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| Under the Microscope |
| Lion’s Mane for the Brain |
The Research
Two compounds in lion’s mane — hericenones and erinacines — boost nerve growth factor in the lab. A 2009 Japanese trial gave 30 adults with mild cognitive impairment 3 g/day for 16 weeks. Scores on a standard test improved. But four weeks after stopping, scores decreased significantly. A 2023 University of Queensland study in mice found better recognition memory after 28 days. No large, long-term trial in adults over 55 exists yet. |
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The Community
One of the top mushroom supplements sold today. Paul Stamets and Dave Asprey champion it. Typical dose: 500 mg to 2 g daily, often stirred into coffee. Self-reported benefits: clearer thinking, less brain fog. About $0.50–$1.00 a day. The community take: the mechanism makes sense, and the data will catch up. |
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| Word Recall |
| Verbal memory is one of the first skills to slip with age — try to beat your best score today. |
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| A Drug That Fixes Broken DNA in Alzheimer’s Brains |
| This one caught my eye. |
| A team at King’s College London found that a drug built for spinal cord injuries can fight Alzheimer’s disease in mice — from a direction most treatments miss. The drug is called KCL-286. It works through the retinoic acid pathway — a system your body uses to process vitamin A. You know vitamin A for your eyes. But it also runs a repair network deep inside your brain cells. |
| Let me explain why that matters. Most Alzheimer’s drugs chase amyloid plaques — the sticky protein clumps between brain cells. KCL-286 goes after something different: DNA damage. Your DNA holds the instructions every brain cell needs to work. A double-strand break is like a book ripped clean in half. The cell can’t read those instructions anymore. And in Alzheimer’s brains, these breaks pile up early — before plaques even take hold. |
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In a mouse model of Alzheimer’s, KCL-286 repaired DNA breaks, reduced inflammation, and hit multiple disease pathways — all at once. And because it already passed Phase 1 human safety trials for spinal cord injury, it can move into Alzheimer’s testing faster than a brand-new compound. |
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| I could be wrong, of course. Mouse results don’t always carry into humans. But a pill — not an infusion — that targets two early drivers of Alzheimer’s before plaques build up? That’s a direction worth watching. |
| I urge you to remember the name KCL-286. It may matter down the road. |
| King’s College London · Prof. Jonathan Corcoran · July 8, 2026 |
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| Daily Grip Strength Training |
| Grip strength tells a story. |
| A two-year study at the Catholic University of Korea tracked 107 older adults who had started noticing their own memory slipping. The ones with weaker grip declined faster — in memory, visuospatial function, and executive function. That pattern was partly explained by amyloid plaques building up in their brains. |
| The connection isn’t random. Grip strength shares brain circuits with higher-order thinking. The same frontoparietal networks — the wiring that runs attention and working memory — also control your hand muscles. Think of it like a shared power line. When one side weakens, the other side often dims too. So training your grip may keep those shared circuits firing. |
| The Protocol |
| When |
| Twice daily — morning and evening |
| Duration |
| 5 minutes per session — 10 minutes total per day |
| Rules |
| Use a hand gripper or a tennis ball. Squeeze and hold for 3–5 seconds. Release. Do 3 sets of 10 reps per hand. Start with a light gripper — around 30–40 pounds of resistance. Move up when it feels easy. A tennis ball works fine if you don’t have a gripper. |
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| You should feel mild fatigue in your forearms by the third set — not pain. If your hands or wrists hurt, back off the resistance. I urge you to try it for two weeks. |
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| Your Nose May Warn You Before Your Memory Does |
| Immune cells in the brain — called microglia — appear to strip away nerve fibers linking the smell center to the locus coeruleus, one of the first regions damaged in Alzheimer’s. That makes a fading sense of smell one of the earliest signs of the disease, showing up years before memory trouble. If everyday scents have been getting weaker for you, bring it up with your doctor. |
| Neuroscience News · 2025 |
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| Cold Water Boosts a Key Brain Chemical — but the Proof Is Thin |
| A new review in Molecular Psychiatry looked at cold exposure for mental health. Cold water immersion can raise norepinephrine — a chemical that sharpens focus and lifts mood — up to fivefold. That part is solid. But most human studies so far have been small, short, and poorly controlled. The biological mechanism is real. The clinical evidence behind it has not caught up yet. |
| Molecular Psychiatry · September 2026 |
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| Irregular Heartbeat Quietly Damages the Brain — Even Without a Stroke |
| About 40 percent of people with atrial fibrillation — a common irregular heartbeat — have small, silent strokes damaging brain tissue without obvious symptoms. On top of that, the uneven rhythm causes chronic low blood flow to the brain. Early treatment to restore a normal rhythm may help protect thinking ability. If you have atrial fibrillation, ask your cardiologist how it might be affecting your brain. |
| Alzheimer’s & Dementia (2023) / PubMed reviews (2026) |
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| Rhonda Patrick, PhD |
| Biomedical scientist · PhD, University of Tennessee · Postdoc at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute with Bruce Ames · Runs FoundMyFitness |
| Her daily stack starts with about 2 grams of omega-3 (EPA plus DHA) from fish oil for brain and heart support. She takes around 4,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily, calibrated to blood levels between 40 and 60 ng/mL. Her signature: 10 grams of creatine monohydrate split into two doses and stirred into her morning and afternoon coffee. She uses the Thorne brand for purity. She adds about 250 mg of supplemental magnesium on top of magnesium-rich foods. And she grows broccoli sprouts at home for sulforaphane — a compound she has extensively reviewed for its effects on how cells handle stress. For exercise she runs, does regular sauna sessions for heat-shock proteins, and cold plunges after the heat. She eats within roughly a 10-hour window most days. |
| One honest note: her omega-3 and vitamin D are well within studied ranges. But her creatine — 10 grams daily — goes beyond what most cognitive studies have tested. And sulforaphane shows strong results in cell and animal models, but large human trials for brain function are still missing. She’d be the first to say this is a personal protocol, not a prescription. |
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