Anna Abele ND LLC

08/25/2025

This is interesting…

Harvard Medical School scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery linking lithium to Alzheimer’s disease treatment. Their research found that lithium levels are significantly lower even in the earliest stages of memory loss. Amyloid-beta plaques, known to cause Alzheimer’s, bind to lithium in the brain, reducing its availability and speeding up the disease’s progression.

This study marks the first time lithium, widely used in psychiatric medicine, has been shown to naturally exist in the brain at important biological levels. In mouse models, lithium depletion caused a rapid buildup of harmful amyloid-beta and tau proteins, increased brain inflammation, and worsened cognitive decline.

The breakthrough came when researchers used lithium orotate, a form of lithium that avoids binding with amyloid-beta plaques. At very low doses, lithium orotate reversed memory loss and other Alzheimer’s-like symptoms in mice without any toxicity. While human trials are still needed, this discovery opens the door to lithium testing as a way to identify people at risk and the potential for targeted lithium supplementation to prevent or even restore cognitive function in dementia patients.

This exciting development could transform the future of Alzheimer’s treatment and prevention, offering new hope to millions worldwide.

08/05/2025

Most of the clinical trials of the benefits of saffron in people suffering from depression are small and have been conducted in Iran. A new study has helped to address this evidence imbalance and provides us with greater confidence that this medicinal herb and spice can truly alleviate low mood.

A proprietary saffron extract (dose 28 mg/day) was validated in a large-scale placebo-controlled trial. The trial included more than 200 people and ran for 12 weeks In Australia. Trial participants were all healthy adults reported to have mild or subclinical depression as measured on the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS).

The researchers found that 72% of participants in the saffron group showed a clinically significant improvement in the DASS, compared to 54% in the placebo group (p = 0.010). A clear difference for saffron over placebo on the DASS was only evident after 8 weeks, suggesting that treatment should be trialled for at least this long before assessing any clinical benefit. There was no impact on sleep overall, but improvements in sleep disturbances were identified in the subset of participants with a greater severity of sleep issues. There were no serious adverse reactions reported.

The scientists concluded that their study, the largest conducted to date on saffron, provides evidence supporting the beneficial effects of three months of saffron supplementation on depressive symptoms in adults, but they also noted the large placebo response.

This saffron extract is in the solid dose products I prescribe in my clinic.

For more information see: https://www.supplysidesj.com/healthy-living/saffron-extract-relieves-mild-depression-in-study
and
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40414301/

07/14/2025

Tick Bites - Etiology, pathophysiology, symptoms, signs, diagnosis & prognosis from the Merck Manuals - Medical Professional Version.

07/02/2025

Another great offering from the incredible Kerry Bone

While laboratory and animal studies support the potential of olive leaf extract in the context of dementia, human trials assessing its impact on cognitive impairment are to date lacking. Hence a group of Greek scientists examined, for the first time in humans, the effect of the daily consumption of a beverage containing olive leaf added to a Mediterranean diet (MeDi) on patients diagnosed with mild Alzheimer disease (AD), in addition to their regular treatment.

A randomised clinical trial compared olive leaf’s effects on cognitive and functional performance in 55 mild AD patients. Each participant was randomly assigned to two groups: (1) Group 1 was given olive leaves for making a daily beverage and MeDi instructions through monthly diet programs; (2) Group 2 received only the MeDi instructions. Participants in Group 1 were asked to prepare a daily beverage using 21 g of chopped, dry olive leaves steeped in 450 mL of room temperature water for 20 minutes. After 6 months, all participants underwent a second neuropsychological evaluation.

At 6 months, Group 1 participants had statistically significantly higher Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores compared to Group 2 with a p-value of 0.0135. Specifically, the mean MMSE change in patients receiving olive leaf was close to 0, indicating little memory deterioration, whereas in controls it was -4.1, indicative of cognitive decline. Other neuropsychological assessments also revealed better results in the olive leaf group, but without statistically significant differences between the two groups.

These are very promising results worthy of further investigation. While the dose of olive leaf at 21 g per day was relatively high, the use of a cold infusion would detract from its activity, as it is a poor way to extract phytochemicals in general. It would be interesting to examine the effects of a better preparation, preferably with a defined content of oleuropein.

For more information see: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39585054/

06/27/2025

In 1948, two women—Rachel Fuller Brown and Elizabeth Lee Hazen—working in separate cities, quietly changed the course of modern medicine. They didn’t have prestigious academic posts or corporate funding. They weren’t household names. What they had was persistence, resourcefulness, and a partnership grounded in trust.

Elizabeth, a microbiologist in New York City, would isolate microbes from soil samples—organisms most people wouldn’t look twice at. She mailed them to Rachel, a chemist in Albany, who would extract and analyze each one for any signs of antifungal properties. This happened over and over, through the U.S. postal system—hundreds of vials, painstakingly studied.

At the time, antibiotics like penicillin were revolutionizing treatment, but they were useless against fungal infections, which were becoming more common, especially in patients whose immune systems had been weakened by other treatments. There was no effective or safe antifungal medication.

Then one day, from a sample collected in the soil of Virginia, their collaboration paid off. The compound they isolated was named Nystatin—short for New York State antifungal. It became the first antifungal treatment that could safely be used in humans. It cured everything from life-threatening systemic infections to common issues like thrush and athlete’s foot. It was a medical breakthrough—but its uses didn’t end in the body.

Scientists soon realized could stop mold from growing on works of art. It could be used to preserve delicate canvases, books, and ancient documents. It protected trees from fungal rot. What began as a treatment for human health became a tool for environmental and cultural preservation.

And the impact of these two women extended even further. Brown and Hazen could have become very wealthy from their discovery. Instead, they donated every penny of their royalties—millions of dollars—to science. The Brown-Hazen Fund, created with those earnings, has since supported decades of medical and scientific research, especially for young and emerging scientists who often struggle for funding.

06/19/2025

More wisdom from the brilliant Kerry Bone

Daily consumption of Montmorency tart cherry juice significantly reduced gut inflammation and improved quality of life in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients in a small clinical trial.

Following positive clinical trials of bilberry extract in UC patients, 35 people with UC were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or a Montmorency tart cherry juice concentrate (chosen for its high anthocyanin content, like bilberries), of which they drank 30 mL twice a day for 6 weeks. The primary outcome and health-related quality of life was measured via the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire (IBDQ). Secondary measures included other health-related questionnaires, blood biomarkers and faecal samples.

There were significantly greater improvements in the IBDQ (improved by 9%) and the simple clinical colitis activity index in the tart cherry trial arm compared to placebo. In addition, the reduction in faecal calprotectin was significantly greater in the tart cherry trial arm compared to placebo (by 40%), although the trial groups were not well matched for this parameter, with much higher starting levels in the treated group. Blood biomarkers of inflammation were not changed, and neither were faecal microbiome measures of alpha and beta diversity.

Study co-author Lindsay Bottoms, Professor in Exercise and Health Sciences and Head of Centre for Research in Psychology and Sports at the University of Hertfordshire, said: “Montmorency tart cherries have greater anthocyanin levels than most other dark fruits, so we wanted to investigate if cherry juice supplementation had any clinical benefit in patients with mild-to-moderate colitis.”

Previous analysis has shown that 30 mL of the Montmorency tart cherry concentrate contains 9.117 mg/mL of anthocyanins, which is equivalent to eating about 100 cherries.

For more information see: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40003718/
and
https://scitechdaily.com/drinking-this-fruit-juice-may-cut-gut-inflammation-by-40/

05/26/2025

Study for rural weight loss health- free with months of counseling and tracking- if you are looking for help with this

iREACH RURAL STUDY iREACH Rural is an online behavioral weight management study sponsored by the University of South Carolina, with collaborating investigators from the University of Virginia. Learn MoreSee if you qualify About the study Welcome to iREACH Rural, a proven research-based weight contro...

05/25/2025

05/24/2025

New study showing cartilage regrowth using boswellia and celery seed combination in osteoarthritis of the knee

Taken together, the combination of Boswellia and celery could be a safe and promising herbal nutraceutical option for managing osteoarthritis and cartilage health effectively.

04/22/2025

Hmmm looks like EBV is making the news

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system (CNS), which is linked to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, preceding the disease. The molecular mechanisms underlying this connection are only partially understood. We previously described molecular mimi...

02/04/2025

I tried to look something up on the cdc website today 😥

09/20/2024

By Heidi Buck