It's late. We just finished game two of a three-in-three — three games in three days, for anyone outside the hockey world. I'm sitting on a four-hour bus ride home, blue light glasses on, getting the usual looks.
Nobody says anything. But I can feel it — the slight confusion, maybe some understanding, maybe some quiet ridicule. A 23-year-old professional hockey player caring about blue light exposure on a team bus isn't exactly the norm.
That's kind of the whole point of this newsletter!
WHERE THIS STARTED
The most important influence in this space, for me, has been my mom.
Over the last few years she's completely transformed the way she thinks about health — questioning the default assumptions most of us grow up with, looking past the idea that every problem has a pharmaceutical answer, and genuinely doing the work to understand what the body actually needs. Watching that shift happen, and seeing the difference it made for her, opened my eyes in a way nothing else could have.
When I was dealing with a persistent injury a while back, she was the one who pointed me toward curcumin — turmeric — for inflammation. I tried it. It worked. And that one moment of something natural actually delivering results changed the way I look at everything.
I'm grateful for that. More than I probably say.
WHAT THIS NEWSLETTER ACTUALLY IS
I want to be clear about something: I'm not writing this as someone who has it all figured out.
I'm a professional athlete who got curious, had one experience that changed my thinking, and has been digging into the research ever since. Every issue of this newsletter is going to be me sharing what I find — the science behind a recovery method, the evidence for or against a supplement, the data on sleep quality and performance. Real topics, researched properly, written plainly.
Think of it less as a coach telling you what to do and more as someone sitting next to you on a long bus ride, sharing what they've been reading. We're figuring this out together.
The topics will cover everything that actually affects how an athlete feels and performs — recovery, nutrition, movement, sleep, mental performance, daily habits. Some issues will connect to my own experience. Most will just be the best information I can find on something worth understanding.
WHY NOW
I've been sitting on this idea for a while. There's something about being in the middle of a season — the grind of it, the travel, the back-to-back games — that makes you want to do something that's yours. Something built slowly, on the side, out of genuine interest rather than obligation.
This is that thing. A place to share what I'm finding, learn out loud, and hopefully be useful to people who care about the same stuff I do.
If you're reading this first issue, you're in early. That means something to me.
Let's get into it.
— Ethan Edwards
Natural Athlete Co.