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Staying Healthy Today Show with Kirk HamiltonCurrent Research in Nutrition, Prevention and Integrative Medicine for the Individual, Society and the World Author: Information to keep the indivdiual, your community and the world society living healthfully and in peace
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The Effect in Multiple Sclerosis of an Aloe Polymannose-Based Dietary Supplement (APMC) on Immune Function, Inflammation (Th1/Th2 Balance), and Quality of Life Scores an Interview with John Lewis, PhD
Monday, 20 April, 2026
Interview Summary…(Generated by ChapGPT edited and reviewed by Kirk Hamilton PA-C)In this April 2026 print interview, Dr. John E. Lewis describes nearly two decades of research on an aloe polymannose multinutrient complex (APMC), now marketed as Daily Brain Care, and its effects in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), emphasizing its role as a broad-spectrum, nutrition-based immunomodulatory intervention rather than a single-agent “drug-like” therapy. Drawing on a 12-month clinical trial in relapsing-remitting MS patients (n=15), Lewis reports that supplementation was associated with substantial reductions in infections (from 7.9 to 2.5 annually), improvements in quality of life and functional measures, and significant shifts in immune markers, including increased IL-2 and TNF-α, decreased IL-1β, enhanced CD34+CD95+ immune cell expression, and a shift in Th1/Th2 balance toward Th1 dominance, which he interprets as a compensatory response to infection burden. He also highlights increased epidermal growth factor (EGF), suggesting potential relevance for remyelination processes in the central nervous system. There were minimal side effects noted such as increased soft stools and some cases of difficulty swallowing especially since these patients had large pill burdens in conjunction with taking this novel dietary supplement. The interview frames these findings as novel and clinically meaningful, while noting the study’s small size and exploratory nature, minimal side effects, and the need for larger, more comprehensive trials. Dr. Lewis feels APMC is a very valuable adjunct to standard MS care within a broader lifestyle framework that includes diet, exercise, and sleep optimization.The Effect of an Aloe Polymannose-Based Dietary Supplement (APMC) on Immune Function, Inflammation (Th1/Th2 Balance), and Quality of Life Scores in Multiple Sclerosis (4/2026)John E. Lewis, PhDDr Lewis Nutrition®5927 SW 70th Street, #431651South Miami, FL 33143ph. +1 (305) 506-0806john@drlewisnutrition.comjelewis@miami.eduThe Effect of a Polysaccharide-Based Multinutrient Dietary Supplementation Regimen on Infections and Immune Functioning in Multiple Sclerosis, J Diet Suppl. 2020;17(2):184-199.The Effect of Broad-Spectrum Dietary Supplementation on Quality of Life, Symptom Severity, and Functioning in Multiple Sclerosis, J Diet Suppl. 2020;17(6):718-732.The Characterization of the Th1/Th2 Ratio in Multiple Sclerosis Patients and its Response to a Dietary Supplement Regimen, The Characterization of the Th1/Th2 Ratio in Multiple Sclerosis Patients and its Response to a Dietary Supplement Regimen. J Diet Suppl. 2024;21(6):771-790.Kirk Hamilton: Can you please share with me your educational background and current position?John Lewis: I have BS and MS degrees from the University of Tennessee in business administration and human physiology, respectively, and I have a PhD from the University of Miami in educational and psychological studies. I am the Founder and President of Dr Lewis Nutrition® and past full-time Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and now Voluntary Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. I am also a Diplomate, Faculty Member, and Advisor of the Medical Wellness Association.KH: What got you interested in studying this product in Multiple Sclerosis? Did it happen by intention or by accident (i.e., you gave something a product and their cognition improved) or because you had positive results in Alzheimer’s disease first? Was it because your original research funding and partners wanted to study Alzheimer’s disease and when you saw benefit in that condition you decided to see if there would be benefit from this dietary supplement in another devastating neurologic condition like MS?JL: My research in polysaccharides was due entirely to meeting two people: Dr. Reg McDaniel (aloe vera) and Ms. Barbara Kimley (rice bran). Both of them came into my life about 20 years ago and shared with me their incredible stories about their own journeys using these two particular nutrients; neither of whom knew the other. Dr. Reg in particular had been working with the aloe polysaccharides for over 20 years before meeting me, and he had been working on various formulas with these polysaccharides in many different diseases and disorders (health challenges). When he and I met, we had the opportunity to run a clinical trial in Alzheimer’s based on some of his previous work with those patients anecdotally. He gave a lecture at a conference about his work, and a lady in the audience decided to donate money to research to advance the work. I happened to be in the right place at the right time at the University of Miami to conduct the research, as Dr. Reg was not affiliated with a university or research organization. We put the formula together for the study and the rest is history (as they say), so this was totally by accident for me, but it has been career- and life-altering. The study on MS occurred mostly simultaneously as the Alzheimer’s study. Dr. Reg was connected to a neurology clinic in Alabama that turned out to be an excellent source of subjects for the study. They agreed to handle all of the costs associated with the recruiting, enrolling, assessing, and follow-up. All Dr. Reg and I had to pay for was the analyses on the biomarkers, so it turned out to be a perfect match for the trial. While the neurologist at the center was no advocate of nutrition, one of the nurses was a huge proponent of the polysaccharides as well, so she handled all of the data collection and blood draws, and we were able to successfully complete the trial, even on a shoestring budget.KH: Have you ever studied this product or had anecdotal success with conditions like Parkinson’s disease or ALS?JL: I cannot recall anyone with ALS taking Daily Brain Care, but I have a number of people with Parkinson’s disease who state that they feel much better taking the product. A study on Parkinson’s is clearly needed based on the many positive anecdotal reports.KH: How long have you been studying and using an “aloe polymannose multinutrient complex (APMC)” product? Can you explain what an “aloe polymannose multinutrient complex (APMC)” is and the functions of its components with relationship to Multiple Sclerosis? I know you have been working on it since at least 2013 when you published The effect of an aloe polymannose multinutrient complex on cognitive and immune functioning in Alzheimer’s disease. J Alzheimers Dis. 2013;33(2):393-406?JL: The APMC formula is now called Daily Brain Care by Dr Lewis Nutrition®. The study began around 2009, so this is now going on almost 20 years of working with this formula. I came up with the original APMC name to be generic for scientific purposes, but also to denote the importance of the aloe polysaccharide component and also that it contains other (hence, multi) nutrients. It was not meant to be a magic bullet or a one-nutrient product that is so typical of the Big Pharma approach, but rather to supply many different nutrients and compounds that are typically missing in the modern diet. So, in addition to the aloe polysaccharides, it contains stabilized rice bran, golden flaxseed, sunflower lecithin, dioscorea, tart cherry, NAC, Ultra Terra clay, IP-6, citric acid, and vanilla; all with unique and powerful contributions to the overall efficacy of the product. The first reference you mentioned above was the first of four papers we have published from this study; all with unparalleled effects in the scientific literature in this patient population. One of our main findings from the MS clinical trial is that after 12 months of taking our product, infections were significantly reduced from 7.9 at baseline to 2.5 at follow-up. The leading cause of mortality of people with MS is infection, not demyelination of the central nervous system. Thus, not only is our product helping people with MS live longer, but it is keeping them out of the overburdened medical management system, due to how expensive it is to treat infections in this patient population. As the infections subsided, all measures of quality of life went up, which makes perfect sense. Also, we showed that the Th1/Th2 ratios dramatically increased (Th1 dominance) over the 12-month period, which also makes perfect sense, as the pro-inflammatory side of the immune system was activated to counteract all of that information. Finally, we showed a significant increase in epidermal growth factor (EGF), which is an especially important protein for remyelination of central nervous system tissue. All of our findings are completely novel in the literature!KH: Why did you want to do this study on MS? Were all seven of your study publications (3 MS/4 AD) taken from the same study 13 or so years ago?JL: No, the MS study was a separate clinical trial from the Alzheimer’s study, ran at 2 completely different sites. However, like the Alzheimer’s study, the MS study represented another opportunity for me to take a step in my journey not only as a scientist, but as an eventual proponent of the power of aloe and rice bran polysaccharides. Because of Dr. Reg’s relationship with the neurology center, we had an opportunity to conduct the MS study, so we took advantage of that, especially since they were willing to absorb the costs of the data collection. Based on the entirety of our research at the University of Miami (not even including all of the other research being conducted by others around the world on these polysaccharides), I am confident that these polysaccharides are unlike just about anything else that Mother Nature provides us for a healing effect, with the possible exception of properly formulated curcumin. Otherwise, nothing else comes close in my experience. Running this study on Alzheimer’s also provided me with the opportunity to now say that no other study in this patient population comes close to showing what we have demonstrated with our dietary supplement.KH: What are the general mechanism of action that make this product work in MS patients? Immune enhancement and balance (less infections, beneficial Th1/Th2 ratio)? What type of biochemical changes gave you confidence you would see benefit in MS?JL: As I mentioned above, several mechanisms were discovered in this study in response to our product: reduced infections, increased EGF, increased CD34+CD95+ cells (which encodes on the Fas gene, an overall indicator of immune function at the genetic level), and a shift in Th1/Th2 to highly Th1 dominance to deal with all of the infections, among others. All of these physiological changes resulted in tremendous improvements in quality of life and functioning. We were optimistic that the functioning of MS patients would improve based on some anecdotal evidence, but we were not certain of that till we ran the study. We also did not know what specific mechanisms of action would be affected till we ran the study. We still have more ideas about mechanisms of action, and we are about to get some of those answers in an upcoming analysis of our samples.KH: Can you tell us about your 3 published articles on MS and the basic results? How many people were involved, how long was the study, what was tested and shown to be a remarkable finding?The Effect of a Polysaccharide-Based Multinutrient Dietary Supplementation Regimen on Infections and Immune Functioning in Multiple Sclerosis, J Diet Suppl. 2020;17(2):184-199.The Effect of Broad-Spectrum Dietary Supplementation on Quality of Life, Symptom Severity, and Functioning in Multiple Sclerosis, J Diet Suppl. 2020;17(6):718-732.The Characterization of the Th1/Th2 Ratio in Multiple Sclerosis Patients and its Response to a Dietary Supplement Regimen, The Characterization of the Th1/Th2 Ratio in Multiple Sclerosis Patients and its Response to a Dietary Supplement Regimen. J Diet Suppl. 2024;21(6):771-790.JL: This clinical trial was for 12 months in a sample of relapsing-remitting MS patients (n=15) diagnosed for an average of 12.4 years taking the equivalent of 4 scoops per day of Daily Brain Care for 12 months. In this study, we showed remarkable results:a) Total infections (the leading killer of people with this disease) significantly declined from an average of 7.9 at baseline to an average of 2.5 at 12 months follow-upb) IL-2 and TNF-α significantly increased at 12 months, showing that the immune system activated these two inflammatory markers in response to the polysaccharides to combat the high number of infections the participants had at baselinec) Epidermal growth factor (which is commonly low in the cerebrospinal fluid of MS patients) significantly increased at 12 months, suggesting it may play a role in improving the proliferation and differentiation of neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes and in the process of the remyelination of lesionsd) IL-1β (theorized to be proinflammatory in the central nervous system in MS, due at least in part to its overexpression compared to healthy controls) significantly decreased at 12 months, showing an improvement in overall immune functione) The number of CD95+CD34+ cells significantly increased at 12 months, suggesting overall improved immune response through the Fas (CD95) antigen, which regulates inflammation, cytotoxicity, and apoptosis (programmed cell death), among other featuresf) All objective and self-reported assessments of quality of life, symptom severity, and functioning improved from baseline to 12 months follow-upg) The Th1/Th2 ratio, according to IL-2/IL-4, IFN-γ/IL-4, IL-2/TNF-α, and IFN-γ/TNF-α, was similar to in healthy controls at baseline, five of the six ratios increased from baseline to 12 months follow-up (other than IFN-γ/TNF-α), and correlated with less yeast infection and improved physical function and quality of lifeThus, our study shows more collective benefit of Daily Brain Care for people with MS than anything else in the marketplace.KH: Were the benefits shown in the AD patients with moderate to severe disease diagnosed for at least 1 year taking the equivalent of 4 scoops per day of Daily Brain Care for 12 months similar or different in the MS patients?JL: It is fascinating to compare the results of the two studies. We did not use the same battery of measures in each study, given that Alzheimer’s is more about cognition and MS is more about physical functioning. Unfortunately, we also did not collect infection data in the Alzheimer’s study. Nonetheless, if you consider the concept of immunomodulation, which not only includes improved immune function but lower inflammation, then both studies have comparable results. Both studies also resulted in better quality of life for the subjects, even though they were measured differently between the two studies.KH: Were you surprised at the benefit shown in MS patients after you had seen benefit in the AD patients?JL: As the studies were running simultaneously, it was hard to know how the two studies would compare. Nonetheless, I was getting updates from the nurse who was handling the data collection that she was noticing that the subjects were getting better and feeling better.KH: How did you figure out a dosing regimen for this combination product? Were you studying their singular effects on cognition first and then put them together or just put them together from the beginning?JL: Dosing was based on a combination of what Dr. Reg had used in previous formulations combined with what other studies had shown to be efficacious doses for particular ingredients. The ingredients were combined from the beginning of the study.KH: Were there any side effects with this APMC supplement in MS patients?JL: Two participants reported an increase in soft stools upon starting the intervention. Four participants reported having nausea and vomiting in response to taking the dietary supplement, although all of them had previously reported the same symptoms. Additionally, several participants with unusually high pill burdens noted difficulty in taking the product.KH: How much does it cost a month? Because you are looking at it as a lifetime supplement essentially?JL: Daily Brain Care in capsules is $40 per bottle (30 servings) and in powder is $64 per bottle (60 servings). The amount it costs per month depends on how much you take, but compared to many other products for the level of efficacy the value is unmatched. Everyone should take this supplement for life because it is an incredibly powerful tool to put in the health toolbox.KH: How would you like to study this topic in the future? What is your dream study?JL: With additional funding, it would be wonderful to conduct another clinical trial with more outcomes, e.g., brain morphology, microbiome, and genetic expression.KH: Do you have any further comments you would like to make?JL: The polysaccharides in Daily Brain Care are incomparable to any other nutrient to my knowledge. This product also has more research supporting it than arguably any other product on the market. Also, it is appropriate for anyone, not just people concerned about brain health because every cell in the body utilizes these nutrients.KH: Tell about your optimal lifestyle habits that would go along with this supplement to optimize its effectiveness in improving cognition? Diet, exercise, sleep etc.JL: I have been eating a whole-food, plant-based diet for 27 years. I work out nearly every day, particularly high-intensity weight training. As a former drug-free, competitive bodybuilder, this is the type of exercise that I prefer. I have never used tobacco, and I do not drink any alcohol (for about the last 15 years). I try to sleep 6-8 hours per night, but that is currently a bit difficult due to our 16-month-old son who sleeps with me. I also drink clean filtered water.KH: Thank you Dr. Lewis for taking the time to share your work and the persistence and focused in has taken to study this product over the last 2 decades.Kirk Hamilton PA-CHealth Associates Medical Group3301 Alta Arden, Suite 3Sacramento, CA 95825(916) 489-4400 (w)krhammer@surewest.netwww.StayingHealthyToday.comwww.HealthyLivingforBusypeople.com www.KwikerMedical.comStaying Healthy Today is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.($5.00/month or $50/year would be appreciated for this weekly publication) Get full access to Staying Healthy Today at stayinghealthytoday.substack.com/subscribe
