July 21, 2025 • 60 mins
The thought of losing our memories and cognitive abilities strikes deep fear in many of us. In fact, for people over 55, Alzheimer's disease has become the most feared diagnosis of all. But what if simple lifestyle choices could significantly reduce your risk?
In this eye-opening conversation with dementia expert Lisa Skinner, we dive into the crucial differences between dementia (a collection of symptoms) and Alzheimer's (a specific brain disease). Lisa shares a powerful personal story about her grandmother that launched her 30-year career in dementia care, revealing how this devastating condition affects not just patients but entire families who essentially "lose their loved ones twice."
The episode breaks down the risk factors into those we can't control (age, biological sex, genetics, and ethnicity) and those we can modify through lifestyle changes. Cardiovascular disease tops the list of modifiable risks, followed by diabetes, sleep apnea, and surprisingly, hearing loss. We explore why women face significantly higher risk than men—a complex interplay of hormonal changes, exercise habits, sleep patterns, stress management, and nutrition.
Most compelling is the evidence that exercise has double the protective effect of brain games for preventing cognitive decline, while combining physical activity with mental stimulation triples the benefit. We discuss why proper sleep is non-negotiable for brain health, how strength training preserves cognitive function, and why supplementing with creatine monohydrate might be worth considering.
With Alzheimer's cases projected to triple in the next 25 years, this conversation couldn't be more timely. The choices you make today directly impact your brain's future—and while nothing provides absolute protection, the science is clear that we have more control than we might think.
Take charge of your cognitive future. Subscribe to learn more about how fitness truly is medicine for both body and mind.
Learn More at: www.Redefine-Fitness.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello and welcome to how the Fitness Redefined.
I'm your host, anthony Manitini.
We have another great episodefor all of you today.
Nice, fun topic, a little stir.
I feel like we did five, six,seven episodes over the last
year Perimenopause, menopause sothis is nice to be on a little
different side of it, which I'mreally excited.
A fun topic, as much as it'snot fun watching people go
(00:28):
through it.
It is a fun topic to talk aboutdementia and Alzheimer's
because a lot of people areaffected by it personally and
there's a lot of research thatcomes out every single day about
dementia and Alzheimer'sbecause we're all on a path to
really find a cure and hopefullyprevent it from happening to us
and to our kids, et cetera, etcetera.
So, without further ado, let'swelcome to the show, lisa.
(00:49):
Lisa, it's a pleasure to haveyou on today.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Hi Anthony, Hi everybody.
First of all, Anthony, thankyou so much for inviting me onto
your show today.
This really is a trending topic.
It's an important topic.
I learned recently that forpeople over the age of 55,
(01:13):
that's a true statisticAlzheimer's disease and dementia
is the number one most feareddisease that people are worried
about getting now, in theirolder years.
So I'm here to shed some lighton some of the myths and the
(01:33):
misinformation that's out thereand offer some hopefully
valuable and helpful informationfor your listeners out there.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
I'm going to dive right into that because I think
it's what you said is so true,and I'll give you a little
example of a conversation mywife and I have had over our
many years married together.
We both agree Like if ourbodies go, I lose limbs, I get
XYZ disease.
Like I'm going to keep fighting, we're good.
As long as I can be there forher, show up for her, I'm okay.
(02:05):
If I lose my mind, just end me.
And we both are on the sameexact mindset where, if I don't
remember who she is and shedoesn't remember who I am, like
neither of us want to be aliveanymore and that's not like a
sick thing to say, but it's whatquality of life?
Does someone really haveexperience in that?
And, like you, we talked alittle pre-show, but it's very
quality of life.
Does someone really haveexperiencing that?
(02:26):
And, like you, we talked alittle pre-show, but it's very
personal for a lot of people.
My grandma suffered without.
For us time was for years and Iwatched it slowly kill her and
I watched it.
She slowly forgot people and itgot worse and worse and worse
and worse and worse and it'sjust like what kind of quality
of life is she living, like itwas so hard.
(02:48):
I mean I'm sure she wassuffering, but it was so hard to
watch my grandfather becausehe's still alive and he had to
watch his wife just slowly fadeout in front of him and it was
the most depressing thing in theworld and it was always hard to
find the proper words to say tohim to make him happy because
he's still mentally with it.
But it's just like I felt sobad, like it just you start
(03:11):
thinking about your own life,like what if that was my wife
going through that, and itreally just get emotional, just
like thinking about it.
But what kind of got you intoeven studying about dementia and
Alzheimer's?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Same experience that you are currently or had with
your grandma.
So I'm going to rewind hereback 50 years and my very first
experience.
I've had eight family membersin my personal family who have
lived with one of the braindiseases, and five of those have
(03:48):
been blood relatives.
It started with my grandmother50 years ago.
I was a teenager and thingswere very, very different back
then.
So I'm going to tell you do wehave time for me to tell you
this quick story?
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, go for it.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Okay.
So I had just gotten mydriver's license and I was so
proud so I told my mom that Iwas going to drive over to
grandma's house.
She only lived a couple ofmiles from us.
I grew up with her.
She was just a lovely, lovelylady.
I adored her and I spent a lotof time with her.
My mom would drop us off at herhouse regularly to hang out.
(04:27):
So after I got my driver'slicense I decided okay, I'm
going to go show off to mygrandma because I can drive over
there by myself.
So I did and I told my motherthat I was going over there.
Okay, so I get over to mygrandmother's house.
She lets me in, we go into herliving room and we both sit down
(04:50):
as usual Nothing seemeddifferent down to just kind of
engage in a catch-up type ofconversation.
She starts telling me aboutthese birds that are living in
(05:12):
her mattress and that they comeout at night and peck at her
face.
And you know my jaw drops alittle bit towards the floor.
I didn't say a thing yet.
Bit towards the floor, I didn'tsay a thing yet.
And then she proceeds to tellme about she's pointing to the
(05:33):
floor and tell me.
You see all those rats,hundreds of them.
They're running all over myhouse, along the walls.
They're invading my house, lisa, of course I didn't see
anything.
And then the last storyfar-fetched story she told me
was that there were these menthat she referred to, as these
men were constantly breakinginto her home and they were
(05:56):
stealing her jewelry, they wereeating her food, they were
scaring her, they were scaringher and she was convinced that
they were going to eventually doaway with her and just take her
life over, take her house overand everything.
But they were just waiting todo that until they were
(06:17):
comfortable with getting all ofher stuff.
And by this time my jaw is onthe floor.
And by this time my jaw is onthe floor and I had.
I really didn't know what to sayor how to respond.
I mean, these are the mostfar-fetched, bizarre stories
I've ever heard come out ofanybody's mouth in my entire
(06:39):
lifetime.
And so I was a little peeved atmy mother, because I told her I
was going over there and shedidn't prepare me for this at
all.
She didn't say a word like ohyou might, you know, notice some
differences in grandma.
Nothing.
So I said to my grandma, andthe only reason why I responded
(07:02):
the way I did is because I comefrom the generation that you
respect your elders.
You don't argue with them, youdon't contradict them, you don't
make fools out of them.
You know whatever they say isthe gospel.
So the way I responded to it isI said oh, my goodness, grandma,
(07:26):
this sounds horrible for you.
You must be scared all the time.
You said you're not sleeping.
I said I want to help you inwhatever way I can and get rid
of all these things that arehappening to you.
I said let's start with goinginto your bedroom and you show
(07:46):
me where these birds are comingin and out of your mattress, and
then maybe that'll help mefigure out who I can call, what
I can do to get rid of thesebirds.
So she followed me into herbedroom and I threw the covers
off.
I'm looking every place I can,on the top, on the bottom, on
(08:09):
the sides, looking for someevidence of birds coming in and
out of her mattress.
So I said to her.
I said well, help me here.
I said I'm not seeing howthey're getting in and out.
I'm not quite sure how we canresolve the situation yet.
And she's staring at themattress and then she turns to
(08:31):
me and she says oh, lisa,they're there.
They're just very, very clever.
And that's how she covered thestory she was telling me.
And I learned later on after Iwent, chose this as my
professional career that peopleliving with Alzheimer's and
dementia, when they're having adelusion or a false belief and
(08:54):
that was the bird story whenthey're having hallucinations
which is common to the disease,and that's's the rat story and
when they're feeling suspiciousand paranoid about things
occurring in their life and thatwas the men's story they become
masterful at explaining awaytheir beliefs.
(09:17):
And the thing that I want toemphasize to everybody is, even
though what she was telling mewasn't her, wasn't my reality,
that, like I said, these are themost bizarre, far-fetched
stories I'd ever heard in mylife.
And how would anybody believeanything that she was saying?
(09:40):
She believed it, this was herreality.
Saying she believed it this washer reality.
And I've learned in the 30years that I've been doing this
professionally that there isabsolutely nothing any of us can
say or do to change thatreality when they are locked on
to whatever it is they'retelling you.
(10:01):
Whatever it is they're tellingyou, and there are best
practices and really effectiveways to respond.
It turns out that I did respondproperly, but I didn't know it
at the time.
It was the way I was raised andconditioned.
But what I did was I joined herreality without realizing it,
(10:28):
her reality without realizing it.
I met her where she was,instead of trying to correct her
and state facts and say, oh,what you're telling me couldn't
be possible.
So I've had a lot of experienceand training in this approach.
I'm a certified dementiapractitioner, I'm a certified
dementia care trainer, I'm acertified dementia program
(10:49):
director, I have written threebestselling books, I'm an
international TEDx speaker onthis subject and, as I mentioned
earlier, anthony, I also host avery popular podcast on this
very subject.
So I talk about a differentaspect of and so I've had a
(11:12):
really fulfilling career doingthis professionally.
But the impetus behind it wasthis experience that I had as a
teenager with my grandmother andit was my very, very first
experience and introduction withAlzheimer's disease.
(11:33):
And when I left her house, Iwent home and I was just beside
myself and I said, mom, you willnot believe what I've just been
through.
And I told her the stories andI said why didn't you say
anything and at least prepare me.
I said I was completely caughtoff guard and she said okay,
(11:54):
lisa, your grandmother has beendiagnosed with what was called
back then senile dementia.
This was 50 years ago.
And she said and yes, that'swhat she has, and we're just not
going to talk about it anymorebecause that's the was the
mindset 50 years ago.
There's too many stigmasattached and you have crazy
(12:14):
people in your family and, uh,you don't, you know, you're in
denial and it's not happening.
That was kind of how how peoplereacted to the dementia
diagnosis back then, and so shepurposely didn't say anything to
me.
And I want to change that.
(12:35):
We need to change that becauseso many people are now at risk
of developing Alzheimer'sdisease, are now at risk of
developing Alzheimer's disease.
We've been told that thenumbers are expected to triple
in the next 25 years and we arenot prepared as a society,
especially if we stick our headsin the sand and we don't even
(12:58):
want to acknowledge thatsomebody we love or care for has
it, let alone talk about it.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, I mean, that's an eye-opening story and it
shows why you got so heavilyinto the field and really wanted
to make a change, which I'msure a lot of people appreciate.
I think before we dive intopractical cause and effects,
it's important just to establishdefinitions.
So do you mind just explainingreally briefly what the
difference is between dementiaand Alzheimer's?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Oh, not at all, because it's a really important
distinction to make, because alot of people think they're two
separate diseases or they're thesame thing.
So that's a great place tostart.
Alzheimer's disease is a braindisease.
Alzheimer's disease is a braindisease.
It's a neurocognitive diseasethat goes into a person's brain
(13:52):
and starts damaging the braincells in different regions.
It typically starts with theshort-term memory.
200 known brain diseases thatcause similar symptomology,
(14:12):
similar behaviors, similar signsas what we see in people living
with Alzheimer's disease about200 known today.
Now, when we start showingsymptoms, the underlying cause
is one of these brain diseasesor it could be a medical
condition, like a thyroidcondition or a urinary tract
(14:32):
infection.
But all of the signs, symptomsand behaviors that we see as a
result of the damage being doneto the brain are intertwined.
They're very similar and we putall of those signs, symptoms
and behaviors like I explained Iwitnessed with my grandma into
(14:56):
this bucket, this category thatwe call dementia.
So another way to think of itis you know pretty much, we've
all had the flu, we've all had acold and the reason that we
suspect that we have some kindof a virus is based on the
(15:16):
symptoms that we areexperiencing and they differ in
everybody.
I mean, I've had the flu beforewhere I have the total body
aches and I have a fever and mythroat is sore and my glands
swell up.
And I've had the flu othertimes where I might have had a
couple of those symptoms, butnot all of those.
(15:48):
And this is the best analogy,the best parallel to draw
between dementia and Alzheimer's.
So think of dementia as thesymptoms that we witness in
people living with brain disease, but it's not an actual disease
.
It's a reference to thesymptoms.
Alzheimer's is the disease.
Lewy body is a brain disease.
Huntington's disease is a braindisease.
(16:09):
So you're talking actual braindiseases versus the symptoms
that people experience and thatwe witness in those people.
That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, it makes a ton of sense and that's kind of what
I expected it was anyway.
So more of the dementia being acondition of it, not the actual
name of it per se.
So I mean, I know there's a lotof different types of diseases
that do cause memory loss days.
Obviously there's not going tobe a one size fitsall approach
(16:43):
for every single disease, forevery single individual, but I
think the question that everyonewants to know an answer for is
is there any kind of cure or isthere anything close to a cure
that we currently have right now?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
and sadly I have to say, and truthfully I have to
say that and truthfully I haveto say that right now we don't
have a cure and we really don'thave any treatments that can
reverse it.
There are medications out therethat doctors prescribe that can
slow the progression of it down, and then they'll work for you
(17:20):
know a certain period of timeand then just stop, and then the
disease.
You know a certain period oftime and then just stop, and
then the disease, you know,continues progressing.
Not everybody can toleratethose medications.
They've been around for a longtime.
But we do know of what a lot ofthe risk factors are.
There are a lot of risk factorsthat will either minimize or
(17:43):
increase people's risk ofdeveloping Alzheimer's disease.
And we know, based onscientific studies, scientific
evidence, that there are ways totake those risk factors and if
they apply to you you canactually do things, except for
(18:06):
four of them that can negate itfrom being a risk factor for you
.
So I'm happy to kind of diveinto that if you'd like me to do
that.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, let's start with a slow approach and kind of
go into what I know and then wecan get your opinion and advice
even on top of that.
I want to start with a storykind of similar to yourself with
my grandma.
So for those that don't know orare inactive listeners, my
grandma was like the doctoreverybody knew.
She was the first DO so Doctorof Hospitality and Medicine
(18:41):
female.
Her and my grandfather foundeda medical school, so they are
the doctors that people thinkabout when they think do's.
Last name dj yovana, for thosethat are curious.
But she was paranoid aboutgetting alzheimer's.
Paranoid about it because sheknew she had a strong family
history of it and her reactionwhen she was in her 60s 70s was
(19:05):
to play brain games.
So she would always play Sudoku, she would always do crossword
puzzles, she was obsessed withBoggle different word
association games because shewas a very smart woman and she
thought that that was the way toprevent getting Alzheimer's.
She's like I'm going to keep mybrain engaged and it's going to
(19:26):
help.
Maybe it prolonged it, maybe itdidn't.
But I think the interestingpart of kind of where I'm
getting with this it was just astudy that came out about four
or five years ago and they weretesting different, a different
theory.
They took brain games and theytook exercise and what they
found was really interestingBrain games only had a very
small percentage increase incurving the symptoms of dementia
(19:51):
, where exercise alone haddouble the effect of curving
dementia.
Now this is where it getsreally interesting when you
combine both of them together atthe same exact time and triple
the effect.
And I think back to me studyingin college and I would study as
(20:14):
weird as it sounds at the gymand I would practice while I was
working out and I was able toretain things like that.
It was impeccable, like justmoving my body and forcing
myself to think and study.
Like my retention and all ofthat was a lot better than me
sitting in front of a computerand studying things.
Even on top of that, I wasn'tshocked because I would always
(20:39):
look at like tests and I wouldwatch my peers stay up all night
, wake up like I didn't even goto bed and take the test the
next day and for myself Iactually prioritized sleeping
over studying.
So if I wouldn't get eighthours of sleep I wouldn't study.
I would just rather get tosleep and I always did better in
(21:00):
school, I think from acombination of that approach
plus the learning and workingout, and the study kind of
helped prove it.
So I want to get your thoughtson that and if you knew that.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Every single thing that you just said has been
substantiated through studiesand research.
And is you know what is beingrecommended for people to
possibly minimize their risk ofdeveloping Alzheimer's?
There's more, a little moreinvolved.
(21:32):
We can, you know, dive deeperinto that, but those are very
important elements to minimizingyour risk.
It doesn't work for everybody.
Your grandma's a perfectexample.
She did a lot of those thingsand I have seen some of the most
brilliant people on the planetdevelop Alzheimer's disease.
(21:55):
But given that it does helpsome people minimize their risk,
it's worth doing to avoiddeveloping Alzheimer's disease
if possible, because that's allwe have to go on right now.
So let me start with the fourrisk factors that we know of
(22:21):
that we call non-modifiable riskfactors, and the reason why
they're categorized asnon-modifiable is because we
can't change them.
They either apply to us or theydon't apply to us.
And the more of these, what youwant to guess.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm going to guess.
The number one is genetics.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
The number one.
That's one of the four, but thenumber one is our age.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
See, I was going to say age is number two, but okay.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, and of course we can't change our
chronological age.
We're aging every single daybut it is the number one risk
factor.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Age sex women are way more likely than men.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yes, you're right.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
That I definitely knew, and I think I know why too
, but we'll get into that alittle bit later.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Okay, yeah, because there are theories about that.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Number four.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
You already said another one genetics.
There's one more.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I'm going to go race, but I'm not positive.
Yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
So, whatever our ethnic background is, we know
now that there are some ethnicbackgrounds that do develop
Alzheimer's disease more thansome of the others.
So those are the four that wecan't change.
We can't change our age, wecan't change our gender, we
(23:53):
can't change our genetics and wecan't change our you know our
race backgrounds or ethnicity.
Race backgrounds or ethnicity,so we're stuck with all, with.
You know one, two, three orfour of those, and so if you
(24:15):
know you are 65 or older, ifyou're a woman, if you come from
one of the ethnic backgroundsthat we know is a higher risk
and it runs in your family, likeit does in mine, there's four
strikes against you right there,and we haven't even started
factoring in the modifiable riskfactors that we're going to
(24:37):
talk about in a minute.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
I want to stress a point though, and I think this
is super important Just becauseyou have one, two, three or four
of the risk factors, it's stilla percentage game, and I feel
like a lot of people don'tunderstand percentages from a
hole in a wall.
They pretend they do but theydon't.
Let me explain really quickly.
If you have 100 people in theroom and all of them are super
athletic, super in shape,there's still a one percent
chance someone's going to diebefore the age of 50, like it
(25:01):
doesn't matter what you do.
You might have a massive heartattack attack, but you mitigate
the risk and the other 99 canstill live past the age of 50.
But if you add in, let's say,everyone in the group smokes,
drinks, eats fried foods all thetime doesn't get out of their
chairs, and you have 100 peoplein your room and say 90 people
(25:21):
will make it past the age of 70.
And say 90 people will make itpast the age of 70, there's
still 10 people, and we all knowthese 10 people that you're
like.
How the heck are you?
100 years old, yeah, and stillsharp as a tack, and you smoke
seven packs a day and havesherry every single morning.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
And eat hot dogs every single day of your life
and you drink Exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Yeah, it defies everything that we're talking
about morning and ate hot dogsevery single day of your life
and you drank and exactly yeah,everything defies everything
that we're talking about, butthey're.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
The point is and I emphasize this to anybody that I
am talking to about this yes,it, these things will either
increase a person's risk or or,conversely, minimize.
But does that mean you're goingto get it if every single risk
factor applies to you?
Absolutely not.
(26:11):
I have seen people who couldhave every single risk factor
going against them and theirbrains are perfectly healthy.
And I've seen other people whothere's absolutely no
explanation for why theydeveloped Alzheimer's disease
based on their life history.
(26:33):
So it doesn't discriminate, itpicks on anybody.
But we do know, based onscientific evidence, that these
things that we're talking abouttoday can help minimize or can
increase a person's risk ofdeveloping Alzheimer's disease.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, and I can even mention the modified ones if you
want, because I think I got tohandle them as well, so I'll
dive in with I know if I'mmissing.
I want you to add in and alsoadd to what I know.
I think the first and obviousone is what's right behind me
Working out Maybe not in order,but it's definitely a modified
one.
That is definitely one of them.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
But I'll tell you the number one, because this
surprised me.
I never would have thought ofthis if I hadn't learned it
professionally.
The number one modifiable risk.
And when we say, when we'resaying modifiable, it means that
it can be treated.
Maybe it's a medical condition,it can be changed by
(27:33):
implementing something differentinto your lifestyle choices.
But the number one is, believeit or not, it's cardiovascular
disease and it ties into yourfitness.
But so anybody who has a heartcondition, anybody who suffers
from hypertension or high bloodpressure, is at an increased
(27:57):
risk of developing alzheimer'sdisease, and but it can be
negatedated under a doctor'scare, with treatment, with
eating healthier foods, withgetting regular exercise, and
(28:17):
all of these things that Anthonyand I are talking about are
intermingled.
They all relate to each other.
So that is the number one.
And then second is diabetes.
The top risk factors apply tomedical conditions.
(28:39):
So cardiovascular disease,diabetes disease, diabetes,
sleep apnea that one wassurprising, but you mentioned it
with your grandma that she madesure she got plenty of sleep
and prioritized that.
Hearing loss is also a hugerisk factor for developing
(29:03):
Alzheimer's disease.
But again, you wear hearingaids, you're you're treating
that condition, so it would thenreduce that risk from being
high to lower.
And then, of course, we haven'teven.
There are other medicalconditions that that we're aware
(29:26):
of.
I'll give you three.
So anybody that suffers from athyroid condition either hypo or
hyper, that can.
Actually, while you're having athyroid problem, the symptoms
(29:50):
can show up that mirror or mimicdementia.
But that's an exception,because if you do have a thyroid
condition and it's treated,then you can actually reverse
your symptoms and not.
There's only a couple thingsthat we know of where they're
(30:11):
reversible, and a thyroidcondition is one of them.
A urinary tract infection,believe it or not, it could
bring on symptoms like dementiajust practically overnight.
But again, it's treatable withantibiotics and if you start
(30:31):
your teeth, oh, yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah, that's.
Another one is, you know, likegum disease.
But so I have seen so manypeople over my career just all,
all of a sudden start actinglike they have dementia.
It doesn't happen that fast andit turns out they had a urinary
(30:53):
tract infection.
And once it gets into the bloodsystem then it affects your
brain and can mimic dementia.
But there's a simple fix.
You are treated withantibiotics.
Get rid of the infection.
Once it's in your bloodstream,it does take longer for those
(31:15):
symptoms to clear up than yourregimen of antibiotics.
So if you're on a 10 daydayantibiotic regimen and the
infection is gone, it may stilltake up to another month before
your brain is kind of out ofthat fog.
And Lyme disease is another onethat mimics the same or similar
(31:44):
symptomology that we see withdementia.
Again, that's a treatabledisease too.
But so, in terms of lifestylechoices, these are key because a
lot of these things that causethese medical conditions are due
to lifestyle choices, wouldn'tyou say, Anthony, are due to
(32:05):
lifestyle choices, wouldn't yousay, anthony?
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Yeah, I mean.
Even an important one thatpersonally affects me is
concussions.
I've had four in my life and Icould tell you I don't remember
things from my childhood, so Iremember flashbulb memories,
which I think is superinteresting, because even if you
see people with Alzheimer's, mygrandma said the same story
every single day until the dayshe died.
It was all true.
It was a true story thatsomething had happened to her
(32:28):
life.
It was just a memory that wasso in there that she just kept
telling it over and over again.
So our flashback moments areactually incredible that our
brain can just pin and relivesomething.
But I think concussions is themissed one and it's CTS is
coming out more and more.
You're seeing it more withathletes, but as far as the
first three you mentioned, asfar as the highest ones, right.
(32:51):
So cardiovascular disease,diabetes and then sleep apnea
all three preventable withhealthy diet and exercise.
That in and of itself.
You also mentioned a stat thatdidn't surprise me from a hole
in a wall, and I actuallywouldn't be surprised if it was
a lot higher that the rate ofAlzheimer's is going to triple
over the next five, 10 years 25years 25.
(33:17):
I wouldn't be shocked if it wasfive, 10 years.
You look at fit bodies, right?
There was a stat that came outthat said in 2025, being in
shape is going to be rarer thana Rolex, and if we don't think
that those two are associated,then you just got it dead wrong.
So when we take it for grantedthat, hey, we're 50, 60 pounds
overweight, we don't take careof our bodies, we don't sleep
right.
Don't be shocked if you getdementia at 70, 75 years old and
(33:39):
you're stuck trying to rememberthings because you neglected
your body.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
It's all related.
It's all related.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
All related.
A really simple dementia uh onethat's in that pool that caught
.
One disease that causesdementia is many, uh like
strokes in your brain.
So we all get many clots.
They go into our brain, clogsup a little vessel.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
That part of the brain dies and yeah, that is
actually, um, not an actualdisease, but it's a cause of
dementia and it's, from what yousaid, a stroke or a
trans-enschemic attack, which isaka a mini stroke, and that
causes what we call vasculardementia, and the symptoms are
(34:20):
pretty much the same, butthey're caused from our brain,
our brains bleeding, not from anactual disease like Alzheimer's
.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yeah, Still causes some of the symptoms vascular
disease.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Right on the head and it's like something like that
which we know how to preventclots, like we know this, but
yet people kind of take life forgranted and I think sometimes
people need a hard awakeninginto reality and it's something
that a lot of my clients aretruly understanding, appreciate
is we gotta take responsibilityfor our own health, because
(34:57):
there's way more things.
Yeah, no one else gives a shit.
Let's be be real.
Your family will love you, yourspouse will love you, but the
only person that's responsibleto take care of you is you.
Sorry, not sorry.
So the symptoms you get later inlife are a direct reflection of
what you do throughout yourearlier days.
So we talk about cardiovasculardisease, talk about type 2
(35:19):
diabetes and you talk aboutsleep apnea three things overall
that we could work on and fix.
Like you can start that now,and I'm a big believer in not
waiting till Monday, startingthis right very second, and you
can do that now.
What's stopping you?
Absolutely nothing.
You control what you put insideyour mouth.
Like no one else is forcefeeding you down things and
(35:39):
saying you have to eat this andthen like, or pouring alcohol
down your throat, like that'ssomething that you have full
control over and can start rightthis very second to make a
positive change, so you don'tend up with dementia and have to
make your loved ones sufferbecause it's a horrible disease,
it's horrible to watch peoplego through and it's something
(35:59):
like what you said if we wish,we could help, treat and
eventually prevent overall, andI just hope that there's a
better way to get across people.
So I'm going to ask youpersonally what's one way you've
gotten through to people tohelp them start mitigating the
risks of preventing dementia.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
By educating them and making them aware that these
things contribute to our risk ofdeveloping Alzheimer's disease,
and then telling them whatscience is proving to be a
possible prevention from it.
Not for everybody, I mean, noneof this is set in stone.
(36:40):
There are a lot of studies thathave supported these facts that
we're talking about, but again,they don't work on everybody.
But this is kind of the way Ilook at it and why I go around
raising awareness about thesethings, living with dementia,
(37:01):
and then the things that we cando to prevent it.
And I agree with you, anthony,it's a tragic disease, um, and
we actually end up losing ourloved one twice because, like
anthony was saying, hisgrandmother just kind of, you
know, just disappeared insideherself and then they eventually
(37:25):
pass away because it is aterminal disease, there's no
cure for it.
So we have to, you know, mournthe loss while they're
progressing through the stagesof the terminal illness to where
they don't know anybody andthey need full-time care and
everything that goes along withit, and then they pass away.
(37:46):
So now we're mourning them theloss twice.
That's a heavy burden on thepeople who are left behind.
So what I say, I mean reallyit's just kind of my logical way
of thinking, if I was listeningto this podcast and this
(38:08):
information was all new to me,it's like I didn't know that and
I didn't know that and I didn'tknow that.
Then let's say you're in your30s and somebody today it's me
and Anthony we're saying butthere's things that you can do
to lower your risk.
But there's things that you cando to lower your risk.
And some people might saybecause when I was in my 30s I
(38:30):
said it like why am I worriedabout something that's going to
happen in 50 years?
But fast forward 50 years.
If it does happen to you, youmight, it might occur to you
that, boy, if I had listened towhat Anthony and Lisa Skinner
were telling me on the podcastHealth and Fitness Redefined
(38:53):
podcast 50 years ago, I mightnot be living with Alzheimer's
disease and dementia today.
So ask yourself is it worthmaking some lifestyle changes
and you can do them gradually toavoid losing all of your
(39:15):
cognitive functions?
Because Alzheimer's diseasetypically starts showing up at
the age of 65.
Up at the age of 65.
For every five years that youage after 65, so 70, 75, 80, the
risk increases substantially bythe time people today, not even
(39:37):
in 25 years.
Today, one out of three peopleage 85 or older develops
Alzheimer's disease, and that'stoday.
That's a true statistic and youknow just by being aware of
some of these things and I cannow understand why it is the
(39:57):
number one most feared diseaseto get in people 55 or older.
Now there is a more rare form ofAlzheimer's disease called
early onset, that shows upbefore the age of 65.
It's a much rarer form, butrecently somebody was diagnosed
with it at 19 years old, andbefore that it was somebody in
(40:19):
their 30s.
We are seeing a higherincidence of early onset
dementia than we've seen in thepast.
So it's a scary proposition tothink about spending the rest of
your life basically with yourcognition failing you completely
(40:46):
and having to have somebodycare for you 24 hours a day,
seven days a week and notrecognize family members.
You can't communicate with them.
In exchange for, do I reallyneed that hamburger?
Drive through that fast foodplace and eat that hamburger
today.
Maybe you cut it back and thenthe exercise component of it is
(41:13):
has um, there's a hugecorrelation, just like anthony
said, between I need to I needto add to this, because it's not
just exercise, it's the type ofexercise.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Okay, so we're specifically strength training
and you mentioned something veryinteresting before which we
know the eight.
Uh, sex, sorry, you mentionedsex and I told you women are
more likely to developAlzheimer's than men, correct,
and we all know that's a truestat, that's true, that's true.
Why?
I think I know why and I'mgoing to answer this and a lot
of people probably going to likemy answer, but I don't care.
(41:46):
If it helps people, so be it.
So women, as we all know, uh,40s start going through
something called menopause.
Menopause, those are yourhormones all up in a row, so
things you grew up functioningwith your entire life, with help
in all aspects of your life,right?
It starts dissipating, yourbody starts changing.
You take that.
So now your sex hormones aregoing over a whack and
(42:08):
dissipating.
You throw that in with womenare way less likely to lift
weights by far it's.
You're starting to see anincrease, but women now are
still don't lift as much as mendo.
And muscle, as we know,preserves your metabolism.
It preserves your brain.
(42:32):
Sleep Women are way more or lesslikely to get eight hours of
consistent, keyword, consistentsleep and have good circadian
rhythms.
The biggest one, which I'msaved for a little later stress.
Women are way more likely toget stressed out.
Carry stress with them day today.
I love the funny examplebecause I think humor helps
break everything.
You know the difference betweentwo boys fighting and two girls
fighting.
The boy fight will end in anhour.
(42:53):
The girl fight will last 10years.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
That's true.
One of the things I want to addto the sleep, because this has
also been proven.
Because this has also beenproven that one of the reasons
why sleep deprivation increasesa person's risk, it's not only
in the amount of hours you getthat's recommended at least
seven but people with sleepapnea, for example, they don't
(43:22):
fall into the REM sleep, thedeep sleep, and this is actually
the time that our brains areworking like washing machines
and cleansing the toxins out ofour brains.
So that's why sleep apnea issuch going through that
(43:49):
cleansing process.
That happens in people who doenter that REM sleep.
Are you aware of this, anthony?
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yeah, it's a specific protein that doesn't break the
blood-brain barrier, unlessyou're in deep REM sleep.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Yeah, yeah, so that's kind of an important thing to
understand.
Why sleep apnea?
Why would somebody with sleepapnea be at a higher risk?
That's the reason.
And then the other thing thatyou should also address, since
it's more your area of expertisethan mine, but I know that
there's a correlation, but it'stied into everything that you
(44:27):
are talking about and mention isthey're now seeing a connection
between inflammation in yourbrain and inflammation in your
body as being a contributor to aperson's risk, and a lot of
that inflammation can bemitigated or tamed, if you will,
(44:53):
through these things thatAnthony is talking about the
diet, the exercise, the loweringyour stress, all of those
things.
And so we've learned.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
It's important to understand something yet again
relating to why women are morelikely to have Alzheimer's.
So those four is the fifth one.
Women are way less likely toeat meat and meat is known to
preserve your brain, especiallylean meats.
So, looking at chicken, turkey,bison, elk, lean red meat you
can get from cow and we knowthat those good fats actually
(45:32):
help lower your chance ofgetting cardiovascular disease,
help lower your chances ofgetting high blood pressure and
help preserve muscle mass at theend of the day.
So you get really good fats andyou get really good protein
from these meats that half of usjust avoid or just don't eat
enough of.
So it's it's all of these fiveseparate things that added in
(45:57):
and really cool.
I don't know if you know this,lisa, but I am, and those that
listen know I am obsessed aboutthis Creatine, specifically
creatine monohydrate.
There has been so many studieson creatine monohydrate now with
no upper limit, so meaningnormal people take five grams a
(46:17):
day of creatine monohydrate, youcan get up to 20 grams a day.
That actually showed toincrease brain performance and
increase memory.
That actually showed toincrease brain performance and
increase memory.
And it is as effective withpeople with dementia as the
leading medicine out there, andthat's just a supplement.
And what's crazy slash notcrazy about it is where do we
naturally get creatine from?
(46:38):
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (46:40):
No, I don't.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Two things Red meat it's naturally founded and sleep
.
Oh, Our body releases creatinethroughout our body.
So lower levels of creatine,like women, like we addressed,
because they're not eating meatand they're not sleeping
properly.
So everything can be wrapped upall together.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
I wasn't even aware of the creatine theory until you
just told me, but it ties inwith what we know and what
increases a person's risks, andthat you know where you get it
from.
The sleep and the meats makessense options out there to help
(47:28):
towards that.
I'm going to remember that.
That's a good thing to know.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
I wasn't aware of the creatine theory.
It's only because I literallyupset my wife.
She goes you're either going totalk about AI or creatine.
That's all you ever talk about.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
I'm like yes, the point to this whole discussion
is awareness.
I think that probably a lot ofthe things that we've talked
about today, especially inrelationship to a person's risk
(48:02):
of developing a brain diseaseAlzheimer's, whatever and not
minimizing it it's like I neverknew any of this stuff and it
stands to reason when you lookat, you know, the way our
lifestyles have changed over thelast 50 years.
(48:25):
No-transcript.
More people are developingAlzheimer's disease because of
our crazy lives that we lead,the stress, the run here, run
there, drive through this fastfood, drive through there to you
know, get something quick,Other than doing a lot of
driving and racing around, a lotof driving and racing around
(48:48):
when we're not.
We lead kind of a sedentarylifestyle, more so than we did
50 years ago, because there's alot more available to us.
That creates that sedentarylifestyle and we are seeing
results of the way ourlifestyles have changed in the
(49:10):
last 50 years and it'sincreasing our risks of
developing these diseases andand living with, you know,
cognitive impairment, which Iwouldn't wish on anybody no, no,
the only the only last thing Iwant to bring up because it's
(49:33):
personal to me and I love you,mom, but my mom has.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
I say my grandma is my mom's side and she's been
super worried about gettingAlzheimer's and she does work
out and she does do some otherthings associated with it.
But then she goes and she getstold she cholesterol levels are
high.
And then what do they give you?
If I have high cholesterol,they give you a statin.
What are statins known to cause?
I mean, I feel like our medicalcommunity needs to catch up
(50:03):
with what outweighs what.
We don't even have scientificsound evidence showing that high
cholesterol is even a bad thing, especially because it's
strictly based on one of theproportions of LDLs to HDLs that
you have.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
But yet we're going to give people something that we
know, in the long term, isdirectly correlated to increase
your chances of gettingAlzheimer's.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Yeah, I've read that there's been a lot of studies on
statins that point in thatdirection.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Oh yeah.
So just misunderstanding of allof this, I think, is something
people need to understand, andI'm going to say this I think
doctors are the best humanbeings on the face of the earth.
My whole family is them Imentioned.
My grandparents found a medicalschool and they live a legacy
upon it.
But it doesn't matter what Isay, it doesn't matter what the
doctor says, it doesn't matterwhat Lisa says.
Do your own research.
(50:56):
It's super important.
Before you put anything insideyour body, you know exactly what
it does.
Obviously, I don't believe inliving a perfect life.
I think that's a fallacy.
I tell my wife all the timewhen she asks me she's like well
, what about this, what aboutthis, what about this?
I'm like Sal.
Here's a rule of thumb If itdoesn't make you at least 20%
(51:19):
better, who gives a shit?
Right, like, if you're going tobe you, stressing about being
perfect is worse than you justtrying to be 80% good.
Right, like?
I'll have a beer once in awhile.
It ain't going to kill me,right?
I'm not going to sit there andstress.
I can worry about time of day,eating, what exactly types of
(51:40):
proteins I'm getting, and reallyget into the weeds, but that's
going to overcomplicate andoverstress me, but if I could be
80% good, I can live the life Iwant and really mitigate my
chances of getting this such ahorrible disease and everything
else that comes with it.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
So I agree with everything you're saying.
It's so true and theinformation is out there.
This isn't just me coming onthis show and giving my opinions
about these things.
This information is availableif you know what to Google or
know what to look for, but a lotof people don't even make that
association that, oh my gosh,this can increase my chance
(52:14):
because we don't, like I said,sleep apnea.
Who would have put two and twotogether?
That that could increase yourrisk.
Speaker 1 (52:21):
See, that one shocks me the least.
Huh, what that one shocks methe least, the sleep apnea thing
.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
Which one shocks you the most?
Speaker 1 (52:35):
The hearing one that I.
But then I thought about it andI know why, or I think, I know
why.
I think it's relatedisolationism has been known to
cause similar effects todementia, and you are so right.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
Well, there's some other components to it, but
that's one of them.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Yeah, I can see that If you can't hear people and you
can't communicate and you'rejust lost in your head, it can
definitely start sounding crazy,right?
So you need to socialize, weneed to be involved.
It's a muscle we work byhanging out and talking to
people.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
Yeah, very true, so that one I got to say shocked me
the most.
Speaker 1 (53:12):
But the sleep apnea shocked me the least because I
knew about the sleep and theprotein already.
That is directly related and Iactually have sleep apnea, which
probably helps a little bit toat least understanding it from a
hole in a wall.
And sleep apnea there's 1% ofthe population that it's
strictly anatomical and hasnothing to do with how much you
(53:34):
weigh or being overweight oranything.
But I use a CPAP, so thatdefinitely helps and I recommend
anyone that does have sleepapnea.
You fall asleep with thesteering wheel.
Once you're going to get a CPAP, don't get to that point.
Do it, especially because weknow that lack of sleep can
cause Alzheimer's.
We know lack of sleep makes youunproductive the next day.
We know lack of sleep triplesyour cortisol levels, so you're
(53:56):
going to eat like shitthroughout the day and you can
hold onto fat longer.
We know that lack of sleepcauses muscle wasting.
And those are just the fourthings we can strictly talk
about now, with a hundred otherthings that lack of sleep causes
it makes it irritable, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
Can I add one thing to the sleep apnea topic?
Sure, a lot of people don'tknow they have sleep apnea.
So number one thing to um to becognizant of is if you're a
snorer.
Not everybody who snores hassleep apnea, but a lot of people
who have sleep apnea snore.
If you are a known snorer, thenit would be worth getting
(54:38):
tested, because the likelihoodof you having sleep apnea is
high.
And then another thing thathappens with sleep apnea is
during your sleep cycle.
While you're sleeping, you stopbreathing.
And, um, some people, theirsleep apnea is so severe that
(55:01):
they can stop sleeping 90 timesan hour.
I mean stop breathing.
So that's definitely somethingthat can be reversed by using
CPAP machines.
So, even if you, you know, ifyou suspect, let's say, start
with being a snorer.
It's so easy to get sleeptested nowadays.
(55:23):
The days where you had to go tothat sleep clinic and spend the
night and do all that's allchanged.
You can do it in the comfort ofyour own home.
Just talk to your doctor aboutit and say you know what?
I was listening to this programand I am a really bad snorer.
So maybe I do have sleep apneaand just have never realized it.
(55:44):
Do you agree with that, anthony?
Speaker 1 (55:47):
Oh yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
How did?
You discover you had sleepapnea.
Speaker 1 (55:53):
Anthony, oh yeah, 100%.
How did you discover you hadsleep apnea?
I'm very into my body and Iwould sleep 12, 12 and a half
hours a day and still be tiredmy whole childhood.
Speaker 2 (55:58):
But you're not a snorer.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
No, which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
Okay, so you're like an exception.
Speaker 1 (56:05):
My uncle was my doctor at the time and I'll
never forget this.
I kept going and I was like man, I sleep way too long.
And then I'm like physicallyexhausted oh, you're getting old
, You're growing.
I was like no, you don't get it, Like I can literally go to bed
at 7 PM, sleep till 8 AM thenext morning and then still take
a nap.
Speaker 2 (56:23):
Well, that's another sign.
That's another sign is chronicfatigue, because you're not
getting a restful night's sleep.
You're not going into that deepsleep state.
Speaker 1 (56:32):
I forced him to give me a sleep test.
I said get me a script for asleep study.
I got.
It came back positive fordyspnea and I just knew it.
Then I got a bunch of surgeries.
It went away for a couple ofyears and then it came back.
So the scar tissue built upwhere I had the surgeries and it
binds my breathing.
I barely get air in my nose andwhen I lay my throat so big the
(56:54):
air always kind of gets stuck.
So I can tell when I have a badnight I'm screwed.
So I'm really like strict Sametime to bed every night, same
time.
Wake up every morning CPAP.
Every night CPAP, no strip.
That's how I get through.
Speaker 2 (57:11):
Wow, you are just a super disciplined person.
Can we clone you?
Speaker 1 (57:17):
It took a lot to get here, but yeah, all right, lisa,
I'm going to ask you the finaltwo questions.
I asked everyone just to wrapthis show up.
So the first one is if you wereto summarize this episode in
one or two sentences, what wouldbe your take-home message?
Speaker 2 (57:31):
Could you repeat?
Speaker 1 (57:32):
that I didn't catch the whole thing.
If you were to summarize thisepisode in one or two sentences,
what would be your take-homemessage?
Speaker 2 (57:40):
There are proven ways that we know now that we can
minimize our risk of developingAlzheimer's disease.
If that's something that isimportant to you or anybody you
know or your loved one, thenjust pay attention to what we've
talked about.
Do your own research.
(58:00):
I think that's a great idea.
The information is out thereNow.
You know what to Google or tolook for, and then you have to
make your own choices.
You are responsible for yourown health couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1 (58:14):
And the second question how can people find you
and get a hold of you and learnmore?
Speaker 2 (58:18):
okay, a couple ways.
Um, I have a a website.
It's called mindingdementiacom,or you can listen to my podcast
.
I talk about every aspectaspect of Alzheimer's and
dementia If you're family or youknow somebody, or if you're a
caregiver and you're goingthrough this in your life.
(58:39):
It's a weekly podcast.
A new episode drops everyWednesday and the content is
something to do with living withAlzheimer's disease the other
brain diseases that causedementia and how to make your
lives a little easier to live,whether you're a family member
(59:01):
or a caregiver or a doctor.
So that's a great resource thatI provide for people and it's
free.
It's a podcast.
Speaker 1 (59:09):
I love it.
Lisa, thank you so much forcoming on.
Thank you, guys for listeningto this week's episode of Health
and Fitness Redefined.
Don't forget to subscribe,share with a friend.
It's the only way this showgrows.
And remember fitness ismedicine.
Until next time, I'm ready.
(59:46):
Outro Music.
Hello and welcome to how the Fitness Redefined.
I'm your host, anthony Manitini.
We have another great episodefor all of you today.
Nice, fun topic, a little stir.
I feel like we did five, six,seven episodes over the last
year Perimenopause, menopause sothis is nice to be on a little
different side of it, which I'mreally excited.
A fun topic, as much as it'snot fun watching people go
(00:28):
through it.
It is a fun topic to talk aboutdementia and Alzheimer's
because a lot of people areaffected by it personally and
there's a lot of research thatcomes out every single day about
dementia and Alzheimer'sbecause we're all on a path to
really find a cure and hopefullyprevent it from happening to us
and to our kids, et cetera, etcetera.
So, without further ado, let'swelcome to the show, lisa.
(00:49):
Lisa, it's a pleasure to haveyou on today.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Hi Anthony, Hi everybody.
First of all, Anthony, thankyou so much for inviting me onto
your show today.
This really is a trending topic.
It's an important topic.
I learned recently that forpeople over the age of 55,
(01:13):
that's a true statisticAlzheimer's disease and dementia
is the number one most feareddisease that people are worried
about getting now, in theirolder years.
So I'm here to shed some lighton some of the myths and the
(01:33):
misinformation that's out thereand offer some hopefully
valuable and helpful informationfor your listeners out there.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
I'm going to dive right into that because I think
it's what you said is so true,and I'll give you a little
example of a conversation mywife and I have had over our
many years married together.
We both agree Like if ourbodies go, I lose limbs, I get
XYZ disease.
Like I'm going to keep fighting, we're good.
As long as I can be there forher, show up for her, I'm okay.
(02:05):
If I lose my mind, just end me.
And we both are on the sameexact mindset where, if I don't
remember who she is and shedoesn't remember who I am, like
neither of us want to be aliveanymore and that's not like a
sick thing to say, but it's whatquality of life?
Does someone really haveexperience in that?
And, like you, we talked alittle pre-show, but it's very
quality of life.
Does someone really haveexperiencing that?
(02:26):
And, like you, we talked alittle pre-show, but it's very
personal for a lot of people.
My grandma suffered without.
For us time was for years and Iwatched it slowly kill her and
I watched it.
She slowly forgot people and itgot worse and worse and worse
and worse and worse and it'sjust like what kind of quality
of life is she living, like itwas so hard.
(02:48):
I mean I'm sure she wassuffering, but it was so hard to
watch my grandfather becausehe's still alive and he had to
watch his wife just slowly fadeout in front of him and it was
the most depressing thing in theworld and it was always hard to
find the proper words to say tohim to make him happy because
he's still mentally with it.
But it's just like I felt sobad, like it just you start
(03:11):
thinking about your own life,like what if that was my wife
going through that, and itreally just get emotional, just
like thinking about it.
But what kind of got you intoeven studying about dementia and
Alzheimer's?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Same experience that you are currently or had with
your grandma.
So I'm going to rewind hereback 50 years and my very first
experience.
I've had eight family membersin my personal family who have
lived with one of the braindiseases, and five of those have
(03:48):
been blood relatives.
It started with my grandmother50 years ago.
I was a teenager and thingswere very, very different back
then.
So I'm going to tell you do wehave time for me to tell you
this quick story?
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, go for it.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Okay.
So I had just gotten mydriver's license and I was so
proud so I told my mom that Iwas going to drive over to
grandma's house.
She only lived a couple ofmiles from us.
I grew up with her.
She was just a lovely, lovelylady.
I adored her and I spent a lotof time with her.
My mom would drop us off at herhouse regularly to hang out.
(04:27):
So after I got my driver'slicense I decided okay, I'm
going to go show off to mygrandma because I can drive over
there by myself.
So I did and I told my motherthat I was going over there.
Okay, so I get over to mygrandmother's house.
She lets me in, we go into herliving room and we both sit down
(04:50):
as usual Nothing seemeddifferent down to just kind of
engage in a catch-up type ofconversation.
She starts telling me aboutthese birds that are living in
(05:12):
her mattress and that they comeout at night and peck at her
face.
And you know my jaw drops alittle bit towards the floor.
I didn't say a thing yet.
Bit towards the floor, I didn'tsay a thing yet.
And then she proceeds to tellme about she's pointing to the
(05:33):
floor and tell me.
You see all those rats,hundreds of them.
They're running all over myhouse, along the walls.
They're invading my house, lisa, of course I didn't see
anything.
And then the last storyfar-fetched story she told me
was that there were these menthat she referred to, as these
men were constantly breakinginto her home and they were
(05:56):
stealing her jewelry, they wereeating her food, they were
scaring her, they were scaringher and she was convinced that
they were going to eventually doaway with her and just take her
life over, take her house overand everything.
But they were just waiting todo that until they were
(06:17):
comfortable with getting all ofher stuff.
And by this time my jaw is onthe floor.
And by this time my jaw is onthe floor and I had.
I really didn't know what to sayor how to respond.
I mean, these are the mostfar-fetched, bizarre stories
I've ever heard come out ofanybody's mouth in my entire
(06:39):
lifetime.
And so I was a little peeved atmy mother, because I told her I
was going over there and shedidn't prepare me for this at
all.
She didn't say a word like ohyou might, you know, notice some
differences in grandma.
Nothing.
So I said to my grandma, andthe only reason why I responded
(07:02):
the way I did is because I comefrom the generation that you
respect your elders.
You don't argue with them, youdon't contradict them, you don't
make fools out of them.
You know whatever they say isthe gospel.
So the way I responded to it isI said oh, my goodness, grandma,
(07:26):
this sounds horrible for you.
You must be scared all the time.
You said you're not sleeping.
I said I want to help you inwhatever way I can and get rid
of all these things that arehappening to you.
I said let's start with goinginto your bedroom and you show
(07:46):
me where these birds are comingin and out of your mattress, and
then maybe that'll help mefigure out who I can call, what
I can do to get rid of thesebirds.
So she followed me into herbedroom and I threw the covers
off.
I'm looking every place I can,on the top, on the bottom, on
(08:09):
the sides, looking for someevidence of birds coming in and
out of her mattress.
So I said to her.
I said well, help me here.
I said I'm not seeing howthey're getting in and out.
I'm not quite sure how we canresolve the situation yet.
And she's staring at themattress and then she turns to
(08:31):
me and she says oh, lisa,they're there.
They're just very, very clever.
And that's how she covered thestory she was telling me.
And I learned later on after Iwent, chose this as my
professional career that peopleliving with Alzheimer's and
dementia, when they're having adelusion or a false belief and
(08:54):
that was the bird story whenthey're having hallucinations
which is common to the disease,and that's's the rat story and
when they're feeling suspiciousand paranoid about things
occurring in their life and thatwas the men's story they become
masterful at explaining awaytheir beliefs.
(09:17):
And the thing that I want toemphasize to everybody is, even
though what she was telling mewasn't her, wasn't my reality,
that, like I said, these are themost bizarre, far-fetched
stories I'd ever heard in mylife.
And how would anybody believeanything that she was saying?
(09:40):
She believed it, this was herreality.
Saying she believed it this washer reality.
And I've learned in the 30years that I've been doing this
professionally that there isabsolutely nothing any of us can
say or do to change thatreality when they are locked on
to whatever it is they'retelling you.
(10:01):
Whatever it is they're tellingyou, and there are best
practices and really effectiveways to respond.
It turns out that I did respondproperly, but I didn't know it
at the time.
It was the way I was raised andconditioned.
But what I did was I joined herreality without realizing it,
(10:28):
her reality without realizing it.
I met her where she was,instead of trying to correct her
and state facts and say, oh,what you're telling me couldn't
be possible.
So I've had a lot of experienceand training in this approach.
I'm a certified dementiapractitioner, I'm a certified
dementia care trainer, I'm acertified dementia program
(10:49):
director, I have written threebestselling books, I'm an
international TEDx speaker onthis subject and, as I mentioned
earlier, anthony, I also host avery popular podcast on this
very subject.
So I talk about a differentaspect of and so I've had a
(11:12):
really fulfilling career doingthis professionally.
But the impetus behind it wasthis experience that I had as a
teenager with my grandmother andit was my very, very first
experience and introduction withAlzheimer's disease.
(11:33):
And when I left her house, Iwent home and I was just beside
myself and I said, mom, you willnot believe what I've just been
through.
And I told her the stories andI said why didn't you say
anything and at least prepare me.
I said I was completely caughtoff guard and she said okay,
(11:54):
lisa, your grandmother has beendiagnosed with what was called
back then senile dementia.
This was 50 years ago.
And she said and yes, that'swhat she has, and we're just not
going to talk about it anymorebecause that's the was the
mindset 50 years ago.
There's too many stigmasattached and you have crazy
(12:14):
people in your family and, uh,you don't, you know, you're in
denial and it's not happening.
That was kind of how how peoplereacted to the dementia
diagnosis back then, and so shepurposely didn't say anything to
me.
And I want to change that.
(12:35):
We need to change that becauseso many people are now at risk
of developing Alzheimer'sdisease, are now at risk of
developing Alzheimer's disease.
We've been told that thenumbers are expected to triple
in the next 25 years and we arenot prepared as a society,
especially if we stick our headsin the sand and we don't even
(12:58):
want to acknowledge thatsomebody we love or care for has
it, let alone talk about it.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, I mean, that's an eye-opening story and it
shows why you got so heavilyinto the field and really wanted
to make a change, which I'msure a lot of people appreciate.
I think before we dive intopractical cause and effects,
it's important just to establishdefinitions.
So do you mind just explainingreally briefly what the
difference is between dementiaand Alzheimer's?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Oh, not at all, because it's a really important
distinction to make, because alot of people think they're two
separate diseases or they're thesame thing.
So that's a great place tostart.
Alzheimer's disease is a braindisease.
Alzheimer's disease is a braindisease.
It's a neurocognitive diseasethat goes into a person's brain
(13:52):
and starts damaging the braincells in different regions.
It typically starts with theshort-term memory.
200 known brain diseases thatcause similar symptomology,
(14:12):
similar behaviors, similar signsas what we see in people living
with Alzheimer's disease about200 known today.
Now, when we start showingsymptoms, the underlying cause
is one of these brain diseasesor it could be a medical
condition, like a thyroidcondition or a urinary tract
(14:32):
infection.
But all of the signs, symptomsand behaviors that we see as a
result of the damage being doneto the brain are intertwined.
They're very similar and we putall of those signs, symptoms
and behaviors like I explained Iwitnessed with my grandma into
(14:56):
this bucket, this category thatwe call dementia.
So another way to think of itis you know pretty much, we've
all had the flu, we've all had acold and the reason that we
suspect that we have some kindof a virus is based on the
(15:16):
symptoms that we areexperiencing and they differ in
everybody.
I mean, I've had the flu beforewhere I have the total body
aches and I have a fever and mythroat is sore and my glands
swell up.
And I've had the flu othertimes where I might have had a
couple of those symptoms, butnot all of those.
(15:48):
And this is the best analogy,the best parallel to draw
between dementia and Alzheimer's.
So think of dementia as thesymptoms that we witness in
people living with brain disease, but it's not an actual disease
.
It's a reference to thesymptoms.
Alzheimer's is the disease.
Lewy body is a brain disease.
Huntington's disease is a braindisease.
(16:09):
So you're talking actual braindiseases versus the symptoms
that people experience and thatwe witness in those people.
That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, it makes a ton of sense and that's kind of what
I expected it was anyway.
So more of the dementia being acondition of it, not the actual
name of it per se.
So I mean, I know there's a lotof different types of diseases
that do cause memory loss days.
Obviously there's not going tobe a one size fitsall approach
(16:43):
for every single disease, forevery single individual, but I
think the question that everyonewants to know an answer for is
is there any kind of cure or isthere anything close to a cure
that we currently have right now?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
and sadly I have to say, and truthfully I have to
say that and truthfully I haveto say that right now we don't
have a cure and we really don'thave any treatments that can
reverse it.
There are medications out therethat doctors prescribe that can
slow the progression of it down, and then they'll work for you
(17:20):
know a certain period of timeand then just stop, and then the
disease.
You know a certain period oftime and then just stop, and
then the disease, you know,continues progressing.
Not everybody can toleratethose medications.
They've been around for a longtime.
But we do know of what a lot ofthe risk factors are.
There are a lot of risk factorsthat will either minimize or
(17:43):
increase people's risk ofdeveloping Alzheimer's disease.
And we know, based onscientific studies, scientific
evidence, that there are ways totake those risk factors and if
they apply to you you canactually do things, except for
(18:06):
four of them that can negate itfrom being a risk factor for you
.
So I'm happy to kind of diveinto that if you'd like me to do
that.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, let's start with a slow approach and kind of
go into what I know and then wecan get your opinion and advice
even on top of that.
I want to start with a storykind of similar to yourself with
my grandma.
So for those that don't know orare inactive listeners, my
grandma was like the doctoreverybody knew.
She was the first DO so Doctorof Hospitality and Medicine
(18:41):
female.
Her and my grandfather foundeda medical school, so they are
the doctors that people thinkabout when they think do's.
Last name dj yovana, for thosethat are curious.
But she was paranoid aboutgetting alzheimer's.
Paranoid about it because sheknew she had a strong family
history of it and her reactionwhen she was in her 60s 70s was
(19:05):
to play brain games.
So she would always play Sudoku, she would always do crossword
puzzles, she was obsessed withBoggle different word
association games because shewas a very smart woman and she
thought that that was the way toprevent getting Alzheimer's.
She's like I'm going to keep mybrain engaged and it's going to
(19:26):
help.
Maybe it prolonged it, maybe itdidn't.
But I think the interestingpart of kind of where I'm
getting with this it was just astudy that came out about four
or five years ago and they weretesting different, a different
theory.
They took brain games and theytook exercise and what they
found was really interestingBrain games only had a very
small percentage increase incurving the symptoms of dementia
(19:51):
, where exercise alone haddouble the effect of curving
dementia.
Now this is where it getsreally interesting when you
combine both of them together atthe same exact time and triple
the effect.
And I think back to me studyingin college and I would study as
(20:14):
weird as it sounds at the gymand I would practice while I was
working out and I was able toretain things like that.
It was impeccable, like justmoving my body and forcing
myself to think and study.
Like my retention and all ofthat was a lot better than me
sitting in front of a computerand studying things.
Even on top of that, I wasn'tshocked because I would always
(20:39):
look at like tests and I wouldwatch my peers stay up all night
, wake up like I didn't even goto bed and take the test the
next day and for myself Iactually prioritized sleeping
over studying.
So if I wouldn't get eighthours of sleep I wouldn't study.
I would just rather get tosleep and I always did better in
(21:00):
school, I think from acombination of that approach
plus the learning and workingout, and the study kind of
helped prove it.
So I want to get your thoughtson that and if you knew that.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Every single thing that you just said has been
substantiated through studiesand research.
And is you know what is beingrecommended for people to
possibly minimize their risk ofdeveloping Alzheimer's?
There's more, a little moreinvolved.
(21:32):
We can, you know, dive deeperinto that, but those are very
important elements to minimizingyour risk.
It doesn't work for everybody.
Your grandma's a perfectexample.
She did a lot of those thingsand I have seen some of the most
brilliant people on the planetdevelop Alzheimer's disease.
(21:55):
But given that it does helpsome people minimize their risk,
it's worth doing to avoiddeveloping Alzheimer's disease
if possible, because that's allwe have to go on right now.
So let me start with the fourrisk factors that we know of
(22:21):
that we call non-modifiable riskfactors, and the reason why
they're categorized asnon-modifiable is because we
can't change them.
They either apply to us or theydon't apply to us.
And the more of these, what youwant to guess.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm going to guess.
The number one is genetics.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
The number one.
That's one of the four, but thenumber one is our age.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
See, I was going to say age is number two, but okay.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, and of course we can't change our
chronological age.
We're aging every single daybut it is the number one risk
factor.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Age sex women are way more likely than men.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yes, you're right.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
That I definitely knew, and I think I know why too
, but we'll get into that alittle bit later.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Okay, yeah, because there are theories about that.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Number four.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
You already said another one genetics.
There's one more.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I'm going to go race, but I'm not positive.
Yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
So, whatever our ethnic background is, we know
now that there are some ethnicbackgrounds that do develop
Alzheimer's disease more thansome of the others.
So those are the four that wecan't change.
We can't change our age, wecan't change our gender, we
(23:53):
can't change our genetics and wecan't change our you know our
race backgrounds or ethnicity.
Race backgrounds or ethnicity,so we're stuck with all, with.
You know one, two, three orfour of those, and so if you
(24:15):
know you are 65 or older, ifyou're a woman, if you come from
one of the ethnic backgroundsthat we know is a higher risk
and it runs in your family, likeit does in mine, there's four
strikes against you right there,and we haven't even started
factoring in the modifiable riskfactors that we're going to
(24:37):
talk about in a minute.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
I want to stress a point though, and I think this
is super important Just becauseyou have one, two, three or four
of the risk factors, it's stilla percentage game, and I feel
like a lot of people don'tunderstand percentages from a
hole in a wall.
They pretend they do but theydon't.
Let me explain really quickly.
If you have 100 people in theroom and all of them are super
athletic, super in shape,there's still a one percent
chance someone's going to diebefore the age of 50, like it
(25:01):
doesn't matter what you do.
You might have a massive heartattack attack, but you mitigate
the risk and the other 99 canstill live past the age of 50.
But if you add in, let's say,everyone in the group smokes,
drinks, eats fried foods all thetime doesn't get out of their
chairs, and you have 100 peoplein your room and say 90 people
(25:21):
will make it past the age of 70.
And say 90 people will make itpast the age of 70, there's
still 10 people, and we all knowthese 10 people that you're
like.
How the heck are you?
100 years old, yeah, and stillsharp as a tack, and you smoke
seven packs a day and havesherry every single morning.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
And eat hot dogs every single day of your life
and you drink Exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Yeah, it defies everything that we're talking
about morning and ate hot dogsevery single day of your life
and you drank and exactly yeah,everything defies everything
that we're talking about, butthey're.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
The point is and I emphasize this to anybody that I
am talking to about this yes,it, these things will either
increase a person's risk or or,conversely, minimize.
But does that mean you're goingto get it if every single risk
factor applies to you?
Absolutely not.
(26:11):
I have seen people who couldhave every single risk factor
going against them and theirbrains are perfectly healthy.
And I've seen other people whothere's absolutely no
explanation for why theydeveloped Alzheimer's disease
based on their life history.
(26:33):
So it doesn't discriminate, itpicks on anybody.
But we do know, based onscientific evidence, that these
things that we're talking abouttoday can help minimize or can
increase a person's risk ofdeveloping Alzheimer's disease.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, and I can even mention the modified ones if you
want, because I think I got tohandle them as well, so I'll
dive in with I know if I'mmissing.
I want you to add in and alsoadd to what I know.
I think the first and obviousone is what's right behind me
Working out Maybe not in order,but it's definitely a modified
one.
That is definitely one of them.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
But I'll tell you the number one, because this
surprised me.
I never would have thought ofthis if I hadn't learned it
professionally.
The number one modifiable risk.
And when we say, when we'resaying modifiable, it means that
it can be treated.
Maybe it's a medical condition,it can be changed by
(27:33):
implementing something differentinto your lifestyle choices.
But the number one is, believeit or not, it's cardiovascular
disease and it ties into yourfitness.
But so anybody who has a heartcondition, anybody who suffers
from hypertension or high bloodpressure, is at an increased
(27:57):
risk of developing alzheimer'sdisease, and but it can be
negatedated under a doctor'scare, with treatment, with
eating healthier foods, withgetting regular exercise, and
(28:17):
all of these things that Anthonyand I are talking about are
intermingled.
They all relate to each other.
So that is the number one.
And then second is diabetes.
The top risk factors apply tomedical conditions.
(28:39):
So cardiovascular disease,diabetes disease, diabetes,
sleep apnea that one wassurprising, but you mentioned it
with your grandma that she madesure she got plenty of sleep
and prioritized that.
Hearing loss is also a hugerisk factor for developing
(29:03):
Alzheimer's disease.
But again, you wear hearingaids, you're you're treating
that condition, so it would thenreduce that risk from being
high to lower.
And then, of course, we haven'teven.
There are other medicalconditions that that we're aware
(29:26):
of.
I'll give you three.
So anybody that suffers from athyroid condition either hypo or
hyper, that can.
Actually, while you're having athyroid problem, the symptoms
(29:50):
can show up that mirror or mimicdementia.
But that's an exception,because if you do have a thyroid
condition and it's treated,then you can actually reverse
your symptoms and not.
There's only a couple thingsthat we know of where they're
(30:11):
reversible, and a thyroidcondition is one of them.
A urinary tract infection,believe it or not, it could
bring on symptoms like dementiajust practically overnight.
But again, it's treatable withantibiotics and if you start
(30:31):
your teeth, oh, yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah, that's.
Another one is, you know, likegum disease.
But so I have seen so manypeople over my career just all,
all of a sudden start actinglike they have dementia.
It doesn't happen that fast andit turns out they had a urinary
(30:53):
tract infection.
And once it gets into the bloodsystem then it affects your
brain and can mimic dementia.
But there's a simple fix.
You are treated withantibiotics.
Get rid of the infection.
Once it's in your bloodstream,it does take longer for those
(31:15):
symptoms to clear up than yourregimen of antibiotics.
So if you're on a 10 daydayantibiotic regimen and the
infection is gone, it may stilltake up to another month before
your brain is kind of out ofthat fog.
And Lyme disease is another onethat mimics the same or similar
(31:44):
symptomology that we see withdementia.
Again, that's a treatabledisease too.
But so, in terms of lifestylechoices, these are key because a
lot of these things that causethese medical conditions are due
to lifestyle choices, wouldn'tyou say, Anthony, are due to
(32:05):
lifestyle choices, wouldn't yousay, anthony?
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Yeah, I mean.
Even an important one thatpersonally affects me is
concussions.
I've had four in my life and Icould tell you I don't remember
things from my childhood, so Iremember flashbulb memories,
which I think is superinteresting, because even if you
see people with Alzheimer's, mygrandma said the same story
every single day until the dayshe died.
It was all true.
It was a true story thatsomething had happened to her
(32:28):
life.
It was just a memory that wasso in there that she just kept
telling it over and over again.
So our flashback moments areactually incredible that our
brain can just pin and relivesomething.
But I think concussions is themissed one and it's CTS is
coming out more and more.
You're seeing it more withathletes, but as far as the
first three you mentioned, asfar as the highest ones, right.
(32:51):
So cardiovascular disease,diabetes and then sleep apnea
all three preventable withhealthy diet and exercise.
That in and of itself.
You also mentioned a stat thatdidn't surprise me from a hole
in a wall, and I actuallywouldn't be surprised if it was
a lot higher that the rate ofAlzheimer's is going to triple
over the next five, 10 years 25years 25.
(33:17):
I wouldn't be shocked if it wasfive, 10 years.
You look at fit bodies, right?
There was a stat that came outthat said in 2025, being in
shape is going to be rarer thana Rolex, and if we don't think
that those two are associated,then you just got it dead wrong.
So when we take it for grantedthat, hey, we're 50, 60 pounds
overweight, we don't take careof our bodies, we don't sleep
right.
Don't be shocked if you getdementia at 70, 75 years old and
(33:39):
you're stuck trying to rememberthings because you neglected
your body.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
It's all related.
It's all related.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
All related.
A really simple dementia uh onethat's in that pool that caught
.
One disease that causesdementia is many, uh like
strokes in your brain.
So we all get many clots.
They go into our brain, clogsup a little vessel.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
That part of the brain dies and yeah, that is
actually, um, not an actualdisease, but it's a cause of
dementia and it's, from what yousaid, a stroke or a
trans-enschemic attack, which isaka a mini stroke, and that
causes what we call vasculardementia, and the symptoms are
(34:20):
pretty much the same, butthey're caused from our brain,
our brains bleeding, not from anactual disease like Alzheimer's
.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yeah, Still causes some of the symptoms vascular
disease.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Right on the head and it's like something like that
which we know how to preventclots, like we know this, but
yet people kind of take life forgranted and I think sometimes
people need a hard awakeninginto reality and it's something
that a lot of my clients aretruly understanding, appreciate
is we gotta take responsibilityfor our own health, because
(34:57):
there's way more things.
Yeah, no one else gives a shit.
Let's be be real.
Your family will love you, yourspouse will love you, but the
only person that's responsibleto take care of you is you.
Sorry, not sorry.
So the symptoms you get later inlife are a direct reflection of
what you do throughout yourearlier days.
So we talk about cardiovasculardisease, talk about type 2
(35:19):
diabetes and you talk aboutsleep apnea three things overall
that we could work on and fix.
Like you can start that now,and I'm a big believer in not
waiting till Monday, startingthis right very second, and you
can do that now.
What's stopping you?
Absolutely nothing.
You control what you put insideyour mouth.
Like no one else is forcefeeding you down things and
(35:39):
saying you have to eat this andthen like, or pouring alcohol
down your throat, like that'ssomething that you have full
control over and can start rightthis very second to make a
positive change, so you don'tend up with dementia and have to
make your loved ones sufferbecause it's a horrible disease,
it's horrible to watch peoplego through and it's something
(35:59):
like what you said if we wish,we could help, treat and
eventually prevent overall, andI just hope that there's a
better way to get across people.
So I'm going to ask youpersonally what's one way you've
gotten through to people tohelp them start mitigating the
risks of preventing dementia.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
By educating them and making them aware that these
things contribute to our risk ofdeveloping Alzheimer's disease,
and then telling them whatscience is proving to be a
possible prevention from it.
Not for everybody, I mean, noneof this is set in stone.
(36:40):
There are a lot of studies thathave supported these facts that
we're talking about, but again,they don't work on everybody.
But this is kind of the way Ilook at it and why I go around
raising awareness about thesethings, living with dementia,
(37:01):
and then the things that we cando to prevent it.
And I agree with you, anthony,it's a tragic disease, um, and
we actually end up losing ourloved one twice because, like
anthony was saying, hisgrandmother just kind of, you
know, just disappeared insideherself and then they eventually
(37:25):
pass away because it is aterminal disease, there's no
cure for it.
So we have to, you know, mournthe loss while they're
progressing through the stagesof the terminal illness to where
they don't know anybody andthey need full-time care and
everything that goes along withit, and then they pass away.
(37:46):
So now we're mourning them theloss twice.
That's a heavy burden on thepeople who are left behind.
So what I say, I mean reallyit's just kind of my logical way
of thinking, if I was listeningto this podcast and this
(38:08):
information was all new to me,it's like I didn't know that and
I didn't know that and I didn'tknow that.
Then let's say you're in your30s and somebody today it's me
and Anthony we're saying butthere's things that you can do
to lower your risk.
But there's things that you cando to lower your risk.
And some people might saybecause when I was in my 30s I
(38:30):
said it like why am I worriedabout something that's going to
happen in 50 years?
But fast forward 50 years.
If it does happen to you, youmight, it might occur to you
that, boy, if I had listened towhat Anthony and Lisa Skinner
were telling me on the podcastHealth and Fitness Redefined
(38:53):
podcast 50 years ago, I mightnot be living with Alzheimer's
disease and dementia today.
So ask yourself is it worthmaking some lifestyle changes
and you can do them gradually toavoid losing all of your
(39:15):
cognitive functions?
Because Alzheimer's diseasetypically starts showing up at
the age of 65.
Up at the age of 65.
For every five years that youage after 65, so 70, 75, 80, the
risk increases substantially bythe time people today, not even
(39:37):
in 25 years.
Today, one out of three peopleage 85 or older develops
Alzheimer's disease, and that'stoday.
That's a true statistic and youknow just by being aware of
some of these things and I cannow understand why it is the
(39:57):
number one most feared diseaseto get in people 55 or older.
Now there is a more rare form ofAlzheimer's disease called
early onset, that shows upbefore the age of 65.
It's a much rarer form, butrecently somebody was diagnosed
with it at 19 years old, andbefore that it was somebody in
(40:19):
their 30s.
We are seeing a higherincidence of early onset
dementia than we've seen in thepast.
So it's a scary proposition tothink about spending the rest of
your life basically with yourcognition failing you completely
(40:46):
and having to have somebodycare for you 24 hours a day,
seven days a week and notrecognize family members.
You can't communicate with them.
In exchange for, do I reallyneed that hamburger?
Drive through that fast foodplace and eat that hamburger
today.
Maybe you cut it back and thenthe exercise component of it is
(41:13):
has um, there's a hugecorrelation, just like anthony
said, between I need to I needto add to this, because it's not
just exercise, it's the type ofexercise.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Okay, so we're specifically strength training
and you mentioned something veryinteresting before which we
know the eight.
Uh, sex, sorry, you mentionedsex and I told you women are
more likely to developAlzheimer's than men, correct,
and we all know that's a truestat, that's true, that's true.
Why?
I think I know why and I'mgoing to answer this and a lot
of people probably going to likemy answer, but I don't care.
(41:46):
If it helps people, so be it.
So women, as we all know, uh,40s start going through
something called menopause.
Menopause, those are yourhormones all up in a row, so
things you grew up functioningwith your entire life, with help
in all aspects of your life,right?
It starts dissipating, yourbody starts changing.
You take that.
So now your sex hormones aregoing over a whack and
(42:08):
dissipating.
You throw that in with womenare way less likely to lift
weights by far it's.
You're starting to see anincrease, but women now are
still don't lift as much as mendo.
And muscle, as we know,preserves your metabolism.
It preserves your brain.
(42:32):
Sleep Women are way more or lesslikely to get eight hours of
consistent, keyword, consistentsleep and have good circadian
rhythms.
The biggest one, which I'msaved for a little later stress.
Women are way more likely toget stressed out.
Carry stress with them day today.
I love the funny examplebecause I think humor helps
break everything.
You know the difference betweentwo boys fighting and two girls
fighting.
The boy fight will end in anhour.
(42:53):
The girl fight will last 10years.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
That's true.
One of the things I want to addto the sleep, because this has
also been proven.
Because this has also beenproven that one of the reasons
why sleep deprivation increasesa person's risk, it's not only
in the amount of hours you getthat's recommended at least
seven but people with sleepapnea, for example, they don't
(43:22):
fall into the REM sleep, thedeep sleep, and this is actually
the time that our brains areworking like washing machines
and cleansing the toxins out ofour brains.
So that's why sleep apnea issuch going through that
(43:49):
cleansing process.
That happens in people who doenter that REM sleep.
Are you aware of this, anthony?
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yeah, it's a specific protein that doesn't break the
blood-brain barrier, unlessyou're in deep REM sleep.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Yeah, yeah, so that's kind of an important thing to
understand.
Why sleep apnea?
Why would somebody with sleepapnea be at a higher risk?
That's the reason.
And then the other thing thatyou should also address, since
it's more your area of expertisethan mine, but I know that
there's a correlation, but it'stied into everything that you
(44:27):
are talking about and mention isthey're now seeing a connection
between inflammation in yourbrain and inflammation in your
body as being a contributor to aperson's risk, and a lot of
that inflammation can bemitigated or tamed, if you will,
(44:53):
through these things thatAnthony is talking about the
diet, the exercise, the loweringyour stress, all of those
things.
And so we've learned.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
It's important to understand something yet again
relating to why women are morelikely to have Alzheimer's.
So those four is the fifth one.
Women are way less likely toeat meat and meat is known to
preserve your brain, especiallylean meats.
So, looking at chicken, turkey,bison, elk, lean red meat you
can get from cow and we knowthat those good fats actually
(45:32):
help lower your chance ofgetting cardiovascular disease,
help lower your chances ofgetting high blood pressure and
help preserve muscle mass at theend of the day.
So you get really good fats andyou get really good protein
from these meats that half of usjust avoid or just don't eat
enough of.
So it's it's all of these fiveseparate things that added in
(45:57):
and really cool.
I don't know if you know this,lisa, but I am, and those that
listen know I am obsessed aboutthis Creatine, specifically
creatine monohydrate.
There has been so many studieson creatine monohydrate now with
no upper limit, so meaningnormal people take five grams a
(46:17):
day of creatine monohydrate, youcan get up to 20 grams a day.
That actually showed toincrease brain performance and
increase memory.
That actually showed toincrease brain performance and
increase memory.
And it is as effective withpeople with dementia as the
leading medicine out there, andthat's just a supplement.
And what's crazy slash notcrazy about it is where do we
naturally get creatine from?
(46:38):
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (46:40):
No, I don't.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Two things Red meat it's naturally founded and sleep
.
Oh, Our body releases creatinethroughout our body.
So lower levels of creatine,like women, like we addressed,
because they're not eating meatand they're not sleeping
properly.
So everything can be wrapped upall together.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
I wasn't even aware of the creatine theory until you
just told me, but it ties inwith what we know and what
increases a person's risks, andthat you know where you get it
from.
The sleep and the meats makessense options out there to help
(47:28):
towards that.
I'm going to remember that.
That's a good thing to know.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
I wasn't aware of the creatine theory.
It's only because I literallyupset my wife.
She goes you're either going totalk about AI or creatine.
That's all you ever talk about.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
I'm like yes, the point to this whole discussion
is awareness.
I think that probably a lot ofthe things that we've talked
about today, especially inrelationship to a person's risk
(48:02):
of developing a brain diseaseAlzheimer's, whatever and not
minimizing it it's like I neverknew any of this stuff and it
stands to reason when you lookat, you know, the way our
lifestyles have changed over thelast 50 years.
(48:25):
No-transcript.
More people are developingAlzheimer's disease because of
our crazy lives that we lead,the stress, the run here, run
there, drive through this fastfood, drive through there to you
know, get something quick,Other than doing a lot of
driving and racing around, a lotof driving and racing around
(48:48):
when we're not.
We lead kind of a sedentarylifestyle, more so than we did
50 years ago, because there's alot more available to us.
That creates that sedentarylifestyle and we are seeing
results of the way ourlifestyles have changed in the
(49:10):
last 50 years and it'sincreasing our risks of
developing these diseases andand living with, you know,
cognitive impairment, which Iwouldn't wish on anybody no, no,
the only the only last thing Iwant to bring up because it's
(49:33):
personal to me and I love you,mom, but my mom has.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
I say my grandma is my mom's side and she's been
super worried about gettingAlzheimer's and she does work
out and she does do some otherthings associated with it.
But then she goes and she getstold she cholesterol levels are
high.
And then what do they give you?
If I have high cholesterol,they give you a statin.
What are statins known to cause?
I mean, I feel like our medicalcommunity needs to catch up
(50:03):
with what outweighs what.
We don't even have scientificsound evidence showing that high
cholesterol is even a bad thing, especially because it's
strictly based on one of theproportions of LDLs to HDLs that
you have.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
But yet we're going to give people something that we
know, in the long term, isdirectly correlated to increase
your chances of gettingAlzheimer's.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Yeah, I've read that there's been a lot of studies on
statins that point in thatdirection.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Oh yeah.
So just misunderstanding of allof this, I think, is something
people need to understand, andI'm going to say this I think
doctors are the best humanbeings on the face of the earth.
My whole family is them Imentioned.
My grandparents found a medicalschool and they live a legacy
upon it.
But it doesn't matter what Isay, it doesn't matter what the
doctor says, it doesn't matterwhat Lisa says.
Do your own research.
(50:56):
It's super important.
Before you put anything insideyour body, you know exactly what
it does.
Obviously, I don't believe inliving a perfect life.
I think that's a fallacy.
I tell my wife all the timewhen she asks me she's like well
, what about this, what aboutthis, what about this?
I'm like Sal.
Here's a rule of thumb If itdoesn't make you at least 20%
(51:19):
better, who gives a shit?
Right, like, if you're going tobe you, stressing about being
perfect is worse than you justtrying to be 80% good.
Right, like?
I'll have a beer once in awhile.
It ain't going to kill me,right?
I'm not going to sit there andstress.
I can worry about time of day,eating, what exactly types of
(51:40):
proteins I'm getting, and reallyget into the weeds, but that's
going to overcomplicate andoverstress me, but if I could be
80% good, I can live the life Iwant and really mitigate my
chances of getting this such ahorrible disease and everything
else that comes with it.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
So I agree with everything you're saying.
It's so true and theinformation is out there.
This isn't just me coming onthis show and giving my opinions
about these things.
This information is availableif you know what to Google or
know what to look for, but a lotof people don't even make that
association that, oh my gosh,this can increase my chance
(52:14):
because we don't, like I said,sleep apnea.
Who would have put two and twotogether?
That that could increase yourrisk.
Speaker 1 (52:21):
See, that one shocks me the least.
Huh, what that one shocks methe least, the sleep apnea thing
.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
Which one shocks you the most?
Speaker 1 (52:35):
The hearing one that I.
But then I thought about it andI know why, or I think, I know
why.
I think it's relatedisolationism has been known to
cause similar effects todementia, and you are so right.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
Well, there's some other components to it, but
that's one of them.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Yeah, I can see that If you can't hear people and you
can't communicate and you'rejust lost in your head, it can
definitely start sounding crazy,right?
So you need to socialize, weneed to be involved.
It's a muscle we work byhanging out and talking to
people.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
Yeah, very true, so that one I got to say shocked me
the most.
Speaker 1 (53:12):
But the sleep apnea shocked me the least because I
knew about the sleep and theprotein already.
That is directly related and Iactually have sleep apnea, which
probably helps a little bit toat least understanding it from a
hole in a wall.
And sleep apnea there's 1% ofthe population that it's
strictly anatomical and hasnothing to do with how much you
(53:34):
weigh or being overweight oranything.
But I use a CPAP, so thatdefinitely helps and I recommend
anyone that does have sleepapnea.
You fall asleep with thesteering wheel.
Once you're going to get a CPAP, don't get to that point.
Do it, especially because weknow that lack of sleep can
cause Alzheimer's.
We know lack of sleep makes youunproductive the next day.
We know lack of sleep triplesyour cortisol levels, so you're
(53:56):
going to eat like shitthroughout the day and you can
hold onto fat longer.
We know that lack of sleepcauses muscle wasting.
And those are just the fourthings we can strictly talk
about now, with a hundred otherthings that lack of sleep causes
it makes it irritable, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
Can I add one thing to the sleep apnea topic?
Sure, a lot of people don'tknow they have sleep apnea.
So number one thing to um to becognizant of is if you're a
snorer.
Not everybody who snores hassleep apnea, but a lot of people
who have sleep apnea snore.
If you are a known snorer, thenit would be worth getting
(54:38):
tested, because the likelihoodof you having sleep apnea is
high.
And then another thing thathappens with sleep apnea is
during your sleep cycle.
While you're sleeping, you stopbreathing.
And, um, some people, theirsleep apnea is so severe that
(55:01):
they can stop sleeping 90 timesan hour.
I mean stop breathing.
So that's definitely somethingthat can be reversed by using
CPAP machines.
So, even if you, you know, ifyou suspect, let's say, start
with being a snorer.
It's so easy to get sleeptested nowadays.
(55:23):
The days where you had to go tothat sleep clinic and spend the
night and do all that's allchanged.
You can do it in the comfort ofyour own home.
Just talk to your doctor aboutit and say you know what?
I was listening to this programand I am a really bad snorer.
So maybe I do have sleep apneaand just have never realized it.
(55:44):
Do you agree with that, anthony?
Speaker 1 (55:47):
Oh yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
How did?
You discover you had sleepapnea.
Speaker 1 (55:53):
Anthony, oh yeah, 100%.
How did you discover you hadsleep apnea?
I'm very into my body and Iwould sleep 12, 12 and a half
hours a day and still be tiredmy whole childhood.
Speaker 2 (55:58):
But you're not a snorer.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
No, which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
Okay, so you're like an exception.
Speaker 1 (56:05):
My uncle was my doctor at the time and I'll
never forget this.
I kept going and I was like man, I sleep way too long.
And then I'm like physicallyexhausted oh, you're getting old
, You're growing.
I was like no, you don't get it, Like I can literally go to bed
at 7 PM, sleep till 8 AM thenext morning and then still take
a nap.
Speaker 2 (56:23):
Well, that's another sign.
That's another sign is chronicfatigue, because you're not
getting a restful night's sleep.
You're not going into that deepsleep state.
Speaker 1 (56:32):
I forced him to give me a sleep test.
I said get me a script for asleep study.
I got.
It came back positive fordyspnea and I just knew it.
Then I got a bunch of surgeries.
It went away for a couple ofyears and then it came back.
So the scar tissue built upwhere I had the surgeries and it
binds my breathing.
I barely get air in my nose andwhen I lay my throat so big the
(56:54):
air always kind of gets stuck.
So I can tell when I have a badnight I'm screwed.
So I'm really like strict Sametime to bed every night, same
time.
Wake up every morning CPAP.
Every night CPAP, no strip.
That's how I get through.
Speaker 2 (57:11):
Wow, you are just a super disciplined person.
Can we clone you?
Speaker 1 (57:17):
It took a lot to get here, but yeah, all right, lisa,
I'm going to ask you the finaltwo questions.
I asked everyone just to wrapthis show up.
So the first one is if you wereto summarize this episode in
one or two sentences, what wouldbe your take-home message?
Speaker 2 (57:31):
Could you repeat?
Speaker 1 (57:32):
that I didn't catch the whole thing.
If you were to summarize thisepisode in one or two sentences,
what would be your take-homemessage?
Speaker 2 (57:40):
There are proven ways that we know now that we can
minimize our risk of developingAlzheimer's disease.
If that's something that isimportant to you or anybody you
know or your loved one, thenjust pay attention to what we've
talked about.
Do your own research.
(58:00):
I think that's a great idea.
The information is out thereNow.
You know what to Google or tolook for, and then you have to
make your own choices.
You are responsible for yourown health couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1 (58:14):
And the second question how can people find you
and get a hold of you and learnmore?
Speaker 2 (58:18):
okay, a couple ways.
Um, I have a a website.
It's called mindingdementiacom,or you can listen to my podcast
.
I talk about every aspectaspect of Alzheimer's and
dementia If you're family or youknow somebody, or if you're a
caregiver and you're goingthrough this in your life.
(58:39):
It's a weekly podcast.
A new episode drops everyWednesday and the content is
something to do with living withAlzheimer's disease the other
brain diseases that causedementia and how to make your
lives a little easier to live,whether you're a family member
(59:01):
or a caregiver or a doctor.
So that's a great resource thatI provide for people and it's
free.
It's a podcast.
Speaker 1 (59:09):
I love it.
Lisa, thank you so much forcoming on.
Thank you, guys for listeningto this week's episode of Health
and Fitness Redefined.
Don't forget to subscribe,share with a friend.
It's the only way this showgrows.
And remember fitness ismedicine.
Until next time, I'm ready.
(59:46):
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