The Active Site

Are Our Brains Really Filling With Microplastics?

Microplastics have been detected in human brain tissue, and in 2025 one study produced a number that spread around the world: roughly a spoonful of plastic in the brain.

BPC-157: The Peptide That Seems to Heal Everything

BPC-157 is now used as a recovery peptide for tendon injuries, muscle strains, and stubborn joint problems. Some people report remarkable results, while others feel nothi

Will Lithium Really Save Your Brain?

There is an element sitting in your brain right now, and nobody has established how much you are supposed to have.  It may shape how you think, how you act, and whether y

A New Study Just Linked Creatine To Cancer

Creatine is one of the most-studied supplements in the world, taken by millions of people who have been told for years it is about as safe as anything on the shelf. Then,

Do Aging Clocks Actually Work?

There are tests now that claim to measure how old you really are. Not the number on your birth certificate, but your biological age, the idea being that two people born o

What A Tattoo Actually Does Inside Your Body

For decades the reassuring story about tattoos was that the ink stays put: a permanent mark, sealed in the skin, chemically done with your body. It isn't. Pigment mi

Do You Need to Take Vitamin D with Magnesium & K2?

For most of a decade, vitamin D came with a warning: take it on its own, and the calcium it raises ends up in your arteries instead of your bones. The fix, supposedly, is

Apigenin for Sleep and NAD+: Does It Hold Up?

For most of the last century, apigenin was a footnote — a yellow pigment in chamomile and parsley, studied mostly by people cataloguing the antioxidants in plants. In the

The Truth About Brain Magnesium

For decades, magnesium sat in the supplement aisle as a mineral for muscle cramps, sleep, and general nutrition. Around 2010, that changed. A branded form called magnesiu

Were We Wrong About Fish Oil and the Brain?

For thirty years, the supplement aisle has sold fish oil as one of the simplest decisions you can make for your brain. In 2026, two research teams on opposite sides of th

The New Dietary Guidelines Controversy — Explained

PREFACE: This is an explanation of the debate the guidelines have stimulated. It references the data used to rationalize the guidelines and the data used to oppose them.

Fish Oil, Oxidation, and the Truth About “Rancidity”

Omega-3 supplements are at the center of a controversy regarding their oxidation levels and potential harm. This presentation addresses the gap between claims of harm and

A Nutrient Mixture That Tunes Brain Signaling

Nutrients are usually studied in isolation, yet synapses don’t operate that way. This episode examines research showing that coordinated nutritional inputs can reshape sy

How One Amino Acid Touches Two Aging Pathways

L-arginine is usually treated as a simple nitric-oxide precursor, a molecule with a narrow vascular role. But across multiple lines of research, it keeps appearing in pla

Two Missing Nutrients, Big Brain Consequences

Parkinson’s is often framed as a brain-first disorder, but some of its earliest changes unfold in the gut. This episode unpacks a global metagenomic analysis showing that

The Nutrient Your Stress System Overuses

A new brain-imaging meta-analysis has uncovered the first consistent biochemical signature across multiple anxiety disorders (a shift in a single molecule that moves in t

Magnesium: The ‘Best’ Form Isn’t What You Think Part 2

Magnesium salts are often marketed as if they target specific tissues - i.e., “threonate for the brain,” “glycinate for calm,” “taurate for the heart.” Part 2 breaks down

Magnesium: The ‘Best’ Form Isn’t What You Think Part 1.

Magnesium supplements are marketed like different compounds with different biological targets - i.e., “for sleep,” “for the brain,” “for stress,” “for energy.” But the fo

Common Longevity Medication… Performance Killer?

A medication used by millions (including off-label usage for “longevity” purposes) may alter the fundamental pathways responsible for exercise adaptation. This episode re

The Mitochondrial “Vitamin” from Interstellar Dust

There’s a molecule that’s been tentatively identified in the same interstellar material that forms stars and planets, yet it also shapes growth, metabolism, and cognition