Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
Some scientists think taking fish oil and a low-dose aspirin together might help your gums heal better by reducing inflammation, but recent good-quality studies haven’t shown a clear benefit — so it’s still uncertain if it actually works.
Mechanistic
Your body makes natural chemicals from omega-3 fats (like those in fish oil) that help stop gum inflammation and protect your jawbone — but doctors rarely check if these chemicals are present when testing treatments for gum disease.
Taking omega-3 supplements (like fish oil) along with a deep dental cleaning might help your gums heal a little better by reducing swelling and inflammation, leading to tighter gum attachment around your teeth.
Correlational
A diabetes drug called Exendin-4 helps some pancreatic cells survive when they’re attacked by a harmful chemical called hydrogen peroxide, boosting their survival by up to 38%, but it doesn’t help when other toxins are used—and it doesn’t turn on the cell’s natural defense genes, so it’s probably not working by fighting free radicals.
Even though NAC is known to fight harmful free radicals, in lab tests on insulin-producing pancreatic cells, it didn’t help protect them from damage caused by a chemical called streptozotocin—and it didn’t turn on the cells’ natural defense genes either.
Even though isoorientin looks a lot like a compound called aspalathin that’s good for protecting insulin-producing cells, it doesn’t help those cells survive stress or damage — it’s basically inactive in this case.
Descriptive
A natural tea extract called Green Rooibos might help protect insulin-producing cells in the pancreas from damage caused by stress and bad fats, keeping more of them alive—and it does this in a way that doesn’t rely on the body’s usual defense system.
Certain natural compounds from Rooibos tea, called aspalathin and 3-hydroxyphloretin, help protect insulin-producing cells in the pancreas from damage caused by stress, possibly by turning on the body’s natural defense genes and turning off genes that cause cell death.
If your pancreas isn't making enough digestive juices, taking vitamin D pills won't help because your body can't absorb the vitamin properly—it needs fat to soak it up, and your pancreas isn't helping with that.
Your body doesn't make enough vitamin D not because you're not getting enough sun or food, but because your pancreas or liver isn't working right — so the deficiency is a sign of a deeper problem, not the root cause.
When your pancreas doesn't make enough digestive juices, your body can't properly absorb vitamins A, D, E, and K from your food—so you might end up low on all of them at once.
Your body needs to digest fats properly to absorb vitamin D from food—like how oil helps dissolve and carry the vitamin into your bloodstream.
Vitamin D and vitamin A work together like a team to help your body calm down inflammation and fight off germs better than either one could alone.
Omega-3s, like those in fish oil, help your body make natural chemicals that shut down inflammation when it’s no longer needed—kind of like hitting the 'off' switch after a fire alarm goes off.
Compounds found in rooibos tea may help keep the insulin-producing cells in your pancreas safe from damage caused by too much sugar and fat, which could help prevent diabetes.
NAC is a supplement that helps your liver make more of a natural cleaning chemical called glutathione, which helps your body get rid of toxins.
When your liver is under stress and starts leaking certain enzymes into the blood, it can trigger inflammation in your pancreas too—because the body’s inflammatory signals spread through the bloodstream like a ripple effect.
When your pancreas doesn't make enough digestive enzymes, your body can't break down fats properly, so you can't absorb important vitamins like A, D, E, and K from your food — leading to deficiencies.
If a patient’s bilirubin (a liver marker) goes above 40 µmol/L 20 days after transplant, they’re much more likely to die — no matter if they got NAC or not.
Giving a common antioxidant called NAC to patients before a bone marrow transplant doesn't seem to make them any more or less likely to have serious complications like liver damage, rejection, or even death, compared to how patients did in the past without NAC.
When people get a special type of bone marrow transplant, they take a strong drug called busulfan to wipe out their old blood cells. Giving them a common antioxidant called NAC at a high dose doesn’t change how busulfan works in the body, so it won’t mess up the treatment’s ability to kill bad cells.
When people get a special type of bone marrow transplant, giving them a common supplement called NAC twice a day might help protect their liver — in one study, far fewer patients on NAC had high levels of a liver damage marker called bilirubin compared to those who didn’t get it.
When people get ready for a bone marrow transplant and take a special drug called busulfan, giving them a common supplement called NAC twice a day might help protect their liver — studies show their liver enzymes, which go up when the liver is stressed, often drop back to normal in about 1 in 3 patients who started with high levels.
When sugar-producing cells in rats are under stress from harmful molecules, two natural compounds called aspalathin and 3-hydroxyphloretin help the cells fight back by turning on their internal defense genes and turning off a gene that makes stress worse.