Anecdotes Are Evidence

I used to think I was really clever for citing “science” to back up my views on fitness and health.

I think everyone’s been there…

There’s even an entire movement online, dubbed the “evidence-based fitness community”, which essentially glamorizes and worships scientific studies.

And in the process of trying to move health and fitness closer to “science” (you’ll see why I keep putting quotation marks around that word in a minute), they’ve completely demonized people who speak from EXPERIENCE, labeling them as bro scientists.

If you want to see a PRIME example of this, check out the video Jay Campbell and I just made responding to Andrew Huberman’s podcast on peptides.

Amongst the MANY flawed parts of that podcast was Huberman engaging in a thinly veiled attempt to mock the VAST amount of first-hand experience that thousands upon thousands of people have had with BPC-157 as “anecdata” (anecdotal data) 🙄

On the surface, all of this sounds perfectly logical.

Why wouldn’t you want to move away from individual anecdotes and start basing your training, lifestyle, and protocols around good, evidence-based science?

Want to know the truth?

The problem isn’t science - it’s the fact that it’s been CORRUPTED.

What we now call “science” is little more than a crooked industry that will validate anything it wants to be validated…

And invalidate anything it wants SILENCED.

Look, I’ll just be blunt for a minute - most studies are GARBAGE.

Like I said, I, like almost every other optimization nerd, I used to worship peer-reviewed research…

Until I actually started reading the studies CLOSELY.

And when I peeked under the hood and saw what was what, I was absolutely shocked at how incredibly poorly and illogically structured most of these things are.

If you want an eye-opening example of this, go look at some of the studies in exercise science, and it will be very apparent that the people conducting them have never lifted anything more than a box of Twinkies 😂

And once you dive down the rabbit hole, you’ll discover the quackery coming out of medical and drug trials isn’t much better.

Yet, the real problem surfaces when you start looking at the incentives behind what gets studied and what doesn’t.

Huberman said it himself - most peptides like BPC-157 have very few human studies and rely on animal research.

Why do you think that is?

Simple - because it’s not PROFITABLE.

These studies are astronomically expensive to conduct.

The average phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trial costs nearly $40 MILLION in total when all is said and done.

Which means that Big Pharma is one of the only industries with the capital to actually conduct these trials.

So why would they invest that kind of money into something like peptides?

Not only are peptides notoriously difficult to patent, but they’re also extremely effective - TOO effective.

To the point where if they were approved en masse they would undercut the majority of the pharmaceutical industry’s existing offerings.

So, if you’re wondering why we STILL don’t have a lot of concrete, human data on peptides, you now have your answer.

And that leaves us with anecdotes.

I get it…

One or two anecdotes does NOT make good evidence.

But thanks to the power of the internet, it’s not just a “few nice stories” - it’s THOUSANDS of case studies we can now aggregate.

And not only that, but the ever-increasing availability from companies like Limitless Life Nootropics (use code hunter15 for 15% off) means that we don’t have to sit around waiting for Big Pharma to rescue us - we can take matters into our own hands.

At the end of the day, first-hand experience is KING 👑

And before you say anything about safety, let me remind you that these are not mind-altering SSRIs or hormone-destroying DHT blockers we’re taking about here - they’re amino acids that ALL of our bodies produce naturally.

Now, despite everything I’ve said, I don’t think scientific studies are entirely worthless.

There are still some studies that are well put together, and it pays to stay on top of the literature.

But it is crystal clear to me that these studies alone are insufficient.

And unless they’re paired with a vast amount of real-world success and first-hand experience?

Well, in my opinion, they ain’t worth 💩

Best,

Hunter Williams

P.S. If you’re in the Raleigh area today come out to Carter-Finley stadium at 2PM to watch the spring football game. Admission is free.

I’ll be there supporting my brother who plays linebacker at NC State. Then we’re going to watch NC State go beat Purdue!