HoldsUp

William Li

William Li is a medical researcher who discusses the relationship between diet, gut health, and mental well-being. His peer-reviewed research primarily focuses on wound healing, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. He has co-authored clinical trials evaluating skin constructs, tissue allografts, and therapeutic agents for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers and venous leg ulcers.

17 claims checked on air: 2 context 5 overstated 8 supported 2 unverified

What they said on air - supported

0:05:05supportedmoderateYour Diet Is Secretly Destroying Your Mental Health (Science

The human small intestine is approximately 22 feet long.

"Small intestines is a long snaky tube like your garden hose, 22 ft." (said at 0:05:05)

The statement that the human small intestine is approximately 22 feet long aligns well with published anatomical and surgical measurements. In living adults, total small bowel length shows natural inter-individual variation, with systematic reviews and large surgical cohorts reporting mean lengths typically between 506 cm and 795 cm (approximately 16.6 to 26.1 feet), placing 22 feet (~6.7 meters or 670 cm) directly within the standard anatomical range.

0:18:31supportedvery lowYour Diet Is Secretly Destroying Your Mental Health (Science

In vitro studies show that applying ellagic acid or microbiome short-chain fatty acids to cultured inflammatory cells suppresses inflammatory activation.

"How do we know this? Because if you actually grow inflammatory cells in a petri dish in a tissue culture and you put ellagic acid in there, they will stop having a riot. They'll calm down. If you actually put the short-chain fatty acids of the gut microbiome in the same dish, they'll also calm down." (said at 0:18:31)

In vitro experimental models support the speaker's claim that both ellagic acid and gut microbiome-derived short-chain fatty acids (such as butyrate) suppress inflammatory activation in cultured immune cells. Studies using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated macrophage cell lines (e.g., RAW 264.7) demonstrate that ellagic acid significantly attenuates pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-6, and prostaglandin E2. Similarly, applying short-chain fatty acids like butyrate downregulates inflammatory signaling pathways (such as NF-κB) and suppresses the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Because this evidence is derived entirely from pre-clinical in vitro cell culture models, certainty is graded as very low.

0:24:58supportedvery lowYour Diet Is Secretly Destroying Your Mental Health (Science

Pulverized, non-viable Lactobacillus reuteri administered in drinking water to animals stimulates the brain to release oxytocin.

"So think about like a naval weapon, the sound weapon, and you can beam it at the Lactobacillus reuteri, pulverize it into a gajillion pieces. All right? You feed it to an experimental system to animals, putting it in their drinking water. And guess what? The dead pulverized bacteria will also make the brain release oxytocin." (said at 0:24:58)

Animal research supports the claim. In mouse models, oral dietary administration of a sterile lysate (non-viable, broken-down preparation) of Lactobacillus reuteri significantly increased oxytocin-producing cells in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus and raised systemic oxytocin levels, demonstrating that bacterial viability is not required for oxytocin upregulation. Because evidence is limited to animal models, certainty is very low.

0:36:53supportedlowYour Diet Is Secretly Destroying Your Mental Health (Science

Research shows chimpanzees instinctively select and chew specific polyphenol-rich plants to heal wounds when injured.

"I don't know if you saw the research that looked at chimpanzees knowing inherently when they're injured that they'll pick specific plants to chew on them that will give them the bioactives of polyphenols from certain plants in order to be able to heal their wounds." (said at 0:36:53)

Observational research in wild chimpanzees (and other great apes) supports the claim that injured individuals selectively consume or process specific plants with potent bioactive properties to aid healing. A 2024 zoopharmacognosy study in the Budongo Forest documented injured chimpanzees seeking out and consuming rarely eaten plant species, such as the fern Christella parasitica and Khaya anthotheca bark/resin. In vitro pharmacological assays showed these specific extracts had potent anti-inflammatory (COX-2 inhibition) and antibacterial activities. Similar behavior was also documented in 2024 in a wild Sumatran orangutan, which chewed a medicinal liana (Fibraurea tinctoria) and applied its bioactive-rich juice directly to a facial wound. Certainty is rated as low due to the observational nature of field ethology combined with in vitro screening.

0:37:59supportedmoderateYour Diet Is Secretly Destroying Your Mental Health (Science

Brain inflammation is a common biological denominator observed across conditions such as schizophrenia, autism, major depression, and bipolar disorder.

"regardless of what mental health condition that you're talking about, everything from schizophrenia to autism to major depression, bipolar disorder, you know, so far what's been looked at as a common denominator of these syndromes is actually inflammation in the brain." (said at 0:37:59)

Published cross-disorder transcriptomic and neuroimaging research supports the statement that brain inflammation and neuroimmune dysregulation act as common, transdiagnostic features across major psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions, including schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder. Large-scale postmortem human brain transcriptome analyses demonstrate shared expression changes in innate immune-related genes across these four conditions. Furthermore, molecular neuroimaging and clinical reviews identify glial cell immune alterations and neuroinflammatory markers as shared pathophysiological denominators across these diagnoses.

0:39:30supportedhighYour Diet Is Secretly Destroying Your Mental Health (Science

Polyphenols found in fruits and vegetables lower biological inflammation.

"all those polyphenols and fruits and vegetables that you would eat can actually lower inflammation." (said at 0:39:30)

Multiple systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials demonstrate that dietary polyphenols—such as those found in fruits, vegetables, and botanical sources—significantly reduce circulating biomarkers of inflammation, including C-reactive protein (CRP) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α).

0:39:45supportedhighYour Diet Is Secretly Destroying Your Mental Health (Science

Psychological stress causes physical inflammation in the body.

"Stress causes inflammation. Most of us have a little bit more stress than we want in our lives. And so we're always a little bit inflamed" (said at 0:39:45)

Extensive meta-analytic evidence from experimental human laboratory studies demonstrates that acute psychological stress induces rapid, significant increases in circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Furthermore, randomized controlled trials show that reducing psychological distress through psychological interventions significantly reduces systemic inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein.

0:48:55supportedhighYour Diet Is Secretly Destroying Your Mental Health (Science

Truffles contain anandamide.

"Anandamide in truffles and chocolate." (said at 0:48:55)

Black truffles (specifically Tuber melanosporum) have been confirmed to contain the endocannabinoid anandamide (N-arachidonoylethanolamine) alongside its key metabolic synthesis and degradation enzymes. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analyses confirmed the presence and accumulation of anandamide across different maturation stages of the truffle fruiting bodies.

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