Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
Fish oil only affects the cancer cells’ ability to handle stress — not the healthy liver or colon — which may mean it’s safer and more targeted.
Descriptive
Giving methylene blue while brain cells are still starved makes things worse — it only helps if you wait until oxygen and sugar are restored.
Unlike some toxins, methylene blue doesn’t make harmful free radicals in brain cells after they’ve been starved.
Mice with breast tumors that eat fish oil stay healthier and gain weight before treatment, while those on regular oil lose weight — suggesting fish oil helps fight cancer-related wasting.
Correlational
Methylene blue helps brain cells store more sugar as glycogen after being starved, which may help them recover energy later.
Mechanistic
Even when given an antioxidant (vitamin E), tumors in fish oil-fed mice still get more oxidative damage after chemo, meaning they’re already under more stress and can’t recover.
After brain cells are starved and then get oxygen and sugar back, methylene blue helps them make more of their main energy molecule.
Quantitative
Fish oil makes breast cancer tumors in mice produce less of an enzyme that protects them from oxidative damage, and this makes the cancer cells more vulnerable to chemotherapy.
Methylene blue fixes a key enzyme that helps brain cells start using sugar for energy after they’ve been starved.
Feeding mice a diet rich in fish oil changes the fat composition in their breast tumors, and those tumors grow slower when treated with a common cancer drug.
Methylene blue helps brain cells take in more sugar, which they need to make energy.
Methylene blue helps brain cells use oxygen more efficiently to make energy after they’ve been starved.
When brain cells are starved of oxygen and sugar and then get them back, giving them methylene blue right after helps more of them survive.
Even in overweight mice, the brain’s TRPM2 sensor still works — it can still turn on heat production in fat tissue.
Scientists traced a direct nerve connection from a brain region that controls hunger to the fat tissue that burns calories.
Turning on these brain cells makes a different heat-producing protein (IRF-4) go up in fat tissue, but not the usual one (UCP1) — meaning the body might be warming up in a new way.
When scientists turn on POMC brain cells with a chemical switch, mice get warmer — but if you block TRPM2 first, they don’t warm up at all.
When scientists block the TRPM2 sensor, the chemical that normally warms up the mice no longer works — the body temperature stays the same.
Injecting a chemical into the brain of mice makes certain brain cells active and raises their body temperature, even if they’re overweight.
When a specific chemical (ADPR) is added, it makes certain brain cells fire more, but if you block the TRPM2 sensor, this effect disappears.
Some brain cells that help control hunger and energy use have a special sensor (TRPM2) that can detect certain chemical signals, which might help them tell the body to burn more heat.
Mixing a high-PUFA olive oil (Arbequina) with a more stable one (Picual) makes the blend more heat-resistant—less gunk forms when you fry with it.
Some olive oils, like Picual and Cornicabra, handle high heat better than others—they keep more of their good stuff and make less gunk when cooked.
When you heat olive oil super hot, it starts forming gunk (polar compounds), but even at the highest temperature tested, it didn’t get bad enough to be considered unsafe for frying by food safety rules.