Vitamin D and serotonin research, sauna and cold exposure, sulforaphane, and NAD+ — Dr. Rhonda Patrick's work, examined in depth.
This page describes Dr. Patrick's publicly known work in detail. It is not a personal endorsement of THE FAD, and none of this is medical advice.
Rhonda Patrick holds a PhD in biomedical science from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and is the founder of FoundMyFitness, a research-focused platform reaching a large audience through her podcast, YouTube channel and newsletter. Unlike some public science communicators, she regularly publishes her own peer-reviewed research alongside her public content.
Patrick's published research includes a 2014 paper in Aging Cell examining vitamin D's role in serotonin synthesis — directly relevant to our own vitamin D and inflammation page. She's also a prominent public voice on omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium and sulforaphane (a compound found in broccoli sprouts, studied for activating the body's own antioxidant defence pathways) — territory covered on our magnesium page and foods list.
Patrick has been one of the more research-forward voices on sauna use specifically, frequently citing Finnish cohort studies associating frequent sauna sessions with lower cardiovascular mortality, and discussing heat shock proteins as a proposed mechanism. She's also covered cold exposure research in similar depth — see our own cold exposure page and Wim Hof Method page for the fuller, more mixed picture across both heat and cold.
Patrick regularly synthesises longevity-adjacent research on topics like NAD+ metabolism, exercise's effect on brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and senescent cell biology — themes that overlap with figures like Bryan Johnson and Peter Attia, though Patrick's content is generally more focused on explaining the underlying mechanisms in detail than on prescribing a specific personal protocol.
Patrick is unusually rigorous about citing primary research directly and explaining study design and limitations alongside findings — a genuinely good habit to adopt when evaluating any public figure's health claims, including everyone else featured in this research library.
Her content spans an enormous range of topics at a level of technical detail beyond most mainstream health media — a strength for anyone wanting to go deep on the underlying mechanisms, though it means some claims she covers (particularly on newer compounds and emerging research) are more preliminary than settled, similar to the caveats we've noted elsewhere on this site.