Brain Health Needs More Than Just a Supplement — It Needs a Personalized Plan

By Ryan Arnold, MD, CLAVA Health

Cognitive decline is unfortunately becoming increasingly common — whether due to longer lifespans, environmental toxins, chronic stress, or genetic predispositions, the exact causes are still revealing themselves. What’s clear is that the fear of losing your edge—your memory, focus, and mental sharpness—is a quiet but persistent concern, especially for high-performing individuals. But here’s the truth: the time to act isn’t when you’re already struggling. It’s now, while your mind is still clear and strong.

“It’s easier to cross a stream than a river.”

That simple idea captures today’s emerging understanding of brain health. Cognitive decline doesn’t happen all at once; it’s a slow build, influenced by genetics, inflammation, nutritional status, hormones, and environmental exposures, often long before symptoms appear. The sooner you act, the more power you have to preserve clarity, performance, and vitality.  Forget one-size-fits-all advice, because brain health isn’t driven by a single issue or disease. It’s shaped by a complex web of interrelated risks that look different for everyone. We now know that each person has a unique “fingerprint of risk,” and generic recommendations often fall short because they fail to address your specific needs.

That’s why the most important step you can take to stop guessing and take control of your future is a comprehensive assessment to define that fingerprint. This starts with a deep dive into your individual health story—something that functional medicine physicians specialize in. Rather than chasing isolated symptoms, they look for underlying imbalances that may quietly drive cognitive decline.

This same personalized approach, focused on identifying and addressing underlying causes, has been used successfully to slow and even reverse the course of cognitive decline. While it’s always easier to intervene before symptoms are present, this deep-dive assessment and tailored plan has been shown to help slow and, in some cases, reverse symptoms that have already manifested.

This evaluation typically includes genetic testing, blood and urine biomarker analysis, and an in-depth health and exposure history.  From there, your specific risk is mapped across six well-documented drivers of decline: inflammation, nutrient deficiencies, hormonal imbalance, cardiovascular health, microbiome imbalance (both oral and gut), and environmental toxicity. By understanding which of these systems are out of sync, you can finally begin applying interventions that are effective and personalized, because they’re based on you.

Once that fingerprint is defined, ongoing support becomes just as essential. Health is not static, and your care plan shouldn’t be, either. That’s where a personal health dashboard comes in—something like the TruNeura Health Dashboard. Instead of isolated data points and disjointed reports, a dashboard brings together lab results, wearable device data, and progress metrics into a single, evolving picture. It’s your “clarity engine,” offering real-time feedback on how your body responds to your specific interventions. You’re no longer relying on snapshots of your health, you’re watching a living, breathing movie of your well-being.

While your long-term plan should be tailored, there are three strategies that benefit every brain and become even more powerful when precision-guided.

First, get a handle on your glucose. Uncontrolled blood sugar is directly toxic to brain tissue. Using continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), along with expert interpretation, helps you see how your body responds to food, stress, and sleep—empowering you to reduce inflammation and protect your blood-brain barrier.

Second, fortify your brain at the cellular level with Omega-3s. These beneficial fats are the building blocks of your brain and heart. Testing with tools like OmegaQuant shows whether your levels are actually in the protective range. Optimizing your Omega-3 index has been shown to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s by up to 49%.

Third, do hard (and hot) things.  Regular sauna use is one of the most underused yet powerful tools for brain resilience. Studies have linked it to lower rates of dementia, better circulation, and improved detoxification, all of which help keep your brain sharp and adaptive.

Ultimately, brain health is not a coin toss. It’s a choice. You don’t have to wait for symptoms or hope for the best. With the right tools, the right data, and the right approach, you can take action upstream before decline begins, while the current is still easy to cross.

How Your Breathing Habits Can Wreak Havoc on Your Longevity—and Your Jawline

By Hedieh Samadi, a board-certified general dentist with an expertise in cosmetic and integrative dentistry.

I’m not a dermatologist or an aesthetician—I’m a dentist. But what I’ve learned from years of studying dental sleep medicine and TMJ dysfunctions might surprise you: the way you breathe at night can shape not only your health, but also your appearance. If your airway is blocked or your jaw is misaligned, you could be aging faster than you realize—sabotaging your complexion, energy, and even your longevity—all while you sleep.

Yes, it’s true your nighttime breathing habits can either ruin or rebuild your health. Your sleep habits and your jaw placement are more important than any serum, supplement or workout when it comes to regenerating cells and rejuvenating your body. And with all due respect, your $600 jar of La Mer may not be living its best life due to how you are sleeping.  Why? Because sleep is not just for rest; it’s where your health, beauty, and vitality are made or unmade. And if there are misalignments and blocked airways inhibiting proper oxygen consumption by your body, you are endangering not just your aesthetics but your longevity.

This is far more complex than just “breathing,” might I add.

As an integrative dentist and a lifelong student of health and longevity, my profession has taught me to realize that nighttime breathing is the most overlooked wellness treatment in America today. It’s the quiet, invisible elixir that sustains beauty, sharpens the mind, and fuels the energy needed to navigate our fast-paced days. Unfortunately, many people are not breathing correctly (breathing through the mouth) and or have untreated cases of sleep apnea that is ruining their health, longevity and complexion’s vitality.

While you sleep, your body’s cells are detoxifying, rebuilding, and rejuvenating, all in the absence of conscious thought. But this intricate process hinges on one simple yet critical element: uninterrupted oxygen flow.

When we breathe through the nose, our airways remain open, unobstructed, and oxygen-rich. This doesn’t just prevent snoring, it ensures that your body gets the blood flow it needs to optimize organ function, balance hormones, enhance immunity, and even encourage skin renewal. If you’re privy to the latest advancements in the wellness world then you’re well aware that modern dentistry is revolutionizing this space by evaluating the airway, its size, shape, and the way our jaw and tongue rest. With new techniques and research, we’re identifying and correcting hidden breathing disruptions before they damage our health. Root-cause dentistry is the quiet game-changer, improving lives and wellness one breath at a time.

How your jaw aligns when you sleep, your sleep posture and the shape of your upper airway can either nurture or obstruct your oxygen flow. This goes far beyond the snoring factor. Even subtle airway resistance can fragment your sleep, igniting inflammation and triggering a cascade of issues, from anxiety to cardiovascular disease.

For women, this issue is especially important. Oxygen-rich sleep supports our hormonal stability, enhances fertility, and promotes healthy pregnancies. After menopause, it helps preserve bone density, protect the heart, and keep the mind sharp. And for young girls, proper nighttime breathing sets the foundation for emotional balance, cognitive development, and overall confidence.

With countless research and experience, my peers and I have also concluded that mouth breathing it’s not just a breathing problem, it is an aesthetic face problem. Mouth breathing isn’t just disruptive to your sleep it’s also reshaping your face. You read that right. Long-term mouth breathing can alter the natural contour of your jawline, leading to a weaker, less defined facial structure. This shift happens subtly, but over time, it can rob you of the strong, youthful profile that comes from proper nasal breathing. Aesthetics aside, these changes can also affect your ability to chew, speak, and even breathe properly during the day.

When your airway is clear, the body enters its most restorative state. The brain detoxes, hormones rebalance, and every organ, including your skin receives the nourishment it craves. The results? A luminous, “lit-from-within” glow no highlighter could replicate, sharper mental clarity, and an energy level that feels limitless.

I know this transformation personally. When I optimized my own airway during sleep, my memory improved, my skin looked fresher, and my focus sharpened. The same happens for my patients. They come to me exhausted and irritable, only to return weeks later with brighter eyes, steadier moods, and an undeniable lightness in their step.

So what to do? Get tested with the appropriate integrative dentists in the field specializing in jaw structure and sleep. One of the most effective and discreet solutions is oral appliance therapy, which gently repositions the lower jaw to keep the airway open all night long. This  is comfortable and life-changing, this therapy can improve mood, mental clarity, metabolism, skin tone, and even intimacy. All from simply breathing better while you sleep.

The truth is that beauty and wellness share a single foundation: deep, oxygen-rich sleep. Without it, no serum, supplement, or workout can truly deliver its full promise. With it, you don’t just look better you live better long term.

So, please consider your sleep patterns. Are you a mouth breather? Are you still waking up tired?  If you’re serious about lasting health and beauty, your next step isn’t in the gym or at the cosmetic counter—it’s in how you breathe at night. Because sleep is where your body heals, restores, and reveals its true vitality. Change your breathing, and you change your life!

Why Your NAD+ Should Be Taken Nasally for Optimal Results

By Nayan Patel, PharmD—a pharmacist, wellness expert, and the CEO and founder of Auro Wellness.

NAD+, known in the medical circles as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, is one of the body’s most indispensable molecules. It powers how our cells create energy, helps repair DNA, and supports resilience against everyday stress. In many ways, NAD+ works behind the scenes to preserve cellular efficiency, supporting the body’s energy and overall resilience. From a vanity standpoint, that means: all in all, it makes us look younger, and keeps us looking younger. 

When we talk about healthy aging, few molecules carry as much weight as NAD+. Yet, as we grow older, NAD+ levels steadily decline by as much as 50 percent in some tissues. That decline doesn’t just leave the body fatigued; it sets the stage for inflammation, cognitive decline, and chronic disease.

For years, the wellness industry has searched for ways to restore NAD+. Oral precursors like nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) and nicotinamide riboside (NR) have become popular, and intravenous NAD+ infusions are offered in clinics across the country. But both approaches have real limitations—and when it comes to NAD+ therapies, not all methods are created equal. Oral precursors can be helpful, but much of their benefit is filtered through digestion and metabolism before ever reaching sensitive organs like the brain. IV therapy works quickly, but it’s costly, and often cleared by the liver before enough NAD+ reaches target tissues. Oral capsules of NAD+ itself are poorly absorbed, and IV infusions, while effective in the short-term, are invasive. Nasal delivery stands out for being practical, research-backed, and accessible. For consumers, the key is to look for products with transparent science and delivery methods that ensure NAD+ actually reaches where it matters most.

Nasal delivery offers what I consider the most promising approach to at-home NAD+ replenishment today. The nasal cavity provides a direct pathway to the brain through olfactory and trigeminal nerve routes, bypassing the digestive system and even the blood–brain barrier (BBB). Preclinical studies have shown that intranasal NAD+ can penetrate brain tissue within minutes, enhancing neuronal energy, mitigating inflammation, and providing protection against damage from critical events like stroke or injury. In clinical settings, patients commonly report clearer cognition, better concentration, and higher energy levels, all achieved through a non-invasive, self-administered approach.

As research on longevity continues, one truth is clear: keeping NAD+ levels robust is central to staying healthy as we age. Nasal delivery offers a smarter, science-backed way to do just that, bringing the promise of cellular renewal into the hands of everyday people.