NMI Evidence Board

Non-drug triggers of BDNF — every entry cited, tiered, and caveated. Companion to NMI White Paper v2, Section 11. Research-organizing document, not medical advice.

How to read the tiers

Tier 1 — meta-analyses, systematic reviews, RCTs (human).
Tier 2 — uncontrolled, open-label, or small-sample human studies.
Tier 4 — single cases; animal data as applied to humans; mechanistic speculation. Never substitutes for missing Tier 1 evidence.
Serum BDNF is an imperfect proxy for central neuroplasticity — platelet confound applies.
Effect size ≠ evidence strength: a large Tier 4 effect is not a large Tier 1 effect.

What this board does not claim

That peripheral BDNF elevation equals central plasticity.
That any Tier 4 entry supports clinical use.
That heat/sauna is an established BDNF trigger — the one RCT found nothing.
Anything about drug mechanisms, dosing, or treatment recommendations.