized health assistant, analyzing your vitals, offering feedback, and connecting you to a specialist if needed. 

I love how The Verge described the mirror, saying it was sort of like “if your smart scale and smartwatch decided to team up with an AI chatbot inside your bathroom mirror.” (Fun fact: I actually used Withings Smart Scale during my six-pack abs challenge—they were ahead of the curve even then).

While OMNIA is just a concept (for now), I think it’s inevitable we’ll one day soon get up in the morning, go to our mirror, and get a full-body scan while brushing our teeth. It's a no-brainer—and a great way to get ahead of potential health risks. Imagine all tumors caught early, all flu cases identified before they can spread, etc. I don’t think that future is far away.

GLP-1s get a lot of heat for being expensive, but it turns out they can help people save money in other ways. A new study by Cornell University and Numerator shows households using GLP-1s reduced their grocery spending by 6% within six months of taking the medication. (Up to 9% for higher income families.) 

Snacks took the hardest hit, with an 11% decline in savory snacks. (See ya, peanut butter pretzels.) Some CPG companies are even introducing “GLP-1 friendly” foods in a fight to stay relevant.

While the savings and potential lifestyle changes are promising, I’m still in a ~weird~ spot with GLP-1s. Yes, they offer big benefits, but few experts are willing to confidently say they’re safe. Without more research on long-term side effects, it still feels risky. But for many, the life-changing impact might outweigh the risk. For now, I remain hopeful these are game changers without some terrible drawbacks.

Americans’ view of U.S. healthcare quality has hit an all-time low. According to a Gallup poll, only 44% of Americans rate healthcare as "excellent" or "good," the lowest percentage since they started tracking in 2001. And while issues like access, obesity, and drug use are often in the media, the poll shows the most urgent health problem facing this country today is cost.

Only 19% of Americans are satisfied with healthcare costs, and dissatisfaction with costs spanned income levels and party lines. Rising premiums, soaring prescription drug costs, and high out-of-pocket expenses have all contributed to dissatisfaction. Yuck.

And yet, counterintuitively the poll also found the majority of people view their own healthcare quality coverage positively. Nearly three in four (71%) of U.S. adults consider the quality of healthcare they receive to be “excellent” or “good.” How can both be true? 

Well, we often forget the U.S. offers the best healthcare in the world. Like seriously. Say what you want about the system being a dumpster fire, but we lead in technological advancements. The most groundbreaking drugs are developed here. If you need a difficult surgery, you’re probably flying across the world to get it here. 

Of course, that all comes at a cost. A cost that essentially is passed over to us—and for most Americans, that cost is wayyy too high. So what do we do? I think it’s mostly about streamlining and improving what we have. The more bloat we can remove, the better. Healthcare will never be cheap—maybe we don’t even want it to be! But it shouldn’t cost this much.

It’s just tragic how much medical research has historically overlooked the female body. It’s absurd, embarrassing, and infuriating. Women are more likely to suffer from autoimmune diseases and are 2x as likely to die from heart attacks, yet they’re still underrepresented in clinical trials. Researchers rarely bother to study how treatments vary for men and women. It’s bad.

The research gap is especially pronounced in conditions that only affect women, like menopause. (An area Midi is working to improve, among others). A study in Nature Aging found fewer than 1% of preclinical aging research accurately represents menopause—just one glaring example of how research overlooks women. 

Thankfully, we’re starting to do more studies, but it’ll be a while until science catches up. Until then, we have this song to jam to: