Watchman News

Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published June 16, 2024.

Endocrinology is a branch of medicine that focuses on the study of hormones and the glands and tissues that produce them. It addresses the intricate balance of hormones that regulate many of your body’s essential functions, and how to keep them in the proper equilibrium. I interviewed U.K. clinician Keith Littlewood on this topic, revealing details that may be useful for understanding and supporting your endocrine health.

Littlewood, who splits his time between consulting with patients and completing a Ph.D. in endocrine research, bases much of his work on Ray Peat and has extensive clinical experience on how to improve energy, metabolism, digestion, sleep, fertility and other key foundations of optimal health.

The Importance of Understanding Thyroid Physiology

One of Littlewood’s areas of focus is looking at how endocrine disruptors affect thyroid physiology at the molecular level and the super molecular level. Of the many hormones in your body, thyroid hormones are perhaps the most important, as they regulate your metabolism and are required for nearly every physiological process in your body. When your thyroid levels are unbalanced, the effects can be wide-ranging.

Thyroid dysfunction has been associated in the clinical literature with a range of health issues, including fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, eczema, gum disease, and autoimmune disorders. However, observational associations of this kind do not establish that thyroid imbalance causes these conditions.

This is because your thyroid impacts various parts of your body, making the symptoms of dysfunction diverse. Your hypothalamus secretes thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) that triggers your pituitary gland to release thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) that then causes your thyroid to release T4.

Approximately 90% of your thyroid hormone is released in the relatively inactive form T4, according to standard endocrinology references.1 Deiodinase enzymes then convert T4 into the active form, T3 — primarily in your liver and kidneys, though the conversion also takes place in other tissues. Thyroid problems may exist, however, even when standard thyroid function tests show normal results. Littlewood says:

“TSH can be just a completely redundant test for multiple reasons … even abundance of T4 can be problematic and stimulate certain pathways. And that’s really why … T3 should be being looked at as opposed to TSH because stressed people have generally suppressed TSH values.

Chronic dieters can have suppressed TSH values. There are hormone-disrupting chemicals in the environment that can suppress how thyroid function is being modulated.

And I think that makes it even more complex when a clinician would just look at TSH and T4 and go, ‘Well, your blood tests are completely normal, let’s move on to something else or it’s in your head.’ This is a common theme that I’ve seen well over a decade now with clients who’ve had their blood tests and just because they looked at these two markers, they’re euthyroid [normal thyroid function] rather than potentially hypothyroid.

… just looking at TSH and T4 on its own, it can be very muddy water to look into. That’s why the relatively crude test of temperature and pulse can be pretty useful. But again, you want other markers as well. You want cholesterol, you might want to look at prolactin, other hormone levels, you might want to look at lactate, all of these other markers that could be useful in getting you to understand what thyroid is actually doing.”

While people with subclinical hypothyroidism will often have normal lab work, low body temperature and pulse rate have long been used clinically as supporting signs worth investigating — though neither is diagnostic on its own. Also, a TSH toward the lower end of the reference range is often viewed favorably, but it can also be suppressed by cortisol and adrenaline — so, a low reading is not automatically reassuring. Checking your temperature and pulse after eating is one way to double-check that.

A cholesterol test can also be helpful. In the bioenergetic literature, elevated cholesterol (mid- to high-200s) is interpreted as a possible sign that the conversion of cholesterol into steroid hormones is sluggish, and low cholesterol is associated with infection. These interpretations are not established in conventional endocrinology and are best reviewed with a clinician who knows your history. If you decide to go on this route, talk to your health care provider about whether this testing is appropriate for you.

The Primary Causes of Thyroid Disruption

While there are dozens of factors that may disrupt thyroid function, Littlewood believes estrogen dominance and estrogen excess are among the primary causes.

“I think if we look to the major kind of cohort who tend to suffer the most, it’s women … estrogen will suppress thyroid function and when there’s an estrogen dominance and estrogen excess, it will suppress how much thyroid hormone is being produced,” he says. “This kind of state will need supplementing with thyroid hormone because thyroid hormone will help increase estrogen metabolism.”

That said, note that thyroid hormone is a prescription therapy. Whether it is appropriate, and at what dose, is a decision for a qualified clinician who can diagnose and monitor treatment — not something to start on your own.

Other factors, including diet and environmental pollution, also need to be addressed. “The diet becomes intricately involved with trying to resolve this. You can’t just throw thyroid hormones and expect that you’re going to, A, lose weight and B, resolve all those issues because if you don’t have enough energy in the tank, then you’re not going to be able to function at that point as well,” Littlewood says.

He mentions Brassica vegetables, such as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower, which contain thiocyanates that may suppress thyroid function in large quantities, as one example. However, he adds that environmental pollutants can also be damaging, particularly if you have a genetic predisposition for thyroid problems or your diet isn’t ideal. These factors can compound one another, in what Littlewood describes as a “perfect storm”:

“If you’ve got poor inheritable traits … your nutrition’s not in good order … you’re under lots of stress and you’re exposing yourself to certain endocrine disruptors … [via] food choices, certain pesticides, very polluted environments in the city, perhaps even wireless exposure … All of these things can create a perfect storm. So, it becomes almost like a clinical ecology exercise to start with.

What can you remove from your environment that might be damaging you? And that could be a thousand different things for a thousand different people. So that’s where it becomes quite useful to do your due diligence about what somebody needs. It’s a needs analysis to get people to where they want to be. There’s no point in just saying, ‘Hey, his thyroid hormone, everything’s going to work out right,’ because it never happens like that.”

Get Your Diet Right First

Many lifestyle factors can contribute to low thyroid function, including stress, inadequate light exposure and exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals. In terms of diet, high polyunsaturated fat (PUF) intake, including linoleic acid, is one factor that has drawn attention, as research suggests PUFs may interfere with your cells’ ability to use active thyroid hormone.

With so many factors affecting your endocrine health, where should you begin to get it all sorted out? Littlewood recommends targeting your diet first:

“One of the most common themes that I’ve found — and my practice is probably about 70% females overall — it’s getting enough protein in, it’s getting enough calories in, it’s getting enough carbohydrates in and making sure that you can utilize those carbohydrates quite well … what you should be able to do is utilize carbohydrates as a fuel, everybody should be able to do it.”

Low-carb diets may work against healthy thyroid function. For healthy thyroid function, you need to make sure T4 can be efficiently converted into T3.

To support the conversion of T4 to T3, focus on whole, unprocessed or minimally processed foods, with enough protein and easily digested carbohydrates that are less likely to cause intestinal irritation or endotoxin production — whole fruits and white rice are the usual starting points in this regard. Littlewood explains that he often sees issues among his patients who have followed low-carb diets:

“This is something that I’ve seen with lots of females coming in who’ve gone keto, they’ve gone carnivore and they’re experiencing more disturbed menstrual cycles, increased hair loss. You can see that they’re progesterone deficient. You see that estrogen taking a hold, and this is where it becomes problematic and you start to see the sleep, the digestion, the mood, energy, all of these things that tend to go out of whack.

So, I would say that the diet is the base for everybody to get that right. A lot of people are unsure of some of the chemicals that are around, and they tend to become more aware of that as the process goes on.

So, I do think it’s getting the diet right first of all. I think it’s becoming aware of the things that could potentially disrupt thyroid, decrease progesterone, increase estrogen, and then you could start to look at that straight away. But it’s certainly something, I often work for at least a month or two, getting the diet right before you even consider entertaining them to think about thyroid hormone.”

Fixing your gut health is also important. “Digestion goes hand in hand with thyroid. It goes hand in hand with regulating thyroid, absorbing thyroid from the gut as well, and also how to regulate insulin as well. And if you can’t digest your nutrients, you are always going to have a problem with supporting the thyroid,” Littlewood says.

The Estrogen Connection

As I noted in this interview, many people believe that they are low in estrogen due to bloodwork, when they actually have high levels in their organs. This is because serum estrogen levels are not fully representative of estrogen that’s stored in tissues. Estrogen can be low in plasma, but high in tissues.2,3,4 Littlewood agreed:

“Yep. I would concur with that. I mean, where is the highest amount of T3 found? The highest amount of T3 is found intracellularly. It’s not in serum. So if you apply that rationale to estradiol, for example, and maybe the other weaker estrogens like estrone and estriol, they are going to be in the tissues.

Now, bear in mind, if you have any amount of adipose tissue, you are generating estrogen by default, and the amount of aromatase that’s being produced will convert testosterone and other hormones also to estrogen. So looking at the serum test, I think urinary tests can be useful, but again, they have their pitfalls because they’re not representative of systemic tissue status of these hormones.”

Estrogen appears to inhibit the conversion of T4 to T3, and, in my view, excess estrogen is among the more significant contributors to cancer risk — a position that sits outside the conventional consensus. Many clinicians also assume serum levels are equivalent to tissue levels, which may not hold. If that is right, some people may be reassured by a low serum result while tissue exposure remains higher.

One indirect option some clinicians use to gauge estrogen activity in fat and tissues is a prolactin blood test, though prolactin is not a validated measure of tissue estrogen. With this in mind, estrogen promotes the production of prolactin, which is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland. If you decide to have it tested, talk to your health care provider whether it’s appropriate for you:

“Prolactin can be very, very useful. I think keeping prolactin round about 10 milligrams per deciliter is the general idea. I think the average reference range is anywhere from 20 up to a couple of hundred … when you start to see prolactin that high, you start to infer that there’re going to be some problems probably related to high estrogen.

Sometimes you can actually look at someone and tell whether they’re estrogen dominant. You can certainly see it in guys drinking a lot of beer, a lot of phytoestrogens. You will tend to see a combination of weight gain that is promoted by high phytoestrogen exposure.

And in females, you can see that too. There are certainly estrogen-like traits with increased adiposity, certainly hormone dysregulation, which can go from dysregulated cycles to heavy clotting to dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea.

It can go both ways. And there are, again, the mixing or muddying of the water tends to be conflated by the increased estradiol will suppress thyroid hormone, will suppress progesterone … I think keeping prolactin as low as possible is great. And … progesterone will do that. It is predominantly a female hormone, but men do need it as well.”

A Comprehensive Approach Works Best

Littlewood emphasizes that addressing your thyroid problems isn’t as simple as taking thyroid hormones. You need to use a comprehensive approach that addresses what you’re eating — avoiding low-carb and low-calorie diets — your stress levels and your exposure to environmental pollutants, like endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

“You can throw light deficiency with that as well, inadequate vitamin D,” Littlewood says. “All of these things contribute to it.” Often, it’s the most fundamental, simple changes that make the biggest difference in your health. To that end, Littlewood also recommends regular exercise and movement, especially walking, to address endocrine issues and take your health to the next level:

“Very simple strategies can lead to some amazing results, and some of these things just get wrapped up in medical diagnosis, overtreatment, overdiagnosis, and I think this is still a huge problem. And like the ideas that we talked about, what are some of the things that Ray [Peat said that] have stuck with me? It’s understanding that you don’t need to go through this kind of overdiagnosis and overcomplication.

… exercise, I think, is key … I don’t think he [Peat] placed exercise as high up there as he might’ve done. But again, he talked about living a life that had a lot of contentment to it and doing things that were useful and interesting, rather than spending a life of overexercising and breathless exercise, which would lead to this hyperthyroid state anyway.

… the right amount of exercise, it’s not too much, certainly not too little, and that’s, again, something you tend to see — people who’ve been exercising five, six days a week push themselves into a hole. So yeah, adequate strength training, mobility training, moderate amount of cardiovascular exercise through regular walking I think is where most people need to be.”

If you want to learn more about Littlewood, you can find him via his websites, balancedbodymind.com and keithlittlewood.co.uk.

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.

1 Many PFAS-containing medicines can break down into which persistent compound?

Acetic acid
Lactic acid
Citric acid
Trifluoroacetic acid
Many per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)-containing medicines can degrade into trifluoroacetic acid, a highly persistent compound that is difficult to remove from water. Learn more.

2 What caused most GLP-1 medication exposures reported to U.S. poison centers?

Allergic reactions
Accidental dosing mistakes
A Journal of Medical Toxicology analysis found that most glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) reports involved therapeutic errors, such as taking the wrong dose or injecting too often. Learn more.
Intentional overdoses
Drug interactions

3 What can happen when the intestinal barrier becomes more permeable?

Digestion stops completely
Stomach acid production increases to aid digestion
Nutrient absorption becomes faster and higher
More substances can pass through the gut lining
A more permeable intestinal barrier allows substances that normally stay inside the digestive tract to pass more easily through the lining. Learn more.

4 Which factors help determine whether a supplement formula makes scientific sense?

Bottle size, label design, and price
Flavor, packaging, and serving size
Brand recognition, color, and texture
Nutrient form, dose, absorption, and delivery
Nutrient form, amount, absorption, and delivery all affect how well a supplement is designed to provide its intended nutrients. Learn more.

5 Which groups showed a stronger link between poor muscle health and Type 2 diabetes?

Men and adults over 70
Teenagers and older men
Women and adults younger than 60
Women and adults younger than 60 showed a greater increase in Type 2 diabetes risk when poor muscle health occurred with excess body fat. Learn more.
Men and adults younger than 40

6 Which of these habits can make tonsil stones more likely to form?

Drinking water regularly
Chewing crunchy foods
Gargling with salt water
Mouth breathing
Mouth breathing reduces saliva, so bacteria and food debris are less likely to be washed away before they collect in the tonsils. Learn more.

7 When is the colon naturally more active?

After waking up
The colon naturally becomes more active after waking, which helps move stool toward the rectum and makes morning bowel movements more common. Learn more.
Late at night
During deep sleep
Before bedtime

Test Your Knowledge with
The Master Level Quiz

1 Which household item can be a source of PFAS exposure?

Nonstick cookware
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can be found in nonstick cookware, grease-resistant food packaging, stain-resistant products, waterproof clothing, and contaminated drinking water. Learn more.
Cast-iron cookware
Glass containers
Wooden utensils

2 Which probiotic strain was highlighted for its potential heart-health benefits?

Lactobacillus casei
Bacillus subtilis
Lactobacillus acidophilus
A review published in Cureus evaluated 10 human studies and highlighted Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium lactis for effects on blood pressure, cholesterol, and inflammation. Learn more.
Saccharomyces boulardii

3 After PFAS-containing medicines are excreted, where can they enter the environment?

Household air filters
Wastewater systems
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from medicines can enter wastewater after excretion and eventually reach rivers, lakes, and groundwater. Learn more.
Your lawn and surrounding outdoor areas
Soil fertilizers

4 Which type of exercise helps signal the body to preserve muscle during weight loss?

Stretching exercises
Resistance training
Resistance training, including weights, bands, squats, and pushups, helps signal the body to maintain muscle during weight loss. Learn more.
Breathing exercises
Balance training

5 How many adults in the U.S. are affected by fatty liver disease today?

Nearly 4 in 10
Fatty liver disease affects nearly 4 in 10 adults in the U.S., making it a common metabolic health concern. Learn more.
About 1 in 10
Nearly 6 in 10
About 8 in 10

6 Which type of fat became much more common in the modern food supply with the rise of seed oils?

Monounsaturated fat
Saturated fat
Omega-3 fatty acid
Linoleic acid (LA)
Linoleic acid (LA) intake rose sharply as seed oils became widely used in packaged foods, restaurant meals, sauces, dressings, and fried foods. Learn more.

7 Which type of food is a common source of xanthan gum?

Packaged processed foods
Xanthan gum is commonly found in packaged foods such as sauces, salad dressings, gluten-free products, protein powders, frozen meals, and snacks. Learn more.
Fresh whole fruits
Plain cooked meats
Fresh vegetables

8 Which antidepressant has been linked to more severe withdrawal symptoms after long-term use?

Fluoxetine
Sertraline
Paroxetine
Paroxetine has a shorter half-life, and shorter-acting antidepressants are generally associated with more frequent withdrawal symptoms than longer-acting drugs such as fluoxetine. Learn more.
Escitalopram

9 At what age was smartphone ownership linked to higher risks of depression, obesity, and insufficient sleep?

8
10
12
Smartphone ownership at age 12 was associated with higher risks of depression, obesity, and insufficient sleep, with earlier ownership linked to greater risk. Learn more.
15

10 Which supplement form can be mixed directly into food or beverages?

Powder
Powdered supplements can be stirred or sprinkled into foods and beverages, providing an alternative for people who have difficulty swallowing pills or capsules. Learn more.
Capsule
Softgel
Tablet

11 Which factor is not a driver of chronic inflammation?

Endotoxins
Cytotoxins
Endotoxins, excess linoleic acid, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and electromagnetic fields are associated with chronic inflammatory signaling. Cytotoxins are not included among these drivers. Learn more.
Excess linoleic acid (LA)
Electromagnetic fields (EMFs)

12 Which vitamin deficiency is linked to a higher risk of fractures and osteoporosis?

Vitamin K
Vitamin K helps activate proteins involved in bone mineralization and calcium use. Low vitamin K levels are associated with weaker bones and a higher fracture risk. Learn more.
Vitamin C
Vitamin B12
Vitamin E

13 Which type of training can help build muscle when heavy weights are not an option?

Stretching exercises
High-intensity interval training
Long-distance walking
Blood flow restriction training
Blood flow restriction (BFR) training uses light resistance with specialized bands to stimulate muscle growth while placing less stress on the joints. Learn more.

14 Consumption of foods rich in what dietary component can help increase butyrate production?

Protein
Fiber
Gut bacteria ferment dietary fiber to produce butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that helps fuel colon cells and support the gut barrier. Learn more.
Saturated fat
Cholesterol

15 Which brain change has been linked to alcohol consumption?

Enlarged brain ventricles
Increased gray matter
Vascular brain lesions
Alcohol consumption was associated with a higher risk of vascular brain lesions, with the risk increasing further among heavier drinkers. Learn more.
Thicker cerebral cortex

16 Which home method can help loosen a small tonsil stone?

Using a toothpick to get deep into the tonsils
Gargling with warm salt water
Gargling with warm salt water is one of the gentlest ways to loosen small tonsil stones without injuring the delicate tissue. Learn more.
Scraping it with a sharp tool
Pressing deeply into the tonsil

17 Which farming approach uses practices like rotational grazing and minimal soil disturbance to improve soil health?

Conventional agriculture
Monoculture farming
Regenerative agriculture
Regenerative agriculture uses practices that build soil organic matter, support biodiversity, improve water retention, and reduce reliance on synthetic inputs. Learn more.
Intensive organic operations

18 Which feeding option provides both nutrition and natural immune support?

Pasteurized cow’s milk
Soy-based infant formula
Hydrolyzed infant formula
Breast milk
Breast milk provides nutrients along with antibodies and other components that support a baby’s developing immune system. Learn more.

19 What can make bowel movements easier while sitting on the toilet?

Raising your knees above your hips
Raising your knees above your hips creates a more natural squatting position, helping relax the muscles involved in passing stool. Learn more.
Leaning far backward
Keeping your feet flat and low
Holding your breath

20 Which type of diet may interfere with healthy thyroid function?

Low-carbohydrate diet
Very low-carbohydrate and low-calorie eating patterns can affect thyroid hormone production and conversion, especially when energy intake is too low. Learn more.
Mediterranean diet
High-fiber diet
Balanced whole-food diet

21 If fiber-rich foods upset your gut, which foods may be easier to start with?

Beans and bran cereal
White rice and whole fruits
White rice and whole fruits are easier to digest and may be better tolerated while bloating, pain, or irregular bowel movements improve. Learn more.
Raw vegetables and lentils
Whole grains and nuts

Your body runs on a roughly 24-hour internal clock called the circadian rhythm, and it governs far more than when you feel sleepy or wide awake — it may also affect when you’re most vulnerable to a stroke. For a lot of people, the riskiest stretch falls in the hours right after they get out of bed.

Researchers who investigated stroke incidents keep noticing the same pattern: Cases tend to bunch up in the morning rather than spreading evenly across the day. With strokes now one of the leading causes of death (more than 795,000 Americans have a stroke every year1) and disability in the U.S.,2 knowing this pattern can help sharpen how quickly you and the people around you catch the warning signs.

So what is it about the morning that seems to tip the scales toward a stroke? The trail leads to the daily swings in your blood pressure, changes in how easily your blood clots, and the internal timekeeping system that helps coordinate both.

Ischemic Strokes Cluster in the Morning, While Nighttime Strokes Tend To Be More Severe

A 2026 systematic review published in the International Journal of Cardiology Cardiovascular Risk and Prevention set out to map when strokes actually occur and whether the timing lines up with how severe they turn out to be.3 The researchers combed six databases including PubMed, Embase, and Scopus, starting with 1,010 records and eventually narrowing it down to 58 observational studies for analysis. Each study was graded for quality using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, a scoring tool for observational research.

The researchers looked at two types of stroke: ischemic stroke, which occurs when a clot or plaque blocks a vessel feeding the brain, and hemorrhagic stroke, caused when a vessel ruptures and bleeds; the review noted that ischemic strokes make up roughly 87% of cases.

• Ischemic strokes concentrated in the morning hours — Across the included studies, ischemic strokes tended to occur between 6:00 a.m. and noon, with some studies instead recording a bimodal pattern, meaning two peaks — one in the morning and a second in the evening.

To keep comparisons consistent, the reviewers grouped the day into four blocks: night (midnight to 5:59 a.m.), morning (6:00 to 11:59 a.m.), afternoon (noon to 5:59 p.m.), and evening (6:00 to 11:59 p.m.). The morning clustering showed up repeatedly across different research teams and countries, which is part of why the authors treated it as a reasonably well-supported trend rather than a one-off result.

• One large analysis put numbers on the morning spike — The review cited a meta-analysis of 11,816 stroke patients reporting that risk ran significantly higher during the 6:00 a.m.-to-noon window than across the remaining 18 hours of the day.

In that analysis (which will be discussed in detail in the next section), the risk of ischemic stroke was elevated by about 89%, hemorrhagic stroke by 52%, and transient ischemic attack (also known as a “mini-stroke”) by 80% during the morning hours. The overnight stretch from midnight to 6:00 a.m. showed the opposite: notably lower risk for every stroke type compared with the rest of the day.

• Hemorrhagic stroke timing was less consistent — The picture for bleeding strokes was mixed. Some studies found the highest incidence in the early morning, with one reporting that roughly 48% of intracerebral hemorrhage cases occurred between 6:00 a.m. and noon, while others pointed to a peak in the late evening or nighttime.

Subarachnoid hemorrhage, a bleed in the space around the brain, showed a morning peak in some reports plus a secondary evening peak in others. The authors were candid that this inconsistency likely reflects different underlying mechanisms and patient factors.

“Multiple studies demonstrated that the incidence of hemorrhagic stroke exhibits a circadian variation; however, this rhythmic pattern is not entirely consistent and may differ according to stroke subtype, patient-specific characteristics, and environmental influences,” they noted.4

• Strokes that began at night tended to be more severe — Beyond counting cases, the review examined outcomes and found that nocturnal and early-morning strokes were associated with more serious symptoms and poorer recovery. Patients with nighttime onset often arrived with higher scores on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, a measure where higher numbers mean greater neurological impairment.

• The authors suggested this may owe partly to delays in treatment — A stroke that starts during sleep can go unwitnessed and unrecognized until hours later. They also noted that not every study agreed — one study, for example, found no significant difference in three-month mortality by time of onset. “Wang et al. reported no significant difference regarding three-month mortality rates or early reperfusion success among patients with strokes occurring at different times,” the researchers said.

• Daily swings in blood pressure and clotting offer a plausible explanation — For the morning pattern, the review pointed to normal circadian physiology. Blood pressure typically falls overnight and rises rapidly on waking, and that abrupt shift may destabilize blood flow in the brain.

The authors also cited evidence that platelet activity and clotting factors climb in the morning, which can raise the chance of a vessel-blocking clot. Because the included studies spanned varied populations and settings, the reviewers cautioned that these trends need further research to fully untangle.

An Earlier Analysis Found a Morning Spike Across Every Type of Stroke

The morning clustering seen in the broader review didn’t come out of nowhere — much of it traces back to an earlier landmark meta-analysis. Published in 1998 in Stroke (the journal of the American Heart Association), the research pulled together decades of scattered reports to ask a single question: Is there a time of day when strokes are more likely to begin?5

• The analysis pooled 31 studies covering 11,816 strokes — The author gathered published reports from around the world that recorded when stroke symptoms began, then sorted them by time of onset and, where possible, by stroke type. When a study didn’t give precise timing, those strokes were spread evenly across the day on purpose, a conservative choice that makes any real pattern harder to detect rather than easier.

In other words, the method was tilted against finding a morning spike, which makes the result that follows more convincing. The strokes were divided into standardized blocks such as midnight to 6 a.m., 6 a.m. to noon, noon to 6 p.m., and 6 p.m. to midnight.

• Strokes of all types spiked between 6 a.m. and noon — Across every way the data were sliced into three-, four-, or six-hour windows, a statistically significant morning pattern appeared. Compared with what you’d expect if strokes fell evenly across the day, there was a 49% increase in strokes of all types during the 6 a.m.-to-noon window, with a 95% confidence interval of 44% to 55%.

Measured against the normalized rate for the other 18 hours of the day, that same morning excess worked out to a 79% increase.

• The morning window ran higher for ischemic, hemorrhagic, and mini-strokes alike — When broken out by type, all three subtypes showed a significantly elevated morning risk. Ischemic strokes were 55% more likely between 6 a.m. and noon across 8,250 cases, while hemorrhagic strokes were 34% more likely in that window across 1,801 cases.

Meanwhile, transient ischemic attacks were 50% more likely across 405 cases. These per-type figures are the same analysis the 2026 review drew on when it reported the morning excess above.

• The quietest stretch was overnight, while the morning share was sizable — The six-hour block from midnight to 6 a.m. carried the lowest risk, with 29% fewer strokes than expected under an even distribution, or a 35% drop compared with the other 18 hours. Putting the excess in plain terms, the author estimated that roughly 1 in every 8 strokes is attributable to the morning surge, breaking down to about 1 in 7 ischemic strokes, 1 in 10 hemorrhagic strokes, and 1 in 8 transient ischemic attacks.

• These findings overturned an older assumption about sleep — For years, the prevailing view held that strokes mostly struck during sleep and therefore weren’t a medical emergency worth rushing to catch. This analysis contradicted that idea, indicating that regardless of stroke type, most patients are awake when symptoms begin. The author argued that recognizing new neurological deficits early warrants treating the event as an emergency, or a “brain attack.”.
• Daily blood pressure swings offer the leading explanation — The author pointed to blood pressure as one of the most powerful stroke risk factors, noting that its natural daily rhythm closely parallels the timing of stroke onset. Blood pressure and heart rate climb roughly 20% in the hours around waking, the same stretch tied to higher rates of stroke, heart attack, and sudden cardiac death.

The morning surge also lines up with daily patterns in physical activity and stress hormones such as cortisol and catecholamines.

Because the underlying reports were rarely population-based, could be subject to publication bias, and relied on patients or witnesses recalling when symptoms started, the conclusions come with real limits. The data weren’t adjusted for wake times or for people working night and evening shifts, so more research was needed to refine the picture.

How the Shift from Sleep to Waking Raises Stroke Risk

The two featured studies establish that strokes favor the morning; but to provide better understanding, it helps to know the many small biological shifts that stack up in those hours — when you transition from sleeping to waking — and how they raise your risk.

• The move from sleep to waking strains the heart and vessels — During sleep, blood pressure and heart rate drop, but when you wake up, both jump back up. That abrupt swing can stress blood vessels and raise stroke risk.

Heart rate variability, the natural variation in time between heartbeats and a rough gauge of how well the heart adapts to stress, tends to run higher at night and lower in the morning, with lower readings linked to greater stress and stroke risk. In addition, cortisol, a stress hormone that peaks in the morning, can push blood pressure up during the same window, compounding the effect.6

• Overnight dehydration may thicken the blood — Fluid balance is another morning factor that has been associated with stroke risk.7 Because you go for hours without drinking during sleep, the body’s fluid levels are lowest on waking, which can decrease blood volume and increase viscosity. Thicker, stickier blood is described as more prone to clotting,8 which ties overnight dehydration to the morning clot-formation pattern. Spreading fluid intake across the day may help keep the blood more fluid.

• Seasonal factors add to the morning load — Winter carries a higher stroke risk, especially in the mornings, because cold temperatures cause blood vessels to narrow, which can raise blood pressure. Large temperature swings could also be a stressor, since the body works harder to stay warm, adding strain to the heart and circulation.

• Timing patterns shift across age, gender, and ethnicity — In particular, older adults tend to have strokes in the morning, which is attributed partly to blood pressure changes and stiffer, less flexible blood vessels with age. Women may experience strokes at different times than men, possibly related to hormonal changes, although more research is needed on the gender difference.

African Americans also face a higher stroke risk than other groups, with different timing patterns, tied to a mix of genetic, lifestyle, and social factors.

• The time of day can shape how fast help arrives — Figures suggest hospital staffing and readiness vary by hour, with higher daytime staffing and faster average response, and lower staffing overnight with slower response. This may be one reason nighttime strokes can fare worse, since recognition and care may lag.9

BE FAST — The Warning Signs That Matter Most When a Stroke Strikes

A stroke happens when a clot or blockage keeps part of the brain from getting the blood it needs. Because a starved brain region simply stops working, the symptom of this condition is often something disappearing rather than a new pain or sensation. Loss of vision, speech, movement, sensation, or balance are key signs, especially when they show up on one side of the body.10 Hence, it pays off to be able to recognize these signs when they happen, so you can act fast.

• The “BE FAST” acronym packs the signs into six letters — A HuffPost article lays out a memory aid that turns stroke symptoms into something you can recall under pressure: BE FAST, which stands for:

◦ Balance — Sudden loss of coordination
◦ Eyes — Blurred vision or vision loss
◦ Face — Drooping on one side
◦ Arm — Weakening of the limbs
◦ Speech — Speech difficulty or slurring of words
◦ Time — Call 911 right away

As soon as any of these appear, contact emergency medical services and get help immediately.
• Sudden onset is what separates a stroke from a slower problem — Dr. Gregory Albers, a professor of neurosurgery and director of the Stanford Stroke Center in California, said that stroke symptoms come on instantly rather than building gradually over days. “So, if your arm has been getting weaker for days … that’s not a stroke. It’s your arm is fine, and then bam, all of a sudden it gets weak,” he explained.11

• Speed changes what treatment is even possible — The reason BE FAST hinges on that final “T” is that stroke care runs on a tight clock. Dr. Dileep Raghvendra Yavagal, a professor of clinical neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, noted that strokes are treatable.

Clot-busting medication can be given up to four-and-a-half hours after symptoms begin, he explained, and beyond that window a procedure called a thrombectomy can physically remove the clot to restore blood flow. The earlier a stroke patient seeks emergency assistance, the more treatment options are available.

Everyday Habits That Support a Lower Stroke Risk

Experts view stroke as a largely avoidable health condition — “In 2026, stroke is highly preventable,” Yavagal said.12 Following healthy lifestyle habits, including consuming a nutritious diet, doing regular physical activity, avoiding tobacco, getting adequate sleep, and keeping blood sugar and blood pressure in healthy ranges, is linked to a substantially lower risk of stroke. Below are some of my recommendations:

1. Move your body regularly — Exercise helps normalize your blood sugar and improve insulin and leptin receptor signaling, which in turn supports healthy blood pressure — a key piece of the stroke-risk picture.

In a 2013 study published in Stroke, walking at least three hours a week was associated with lower stroke risk in women, not only compared with being inactive but also compared with high-intensity cardio.13 If you’ve already had a stroke, staying active is linked to better physical and mental recovery and a lower chance of a repeat event.

2. Get the right amount of sleep — A 2020 study published in Neurology noted that regularly sleeping nine hours or more was associated with a 23% higher stroke risk, compared with sleeping seven to eight hours a night. Sleeping less than six hours showed no significant effect.14

Long midday naps of more than 90 minutes were also linked to a 25% higher risk than napping 30 minutes or less. People who both slept nine-plus hours and napped more than 90 minutes carried the highest risk, an 85% increase over moderate sleepers and nappers. Poor sleep cuts the other way too: a genetic predisposition to insomnia has been associated with higher rates of large-artery, small-vessel, and cardioembolic stroke.15

3. Eliminate “diet” soda and energy drinks — A 2017 study published in Stroke reported that regular consumption of artificially sweetened “diet” soda has been linked to a significantly higher 10-year stroke risk.16 Caffeine-loaded energy drinks are another concern, since they can make the blood stickier, which may contribute to clot formation.

Case reports have described cardiovascular events following heavy energy-drink consumption, though the size of any added risk is not well established. Reaching for water, mineral-rich whole fruit, or other real-food options in their place is a simple daily swap.

4. Build in stress relief into your routine — A 2008 study found that higher psychological distress tracked with greater stroke risk: For every notch lower a person scored on a well-being scale, their risk rose by about 11%, and the link was most pronounced for fatal strokes.17

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a favorite tool for defusing stress in the moment, and prayer, meditation, laughter, and yoga are other approaches with strong track records. Finding one that fits your routine makes it easier to stick with.

5. Reconsider alcohol and tobacco — Heavy drinking in midlife has been flagged as a stroke risk factor — in one study, people averaging more than two drinks a day showed a 34% higher risk than those averaging less than half a drink.18 In one analysis of identical twins, heavy drinking shortened the time to stroke by roughly five years.

Meanwhile, smoking ranks among the major risk factors for stroke, so quitting is one of the highest-impact moves available if you’re working to bring your risk down.19

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Strokes

Q: What time of day are strokes most common?
A: Research consistently points to the morning, generally between 6 a.m. and noon, as the window when strokes are most likely to begin. A meta-analysis of 11,816 strokes found a significant morning increase across every stroke type, and a systematic review of 58 studies reported the same clustering for ischemic strokes, the clot-caused type. Strokes can still happen at any hour, but the early-morning stretch stands out in the data.

Q: Why are strokes more common in the morning?
A: Researchers attribute the pattern mainly to your body’s natural circadian rhythm. Blood pressure typically dips overnight and rises as you wake, and that abrupt swing can strain blood vessels. Studies also indicate that the blood tends to be “stickier” and more prone to clotting in the early hours, while the body’s clot-dissolving mechanisms work less effectively.

Q: How can I recognize the warning signs of a stroke?
A: Stroke specialists recommend the acronym BE FAST: B for balance loss, E for eye or vision changes, F for facial drooping, A for arm weakness, S for speech difficulty, and T for time to call 911. A key feature is that stroke symptoms come on suddenly rather than building gradually over days, often affecting one side of the body. Because the tell is usually something that abruptly stops working, quick recognition matters.

Q: Are strokes that happen at night more dangerous?
A: Some evidence suggests strokes that begin overnight are associated with greater severity and poorer recovery. Part of the reason appears to be delayed treatment, since a stroke that starts during sleep can go unwitnessed and unrecognized until hours later. Not every study agreed, though — at least one found no significant difference in three-month mortality by time of onset.

Q: Is stroke actually preventable?
A: Experts describe stroke as largely preventable, with one specialist estimating roughly an 80% chance of prevention through healthy lifestyle habits. Everyday factors linked to lower risk include regular physical activity, adequate sleep, stress management, moderating alcohol, and avoiding tobacco. Keeping blood pressure, blood sugar, and other markers in healthy ranges is also part of the picture.

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.

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What can poor sleep disrupt in your digestive system?

Stomach acid production
Normal bowel rhythms
Poor or irregular sleep can disrupt the daily rhythm that helps move stool through the colon and keep bowel movements regular. Learn more.
Nutrient absorption
Liver enzyme activity

The human body is designed to thrive with the right conditions — proper nutrition, regular movement, and minimal toxin exposure. These factors create the foundation for optimal health, allowing every system to function as intended.

However, modern lifestyles are working against these basic needs, causing disruptions at the cellular level. The result is widespread chronic illness, dependency on prescription drugs, and a health care system that treats symptoms rather than addressing the underlying problem. Reducing these modern exposures and returning to habits that support cellular health is a practical starting point for many people.

Dietary Catastrophe Has Redefined What We Call Food

Walk into any grocery store, and you’ll see shelves lined with products that claim to be “healthy,” “natural,” or even “nutrient-packed.” Flip them over, and the ingredient lists tell a different story. These foods are filled with artificial flavors, preservatives, and cheap fillers that extend shelf-life and make them highly palatable and easy to overeat.1 What they lack, however, is real nutrition.

• Foods are stripped of essential nutrients during processing — When you consume a diet full of packaged snacks, sugary cereals, ready-made meals, and other processed options, you’re getting plenty of calories, but you’re missing out on important nutrients, including magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin E, omega-3s, and zinc.2 This can leave you undernourished in key micronutrients even when you are eating more than enough food.3

• Excess sugar is another major culprit in modern diets — Decades ago, sugar was a rare treat,4 but now it is hidden in almost everything, from salad dressings to yogurt to so-called “healthy” protein bars. This makes it easy to consume far more sugar than your body handles well — a pattern associated with weight gain, insulin resistance and, over time, Type 2 diabetes.5

• Seed oils are among the most problematic fats in the modern diet — Extracted under extreme heat and pressure from sources like soybean, canola, corn, safflower, and sunflower, highly processed industrial seed oils didn’t even exist in the human diet until the 20th century. Now, they make up a massive portion of daily fat intake.6

Sold as “vegetable oils” and marketed as healthy alternatives to traditional animal fats, seed oils are actually loaded with linoleic acid (LA), an omega-6 polyunsaturated fat (PUF) that is highly unstable and prone to oxidation.

• LA promotes inflammation at the cellular level — Unlike saturated fats, which remain chemically stable, LA undergoes lipid peroxidation, generating toxic byproducts called oxidative linoleic acid metabolites (OXLAMs). One example is 4-HNE (4-hydroxynonenal), a compound shown in laboratory research to damage DNA, proteins and mitochondria.7

• Excess LA accumulates in your fat tissue over time — Once inside your body, LA remains for years and can convert into metabolites that promote inflammation. Researchers have proposed that this contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction, which is being investigated as an underlying factor in metabolic conditions including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disorders.
Importantly, LA is an essential fatty acid and is required for normal mitochondrial function — the goal is not to eliminate it, but to keep your intake within 2 to 5 grams per day.

• Convenience has replaced real food preparation — Meals used to be prepared with fresh, whole ingredients, but now, convenience is king. Instead of real food, processed and fast food make up a majority of most people’s daily diet. This results in a slow but steady decline in health, leaving people unhealthier than ever before.

• Ultraprocessed foods are designed to keep you hooked — Food companies employ scientists to engineer the perfect mix of fat, sugar, and salt to trigger cravings and hijack your brain’s reward system in ways that real food never could.8 The more ultraprocessed food you eat, the harder it is to stop — your taste buds adapt, your metabolism adjusts, and cravings for those same foods intensify.

To learn more about why linoleic acid is so harmful and how it fuels chronic disease, read “Linoleic Acid — The Most Destructive Ingredient in Your Diet.”

A Sedentary Lifestyle Is One of the Biggest Health Threats

The human body was built for movement, yet modern life has turned sedentary lifestyles into the norm. A 2024 survey found that one-third of Americans spend at least eight hours a day sitting, whether at a desk, in the car, or in front of a screen.9 Prolonged inactivity is associated with faster physical decline, and pooled observational data have linked the highest sitting levels to roughly a 30% higher risk of premature death. Notably, this association persists even among people who exercise regularly.10

• Prolonged sitting disrupts blood sugar regulation — Sitting for long periods reduces muscle activity, which makes glucose uptake less efficient — a pattern associated with insulin resistance and, over time, Type 2 diabetes.11 In observational research, adults who sat more than eight hours a day had about a 17% higher relative risk of developing diabetes than those who moved regularly.12

• Inactivity takes a toll on your heart — Inactivity is associated with stiffer blood vessels, slower circulation and greater arterial plaque buildup.13 Observational studies report higher rates of heart disease among adults who sit for most of the day, even when they exercise occasionally.14

• A sedentary lifestyle promotes fat storage — Physical inactivity shifts your metabolism in ways that favor fat storage.15 In observational research, physically inactive adults had about a 52% higher relative risk of obesity than more active individuals.16 This process creates a vicious cycle where inactivity causes weight gain, and excess weight makes movement even harder, leading to even more health complications.

• Your brain suffers from inactivity, too — Exercise stimulates the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein essential for cognitive function and mental clarity. Lower BDNF levels have been associated with declines in memory, focus, and mood.17 Studies have linked sedentary lifestyles to an approximately 40% higher risk of depressive symptoms18 and a 30% higher risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.19

• Inactivity triggers emotional and mental stagnation — People who don’t move enough often feel foggy, unmotivated, and even anxious, as physical movement is essential for proper brain function and emotional regulation.

• Children are affected just as much, if not more — Where past generations spent their childhood climbing trees, riding bikes, and running around for hours, today’s youth spend an average of 7.5 hours per day in front of screens.20 This shift has paralleled rising childhood obesity rates, reduced muscular fitness and greater long-term chronic disease risk.21

• Early inactivity has long-term consequences — Approximately 19.7% of U.S. youths are classified as obese, affecting 14.7 million children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years.22 The habits formed in childhood don’t just disappear in adulthood — they shape long-term health outcomes in ways that are difficult to undo.

The Toxins Hiding in Your Everyday Environment

Every day, you are exposed to various environmental toxins, some of which didn’t even exist a century ago. Industrial pollutants, plastics, pesticides, and synthetic additives have infiltrated the food you eat, the air you breathe, and the water you drink. Many of these substances interfere with your body’s natural functions, and the longer you wait to address these exposures, the more damage they do.

• Endocrine disruptors interfere with hormone activity — Endocrine disruptors (EDCs) are one of the most insidious culprits in your environment. Your endocrine system regulates everything from metabolism to reproduction, and even small disruptions have considerable consequences.23 EDCs mimic, block, or alter hormone activity. Research has associated EDC exposure with infertility, thyroid disorders, metabolic dysfunction, and hormone-related cancers.24

• Plastics are a major source of EDC exposure — Water bottles, food containers and plastic wraps leach harmful chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates into food and beverages. Many of these compounds act as xenoestrogens, meaning they mimic estrogen and disrupt hormonal balance.

• Plastic exposure affects men and women differently — For men, this means lower testosterone, reduced muscle mass, and increased fat storage.25 For women, exposure has been associated with irregular menstrual cycles, fertility problems and higher rates of estrogen-driven cancers.26 Research has shown that more than 90% of Americans have detectable levels of BPA in their urine,27 an indication of how widespread plastic exposure has become.

• VOCs pollute indoor environments — Some volatile organic compounds (VOCs) also act as EDCs.28 VOCs are a group of chemicals that easily evaporate into the air. They’re emitted from air fresheners, cleaning chemicals and disinfectants, and even furniture.29 Indoor air is often two to five times more polluted than outdoor air,30 meaning that without proper ventilation, you are inhaling a constant stream of airborne toxins inside your own home.

• VOCs trigger serious health effects — VOC exposure has been linked to respiratory problems, fatigue, headaches, and nervous system effects. Some VOCs, like benzene and formaldehyde, are also classified as carcinogens. Long-term exposure has been linked to liver and kidney damage, immune suppression, and hormone disruption.31,32

• Water contamination is a hidden danger — Water contamination is another major issue as it exposes you to a cocktail of harmful chemicals in the very water you drink. Municipal water supplies can contain chlorine, fluoride, heavy metals, and pesticide runoff, and some of these — heavy metals in particular — accumulate in your body over time.33

Chlorine affects your gut bacteria,34 fluoride has been linked to altered thyroid function35 and heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and mercury are established neurotoxins.36 If your tap water is fluoridated, a high-quality filtration system designed to remove fluoride is the practical fix (Be aware that common pitcher filters such as Brita or PUR will not remove it).

• Pharmaceutical residues contaminate drinking water — Antibiotics, birth control hormones, antidepressants, and blood pressure medications persist in drinking water and contribute to endocrine disruption, antibiotic resistance, reproductive issues, and developmental problems.37

Even bottled water isn’t necessarily safer, as many brands test positive for microplastics38 and the industry is regulated less stringently than public tap water — the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lacks authority to require bottlers to use certified testing labs or report their results, both of which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires of municipal systems.39

Electromagnetic Fields — An Invisible Modern-Day Threat

Another hidden but serious threat to cellular health is electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure. Unlike chemical toxins, which are ingested or inhaled, EMFs are invisible, surrounding you every day through cellphones, Wi-Fi routers, smart meters and other wireless technology. Because they permeate the environment, they are nearly impossible to avoid, making them one of the most overlooked dangers to human health.

• Modern EMFs operate at biologically disruptive frequencies — EMFs cover a broad spectrum, including natural sources like sunlight, which play essential roles in biological function. However, modern high-frequency EMFs, emitted by cellphones, Wi-Fi and 5G networks, operate in the gigahertz range, and researchers have raised concerns that they disrupt cellular processes in ways current safety standards do not fully account for.

• Nonthermal EMFs disrupt cellular signaling — Unlike ionizing radiation, such as X-rays, which directly break DNA, EMFs cause harm through nonthermal effects, meaning they disrupt cells without raising tissue temperature. This makes the effects harder to detect, which is part of why they remain contested.

Research indicates EMFs can alter cellular signaling and activate voltage-gated calcium channels, which may in turn affect mitochondrial function and contribute to oxidative stress and DNA damage.

• EMFs trigger mitochondrial breakdown through calcium flooding — One of the most concerning effects is how EMFs flood cells with excess calcium ions, which triggers a chain reaction that fuels oxidative stress and mitochondrial failure.

This process mirrors the damage caused by seed oils and EDCs. Researchers have proposed that this contributes to chronic inflammation and reduced cellular energy, and have called for further investigation into links with neurodegenerative disease, infertility, and cancer.

• Telecom industries have downplayed these dangers for decades — In 1996, the Telecommunications Act was passed. Section 704 prevents state and local governments from blocking wireless facilities on the basis of RF emissions that comply with FCC limits — a provision critics say has insulated the industry from health-based challenges.40 Industry-funded research have since drawn sustained criticism from independent researchers.41

• The “no heat, no harm” myth is false — The narrative that “if it doesn’t burn you, it’s safe” is deeply misleading. Dr. Martin Pall, Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Sciences at Washington State University, has argued that existing safety standards for non-ionizing EMFs substantially understate biological effects.42

• Chronic exposure leads to cumulative damage — While EMFs don’t cause immediate thermal damage, the long-term, cumulative effects of exposure warrant closer attention. The World Health Organization’s cancer agency classifies radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans, based on an observed increase in glioma risk associated with wireless phone use.43 Because any effects develop gradually, they are easy to overlook.

To learn more about how EMFs disrupt your biology and contribute to chronic disease, read “Effects of Electromagnetic Fields on Human Health.”

The Impact of Stress and the Mental Health Crisis

Modern life has introduced an overwhelming number of stressors to the human body, such as work deadlines, financial strain, digital overload and the constant pressure to perform. Unlike short bursts of stress, which help you react to danger, chronic stress keeps your body in a permanent state of emergency, disrupting nearly every system.

• Chronic stress keeps cortisol dangerously elevated — The human body isn’t designed to handle this amount of relentless assault, and the damage is showing. When stress becomes chronic, cortisol — the body’s primary stress hormone — remains elevated for long periods. Sustained cortisol elevation is associated with increased inflammation and reduced immune function.44

• Stress significantly raises the risk of major diseases — Observational studies have associated chronic stress with a 40% to 60% higher relative risk of cardiovascular disease45 and with increased risk of Type 2 diabetes.46 In one cohort study, people reporting high stress were about 33% more likely to experience a stroke.47

• High cortisol levels disrupt sleep and brain recovery — When your brain is flooded with stress hormones, your brain also struggles to wind down. This is why insomnia and restless sleep are common in people with high-stress lifestyles.48

• Sleep deprivation worsens metabolic and hormonal function — Sleep deprivation is associated with impaired metabolic function,49 reduced memory performance,50 higher obesity risk, and lower insulin sensitivity.51 It also increases ghrelin (which makes you feel hungry) and reduces leptin (which signals fullness), leading to overeating and food cravings.52

• The mental toll of chronic stress is just as destructive — Anxiety disorders affect more than 40 million adults in the U.S.,53 making them the most common mental health issue today. Depression is a leading cause of disability among working-age Americans,54 and chronic stress is a well-documented contributing factor.

• Stress physically rewires your brain for fear and dysfunction — When your brain is exposed to prolonged stress, it rewires itself for fear, overreaction and negativity. This makes it harder for you to regulate emotions and focus. Prolonged stress has also been associated with reduced hippocampal volume — the brain region central to memory and learning55 — along with brain fog, difficulty concentrating and, in some longitudinal research, higher rates of Alzheimer’s disease.56

• Chronic stress shortens lifespan — Chronic stress has been associated with markers of cellular aging,57 including shorter telomere length — the protective caps on DNA that play a significant role in longevity.58

• The stress cycle becomes self-perpetuating — The more stress you endure, the harder it becomes to escape its grip. Left unaddressed, chronic stress affects far more than mood — it influences your biology in ways associated with poorer long-term health.

A Wakeup Call

Despite medical advancements and a health care system that spends trillions each year, Americans are getting sicker. Poor diet, environmental toxins, sedentary lifestyles, and chronic stress are each associated with metabolic dysfunction and reduced cellular energy production — together creating conditions in which chronic disease becomes more likely.

• Conventional medicine focuses on symptoms, not root causes — Instead of targeting the root causes of this modern health crisis, conventional medicine remains fixated on symptom management. Medications often manage symptoms without addressing what drives them. Both approaches have a place — but without more attention to underlying causes, the burden of chronic disease is likely to keep growing.

• The good news is, chronic ill health is not unavoidable — Many chronic conditions are strongly influenced by modifiable factors, and research suggests meaningful improvement is possible for many people. Your body is not failing — it is responding to an environment that makes optimal cellular function harder to sustain.

• True healing requires a shift in focus — A growing body of research points to cellular and mitochondrial function as an underexplored factor in chronic disease — one that short-term interventions alone are unlikely to address. The future of medicine will likely need to look beyond symptom control to where health begins: at the cellular level.

The encouraging part is how much of this sits within your control. Eating real food, getting sunlight, walking an hour a day, filtering your water, reducing plastic use, and putting your phone down at night are ordinary changes with real physiological effects. None of it requires perfection — small, consistent choices compound, and the body is remarkably responsive when conditions improve.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About the Modern Drivers of Chronic Disease

Q: What are the factors behind today’s chronic disease epidemic?

A: Modern lifestyles disrupt cellular health through poor nutrition, lack of movement, environmental toxins, and chronic stress. These conditions are associated with impaired mitochondrial function, reduced energy production, and increased inflammation — factors researchers link to chronic illness.

Q: Why is the modern food supply damaging to health?

A: Today’s processed foods are stripped of essential nutrients and loaded with sugar, synthetic additives, and seed oils high in linoleic acid. These ingredients are associated with disrupted metabolism, increased inflammation, and higher rates of obesity, insulin resistance, and other metabolic disorders.

Q: What role does chronic stress play in long-term illness?

A: Chronic stress keeps cortisol levels elevated, which triggers inflammation, weakens the immune system, and disrupts sleep and metabolism. Over time, this pattern has been associated with changes in brain structure, accelerated cellular aging and higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and neurodegeneration.

Q: How do everyday toxins contribute to disease?

A: Plastics, endocrine disruptors, VOCs, and contaminated water interfere with hormone function, damage mitochondria, and accumulate in tissues. These exposures are constant and, in some cases, cumulative, and researchers are investigating their combined contribution to chronic dysfunction.

Q: Are EMFs actually harmful?

A: Research indicates EMFs from wireless devices, Wi-Fi, and 5G networks can affect calcium signaling, mitochondrial function and oxidative stress. Any effects are not immediate, which is part of why they remain debated — but they warrant attention.

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.

When a morning bowel movement doesn’t happen on schedule, the usual suspect is yesterday’s dinner. More often, the real culprit is what happened after dinner — specifically, how you slept and when. Your digestive tract doesn’t simply respond to what you eat. It also responds to how well you sleep and, just as importantly, when you sleep.

That connection gets overlooked because conventional advice almost always focuses on fiber, water and exercise. Those recommendations matter, but they leave out a factor that influences your digestion from the moment you close your eyes until the moment your feet hit the floor. Your evening routine, your bedtime consistency and even how much time you allow yourself after waking up all play a role in whether your body cooperates the next morning.

Rather than relying on coffee or hoping for better luck tomorrow, you have far more control over your morning than you might realize. The research below explains exactly how your sleep schedule shapes your digestive rhythm and what you can do each evening to support a better morning.

Your Digestive System Follows a Built-In Daily Schedule

A review published in Current Treatment Options in Gastroenterology examined how sleep affects the digestive system in both healthy people and those with disorders of gut-brain interaction.1 The researchers evaluated evidence covering normal digestive function, sleep disorders and conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), while also reviewing available treatments that target sleep.

Their goal was to determine whether poor sleep makes digestive symptoms worse, whether digestive problems disrupt sleep or whether both influence each other. The researchers concluded that sleep deserves much more attention in digestive care, noting, “Sleep, a cornerstone of lifestyle management, appears to be the forgotten factor.”

• Your digestive tract intentionally slows down overnight before becoming active again — Every part of your digestive system follows a predictable daily rhythm. According to the review, saliva production falls by about 50% overnight, stomach emptying slows during the evening, and the waves of muscle contractions that move food through your intestines become much less active while you’re asleep.

Even the muscles of your colon reduce their normal activity during the night. These changes don’t mean digestion has stopped. Your digestive system is following a programmed rest period, slowing down overnight so it can ramp back up when you wake.

• Your gut and brain communicate constantly through hormones, nerves and gut bacteria — The review explained that your digestive tract actually contains up to 400 times more melatonin than your pineal gland in the brain. Inside your intestines, melatonin helps regulate gut movement and supports healthy gut bacteria.

At the same time, sleep deprivation activates your body’s main stress response system, called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, increasing stress hormones that weaken the intestinal barrier and interfere with normal gut-brain communication. The researchers also found that your gut bacteria follow their own daily rhythm, so irregular sleep disrupts the balance of microbes that help digestion stay on track.

• Poor sleep predicted worse digestive symptoms better than digestive symptoms predicted poor sleep — People with IBS experienced sleep disturbances far more often than healthy adults, with a pooled prevalence of 37.6%. Many participants actually logged more hours of sleep than healthy individuals but still woke up feeling unrested; their sleep was fragmented by more frequent awakenings and spent disproportionately in lighter stages.

Those repeated awakenings were associated with greater abdominal pain, more digestive distress and lower quality of life. Researchers also found that insomnia predicted worse abdominal pain, anxiety and fatigue the following day, while digestive symptoms didn’t consistently predict the following night’s sleep quality.

• Disrupted body clocks increased digestive problems in everyday life — The review highlighted several real-world examples showing what happens when your internal clock falls out of sync. Waking up naturally increases colon contractions that move stool toward the rectum, preparing your body for a morning bowel movement. When sleep schedules constantly change, that timing becomes less predictable.

Researchers also reported that IBS occurred 81% more often among shift workers than among people with regular daytime schedules. Shift work often brings irregular eating habits and greater intake of processed foods, creating multiple pressures on normal digestive function at the same time.

• Sleep-focused treatments improved digestive health alongside better sleep — Because sleep influences so many parts of digestion, the researchers also reviewed therapies that target sleep rather than bowel symptoms alone. They found sufficient evidence that melatonin reduced overall IBS symptom severity while improving quality of life.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia also improved insomnia severity, sleep efficiency and overall sleep quality, with one study showing improvements in both sleep and digestive symptoms among college students with IBS and insomnia.

Based on the evidence reviewed, the researchers concluded that improving sleep deserves a much larger role in first-line digestive care alongside diet, exercise and stress management because healthy digestion depends on healthy sleep from the very beginning.

The research makes a convincing case that sleep shapes digestion at every level — hormones, gut bacteria, colon contractions, even the strength of your intestinal lining. The practical question is what that means for your evening routine and your morning.

Your Evening Routine Determines How Easily You Poop the Next Morning

As noted in a news feature published by EatingWell, a consistent bedtime teaches your digestive system when it’s time to go.2 Gastroenterologist Dr. Catherine Ngo explains that “consistent, high-quality sleep helps the digestive system maintain predictable patterns of motility, which supports regular bowel habits.” Instead of wondering whether your body will cooperate each morning, keeping a regular bedtime teaches your digestive tract when to rest and when to prepare for elimination.

Ngo also explains that going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time each day creates predictability and safety for your nervous system. Because your digestive tract responds to signals from both your brain and your gut, that steady schedule helps your colon anticipate periods of activity and rest, making it easier to move stool forward before you even head to the bathroom.

• Late nights disrupt the hormones that help keep digestion on schedule — Gastroenterologist Dr. Rucha Shah explains that staying awake far later than normal throws off the timing of cortisol, your body’s primary stress hormone.3 As she puts it, “When people are staying up really late, those cortisol levels are spiking at times that they’re not normally used to … and so then it creates this pattern where digestion gets thrown off.”

Shah adds that this problem often appears in people who work overnight shifts because their internal body clock rarely follows a regular daily rhythm. When your sleep schedule constantly changes, your digestive system loses the consistency it depends on.

• Human research linked poor sleep to measurable changes in the gut microbiome — A 2026 systematic review analyzed 41 human studies published between 2016 and 2025 that examined how sleep duration, sleep quality, insomnia and disrupted body clocks affect the gut microbiome — the community of bacteria and other microbes living in your digestive tract.4

Researchers found that poor sleep and circadian disruption were associated with changes in both the types of gut bacteria present and the beneficial substances they produce, including short-chain fatty acids, vitamins, hormones, neurotransmitters and bile acids that help regulate digestion, metabolism and immune function.

While the findings varied between studies because of differences in diet, age, health and research methods, the review concluded that improving sleep and circadian rhythms supports a healthier gut microbiome, giving you another reason to treat a consistent bedtime as part of your digestive health routine instead of simply a way to feel more rested.

• Rushing through your morning trains your body to ignore its own signals — The experts point out that many people accidentally work against their body’s natural urge to have a bowel movement simply because they’re trying to get out the door quickly. Ngo explains that “if rushed in the morning, you don’t have the time to relax and let the bowels evacuate.”5

Shah adds that successful bowel movements require the muscles around the rectum to relax. If you repeatedly suppress the urge because you’re short on time, your body gradually becomes less responsive to those natural signals, making regular bowel movements more difficult over time.

• A simple change in body position helps stool pass more easily — One practical recommendation involves placing a small stool beneath your feet while sitting on the toilet. According to Shah, raising your knees above your hips helps open the muscles involved in bowel movements, making it “exponentially easier to poop.”

It’s a straightforward mechanical adjustment that changes the angle of your lower bowel, helping stool move through more comfortably without medication, supplements or expensive equipment.

Make Your Evening Routine Work for Your Gut

If your mornings rarely go as planned, don’t focus only on breakfast or coffee. Start the night before. Your digestive system follows a daily rhythm, and the habits you repeat every evening shape what happens the next morning. Try making a few simple changes and sticking with them long enough for your body to recognize the pattern. Consistency matters far more than perfection.

1. Keep the same bedtime every day — Your digestive tract performs best when your sleep schedule stays predictable. Go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time every day, including weekends. That steady routine helps your body recognize when it’s time to rest and when it’s time to prepare for a morning bowel movement. If you stay up late several nights in a row, don’t expect your digestive system to stay perfectly regular. Your body responds best to repetition.

2. Give yourself enough time after you wake up — If you usually race through your morning, build in an extra 15 to 30 minutes. Your digestive system works better when you aren’t under pressure. Don’t ignore the urge to have a bowel movement because you’re running late. Repeatedly holding it trains your body to become less responsive over time, making constipation more likely.

If you often feel rushed, shifting your bedtime earlier is one of the simplest ways to create more time the next morning.

3. Support digestion after dinner instead of collapsing on the couch — Finish eating at least three hours before bedtime whenever possible so your digestive system has time to process your meal before you fall asleep. A light walk after your evening meal helps keep food moving through your digestive tract.

Even 10 to 20 minutes is enough to encourage normal stomach emptying and healthy intestinal movement. Pair that habit with steady hydration throughout the day instead of drinking large amounts of water right before bed, which interrupts sleep with nighttime bathroom trips.

4. Use better bathroom mechanics — Your body was designed to empty your bowels in more of a squat than a seated position. Place a small footstool under your feet so your knees sit higher than your hips while you’re on the toilet. That simple adjustment straightens the lower part of your bowel and allows the muscles involved in a bowel movement to relax more completely. If you haven’t tried it, you’ll often notice the difference immediately.

5. Build regularity through daily habits instead of quick fixes — Your digestive system responds to patterns, not shortcuts. Protect your sleep as carefully as you protect your diet. If your gut tolerates it well, gradually increase fiber-rich whole foods and stay physically active every day, but recognize that without consistent sleep, those habits lose some of their power.

I also encourage you to keep a simple journal for two weeks that tracks your bedtime, wake time and bowel habits. You’ll often spot patterns that weren’t obvious before, making it much easier to identify the routines that keep your digestive system working on schedule.

FAQs About Sleep and Bowel Movements

Q: Does poor sleep really affect my bowel movements?
A: Yes. Your digestive system follows a daily rhythm that depends on consistent sleep. Irregular bedtimes, poor-quality sleep and disrupted body clocks interfere with the normal patterns that move stool through your colon, making it harder for your body to stay regular.

Q: Why are morning bowel movements more common than bowel movements later in the day?
A: Your colon naturally becomes more active after you wake up, helping move stool toward the rectum. A regular sleep schedule reinforces this built-in timing, while inconsistent bedtimes make the process less predictable and increase the likelihood of constipation or delayed bowel movements.

Q: What nighttime habits help promote a morning bowel movement?
A: Going to bed at the same time each night, finishing your last meal at least three hours before bedtime, taking a 10- to 20-minute walk after dinner and staying well hydrated throughout the day all help support your digestive system’s natural rhythm. These simple habits work together to encourage more regular bowel movements.

Q: Why does rushing in the morning make it harder to poop?
A: Your body needs time to respond to its natural urge to have a bowel movement. If you repeatedly ignore that urge because you’re in a hurry, your body gradually becomes less responsive to those signals. Giving yourself an extra 15 to 30 minutes each morning makes it easier for your bowels to empty completely.

Q: Is there a simple way to make bowel movements easier without medication?
A: Yes. Placing a small footstool under your feet while sitting on the toilet raises your knees above your hips, creating a more natural squatting position. This helps relax the muscles involved in bowel movements and allows stool to pass more comfortably, especially when combined with healthy sleep habits and a consistent daily routine.

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.

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What can cause tonsil stones to keep coming back?

Bacteria and debris collecting in tonsil folds
Bacteria, food particles, mucus, and dead cells can collect in the folds of the tonsils, allowing stones to form again. Learn more.
Drinking too much water, causing debris to become stuck
Eating crunchy fruits and vegetables
Breathing only through the nose

Tonsil stones, also called tonsilloliths, are small, hardened deposits that form inside the natural folds of your tonsils.1 Most people who develop them share the same frustrating experience; they remove the stone, feel relieved and then discover another one weeks or months later. In the meantime, the stones often produce persistent bad breath that no amount of brushing seems to fix, adding a social burden on top of the physical discomfort.

The cycle continues because removal alone does nothing to change the environment that produced the stone in the first place. That pattern points to a deeper issue worth understanding. Your tonsils aren’t passive tissue — they actively filter bacteria and debris entering through your mouth and nose. But when the conditions inside your mouth shift in the wrong direction, that filtering system becomes overwhelmed.

Instead of clearing material away, your tonsils begin trapping it, and that trapped material is exactly what hardens into a stone.2 If you have dealt with recurring tonsil stones, the path forward isn’t a better removal technique. It starts with identifying the everyday habits and oral conditions that keep inviting them back, then making targeted changes that interrupt the cycle before the next stone has a chance to form.

The Conditions That Allow Tonsil Stones to Return

As noted in an educational article from Pure Holistic Dental, it’s not only important to remove visible tonsil stones but to understand why they develop in the first place.3 Tonsil stones are a sign that bacteria, food particles, mucus and dead cells continue to collect inside the tonsils instead of clearing away normally. Rather than treating them as an isolated problem, identify the habits and conditions that allow the buildup to continue so you reduce the chance that new stones develop.

Your tonsils serve as part of your immune system by filtering bacteria and other unwanted material entering through your mouth and nose. According to the authors, “The tonsils are the first line of defense for the immune system.”4 As this filtering system becomes overloaded, debris accumulates inside the tonsil crypts, the natural pockets and folds within the tonsils, where it gradually hardens into stones.

• Several everyday habits increase your risk of recurring tonsil stones — This includes poor oral hygiene, mouth breathing, chronic tonsillitis, enlarged tonsils, deep tonsil crypts, hormonal changes and an imbalance in the oral microbiome, the community of bacteria that naturally lives inside your mouth. Some of these factors are outside your control. For example, genetics determine the size of your tonsils and how deep the natural folds become.

Others are habits that you have the ability to improve. Every time food debris remains in your mouth, saliva decreases because of mouth breathing, or bacteria accumulate around your teeth and tongue, more material becomes available to collect inside the tonsils.

• Bacterial biofilms help explain why debris stays trapped instead of washing away — Biofilm is a thin, sticky layer created by bacteria that allows them to cling tightly to surfaces instead of being easily rinsed away. Dental plaque is one familiar example of a biofilm.

Bacteria thrive inside the tonsil crypts. As these bacterial communities grow, they trap food particles, mucus and dead cells together, creating what the authors compare to “large, clogged pores.”

That sticky environment makes it much easier for material to remain lodged long enough to harden into a tonsil stone. Simply removing an existing stone does not remove the sticky bacterial community that helped create it. Improving daily oral hygiene helps reduce that bacterial buildup before another stone has a chance to form.

• Dry mouth and sinus problems allow bacteria to multiply more easily — Saliva does much more than keep your mouth comfortable. Saliva constantly rinses away bacteria and food debris while helping maintain a healthier balance of microorganisms inside your mouth.

Mouth breathing reduces that natural cleansing process because the tissues dry out more quickly. Certain medications also contribute by causing dry mouth, meaning your mouth doesn’t produce enough saliva. In addition, ongoing sinus drainage supplies extra mucus and bacteria that collect around the tonsils, adding even more material that becomes trapped inside the crypts.

If you often wake with a dry mouth, breathe through your mouth while sleeping or deal with frequent sinus congestion, those issues deserve attention because they create conditions that favor repeated stone formation rather than simply causing temporary discomfort. Once you understand the conditions driving the cycle, the next step is a daily routine that targets each one directly.

Simple Home Remedies Help Remove Small Tonsil Stones Safely

According to a Healthgrades article, many tonsil stones respond to simple self-care techniques that loosen trapped material without damaging the surrounding tissue.5 Small stones often respond well to conservative approaches performed carefully at home, while larger stones or persistent symptoms deserve medical attention.

This gives you a clear action plan. Instead of reaching for sharp tools or trying aggressive techniques, you can begin with the least invasive methods and move to professional care only if those steps fail.

• Salt water remains one of the simplest and most commonly recommended first steps — Try dissolving 1 teaspoon of table salt in 8 ounces of warm water and gargling for several seconds before spitting the solution out. Repeating this several times a day helps loosen small stones and also supports prevention by flushing debris from around the tonsils.

The benefit is mechanical as much as medicinal. Gargling creates movement that helps free trapped material while the warm salt water washes away bacteria and mucus from areas that are difficult to reach with a toothbrush. If you’re unsure where to start, make this your first challenge. Spend a few minutes each day gargling consistently before trying more direct removal methods.

• Gentle techniques reduce the risk of injuring delicate tissue — If gargling doesn’t remove the stone, try using the soft end of a cotton swab to carefully nudge stones that are easy to see and reach. Stand in front of a mirror in a well-lit room where you won’t be bumped unexpectedly. That reduces the chance of accidentally pushing too hard or scratching the tonsil tissue.

The goal is patience rather than force. If a stone doesn’t move with gentle pressure, stop instead of repeatedly poking at it. Protecting the surrounding tissue is more important than removing the stone immediately.

• Natural body responses often loosen stones without direct contact — Coughing sometimes dislodges tonsil stones on its own. Many people discover a stone after a hard coughing spell without realizing it had been trapped inside the tonsil beforehand.

Another option is a water irrigator. A gentle stream of water directed toward the tonsils helps wash away trapped debris while also encouraging coughing that finishes the job. Healthgrades stresses that an irrigator supplements brushing and flossing rather than replacing either habit. Think of these methods as working with your body’s normal cleaning systems instead of against them. Gentle rinsing and coughing place much less stress on your throat than aggressive scraping.

• A few simple foods support your mouth’s natural defenses — One recommendation that stands out in the article involves eating crunchy carrots or apples. Apples contain natural acids that may help fight bacteria, while carrots stimulate saliva production. Saliva constantly rinses your mouth, carrying away loose food particles and bacteria before they settle into hard-to-clean areas.

While these foods aren’t proven medical treatments, increasing saliva production supports a cleaner oral environment throughout the day. Consider adding one crunchy fruit or vegetable after meals as part of your daily routine. It’s a simple habit that works alongside brushing, flossing and other preventive measures instead of replacing them.

• Knowing when to stop home treatment protects your health — Home remedies are typically appropriate only for small stones that aren’t causing severe symptoms. If the stones continue returning, become difficult to remove, interfere with swallowing, or create persistent throat irritation, contact your primary care physician, who may refer you to an ear, nose and throat specialist.

One easy way to judge your progress is to ask yourself two questions each week: “Are the stones becoming less frequent?” and “Are my symptoms improving?” If the answer remains no despite careful home care, professional evaluation becomes the next logical step.

How to Keep Your Tonsils Clean Every Day

The remedies above address stones that have already formed. The next step is building daily habits that change the conditions inside your mouth so fewer stones develop in the first place. Earlier sections explained why bacteria, dry mouth and chronic drainage create the right environment for tonsil stones. The practical strategies below target each of those conditions directly, turning what you now understand about the problem into a routine you can follow every day.

1. Build a daily routine that removes bacteria before they collect — Brush your teeth twice a day, floss every day, and clean your tongue. If you skip even one of these habits regularly, bacteria have more places to grow. Think of these habits as a daily sequence rather than a checklist of equal parts. Brushing twice a day and flossing form the foundation. Cleaning your tongue targets the bacterial reservoir closest to your tonsils.

Rinsing your mouth after meals catches loose debris before it has a chance to migrate. When you run through that sequence consistently, each step reinforces the others, and the environment inside your mouth becomes far less hospitable to the buildup that leads to stones.

2. Keep your mouth moist and support a healthier oral microbiome — If you wake with a dry mouth or notice that you breathe through your mouth while sleeping, make nasal breathing one of your goals. Saliva constantly rinses away bacteria and loose particles, so keeping your mouth moist helps reduce buildup. Avoid alcohol-based or harsh antibacterial mouthwashes that disrupt the beneficial microbes living in your mouth.

Instead, try oil pulling with coconut oil. Use about 1 tablespoon for adults or 1 teaspoon for children. Gently swish the oil around your mouth and between your teeth for up to 20 minutes, then spit it into the trash and rinse with warm water. If you’re new to oil pulling, begin with one or two minutes and gradually increase the time.

3. Choose foods and rinses that help keep your mouth cleaner — Your diet influences the environment inside your mouth. Reduce heavily processed foods and foods loaded with refined sugar that encourage bacterial growth. Add crunchy foods such as apples or carrots after meals to stimulate saliva production, and drink enough water throughout the day so your mouth stays naturally clean.

If your throat feels irritated or you notice a small stone beginning to form, gargle with warm salt water or a mixture of about one-third cup of apple cider vinegar diluted in warm water to help loosen trapped debris.

4. Use gentle home removal methods instead of aggressive tools — If a tonsil stone is easy to see, begin with gargling. If it remains, try coughing deeply before attempting anything else. Sometimes that simple action is enough to dislodge the stone naturally. If necessary, gently ease it forward with a cotton swab, taking care not to push it deeper into the tonsil or back toward your throat.

If you’re helping a child, use extra caution because a loose stone could become a choking hazard. Never use sharp objects such as toothpicks or other pointed instruments because they can puncture the delicate tissue in your throat and cause bleeding. Remember that many tonsil stones loosen and fall out on their own without any intervention.

5. Think beyond the stone and improve your long-term oral health — Every stone you remove is a signal — your mouth is telling you the conditions that created it are still in place. Keep regular dental cleanings with a biological dentist on your schedule, especially if you have a history of recurring tonsil stones or chronic bad breath.

If you’re able to work with a biological dentist, ask about ways to support your oral microbiome and identify habits that contribute to recurring buildup. The more consistently you improve the environment inside your mouth, the less opportunity bacteria and debris have to collect inside your tonsils.

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 Tonsil Stones

Q: What causes tonsil stones to keep coming back even after you remove them?
A: Tonsil stones return because removing the stone doesn’t remove the conditions that created it. Bacteria, food particles, mucus and dead cells continue to collect inside the tiny folds of your tonsils if your oral hygiene, saliva flow or oral microbiome remain unchanged. Addressing those underlying issues helps break the cycle instead of repeatedly treating the symptoms.

Q: What are the safest ways to remove a tonsil stone at home?
A: Start with the gentlest methods first. Gargling with warm salt water, coughing deeply or using a gentle stream from a water irrigator often loosens small stones without injuring your throat. If the stone is easy to see, a soft cotton swab works carefully in some cases. Avoid sharp objects such as toothpicks because they can puncture the delicate tissue in your tonsils.

Q: Why does mouth breathing increase the risk of tonsil stones?
A: Mouth breathing dries out your mouth, reducing the amount of saliva available to rinse away bacteria and food debris. As your mouth becomes drier, more material stays trapped inside your tonsils, making it easier for stones to develop. Improving nasal breathing helps restore your mouth’s natural cleaning system.

Q: Does your diet affect your chances of developing tonsil stones?
A: Yes. Diet influences the environment inside your mouth. Foods high in refined sugar encourage bacterial growth, while staying well hydrated and eating crunchy foods such as apples and carrots stimulates saliva production, which helps wash away bacteria and loose debris before they become trapped.

Q: When is it time to stop treating tonsil stones at home?
A: Home care works best for small stones that are easy to reach and not causing severe symptoms. If the stones keep returning, become difficult to remove, cause significant pain, interfere with swallowing or breathing, or continue despite good oral hygiene, it’s time to seek a professional evaluation.

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Which combination was linked to the greatest risk of developing Type 2 diabetes?

Low body fat and low muscle mass
Excess body fat and poor muscle health
Having both excess body fat and low muscle mass and strength was linked to more than 3.5 times the risk of Type 2 diabetes. Learn more.
High body fat and strong muscles
Low body fat and strong muscles

Modern agriculture is straining under its own weight — and the soil is paying the price. Across the U.S., topsoil is washing away, microbial life is disappearing, and farmers are going broke trying to prop up a system that wasn’t built to last. What used to be self-sustaining, living ecosystems are now bare, lifeless fields that repel rain instead of absorbing it.

When soil biology declines, more water runs off instead of soaking in — a sequence that’s linked to increased flooding and crop failure.

The root problem is that soil no longer captures sunlight or holds water the way nature intended. Former U.S. Department of Agriculture soil scientist Ray Archuleta has spent decades working with farmers across six continents, and he says the pattern is always the same. Overgrazing, chemical fertilizers, and relentless tillage strip the land of its living cover, leaving it naked, hungry, thirsty, and “running a fever.”1

Archuleta frames this as a measurable breakdown of four core ecosystem processes: sunlight capture, water cycling, nutrient flow, and biodiversity. On his reading, what’s at stake isn’t only soil quality — it’s the foundation of a functioning food system. What many people don’t realize is that these degraded lands aren’t beyond repair.

A biology-based approach is already being applied in the field, and it starts with livestock. Cows, when moved in the right way, can help reactivate dormant ecosystems by fertilizing, stirring, and reseeding the land — much like wild bison once did. Archuleta reports that rotational grazing paired with plant diversity rebuilds topsoil and, on the landscapes he has worked on, has coincided with improved local rainfall and returning vegetation.

That’s why Archuleta’s work is so compelling: it suggests that healing land isn’t about adding more chemicals or inventing new technology. It’s about stepping back and learning how to mimic the architecture of nature itself. Let’s dig into what happens when you do.

Healing the Land Starts with Changing How You See It

In a lecture at the 2024 R-SOIL Conference, soil scientist Archuleta broke down the destructive myths behind conventional farming and laid out a new model based on nature’s original blueprint.2 His focus? Teaching producers to stop treating soil like dirt and start seeing it as a living, breathing ecosystem.

The presentation, published on Matt Powers’ YouTube channel, Regenerative Soil & Permaculture, walks viewers through a decades-long journey of failure, insight, and practical strategies for land restoration that rely on biology rather than synthetic inputs.

• Farmers around the world are dealing with the same problems — and the same wrong mindset — After traveling across six continents, Archuleta observed that most producers, regardless of geography, suffer from the same core issue: a mindset shaped by reductionist science and industrial agriculture.

This narrow way of thinking sees problems and solutions in fragments rather than interconnected systems. Whether in Idaho or India, he found that focusing only on fertilizers, equipment, or outputs misses the larger design — nature’s design — and that design always starts with life in the soil.

• Real recovery begins when you mimic nature instead of fighting it — Rather than relying on synthetic inputs or new technologies, Archuleta stresses the importance of mimicking nature’s architecture: diverse plant cover, tightly managed grazing, minimal soil disturbance, and continuous sunlight capture. This method is visible in ranches he’s worked with in New Mexico, where desert land has been transformed into thriving green pastures using nothing more than animals, fencing, and timing.

• Mindset is the first thing that needs to change — Archuleta says the greatest barrier to regeneration isn’t technical — it’s mental. Farmers conditioned by university training or generational habits resist holistic thinking. Many farmers have been conditioned to beat down anything that challenges the norm, including biological methods that have outperformed conventional ones on the operations Archuleta has worked with.

• The industrial model is bankrupting rural communities — Archuleta presents data showing that most of the wealth generated from agriculture doesn’t stay with the farmer. Charts of U.S. and Canadian farm income show a dramatic decline over time, with most profits now going to agribusiness. The current system leaves many farmers unable to pass their land to their children — not because they lack knowledge, but because they’re trapped in a broken economic and ecological loop.

• Conventional soil looks dead for a reason — Archuleta used simple but powerful demonstrations to drive home his message. In one rainfall simulator test, bare tilled soil shed nearly all the water as runoff, carrying precious topsoil with it. But next to it, a biologically active, covered soil sample absorbed every drop, a visual demonstration of how aggregation and living soil biology affect infiltration.

Another striking test compared soil from a conventional field with soil from a farm using cover crops and no tillage. When dropped in water, the tilled sample disintegrated instantly, while the regenerative soil stayed intact. Why? Because living soils produce “biotic glues” — compounds created by microbes and fungi that bind soil particles into aggregates. These sponge-like structures are essential for absorbing water and holding nutrients.

Healthy Soil Is the Foundation of a Functional Ecosystem

Archuleta’s argument is that the real disruptor isn’t carbon dioxide — it’s bare soil. He challenges the idea that CO2 emissions from human activity are the main issue. Citing NASA satellite imagery, he argues that springtime tillage across croplands contributes to seasonal spikes in atmospheric CO2 across North America — an interpretation that differs from the conventional explanation, which attributes the seasonal cycle mainly to plant dormancy and decomposition.

Unlike industrial sources, planted fields draw that carbon back down — if they’re covered with living crops. When corn and soybeans grow in early summer, they absorb large amounts of carbon through photosynthesis. The real crisis is that bare soil no longer functions as a biological pump. Without plants, it loses its ability to absorb water, store carbon, and regulate surface temperatures.

Archuleta argues that water vapor, more than CO2, drives rainfall and temperature swings and that soil plays a key role in managing it — He explains that water vapor is far more abundant in the atmosphere than CO2 — depending on temperature and humidity, roughly 10 to 100 times as much near the surface.

When soil is hard, bare, or packed too tightly, it can’t soak up water the way it should. That throws off the local water cycle — the natural loop where plants release moisture into the air, which then falls back down as rain.

Archuleta says roughly 40% of the rain that falls over land comes from moisture released by plants and soils rather than directly from the ocean — a figure broadly in line with published estimates of terrestrial moisture recycling.3 When land is bare, it doesn’t hold water or cool the air; it reflects heat instead. That extra heat builds up and in his account, feeds more erratic local weather — longer dry spells, hotter days, and sudden heavy downpours.

Soil isn’t just ground; it’s architecture — One of Archuleta’s core teachings is that soil has a complex design, with multiple functional layers known as spheres: the surface skin (dermis), the rhizosphere (around roots), the porosphere (pore spaces), and more.

These layers coordinate the exchange of gases, water, nutrients, and microbial life. Disturb them with chemicals or tillage, Archuleta says, and the system’s function degrades. Nurture them with plant cover and rest, and the entire soil body becomes a functioning, self-regulating organism again.

Life pulls minerals from rocks, not chemicals — In degraded soils, biology has been replaced with inputs. In nature, it’s the living things in the soil — especially fungi and plant roots — that pull minerals out of rocks. They do this by releasing natural acids and enzymes and by breathing, which helps break the minerals down into a form plants can use.

Archuleta drives this home with images of trees growing out of bare rock faces, illustrating his point that it’s not the nutrients in a bag that matter — it’s the life in the soil that makes minerals bioavailable. Without biology, the soil is just dirt.

• Land can be restored even in extreme conditions — On a ranch in the Chihuahuan Desert, where annual rainfall averages just 10 inches and summer temperatures soar past 105 degrees Fahrenheit, Archuleta documented a full landscape transformation using nothing but rotational grazing and ecosystem mimicry.

Two cowboys moved the herd over 800 times per year, mimicking bison migration patterns. Archuleta reports that grasslands returned, soils darkened, measured rainfall rose over the period he documented, and areas previously thought unchangeable began supporting vegetation again. Note that these are field observations from a single operation rather than controlled research, and the specific contribution of grazing management to the rainfall change has not been isolated.

• The lesson is simple: if you want to heal your land, let nature lead — Archuleta urges farmers to stop trying to dominate nature and start asking, “What would nature do here?” He recommends following resources like the Biomimicry Institute and using simple tools — a shovel, a rainfall test, a visual assessment — to measure success. “Soil without plant and without microbial life is just geology,” he says. “It’s life that brings it out.”

How to Support Regenerative Agriculture and Healthier Soil

You don’t have to be a farmer to help heal the land. Most food choices push in one direction or the other — toward systems that rebuild soil, or systems that deplete it. Right now, conventional agriculture is draining the life out of our soil, and the consequences show up in your food, your community, and your environment.

But regenerative farmers are showing that it’s possible to grow nutrient-dense food while restoring biodiversity, improving water infiltration, and rebuilding soil organic matter. If you want cleaner air, cleaner water, and healthier food, it starts by shifting your support away from industrial systems and toward the farmers who are doing it right. Here’s how to be part of the solution.

1. Buy directly from regenerative farmers whenever you can — Seek out farmers who use cover crops, rotational grazing, composting, and no-till methods. Ask about their practices — not just whether they’re “organic.” Use directories like the Regenerative Farmers of America,4 attend local farmers markets, or join a regenerative community-supported agriculture (CSA) program. When you support these growers, you help fund living systems instead of synthetic ones.

2. Choose meat and raw dairy from animals raised on pasture — Livestock are not the enemy when they’re managed properly. Rotationally grazed cattle, sheep, goats, and poultry can fertilize the land and help restore plant diversity. Look for labels like “100% grass fed,” “pasture-raised,” or better yet, talk directly with the farmer. Dollars spent on meat raised this way go to a system built to rebuild land rather than deplete it.

3. Stop supporting brands that rely on industrial agriculture — Many processed foods, plant-based meat substitutes, and industrial dairy products are made from crops grown on degraded land with heavy chemical inputs — a supply chain associated with runoff, erosion, and soil loss. When possible, avoid ultraprocessed foods and buy from smaller brands that disclose sourcing practices. If a brand can’t tell you how its ingredients are grown, it’s probably not worth supporting.

4. Raise awareness in your community and online — Most people have never seen a soil profile, a rainfall simulator, or the difference between living and dead land. Share content from educators like Ray Archuleta and before-and-after case studies that show real land restoration. Invite your friends to farm tours, local talks, or online webinars. The more people see what healthy soil looks like, the faster this movement grows.

5. Vote with your fork and your voice — Every purchase you make is a signal. Every conversation you start, every farmer you support, every city council comment you submit — those things matter. Advocate for policies that encourage soil regeneration, not chemical subsidies. Support local food programs in schools. Ask your grocery store to carry pasture-raised options.

You have more power than you think when you act consistently and with intention. Healing the land doesn’t just belong to farmers — it belongs to anyone who eats. Your daily choices shape the system. Choose to support the ones working with nature, not against it.

FAQs About Regenerative Agriculture

Q: What is regenerative agriculture and how does it work?

A: Regenerative agriculture is a system of farming that mimics nature’s patterns to restore soil health, increase biodiversity, and improve water retention. It uses practices like rotational grazing, cover cropping, and minimal soil disturbance to build living soil biology, which supports healthier plants, builds soil organic matter, and reduces the need for synthetic inputs.

Q: Why is conventional farming damaging the land?

A: Conventional agriculture relies on heavy tillage, chemical fertilizers, and monocultures. These practices break down soil structure, reduce microbial life, and leave the ground bare, which contributes to water runoff, erosion, and loss of fertility. As Archuleta explained, this has turned once-thriving land into lifeless dirt that repels rain and contributes to environmental problems.

Q: How do cows help regenerate soil instead of harming it?

A: When managed properly through rotational grazing, cows fertilize the land with manure, spread seeds, and stimulate plant growth, just like wild herds once did. Moving livestock frequently allows grasslands to rest and regrow, rebuilding soil structure and increasing water infiltration. This turns animals into tools for healing degraded ecosystems.

Q: What can I do if I’m not a farmer?

A: You can support regenerative agriculture by buying directly from farmers who use regenerative practices, choosing pasture-raised meat and dairy, avoiding processed foods grown with industrial methods, and spreading awareness. Every food choice you make helps support or dismantle the current system.

Q: How does healthy soil impact me personally?

A: Living soil tends to produce more nutrient-dense food, holds water better during droughts, and supports cleaner air and water. It also stores more carbon as organic matter — which is part of what gives it that water-holding capacity in the first place. Supporting regenerative systems means investing in your own health, your community’s resilience, and the future of the planet.

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.

Three years ago, a nationwide infant formula shortage shook America, and before long led to fights at grocery stores1 and stories like this flooding the media:

At the time, significant outrage was directed at the FDA since the shortage was due to their inspection triggering a major recall by one of the leading formula manufacturers (along with tight supplies and subsequent panic buying).

Furthermore, many could not grasp why the FDA was willing to enact such a strong enforcement action against potentially contaminated infant formula which was linked to two deaths. Still, they had no issue with the large numbers of people dying from the COVID vaccines nor the immense degree of contamination and deadly hot COVID vaccine lots the public had discovered.

As I watched this unfold, my thoughts were a bit different. Could there possibly be another way to feed your infants? Perhaps one that you could do at home that did not rely upon an unstable supply chain — but surprisingly, I did not see that offered anywhere (even in homesteading groups).

I thus took the events of 2022 as a remarkable testament to just how effectively the formula industry had convinced mothers they needed to do anything besides breastfeed their children, and since then, have tried to help create a window to end this dysfunctional paradigm.

Fortunately, on March 18th, RFK Jr. announced an FDA initiative2 to make America’s infant formula healthy again (e.g., conducting a comprehensive review of its nutritional content, testing formula for heavy metals, and objectively assessing the health issues that arise from formula feeding). This is extremely important and I believe that for “Operation Stork Speed” to succeed,3 it’s critical for us to understand what went awry with infant formula.

Note: In addition to heavy metals4 (and other harmful chemicals), infant formula has also repeatedly been found to be contaminated with aluminum,5 something which is quite problematic due to its adverse effects on the physiologic zeta potential6 (which can cause microclots in the nervous system).

The History of Formula Feeding

Throughout history and cultures, there are references to (likely malnourished) mothers who could not sufficiently nourish their children with their breast milk, who then sought out milk from other mothers or, if that was not available, from animals.

This process led to a variety of attempts (starting in 1865)7 to create a milk substitute that more accurately matched the safety and efficacy of human breast milk, a process which was revolutionized through the discovery of evaporated milk powder and its adaptation into infant formulas in the early 1900s.

As infant formulas improved in the 1920s,8 manufacturers began targeting physicians with their advertising. By 1929, the American Medical Association (AMA) established a committee to evaluate the safety and quality of formula compositions, leading many companies to seek the AMA’s “Seal of Acceptance,” bringing physicians closer to formula manufacturers.

By the 1940s and 1950s, formula use became widely accepted as a safe alternative to breast milk, and with the help of aggressive marketing and the inappropriate medicalization of childbirth, successfully displaced breastfeeding.9

Note: The AMA’s seal of approval was created in 1905,10 and was designed to be a source of revenue to keep the struggling organization afloat (as it was given in return for advertising dollars rather than any assurance of safety11 — for instance the AMA widely promoted the benefits of smoking their sponsor’s cigarette brand).

Sadly, once this funding allowed the AMA to begin establishing a foothold in the medical market, the organization then switched to blacklisting every competing therapy which would not sell out to the AMA12 (which is essentially why there are so many remarkable forgotten medical therapies exist emerged in the early 1900s).

Many recognized this shift was harmful to both mothers and children, so a variety of groups (particularly the La Leche League13) mobilized the public to support mothers breastfeeding. In the 1970s, they finally reached the public (due to both scientific data emerging in support of breastfeeding and a growing societal dissatisfaction with the paternalistic and insensitive attitude medicine had towards women). Since then breastfeeding has gradually made a comeback.

One of the key events that catalyzed this shift away from formula was the Nestlé formula scandal (which began in 197314), which began after the public learned Nestlé was aggressively targeting poor women in undeveloped countries for infant formula sales.

This was accomplished by paying hospitals to give free samples to mothers after delivery and telling mothers (frequently via sales reps impersonating nurses) that they would not be able to produce enough milk for their babies. This, in turn, created anxiety that suppressed maternal milk production and led to the impoverished mothers frequently not only switching to infant formula but also diluting it (as they could not afford standard doses).

Millions of infants died as a result of these practices,15 and Nestlé eventually came under widespread public scrutiny (e.g., boycotts, celebrity protests, government investigations, and some of its predatory marketing practices being banned).

The fact that Nestlé was able to convince millions of mothers to starve their babies to death again illustrates how predatory many of these marketing tactics were16 (particularly since some of those now outlawed practices still continue in the poorer nations).

Formula Marketing

During pediatric “well-child” visits, doctors frequently diagnose children as underweight based on growth charts and then promote (frequently unnecessary) infant formula17 that routinely contains unhealthy ingredients like obesity promoting corn syrup and seed oils.

Note: This is somewhat analogous to how a widely used (but erroneous) calculator routinely tells patients they are at high risk of a heart attack and hence must start a dangerous and unnecessary statin.

Robert S. Mendelsohn,18 in How to Raise a Healthy Child In Spite of Your Doctor,19 critiqued this, noting industry sponsored growth charts often favor formula-fed children, misclassifying breastfed babies as “underweight.”

This is particularly true for CDC’s charts as their weights are derived from too many formula fed babies,20 and hence can diagnose breastfed babies as “underweight.” Hence, formula-feeding is promoted as the “new normal” despite studies showing it leads to rapid weight gain and adult obesity.21,22,23

As such, the formula’s role in the continually increasing childhood obesity rates24 (e.g., 19.7% in 2020)25 must be considered (but unfortunately, we are instead “solving” it by putting children on Ozempic26 — a drug which has a great deal of issues).

This again illustrates the longstanding tendency of the formula industry to engage in a variety of predatory tactics (e.g., making a variety of false claims not supported by the existing evidence to create parental anxiety, funding pediatrician’s “education,” having the doctors and hospitals push unhealthy infant formula, levying sanctions against countries that promote breastfeeding and lobbying against laws allowing maternity leave27).

Sadly, due to that (and spending 3 billion each year on marketing) the formula industry now has a 10.15% annual growth rate and an annual market worth 90.91 billion.28

So while breastfeeding has many proven health benefits, less than 50% of babies worldwide are breastfed according to WHO recommendations — which results in nearly $350 billion dollars of economic losses annually.29

Seed Oils in Formula

Since seed oils are linked to obesity, inflammation, and metabolic dysfunction, many parents do not want to give them to their children. In turn, I am frequently contacted by frustrated patients after they discover that every infant formula is full of seed oils. This is because:

• FDA regulations require infant formulas to have at least 2.7% of its calories (300 mg per 100 Kcal) come from linoleic acid (LA, the problematic omega-6 fat in seed oils), which the FDA aggressively enforces. The regulations have no upper limit, resulting in some formulas containing over 15% LA.

• The Infant Formula Act of 1980 is the source of that FDA regulation.30

• Its requirements came from 1960s research that erroneously deemed LA essential for infant development (largely because infants consuming no other fats would have their skin dry out).

• Modern science shows that the required amount of LA is much lower once other essential fats are present,31 that high LA blocks the synthesis and accumulation of fats which are critical for brain and eye development (hence impairing neurological development), and that LA increases the brain’s vulnerability to inflammation.32

Because of this, other governments (e.g., China’s33 and Europe’s34) have revised their infant formula requirements. Remarkably however, despite the Infant Formula Act granting H.H.S. Secretaries the authority to update the nutritional requirements of infant formula since 1980, all they’ve done is slightly raise the required phosphorus and calcium and require the addition of selenium to formula (which ultimately happened 26 years after the scientific community concluded it was essential).

As such, many fats we now know are essential for developing infants are largely absent from formula, and simultaneously, LA remains a primary ingredient (likely on account of industry lobbying as LA is one of the cheapest ingredients available to the food industry).

Raw Milk

Throughout history, infants in many societies whose mothers could not produce sufficient milk have gotten supplemental milk from a variety of animals, and in America, prior to World War II, many textbooks advocated for feeding children raw animal milk.35

At the time pasteurization began to be implemented for milk in the late 1800s,36 it was arguably immensely valuable as while millions of children had been successfully raised on raw animal milks, children were also being sickened by microbial contaminated milk (as things were much less sanitary then than they are now and not every children had access to clean cow’s milk).

As such, before long, humanity’s long history of consuming raw milk was forgotten and raw milk came to be viewed as extremely dangerous (largely due to raw milk significantly increasing the risk of causing a listeria infection — something which can be quite hazardous to mothers, children, and the elderly).

However, the data does not support that belief. For example, a (likely biased) 2003 risk assessment from the FDA found many commonly consumed foods (that no one ever objects to) had a much greater risk of causing a listeria infection than raw milk.37

Similarly, a 2007 FOIA request showed that from 1980 to 2005, there had only been three total cases of listeria and two of brucella (all of which came from raw cheese not raw milk) and that all other microbial infections in raw milk (most of which aren’t that dangerous) were also quite rare (typically under a 100 cases per year).38

Note: While raw milk is relatively safe (provided you get it from a clean and grass fed source), there is a small elevated risk of infection from soft raw cheeses.

In contrast, pasteurizing milk damages essential vitamins and denatures proteins, leading to issues such as:

The loss of beneficial enzymes.
Denatured proteins lose their negative charge, thereby adversely affecting the physiologic zeta potential (which in turn can create congestion throughout the body).
Pasteurized milk can turn proteins into allergens, leading to allergies, rashes, and respiratory problems like asthma — whereas raw milk rarely causes those issues.

Note: While still problematic, evaporated milk causes fewer allergies than liquid pasteurized milk. Additionally, some individuals who have difficulty consuming dairy find switching from A1 to A2 milk (which is much rarer than A1 milk) improves their symptoms, while others better tolerate goat’s milk (but also can cause constipation and lacks B₁₂). However, while each can be helpful, in most cases, individuals best tolerate raw milk.

Conversely, the plant “milks” can be quite problematic for infants as they lack many of the essential nutrients found in animal milks and often contain various unhealthy substances. Soy milk is particularly problematic due to the high amount of phytoestrogens soy puts into the bloodstream,39 soy’s effect on thyroid function,40 soy’s frequent contamination with other chemicals (e.g., herbicides), and soy’s tendency to block the absorption of many critical nutrients.41

In short, if a formula is consumed, it is vital that it safely meets an infant’s nutritional needs. Consequently, many have observed, infants fed on those natural formulas (or breast milk) thrive and lack many of the illnesses seen in most infants.

The Benefits of Breast Milk

One of the most reliable approaches for creating a successful business is to replace something (free) that people rely upon with a patentable product. Unfortunately, when this happens, the synthetic substitute is often a meager shadow of what it replaces.

Breast milk, for example, is a complex, nutrient-rich substance that is crucial to infant health and development.42 It contains growth factors, antibodies, cytokines, and enzymes that support the immune system, digestive health, and overall growth.43,44,45,46

MicroRNA47 in breast milk helps regulate gene expression, prevents allergies, and aids in immune development. Unique to breast milk, these components provide immune protection and foster a baby’s development in ways formula cannot fully replicate.48

Breast milk also contains essential fatty acids,49 cholesterol,50 human milk oligosaccharides,51 (and many other unique lipids)52 that are critical for brain development,53 eye development54 and cognitive function (e.g., academic success55).

These nutrients are absent or less abundant in formula, making breast milk a superior choice for infants. Additionally, it offers bioavailable nutrients,56 reducing nutrient competition (e.g., for zinc absorption).57 The benefits of breastfeeding are numerous and include:

• Lower rates of infections (e.g., pneumonia,58 ear infections59) and lower hospitalization rates (e.g., for infections).60

• Lower rates of gastrointestinal issues (e.g., stomach problems,61 constipation,62 gas,63 diarrhea64) and allergies65 (e.g., being half as likely to develop asthma66).

• Being half as likely to die67 from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome68 (a condition decades of evidence shows is linked to vaccination).

• Being less likely to develop cancers69 (particularly leukemia70).

• Improved brain development (particularly white matter growth71).

• Improved cognition (e.g., verbal and spatial skills72 or mathematical ability and working memory73). Likewise, breastfeeding for 12 months was associated with a three-point increase in IQ74 (along with a 0.8 point increase for each additional month75), and higher educational and financial success in life.76

• Being significantly less likely to develop autism or ADHD.77

Breastfeeding also offers significant benefits to the mother, both immediately after pregnancy and later in life. In the short term, it promotes better infant bonding,78 enhances maternal mood,79 aids in post-pregnancy weight loss,80 and reduces the likelihood of developing postpartum depression.81

Additionally, breastfeeding over 12 months of breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast cancer by 4.3%,82 ovarian cancer by 34%83 (and by up to 91% with extended breastfeeding84), and also decreases the risks of endometrial cancer,85 heart attacks,86 and high blood pressure.87

Breastfeeding also promotes stronger bonding, aids in postpartum weight loss, and improves maternal mood. In short, the complexity and richness of breast milk and the mother-child bond it fosters make it an unparalleled source of nutrition, providing essential support for both infant and mother.

As such, it is always imperative that mothers are given the proper support to nourish their children (e.g., lactation consultants can be immensely helpful).

Similarly, one of the most important, but frequently missed points is that the mother needs to be supported as much as possible during the post-delivery process (e.g., with maternity leave and a supportive family), since stress (particularly chronic stress) frequently significantly decreases milk production. In contrast, if her well-being is prioritized, the other necessary areas (e.g., the marriage and the infant’s health) tend to work themselves out.

Conclusion

In my eyes, there are three reasons why the issues I’ve outlined here are so important:

• First, it is a fundamental aspect of human life which (like many other things) industry has usurped from us and replaced with an inferior product that takes away our independence and health.

• Second, our early nutrition during childhood sets the stage for the rest of our lives. As such, we must reclaim a healthy way to raise our children, particularly since many of the principles for a healthy infant diet also hold true for the rest of one’s life.

• Third, infants raised on nutritious breast milk or formula tend to be much healthier, and many people I’ve spoken to over the years notice those differences.

RFK Jr., through his newly enacted “Operation Stork Speed,”88 is taking a stand to reform the formula industry, update the science, and protect our families. For this to succeed, we too must do all we can to make the food we feed our children healthy again, and I am deeply grateful that an opportunity like this is at last before us.

Author’s Note: This is an abridged version of a longer article that goes into greater detail on many of the points discussed here (e.g., the benefit of raw milk and strategies for obtaining the healthiest infant formulas) along with methods for addressing the common challenges encountered with breastfeeding (including colic).

That article can be read here. Additionally, a companion article on the dangers of hospital births and addressing the complications of C-sections and key prenatal strategies for having the healthiest baby possible which can be read here.

A Note from Dr. Mercola About the Author

A Midwestern Doctor (AMD) is a board-certified physician from the Midwest and a longtime reader of Mercola.com. I appreciate AMD’s exceptional insight on a wide range of topics and am grateful to share it. I also respect AMD’s desire to remain anonymous since AMD is still on the front lines treating patients. To find more of AMD’s work, be sure to check out The Forgotten Side of Medicine on Substack.

Do you enjoy alcoholic drinks every now and then? While it’s commonly believed that moderate drinking is fine,1 growing evidence suggests that alcohol, even in modest amounts, may harm your body. Previous research has shown that it increases your risk for premature death and cancer. Now, there’s a growing body of evidence showing that it also damages your brain, and may increase your risk of dementia.

Any Intake of Alcohol Raises Your Risk for Brain Damage

A study published in Neurology explored how alcohol consumption affects the brain over time, particularly in older adults.2,3 Researchers, based in Brazil, examined brain autopsies from 1,781 people who have an average age of 75 years old at death. Then, they compared those findings to how much alcohol each person drank throughout life as reported by family members. Here’s what they found:

• Defining the parameters of the study — The participants were split into four groups — those who never drank, moderate drinkers (up to seven drinks per week), heavy drinkers (eight or more drinks weekly), and former heavy drinkers who had quit.

A single drink was defined as containing 14 grams (g) of alcohol, which is roughly equivalent to 350 milliliters (mL) of beer, 150 mL of wine, or 45 mL of liquor.

• Those who drank regularly had more vascular brain lesions — Among heavy drinkers, 44% had vascular brain lesions. That compares to 40% for those who never drank, and 50% for former heavy drinkers.

Vascular brain lesions are also known as hyaline arteriolosclerosis, which is the thickening and stiffening of the small blood vessels in your brain. These lesions reduce blood flow (thus oxygen delivery) to brain cells, which may contribute to tissue damage, cognitive dysfunction, and long-term memory problems.

• The presence of lesions persisted even after quitting — Even former drinkers who quit years before death showed lasting damage. This suggests alcohol’s impact on your brain is not only acute, but also cumulative.

• Your lifestyle greatly influences the risk for brain lesions — After adjusting for other health factors like smoking, exercise, and age, heavy drinkers had a 133% higher chance of developing these brain lesions compared to those who never drank.

Former heavy drinkers weren’t far behind, with an 89% increased risk. Even moderate drinkers still had a 60% higher risk for brain damage than lifelong abstainers.

• Alcohol increases your risk for dementia — In addition to vascular damage, the researchers also examined another biomarker of brain degeneration called tau tangles. These are abnormal protein clumps that interfere with neuron function and are linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

Heavy drinkers had a 41% higher risk of developing tau tangles, while former heavy drinkers had a 31% increased risk compared to those who never consumed alcohol.

• Former heavy drinkers had a significantly lower brain mass ratio — This means this test group’s brains were smaller relative to their body size. Shrinking brain mass may set the stage for poor memory, slower thinking, and more difficulty managing daily tasks. Worse yet, this group also scored lower in cognitive function tests.

• Drinking is linked to a shorter lifespan in this study — Heavy drinkers died an average of 13 years earlier than those who never drank.

The findings raise serious concerns. Even if you feel fine now, and even if your drinking is within what’s often defined as “moderate,” your brain may be experiencing asymptomatic injury. These findings raise serious doubts about the assumption that a beer here or there is harmless.

Further Research Shows That No Alcohol Intake Is Safe for Your Brain

A study published in eClinicalMedicine set out to answer a long-standing hypothesis — does alcohol cause dementia, or are the two loosely associated?4

To answer that, researchers analyzed data from 313,958 United Kingdom (U.K.) participants who currently drank alcohol, all of whom were free of dementia when the study began (2006 to 2010). Over a follow-up period that lasted until 2021, researchers tracked those who developed dementia. They categorized alcohol consumption levels and matched these to genetic profiles designed to estimate lifelong alcohol exposure.

• Genes leaning toward higher alcohol intake were more at risk for dementia — Using individual-level analysis, researchers found that every increase in genetically predicted alcohol consumption pushed dementia risk higher. Interestingly, the strongest effects were seen in women. As noted by the researchers:

“Our analyses found a distinctly more significant association between alcohol consumption and dementia risk among women drinkers … who typically had lower rates of other risk factors, such as smoking, compared to men. For men, the presence of multiple risk factors could mask alcohol’s specific effects.”5

• The study also invalidated the idea that there’s a safe range for drinking — The researchers looked for a non-linear relationship — a curve where low-level drinking might be neutral or even protective, but didn’t find one. “Our findings suggested that there was no safe level of alcohol consumption for dementia,” the authors wrote.

• The data is clear regarding alcohol consumption — To check their results, the researchers created positive control criteria — a known consequence of alcohol use — such as alcoholic liver disease. Their model showed that people with alcohol-promoting genes had a much higher risk of liver damage.

Then, the researchers used age as a negative control (something alcohol doesn’t influence) and found no relationship. These comparisons confirmed that their models were functioning properly, and that the dementia link was genuine — not a statistical coincidence.

Cut Back on Alcohol and Repair the Damage Before It’s Too Late

I’ll admit that I bought into the many common myths about alcohol. I used to drink alcohol a few times a year, believing that it was relatively harmless — and even beneficial. But after diving into the research further, I’ve changed my stance.

Now, I don’t drink any alcohol at all, and I recommend you do the same. If you’re drinking regularly, even a few drinks a week, you may be putting your cognition at risk. As noted by the research earlier, there is no safe level of alcohol when it comes to protecting your memory, your ability to think clearly, or your overall brain health. It’s time for you to take control of your brain health again, starting with these strategies:

1. Cut your alcohol intake to zero — The most important step is to stop the damage at its source. If you’re drinking daily, or even several times weekly, this may be impairing blood flow to your brain and contributing to shrinkage in the areas responsible for memory and cognition.

If you’re not ready to quit completely, start by eliminating weekday drinking or limiting yourself to special occasions. But remember, “moderation” isn’t protective like some have suggested — the evidence increasingly challenges that idea. Your brain is better off without it.

2. Take N-acetylcysteine (NAC) before and after occasional alcohol use — It’s thought to support the liver’s handling of acetaldehyde, a byproduct of alcohol metabolism, though this is not a substitute for reducing alcohol intake.

If you choose to explore NAC or B-vitamin support around alcohol use, talk to a healthcare provider about whether it’s appropriate and what dose may make sense for you. But as mentioned earlier, there’s still no substitute for avoiding alcohol completely.

3. Replace alcohol with beverages that nourish you — If alcohol is your way to unwind, reward yourself, or deal with stress, it’s time to change your routine. Switch to other drinks, such as teas, freshly homemade juices with pulp, or pure sparkling water with natural flavors added.

4. Rebuild your mitochondria with healthy carbohydrate intake — Alcohol can impair mitochondrial function. To restore it, you need fuel, and that is glucose.

I recommend aiming for 200 to 250 grams of carbs per day, mostly from sources like white rice, fruit juices with pulp, and whole fruits. This gives your body what it needs to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of every cell, especially brain cells. And if you’ve struggled with brain fog or fatigue before, this shift alone has the power to drastically change your health for the better.

5. Start healing your gut to reduce endotoxin load — Alcohol may damage your gut, allowing endotoxins to be produced. Endotoxins are bacterial fragments that leak into your bloodstream and may contribute to inflammation, especially in your brain. To repair your gut, again, stop drinking alcohol. Moreover, add fermented foods into your diet to diversify your gut flora, allowing better crosstalk between your gut and brain.

Strategies for Eliminating Alcohol Consumption

Are you having trouble quitting alcohol? Dr. Brooke Scheller, founder of Functional Sobriety (a nutrition-based program for alcohol reduction) and author of “How to Eat to Change How You Drink,” offers several helpful tips:

1. Get curious and educate yourself — Read books, listen to podcasts, and learn about the health impacts of alcohol.

2. Find community support — Scheller runs an online community called the Functional Sobriety Network. There are many other support groups and resources available as well.

3. Examine your social media — Unfollow accounts that glamorize drinking and follow sober influencers instead.

4. Address the root causes — Look at why you drink — stress, social pressure, habit — and find healthier alternatives.

5. Support your body nutritionally — Supplements like L-theanine, L-glutamine, NAC, B-complex vitamins, and milk thistle are commonly used by some people to help with cravings and support detoxification.

6. Stabilize blood sugar — Increasing protein intake and eating regularly helps reduce alcohol cravings.

7. Be open about your choice — Scheller encourages people to simply say they’re not drinking for their health if asked.

One of the most powerful shifts Scheller advocates for is changing how you think about alcohol in your life in order to reframe your relationship with drinking:

“Previously, the only people who did quit drinking were people that identified themselves as having a problem or maybe had to quit. And so the first thing I’ll say if you’re listening and you’re interested is you don’t have to have a problem to decide that you want to explore this.

You don’t need to even be that regular of a drinker for you to say, ‘You know what? This is something I may want to explore.'”

In other words, choosing not to drink alcohol is a positive, empowering decision for your health and longevity — not a punishment or deprivation.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About the Impact of Alcohol on Brain Health

Q: Is moderate drinking safe for my brain?

A: No. Even moderate drinking — defined as seven or fewer drinks per week — raises your risk for vascular brain lesions by 60% compared to people who never drank alcohol. These lesions reduce blood flow and oxygen in your brain, which may contribute to cognitive decline and memory issues over time.

Q: Does quitting alcohol reverse the brain damage?

A: According to the research, the answer is no. Former heavy drinkers in the study had even more brain lesions than current heavy drinkers and showed lower brain mass ratios and worse cognitive function. This suggests alcohol’s damage is long-lasting and accumulates over time, even after you stop.

Q: What exactly does alcohol do to the brain?

A: Alcohol has been linked to hyaline arteriolosclerosis, which is the hardening and narrowing of the brain’s small blood vessels. It also increases tau tangles, which are abnormal proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease. These changes are associated with shrinking brain tissue, impaired memory, and reduced your ability to think clearly and manage daily tasks.

Q: Is there any safe level of alcohol that doesn’t affect dementia risk?

A: No. Genetic analysis from over 313,958 people showed a direct link between alcohol intake and dementia risk. Researchers found no evidence of a protective effect at any level of drinking — dementia risk increased steadily with every uptick in alcohol consumption.

Q: How can I protect my brain if I’ve been drinking regularly?

A: Start by eliminating alcohol completely to stop further damage. Support your detox pathways with N-acetylcysteine (NAC), repair your mitochondria with healthy carbs like fruit and white rice, and rebuild your gut by avoiding alcohol and adding fermented foods. These steps may help support brain function and reduce further damage.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) play an important role in human health, particularly within the gastrointestinal tract. They are produced in the colon through the bacterial fermentation of dietary fiber, the indigestible component of plant-based foods.

This fermentation process transforms complex carbohydrates into various SCFAs, including acetate, propionate and butyrate, each with distinct physiological effects. Among these, butyrate stands out for the properties that have drawn the most research attention in metabolic health.

A Primer on Butyrate — The Metabolic Powerhouse Fueling Your Gut

According to a review published in Pharmacological Research,1 butyrate has been reported to improve “body weight and composition, lipid profile, insulin sensitivity, and glycemia in animal models of MetS [metabolic syndrome].” The same review cautions that these animal results may not translate to people, because butyrate has poor systemic availability and is rapidly cleared, and notes that human trials to date have not demonstrated substantial benefit. But that’s not all researchers have examined. They also noted:

“In vitro studies have examined the influence of butyrate on intestinal cells, adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, hepatocytes, pancreatic islets and blood vessels, highlighting genes and pathways that may contribute to its beneficial effects. Butyrate’s influences in these cells have been attributed primarily to its epigenetic effects as a histone deacetylase inhibitor, as well as its role as an agonist of free fatty acid receptors.” 2

While fiber is essential for butyrate production, you need a healthy gut microbiome to reap the benefits of fiber. As discussed in my book “Your Guide to Cellular Health,” the vast majority of the population have damaged microbiomes due to exposure to metabolic poisons.

For these individuals, high fiber intake exacerbates existing issues by fueling pathogenic bacteria, leading to the production of endotoxins that compromise cellular energy and overall health. Later, I’ll explain why this occurs, as well as strategies to repair your gut health, enabling it to process fiber in a way that supports your health.Butyrate Is a Primary Fuel for Your Gut Lining

Unlike most cells in your body that rely on glucose for energy, your colonocytes draw heavily on butyrate. This metabolic adaptation highlights butyrate’s role in maintaining the health and function of your colonic epithelium, though previous reviews question whether butyrate is their exclusive preferred fuel.

Butyrate is transported into your colonocytes through several mechanisms, including passive diffusion, which is concentration-dependent, and active transport via other cell membrane transporters.3 Once inside your colonocytes, butyrate undergoes beta-oxidation within the mitochondria, your cells’ powerhouses.

This metabolic pathway breaks down butyrate into acetyl-CoA to generate ATP, the primary energy currency of your cells.4,5 This process is remarkably efficient, providing your colonocytes with up to 70% to 80% of their energy needs, a substantially higher proportion compared to other energy substrates like glucose or glutamine.6

This efficient energy use is central to maintaining colonocyte health.7,8 Furthermore, butyrate’s role as a primary fuel source for your colonocytes contributes to their ability to remove oxygen from your colon, which helps create the ideal environment for your beneficial gut bacteria to grow.9The Impact Butyrate Has on Your Gut Barrier Function

Your gut barrier, a dynamic and complex structure composed of a single layer of epithelial cells connected by tight junctions, along with a protective mucus layer, plays a vital role in selectively regulating the passage of substances between your gut and your bloodstream.

It prevents the entry of harmful bacteria, toxins and undigested food particles while allowing the absorption of essential nutrients. But how does it protect, to be exact? As explained in a narrative review published in Clinical Nutrition10 — drawing largely on rat, pig, and cell-culture studies:

“Butyrate strengthens the gut barrier by targeting three complementary elements: tight junctions, the mucus layer and the production of antimicrobial peptides. Many tight junction proteins are upregulated by butyrate (e.g., TJP1, claudin 7, cadherin 1 in the rat ileum; TJP1, claudin 3 and occludin in pig colons).

Tight junction protein 1 (TJP1; previously named ZO1) is particularly important, as it modulates tight junctions and is commonly used as a marker of intestinal permeability. In contrast, claudin 2, a tight junction protein that forms gap channels and contributes to a leaky gut barrier, is downregulated by butyrate …

In addition to altering the expression of tight junction proteins, butyrate promotes tight junction assembly by activating AMPK, reducing the permeability of colon cancer cell monolayers.”*

As noted earlier, the absorption of butyrate by the colonocytes also reinforces the colon, which may help limit inflammation and immune activation.11,12 Disruptions to gut barrier function have been linked to various gastrointestinal disorders, as well as metabolic diseases, according to a 2021 study published in Metabolites.13

*These findings are from laboratory or animal research and may not directly apply to human health.

Butyrate and Its Impact on Inflammation

Butyrate has been studied for its anti-inflammatory action, which it appears to exert through a variety of intricate mechanisms. A review published in Immune Network14 outlines mechanisms by which butyrate may down-regulate inflammation driven by pathogenic gut bacteria:

“Butyrate can down-regulate inflammation by inhibiting the growth of pathobionts, increasing mucosal barrier integrity, encouraging obligate anaerobic bacterial dominance and decreasing oxygen availability in the gut.

Butyrate can also decrease excessive inflammation through modulation of immune cells such as increasing functionalities of M2 macrophages and regulatory T cells and inhibiting infiltration by neutrophils.”15

What Animal Research Suggests About Butyrate and Body Weight

Research in mice published in the journal Gut16 found that butyrate influenced energy expenditure. In these animals, colon-absorbed butyrate was associated with increased energy expenditure in tissues including muscle, liver, and white and brown fat.

Additionally, the researchers observed that butyrate promoted fat oxidation and reduced fat accumulation in these mice. Oral butyrate also lowered food intake, an effect the authors attributed to appetite-regulating pathways in the gut and brain.

As reported by the authors,17 “Butyrate acts on the gut-brain neural circuit to improve energy metabolism via reducing energy intake and enhancing fat oxidation by activating Bat [brown adipose tissue].”

Supporting these findings, a 2023 review published in Frontiers in Endocrinology18 — drawing predominantly on rodent research — reported associations between butyrate and measures of body weight, fat mass, and glucose regulation. In the animal studies reviewed, butyrate supplementation was associated with improvements in fasting glucose, insulin levels, markers of insulin resistance, and plasma triglyceride levels. According to this featured review:19

“Butyrate reduced lipid accumulation by regulating liver mitochondrial function, reducing liver mitochondrial energy efficiency and improving the capability of mitochondria to utilize fat as metabolic fuel …

Short-term oral administration of butyrate can alleviate diet-induced obesity in mice by stimulating mitochondrial function in skeletal muscle. Butyrate has also been reported to increase the number of mitochondria in skeletal muscle.”*

Similarly, a review published in Molecules20 described animal research in which butyrate reduced food intake by suppressing appetite. The same review reported effects on liver fat accumulation in mice fed a high-fat diet. “[Butyrate] is able to downregulate the expression of nine key genes involved in the intestinal cholesterol biosynthesis pathway and thereby it may inhibit hypercholesterolemia,” the researchers noted.21

*These findings are from laboratory or animal research and may not directly apply to human health.

Dietary Fiber Helps Produce Butyrate, but There Are Caveats

As shown in the featured studies, butyrate is far more than a simple metabolic byproduct. It serves as a major energy source for your colonocytes and supports your gut barrier, and research — much of it in animal and laboratory models — suggests it may also influence insulin sensitivity, inflammatory signaling, and appetite regulation.

In short, butyrate plays an important role in maintaining your gut health and overall well-being. However, while promoting butyrate production through dietary interventions like increasing fiber intake is generally recommended, this assumes that you have a properly functioning gut.

As I discuss in my book “Your Guide to Cellular Health,” for those with compromised gut health, simply going for a high-fiber intake to promote SCFA production is highly counterproductive. Why? Because when you eat fiber with an imbalanced gut microbiome, the bad bacteria (oxygen-tolerant bacteria) can ferment the fiber and produce endotoxins that undermine metabolism and cellular function.

To truly benefit from a high-fiber diet, you need to first heal and seal your gut so that beneficial bacteria can thrive. Getting enough carbs is an important part of that process.Building Your Gut from the Ground Up

Most adults need about 250 grams of targeted carbs a day from healthy, unprocessed sources — considerably more if you are very active. For most people with ordinary digestive complaints, well-cooked white rice and whole fruits are the place to start. Ripe, whole fruits provide essential nutrients, healthy carbohydrates and dietary fiber that your gut needs to produce butyrate and other SCFAs. As a bonus, your bowel movements may also become more regular.

If your gut is severely compromised, I recommend you kickstart your gut-healing with dextrose water. Simply mix pure dextrose with water and sip slowly over several hours to avoid spiking your insulin levels. After one to two weeks, start the transition to increasingly more complex carb sources — fruit juice with pulp, then pulp-free juice sipped slowly, then whole fruits, and finally complex carbs and starches like white rice.

Now, the question is, how do you know if you have a healthy gut? As detailed in “Your Guide to Cellular Health,” the five indicators of good gut health are:

• Regular bowel movements (one to three times daily)

• Minimal bloating or discomfort

• The ability to digest a wide variety of food

• Good energy levels

• Proper nutrient absorption Again, once your gut is functioning well, the key to increasing your butyrate production lies in dietary fiber. Think of it as the raw material for the butyrate “factory” in your gut. When you eat fiber-rich whole foods, your gut bacteria ferment that fiber, producing SCFAs as a byproduct. If your digestion still is not where you want it, build up to these gradually. Excellent sources of dietary fiber include fruits (like apples, berries and bananas) and vegetables (especially leafy greens, broccoli and carrots). Other gut-friendly carbs include:

• Well-cooked white rice

• Sourdough bread

• Root vegetables like potatoes and sweet potatoes

• Fresh, ripe fruits

• Masa harina, or traditionally made tortillas

Limit Linoleic Acid to Support Butyrate Production

Another dietary factor that impacts your gut health is excess intake of linoleic acid (LA), which I believe is one of the biggest contributors to metabolic dysfunction and poor gut health when consumed in large amounts. To be clear, your body still needs small amounts of LA to function optimally. However, the issue is that LA is so pervasive in the modern food supply, particularly in ultraprocessed foods.

A laboratory study of bacterial cultures published in Scientific Reports22 found that LA induced metabolic stress in Bifidobacterium breve DSM 20213, a beneficial gut bacterium, altering biosynthetic pathways for amino acids, carbohydrates and fats and slowing its growth.

Given LA’s pervasive presence in ultraprocessed foods, keeping its intake in check is an important part of protecting your health and supporting butyrate production. I recommend limiting your LA intake to less than 5 grams a day.

Keep in mind that LA is an essential fat — your body does require small amounts of it — so the goal is to return to the historical intake range, not to drive it toward zero.

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.

Type 2 diabetes involves far more than high blood sugar. It’s characterized by high blood sugar because your body’s cells stop responding normally to insulin, making it harder to move glucose from your bloodstream into your tissues for energy. Early signs often include increased thirst, frequent urination, fatigue, blurry vision, slow-healing cuts and frequent infections. Left unchecked, it raises your risk of heart disease, kidney failure, nerve damage and vision loss.

Most conversations about diabetes risk begin and end with body weight, but that leaves out an important part of the picture. Your muscles are active metabolic tissue, and when they weaken or shrink while body fat increases, the metabolic consequences go well beyond what a bathroom scale can capture. Doctors call this combination of excess body fat and declining muscle mass and strength sarcopenic obesity, and it carries a metabolic risk far greater than either problem on its own.

Research confirms that this combination deserves far more attention than it currently receives, revealing that muscle health reshapes long-term diabetes risk in ways that weight alone can’t explain. The findings also highlight groups you might not expect to be most affected, reinforcing that muscle preservation is an investment worth making well before it feels urgent. So, what exactly does the evidence show, and why do your muscles hold so much influence over blood sugar control?

Muscle Strength Predicts Diabetes Risk Better Than Weight Alone

For a study published in Diabetes Care, researchers followed 479,607 adults from the UK Biobank who did not have Type 2 diabetes when the study began to determine whether having both excess body fat and poor muscle health created a greater diabetes risk than either condition alone.1

The researchers evaluated body composition, comparing body fat with measures of muscle strength and muscle mass to identify who developed Type 2 diabetes over time. The study also included a landmark analysis involving 53,107 participants to examine what happened when people’s body composition changed over time.

This allowed the researchers to determine whether improving or worsening muscle health altered future diabetes risk instead of simply capturing a single snapshot at the beginning of the study. Because of the study’s exceptionally large size and median follow-up of 14.2 years, the findings provide one of the strongest looks yet at how muscle health influences your long-term metabolic health rather than just your current condition.

• Losing muscle while gaining body fat created the greatest diabetes risk — During the follow-up period, 32,948 participants developed Type 2 diabetes. Researchers found that the combination of excess body fat and poor muscle health carried a substantially greater risk than either problem alone.

When researchers compared different body composition groups, they found that people with both excess body fat and low muscle mass and strength were more than 3.5 times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those with healthy body composition. By comparison, obesity alone and low muscle mass alone each carried lower risks.

• Future risk changed when body composition changed — Researchers also looked at what happened when people’s body composition changed over time. They found that participants who developed sarcopenic obesity faced a sharply higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes than those who maintained healthy body composition.

People who remained in this state over time faced an even greater risk, showing that the longer someone had both excess body fat and poor muscle health, the more their diabetes risk increased.

• Some groups faced even greater risk than others — Researchers found that women and adults younger than 60 experienced a larger increase in Type 2 diabetes risk from sarcopenic obesity than men and adults 60 and older.2 That finding challenges the common belief that muscle loss only becomes important late in life. The results suggest muscle preservation deserves attention decades before most people begin thinking about age-related muscle decline.

• Researchers showed muscle health adds information that body weight misses — The researchers concluded that evaluating both body fat and muscle health provides a more complete picture of who faces the greatest future risk for Type 2 diabetes. In practical terms, two people with similar body weights don’t necessarily have the same metabolic health. One person might carry more healthy muscle, while the other has less muscle and more body fat.

Although the scale shows similar numbers, their future diabetes risk could look very different. The researchers concluded that these findings support an “integrated assessment of muscle health and adiposity” when identifying people at higher risk for Type 2 diabetes. Put simply, muscle deserves a place beside body fat as a core measure of metabolic health, not an afterthought.

Protect Your Muscle to Protect Your Metabolism

Protecting your muscles is one of the most effective ways to lower your long-term risk of Type 2 diabetes. The goal isn’t simply to lose weight — it’s to build and preserve the muscle that helps your body regulate blood sugar every day. Focus on improving body composition because stronger muscles and less excess body fat work together to support a healthier metabolism.

1. Make muscle your first priority instead of focusing only on weight loss — If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t sacrifice muscle in the process. Losing muscle while losing fat works against your metabolism because muscle uses glucose for energy. Strength training several times each week, combined with regular daily movement such as walking, gives your muscles the stimulus they need to stay strong.

The research showed that people with both excess body fat and poor muscle health faced the greatest diabetes risk. That means preserving muscle isn’t simply about appearance; it’s one of the most effective ways to support healthy blood sugar and metabolic health over the long term.

2. Train smarter instead of simply training longer — More exercise isn’t always better. Research discussed by cardiologist Dr. James O’Keefe shows that strength training has a “sweet spot.”3 The greatest health benefits come from moderate amounts of resistance exercise, while excessive training causes those benefits to level off and eventually decline.

Keep most strength-training sessions to about 20 to 40 minutes, using a weight that becomes challenging after about 10 repetitions. Give your muscles a day or two to recover before the next workout. For most people, two or three strength-training sessions each week provide the greatest long-term benefit.

Once total strength-training time climbs beyond roughly two hours per week, the additional health gains become much smaller, and after about three to four hours weekly, they continue to decline.

3. Eat enough protein and healthy carbohydrates to support muscle growth — Your muscles need both building materials and fuel. I recommend aiming for about 0.8 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass (about 1.76 grams per kilogram), with one-third coming from collagen-rich sources like slow-cooked meats or bone broth.

Pair that with enough healthy carbohydrates to support cellular energy production. Most adults need about 250 grams of carbohydrates each day. Start with whole fruit and white rice if you have digestive issues, gradually adding in other well-tolerated carbohydrate sources as your gut health improves. Better fuel helps your muscles perform better during exercise and recover afterward.

4. Prioritize sleep to protect the muscle you’re building — Your muscles don’t grow during your workout — they grow while you recover, and sleep is when the bulk of that repair happens. During deep sleep, your body releases growth hormone, which drives muscle protein synthesis and tissue repair. Cut that short and the process stalls.

Poor sleep also raises cortisol, your body’s primary stress hormone, which breaks down muscle tissue and worsens insulin resistance, the exact combination this research links to the highest diabetes risk.

To support high-quality sleep each night, keep your bedroom cool and completely dark, stop eating at least three hours before bed and limit blue light exposure in the evening. If you’re doing everything right with training and nutrition but not seeing results, insufficient sleep is one of the first places to look.

5. Use blood flow restriction (BFR) training if heavy weights aren’t an option — If you’re older, have joint pain or are recovering from an injury, BFR, also called KAATSU training, offers another way to build muscle without lifting heavy weights. During BFR training, specialized bands partially restrict blood flow while you exercise with very light weights or, if you’re frail, even just your body weight.

This brief reduction in oxygen inside the working muscles stimulates muscle growth and increases the release of myokines, which are signaling proteins your muscles produce that support muscle repair and healthy metabolism. Because the resistance is so light, BFR places much less stress on your joints while still helping preserve or increase muscle mass. It also requires far less recovery time than traditional heavy lifting.

6. Measure your progress by your waist and strength, not just your weight — A bathroom scale doesn’t tell you how much muscle you’ve gained or lost. If your weight stays the same while your muscle increases and body fat declines, your metabolic health is moving in the right direction. To monitor your fat profile, track your waist-to-hip ratio.

To calculate it, divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement (using the same unit, such as inches or centimeters). Once you have the number, you can see how it lines up with risk categories:

Waist-to-hip ratio
Men
Women

Ideal
0.8
0.7

Low risk
0.85

You can also track grip strength at home with an inexpensive hand dynamometer; healthy grip strength generally falls above 72 pounds for men and 44 pounds for women, and improvements over time are one of the most reliable signs that your overall muscle health is heading in the right direction.

FAQs About Muscle Health and Type 2 Diabetes

Q: Why does muscle health matter if I’m more concerned about losing weight?
A: Muscle does much more than help you move. It’s one of the largest tissues in your body that actively absorbs glucose from your bloodstream, which directly helps keep blood sugar under control. The research found that people who had both excess body fat and poor muscle health faced a much higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes than people with healthy muscle, showing that preserving muscle is just as important as reducing excess fat.

Q: Is muscle loss only a concern for older adults?
A: No. While muscle loss becomes more common with age, this study found that the link between poor muscle health and Type 2 diabetes was especially strong in adults younger than 60 and in women. That means protecting your muscle should begin long before you reach retirement age.

Q: How much strength training is enough to support healthy muscles?
A: More isn’t necessarily better. Research suggests that two or three resistance-training sessions per week, lasting about 20 to 40 minutes each, provides the greatest long-term health benefits for most people. Training far beyond that amount offers diminishing returns and can reduce some of the advantages associated with regular strength exercise.

Q: What if I can’t lift heavy weights because of joint pain or an injury?
A: BFR, also called KAATSU training, allows you to stimulate muscle growth using very light weights or even just your body weight. Because it places much less stress on your joints than traditional weightlifting, it offers an effective option for older adults and anyone who can’t safely perform heavy resistance exercise.

Q: What’s a better way to measure progress than watching the number on the scale?
A: Focus on changes that reflect better body composition instead of body weight alone. Improvements in strength, waist size and muscle mass provide a clearer picture of your metabolic health than the scale by itself. Two people can weigh the same yet have very different diabetes risk depending on how much muscle and body fat they carry.

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.

In health communication, what does “identification” mean?

Remembering the facts in a message
Comparing several health recommendations
Understanding how a biological process works
Recognizing yourself in the person or situation
Identification occurs when people see their own experiences reflected in a story or situation, making the health message feel more personally relevant. Learn more.

Many chronic diseases, from heart disease and Alzheimer’s to cancer, share one thing in common — chronic inflammation. But while inflammation is thought to play a key role in disease progression, pinpointing where it occurs in the body has always been a challenge. Standard blood tests measure broad markers like C-reactive protein (CRP), but they fail to identify specific tissues or organs affected by inflammation.1

A study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences2 (PNAS) has found a way to detect inflammation in specific areas using antibodies. This innovation could open the door to highly targeted diagnostic tests, allowing earlier detection of inflammatory diseases. These findings come from laboratory work in cell, animal, and human tissue samples, but the approach has not yet been validated as a clinical blood test.

How Does Inflammation Work?

Inflammation is how your body responds to threats, whether from injury or infection. It mobilizes immune cells, increases blood flow, and activates signaling molecules to contain damage and promote healing. But for this process to work properly, the immune system needs to maintain a balance between inflammation and resolution. When this stability is disrupted, inflammation becomes chronic, leading to long-term health problems.3
• Your body’s first line of defense — When you get injured or are exposed to harmful bacteria, your immune system jumps into action. Specialized immune cells called macrophages act like sentries, constantly patrolling your body. They detect distress signals from damaged cells or foreign invaders and respond quickly to keep you safe.4

• Cellular “alarms” trigger an immune response — When your immune system detects a threat, it sounds the alarm by releasing signaling molecules called cytokines and chemokines. These act like emergency alerts, calling in more immune cells to help. Cytokines also control how strong and long-lasting the inflammation is, making sure your body responds appropriately.5

• Increased blood flow fuels the battle — When your immune system detects a threat, your blood vessels widen to increase blood flow to the area. This delivers immune cells, including neutrophils, which attack invaders and clear out damaged tissue. Along with oxygen and nutrients, this surge helps fight infection and start the healing process, causing redness, swelling, and warmth, the classic signs of inflammation.6

• Immune cells attack and clear the threat — When your body detects a threat, neutrophils are the first to arrive. They quickly engulf harmful particles and release antimicrobial substances to kill invaders. If the threat persists, macrophages take over, clearing pathogens and cellular debris, while T-cells coordinate the immune response and destroy infected cells to prevent further damage.7

• Shutting down inflammation for recovery — Once the infection or injury is under control, your immune system releases anti-inflammatory molecules to slow down the response. This helps limit unnecessary damage to healthy tissue and helps your body transition from defense to repair.8,9

To learn more about the key differences between acute and chronic inflammation, early warning signs, and how to restore balance, check out “Warning Signs of Acute and Chronic Inflammation in the Body.”

Will This Approach Change How Inflammation Is Diagnosed?

The featured study, conducted by researchers at Case Western Reserve University,10 highlights a new antibody-based method to track traces of inflammation, pinpointing it at its source. This approach could offer a more precise way to detect inflammation-driven conditions.11

• A unique chemical reaction enables detection — Researchers found that when reactive oxygen species (ROS) — highly reactive molecules that damage DNA, proteins, and lipids — interact with certain compounds, they create a distinct chemical reaction. This reaction leaves a detectable marker, allowing antibodies to track inflammation at its source.12

• The role of reactive oxygen species — During inflammation, your immune cells release ROS to kill bacteria and fight infections. These molecules also come from environmental sources like UV light, pollution, radiation, and smoking. While ROS helps protect you, too much damages your cells and tissues and contributes to disease.13

• How ROS interact with fats in your cells — Researchers found that ROS reacts with linoleic acid (LA), a type of omega-6 fat in all cell membranes. This interaction creates compounds called epoxyketooctadecenoic acids (EKODEs), leaving behind markers that can be used to detect inflammation.14

• A breakthrough in biomarker detection — The study also found that EKODEs form a unique bond with cysteine, an amino acid. These compounds build up in tissues under oxidative stress, including the brain, heart, and liver. By raising antibodies against the EKODE-cysteine adduct in rabbits, the team detected these markers in human cells and brain tissue as well as in mouse tissue, paving the way for more precise inflammation detection.15

• Linking EKODEs to disease — The researchers aim to map EKODEs to specific diseases by identifying which organs and conditions these markers are most strongly associated with. One area of focus is the eye, where the team plans to examine EKODEs produced in response to age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, both of which can lead to vision loss.16

The authors believe these findings could pave the way for a simple blood test that detects inflammation in specific organs. “This research opens up an amazing number of pathways for future studies,” said Greg Tochtrop, Ph.D., professor of chemistry at Case Western Reserve and senior author of the study. “It will lead directly to better understanding inflammation and detecting diseases, as well as to discovering new drugs.”17

How Lipid Peroxidation Products Fit into the Bigger Picture of Inflammation

While the groundbreaking inflammation detection method highlighted in this article offers new insight into chronic disease, understanding the molecular players driving inflammation will empower you to take control of your health at a deeper level. As biochemical reviews describe,18 EKODEs are just one of several lipid peroxidation products formed when polyunsaturated fats (PUFs), particularly LA, oxidize.

Two others that have been studied extensively are 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE) and malondialdehyde (MDA), which also exert wide-ranging effects on your biological systems.19 These are signaling molecules that appear to protect or damage depending on how they interact in your cells. Their activity may help explain why inflammation can spiral out of control and why spotting them matters:

• EKODEs are double-edged signalers — EKODEs (epoxy-keto fats) feature both an epoxide ring and a keto group, giving them distinct bioactive properties. At low concentrations, EKODEs activate pathways that influence antioxidant defenses, inflammation, and metabolism. In animal studies, oxidized linoleic acid products have also been shown to influence pain signaling, though this work is early and has not been established for EKODEs specifically.20

However, when levels spike during oxidative stress, like in chronic disease, they appear to become damaging — modifying proteins, disrupting membranes, and amplifying cellular dysfunction. In this model they act as mediators in inflammation, tipping the balance between adaptation and damage.

• 4-HNE is a potent messenger of stress — 4-HNE is a highly reactive aldehyde that activates Nrf2 to boost detoxification enzymes. It can also increase cytokines, your body’s inflammatory alarm system. At low levels, 4-HNE acts as a signaling molecule that promotes cellular adaptation.

At high levels, 4-HNE shifts to a destructive role, binding to mitochondrial proteins, and promoting apoptosis in laboratory studies. Reviews of lipid peroxidation report elevated 4-HNE in conditions ranging from Alzheimer’s21 to atherosclerosis, though these are associations rather than demonstrated causes.22

Its electrophilic nature lets it “tag” proteins on cysteine or lysine residues, altering their function in ways that either support survival or accelerate cellular dysfunction. In inflammation, 4-HNE appears to shape both the magnitude and trajectory of the response.

• MDA is the silent cross-linker — Malondialdehyde, the dialdehyde cousin, plays a less overt — but equally damaging — role in oxidative stress. It excels at cross-linking proteins and DNA, leaving a trail of damage. It’s less a direct signaler and more a saboteur, quietly amplifying inflammation by compromising your cellular machinery.

Although MDA influences stress pathways indirectly, its real danger lies in chronic accumulation — elevated MDA has been observed in diabetes, aging, and cancer, where it is thought to erode structural integrity. MDA’s presence is treated as a marker of unresolved long-term oxidative stress.

• The interplay between these three compounds — These three lipid-derived compounds don’t act independently. During oxidative stress, they interact within the same biochemical environment, competing for nucleophilic targets — cysteines and lysines on proteins — and diluting each other’s effects. For example, if 4-HNE tags a key enzyme first, it blocks subsequent interactions by EKODEs.

In high-stress states (say, a heart attack or chronic infection), they are proposed to act together and overwhelm antioxidant defenses like glutathione — 4-HNE compromising mitochondria, MDA cross-linking DNA, and EKODEs destabilizing membranes.

At lower levels, EKODEs have been shown to activate antioxidant-response pathways, which may curb 4-HNE’s and MDA’s effects and offer a protective counterbalance. Note that this interplay is described from laboratory work and has not been mapped out in people.

• Why this matters to you — The behavior of these compounds serves not just as a scientific explanation but as a roadmap. These lipid peroxidation products are measurable (via assays like TBARS for MDA or mass spectrometry for 4-HNE), and their levels reflect your oxidative load.

The diagnostic approach discussed in this article could, in theory, spotlight their activity indirectly. Think of it as a window into their influence on your inflammatory response. That said, talk to your health care provider about whether this testing is appropriate for you should you be interested in it.

It’s also worth noting that what presents as oxidative stress often traces back to a deeper problem in how your cells produce energy — a reductive shift in the mitochondria that leaves reactive oxygen species with nowhere to go.

Seen this way, lowering lipid peroxidation isn’t just about neutralizing damage; it’s about restoring the cellular energy production that keeps these products in check in the first place.

The good news is that these lipid peroxidation products are factors you can influence. Understanding how they interact helps explain where inflammation begins. Research in this area points toward familiar levers: Dietary patterns that support the body’s own antioxidant response, and reducing omega-6 load by removing vegetable oils from the diet.

Is Our Understanding of Chronic Inflammation Flawed?

While researchers at Case Western Reserve University23 have identified biomarkers that reveal inflammation in specific organs, a new hypothesis-and-theory paper published in Frontiers in Immunology24 — a single-author framework proposal rather than new experimental data — challenges the long-held belief that chronic inflammation is simply unresolved acute inflammation. Instead, it suggests that chronic disease stems from a loss of anti-inflammatory mediators, not just excessive inflammatory signaling.

• Inflammation versus unalamation — Experts have long believed that chronic inflammation happens because the immune system stays too active. However, the author proposes that it results from a loss of anti-inflammatory mediators, disrupting a balance called unalamation. This challenges the conventional idea that suppressing inflammation is the ideal treatment.25

• The role of unalamation in health and disease — Your body uses inflammatory mediators like prostaglandins and cytokines to fight infections, heal wounds, and maintain tissues. Unalamation is the balance between these inflammatory and anti-inflammatory signals. When anti-inflammatory mediators drop too low, inflammation persists, even without an injury or infection, leading to long-term health problems.26

• Why standard anti-inflammatory drugs fall short — NSAIDs and other inflammation-blocking drugs help with short-term inflammation but do not, in this framework, correct chronic conditions like arthritis, heart disease, or neurodegenerative disorders. This is because they block inflammatory signals without restoring the missing anti-inflammatory ones, leaving the underlying imbalance unaddressed.27

• Cancer and the unalamation connection — The author also revisits the idea that chronic inflammation drives cancer. Tumors contain both inflammatory and anti-inflammatory signals, which suggests that they grow in a state of heightened unalamation, not just inflammation.

This may explain why blocking inflammation alone doesn’t stop cancer and, the author proposes, why unalamation may be worth investigating as a therapeutic direction. Again, keep in mind that this is a hypothesis, not a demonstrated treatment approach.28

This emerging research reshapes how we approach inflammation-related diseases. Instead of merely shutting down inflammatory pathways, future therapies may need to restore the body’s natural balance of pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators, offering a more sustainable path to healing.

What Are the ‘Four E’s’ That Drive Inflammation?

To break free from inflammation, it would be wise to address its root causes, not just treat symptoms. Today’s diets, daily habits, and environmental exposures create a constant inflammatory burden and overwhelm your body’s ability to maintain balance. I believe there are four primary drivers of inflammation — what I call the “Four E’s”:

1. Excess LA — An omega-6 polyunsaturated fat (PUFA), LA is found abundantly in vegetable oils and ultraprocessed foods. LA is essential in small amounts and required for mitochondrial function — the problem is quantity, not the fat itself.

In excess, LA is one of the most harmful components of the Western diet, and has been reported to negatively affect your metabolic health and gut microbiome,29 which are two of the most important factors for maintaining proper inflammatory responses and overall health. I recommend keeping LA intake between 2 and 5 grams per day.

2. Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) — EMFs are generated by everyday electronic devices such as cell phones, Wi-Fi routers, and microwaves, causing unseen harm to your health. In a mechanism laid out in Pall’s review of EMF effects,30 EMFs activate voltage-gated calcium channel (VGCC) receptors in your cells, leading to an influx of calcium ions. This surge in calcium is thought to catalyze the production of peroxynitrite, a potent oxidant that contributes to cellular stress and inflammation.

3. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) — Exposure to EDCs significantly impacts your health by over-activating estrogen receptors in your body. Microplastics are alarmingly prevalent in our environment, with research suggesting that the average person ingests the equivalent of a credit card’s weight in plastic each week.31

Plastic is often laden with harmful substances like phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA), both of which bind to estrogen receptors and disrupt normal hormonal functions. Elevated estrogen has been shown to raise intracellular calcium levels in cell studies,32 which is thought to drive the generation of peroxynitrite — a mechanism proposed to exacerbate inflammation and contribute to various chronic health conditions.

4. Endotoxins — Consuming ultraprocessed foods loaded with vegetable oils and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), as well as exposure to EDCs, disrupts your gut microbiome, increasing endotoxin production and systemic inflammation. Endotoxins are toxic substances released from the cell walls of certain bacteria, particularly gram-negative bacteria.

These bacteria are facultative anaerobes, meaning they thrive in both aerobic (with oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen) environments. This adaptability allows them to colonize various areas in the body, including the gut, where they contribute to inflammation.

When endotoxins from these bacteria enter the bloodstream — often due to a compromised gut barrier (leaky gut) — they trigger a strong inflammatory response known as endotoxemia. In review articles, this condition has been linked to various health issues, including metabolic syndrome and autoimmune diseases.33,34,35

Reducing these four inflammatory stressors lowers the burden on your system and supports the conditions your body needs to restore its natural balance of pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators. Learn how to address these root causes of inflammation in “Cellular Health Revolution — Unveiling Hidden Threats and Empowering Solutions.”

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Inflammation and Chronic Disease Q: Why is it hard to detect the exact location of inflammation?

A: Standard blood tests only measure broad inflammatory markers like CRP, which indicate inflammation but don’t reveal where it’s happening in the body. The new antibody-based test could change that by identifying inflammation in specific organs.

Q: What is unalamation, and why does it matter?

A: Unalamation refers to the functional balance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory mediators. Chronic inflammation may not be caused by too much inflammation but rather by too little anti-inflammatory activity.

Q: Why do NSAIDs fail to treat chronic inflammation?

A: NSAIDs and other anti-inflammatory drugs block inflammatory mediators but do nothing to restore missing anti-inflammatory signals. Without correcting the underlying imbalance, inflammation persists.

Q: Is chronic inflammation really the cause of cancer?

A: One Frontiers in Immunology hypothesis paper proposes that tumors exist in a state of heightened unalamation, not just chronic inflammation. This means both inflammatory and anti-inflammatory mediators are present in excess, creating an environment the author argues may favor tumor growth. This is a proposed framework, not an established finding.

Q: What are the best ways to restore balance and fight chronic disease?

A: Researchers working in this area propose that, rather than blocking inflammation alone, future therapies may need to replenish anti-inflammatory mediators, reduce oxidative stress and support mitochondrial function. These are research directions rather than established treatments.

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.

If you have ever abandoned a supplement routine, the problem may not have been discipline. It may have been its complexity. Most supplement routines ask you to add tasks to a day that already has too many, and before you know it, the routine of taking it falls by the wayside.

For a supplement to make a difference in your health, the formula needs to be designed for optimal effectiveness, yes, but it also needs to fit into the life you lead. This article series has addressed both sides of that proverbial coin: the science behind better nourishment and the everyday conditions that decide whether you can keep the practice in place long enough for it to matter.

The scientific rationale comes first. Nutrient form, amount, absorption, and delivery all matter. A poorly formulated supplement will have minimal impact even if you take it religiously. But the reverse also matters. A strong formula will do nothing for you if it sits untouched in a cabinet.

Most supplement makers will explain the chemistry of their product but leave it up to you to solve the adherence problem. They tell you what the nutrient does, but not how the routine fits into travel, fatigue, family life, or the week when everything gets off track. Health care often treats those details as secondary but in real life, they are central. The best routine is the one that respects both sides of the problem: the science of what goes into your body and the reality of how you live.

Why Identification Matters

People rarely change because they understand a biological mechanism. They change when the message feels relevant to them. That is why narrative health communication matters. Research in health messaging suggests stories can be more persuasive than plain informational messages because they allow people to identify with the situation, the problem, and the person in the story.

The notion that a narrative tends to be more persuasive for changing a health behavior than the same information delivered as bare facts and figures is well established in communication research.1

A 2022 study put that idea to a direct, head-to-head test. Researchers compared three ways of encouraging the very same health action — a personal story, a brief factual example, and a plain informational message — and the story produced a stronger intention to act than the dry, informational version did.2

More revealing was why. The story worked through two linked mechanisms the researchers measured: “transportation,” the feeling of being drawn into a narrative and carried along by it, and “identification,” the sense of recognizing yourself in the person or situation. Once people were absorbed in the story and saw themselves in it, the message took hold.

The relevance to a supplement routine is direct. Dosages and absorption pathways gives you nothing to step into or recognize yourself in. A routine described in the terms of your actual day — the rushed breakfast, the travel week, the morning after you’ve slipped and need to start again — does.

Supplement makers have typically relied on scientific language: milligrams, compounds, pathways, and clinical-sounding promises. That language has its place. It helps explain what is in the product and why a formula was built a certain way. But it does not answer the question most people face each morning: “How am I supposed to keep up this supplement regimen?” That is why so many bottles end up half-used. The routine never became part of the way you eat, plan, travel, or care for yourself.

A Better Test: Can You Picture Yourself Doing It?

A supplement routine with long-term potential must pass a simple test: Can you picture yourself doing it on an ordinary day? Not on the perfect day. Not on the day when the kitchen is clean, breakfast is planned, and you carefully follow every reminder. The ordinary day. The rushed day. The tired day. The day after you’ve already missed three days and need to restart.

That is where practical design comes in. For example, supplements that are designed to require fewer pills is one way to reduce resistance. Another is to design powder forms to be added directly to food, which is one of the strategies we’re pursuing for some of our supplements.

Powders designed to be added to food removes several friction points at once, including the difficulty of remembering, the dislike or difficulty of swallowing pills and capsules, and the generalized feeling that “it’s just too complicated.”

A scoop of powder stirred into a meal you already eat is as easy as adding a dash of salt or pepper. This food-centered format also keeps the supplement routine tied to nourishment instead of making it feel like a pharmacy ritual.

It can also encourage more positive responses to missed doses. Instead of berating yourself for being undisciplined, which tends to be a demotivating response, you can simply sprinkle the powder onto your next meal without self-reproach, because now you’re more apt to see it for what it actually is: a simple way to boost the nutrient content of the food you’re already eating, just like you add flavor by adding spice.

The supplement stops being a clinical chore you perform out of vague obligation and becomes part of your ongoing effort to simply eat well. That connection can help keep you on the adherence track, because the supplement is now properly associated with nutrition — food — rather than a separate health intervention on par with medication.

A routine you struggle to fit into your busy day will only survive as long as your willpower does. Meanwhile, a routine that doesn’t ask you to add additional tasks to your to-do list does not need much, if any, willpower to maintain.

The Bottom Line

A supplement routine has two jobs. First, it must make scientific sense. The forms, amounts, and delivery must be optimized. Second, it has to fit your life well enough that you can keep using it. The old pill-centered model focused almost entirely on the first job and left the second one to willpower. But willpower is a fragile foundation for a daily routine. Food-centered design works better.

That is the point of our food-first approach to supplements. Adherence to a supplement routine becomes easier when all you need to do is sprinkle it on top of your food.

That is what a supplement “built for you” means in practical terms. A powdered supplement you can add to food or beverages means your routine gets tied to something that happens every day, namely eating. And when a supplement routine is as easy as eating, you can return to it, one meal at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Isn’t this just marketing — telling me a “story”?
A: A story can be used as marketing, but that is not the point here. The point is design. Health messaging research suggests stories can influence health intentions when people identify with the situation being described. That does not make “a story” a substitute for science. It means the science becomes more useful when the routine feels relevant to your life.

Q: Why does “seeing myself doing it” matter for whether I take a supplement?
A: Because a supplement routine depends on repeated behavior. When the routine feels separate from your day-to-day activities, it becomes one more task to remember. When it’s tied to something you already do, such as eating, it becomes easier to repeat and easier to restart after a missed day.

Q: Does the story matter more than the formula?
A: No. The formula still comes first. Nutrient form, dose, absorption, and delivery all matter. But even an excellent formula does nothing for you when you abandon it. The story matters because it helps connect a sound formula to a routine you can actually keep.

Q: What does “built for you” mean here?
A: It means something concrete: A powdered supplement you can add to food or beverages means your routine gets tied to something that happens every day, namely eating. It means the supplement was designed around real life rather than a perfectly organized day.

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.

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What is xanthan gum commonly used for in processed foods?

Adding sweetness for better palatability
Preserving color
Increasing protein and carb content
Thickening and stabilizing foods
Xanthan gum is commonly added to foods to improve thickness, stability, and texture without significantly changing flavor. Learn more.

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin that occurs in two forms, K1 (phylloquinone), found abundantly in green leafy vegetables, and K2. Vitamin K2 has several subforms, known as menaquinones, which are designated MK-4 through MK-13. These subforms differ primarily in the length of their side chains, which affects their distribution in the body, sources in the diet, and specific biological functions.

MK-7 through MK-13 are produced by various strains of bacteria in the gut, while MK-4 is primarily found in animal-based foods such as eggs, dairy products (like cheese and butter), and certain meats (especially liver).

Vitamin K1 and K2 play pivotal roles in various body functions, including bone health. In fact, being deficient in vitamin K is closely linked to an increased risk of fractures and osteoporosis, a condition characterized by weakened bones and a heightened susceptibility to breaks.

Studies highlight that individuals with optimal vitamin K levels exhibit greater bone mass and a lower incidence of fractures. For instance, research demonstrates that vitamin K is essential for the production of a protein that’s vital for bone mineralization.1

Additionally, vitamin K2 has been shown to work synergistically with vitamin D, enhancing bone mineral density and overall bone quality. These findings underscore the importance of maintaining adequate vitamin K levels through diet or supplementation to support bone health effectively.

Understanding Vitamin K’s Bone-Strengthening Benefits

Vitamin K is a key player in maintaining bone strength and may help prevent arterial calcification, helping ensure that calcium is directed to where it’s needed most — your bones and teeth, not your arteries.

• Vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) supports vascular health and bone retention — This form of vitamin K may help reduce calcification in blood vessels while helping bones retain calcium, which may help prevent unnecessary calcium buildup in the arteries.

• Vitamin K2 (menaquinone) activates vitamin D and directs calcium — K2 works by activating vitamin D-dependent proteins, allowing calcium to be efficiently transported out of the arterial system and into bones and teeth.2

• Vitamin K is vital for the carboxylation of osteocalcin — This is a process that enhances bone strength. It might sound complex, but it’s actually a straightforward process. To understand this, you need to first know what osteocalcin is — this is a small protein produced by osteoblasts during bone formation.3

• Carboxylation transforms osteocalcin into a functional hormone — Carboxylation is a process wherein osteocalcin is transformed from a simple protein into a sophisticated hormone involved in bone metabolism and broader metabolic regulation.

When your body lacks sufficient vitamin K, the carboxylation of osteocalcin is impaired. This means that osteocalcin cannot effectively bind calcium to the bone matrix. Over time, this contributes to osteoporosis, where bones become porous and more prone to fractures.

• Vitamin K deficiency may increase cardiovascular risk — When calcium is not directed to your bones where it’s needed most, it may not only decrease bone mineral density and increase fragility, but also raise the risk of cardiovascular conditions. This is because calcium accumulates in places like your blood vessels and arteries instead.

• Common causes of vitamin K deficiency — The underlying causes of vitamin K deficiency often stem from poor dietary intake, certain medical conditions, or the use of medications that interfere with vitamin K absorption. For instance, individuals with gastrointestinal disorders struggle to absorb this nutrient effectively. Additionally, long-term use of antibiotics disrupts gut bacteria, reducing your body’s natural production of vitamin K.

To learn more about the differences between vitamin K1 and K2, read “Vitamin K1 vs. K2 — Understanding Their Distinct Roles in Your Health.”

Vitamin K Plays an Essential Role in Enhancing Bone Health

A 2024 review investigated the multifaceted roles of both vitamin K1 and K2, as well as vitamin K-dependent proteins, in maintaining bone health, particularly emphasizing their interaction with vitamin D and their effects on calcium metabolism. The research examined how these vitamins may work together to support bone integrity, including in the context of osteoporosis.4

• Vitamin K activates key bone-building proteins — Vitamin K facilitates the carboxylation of osteocalcin and matrix Gla-protein (MGP), which are essential for binding calcium within the bone matrix. MGP is also a potent inhibitor of arterial calcification.

• Vitamin K enables calcium-binding through carboxylation — One of the researchers’ key findings was that vitamin K acts as a necessary cofactor for enzymes that convert glutamic acid residues in proteins into gamma-carboxyglutamic acid residues.* This chemical transformation is important for osteocalcin to effectively bind calcium. According to the researchers:

“The important effects of vitamin K on Ca and skeletal homeostasis are known to be mediated through its role as a cofactor for the γ-glutamyl carboxylase enzyme that promotes conversion of glutamate (Glu) residues to gamma-carboxyglutamic (Gla) residues in the post-translational carboxylation of osteocalcin (OC) and matrix Gla protein (MGP). This may have a significant impact on osteogenesis.”5

• Vitamin K2 plays a key role in bone remodeling — The review also revealed that vitamin K2 plays a significant role in bone remodeling. It assists in directing calcium to the bones and prevents its deposition in soft tissues, which leads to vascular calcification. This dual action supports both bone and cardiovascular health.*

• Vitamin K and vitamin D work together to regulate calcium balance — The research highlighted the synergistic relationship between vitamins K and D in regulating calcium homeostasis.

Vitamin D enhances calcium absorption in the gut, while vitamin K helps ensure that the absorbed calcium is appropriately utilized by the bones. This collaboration between the two vitamins may help support optimal bone density and reduce the risk of fractures.

“Vitamin D exerts effects directly on osteoblasts by promoting osteoblast maturation and OC synthesis. The multiple effects of vitamin D on bone are associated with a high expression of the vitamin D receptor in several types of bone cells.”6

• Researchers identified biomarkers for vitamin K status — The ratio of carboxylated osteocalcin (cOC) to undercarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC) was used to assess functional vitamin K levels in the body. A lower cOC-to-ucOC ratio indicated an inadequate vitamin K status, which was associated with increased bone loss and a higher risk of hip fractures.

The biological mechanisms underlying these findings involve vitamin K’s role in activating proteins that regulate calcium placement in the body. By enabling osteocalcin and MGP to bind calcium effectively, vitamin K helps ensure that calcium is deposited in the bones rather than in the arteries or other soft tissues.

How Does Vitamin K’s Influence Energy Metabolism and Blood Sugar Levels?

Another review published in the journal Nutrients explored the role of vitamin K in both bone health and energy metabolism. The research examined how vitamin K interacts with proteins involved in bone formation and how its deficiency could impact overall metabolic processes.7

• Vitamin K is essential for both bone integrity and metabolic health — The review cites research on individuals with varying levels of vitamin K intake, analyzing their bone integrity and insulin sensitivity. Findings suggest that adequate vitamin K levels may help support strong bones and healthy blood sugar regulation, pointing to this nutrient’s potential relevance to osteoporosis and diabetes risk.*

• Osteocalcin links vitamin K to both bone and glucose metabolism — Activated osteocalcin contributes to bone strength and influences how the body regulates insulin and blood sugar levels. This dual function means that vitamin K deficiency could lead to both weakened bones and impaired glucose metabolism, heightening the risk of developing diabetes.

“[V]itamin K deficiency in the bone results in a lower production of OC and a low serum level of OC, predisposing to a state of glucose intolerance and diabetes mellitus that may then enhance bone matrix deterioration via the production of cross-linked advanced glycation end products (AGE), which have been further associated with bone fractures after adjustment of confounders.

We believe that as a whole, vitamin K deficiency plays an important role in glucose metabolism, ultimately leading to a disturbance of bone quality,” the researchers reported.8

• Vitamin K may help prevent arterial calcification and support cardiovascular health — In addition to its effects on bone and energy metabolism, vitamin K was found to play a role in preventing the calcification of soft tissues, such as blood vessels.* This may help reduce the hardening of arteries, which is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. The research suggested that vitamin K helps direct calcium to the bones rather than letting it accumulate in the arteries.

• Uncarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC) is a marker of vitamin K deficiency — The review identified specific markers for vitamin K deficiency, such as elevated levels of uncarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC) in the blood. Monitoring these markers will help in early detection of vitamin K insufficiency, allowing for timely interventions to maintain bone density and metabolic health.

• Low vitamin K intake is linked to a higher risk of fractures — Individuals with low vitamin K intake were found to have a higher incidence of hip and vertebral fractures across different populations. The research underscored the importance of maintaining adequate vitamin K levels through diet or supplementation to significantly reduce the risk of such fractures.*

Your Microbiome Also Influences Your Bone Health

In related news, a 2024 review published in the Gut Microbes journal explored how the gut microbiome, which is the community of microorganisms living in your intestines, works in collaboration with vitamin K2 to maintain strong and healthy bones, highlighting how these microorganisms contribute to bone density and the overall integrity of your skeletal system.9

• Gut bacteria naturally produce vitamin K2 — The research focused on understanding how variations in the gut microbiome affect the risk of developing bone-related conditions such as osteoporosis. It was found that certain beneficial gut bacteria species, like Bacteroides and Lactococcus lactis, produce vitamin K2 and help maintain adequate levels of this nutrient.*

• Dysbiosis lowers vitamin K2 levels, weakening bones — One of the key findings was that disruptions in the gut microbiome, a condition known as dysbiosis, decreases your vitamin K2 production,10 compromising bone strength and increasing your risk of fractures and osteoporosis.*

Vitamin K2 produced by gut bacteria activates proteins that are essential for bone formation and mineralization, and maintaining a balanced and healthy gut microbiome is essential for ensuring the proper synthesis of vitamin K2.

• Probiotics and prebiotics enhance bone health — The review also discussed the role of probiotics and prebiotics in enhancing bone health. Probiotics are live beneficial bacteria that are consumed through fermented foods or supplements, while prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients that promote the growth of these healthy bacteria.11

Incorporating probiotics and prebiotics into your diet supports your gut microbiome, leading to increased production of vitamin K2 and improved bone density.

• The gut microbiome supports calcium and vitamin D absorption — The study also highlighted the interconnectedness between the gut microbiome and other aspects of bone metabolism, such as hormone regulation and immune system function.
Your gut bacteria influence the absorption of calcium and vitamin D as well, both of which are vital for bone health. Additionally, a healthy gut microbiome helps modulate the immune system, reducing inflammation that negatively impacts bone integrity.

• Antibiotics disrupt vitamin K2 production — The review also pointed out that antibiotic treatments, which disrupt the gut microbiome, lead to a significant reduction in vitamin K2 production.12 This not only affects bone health but also emphasizes the importance of being cautious when taking antibiotics, to preserve the beneficial bacteria responsible for maintaining bone integrity.

For a deeper dive into vitamin K’s role in bone and heart health, read “Vitamin K 101 — Essential Basics for Bone and Heart Health.”

Egg Yolks Are Your Best Source of Vitamin K2 as MK-4

Egg yolks are among the highest dietary sources of MK-4, a vital form of vitamin K2 that plays an important role in bone health, cardiovascular function, and calcium regulation. Including egg yolks in your diet significantly contributes to your MK-4 intake, supporting various aspects of your health.

• Egg quality is important — You need to be careful about your egg sources as most commercial egg sources — even free-range organic — have high PUFA levels as they are fed grains like soy and corn.

• Chickens should be fed low-PUFA grains for optimal egg quality — Ideally, chickens should be fed rice, barley, and split peas. I personally eat six egg yolks a day from chickens who are fed this and have 80% less linoleic acid than regular chickens.

Below is a comprehensive overview of egg yolks as a top source of MK-4, along with additional dietary sources and considerations.

6 Key Steps to Enhance Bone Health Through Vitamin K

To help support healthy vitamin K levels and optimal bone and overall health, consider the following:

1. Add more green leafy veggies into your diet — They are some of the best sources of vitamin K1. Collard and turnip greens, kale, spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and lettuces are good choices.13

2. Boost your natural vitamin K2 production — Enhance your body’s natural vitamin K2 levels by incorporating fermented foods such as natto and fermented vegetables cultivated with specific bacterial cultures. Additionally, consume grass fed animal products like egg yolks, liver, and grass fed dairy to support K2 production.

3. Consider vitamin K2 supplementation — Research suggests that vitamin K2 — ideally 180 to 200 micrograms daily in the MK-7 form — may work synergistically with vitamin D3 and magnesium to support absorption and effectiveness, helping strengthen bones while supporting healthy calcium balance in the arteries.

Current guidance pairs 180 mcg of K2 with 5,000 IU of vitamin D3, so talk to a healthcare provider about what combination and dose make sense for you rather than following a fixed protocol.

Timing may also help. Some research suggests taking vitamin K2 with the day’s fattiest meal, since it’s fat-soluble, may improve absorption and support osteocalcin activation. Consistent timing may help maintain steadier vitamin K2 levels for bone and heart health.

4. Balance key nutrient cofactors — Getting sufficient calcium, magnesium, vitamin D3, and vitamin K2 — through diet and, where appropriate, supplementation — may help these nutrients work together to build and maintain bone density, promoting proper calcium utilization and bone matrix formation for optimal bone health.

5. Support your gut microbiome — Maintain a healthy intestinal environment to naturally boost vitamin K2 production. Focus on whole, unprocessed foods and consider targeted probiotic supplementation tailored to your microbiome.

6. Focus on bone-building exercises — Regular weight-bearing movement may help stimulate bone formation, while K2 may help support proper calcium deposition. Walking, resistance training and bodyweight exercises work together with K2 to help strengthen your skeleton. Some research suggests combining exercise with vitamin K2 may offer added benefit beyond supplementation alone, though direct comparative studies are limited.

*These findings are from research conducted in clinical settings and may not directly apply to human health.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Vitamin K and Bone Health

Q: What’s the main role of vitamin K in bone health?

A: Vitamin K helps direct calcium into bones, making them stronger and reducing the risk of fractures. It’s also thought to help prevent calcium from building up in arteries, which may support heart health.

Q: Do I need both vitamin K2 and vitamin D?

A: Yes, they work together. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium, and vitamin K2 helps direct it toward bone-building instead of arterial accumulation.

Q: Can vitamin K2 help prevent osteoporosis?

A: Some research suggests vitamin K2 may help support bone mineral density by activating osteocalcin, a key protein for bone formation, though clinical trial evidence on whether it reduces fracture risk remains mixed.

Q: How much vitamin K2 should I take daily?

A: Research suggests 180 to 200 mcg of vitamin K2 (MK-7) daily, taken with a meal containing healthy fats to help improve absorption, may support bone and heart health — talk to a healthcare provider about what’s appropriate for you.

For decades, xanthan gum has slipped into the food supply with almost no scrutiny. Manufacturers add it to gluten-free breads, salad dressings, sauces, ice cream, protein shakes, and countless packaged foods because it thickens, stabilizes, and improves texture without changing flavor. Many people don’t think twice when they see it on an ingredient label.

Yet that confidence rests on surprisingly little long-term safety data, and most of what does exist focuses on surface-level markers — weight, blood sugar, cholesterol — that can look perfectly normal while something deeper goes wrong.

Xanthan appears across so many product categories that anyone eating a modern processed diet likely consumes it multiple times a day without realizing it. People with swallowing disorders may take in even more, since xanthan gum-based thickeners are standard in clinical nutrition. The question scientists have largely failed to ask is what happens inside the digestive tract when that kind of exposure continues week after week.

An animal study finally looked in the right place, and what the researchers found beneath the surface contradicted everything the conventional safety profile would predict. Next, I’ll break down exactly what they discovered and why those changes deserve your attention.

Xanthan Gum Triggered Hidden Inflammation in the Colon

The study, published in PLOS One, investigated what happened when adult Wistar rats consumed xanthan gum every day for 10 weeks.1 The researchers examined the colon itself, measuring inflammatory chemicals, immune cell activity, gut barrier proteins, and changes in the gut microbiome.

They also tested three different xanthan gum doses designed to reflect different patterns of human consumption, from people who regularly eat processed foods to those who rely on xanthan gum-based thickeners because of swallowing disorders. The researchers wanted to determine whether continuous exposure altered the intestinal environment. That’s important because changes inside your digestive tract often develop long before routine blood work reveals a problem.

• The colon became inflamed even though the animals looked healthy on the outside — After 10 weeks, the rats showed no significant differences in body weight, food intake, body fat, blood glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, or HDL cholesterol compared to animals that didn’t receive xanthan gum.

If a doctor looked only at those numbers, everything would appear normal. Yet microscopic examination of the colon told a very different story. The researchers found that xanthan gum promoted “an inflammatory state” across all doses and concluded that “dietary xanthan gum induced moderate-grade inflammation and modified the colon gut barrier.”

• Immune cells accumulated inside the intestinal wall as xanthan gum intake continued — When researchers examined colon tissue under the microscope, they found inflammatory cells had infiltrated the intestinal wall, especially in the groups receiving the medium and highest xanthan gum doses. Most of these cells were lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell involved in long-lasting immune responses rather than short-lived reactions.

The researchers also assigned inflammation scores based on the severity of tissue changes. Compared to the control animals, both the medium- and highest-dose groups had significantly higher scores, confirming that the inflammatory response was measurable rather than simply a microscopic observation.

• Proteins that help control what passes through your intestinal lining shifted in the wrong direction — Researchers found greater amounts of Claudin-2 in the xanthan gum groups. Claudin-2 is a protein that acts like adjustable caulking between intestinal cells; it controls how tightly those cells seal together. When Claudin-2 levels rise above normal, the seal loosens, allowing substances to slip through the intestinal lining that would normally stay inside the digestive tract.

The researchers also observed higher levels of inflammatory signaling molecules known to increase Claudin-2 and weaken the gut barrier, creating conditions that reinforce inflammation instead of allowing the tissue to recover.

• The gut microbiome changed in subtle but meaningful ways — Xanthan gum didn’t significantly alter the dominant bacterial groups known as Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes or the overall diversity of the microbiome.

Even so, the highest-dose group developed significantly higher levels of Elusimicrobiota, a relatively rare group of gut bacteria that scientists are still working to understand, while the medium-dose group showed a trend toward more Patescibacteria, another uncommon group of microbes often found in complex microbial communities.

These shifts matter not because scientists fully understand what these bacteria do, but because they didn’t occur in isolation — statistical analysis linked them directly to the inflammatory markers and barrier protein changes happening in the same tissue, suggesting the microbiome was responding to the inflammatory environment xanthan gum created rather than changing randomly.

• The findings offer a biological explanation for earlier concerns about xanthan gum — The researchers explained that their results support previous reports linking xanthan gum-containing thickeners with serious intestinal problems such as necrotizing enterocolitis — a life-threatening condition in which intestinal tissue becomes severely inflamed and begins to break down — in premature infants.

Although this study involved adult rats, it identified specific biological changes, including chronic inflammation, altered gut barrier proteins, and microbiome shifts, that help explain why long-term xanthan gum exposure deserves closer attention.

These findings come from an animal study. Additional research is needed to determine whether the same effects occur in humans.

How to Reduce Your Xanthan Gum Exposure at the Source

If your goal is a healthier gut, the smartest place to start is with the foods that introduce the problem in the first place. The research in this article showed changes in the colon after long-term xanthan gum exposure, not because of a nutrient deficiency but because of repeated intake of a common food additive. That means your greatest opportunity is to reduce the amount that enters your diet every day instead of searching for something that simply masks the effects afterward.

1. Find the hidden sources of xanthan gum before you eat them — Try a one-week label audit. Xanthan gum appears in a wide variety of foods, including gluten-free breads, tortillas, wraps, salad dressings, sauces, gravies, soups, protein powders, meal replacement shakes, nondairy products, ice cream, frozen meals, and many packaged snacks.

Make it a habit to read ingredient labels before you buy packaged foods. Every time you spot xanthan gum, choose a different product that doesn’t contain it whenever possible. You might be surprised by how often it appears. Once you recognize where it hides, avoiding it becomes much easier and eventually turns into second nature.

A simple rule of thumb: spend most of your shopping time around the perimeter of the grocery store where fresh foods are located, and less time in the center aisles where xanthan gum is most likely to appear.

2. Build your meals around fresh whole foods instead of products that rely on stabilizers — The easiest way to avoid xanthan gum is to eat foods that don’t need it in the first place. Fresh fruits, properly prepared vegetables, whole-food carbohydrate sources that fit your digestive tolerance, high-quality animal protein, and simple homemade meals eliminate many processed food additives.

I also recommend avoiding the highly processed foods that commonly contain xanthan gum along with other unwanted ingredients. That includes many packaged sauces, gluten-free convenience foods, protein bars, frozen meals, salad dressings, and similar products.

Cooking more of your own meals gives you complete control over every ingredient. If a recipe calls for xanthan gum as a thickener, try whole-food alternatives instead — pureed cooked potato or vegetables, or a simple reduction, can often achieve the texture you need without any additive at all.

3. Support your gut instead of overwhelming it with more processed foods — If your digestion already feels off, don’t assume adding more fiber or more processed “health foods” solves the problem. Focus first on removing foods that repeatedly irritate your digestive tract, including not only xanthan gum but also seed oils, which are high in linoleic acid (LA); they weaken your colon’s protective lining and make it harder for beneficial bacteria to thrive.

Begin with simple, easy-to-digest meals that minimize excessive fermentation and reduce the release of endotoxins — toxic compounds produced when certain gut bacteria break down. This gives your intestinal lining a better environment to recover. As your digestion becomes more consistent, gradually increase your carbohydrate intake using foods that your gut handles comfortably.

Start with whole fruit and well-cooked starches such as white rice, which provide glucose to fuel your cells without placing excessive demands on an already stressed digestive system. Next, introduce root vegetables, followed by non-starchy vegetables, then starchy vegetables such as squash and sweet potatoes. Save beans, legumes, and minimally processed whole grains for last, and only if your digestion remains stable. Most adults thrive on about 250 grams of carbohydrates per day.

4. Choose fats that support better metabolic health instead of processed seed oils — Xanthan gum often appears in the same packaged foods that contain seed oils. Those oils add another unnecessary burden to your metabolism. I recommend replacing soybean, corn, sunflower, safflower, cottonseed, grapeseed, and canola oils with more stable fats such as grass fed butter, ghee, or tallow. Avoid nuts and seeds as they’re also high in LA.

FAQs About Xanthan Gum and Colon Inflammation

Q: Does this study prove xanthan gum is harmful to people?
A: No. This research was conducted in rats, not humans, so it doesn’t prove the same effects occur in people. However, it showed that long-term xanthan gum consumption caused measurable inflammation, changes to proteins that regulate the gut barrier and shifts in the gut microbiome, giving scientists a biological reason to study its long-term effects in humans more closely.

Q: Why didn’t routine health measurements reveal a problem?
A: The rats maintained normal body weight, blood sugar, cholesterol, and other metabolic markers throughout the study. The concerning changes only became apparent when researchers examined the colon tissue under a microscope, showing that gut inflammation can develop long before standard health measurements change.

Q: What happened to the intestinal lining after long-term xanthan gum intake?
A: Researchers found increased amounts of proteins associated with a leakier intestinal barrier, along with higher levels of inflammatory signaling molecules. Together, these changes suggest the colon became less effective at keeping unwanted substances inside the digestive tract and more prone to ongoing inflammation.

Q: Where is xanthan gum commonly found in the food supply?
A: Xanthan gum is widely used as a thickener and stabilizer in processed foods. Common sources include gluten-free breads and tortillas, salad dressings, sauces, soups, protein powders, meal replacement shakes, frozen meals, nondairy products, ice cream, and many packaged snack foods. Reading ingredient labels is the easiest way to identify and avoid it.

Q: What’s the most effective way to reduce your exposure to xanthan gum?
A: Focus on replacing packaged foods with fresh, whole foods whenever possible. Preparing more meals at home, checking ingredient labels before you buy packaged products and choosing alternatives that don’t contain xanthan gum are practical ways to reduce your daily exposure while also cutting back on many other processed food additives.

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.

During rapid weight loss with GLP-1 medications, what type of tissue may also be lost along with fat?

Bone tissue
Muscle tissue
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications can lead to muscle loss along with fat loss, which may reduce strength and lower resting metabolism. Learn more.
Nerve tissue
Skin tissue

Antidepressants have a long, documented history of side effects while taking them. For example, they’ve been associated with blurry vision, increased anxiety, constipation, sleep disturbances, and loss of libido. Research suggests roughly 1 in 3 antidepressant users in primary care may no longer benefit from the drugs and could be ready to stop — and among those who do stop, about 56% report withdrawal symptoms.1

However, withdrawal symptoms are a real trade-off, and for some people they become severe enough that they resume the medication in an effort to feel functional again.

Long-Term Antidepressant Withdrawal Is Well-Documented

A study published in Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences set out to learn what happens after people stop taking antidepressants. Specifically, the researchers investigated a condition known as post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS), where symptoms continue long after someone stops their medication.2

This paper was the first systematic review with a meta-narrative synthesis of its kind focusing solely on antidepressants like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs).

Of the 1,286 records screened, seven studies met the selection criteria: three analyses of online self-reports from peer-support groups, one randomized controlled trial, one case series, one case report, and one prospective cohort study — an evidence base that the authors themselves describe as limited.

They also didn’t focus on patients in the early stages of stopping antidepressants — they focused on those experiencing symptoms months, or even years, after stopping.

• The effect of PAWS on your brain health — The researchers noted that PAWS involves a multitude of symptoms, including “dizziness, vertigo, tremor, nausea, insomnia, fatigue, mood dysregulation, anxiety, panic, irritability and agitation.” In severe cases, those in withdrawal report suicidal thoughts and behavior.3

• Symptoms can last for a long time — According to the studies reviewed, lingering symptoms lasted anywhere from 1.5 to 166 months (around 13.8 years). That upper figure is an outlier at the far end of a wide range, and it comes largely from online self-reports rather than controlled follow-up. Doctors usually tell patients that stopping antidepressants will be uncomfortable for a week or two, but this data tells a very different story.

• Paroxetine was linked to the most problems — The most consistent risk factor identified across these studies was long-term use of paroxetine, though the authors caution that most of the included studies could not speak to this question. According to the researchers:

“Two of the included studies indicate that in particular long-term paroxetine use may carry an increased risk of PAWS, but most studies were uninformative on this subject. One analysis of online self-reports further showed that the duration of tapering was positively correlated with the duration of withdrawal symptoms, suggesting that patients experiencing more persistent withdrawal symptoms try to taper more slowly.”

• PAWS is not a relapse — It’s not your original depression coming back. PAWS has its own distinct pattern, and the symptoms often feel different than the ones that led you to take antidepressants in the first place. That distinction is key because it helps explain why people may be misdiagnosed as having a “relapse,” when in fact they’re going through withdrawal:4

“[I]t appears that in both clinical research and practice, protracted and persistent withdrawal symptoms are frequently misdiagnosed as a relapse of the primary mental health condition (typically depression) or new emergent mental disorders, the latter being specifically embedded in the concept of persistent post-withdrawal disorders,” the study authors said.

• Stopping medication versus continuing usage — One noteworthy finding is that people who tapered off their antidepressant usage still had more recorded withdrawal symptoms than those who stayed on the medication.

The researchers cited a 2021 randomized controlled trial (RCT) published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Here, 478 patients were split into two groups — maintenance and discontinuation. By the end of 52 weeks, 135 people in the discontinuation group experienced withdrawal symptoms, and 92 in the maintenance group.5 Going deeper into the findings, the researchers noted:6

“In this study, 39 weeks after patients had started tapering citalopram, fluoxetine, sertraline or mirtazapine, the number of recorded withdrawal symptoms was still significantly increased compared to patients maintained on their antidepressant medication.

Of note, in the design of this RCT, the popular antidepressant drugs paroxetine and venlafaxine were deliberately excluded, because, as written by the authors, both are known to cause marked withdrawal symptoms when treatment is discontinued.”

• Effective treatment of PAWS is needed — After analysis, the researchers suggest that more RCTs are needed regarding PAWS. However, they recommend that the focus need to be on effective treatments, since there is little information regarding this topic:

“[R]igorous long-term RCTs are required to test the efficacy of treatment and management strategies. These studies would inform clinicians about effective interventions to mitigate the severity and duration of this impairing syndrome, as to date not a single clinical intervention has been formally evaluated.”

PAWS Is More Common Than You Think

A meta-analysis published in The Lancet Psychiatry investigated 79 studies — 44 RCTs and 35 observational studies — with a total of 21,002 participants. The review encompasses different treatment settings, and types of antidepressants, offering a bird’s eye view of PAWS.7

• Many are affected once medication is stopped — The team found that 31% of people who stop antidepressants experience some kind of withdrawal symptom. Severe ones were less common — 2.8% of everyone who discontinued an antidepressant, compared with 0.6% of those who discontinued placebo.

According to the analysis, symptoms typically began within a few days of stopping the drug, but in many cases, they didn’t fully resolve for weeks. In addition, the presence of symptoms wasn’t necessarily linked to how long someone had taken the medication — a meta-regression found no significant association between withdrawal incidence and duration of antidepressant treatment, which ranged across the included studies from one to 156 weeks.

• What the 31% means once placebo is accounted for — The authors’ bottom-line estimate is lower than the raw figure. Subtracting the symptoms reported after placebo discontinuation, they put the incidence of genuine antidepressant withdrawal at “approximately 15%, affecting 1 in 6 to 7 patients who discontinue their medication” — a figure they say should inform patients “without causing undue alarm.”8

• Expectation alone can produce symptoms — People who stopped a placebo still reported symptoms at a rate of 17%, or roughly 1 in 6. The authors describe these as non-specific or “discontinuation-like” symptoms, consistent with a nocebo effect in which the expectation of discomfort produces real symptoms.

• Severity and type of symptoms weren’t uniform — Specifically, desvenlafaxine, venlafaxine, imipramine, and escitalopram were associated with the highest frequency of symptoms, while imipramine, paroxetine, and desvenlafaxine or venlafaxine were associated with greater symptom severity.

In contrast, drugs like fluoxetine (Prozac), which linger longer in the bloodstream, showed a much lower rate of withdrawal complaints. The researchers also suggested that the half-life of these drugs (how long they remain in the body) plausibly affects not just the severity of the symptoms, but their time of appearance as well.

• What the evidence says about tapering — Notably, this featured meta-analysis itself found no difference between studies that tapered the drug and studies that stopped it abruptly (31% versus 29%). The authors nonetheless point to separate research on how tapering is done:9
“Tapering of antidepressants is recommended in most guidelines, and there is research suggesting that prolonged and hyperbolic tapering of antidepressants will substantially reduce (although not completely exclude) withdrawal effects and increase the likelihood of successful discontinuation of antidepressants.”

The same authors add that hyperbolic tapering has also been criticized and, because its pragmatic feasibility is limited, may not be indicated for every patient.

Critics Say the Effects of Antidepressants Are Being Downplayed

Antidepressants are one of Big Pharma’s moneymakers. According to a market analysis report from Precedence Research, the global antidepressant market was valued at $19.53 billion in 2025, with North America contributing 47% of market revenue in 2024.10

That said, the labeling that acknowledges these side effects was imposed by regulators rather than volunteered by industry. Since mid-October 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required manufacturers to place a black box warning on all antidepressants distributed in the United States, stating that the medications “increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior (suicidality) in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) or other psychiatric disorders.”

The expanded warnings section adds that anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, akathisia, hypomania and mania “have been reported in adult and pediatric patients” treated with these drugs.11

Despite these warnings, industry-aligned research continues to characterize these effects as minor — a framing that critics say understates the harm patients report.

• Using science to give an air of legitimacy — In a report by investigative journalist Maryanne Demasi, Ph.D., she criticizes a 2025 JAMA Psychiatry meta-analysis of 50 studies and 17,828 participants12 which concluded that the mean number of discontinuation symptoms one week after stopping was “below the threshold for clinically significant discontinuation syndrome” — a finding widely reported as showing that withdrawal is only “mild.”13

One of the reasons Demasi did her analysis is because of the prestige behind the journal. When it releases an influential study, consumers and medical practitioners tend to accept that the findings are true and accurate.

• Media is brought in to help — Demasi argues that industry-aligned researchers mobilized mainstream media to push a narrative that antidepressants can be slowly stopped and, as mentioned above, only produce mild side effects in doing so:

“The authors mobilised a rapid media campaign to shape the public narrative, with the Science Media Centre issuing expert commentary to ‘reassure both patients and prescribers’ that most withdrawal symptoms were ‘not clinically significant.’”

• The methodology is flawed — Digging deeper into the issue, Demasi broke down the logic of the JAMA Psychiatry meta-analysis. According to her findings, the studies used in the review are either biased or poorly designed. For example, she pointed out that the study followed patients for just two weeks — this isn’t applicable to antidepressant users in America, as half of them have already been taking these medications for more than five years. Demasi continues:

“Worse, many trials enrolled patients already taking antidepressants — then abruptly withdrew them before randomisation. As a result, those assigned to placebo experienced withdrawal symptoms that blurred the difference between treatment and control groups, artificially minimising the harms.”

• Industry funded most of the included studies — Demasi noted that most of the studies included in the meta-analysis were funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, the researchers excluded medications such as paroxetine and escitalopram, which are already strongly linked to severe PAWS.
For context, the Lancet Psychiatry meta-analysis cited earlier ran its own funding subgroup analysis and found little difference between industry-funded and independently funded studies (31% versus 28%), so funding alone does not account for the range of estimates in this literature.14

• A firsthand account of PAWS — In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR),15 a Canadian patient named Phillipa Munari described taking Effexor (venlafaxine) for 10 years. When she decided to stop taking it, problems started to appear even with the help of a doctor to taper it off.

According to Munari, she developed nerve pain, as well as chronic pain in her neck and shoulders. To make matters worse, she also had severe anxiety — all of which she didn’t have before. In an effort to manage her health issues, she went back to taking Effexor and then weaned off it again, much more slowly the second time.

• The effects of PAWS can be lasting — Munari shared that after her second round of Effexor (with a better tapering plan), her nerve pain and fatigue improved. However, the anxiety worsened. She describes about two years of severe symptoms and roughly four more years beyond that before she felt fully recovered.

Exercise Is a Powerful Support for Your Mental Health

If you’ve been feeling the blues lately, it’s worth knowing that a pill isn’t the only avenue — supporting the very systems that have been thrown off balance matters, too. And one of the most accessible ways to do that is getting regular exercise. In addition, decisions about starting or stopping a medication will need to be made with a qualified health care provider.

Exercise is not just a mood booster. Research suggests it may help support brain plasticity, nervous system regulation, and energy production at the cellular level. Barring any serious injury or physical ailment, I believe that it’s one of the best ways to support your mental health because it’s free and something that you can do right away.

• • Exercise compares favorably with standard care — In an umbrella review of 97 reviews covering 1,039 trials and 128,119 participants, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers reported that physical activity was extremely beneficial for symptoms of depression, anxiety, and distress — about 1.5 times more effective than counseling or the leading medications. As noted by the lead author Ben Singh, Ph.D.:16

“Physical activity is known to help improve mental health. Yet despite the evidence, it has not been widely adopted as a first-choice treatment … Higher-intensity exercise had greater improvements for depression and anxiety, while longer durations had smaller effects when compared to short and mid-duration bursts.”

• Any exercise is better than nothing — Singh noted that moving your body, no matter how you do it, is beneficial. He explains:17

“We also found that all types of physical activity and exercise were beneficial, including aerobic exercise such as walking, resistance training, Pilates, and yoga. Importantly, the research shows that it doesn’t take much for exercise to make a positive change to your mental health.”

• Start with a walk — While it’s tempting to start off with an intense session at the gym, you can already gain plenty of benefits by going for a walk. In my interview with Dr. James O’Keefe, he noted that it’s a great way to boost your fitness — an average of 10,000 steps a day is associated with meaningful benefits. It’s also a moderate-intensity activity that is difficult to overdo for most people, which makes it sustainable as a daily habit. Aim for about an hour of walking a day.

• Strength training complements walking — Lifting weights is another beneficial strategy that goes hand in hand with your daily walks, however, it’s important that you don’t overdo it. According to O’Keefe, observational data suggest the additional mortality benefit appears to flatten,18 and may reverse, beyond roughly 130 to 140 minutes of total strength training per week:

“I’ve always been a fan of strength training … But again, the devil is in the details about the dosing. When you look at people who do strength training, it adds another 19% reduction in all-cause mortality on top of the 45% reduction that you get from one hour of moderate exercise per day.

When I strength train, I go to the gym and spend anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, and … I try to use weights that I can do 10 reps with … After that, you’re feeling sort of like spent and … it takes a couple of days to recover. If you do that two, at the most three, times a week, that looks like the sweet spot for conferring longevity.”

• There are other useful strategies to support your mood — While exercise is effective, it’s not the only option available. I recommend supporting your gut with fermented foods (preferably homemade), given how closely gut health is intertwined with your brain function.

In addition, getting deep, restorative sleep is important for your mental health. Managing stress, as well as resetting your body’s internal clock by getting sun exposure within about 20 minutes of waking up, will also help support your mental and physical well-being. For an in-depth explanation of these tips, read “Depression Accelerates Physical Illness and Increases Disease Risk.”

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome

Q: What is Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS) and how common is it after stopping antidepressants?
A: PAWS refers to long-lasting withdrawal symptoms that occur after discontinuing antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). These symptoms include dizziness, anxiety, tremors, insomnia, fatigue, and even suicidal thoughts.According to a 2024 meta-analysis from The Lancet Psychiatry, 31% of people who stop taking antidepressants report some form of withdrawal symptom — falling to approximately 15%, or about 1 in 6 to 7, once the symptoms reported after placebo discontinuation are subtracted. A separate 2025 systematic review of seven studies, drawn largely from online self-reports and case reports, found persistent symptoms lasting anywhere from one and a half months to about 13.8 years at the extreme.

Q: Are PAWS symptoms just a relapse of depression or something different?
A: No. PAWS symptoms are distinct from a relapse of depression. While often misdiagnosed as a return of the original mental health condition, PAWS has its own symptom profile and course. This misdiagnosis can lead to unnecessary reinstatement of medications and further confusion for patients.

Q: Which antidepressants are most associated with severe withdrawal symptoms?
A: In The Lancet Psychiatry meta-analysis, desvenlafaxine, venlafaxine, imipramine and escitalopram were associated with the highest incidence of withdrawal symptoms, and imipramine, paroxetine, and desvenlafaxine or venlafaxine with the greatest severity.

In contrast, longer-acting drugs like fluoxetine are associated with fewer issues. Tapering rather than stopping abruptly is recommended in most clinical guidelines, though that same meta-analysis found no difference in withdrawal incidence between studies that tapered and studies that stopped abruptly.

Q: Is the pharmaceutical industry downplaying the risks of antidepressant withdrawal?
A: Critics say yes. Investigative reporting by Maryanne Demasi, Ph.D., argues that pharmaceutical companies minimize the severity of withdrawal symptoms.

A 2025 meta-analysis published in JAMA Psychiatry found discontinuation symptoms fell below the threshold for clinical significance — widely reported as “mild” — but critics argue this rested on short follow-up, industry-funded research that excluded high-risk drugs, and poorly designed trials. Media campaigns, they say, further reinforced this framing.

Q: What supportive strategies are being discussed for antidepressant withdrawal?
A: No intervention has yet been formally tested for antidepressant withdrawal itself — the 2025 systematic review notes that “to date not a single clinical intervention has been formally evaluated” for PAWS, and calls for long-term trials. Separately, and for symptoms of depression and anxiety rather than withdrawal specifically, an umbrella review reported that physical activity was about 1.5 times more effective than counseling or the leading medications.

Activities like walking, strength training, yoga, and Pilates were all beneficial — even light exercise can make a meaningful difference. Any plan for tapering or stopping an antidepressant need to be made with a qualified health care provider.

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.

Twelve-year-olds in the U.S. live in a world where smartphone access feels almost unavoidable, yet the decision to give a device at this age carries far more weight than some parents realize. Many families assume that a phone is simply a tool for convenience or safety, but the emerging data signals something deeper: Early access appears to shape how your child sleeps, handles stress, and interprets their social world.

Those early patterns influence confidence, learning, emotional steadiness, and even how your child relates to their own body. When a child enters the digital world before they have the emotional and neurological maturity to handle constant stimulation, their developing brain may adapt to an environment that never truly shuts off. That shift is thought to affect how they regulate attention, manage relationships, and interpret social pressure.

You see the results in subtle ways first — restlessness, heavier reliance on screens for comfort, later bedtimes — but the long-term patterns reveal why this conversation deserves your full attention. Your decisions about device access influence far more than screen habits; they shape foundational systems tied to sleep, mood balance, and healthy development.

Early Phone Ownership Shapes Health in Powerful Ways

A study published in Pediatrics investigated how early smartphone access influences depression, obesity, and sleep disruption in adolescents.1 The researchers set out to understand whether owning a smartphone at a younger age places a child on a different health trajectory than peers who don’t have these devices.

They analyzed data from 10,588 children in early adolescence, an age defined by rapid emotional growth and heightened sensitivity to social feedback. The findings showed higher odds of depression, obesity, and insufficient sleep among those who owned a smartphone at age 12 compared to those who did not.

• Health risks rise dramatically when phones enter a child’s life too soon — According to the study, adolescents who owned smartphones at age 12 had a 31% higher risk of depression, a 40% higher risk of obesity, and a 62% higher likelihood of insufficient sleep compared to peers without phones.

When you translate that into your child’s daily life, it means earlier ownership may shift mood, appetite, and energy patterns in ways that researchers say build with each earlier year of ownership — though the cited study followed outcomes only through age 13, not into adulthood.2

• The earlier a child gets a phone, the more those risks build year after year — Each year earlier that a child received a smartphone increased the odds of obesity by 9% and insufficient sleep by 8%. The researchers described this pattern as a “per-year effect,” meaning the timing itself matters, not just the presence of a phone.

This is consistent with the idea that delaying smartphone access may reduce cumulative risk, similar to how delaying exposure to other health-related stressors is thought to support long-term health.

• New smartphone access is linked to sharply diverging health paths — Among adolescents who did not own a smartphone at age 12, those who acquired one over the following year had a 57% higher likelihood of reporting clinical-level psychopathology and a 50% higher likelihood of insufficient sleep at age 13.

Even after adjusting for their baseline mental health, these differences held steady. This means the shift wasn’t simply explained by preexisting issues. The researchers describe this as an association, not proof that phone acquisition alone caused the change in behavioral and emotional patterns that followed.

• Sleep disruption from early phone exposure is a significant concern — While the study didn’t analyze specific app use or timing, insufficient sleep associated with phone ownership often reflects stimulation, nighttime alerts, late-night scrolling, and exposure to blue light, which disrupts melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles.

Melatonin is primarily produced in your mitochondria in response to near-infrared light exposure, and healthy evening melatonin release depends partly on winding down light and screen exposure before bed. When melatonin drops in the evening, your child takes longer to fall asleep and experiences more fragmented rest. This pattern may reinforce fatigue-driven eating, lower movement, and mood instability.

• Smartphones expose children to increased social stressors — Smartphones expose adolescents to constant social feedback loops, including comparison, peer evaluation, and subtle forms of social exclusion. These experiences may influence cortisol — your body’s main stress hormone — which plays a role in energy balance, appetite, sleep quality, and emotional resilience.

When your child receives this type of stimulation before their brain has matured, stress patterns may form that are more difficult to unwind later.

Early Access to Smartphones May Alter Emotional Development in Lasting Ways

A related study published in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities evaluated how childhood smartphone ownership influences emotional stability and psychological well-being in young adulthood.3

The researchers used data from the Global Mind Project, a worldwide mental health database, to determine whether the age a child receives a smartphone shifts measurable outcomes years later. The study population included 18- to 24-year-olds across multiple global regions, offering a broad view of how early smartphone exposure aligns with later emotional outcomes.

• Early phone ownership predicts deeper emotional struggles in young adulthood — Individuals who received a smartphone before age 13 experienced more suicidal thoughts, higher aggression, lower emotional resilience, and weaker self-worth as young adults. Girls reported the greatest emotional strain, while boys showed increased instability and reduced empathy compared to peers who received smartphones later.

Young adults who had smartphones earlier in childhood also experienced more symptoms described as “detachment from reality,” which means trouble staying grounded in real-world interactions and emotional experiences.

Early ownership was also associated with hallucinations, or perceiving things that aren’t present. The authors explained that these patterns were consistent across geographic regions, emphasizing that the phenomenon is not restricted to any single culture or social environment.

• The role of technology-driven stressors in worsening mental health — As the authors stated, emotional deterioration was linked to “social media access, cyberbullying, disrupted sleep, and poor family relationships,” all of which were more common among early smartphone recipients.

Cyberbullying refers to harassment or humiliation through digital platforms, and this form of stress often carries deeper psychological weight because it follows the child everywhere, without a break. Early access also increased exposure to algorithm-driven content, which reinforces comparison, insecurity, and compulsive scrolling patterns that affect emotional regulation.

• The earlier the phone, the worse the long-term results — The researchers noted a clear gradient: the younger the child at the time of ownership, the greater the severity of mental health symptoms in adulthood.4

The threshold at age 13 appeared especially important because neurological development at that age includes growth in impulse control and emotional regulation. When a child enters digital environments without these capacities in place, their coping systems may become shaped more by overstimulation than by healthy interpersonal feedback.

• Girls lose resilience and boys lose calm when phones arrive too early — Females who received smartphones before age 13 showed the largest drops in self-worth, confidence, and emotional resilience. These traits involve the ability to handle stress, recover from setbacks, and maintain a stable sense of identity.

For boys, the steepest changes involved emotional volatility, lower calmness, and reduced empathy. Early smartphone exposure disrupted the specific emotional strengths each group typically develops during adolescence.

• How family dynamics influence risk — According to the researchers, poor family relationships intensified the negative effects of early smartphone ownership, suggesting that children with less support experienced the steepest emotional declines. When a child receives a smartphone early without strong relational anchors, the device may become a significant emotional reference point, shaping beliefs, behaviors, and coping skills.

It’s worth noting that both studies discussed here are observational: They show associations between the timing of smartphone ownership and later health and mental health outcomes, not proof that smartphone ownership by itself causes these outcomes. The Journal of Human Development and Capabilities researchers note this as a limitation of their own work, even as they argue the scale of the potential impact justifies a precautionary approach.

Practical Steps to Protect Your Child’s Health in a Digital World

Your child’s brain and body respond to their environment more than you might realize, and early smartphone access may shape sleep, stress, and emotional development in ways that influence their long-term well-being.

That means your solutions have to target not only early smartphone exposure but also the root causes identified in the research: disrupted sleep, overstimulation, reduced movement, and constant exposure to digital social pressure. To take back control, structure your child’s environment with clear boundaries that support healthy rhythms. Straightforward steps create real progress without turning your home into a battleground.

1. Delay smartphone access until your child shows strong emotional regulation skills — You may help support healthy development when you match device access to your child’s maturity rather than their age alone.

If your child struggles with big emotions, impulsive choices, or social overwhelm, delaying a smartphone may help protect their confidence and long-term emotional health. When you present this as a skill your child is growing into rather than a hard restriction, they see that the goal is to make them stronger, not to punish them.

2. Keep smartphones out of the bedroom at all times — Protect your child’s sleep by removing nighttime triggers that may disrupt melatonin, disrupt sleep cycles, and interfere with emotional stability. This important boundary gives their nervous system a break from alerts, scrolling, and blue light. I recommend setting a family rule that all devices stay in a shared spot outside bedrooms, and taking regular phone breaks to manage smartphone dependence and give their mind a rest.

3. Limit wireless device use and reduce your child’s exposure to EMFs — Your child’s developing brain is thought to be more sensitive to wireless radiation than an adult’s, as their thinner skull bones are believed to offer less protection. If your child is constantly surrounded by wireless devices, they’re exposed to EMF levels that could disrupt mood regulation, impair focus, and raise risks of neurological problems over time.

I recommend treating wireless access as something used only when absolutely needed, not as a default.

To support your child’s long-term well-being, swap wireless connections for wired ones, turn off Wi-Fi when it’s not in use, and keep phones away from their body entirely. If your child reaches for a smartphone out of habit, build a simple routine together that replaces wireless use with safer alternatives. Treat it like a daily challenge they get to master, which strengthens their sense of control and lowers their total EMF load without creating conflict.

4. Create a predictable home routine that anchors sleep, movement, and downtime — You build stability by giving your child a rhythm that balances stimulation with recovery. If your child thrives on structure, set repeating anchor points throughout the day: morning sunlight, set meal times, walking breaks, and an early wind-down routine.

These anchors may help support healthy regulation of stress hormones and support mood resilience, especially for children who are regularly exposed to digital environments.

5. Use device rules that strengthen family connection instead of fueling conflict — Consistent rules give your child a clear framework, and that makes daily life smoother for both of you. Useful boundaries include things like no phones before school, no devices in bedrooms, and screen-free hours in the evening. If your child pushes back, involve them in choosing the exact times or places where phones stay off-limits.

You might agree on a “family tech-off night,” or designate a basket where phones go when everyone is home. Once they see why these rules matter — and once they help decide them — they’ll feel respected instead of controlled, and that shift may lower conflict while raising personal accountability.

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 Early Smartphone Use

Q: Why is age 12 such a sensitive time for smartphone ownership?
A: Age 12 sits in a window of rapid emotional and neurological development. The research suggests that receiving a smartphone at 12 or earlier is associated with disruptions in sleep, stress responses, and emotional balance. Earlier ownership also is associated with shifts in eating patterns, attention, and emotional coping skills in ways that appear to build year after year.

Q: What health risks rise when a child gets a smartphone too early?
A: Children who own a smartphone at age 12 face higher risks of depression, obesity, and insufficient sleep. These shifts influence confidence, learning, appetite regulation, and stress responses. For children who didn’t have a phone at 12, getting one between ages 12 and 13 was associated with sharply higher odds of clinical-level emotional symptoms by age 13.

Q: How does early smartphone access affect long-term mental health?
A: Young adults who received smartphones before age 13 reported more suicidal thoughts, lower emotional resilience, weaker self-worth, and symptoms of detachment from reality. Girls showed the greatest drops in confidence and resilience, while boys showed more emotional instability and reduced empathy.

Q: Why is sleep disruption such a key part of the problem?
A: Smartphones interfere with melatonin, the hormone that controls sleep-wake cycles. Nighttime scrolling, alerts, and bright screens delay sleep, fragment rest, and increase fatigue. Poor sleep then affects appetite, weight, stress tolerance, and emotional regulation.

Q: What practical steps help protect my child?
A: Delay smartphone access until your child demonstrates strong emotional regulation, keep phones out of bedrooms, limit wireless and EMF exposure, create a predictable daily rhythm, and use simple device rules that encourage cooperation rather than conflict. These steps target the root causes — overstimulation, sleep disruption, and emotional overload — and may support healthier long-term development.

GLP-1 medications have transformed how millions of people lose weight, but the number on the scale tells only part of the story. When appetite drops and pounds disappear quickly, it’s easy to assume everything is moving in the right direction. Yet experienced clinicians are raising a pointed question: what exactly are you losing?

If the answer includes a significant share of muscle along with fat, the consequences reach far beyond appearance. Muscle supports your strength, balance, mobility, and metabolism, and once it disappears, rebuilding it demands far more effort than preserving it in the first place.

At the same time, as prescriptions have surged, so have reports of medication-related problems reaching poison centers across the U.S. National data reveal a striking increase in reported exposures following approval of these drugs for weight management. A growing share of those cases proved serious enough to require professional medical evaluation.

The patterns behind those reports point less to a flaw in the medications themselves and more to gaps in education, dosing errors, and a population of newer users still learning how to handle the drugs safely.

Those trends highlight an important shift in the conversation. Success with these medications isn’t simply about losing pounds. It’s about preserving your health, protecting your metabolism, and avoiding preventable problems along the way. That starts with understanding why the quality of your weight loss matters every bit as much as the amount.

Muscle Loss Changes the Story Behind Weight Loss

In an MSN news report published in June 2026, interventional cardiologist Dr. Sanjay Bhojraj, who has more than 20 years of clinical experience, challenged the common belief that every pound lost on GLP-1 medications like Ozempic represents better health.1 Instead, he emphasized that the way you lose weight determines whether your health improves or declines. It’s worth noting that his comments come from a news interview and reflect his clinical perspective rather than findings from a formal study.

His message centered on a simple but often overlooked point: Successful treatment involves much more than taking a weekly injection. It requires a complete strategy that includes nutrition, exercise, and a realistic plan for maintaining results after the medication ends.

Instead of asking yourself only, “How much weight have I lost?” Bhojraj encourages you to ask a better question: “What exactly did I lose?” That shift in thinking changes the entire conversation because losing muscle carries very different consequences than losing excess body fat.

• Eating less doesn’t automatically make you healthier — One of Bhojraj’s strongest warnings addressed a mistake he frequently sees among patients who rely on appetite suppression alone. As he explained, “Not all weight loss on GLP-1 medications is healthy weight loss,” adding that “the biggest mistake I see? People confuse eating less with getting healthier.”

Your body still requires enough protein and regular physical activity while you lose weight. If your calorie intake drops sharply but your protein intake falls with it, your body begins breaking down muscle tissue to meet its energy needs.

• Protein and strength training help tell your body to protect muscle — Bhojraj explained that GLP-1 medications reduce appetite, but they don’t automatically protect lean body mass. Lean body mass refers to everything in your body that isn’t fat, including your muscles, bones, and organs. Muscle represents the largest part of that lean tissue and deserves special attention during weight loss.

His advice was straightforward. Prioritize adequate dietary protein while following a resistance-training program. Resistance training means exercises that force your muscles to work against a load, such as weight machines, free weights, resistance bands, or even your own body weight through movements like pushups, squats, and lunges. Those activities send your body a powerful signal that your muscles remain necessary and deserve to stay.

A practical way to monitor your progress is to track more than body weight. Notice whether everyday tasks become easier, whether you continue lifting similar weights in the gym, and whether your balance and stability remain strong. Those improvements provide evidence that you’re protecting the muscle that supports healthy aging instead of sacrificing it during rapid weight loss.

• Losing muscle slows the engine that burns calories every day — Bhojraj highlighted another consequence that many people overlook. Rapid weight loss frequently includes a significant amount of lean muscle loss, which he compares to sarcopenia — the loss of muscle tissue faster than the body replaces it.

Strictly, sarcopenia describes age-related muscle loss, while lean mass lost during rapid weight reduction is a related but distinct problem. Either way, the same two habits help protect muscle: adequate protein and resistance exercise.

Muscle requires energy even while you rest, which means people with more muscle naturally burn more calories throughout every day. When muscle disappears, your resting metabolic rate falls. Resting metabolic rate simply means the calories your body burns to keep your heart beating, lungs working, and organs functioning even while you sit or sleep.

This explains why some people struggle after stopping GLP-1 medication. A slower metabolism means your body requires fewer calories than before. If old eating habits return while calorie needs have dropped, regaining weight becomes much easier.

• Digestive health deserves attention throughout treatment — Another important point from Bhojraj’s discussion is that appetite suppression alone doesn’t equal complete metabolic health. He specifically included digestion among the factors people often ignore while focusing exclusively on the scale.

Digestion affects how efficiently your body breaks down food and absorbs the protein, vitamins, and minerals required to support muscles and normal body functions.

Simply eating less without paying attention to food quality leaves your body with fewer building blocks to repair and maintain healthy tissue. One useful habit is to review your routine every week instead of waiting until problems appear. Ask yourself whether you consistently eat enough protein, complete resistance exercise, tolerate meals comfortably, and maintain your energy throughout the day.

Those simple checkpoints help you judge your progress using real measures of health instead of relying only on body weight. The urgency to lose weight quickly doesn’t only affect what happens inside your body. It also shapes how quickly people take up the medications, and national data from poison centers track how sharply reported problems have grown alongside that uptake.

Poison Center Reports Revealed How Rapidly GLP-1 Problems Grew

A nationwide analysis, published in the Journal of Medical Toxicology, tracked how GLP-1 medication exposures changed after approval for weight loss.2 To understand how GLP-1 medication problems changed after semaglutide received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for chronic weight management in 2021, researchers analyzed 10,033 exposures reported to the National Poison Data System between 2012 and 2023.

Semaglutide, sold under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy, is the GLP-1 medication at the center of that growth.

The researchers focused on who experienced medication-related problems, what types of exposures occurred, and how often those events required medical care. Because the National Poison Data System collects reports from poison centers throughout the U.S., it provides a broad picture of real-world medication problems rather than the tightly controlled conditions found in clinical trials. That makes the findings especially valuable because they reflect what happens after medications reach everyday patients.

• Reported exposures more than doubled after weight-loss approval — The researchers identified 3,113 GLP-1 exposures before July 2021 and 6,920 afterward, meaning reports increased more than twofold following semaglutide’s approval for obesity treatment. Semaglutide-related poison center calls accelerated by an additional 9.9% every quarter after approval, confirming that the increase represented far more than routine year-to-year growth.

Semaglutide quickly became the medication involved in most reports. Before approval, it accounted for 24.6% of reported GLP-1 exposures. After approval, that figure jumped to 64.2%, making it the dominant product reported to poison centers. Other GLP-1 medications increased only slightly during the same period.

• The average age of reported exposures dropped from 57 years before approval to 51.6 years afterward — When the authors roughly estimated the age of just the newly exposed group, the average dropped to about 47.5 years — though they called this an approximation, and the data can’t tell whether someone was taking the drug for diabetes or for weight loss.

Women also represented a much larger share of reported exposures, increasing from 68.9% before approval to 78.2% afterward. Those changes reflect how the medications expanded beyond their original role in diabetes treatment. As more adults without diabetes began using GLP-1 drugs for obesity, poison center reports shifted toward a younger population that differed from the earlier patient group.

• Most reports involved dosing mistakes rather than intentional overdoses — Researchers found that therapeutic errors, meaning people accidentally took the medication incorrectly, accounted for the majority of reported exposures in both periods — 85.6% before approval and 81.0% afterward, a slight decline as a share even as the raw number rose. Examples include taking the wrong dose, injecting the medication too often, or misunderstanding how to use the injection pen.

The pattern also shifted toward first-time or short-term use. Acute exposures, meaning a single incorrect dose or one-time mistake, increased from 47.2% before approval to 58.7% afterward, while acute-on-chronic exposures, meaning problems that developed during ongoing regular use, declined. This supports the researchers’ conclusion that many reports involved newer users who were still learning how to use the medication correctly.

• More people needed medical evaluation even though many symptoms remained mild — The investigators found that the proportion of patients managed in or referred to a health care facility increased from 23% before approval to 33.5% afterward, representing a 46% higher likelihood of requiring professional evaluation.

Note that this category counts people who were already at a health care facility when the call was placed as well as those referred to one, so it is broader than “required professional evaluation.” At the same time, the study reported that most exposures still produced relatively mild gastrointestinal symptoms.

Even so, digestive symptoms sometimes became severe enough to require medical attention because repeated nausea and vomiting increase the risk of dehydration, meaning your body loses more water and minerals than it replaces. One death was reported across the 10,033 exposures — a patient who had undergone liposuction and developed colonic ischemia — and the authors state that causality cannot be determined from a single report.

They concluded that improved patient counseling and clearer poison center guidance may help reduce preventable therapeutic errors and unnecessary emergency evaluations.

• They are equally clear about what their data cannot do — Poison center reports “cannot establish causality,” and the study is descriptive pharmacovigilance rather than evidence that these medications caused the outcomes reported.

Two cautions the authors themselves raise are worth keeping in mind alongside these numbers. Because these drugs drew intense media and social media attention, the authors write that the rise in call volume “likely reflects a combination of rapid expansion in the user base and variable degrees of stimulated reporting.”

This means some of the increase reflects more people picking up the phone, not only more people having problems. At the same time, because reporting to poison centers is voluntary, the data may understate how often these problems actually occur.

Build the System That Regulates Your Appetite Naturally

Your body already contains the machinery to regulate appetite, burn fat, and protect muscle without a weekly injection. The problem isn’t that the system is broken beyond repair. The problem is that modern diets and lifestyle habits have suppressed the signals it depends on. GLP-1 medications reduce appetite, but they also introduce risks that range from muscle loss to medication errors and other complications.

Rather than replacing your body’s own appetite-regulating system with an injection, I recommend restoring the biological processes that already exist. Your colon naturally produces GLP-1 through specialized cells called L-cells,3 and those cells are thought to respond to butyrate,4 a short-chain fatty acid made by beneficial gut bacteria. When your microbiome functions the way it was designed, it helps regulate appetite, blood sugar, and metabolism while you preserve your strength instead of sacrificing it.

1. Remove the foods that prevent your gut from recovering — I recommend eliminating seed oils, such as soybean, corn, canola, sunflower, and safflower oil, because their high linoleic acid (LA) content degrades the gut environment that beneficial bacteria depend on to thrive. Excess LA is also thought to impair your colon cells’ ability to use butyrate for energy, weakening the protective lining of your digestive tract.

Use more stable traditional fats instead, such as tallow, ghee, or grass fed butter. Keep your LA intake below 5 grams per day, and ideally closer to 2 grams, to give your microbiome the opportunity to recover and begin producing the compounds that support healthy appetite regulation.

2. Heal your digestion before increasing fiber — If you struggle with bloating, abdominal discomfort, or irregular bowel habits, avoid loading your diet with large amounts of fermentable fiber all at once. Begin with simple, easy-to-digest meals that reduce excessive fermentation while your intestinal lining recovers. As digestion becomes more predictable, gradually increase carbohydrates using foods your body tolerates well.

Whole fruit and well-cooked white rice provide glucose for cellular energy without overwhelming an already stressed microbiome. Next, add root vegetables, followed by non-starchy vegetables and then starchy vegetables such as squash and sweet potatoes. Leave beans, legumes, and minimally processed whole grains until last, and only if your digestion remains comfortable. Most adults do best with roughly 250 grams of carbohydrates each day once metabolic health improves.

3. Feed the bacteria that produce butyrate — Once your gut becomes more stable, begin adding foods that nourish butyrate-producing microbes. Cooked-and-cooled white potatoes and green bananas contain resistant starch, a type of carbohydrate that reaches your colon intact and serves as food for beneficial bacteria.

As those microbes multiply, butyrate production increases, your gut barrier becomes stronger, and your body regains the natural metabolic signals that help regulate appetite and blood sugar.

A useful detail: You don’t have to eat potatoes cold to get the benefit. Cooking, cooling, and then gently reheating them retains most of the resistant starch, so a rewarmed baked potato or a pan of leftover roasted potatoes still feeds those beneficial bacteria effectively.

4. Protect your muscle while your metabolism recovers — Preserving muscle deserves as much attention as losing fat. Prioritize adequate protein and regular resistance exercise throughout your weight-loss journey. Aim for 0.6 to 0.8 grams per pound (1.32 to 1.76 grams per kilogram) of ideal body weight, with one-third coming from collagen-rich sources like slow-cooked meats or bone broth.

Weight training, resistance bands, and bodyweight exercises all help tell your body to hold onto muscle instead of breaking it down for energy. Strong muscles also keep your metabolism higher, making it easier to maintain your progress over the long term.

5. Judge success by how your body performs, not just by what you weigh — I encourage you to look beyond pounds lost. Your strength, daily movement, energy, and ability to handle everyday activities without strain tell you far more about your metabolic health than any number on a scale.

Those measurements tell you whether your metabolism is becoming healthier or simply becoming smaller. I explain how to restore your body’s own GLP-1 production through nutrition and metabolic support in my book, “Weight Loss Cure: Melt Fat Naturally with Your Own GLP-1,” where I outline practical strategies for rebuilding the biological systems that regulate appetite naturally.

FAQs About GLP-1 Medications and Weight Loss

Q: Why isn’t all weight loss on GLP-1 medications considered healthy?
A: The scale doesn’t distinguish between fat and muscle. If a significant portion of your weight loss comes from muscle, your metabolism slows, your strength declines, and maintaining your results becomes more difficult. Protecting muscle through adequate protein intake and resistance exercise is just as important as losing excess body fat.

Q: Why did poison center reports involving GLP-1 medications increase so quickly?
A: As these medications became widely prescribed for weight management, reports to poison centers rose sharply. Many cases involved accidental dosing mistakes rather than intentional overdoses, especially among newer users who were still learning how to administer the medications correctly.

The study’s authors add that intense media attention probably encouraged more people to call, so part of the rise reflects reporting behavior rather than a rise in problems alone — though because reporting to poison centers is voluntary, the data still likely understate how often these problems actually occur.

Q: What’s the biggest mistake people make while taking GLP-1 medications?
A: Focusing only on eating less instead of improving overall health. Appetite suppression alone doesn’t preserve muscle, support digestion, or build habits that last after the medication stops. A long-term plan includes nutritious meals, regular strength training, and attention to metabolic health.

Q: If I decide not to use a GLP-1 medication, how can I support healthy appetite control?
A: Restoring a healthy gut microbiome helps your body regulate appetite naturally. Removing foods that disrupt gut health, healing digestion, feeding beneficial bacteria, and preserving muscle all support the biological systems involved in healthy metabolism instead of relying on an injectable medication.

Q: How should I measure progress if the scale isn’t the whole story?
A: Look at more than your body weight. Improvements in strength, energy, balance, endurance, and your ability to perform everyday activities provide a much better picture of whether your metabolism and overall health are moving in the right direction. Your goal is lasting health, not simply a lower number on the scale.

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.

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Why is fluorine added to some medicines?

To increase vitamin content and bioavailability
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Fluorine can help medicines resist breakdown, remain stable, or move through the body differently, but it usually does not provide the therapeutic effect. Learn more.
To provide the medicine’s main therapeutic effect

Fatty liver disease affects 38% of adults in the United States — a statistic that has increased by 50% in the past 30 years.1 This condition, characterized by the buildup of fat in liver cells, often progresses silently, with many people not realizing they have it until they start experiencing symptoms like fatigue, abdominal discomfort, or abnormal liver enzyme levels. When left unaddressed, fatty liver disease can advance to inflammation, fibrosis, and even cirrhosis.

Centuries ago, people naturally ate foods that are considered rich in prebiotic fiber nowadays. Garlic, onions, and leeks were common staples in traditional diets across Europe and Asia, prized not just for flavor but for how they “kept the body clean.” Modern research is currently examining whether these vegetables do more than aid digestion — and whether the fiber they contain shifts how gut microbes handle sugar, potentially easing the metabolic load on the liver. And this benefit comes from a natural fiber called inulin.

What the Research Found About the ‘Fiber Revolution’ in Your Gut

A study published in Nature Metabolism and conducted by researchers from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) School of Medicine revealed that inulin-rich vegetables — such as onions, garlic, leeks, and chicory — contain a fiber that, in mice, changed the way gut bacteria behave and reduced fructose-driven liver damage. In this animal model, increasing intake of the naturally occurring, plant-based fiber shifted microbial metabolism so that less fructose reached the liver.2

• What is inulin? To put it simply, inulin is a soluble, fermentable prebiotic fiber composed of fructose chains. It travels to the lower gut region where certain gut microbes digest and convert it into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like butyrate and propionate.3 Inulin, as a dietary fiber, not only nourishes colon cells — it is also being studied for a second role, which is buffering the liver against the effects of high fructose intake.

• The researchers conducted the study on male mice — This group is more susceptible to fatty liver. The mice were divided into four main dietary arms:

◦ Standard chow with plain water (control)
◦ Standard chow with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) water, to induce liver fat and insulin resistance
◦ An inulin-supplemented diet with HFCS water
◦ A delayed-intervention arm that received HFCS water for 16 weeks before inulin was added for a further 14 weeks

A separate antibiotic-treated group was used to confirm the effect depended on the microbiome.

• The research was particularly focused on a model of lean metabolic liver disease who were not obese — This is a group that’s often overlooked when it comes to metabolic disease prevention. Many people assume only those who are overweight develop fatty liver, but human epidemiology indicates that even individuals with normal body weight can experience liver damage associated with high fructose consumption.4 Note that the experiments themselves were conducted entirely in mice — no human participants were enrolled.

• They tracked where the sugar went — The researchers used what’s called isotope tracing, meaning there are special forms of fructose and water that can be followed as they move through metabolic pathways. These tracers allowed them to track exactly where the fructose went — whether it was broken down in the gut, converted to fat in the liver, or transformed into amino acids and antioxidants. This gave them a real-time view of how inulin changed the animals’ internal chemistry.

• Here’s what they discovered — In mice given sugary HFCS water, adding inulin protected their metabolism. It prevented or reversed fatty liver, lowered harmful liver lipids, and improved insulin resistance. Mechanistically, it turned down fat-making, boosted fat-burning, and rerouted fructose to be broken down by gut microbes before it could overload the liver.

One important dose caveat — the researchers replaced 10% by weight of dietary starch with inulin, and noted that this level exceeds what humans typically tolerate (around 4%). It follows standard rodent-study practice, but it is not a human dose.

Why the Gut-Liver Axis Matters

Your liver and gut are in constant conversation. Every meal you eat, every sip of soda or bite of processed food, sends signals through this communication highway known as the gut-liver axis. This axis is anchored in a direct anatomical link: the hepatic portal vein, which is the vessel that carries nutrient-rich blood from your intestines directly to your liver for processing.5

• When your gut is healthy, this system functions like a well-tuned messaging network — But when your gut bacteria are unbalanced, what scientists call dysbiosis, more inflammatory compounds and microbial byproducts are thought to reach the liver. Researchers have linked sustained exposure of this kind to fat accumulation, oxidative stress, insulin resistance, and eventually, fatty liver disease.

• So what’s the role of inulin in this? According to Dr. Cholsoon Jang, inulin “changes the bacteria in the gut to promote the consumption of harmful dietary fructose.” In simpler terms, this means that the bacteria in the intestines become proactive and start eating up the sugar before it causes trouble. In the mice studied, the result was less sugar “spilling over” to the liver, less fat buildup, and a stronger antioxidant response within the liver.6

• Here’s one of the most fascinating findings from the featured study — Inulin’s protective process appears to begin earlier in digestion than scientists previously believed. The small intestine, not just the colon, hosts bacterial communities capable of fermenting inulin. This early fermentation means that sugar molecules like fructose can be intercepted before they reach the liver.

• The study showed that these bacteria literally consume fructose — They’re burning it as their own energy source before it spills into the bloodstream. This “sugar-buffering” effect is the mechanism the authors propose for the lower liver fat and improved insulin sensitivity they observed. Whether the same buffering occurs at the fiber intakes people can realistically tolerate has not yet been tested.*

• Inulin also helped prevent hepatic de novo lipogenesis — This is the biological term for the liver’s creation of new fat from excess sugar. When this process slows down, liver fat levels stabilize, blood sugar becomes easier to regulate, and inflammation declines. In this model, the change originated in the microbiome rather than in the liver itself.

• Once the gut was “trained” with inulin, the initial signs of fatty liver were reversed — These include reduced liver fat deposits and better antioxidant response. “Our findings provide insight into how fibre protects our health from harmful nutrients like fructose,” Jang commented.7

• The antioxidant activity was tied to an increase in the liver’s production of glutathione — Called “the master antioxidant,” glutathione is one of the most powerful detoxifying compounds in the body. Glutathione helps the liver neutralize reactive compounds and limit oxidative damage. In the inulin-fed mice, glutathione production rose and markers of fructose-induced lipid peroxidation fell. This is the authors’ proposed explanation for the improved antioxidant response.

These findings point toward a future of personalized nutrition strategies. By identifying which types of gut bacteria are most efficient at processing fructose, health care practitioners could one day design customized diet plans or match prebiotic or probiotic choices to different individuals. In Dr. Jang’s words:

“By checking how well someone’s gut bacteria clears fructose before the body absorbs it, we can choose the right prebiotic or probiotic supplement for that person to improve results and reduce side effects.”8

*These findings are from laboratory or animal research and may not directly apply to human health.

Food First — Onion and Garlic Are the Easiest Place to Start

Inulin is found in various vegetables, and chances are some of these are already in your kitchen pantry. These include onions, garlic, chicory root, artichokes, leeks, and asparagus. These may seem ordinary, but their prebiotic fiber is the raw material your gut microbes ferment. Among these, onion and garlic are not the richest sources — chicory root and Jerusalem artichoke are far higher — but they are the easiest to work into everyday meals:

• It’s okay to start small — Even modest, consistent intake of inulin-rich vegetables, especially onions and garlic, is a reasonable way to increase prebiotic fiber. A practical, food-first approach begins with a quarter to half a cup of cooked onion daily or half to one clove of garlic added to your regular meals. These portions are general tolerance-building suggestions for ordinary culinary use, not a therapeutic dose — no human intake level has been established for the liver effects observed in the mouse study.

Once your gut adjusts, small portions, like a teaspoon of finely chopped onion in a salad or a sliver of garlic in dressing two to three times per week can amplify the benefits.

• What matters most is consistency — Your gut bacteria need time to adapt and “learn” to process the inulin effectively. The research team found that microbial adaptation is what allowed the gut to intercept fructose in their animal model. Feeding your microbiome steadily is the pattern that mirrors how the effect was produced in that featured study.

• This gradual approach also taps into the principle of self-efficacy — This refers to the belief that small, repeatable actions can make a measurable difference. Seeing your digestion improve, your energy stabilize, and even your post-meal bloating diminish reinforces the motivation to stick with the habit. It’s not about restriction; it’s about building body confidence through achievable, everyday wins.

• To sustain the habit, personalize it — Connect your meals to outcomes that matter to you: clearer skin, lighter mornings, better digestion, or a sense of control over your health. Each time you chop garlic or caramelize onions, you’re not just cooking — you’re feeding the microbes that ferment prebiotic fiber — the same adaptation researchers are studying for its effects on sugar handling and liver fat.

This sense of personal mastery builds long-term adherence far better than fear-based restriction. As the featured study emphasizes, microbial adaptation depends on regular input rather than sporadic perfection. Each small meal you prepare is a step toward the steady pattern that adaptation requires.

Other Inulin-Rich Vegetables You Can Try

If you want to mix things up, there are other vegetables that work through the same gut-liver mechanism. Rotating your sources helps your gut bacteria thrive in diversity, improving overall metabolic balance. Here are some inulin-rich vegetables to add to your meals (per 100-gram serving):9

• Leeks (6.5 g) — The white and light green parts are excellent for soups and stir-fries. Their gentle sweetness and high inulin content make them a smooth next step once you’ve mastered onions.

• Chicory root (41.6 g) — Often found in herbal coffee substitutes, it’s one of the richest natural sources of inulin. Start small by adding just a teaspoon of chicory blend at a time to test your comfort level.

• Jerusalem artichoke or sunchoke (18 g) — This vegetable is particularly high in inulin, so begin with very small portions (a few thin slices roasted or blended into soup). Once tolerated, it becomes one of the densest food sources of the fiber your gut microbes ferment.

• Asparagus (2.5 g) — Although its inulin is not as high as other vegetables, this food has a well-rounded nutrition profile, offering minerals like copper, selenium, zinc, magnesium, and more.

These everyday inulin-rich vegetables are far more than garnishes — they’re accessible, everyday sources of prebiotic fiber you can prepare right in your kitchen. I recommend following this “food-first” approach, as it doesn’t require supplements or complex protocols — just consistency, mindfulness, and an understanding of how these humble kitchen staples fit into a diet that can support gut and metabolic health.

How About Inulin Supplements?

Inulin supplements often appear in health stores labeled as “gut health boosters” or “prebiotic powders.” While they might seem like an easy shortcut, it’s important to understand that supplements are not a substitute for real food. This distinction matters because these vegetables provide more than fiber — they deliver enzymes, minerals, and other cofactors that shape how your microbiome responds.

• When you eat a whole vegetable, you’re offering your gut bacteria a complete ecosystem — These include water, nutrients, and structural fibers that slow fermentation and make digestion smoother.

In contrast, a powdered supplement delivers inulin in a concentrated dose that your system might not be ready for. For someone with a balanced gut, this might not cause issues. But if your microbiome is fragile or underdeveloped, which is common after years of stress, low-fiber diets, or antibiotic use, jumping straight into concentrated inulin can backfire.

• That said, there are situations where inulin supplementation can be helpful — If you’re under medical supervision and tracking your Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) score, which is a valuable diagnostic tool that helps assess insulin resistance, adding a measured dose of inulin powder under clinical guidance could make sense.It’s a strategic choice for individuals who need more controlled intake or who can’t tolerate raw or cooked vegetables easily. Work with a knowledgeable clinician or nutritionist to help you identify a beneficial dose and gradually raise it while monitoring your response.
Talk to your healthcare provider about whether this testing is appropriate for you.
• Imagine it like strength training for your gut — You wouldn’t walk into a gym and lift 200 pounds on your first day. You start light, master your form, and increase gradually. The same goes for inulin. Whole foods are your training weights: gentle, consistent, and structured. Inulin powder, on the other hand, is advanced resistance: best reserved for when your body is ready for it.

Important Safety Considerations When Consuming Prebiotic Fibers Like Inulin

When you begin increasing prebiotic fiber — especially inulin — it’s common to experience temporary bloating or gas. These symptoms are usually a sign that your microbiome is adjusting rather than a cause for alarm — but persistent or worsening symptoms are worth discussing with your health care provider.

• Your gut bacteria are adjusting to a new energy source — As they ferment inulin, they produce gases like hydrogen and carbon dioxide, which can cause mild bloating in the first few days or weeks. This is part of the microbial retraining process.

• The key is pacing — Start with very small amounts and increase slowly over time. If you’re using food, that might mean starting with a tablespoon of cooked onion per meal or half a clove of garlic. If you’re under medical care and using a powder, begin with as little as one to two grams daily and work up gradually.These starting amounts are conservative, practical suggestions rather than doses drawn from the cited research. Jumping to a full serving too quickly overwhelms your microbiome and creates discomfort.

However, if you regularly feel bloated after meals, go days without a bowel movement or have frequent loose stools, even before you increase your inulin intake, your gut may be in poor shape and is not ready for high-fiber foods. These symptoms suggest an imbalanced gut microbiome or irritated gut lining. This is important, as you need to address the underlying gut problem before reintroducing fermentable fibers like inulin.

• Avoid fiber and fermentable carbs if your digestion is impaired — A damaged gut often cannot handle even “healthy” fiber-rich foods. Beans, leafy greens, cruciferous veggies, and whole grains all ferment quickly and feed the wrong microbes when your gut is compromised. That drives more bloating, inflammation and gas. In this phase, you want fuel that doesn’t backfire, like whole fruit and cooked starches like white rice, which digest more cleanly without fermenting too fast.

• Reintroduce fermentable fibers in small amounts once your gut calms — When your bloating stops and your digestion becomes regular, that’s your green light. Start with resistant starches like cooked-and-cooled white potatoes or green bananas.

These feed butyrate-producing bacteria — the strains associated with gut barrier integrity and inflammatory balance. This is also when you can slowly add in inulin-rich vegetables like onion, garlic, and leeks. Keep portions small and build up as your tolerance improves (the next section will help you with this).

• Those with gut conditions are advised to approach with extra care — These include Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) or Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). Both conditions involve bacterial imbalance, and adding prebiotics too fast can feed the wrong microbes before balance is restored.

• Listening to your body is the ultimate feedback loop — Discomfort often accompanies a shift in your microbial community; easing discomfort suggests it has adapted. This process embodies the principle of personalization — understanding your unique response and adjusting based on what your body tells you.

A 7-Day Micro-Plan to Build Tolerance

This seven-day micro-plan works like a gentle training schedule for your microbiome. Each day adds just enough new stimulus to encourage microbial diversity, reduce inflammation, and minimize discomfort.

• Days 1 and 2: 2 to 3 tablespoons of cooked onion in one meal — Add sautéed or roasted onion to your main meal, mixing it into rice or soup. Cooked onion introduces inulin gradually while also supplying antioxidants like quercetin, which have been studied for their antioxidant activity.

Observe how your body reacts. Bloating, gas, or changes in bowel movement are common while your microbes adjust. To manage these early effects, drink water slowly throughout the day and avoid eating too fast.

• Days 3 and 4: Add half a clove of cooked garlic — Garlic is slightly stronger than onion in both flavor and prebiotic potency. It contains allicin, a sulfur compound that has been investigated for antimicrobial and immune-related activity.

This step builds microbial endurance. The aim is to widen the range of fermentable fibers your gut can tolerate — the kind of adaptation the featured study links to changes in how the liver handles sugar and fat. If you feel gassy, it’s a byproduct of the fermentation that also produces SCFAs.

• Day 5: Include 2 tablespoons (cooked) leeks or chicory — These vegetables provide different strains of inulin and other prebiotic fibers, which encourage microbial variety. Chicory also contains polyphenols that act like fertilizers for your beneficial bacteria. Leeks, on the other hand, have a softer flavor and gentler fiber profile, making them perfect for soups and stews. This step marks the turning point where your gut begins to “graduate” from basic to intermediate tolerance.

• Day 6: Test 1 teaspoon raw onion in a dressing if tolerated — Raw onion introduces a stronger dose of inulin in an unheated form. If you’ve tolerated the previous steps without excessive discomfort, mix one teaspoon of finely minced raw onion into a salad dressing or salsa. This is simply a tolerance test for raw prebiotic fiber.

If you feel mild bloating, reduce the portion or pair the meal with an acidic component such as vinegar or lemon. Many people find acidic pairings easier on digestion. This day is about testing boundaries safely.

• Day 7: Adjust upward or maintain based on comfort — This is where you customize your intake. If digestion feels light and your energy is stable, you can increase your portions slightly — maybe half a cup of cooked onion daily and one full clove of garlic spread across two meals. If you notice lingering discomfort, stay at your current level for a few more days before advancing. The goal is comfort and consistency, not speed.

This stage reinforces self-efficacy — you’re now in control of your microbiome’s pace of adaptation. You’ve built awareness around how your gut responds and learned to listen to your body’s cues. Over time, this approach strengthens both digestion and confidence in your ability to manage it.

A 7-Day Gut Training Plan — An Overview
Here’s a one-week plan to help your gut adjust to inulin-rich foods like onions and garlic — without bloating. This is a quick-reference summary of the micro-plan above, not a second protocol.

• Days 1–2: Eat 2 to 3 tbsp. of cooked onion. Eases digestion and introduces inulin gently.
• Days 3–4: Add 1/2 clove of cooked garlic for stronger prebiotic and immune support.
• Day 5: Include 2 tbsp. of cooked leeks or chicory for more fiber diversity.
• Day 6: Try 1 tsp. raw onion in a dressing if comfortable. Use vinegar or lemon to reduce gas.
• Day 7: Increase slightly or hold steady based on comfort.
Slow progression lets your gut bacteria adapt, build resilience, and support liver health naturally.

More Strategies to Support Liver Health

While inulin shows strong promise in helping protect your liver from sugar damage, it’s just one aspect of keeping this organ in optimal condition. Remember, your liver is your body’s central detox organ, and when it’s overloaded not only with sugar but with harmful fats, toxins, or nutrient gaps, it struggles to do its job efficiently. These tips address factors commonly implicated in liver stress.

1. Eliminate vegetable oils and alcohol — Vegetable oils are high in linoleic acid (LA), a polyunsaturated fat (PUF) that oxidizes and forms byproducts that may compromise your mitochondria, the powerhouses of your cells. Alcohol is also damaging, since it breaks down into a compound that injures liver cells. Cutting both is one of the highest-value changes you can make. For cooking, switch to grass fed butter, ghee, or tallow. Lastly, keep total LA intake between 2 and 5 grams per day.

2. Optimize your carbohydrate intake — Aim for 250 grams of targeted carbohydrates daily from whole, unprocessed foods, adjusting upwards if you are highly active, based on your microbiome. As your digestion strengthens, introduce complex carbohydrates and starches like white rice gradually to maintain balanced energy and support metabolic function.

3. Eat choline-rich foods to support liver health — Choline helps package up fats and ship them out so your liver doesn’t become clogged. Inadequate choline intake has been associated with fat accumulation in liver cells. The best food sources are pastured egg yolks and grass fed beef liver.

4. Consider taking a choline supplement if your diet falls short — Citicoline is one of the more widely studied forms. Research has examined daily doses in the range of 500 to 2,500 milligrams (mg) for effects on hepatic fat export and cognitive function. With this in mind, discuss dosing with a qualified health care provider before starting any supplement.

5. Repair with sunlight and smart vitamin D use — Your skin is designed to make vitamin D from sunlight, and daily exposure supports not only your bones and immune system but also your liver’s ability to metabolize fat. But here’s the catch: If you’re still using vegetable oils, the LA stored in your skin increases your risk of sun damage.Eliminate those oils for four to six months before building up to high-intensity sun exposure, with the aim of going out during solar noon. When sunlight isn’t an option, consider supplementing with vitamin D3.

It’s also important to test and track your vitamin D to stay on target. Instead of guessing, check your vitamin D levels with a simple blood test at least twice a year. Aim for 60 to 80 ng/mL (150 to 200 nmol/L). This range is the target I recommend to help support immune function and energy production.

Talk to your health care provider about whether this testing is appropriate for you.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Inulin and Fatty Liver Disease

Q: Does inulin help fatty liver?
A: In mice, it did. A study published in Nature Metabolism found that inulin-adapted gut microbes intercepted fructose early in digestion, before it reached the liver, and that this reduced fat accumulation in liver cells and lowered markers of inflammation. The study was conducted entirely in animals at a fiber dose above typical human tolerance, so the same effect has not yet been demonstrated in people.
In simpler terms, inulin appears to help “train” the gut bacteria to eat up sugar first, so the liver doesn’t have to. Adding inulin-rich vegetables is a low-risk dietary change, and one field that researchers are actively studying for its metabolic effects.

Q: Is inulin good for liver health?
A: The evidence so far is promising but preclinical. In the mouse study, inulin increased the production of glutathione, your liver’s most powerful antioxidant molecule. Inulin also reduced the “spillover” of sugar from the gut into the bloodstream, which means the liver did not have to convert that excess sugar into fat. In that model, this was accompanied by lower oxidative stress.

Q: Which vegetables have the most inulin?
A: The richest sources of inulin are chicory root (41.6 g per 100 g) and Jerusalem artichoke (18 g), followed by garlic (12.5 g), leeks (6.5 g), onions (4.3 g) and asparagus (2.5 g). Cooked onions and garlic are the easiest and most tolerable ways to start, especially if you’re new to prebiotic fibers.
Leeks offer a gentle alternative that’s excellent for soups and stews, while chicory root and Jerusalem artichoke deliver higher doses for those further along in their gut restoration journey. Each of these vegetables nourishes your beneficial microbes, improves digestion, and supports your gut-liver communication loop.

Q: How much inulin is safe?
A: There’s no one-size-fits-all number, because everyone’s microbiome adapts differently. The key is not how much you eat, but how gradually you introduce it. Think of it as training your gut, not forcing it. Start with small servings — like a few tablespoons of cooked onion — and increase only when your digestion feels comfortable. This slow approach minimizes gas and ensures your bacteria adjust properly.

Q: Why does inulin cause gas or bloating?
A: When you first increase your intake of inulin, your gut bacteria begin fermenting it into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) — molecules that nourish your colon and reduce inflammation. This fermentation produces gas as a natural byproduct. If you experience bloating or mild discomfort, that’s usually a sign your microbes are adjusting to a new food source — though symptoms that persist or worsen are worth raising with your healthcare provider.
The best approach is to start low, go slow, and focus on cooked vegetables before introducing raw forms. As your microbial community becomes stronger and more balanced, these early symptoms typically fade.

Q: Is food-based inulin better than supplements?
A: For most people, yes. Whole foods provide inulin alongside natural cofactors like water, minerals, and enzymes that help your gut process fiber efficiently. Supplements, in contrast, deliver concentrated doses that can overwhelm an untrained gut.

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.