Insights

Exosomes vs. Stem Cells: A Simple Guide to Regenerative Medicine

Stem cells and exosomes get used interchangeably online, but they're not the same thing — and understanding the difference makes the rest of regenerative medicine easier to follow. This guide breaks down what each one actually does, why the way a treatment is delivered (IV vs. local injection) matters as much as what's delivered, and why results tend to build gradually over months rather than appear overnight. It also covers what patients can do — through nutrition, movement, and lifestyle habits — to support their body's response to treatment.

Sauna and Cold Plunge for Tissue Congestion: Why Two Rounds Beat One

Feeling puffy, stiff, or heavy every morning with no clear cause? It's usually not water weight — it's fluid trapped in the space around your cells with nowhere to drain. This guide breaks down why that happens, and why running your sauna session in two rounds with a cold plunge in between clears it out far better than one long sit. Includes ready-to-use morning and evening protocols.

'Tis the Season: School Is Back And Strep Came Out Swinging

Dr. Justin Dearing of The Dearing Clinic explains how strep's immune response can silently damage the heart and, as newer research shows, the brain — driving conditions from rheumatic heart disease to unexplained adult anxiety and brain fog. He outlines his two-track approach: immediate antibiotics for a positive test, herbal antiviral support for a negative one, plus an antifungal strategy to run alongside antibiotics. The post closes with a list of go-to plants and clear safety warnings against self-dosing.

Growth, Strength, and the Brain-Body Connection:What Your Young Athlete Is Actually Building

When a teen athlete's growth or strength plateaus, most parents look at protein intake and training load first. The real driver is often what happens overnight: growth hormone release, tied directly to sleep timing, does most of the work of building bone density and muscle in teenage athletes. That process depends on tryptophan — an amino acid the body can't store — being converted into serotonin and then melatonin every single day. Gut health, inflammation, iron levels, cortisol from overtraining, and a teenager's naturally delayed sleep clock can all interrupt that conversion before it happens naturally. Rather than reaching for a melatonin supplement, this piece breaks down how fermentable fiber, gut bacteria, morning light exposure, and high-impact movement support natural melatonin production and teen athlete recovery — plus which specific labs (Gut Zoomer, Organic Acids Testing) can show whether a young athlete's growth plateau is a nutrition and gut-health issue rather than a genetic ceiling.

The Vaccine Debate Opened a Door. Here's What's Behind It.

Dr. Justin Dearing asks whether medicine has any way to measure a child's immune readiness before vaccination. Drawing on PANDAS cases and a patient's neural antibody findings, he explores the immune system's possible role in brain-related symptoms, and points to upcoming September 2026 HHS/FDA findings on autism as something worth watching.

The New Alzheimer’s Blood Test Can Find Pathology Twenty Years Early. It Cannot Tell You What Caused It.

A new blood test can detect Alzheimer's pathology up to twenty years before symptoms appear, and new drugs can clear the amyloid it finds — but decline continues anyway. Dr. Justin Dearing explains why amyloid is likely a downstream marker rather than the root cause, and argues that the real opportunity lies in the two-decade window before diagnosis, when metabolic, immune, gut, and brain-network changes are already underway and largely unmeasured. Drawing on trials like FINGER and US POINTER, he makes the case for measuring — not just guessing — what's driving each person's risk, and for acting during the window rather than waiting for a positive test.

A Recovery No One Expected — Now in the Medical Record

A former NFL player diagnosed with early-onset dementia and post-concussive syndrome has a documented recovery — now published in peer-reviewed medical literature. Cognition, brain networks, and physical health all measurably improved. Here's what the data shows and why it matters.

You Cut the Wire, Not the Fire: The Truth About the Stellate Ganglion Block

The stellate ganglion block has become the go-to fix for PTSD and long COVID, and for good reason — patients describe real relief. But the block doesn't fix the nervous system; it just numbs the nerve carrying the alarm signal. This piece breaks down what's actually driving that alarm — neuroinflammation from the gut, past infections, or old injuries — and outlines a four-step approach to resetting the system itself instead of just muting it.

Is It Mold, Lyme, COVID, or Autoimmune?

Patients labeled with Lyme, mold illness, long COVID, or autoimmune disease often share the same symptoms: fatigue, brain fog, dizziness, and unresolved inflammation. This post argues that chasing a single trigger misses the real pattern — a gut-trained immune system that has lost its ability to regulate itself. It walks through how molecular mimicry, epitope spreading, EBV reactivation, and strep-related antibodies can push the immune system toward attacking the body's own tissue and brain, and why short chain fatty acids like butyrate are central to resetting that regulation. The piece closes with a reframe: instead of asking which diagnosis fits, ask what's keeping the immune system stuck on "attack," and how long it's been running.

Aging Well Means Staying Connected

Longevity tools track your body, but few address whether your brain and body are still communicating clearly. Here's why we treat the nervous system, not just the joint.

The Gut Problem You Can’t Buy Your Way Out Of

Most gut supplements are built for an "average" gut—which is why they work for some people and do nothing for others. This piece breaks down the five real reasons a gut can be out of balance, why your probiotic might be failing silently, and walks through an actual case where an unresolved gut imbalance was driving a young athlete's brain fog, anxiety, and stalled concussion recovery.

Why Half a Fix Never Lasts

If you can picture exactly what you want to do but can't make yourself do it, the problem usually isn't willpower — it's energy supply. The brain and gut run on a constant feedback loop, and when gut signals turn inflamed and noisy, the brain reads it as danger and shuts down its most expensive systems first: focus, drive, and goal-pursuit. That's why motivation fades even when the vision is still clear. Most people only ever fix one end of this loop (just the gut, or just the brain), which is why progress feels real for a few weeks and then quietly slides back. Lasting change requires calming the gut and retraining the brain's alarm setting at the same time — the latter through a gentle approach called ISF neurofeedback that works on the brain's deep "safe vs. danger" rhythms rather than surface-level chatter. Close both ends of the loop together, and the fatigue and stuck feeling don't just lift temporarily — they stay gone.

The Two Systems That Decide How Fast You Age

Most people treat aging as one big, unstoppable process. It's actually two separate systems — autophagy, which recycles damaged material inside a working cell, and senolysis, which clears out "zombie cells" that have stopped functioning but won't die. One you can switch on tonight through fasting, exercise, and sleep. The other usually needs more than lifestyle alone. Dr. Dearing breaks down both, honestly, including exactly where the evidence is strong and where it's still forming.

Should You Be Afraid of Tick Bites? The Truth About Lyme Disease, Alpha-Gal, and Immune Health

Ticks are out this summer — but fear shouldn't keep you from nature. This article breaks down the real science behind Lyme disease and alpha-gal syndrome, explains why your immune terrain matters more than the tick itself, and gives you practical, evidence-based steps to build a resilient body. We also clear up the bioweapon conspiracy theories making the rounds online.

Redox-First: Rebuilding the Injured Brain

Many patients struggling with mold illness, Lyme disease, long COVID, chronic fatigue, and gut-related inflammation continue to experience brain fog, memory issues, and neurological symptoms even after addressing the original trigger. At The Dearing Clinic, we take a brain-first rehabilitation approach that focuses on restoring the nervous system, immune system, and gut simultaneously. By combining functional neurology, low-dose Redox ozone therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), neurofeedback, and targeted nutritional support, we work to reduce neuroinflammation, improve brain oxygenation, and help patients regain cognitive function and resilience.