The vocabulary.
Defined.
Short, practical definitions for the terms you see inside Unfair — from dose windows to evidence tiers.
ApoB
ApoB, short for apolipoprotein B, is a blood marker that approximates the number of atherogenic lipoprotein particles carrying ApoB, including LDL, VLDL remnants, IDL, and Lp(a)..
Blood Biomarker Panel
A blood biomarker panel is a structured set of laboratory values used to evaluate metabolic, inflammatory, nutritional, and cardiovascular status.
Deep Sleep Duration
Deep sleep duration is the total minutes spent in slow-wave sleep (stage N3) during a night, the stage most strongly tied to physical restoration, memory consolidation, and growth-hormone release.
Fasting Glucose
Fasting glucose is a blood glucose value measured after a fasting interval, commonly at least eight hours, used as a short-window snapshot of glycemic state..
Ferritin
Ferritin is a blood marker that reflects the body's stored iron, with important caveats because ferritin can also rise during inflammation, infection, liver stress, and other medical states..
Focus Score
Focus score is a structured self-rating (typically 1–10) of how easily you hold attention on a single task for an extended period, captured at a fixed time window each day.
HbA1c
HbA1c is a blood test that estimates longer-window glycemic exposure by measuring the percentage of hemoglobin in red blood cells that has glucose attached..
Homocysteine
Homocysteine is a blood amino-acid marker connected to one-carbon metabolism, B-vitamin status, kidney function, and cardiovascular-risk evaluation..
HRV Baseline
HRV baseline is your personal reference line for heart-rate variability, usually calculated as a 7- to 14-day rolling average of overnight RMSSD.
hs-CRP
hs-CRP is a high-sensitivity C-reactive protein blood test used to detect low-grade systemic inflammation with more sensitivity than a standard CRP test..
Lipid Panel
A lipid panel is a blood test group that reports common blood-fat measures such as total cholesterol, LDL-C, HDL-C, triglycerides, and often calculated non-HDL-C..
Mood Score
Mood score is a structured 1–10 self-rating of overall affect, captured at one fixed time window each day.
Readiness Score
Readiness score is a vendor-specific recovery or preparedness signal produced by consumer wearables, including Oura's Readiness, WHOOP's Recovery, and Garmin's Body Battery.
Resting Heart Rate
Resting heart rate (RHR) is the number of heartbeats per minute measured at physiological rest.
Sleep Efficiency
Sleep efficiency is the percentage of time in bed that is actually spent asleep, computed as (total sleep time ÷ time in bed) × 100.
Sleep Onset Latency
Sleep onset latency (SOL) is the time between lights-out and the first stable transition into stage N1 sleep, usually measured in minutes.
Subjective Energy Score
Subjective energy score is a structured 1–10 self-rating of how energetic a user feels, captured at a fixed time each day and paired with a short context tag.
TSH and Free T3
TSH and free T3 are thyroid-related blood markers: thyroid-stimulating hormone is a pituitary signal, and free triiodothyronine is a circulating active thyroid hormone fraction.
Vitamin D Status
Vitamin D status is the blood-based assessment of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, usually written as 25(OH)D, used to estimate whether vitamin D exposure from sun, food, and intake is reflected in circulation..
VO2 Max Estimate
VO2 max estimate is a wearable-derived approximation of maximal oxygen uptake — the volume of oxygen the body can use per minute per kilogram of body weight at peak exertion, in mL/kg/min.
Chrononutrition
Chrononutrition is the study of how the timing of food and nutrient intake interacts with the body's daily rhythms, especially the clocks in the gut, liver, and pancreas.
Chronotype
Chronotype is the personal tendency toward earlier or later sleep and peak alertness, sitting on a spectrum from clearly morning-shifted through neutral to clearly evening-shifted.
Circadian Rhythm
A circadian rhythm is the roughly 24-hour cycle of biology and behavior that the body keeps in step with the day, driven by a master clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus and tuned by light, meals, and activity.
Light Exposure Window
A light exposure window is a defined block of the day during which you intentionally manage the light at your eyes, either to advance the clock with bright morning light or to protect the evening wind-down by dimming bright and blue-rich sources.
Melatonin Onset
Melatonin onset, often referenced clinically as dim light melatonin onset or DLMO, is the point in the evening when the pineal gland begins releasing melatonin in measurable amounts, usually about 2 hours before habitual sleep onset.
Time Restricted Eating
Time-restricted eating, often abbreviated TRE, is a pattern that keeps all calorie intake inside a defined daily window, commonly 8 to 12 hours, with only water and unsweetened drinks outside that window.
Adherence
Adherence is the rate at which planned doses actually happen, counted against the original schedule rather than against a tolerant after-the-fact reading.
Bedtime Dose Window
The bedtime dose window is the planned time band within which a compound is taken in relation to target lights-out, chosen so the compound reaches peak effect when sleep pressure is rising rather than after wake the next day.
Consistency Score
Consistency score is Unfair's single number for how reliable the timing of a stack has been over a rolling 14-day window, expressed on a 0.00–1.00 scale.
Cycle Aware Reminder
Cycle-aware reminders coordinate nudges with your active cycle windows so a skipped dose is interpreted in context, not as a hard failure by default..
Dose
Dose is the numeric amount of an active compound taken at one event, expressed in the unit that the label and the evidence base actually share.
Dose Window
A dose window is the acceptable intake band for a dose, not the same as a fixed clock slot..
Dosing Frequency
Dosing frequency is how often the body is exposed to a dose pattern, which can matter more than raw amount..
Evening Dose Window
Evening dose windows are for compounds that are typically better tolerated closer to the end of your active day..
Loading Phase
Loading phase is a short period where dose intensity is intentionally stepped up to reach a reliable signal faster..
Maintenance Phase
Maintenance phase is the period after active loading where the goal is stable benefit with lower side-effect risk..
Manual Dose Journal
A manual dose journal is a structured record you control when automatic captures are not enough for your protocol..
Medication Route
Route means how the active ingredient enters your system, and route changes can alter onset, intensity, and risk..
Morning Dose Window
Morning windows are when many compounds are dosed for energy, focus, or metabolism support, but response can vary with wake state..
Notification Action
Notification action is what you choose when a reminder fires, and that choice directly changes adherence quality..
Nutrition Route
Nutrition route means when and with what context your supplement is taken: fasting, with meals, or after specific food types..
One Tap Dose Logging
One-tap dose logging is Unfair's signature fast-entry path — a single tap from the lock-screen notification, Home Screen widget, or the stack row on the Today tab that confirms a planned dose landed on schedule.
Pre-Training Dose Window
The pre-training dose window is the planned minutes-before-workout band in which a performance compound is taken so that peak plasma concentration lines up with the working set, not the cool-down.
Reminder Schedule
Reminder schedule is how timing strategy is set for routine follow-through without adding unnecessary alert burden..
Route of Administration
Route of administration is how a compound enters your body and changes timing, consistency, and safety assumptions..
Serving Size
Serving size is your base unit on paper; active dose is what you must compute from it..
Side Effect Note
Side-effect notes capture what changed, when, and how strongly, so later signals remain actionable..
Skipped Dose
Skipped dose is not always one event; it is often an intentional or accidental state that should be distinguished..
Stack Session
A stack session is a coherent block of time where behavior, dosing, and outcomes are interpreted together..
Titration
Titration is a controlled step-up plan used to find effective dose while limiting adverse overload..
Unit Normalization
Unit normalization converts mg, IU, µg, g, and liquid volumes into comparable dose language..
Follicular Phase
Follicular phase is the cycle window a user can select inside Unfair as the context label for logs that fall between the start of menses and ovulation, used in the app only as journaling metadata for later review..
Luteal Phase
Luteal phase is the cycle window a user can select inside Unfair as the context label for logs that fall after ovulation and before the next menses, available as voluntary metadata for review and not as a clinical staging tool..
Menstrual Phase Dosing
Menstrual phase dosing is the optional logging context inside Unfair that lets a user tag a daily log with a self-reported menstrual cycle phase so later review can group adherence, side effect notes, and outcome proxies by phase..
Oral Contraceptive Interaction
Oral contraceptive interaction inside Unfair is the medication-context label and interaction-screening surface that flags when a logged supplement may overlap pharmacologically with a user-reported oral contraceptive entry, framed as metadata for clinician review and not as contraception counseling..
Perimenopause Protocol
Perimenopause protocol inside Unfair is a logging and review context for users who are tracking supplement entries during the perimenopausal life stage, framed as a record-keeping and clinician-prep workflow rather than as a treatment protocol..
Postpartum Protocol
Postpartum protocol inside Unfair is the logging and review context for users in the postpartum period, framed strictly as a record-keeping and clinician-prep workflow and not as guidance on what to take, restart, or avoid after birth..
COMT Variant
A COMT variant is a genetic difference in the COMT gene that may inform hypotheses about catecholamine metabolism, stress response, or sensitivity patterns without predicting behavior by itself..
CYP450 Enzyme
A CYP450 enzyme is part of a liver and gut enzyme family that helps metabolize many medications, hormones, and other compounds..
Methylation Cycle
The methylation cycle is a set of biochemical reactions that move one-carbon units through folate, B12, methionine, and homocysteine pathways..
MTHFR Variant
An MTHFR variant is a genetic difference in the MTHFR gene that can affect how folate-cycle context is interpreted, without deciding supplement choice on its own..
Nutrigenomics
Nutrigenomics is the study of how genetic variation may interact with diet, nutrient status, and related biomarkers..
Pharmacogenomics
Pharmacogenomics is the study of how genetic variation can affect medication response, metabolism, transport, or adverse-effect risk..
SNP
An SNP, or single nucleotide polymorphism, is a common one-letter DNA difference at a specific genomic position that can be used as one context signal in personalization..
Autophagy
Autophagy is a cellular recycling process in which a cell breaks down and reuses its own components.
Biological Age
Biological age is an estimate, produced by a model, of how a person's body compares to a reference population on a chosen set of inputs.
Cold Exposure Protocol
A cold exposure protocol is a tracking template for a planned series of cold showers, cold-water immersion sessions, or ice baths inside a defined review window.
Heat Exposure Protocol
A heat exposure protocol is a tracking template for a planned series of sauna sessions, hot baths, or similar passive heat exposures inside a defined review window.
Hormesis
Hormesis is a dose–response pattern in which a small or moderate exposure to a stressor produces a different biological response than a large exposure of the same kind.
Mitochondrial Biogenesis
Mitochondrial biogenesis is the cellular process of producing new mitochondria, the organelles that handle most aerobic energy production in human cells.
NAD Precursor
A NAD precursor is a compound that the body can convert into nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, a molecule that takes part in many metabolic reactions.
Senescence
Cellular senescence is a state in which a cell stops dividing but stays metabolically active and can secrete signalling molecules that affect nearby tissue.
Telomere Length
Telomere length is a measurement of the repetitive DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes, usually reported as an average across a tissue sample.
Bile Acid-Mediated Absorption
Bile acid-mediated absorption is the uptake of fat-soluble compounds across the intestinal wall through emulsification by bile acids released after a meal containing dietary fat.
Fermented Food
A fermented food is a food whose flavor, texture, and chemistry have been altered by microbial activity, including yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, kombucha, and traditionally fermented vegetables.
Gut Microbiome
The gut microbiome is the community of bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses living along the digestive tract, with most of the metabolically active mass sitting in the colon.
Gut-Brain Axis
The gut-brain axis is the two-way signaling network between the digestive tract and the central nervous system, carried by the vagus nerve, circulating microbial metabolites, immune messengers, and hormones produced in the gut wall.
Postbiotic
A postbiotic is a characterized preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a health benefit, sometimes with metabolites still present.
Short-Chain Fatty Acid
A short-chain fatty acid is a small fat molecule, typically acetate, propionate, or butyrate, produced when colonic bacteria ferment dietary fiber and certain resistant starches.
Correlation Metadata
Correlation metadata is the structured record Unfair keeps of how dose events line up in time with outcome observations, expressed as a family of statistics with explicit lag, direction, and confidence.
Current Supplements Input
Current supplements input is the set of ingredients, timing, goals, sensitivities, and adherence patterns already active in your stack..
Deterministic Scoring
Deterministic scoring is the ranking layer that produces the same ordered stack for the same profile every time, using only stable inputs and fixed rules before any experimental modifiers are layered on.
Feedback Loop
The feedback loop is the path a single log entry travels before it changes what Unfair recommends next.
Goal Prioritization
Goal prioritization is how Unfair decides which outcomes to optimize first when multiple goals compete for the same stack..
Personalization Weight
Personalization weight is the coefficient the engine places on a given user signal when it scores a candidate ingredient — the extent to which your specific adherence, goals, tolerances, and symptom history bend the rank away from the population-average starting point.
Rationale Snippet
A rationale snippet is the one- to two-sentence explanation that sits under every ranked recommendation in Unfair and tells the user why the item is where it is — which signals pushed it up, which caveats hold it back, and what would change the rank next cycle.
Recommendation Bundle
Recommendation bundle is a grouped set of one or more ingredients presented by shared use case and schedule..
Recommendation Confidence
Recommendation confidence is a 0–1 score on each ranked suggestion that answers a narrower question than the rank itself: how much do we trust that this rank will still be the right one tomorrow given what we currently know about the user.
Recommendation Engine
The recommendation engine is the pipeline that turns a user profile — goals, current supplements, medications, adherence history, tolerances, and logged outcomes — into a short ordered list of stack suggestions with confidence scores and one-line rationales.
Top Stack Recommendation
A top stack recommendation is the composed card at the top of Unfair's ranked feed when a multi-compound protocol, taken together, outranks any single-compound change.
Top Supplement Recommendation
A top supplement recommendation is the single-ingredient card that sits at the top of Unfair's ranked feed for a specific goal and a specific user context — one compound, one product, one dose window, with a visible score, a stated confidence, a two-line rationale, and a safety read-out.
Blinding
Blinding is a study safeguard that hides treatment assignment from participants, researchers, outcome assessors, or data analysts so expectations are less able to shape behavior, measurement, or interpretation..
Cohen's d
Cohen's d is a standardized effect size for continuous outcomes, expressing the difference between two means in units of the outcome's standard deviation..
Confidence Interval
A confidence interval is a range around an estimate that shows how much statistical uncertainty remains after a study measures an effect..
Confounder
A confounder is a third variable that is related to both an exposure and an outcome, making the exposure look more or less important than it really is..
Crossover Trial
A crossover trial is a study design in which each participant receives more than one condition in sequence, such as placebo then active treatment, so each person can serve as their own comparison..
Dose-Response Curve
A dose-response curve describes how an outcome changes as dose changes, showing whether more exposure produces more effect, less effect, no added effect, or greater harm..
Effect Size
Effect size is the quantitative magnitude of a difference between groups — how much a supplement moved an outcome, not merely whether the movement cleared a p-value.
Evidence Quality Metadata
Evidence quality metadata is a practical confidence scale on what we can trust from studies and real-world signal strength..
Evidence Tier
An evidence tier is a short label attached to every claim about a supplement, describing how dependable that claim is before it feeds the app's recommendation ranking.
Hazard Ratio
A hazard ratio is a time-to-event effect measure that compares the instantaneous event rate between two groups over a follow-up period..
Intent-to-Treat
Intent-to-treat is an analysis principle that keeps participants in the groups they were originally assigned to, even if they missed doses, stopped treatment, switched conditions, or dropped out..
Mechanism of Action
Mechanism of action is the biochemical or physiological pathway through which a supplement or drug is proposed to produce its effect.
Meta-Analysis
A meta-analysis is a quantitative pooling of results from multiple independent studies on the same question.
N-of-1 Experiment
An n-of-1 experiment is a single-subject trial in which one person alternates between an intervention and a control (usually "on compound" and "off compound" or placebo) over repeated blocks, then compares their own outcomes across those blocks.
Nocebo Effect
The nocebo effect is the mirror image of placebo expectancy — a real negative experience produced by the expectation of harm, not by the active compound.
Observational Study
An observational study measures an exposure (taking a supplement, eating a diet, having a condition) and an outcome without randomly assigning who gets the exposure.
Placebo Expectancy
Placebo expectancy is the measurable shift in perceived outcome that comes from believing a supplement will help, independent of any pharmacological action.
Randomized Controlled Trial
A randomized controlled trial (RCT) is a study design in which participants are allocated by chance to receive either an intervention (a supplement, drug, or protocol) or a control (placebo, standard of care, or alternative dose).
Systematic Review
A systematic review is a planned, reproducible summary of all eligible studies on a research question, using explicit search rules, inclusion criteria, and quality assessment before drawing a conclusion..
Adverse Event
An adverse event is any unwanted medical occurrence, symptom, sign, or abnormal finding that appears after supplement use or a supplement change, whether or not the supplement is proven to have caused it..
Allergy Warning
An allergy warning means there is a meaningful possibility of immune reaction risk, ranging from mild sensitivity to immediate hypersensitivity..
Anticoagulant Interaction
An anticoagulant interaction is any supplement pattern that may increase bleeding tendency, especially when it overlaps prescription blood-thinners or procedural windows..
Blood Pressure Warning
Blood Pressure Warning is the set of stack-level checks that reduce risk when a supplement may affect blood pressure direction and symptom burden..
Caffeine Threshold
Caffeine threshold is the behaviorally adjusted intake point where side effects become likely enough to reduce decision quality for a given user..
Clinician Consult
Clinician consult is when stack-level self-management is no longer the right tool and a clinician review becomes the safer next step..
Contraindication
A contraindication is a profile attribute — a condition, medication, pregnancy status, or organ-function result — that makes a specific compound or class unsafe enough to exclude from a stack regardless of the goal.
CYP2D6 Interaction
A CYP2D6 interaction is any supplement or co-administered compound that meaningfully changes the activity of the CYP2D6 enzyme, a hepatic protein that metabolizes a large share of psychiatric and pain medications.
CYP3A4 Interaction
A CYP3A4 interaction is any supplement or co-administered compound that meaningfully changes the activity of the CYP3A4 enzyme, the hepatic and intestinal protein that metabolizes a large share of prescription medications.
Dosage Ceiling
Dosage ceiling is the upper limit threshold that reduces escalation risk before side effects become more likely than benefit..
Duplicate Ingredient Risk
Duplicate ingredient risk is the failure mode where a user crosses a safety ceiling — a stimulant cap, a fat-soluble vitamin upper limit, a mineral RDA multiple — because the same active is hiding in multiple products under different names, forms, or proprietary-formula labels.
Grapefruit Effect
The grapefruit effect is the well-documented rise in drug blood levels that can occur when grapefruit and related citrus — Seville orange, pomelo, and certain tangelos — inhibit intestinal CYP3A4 metabolism of paired oral medications.
Hepatic Risk
Hepatic risk means your stack may be more likely to stress your liver, especially with multi-ingredient stacks or concurrent medications..
Hypoglycemic Interaction
A hypoglycemic interaction is any supplement pattern that can additively lower blood glucose alongside antidiabetic medications, especially insulin, sulfonylureas, meglitinides, or medication combinations where low glucose is already a known concern.
Interaction Risk
Interaction risk is the probability that two or more compounds in a planned stack will act on the same receptor, enzyme, or physiological system closely enough that their combined effect is larger, smaller, or qualitatively different from either compound alone.
MAOI Class Interaction
An MAOI class interaction is any supplement pattern that overlaps with monoamine oxidase inhibitor medications, a small but high-stakes prescription class where co-ingestion errors can produce severe hypertensive or serotonergic events.
Medical Disclaimer
Unfair provides educational guidance, not diagnosis or treatment decisions for medical conditions..
Post-Surgical Bleeding Risk
Post-surgical bleeding risk is the elevated tendency for unusual bleeding or impaired clotting during the perioperative window — the days before, during, and after a planned procedure — when supplements with platelet, coagulation, or fibrinolytic effects are still active in the user's system.
Pregnancy Warning
Pregnancy warning means heightened caution where evidence is limited and fetal risk could outweigh routine benefit claims..
Renal Risk
Renal risk reflects how kidney function affects supplement safety, especially for high burden compounds..
Safety Consent
Safety consent is your explicit agreement to let Unfair use safety signals, logs, and recommendation constraints to reduce risk..
Serotonergic Interaction
Serotonergic interactions occur when multiple serotonergic agents stack and increase excess signaling risk..
SSRI Class Interaction
An SSRI class interaction is any supplement pattern that overlaps with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor medications closely enough that the platform pauses activation pending prescriber confirmation.
Stimulant Sensitivity
Stimulant sensitivity is the difference between how strongly your body reacts to a given stimulant load..
Stop Rule
Stop rules are explicit if/then conditions for pausing a compound or stack..
Third-Party Testing
Third-party testing is independent laboratory verification of a supplement product's identity, potency, and purity by an organization that is not the manufacturer or the retailer..
Thyroid Medication Interaction
A thyroid medication interaction is any supplement pattern that can change the absorption of oral thyroid hormone replacement, alter endogenous thyroid hormone production, or shift the lab values used to titrate the prescription.
Upper Limit
Upper limit is a protective threshold meant to prevent repeated unsafe cumulative exposure..
Washout Period
Washout is the reset window intended to separate one cycle’s residual signal from the next..
Cognitive Performance Protocol
A cognitive performance protocol is a stack architecture template for testing focus, alertness, or deep-work quality with fixed timing and a narrow proxy set.
Custom Stack Builder
The custom stack builder is the assembly surface in Unfair where a user chooses a goal, selects ingredients, and sets timing and duration, with safety checks running at every step before the stack can activate.
Fat Loss Protocol
A fat loss protocol is a stack architecture template for testing a body-composition goal across a defined block with a fixed roster, fixed dose windows, and prewritten stop rules.
Longevity Protocol
A longevity protocol is a stack architecture template for tracking slow-moving healthspan-adjacent proxies across a long review window with conservative changes.
Minimum Viable Stack
The minimum viable stack (MVS) is the smallest set of supplement changes that can plausibly move a specific outcome, while keeping safety, attribution, and measurement manageable..
Muscle Gain Protocol
A muscle gain protocol is a stack architecture template for testing whether a stable supplement roster supports a hypertrophy or strength block without obscuring the training variables that drive most of the outcome.
Off Cycle
Off-cycle is the planned break between active build periods to reset adaptation and reassess need..
On Cycle
On-cycle is the active testing period where a stack is intentionally run and monitored for effect and tolerability..
Recovery Protocol
A recovery protocol is a stack architecture template for testing whether a stable roster supports readiness, soreness, sleep, or training return across a defined block.
Stack Activation
Stack activation is when a planned stack moves from saved intent to active execution..
Stack Cadence
Cadence is the interval rhythm between starts, holds, reviews, and adaptation checkpoints..
Stack Cycle
A stack cycle is the structured, repeatable sequence of phases that governs how a supplement protocol is run, evaluated, and either renewed or retired.
Stack Favorites
Favorites are retrieval tools, not proof a stack is the best option for your current context..
Stack Goal
A stack goal is the named outcome a stack is optimized toward — better sleep, sharper focus, faster recovery, longevity-adjacent biomarker shifts, more strength output — bound to a specific primary proxy and a specific review window.
Stack of the Week
Stack of the week is a rotating featured stack intended to seed exploration, not replace personalized assessment..
Stack Template
A stack template is a reusable structure with goals, ingredient blocks, timing, and explicit stop conditions..
Stress Adaptation Protocol
A stress adaptation protocol is a stack architecture template for testing whether a stable roster supports steadier mood, readiness, or perceived stress during a defined life or training block.
Supplement Stack
A supplement stack is an ordered set of ingredients chosen for one primary goal, scheduled across defined dose windows, and sized to the user's ability to log and review it.
Absorption Window
The absorption window is the span of time during which a compound is actually being taken up across the gut wall, distinct from the dose window that describes when intake is logged..
Adaptogen
An adaptogen is a practical category of herbs or botanicals marketed to support stress adaptation and recovery, but its real-world effects vary a lot by extract, dose, and person..
Amino Acid Supplement
An amino acid supplement is a product where the primary active materials are isolated amino acids, amino-acid derivatives, peptides, or protein hydrolysates provided in doses designed to change protein signaling, neurotransmitter precursors, or recovery metrics..
Bioavailability
Bioavailability is the share of an ingredient that reaches blood, tissue, or active site at usable levels compared with the label amount..
Capsule
A capsule is a two-piece shell, usually gelatin or hypromellose (HPMC), filled with powder, granules, beads, or a small amount of oil, and intended to be swallowed whole.
Chelated Mineral
A chelated mineral is a mineral that has been bound to an organic ligand — usually an amino acid such as glycine or bisglycinate, or an organic acid such as citrate, malate, or fumarate — so that the mineral is delivered as a soluble complex rather than as a simple inorganic salt.
Cmax and Tmax
Cmax is the highest concentration a compound reaches after a single dose, and Tmax is the time from intake to that peak.
Dietary Supplement
Dietary supplement is the food-supplement regulatory category under federal supplement law, not a medical diagnosis or treatment category..
Enterohepatic Recirculation
Enterohepatic recirculation is a loop in which a compound or one of its metabolites is excreted into bile, delivered to the small intestine, and reabsorbed back into circulation rather than leaving the body on the first pass..
Extended Release
Extended release describes a formulation designed to release its active compound over an extended period of time rather than as an immediate bolus on dissolution.
First-Pass Metabolism
First-pass metabolism is the share of an orally taken dose that is altered or removed during its first pass through the gut wall and liver, before it reaches general circulation..
Foundation Supplement
A foundation supplement is one of the short list of compounds that addresses a population-level nutritional gap or a deeply conserved biological pathway with decades of human safety data.
Half-Life
Half-life is the time required for the body to clear about half of a compound's circulating amount, which helps explain how long one logged exposure can remain relevant..
Herbal Extract
Herbal extracts are concentrated forms where a plant is processed so the active compounds are more predictable than raw powders, but only if the label tells you what was standardized..
Ingredient Label
Your ingredient label is your contract with the product; it should tell you what active compounds you are dosing and how consistent the product is across batches..
Liposomal Delivery
Liposomal delivery is a formulation approach where an active compound is enclosed within small lipid vesicles, often phosphatidylcholine-based, with the intent of changing how the compound survives the gut and how it is taken up.
Methylated B Vitamin
A methylated B vitamin is a B-complex ingredient sold in its active or coenzyme-style form rather than as a simpler precursor that the body has to convert.
Micronized
Micronized refers to an ingredient whose particle size has been mechanically reduced — typically by milling or jet milling — so that the powder is composed of much smaller particles than the original raw material.
Mineral Supplement
Mineral supplements can be highly effective but their absorption changes a lot depending on timing, food, and competing nutrients..
Nootropic
Nootropic is a broad term for compounds people use to target focus, mood, or memory-like outcomes..
Omega-3
Omega-3 means oils and capsules where EPA and DHA are the primary active fatty acids, while ALA is usually a precursor source..
Peptide
Peptides are short bioactive chains that are regulated differently from typical grocery-style supplements in many jurisdictions..
Prebiotic
Prebiotics are fibers intended to feed beneficial microbes but they often cause temporary GI adaptation effects first..
Probiotic
Probiotics are live organisms intended to influence gut ecology, and product differences can be substantial even when labels look similar..
Proprietary Blend
Proprietary formulas hide ingredient-level dose detail, which reduces transparency for both safety and optimization decisions..
Softgel
A softgel is a single-piece, sealed shell — usually gelatin or a plant-based analog — filled with a liquid or semi-liquid payload such as oil, lipid suspension, or solubilized active compound.
Sublingual
Sublingual means a dose form held under the tongue so that the active compound can pass through the oral mucosa into the bloodstream rather than transit the stomach and liver first.
Supplement
A supplement is a product sold to add a nutrient, herb, amino acid, enzyme, or other bioactive to the diet without meeting the regulatory bar of a drug.
Supplement Withdrawal
Supplement withdrawal is the rebound or discontinuation response that appears after the body has adapted to a compound taken at a meaningful dose for long enough to shift receptor density, enzyme activity, or hormonal feedback.
Vitamin
Vitamins are essential micronutrients with distinct storage and toxicity profiles by class..
Baseline Establishment
Baseline establishment is the pre-intervention tracking period during which a user collects enough data on their normal state to interpret any later change as signal rather than noise.
Daily Check-In
The daily check-in is Unfair's fixed once-per-day prompt that captures four to six subjective proxies — energy, focus, mood, sleep feel, and optional tags — on the same scale, at the same time, every day.
Data Gap Handling
Data gap handling is how Unfair treats missing days in biomarker, dose, and subjective-log streams.
HealthKit Integration
HealthKit integration is how Unfair reads and writes physiological data through Apple's HealthKit framework on iOS.
Likert Scale
A Likert scale is a fixed ordinal rating scale (most often 1–5, 1–7, or 1–10) used to capture a subjective judgment in a consistent numeric form.
Mood Annotation
Mood annotation is a lightweight free-text or tag-based note attached to a mood score (or any subjective proxy entry) that captures why the score is what it is.
Moving Average Window
A moving average window is the rolling-lookback period over which Unfair averages a daily metric — typically 3, 7, 14, or 28 days — to smooth day-to-day variance and expose trend.
Objective Proxy
An objective proxy is a measurable, externally verifiable data point used to evaluate whether a supplement stack is producing its intended effect.
Recall Bias
Recall bias is the systematic distortion that enters any memory-based self-report.
Subjective Proxy
A subjective proxy is a self-reported number that stands in for a state no wearable or lab can measure well — perceived energy at 10 a.m., focus during a two-hour block, anxiety at bedtime, joint comfort after training.
Tag-Based Logging
Tag-based logging is Unfair's structured way of capturing the qualitative context around a dose or a check-in — symptoms, meal state, travel, training load, sleep disruption, mood events — using a small fixed vocabulary of two-tap labels rather than free-form prose.
Timestamp Alignment
Timestamp alignment is the process of matching a dose event to the downstream physiological signals it might be affecting, accounting for the compound's pharmacokinetics and the measurement cadence of each signal.
Wearable Sync
Wearable sync is the process of pulling physiological data (HRV, resting heart rate, sleep stages, activity, body temperature) from a wearable device into Unfair so dose events can be compared against the biomarkers they may be affecting.