The Swell Score

Ever walked into a room and forgotten why you went in? After 50, moments like that can feel scary, and most of us jump straight to the worst-case explanation.

But brain fog is a symptom, not a diagnosis. And a lot of what drives it is common, easy to check, and often very treatable.

Gary asked our medical reviewer, Dr. Leslie Valle-Montoya, M.D., to walk us through the causes she sees most often, from hormonal shifts and poor sleep to stress, medications and a few things a routine blood test can catch. Swipe through all seven. A few of them might surprise you.

A few things worth remembering:
• Feeling foggy now and then doesn’t mean something is seriously wrong
• Several of these causes can show up together, so it helps to look at the whole picture
• Your doctor is the best place to start, especially if you’re on several prescriptions or your sleep has changed

Comment GUIDE and we’ll send you the full doctor-reviewed article, with the sources and the questions to bring to your next appointment. Save this for your next checkup.

This post is for education only and isn’t medical advice. Please talk to your healthcare provider before changing any medication or treatment.

#BrainFog #HealthyAging #Over50 #Menopause #SleepHealth CognitiveHealth LongevityLifestyle TheSwellScore

The Swell Score

15h ago

The FDA’s safety review for lab-grown meat is voluntary.

One maker’s FDA file shows antibiotics were used to start its cell lines, and one line was engineered to keep dividing. The maker says no antibiotics are used once the cells are growing.

So when a review found little or no data on adding growth factors to food, it was already on US menus. Scientists at a lab-grown meat company helped write that review (PMID 38725377).

We searched the medical literature and the federal trial registry for a study of what eating it does to people. We found none.

That isn’t proof it’s unsafe. The FDA raised no safety questions, and the USDA inspects the plants that make lab-grown chicken. The UN’s food and health agencies say most of its possible hazards also exist in regular food.

Italy’s ban was also about protecting its food heritage and farms.

Before we stock anything, we check its third-party lab results against the label. For lab-grown meat, there’s no human study to check.

Would you eat it? Tell us below.

Share this with someone who cooks for their family.

Source: https://www.fda.gov/food/hfp-constituent-updates/fda-completes-first-pre-market-consultation-human-food-made-using-animal-cell-culture-technology

Source material
https://www.instagram.com/thefarmacyreal/p/DexDat7KwOR/

The Swell Score

6d ago

California does have a daily number for glycidol. It decides when a product needs a cancer warning, not how much a snack can hold.

The US Food and Drug Administration has no binding limit for glycidol in food, so how much a snack carries is up to the maker.

So when a blood study of 50 Swedish children found their glycidol intake was about twice Europe’s estimate, the US set no limit. (Aasa et al., 2019, PMID 30717263)

To be clear, glycidol has no human cancer studies yet, only animal and lab ones. Most diets already go over California’s number. Takis had the most per serving in Consumer Reports’ tests, but it isn’t a kid’s main source. By our math, Takis would likely come in under Europe’s new limit.

That isn’t a reason to panic. It’s a reason to keep refined-oil snacks occasional, organic or not. Refined organic palm oil carries no less glycidol than conventional. (Santiago et al., 2021, PMID 33648232)

Before we stock a supplement, we check its third-party lab results against the label. For glycidol in snacks, the label has nothing to check.

Share this with a parent whose kid loves Takis.

Source: https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-contaminants/contaminants-in-kids-snacks-a1320989661/

Source material
https://www.instagram.com/p/DerzuRyq_R3/

The Swell Score

8d ago

Your skin can flag what’s happening inside. It can’t diagnose it.

Insulin resistance is linked to two of these signs. US survey data found it in 4 in 10 adults aged 18 to 44 without diabetes, and nearly half of them weren’t obese.

Diabetes screening checks blood sugar, which can look normal while insulin resistance builds. That’s why step one asks for both tests.

The American Diabetes Association counts dark velvety patches as a reason to test adults who carry extra weight.

One skin tag is common. Studies linked a cluster to insulin resistance.

Brown patches on the face are linked to hormones and sun. A study that checked the liver found no link.

Yellow eyelid patches predicted heart attacks over 33 years in 12,745 Danes, even after accounting for cholesterol.

In trials, walking soon after a meal lowered blood sugar spikes most.

A clue is a reason to ask your doctor, not a reason to panic.

Share this with someone who has diabetes or heart disease in the family.

PMID: 28007053, 31769902, 20464083, 32180596, 30479858, 34473288, 35904706, 19486232, 39093647, 31499151, 21920887, 41358893, 36715875, 39430643, 33609335

The Swell Score

10d ago

FDA rules do make a supplement say which vitamin D is in the bottle.
They just let it sit in parentheses or the ingredient list, under the same two words both forms share.

So when a 6-month winter trial of 436 adults over 60 tested both, only the D3 group kept its vitamin D steady. The group on D2 from mushrooms dropped, just like placebo. Both still go on the label as vitamin D.

That doesn’t make D2 poison. Pooled studies show it still raises total vitamin D. A 2026 review of 26 studies found it raised blood calcium and lowered the hormone that pulls calcium from bone.

The fix is knowing which form you take.

Reading fine print is our medical team’s job. On vitamin D, it’s one word.

If yours is a prescription, don’t change it on your own. Ask your doctor which form it is.

Share this with someone you care about.

PMID: 40973107, 38458370, 27052537, 22623385, 33339304, 40601932, 28679555, 37865222, 35281034

The Swell Score

14d ago

In 2022, the appliance industry wrote a test for how well purifiers remove gases. The rating on the box still covers smoke, dust and pollen.

That test is optional, and its gas rating isn’t on the label yet.

So when a blinded Johns Hopkins trial showed carbon-stage purifiers cutting nitrogen dioxide in real homes, it went into a journal, not onto a box.

This is not a case against particle filters. Particles did about 84% of the harm in that 2024 ranking, and the rating covers them well.

The purifier industry has spent decades selling gas filters under a rating built for particles.

Our medical team vetted a purifier against it. That trial used Austin Air’s standard HealthMate, on units Austin donated, and measured nitrogen dioxide, not formaldehyde. We found no trial yet of the Plus’s added carbon.

Comment AIR and we’ll send you the purifier our medical team stands behind plus a 20% discount on your first unit

PMID: 38150532, 34449285, 24329966

The Swell Score

15d ago

In its 2027 budget request, the FDA asked Congress for power to set binding limits on contaminants in food.

The lead limits it already set for some baby foods are voluntary. Its microplastics page was last updated in July 2024.

So when a 2023 lab study found three minutes of microwaving could make a baby food container shed up to 4.22 million microplastics per square centimeter, there was no limit to hold that against. (Hussain et al., 2023, PMID 37343248)

The FDA says it continues to monitor the research.

This isn’t a reason to stop buying baby food. Consumer Reports isn’t telling parents to avoid anything it tested, and its heavy-metal results improved.

That lab number came from water, not food. And a 2026 review called the effects of microplastics on babies “poorly defined.” (Gaa et al., 2026, PMID 42100931)

It’s a reason to keep heat away from the plastic, and to ask who is checking.

Before we stock a supplement, we check its third-party lab results against the label. For microplastics in baby food, there isn’t a standard test yet.

Share this with someone you care about.

Source: https://www.consumerreports.org/babies-kids/baby-food/baby-foods-heavy-metals-microplastics-testing-a5925463846/

The Swell Score

16d ago

Your brain burns about a fifth of your energy every day, and it runs on a short list of nutrients to build its cells, make its messengers, and protect its wiring.

When one runs low, it often shows up as a brain problem first. Brain fog, low energy, poor focus, a flat mood. Easy to blame on stress or age, when it can be a nutrient gap no one checked.

The reassuring part: most of this comes from everyday food. Eggs, oily fish, leafy greens, legumes, nuts and seeds, a little meat or dairy cover most of the list.

And more is not automatically better. Supplements earn their place when there is a real gap, and a few (iron and vitamin D especially) cause problems in excess. The goal is not to max one nutrient, but to stop your brain running short on any of them.

For the real gaps, our medical team vetted the ones worth trusting. Doctor-curated, third-party tested.

Comment STORE and we’ll send you the link to shop them.

The Swell Score

21d ago

Hydrogen peroxide has been poured on cuts since the 1800s, and it fell out of clinical wound care years ago. The first-aid aisle never caught up.

A first-aid product only has to be safe to sell, not proven to help a wound heal. The label says antiseptic. It never says what that does to healing skin.

Peroxide is not poison. A quick rinse to lift dirt is not the same as soaking a healing cut, and the lab damage is dose dependent. The gap is that the aisle never tells you the difference.

So when a 2022 trial tested hypochlorous acid, the molecule your white blood cells make, on freshly made skin wounds, it was linked to faster early healing and lower bacterial counts than saline. By day ten saline caught up, so it is a faster start, not a miracle.

The first-aid industry spent decades selling century-old antiseptics and a 1950s antibiotic under a standard that never asked if they help a wound close.

Our medical team vetted Active Skin Repair against those three rules.

Comment REPAIR and we’ll send you the one our medical team stands behind.

(Rueda-Fernandez et al., 2022, PMID 35466431 / Smack et al., 1996, PMID 8805732 / Burian et al., 2022, PMID 35578822)

The Swell Score

23d ago

Food isn’t random when it comes to how you feel. But it isn’t the whole story of your anxiety either.

The mechanisms on these slides are real. They just aren’t equal.

Caffeine and alcohol have the strongest evidence. In one study, 71% of people with panic disorder said caffeine felt like their panic attacks. (Charney et al., 1985, PMID 2983630)

Sugar is tied more to low mood than to anxiety itself, and it’s the crash that can feel like panic. (2024 review, PMID 39479195)

Gluten only affects people with a real sensitivity, and most people are fine. The gut and brain do talk, but through inflammation, not gut serotonin reaching the brain.

Red Dye No. 40’s EU warning label and California ban are real, though most of that research was done in kids. (Miller et al., 2022, PMID 35484553)

None of this means the fix is a perfect diet, or that food replaces real support. It means a few everyday foods are worth a closer look, long before you blame yourself for how you feel.

Send this to someone who’s been under a lot of pressure lately.

The Swell Score

28d ago

Products

RiseWell Mineral Toothpaste

(20)

$12.00

RiseWell Natural Kids Mineral Toothpaste

(9)

$12.00

51% off

Membership – Save an avg of 20% on every order

(2)

$49.00$99.00

RiseWell Ph Balancing Mouthwash

(7)

$18.00

RiseWell: Teflon-Free Floss

(5)

$8.00

Microbiome Labs MegasporeBiotic Probiotic

(3)

$66.25

Puori Omega 3 Ultra Pure Fish Oil Capsules

(2)

$59.00

Meow Meow Tweet -Grapefruit Deodorant Stick

Meow Meow Tweet - Baking Soda Free Deodorant Stick

(9)

$14.00

Nodpod Sleep Mask

(6)

$38.00

3% off

biOptimizers Magnesium Breakthrough

(4)

$33.99$34.99

An 80-gram stand-up pouch of Got Matcha Black Label Ceremonial Matcha.

Got Matcha - Black Label Organic Ceremonial Matcha

(2)

$99.00

A white stand-up pouch of Got Matcha Organic Ceremonial Matcha with a dark green and gold label, shown on a plain white background.

Got Matcha - Organic Ceremonial Matcha Green Tea

(2)

$73.00

Natural Sloth Beeswax Candles

(1)

$17.00

Puori CP1 - Pure Collagen Peptides

$39.00

ION* Gut Support

(3)

$32.00

Quicksilver Liposomal Glutathione with Mint

(4)

$47.50

Thera360 Plus Portable Infrared Sauna by Therasage | Black Full Spectrum Infrared Sauna

(4)

$1,428.00

Zellie's Xylitol Gum - 100 ct

(4)

$13.99

Thorne Creatine Monohydrate | Strength, Power & Recovery Support

(3)

$44.00

Family Wellness Duo: RiseWell Mineral Toothpaste Set For Kids & Adult

(3)

$24.00

100% PURE – Long Last Eyeliner

(2)

$27.00

Quicksilver Liposomal Vitamin D3 K2 Maximum Absorption Formula

$55.00

20% off

Echo Flask Hydrogen Water Bottle - New!

(1)

$239.99$299.99

13% off

Higher Dose Matcha – The World's Most Potent, Smooth, and Antioxidant-Rich Matcha Green Tea

(2)

$59.95$69.00

RiseWell Fluoride-Free Oral Care Bundle

(1)

$38.00

Heirloom Cacao Powder - 1 Lb Bag | Organic Ecuador Superfood for Energy & Mood

(4)

$36.00

100% Pure - Bright Eyes Hydrating and Depuffing Eye Mask

$30.00

Kono Nutrition Full Body Hydrate+

(2)

$40.00

Thorne Travel Stick Pack Sample Bundle

(4)

$14.95

Plated Skin Science EYE Serum

(3)

$138.00

Products

Shopping designed around you.

Learn more

What is Shop?
Why trust Shop?
Why use Shop Pay?
Help center

Get started

For brands
For creators
For agents
Build your store

Social

Instagram

Legal

Terms of Service
Privacy Policy
Your Privacy Choices

Language