What did @drew.hallgrimson actually say?
Drew offered five general wellness tips for men's mental health month: build a sustainable routine, acknowledge your feelings, journal to track emotional progress, get outside because "vitamin D is known to improve symptoms of depression," and share the video with someone who needs it. The vitamin D claim is the only one with a specific, testable scientific assertion attached to it, so that's where we need to spend the most time.
The advice is well-intentioned and largely harmless. There's nothing here that's going to send anyone to the ER. But "well-intentioned" and "scientifically accurate" are not the same thing, and the vitamin D framing in particular is stated with more confidence than the evidence currently supports. The rest of the tips, routine-building, journaling, outdoor activity, are backed by a reasonable body of research, though Drew doesn't cite any of it.
Does the science back this up?
The vitamin D and depression link is real but messier than Drew implies. Observational studies consistently show that people with depression tend to have lower vitamin D levels. The problem is causation. A 2022 meta-analysis by Shaffer et al. in JAMA Network Open found that vitamin D supplementation did not significantly reduce depression symptoms in adults without a pre-existing deficiency. A separate 2023 Cochrane review reached a similarly cautious conclusion.
Where it gets interesting: men with clinically low testosterone, the population most relevant to a TRT-adjacent platform, are also more likely to have vitamin D deficiency. Some research, including work by Wehr et al. (2010, Clinical Endocrinology), suggests vitamin D and testosterone levels correlate. So for hypogonadal men specifically, correcting a vitamin D deficiency might have downstream mood benefits, but that's a far cry from a blanket "vitamin D improves depression."
Routine and journaling are on firmer ground. A 2019 study by Smyth et al. in JAMA Internal Medicine linked expressive writing to reduced psychological distress. Behavioral activation, which routine-building essentially is, is a core component of evidence-based CBT for depression.
What did they get wrong (or right)?
The vitamin D claim is stated too broadly. "Known to improve symptoms of depression" implies settled science. It isn't. For men with confirmed deficiency, supplementation may help. For men with normal levels, the evidence is weak. Drew doesn't make that distinction, and that matters when your audience includes men who may self-diagnose and self-supplement based on a 60-second video.
What Drew got right is the emotional acknowledgment piece. The framing that "thoughts and emotions pile up" when you suppress feelings is consistent with decades of research on emotional suppression, including work by Gross and John (2003, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology), which found that habitual suppression correlates with worse mood outcomes and reduced social connection. That's a useful thing to tell men, who are statistically less likely to seek mental health support.
The outdoor exercise recommendation is also solid. A 2018 meta-analysis by Stubbs et al. in Depression and Anxiety found that exercise significantly reduced depressive symptoms across multiple trials. Framing it as just a vitamin D delivery mechanism undersells what's actually happening physiologically.
What should you actually know?
If you're a man dealing with persistent low mood, fatigue, or emotional flatness, a blood panel that checks both vitamin D and testosterone is a reasonable starting point before you start optimizing either. Deficiency in either is treatable and clinically meaningful. But "get outside" is not a treatment for clinical depression, and framing it that way risks minimizing how serious that condition is.
Journaling and routine are legitimate behavioral tools with real evidence behind them. They're most effective as part of a broader plan, not a replacement for professional support. The tips in this video are reasonable entry points, not finishing lines. If symptoms are persistent, talking to a clinician who can actually assess your hormone levels, sleep, and mental health history is a better next step than a TikTok checklist.
One more thing worth naming: men's mental health month content often functions as a permission slip for men to start thinking about their wellbeing. That's genuinely valuable. But permission without direction can leave people spinning. Drew's final tip, send this to a friend, is well-meaning, but sending someone a friend a mental health checklist is not the same as asking them directly if they're okay.