At Brighter Health we take a holistic approach to health and wellness that incorporates physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental well-being. These characteristics of a person are all essential and interconnected. We offer distinctive viewpoints to help you build and develop a life with more awareness, meaning, energy, fulfillment, and purpose.
HOW BIFIDOBACTERIUM PRODUCES VITAMINS YOUR BODY NEEDS
Nutrition education teaches us to think about vitamins as substances we obtain from food: folate from leafy greens, B12 from animal products, riboflavin from dairy. This food-centric model is accurate as far as it goes, but it leaves out a…
CANDIDA, E. COLI, AND YOUR GUT: HOW BENEFICIAL BACTERIA KEEP THEM IN CHECK
Here is a fact that most people find unsettling when they first encounter it: Candida albicans, the fungal organism responsible for yeast infections, oral thrush, and in severe cases systemic fungal disease, is present in the guts of a majority…
WHY CHICORY ROOT FIBER IS ONE OF THE MOST RESEARCHED PREBIOTICS IN THE WORLD
Research depth is not a glamorous selling point. It does not generate the excitement of a breakthrough ingredient or the appeal of something newly discovered. Yet for anyone who actually wants to know whether a supplement will produce the results…
THE HISTORY AND MODERN SCIENCE OF LEMON BALM AS A SLEEP AID
There is something quietly remarkable about an herb that has been used to calm anxious minds and encourage sleep for more than two thousand years and has, in the twenty-first century, had that use validated by neuroscience. Most of what…
THE FRAGILITY PROBLEM WITH PROBIOTIC SUPPLEMENTS AND A SMARTER ALTERNATIVE
There is a reasonable assumption that most people make when they buy a supplement: that the active ingredient listed on the label is what they are actually consuming in the amount stated. For most supplement categories, this assumption holds reasonably…
HOW MAGNESIUM SUPPORTS GABA AND WHY THAT HELPS YOU WIND DOWN AT NIGHT
Winding down at night sounds simple enough in theory. The day ends, the lights dim, you lie down, and your body shifts into rest mode. In practice, for a surprising number of people, that transition is anything but automatic. The…
WHY REGULARITY IS ABOUT MORE THAN JUST FIBER INTAKE
The standard advice for improving bowel regularity is simple enough that it fits on a sticky note: eat more fiber, drink more water, exercise regularly. This advice is not wrong. All three factors genuinely contribute to normal bowel function, and…
HOW STRESS AND CORTISOL SABOTAGE YOUR SLEEP (AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT)
Stress and sleep have a relationship that most people understand intuitively: stress makes it harder to sleep, and poor sleep makes stress harder to manage. What is less commonly understood is just how mechanistically specific this relationship is. It is…
THE ROLE OF KILLER T-CELLS IN DEFENDING AGAINST ILLNESS AND INFECTION
Viruses are, in a sense, master infiltrators. They do not announce themselves at the gate. They slip inside your cells, hijack the cellular machinery, and begin producing copies of themselves while hiding behind the cell’s own membrane. From outside the…
DIETARY SOURCES OF TRYPTOPHAN VS. SUPPLEMENTATION: A PRACTICAL COMPARISON
Whenever a nutrient becomes associated with a specific health benefit, the same question tends to emerge: do I need a supplement, or can I just eat more of the right foods? It is a reasonable question, and in many cases,…













