Merry Christmas! Here are some hypotheses for your stockings!

I've had such a fun year doing research on intersections of nutrition, global cuisines, epidemiology, and medical advances. Here are what I consider the most valuable of the hypotheses I formulated in 2016:

1) Molybdenum in large-ish, as-needed doses can help alleviate (or even obliterate) migraines and nausea (at least nausea from travel, migraines, and stomach bugs). 

2) To delay dementia, work to lessen the amount of hydrogen peroxide in your mouth as you age, for the ability of saliva to break down hydrogen peroxide goes down with age. Fresh (or reconstituted dried) horseradish and daikon radish in the mouth help with that because of their high peroxidase content.

3) Some fetal malformations like those resulting from thalidomide might be caused by common vetch or nigella sativa (kalonji) consumption at inopportune moments during early pregnancy, for both of those contain compounds that interfere with angiogenesis (creation of new blood vessels from existing ones).

4) An excess of folic acid and cyanocobalamin disrupts the folate cycle and is linked to autism and ADHD (and who knows what else). Stick to forms of folate and B12 that naturally occur in foods instead of using folic acid and cyanocobalamin. Also include some betaine in your diet.

5) Manganese in skin care products seems like a good idea to fight acne.

6) Addictive behavior, including "falling in love," is the brain forming and working to promote the supremacy of efficient pathways to pleasure. To lessen the strength of unwanted pathways, look at reducing delta-fosB during withdrawal periods via ellagic acid; to form new pathways, look at manipulating c-fos via light at night, MSG, etc.

7) Food allergies seem less likely to occur in the presence of sufficient magnesium chloride, so use sea salt instead of straight NaCl (table salt). Maybe even try some Dead Sea salt, which is half MgCl. Also, look at other ways of supporting and not inhibiting RALDH2.

8) The licorice root in tobacco products might be behind the protective effect smoking has against Parkinson's.

9) Take a melatonin when you first start sneezing with a new cold. It helps neutrophils not dig into the inflamed tissue and live quite so long, which lessens cold symptoms because during neutrophils' lifetimes they pump out lots of histamine. I would only use melatonin for this purpose if you feel your cold is your immune system OVER-reacting to a virus.

10) Vary your diet and your vitamin supplements because of homeostasis, i.e., your body's adaptations over time to high, continuous amounts of any substance.

11) Endogenous hydrogen cyanide in the brain could be connected to seizures, especially epileptic grand mal seizures.

12) Carbon monoxide buildup in the leg muscles could be behind restless legs syndrome.

My two biggest wishes for 2017 research are to 1) help my nine-year-old daughter not be overweight (why her and not my other four daughters? what did I do differently when I was pregnant with her in South America that predisposed her to heaviness? and can I do anything to help her before she reaches puberty?) and 2) figure out a topical way to harness the immune system to fight skin cancers (biopsies and Mohs surgery aren't fun).

(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)