The conversation that changed how I think about brain repair
The first time I heard this idea, it was not from a scientific paper.
It was during a personal conversation with Christopher M. Palmer, MD. One of the nicest, most down-to-earth people you can meet and, at the same time, very likely the world’s leading expert on metabolic and mental health.
Christopher is the author of Brain Energy, a book I genuinely recommend to everyone. I have been following his work for years.
We were talking about the brain’s ability to recover. That conversation stayed with me. It was also the first time he mentioned something that genuinely surprised me: findings from endurance runners and the unexpected way their brains seemed to handle myelin under extreme stress, and then recover it. That single insight sent me down a deep research path and ultimately led to one of the most surprising brain health discoveries I have come across in years.
It connects three things that almost never appear together:
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
- Ultramarathon runners
- The brain’s ability to rebuild myelin
Myelin, explained without jargon
Think of myelin as insulation around electrical cables.
Your brain works through electrical signals. Neurons send messages, and myelin wraps around those connections so the signal travels faster, cleaner, and more efficiently.
Without enough myelin:
- Signals slow down
- Communication becomes noisy
- Brain function suffers
Myelin is built and maintained by specialized brain cells called oligodendrocytes.
For decades, the dominant belief was simple:
You build most of your myelin early in life, and after that, you mostly try not to lose it.
That belief is no longer accurate.
MS: the classic demyelination disease
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is defined by damage to myelin in the brain and spinal cord. The immune system mistakenly attacks it. As myelin breaks down, nerve signaling becomes disrupted, leading to neurological symptoms.
MS is still considered incurable. Not because the brain has no repair mechanisms, but because in MS those repair mechanisms become impaired, overwhelmed, or incomplete over time.
That is the standard medical story.
Now comes the surprising part.
What marathon runners revealed about myelin
In a recent human imaging study, researchers scanned experienced long-distance runners before and after a marathon.
What they found surprised many people in neuroscience.
Shortly after the race, MRI markers associated with myelin were lower across several brain regions. In simple terms, the scans suggested temporary reduction in myelin-related signal after extreme endurance effort.
At first glance, this sounds alarming.
But the follow-up changed everything.
Over the following weeks, those same markers increased again. By around two months after the marathon, they had returned to pre-race levels.
Same people. Same brains.
Temporary change, followed by recovery.
Why this matters for brain repair
This does not mean runners are giving themselves MS.
The mechanisms are completely different.
- MS involves immune-driven injury and chronic inflammation
- Endurance running creates extreme metabolic stress
But the overlap is important.
It shows that:
- Myelin is not static
- Myelin can change in response to energy demand
- Adult brains can rebuild myelin under the right conditions
Some researchers now describe this as metabolic myelin plasticity.
In plain language: under extreme stress, the brain may temporarily shift how it uses its resources. When the stress ends and recovery begins, the system rebuilds.
That is brain repair in real life.
The brain as an energy system
This is where my conversation with Christopher Palmer started to make deeper sense.
The core idea behind Brain Energy is that brain function and mental health are closely linked to metabolism. Neurons do not operate in isolation. They rely on energy availability, support from other brain cells, and overall system balance.
The marathon findings do not prove that humans literally “burn myelin for fuel.” What they do suggest is that under extreme metabolic stress, brain energy demand and myelin-related processes may be connected in ways we are only beginning to understand.
Most importantly, the data show that in healthy individuals, myelin-related changes can be temporary and reversible, reinforcing the idea that the brain has meaningful capacity for recovery when stress is followed by sufficient recovery.
.
MS vs runners: same signal, very different context
At a surface level, both involve demyelination.
Biologically, they are not the same.
- In runners, the stress is temporary and recovery systems remain intact
- In MS, chronic immune activity interferes with repair and damages the cells responsible for rebuilding myelin
The insight here is not that MS is simple.
The insight is that myelin loss does not automatically mean permanent damage.
Context matters.
Metabolic state matters.
Recovery capacity matters.
What this means for everyday brain health
You do not need to run a marathon to learn from this.
The practical takeaway is straightforward:
The brain is far more adaptable than we were taught.
Stress alone is not the enemy.
Chronic stress without recovery is.
Brain health is about creating conditions where repair can happen after stress, not about eliminating stress entirely.
Axolt and myelin support
From an Axolt perspective, this research reinforces an important principle: myelin is a living, metabolically active structure that depends on its environment.
The top 3 Axolt ingredients most relevant for myelin support are:
- Phosphatidylserine
- Choline
- Axolt’s polyphenol complex (spearmint, Greek mountain tea, turmeric, deeply colored berries)
Phosphatidylserine and choline provide key membrane-building nutrients. This matters because myelin is extremely lipid-rich and relies on healthy cell membranes and efficient maintenance processes.
Axolt’s polyphenols play a different role. They act as signal modulators, not stimulants. They help the brain remain in a more balanced state by supporting normal inflammatory control and cellular resilience. This is important because the cells that build and maintain myelin are sensitive to stress and metabolic overload.
This is about supporting the environment, not forcing an outcome.
The real lesson
The lesson is that the brain has an ability to recover and most likely holds many hidden surprises we are only beginning to understand.
What this research shows is that nature has built the brain in a very robust way. It is not a fragile organ that breaks once and never repairs. It is a living system with built-in mechanisms for maintenance and repair.
Our role is not to hack the brain.
Our role is to support it.
That means:
- Keeping overall brain health strong
- Providing adequate nutrition
- Avoiding clearly harmful inputs
- Sleeping well
- Moving daily
When these foundations are in place, the brain often recovers on its own, sometimes in ways we do not yet fully understand.
This is not a promise of curing disease.
It is an observation about biological resilience.
When the environment is supportive, the brain tends to move toward balance and repair.
Not because we force it.
But because that is how it was designed.
Footnote: Axolt vs Axolotl
Axolt® is a brain-health nutrition brand.
It is not related to the animal axolotl and does not reference regeneration claims associated with that species. Any discussion of brain repair in this article refers to natural human biological processes supported by lifestyle and nutrition, not to animal regeneration mechanisms.
