Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis- Cyanobacteria algal blooms and dietary BMAA exposure
Abundance of nutrients created by runoff leads to excessive algal blooms. Algae excrete potent neurotoxins responsible for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
Milos Pokimica
Written By: Milos Pokimica
Medically Reviewed by: Dr. Xiùying Wáng, M.D.
Updated May 7, 2023Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease) is one of the worst diseases you can have. Currently, there is no cure for it or any treatment.
Synthetic fertilizers create many problems. Fertilizers leach into streams, rivers, and lakes and disrupt the balance of aquatic ecosystems. This is creating an excess of nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, in the water. This is food for the sea plants as much as it is food for land-grown crops. An abundance of nutrients created by runoff leads to excessive algal blooms. Excessive algal blooms then deplete the water of oxygen creating oceanic dead zones. Then when these algae start to decompose water quality problems emerge and the result is dead fish and other aquatic organisms. This process is called eutrophication.
One of the most significant dead zones worldwide can be found in the Gulf of Mexico, beginning at the Mississippi River delta.
This one thing should be enough reason to stop eating anything from the entire ocean at present time.
Just this form of imbalance in nature in the form of algae bloom can kill you. I am not kidding. What you do not understand is that these algae are not just some see vegetables that overgrow in seawater from fertilizers runoff and then die off. Some of them or let’s say most of them are fine and safe and won’t do long-term damage except the dead zones, but some of them are not safe because they create and excrete some of the most potent neurotoxins known to man.
When they start to overgrow because of all of the nitrogen runoff from the land they bloom and excrete enormous amounts of these neurotoxins into the water. These toxins that are chemically stable do not degrade but start to bioaccumulate like anything else. These toxins do damage to any exposure. If the exposure level is low, they will just worsen overall brain degradation and contribute to brain shrinkage with aging but if the toxins accumulate over the acceptable threshold Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease) will appear.
Stephen Hawking is an example of this. Hawking had a form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is known commonly as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a motor neuron degradation disease that in time completely paralyzes the patient eventually leading to respiratory failure. It just attacks motor neurons, so the patient’s mental capabilities remain intact, and in most cases, death comes after three years when they can no longer breathe on their own. There is no cure for it. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) strikes previously healthy people seemingly at random. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive disease. That means that it can only go worse over time and usually kills in 2-5 years after the first signs of disease. About 10% of people with ALS survive at least ten years. Stephen Hawking was the longest-living individual in history with amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease).
When the ice bucket challenge went viral, many people heard about this disease, and it became a form of social media awareness campaign that turned into a national phenomenon. Now it is nice to be there for people in need, but that will just pump our own image of self-worth. It would not help to prevent or lower the rate of the disease. Real awareness is something completely different. If people wanted to make a difference and raise awareness, they should do green algae water bucket challenge instead of an ice bucket one. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is more common than recognized. We have 1 in 400 risks of getting it, and that is at a similar rate level of multiple sclerosis. Let us do some real awareness.

In 1944 U.S. forces had recaptured Guam from the Japanese. Initially, the United States occupied Guam from the Chamorro people on June 21, 1898. And currently, it is under the territory of the U.S. It is a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a big military base. After the war a navy neurologist noticed that local Chamorro people have a high rate of the very deadly form of the strange neurodegenerative disease with symptoms of dementia, shaking, paralysis, and death. In some settlements in Guam 1 in 3 people died. The illness was named amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-parkinsonism/dementia complex (ALS-PDC), known locally as lytico-bodig. They did not know what it is so they just described it as amyotrophy (atrophy of the muscles), lateral (from Latin lateralis, meaning to the side) and sclerosis (Greek σκληρός hard) is the stiffening of a structure. The rate of ALS in Guam was 50–100 times the incidence of ALS worldwide. After the systematic exclusion and statistical analysis, it was found that specific seeds of the cycad Cycas micronesica tree in the diet of the local population were the main trigger of the disease. Biochemical analysis associated neurotoxic non-protein amino acid, beta-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), as a primary cause of the illness.
Cycad trees were suspected because of the use of seed flour in cooking coupled with reposts of livestock ataxia after eating from it. And indeed BMAA neurotoxin was found in it. The discovery was just a part of research on the disease known as lathyrism. Lathyrism is mostly present in India, China, and the Middle East. It has very similar symptoms like progressive paralysis of the legs. Studies later linked lathyrism to the consumption of certain species of legumes that contained the compound ß-N-oxalylamino-L-alanine (BOAA). The lathyrism was the reason why the researchers tested cycad seeds for BOAA first. When the seed showed no concentrations of BOAA very similar substance had been found with a methyl group instead of an oxalyl group—BMAA. So it is chemically very similar to a neurotoxin that just has a methyl group instead. Subsequent studies on rats and monkeys showed the same result in both cases. BMAA is toxic to neurons. However, there was one big difference. Dietary exposure caused immediate symptoms in rats whereas ALS-PDC developed years or even decades after the initial exposure. One other problem was the dose.
In the 1980s neurotoxicologist, Peter Spencer did a study and reported the results of paralysis in macaques fed BMAA. However, again the dose used was much higher than the dose that people suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) were exposed to by cycad flour. People had to eat kilograms of it to ingest a comparable dose. Analysis of BMAA concentrations in cycad seeds by various research groups has highlighted that the toxin was present in the seed at low concentrations. Subsequent investigations confirmed that most of the neurotoxins, around 85 percent were removed from cycad flour during processing. There was a calculation that people would have to eat thousands of kilograms of the stuff every day to get to toxic levels of exposure. In the end, the entire theory was abandoned.
Then in the late 1990s, famed neurologist Oliver Sacks (the one who wrote Awakenings which was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film in 1990, starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro) and his colleague Alan Cox made some discoveries and resurrected the BMAA theory. The local Chamorro people by now with knowledge from the research that had been done started to use some tactics as a precaution. They made tortillas from cycad seed flour. However, before they use the seeds, they washed them repeatedly to remove toxins and then gave the water to the chickens to drink. If their chickens remained alive after drinking the wash water, the people deemed the seeds safe to grind and eat. However, they also ate other wild animals that they hunted and some of them also feed on cycad seeds as well. For example, for fruit bats and feral pigs, the common food was cycad seeds. Oliver Sacks got the idea that it is not the seed that is problematic but the animals that people consume because it is just another case of biomagnification.
One of the typical local meals was Mariana flying foxes simmered in coconut cream and eaten whole with skin, bones, brains, and everything. Sacks and Cox in 2002 theorized that these animals that feed on the seeds in time create a neurotoxic reservoir of BMAA in their brain tissues. Because their brains were also eaten on a regular basis by the Chamorros, chronic dietary exposure had created the reservoir of BMAA in their own brain leading after a lag time, to a neuronal meltdown and development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The consumption of Guamanian flying foxes which fed on the cycads was core to the Chamorro tradition. Also, statistical correlation showed that the decline of the flying fox population due to excessive hunting correlated with the drop in the number of cases of ALS/PDC presented in Guam. Cox analyzed the skin of preserved museum flying fox specimens (collected five decades previously) and found BMAA concentrations to be extremely high.
The lag time is one of the things that made these diseases hard to track. With leg time people tend to expose themself to the toxin completely without noticing anything wrong and when the pool of this toxin accumulates and the disease shows the first symptoms, it is already too late. The final closure of the topic was autopsies on the brains of Chamorros that died from ALS/PDC that found high levels of BMAA (1). 13 Canadian subjects had no detectable levels of BMAA. They were just individuals who died of causes unrelated to neurodegeneration. However, when BMAA was measured, it was also found in the brains of all of the Canadian patients with Alzheimer’s disease. However, wait just a second. These people were in Canada not in Guam. They did not eat flying foxes or Cycat tree seeds.
The real story here is that BMAA neurotoxin was not produced by the tree either. It was produced by Nostoc cyanobacteria, root symbionts of the cycad trees. Bacteria that live in the roots of the tree made the toxin. When the toxin gets absorbed by the roots it will be passed to the seeds, then to the bats that feed on them and then to the people.
The implication of this scientific discovery is terrifying. If cyanobacteria produce these neurotoxins, it will have massive ramifications for public health on a global scale. Cyanobacteria are ubiquitous and can be found in almost every aquatic or terrestrial habitat. They are literary everywhere from damp soil, freshwater, oceans, hot springs, bare rock and soil, rocks in the desert, and even Antarctic rocks. The name cyanobacteria come from the color of the bacteria (Greek: κυανός. Kyanós meaning blue). You know these bacteria as blue-green algae, that bloom from fertilizer runoff.
Cox found the presence of BMAA in most of the variety of cyanobacterial strains tested from all over the globe. It is not just the Guam Nostoc strain, it is every strain of this blue-green algae or to be precise 95% of all strains produce BMAA. Because of enormous algae blooms the level of BMAA today needs to be measured and studied. There were studies that measured the levels of BMAA in some of the higher trophic organisms. High concentrations were detected in various species of fish, mussels, oysters, and plankton thus indicating that the global human population is at high risk of bioaccumulation of this neurotoxic compound through the food chain everywhere in the world.
To this day there is no scientific consensus that BMAA exposure through the consumption of contaminated food could play a causal role in various neurodegenerative pathological conditions. In some studies, depending on the methods they did not find BMAA in Alzheimer’s brain tissue in others they do. Measured levels of BMAA in the brain might not mean causality; proximity is not causality. Some of the most compelling evidence was presented at the International ALS/Motor Neuron Disease (MND) Symposium in 2011. There was a research that showed that BMAA is not found in the brain tissue in higher concentrations because it will get incorporated directly into the nerve cell itself. It was shown that BMAA gets incorporated into nerve cell proteins causing the protein misfolding and ultimately cell death. Dunlop and Rodgers reported that the tRNA synthetase enzyme for the amino acid serine mistakenly picks up BMAA thinking that it is serene and then incorporates it into proteins in vitro. This substance is nothing less than pure mutagen. Consequent autofluorescence indicated that the proteins misfolded, and the cells died. What we can say for sure is that BMAA might not cause Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease just by itself, but it does worsen the condition, and it does cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Now to fully understand the story of BMAA since many people around the world may be exposed to it we might also ask the question why did some individuals get neurodegenerative effects from it, and some others did not?
Cox suspected that vulnerability may reflect a gene-environment interaction. If this single environmental toxin plays a role in different diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, and maybe some other diseases as well, this could represent a gene-environment interaction based on individual genetic resilience. However, no one has yet investigated a genetic basis for BMAA vulnerability. It is the same story all over again. Humans did get exposed to this naturally occurring toxin during normal evolution. What is making this disease increase in prevalence is algae blooms caused by unnatural high levels of nutrient runoff from fertilizer fields, animal waste, sewage, and soil erosion in water that eventually raise the levels of blue-green algae to unnaturally high levels. Some people have better genetics dealing with this some might be sensitive. Also, it depends on how much seafood you eat. The cause of this disease is not hereditary. It is a maladaptation to our current environment. This toxin was found in freshwater fish, saltwater fish, and shellfish. Some of the fish have levels of BMAA comparable to those found in fruit bats in Guam. I cannot give estimates here because BMAA concentration varies from the place of sampling. Some species of crab, for example, might be high or low on the toxicity level depending are their algae bloom in the water or not. The more bloom, the more toxin. However, toxins spread everywhere eventually. This could explain the ALS clustering in populations who live around lakes for example. A number of ALS cases have been diagnosed among residents of Enfield, New Hampshire, a town encompassing a lake with a history of cyanobacteria and algal blooms. There were six cases of ALS diagnosed from 1975 to 1983 in long-term residents of Two Rivers, a small Wisconsin community. The probability that this occurred due to chance was less than 0.05%.
Cyanobacteria species depending on the type have the ability to produce a different array of metabolites, not just BMAA that are also neurotoxins, hepatotoxins, or dermatoxins. BMAA does not have to kill us to be bad. It can cause neurologic damage and increase the overall toxic load on our bodies and have synergistic effects with mercury and lead and all other neurotoxins to enhance cognitive decline.
In the end, it might not be the only thing that can trigger amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). BOAA triggers lathyrism for example. It is the same type of neuron death as in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). American veterans have more instances of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for an unknown reason. The situation in Guam in the last decade or so is promising. Their levels of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are significantly lower than in the past, but now they know what the root cause of this neurologic disease epidemic they had to face was. And without the island of Guam, the rest of the world will still eat seafood thinking that it is health-promoting and safe. The problem with nature is that it is hard to science every molecule that exists. There are thousands of natural pollutants like BMAA in nature. Some of them can even be sexually transmitted like ciguatera toxin that again is produced by algae and built up in the food chain, and again it is thermally and chemically stable. It causes nightmares literally with pain and fatigue and a burning cold sensation. The reversal of temperature sensation, hot feels like cold, and cold feels like hot. It can last for years and in low doses just causes fatigue. The story of a romantic dinner with red snapper in a Greek marinade with wine. Dream tropical paradise vacation turning into cold, painful sex with nightmares. Some of the chronic fatigue syndromes cases are actually ciguatera fish poisoning. In some people, it can cause recurring symptoms during periods of stress, weight loss, exercise, or excessive alcohol use even after 25 years of initial exposure.
Because of all of the pollution, most fish today have infections both from bacteria and parasites. Never eat raw anything from the water ever in your entire life. Forget about sushi. Shifts in the balance of nature have consequences. Everything that is unnatural, and when I say that, I mean everything that our hominin ancestors did not do, or have been exposed to is disease-promoting with the potential for exposure to an unknown amount of unidentified toxins. If there were clean and pristine oceans eating predatory fish is still a bad idea, and eating a lot of fish is unnatural. Fish is inflammation-promoting meat even without all of the pollution.
References:
Passages selected from a book: Pokimica, Milos. Go Vegan? Review of Science Part 2. Kindle ed., Amazon, 2018.
- Murch, Susan J et al. “A mechanism for slow release of biomagnified cyanobacterial neurotoxins and neurodegenerative disease in Guam.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol. 101,33 (2004): 12228-31. doi:10.1073/pnas.0404926101
- Bradley, Walter G, and Deborah C Mash. “Beyond Guam: the cyanobacteria/BMAA hypothesis of the cause of ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases.” Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis : official publication of the World Federation of Neurology Research Group on Motor Neuron Diseases vol. 10 Suppl 2 (2009): 7-20. doi:10.3109/17482960903286009
- Chiu, Alexander S et al. “Does α-amino-β-methylaminopropionic acid (BMAA) play a role in neurodegeneration?.” International journal of environmental research and public health vol. 8,9 (2011): 3728-46. doi:10.3390/ijerph8093728
- Brand, Larry E et al. “Cyanobacterial Blooms and the Occurrence of the neurotoxin beta-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) in South Florida Aquatic Food Webs.” Harmful algae vol. 9,6 (2010): 620-635. doi:10.1016/j.hal.2010.05.002
Related Posts
Do you have any questions about nutrition and health?
I would love to hear from you and answer them in my next post. I appreciate your input and opinion and I look forward to hearing from you soon. I also invite you to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for more diet, nutrition, and health content. You can leave a comment there and connect with other health enthusiasts, share your tips and experiences, and get support and encouragement from our team and community.
I hope that this post was informative and enjoyable for you and that you are prepared to apply the insights you learned. If you found this post helpful, please share it with your friends and family who might also benefit from it. You never know who might need some guidance and support on their health journey.
– You Might Also Like –

Learn About Nutrition
Milos Pokimica is a doctor of natural medicine, clinical nutritionist, medical health and nutrition writer, and nutritional science advisor. Author of the book series Go Vegan? Review of Science, he also operates the natural health website GoVeganWay.com
Medical Disclaimer
GoVeganWay.com brings you reviews of the latest nutrition and health-related research. The information provided represents the personal opinion of the author and is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The information provided is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.NEVER DISREGARD PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE OR DELAY SEEKING MEDICAL TREATMENT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU HAVE READ ON OR ACCESSED THROUGH GoVeganWay.com
NEVER APPLY ANY LIFESTYLE CHANGES OR ANY CHANGES AT ALL AS A CONSEQUENCE OF SOMETHING YOU HAVE READ IN GoVeganWay.com BEFORE CONSULTING LICENCED MEDICAL PRACTITIONER.
In the event of a medical emergency, call a doctor or 911 immediately. GoVeganWay.com does not recommend or endorse any specific groups, organizations, tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned inside.
Editor Picks –
Milos Pokimica is a doctor of natural medicine, clinical nutritionist, medical health and nutrition writer, and nutritional science advisor. Author of the book series Go Vegan? Review of Science, he also operates the natural health website GoVeganWay.com
Latest Articles –
Plant Based News
-
Marble Oatmeal Banana Bread
on April 18, 2025
-
This WFPB Burrito Is Oil-Free And Packed With Flavor
on April 18, 2025
-
10 Vegan Broccoli Recipes
on April 17, 2025
-
Gluten-Free Poppy Seed Tea Cake
on April 17, 2025
-
Kraft Heinz Launches First-Ever Plant-Based Dessert
on April 17, 2025
-
This Vegan Apple Cake Is Perfect For Easter Baking
on April 17, 2025
-
‘12 Mistakes New Vegans Make – And How To Combat Them’
on April 16, 2025
Top Health News — ScienceDaily
- A wearable smart insole can track how you walk, run and standon April 18, 2025
A new smart insole system that monitors how people walk in real time could help users improve posture and provide early warnings for conditions from plantar fasciitis to Parkinson’s disease.
- Nontraditional risk factors shed light on unexplained strokes in adults younger than 50on April 17, 2025
Among adults ages 18-49 (median age of 41 years) who were born with a hole in the upper chambers of their heart known as patent foramen ovale (PFO), strokes of unknown cause were more strongly associated with nontraditional risk factors, such as migraines, liver disease or cancer, rather than more typical factors such as high blood pressure.
- Cerebral palsy medications given to adults may not match needson April 17, 2025
Some medications are seen as a ‘fix-all’ solution, not addressing the root problem.
- Deep learning algorithm used to pinpoint potential disease-causing variants in non-coding regions of the human genomeon April 17, 2025
Researchers have successfully employed an algorithm to identify potential mutations which increase disease risk in the noncoding regions our DNA, which make up the vast majority of the human genome. The findings could serve as the basis for detecting disease-associated variants in a range of common diseases.
- New study reveals how cleft lip and cleft palate can ariseon April 17, 2025
Biologists have discovered that disruptions in transfer RNA function can lead to the development of cleft lip and cleft palate.
- Scientists ‘hack’ cell entry to supercharge cancer drugson April 17, 2025
Scientists could reshape cancer treatment by helping powerful drugs work better in the body by exploiting a surface protein called CD36 that helps pull substances into cells. This dramatically improves the uptake of a promising class of cancer-fighting drugs called PROTACs. The new drug design deliveries up to 22 times more of he drug inside cancer cells, and tumor suppression in mice.
- Study identifies new method for improving lung growth and function in preterm infantson April 17, 2025
A clinical trial conducted in a neonatal intensive care unit has identified a new treatment protocol to improve lung growth and function among preterm infants.
PubMed, #vegan-diet –
- Why is the medical profession reluctant to talk about diet change?on April 16, 2025
The intertwined crises of poor health, climate change, biodiversity loss and social injustice demand urgent action. Human activities, particularly fossil fuel use and the current food system, are key drivers of these crises. A transition to a plant-based diet, especially within healthcare systems, offers a significant opportunity to address these challenges. Diets high in animal products and ultra-processed foods are leading causes of chronic ill health and environmental degradation, while…
- Evaluation of protein intake and protein quality in New Zealand veganson April 16, 2025
Dietary protein provides indispensable amino acids (IAAs) that the body cannot synthesise. Past assessments of total protein intake from vegan populations in western, developed countries were found to be low but not necessarily below daily requirements. However, plant-sourced proteins generally have lower quantities of digestible IAAs as compared to animal-sourced proteins. Simply accounting for protein intake without considering AA profile and digestibility could overestimate protein […]
- Nutrient Intakes in Vegans, Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarians, Orthodox Fasters, and Omnivores in Russia: A Cross-Sectional Studyon April 15, 2025
In Eastern Europe, the number of vegetarians is growing, and the number of people adhering to Christian Lents is traditionally high. However, data on the nutritional value of plant-based diets in this part of the world are limited. The aim of this study was to compare the nutritional intakes of three groups with different plant-based patterns with that of omnivores in Russia, Moscow region. The nutrient intakes of 46 vegans, 49 lacto-ovo-vegetarians, 42 people who adhered to Orthodox Great […]
- Plant-Based Culinary Medicine Intervention Improves Cooking Behaviors, Diet Quality, and Skin Carotenoid Status in Adults at Risk of Heart Disease Participating in a Randomized Crossover Trialon April 12, 2025
Background: Culinary medicine (CM) interventions in teaching kitchens have emerged as novel approaches for influencing dietary behaviors, but their efficacy, content, and delivery vary. Objective: The effects of a virtual vegan CM intervention on behavioral determinants, cooking competencies, diet quality, and skin carotenoid status were assessed. Methods: This analysis from a 9-week randomized crossover study evaluated behavioral survey assessments, Whole Plant Food Density (WPFD) as a diet…
- The Influence of Vegan, Vegetarian, and Omnivorous Diets on Protein Metabolism: A Role for the Gut-Muscle Axis?on April 12, 2025
There has been a growing interest globally in vegan and vegetarian diets over the last decade for a combination of health, ethical, environmental, spiritual, and social reasons. In line with this popularity, research examining the role of plant-based food sources, including vegan and vegetarian diets, in supporting skeletal muscle remodeling and anabolism in humans has also received considerable attention. The emergence of the microbiota-gut-muscle axis, a bidirectional pathway where the gut…
Random Posts –
Featured Posts –

Latest from PubMed, #plant-based diet –
- Interaction of Genetics and Dietary Patterns Scored by the High Healthy Eating Index in Hyperhomocysteinaemia Influencing Cardiovascular Disease Riskby Sunmin Park on April 18, 2025
Hyperhomocysteinaemia has been associated with increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, but the complex interplay between genetic determinants and modifiable lifestyle factors in modulating homocysteine (HC) levels remains incompletely understood. We aimed to investigate the aetiology of hyperhomocysteinaemia by examining the interactions between genetic predisposition, dietary patterns and other lifestyle factors and their potential associations with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and CVD […]
- Recent Perspectives on the Pharmacological, Nutraceutical, Functional, and Therapeutic Properties of Moringa oleifera Plantby Muhammad Tayyab Arshad on April 18, 2025
The “miracle tree,” Moringa oleifera, has gained so much attention because of its spectacular nutritional profile and potential health benefits, making it one of the candidates for functional food product creation. The health benefits of M. oleifera are presented here in this review alongside its antioxidant conformation, bioactive constituents, and macro- and micronutrient conformation. Moringa is rapidly becoming a key and effective component in formulating healthy foodstuffs because of its…
- Consumption of steam explosion and fermentation-pretreated corn stover affects the growth performance of sheep by shifting the rumen microbiota community structureby Yong Wang on April 18, 2025
Corn stover is rich in lignocellulose, which results in low digestibility. Steam explosion is a hydrothermal pretreatment widely used to improve the digestibility of plant-based materials by inducing cell wall disruption through the rapid release of pressure. However, the impact of steam explosion-treated corn stover on the growth performance of sheep consuming it remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of steam explosion and Lactobacillus buchneri inoculation on the…
- Targeting Cytokine Dysregulation in Psoriasis: The Role of Dietary Interventions in Modulating the Immune Responseby Daniel Simancas-Racines on April 17, 2025
Psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated skin disease characterized by cytokine dysregulation. Pro-inflammatory mediators, including tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-17, and IL-23, play pivotal roles in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Emerging evidence suggests that dietary interventions can modulate cytokine activity, providing a complementary approach to standard therapies. This narrative review examines the impact of various dietary strategies, including a Mediterranean…
- Plant-based diet mitigated the risk of chronic kidney disease in overweight individualsby Yi-Chou Hou on April 17, 2025
Objectives Being overweight, with a body mass index >25, is associated with multiple comorbidities, including chronic kidney disease (CKD). A plant-based diet, such as a vegetarian or lacto-ovo vegetarian diet, serves as a preventive strategy for CKD in patients. We hypothesized that vegetarian diet lowers the occurrence of CKD in overweight subjects. Methods The retrospective study was performed in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital by self-paid health-exam. Age younger than 40 years old and the […]
- Gallic acid mitigates high-fat and high-carbohydrate diet-induced steatohepatitis by modulating the IRF6/PPARgamma signaling pathwayby Jiahao Qiu on April 16, 2025
Gallic acid (GA), a natural organic phenolic compound, is an abundant plant food bioactive substance present in many medicinal herbs. GA has anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities on multiple metabolic disorders. The present study was carried out to uncover the alleviating effects of GA on metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and the underlying mechanisms of its action. In this study, a mouse model of MASH induced by high-fat and high-carbohydrate diet […]