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Articles written by Dr. Mayer that dive deeper into the scientific research behind brain-gut health, the microbiome, and whole-body wellness.
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The Stress That Evolution Has Not Prepared Us For
For most people an increasing load of chronic stress has become a regular aspect of modern life, regardless of if they are aware of it or not….
The Longevity Inheritance: What the Children of 100-Year-Olds Are Teaching Us
Picture two 70-year-olds side by side. They’re the same age, they eat much the same food, and they get about the same exercise. One of them has a mother who blew out 100 candles on her last birthday cake. A large new study suggests that this one fact tells you a good deal about which of the two is more likely to still be healthy and active ten years from now….
Your Microbes Are Part of Your Training
Training changes your gut, and your gut bacteria may help you run longer. You know training changes your muscles, heart and lungs. But you may not know that it also changes the microbes in your gut, and that effect may run in both directions….
What We Have Learned About Microplastics and Health So Far in 2026
The two everyday exposures that predicted who carried the most plastic in their blood. What happened to the liver when microplastics met a high-fat diet. Why one of the most widely shared plastic-in-the-brain headlines was probably overblown…
Eating With Others Might Do More for Your Mental and Physical Health Than You Think
Why living under the same roof as your family may not protect your mood the way you’d expect. The two questions Gallup added to a 150,000-person global survey, and the well-established predictors of wellbeing they went head to head with. What shows up on brain scans of older adults who eat alone, and why better diet quality doesn’t fully account for it….
Is Chronic Inflammation Really Behind Heart Disease?
A drug that shut down inflammation exactly as designed, in 6,300 patients, and what it did to their heart attacks and strokes. Why the same theory has now produced both convincing wins and outright failures, sometimes with the same drug in the same kind of patient. What all of this means for the claim that one process quietly drives heart disease, dementia, and colon cancer alike….
The Science of Mitochondria – A New Look at the Role of Energy in Health and Disease
In Western Medicine, we often think about health in terms of symptoms. Do we have pain somewhere in our body or do we suffer from indigestion? Are we sleeping well? Is our digestion working properly? Are we able to think clearly and stay resilient when life becomes stressful? In contrast much of the focus in Traditional Chinese Medicine has to do with the concept of energy or chi, a viewpoint that until recently Western Medicine has completely neglected….
Eight Questions That Predict How Long You’ll Live
Answer “yes” to just two of these and average life expectancy is 72 for men and 77 for women; answer yes to five and it jumps to 81 and 86; answer all eight and it climbs into the 90s. Notably, having a primary care doctor isn’t on the list — research shows annual checkups alone don’t reduce mortality. The real value of a primary care relationship, the panel noted, comes from earlier conversations about end-of-life wishes and quality of life, not the checkup itself….
GLP-1 Drugs Are Changing Healthcare — But Are They Solving the Real Problem?
Grocery spending among GLP-1 users has dropped, but one category of purchases is quietly surging. One drugmaker built a direct-to-patient platform that’s quietly rerouting how people get prescribed these drugs. Dr. Mayer weighs in on whether these drugs solve the real problem or just add one more pill to the pile….
It’s Not Only Mom’s Microbiome That Matters for the Baby’s Health
A new study altered gut bacteria in male mice using nothing more than laxatives and antibiotics, then watched what happened three generations later. The fathers showed no signs of health problems. Their offspring were a different story. There’s one detail in this study that could reshape how we think about preconception health altogether….
Choosing The Right Seafood For Optimal Health
The six fish that are both good for your health and good for the planet — and the six popular ones that are neither. How much omega-3 you actually need per day, and which fish get you there fastest? Why locally caught freshwater fish may be one of the most contaminated foods in the American diet….
How to Remove Microplastics from Your Body
The average participant in this study had BPA levels 96 times higher than the European safety limit. One group made a single change — and it wasn’t to their diet. The intervention that moved the needle least was the one most people would try first. The one that worked fastest isn’t what you’d expect….