No, Oatmeal Does Not Cause Inflammation (And It Might Even Reduce It)

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Today’s Health Upgrade

• A potential major Alzheimer’s breakthrough

• The hydration playbook

• Oatmeal and inflammation

• Adam’s Corner: Is what you want right in front of you?

On Our Radar
Scientists Find Missing Nutrient May Be Linked to Alzheimer's Risk

If you've ever wondered why some people maintain sharp memories well into their golden years while others don't, Harvard researchers may have found a crucial piece of the puzzle, one involving an element most of us have never considered for brain health.

New research suggests that reduced lithium levels in the brain may contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease, and restoring those levels could be protective.

Researchers analyzed hundreds of human brain tissue samples from people with normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's disease. Of all the metals they tested, lithium was the only one consistently reduced in the brains of individuals with cognitive decline, even at the earliest stages. When they fed mice lithium-deficient diets, the animals rapidly developed the hallmark signs of Alzheimer's: amyloid plaques, tau tangles, brain inflammation, and memory loss.

Here's where it gets interesting: the team treated mice with advanced Alzheimer's-like symptoms using lithium orotate, a form that bypasses the brain's amyloid deposits. The results were remarkable: memory loss reversed and brain pathology improved, even in late-stage disease. The effective dose was about 1,000 times lower than lithium levels used to treat bipolar disorder, with no signs of toxicity.

The researchers believe lithium deficiency allows a harmful enzyme (called GSK3β) to run unchecked in the brain, triggering the cascade of damage we see in Alzheimer's disease. Think of lithium as a natural brake system that keeps this destructive process in check.

This does not mean scientists have solved Alzheimer’s, but it does provide a new direction for human clinical trials that offers hope.

This research is exciting because it identifies a potentially modifiable factor in Alzheimer's development and offers hope for a new therapeutic approach. But we need more human studies and outcomes before any recommendations can be made.

Together With LMNT 
The Hydration Playbook 

Most people worry about hydration the same way they worry about supplements: Am I doing enough? Am I doing it wrong?

The truth is calmer and more empowering. 

Depending on the activity, proper hydration can quietly be the key to better performance.

Scientists have spent years trying to separate hydration myths from real performance effects. So if you’ve ever wondered if hydration meaningfully improves strength or endurance, today’s breakdown will help you understand if you need an extra water break.

If you’re running, cycling, or doing any endurance exercise, a large meta-analysis of 64 trials found that hydration directly influences performance and increases fatigue, especially during longer sessions (over 1 hour) or in hot conditions. And that wasn’t all. Poor hydration also decreases VO2 max and lactate threshold. 

If resistance training is your preferred form of exercise, a meta-analysis of 28 studies showed that dehydration reduced muscle endurance by nearly 10 percent, strength by 5 percent, and power by 6 percent. 

Dehydration is a stealthy enemy. It doesn’t wreck performance all at once. It slowly increases cardiovascular strain, limits cooling, and alters neuromuscular function. Short workouts simply don’t push those systems far enough for hydration to become limiting.

So if your workout lasts 60 minutes or unless you sweat a lot or train in hot conditions, normal hydration is likely fine. And studies suggest that showing up hydrated — and making sure you drink enough before your workout — might matter more than sipping mid-set. 

For longer sessions (think 1-2+ hours), you’ll want to prioritize hydration before and sip on liquid throughout. The rule of thumb is to consume about 6-12 ounces (150–350 mL) for every 15-20 minutes of activity during your longer workouts.

Hydration is more about matching your needs to your activity so your body doesn’t burn out. 

If you struggle with hydration, LMNT is a great way to strengthen your weakness so your workouts don’t suffer. LMNT’s electrolyte mix offers a convenient solution without added sugar or artificial ingredients, helping you stay hydrated when your body needs it most. 

With sodium, potassium, and magnesium, LMNT helps replace the electrolytes your muscles (and brain) need to function well, either before or after your harder or longer workouts.

As a member of the village, you’ll get a free sample pack (8 packets) with all the flavors when you make any purchase.

Just use this link, and the free product will be automatically added to your cart as a thank-you for being part of the positive corner of the internet. If you don’t love the product, LMNT offers a no-questions-asked refund policy, so you’ll be satisfied no matter what. 

Fact or Fiction
Is Oatmeal Inflammatory?

Oatmeal has quietly become one of the most debated breakfast foods on the internet. To some, it’s a healthy breakfast. To others, it’s been labeled a “hidden inflammatory trigger” thanks to grain fear, carb anxiety, and warnings about so-called anti-nutrients.

So researchers asked a simple, important question: When real people eat oats, what actually happens to inflammation inside the body?

Scientists found that oatmeal does not increase inflammation and, for some people, may even reduce it.

A review of 23 randomized controlled trials examining oats and inflammatory markers on many demographics, from adults aged 18 to 98, to healthy individuals and those with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and overweight/obesity.

They measured real-world inflammatory outcomes and the same markers doctors use to assess chronic inflammation risk. 

Across all populations studied, no subgroup showed an increase in inflammation from oats.

In fact, people with elevated cholesterol saw reductions in CRP and IL-6, markers closely linked to cardiovascular risk.

Oats aren’t just “another grain.” They contain beta-glucan, a soluble fiber that slows glucose absorption and supports gut health, as well as unique antioxidants (avenanthramides) with anti-inflammatory effects. 

As for phytic acid or gluten fears? The trials measured actual outcomes, not theories. 

The researcher’s takeaway: In the worst case, oats do nothing for inflammation. The best case: They help lower inflammation, especially if your baseline risk is higher.

If you’ve been avoiding oatmeal out of fear that it causes inflammation, this analysis suggests you don’t need to. Unless you have a personal intolerance, oats are safe, fiber-rich, and cardioprotective, and may offer extra benefits if your cholesterol or metabolic health needs support.

Adam’s Corner
The Good Old Days Are Happening Quietly

The text message was about football.

Until it wasn’t. 

My younger brother and I were watching the Bears’ playoff game from different homes. I didn’t speak to him all game. But I knew he was watching. So when Caleb Williams threw a touchdown pass that didn’t seem possible — a ball that hung in the air just long enough to defy physics, logic, and common sense — I grabbed my phone to instinctively write Jordan.

Within a minute, we both had the same reaction.

Dad would’ve loved that.

It’s impossible to watch football without measuring moments by how my father would react. Great plays. Bad calls. Big moments that made sports feel like more than sports.

Just as I finished texting my brother, my ten-year-old son jumped into my arms. No warning because none was needed. Just a kid who was happy and wanted to be close.

I held him, felt his weight and the electric joy in his body, and suddenly I wasn’t just thinking about my dad anymore.

I was thinking about myself.

How many times had I jumped into my father’s arms without realizing I was spending something finite? How many more times would my son do this before one of us stopped?

The game kept moving. The Bears lost. My son couldn’t control his tears. I held him in his sadness. The scene was all too familiar. I was my dad. My son was me. 

In a moment of disappointment, there was joy. The moment was bigger than football.

But, later that night, my mind was elsewhere. Just as it had been for the last few months. In that moment of joy and nostalgia, there was something else. Something that felt like it didn’t belong. 

I couldn’t stop thinking about death.

I’m Not Happier Because Life Got Better

Recently, I’ve noticed a strange undercurrent beneath otherwise normal days. At stoplights. During work. Standing in the kitchen, doing nothing in particular.

It’s not sadness or anxiety. It’s awareness. Of time. Of how quickly moments arrive and disappear. Of how rarely we notice them while they’re still here.

At first, I assumed this was just grief finding another way in. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Missing my dad still comes in waves, unexpected and inconvenient. Certain songs. Certain games. Certain silences.

But recently it’s been different. Thinking about death wasn’t pulling me backward. It was pulling me into the present.

At first, I thought that maybe it’s because I’ve been feeling the lesson every parent has told me about how fast it all goes. And with that comes urgency. Not the frantic kind. The quiet kind. The kind that asks a harder question:

Am I only enjoying my life because things are good right now?

Because if that’s true, it’s fragile. Temporary. Built on conditions that can change without asking your permission.

And that question sent me down a path I didn’t expect: thinking about happiness, hardship, and why thinking about death has made me feel more alive than I have in years.

Here’s the strange part. The part I didn’t see coming.

The more I think about death, the more grateful I feel.

Not in a performative, “live every day like it’s your last” way. That kind of thinking usually just adds pressure. Makes you feel like you’re failing at joy.

This is quieter than that.

It’s the recognition that these might be the good old days. That this version of your life — imperfect, unresolved, unfinished — is not a warm-up act for something better. It is the thing.

And when you truly see that, something shifts.

You don’t just feel grateful in hindsight. You feel it in real time.

You notice the ordinary moments while they’re happening. You don’t rush past them so quickly. You stay a second longer. You listen instead of waiting to talk. You look up instead of down.

Presence sneaks in through the side door. It’s what happened during the Bears game.

And like the unfortunate outcome of the game, what surprised me most is that this didn’t arrive because life suddenly got easier. If anything, the opposite is true.

I have relationships that feel strained and unresolved — ones I care deeply about but haven’t figured out how to fix. I carry burdens that haven’t lifted. Physically, I’m dealing with aches and limitations I haven’t experienced in more than twenty years. Some days my body feels like it’s negotiating with me instead of working with me. 

So what changed? It wasn’t my circumstances.

It was my perspective.

After years marked by loss, disappointment, and a kind of quiet exhaustion, I’ve learned something I don’t think I could’ve learned any other way:

Hard seasons don’t just steal from you. They teach you what’s worth keeping.

The dark days sharpen the light ones. The sad days give happiness its contrast. Without them, joy becomes vague, something you chase instead of something you recognize when it’s sitting right in front of you.

And when things finally tilt even slightly in your favor, you’re ready. You don’t miss it. You don’t postpone your appreciation. You’re there for it.

That’s the paradox: presence doesn’t come from everything being okay. It comes from knowing everything won’t always be.

Once you accept that, even difficult days take on a different texture. They’re still hard. Still painful. Still frustrating.

But they’re alive.

When you stop waiting for life to feel meaningful, you start noticing that meaning has been quietly accumulating all along.

So is life suddenly great? Or have I simply learned to appreciate more of what I already have?

To choose looking up instead of down. To accept that today can still be my day, even if yesterday wasn’t.

To live with the understanding that tomorrow is promised to no one, which makes this moment — this conversation, this walk, this ordinary Thursday — worth showing up for.

I don’t know if you get that kind of perspective without pain.

I hope you can.

But if pain is the price of presence, then the least we can do is treat it like a blue-chip stock: hold onto it long enough to see what it’s worth. Let it appreciate. Let it teach you how to live, not just to survive.

I don’t know what season you’re in right now. Maybe things are finally going your way. Maybe you’re in the middle of something that feels endless and unfair.

But I do know this: learning to appreciate what you have in the moment, not after it’s gone, has a way of making every moment feel a little more bearable. Sometimes even beautiful.

And that small shift — nothing flashy, nothing forced — might be all it takes for life to start feeling like it’s quietly, steadily, moving in your favor. -AB

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell