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Tag: Brain Health

  • Measles outbreak poses risk of ‘irreversible’ brain damage, health officials warn

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    South Carolina health officials are warning of “irreversible” neurological damage in children as measles-related hospitalizations climb in the state.

    Of the 876 confirmed cases in the state’s upstate outbreak, at least 19 patients have been admitted with serious complications.

    “Some of these complications include measles encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, in children, and pneumonia,” state epidemiologist Linda Bell said in a Feb. 4 briefing.

    MEASLES EXPOSURE RISK IDENTIFIED AT MAJOR AIRPORT AND THEME PARK, HEALTH OFFICIALS WARN

    Bell emphasized that the complication is particularly dangerous for young patients.

    “Any time you have inflammation of the brain … there can be long-term consequences, things like developmental delays and impacts on the neurologic system that can be irreversible,” the expert warned.

    Some of the more serious measles-related complications include measles encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, in children, as well as pneumonia. (iStock)

    While the state does not systematically track every medical complication, pneumonia is the leading cause of measles-related death among young children, affecting approximately one in every 20 infected minors, according to CDC data.

    A total of 147 students are currently quarantined across 10 K-12 schools, Bell noted.

    VACCINE DEBATE HEATS UP AS OFFICIALS WEIGH SPLITTING COMBINED MMR INTO SINGLE DOSES

    The outbreak also poses a risk to expectant mothers. Because the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine cannot be administered during pregnancy, several exposed women recently required emergency treatment with immune globulin to provide “passive immunity.”

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    Bell noted that this is critical to “protect them against the high risk of complications during pregnancy and to protect their newborn babies.”

    The measles virus is notoriously contagious, capable of lingering in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has left a room, experts say.

    mother and daughter holding hands in hospital

    Pneumonia is the leading cause of death from measles in young children, affecting approximately one in every 20 infected minors. (iStock)

    South Carolina saw a historic surge in vaccinations in January. In particular, Spartanburg County saw a 162% increase in MMR vaccinations compared to the previous year.

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    “I’m hoping that what we can attribute [the vaccine surge] to is a wider recognition of the threat of this disease circulating in our communities and the desire for people to be protected against the complications,” Bell said in the briefing.

    Doctors in hospital

    A new case in the Pee Dee region suggests the virus may be spreading beyond the initial upstate clusters through “unrecognized community transmission.” (Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

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    Health officials continue to urge the public to seek vaccinations, especially as a new case in the Pee Dee region suggests the virus may be spreading beyond the initial upstate clusters through “unrecognized community transmission.”

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    As far as the encephalitis and pneumonia fears, “these are complications we hope to prevent,” Bell added.

    “Increasing vaccination coverage protects those who cannot be vaccinated, like young infants, pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems.”

    Khloe Quill is a lifestyle production assistant with Fox News Digital. She and the lifestyle team cover a range of story topics including food and drink, travel, and health. 

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  • Worried about cognitive decline as you age? Strength training can mitigate it

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    If television commercials and sales volume are any indication that people are worried about their brain health, then the answer is an unequivocal yes. It seems like you can’t watch TV for more than a few minutes without seeing an advertisement touting a vitamin or dietary supplement as a way to improve your memory and brain function.

    The brain health supplements market in the United States was valued at $3.5 billion in 2024 and is expected to nearly double by 2030, Grand View Research reports. Studies on cognitive decline support this fear and the enormous reliance of an aging population on these supplements, but new research suggests there may be an alternative. It’s a more natural way to boost your brain health, fight off the cognitive effects of aging and reap other benefits.

    Well-grounded concerns

    Concerns over cognitive decline among the aging population are well grounded in science. The journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience reports that aging is among the contributing factors of physiological cognitive decline, noting that “the effect of aging on cognitive functions is the largest and most consistent influence documented by extensive research.”

    Echoing these findings, the Journal of Clinical Investigation reports that cognitive decline and neurodegenerative changes are appreciable with advancing age. They say that as early as our 30s, core cognitive abilities, including processing speed, reasoning, episodic memory and spatial visualization begin to decline. The diminishment is small, yet consistent across our lifespans. With Mother Nature working against us, it’s not surprising that baby boomers, Generation X, and maybe even millennials are looking to maximize their cognitive functioning as long as possible.

    Brain Health Support

    In 2021, the AARP surveyed adults 50 and older and found that nearly 80% take a vitamin or dietary supplement and that 21% take a vitamin or dietary supplement for their brain health. It also showed that 71% wanted to maintain or improve their memory, 60% wanted to maintain or improve mental sharpness, and 12% take a supplement to delay dementia. 

    In September, I cited an earlier AARP survey that found three-quarters of adults age 40 and older are concerned about their brain health declining in the future. The National Institute on Aging is among various institutions that have reflected on the concerns about aging and brain health. It notes older adults worry about their memory and other thinking abilities. Coupled with the sales data on vitamins and supplements, these findings paint a picture of generations looking to do whatever they can to maintain their cognitive abilities. 

    The problem with supplements is found in a report from the University of Michigan that questions their effectiveness. According to the University’s Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation, “no major research studies support the effectiveness of supplements to enhance memory.” The experts at Michigan further indicated that studies on dementia show that few poll respondents discuss their concerns with their doctors, a potentially more effective way to apply evidence-based approaches to prevent or delay cognitive decline. Consistent with this message, new research indicates there is indeed an evidence-based alternative to keeping your brain young and doing it in a more natural way.

    More muscle leads to less fat and a younger brain

    A study of 1,164 healthy adults with an average age of 55 — roughly half men and women — based on comprehensive brain scans found that “those with high muscle mass and lower visceral fat showed significantly younger brain ages than their chronological years would predict.” 

    Visceral fat is the deep abdominal fat surrounding internal organs. It differs from the subcutaneous fat just under our skin, which is often the focus of our cosmetic attention. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America by Dr. Cyrus Raji, associate professor of radiology and neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. 

    Raji noted that “better brain health, in turn, lowers the risk for future brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.” In short, the researchers characterized their results as showing that more muscle and less belly fat slows brain aging, demonstrating that resistance training can be an effective neuroprotective strategy. 

    The findings are consistent with prior research showing that resistance training can support cognitive health, and further, provide an empowering, evidence-based alternative to supplements, and one which conveys other benefits.

    Putting the findings to work

    Commenting on the study’s implications for adults over 50, fitness trainer Dash Hartwell said resistance training (weight lifting 2-3 times per week) is the primary driver of muscle mass and that visceral fat “often responds relatively quickly to lifestyle intervention.” He cited dietary changes that reduce refined carbohydrates and processed foods, adequate sleep and stress management. 

    As to how best to approach resistance training, Hartwell said “the key is progressive overload: gradually increasing demands over time to continually stimulate adaption.” The goal, Harding said, is “body composition optimization.” 

    The American Cancer Society agrees. The organization says strength training can benefit men and women of all ages and suggests that two or three, 20- to 30-minute training session each week can produce significant benefits including the ability to reverse the loss of muscle mass associated with age. Other benefits include stronger bones, joint flexibility, weight control and better balance. 

    Mental health and well being has been a big part of my advocacy for men over 50. The logic is simple. If we want to maximize our quality of life and enjoy every bit of what life has to offer, we need to be both physically and mentally sharp. I won’t tell you it’s easy, but I will tell you that the fulfillment it can bring you is incredible. 

    And, let me remind you, when you get into rhythm and healthy living becomes ingrained in your life, what was once a tedious chore becomes another source of enjoyment. Our brains are at the center of our functional fitness; we need to attend to their wellbeing. 

    The best part is that this new research reinforces the point that what’s good for our mind is good for our body, and that’s a great return for the best investment you’ll ever make.

    Louis Bezich, chief of staff to the co-CEOs at Cooper University Health Care, is author of Saving Men From Themselves: 20 Proven Tactics with a New Approach to Healthy Living for Men Over 50,” and “Crack The Code: 10 Proven Secrets that Motivate Healthy Behavior and Inspire Fulfillment in Men Over 50.” Read more from Louis on his website.

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    Louis Bezich

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  • Your sleep and activity patterns may reveal hidden brain health risk, study suggests

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    The timing of your sleep patterns could be linked to increased dementia risk, according to a new study.

    Each person’s circadian rhythm, often defined as the body’s internal 24-hour clock, keeps the body operating on a healthy pattern of sleeping and waking. It also affects other systems in your body, according to Cleveland Clinic.

    While most people’s circadian rhythms are automatically regulated, things like light levels can throw them off balance.

    BRAIN HEALTH WARNING SIGN COULD BE HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT, SAY RESEARCHERS

    People with strong circadian rhythms are usually able to stick to regular times for sleeping and activity, even with schedule or season changes, experts say.

    With a weaker circadian rhythm, light and schedule changes are more likely to disrupt the body clock, leading to shifts in sleep and activity patterns.

    Older adults with weaker daily activity rhythms were more likely to develop dementia over the following years. (iStock)

    The new study, published in the journal Neurology, sought to explore whether these disruptions play a role in dementia risk among older adults.

    Researchers from the Academy of Neurology monitored more than 2,000 people for an average of 12 days to track their rest and rhythm activities.

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    “A novel aspect of our study is that we derived circadian rhythms from a chest-worn ECG patch that is commonly used clinically,” lead study author Wendy Wang, Ph.D., of the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, told Fox News Digital.

    SCIENTISTS UNCOVER HOW SOME 80-YEAR-OLDS HAVE THE MEMORY OF 50-YEAR-OLDS

    The participants’ average age was 79, and none had dementia at the time of the study. They were divided into three groups based on the strength of their circadian rhythms.

    In the group with the strongest rhythms, 31 of 728 people developed dementia, compared to 106 of 727 people in the group with the weakest rhythms.

    Heart doctor with patient

    Chest-worn ECG patches monitored patients’ circadian rhythm in the new study. (iStock)

    After adjusting for factors such as age, blood pressure and heart disease, researchers found that people in the weakest rhythm group had nearly 2.5 times the risk of dementia.

    The researchers identified a possible “U-shaped” association between the stability of the sleep-wake cycle and dementia, noting that people with consistently low activity levels may have less stable circadian rhythms.

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    People whose activity peaked at 2:15 p.m. or later had a 45% higher risk of dementia compared to those whose activity peaked earlier in the day. About 7% of people in the earlier peak group developed dementia, compared to 10% in the later peak group.

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    The study did have some limitations. Data on sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea or sleep-disordered breathing, were not available. Wang noted that more research is needed to understand the possible link.

    Man awake at night can't sleep

    With a weaker circadian rhythm, light and schedule changes are more likely to disrupt the body clock, leading to shifts in sleep and activity patterns. (iStock)

    The researcher also recommended that people maintain a strong circadian rhythm that is “well-aligned” with the 24-hour day.

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    “People with strong circadian rhythms often follow regular sleep and activity times,” she said.

    “However, it’s important to note that our research does not prove that irregular circadian rhythms cause dementia, only that an association was observed.”

    Khloe Quill is a lifestyle production assistant with Fox News Digital. She and the lifestyle team cover a range of story topics including food and drink, travel, and health. 

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  • Can Vegan Fecal Transplants Lower TMAO Levels? | NutritionFacts.org

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    If the microbiome of those eating plant-based diets protects against the toxic effects of TMAO, what about swapping gut flora?

    “Almost 2,500 years ago, Hippocrates stated that ‘All disease begins in the gut.’” When we feed our gut bacteria right with whole plant foods, they feed us right back with beneficial compounds like butyrate, which our gut bugs make from fiber. On the other hand, if we feed them wrong, they can produce detrimental compounds like TMAO, which they make from cheese, eggs, seafood, and other meat.

    We used to think that TMAO only contributed to cardiovascular diseases, like heart disease and stroke, but, more recently, it has been linked to psoriatic arthritis, associated with polycystic ovary syndrome, and everything in between. I’m most concerned about our leading killers, though. Of the top ten causes of death in the United States, we’ve known about its association with increased risk of heart disease and stroke, killers number one and five, but recently, an association has also been found between blood levels of TMAO and the risks of various cancers, which are our killer number two. The link between TMAO and cancer could be attributed to the inflammation caused by TMAO, but it could also be oxidative stress (free radicals), DNA damage, or a disruption in protein folding.

    What about our fourth leading killer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), like emphysema? TMAO is associated with premature death in patients with exacerbated COPD, though it’s suspected that it’s due to them dying from more cardiovascular disease.

    The link to stroke is a no-brainer—no pun intended. It is due to the higher blood pressure associated with higher TMAO levels, as well as the greater likelihood of clots forming in those with atrial fibrillation. Those with higher TMAO levels also appear to have worse strokes and four times the odds of death.

    Killer number six is Alzheimer’s disease. Can TMAO even get up into our brains? Yes, TMAO is present in human cerebrospinal fluid, which bathes the brain, and TMAO levels are higher in those with mild cognitive dysfunction and those with Alzheimer’s disease dementia. “In the brain, TMAO has been shown to induce neuronal senescence [meaning, deterioration with age], increase oxidative stress, impair mitochondrial function, and inhibit mTOR signaling, all of which contribute to brain aging and cognitive impairment.”

    Killer number seven is diabetes, and people with higher TMAO levels are about 50% more likely to have diabetes. Killer number eight is pneumonia, and TMAO predicts fatal outcomes in pneumonia patients even without evident heart disease. Kidney disease is killer number nine, and TMAO is strongly related to kidney function and predicts fatal outcomes there as well. Over a period of five years, more than half of chronic kidney disease patients who started out with average or higher TMAO levels were dead, whereas among those in the lowest third of levels, nearly 90% remained alive.

    How can we lower the TMAO levels in our blood? Because TMAO originates from dietary sources, we could limit our intake of choline- and carnitine-rich foods. They’re so widespread in foods,” though we’re talking about meat, eggs, and dairy. “Therefore, restriction of foods rich in TMA-containing nutrients may not be practical.” Can we just get a vegan fecal transplant? “Vegan donors provided the investigators with a fresh morning fecal sample…”

    If you remember, if you give a vegan a steak, despite all that carnitine, they make almost no TMAO compared to a meat-eater, presumably because the vegan hasn’t been fostering steak-eating bugs in their gut. See below and at 3:40 in my video Can Vegan Fecal Transplants Lower TMAO Levels?.

    Remarkably, even if you give plant-based eaters the equivalent of a 20-ounce steak every day for two months, only about half start ramping up production of TMAO, showing just how far their gut flora has to change. The capacity of veggie feces to churn out TMAO is almost nonexistent. Instead of eating healthier, what about getting some vegan poop?

    In a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial, research subjects either got vegan poop or their own poop back through a hose snaked down their nose, and it didn’t work.

    First of all, the vegans recruited for the study started out making TMAO themselves, in contrast to the other study, where they didn’t make any at all. This may be because the earlier study required the vegans to have been vegan for at least a year, and this study didn’t. So, there wasn’t much of a change in TMAO running through their bodies two weeks after getting the vegan poop, but the vegan poop they got seemed to start out with some capacity to produce TMAO in the first place.

    So, the failure to improve after the vegan fecal transplant “could be related to limited baseline microbiome differences and continuation of an omnivorous diet” after the vegan-donor transplant. What’s the point of trying to reset your microbiome if you’re just going to eat meat? Well, the researchers didn’t want to switch people to a plant-based diet since they knew that alone can change our microbiome, and they didn’t want to introduce any extra factors. The bottom line is that it seems there may not be any shortcuts. We may just have to eat a healthier diet.

    Doctor’s Note

    Want to become a donor? Find out How to Become a Fecal Transplant Super Donor.

    For more on TMAO, check out related posts below. 

    See the microbiome topic page for even more.

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • Heavy Metal, Headbanging, and Our Health | NutritionFacts.org

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    How might we moderate the rare but very real risk of headbanging?

    If you search for heavy metal in the National Library of Medicine database, most of what you find is on heavy metal contamination in fish, which “makes it difficult to establish clearly the role of fish consumption on a healthy diet” and perhaps helps to explain the quintupling of odds of autoimmune diseases, such as juvenile arthritis. But searching for the hazards of heavy metal also pops up entries on the “risks from heavy metal music.” In this study, researchers were talking about traumatic injuries from slamming around “during a moshing session,” but you’re more likely to get injured at an alternative rock concert. (Check out some of the artists below and at 0:50 in my video The Dangerous Effects of Heavy Metal Music.)

    Certainly, music-induced hearing loss is a serious problem, but that can result from any loud music. Clinical recommendations include the “80–90 rule”—no more than 80% of the maximum volume on personal listening devices for no more than 90 minutes a day. That’s not what the science shows, however. “Do not exceed 60% of the maximum volume” may be more evidence-based, but researchers figure teens would just ignore that, so they came up with more “acceptable” advice.

    I assumed I’d see a lot of satanic panic nonsense from the 1980s, when “parents bereaved by suicide…accused Heavy Metal groups of promoting suicidal behaviours and…proceeded to sue musicians.” What kind of evidence did the parents present? There has been “little scholarly research” published until the “The Heavy Metal Subculture and Suicide” paper that tried to correlate the number of statewide heavy metal magazine subscriptions to youth suicide rates. Seriously?

    It got really wild, though, when researchers called psychiatric institutions, pretending to be parents worried because their son started listening to heavy metal music, even though they made it clear that their son didn’t exhibit any symptoms of mental illness, didn’t do drugs or drink alcohol, and was doing fine at school. Ten of the twelve facilities believed the son required psychiatric hospitalization. Imagine what that would do to a kid! Researchers found that, decades later, metalheads “were significantly happier in their youth and better adjusted” than their peers.

    Some studies were strange. Do Parkinson’s patients walk better listening to The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” or Metallica’s “Master of Puppets”? (See below and at 2:32 in my video.)

    Others were pretty nondescript. Heavy metal musicians exhibit a higher heart rate than those performing “contemporary Christian,” which isn’t so surprising, as you can see  here and at 2:40.

    Some others were kind of cute, like one that investigated the influence of music on promoting patient safety during surgery—veterinary patients, that is. Kittens got spayed with little earphones on their heads. It turns out that “Adagio for Strings” may be more relaxing than AC/DC.

    A review on music therapy for human patients warned: “Caution should be exercised…when guiding patients in selecting their music. ‘Chaotic music, such us [sic] hip-hop and metal, is not healing to human cells.’” That even had three citations, though two of them don’t say anything and the third is a nursing newsletter merely quoting someone’s opinion. I did some digging, and it turns out that stomach cancer cells like metal. If you play them Cannibal Corpse versus Beethoven, 12 hours of death metal increases their growth in a petri dish, as you can see below and at 3:28 in my video. (That’s so metal.)

    But who puts headphones on their stomach? Or their chests, for that matter? In one study, Mozart killed off one type of breast cancer cell line but not another; in another study, only Beethoven’s 5th Symphony seemed to work, and Mozart flopped when the petri dishes were surrounded by speakers. How does this stuff even get published?

    Anyway, the true danger from heavy metal is headbanging. “Headbanging is a contemporary dance form consisting of abrupt flexion–extension movements of the head to the rhythm of rock music, most commonly seen in the heavy metal genre.” Although the “number of avid aficionados is unknown…some fans might be endangered by indulging excessive headbanging.” Despite headbanging generally being “considered harmless,” several health complications have been attributed to this practice, including ripping your carotid artery, rupturing your lung, whiplash injury, neck fracture, or subdural hematoma. One man reported headbanging at a Motörhead concert, and all that “brisk forward and backward acceleration and deceleration forces” might have ruptured his bridging veins and caused him to bleed into his skull.

    As shown here and at 4:47 in my video, bridging veins bridge the gap between the brain and the covering that lines the inside of our skull, and if the veins tear, blood can build up under our skull and compress our brain.

    This bridging vein rupture has been demonstrated on headbanging cadavers (another very metal study). See below and at 5:02 in my video. It’s been likened to a “pseudo shaken-baby syndrome” in adults.

    The researchers conclude that their “case serves as evidence in support of Motörhead’s reputation as one of the most hardcore rock’n’roll acts on earth,” but I think the real takeaway is that a potentially dangerous complication like subdural hematoma can result from “a seemingly benign activity like head banging.” And some of the brain bleeds can be massive. One man complained of a “headache after headbanging at a party.” Why? As you can see in his CT scan below and at 5:35, circled in red is all blood, squishing over his brain. Amazingly, he survived; another man didn’t, headbanging and losing his life to a fatal subdural hemorrhage.

    We can tear more than just veins. There are two sets of arteries that tunnel into the skull—the carotid arteries in the front and the vertebral arteries in the back—and we can tear both sets. A 15-year-old boy “indulged in headbanging” and ripped his carotid artery, which led to a massive stroke. He presented as half-paralyzed and unable to speak, and he died in a coma within a week.

    What about the vertebral arteries in the back? They’re wedged into our skull, rendering them susceptible to shearing forces from extremes of neck motion, and that’s exactly what appeared to happen when a heavy metal drummer tore the wall of the artery. All of this is really rare, probably afflicting less than one in a thousand or so. What can metalheads do to reduce their risk? “To prevent injury due to such head-banging, the range of head and neck motion should be reduced, slower-tempo music should replace heavy metal rock, the frequency of head-banging should be only on every second beat, or personal protective equipment should be used”—like a neck brace?

    “Little formal injury research has been conducted on the worldwide phenomenon of head banging,” so researchers constructed “a theoretical head banging model” with enough physics terms to make any nerd happy: “angular displacement,” “sinusoidal motion in the sagittal plane,” and “amplitude of the displacement curve.” The study participants? Headbangers. The control group? That’s easy with easy listening music.

    The head injury curves and neck injury curves, based on headbanging tempo and angular sweep, are shown below and at 7:23.

    “An average head-banging song has a tempo of about 146 beats per minute, which is predicted to cause mild head injury when the range of motion is greater than 75º,” so something like what’s seen below and at 7:34 in my video.

    The researchers conclude: “To minimise the risk of head and neck injury, head bangers should decrease their range of head and neck motion, head bang to slower tempo songs by replacing heavy metal with adult-oriented rock, only head bang to every second beat, or use personal protective equipment.”

    “Unfortunately, it is difficult, if not impossible, to change the habits of heavy metal aficionados.” Maybe what we need are metal-studded neck braces.

    Doctor’s Note

    What about the healing potential of music? Check out Music as Medicine and Music for Anxiety: Mozart vs. Metal.

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • The number of daily steps you take may delay Alzheimer’s progression

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    (CNN) — Increasing the number of steps you take every day may slow cognitive decline in older adults who already have biological signs of early Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new observational study.

    The presence of beta amyloid and tau proteins are hallmark signs of Alzheimer’s. Amyloid can begin to accumulate in the spaces between neurons as early as one’s 30s, potentially affecting communication between brain cells. As amyloid deposits grow, they can lead to a rapid spread of abnormal tau proteins, which form tangles inside brain cells, thus killing them.

    “Physical activity may help slow the buildup of tau — the protein most closely linked to memory loss — and delay cognitive decline in people with early Alzheimer’s,” said lead study author Dr. Wai-Ying Wendy Yau, a neurologist and memory disorders physician scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

    Cognitive decline was delayed by an average of three years for people who walked 3,000 to 5,000 steps per day, and by seven years in individuals who walked 5,000 to 7,500 steps per day, Yau said in an email.

    While the research is informative, relying on a specific number of steps per day to prevent Alzheimer’s is too simplistic, said neurologist Dr. Richard Isaacson, director of research at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Florida. He was not involved in the study.

    “I get really cautious about catchy numbers like walking 5,000 or 7,000 steps,” said Isaacson, who conducts studies on cognitive improvement in people who are genetically at risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

    “If someone has excess body fat, if someone has prediabetes, if someone has high blood pressure, just walking a certain number of steps won’t be enough,” he said. “Everyone needs their own individualized plan.”

    No decline in beta amyloid

    The study was small — only 296 people between the ages of 50 and 90 — but researchers used objective measures, which improved the reliability of the 14-year study published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.

    “The strength of this research is the combination of serial highly specialized scans that measure amyloid and tau deposition in the brain, with cognitive assessments and baseline step count. This is unique,” said Masud Husain, a professor of neurology and cognitive neuroscience at the University of Oxford’s medical science division, in a statement. He was not involved in the study.

    Steps were measured by pedometer; participants underwent yearly cognitive testing for an average of nine years; and everyone received a PET (or positron-emission tomography) scan at the beginning of the study to measure levels of amyloid and tau. A smaller group received a follow-up PET scan at the end of the study.

    While tau buildup slowed by between three and seven years for people who walked up to 7,500 steps per day, people who were sedentary had a significantly faster buildup of tau proteins and more rapid declines in cognition and daily functioning, the study found.

    An unusual finding was the lack of a relationship between physical activity and a decline in beta amyloid, which appears before tau.

    “Instead, for a given amount of elevated amyloid burden, higher step counts were associated with slower accumulation of tau, which largely explained the relationship with slower cognitive decline,” said Yau, who is also an instructor at Harvard Medical School.

    Because the study was only observational, it cannot show a direct cause and effect, Yau said. However, such studies reinforce existing knowledge that what is good for the heart — such as walking, stress reduction, quality sleep and a plant-based diet — is good for the brain, experts say.

    “We’ve known for years that mice which exercise on their little wheels have about 50% less amyloid in their brains,” Isaacson said. “While we need more research in people, I’m convinced exercise on a regular basis reduces amyloid buildup and improves cognition.”

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    Sandee LaMotte and CNN

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  • Fasting and Plant-Based Diets for Migraines and Traumatic Brain Injuries  | NutritionFacts.org

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    What effects do fasting and a plant-based diet have on TBI and migraines?

    An uncontrolled and unpublished study purported to show a beneficial effect of fasting on migraine headaches, but fasting may be more likely to trigger a migraine than help it. In fact, “skipped meals are among the most consistently identified dietary triggers” of headaches in general. In a review of hundreds of fasts at the TrueNorth Health Center in California, the incidence of headache was nearly one in three, but TrueNorth also published a remarkable case report on post-traumatic headache.

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than a million Americans sustain traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) every year. Chronic pain is a common complication, affecting perhaps three-quarters of those who suffer such an injury. There are drugs, of course, to treat post-traumatic headache. There are always drugs. And if drugs don’t work, there is surgery, cutting the nerves to the head to stop the pain.

    What about fasting and plants? A 52-year-old woman presented with a highly debilitating, difficult-to-manage, unremitting, chronic post-traumatic headache. And when I say chronic, I mean chronic; she experienced pain for 16 years. She then achieved long-term relief after fasting, followed by an exclusively plant-foods diet, free of added sugar, oil, or salt.

    Before then, she had tried drug after drug after drug after drug after drug—with no relief, suffering in constant pain for years. Before the fast, she started out in constant pain. Then, after the fast, the intensity of the pain was cut in half, and though she was still having daily headaches, at least there were some pain-free periods. Six months later, she tried again, and eventually her headaches became mild, lasting less than ten minutes, and infrequent. She continued that way for months and even years, as you can see below and at 1:45 in my video Fasting for Post-Traumatic Brain Injury Headache. 

    Now, of course, it’s hard to disentangle the effects of the fasting from the effects of the whole food, plant-based diet she remained on for those ensuing years. You’ve heard of analgesics (painkillers). Well, there are some foods that may be pro-algesic (pain-promoting), such as foods high in arachidonic acid, including meats, dairy, and eggs. So, the lowering of arachidonic acid—from which our body makes a range of pro-inflammatory compounds—may be accomplished by eating a more plant-based diet. So, maybe that contributed to the benefit in the fasting case, since many plant foods are high in anti-inflammatory components. In terms of migraine headaches, more plant foods and less animal foods may help, but you don’t know until you put it to the test.

    Researchers figured a plant-based diet may offer the best of both worlds, so they designed a randomized, controlled, crossover study where those with recurrent migraines were randomized to eat a strictly plant-based diet or take a placebo pill. Then, the groups switched. During the placebo phase, half of the participants said their pain improved, and the other half said their pain remained the same or got worse. But, during the dietary phase, they almost all got better, as you can see here and at 3:11 in my video.

    During that first phase, the diet group experienced significant improvements in the number of headaches, pain intensity, and days with headaches, as well as a reduction in the amount of painkillers they needed to take. In fact, it worked a little too well. Many individuals were unwilling to return to their previous diets after they completed the diet phase of the trial, thereby refusing to complete the study. Remember, the participants were supposed to go back to their regular diets and take a placebo pill, but they felt so much better on the plant-based diet that they refused. We’ve seen this with other trials, where those trying plant-based diets felt so good, they often refused to abandon them, harming the study. So, plant-based diets can sometimes work a little too well.

    All my videos on fasting are available in a digital download here.  

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  • New vitamin compound shows promise for reversing Alzheimer’s damage to the brain

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    An enhanced version of vitamin K could help reverse brain damage from Alzheimer’s disease, a study has found.

    Alzheimer’s and many other neurodegenerative diseases are marked by a loss of brain neurons. While most medications treat only the symptoms, researchers from the Department of Bioscience and Engineering at Shibaura Institute of Technology in Japan set out to determine whether a new approach could replace the lost cells.

    Vitamin K is an essential nutrient that aids with blood clotting, bone health and other important functions in the body, according to the National Institutes of Health. 

    SIMPLE DIET CHANGE MAY SUPPORT GUT HEALING FOR CANCER SURVIVORS, RESEARCHERS SAY

    While it has been shown to support brain protection and neuron creation, the natural forms of vitamin K — including menaquinone-4 (MK-4) — might not be powerful enough to effectively treat neurodegenerative diseases, experts say.

    An enhanced version of vitamin K could help reverse brain damage from Alzheimer’s disease, a study has found. (iStock)

    To boost its potency, researchers from the Department of Bioscience and Engineering at Shibaura Institute of Technology in Japan developed new, stronger forms of the vitamin.

    They did this by creating 12 new versions of vitamin K and combining it with retinoic acid, an active metabolite of vitamin A that helps brain cells grow and develop.

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    In lab tests, the new lab-made versions of vitamin K were about three times more effective than natural vitamin K at helping immature brain cells develop into neurons, according to study co-lead Associate Professor Yoshihisa Hirota.

    Senior woman vitamins

    Vitamin K is an essential nutrient that aids with blood clotting, bone health and other important functions in the body. (iStock)

    The new vitamin K compound was also shown to successfully cross the blood-brain barrier in animal tests. 

    Another important benefit, the researchers noted, is that the new molecules retained the same benefits of vitamin K and vitamin A while showing stronger brain-cell activity.

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    The findings were published in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

    Doctor analyzing brain scan

    The new vitamin K compound was also shown to successfully cross the blood-brain barrier in animal tests.  (iStock)

    “Since neuronal loss is a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, these analogues may serve as regenerative agents that help replenish lost neurons and restore brain function,” Hirota said in a press release.

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    Looking ahead, the research team plans to test the new compounds in animal and human studies, in hopes that this could lead to a new approach for slowing or repairing brain degeneration for patients with neurodegenerative diseases. 

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    “A vitamin K-derived drug that slows the progression of Alzheimer’s disease or improves its symptoms could not only improve the quality of life for patients and their families, but also significantly reduce the growing societal burden of healthcare expenditures and long-term caregiving,” Hirota added.

    Melissa Rudy is senior health editor and a member of the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to melissa.rudy@fox.com.

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  • Women say birth control shot caused brain tumors—”it completely changed me”

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    Contraception is often used to prevent pregnancies and manage menstrual cycles—which is exactly why Sandra Somarakis, now 61, and Nicole Ryan, 60, chose it for over a decade.

    Both women opted for medroxyprogesterone (a type of birth control injection) called Depo-Provera, owned by Pfizer, valuing the convenience of no periods and a quick doctor’s visit every three months.

    However, both Somarakis and Ryan later developed a type of benign brain tumor called meningioma and required surgery to remove it. While these tumors are not cancerous, both women have suffered long-term side effects.

    In January, researchers from the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine reported that women who used Depo-Provera for more than a year were roughly 3.5 times more likely to develop meningiomas compared with women using other forms of hormonal birth control.

    From Routine Exam to Life-Altering Diagnosis

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 24.5 percent of sexually active women have used the injectable contraceptive. Sandy began using Depo-Provera in 1996, until 2010.

    Somarakis, from Oregon, told Newsweek that, during a routine mammogram in July 2008, doctors urgently summoned her back when they noticed swelling in her left eye.

    “I thought my eye was watering and sore because of hay fever,” Somarakis said. “They sent me for an MRI, and an ophthalmologist called almost immediately: they’d found a tumor in my left eye socket.

    “Within days, I was diagnosed with a meningioma,” Somarakis added.

    The following year, the tumor was removed, and Somarakis continued to use the contraception.

    “I was never told that Depo-Provera might be linked to meningiomas,” Somarakis said. She added that, 16 months later, she started suffering from severe headaches, and another tumor was found. “The neurologist was shocked,” Somarakis said.

    In January 2010, she underwent surgery to remove her second tumor, followed by six weeks of radiation. She stopped using the injection after being told that radiation would leave her infertile.

    “Radiation was horrible,” Somarakis said. “It completely changed me. I had been a 911 operator and a project manager—sharp, fast, making good money.

    “It felt like my mind was wiped. My hair started falling out; I couldn’t swallow; and, for a time, I lived on yogurt and crushed crackers with milk.

    “Even now, I’m not the person I used to be. I’ve lost many cognitive skills, and I can no longer work in the kind of high-pressure jobs I once excelled at,” Somarakis said.

    “I have tinnitus and have lost the hearing in my left ear—I’ll need a hearing aid for the rest of my life. I still get terrible headaches; it feels like my frontal lobe is about to explode. My left eye is still watery, swollen, and sometimes it pops out slightly.”

    In 2024, both Somarakis and Ryan learned of an ongoing multidistrict litigation (MDL) involving lawsuits filed against Pfizer over Depo-Provera and its alleged link to an increased risk of meningioma brain tumors.

    “When you go through something like this as a healthy person, you wonder what you did to cause it,” Somarakis told Newsweek. “I was crushed when I found out.”

    Nicole Ryan’s Symptoms and Surgery

    Ryan, who lives in California, was diagnosed in 2014 after suffering from constant lightheadedness, near fainting spells and hearing loss in her left ear.

    “I wasn’t surprised, but I was relieved to finally have confirmation of what was causing all my symptoms,” Ryan said. “Although the surgery was successful, I was left with permanent side effects such as permanent ringing in my left ear, poor balance, and headaches where the tumor was taken out.”

    Legal Action and Claims Against Pfizer

    Newsweek also spoke to Ellen Relkin, an attorney who is currently representing hundreds of women who claim they developed meningioma from Depo-Provera. The plaintiffs are seeking financial compensation and litigation has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Pensacola Division.

    Relkin said: “Meningioma, the majority are ‘benign’ only in the sense that they do not metastasize to other organs. But it is in the brain and can grow.

    “The brain controls sight, cognitive abilities, hearing. Clients have lost vision, some have become blind, others lost hearing.”

    Relkin is a partner at Weitz & Luxenberg and chair of the firm’s Drug & Medical Device Litigation group. She has decades of experience representing thousands of plaintiffs in pharmaceutical, medical-device, and toxic-tort cases and has served in numerous court-appointed leadership roles.

    Relkin told Newsweek about the core legal arguments: “One is failure to warn. They never warned about this risk of meningioma or to be on the lookout for the symptoms. Many of our clients had excruciating headaches or dizziness for years, and no one connected it to the drug.

    “The second is safer alternative design. Depo-Provera is extremely high dose—150 milligrams. Pfizer got approval in 2004 for a lower-dose version, Depo-SubQ Provera—104 milligrams, which is equally effective. If you can give a lower dose that’s equally effective, why give more? The dose makes the poison.”

    In the plaintiffs’ latest filing on September 22, in response to Pfizer’s attempt to have the case dismissed on federal preemption grounds, they say that Pfizer “refused to study or warn” about the risk of meningiomas for decades despite growing scientific evidence.

    They add that when the company finally requested approval for a label change it “omitted crucial information and peer-reviewed studies,” failing to give the FDA the full picture of the dangers to patients.

    Lack of Warnings in the US

    Relkin claims there aren’t warnings about meningioma. She said: “Gynaecologists and clinics don’t tell patients because it’s not in the label.

    “When women get these symptoms, doctors assume it’s something common like migraine and don’t make the causal connection. Then they keep taking the drug as the tumor grows.”

    At minimum, Relkin added that the most-serious type of warning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues—known as a black-box warning—should be applied.

    “A black box would be ideal because then everyone would know. They’ll say it’s rare, but it’s not so rare—thousands of women are impacted because the drug is so widely used,” Relkin said.

    Pfizer’s Response and Listed Side Effects

    The Pfizer label highlights the following possible serious side effects of the drug. However, Somarakis and Ryan said that they were only made aware of weight gain when they opted for the injection in the late 1990s and 2000s:

    • Bone loss
    • Breast cancer
    • Blood clots and stroke
    • Ectopic pregnancy
    • Severe allergic reactions: including serious eye problems or loss of vision
    • Other health effects: may trigger migraines, depression, seizures, or liver problems.

    A Pfizer spokesperson told Newsweek: “The Company stands behind the safety and efficacy of Depo-Provera, which has been used by millions of women worldwide and remains an important treatment option for women seeking to manage their reproductive health.”

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  • The Alzheimer’s Disease of Cats: Feline Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome | Animal Wellness Magazine

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    Feline Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome (CDS) aka Feline Dementia affects many older cats, similar to Alzheimer’s disease in humans. Dementia is a general term for symptoms like memory loss and impaired thinking, while Alzheimer’s is a specific disease that causes dementia and is its most common form. Feline CDS is a brain disorder that leads to gradual cognitive decline.

    Knowing the signs of CDS and how to help your feline friend can significantly improve their quality of life.

    What Causes CDS?

    CDS occurs when harmful proteins, known as beta-amyloid, accumulate in the brain. These proteins damage the nerve cells essential for clear thinking and memory. As brain function deteriorates, your cat may experience confusion and disorientation. Understanding this condition helps you provide better care.

    Signs to Watch For

    Cats with dementia exhibit various changes that may concern you:

    • Confusion and Disorientation: They may get lost in familiar places or stare into space.
    • Social Changes: Some cats become clingy, while others may seem distant or not recognize familiar faces.
    • Sleep Issues: Expect nighttime wandering and increased vocalization, along with more daytime sleeping.
    • Bathroom Problems: Accidents outside the litter box can occur, even if they were once house-trained.
    • Activity Changes: Your cat might lose interest in play or show signs of restlessness and anxiety.

    Recognizing these signs early helps you take action.

    Holistic Approaches to Support Brain Health

    While a cure for CDS doesn’t exist, several holistic strategies can support your cat’s brain health:

    • Environmental Enrichment: Provide interactive toys and puzzles to stimulate their mind. Establish a routine for meals, play, and rest. Use nightlights to reduce confusion during nighttime.
    • Dietary Support: Include antioxidant-rich foods like blueberries and omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil. Some specialized diets for senior cats can offer additional support.
    • Natural Supplements: Discuss options like SAMe (S-adenosylmethionine) or vitamin E with your veterinarian. These may help support brain function.
    • Stress Reduction: Maintain familiar routines and create comfortable spaces. Consider using pheromone diffusers to soothe anxious cats.

    Important Note

    If you notice signs of cognitive decline, consult your veterinarian. Conditions such as hyperthyroidism or kidney disease can mimic dementia symptoms. Early diagnosis and treatment improve outcomes.

    Understanding feline dementia empowers you to support your cat’s well-being. Recognizing the signs and implementing holistic approaches can enhance their quality of life. Keep your cat engaged and comfortable, and prioritize regular vet visits for optimal care.

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  • Alzheimer’s Foundation of America hosts LI family event Sept. 27 | Long Island Business News

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    The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) will host a community event on Saturday, Sept. 27, at its new, 11,500-square-foot Barbara Rabinowitz Education & Resource Center in Amityville to mark Grandparents Appreciation Month and raise funds for local dementia support programs.

    The “Family Fun Day” will feature activities, resources and a special appearance by former New York Giants player and two-time Super Bowl champion Leonard Marshall. A $25 donation includes an autograph and photo with Marshall, with proceeds benefiting the center’s services for Long Islanders affected by dementia.

    “We are thrilled to open our doors to the community and invite families to come together for a day of fun, connection and discovery,” Charles Fuschillo, Jr., AFA’s president and CEO, said in a news release about the event.

    The event “is more than just a celebration – it is our way of saying: this center belongs to you,” he added. “This intergenerational event is a celebration of family and community.  We encourage everyone to attend, have fun, learn about the importance of brain , and take a tour of the facility.”

    About one in eight Long Island older adults have Alzheimer’s disease, according to published reports. The AFA aims to provide support, services and education to individuals, families and caregivers affected by Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias nationwide and to fund research for better treatment and a cure.

    At the Sept. 27 event, attendees can learn about the center’s programs and services. Intergenerational activities will include creative arts, brain games and additional games for children, face painting, food, music, balloon artists and more.

    The event will feature raffle prizes, including an autographed Giants football helmet signed by Marshall.

    Diagnosed in 2013 with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a progressive brain disease linked to repeated head trauma, Marshall has since become an advocate for . He has pledged his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation and founded two organizations – Brain Unity Trust and the Game Plan Foundation – to support research and raise awareness of neurological trauma in athletes.

     


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    Adina Genn

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  • Alzheimer’s meals program launches with EmblemHealth | Long Island Business News

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    THE BLUEPRINT:

    • Chef-prepared, plant-forward meals are tailored for early-stage Alzheimer’s patients

    • Meals are based on the “Ornish lifestyle” to promote brain and slow disease progression

    • Program includes 14 culturally relevant, vegetarian meals, expanding to 28 soon

    , a health insurer with locations on Long Island, is partnering with physician-researcher and chef-led meal service to provide as part of a new Alzheimer’s program, according to a news release about the initiative.

    Based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, CookUnity, which serves Long Island, said it is providing medically tailored meals for participants in the program for those with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Backed by emerging research, the meals are delivered to participants’ homes and are designed to slow the onset and progression of the disease.

    “Lifestyle and diet play a critical role in how we live and how we age,” Dr. Dan Knecht, chief medical officer at EmblemHealth, said in the news release.

    “Yet access to healthy, affordable, and delicious meals remains a major challenge for many,” Knecht said. “That’s why our collaboration with CookUnity is so unique and exciting. Their local chefs are helping us bring high-quality, plant-forward meals to participants in our Alzheimer’s program, making it easier to support health through food.”

    The program – it’s in a pilot phase, currently – comes at a time when Alzheimer’s affects more than 426,000 New Yorkers, according to the New York State Office for the Aging. More than 7 million are living with Alzheimer’s across the United States, according to Alzheimer’s Association. And, experts say, there are limited treatment options.

    “For this program to succeed, the food must be both culturally relevant and delicious,” Knecht said. “This program isn’t just about science; it’s about dignity and joy. Meals that reflect our members’ heritage and taste preferences aren’t just nourishing, but they’re healing.”

    Participants can choose from over a dozen chef-prepared, ready-to-eat meals from CookUnity, developed to meet the specific nutritional needs of those with Alzheimer’s while maintaining restaurant-quality flavor.

    “Our chefs view this program as a testament to their ever-evolving expertise and to the belief that food is medicine,” Bruno Didier, head of CookUnity Business, said in the news release.

    “It’s often said that we are what we eat, and we believe the right recipes can empower better health,” Didier added. “This collaboration reflects our mission to deliver nourishing, chef-crafted meals – and deepens our commitment to scaling medically tailored solutions.”

    CookUnity’s veteran chefs – Emily Peck, Einat Admony, Ivy Stark and Lena Elkousy – worked with EmblemHealth’s clinical team and CookUnity’s in-house nutritionist to create a nourishing and flavorful custom menu based on the principles of the “Ornish lifestyle,” according to the news release.

    “When my team first learned about this meal program, we couldn’t contain our enthusiasm,” Admony said in the news release.

    “This initiative not only offers us a platform to showcase our culinary skills, but it also encourages us to think creatively through the lens of health by eliminating excess salt and unhealthy fats while using more nutritious alternatives,” Admony said. “It’s an exciting challenge that allows us to redefine our dishes while promoting better health.”

    The program currently offers 14 vegetarian meals, with plans to double to 28 soon. Each meal is designed to meet strict clinical nutritional guidelines and features diverse global flavors – from Middle Eastern Moroccan vegetable stew to Italian mushroom Stroganoff – designed to satisfy varied palates and encourage long-term adherence.

    Participants in the program are screened by EmblemHealth’s provider group, Advantage Care Physicians, to implement a comprehensive program aimed at enhancing and providing crucial support for caregivers, according to EmblemHealth.


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  • Brain implant turns thoughts into digital commands

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    A new brain implant now lets people control Apple devices, such as iPads, iPhones and the Vision Pro, using only their thoughts. Synchron, an endovascular brain-computer interface (BCI) company based in New York, demonstrated the first wireless BCI that works with Apple’s official protocol.

    Ten patients have received the implant: six in the U.S. and four in Australia. With this technology, users living with severe paralysis can navigate apps, send messages and operate devices hands-free. This breakthrough greatly expands independence, as it enables patients to manage their environment, stream shows and control smart home devices, all using only their minds.

    Synchron’s advancement in BCI technology marks a significant step for assistive devices and hints at how we may interact with computers in the future. The device’s hands-free, voice-free operation offers a powerful new level of accessibility and autonomy for people with disabilities.

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    ALS patient Mark Jackson demonstrates Synchron’s brain-computer interface (BCI) working with an iPad. (Synchron)

    A first for brain-tech and Apple

    Synchron is the first company to connect a brain implant directly to Apple devices using Apple’s official BCI Human Interface Device (HID) protocol. This means no custom hacks or workarounds. The system simply connects over Bluetooth, just like a keyboard or a mouse, and works with iPhones, iPads, and even the Apple Vision Pro. In a powerful video shared by Synchron, ALS patient Mark Jackson demonstrates the tech in action. After losing the use of his hands, he’s now able to navigate his iPad entirely with thought. That includes opening apps, composing messages, and staying connected with the people he loves-all without moving a muscle.

    Behind the scenes, Synchron’s system uses artificial intelligence to decode brain signals and turn them into real-time digital commands. Machine learning models interpret motor intent, such as thinking about tapping your finger, and translate that into actions on the iPad. This AI-powered decoding helps the system feel smooth and responsive as users learn to control it with focus alone.

    Synchron, an endovascular brain-computer interface (BCI) company based in New York, demonstrated the first wireless BCI that works with Apple's official protocol.

    Synchron’s brain-computer interface is seen up close. (Synchron)

    The game-changing signal strength meter

    One surprising new feature is the built-in signal strength meter. This visual cue shows patients how strong their brain signal is in real time. A blue box appears over an icon or app and fills up based on how clearly the system reads the user’s intent. It may sound simple, but this is a huge deal. It helps users like Mark fine-tune their mental focus, adjust their posture, and improve their interaction without outside help. It’s like seeing your brain in action and learning to drive it better. “When I lost the use of my hands, I thought I had lost my independence,” Mark says in the video. “Now, with my iPad, I can message my loved ones, read the news, and stay connected with the world, just by thinking.”

    NEW BRAIN THERAPY ALLOWS PARALYZED PATIENTS TO WALK AGAIN: ‘I FEEL MY LEGS’
     

    A man with ALS uses Synchron's brain-computer interface to operate an iPad.

    Mark Jackson operates Synchron’s brain-computer interface, which functions using Apple’s official protocol. (Synchron)

    What sets Synchron apart

    BCIs like Synchron’s Stentrode and Elon Musk’s Neuralink have connected to devices before, but never like this. Previous setups required custom software or physical adapters. Now, thanks to Apple’s new BCI HID protocol, brain-computer interfaces can plug right into the Apple ecosystem like any other accessory. That official integration opens the door to more features, better performance, and fewer setup hurdles. Synchron’s COO, Kurt Haggstrom, calls it a “game changer” for both patients and the entire BCI industry.

    What this means for you

    This tech isn’t just for people with paralysis, at least, not forever. Today, it’s a medical tool undergoing trials. Tomorrow, it could become a consumer product you buy at your local Apple Store. With Apple embracing BCI as a legitimate input method, everything from your phone to your smart home could one day be controllable by thought. That opens the door for more accessibility, more customization, and completely new ways of interacting with technology.

    PARALYZED MAN SPEAKS AND SINGS WITH AI BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE

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    Kurt’s key takeaways

    Synchron’s Apple demo marks a new era in brain-computer interaction. It turns thoughts into action using mainstream tech you probably already own. While it’s still in its early stages, the direction is clear: BCI is moving out of the lab and into real life, and Apple is helping lead the charge.

    Would you trust your brain to control your devices? Or is this one step too far? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com/Contact

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    Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com.  All rights reserved.  

    Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

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  • Red meat can help your mood if part of a healthy, balanced diet, study suggests

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    Lean red meat could support mental health as long as it’s part of an overall healthy diet, according to an exploratory new study.

    Researchers at South Dakota State University (SDSU) analyzed data from the American Gut Project, a large, open-source microbiome initiative with over 11,000 participants. 

    The study, published as an abstract in May in the journal Current Developments in Nutrition, examined 4,915 adults and grouped them by red-meat intake and diet quality based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Healthy Eating Index (HEI), which scores diets on a scale of 0 to 100.

    STUDY CLAIMS VEGETARIANS MORE ‘AMBITIOUS’ AS MEAT EATERS CALL OUT ‘OVERSIMPLIFICATION’

    Participants with higher HEI scores — regardless of red-meat intake — were less likely to report depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and bipolar disorder. 

    But those who ate red meat as part of a high-quality diet showed additional benefits. 

    New research suggests that eating red meat as part of a high-quality diet may improve mental health. (iStock)

    Those benefits include higher protein intake; better adequacy of key brain-supporting nutrients such as zinc, selenium, vitamin B-12 and choline, which help regulate memory, mood, muscle control and other functions; and a more diverse gut microbiota.

    Previous studies have found that gut bacteria produce neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, which are central to mood regulation, cognition and stress response and resilience. 

    Lean red meat had a slightly less disruptive effect on the gut than chicken, Fox News Digital previously reported.

    “What was really compelling was the significant nutritional benefit we saw in healthy eaters who consumed red meat,” Samitinjaya Dhakal, assistant professor at SDSU’s School of Health and Human Sciences, said in a news release. 

    EATING CHICKEN LINKED TO HIGHER MORTALITY RATES, OBSERVATIONAL STUDY SUGGESTS

    The preliminary findings, he added, support a “less rigid” approach to healthy eating that focuses on dietary patterns rather than cutting out certain foods altogether, like red meat, which previous research has linked to cardiovascular disease and cancer.

    “This suggests the public health message shouldn’t be about complete elimination — but about building a high-quality diet into which lean red meat can fit,” Dhakal said. 

    Friends smiling being served meat at restaurant by waitress

    Healthy, balanced diets showed lower odds of depression, PTSD and bipolar disorder in those who consumed them. (iStock)

    Yet experts warn that other research has tied red and processed meat to poor physical and cognitive health outcomes. 

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    A 2020 United Kingdom study of adults aged 37 to 73 linked higher red-meat consumption to weaker problem-solving, short-term memory and planning skills.

    And a 10-year study of over 133,000 U.S. nurses found that eating red meat — particularly processed types like bacon and sausage — was tied to faster memory decline and a higher risk of dementia.

    “This study makes the important distinction of assessing red meat in the context of a healthy diet.”

    “It’s worth remembering that we still have decades of evidence linking processed and high-fat meats to things like heart disease and diabetes,” noted Jenny Shields, Ph.D., a clinical health psychologist based in The Woodlands, Texas. 

    For more Lifestyle articles, visit foxnews.com/lifestyle

    “This study doesn’t erase that,” Shields told Fox News Digital. “What it does say is that, in the context of an already healthy diet, a moderate amount of lean red meat doesn’t seem to cause harm, and it may help fill gaps in nutrients like B-12 or zinc.”

    A balanced diet can play a powerful part in the foundation for better focus, energy and mood, she said.

    Long-term studies that directly compare diets with and without red meat would be needed to prove correlation instead of just causation, she added.

    Grilled beef steaks seen garnished with veggies and potatoes in background

    Lean red meat can deliver nutrients like vitamin B-12, zinc and choline, according to experts. (iStock)

    “Our next phase of research will involve prospective and controlled interventional studies on how different dietary patterns and specific diet components influence nutrient adequacy and brain health,” Dhakal said. 

    Shalene McNeill, a registered dietitian nutritionist and executive director of nutrition research for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), based in Colorado — which provided funding for the research — told Fox News Digital that many studies that link red and processed meat to chronic disease evaluate meat intake as part of unhealthy dietary patterns and lifestyles. 

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    “This study makes the important distinction of assessing red meat in the context of a healthy diet,” she said.

    The full study is currently under review for publication.

    Deirdre Bardolf is a lifestyle writer with Fox News Digital.

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  • Ring Clear by Empower Health Labs Offers Plant-Based Support for Tinnitus and Cognitive Function

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    LOS ANGELES, June 13, 2025 (Newswire.com)
    –
    In This Article, You’ll Discover:

    • The revolutionary brain-based approach Ring Clear uses to target tinnitus at its neurological source rather than just treating ear symptoms.

    • A comprehensive analysis of Ring Clear’s 12 plant-based ingredients and how each component contributes to tinnitus relief and cognitive enhancement.

    • Detailed guidance on integrating Ring Clear into your daily meal routines for optimal absorption and sustained results.

    • Strategic 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month usage plans designed to build sustainable healthy habits while maximizing tinnitus relief benefits.

    • Complete pricing information, guarantee details, and purchasing options to help you make an informed investment in your auditory health.

    • Scientific insights into how Ring Clear’s formula supports broader cognitive function, memory improvement, and neuroprotective benefits beyond tinnitus relief.

    • Practical strategies for enhancing your overall quality of life in 2025 through natural, holistic approaches to brain and ear health.

    TL;DR

    Ring Clear by Empower Health Labs offers a comprehensive plant-based supplement solution for tinnitus relief and cognitive function enhancement. This innovative formula targets ear ringing through a brain health approach, combining 12 natural ingredients to reduce neural inflammation and improve circulation. Available in flexible pricing packages with a 90-day guarantee, Ring Clear provides a natural tinnitus relief option for 2025 that supports both auditory wellness and overall mental clarity.

    Understanding Tinnitus: The Brain-Based Revolution in Treatment

    Rethinking Tinnitus as a Neurological Condition

    For decades, the medical community treated tinnitus as purely an ear-related disorder, focusing treatments on the auditory system itself. However, groundbreaking research has revealed that chronic ear ringing originates primarily in the brain, not the ears. This paradigm shift has opened new pathways for Ring Clear a natural tinnitus relief that target the neurological root causes rather than just masking symptoms.

    A pivotal 2007 study conducted at the University of Konstanz in Germany demonstrated that tinnitus relief requires addressing disrupted neural signals in the brain. Researchers found that chronic tinnitus results from altered brainwave patterns and neural hyperactivity in auditory processing centers, explaining why traditional ear-focused treatments often provide only temporary relief.

    Why Traditional Approaches Fall Short

    Conventional tinnitus treatments typically focus on the ear canal, hearing aids, or sound masking therapy. While these methods may provide temporary symptom management, they fail to address the underlying neurological tinnitus patterns that sustain chronic ear ringing. This limitation explains why many sufferers experience recurring symptoms despite following prescribed treatments.

    Brain-based tinnitus treatment represents a fundamental shift toward addressing these neural imbalances. By targeting inflammation in brain pathways, improving circulation to auditory processing centers, and supporting overall cognitive function, this approach offers more comprehensive and lasting relief.

    The Neural Inflammation Connection

    Research indicates that neural inflammation plays a crucial role in ear ringing causes. When inflammatory processes affect the brain’s auditory networks, they can create the persistent phantom sounds characteristic of tinnitus. Additionally, compromised blood flow to these neural regions can exacerbate symptoms and prevent natural recovery processes.

    This understanding forms the foundation of brain health approaches to tinnitus treatment, emphasizing the importance of reducing neuroinflammation while supporting optimal neural communication and circulation.

    Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only and should not replace professional medical advice. Consult with a healthcare provider before starting any new supplement regimen.

    Ring Clear Formula Analysis: Plant-Based Ingredients and Scientific Foundation

    Core Botanical Ingredients for Neural Support

    Ring Clear plant-based tinnitus supplement formula centers on three powerful botanical ingredients that address the neurological aspects of ear ringing. Hibiscus serves as the foundation, offering natural compounds that calm the nervous system and improve circulation to auditory processing centers. Traditional use and modern research suggest hibiscus may help reduce the neural hyperactivity associated with chronic tinnitus.

    Hawthorn Berry contributes cardiovascular support crucial for optimal brain function, helping to relax nervous system responses that can exacerbate tinnitus symptoms. This berry has been traditionally used to support heart health and circulation, both essential for delivering nutrients to neural tissues involved in auditory processing.

    Olive Leaves complete this botanical trio with their anti-inflammatory properties, specifically targeting ear-related inflammation that can contribute to tinnitus symptoms. The antioxidant compounds in olive leaves may help protect delicate neural pathways from oxidative stress damage.

    Essential Vitamin Complex for Neural Repair

    The Ring Clear formula includes a strategic vitamin complex designed to support cellular repair and neural function. Niacin (Vitamin B3) plays a crucial role in cellular energy production and may help repair damaged neural pathways while increasing blood flow to auditory centers. This improved circulation can help reduce the intensity of tinnitus symptoms.

    Vitamin B6 addresses the dizziness and balance issues often accompanying tinnitus, supporting the nervous system’s ability to process sensory information accurately. Vitamin B12 focuses on repairing potential blood vessel damage that can affect nutrient delivery to brain tissues, while Vitamin C provides antioxidant protection for neural tissues and may help reduce inflammation in auditory pathways.

    Specialized Herbal Blend for Comprehensive Support

    Ring Clear’s formula incorporates Buchu Leaves and Juniper Berries for their traditional use in supporting ear health and reducing pressure sensations. Garlic contributes anti-inflammatory compounds that may help address the systemic inflammation contributing to tinnitus symptoms.

    Green Tea provides powerful antioxidants for tinnitus relief, particularly catechins and polyphenols known for combating oxidative stress. These anti-inflammatory supplements compounds may help protect auditory system cells from damage while supporting overall neural health.

    Scientific Considerations

    This cognitive support ingredients combination represents a comprehensive approach to tinnitus management, targeting multiple pathways involved in auditory processing and neural health. However, individual responses to natural ingredients may vary, and the effectiveness of this specific combination requires further clinical validation.

    Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Individual results may vary.

    Quiet the ringing and regain your peace-experience Ring Clear’s brain-based tinnitus relief with natural plant-based ingredients designed for calm, clarity, and circulation support.

    Cognitive Function and Neurological Benefits Beyond Tinnitus Relief

    Comprehensive Brain Health Support

    Ring Clear’s cognitive function supplement properties extend far beyond tinnitus relief, offering comprehensive brain health support through its carefully selected ingredients. The formula’s neuroprotective compounds work synergistically to enhance overall neural function, potentially supporting memory improvement and mental clarity. By addressing inflammation and circulation issues that affect brain health, Ring Clear may contribute to better cognitive performance across multiple domains.

    The connection between auditory processing and cognitive function runs deeper than many realize. When the brain struggles with disrupted neural signals causing tinnitus, it can impact concentration, decision-making, and information processing abilities. Ring Clear’s approach to normalizing these neural pathways may provide mental clarity benefits that extend throughout daily cognitive tasks.

    Memory Enhancement and Neuroprotection

    The neuroprotective ingredients in Ring Clear, particularly the antioxidant-rich compounds from green tea and vitamin C, may help protect brain cells from age-related decline. These components work to combat oxidative stress and inflammation, two primary factors in cognitive deterioration. Users may experience improved recall, better focus during complex tasks, and enhanced ability to learn new information.

    Memory improvement potential stems from the formula’s ability to support healthy blood flow to brain regions responsible for memory formation and retrieval. Improved circulation delivers essential nutrients and oxygen to neural tissues, potentially enhancing both short-term working memory and long-term memory consolidation processes.

    Sleep Quality and Mental Well-being

    Many Ring Clear users report significant improvements in sleep quality, which directly impacts cognitive function and overall brain fog relief. Better sleep allows for proper memory consolidation, neural repair, and restoration of optimal brain chemistry balance. The calming effects of ingredients like hibiscus and hawthorn berry may contribute to more restful sleep patterns.

    Cognitive enhancement through improved sleep quality creates a positive cycle: better rest leads to clearer thinking, which reduces stress and anxiety that can worsen both tinnitus and sleep disruption. This holistic improvement in mental well-being supports sustained cognitive performance throughout the day.

    Neuroplasticity and Long-term Brain Health

    Ring Clear’s formula may support neuroplasticity-the brain’s ability to form new neural connections and adapt to challenges. By reducing inflammation and supporting healthy neural communication, the supplement could contribute to maintaining cognitive flexibility and learning capacity as we age.

    Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Consult with a healthcare professional before starting any supplement regimen, especially if you have existing health conditions.

    Integrating Ring Clear into Your Daily Meal Routines

    Optimal Dosage and Timing

    The recommended Ring Clear dosage consists of two capsules daily, taken with meals to maximize absorption and minimize potential digestive discomfort. This daily supplement schedule works best when split into morning and evening doses, allowing for consistent levels of active ingredients throughout the day while supporting your body’s natural circadian rhythms.

    Taking Ring Clear with breakfast helps establish a morning routine that sets a positive tone for tinnitus management throughout the day. The evening dose, ideally taken with dinner, ensures continued support during nighttime hours when tinnitus symptoms often become more noticeable due to reduced environmental noise.

    Meal Pairing for Enhanced Absorption

    Meal timing plays a crucial role in supplement effectiveness. Ring Clear’s plant-based ingredients absorb best when taken with meals containing healthy fats, which help facilitate the uptake of fat-soluble vitamins and botanical compounds. Consider pairing your morning dose with foods like avocado, nuts, or olive oil-dressed salads to optimize absorption.

    For your evening dose, incorporating Ring Clear into your dinner routine ensures the supplement works during the critical overnight recovery period. Meals rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon or walnuts, may complement Ring Clear’s anti-inflammatory properties and enhance its tinnitus relief routine effectiveness.

    Building Consistent Daily Habits

    Creating a sustainable supplement routine requires integrating Ring Clear into existing daily patterns rather than treating it as an additional burden. Place the supplement bottle near your coffee maker or breakfast items as a visual reminder, or set phone alerts to establish consistency during the initial habit-formation period.

    Successful healthy habits development involves linking the new behavior to established routines. Consider taking Ring Clear immediately before or after brushing your teeth, checking email, or other regular daily activities to create automatic behavioral patterns.

    Lifestyle Factors That Enhance Effectiveness

    Supporting your Ring Clear regimen with tinnitus relief routine lifestyle modifications can amplify its benefits. Reducing caffeine intake, particularly in the afternoon and evening, may help minimize tinnitus symptom fluctuations. Staying well-hydrated throughout the day supports optimal circulation and helps your body effectively utilize the supplement’s active ingredients.

    Regular stress management through meditation, gentle exercise, or relaxation techniques complements Ring Clear’s calming botanical ingredients and may enhance overall tinnitus management success.

    Discover the breakthrough in brain-based tinnitus treatment-Ring Clear targets the neurological root cause, not just ear symptoms, for sustainable, natural relief and long-term support.

    Strategic Usage Plans: 3, 6, and 12-Month Pathways to Sustainable Relief

    3-Month Foundation Plan: Building Habits and Initial Results

    The first three months with Ring Clear 3 month supply focus on establishing consistent daily routines while allowing your body to adapt to the natural ingredients. During weeks 1-4, prioritize habit formation by taking Ring Clear at the same times daily, creating positive associations with meals and daily activities. Many users begin noticing subtle improvements in sleep quality and reduced tinnitus intensity during this initial period.

    Months 2-3 typically bring more noticeable changes as the anti-inflammatory and circulation-supporting ingredients reach optimal levels in your system. Track your progress using a simple daily tinnitus severity scale (1-10) and note patterns related to stress, diet, or sleep quality. This tinnitus management plan foundation sets the stage for longer-term success.

    6-Month Optimization Plan: Sustained Improvement and Fine-Tuning

    The 6 month tinnitus plan represents the sweet spot for many users, where sustained ingredient levels create compounding benefits. During months 4-6, focus on optimizing your routine by identifying which lifestyle factors most positively impact your tinnitus relief. This might include specific meal timings, stress management techniques, or sleep hygiene improvements.

    By month 6, many users report significantly improved concentration, better sleep patterns, and reduced tinnitus-related anxiety. Use this period to establish sustainable health habits that will support long-term success, such as regular meditation practice, consistent sleep schedules, and stress reduction techniques that complement Ring Clear’s natural calming effects.

    12-Month Mastery Plan: Long-Term Health Investment

    The full-year commitment to long-term tinnitus relief often produces the most comprehensive benefits, including not just tinnitus management but enhanced cognitive function and overall brain health. Months 7-12 focus on maintaining consistency while enjoying the cumulative effects of reduced neural inflammation and improved circulation.

    This extended timeline allows for seasonal adjustments and lifestyle changes while maintaining steady progress. Many users find that by month 12, their tinnitus has become much more manageable, and they’ve developed robust healthy lifestyle 2025 patterns that support ongoing wellness.

    Building Sustainable Daily Routines

    Sustainable health habits require integration into your existing lifestyle rather than complete routine overhauls. Start with small, manageable changes like taking Ring Clear with your morning coffee and gradually expand to include complementary practices like brief meditation sessions or evening relaxation routines.

    Success tracking becomes crucial for long-term adherence. Consider keeping a simple weekly journal noting tinnitus severity, sleep quality, stress levels, and overall well-being. This data helps identify patterns and motivates continued commitment to your tinnitus relief journey.

    Creating accountability through family support or health-focused community involvement can strengthen your commitment to these positive changes throughout your Ring Clear journey.

    Ring Clear Pricing, Guarantee, and Purchasing Information

    Flexible Package Options and Savings

    Ring Clear price options are structured to provide maximum value for committed users while accommodating different budget preferences and treatment timelines. The single bottle option at $69 provides a 30-day supply for those wanting to test the supplement’s effectiveness before making a larger commitment.

    The most popular choice, the 3-bottle package at $59 per bottle, offers a $30 savings compared to individual purchases while providing a 90-day supply that aligns with the recommended minimum trial period. This Ring Clear cost structure delivers the best balance of affordability and sufficient time to experience the supplement’s full benefits.

    For maximum savings and long-term commitment, the 6-bottle package drops the tinnitus supplement pricing to just $49 per bottle-a $120 total savings compared to individual bottle purchases. This 180-day supply supports the optimal 6-month usage plan that many users find most effective for sustained tinnitus relief.

    Package Comparison:

    • 1 Bottle (30-day supply): $69 per bottle

    • 3 Bottles (90-day supply): $59 per bottle (Save $30)

    • 6 Bottles (180-day supply): $49 per bottle (Save $120)

    Risk-Free Investment with Comprehensive Guarantee

    Every Ring Clear purchase comes protected by a comprehensive 90-day money-back Ring Clear guarantee, allowing you to try the supplement risk-free for a full three months. This generous return policy demonstrates the manufacturer’s confidence in the product’s effectiveness while giving you ample time to experience the natural tinnitus relief benefits.

    The guarantee covers even opened bottles, recognizing that individual responses to natural supplements can vary. If Ring Clear doesn’t meet your expectations within 90 days, you can request a full refund through the customer service team, making this a genuinely risk-free investment in your auditory health.

    Additional Value and Convenient Ordering

    Multi-bottle purchases include complimentary shipping, further enhancing the value proposition of larger orders. The 3 and 6-bottle packages also include exclusive bonus eBooks containing additional strategies for tinnitus management and overall wellness optimization.

    Where to buy Ring Clear safely and ensure product authenticity requires purchasing exclusively through the Ring Clear official website. This direct-from-manufacturer approach guarantees product freshness, authenticity, and access to customer support while protecting against counterfeit products available through unauthorized retailers.

    Pricing Disclaimer: Prices listed are current as of publication but may be subject to change. Always verify current pricing on the official Ring Clear website before making your purchase decision.

    Silence the sound and sharpen your thinking-Ring Clear is formulated to restore peace while enhancing your focus, sleep, and memory performance.

    Transforming Health and Wellness: Ring Clear’s Impact on Quality of Life in 2025

    Comprehensive Wellness Transformation

    Quality of life improvement through effective tinnitus management extends far beyond simply reducing ear ringing. Ring Clear users frequently report a cascade of positive changes that revolutionize their daily experience, from restored peaceful sleep to renewed confidence in social situations. This wellness improvement creates a foundation for enhanced productivity, stronger relationships, and greater life satisfaction.

    The relief from constant auditory distraction allows individuals to fully engage with their environment, whether in professional settings, family gatherings, or personal hobbies. Many users describe feeling “like themselves again” as the persistent background noise that once dominated their attention finally quiets, allowing their true personality and capabilities to shine through.

    Enhanced Sleep and Stress Reduction

    Better sleep represents one of the most immediate and impactful benefits reported by Ring Clear users. When tinnitus no longer disrupts nighttime rest, the body can engage in proper recovery processes, leading to improved mood, enhanced cognitive function, and reduced stress levels throughout the day. This improved sleep quality often creates a positive feedback loop, as better rest reduces the stress and anxiety that can exacerbate tinnitus symptoms.

    The natural health trends of 2025 emphasize the critical connection between sleep quality and overall wellness. Ring Clear’s plant-based approach aligns perfectly with this movement toward holistic health solutions that address root causes rather than masking symptoms with pharmaceutical interventions.

    Cognitive Clarity and Social Confidence

    Users consistently report dramatic improvements in concentration and mental clarity as their brains no longer expend energy processing constant phantom sounds. This cognitive enhancement translates into better work performance, improved learning capacity, and enhanced ability to engage in complex problem-solving tasks.

    Social interactions become more natural and enjoyable when tinnitus no longer creates a barrier to conversation and connection. Many users rediscover their love for quiet activities like reading, meditation, or intimate conversations that were previously disrupted by ear ringing.

    Embracing Plant-Based Health Solutions

    The plant-based health movement continues gaining momentum in 2025, with more individuals recognizing the benefits of natural supplements that work with the body’s healing mechanisms rather than against them. Ring Clear exemplifies this holistic wellness approach, combining traditional botanical knowledge with modern scientific understanding to create comprehensive health solutions.

    This tinnitus relief 2025 approach represents an investment in long-term health rather than quick-fix solutions. By addressing the neurological foundations of tinnitus while supporting overall brain health, Ring Clear positions users for sustained wellness improvements that extend well beyond ear ringing relief.

    The transformation begins with taking that first step toward natural, comprehensive tinnitus relief-your future self will thank you for choosing a solution that honors your body’s innate healing wisdom.

    Understanding Tinnitus: The Revolutionary Brain-Based Approach

    Tinnitus Is More Than Just an Ear Problem

    For decades, the medical community has approached tinnitus relief by focusing primarily on the ears themselves. However, groundbreaking research has revealed that neurological tinnitus is fundamentally a brain-based condition, not simply an ear disorder. This paradigm shift has opened the door to more effective brain-based tinnitus treatment strategies that address the root cause rather than just the symptoms.

    The 2007 University of Konstanz Breakthrough

    A landmark 2007 study conducted by researchers at the University of Konstanz fundamentally changed our understanding of ear ringing causes. The research demonstrated that tinnitus originates in the brain’s auditory processing centers, specifically showing abnormal neural activity patterns in regions responsible for sound interpretation. This discovery proved that the persistent ringing, buzzing, or hissing sounds aren’t generated in the ears alone but are created by disrupted neural pathways in the brain.

    Why Traditional Approaches Fall Short

    Most conventional treatments focus exclusively on the ears, often providing only temporary relief or failing entirely. By targeting just the peripheral auditory system, these approaches miss the central neurological component that drives the condition. The brain’s cognitive function and neural networks play a crucial role in both generating and perpetuating tinnitus symptoms.

    The Neural Inflammation Connection

    Research has identified neural inflammation as a key factor in tinnitus development. When inflammatory processes affect the brain’s auditory centers, they can trigger the phantom sounds characteristic of tinnitus. Natural tinnitus relief approaches that support brain health and reduce neural inflammation have shown promising results in clinical studies.

    Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only and should not replace professional medical advice. Consult with a healthcare provider before starting any new treatment regimen.

    Build better health routines and reduce tinnitus over time-start your 3, 6, or 12-month Ring Clear wellness plan today and experience the shift.

    FAQs About Ring Clear Tinnitus Supplement

    What is Ring Clear and how does it help with tinnitus relief?

    Ring Clear is a brain-based tinnitus supplement developed to support natural relief from chronic ear ringing. Instead of masking symptoms like traditional methods, it targets the neurological source of tinnitus using 12 plant-based ingredients that reduce neural inflammation and improve auditory processing. This cognitive-focused formula supports both ear health and broader brain wellness.

    How does Ring Clear differ from traditional tinnitus treatments?

    Traditional tinnitus treatments such as hearing aids or sound masking target symptoms in the ear. Ring Clear takes a revolutionary brain-based approach by addressing neural inflammation and disrupted brainwave patterns that are the true source of tinnitus. This neurological strategy is designed for longer-lasting relief and enhanced cognitive clarity.

    What ingredients are in Ring Clear, and how do they work?

    Ring Clear’s tinnitus support formula includes:

    • Hibiscus: Calms neural hyperactivity and supports circulation.

    • Hawthorn Berry: Boosts cardiovascular health and eases nervous tension.

    • Olive Leaf Extract: Fights oxidative stress and inflammation.

    • Niacin, B6, B12, and Vitamin C: Promote neural repair, balance sensory input, and enhance blood flow.

    • Buchu Leaves, Juniper Berries, Garlic, and Green Tea Extract: Support detoxification, ear pressure relief, and antioxidant protection for brain and auditory tissues.

    Each ingredient is scientifically selected for its role in tinnitus management, cognitive enhancement, and neuroprotection.

    Is Ring Clear safe, and are there any side effects?

    Ring Clear is made from natural ingredients and is generally well-tolerated. Most users experience no significant side effects. However, individuals with known sensitivities or pre-existing conditions should consult a healthcare professional before beginning any new supplement regimen. Minor side effects may include digestive sensitivity, especially if taken without food.

    How should I take Ring Clear for best results?

    The recommended Ring Clear dosage is two capsules per day, taken with meals. For optimal results:

    • Take one capsule with breakfast and one with dinner.

    • Pair with healthy fats like avocado, nuts, or olive oil to boost absorption.

    • Maintain consistency by integrating it into daily routines such as brushing your teeth or having coffee.

    How long does it take to see results with Ring Clear?

    Results vary, but many users report noticeable tinnitus relief within the first 3-6 weeks. The formula is designed for progressive improvement, with optimal effects seen after 3 to 6 months of consistent use. Long-term users (12 months) often report sustained cognitive clarity, reduced ear ringing, and improved overall quality of life.

    Can Ring Clear improve brain health beyond tinnitus relief?

    Yes. Ring Clear’s neuroprotective ingredients support memory, focus, and cognitive function. By improving blood flow, reducing oxidative stress, and enhancing neuroplasticity, the supplement promotes overall brain health. Many users also report better sleep quality and reduced mental fog.

    Is Ring Clear suitable for seniors or those with age-related hearing issues?

    Absolutely. Ring Clear’s anti-inflammatory and circulation-enhancing properties are especially beneficial for seniors experiencing age-related hearing concerns. The supplement supports auditory wellness while also enhancing memory, concentration, and sleep-all common challenges associated with aging.

    Where can I buy Ring Clear safely?

    To ensure product authenticity and receive full customer support, Ring Clear should be purchased exclusively through the official Ring Clear website. Buying directly from the manufacturer guarantees:

    Avoid third-party retailers to prevent counterfeit or expired products.

    What are the pricing and package options for Ring Clear?

    Ring Clear is available in three flexible packages:

    • 1 Bottle (30-day supply): $69

    • 3 Bottles (90-day supply): $59 each ($177 total)

    • 6 Bottles (180-day supply): $49 each ($294 total)

    The 3-month supply is ideal for trying the supplement long enough to see results, while the 6-month plan provides the best savings and long-term support.

    Is there a money-back guarantee?

    Yes. Ring Clear comes with a 90-day risk-free guarantee. If you’re unsatisfied with the results within three months, you can return the product-even opened bottles-for a full refund. This makes your tinnitus relief journey a risk-free investment in better hearing and brain health.

    How does Ring Clear support my quality of life in 2025?

    In 2025, wellness is about holistic, plant-based solutions. Ring Clear fits seamlessly into this trend by improving tinnitus symptoms, sleep, stress levels, memory, and brain performance. Users frequently report renewed social confidence, improved focus, and the ability to enjoy quiet moments again-making it a cornerstone of natural auditory and cognitive wellness.

    Start your natural tinnitus recovery today with Ring Clear’s trusted blend of vitamins, botanicals, and antioxidants-support your brain and ears every day.

    Disclaimer and Affiliate Disclosure

    The information presented in this article is for general educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as, nor should it be construed as, professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Individuals should not rely solely on the content herein to make decisions regarding their health. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before beginning any new dietary supplement, health program, or lifestyle regimen. Results may vary based on individual physiology and health conditions.

    The statements made regarding the featured product have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. All references to clinical studies, customer testimonials, or scientific evidence are for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as conclusive proof of product efficacy.

    While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the content provided, no guarantee is made as to the correctness, completeness, or current validity of the information. The publisher, authors, and any syndication partners assume no responsibility or liability for typographical errors, omissions, inaccuracies, or outdated information.

    This article may contain affiliate links. If a reader clicks on such a link and makes a purchase, the publisher or its partners may receive a commission at no additional cost to the buyer. This compensation does not influence the content, recommendations, or reviews included in this article. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated organizations or entities.

    By accessing and reading this content, all readers agree to hold harmless the publisher, contributors, third-party distributors, and affiliate networks from any and all liability, losses, or damages-direct or indirect-that may result from the use of information, products, or services mentioned herein.

    For transparency, readers are encouraged to verify all claims with the official source and consult their personal healthcare provider prior to making purchasing decisions. This content is provided “as is” and carries no warranties, express or implied.

    Source: Ring Clear

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  • How To Retrain The Brain For Happiness

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    “If it bleeds, it leads”. This is a known and horrendous saying in the news media industry. The more horrible the news, the more likely we are to click on it. The more eyeballs they have on their articles (and ads), the more the money rolls in. And so they keep it coming. This shouldn’t be news to you, and I recognize this is also an unsettling way to start a conversation about rewiring the brain for happiness. But stay with me because this point is important.

    Without active vigilance and awareness, our eyes, ears and nervous systems are bombarded with bad news, aggressive television, suspense, and drama. Since March 2020, that bombardment of stress and fear-inducing messaging has skyrocketed.

    We have a nervous system igniter in the palm of our hand with smartphones available to give us our fear fix every minute of the day. The media we take in – the news clips, TV shows, books we read – are all part of it. You know what else is? The conversations we’re having with our friends, colleagues, and loved ones.

    The human species is programmed to be on high alert for threats. That’s how our species has survived – by using our senses and impulses to save us from real-life threats. The intake of a signal, physical or mental, that the brain perceives as life-threatening shuts down our thinking (and our digestive processes, immune system, and other critical functions of the body to keep us healthy), and moves blood to the extremities so we can run. Basically, less critical functions are put aside so the life-saving ones can step up.

    Now, however, it’s not the potential for a wild animal attack or an early frost that leaves us feeling like we’re fighting for survival. It’s every headline and ping of our phone or a billboard we walk by.

    All of this contributes to how our brains get wired. As brain training lingo goes, what fires together wires together. Information we take in and think about, often in a repetitive nature, begins to hardwire in our brains. Because we naturally avoid anything that challenges the wiring in our brain, and instead the natural inclination is to continue cementing it in and seek out more of it. We are hardwiring our brains for negativity and fear, to function in a state of stress and reactivity.

    It becomes cyclical. We get twitchy if we don’t get our dose. That feeling is addictive, and we seek out more and more of it to get our fix. What begins to happen is that even when we are in what should be a joyful state, or there is some good news, we bypass it all and let our brains take us to the bit that’s not right. We zero in on where and how we should be scared and worried. We have wired our brains to move to the doom and gloom.

    This is why, now more than ever, taking active, intentional action to wire our brains for happiness is so critical. Rising above the chaos is in no way a simple or easy process. Your brain will create every excuse not to do it. You’ve hard wired a pattern that you are now trying to break and the resistance is strong.

    Near the end of 2020, I hit my own breaking point. My brain felt absolutely fried. By what felt like divine intervention, I flipped open a book and landed on a page discussing neural retraining of the brain. I took a course and began to practice exercises that support the limbic system of my brain – the bits that deal with the stress response.

    I began to actively rewire my brain for happiness. This has felt like a life changer, akin to the experience I had when I first began meditating back in 2006. It has invited me to seek out different information, consume different types of media, and create firm boundaries on who I will engage with and the topics I am willing to have conversations about. It has also changed what I share with my subscribers.

    Why the excitement about this? Because this is a critical missing component for an optimal, healthy, and happy lifestyle. Our efforts are wasted if we’re deteriorating our health by allowing our nervous systems, limbic system, brain, heart, and body to be hijacked by bad news, violent media, aggressive music, and agitation-forming conversations and relationships.

    The scary bit is that we don’t see and likely don’t feel this hardwiring as it’s happening. We simply don’t know about it. I didn’t know about it, at least. It’s not like falling off the wagon with other health goals, where there are usually physical signs that something’s not right. Hardwiring fear creeps up until you find yourself in a state of exhaustion, anxiety, depression, and general overwhelm. We know practicing loving-kindness, compassion, and gratitude are important, but we end up without the strength of mind to pull ourselves out of the fear cycle to see, accept and embrace all the goodness that surrounds us.

    Let me tell you, there is a lot. There is so much goodness. So much connection. So much love and compassion and care; of course, you’d never know about it from the evening news. When we make these first steps to retrain the brain for happiness, slowly we can see the glimmer come back. We can come back to the joy inside and seek it out. We release the addiction we have to checking feeds, looking for the next thing to trigger us, and further hardwire the stress response in the brain. We begin to rewire the brain for happiness.

    The goal is simple: look for the good. Retrain the brain to seek out the goodness, the generosity, love, and care. Focus on that. And slowly but surely, we can retrain the brain – and build up those synapses in the brain. Again, the thoughts we think matter. They build these connections in the brain. We need to fire new thoughts and ideas and build up new wiring. When we do that, the old patterns slowly break down and dismantle.

    It’s time to rewire for happiness. The change is profound and life becomes a dramatically more kind, and beautiful one to be living. More so, even with all the realities of life, it becomes easier to live.

    5 Ways To Start Rewiring Your Brain For Happiness

    Mindful Of Your Media

    Stop with the bad news. Seriously. Delete your news app, mute or unfollow the fear spreaders, or anyone who is in your network that triggers that feeling in the pit of your stomach. From now on, your evening entertainment is limited to nature shows, romantic comedies from the 90s, blooper reels, compilations of pets doing funny stuff, babies laughing, choreographed dancing flash mobs, or anything that is so lulling to your nervous system that basically makes it impossible for you to stay awake. Let that sympathetic nervous system rest and infuse your brain with joy.

    Make That Gratitude Practice Real

    Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know #grateful this and #grateful that but you have to find a way to make it real and make it easy to be consistent with. The simplest is to grab any old notebook and leave it beside your bed. In the morning, write down three things you’re grateful for, and at the end of the day, write down 3 wonderful, heartwarming things that happened that day. You can be grateful for a hot shower, seeing your best friend, or your pinky finger. A heartwarming moment could be seeing a little boy holding his mom’s hand. Keep it simple. This is training your brain to pay attention to the goodness that is abundant all around us. The more we tune into it, and take a mental note in the day of the heartwarming moments, the more we will seek them out. We begin tuning our brains to a new frequency.

    Add More Heart To Your Day

    This is an easy one. I’ve been doing a training with the Heartmath Institute and they teach a technique that is really simple to take on and practice multiple times a day. Basically, all you do is take a few deep and slow breaths, imagining that breath coming in and out from your heart. At the same time, tune into heart-led emotions like care, compassion, love, or gratitude. Feel that emotion in your mind and in your body. Do this 3 to 4 times a day for a couple of minutes. You’ll start to notice that in times when you feel stressed or rushed, you will want to take a pause and take a couple of heart-based breaths. I created a free Heart Coherence Practice that you can join in right here if you’re feeling inspired.

    Change The Topic

    It is difficult not to fall into step talking about the worst world events broadcasted in the moment, but starting to pay attention to conversations as they head in that direction is a great first step. The reality is that most people don’t really even want to talk about it, but like most people, it is probably all they are seeing and reading about, and it’s something to share. I like to have a few other topics ready, so if a conversation turns, I will say, “How about we take this in another direction,” and then I’ll ask a question like, What are you reading right now? Have you discovered any new music lately? Have you picked up a new skill in the last few months? Can you imagine where humanity will be in 400 years at this current rate of consciousness elevation? (Okay, this last one is reserved for certain audiences only!)

    Change The Company

    Joking, but not joking. Recent events of life have highlighted what many of us want more of in our life, and what many of us want less of. I want fewer obligatory friendships. I want to surround myself with people who are striving to elevate themselves, to keep learning, keep thinking critically and who are also looking for the bright lights in the world. As I have said before, I can’t do my work and best serve in business or in my personal life when I am being dragged down. So when attempts to change conversations to more positive and productive topics fail repeatedly, and that leaves not much else, it may be time to move on and focus time on those who are operating on the same level as you.

    It starts with Awareness

    Rewiring the brain for happiness is a process. It requires vigilance, and you’ll experience this as you begin to practice. When we’re tired or feeling stressed, it becomes much more difficult to work against the tide of fear. I mean, the human mind and our natural way of seeking out the dangers in our world are how we have survived for this long.

    However, there may come a point when we’re programming our brain to believe we’re in a constant state of life or death when it’s just not true. As my friend Veronica Ciandre once said, “We are only one thought away from who we truly are.”

    We get to choose that thought. We get to choose who we are. We also get to choose whether we want that glass to remain half empty or on the verge of empty, or half full and only getting fuller and fuller with love, care, compassion, kindness, joy, and happiness.

    Ways To Start Rewiring your Brain For Happiness

    On My Mind Episode 10: How to Retrain the Brain for Happiness

    Subscribe today on your favourite podcast app and never miss an episode.

    How To Retrain The Brain For HappinessHow To Retrain The Brain For Happiness

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    Meghan Telpner

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  • Is Creatine Safe and Efficient for High Homocysteine?  | NutritionFacts.org

    Is Creatine Safe and Efficient for High Homocysteine?  | NutritionFacts.org

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    Those on a healthy plant-based diet who have elevated homocysteine levels despite taking sufficient vitamin B12 may want to consider taking a gram a day of contaminant-free creatine.

    The average blood levels of homocysteine in men are about 1.5 points higher than in women, which may be one of the reasons men tend to be at higher risk for cardiovascular disease. Women don’t need to make as much creatine as men since they tend to have less muscle mass. That may help explain “the ‘gender gap’ in homocysteine levels.” If you remember from my previous video and as seen below and at 0:36 in The Efficacy and Safety of Creatine for High Homocysteine, in the process of making creatine, our body produces homocysteine as a by-product. So, for people with stubbornly high homocysteine levels that don’t respond sufficiently to B vitamins, “creatine supplementation may represent a practical strategy for decreasing plasma homocysteine levels”—that is, lowering the level of homocysteine into the normal range. 

    It seemed to work in rats. What about humans? Well, it worked in one study, but it didn’t seem to work in another. It didn’t work in yet another either. And, in another study, homocysteine levels were even driven up. So, this suggestion that taking creatine supplements would lower homocysteine was called into question. 

    However, all those studies were done with non-vegetarians, so they were already effectively supplementing with creatine every day in the form of muscle meat. In that way, researchers were testing higher versus lower supplementation. Those eating strictly plant-based make all their creatine from scratch, so they may be more sensitive to an added creatine source. There weren’t any studies on creatine supplementation in vegans to lower homocysteine until now. 

    Researchers took vegans who were not supplementing their diets with vitamin B12, so some of their homocysteine levels were through the roof. A few were as high as 50 when the ideal is more like under 10, for example. After taking some creatine for a few weeks, all of their homocysteine levels normalized. You can see the before and after in the graph below and at 2:04 in my video. 

    Now, they didn’t normalize, as that would have been a level under 10, but that’s presumably because they weren’t taking any B12. Give vegetarians and vegans vitamin B12 supplements, either dosing daily or once a week, and their levels normalize in a matter of months, as you can see below and at 2:20 in my video. However, the fact that you could bring down homocysteine levels with creatine alone, even without any B12, suggests—to me at least—that if your homocysteine is elevated (above 10) on a plant-based diet despite taking B12 supplements and eating greens and beans to get enough folate, it might be worth experimenting with supplementing with a gram of creatine a day for a few weeks to see if your homocysteine comes down. 

    Why just a single gram? That’s approximately how much non-vegetarians do not have to make themselves; it’s the amount that erased vegetarian discrepancies in blood and muscle, as you can see in the graph below and at 3:01 in my video, and how much has been shown to be safe in the longer term. 

    How safe is it? We can take a bit of comfort in the fact that it’s “one of the world’s best-selling dietary supplements,” with literally billions of servings taken, and the only consistently reported side effect has been weight gain, presumed to be from water retention. The only serious side effects appear to be among those with pre-existing kidney diseases taking whopping doses closer to 20 grams a day. A concern was raised that creatine could potentially form a carcinogen known as N-nitrososarcosine when it hit the acid bath of the stomach, but, when it actually put to the test, researchers found this does not appear to be a problem. 

    Bottom line: Doses of supplemental creatine up to 3 grams a day are “unlikely to pose any risk,” provided “high purity creatine” is used. However, as we all know, dietary supplements in the United States “are not regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration and may contain contaminants or variable quantities of the desired supplement” and may not even contain what’s on the label. We’re talking about “contaminants…that may be generated during the industrial production.” When researchers looked at 33 samples of creatine supplements made in the United States and Europe, they found that they all actually contained creatine, which is nice, but about half exceeded the maximum level recommended by food safety authorities for at least one contaminant. The researchers recommend that “consumers give their preference to products obtained by producers that ensure the highest quality control and certify the maximum amount of contaminants present in their products.” Easier said than done.

    Because of the potential risks, I don’t think people should take creatine supplements willy-nilly, but the potential benefits may exceed the potential risks if, again, you’re on a healthy plant-based diet and taking B12, and your homocysteine levels are still not under 10. In that case, I would suggest giving a gram a day of creatine a trying to see if it brings it down.

    The reason I did this whole video series goes back to “Risks of Ischaemic Heart Disease and Stroke in Meat Eaters, Fish Eaters, and Vegetarians Over 18 Years of Follow-Up: Results from the Prospective EPIC-Oxford Study,” which found that, although the overall cardiovascular risk is lower in vegetarians and vegans combined, they appeared to be at slightly higher stroke risk, as you can see in the graph below and at 5:06 in my video. 

    I went through a list of potential causes, as you can see at 5:11 and below, and arrived at elevated homocysteine. What’s the solution? A regular, reliable source of vitamin B12. The cheapest, easiest method that I personally use is one 2,500 mcg chewable tablet of cyanocobalamin, the most stable source of B12, once a week. (In fact, you can just use 2,000 mcg once a week.) And, again, a backup plan for those doing that but still having elevated homocysteine is an empirical trial of a single gram a day of creatine supplementation, which was shown to improve at least capillary blood flow in those who started out with high homocysteine levels. 

    In sum, plant-based diets appear to “markedly reduce risk” for multiple leading killer diseases—heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and many common types of cancer—but “an increased risk for stroke may represent an ‘Achilles heel.’ Nonetheless, vegans have the potential to achieve a truly exceptional ‘healthspan’ if they face this problem forthrightly by restricting salt intake and taking other practical measures that promote cerebrovascular [brain artery] health…Nonetheless, these considerations do not justify nutritional nihilism. On balance, low-fat vegan diets offer such versatile protection for long-term health that they remain highly recommendable. Most likely, the optimal strategy is to adopt such a [plant-based] diet, along with additional measures—appropriate food choices, exercising training, judicious supplementation [of vitamin B12]—that will mitigate the associated stroke risk.” And try not to huff whipped cream charging canister gas. Leave the “whippets” alone.

    This concludes my series on stroke risk. If you missed any of the other videos, see the related posts below.

    I’m assuming that nearly everyone taking their B12 will have normal homocysteine levels, so these last two videos are just for the rare person who doesn’t. However, those on a healthy plant-based diet with elevated homocysteine levels despite taking sufficient vitamin B12 should consider taking a gram a day of contaminant-free creatine, which should be about a quarter teaspoon.

    Where do you get contaminant-free creatine? Since regulations are so lax, you can’t rely on supplement manufacturers no matter what they say, so I would recommend going directly to the chemical suppliers that sell it to laboratories and guarantee a certain purity. Here are some examples (in alphabetical order) of some of the largest companies where you can get unadulterated creatine: Alfa Aesar, Fisher Scientific, Sigma-Aldrich, and TCI America.

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • Creatinine to Normalize Homocysteine in Vegetarians?  | NutritionFacts.org

    Creatinine to Normalize Homocysteine in Vegetarians?  | NutritionFacts.org

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    What are the consequences of having to make your creatine rather than relying on dietary sources?

    “Almost universally, research findings show a poor vitamin B12 status among vegetarians” because they aren’t taking vitamin B12 supplements like they should, which results in an elevation in homocysteine levels. This may explain why vegetarians were recently found to have higher rates of stroke, as you can see in the graph below and at 0:30 in my video Should Vegetarians Take Creatine to Normalize Homocysteine?.

    Of course, plant-based eating is just one of many ways to become deficient in vitamin B12. Even nitrous oxide (laughing gas) can do it in as little as two days, thanks to the recreational use of whipped cream canister gas. (I just learned about “whippits”!)

    When researchers gave vegetarians and vegans as little as 50 daily micrograms of cyanocobalamin, which is the recommended and most stable form of vitamin B12 supplement, their homocysteine levels, which had started up in the elevated zone, normalized right down into the safe zone under 10 mmol/L within only one to two months. Just 2,000 micrograms of cyanocobalamin once a week gave the same beautiful result, as you can see in the graph below and at 1:15 in my video. 

    Not always, though. In another study, even 500 daily micrograms, taken as either a sublingual chewable or swallowable regular B12 supplement, didn’t normalize homocysteine within a month, as shown below and at 1:24. Now, presumably, if the participants had kept it up, their levels would have continued to fall as they did in the 50-daily-microgram study.

    If you’re plant-based and have been taking your B12, but your homocysteine level is still too high (above 10 mmol/L), is there anything else you can do? Well, inadequate folate intake can also increase homocysteine, but folate comes from the same root as foliage. It’s found in beans and leaves, concentrated in greens. If you’re eating beans and greens, taking your B12, and your homocysteine level is still too high, I’d suggest taking 1 gram of creatine a day as an experiment, then getting your homocysteine levels retested in a month to see if it helped.

    Creatine is a compound formed naturally in the human body that is primarily involved with energy production in our muscles and brain. It’s also formed naturally in the bodies of many other animals. So, when we eat their muscles, we can also take in some of the creatine in their bodies through our diet. We only need about 2 grams of creatine a day, so those who eat meat may get about 1 gram from their diet and their body makes the rest from scratch. There are rare birth defects where you’re born without the ability to make it, in which case, you have to get it from your diet. Otherwise, our bodies can make as much as we need to maintain normal concentrations in our muscles.

    As you can see in the graph below and at 2:54 in my video, when you cut out meat, the amount of creatine floating around in your bloodstream goes down.

    However, the amount in your brain remains the same, as shown in the graph below and at 2:57. This shows that dietary creatinine doesn’t influence the levels of brain creatine, because our brain makes all the creatine we need. The level in vegetarian muscles is lower, but that doesn’t seem to affect exercise performance, as both vegetarians and meat eaters respond to creatine supplementation with similar increases in muscle power output. If vegetarian muscle creatine were insufficient, then presumably an even bigger boost would be seen. So, all that seems to happen when we eat meat is that our body doesn’t have to make as much. What does all of this have to do with homocysteine?

    As you can see below and at 3:36 in my video, in the process of making creatine, our body produces homocysteine as a waste product. Now, normally this isn’t a problem because our body has two ways to detoxify it: by using vitamin B6 or a combination of vitamin B12 and folate. Vitamin B6 is found in both plant and animal foods, and it’s rare to be deficient. But, vitamin B12 is mainly found in animal foods, so its level can be too low in those eating plant-based who don’t also supplement or eat B12-fortified foods. And, as I mentioned, folate is concentrated in plant foods, so it can be low in those who don’t regularly eat greens, beans, or folic-acid-fortified grains. Without that escape valve, homocysteine levels can get too high. However, if you’re eating a healthy plant-based diet and taking your B12 supplement, your homocysteine levels should be fine. 

    What if they aren’t? We might predict that if we started taking creatine supplements, our level of homocysteine might go down since we won’t have to make so much of it from scratch, producing homocysteine as a by-product, but you don’t know until you put it to the test. I’ll cover that next. 

    This is the eleventh in a 12-video series exploring stroke risk. If you missed the last two, see Vegetarians and Stroke Risk Factors: Vitamin B12 and Homocysteine? and How to Test for Functional Vitamin B12 Deficiency.

    This whole creatine angle was new to me. I had long worried about homocysteine levels being too high among those getting inadequate B12 intake, but I didn’t realize there was another potential mechanism for bringing it down other than with vitamin B. Let’s see if it pans out in my final video of the series: The Efficacy and Safety of Creatine for High Homocysteine. 

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • Testing for Vitamin B12 Deficiency  | NutritionFacts.org

    Testing for Vitamin B12 Deficiency  | NutritionFacts.org

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    Many doctors mistakenly rely on serum B12 levels in the blood to test for vitamin B12 deficiency.

    There were two cases of young, strictly vegetarian individuals with no known vascular risk factors. One suffered a stroke, and the other had multiple strokes. Why? Most probably because they weren’t taking vitamin B12 supplements, which leads to high homocysteine levels, which can attack our arteries.

    So, those eating plant-based who fail to supplement with B12 may increase their risk of both heart disease and stroke. However, as you can see in the graph below and at 0:47 in my video How to Test for Functional Vitamin B12 Deficiency, vegetarians have so many heart disease risk factor benefits that they are still at lower risk overall, but this may help explain why vegetarians were found to have more stroke. This disparity would presumably disappear with adequate B12 supplementation, and the benefit of lower heart disease risk would grow even larger.

    Compared with non-vegetarians, vegetarians enjoy myriad other advantages, such as better cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugars, and obesity rates. But, what about that stroke study? Even among studies that have shown benefits, “the effect was not as pronounced as expected, which may be a result of poor vitamin B12 status due to a vegetarian diet. Vitamin B12 deficiency may negate the cardiovascular disease prevention benefits of vegetarian diets. To further reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, vegetarians should be advised to use vitamin B12 supplements.” 

    How can you determine your B12 status? By the time you’re symptomatic with B12 deficiency, it’s too late. And, initially, the symptoms can be so subtle that you might even miss them. What’s more, you develop metabolic vitamin B12 deficiency well before you develop a clinical deficiency, so there’s “a missed opportunity to prevent dementia and stroke” when you have enough B12 to avoid deficiency symptoms, but not enough to keep your homocysteine in check. “Underdiagnosis of this condition results largely from a failure to understand that a normal serum [blood level] B12 may not reflect an adequate functional B12 status.” The levels of B12 in our blood do not always represent the levels of B12 in our cells. We can have severe functional deficiency of B12 even though our blood levels are normal or even high.

    “Most physicians tend to assume that if the serum B12 is ‘normal,’ there is no problem,” but, within the lower range of normal, 30 percent of patients could have metabolic B12 deficiency, with high homocysteine levels. 

    Directly measuring levels of methylmalonic acid (MMA) or homocysteine is a “more accurate reflection of vitamin B12 functional statuses.” Methylmalonic acid can be checked with a simple urine test; you’re looking for less than a value of 4 micrograms per milligram of creatinine. “Elevated MMA is a specific marker of vitamin B12 deficiency while Hcy [homocysteine] rises in both vitamin B12 and folate deficiencies.” So, “metabolic B12 deficiency is strictly defined by elevation of MMA levels or by elevation of Hcy in folate-replete individuals,” that is, in those getting enough folate. Even without eating beans and greens, which are packed with folate, folic acid is added to the flour supply by law, so, these days, high homocysteine levels may be mostly a B12 problem. Ideally, you’re looking for a homocysteine level in your blood down in the single digits.

    Measured this way, “the prevalence of subclinical functional vitamin B12 deficiency is dramatically higher than previously assumed…” We’re talking about 10 to 40 percent of the general population, more than 40 percent of vegetarians, and the majority of vegans who aren’t scrupulous about getting their B12. Some suggest that those on plant-based diets should check their vitamin B12 status every year, but you shouldn’t need to if you’re adequately supplementing. 

    There are rare cases of vitamin B12 deficiency that can’t be picked up on any test, so it’s better to just make sure you’re getting enough.

    If you do get your homocysteine tested and it’s still too high, up in the double digits despite B12 supplementation and eating beans and greens, I have a suggestion for you in the final videos of this series, which we’ll turn to next with: Should Vegetarians Take Creatine to Normalize Homocysteine? and The Efficacy and Safety of Creatine for High Homocysteine.

    How did we end up here? To watch the full series if you haven’t yet, check the related posts below. 

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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