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Krill oil, a marine-sourced oil extracted from tiny shrimp-like creatures living in the Antarctic, has become widely popular due to its omega-3 fats and astaxanthin content. It has been widely studied and recognized for its cardiovascular, cognitive, and anti-inflammatory benefits.

Now, newer research points to yet another distinct advantage from this impressive marine oil — the ability to preserve muscle health and promote optimal energy levels.

Krill Oil Helps Retain Your Muscle While Losing Weight

A clinical trial from the University of Glasgow, published in the journal Obesity, investigated krill oil’s benefits during weight loss, particularly in helping protect muscle mass and strength. The first of its kind, this study focused on adults who were doing alternate-day fasting to lose weight by reducing their calorie intake without long-term starvation or nutrient deficiency.1,2

• The research participants — The study followed 41 male and female adults between the ages of 25 and 65 who had a higher-than-average body mass index (BMI), putting them in the overweight or obese categories. These individuals were randomly assigned to receive either a placebo or 4 grams per day of krill oil.

• All participants followed an alternate-day fasting regimen — On fasting days, they were only allowed to eat 500 calories during a two-hour window. On non-fasting days, they could eat normally — though binge eating or overeating was prohibited. The experiment was conducted over an eight-week period.

• What stood out was the difference in physical function between the two groups — The participants who took krill oil retained significantly more muscle mass and strength than those who didn’t. The krill oil group also performed better in a common physical test that measures how quickly someone can rise out of a chair — a useful indicator of lower body strength and coordination.

• Another standout performance metric was handgrip strength — This simple measure is actually a strong predictor of overall health outcomes, especially in older adults. In fact, I’ve written an article on how grip strength is a reliable biomarker of your biological age. In this study, participants taking krill oil maintained more of their grip strength than those who were given a placebo.

• Biologically, the krill oil group also showed improved markers of metabolic health — They had higher blood levels of omega-3 fats, specifically eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) — nutrients known to help reduce inflammation and support muscle integrity. The study also noted a reduction in systolic blood pressure in the krill oil group, which supports heart health during weight loss.

Your muscles are critical not just for strength, but for metabolism, blood sugar control, and long-term weight maintenance. Losing too much is a serious health risk — which is why krill oil is beneficial for anyone planning to lose weight. According to Stuart Gray, Ph.D., professor at the University of Glasgow and one of the co-authors of this study:

“In this study we have found that krill oil can help to preserve our muscle mass and strength as we lose weight. As maintenance of muscle is very important for our overall health and quality of life, these are extremely exciting findings.”3

Krill Oil Also Helped Older Adults Build Muscle Strength and Thickness

Gray was also one of the authors of a previous study that investigated krill oil’s muscle-boosting benefits, this time on healthy older adults. Published in Clinical Nutrition, the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial sought to find out how krill oil affects muscle strength, size, and function in this age group — and whether long-term supplementation could help offset the age-related decline in muscle quality and performance.4

• The researchers focused on 102 men and women, all aged 65 or older — The selected participants were relatively inactive — reporting less than one hour of physical activity per week — which made them ideal candidates for studying interventions aimed at preserving muscle health. One group received a placebo, while the test group took 4 grams of krill oil every day for six months.

• Muscle function indicators were measured — At both the start and end of the study, the researchers measured thigh strength, grip strength, muscle thickness, and markers of metabolic health in the blood — all indicators of muscle function.

• What happened next was measurable and meaningful — After six months, the krill oil group showed a 9.3% increase in thigh muscle strength, a 10.9% boost in grip strength, and a 3.5% increase in thigh muscle thickness — all relative to the placebo group.

• These improvements matter in daily life — Thigh strength plays a major role in your ability to climb stairs, stand from a chair, or walk with stability. Grip strength, as mentioned above, is directly tied to longevity and daily function. Meanwhile, a 3.5% boost in muscle size in this age group is a significant gain, not just maintenance.

• The researchers also tracked changes in blood levels of EPA and DHA — The krill oil group showed a 214% increase in EPA and a 36% increase in DHA in red blood cells. Their overall omega-3 index — the marker used to assess long-term omega-3 status — jumped by 61% as well. These numbers confirm that the body was not only absorbing the nutrients, but also incorporating them into cell membranes where they can actually change the way muscle functions.

• Another interesting outcome was a 17% increase in what’s known as the M-Wave — This is a measurement that reflects how excitable muscle membranes are. To put it simply, it shows that the muscles were more responsive and better primed to contract, pointing to better neuromuscular communication and more effective movement.

So How Does Krill Oil Achieve These Results?

According to Gray and his team, there are several mechanisms by which krill oil imparts these impressive benefits on muscle health.

• EPA and DHA play a direct role in muscle protein synthesis — This is the process your body uses to build new muscle tissue. These omega-3s help activate pathways inside your cells that control muscle growth and repair. EPA and DHA also reduce inflammation, which tends to increase with age and is known to accelerate muscle breakdown. By dialing down inflammation while promoting growth, krill oil supports a stronger, more resilient muscular system.

• This supplement also contains choline — A lesser-known yet essential nutrient also found in eggs, choline is vital for cell membrane integrity and muscle contraction. The researchers noted that choline supports skeletal muscle metabolism and helps your muscles communicate with your nervous system. It also supports the production of acetylcholine — a neurotransmitter essential for muscle control and coordination.

• Krill oil has astaxanthin, too — Similar to choline, this potent antioxidant helps benefit your skeletal muscle metabolism. However, astaxanthin is found in krill oil, but not fish oil — highlighting the advantages of this supplement over other marine oils.

For anyone over 65, this study shows that krill oil offers a real, measurable way to fight the natural muscle loss that comes with aging. And it does so with the help of nutrients your body actually uses to support better performance from the inside out.

Krill Oil Boosts Your Energy and Optimizes Protein Building

As mentioned above, your muscles play an essential role in many areas of your health, including your energy utilization — and according to a 2024 study published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, daily krill oil supplementation helps enhance this function by helping your muscles burn fat, process sugars, and build protein.5,6

• Twenty adult participants were involved in this study — They were given either 1 gram of krill oil per day, equivalent to roughly four servings of fatty fish or a placebo for seven weeks. Researchers collected thigh muscle samples from the participants before and after supplementation.

• Remarkable changes emerged after supplementation — They found that the muscle cells in people taking krill oil showed increased oxidation of oleic acid — a type of monounsaturated fat (MUF) — meaning their muscles burned fat more efficiently. And the more oleic acid the participants burned, the lower their low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (also known as “bad” cholesterol) levels were.

• The krill oil group also accumulated more leucine — This is a key amino acid needed to build muscle tissue. These results show that krill oil increased protein synthesis inside your muscle cells.

• The experiments showed no effect on glucose metabolism, but a closer look shows a different story — When the researchers examined the genes inside the muscle cells, they found that krill oil had switched on genes that help bring sugar into the cells and turn it into energy. Simply put, while the muscles didn’t appear to use more sugar right away, the cells were clearly getting ready to do so by boosting the tools they need to process sugar more efficiently.

These findings show that krill oil not only supports strength, but also leads to efficient energy production by burning fat and carbs, even helping cholesterol balance. The researchers conclude:

“[O]ur findings indicate that krill oil supplementation positively impacts lipid metabolism and cellular energy regulation in human skeletal muscle cells. The observed increase in fatty acid oxidation, upregulation of metabolic pathways, and changes in the proteomic profile suggest enhanced metabolic function and improved protein synthesis.

These and other findings highlight the potential treatment of metabolic disorders and enhancement of skeletal muscle performance by krill oil supplementation.”7

How to Maintain Your Muscle Health and Energy While Losing Weight or During Aging

If you’re fasting, cutting calories, or simply getting older, your body naturally starts to lose muscle, which drains your energy, slows your metabolism, and raises your risk of weight regain and frailty. Thankfully, you don’t have to just accept that decline. Here are some steps to protect your strength, energy, and overall function.

1. Add krill oil to your daily routine — As these studies show, krill oil gives your muscles the raw materials — like omega-3s, astaxanthin, and choline — to preserve energy, reduce breakdown, and trigger protein-building activity. However, make sure to choose reputable brands that prioritize quality and purity and pay attention to dosage.

There is what’s called the Omega-3 Paradox, wherein too much omega-3s also leads to negative health effects. Specifically, daily omega-3 supplementation exceeding 1 gram has been linked to increased AFib risk, especially in those with pre-existing heart conditions. Lower doses and whole food sources appear safer. So, start with lower doses and increase them only under medical guidance.

2. Eliminate vegetable oils and ultraprocessed foods from your diet — I recommend replacing them with real, whole foods. Processed foods contain linoleic acid (LA)-rich vegetable oils that disrupt your metabolic pathways and alter how your body stores fat. Instead, cook your meals using tallow, grass fed butter, ghee, or coconut oil.

3. Consider your protein and collagen intake — I suggest aiming for 0.8 grams of protein per pound of your ideal body weight and balancing that amount so that about one-third comes from collagen. This will help support muscle maintenance. If you exercise frequently, you might need to slightly increase your intake.

4. Consume healthy whole carb sources — Carbohydrates from healthy food sources are the ideal fuel for your body. Aim for 200 to 250 grams of carbs per day from white rice, whole fruits, and vegetables. If you have severe gut issues, sip dextrose water to provide your cells with a steady source of easy-to-digest, healthy carbohydrates for energy.

5. Stay physically active — The study participants who gained strength were inactive at the start, so even light movement will help your body use the nutrients in krill oil better. Daily walks, standing more often, or light resistance training will keep your muscles engaged and responsive.

6. Use chair-stand or grip tests to track your progress — Grip strength and how fast you can stand up from a chair are powerful indicators of muscle health. Try doing these weekly. Watching your time improve or your grip become stronger will give you confidence and show that what you’re doing is working.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Krill Oil

Q: How does krill oil help protect muscle during weight loss?
A: Krill oil supplies your body with omega-3 fatty acids, astaxanthin, and choline—nutrients that help reduce muscle breakdown and support muscle repair. Studies show that people who took krill oil during intermittent fasting kept more muscle mass and strength compared to those who didn’t.

Q: Does krill oil improve strength and mobility in older adults?
A: Yes. Research involving adults over 65 found that taking 4 grams of krill oil daily for six months led to stronger grip strength, thicker thigh muscles, and better performance in mobility tests, even without added exercise.

Q: What makes krill oil different from fish oil?
A: Krill oil contains omega-3s bound to phospholipids, which are more easily absorbed by your body. It also contains astaxanthin (a powerful antioxidant) and choline, both of which support muscle energy, coordination, and performance.

Q: Does krill oil boost energy levels in muscles?
A: Yes. In muscle samples, krill oil increased fat burning and helped muscles store more leucine, an amino acid used to build new muscle. It also activated genes that improve the use of sugar for energy — key for staying energized and strong.

Q: Who benefits most from taking krill oil?
A: If you’re trying to lose weight, fasting, or are in your senior years, krill oil can help protect your muscle, keep your energy steady, and support your metabolism. It’s especially valuable for older adults or anyone at risk of muscle loss.

You can’t see them, but the plastic you encounter every day is breaking down into fragments small enough to slip past your body’s defenses. These microplastics and nanoplastics arrive through the food you eat, the water you drink, and the air you breathe — and unlike the visible plastic waste we’ve been warned about for decades, these particles are tiny enough to interact directly with your cells.
Once inside, the smallest particles don’t just pass through and leave; the tiniest lodge in tissue and stay. Two recent reviews lay out what happens next, and read together, they trace a troubling path from your bloodstream to your brain. The first, published in Nutrients, examined how these particles may disrupt blood sugar regulation and contribute to the oxidative stress and insulin resistance associated with Type 2 diabetes.1
The second, published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, followed the same particles into the brain, where researchers believe they may feed the insulin resistance and cellular damage now linked to Alzheimer’s, a condition some scientists have begun calling “Type 3 diabetes.”2 Notably, this term is an informal label, not an officially recognized diagnosis.
What caught my attention was that neither review stopped at the damage. Both turned to the same question: can what you eat change how well your cells defend themselves? At the center of that defense sits a single protective pathway your body already has — one that certain food compounds appear able to switch on.
That shifts the conversation from simply avoiding exposure, which is no longer fully possible, to actively building resilience. What follows is how microplastics weaken those defenses, and which nutrients help restore them.

Your Diet Influences How Well Your Cells Fight Plastic-Related Damage

The Nutrients review examined how specific food-derived compounds interact with Nrf2, a protein that controls one of your body’s most important antioxidant defense systems.3 The researchers explored whether nutrients found in foods could strengthen cellular resilience and help counter the oxidative stress, inflammation, and metabolic disruption linked to plastic exposure.
Oxidative stress is what happens when damaging molecules called free radicals pile up faster than your cells can neutralize them, a kind of internal rust that wears down tissue over time.
Humans encounter microplastics and nanoplastics through contaminated food, beverages, household products, and airborne particles from textiles and plastics. Global plastic production was expected to reach roughly 400 million tons annually in 2025, while cumulative production could reach 33 billion tons by 2050.4 As exposure increases, scientists have become increasingly concerned about what happens when these particles accumulate inside the body.

• The concern extends far beyond simple pollution — Microplastics accumulate in organs involved in blood sugar regulation, including the liver, pancreas, and kidneys. In experimental studies, these particles triggered oxidative stress, inflammation, cellular barrier disruption, and metabolic dysfunction — processes that resemble those commonly seen in diabetes and its complications.
Several studies discussed in the review found that exposure to polystyrene microplastics and nanoplastics increased insulin resistance and worsened glucose tolerance in mice.5 Insulin resistance means your cells stop responding efficiently to insulin, forcing your body to keep blood sugar levels elevated for longer periods.
Researchers found that nanoplastics measuring just 100 nanometers produced greater toxicity than larger microplastic particles in diabetic mice. These tiny particles increased liver inflammation, disrupted gut bacteria, and intensified fat metabolism problems inside the liver. Their small size allows them to cross biological barriers more easily and reach tissues that larger particles struggle to enter.
• Your cells already have a built-in emergency response system — Researchers point to Nrf2 as the body’s master switch for antioxidant defense. Most of the time it sits idle, until cellular stress trips the alarm and it springs into action. When cells encounter stress, Nrf2 moves into the nucleus and switches on a large network of protective genes that help neutralize harmful molecules and repair damage.
Researchers emphasized that many plant-derived nutrients work by stimulating this same pathway, effectively helping your cells activate their own internal repair and defense programs.
• Several nutrient families activate the body’s defense genes — Polyphenols, flavonoids, phenolic acids, terpenoids, and related plant compounds are activators of the Nrf2 pathway. These naturally occurring compounds are found in a range of plant foods, including berries, herbs, spices, and colorful fruits and vegetables.
Once activated, Nrf2 switches on a network of antioxidant and detoxification enzymes that help cells neutralize oxidative stress, repair damage, and maintain normal metabolic function despite ongoing environmental exposures.
• The review connected environmental pollution with personalized nutrition — Researchers proposed that future dietary recommendations could be tailored not only to a person’s genetics, but also to their exposure to environmental pollutants such as microplastics. The goal would be to identify nutrients that activate protective pathways like Nrf2 and match those nutrients to individuals who are most vulnerable to oxidative stress, inflammation, and metabolic damage.

Microplastics Could Be Hitting Your Brain Too

A review published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences examined how microplastics and nanoplastics affect the brain and whether specific nutrients help protect against that damage.6 The authors focused on a growing concern: the possibility that long-term plastic exposure contributes to brain insulin resistance, a condition increasingly linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
Unlike Type 2 diabetes, which affects how your body responds to insulin, brain insulin resistance affects how neurons use glucose for energy. Your brain consumes enormous amounts of energy every day. When brain cells struggle to access or use glucose efficiently, memory, learning, and cognitive function begin to suffer. Researchers explained that this process contributes to the buildup of beta-amyloid plaques and tau tangles, two hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.*

• Microplastics are capable of reaching the brain itself — Plastic particles have been detected in human tissues, including the lungs, liver, kidneys, and brain. Animal studies found that smaller nanoplastics cross the blood-brain barrier, the protective filter that normally shields the brain from harmful substances, more easily than larger particles. Once inside brain tissue, these particles trigger oxidative stress, inflammation, and cellular dysfunction.
• Brain inflammation creates a vicious cycle — Researchers described how plastic-induced oxidative stress damages neurons while simultaneously weakening the brain’s antioxidant defenses. As oxidative stress rises, inflammation increases. As inflammation increases, insulin signaling worsens. That decline in insulin signaling may promote additional oxidative stress and accelerate the formation of beta-amyloid plaques and tau protein abnormalities associated with cognitive decline.
Healthy brain cells rely on specialized glucose transporters that move glucose across the blood-brain barrier and into neurons. Aging, inflammation, and insulin resistance reduce the activity of key transporters, limiting glucose availability to brain cells. The result is an energy shortage that affects memory, concentration, and cognitive performance long before obvious symptoms appear.
• Several studies linked plastic exposure directly to memory problems — Researchers reviewed evidence showing that nanoplastics impaired learning and memory in animal models in a dose-dependent manner. One study found that exposure to 80-nanometer polystyrene nanoparticles disrupted learning and memory in mice after only seven days.7
Other experiments showed that microglia, the immune cells that protect the brain, became activated after exposure and shifted into a chronic inflammatory state that interfered with nearby neurons.8
• Researchers identified several nutrients that counteracted the same pathways disrupted by microplastics — The review highlighted a group of plant compounds that activate Nrf2 and related resilience pathways, which help defend brain cells against the oxidative stress, inflammation, and insulin-signaling problems linked to microplastic exposure.
Rather than acting through a single mechanism, these nutrients targeted multiple stages of the damage process, including antioxidant defenses, glucose metabolism, inflammation control, and neuronal survival. According to laboratory and animal research:

◦ Ursolic acid, found in apple peels, berries, and herbs, improved memory, reduced beta-amyloid toxicity, and increased antioxidant enzyme activity.
◦ Verbascoside, a plant compound found in species such as lilac, mullein, and lemon verbena, improved gut health, reduced inflammatory markers, and enhanced insulin sensitivity in the brain, supporting the growing connection between the gut-brain axis and cognitive health.
◦ Diosmin, a flavonoid concentrated in the white pith of citrus fruit, which is exactly the part most people discard, boosted antioxidant defenses and improved both working and long-term memory.
◦ Baicalein, a flavonoid extracted from the roots of Chinese skullcap (Scutellaria baicalensis), reduced neuroinflammation, lowered beta-amyloid plaque formation, and improved glucose metabolism and insulin signaling in brain tissue.
◦ Cynarin, a major compound in artichokes, reduced inflammation, lowered beta-amyloid and tau protein accumulation, and improved cognitive performance in Alzheimer’s models.

• Many of these nutrients targeted brain insulin resistance directly — One of the review’s central themes was that Alzheimer’s disease shares many features with diabetes, including impaired insulin signaling inside the brain. In laboratory and animal studies, several of the highlighted nutrients improved key pathways involved in glucose uptake, insulin sensitivity, and cellular energy production, helping restore the ability of brain cells to access and use fuel efficiently.
Researchers argued that preserving these pathways could help interrupt the progression from oxidative stress and inflammation to cognitive decline. Rather than targeting a single symptom, the nutrients appeared to strengthen the underlying cellular defense network that keeps brain tissue functioning properly despite ongoing environmental stressors.

*These findings are from laboratory or animal research and may not directly apply to human health. To date, no long-term human studies have confirmed that microplastics cause Type 2 diabetes or Alzheimer’s disease in people.

Strengthen Your Defenses Against Microplastic Damage

The reality is that you can’t completely eliminate microplastic exposure. Plastic particles are already present in food, water, and the environment. That reality is why I wrote “Microplastics Cure,” available for preorder now. In it, I explain how these invisible particles enter and accumulate throughout the body, why they become increasingly difficult to remove once they lodge in tissues and blood vessels, and how everyday choices either increase or reduce that accumulation.
You’ll also find practical, science-based strategies that help lower ongoing exposure while supporting your body’s own protective systems. The goal is simple: understand what drives microplastic accumulation, identify the habits that contribute to it, and take meaningful steps to reduce the damage before the burden grows larger.
Avoidance is only part of the solution. A better strategy is to reduce your exposure wherever possible while strengthening the cellular defense systems that help your body handle oxidative stress and inflammation. Your daily choices influence how resilient your cells remain when they encounter environmental toxins.

1. Reduce the largest sources of plastic exposure — Start with the exposures you control every day. Avoid heating food in plastic containers, replace plastic water bottles with glass or stainless steel, and choose fresh foods instead of heavily packaged products whenever possible.
If you regularly drink bottled water, switching to filtered water stored in glass containers immediately reduces one of the most common sources of microplastic intake. Every source you eliminate lowers the amount of plastic your body has to process and store over time.
2. Build your meals around Nrf2-activating foods — The strongest nutritional message from both reviews is that certain plant compounds help activate Nrf2, one of your body’s most important cellular defense systems. Nrf2 helps switch on antioxidant and detoxification enzymes that protect tissues from the oxidative stress and inflammation triggered by microplastics.
Rather than focusing on a single food, build your meals around a variety of foods that naturally contain these protective compounds:

• Include apple peels, fresh herbs, and other minimally processed plant foods regularly, instead of relying on packaged products that often contribute additional microplastic exposure.
• Add artichokes to meals when available. They provide a unique mix of polyphenols that are largely absent from the modern processed-food diet.
• Choose whole citrus fruits regularly. They offer beneficial plant compounds along with fiber and nutrients that support metabolic health.
• Experiment with a wider variety of herbs, teas, and traditional plant foods rather than eating the same handful of foods every week. Greater plant diversity exposes you to a broader range of protective compounds.
• Build meals around colorful fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices. Different colors signal different families of beneficial plant compounds, giving your body a wider range of nutritional tools to draw from.

3. Support cellular energy production — Oxidative stress becomes more damaging when your cells struggle to produce energy efficiently. Support mitochondrial function by getting regular sunlight, avoiding seed oils, eating adequate protein, and consuming enough carbohydrates — about 250 grams a day — to support healthy metabolism. Your cells repair damage more effectively when they have the energy required to run their antioxidant and detoxification systems.
4. Control blood sugar before metabolic damage develops — Microplastic exposure is linked to insulin resistance and impaired glucose control. One of the smartest steps you can take is to track your metabolic health before symptoms appear. I recommend monitoring your Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) score, rather than relying solely on fasting glucose.
HOMA-IR is a calculation based on your fasting insulin and fasting glucose levels that provides one of the clearest pictures of how hard your body is working to keep blood sugar under control.
A higher score suggests greater insulin resistance, often years before obvious symptoms appear. Keeping your HOMA-IR low helps reduce oxidative stress and limits many of the same inflammatory pathways that microplastics appear to activate. For most people, if your HOMA-IR creeps above 1.0, it’s time to pay closer attention to factors like sugar intake, seed oils, plastic exposure, and gut health.
Talk to your health care provider about whether this testing is appropriate for you.

5. Create daily habits that activate your body’s resilience systems — The Nrf2 pathway responds to more than nutrition. Regular movement, quality sleep, healthy circadian rhythms, and consistent exposure to natural daylight all help maintain cellular resilience. Turn this into a simple daily challenge.

Get morning sunlight. Walk every day. Build meals around nutrient-dense whole foods. Reduce packaged products. Small actions repeated consistently strengthen your internal defense systems far more effectively than occasional bursts of effort.

FAQs About Food Nutrients and Microplastic Exposure

Q: How do microplastics affect my health?
A: Microplastics and nanoplastics can accumulate in tissues throughout your body, including the liver, pancreas, kidneys, and brain. Research — primarily in laboratory and animal models — suggests they may trigger oxidative stress, inflammation, and cellular dysfunction, which are linked to insulin resistance, metabolic disorders, and cognitive decline.

Q: What is Nrf2 and why is it important?
A: Nrf2 is one of your body’s most important cellular defense systems. When activated, it switches on genes that help neutralize oxidative stress, reduce inflammation, and support cellular repair. Researchers found that many beneficial plant compounds help activate this pathway, strengthening your body’s ability to cope with environmental stressors such as microplastic exposure.

Q: Can microplastics affect brain health and memory?
A: In animal studies, very small plastic particles crossed the blood-brain barrier and triggered inflammation, oxidative stress, and impaired insulin signaling inside the brain. These changes are associated with memory problems, reduced cognitive function, and biological processes linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

Q: Which foods contain nutrients that help protect against microplastic-related damage?
A: A variety of whole foods provide compounds that support your body’s antioxidant defenses. Apple peels, berries, herbs, and spices provide ursolic acid and other polyphenols. Artichokes contain cynarin, citrus fruits provide diosmin, Chinese skullcap contains baicalein, and plants such as lemon verbena and mullein contain verbascoside. These compounds help support antioxidant activity, healthy glucose metabolism, and inflammation control.

Q: What are the most effective ways to reduce the health risks associated with microplastics?
A: A practical approach combines reducing exposure and strengthening cellular resilience. Steps include avoiding heating food in plastic containers, reducing bottled water use, choosing fresh foods over heavily packaged products, supporting metabolic health, monitoring insulin resistance with HOMA-IR, and regularly eating nutrient-dense foods that activate protective pathways such as Nrf2.

Daily habits such as exercise, quality sleep, and natural daylight exposure also help maintain cellular defenses.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health regimen.

Test Your Knowledge with Today’s Quiz!
Take today’s quiz to see how much you’ve learned from yesterday’s Mercola.com article.

What makes a pill routine harder to follow?

Taking many pills on different schedules
A high pill count and complicated timing create more daily work, making skipped doses and abandoned routines more likely. Learn more.
Drinking water with each dose, which can make you feel full
Keeping supplements in one place, making it confusing
Taking medicine after a meal

Smell loss affects far more people than most realize, and the numbers are hard to ignore. Large population data summarized in Clinical Otolaryngology show that about 22% of adults live with some form of olfactory dysfunction, while roughly 5% experience complete smell loss, known as anosmia.1 Anosmia is more common than profound hearing loss or blindness, yet it rarely receives the same clinical attention.

Unlike vision or hearing problems, smell dysfunction often develops quietly. Olfactory dysfunction, meaning a reduced or absent sense of smell, is characterized by difficulty detecting everyday odors, distorted smells that no longer match reality, or a total loss of scent. Food loses its depth, warning odors like smoke fade into the background, and once-familiar spaces begin to feel oddly blank.

The research makes clear that this sensory change does not stay isolated. People with acquired smell loss face reduced longevity, a statistic that reframes smell as a marker of overall health rather than a minor inconvenience.2 Early smell loss also appears in serious diseases like Alzheimer’s, where smell decline tracks with changes in memory and brain structure long before diagnosis.

Despite these signals, routine smell screening remains rare in medical care. That gap matters because undetected smell loss links to poor nutrition, higher depression rates, safety hazards, and reduced independence. Researchers now argue smell health is so important that it belongs at the center of public health, not on the margins.

Smell Loss Exposes Hidden Health Risks

A narrative review published in the journal Clinical Otolaryngology examined why smell health has been overlooked despite its clear ties to physical, mental, and social well-being.3 The paper was written by international experts in olfactory science to summarize what decades of research show about smell loss and explain why public health systems still fail to treat it as a core health marker.

Smell loss often shows up alongside many of the same conditions that drive disability, hospital use, and early death. So, instead of studying only healthy volunteers, the review pulled together evidence from populations with chronic sinus disease, neurodegenerative disorders, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and post-viral illness.

• Smell dysfunction emerged as a predictor, not a side effect — Olfactory dysfunction often appears before major disease milestones. The paper explains that complete smell loss frequently predates Parkinson’s disease by five years or more, and more than 90% of patients have measurable smell impairment once motor symptoms appear. That timing turns smell testing into an early-warning signal rather than a late-stage observation.

• Loss of smell linked to increased mortality risk — The review highlights multiple studies showing that people who acquire smell loss face a fourfold increase in mortality risk compared with those who retain normal smell. This association holds even after adjusting for age and reported health status. This means smell decline tracks with survival in a way few people ever discuss during routine checkups.

• Cardiovascular and respiratory risks also surfaced — Poor smell function is associated with higher long-term risk of stroke and congestive heart failure. The authors also describe altered breathing patterns during sleep and wakefulness in people with anosmia, suggesting that smell loss disrupts normal respiratory rhythms tied to brain health and emotional regulation.

• Daily safety problems were common and measurable — The paper reports that 86% of people with smell loss worry about personal safety, and real incidents back that up. Over five years, 32% experienced spoiled food events, 15% reported gas incidents, 35% had gas scares, and 19% faced workplace hazards linked directly to smell impairment.

Loss of Smell Linked to Severe Mental Health Effects

The Clinical Otolaryngology study reported striking rates of psychiatric distress among people with olfactory dysfunction. Eating disorders affected 92%, social isolation 57%, relationship difficulties 54%, anxiety 45%, and depression 43%. Depression rates alone far exceed the global average of about 4%, placing smell loss on par with chronic diseases like diabetes and asthma in quality-of-life burden.

• Diet quality shifted in predictable but harmful ways — When smell weakens or distorts, people gravitate toward more energy-dense foods high in unhealthy fat and added sugar while eating a less varied diet. This pattern increases obesity risk and micronutrient deficiencies. In people with diabetes, smell dysfunction reached 71% among those with complications, tying sensory loss to metabolic decline you wouldn’t expect to start in the nose.

• Biology helps explain why smell tracks with brain health — The authors describe how early disease-related proteins accumulate in olfactory regions of the brain. In Parkinson’s disease, harmful protein clumps appear in the olfactory bulb years before movement problems.

• The paper emphasized missed opportunities in health care systems — Despite strong evidence, smell testing rarely appears in routine care, unlike vision or hearing exams. Many people remain unaware of gradual smell decline unless formally tested. The authors argue that simple screening paired with smell training could help identify cognitive and cardiovascular risk earlier, when intervention still matters.

• Equity gaps compound the problem — The review notes that people from ethnic minority groups seek care for smell loss at much lower rates due to access barriers, cultural perceptions, and lack of awareness. That disparity leaves entire populations without early warning signs for conditions tied to cognitive decline and reduced lifespan, reinforcing why smell health belongs in public health policy rather than specialty clinics.

Practical Steps to Protect and Restore Smell Health

Smell loss doesn’t begin as a nose problem. It’s a signal that something deeper has shifted in your brain, your breathing patterns, or your daily environment. The research makes it clear that ignoring smell changes allows wider health problems to advance quietly. Focusing first on awareness and early action helps address the root causes identified in the data rather than chasing symptoms later.

1. Start by checking your own smell function regularly — Treat smell like vision or hearing, not like an afterthought. Pick familiar, non-irritating scents you already have at home, such as coffee, citrus peel, or soap, and notice whether intensity, clarity, or recognition changes over time. If you struggle to detect or identify these smells, that’s important information because smell decline often appears years before cognitive or cardiovascular disease. Awareness is the first line of defense.

2. Reduce daily safety risks tied to smell loss —
If you heat your home or cook with gas, or work around chemicals, smell loss raises real hazards. I recommend installing natural gas detectors, not just smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. This step directly protects you from risks documented in people with smell dysfunction, particularly gas exposure. Safety measures remove danger while you address the underlying health issue.

3. Use structured smell training to stimulate your brain —
Smell training is a way to exercise the nerve pathways that carry scent information from your nose to your brain. When you repeatedly activate those olfactory nerve cells, the pathway itself becomes stronger and more responsive over time. To do this, choose four distinct fragrances such as rose, lemon, clove, and eucalyptus essential oils.

Actively sniff each scent for about 20 seconds, twice a day, such as after you wake up and before bed. While sniffing, focus your attention on the smell and try to recall what it has meant to you in the past. This focused repetition reinforces the neural pathway involved in smell, which is why research frames smell training as a form of targeted sensory rehabilitation rather than a passive exercise.4

4. Stabilize your breathing and sleep rhythms —
The review links smell loss with altered breathing patterns during both sleep and wakefulness. Pay attention to proper breathing during the day. At night, protect your sleep structure by keeping a consistent bedtime, avoiding bright light before bed, and sleeping in a cool, dark room.

If you wake frequently, focus on calming your breathing rather than checking the clock or your phone. These steps help regulate brain oxygen delivery and nervous system balance, which directly supports the same brain networks affected when smell declines.

5. Advocate for smell screening in your routine care —
Smell dysfunction often goes unnoticed because gradual decline feels normal. Smell screening belongs alongside vision and hearing tests due to its links with longevity, heart health, and brain disease.

Asking your integrative health care providers about smell dysfunction increases the chance of early detection and meaningful action rather than late-stage response. These steps put you back in control. Smell health responds best when you act early, stay consistent, and treat it as a signal of whole-body health rather than a minor sensory inconvenience.

FAQs About Sense of Smell and Overall Health

Q: What is olfactory dysfunction, and how common is it?
A: Olfactory dysfunction is a reduced or lost sense of smell, including distorted smells or complete smell loss known as anosmia. Large population data show about 22% of adults have some degree of smell dysfunction, and roughly 5% have complete smell loss, making it more common than profound hearing loss or blindness.

Q: Why does smell loss matter for your overall health?
A: Smell loss is not just a sensory issue. Research links it to reduced longevity, higher rates of depression, poor nutrition, safety hazards, and increased risk of neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disease. In many cases, smell decline appears years before major diagnoses, making it an early warning sign of broader health problems.

Q: How is smell loss connected to brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s?
A: Smell loss often shows up early in neurodegenerative disease. In Parkinson’s disease, harmful protein clumps build up in the brain’s smell center years before movement problems begin. In Alzheimer’s disease, declining smell tracks with memory changes and structural brain shifts long before diagnosis.

Q: What practical steps can you take if your sense of smell is declining?
A: You can regularly check your smell using familiar household scents, install gas detectors to reduce safety risks, practice structured smell training with specific fragrances, stabilize breathing and sleep rhythms, and actively raise the issue of smell screening during routine health visits.

Q: Can smell training really make a difference?
A: Yes. Smell training works by repeatedly activating the nerve pathways that carry scent information to your brain. Focused, consistent exposure to distinct smells helps reinforce those pathways, similar to physical therapy for a weakened muscle, and is recognized as a meaningful approach to supporting smell and brain health.

The handful-of-pills routine belongs to another era. Picture the morning ritual the supplement world quietly expects of you: a little assembly line of bottles on the counter, the careful counting, the palm filling up with capsules of different sizes and colors, and then the part nobody enjoys — getting the whole mouthful down with a gulp of water, hoping the big one doesn’t catch on the way.
We have all just accepted this. But step back and it’s a strangely outdated way to take care of yourself. Almost every other part of modern life has been simplified to fit the way people actually live. Yet the standard supplement routine has barely changed: bottles, capsules, timing, water, swallowing, sorting, and refills. The rest of life moved toward convenience. Supplements stayed stuck in the pillbox.

The Pill Routine Takes More Than It Seems

The capsule routine looks simple, but it quietly asks a great deal — and each demand is a place where the routine can break. Start with the count. The sheer number of pills is a barrier all by itself. In a multicenter study of older adults managing several conditions, three-quarters reported a high treatment burden and more than two-thirds did not take their medications as directed — and the strongest drivers of that burden were the complexity of the regimen and the number of pills to take.1
It’s a consistent finding: the more pill-heavy and more complex the routine, the more reliably people abandon it.
Then there’s the swallowing itself, which is a real barrier and a surprisingly common one. In a survey of outpatients picking up their prescriptions, more than 40% reported difficulty swallowing pills, and the authors noted that international estimates run anywhere from roughly 29% to 55% of adults, with about a third saying the trouble had caused them to miss doses.2
And it gets worse as the pills get bigger. When researchers analyzed what makes a tablet or capsule hard to get down, oversized pills stood out as by far the strongest factor, raising the odds of difficulty roughly tenfold.3 Anyone who has hesitated before the largest capsule in the lineup already knows this. Even people who don’t think of themselves as having trouble quietly dread the big one.
Now stack on the logistics. Two or three different schedules a day turn a simple act of self-care into a small management job — this bottle in the morning, that one with lunch, another at night. Travel makes it worse: the bottles are bulky, the routine is fragile, and taking a pile of capsules is easily forgotten on a busy trip. None of this fits modern life. It fits a slower, simpler era that no longer exists for most of us.
So we asked an obvious question that the industry mostly steps around. What if you didn’t have to choke down a fistful of capsules at all? What if the format itself were built around how people actually live — easier to take, and easy to keep up even when the day is a mess?

A Format Built for Real Life

That’s the direction we’re going — away from the pill pile and toward formats that are simpler to use and supports a food-first ideology. In practice, that means taking the ingredients suited to it and reformulating them out of capsules and into a clean powder that can be stirred into a glass of water, a smoothie, a bowl of yogurt or oatmeal, or sprinkled on whatever else you’re already eating. The supplement routine stops being a separate event you have to remember and becomes part of a meal you were having anyway.
Not every ingredient can be turned into a powder. Some are needed in doses so small they’re better measured into a small pill; some taste or keep better sealed away; some contain oils that call for a softgel. The goal isn’t to abolish pills or capsules from our product line — it’s to stop reaching for it by default, and to use a powder wherever the ingredient genuinely allows it.
For the many that do, the change can be dramatic: nothing to count, nothing to choke down, no big capsule to dread, and no bulky bottles to pack when you travel. All of that can translate into a routine that doesn’t collapse the moment your schedule does.

Why the Format Is the Whole Point

The point isn’t novelty for its own sake. It’s that the format chosen can significantly affect adherence — and consistency is what ultimately makes the difference, because a supplement only does something if you actually take it. A supplement that’s pleasant and effortless to take gets taken. A handful of capsules that feels like a chore gets skipped, then forgotten at the back of a shelf.
This is the thread that runs through everything we’ve been saying in this series. The best formula in the world is worthless if it ends up in your cabinet instead of in you. Modern life is busy, mobile, and unpredictable. Your nutrition should be built for that life, not for the imaginary, unhurried one the capsule routine was designed around.

The Bottom Line

While the fistful of capsules strategy is convenient for those who make and ship supplements, it quietly works against the person trying to stay consistent. For the ingredients that allow it, a clean powder you mix into food or a drink removes most of the friction that leads to skipped doses and dropped regimens. Once a routine is built around the life you actually live, consistency stops being a losing battle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What’s wrong with capsules?
A: Nothing, for the right ingredients. Capsules protect fragile compounds and allow precise small doses. The problem is using them by default for everything, including ingredients that would be far easier to take as a powder. The cost shows up as friction: counting pills, swallowing, dreading the big one, and keeping multiple schedules straight. That friction is the main reason supplement routines fall apart.

Q: Is difficulty swallowing pills really that common?
A: More common than most people think. In one survey of outpatients, more than 40% reported difficulty swallowing pills, with international estimates ranging from roughly a quarter to over half of adults — and a meaningful share said it had caused them to miss doses. Larger pills are by far the hardest to get down. Many people who’d never call it a “problem” still quietly dread the biggest capsule in the pile.

Q: How does a powder improve adherence to a supplement regimen?
A: A powder you mix into food or a beverage removes the swallowing barrier entirely and folds the supplement into something you already do — eating. There’s nothing to count out, nothing to choke down. For suitable ingredients, it turns the most-skipped part of the day into one effortless motion.

Q: Does switching from a capsule to a powder mean a weaker product?
A: No. It means the product is designed around what you’ll actually keep doing. The format largely determines consistency, and consistency is what makes a supplement worth taking at all. A simpler routine you can sustain for years will do far more for you than an elaborate one you abandon in a month.

These statements have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
This article is for general education. The products described are dietary supplements intended to support normal health and wellbeing as part of a food-first lifestyle. They are not a substitute for a varied diet, a healthy lifestyle, or the advice of your physician. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or managing a health condition, talk with your healthcare provider before beginning any supplement.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health regimen.

Test Your Knowledge with Today’s Quiz!
Take today’s quiz to see how much you’ve learned from yesterday’s Mercola.com article.

What kind of naturally occuring substance is Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)?

Enzyme
Vitamin
Mineral
Hormone
GLP-1 is released by the gut and helps control appetite, feelings of fullness, and blood sugar after meals. Learn more.

In my interview with Alexis Cowan, Ph.D., a molecular biologist from Princeton, we explored some cutting-edge ideas that can dramatically impact your health. Cowan’s deep knowledge of molecular biology, particularly her passion for light, circadian rhythms, and mitochondrial health, offers a fresh perspective on optimizing your well-being.

We discussed topics that are often overlooked in mainstream health discussions but are necessary for understanding how your body truly works and how you can take control of your health journey. Molecular biology is a powerful field for understanding how to optimize your biology. It allows you to get down to the very nuts and bolts of how your cells function and interact.

My own interest in this field has led me to write extensively about it, as I believe it holds the key to unlocking your body’s incredible potential. Cowan’s expertise in this area, especially her research background in metabolism and her current deep dive into light and circadian biology, made for a truly enlightening discussion.

Cowan’s journey into molecular biology is quite unique. Initially on a path to culinary school, a profound experience led her to a complete shift in perspective, sparking a deep curiosity about the nature of reality and ultimately guiding her to science. This pivotal moment became the catalyst for her exploration into biochemistry and molecular biology, culminating in a Ph.D. from Princeton.

Her personal journey of health transformation, including overcoming childhood obesity and chronic health issues, further fueled her passion for understanding the root causes of disease. Cowan’s background blends rigorous scientific training with a personal understanding of the challenges of health and healing.

This combination allows her to communicate complex scientific ideas in a clear and accessible way. These insights will equip you with actionable knowledge to make informed decisions about your health and well-being.

The Power of Light on Your Circadian Rhythm

Light and its profound impact on your circadian rhythm and overall health is an area often neglected in conventional health discussions, yet it’s fundamental to how your body functions. Cowan emphasizes the role of light as a foundational element for well-being, acting as a primary regulator of your body’s internal clock and numerous biological processes.

Light is a powerful environmental cue that dictates your body’s rhythms, influencing everything from sleep-wake cycles to hormone production and even mitochondrial function. You are constantly bathed in different forms of light, both visible and invisible, and understanding how these frequencies interact with your body is essential for optimizing your health.

Cowan pointed out that even the seemingly simple act of getting sunlight exposure is far more complex and beneficial than you might realize. Sunlight isn’t just about vitamin D; it’s a full spectrum of light frequencies, including infrared and ultraviolet, each playing a unique role in your biology. Your mitochondria, the powerhouses of your cells, are incredibly sensitive to light and utilize different frequencies for optimal function.

This perspective shifts the focus from avoiding “bad” light to actively seeking “good” light as a nutrient for health. Cowan referenced the pioneering work of researchers like Satchidananda Panda, Ph.D., who I’ve interviewed previously, and Albert Szent-Györgyi, a Nobel laureate who explored the electronic structure of proteins and their semiconductor properties.

This foundational research underscores the idea that your body is fundamentally an electromagnetic system, highly responsive to light frequencies in your environment.

Mitochondria Are Your Cellular Power Plants and Light Sensors

Mitochondria, often called the powerhouses of your cells, were a central theme in our discussion. Cowan and I share a strong belief that optimizing mitochondrial health is key to reversing and preventing most chronic diseases — a premise I explored in-depth in my book, “Your Guide to Cellular Health: Unlocking the Science of Longevity and Joy.”

These tiny organelles are not just energy producers; they are dynamic responders to your environment, particularly to light, and play a much broader role in your health than you may expect. Imagine your mitochondria as miniature engines within each of your cells, responsible for generating the energy you need to live and thrive. But they’re not just simple engines.

As Cowan explained, mitochondria are incredibly sophisticated, utilizing an electron transport chain to produce energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and a special type of water called metabolic water. This process involves a flow of electrons, which, in essence, is electricity at a cellular level.

Interestingly, this flow of electrons also generates a magnetic field within your mitochondria. This magnetic field is important for attracting oxygen, which is essential for energy production, and for containing reactive oxygen species within the mitochondria.

When your mitochondria are functioning optimally, this process is efficient and supports overall cellular health. However, factors like exposure to non-native electromagnetic fields (EMFs), which we’ll discuss later, disrupt this delicate balance.

Cowan described mitochondria as both antennas and emitters of electromagnetic frequencies. They are not only powerhouses but also sophisticated sensors that detect and respond to the electromagnetic environment around you, including different light frequencies. This highlights the importance of considering your light environment, both natural and artificial, as a key factor in mitochondrial health and, consequently, your energy levels, cellular function, and long-term health.

The Dangers of EMFs

Artificial EMFs, emanating from modern technologies like Wi-Fi, cell phones, and wireless devices, negatively impact your mitochondria and overall health. This is a topic I’ve written about extensively, including in my book EMF*D, as it represents a significant, yet often underestimated, threat in our modern world. Dr. Cowan was not aware of this book so I sent her a copy.

Cowan highlighted that your mitochondria are sensitive to these frequencies and exposure disrupts their function. She referenced research demonstrating that EMF exposure decreases mitochondrial membrane potential, an indicator of mitochondrial health. This disruption leads to a cascade of negative effects, including increased oxidative stress and impaired cellular function.

She explained a principle called the inverse square law, which means the closer you are to an EMF source, the stronger the signal and the greater the harm. Cowan also recounted the story of Dr. Robert O. Becker, a pioneering researcher who, as early as the 1960s, uncovered the harmful effects of EMFs.

His research, funded by the military, initially explored the use of electrobiology for healing and regeneration. However, his findings took a concerning turn when he discovered that EMFs could promote tumor growth and hinder wound healing in animal models. Despite his groundbreaking work, his funding was abruptly pulled after he attempted to raise awareness about these dangers, highlighting the challenges in bringing this information to the public.

Practical Steps to Reduce EMF Exposure

While the dangers of EMFs seem daunting, Cowan offered practical and actionable steps to minimize your exposure in your daily life. Small changes in your habits make a significant difference in reducing your overall EMF burden and protecting your mitochondria. It’s not about eliminating technology completely but rather using it consciously and strategically.

One of the simplest yet most impactful changes you can make is to distance yourself from EMF sources. For instance, Cowan strongly advises against holding your cell phone directly to your ear. Instead, use speakerphone to create distance. Similarly, avoid carrying your phone in your pocket and keep it away from your body as much as possible. When using laptops or other wireless devices, avoid placing them directly on your lap; use a desk or table instead.

For Wi-Fi, consider putting your router on a timer to turn off automatically at night when you are sleeping. This simple step significantly reduces your nighttime EMF exposure. When possible, opt for wired connections, like ethernet cables, for your internet devices instead of relying on Wi-Fi. While it’s less convenient, these wired connections reduce your exposure to wireless radiation in your home or workspace.

Sunlight Provides Your Daily Dose of Mitochondrial Fuel

Both Cowan and I are strong advocates for regular sun exposure, as it’s a key nutrient for your mitochondria and overall health. Sunlight is a powerful source of energy that your body is designed to utilize. It delivers both infrared and ultraviolet (UV) frequencies, both of which are important for mitochondrial function.

Near-infrared light, present throughout the day even in shade, penetrates deeply into your body and stimulates cytochrome C oxidase, an important complex in the mitochondrial electron transport chain. This stimulation boosts electron flow, enhancing ATP production and the creation of deuterium-depleted metabolic water, which is important for cellular hydration.

However, indoor environments are often lacking in near-infrared light, as energy-efficient lighting doesn’t contain it and coated window glass reflects it. This means you are likely missing out on this important frequency if you spend most of your time indoors. Conversely, spending time outdoors, even in the shade, ensures you receive a healthy dose of near-infrared light, nourishing your mitochondria and supporting cellular health.

Cowan also explored the role of UV light, particularly UVB, in relation to melanin. UVB light is essential for vitamin D production and triggers a cascade of beneficial effects through the pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) pathway.

This pathway leads to the production of alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (MSH), which stimulates melanin production, reduces appetite, and increases energy expenditure and beta-endorphin, which improves mood, reduces pain, and enhances immune function.

Cowan presented the intriguing idea of “human photosynthesis,” suggesting melanin plays a role in harnessing UV light to split water and generate energy, similar to chlorophyll in plants. This fascinating theory underscores the complex and beneficial relationship between UV light and your body. I actually discuss this topic in my book, Your Guide to Cellular Health, and I described it more accurately as photometabolism and will be writing scientific papers on this in the future.

Optimizing Sun Exposure for Maximum Benefit

With the understanding of sunlight’s importance, the question becomes: how do you optimize your sun exposure to reap the maximum benefits without risking harm? Cowan emphasizes using vitamin D levels as a biomarker for your sun exposure habits. Optimal vitamin D levels, achieved without supplementation, are a good indicator that you’re getting sufficient UV light. Ideally, aim for vitamin D levels between 60 to 80 ng/mL (150 to 200 nmol/L).

However, vitamin D is just one piece of the sunlight puzzle. There’s an important factor to consider: dietary seed oils. These oils, prevalent in processed foods and fast food, are rich in linoleic acid (LA). When LA interacts with the sun’s UV radiation, it triggers inflammation and DNA damage in your skin. If you consume these oils regularly, as many Americans do, you need to be more cautious about sun exposure.

It’s best to avoid direct sunlight during peak hours (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) until you’ve reduced your consumption of seed oils for at least six months. To avoid sunburn and maximize the beneficial effects of sunlight, Cowan also suggests a gradual approach, building up your “solar callus.” Start with short periods of sun exposure, five to 10 minutes, and gradually increase the duration each day as your skin adapts.

She also recommends starting your day with sunrise light, rich in red and infrared, to prepare your skin for midday sun. This morning light exposure also plays a role in setting your circadian rhythm for the day. Cowan also cautioned against the common misconception that melanin is solely for protection against UV damage. She argues that melanin plays a more active role in “human photosynthesis” and as a powerful antioxidant and detoxifier.

People with darker skin tones need significantly more sun exposure to achieve optimal vitamin D levels and other sunlight benefits due to melanin’s light-absorbing properties. Understanding your skin type and gradually increasing your sun exposure after reducing LA in your diet is key to safely and effectively harnessing the power of sunlight for your health.

Your Circadian Rhythm Is Your Internal Timekeeper

Cowan emphasized the role of light in regulating this internal clock and offered actionable strategies for optimizing your circadian rhythm, which has far-reaching impacts on your sleep, energy levels and overall health. Think of your circadian rhythm as your body’s internal timekeeper, synchronizing your biology with the day-night cycle.

Light is the primary cue that sets your circadian rhythm. Cowan highlighted the importance of morning sunlight exposure, particularly sunrise light, for anchoring your circadian clock.

Morning sunlight, with its specific wavelengths of blue, UVA and red light, signals to your brain and body that it’s daytime, initiating processes associated with wakefulness, energy production, and digestion. Consistent morning light exposure is key for regulating sleep-wake cycles and optimizing daytime functions.

During the day, seek bright, full-spectrum light. Indoor environments often fall short in providing sufficient light intensity and spectrum compared to natural daylight. Cowan suggests increasing light exposure indoors using full-spectrum lights, aiming for at least 10,000 lux in your workspace. Whenever possible, work outdoors to maximize your exposure to natural daylight, even on cloudy days, as outdoor light is significantly brighter than typical indoor lighting.

If you can’t get outside, cracking open windows to let in unfiltered sunlight helps improve your indoor light environment, allowing beneficial UV and near-infrared light to enter. On the other end of the cycle, minimizing blue light exposure in the evening is equally important for a healthy circadian rhythm.

Blue light, emitted from electronic screens and many artificial lights, suppresses melatonin production, disrupting your sleep cycle and hindering nighttime recovery processes. It’s important to block blue light in the evenings by using blue-light blocking glasses, installing blue light filters on your devices and opting for warmer, dimmer lighting in your home as it gets dark.

Embrace the Power of Nature’s Rhythms

My interview with Cowan underscored a powerful message: your health is deeply intertwined with the natural rhythms of light and darkness, and by consciously aligning your lifestyle with these rhythms, you unlock remarkable healing and well-being. Remember, light is a fundamental nutrient that fuels your mitochondria, regulates your circadian clock, and influences numerous biological processes.

By prioritizing sunlight exposure and minimizing exposure to artificial EMFs and blue light at night, you are directly supporting your cellular health and overall vitality. Small, consistent changes in your daily habits accumulate over time, leading to significant improvements long-term health. By understanding the science and embracing these natural principles, you address the root causes of many health issues and proactively building a foundation for vibrant well-being.

The power to optimize your health lies within your grasp, waiting for you to harness the natural rhythms of light and life. To continue your journey of health, Cowan offers a wealth of resources for you to explore. She is passionate about sharing her knowledge and empowering you to take control of your health. If you are eager to learn more and connect with Cowan, here are several avenues to pursue:

• Social media — Follow her on Instagram at @dralexisjazmyn for frequent posts about light biology, circadian rhythms, mitochondrial health, and more. She shares a lot of free educational content here.

• Podcast — Listen to her podcast, “Indoctrinate Yourself,” available on YouTube and Spotify. This podcast explores many of the topics discussed in this article and beyond.

• Courses — She offers in-depth courses, such as “Boot Camp Reboot,” which provides actionable protocols for circadian and light biology, nutrition and mitochondrial optimization. She also has a self-paced course on scientific literacy to help you better understand scientific research.

• Monthly membership program — Join her Incubator monthly membership, a book club and think tank that explores different topics and engages in group learning.

• Brain rentals — For personalized guidance, you can book a 30-minute or 1-hour “Brain Rental” session with Cowan for specific questions related to your health journey or understanding the science.

Few hormones have attracted as much attention in weight-loss research as glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1. This naturally occurring gut hormone helps regulate appetite, signals fullness to your brain, and influences blood sugar control after meals. The growing popularity of GLP-1 drugs has sparked a bigger question: Is there a way to support your body’s own production of this hormone without relying on medication?
Researchers in Serbia recently put one surprisingly simple candidate to the test — hydrogen-rich water.1 The people drinking it fared better than those drinking plain water. Moreover, what stood out was where they improved — in the appetite signals that often become dysregulated in obesity.
Just as compelling, researchers reported no serious adverse effects. Those findings raise an intriguing possibility. Instead of replacing the body’s appetite-regulating system the way medications do, molecular hydrogen appears to influence the pathways that help support it. To understand why that matters, let’s look at what happened when researchers tested hydrogen-rich water against a placebo, and how those changes affected appetite, metabolism, and sleep.

Hydrogen-Rich Water Appeared to Strengthen Natural Fullness Signals
The study, published in Medicina, investigated whether drinking hydrogen-rich water every day for eight weeks would affect food cravings, body composition, sleep quality, cholesterol levels, and GLP-1, a hormone involved in appetite regulation.2
The trial included 36 sedentary men and women with obesity who were randomly assigned to drink either 1 liter of hydrogen-rich water containing 15 milligrams (mg) of molecular hydrogen or regular water each day. Because the study was randomized, placebo-controlled, and double-blinded, neither participants nor researchers knew who received which drink until the study ended, helping strengthen the reliability of the findings.

That said, the trial involved a small number of participants, lasted only eight weeks, relied partly on self-reported questionnaires, and did not formally monitor diet or activity. The hydrogen-rich water was also supplied by a commercial hydrogen-product company that employed one of the study authors — all reasons to treat the results as preliminary.*

• The strongest appetite benefits showed up in craving scores — Participants who consumed hydrogen-rich water experienced a significantly greater reduction in overall food cravings than those who drank regular water. Researchers reported that total craving scores fell by 7.4 points in the hydrogen group compared to only 1.3 points in the placebo group.For someone who constantly battles the urge to snack or overeat, that difference matters because fewer cravings often make healthy choices easier and require less willpower throughout the day.
• Physiological hunger signals improved the most — One of the largest improvements occurred in what researchers called “cravings as a physiological state.” This refers to hunger-driven urges that feel physical rather than emotional. The hydrogen group showed significantly greater improvements than the placebo group, suggesting participants experienced fewer intense signals pushing them toward food.
The statistical effect size was large, meaning the difference was substantial enough to stand out even in a relatively small study population.
• Women appeared to experience the greatest appetite-related benefits — Although improvements occurred across the study population, researchers found particularly strong effects among female participants.
The female subgroup showed significant improvements in both physiological cravings and overall craving scores, with large effect sizes compared to placebo. This finding suggests that hydrogen-rich water influenced appetite regulation more strongly in women, although additional studies are needed to determine exactly why.
• Participants achieved these improvements after only eight weeks of daily use — And without adding exercise programs, weight-loss drugs, or specialized diets. Researchers specifically instructed participants not to start other weight-management interventions during the study period, allowing the results to be attributed primarily to the hydrogen-rich water. The intervention required only three servings per day totaling 1 liter.
• The hormone changes may help explain why cravings declined — Researchers found that hydrogen-rich water produced a mild-to-moderate, but statistically significant increase (p = 0.05), in circulating GLP-1 levels while the placebo produced no meaningful change. Hydrogen influences systems that regulate hunger and fullness through multiple routes.
Molecular hydrogen is thought to act as a signaling molecule that may help regulate cellular communication, reduce oxidative stress, and support mitochondrial function — the energy-producing structures inside your cells. When those systems function more efficiently, appetite-regulating signals appear to work more effectively as well.
• Researchers also noted that hydrogen’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects may help normalize hunger and satiety signals that become distorted in obesity — That means the body’s natural appetite-control system appears to work more like it was designed to work.
• The gut-brain connection may play a central role — Researchers discussed evidence that hydrogen affects communication between the digestive tract and the brain through the gut-brain axis. This network constantly exchanges information about hunger, fullness, and energy needs.
Researchers proposed that hydrogen may also influence neurotransmitters involved in appetite control and may improve the function of specialized intestinal cells that release GLP-1. By strengthening those signals, your brain receives clearer messages that enough food has been consumed.

*These findings are from research conducted in clinical settings. Results may not apply to all individuals.

Support Your Body’s Natural Appetite-Control System
If your goal is to reduce cravings and improve appetite control, start by supporting the biological systems that regulate hunger in the first place. The study suggests hydrogen-rich water helps support GLP-1 production and appetite regulation, but lasting results depend on more than a single intervention. Your cellular energy production, gut health, and overall metabolic function all influence how hungry you feel and how satisfied you remain after eating.

1. Use hydrogen-rich water correctly — If you decide to use hydrogen-rich water, preparation matters. Drop a hydrogen-generating tablet into room-temperature water and wait until it fully dissolves. Once the water turns cloudy, drink it immediately. That cloudy appearance indicates the hydrogen gas has been released into the water and is ready for consumption.
Look for products that produce roughly 8 to 10 parts per million (ppm) of hydrogen and undergo independent purity testing. Don’t wait too long after the tablet dissolves because hydrogen gas escapes quickly. Don’t swallow the tablet whole or consume partially dissolved fragments. These tablets are designed to react in water first, and the reaction generates heat that can irritate tissues if the tablet dissolves directly in your mouth or digestive tract.
Keep in mind that the featured study delivered 15 mg of molecular hydrogen per day through prepared water and product potency varies widely, so real-world intake is hard to standardize.
2. Use hydrogen strategically instead of continuously — During periods when cravings, poor sleep, or metabolic stress are most noticeable, daily use often makes the most sense. Once those symptoms improve and become more stable, consider taking occasional breaks before resuming use again.
I view this similarly to exercise training. Your body responds best when it remains adaptable. Short pauses help prevent your system from becoming overly accustomed to a single stimulus. The goal is to maintain responsiveness rather than creating dependency on any one intervention.
3. Remove the factors that interfere with cellular energy production — If seed oils remain a major part of your diet, appetite regulation becomes far more difficult. Soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, and similar seed oils are loaded with linoleic acid (LA), a fat that accumulates in tissues and contributes to oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction.
Replace these oils with more stable fats such as grass fed butter, ghee, or tallow. At the same time, eliminate ultraprocessed foods and reduce restaurant meals whenever possible, since seed oils dominate most commercial food preparation. A practical goal is to lower daily LA intake below 5 grams and ideally closer to 2 grams over time.
4. Rebuild your metabolism by supporting healthy gut signaling and GLP-1 production — Your gut bacteria help convert carbohydrates into short-chain fatty acids, including butyrate. Butyrate serves as a primary fuel for the cells that line your colon and helps maintain the gut environment that supports healthy appetite regulation. A healthy gut microbiome also plays an important role in the production and release of hormones involved in fullness and satiety, including GLP-1.
Start with easy-to-digest carbohydrates such as whole fruit and white rice, then gradually expand your food choices as your gut health improves. Avoid overwhelming a compromised digestive system with large amounts of fiber too quickly, as this often increases digestive distress and endotoxin production.Pair those carbohydrates with adequate protein — about 0.6 to 0.8 grams per pound of ideal body weight — and obtain roughly one-third of that protein from collagen-rich foods such as slow-cooked meats, homemade stock, or bone broth.
As your gut environment improves, the signals between your digestive tract and brain become more effective. Hunger becomes more predictable, fullness lasts longer, and your body’s natural appetite-control mechanisms are better able to do their job.
5. Track whether your cravings are actually changing — Use hydrogen-rich water during the part of the day when cravings usually hit hardest, then track what happens for two weeks. Rate your cravings from 1 to 10 before you drink it and again 30 to 60 minutes later. This gives you a simple way to see whether your appetite signals are improving.
Also, track your sleep quality, energy, and late-night snacking. The goal is to notice whether your body is becoming easier to work with. If cravings become less intense, meals feel more satisfying, and your appetite feels more predictable, those are signs your internal signals are moving in the right direction.

FAQs About Hydrogen-Rich Water and GLP-1

Q: What is GLP-1, and why is it important for appetite control?
A: GLP-1 is a hormone released by your gut after you eat. It helps signal fullness to your brain, slows the movement of food through your digestive tract, and supports healthy blood sugar regulation. When GLP-1 signaling works properly, you feel satisfied sooner and are less likely to overeat.

Q: Did hydrogen-rich water increase GLP-1 levels in the study?
A: Yes, though the increase was mild-to-moderate. Researchers found that participants who drank hydrogen-rich water for eight weeks experienced a statistically significant (p = 0.05) increase in circulating GLP-1 levels, while the placebo group did not. This increase was accompanied by reduced food cravings and improvements in several appetite-related measures.

Q: How much hydrogen-rich water did participants consume?
A: Participants drank 1 liter of hydrogen-rich water daily, divided into three servings throughout the day. The water provided a total of 15 mg of molecular hydrogen per day. Researchers instructed participants not to change their diet, exercise habits, or weight-loss strategies during the study.

Q: What benefits did participants experience besides higher GLP-1 levels?
A: In addition to higher GLP-1 levels, participants reported fewer food cravings and better subjective sleep quality. Researchers also found reductions in total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, often called “bad” cholesterol. No serious adverse effects were reported during the trial.

Q: What else supports healthy GLP-1 signaling naturally?
A: Healthy GLP-1 production depends on more than a single supplement or beverage. Gut health, sufficient carbohydrates, healthy appetite signaling, and strong cellular energy production all play important roles. Reducing seed oil consumption, supporting your gut microbiome, and maintaining a nutrient-dense diet help create an environment where your body’s natural appetite-regulating systems function more effectively.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Consult a qualified health care provider before making changes to your health regimen.

Test Your Knowledge with Today’s Quiz!
Take today’s quiz to see how much you’ve learned from yesterday’s Mercola.com article.

What does temporomandibular disorder (TMD) affect?

Teeth and gums only
Tongue and throat muscles
Jaw joint and nearby tissues
TMD may cause jaw pain, headaches, facial discomfort, clicking sounds, and difficulty chewing. Learn more.
Sinuses and nasal passages

1 Which gut bacterium lives in the intestinal mucus layer and has been linked to metabolic health?

Lactobacillus acidophilus
Escherichia coli
Bifidobacterium longum
Akkermansia muciniphila
Akkermansia muciniphila lives in the intestinal mucus layer, where it may help support the gut barrier. Lower levels have been linked to metabolic disorders and certain infections. Learn more.

2 Which medical condition affects about 85% of women with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS)?

Low blood pressure
Vitamin D deficiency
Insulin resistance
Insulin resistance affects most women with PMOS, including many who are not overweight. Learn more.
Thyroid enlargement

3 What tool may help you remember to take supplements?

Reminder apps
Reminder apps can provide helpful prompts, although they may not solve the problem if the routine still feels too complicated. Learn more.
Calls from family members
Fitness trackers
Grocery lists

4 What is the clinical term for a heart attack?

Cardiac arrest
Myocardial infarction
A myocardial infarction happens when blocked blood flow damages part of the heart muscle. Learn more.
Heart failure
Coronary spasm

5 Which non-drug approach can help reduce arthritis pain and maintain mobility?

Regular physical activity
Staying active helps support movement, independence, and joint function, even though many older adults do not meet exercise recommendations. Learn more.
Extended bed rest
Complete joint avoidance
Frequent cold exposure

6 What byproduct builds up during intense physical activity?

Glucose
Insulin
Lactate
Faster lactate clearance generally shows that the body is recovering from strenuous activity more efficiently. Learn more.
Collagen

7 What happened to butyrate levels in animals with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain?

Levels stayed the same
Amounts increased slightly
Production stopped completely
Levels dropped significantly
The study pointed out that restoring butyrate was associated with less pain sensitivity and improvements in abnormal cellular activity. Learn more.

Test Your Knowledge with
The Master Level Quiz

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders are a common cause of chronic facial pain, characterized by jaw pain, tenderness, headaches, clicking or popping sounds, difficulty chewing, and restricted jaw movement. When the condition persists, it affects sleep, concentration, stress levels, and daily quality of life. Yet despite how common TMJ pain has become, most treatments focus on managing symptoms after they appear rather than addressing the biological processes that drive the pain in the first place.
A growing line of research points to an unexpected source of influence — your gut. An animal study published in the International Journal of Oral Science suggests that the bacteria living in your digestive tract, and the compounds they produce, may help determine how intensely jaw pain is felt.1 Rather than treating chronic facial pain as a purely mechanical issue, this research asks whether the roots of that pain reach far beyond the joint itself.*
It’s a striking shift in thinking. For decades, TMJ pain has been viewed mainly as a problem of joints, muscles, and nerves in the face. But these findings point to a two-way line of communication between your gut and your nervous system that helps shape how pain signals are generated, amplified, and sustained.

TMJ Pain Traced Back to Gut-Derived Signals

Researchers wanted to understand why levels of butyrate, produced when beneficial bacteria ferment the fiber and resistant starch that reach your colon, fall during TMJ pain and whether restoring those levels could reduce pain.2
To answer that question, they used an animal model of inflammatory TMJ pain — an important caveat for what follows — and examined not only pain responses but also changes inside the brainstem region responsible for processing facial pain signals. Their goal was to determine exactly how a substance produced in the gut influences what happens inside the nervous system during chronic jaw pain.*

• The results pointed to a strong gut-pain connection — Animals with TMJ pain experienced significant drops in butyrate levels in their feces, blood, and nervous system tissues. At the same time, they became more sensitive to pain. When researchers gave tributyrin, a compound that releases butyrate after digestion, pain sensitivity improved significantly.
Pain improved after just 10 days of treatment. This finding suggests that changes in the gut microbiome may influence pain intensity rather than simply accompanying it — at least in animal models. Researchers also observed that tributyrin had no effect on the unaffected side, suggesting the improvement was linked specifically to the pain condition rather than a general numbing effect.
• Thousands of cellular changes were detected — Researchers examined a major pain relay center inside the brainstem. This structure, called the spinal trigeminal nucleus caudalis, acts like a control station for facial pain signals. When pain messages arrive from the jaw, they pass through this area before traveling to other parts of the brain. The researchers wanted to know whether butyrate altered what was happening inside this pain-processing hub.
Using advanced single-cell sequencing technology — a technique that reads the genetic activity of each cell one at a time, instead of averaging thousands together and missing the details — they analyzed more than 22,000 individual cells from the pain-processing center.
They found widespread changes in pain-signaling neurons, immune cells, and support cells that help regulate how the nervous system functions. After butyrate treatment, many of these abnormal cellular patterns reversed, suggesting that butyrate helped restore a healthier balance across multiple pain-related pathways rather than targeting just one cell type.
• Butyrate was associated with shifts in pain-related gene activity — Five key genes became disrupted during TMJ pain and then moved back toward normal after tributyrin treatment. These genes act like biological control switches that help cells respond to stress, injury, and pain signals. The changes appeared across several types of nerve and support cells, suggesting that TMJ pain affects an entire network of cells involved in transmitting and regulating pain rather than a single pathway.
Butyrate was also associated with restoration of a key process that controls how genes are turned on and off. TMJ pain reduced histone acetylation, a mechanism that helps cells regulate gene activity. Histones are the spools that DNA wraps around, and how tightly it’s wound determines which genes a cell can read. You can think of histone acetylation as a dimmer switch that controls how strongly certain genes are expressed.
When this process was disrupted, pain-related cellular activity became altered. After tributyrin treatment, histone acetylation levels shifted toward normal, which may have helped reduce many of the abnormal cellular changes associated with chronic pain. Researchers believe this is one reason butyrate influenced the underlying biology that sustains pain rather than simply blocking pain signals.
• The implications reach beyond TMJ disorders — Butyrate has been studied in the context of inflammation and pain regulation in other research settings. The findings suggest that gut-derived metabolites could become targets for future pain therapies that work differently from conventional pain medications.

Certain Gut Bacteria Influence TMJ Risk

The first study showed that restoring butyrate helped reduce pain-related changes inside the nervous system. Another question is whether the gut microbiome influences who develops these disorders in the first place. A separate Mendelian randomization study published in Medicine looked for a direct link between gut bacteria and temporomandibular disorders (TMD), the group of conditions that affect the jaw joint, chewing muscles, and surrounding tissues.3
TMD is the disorder itself, while TMJ refers to the temporomandibular joint — the hinge that connects your lower jaw to your skull. In other words, everyone has a TMJ, but not everyone has TMD. Researchers wanted to determine whether specific gut bacteria increase or decrease a person’s risk of developing these painful jaw disorders. The study combined microbiome data from 18,340 individuals with health data from more than 228,000 people, making it one of the largest investigations of its kind.*

• Certain gut bacteria appear to influence TMD risk directly — Some bacterial groups were associated with a higher likelihood of developing TMD, while others were linked to a lower likelihood. This suggests that the gut microbiome is not simply reacting to disease. Specific microbial populations appear to play an active role in the biological processes that influence jaw pain and dysfunction.
• Three bacterial groups were associated with greater TMD risk — Catenibacterium emerged as the strongest risk factor identified in the study. Higher levels of this bacterium were associated with a significantly greater likelihood of developing TMD. Two other bacterial groups, Coprobacter and the Eubacterium fissicatena group, were also linked to increased risk.
These findings give researchers specific microbial targets to investigate rather than treating the microbiome as a single, uniform system.
• Several bacterial groups appeared to protect against TMD — Individuals with higher levels of Senegalimassilia, Ruminococcaceae NK4A214, and Oxalobacter were less likely to develop the disorder. While most people don’t need to remember those names, the larger message is important: some gut bacteria appear to support biological conditions that help resist pain, inflammation, and dysfunction, while others appear to do the opposite.
• Researchers believe compounds produced by gut bacteria help explain these effects — One of the leading candidates is butyrate, as it helps regulate inflammation, immune activity, and communication between the gut and nervous system. Changes in gut bacteria alter the production of butyrate and other microbial compounds, providing a possible explanation for how events inside the digestive tract influence pain pathways elsewhere in the body.
• The study expands how researchers think about chronic jaw disorders — Rather than viewing TMD as a problem isolated to the jaw joint, the findings suggest that whole-body factors influence disease risk. Genetic tendencies that shape the gut microbiome were associated with measurable differences in TMD development.
This opens the door to future approaches that focus on supporting protective bacterial populations and improving gut health as part of a broader strategy for reducing chronic jaw pain.

How to Support the Gut-Jaw Connection

The research points to a common theme: TMJ pain is influenced by much more than your jaw joint itself. The studies highlighted changes in gut bacteria, lower levels of beneficial microbial compounds, and biological pathways that may affect inflammation and pain signaling. To address the root causes identified in this research, start by improving the environment that supports beneficial gut bacteria while also reducing unnecessary stress on the jaw itself.

1. Feed the bacteria associated with lower TMJ risk — One of the best ways to support a healthier microbiome is to give beneficial bacteria the foods they need to thrive. Start with gentle, well-tolerated sources of resistant starch — cooked-and-cooled white rice and potatoes, plus ripe fruit. Cooling cooked starches converts some of them into resistant starch, one of the best fuels your bacteria use to make butyrate.
As your digestion improves, gradually add prebiotic-rich foods such as onions, garlic, asparagus, carrots, broccoli, and cooked oats. These foods provide nourishment for the microbes that produce beneficial compounds involved in immune regulation and healthy pain signaling.
2. Increase butyrate production from the inside out — The first study found that lower butyrate levels were associated with TMJ pain, while restoring butyrate helped reverse several pain-related changes.4* Rather than focusing solely on supplements, focus first on creating the conditions that allow your own gut bacteria to produce more butyrate naturally.
Fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, and kefir help support microbial diversity, while grass fed butter, ghee, and aged cheeses provide small amounts of butyric acid directly. Introduce fermented foods slowly and pay attention to how your body responds.
If your gut has been disrupted for years, or if you struggle with chronic digestive problems, inflammation, or frequent antibiotic exposure, a butyrate supplement may serve as a temporary bridge while you rebuild a healthier microbiome. Food and microbial restoration remain the long-term goal because your gut bacteria are designed to manufacture butyrate for you.
Most butyrate supplements release too early in the digestive tract, so formulations designed to deliver butyrate throughout the colon are generally preferred.
3. Remove the foods that disrupt microbial balance — One of the fastest ways to undermine butyrate production is to continue feeding the conditions that damage your gut ecosystem. Seed oils such as soybean, corn, sunflower, safflower, and canola oil promote inflammation and microbial disruption.
Research supports replacing them with more stable fats such as grass fed butter, ghee, tallow, and coconut oil. This step helps create an environment where beneficial bacteria can recover and thrive.
4. Support the daily habits that strengthen your gut-brain connection — Your microbiome responds to much more than food. Consistent sleep, daily movement, and stress management all influence the production of beneficial microbial compounds, including butyrate. Walking after meals supports digestion and microbial diversity.
Quality sleep helps maintain a healthier microbial balance, while chronic stress pushes your microbiome in the opposite direction. Small daily habits performed consistently often produce the biggest long-term gains.
5. Retrain the muscles that control your jaw — Gut health is only one side of the equation. If you struggle with jaw clicking, clenching, mouth breathing, poor tongue posture, or chronic tension in your face and neck, orofacial myofunctional therapy (OMT) is worth considering. OMT uses simple exercises to retrain the muscles of your tongue, lips, cheeks, and jaw so they work together more efficiently. Think of it as physical therapy for the muscles that support proper jaw function.
Better muscle coordination reduces unnecessary strain on your temporomandibular joint and helps address another root cause of chronic TMJ symptoms. Combined with strategies that support a healthier microbiome and higher butyrate production, OMT helps improve the mechanical side of the problem rather than simply masking discomfort.

* These findings are from animal and epidemiological research. Results may not apply to all individuals.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health regimen.

FAQs About Butyrate and TMJ Pain

Q: What is the difference between TMJ and TMD?
A: TMJ stands for temporomandibular joint, the hinge that connects your lower jaw to your skull. Everyone has a TMJ. TMD, or temporomandibular disorder, refers to a group of conditions that affect that joint, the surrounding muscles, and nearby tissues. Common symptoms include jaw pain, clicking or popping sounds, headaches, facial pain, and difficulty chewing.

Q: What did the research discover about butyrate and TMJ pain?
A: Researchers found that butyrate levels dropped significantly in animals with TMJ pain. In animal subjects, restoring butyrate using tributyrin was associated with reduced pain sensitivity, improvements in abnormal cellular activity, and several pain-related biological changes shifting toward normal. The findings suggest that butyrate may influence some of the underlying processes involved in chronic pain rather than simply masking symptoms.

Q: How does my gut influence jaw pain?
A: The studies suggest that the gut and nervous system communicate through compounds produced by gut bacteria. These compounds may influence inflammation, immune activity, and pain signaling. Changes in the gut microbiome may alter the production of substances such as butyrate, which may help explain how events occurring inside the digestive tract affect pain pathways elsewhere in the body.

Q: Which gut bacteria were linked to higher and lower TMD risk?
A: Researchers identified Catenibacterium, Coprobacter, and the Eubacterium fissicatena group as bacterial populations associated with a higher risk of developing TMD. In contrast, higher levels of Senegalimassilia, Ruminococcaceae NK4A214, and Oxalobacter were associated with lower risk. These findings suggest that the balance of bacteria in your gut may influence whether biological conditions favor pain and dysfunction or help protect against them.

Q: What are the best ways to support butyrate production naturally?
A: Supporting butyrate production starts with creating a healthier gut environment. Simple carbohydrate sources such as ripe fruit, cooked and cooled rice, and sweet potatoes may help nourish beneficial bacteria. As tolerance improves, prebiotic-rich foods such as garlic, onions, asparagus, and cooked oats may provide additional support.
Fermented foods, quality sleep, regular movement, stress management, and avoiding seed oils also may help create conditions that favor beneficial bacteria and healthier butyrate production.

Test Your Knowledge with Today’s Quiz!
Take today’s quiz to see how much you’ve learned from yesterday’s Mercola.com article.

Which is not specifically identified as being depleted during strenuous activity?

Sodium
Magnesium
Sweat-related losses of sodium, potassium, and other electrolytes may contribute to dehydration, fatigue, dizziness, and slower recovery. Learn more.
Potassium
Calcium

Your body runs on an internal timekeeping system known as the circadian rhythm, a 24-hour cycle that helps coordinate the activity of almost every organ. This rhythm depends on predictable patterns of light and darkness to set the pace for digestion, hormone release, cellular repair, and metabolic balance. When those cues change because of exposure to artificial blue light, the timing of these processes shifts with them.1,2

Artificial light is no longer confined to lamps and streetlights. It’s emitted from screens, ceilings, dashboards, and devices that accompany you from morning to night. While its presence may seem harmless or even helpful, this constant exposure alters your biological signals in ways that you might not notice until symptoms manifest. One of the most overlooked casualties of this disruption is your liver.3

Beyond processing nutrients and filtering toxins, your liver depends on its own internal clock to organize metabolic work and nightly restoration. That internal rhythm is shaped by light, sleep, and timing cues, and when that is thrown off track, the organ loses the structure it relies on to function well. Researchers are now beginning to trace how that disruption contributes to chronic liver disease.4

German Team Investigates How Artificial Light Exposure Leads to Fatty Liver

At the Knappschaft Kliniken University Hospital in Bochum, Germany, a research team led by Professor Mustafa Özçürümez is studying how prolonged exposure to artificial blue light alters liver function. Their work centers on the impact of disrupted circadian rhythms on the development of fatty liver disease, examining both behavioral and molecular pathways to understand how this disruption unfolds over time.5

• Modern lighting habits drive circadian disruption — The starting point for their investigation is the observation that modern lighting environments make it difficult for your body to experience true darkness and suppress the natural rise of melatonin in the evening.

“Even at 10 lux, which is the light emitted at night during a full moon, it is more difficult for the body to produce melatonin,” says Özçürümez. This disruption in light exposure is now so common that true darkness no longer reliably signals the start of biological night for many people.

• Human monitoring captures how light patterns shape liver health — To understand how this altered light exposure relates to liver disease, the team designed a human study that tracks the biological rhythm of participants with and without diagnosed fatty liver. The protocol involves a 24-hour hospital stay during which body temperature and blood pressure are monitored continuously.

At several intervals throughout the day and night, participants provide saliva and blood samples, which are analyzed for melatonin and other biomarkers relevant to circadian timing and liver health. Participants also complete detailed questionnaires on daily habits, sleep, and how much time they spend indoors versus outdoors.

• After the hospital phase, participants are instructed to wear a light sensor for two weeks — These readings provide a precise picture of how each person’s light exposure aligns or conflicts with their internal clock. At the end of the tracking period, participants receive a report outlining their chronotype (early bird, night owl, or intermediate) and individualized feedback on their circadian patterns.

• “Clock-gene” testing offers deeper insight into circadian alignment — The team analyzes clock genes from hair root samples to determine each participant’s inherent timing tendencies. Combined with melatonin data, these tests create a detailed chronobiological profile, revealing how different chronotypes may relate to liver disease risk and why some individuals experience greater metabolic strain under irregular lighting patterns.

• Pig liver experiments reveal how deeply the organ depends on rhythmic cues — To study liver timing more directly, the researchers developed an experimental system that keeps pig livers viable in a nutrient solution outside the body.

This setup allows them to simulate environmental cycles and monitor gene expression over 24 hours, with samples taken every four hours. Results show that roughly one-third of liver genes follow a circadian rhythm, underscoring the organ’s reliance on stable daily signals.

Through their combined human studies and controlled organ experiments, the Bochum researchers demonstrate how artificial light distorts circadian timing and places strain on the liver. Their findings suggest that chronic exposure to irregular lighting patterns gradually pulls the internal clock away from its natural rhythm, setting the stage for fatty liver disease.

What Previous Studies Reveal About Artificial Light and Steatohepatitis

In August 2020, a controlled animal study published in Frontiers in Microbiology looked into the link between artificial light and liver disease. The researchers used a high-fat-diet rat model of liver disease to determine how constant light exposure alters metabolic pathways and accelerates the progression from simple fatty liver to steatohepatitis, a more advanced stage of metabolic liver injury characterized by inflammation, hepatocellular damage, and changes in lipid metabolism.6

• The study divided rats into four groups based on diet and light exposure — One group received a standard light-dark cycle, while another was kept under constant light. Within each lighting group, some rats were given a normal diet and others a high-fat diet. After 16 weeks, the rats exposed to continuous light, particularly those consuming the high-fat diet, developed more severe metabolic and liver abnormalities than rats exposed to a normal light-dark cycle.

• Constant light amplified metabolic dysfunction independent of calorie intake — Among rats fed a high-fat diet, those exposed to continuous light gained more weight and accumulated more visceral fat despite consuming the same number of calories as their counterparts under normal lighting. They also developed impaired glucose tolerance and more pronounced insulin resistance.

• Liver pathology confirmed the metabolic damage — Animals exposed to continuous lighting developed more extensive hepatic steatosis and higher levels of liver inflammation. This was reflected in elevated AST/ALT ratios, increased inflammatory markers such as IL-6 and TNF-α, and higher fatty liver activity scores.

• The mechanisms behind this progression were traced to the gut-liver axis — The researchers traced the mechanisms to changes in the gut microbiota and weakening of the intestinal barrier. In high-fat-diet rats exposed to constant light, levels of beneficial bacteria such as Clostridium and Turicibacter were reduced. These microbes support intestinal integrity and produce butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that protects the gut lining and reduces liver inflammation.

• Weakened gut barriers allowed inflammatory molecules to reach the liver — As butyrate levels dropped, tight junction proteins, including occludin and ZO-1, declined, signaling compromised gut integrity. This allowed higher levels of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) to enter the bloodstream.

The liver responded with increased production of LPS-binding protein (LBP), a marker of immune activation driven by gut-derived inflammation. These changes confirmed a breakdown in gut-liver communication and an increased inflammatory burden on the liver.

These findings are echoed in controlled human research. For instance, a 2022 study published in PNAS found that sleeping even one night under moderate light alters key cardiometabolic functions, resulting in higher nighttime heart rates and shifts in autonomic activity that signaled greater physiological stress at a time when the body should be recovering. It also caused impaired glucose tolerance and reduced insulin sensitivity.7

Beyond the Liver — The Systemic Health Effects of Artificial Blue Light

The liver is not the only organ sensitive to disrupted light cycles. The same environmental disruption that affects your liver also leaves a mark on other systems. Research has linked artificial light at night to a wide range of health conditions, including:

• Sleep disturbances — Exposure to artificial light at night reduces melatonin production, which delays sleep onset and shortens the restorative phases of deep and REM sleep. These stages are critical for memory, learning, and next-day functioning.8

• Obesity — In a cohort study involving over 43,000 women, those who slept with a light or television on in the bedroom had a significantly higher risk of gaining at least 5 kilograms and of developing overweight or obesity over time. These associations remained even after controlling for sleep duration, physical activity, and other lifestyle variables.9

• Type 2 diabetes — Brighter ambient light during nighttime hours has been linked to an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, independent of sleep length and diet.10 Even low levels of light during sleep have been shown to impair insulin sensitivity, reducing your body’s ability to regulate blood sugar.11

• Cardiovascular disease — Higher levels of nighttime light exposure are associated with greater arterial inflammation, elevated resting heart rates, and increased risk of heart disease. People living in brightly lit environments at night also display higher markers of brain stress activity, which is strongly correlated with cardiovascular events.12,13 For a deeper look at this connection, read “Exposure to Bright Light at Night Increases Heart Disease Risk.”

• Hormone-driven cancers — Multiple studies have found elevated breast cancer risk in women exposed to higher levels of outdoor light at night. One population-based study in France showed a significant increase in breast cancer incidence among women with greater nighttime light exposure near their homes, even after adjusting for air pollution, income, and other environmental factors.14,15

• Mood disorders and mental health — A study involving nearly 87,000 participants found that greater light exposure at night was linked with higher rates of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity, and self-harm. In contrast, brighter light during the day was associated with better mental health outcomes.16

Adolescents living in neighborhoods with high levels of outdoor nighttime light also exhibited more mood and anxiety disorders than those in darker areas.17 Read “How Exposure to Light at Night Impacts Your Mental Health” to learn more about these effects.

The disruption of your circadian rhythm by artificial light has also been associated with a higher risk of early death, emphasizing the importance of finding practical and sustainable ways to reduce its influence on your daily life.

Steps to Lower Your Exposure to Blue Light and Fix Your Circadian Rhythm

Reducing the impact of artificial blue light on your body doesn’t require a major lifestyle overhaul. Small, consistent changes can help restore your internal clock and protect the rhythms that support your liver function and overall health. Here are some strategies I recommend:

1. Shift to low-wattage amber or red lighting after sunset — If you need light after dark, choose bulbs that emit yellow, orange, or red tones. A salt lamp with a 5-watt bulb works well and won’t interfere with melatonin production. For screens, install software like f.lux, which gradually reduces blue light as evening progresses, matching your body’s natural rhythms.

2. Darken your nights completely — Cover windows with blackout curtains or wear a soft, contoured sleep mask to block light. Avoid using electronics at least one hour before bedtime and dim every screen. These changes help reinforce the internal signal that it’s time to rest.

3. Use blue-blocking glasses — Wearing amber-tinted glasses in the evening blocks blue wavelengths that suppress melatonin. This approach allows you to continue using screens or standard lighting without needing to modify bulbs or install software. Put them on after 7 p.m. to start winding down your exposure.

4. Reduce devices and light sources in your sleep environment — Many people unknowingly keep their rooms filled with electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and low-level light from chargers, alarm clocks, or standby LEDs. Cover or unplug anything that glows, and remove your cellphone from the bedroom.

If you use a security device, disable any light indicators during sleep hours. Your bedroom needs to look like a dark cave — quiet, cool, and free from glowing distractions that interfere with your heart’s recovery rhythm.

5. Establish a consistent calming nighttime routine — Choose a brief, calming practice you can do each night under dim light, such as taking a warm bath, gentle stretching, or writing by hand. By repeating the same routine nightly, you train your body to expect rest and help it settle into sleep more easily.

6. Expose yourself to bright natural light during the day — Natural light early in the day strengthens your circadian alignment and improves sleep later on. Open your blinds as soon as you wake and step outside for 10 to 15 minutes of direct sunlight. If you work indoors, position your desk near a window. Your goal is to reinforce a strong contrast between bright days and dark nights to keep your body clocks synchronized.

7. Consider photobiomodulation — This refers to the use of red or near-infrared light to stimulate beneficial processes in your cells. Unlike artificial blue light at night, which disrupts circadian rhythms, red and near-infrared wavelengths support them. One of their key effects is stimulating melatonin production inside your mitochondria. This isn’t the melatonin that makes you sleepy, but a form that protects your cells from oxidative stress throughout the day.

This internal melatonin helps stabilize your circadian rhythm and supports tissue health. Morning sunlight naturally provides these wavelengths, but if you don’t get enough sun exposure, red light therapy panels or near-infrared devices can help. Learn more about this approach in “Exploring Benefits of Different Wavelengths of Light in Photobiomodulation.”

While restoring your circadian rhythm plays a key role in protecting your liver, it’s just one piece of the bigger picture. If you’re looking for additional guidance on how to strengthen liver health through diet, lifestyle, and nutrient support, read “How to Keep Your Liver Healthy in Your 50s and Beyond.”

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Artificial Light and Liver Health

Q: How does blue light at night affect my liver?
A: Artificial blue light exposure, especially at night, interferes with your circadian rhythm, which your liver depends on to regulate metabolism, detoxification, and cellular repair. When your rhythm gets thrown off, your liver loses its internal timing cues, increasing the risk of fat accumulation, inflammation, and long-term damage.

Q: What’s the connection between artificial light and steatohepatitis?
A: Steatohepatitis is an advanced form of fatty liver disease. Research shows that artificial light, especially when paired with a poor diet, can worsen this progression. It disrupts your gut microbiome, weakens your intestinal barrier, and triggers inflammatory molecules that travel to your liver. That added inflammatory load pushes simple fat accumulation into full-blown liver injury.

Q: How much light at night is enough to disrupt my circadian rhythm?
A: Even very dim light is enough. According to the featured study, exposure to around 10 lux, which is roughly the level of a bright night sky during a full moon, reduces melatonin and shifts your biological clock. Screens, LEDs, and indoor fixtures often exceed that level.

Q: Are there other health risks linked to artificial blue light besides liver problems?
A: Yes. Artificial blue light at night has been linked to disrupted sleep, weaker metabolic health, higher risk of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, and higher rates of depression, anxiety, and even hormone-driven cancers like breast cancer.

Q: What’s the easiest first step I can take tonight to protect my liver health?
A: Start by dimming your lights after sunset and turning off bright screens an hour before bed. If that’s not realistic, wear amber-tinted blue-blocking glasses in the evening. This one small shift helps your body wind down naturally and gives your liver a break from late-night metabolic stress.

Originally published on U.S. Right to Know: February 25, 2025

Most infant formulas in the U.S. contain mostly added sugars instead of natural lactose, which experts say can harm early development, a report from the University of Kansas shows.

“Infants may consume upwards of 60 grams of added sugars per day, or the equivalent of two soft drinks per day if they are entirely formula-fed,” researchers say in the study, published February 24, 2025, in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.1

The findings reveal “the staggering extent” to which sugar-laden U.S. formulas undermine federal healthy diet recommendations for infants — and cannot be easily avoided, they say.

“[Most] of the formulas that parents and caregivers feed their infants likely present a substantial risk to their infant’s health and development. Ultimately, caregivers and infants in the US deserve a formula market that promotes healthy infant development and does not promote early obesity risk.”

Added sugars provide energy but lack nutritional value, boosting the odds of rapid infant weight gain that can eventually lead to obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other health problems. They may also make babies develop a stronger preference for sweet foods, increasing the risk of overeating and obesity later in life. And they do not support beneficial gut bacteria as well as lactose.

In contrast, lactose, which is naturally found in breast milk, cow and goat milk, is perfectly designed to support an infant’s nutrition, immune system, and gut health, researchers say. Because lactose digests slowly, it doesn’t cause the sharp spike in blood sugar that can set the stage for long-term health problems. It also satiates hunger and helps the body absorb minerals that are important for bone health.

Dr. David Ludwig, an endocrinologist and researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital who conducted some of the original studies linking sugar-sweetened beverages and fast food to obesity, calls infant formula spiked with added sugars a “metabolic nightmare for infants.”

“You lose the beneficial effects of what lactose does, and you get the harmful effects of what these fast-digesting sugars do,” Ludwig says. “Unless we’re talking about the very rare child who can’t take lactose, that should be the dominant carbohydrate.”

Out of 73 formulas available in the U.S. in 2022, the vast majority of which were for infants up to 12 months old, the researchers found only five contained mainly naturally occurring lactose — and those are no longer available in this country. It is unknown whether any formulas on the current U.S. market contain primarily naturally occurring lactose, they say.

The study also shows the quality and type of sugars in infant formulas varied by formula. Gentle (with marketing claims such as “gentle,” “soothe,” “sensitive,” or “acid reflux”) and lactose-free formulas contain less sugar than standard formulas but much more starch, the study shows.

“Our findings highlight a major problem with the infant formula supply,” says lead author Audrey Rips-Goodwin, who headed the analysis of data from the Nutrition Data System for Research for KU’s Health Behavior and Technology Lab.2 “Our infant formula market totally contradicts what experts in infant health recommend.”

Children under 2 years should not be given any foods or beverages with added sugars, since they need nutrient-rich diets and are developing taste preferences, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics3 and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans4 (2020 to 2025).

Yet with few formula options free of added sugars, the researchers say parents and caregivers who can’t breastfeed or access breast milk face tough choices in terms of finding a nutritionally suitable formula due to lax government regulations.

Unlike adult food products, U.S. regulations do not require that added sugars be reported on the nutrition label of infant formulas (only total carbohydrates). The FDA5 specifies 30 nutrients that must be included in infant formulas but does not regulate the types of carbohydrates or require their clear labeling. That means formula manufacturers can use any type of carbohydrate, including starches or added sugars such as corn syrup solids, fructose, and glucose.

“Consumers are blinded to the fact that added sugars may be present in infant formulas, and in what quantities,” the researchers say. “As a result, parents and guardians may unknowingly feed their infants formula that contains substantial quantities of added sugars.”

The study builds on others that revealed the high sugar content of infant formula. It also comes less than a year after news reports that two of Nestlé’s6 leading baby-food brands, promoted as healthy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, contain high levels of added sugar.

To promote healthy development, the researchers say efforts should focus on requiring formula companies to produce products that contain naturally occurring lactose as the only sugar. The amount of lactose present in infant formula should also reflect that of human milk.

At the same time, societal barriers to breastfeeding, including a lack of parental leave and affordable early child care, should be removed, the researchers add.

“[The] focus on an individual-level solution (breastfeeding promotion to women and caregivers) is not well matched to addressing the systemic nature of the problem and places an unfair burden on women and families who are expected to navigate this systemic issue,” Rips-Goodwin says.

Senior author Tera Fazzino agrees. “Even though breastfeeding is promoted as the best option, the lack of support makes it hard to do exclusively,” says Fazzino, associate director of the Cofrin Logan Center for Addiction Research and Treatment at KU’s Life Span Institute. “Most parents end up using formula, either as a supplement or completely. But our findings suggest that formula itself may pose a serious risk to infant health.”

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