These pages put the verdict first, then compare explanations. The causal evidence grade and relative explanatory fit answer different questions; a leading model can still remain unproven.
Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Amyloid matters, but a model with several interacting causes fits better than an amyloid-first explanation.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Tau can spread, but nerve-cell vulnerability better explains some patterns of damage.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Damaged alpha-synuclein can matter, but Parkinson's appears to involve several routes to nerve-cell injury.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Brain inflammation can worsen injury, but is not established as the universal first cause.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Infection is not established as a required starting point for Alzheimer's disease.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Amyloid can interact with microbes in the lab. That does not establish infection as the reason Alzheimer's deposits form.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Detecting microbial material does not establish a living microbial community in healthy brain tissue.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Blood-vessel damage harms memory without establishing that it starts Alzheimer's protein changes.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Insulin-related problems may worsen disease, but are not established as its primary starting cause.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Cell energy failure can contribute, but interacting genes, proteins and inflammation fit better.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
A gut-first route may fit some people, but a mixture of gut-first and brain-first routes fits better.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Excess glutamate can add stress, but disruption of RNA handling fits more of the reviewed evidence.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Loss of normal RNA-handling functions can matter even when visible clumps do not explain the damage.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Fluid moves through the brain, but its role in the course of ordinary human brain disease is still uncertain.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Damaged proteins can spread in experiments. That does not establish spread as the main driver of natural disease.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Trials with a sham procedure have not established the claimed clinical benefit; a later brain-scan finding remains a limited research lead.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Clinical improvement and its proposed brain-plasticity mechanism are separate questions.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Antidepressants can help without proving depression is caused by a serotonin shortage. An inflammation-related explanation ranks higher in this review.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Dopamine matters for symptoms, but one dopamine pathway is not established as the main cause across schizophrenia.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Brain changes matter in addiction, but they do not explain every person's ability to stop.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Inflammation can affect mood, but a blood-test-defined cause of ordinary major depression is not yet confirmed.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Lasting benefit is not established as requiring the proposed two-step mechanism.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Leading among models compared
Magnesium has small, inconsistent sleep benefits in controlled studies; glycinate/threonate superiority and a proven human neural mediator are not established.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Small selected mouth-taping pilots report lower apnea indices; controlled evidence for tape alone remains insufficient, and closing a compensatory oral airway can worsen airflow.
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Low-dose LSD has real measurable effects, but sustained depression/anxiety relief from repeated microdosing remains unconfirmed beyond expectancy and concurrent care.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Mutations can cause cancer in defined settings, but including tissue conditions explains more of the evidence.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Cancer stem-cell roles can matter, but a universal fixed hierarchy fits less well than changing cell roles.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
A tumour's surroundings matter, but can restrain or promote cancer depending on the setting.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Altered sugar use can support cancer, but is not established as the general first cause.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Leading among models compared
Some defined cancers remain strongly dependent on a dominant driver, despite other genetic changes.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
DNA packaging can help cancer begin or persist, but it works alongside genetic and tissue changes.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
DNA errors can help cancers evolve, but their effects vary and can also restrict tumour growth.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Cancer cells can reuse ancient genes. That does not establish one ancient programme as the explanation for cancer.
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Altered gene-control marks can affect risk, but predicting cancer does not prove that the marks start it alone.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Immune control has strong support, but can hold cancer in check without removing every cancer cell.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
The immune system can shape cancers, but the same three-stage sequence is not established for every tumour.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Laboratory findings have not established meaningful cancer benefit from promoted human regimens, and cyanide poisoning is a documented risk.
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Excess adiposity is a credible contributor to early-onset colorectal cancer, but its precise causal effect before50 and its share of the incidence rise remain less securely identified than the broader colorectal-cancer link.
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Galleri detects real cancers, but a cancer-mortality benefit remains unestablished; the2026 primary stage endpoint was null and its favorable secondary stageIV result requires clinical follow-up.
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Some marks affect genes in particular settings. A universal combination-based code is not established.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Some nuclear structures behave like droplets, but several physical mechanisms can work together.
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DNA folding helps some genes turn on, but it is not a master switch for all gene activity.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
The nuclear lining can affect DNA organisation and gene activity, but contact with the edge is not a universal off switch.
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DNA packaging changes may add to ageing-related harm, but are not established as the main ageing clock.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Accessible DNA can help gene activity, but an 'open' DNA test does not by itself show that a gene can be switched on.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Large enhancer clusters can be important, but the 'super-enhancer' label does not prove that they all work by one special mechanism.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Genes can be active without a continuously detectable DNA contact; brief contacts and effects at particular genes remain possible.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Protein assemblies help control genes without proving a liquid state is required.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Some RNAs help build specific nuclear structures; a supporting RNA mesh across the whole genome is not yet established.
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Xist helps silence a chromosome, but a continuous direct scaffold is not established as the mechanism.
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Microbes and diet interact, but microbial composition is not established as a universal disease switch.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Gut microbes may influence some responses, but are not established as a primary cause of psychiatric disease.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
There is limited causal evidence, but a model combining diet, the body and microbes fits better than microbes alone.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Gut-barrier changes may worsen some conditions, but a universal initiating cause is not established.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Oral inflammation may affect other systems, but direct microbial causation across many diseases is not established.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Inflammation can add to ageing-related damage, but is not established as an independent master cause.
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Infections can contribute, but genes, tissue injury and immune regulation affect who develops disease.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Inflammation can worsen severe COVID-19, but one universal cytokine storm does not explain the disease.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Lasting immune responses have causal support in defined settings, but depend on the challenge and cell type.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Immune exhaustion matters, but it is not established as the one main route by which solid tumours escape.
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Lingering viral material may contribute, but several lasting post-infection processes fit the varied symptoms better.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Some microbial exposures shape immunity, but the broad claim across allergies and autoimmune disease is not established.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Avoiding childhood vaccination has no demonstrated autism-prevention benefit and leaves children without protection from particular infections.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Free radicals can damage cells, but reducing them is not established as a general way to slow human ageing.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
mTOR is influential, but is not established as the single central cause of ageing.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Eating less affects several ageing pathways. A longer human lifespan is not established by this review.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
NAD-related changes involve several pathways. They do not establish a general human anti-ageing benefit.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Some persistent senescent cells worsen tissue problems, but a broad human anti-ageing claim is not established.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Damaged telomeres can cause tissue disease, but their role as the main driver of ordinary human aging remains unresolved.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Changing gene-control patterns may improve some measures, but reversing normal ageing through information restoration remains unproven.
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Benefits in particular conditions do not establish a general anti-ageing effect in people without diabetes.
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Creatine can preserve selected cognitive performance under experimental energetic stress; evidence for routine enhancement in rested healthy adults is inconsistent, and the brain mediator remains unisolated.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Leading among models compared
Systemic menopausal hormone therapy has replicated causal benefit for bothersome vasomotor symptoms. Cardiovascular or dementia prevention, and testosterone benefits outside diagnosed HSDD, require separate appraisal.
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Higher protein intake can improve selected muscle outcomes in some nutritionally vulnerable older adults; adequate-intake cohorts often gain little, and lean-mass changes do not establish stronger or more functional muscle.
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CJC-1295 and ipamorelin can stimulate GH, but the marketed combination has no verified human physical-recovery benefit in this bounded review.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Leading among models compared
Shingles vaccination has promising local causal evidence for preventing or delaying dementia diagnoses; product-wide efficacy, causal magnitude and the mediator remain unsettled.
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Partial reprogramming has genuine preclinical functional benefits and an early human ocular trial; controlled human healthspan benefit and broad long-term safety remain unestablished.
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NMN raises blood NAD; older-adult gait signals are tentative and inconsistent, with no established broader physical or longevity benefit.
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Rapamycin has strong animal longevity evidence, but intermittent dosing has not yet established improved physical function in otherwise healthy older adults.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
LDL exposure has strong causal support. A wider model including other artery-retained particles explains more.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Carbohydrates change insulin, but that does not establish insulin as the main cause of common obesity.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Some ultra-processed diets increase intake, but texture, energy density and appeal explain more than the processing label alone.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Low vitamin D can mark poor health without causing every associated disease.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Replacing saturated fat can reduce heart risk in defined settings; what replaces it matters.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Prenatal conditions can affect later disease risk, but birthweight alone does not prove the cause or determine the future.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Leading among models compared
Retatrutide causes substantial weight loss in supervised trials; superiority to modern obesity drugs and equivalence of online research vials remain unestablished in this review.
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Aerobic training improves fitness in many settings; evidence for an exclusive below-first-threshold prescription remains limited by exposure definitions and mixed results.
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Semaglutide works at tested clinical doses; sustained weight-loss efficacy of weekly maintenance strictly below 0.5 mg remains unestablished in this review.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Leading among models compared
Particles are detected in cardiovascular samples and associate with events; their causal contribution at real-world human exposure and the clinical benefit of detox remain unresolved.
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LA-rich oil replacement reliably changes lipid markers; exact coronary-event benefit needs more careful source and intervention separation, while blanket inflammatory harm and carnivore superiority remain unproved.
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Pasteurized MucT reduced weight regain in a 2026 trial; broader clinical glycemic benefits and interchangeability with other products remain unestablished.
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Sauna changes cardiovascular physiology and may improve selected clinical function, but the evidence does not yet establish that habitual sauna itself prevents hard cardiovascular events across adults.
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Lifestyle treatment can improve MASH histology; fibrosis reversal, liver-death prevention and weight loss as the sole mediator require stronger direct evidence.
Reader-first lay guide Expert critique with citationsRelative explanatory fit: Leading among models compared
Defined berberine can improve short-term T2D glycemic control; modern GLP-1 equivalence, broad weight-loss claims and exact glutathione/NMN stack benefits require separate evidence.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Promising animal findings do not establish that BPC-157 safely heals tendons, ligaments or the gut in people.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
Cell experiments do not establish that Epitalon extends healthy human life.
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Relative explanatory fit: Alternative ranked ahead
MOTS-c has effects in rodents; lasting health benefits from giving it to people remain unproven.
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Results from regulated GLP-1 medicines cannot be assumed to apply to unregulated products.
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Relative explanatory fit: Leading among models compared
Persistent cancer-causing HPV is required for the common HPV-related cervical cancer pathway, but infection alone is not enough.
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Relative explanatory fit: Leading among models compared
Smoking is a well-established major cause of lung cancer. Stopping reduces risk, though smoking does not cause every lung cancer.
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Relative explanatory fit: Leading among models compared
H. pylori is a well-established major cause of peptic ulcers, though ulcers can have other causes.
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Relative explanatory fit: Leading among models compared
Early control of phenylalanine in PKU prevents the severe brain-development harm of untreated disease.
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Relative explanatory fit: Leading among models compared
HIV causes HIV-associated AIDS; treatment and prevention change that course.
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