You are now listening to The Model Health Show with Shawn Stevenson.
For more, visit themodelhealthshow.com.
This is a special news alert.
Most people are still unaware that neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, are now in the five leading causes of death here in the United States.
Today you're going to discover a true breakthrough in our ability to end this epidemic
And everyone needs to know about this.
This is one of the most important interviews that I've ever done, and it's definitely one of my favorite interviews of the year.
You're going to discover cutting edge science about the brain's immune system, clinically proven strategies to protect your brain from degeneration,
And much more.
So without further ado, let's dive in with our special guest and topic of the day.
Dr. David Perlmutter is a board-certified neurologist and six-time New York Times bestselling author, including the author of the number one New York Times bestseller, Grain Brain, The Surprising Truth
About wheat, carbs and sugar.
His brand new book, Brain Defenders, represents a massive paradigm shift in neuroscience.
Moving away from the failed amyloid-targeting drugs towards the concept of immunometabolism, the groundbreaking science of how our brain's microglial immune cells can be reprogrammed to protect us rather than destroy us.
This shift in the conversation moves us into proactive and preventative strategies with key research-backed strategies to improve brain health
Beyond what we've understood up until now.
Let's dive in this conversation with the incredible Dr. David Perlmutter.
Well, today we're going to dive in on a subject matter that
First of all, we need to get a lot more awareness about the severity of the situation, but also talk about where we need to really put our focus.
And you've done an amazing job putting this new book together for us.
Can you start off by talking about the current state of affairs, just so people are aware when it comes to dementia and Alzheimer's?
Sure.
And my hope is that we'll broaden our conversation well beyond just that issue, as if that's not a super important issue.
But ultimately, you and I are going to talk about all neurodegenerative conditions because they're all united by one fundamental mechanism, and that is a shift in the brain's immune system.
But that is a great segue to Alzheimer's because I call it an epidemic.
I mean, here we have a disease affecting...
About 7 million Americans, 53 million people worldwide, and it's almost universally fatal.
No one really talks about that, but it's the third leading cause of death in America is Alzheimer's disease.
So this, we need to contextualize this as an epidemic, call it like it is.
Why we don't is beyond me.
But the challenge for me is really messaging the world or to anyone who will listen, which is why I'm grateful to be here today, to the idea that Alzheimer's is not caused by the accumulation of a particular protein called beta amyloid in the brain.
Full stop.
And yet, if you ask somebody, what is the cause of Alzheimer's?
They're gonna say, well, you know, even doctors.
We grow too much beta-MO in the brain, next thing you know, things fall apart.
It just isn't true.
And, you know, I cover that in the book,
And after I submitted the manuscript for this, as in last month, what's called a Cochrane analysis was published, which is the gold standard scientific review of a topic.
And the topic they reviewed is,
How effective are the drugs that target this beta amyloid in the treatment of Alzheimer's?
In their conclusion, they looked at 20,342 individuals in 17 studies over 18 months per study.
They found that the utility of these drugs, how they worked, was useless, basically.
The word they used was trivial.
In the face of significant, sometimes life-threatening side effects of these drugs.
The drugs get rid of the amyloid in the brain, and yet the patients still decline and ultimately die of Alzheimer's.
And yet that's what's FDA approved.
That's what's messaged on TV commercials at night and what doctors are being targeted by advertisements to prescribe.
So.
I don't wanna curse the darkness, I wanna light the single candle here in trying to be in line with model health, right?
Give people the tools.
But that's the groundwork upon which we build
The idea of empowering people to make changes and redefine the destiny of their brains.
That's what our time together is going to be all about.
So that's the biggest myth.
And that is that
We should live our lives however we choose and then suddenly when we're cognitively a little bit impaired that we go to the doctor and he or she prescribes this drug
Uh it's it's really unfair it's a disservice and we can do better
Yes yes thank you for sharing
That would a good analogy be with this amyloid plaque and as you mentioned thankfully
The education is changing, but would this be a good analogy to say that it's kind of like a fire taking place and there's firefighters there on the scene and the firefighters are getting blamed for the fire?
Because they showed up, it's exactly right.
And I think we're gonna use the firefighter analogy quite a bit today.
Because what we're really wanting to do across the spectrum of neurodegenerative conditions is not focus on the smoke anymore.
We need to focus on the fire.
Like in Parkinson's disease, when I have said we have no treatments for Parkinson's disease,
My colleagues raise their eyebrow because we have a list of drugs that we give Parkinson's patients to treat the tremor, to treat the rigidity, the slowness of their walking, their bowel issues, their sleep issues, their mood issues, for sure.
But that's the smoke.
We're not treating the underlying issues.
That are leading to brain degeneration until quite recently.
And that's, again, that lit you up, didn't it?
Well, what's next?
We'll talk about it.
So we have to go back.
And say, what in the heck is making this good brain go bad?
And it is fundamentally a shift in the immune system of the brain from being supportive and nurturing to being destructive, from being brain defender cells to being brain destroyer cells.
That's what this is all about.
These cells, here's the terminology called microglia.
These microglia cells are either nurturing and loving, helping you grow new brain cells, who knew?
Helping you nurture your synapses, the connection between brain cells, keeping the blood brain barrier working, letting neurons be fully functional, or
Depending on what they see in their environment, which we control, you control, they'll shift to becoming what I call in the book, the evil twin.
And this is the central thesis now underlying
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis, and really, again, all of the neurodegenerative conditions.
So the idea that we have a unifying concept underlying the entire panorama of what makes a good brain go bad
Is pretty empowering.
In the book, you talk about this emerging field and awareness of immunometabolism, because obviously when we think about the immune system, as you detail, it's usually in the context of fighting something, but what is the immune system doing all the rest of the time when it's not proactively fighting against the pathogen?
That is such a great question.
I mean, Sean, way to go.
Two things that you just mentioned that are stellar, basically.
First, that, yeah, the immune system isn't just on guard waiting for an infection until your immune system kicks in.
You know, oh, I see these viruses, these bacteria.
Now I have a job.
I'm going to go do something.
So it's really understanding the immune system doing a lot more, even in times when there's no threat, the immune system is keeping everything working.
It's like after the fire, the firefighters go back to the firehouse and then what do they do?
They polish up the fire truck, they change the oil, they make sure everything's working.
So again, that's analogy time number two.
We're going to do it countless times today.
But that's an incredibly important point.
And the other thing is you mentioned a term that I have really grown to love, and it's called immunometabolism.
And like so many other examples these days of ideas that we thought were really disparate, like the brain and the gut, now everybody's talking about the gut-brain connection.
Similarly, immunology, the immune system and metabolism, those seem so disparate, but no, they're not.
That our metabolic health, which you focus on day in and day out in your outreach, in the books that you've written, is fundamentally charting the course of the immune system.
Who knew?
Whether the immune system is, as I described, brain defending or brain destroying is based on the metabolism of those immune cells, which is a mirror of the metabolism of your body.
Wow.
Those are powerful dots.
Why?
Because now...
We know we have entree to our body's metabolism.
When we exercise, when we eat the right foods, get enough sleep, socially connect to other people, those things powerfully affect our metabolism.
Our immune cells in the brain reflect that.
They see what's going on with their metabolism, and they determine then
Whether they're gonna be supportive and building a better brain, or they're gonna be primed to be destructive.
So now we're really doing a great entree into the idea that we have the tools, things that you've been talking about for years, but in the context now of building a better brain.
And we're going to obviously jump right into the brain and take a look at the immune system of the brain because it's different than what's going on with the rest of the body, obviously with the blood-brain barrier specifically.
But just keeping this very, very important insight going,
When we're talking about the immune system in relationship to metabolism, you mentioned, so it's affected by our overall metabolism as us as a person and our practices and our lifestyle and our genetics.
But also our immune cells themselves have their own metabolism.
They're doing metabolic stuff.
And so this, my question I wanna ask you about- And I didn't prompt you, this is amazing.
And so I wanna ask you about specifically, this has got me thinking in this train of thought where we might see an increased incidence of neurodegenerative conditions
When our immune system, our overall metabolism of the individual is affecting the immune system, say in the state of overweight or obesity, and we have more inflammation going on, for example, or the immune system is just maybe fighting a bigger fight.
Could that have a relationship?
You bet.
It's a simple answer, but let me unpack it a little bit.
So we've known for years that if you happen to be a type two diabetic, your risk of Alzheimer's may go up as much as threefold.
If you have midlife obesity, you just mentioned that, risk for Alzheimer's is dramatically increased.
If you're a type 2 diabetic, your risk for Parkinson's may be as much as 85% increased.
Think about that.
The idea that being metabolically dysfunctional has a huge impact on the brain.
We've never talked about diabetes being a risk factor for Parkinson's.
Most people have never heard of that.
And yet that...
That segues to a conversation about, well, if we can target blood sugar control, might that be some effective approach to, let's say, Parkinson's?
Who would ever come up with something like that?
And when we talk about targeting metabolism these days, where does the conversation go?
I mean, in our world, it goes to our lifestyle choices, but in the broader picture, it goes to GLP-1 drugs.
I mean, you talk about, I want to fix my metabolism, I'm going to lose some weight, get my blood sugar down.
Next thing you know, you're doing yourself an injection, however often.
Taking Ozempic or whatever it may be.
That's the go-to.
Well, I don't want to be castigating out of hand as it relates to that because there's some valuable information there.
I want to look at that.
I don't want to close the toolbox today and say, well, we're only going to do the lifestyle choice.
We
These conditions are almost uniformly fatal.
So we've got to open our opportunities here, and this might be an opportunity.
Here is an intervention, a GLP-1 drug that dramatically targets metabolism, that helps mitochondria work better, that does indeed lower blood sugar.
And as we are now seeing incredibly widespread potential benefits, even as it relates to cancer and obsessive compulsive behavior, depression, lots of things are being revealed
But let's keep in mind the potential risks.
So let me get back to the notion of Parkinson's being related to elevated blood sugar.
Again, who knew?
That said, that paved the way for the idea that maybe a GLP-1 agonist drug might be helpful in Parkinson's.
Can you imagine?
Researchers publishing in the Journal of the American, no, publishing the New England Journal of Medicine.
Would I say top tier?
Absolutely.
As the most widely respected medical journal on the planet, perhaps it is.
In 2024, conducted a study evaluating 157 individuals with Parkinson's disease.
And they did this study based on the idea that, yeah, if you're type two diabetic, you have a higher risk.
And it was an interventional trial.
Half the group got a placebo and half the group got this GLP-1 drug that is not commonly used in America, or it is not used now.
But anyway, followed them for a year.
And lo and behold, the Parkinson's patients that got the placebo, as predicted, declined quite significantly over the course of one year.
We see that.
But the group getting the GLP-1 agonist drug, their disease decline was completely arrested.
That's treating the fire, not just the smoke.
Treating the smoke, giving people drugs for their tremor and their rigidity, that's standard of care.
We do it all the time.
But finally treating the fire by targeting their metabolism, affecting their immune cells in their brain through what you just described, immunometabolism, the disease was stopped dead in its tracks.
That's pretty profound.
For me to see that, to me, it's why that's fantastic.
WTF, why that's fantastic.
Pretty unbelievable, right?
Say what you will about GLP-1 agonist drugs, and we can discuss that on both sides of that equation, but that's great information that at least tells us that when we begin targeting metabolism, it has a powerful effect on the brain's immune system, and that is way upstream of the accumulation of
Beta amyloid protein or alpha-synuclein or any of these other misfolded proteins that pharmaceutical approaches tend to really want to focus on as being the one thing causing this disease.
No, it's way upstream of that.
And so...
That's really where we're going.
And it's not just, you know, I write this book about, all right, we know that metabolism is important.
Here's how we specifically target your metabolism to improve your microglial cells function, to make them be nurturing as opposed to destructive.
I will assure you
That as of this morning, my reading from even this morning, that this is hot in the world of pharmaceuticals and technology.
They are looking at ways of targeting the microglial cells, the brain to immune cells through technology and through pharmaceutical intervention to bring this about.
This is the pivot point as it relates to brain degeneration.
And now
I'm welcoming the research that's going on.
It's exciting.
Yeah, it really is.
It's very exciting.
And you mentioned the brain's immune system again.
So I want to park ourselves upstairs and talk about this a little bit more.
And in particular, really highlighting brain defenders.
But just to unpack for us, again, there's a difference with the immune system and immune system activity with the brain versus the rest of the body.
And there is a camp of people, there's flat earthers,
Out there and there are people who don't even believe that there's a blood brain barrier.
Like it's just all, you know, it's hogwash.
Can you talk about, because this is what you do, you know, you're studying the brain.
What is the difference?
How is the brain's immune system different from the rest of the body?
You mentioned the glial cells, the microglial cells specifically.
Does that make up a bigger portion of what's going on in the brain versus the rest of the body?
Well, first, the idea that the brain even had an immune system is relatively new.
Right, yeah.
I mean, all the conversation has been about the neuron.
Well, we have 170 billion neurons and let's just talk about them.
What can we do to protect them, whatever?
And then it was discovered in the early part of the 20th century by scientists
Dr. Santiago Ramón y Cajal in Spain, that there were other cells in the brain who knew.
And it turns out that 50% of the brain cells are not neurons.
They are these glial or glue cells because Dr. Cajal noted that these cells
Are smaller and they're positioned between the neurons.
And he thought maybe they're gluing them together, giving the brain some structure.
So that's where the term glia comes from, glue.
And there were several varieties of them.
There were some called astrocytes, which are called astro because they look like stars.
And then these other smaller cells called microglial cells.
And as he and further researchers were looking at them, they saw them on slides as being between the neurons okay.
But ultimately, more recently, in real time, the cells were noted to be moving.
They were moving around the brain and doing things.
And it was then realized that these are the immune cells of the brain.
Very similar to the immune cells in the body, the body, some of the body cells actually, immune cells, have also a supportive and a destructive role.
We call that M2 supportive, M1 destructive, like the microglial cells.
But even their origin is different.
Maybe too technical, but embryologically, the microglial cells come from the yolk sac.
All the rest of the immune cells in the body come from bone marrow.
So from day one, they're different.
They come from the yolk sac, they migrate into the brain, then they populate the brain.
So it's a very distinct population.
Importantly, it's a population of cells over which you have control right now.
That every squat you do, every restorative night's sleep you get,
Every dietary choice that helps keep your blood sugar under control is nurturing the M2 loving brain defender microglia and keeping those evil twins
We still care for them, we love them, but keeping them quiet, that's what every lifestyle choice you do today does in your brain, plays out.
So in a very real sense, that ball's been hit to your side of the court, and you are the architect of your brain's destiny.
So this idea that if you live to be age 85, and I'm certain you will, that you will have a 50-50 chance of becoming an Alzheimer's patient, you've just dramatically, by the choices you are making, tipped the odds against that happening to you.
I mean...
In my generation, odds of people age 65 and over of being diagnosed today with Alzheimer's or other form of dementia are one in nine.
And that's a scary proposition.
And I want to do everything I can not to be in that camp and spread the word that that doesn't have to happen to people.
But I want to be sure, and this is, I think, really important, that
The seeds are sown for later brain degeneration in your age group, in people in their 30s and 40s and 50s.
That's when the metabolic issues are beginning that are paving the way then for the brain to begin degenerating.
And then ultimately when we're my age, then the manifestations of,
Beginning to slip mentally are demonstrated.
But the target population for preventing that from happening is now in your age group, you young folks.
And
And I wanna make one other point.
That is, it's not just about helping preserve your brain such that when you get to be my age, it's gonna work for you.
It's also about how your brain is working today.
These very same issues that lead to brain degeneration are the same issues your population needs to be focused on to have your brain functioning at the highest level today.
Most efficiently, most comprehensive type of function, and ultimately more resistant to decline.
Yes.
So we want to be proactive today, starting yesterday, at protecting and supporting the health and function of our microglia.
You bet.
Really focusing on that.
And again, as you mentioned to kick off the show, this is not just relegated to
This is also relegated to the vast array of neurodegenerative conditions that have just really skyrocketed in recent decades.
And so now we're getting really to the heart slash brain of what is our greatest defense against this.
Because as you shared too, and you really detail in the book,
Our current treatments are simply not effective at helping to really make a substantial difference in reversing the condition.
Like that just doesn't exist at this point.
But what does exist is very, very strong brain defenders that can dramatically reduce your risk of developing these conditions and slow the progression dramatically if you,
Yeah, let me, for your population, really present something I think that'll be far more of a touch point.
And that is your risk of full recovery or better recovery after head trauma.
You know, falling off your mountain bike, full contact, well, you don't call it full contact karate anymore, mixed martial arts.
In my day, it was full contact karate and head trauma here, which I wish didn't happen, but did.
But anything, in any contact sport, any risk that you have for head trauma.
So you did karate?
In those days, we didn't call it MMA.
MMA was a term that evolved in my later years.
You do look like you can chop somebody in the neck.
We called it either full contact karate or kickboxing.
I remember one experience where
Got a little overconfident and took actually an unexpected roundhouse kick to the head.
Ended up on the mat and, you know, the guy's counting me out.
And I said, when I finally opened my eyes, I said, because I'd already begun studying medicine, I said, I've got diplopia.
And the ref looks at me and says...
He's talking Jewish.
Nine, 10, yeah.
And he said, what's, I said, well, sorry, double vision.
And because I was, I got, I took a big hit.
And I know now one of the reasons is because I was up too late the night before.
I was a little slow on my game.
So anyway, but those things have all happened to all of us.
I'm sure you've got lots of stories.
And, but the point I'm making is that
In a given population experiencing head trauma, your ability to recover from that event depends on your microglial cells.
If you're metabolically compromised, your ability, because of what you described earlier, immunometabolism, your ability to recover fully will be less likely.
If you're already with insulin resistance, overweight, having some metabolic issues, because your microglial cells can't go back to being nurturing and allow you to increase neuroplasticity and increase the gaining a function of your neurons.
Type two diabetics have head injuries.
Their recovery is less.
They don't recover as well.
So it's about doing these things on the front end before we could say, okay, before you're 70 years of age and now you're becoming cognitively impaired.
No, before you fall off your bike.
You know, and that before your child is heading a ball in soccer, we wanna make sure that they've got the right things on board.
Fish oil, for example, to keep those microglial cells where they need to be.
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In particular, something like magnesium, for example, is required to make new mitochondria.
It's a process called mitochondrial biogenesis.
The creation of new mitochondria depends on magnesium to be present.
Pretty amazing.
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Amazing.
Well, this is a great...
Opportunity to talk about some of these things that we can be doing proactively.
And I think people are going to be surprised in some of these, but some of them is just an affirmation.
But I want to start off with one of the most powerful and you know, we literally are creating chemistry in our bodies that protect our brain when we do this particular thing.
Let's talk about
How powerful it is and why we need to exercise in order to defend our brain.
What a question.
Exercise to defend the brain.
So, you know, we've known a long time that people who are active have a lower risk for brain degeneration.
The blue zones told us that, that people who have a lot of verticality in their lives live in a place where they got to go up and down steps or, you know, inclined roads or whatever.
And, you know, more recent studies that clearly show that there's a correlation between your level of activity within reason, we could talk about that later, and building a brain that's more resistant to decline.
We got that.
Okay, so I should exercise more.
But, you know, you would want to know and I wanted to know why.
What the heck's going on?
How's it working?
So it turns out that our muscles, believe it or not, are actually endocrine glands.
So we think about our endocrine glands like our thyroid makes thyroid hormone that goes elsewhere in the body and does good things.
And the pituitary gland, the adrenal glands, we define an endocrine gland as...
One organ that influences something else at a distance.
Well, our muscles do that.
Who knew?
So our muscles are, when they're activated, are secreting chemicals that go throughout the body and do good things.
Some of these chemicals, they're called myomuscle kinds, meaning they're moving around doing things.
Kind means movement, kinetics.
They're called myokines and they improve our metabolism.
They help lower our blood sugar.
They help improve insulin sensitivity.
All really good for the brain, really good for metabolism.
And then through immunometabolism,
Good for the microglial cells.
They create chemicals that make their way to the brain to turn off, rather to turn on the production of something called BDNF.
You've heard of this brain-derived neurotrophic factor, stimulating the formation of new brain connections to each other, new brain cells, activating these microglia to be nurturing, not destructive.
So we really need to look at physical activity through that lens.
That number one, you want to do it.
And number two, I like these chemicals.
I want more of them.
How do you get more of them?
By building bigger muscles.
And I think one of the biggest risks that happens as we age is loss of the ability to have continued good muscle tone, lots of muscle mass, muscle bulk.
We call that sarcopenia as we lose muscle mass as we age.
We gotta avoid that, we gotta do everything we can.
And to be fair, I'll tell you from personal experience, it's more challenging as we get older to maintain muscle mass.
It is the exercise, but it's also making sure you're getting adequate amounts of protein.
Maybe use a topical testosterone gel if need be.
With monitoring of your testosterone level, all the things that we know that can help maintain or even recoup muscle mass as we age.
Again, I know it becomes more difficult.
But that said,
We wanna build as much of these chemicals as we can.
We wanna have that pharmacy in our bodies really be spitting out a lot of these good chemicals.
So we wanna build muscle mass.
And I think one concept that people are perhaps less aware of is
The largest muscles in your body are in your legs.
Well, you know, if you're training to look good, you're working on your triceps and your biceps and your pecs, of course.
But the best bang for the buck as it relates to brain health are gonna be your leg muscles.
So we talked about it before we went live today, and that is that you were talking about certain exercises for leg muscles.
Couldn't be more important.
Whether it's a leg press machine or doing squats, whatever it may be,
That's really critical because the bigger those muscles, the more of these mild kinds, this irisin and interleukin-6 and others that they're going to put out that are good for your metabolism and ultimately good for your microglial cells.
And now explaining why it is that exercise is associated with preserving your brain.
This is awesome.
So do you have a pull-up bar on your boat?
No, I have bands that I use on the boat.
I know you're doing something.
Well, I do pull-ups, but I don't have a pull-up bar.
There's actually, there's a piece that comes across the mast, and that's what I use.
Oh.
Yeah.
You see the creativity.
Yeah, but-
I found that doing curls with the band, putting the band at your feet and doing curls, then of course, wrapping it twice around your feet, because you want to do them harder, was bad for my back.
I get into big trouble doing that.
So anytime I'm doing curls at putting pressure down, compressing my spine, I avoid that.
I'd rather do pull downs on a machine.
Uh or uh on a rowing machine for biceps but personally in personalized medicine i can't pull i can't do with an easy crowbar because that compressed my spine and i got into big trouble
I mean, real big trouble.
Thank you for sharing that by the way, because this is another part, it's not just personalized medicine, it's personalized exercise too.
And everybody's body is different, you know?
And it's just finding those things and paying attention also when something doesn't suit your body.
And by the way, like for years,
Obviously, when I met my wife, actually, I worked in the gym at the university that we met at, but I worked with a lot of athletes and everyday folks as well.
And it was crazy how many people felt like they couldn't squat.
And it's just like, it's not that you can't squat.
You can't squat in the way that
This other person is trying to make you squat or you think you're supposed to squat.
The way that your body's put together is different.
We can find some kind of regression of the exercise.
Maybe it's like a box squat or whatever the case might be.
There's a machine for that.
You can dial in the counterweight as well.
You can actually dial in the counterweight or...
Spread your legs a little bit further to start off with.
And then squats become harder the closer your feet are together.
So if you can get to shoulder width on your squats, have at it and do however many you think you want to do in a given day.
But I think that's really important.
Let me get back.
This is kind of off topic, but...
Here's the point, if people are getting back pain after their training and wanna know why, it may be you're doing too many extensions, whatever it may be, but look at stand up curls with the EasyCurl bar.
I mean, I'm not trying to knock the EasyCurl bar, but I'm saying that for me, maybe there's a lesson here.
I'll mention actually two things.
Think about that if you're getting low back pain and you can't figure out where it may be.
I mean, the last thing you might think of is curls.
How is that hurting my back?
It's...
The counterweight is your lower spine when you're doing easy curl.
The other thing is, now that I have a moment to mention one other thing that I think is important, because I sometimes have to rein myself in in the gym because I see people doing this and I know they're going to hurt themselves.
If you're using an elliptical machine, keep your feet flat.
Don't be thinking you want to roll that heel and come up.
You'll get stress factors of the front part of your feet that are going to take you weeks to recover from.
I just wanted to say that.
I've never said that on a podcast before.
But I wanted to say it because somebody may hear that and understand why their feet are hurting so much.
PSA alert.
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah, we should be all checking our PSAs too.
I know public service.
So I want to add also, because one of my questions is going to be like, what are the most science backed forms of exercise for us to focus on?
Obviously, just emphasize strength training being so valuable.
One thing I want to add to the mix has got some pretty interesting data around it is balance type exercises.
Took the words out of my mouth because it's always, is it aerobics or is it strength training?
And I would say the important number three is flexibility and balance training.
And the reason being that, for no other reason than if you're not flexible and working the balance,
You run the risk of falling and hurting yourself, at which point your exercise program is over for whatever period of time it takes you to recover.
So everybody's saying, well, is it aerobics?
Is it strength training?
What the data shows is it's both.
Right.
So both target metabolism, BDNF, both target that, but we really wanna emphasize both because there are metabolic upsides to both of those.
So it's a mixture.
And again, on the strength training though, it may not help your looks that much is really work on your legs.
Oh yeah, it'll definitely help your looks if you're looking in the right place.
You know what I mean?
It's summertime, short shorts, you know, and it'll be out here looking like a rooster, you know?
So I wanted to circle back a little bit and you mentioned fish oil in the context of defending our brains.
There's recently become like some conflict about fish oil yeah and i know what you're referring to so the the study came out that uh concluded erroneously that my opinion
That consumption of fish oil might be associated with increased risk of dementia.
And this was a study basically that looked at individuals who took fish oil versus those who did not, and had no discussion, nor was it part of the study, as to the quality of that fish oil.
And we know
There are plenty of research demonstrating that off-the-shelf bargain fish oil can absolutely be threatening to your brain, threatening to your physiology, threatening to increase inflammation as opposed to tamping down inflammation.
So I think quality is certainly something to be thinking about.
The next interesting thing that should be considered is that
Who takes fish oil and why?
You know, people who've been reading the literature and suddenly are becoming a little bit not where they want to be cognitively.
I better take some fish oil now because I'm starting to have some issues.
So that skews the population towards the people who are taking fish oil already having issues.
So it's not just a general population, nor is
Is this a double-blinded placebo control where we'll give half the group this and half the group that?
I mean, the research on DHA, one of the components official, I think one of the most,
Active components that I'm really fond of, goes back an awful long way, back to the work of Dr. Martha Clare Morris at Washington University, demonstrating that the brains of people with Alzheimer's have lower levels of this important omega-3, and that there's evidence that people having higher levels
Of dietary DHA from, it doesn't have to be from fish oil, but that's generally where people are getting it, or eating fish, that people consuming them have a lower risk.
So I did see the study you're referring to and
I think it's unfortunate because to take people away from this as being hugely valuable is a disservice.
And I love science, but let's look at the study and its quality.
Yeah, yeah.
And there's...
I mean, decades of studies on the effectiveness of fish oil, DHA in particular, and all of these cognitive benefits, improving working memory and reaction time, just the list goes on and on and on.
Executive function, mood as well.
I mean, plenty of interventional research demonstrating that.
And then again, the epidemiology issues that I mentioned earlier as well, very valuable.
And to throw this baby out with the bathwater based on one poorly constructed study, I think is gonna do a big disservice.
If people get the idea of what I just described and gets them off of poor quality fish oils,
Then maybe that's a good thing, who knows?
That part.
So quality matters in this context, especially.
And also let's point our attention at food sources overall.
One of the pictures that you showed me was a salmon that you caught.
And this is one of the most notable- That was a big boy.
That was a big end of season big boy.
That one just was like the icing on the cake.
But that's one of the most notable sources of omega-3s, but in particular,
There's an even higher concentration with the salmon eggs or salmon roe.
And it is possibly the most concentrated source of things like phospholipids as well.
That's right.
That's exactly right.
And as I noticed throughout the summer, people tend to filet their salmons and throw the roe away.
And if I happen to be by the cleaning table, I say, oh, we'll take that.
You're more than welcome to it.
I think the only thing people keep it for is baiting their crab traps.
Maybe that's a little bit too much information, but my wife has discovered a way of working with the salmon roe, and it's delicious.
It's like having fresh caviar all summer long.
It's great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So are there any other foods for us to keep in mind in this context?
Again, we're looking at defending our brains and stacking conditions, and food matters a lot.
Yeah, who knew?
Food matters.
And, you know, we'll get to supplements, I guess, at some point, but food is job one.
Supplements are, by definition, the supplemental food.
Things to consider if either your blood testing and or your diet aren't supplying what your body needs.
But these fatty fish from Northern Australia,
Latitudes that have a lot of fat and generally high in omega-3s, a great source.
But who can get fresh wild salmon or even frozen wild salmon year round?
It's difficult.
I get that.
So very high quality fish oil supplement, or if you choose not to consume anything from animals, there are
DHA supplements available that are made from marine algae.
Great sources of DHA.
So DHA is the ticket here.
DHA changes the expression of our genome.
Gosh, a food.
Well, all foods do.
Foods are information.
But it instructs our genome to produce more of this BDNF, the growth factor for the brain.
DHA is probably the highest representative fat in the brain as it relates to building the membrane of the neurons and acts as an anti-inflammatory throughout the body.
It's also, interestingly, the precursor from which our bodies make these specialized pro-resolving mediators.
It's a mouthful.
These are the chemicals that turn down inflammation.
And inflammation anywhere in your body targets your microglial cells and shifts them away from being brain defenders to being brain destroyers, what I call the evil twin.
Same cell, but becomes the evil twin.
So the idea that inflammation coming from anywhere in the body makes its way to the brain and can lead to activating our microglia cells, I think is really important because what's one of the biggest topics these days in terms of where the inflammation is coming from, from the gut, from leakiness of the gut because of changes in the gut bacteria
Increasing the leakiness of the gut, leading to more inflammation in the body, making its way to the brain, changing our microglial cells and setting the stage for brain decline.
So I just related the microbiome, the bacteria, and even upstream of that becomes the food that we eat.
So the food that we eat affects the microbiome in your gut and has a role to play in gut leakiness or not, inflammation, microglial cells, your brain's destiny.
So it seems like a convoluted way of relating food to the brain.
But wow, when those dots get connected, you could take a deep breath and go to sleep at night because we just figured that one out.
What are those foods that can tear up our gut health, but also can really break down our brain?
I don't think I've ever said this before in a podcast, but I'm thinking about it because we did have a conversation earlier.
And if it's something that our ancestors wouldn't have eaten 200 years ago, then that's probably the food we're talking about.
I've never contextualized it like that, but I think the big issue these days, call it like it is, are the ultra-processed foods.
That's relatively new terminology.
When I wrote Grain Brain,
We didn't have that term ultra-processed foods, but it was what I was talking about, these highly processed, mostly carbs, that's what that book was all about.
Which people poo-pooed, at least in the medical community, saying, no, we need to eat all of these carbs that we want.
And I said, well, that's not what the emerging science is telling us right now.
Let's pay attention.
Now, of course, we see the data.
That relates consumption of these ultra processed foods with risk of brain degeneration of Alzheimer's disease.
There's actually, believe it or not, a journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease now.
What a world.
And last year in that very journal was a study that looked at, it followed 1,342 individuals, I'm correcting myself, 1,375 individuals, followed them for an average of 12.7 years.
And evaluated their consumption of ultra processed foods.
They did a food frequency questionnaire.
So over this period of time, this is from the Framingham Heart Study, they wrote down what they ate.
And if they ate, as an average, one serving of ultra processed foods per day, one handful of chips, Alzheimer's risk was increased 13%.
If they ate 10 or more servings, and there's a lot of people that do that, it's very common.
I've done it.
I know, we all have.
Their risk would go up, it was about 2.7 fold, 270% for a disease for which we have no meaningful treatment.
As I mentioned, the third leading cause of death in America.
And, you know, in the context of the fact that 60% of calories consumed in American adults right now are coming from these ultra processed foods, and then one wonders,
Gee, why is the incidence of Alzheimer's going up so dramatically?
60% of our calories coming from ultra processed foods that are associated with increased risk.
So it really gets back to what I said a moment ago, that if it wasn't a food that we consumed a couple of hundred years ago, which these are, these ultra processed foods,
That might explain what the heck's going on right now.
People are scratching their heads going, why is this happening?
It's not like we've suddenly changed genetically.
Genetics has very little to do with it.
It's lifestyle.
That's empowering because we can change our lifestyle choices.
And now we know how it works.
It works through redirecting back to being helpful, our brain's immune cells.
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Amazing.
So bottom line, Funyuns are not good for your brain.
Fruity Pebbles, not good for your brain.
Mountain Dew.
It's not good for your brain.
In my day, it was bugles.
Bugles.
Do they still have bugles?
They die cold.
Those little corn things?
I'm not looking for them.
You can put them on your fingertips and look like you're- That's right, though.
You know bugles.
Wicked witch or something, yeah.
That's right.
Bugles and onion dip.
Creepy, very creepy.
And Heath bars.
The Heath bars.
Didn't they have like toffee in it?
Oh yeah.
Yeah, I know about that.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, well, what about the Big League Chew?
Do you remember that when you were a kid?
I remember the Big League Chew.
It was like, this is so messed up, by the way.
We had candy cigarettes.
But also Big League Chew.
They don't still have those.
They can't still have candy cigarettes.
But I'm sure you could find them.
But Big League Chew was basically chewing tobacco, but gum.
So you get in there, you know, it's crazy.
Yeah.
The other one for me back in the day was Bonomo Turkish Taffy.
And anyway, there's a hardware store of all things where I live.
And they have all of the...
Uh old time candies some there's some company that's collecting them or re-manufacturing with the all the old names
Uh the neko things uh that are these little uh little tablets and then uh jujubes they don't
They have that still anyway yeah uh snow caps all of the old the movie candies
Yeah.
Because I spend a lot of time in the hardware store.
I go to the hardware store, even if I don't need anything, just to walk around, look at the tools.
Anyway, and at checkout, I look at those things and I remember, oh, man.
Yeah, I could see you walk around the hardware store, former full contact karate.
You're not just a man, you're a dude.
Oh, a dude.
And I respect that.
At age 71.
Yeah, I love it.
A former dude.
I love it.
So before we pivot out of the domain of nutrition, are there any other supplements that we should know about in this context?
Well, supplements, you know, there are a handful I think that are going to be on the almost required list, if not required list.
And let's talk first about vitamin D. You know, it's one of my favorites.
It's not expensive.
It's fundamental, we're all told to stay out of the sun, get a little sun each day, that's important.
But I think we're seeing vitamin D deficiency
Be very common, like magnesium deficiency.
So we've got to fix that.
Vitamin D receptors live on the microglial cells.
When they are stimulated, they help reduce inflammation in the brain.
When they're not stimulated, inflammation can increase directly because of how vitamin D affects the gene transcription in the microglial cells.
Who knew?
So what's the the hack?
The hack is take some vitamin D. But first, that's your body.
Get a vitamin D level and don't be satisfied by being in the normal range.
That's ridiculous.
You want to be people following you.
They want to be optimized.
Right.
The optimal range for me, what my outreach is saying is 60 to 80.
That's what we want.
I don't see how we can avoid the emerging literature on various nutritional supplements like creatine monohydrate.
Everybody, in my opinion, needs to be at least thinking about creatine monohydrate.
You want to power your mitochondria.
When the mitochondria are less functional, the microglial cells shift to becoming the evil twin.
Immuno...
Metabolism.
It's very clear.
A recent study demonstrated actual dramatic effect on patients who've already been diagnosed with Alzheimer's by simply taking, in this case, 10 grams.
It's a little bit higher than I would take or you would take, I guess, twice a day.
Far better than any drug.
Creatine at the health food store.
It's cheap.
It's tasteless.
You know, if you have renal issues, you want to check with your healthcare provider.
Probably health check with your healthcare provider about anything we're talking about.
That's for sure.
There's the disclaimer.
Got that one in.
But creatine monohydrate, coenzyme Q10, B vitamins, B complex, methylated if your homocysteine is elevated.
You know, these are the fundamentals.
A good probiotic I think is really important.
Make sure you have a lot of dietary fiber.
And if you don't, then you supplement with a good dietary fiber.
And there's some really cool things out there right now.
People kick around the term superfood, and I use that term very reservedly because I think it's well overused, but there's something called Himalayan tartary buckwheat.
Ever heard of that one?
You will.
This is a food that has the highest level of polyphenols, I think, of any food that's ever been studied.
So people will learn about Himalayan tartar buckwheat.
And beyond that, look at the quality of the water that you are drinking.
Look at the purity and the quality of the air you breathe.
Who knew?
We talk about in the book the effects of these PM2.5 particles in the air that we are breathing, why wildfire smoke is a clear and present danger, why living close to a highway
Look at the research from from canada showing that's a dramatic risk factor as relates to pm 2.5 particles that you're breathing to developing alzheimer's disease epidemiology very good data so
You know, we have in our bedroom a very high-quality air purifier that's reading the quality of the air that we are breathing, monitoring it, and adjusting itself based on any changes that might happen.
If there's wildfire in the Everglades or they're burning the sugar cane...
In Central Florida and we get some of that, this thing turns itself up at a higher level than, you know, with a HEPA 14 filter.
So we're confident, we're breathing good air.
Wow, thank you for sharing that.
We're looking at all of these, obviously the environmental stressors, but we often relate stress to something that's being kind of internally generated, but as a result of external circumstances.
And I'm saying all that to say that
A missing part of this conversation is the role of stress.
And this is something you address in the book as well.
When talking about neurodegeneration in the context of dementia, how can stress be a contributing factor?
It's a great question because, and let me first just double click on this idea that in some contexts, stress is actually a very good thing.
You know, a low level of periodic stress in one form or another does you good.
It's why we weight train.
That's stressing our muscles.
What's the payoff?
Well, you're destroying muscle tissue.
Oh, that's got to be bad.
No, actually, the muscle tissue responds by bringing itself back to its former level and then a little bit more.
That's the hormetic effect of a...
A stress that we choose to engage.
We stress our bodies by exposing it to variations in temperature, by stressing our bodies by having at times too little oxygen or too much oxygen.
We talked about hyperbarics a little while ago outside.
But the idea of constantly bombarding our bodies by
Basically the world in which we now live 24-7 with this low-grade stress accumulating over time works its detrimental effects through multiple channels.
We know that
Stress hormone, the most important being cortisol, makes its way directly to the brain and is threatening to our microglial cells.
Microglial cells respond
From being stimulated by cortisol or other steroids that you may have been prescribed for your asthma or your aching joint by polarizing to becoming the evil twin.
So that's a call.
And we discussed the, you know,
Not just the steroids that you might have been prescribed for your asthma or whatever it may be, but the steroids that your body is making, i.e.
Chronic stress.
The other real important issue, and there are multiple that this cortisol does, is it changes your microbiome.
And it targets your microbiome in such a way that it leads to increased leakiness of your gut, such that inflammation is increasing.
Think about that.
As do the prescribed corticosteroids that you might be taking to reduce inflammation.
So what I'm saying is,
That these types of steroids in the long run increase inflammation, though you think you were prescribed that to reduce the inflammation in my joint or my lungs, as it does with cortisol from chronic levels of stress.
So it's a clear and present danger.
And the level of stress that we're experiencing in today's world is...
It's breathtaking.
I mean, it might be beyond the chemicals and the atmospheric stuff, the PM2.5s.
I think this might be the biggest issue that's so threatening.
And how do we offload that and how do we counteract it?
That's what we talk about.
We offload it by...
Recognizing that continuing to doom scroll is doing some really bad stuff for your immune system, for your metabolism, and therefore for your brain.
Turn off the news.
Get off your smartphone.
You know, I interviewed somebody on my podcast recently, she wrote a book that I'm not, correct me, you may know the title about, we're all pooping wrong.
Something like that.
And, you know, at the end, how when you're doing a podcast, you want to go get those little quick, you know, 60-second vignettes.
And I said, what's the one thing, my team said, ask the one thing we can do to poop better.
And she said...
Don't bring your phone into the bathroom.
Think about that.
Don't be sitting on the pooper looking at your social media because...
You should be pooping.
That's the time to poop where your body needs to connect with the fact that you need to unwind parasympathetic activation and rest, relax, and include bowel movement in that parasympathetic moment.
Not being sympathetic, nervous system activated fight or flight.
I'm gonna let it happen, right?
And then she talked about the literature showing that people who spend time on the toilet on their phones have much higher risk of developing hemorrhoids
Because they're not relaxing, they're straining more.
So I thought that was very insightful.
Jeez Louise.
I have so many things running through my head right now.
I remember when I was a kid and when I go to like friend's house or... Who knew where this interview was going?
My mom's, you know, my mom's friends.
And they would sometimes have like a...
A little tray or carrier of books or magazines or whatever.
And I always wonder like, why is that in here?
You know?
Cause I, and then when I got a little bit older, I'm like, why are they spending so much time in the, like sitting here with the, with a book or a magazine?
Like, shouldn't you just like handle your business and then get back to living life?
You know, I remember we had a book by the toilet when I was a kid called Jokes for the John.
And they were these off color jokes that I probably shouldn't have been looking at when I was, you know, eight years old.
But anyway, yeah, you're right.
There's this thing of, you know, sitting on the john, reading a newspaper, I think, you know, have a little bit of gut brain connection at that point, let it happen.
And by the way, we've got the title of the book.
It's called, You've Been Pooping All Wrong.
And there are so many ways that we could talk about that conversation, including the position, right?
Yeah, and she's a lovely gastroenterologist.
So look at the podcast on The Empowering Neurologist.
Shout out to her.
Yes, yes.
Just to circle back a little bit, you mentioned the hyperbaric oxygen.
And I was pleasantly surprised to see the stories that you shared and the reason behind utilizing this in your practice.
And if you could, can you talk about, first of all, what is hyperbaric oxygen therapy and why would you be using this in the context of treating the brain?
Great question.
And it was originally developed for basically treating diving injuries.
During construction, that people would be working underwater and would get the bends and had to be repressurized with oxygen, with air, but a higher level oxygen.
To help them recover.
And then it was realized that other wounds were healing and researchers began to explore that.
Why would that be?
Well, you know, oxygen in the right dosage, very important.
It can be very healing.
It takes us to the notion of, again, immunometabolism, that metabolism being the mitochondria.
The mitochondria take glucose, generally the fuel, and in the presence of oxygen through a process called oxidative phosphorylation, create ATP molecules.
So we begin to wonder, well, then oxygen seems to be a player here.
We got to get the glucose into the cell.
We need
To have adequate amounts of glucose, oxygen is a player.
So about 28 years ago, I built a hyperbaric center in my clinic and began treating
Stroke patients, patients with head injuries, and seeing really nice results based upon research done mostly in Israel by Dr. Shai Efrati, who had already started publishing this research.
And more and more research came out with time indicating that for wound healing now, in fact, wound healing is a Medicare approved usage of hyperbarics, which is pretty restrictive.
Carbon monoxide poisoning.
Radiation necrosis or damage to the body and the bones from having radiation therapy or exposure to radiation from another reason, a gas gangrene, and certainly decompression illness in divers.
The idea that this is a real salubrious intervention to the human body, allowing a healing environment, has stood the test of time, and there's plenty of research demonstrating that to be the fact.
Why not the brain?
Why not the brain?
So that's the research that's been ongoing at research facilities around the world.
I just visited a big facility in Dubai and, you know, just really wonderful results.
Again, Dr. Shai Efrati has continued to publish his research.
And now...
Has opened a door for patients with long COVID.
So that's obviously a relatively new phenomenon, but what is long COVID?
Why does it manifest?
One of the most important issues that people are having are the cognitive issues, in addition to the generalized fatigue and muscle aches, because their mitochondria are not working.
So he and his team have published their research showing really pretty dramatic improvements.
And I have a case report in the book about that.
And using this technology, it's available around the country of hyperbaric oxygen going into a chamber, being pressurized and breathing a higher percentage of oxygen
In comparison to what we normally breathe 21 of the air we breathe being oxygen
This ratchets up the amount of oxygen that we are breathing
It's it's a i would put it still in the world of the realm of biohacking as it relates to general health and longevity practices but certainly
Very front and center as it relates to treating an existing problem.
Amazing, amazing.
The great news that we have so much more access to things that can help to defend our brains, but it's still, and this is something we agree on,
Let's make sure we're covering the basics and if you could because i want to i want to close out the loop on stress because you know you mentioned for example uh getting off the doom scrolling getting off of our smartphones more frequently
What do we replace with that time
What should we be doing to help to modulate lower stress to get more into that parasympathetic
That's a major goal.
And interestingly, I think people feel like they've adapted to our modern world and are living their lives not realizing
That they are stressed.
And I mean, how would you measure it?
Well, I mean, it gets to the idea that we can hack in such a way as to understand where we are in that continuum between fight or flight sympathetic activity and rest and digest.
And now let's add bowel movement activity to the parasympathetic activation.
How would you know?
Well, first, you look at the ability we have with biometrics, with looking at your Oura Ring or your Apple Watch or your Whoop, and specifically look at a metric, for example, like HRV, heart rate variability.
And if that's not where it needs to be age-adjusted, it does decline as we age, then you've got an indication that there's work that needs to be done here.
The other manifestations are elevation of your blood pressure, elevation of your pulse, of course, unexplained weight gain, and just people feeling overall the fact that they are jittery, unable to concentrate.
These are indications that stress may be playing a role and likely playing a role.
So I think the simplest thing people might consider doing is getting a wearable and one that allows them to understand their HRV, heart rate variability,
And look at what would be appropriate for your age.
It's a really important concept.
And then we talk about how to manage this, what you can be doing, why exercise is important, why breathing exercise is important, why you need to get enough sleep, why you need to put your phone away,
Why getting out in nature is so important for you.
And beyond that, there are technologies available now that you could even consider using, like vagal nerve stimulators, or there's a device called Apollo Neuro that was developed by Dr. Dave Rabin.
Which is a vibrating device that you wear either on your wrist or where he wears it on his chest.
And he's got wonderful data showing, in fact,
When I started using Apollo Neuro, then I did his podcast.
I had him on my podcast.
And I said, my HRV went up 20 points.
And I haven't changed anything else.
There's another variable.
I just started using your device.
Work for me.
I mean, you know, is that an endorsement?
Yes, it is for me.
Will other people get that result?
I don't know.
But I love the data that these people are putting out and the vagus nerve stimulators as well.
So, you know, there's technology that you can use in addition to your meditation program and your breathing exercises and getting back into nature.
Well, listen, the most important takeaway today for me personally is we have agency.
You know, so much today, like the messaging is that we are at the mercy of, you know, these conditions, we are victims.
And of course, like there isn't a plan for everything that takes place in one's life.
Stuff's gonna happen.
That's for sure.
And, but with that said,
I'm so passionate about stacking conditions.
Giving ourselves the best opportunity to live the life that we wanna live and to be as healthy as we possibly can be.
And for me also is let's pass this down to future generations as well.
And so our decisions right now matter so much and having access to people like you,
Obviously, you've changed the world.
You've literally changed the world
Going all the way back to Grain Brain and just changing the conversation around health and nutrition and brain health.
And now today with so much more experience and just like being able to really bullet point and consolidate these ideas for people is really, really special.
And this is what we get.
We get decades of knowledge and experience from somebody like yourself.
Consolidated into a book form that can change somebody's life, that can change their family's life, their family tree for generations to come.
And so as of now, you can pick up
Brain Defenders, pre-order it, and get access to some incredible bonuses as well.
It's like hundreds of dollars worth of bonuses.
And where can people pre-order the book?
Well, I'm going to respectfully get there in just a second, but I do want to say right back at you.
Because what do you do?
I mean, you're here...
Giving people information that's gonna be helpful for the rest of their lives.
And that's game changing as well.
So I wanna honor you with that compliment because it's so important.
I mean, you're selflessly doing this, getting out information from all of your guests.
They bring great information, their experiences here.
And it's, you know, the word doctor doesn't mean healer.
It means teacher.
And you're absolutely a doctor in that regard.
So I honor you for that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I receive that.
Thank you.
So where do they get this information?
The book is called Brain Defenders.
And oddly enough, the website is braindefenders.com.
And that's where you can get links to where the book is available everywhere.
And 16 countries already have published this book.
That was crazy to see.
And all the benefits that you talked about, all the possibilities.
The perks or whatever.
The bonuses.
The bonuses, the bonus round.
Yeah.
So again, I really appreciate being here today.
Thank you.
Yeah, me too.
I appreciate this.
And by the way, just your presence alone and even seeing the pictures that you showed me on your boat and you saw me like just conjuring up those memories of fishing with my grandfather and
It really has inspired me to be more proactive at getting those nature inputs and I need to go fishing.
Yeah, I'm gonna be watching for a text from you of an image.
And I bet it happens this summer.
I wanna see what you catch.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for coming to hang out with us and much more to come.
Thank you.
The one and only Dr. David Perlmutter, everybody.
Thank you so much for tuning into this episode today.
I hope that you got a lot of value out of this.
Brain Defenders is essential reading.
This is essential for communicating with our families, our friends, our communities, and having this as a resource.
Again, now we have a huge breakthrough in understanding neurodegenerative diseases that are truly breaking down our families and our communities.
And we have the ability to do something about it.
And so getting educated is of the utmost importance right now.
And I appreciate you so much for tuning into this episode and also just sharing this interview, sharing this conversation can change somebody's life and the trajectory of their livelihood.
And so please share this out with somebody that you care about, share this on social media, help get the word out about this because there are solutions, but we have to stop this madness.
We have to change the trajectory of where things are going because if we don't do something now,
Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases are going to continue to decimate our communities.
This is our opportunity to make a difference.
So take a screenshot of this episode, share it out on social media, send this directly from the podcast app that you're listening on to somebody that you care about.
And let's keep up leveling things.
I appreciate you so much for tuning in.
We've got some epic masterclasses and world leading experts coming your way very, very soon.
So make sure to stay tuned.
Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon.
