THE FOCUX — Stay sharp. Stay focux.

1. 01

   Tokyo

2. 02

   Paris

3. 03

   Bangkok

4. 04

   London

5. 05

   Mexico City

6. 06

   Seoul

7. 07

   New York

8. 08

   Montreal

9. 09

   Las Vegas

• Malasaña, MadridMidnight coffee, deep sleep

  It's snowing in Malasaña and Kaizen orders a coffee at midnight. Bad example, he knows. What he cares about happens later: deep sleep, the slow-wave stage, the deepest of the night. Shortly after you fall asleep, in that first deep phase, your body releases its big pulse of growth hormone — measured as far back as 1968. Kaizen calls it the body's night shift. His own take? On nights he sleeps deeper, he wakes up feeling better. One man's experience, not a promise.

  So what steals that sleep the most?

  Sources PMID 17557422 · StatPearls NBK526132 · PMID 5675428 · PMID 9779515

• Mexico City marketCame for tacos, read the law

  A chili stall, a meat-and-fish market, and a conversation about creatine. It's found mainly in meat and fish, and your body makes some too. In the EU, what can be said about it is written in law, word for word — and here it is: "Creatine increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high intensity exercise." "Daily creatine consumption can enhance the effect of resistance training on muscle strength in adults over the age of 55." Not one word more — and only under the conditions of use the law itself sets (see the official text). Not a holy grail: one piece next to sleep, food and movement.

  Which compounds didn't make it into that law?

  Sources Reg. (EU) 432/2012 · Reg. (EU) 2017/672 · EFSA Journal 2016;14(2):4400 · PMID 28615996

• KyotoA mushroom with a beard

  Lion's mane: in Japan and China, a kitchen mushroom — sautéed, in soup. In the EU the fruiting body isn't a novel food: it was eaten in the EU before May 1997. Dried mycelium powder is a novel food and needs authorisation. Human studies exist, but they're small, and there are no authorised EU health claims. So Kaizen eats it on a plate and reads the label: which part of the mushroom is in the jar?

  What else is hiding in that small print?

  Sources EU Novel Food Catalogue · Reg. (EU) 2015/2283 · EU Register of health claims

• IstanbulYouth in a bottle? Not quite.

  Growth hormone exists, and your own body makes it. As a medicine, it's prescription only. A review of trials in healthy older adults found small changes in body composition and more side effects: fluid retention, joint pain, carpal tunnel. Its authors' verdict: it "cannot be recommended as an antiaging therapy." It's a medicine for specific medical conditions, not an anti-ageing supplement — and it doesn't come from a bazaar.

  So which famous health quote did nobody ever say?

  Sources PMID 17227934

• Athens · mythThis mug is lying

  "Let food be thy medicine." Seen it a thousand times, signed "Hippocrates". A 2013 review of the Hippocratic texts couldn't find it. Food matters enormously — but food is not a drug. Before you share a wise quote, ask who really said it.

  How many more famous lines are fake?

  Sources doi:10.1016/j.clnme.2013.10.002

• Hong Kong'The mushroom of immortality'? Read the label.

  In China it has been nicknamed 'the mushroom of immortality'. That's a nickname from tradition; now the data. A 2015 Cochrane review included 5 trials with 398 people. In the three it could analyse, everyone had type 2 diabetes, and it found no clear benefit on the markers measured — sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure. Liver damage has been described in people taking reishi powder; in one case, also with a lot of alcohol. Natural doesn't mean harmless; on medication, ask your doctor first.

  Tradition or evidence — which one wins the next round?

  Sources Cochrane CD007259.pub2, PMID 25686270 · PMID 37885515 · PMID 30061872 · PMID 35407117

• Naha, OkinawaStop before you're full

  Hara hachi bu. The idea is already in a Japanese book from 1713, the Yōjōkun: stop at eight or nine parts out of ten. Okinawa's elders historically ate few calories, and researchers associate it with their healthy ageing — associated, not proven. In a two-year trial in healthy non-obese adults aged 21–50, eating around 12% fewer calories improved several cardiometabolic markers (the CALERIE trial). Not going hungry: stopping before you're full. And not for everyone — pregnancy, a history of eating disorders, being underweight or any health problem: your doctor first.

  What would your grandmother add to that rule?

  Sources PMID 17986602 · PMID 31303390

• Buenos AiresThe peptide sold 'for research'. Why I don't.

  BPC-157: a synthetic peptide that circulates in gyms in vials sold "for research". Almost everything known comes from animals; a 2026 review found three human studies, 30 people in total, and very low certainty. It isn't approved as a medicine by any major health authority, and it's on the World Anti-Doping Agency's 2026 Prohibited List (S0), banned in sport at all times. Unknown purity, unknown dose — Kaizen prefers to wait for real trials.

  But what about the peptides with decades of research behind them?

  Sources PMID 42885452 · WADA 2026 Prohibited List, S0 (official PDF)

Info only, not medical advice.

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