BETTER HUMAN PROJECT, HEALTH BHP 004: Molecular Hydrogen Foundation | Tyler Lebaron
February 18, 2019Introduction
It’s hard to figure out what is true, what is hype, and what has been disregarded as pseudoscience without a proper assessment. Every year, the gap between magical thinkers and the charlatans who prey on them, and the supposed “skeptics” grows wider. Every year each side feels the need to outdo past feats, diving deeper into their own projected and self-defined philosophy. I’ve personally heard numerous counterparts in this industry chuckle about how consumers are more likely to buy something the more ridiculous and implausible it is, even pitching a product as magical when it is real and concrete science with a coherent and logical mode of action. I’ve heard many of the biggest names in the industry admit they do not believe many of the narratives they write about or that their company pushes, acknowledging they jumped the gun and now they cannot break their story. I have watched this transpire while simultaneously watching the skeptic communities devolve into echo chambers where they recklessly share blog posts written by their ‘friends and allies’ without properly vetting the evidence. That is exactly the opposite of what a skeptic is supposed to be. Many of these skeptic groups attack subjects they haven’t bothered to verse themselves in which is ironically the same travesty they rightfully mock the anti-science crowd for. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a skeptic, in fact, it should be commended, so long as the individual does their due diligence in fully researching the topic at hand. Part of the issue is content and the need for furthering one’s own ego and fame. My life has been devoted to learning; both conquering my intellect and my body, reading, and understanding. That said, there is no way I could dream of churning out the content many of these sites do, skeptic and health mavericks alike, for the duration many of them have while maintaining a modicum of intellectual integrity and honesty.
The prevailing opinion on both sides seems to be this is war. Skeptics cannot concede a single inch to who they perceive as the greatest threats to the population’s health and well-being, which further fuels the belief that there is an active conspiracy against the natural community. As someone who has spent considerable time on both sides of the aforementioned fence, and immersed in the third, the utterly infuriating and almost incoherent and maddening task of navigating various Governmental departments, I am confident in stating that Occam’s Razor applies, or simply put, the easiest answer is the correct one. My observation is that most individuals take the path of least resistance. There is no conspiracy. Natural bloggers replicate messages from the top down, and the top fears losing their base so cannot change the message even when they know it is not correct. Those in the middle do not dare go against messaging in fear of financial loss. The skeptics fear to give any credibility to the natural community, so criticize every action. This spiral has continued and grown out of control. Both sides are doing a complete disservice to the general population. As I wrote in our Elite Biohacking line, natural or synthetic, this is irrelevant. Safe and effective. I’ll repeat, safe and effective. By criticizing virtually every achievement of medical science, natural leaders are discrediting themselves while harming their followers. By criticizing the entire supplement industry, skeptics are discrediting themselves while harming their followers. Many natural substances have been shown to work, and there is ample reason to launch a product as a supplement and not a drug. To paraphrase Ben Goldacre “the medical system is broken, but if the airline industry was broken, we wouldn’t start calling for it to be replaced with flying carpets. We’d fix the airline industry.” I believe my strategy is arguably an improvement. If you’ve followed what we at Drink HRW have done, we have donated product and in some cases additional funds to test for extra markers beyond what grants could cover, under no contract or agreement to not publish the results. We have agreed to study what public teams- MDs at hospitals, University Professors, etc, have asked to study. In the 28 months since launching our product, and a short 21 months since beginning our outreach program and call to action, we have had 2 completed clinical trials on our H2 tablets showing a benefit, 2 more at the time of this writing going through the reviews which are very favorable, 3 more underway with IRB approval and 2 additional sets to begin in 2019. This is a staggering schedule even for many pharmaceutical companies, and our influence over the results is somewhere between low and nonexistent. I also have funded this, and the companies birth and growth, and driven it myself with only a handful of key allies. I am not wealthy, I do not come from money. I grew up hovering around the poverty line raised until my teens by my single mom, working as a rehab worker. This is not a billion-dollar project, it is a passion project fueled by curiosity and the search for truth.
As I begin this blog I need to clarify for my readers; I am not a Ph.D., I am not a world-leading expert. I am not even a self-proclaimed expert. What I am is a contrarian, bitterly disenfranchised with the growing chasm in messaging between the two warring tribes. I am a contrarian who remembers the sage advice of the late Christopher Hitchens: “wake up every day and think about what makes you most angry with this world, and make sure that you are still angry about it.” Personally, I am most upset that rather than working together to solve the riddles surrounding our mortality and inevitable death, grinding away to capture even just another day, even another moment of consciousness, we would rather feud, betray our integrity and live in denial of our impending demise. Perhaps that is what drives me, a keen awareness that I am dying, slowly, day by day, as we all are. The realization that without dramatic interventions I will never again witness the beauty and strength my body was once capable of. I am under no illusions, we are nowhere near reversing aging without dramatic interventions, and a massive spike in funding. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be searching for any and all small victories, small strategies to hold back the relentless march. Through most of my adult life, I have been interested in this pursuit, and for the last several years it has been my full-time obsession. I may never find the answers, but I am obligated to try.
On that note, moving forward I will write about subjects relating to health and longevity in which I have spent considerable time reading and attempting to understand. Many of these will lead to free advice, while others may drive to products I am creating. As always, my products are not cookie cutters. They are not designed to fall into what the market trends are. They are products I want for myself as I believe they will lead to benefits, perhaps subtle and for others potentially profound, and they are products I now feel obliged to share with all of you. In the future, I hope to introduce other writers, experts who can share relevant knowledge to increase well-being. If you believe you are one of these experts, send me an email to [email protected], let’s chat.