Issue 143 - Fork Therapy, Telomere Tango, and Decoding Tylenol
HealthHippieMD Week In Review
01
Exercise and the Gut Microbiome
We've long been told that abs and immunity are made in the kitchen. But this article nudges us toward the treadmill. Exercise, it turns out, doesn't just sculpt muscles—it reshapes your gut microbiome. And that shift may ripple across your entire body. Researchers have found that aerobic workouts boost the diversity and functionality of gut bacteria, especially the strains that produce short-chain fatty acids like butyrate. These little molecules dominate metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and inflammation. Your 30-minute jog, in other words, is feeding bacteria that, in turn, are feeding you. "Butyrate," the article explains, "supplies energy for a variety of tissues, including the epithelial cells lining the gut," and "can reduce inflammation and improve the ability of cells to take in insulin." But here's the plot twist: when participants stopped exercising, those benefits disappeared. The gut, it seems, doesn't remember yesterday's heroics. Science already gives you a new meaning for gutting out your workout.
Exercise Boosts Your Gut Microbiome, Which Helps Your Metabolism, Immune System, and More | Scientific American (6 min read).
02
Kale, Interrupted
The industrial age has a new potential side effect that may not appear on a label but might weigh heavily on the mind. Researchers are raising concerns about microplastics in ultra-processed foods and their possible role in mental health issues. "Ultra-processed foods are associated with more than 50% of energy intake" in high-income countries and contain high levels of contaminants such as bisphenol A and microplastics, the article notes. These microscopic invaders "can increase the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders by inducing oxidative stress in the brain, causing nerve cell damage, and influencing the functionality of neurotransmitters." While definitive links remain elusive, the rise in brain microplastic concentrations has eerily paralleled the increase in depression. If diet is destiny, this article suggests we've been outsourcing it to chemistry labs and plastics engineers. It's a call to eat closer to nature—not just for the sake of our bodies, but for our emotional equilibrium.
Microplastics in ultra-processed foods may fuel mental health risks, experts warn (8 min read).
03
The Telomere Tango
Aging is the slow undoing of cellular DNA—telomeres that shorten with each division. But what if there were a buffer, a supplement that could delay that fray? This study suggests vitamin D may play that role. Participants who took 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily showed "less shortening of their telomeres compared with people in the placebo group." JoAnn Manson, Harvard professor and co-author of the VITAL Study, explains: "Vitamin D does reduce inflammation... as well as autoimmune diseases. This could provide a biological mechanism." While the telomere changes were modest—"about 140 base pairs over four years"—they hint at a mechanism through which vitamin D may slow aging at the cellular level. It's not a miracle, but maybe a meaningful nudge. Health may be less about dramatic intervention and more about quiet preservation.
Vitamin D May Slow Cells' Aging by Protecting DNA | Scientific American(6 min read).
04
Coltrane's Curvature
What do a saxophone and a spacetime equation have in common? For Stephon Alexander, a physicist who improvises on both scales, the answer lies in rhythm and resonance. In this article, Alexander explores the parallel instincts of Einstein and John Coltrane—how both men used intuition and structure to reach toward the ineffable. As he once explained to a fellow musician, Coltrane was "trying to do something like that in music" that Einstein did with the solar system—"something that came from natural sources... but there was a whole different way of looking at what was natural in music." Alexander believes both men understood that mathematical or musical improvisation begins with intuition. In a world that prizes certainty, this piece is a gentle argument for improvisation—not as disorder but as deep understanding disguised as play.
The Secret Link Between Jazz and Physics: How Einstein & Coltrane Shared Improvisation and Intuition in Common | Open Culture (5 min read).
05
Decoding Tylenol
For decades, acetaminophen has been the go-to for pain relief, even though no one quite knew why it worked. Now, scientists may have cracked the case. "Acetaminophen inhibits an enzyme that makes one of the endogenous cannabinoids," namely 2-AG, explains lead author Michaela Dvorakova. Paradoxically, lower levels of this molecule—once believed to alleviate pain—may actually reduce it. This "challenges dogma," says researcher Alex Straiker, who adds: "It can be hard to break through that dogma." But their discovery, published in Cell Reports Medicine, suggests a potential new generation of pain relievers: more targeted, less toxic. In short, Tylenol wasn't misunderstood. It was underestimated. And with it, so was the complexity of pain.
Study reveals how acetaminophen may actually relieve pain (4 min read).
06
Memory Foam
It helps you sleep. It may also help you forget. Diphenhydramine, better known by its branded cousins like Benadryl, is a first-generation antihistamine that's long overstayed its welcome in medicine cabinets. "Even recommended doses... can cause side effects like drowsiness, confusion, dry mouth, constipation," and more, warns Dr. Harita Shah. And worse, "people who took diphenhydramine daily for at least three years had a 54 percent higher risk of developing dementia," according to a 2015 study. The drug blocks acetylcholine, the "key to memory, attention, and muscle movements," and remains in older bodies longer, causing what physicians call an anticholinergic burden. The science is now clear: convenience has a cost. And that cost may be our cognitive capacity in the decades to come.
The over-the-counter medicine scientists say may raise your dementia risk (9 min read).
07
Fork Therapy
When a young man with Crohn's disease failed to respond to cutting-edge pharmaceuticals, he tried something radical: vegetables. After eliminating meat and processed food, he "entered clinical remission without need for medication and showed no signs of CD on follow-up colonoscopy." His case isn't unique. In one Study, a semi-vegetarian diet led to "a 100 percent remission rate at one year and 90 percent at two years." And compared to the $35,000-a-year drug REMICADE®, the humble lentil outperformed. "Symptoms returned whenever he strayed from the diet but disappeared again with adherence," the article notes. It's not just about fiber. It's about giving the body ingredients it recognizes—and the gut microbes that sustain us their rightful food. This account shares many commonalities with my story: (A Physician's Journey to Crohn's Remission Without Medication).
Eating to Treat Crohn's Disease-NutritionFacts.org (6 min read).
08
Motherboard Medicine
We've been taught that mitochondria are the power plants of the cell. This article invites a more ambitious metaphor: they're the motherboard. "Rather than being like battery chargers, mitochondria are more like the motherboard of the cell," writes Martin Picard. These organelles "communicate within their cells and among other cells" and even "fuse into long strands to share mtDNA" when energy runs low. In times of crisis, they "donate intact mtDNA to mutant mitochondria" and can trigger cell death when necessary, functioning "like an intracellular brain." Energy, then, isn't just fuel—it's information. And mitochondria are its curators. Health may come not from fixing parts but from keeping the conversation alive.
Mitochondria Are More Than Powerhouses—They're the Motherboard of the Cell |Scientific American (25 min read).
09
Paging Dr. Doubt
Medicine loves certainty. Patients demand it. But this piece contends that its absence is the quiet truth every doctor learns to navigate—and conceal. "Medical culture is set up in a militaristic, drill-sergeant way," says Dr. Emily Silverman. "It doesn't cover how to treat the symptoms of doubt." She calls for reframing uncertainty not as absence but as presence: "It's an experience where you don't know, but you know you don't know." And that, paradoxically, might be the birthplace of real wisdom. The article doesn't argue for more facts. It argues for more comfort with mystery—and for making space to say, "I don't know," without losing trust. Adding The Nocturnists - Podcast to my queue.
It's the Secret Doctors Keep from You - Nautilus (18 min read).
10
The High Priest of DMT
A former Texas entrepreneur turns psychedelic evangelist, building an underground empire from mason jars to multi-kilo labs. Akasha Song—born Joseph Clements—believed he was doing spiritual work, delivering what he called "the medicine." He built labs in garages, hid drugs in insulation, traveled the world, and sold millions of doses on the dark web. "Every time I go to the grocery store, the front parking spot's empty," he said after release. "And that happens to me in every situation." Even his arrest felt anticlimactic. "I looked over to the couch and considered the two long, flat safes under it. One was full of money. The other was full of drugs." He pled guilty to conspiracy to manufacture a Schedule I drug. But on the day of sentencing, Colorado had just decriminalized DMT. He got 24 months. He'd already served most of it. "I'm not going to die and go to hell or die and go to heaven," he told the reporter. "It's a play. It's just God having a good time being everything."
The Epic Rise and Fall of a Dark-Web Psychedelics Kingpin | WIRED (60 min read).
Here are a couple of Microdoses from last week:
HealthHippieMD Microdose
019
Physical
Longevity
Prioritize strength training today—even one set of pushups or squats. Muscle mass predicts healthy aging better than weight or BMI.
HealthHippieMD Microdose
020
Environmental
Mold Awareness
Check your home for mold under sinks or around windows. Reducing mold exposure protects respiratory and cognitive health.
Visit the Notes section for the latest Microdose.
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