The World's Oldest Superfood Is Having a Science Moment
It has been on Earth for 3.5 billion years. It helped create the oxygen in the atmosphere you're breathing right now. It grows wild in one of the most mineral-rich lakes in North America. And for most of human history, we had no idea what it was actually doing inside the body.
That's starting to change.
Aphanizomenon flos-aquae — AFA for short, a species of blue-green algae harvested from Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon — has been part of the New Earth story since the beginning. But the science catching up to it is genuinely new, and genuinely fascinating. Researchers are finding that this ancient organism does things in the human body that no one anticipated when people first started consuming it decades ago.
Here's what the research is showing.
A Nutrient Profile Unlike Almost Anything Else
AFA is not a supplement in the conventional sense. It's a whole food — a single-celled organism that has spent billions of years developing one of the most complete nutritional profiles in nature.
By dry weight, AFA is 60–70% protein, containing all essential amino acids in a form the body can readily use. It carries a full B-complex vitamin profile, vitamins A and K, and more than 40 minerals and trace elements — many of them absorbed directly from the rich volcanic sediment at the bottom of Klamath Lake, one of the world's deepest freshwater bodies.
What makes AFA genuinely unusual is its concentration of phycocyanin — the pigment responsible for the blue in blue-green algae. Phycocyanin isn't decorative. It's one of the most potent antioxidant compounds identified in any food source.
The Antioxidant You've Never Heard Of
Most people know about vitamin C and vitamin E as antioxidants. Phycocyanin operates at a different level.
Research published in peer-reviewed journals has found that C-phycocyanin is approximately 16 times more effective as a free radical scavenger than Trolox, the gold standard used to measure antioxidant activity. It neutralizes hydroxyl radicals, peroxyl radicals, and reactive nitrogen species — the compounds associated with cellular aging, inflammation, and tissue damage.
In laboratory and preclinical studies, phycocyanin has also demonstrated neuroprotective properties, showing the ability to reduce markers of neuroinflammation and protect brain cells against oxidative damage. Research published in PubMed and the National Library of Medicine's PMC database has examined its potential relevance to neurodegenerative conditions — work that is still early but notable enough that scientists are paying close attention.
The anti-inflammatory effects are similarly well-documented. Across 12 experimental models of inflammation, phycocyanin consistently reduced edema, histamine release, and inflammatory mediators including prostaglandins and leukotrienes.
The Stem Cell Research That Surprised Everyone
Perhaps the most unexpected area of AFA research involves stem cells — specifically, the mobilization of CD34+ cells from bone marrow into circulation.
CD34+ cells are hematopoietic stem cell precursors: the body's raw material for cellular repair and renewal. They circulate in the bloodstream in small numbers under normal conditions, increasing when the body needs to repair tissue or respond to injury.
A double-blind study published in the National Library of Medicine's PMC found that healthy subjects who consumed AFA for just 48 hours showed a statistically significant increase in circulating CD34+ cells. The proposed mechanism involves AFA's interaction with the CXCR4 chemokine receptor, a signaling pathway that governs how the bone marrow releases these precursor cells into the bloodstream.
This is a young area of research, and it's important to be clear: these are not therapeutic claims. But the findings are real, peer-reviewed, and represent something researchers are actively building on. The idea that a food source could influence stem cell trafficking in healthy individuals — without pharmaceutical intervention — is the kind of finding that tends to generate more science, not less.
Why Klamath Lake Matters
Not all AFA is the same, and the source makes a meaningful difference.
Upper Klamath Lake sits at 4,100 feet elevation in southern Oregon, fed by snowmelt and surrounded by ancient volcanic terrain. The lake bed contains one of the most concentrated deposits of mineral-rich sediment found anywhere in the world — the result of millions of years of geological layering. AFA growing in this environment absorbs those minerals directly, producing a nutritional density that wild-harvested AFA from other sources doesn't consistently match.
New Earth has harvested from Klamath Lake since its founding, using a careful process that preserves the integrity of the whole organism. The result is a product that reflects the place it comes from — and that place is, by any measure, extraordinary.
What This Means for You
You don't need to wait for the science to be complete before making use of it. The practical reality is simple: AFA is a nutrient-dense whole food with a growing body of research behind it, a traceable source, and decades of safe human consumption at scale.
For daily use, Super Blue Green delivers AFA alongside a thoughtfully chosen set of complementary ingredients — including Lion's Mane and Reishi mushrooms, chicory root fiber, wheat sprouts, and an enzyme and probiotic blend — all designed to support the gut, brain, and body together. The "Gut | Brain | Body" on the label isn't a tagline. It maps directly to what the research is showing.
If you've been taking it as part of your daily routine, the science above is the story behind what you're already doing. And if you haven't — spring is a reasonable time to start building a foundation that's 3.5 billion years in the making.
Sources
- The Bluegreen Algae (AFA) Consumption over 48 Hours Increases CD34+ Cells — PMC
- Effects of AFA Extract on Neurodegeneration Cellular Model — PMC
- C-Phycocyanin: A Biliprotein with Antioxidant, Anti-Inflammatory and Neuroprotective Effects — PubMed
- Mobilization of CD34+CD133+ Stem Cells by AFA — ScienceDirect
- Klamath Lake Aphanizomenon Flos-Aquae: Wild-Harvesting, Extracts and Benefits — IntechOpen