Exercise and the Brain: Hippocampal Growth vs Preservation
One trial found a year of aerobic walking grew older adults' anterior hippocampus by 2 percent. Pooled trials say the honest word is 'preserve', and the memory gains are real but modest.
Brain & cognition
Nootropics, memory and focus, with each compound graded on the human trials behind it.
Gut Bacteria and Mood: Probiotic Trials and the SMILES Diet Study
Probiotic trials show small effects on mood scores, and the SMILES trial found a diet change beat social support for depression remission. A sober read of the gut-brain axis and mood.
Gut Microbiome and the Brain: A Fiber and Fermented-Food Plan
Gut bacteria signal to the brain through the vagus nerve, immune messengers and metabolites. What disrupts them, and a six-week fiber and fermented-food plan grounded in human trials.
Attachment Styles: The Neuroscience and How to Earn Security
Anxious attachment amplifies threat detection; avoidant attachment suppresses it. Both are adaptations, not flaws. How earned security develops through therapy, secure relationships and a coherent life story.
Loneliness: The Neuroscience of Social Pain and What Helps
Loneliness activates pain-related brain regions, raises inflammation and is linked to higher mortality in large cohorts. Changing social thinking beats simply adding more events.
Chronic Stress and the Brain: What Shrinks and What Recovers
Sustained cortisol is linked to a smaller hippocampus and weaker prefrontal control. Exercise, sleep, mindfulness-based stress reduction and social contact have the best recovery evidence.
5-HTP: Small Mood Trials and a Real Serotonin-Syndrome Risk
5-HTP converts directly to serotonin. Small, mostly older trials report effects on mood, sleep and appetite; the serious risk is serotonin syndrome when combined with antidepressants.
Phosphatidylserine: Memory Trials and the FDA's Qualified Claim
Phosphatidylserine improved memory scores in older adults in several small trials, but the FDA's 2003 qualified claim calls that evidence 'very limited and preliminary'. What the trials found and what the claim means.
Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALCAR): Brain Evidence in Older Adults
Acetyl-L-carnitine crosses the blood-brain barrier more readily than plain L-carnitine. What trials in older adults found for memory, mood and nerve health, the doses used, and safety.
Magnesium L-Threonate: Brain and Sleep Evidence Reviewed
Magnesium L-threonate was designed to raise brain magnesium. The human evidence is one 12-week cognition trial and a short sleep study, both worth reading with care. What they found and what remains unproven.
Creatine and Cognition: Gains Under Sleep Loss and in Vegetarians
Creatine raises brain phosphocreatine. Trials show working-memory gains under sleep deprivation and in vegetarians; in rested omnivores the effects are small. Evidence, dose and who responds.
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