July 24, 2025 • 36 mins
Read, Brush, Floss, Repeat... one way to mitigate the chances of Alzheimer's Disease. In a science and syllable heavy episode, we learn a bit about the role that oral health can play in preventing Alzheimer's Disease and the lab at the University of Minnesota researching this issue. A lab funded by the CAD (Curing Alzheimer's Disease) Foundation.
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(00:17):
Welcome to the KindnessChronicles, where we hope to
inject the world with a dose ofthe Minnesota kindness that it
desperately needs.
We've got Steve Brown in thestudio.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Hey, and then we've got JeffHoffman is, on the road on
assignment.
(00:37):
Are you there Jeff?
Hi Jeff.
I'm, how are you?
We have a special guest inStudio Anna.
She Lander, and we're gonna getto her in just a moment.
KG is at the, uh, the track,the, this is a bad night for kg,
but it's been chaos for me, so.
This is what you're getting.
You got the three of us, andthen Dempsey's down in, Texas.
He's in Texas.
(00:58):
He's, uh, he's on a, onassignment in Texas.
He is the, the, everybody's onassignment.
I would just like to start with,we lost a legend of music this
past, Couple of days.
he left some lovely gifts forthe community that I just wanted
to talk about.
Uh, Ozzy Osborne died.
Yeah.
Now Ozzy was an interestingcharacter.
He's definitely a, a character.
What do you think would hap, hefalls in that, what do you think
(01:19):
happened when he showed up atthe pearly gates?
Do you think He said, you know,God, all that devil stuff.
I was kidding.
I was just kidding about that.
He loved that moniker, thePrince of Darkness, that he was
just silly.
He's being, he's a, he's a sillyguy.
Did you happen to see thetribute concert that Tom Morello
organized?
I only saw some of it.
I saw it.
(01:39):
It was kind of sad.
And it was only like two weeksago.
Yeah.
July 5th or something.
And at the very end, uh, Ozzyappears out of the, uh, yes.
The stage in a chair in a black,it's more of a throne.
Yeah.
In this black throne.
Throne.
Yeah.
And, uh, you know, sings acouple of his, uh, his greatest
hits, he.
His second to last song was,mama I'm Coming Home.
(02:01):
Yeah.
Which was pretty interesting.
And then he did, uh.
Did a couple of Black Sabbathsongs with, uh, with the whole
original lineup from BlackSabbath.
Think how many hits and how muchtime he spent on the radio.
How many, how many times we'veheard Ozzy songs.
Black between Black Sabbath and,oh God, seventies, all the way
through.
He's, and I mean, for being sucha crazy character and so many
problems he's endured for a longtime.
(02:22):
But, and then he became reallyfamous when he had that, uh, the
show, the show with his family,what was it called?
Uh, Oz Osborn.
Os it was from oh two to oh fiveand uh, he had a very loving
family.
And that's where I started tokind of realize, this guy's
actually pretty cool.
You know, I was a Catholicschool kid, so Oh yeah.
When I saw, like, he was scarystuff that the Diary of a
(02:46):
madman, I mean, that stufffreaked me out when I was in, in
high school or uh, junior high.
I realized, oh, it was allmarketing.
It was an all an act because heloved his family.
Yeah.
He was a, a, a very smartbusiness person.
this tribute concert that wasdone, apparently it made like
$180 million.
Is that possible?
Well, it was a charity eventtoo.
(03:06):
No one, no one accepted anymoney for, for performing.
I know that.
It's just unbelievable.
Yeah.
So all the money apparently wasbeing donated to a, a variety of
different charities.
Ozzy had Parkinson's Disease.
Which is a brain disorder.
But what a, a, a neat guy.
Speaking of brain disorders,we're gonna pivot right away
Wow.
To our, uh, to our guests.
See how I did that?
Yeah.
Um, we have with us.
(03:27):
That was impressive.
Uh, a a a friend of mine from,uh, long ago, many years ago,
uh, her son Weston, and my sonJack, played football and
baseball together.
And Weston, uh, very, verybright young man.
Uh, I just a couple quick Westonstories.
Weston was.
I would say Weston is a guy thatkind of marches to the beat of
his own drum.
(03:47):
Okay.
He, he was this, he was like thebiggest, strongest guy, freshman
year in high school, and hedecided I don't want to be the
biggest guy in high school.
And how much weight did Westonlose?
I mean.
You gotta give me close to themic.
Yeah.
Okay.
Sorry.
This is my first shot at this.
Yeah, that's fine.
This is big fun.
Okay.
Um, actually we never weighedhim once.
(04:09):
Yeah.
He just got completely cut.
He went real and he went frombeing the starting left tackle
to a, a guy that played with therest of the regular sized human
beings, but he also was abaseball player and everybody
else used a, uh, an aluminumbat.
And wore gloves.
Weston was from the 1910s and heused a wood bat and no gloves.
(04:33):
Weston was an interesting cat,but a very good dude.
Wow.
Very interest.
Great guy.
Interesting.
And when you listen to hismother, you'll understand where
some of that, uh, attitude, soto speak comes from.
But Anna Sealander is theexecutive director of an
organization that is trying totake on, Alzheimer's disease and
(04:53):
you know, I mentioned Ozzy withhis, uh, his brain disorder.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, Anna has a very interestingstory.
For starters, why don't you tellus a little bit about.
where the motivation for this,foundation that you created came
from?
Sure.
Wait, Anna?
Yes.
Welcome to the KindnessChronicle.
Oh, sorry about that.
He welcome down to, we have herhere in studio too, which is
fantastic.
So it's good to, good to haveyou down here.
(05:13):
It's a pretty nice spot.
Oh, it's so, it's, yeah, right.
I'm impressed.
Surrounded by Legos.
Yeah.
And t-shirts, it's real.
It's got a mood.
Yes.
We, it's got a mood.
Mm-hmm.
Alright, so, and thank you Johnfor bringing me on, Steve.
Yeah.
Appreciate it.
Yeah.
Um, so first of all, we'recalled the curing Alzheimer's
Disease Foundation.
And, um, that is an interestingstory in that it wasn't our
(05:38):
initial plan.
I'm, I'm a marketer.
I'm a journalist.
Um, my dad was a dentist.
Uh, I helped him build up hispractice, getting it ready to
transition a dentist in WhiteBear Lake right in White Bear
Lake here in Minnesota.
Right.
And, and my dad, um, ended upsuddenly, or not suddenly to
him, but to those of us outsidebecause Alzheimer's is a very
(06:00):
interesting disease.
It slowly happens and in thevery early time, the person that
has it can actually do a lot ofthings to protect against.
Other people understanding thatthat might be the course that
they're on.
So, and my dad with lots ofcognitive reserve, which is a,
is a critical part of, um, oneof the reasons why.
(06:20):
It can take longer to bedetected from an outside source.
Um, people with a lot ofcognitive reserves, such as lots
of education is generally, orreading, and by the way, these
are the things you wanna do.
Yeah.
So everybody start reading moreand get more educ education.
Oh God.
Because that's really importantfor your brain.
But anyway, so my dad wasrecognizing that there was
(06:43):
something going on probablybefore any of us did.
Um, but he had a, a A a C, Acircumstance where he ended up
having, um, uh, a somethingcalled PMR, which is an
autoimmune disease, and thatbrought us over to Mayo.
And during the Mayo Run theysaid, um, you know, there's
something going on with yourcognition too, Dave.
(07:04):
His name is David Crandall.
And so we did a little bit oftesting and they said, yeah, you
could be really early on thatMCI.
This could be Alzheimer's.
Let's watch this.
So anyway, this particulardisease is addressed through
steroid.
So my dad went on steroid andall of the cognition issues went
away.
Hmm.
Now, what we know now isAlzheimer's is a disease of
(07:27):
inflammation.
Back at the time that was.
That was under, um, research andthat hadn't been determined
quite yet.
But here, my dad was having noissues with cognition after he
is taking steroids.
So it goes back to Mayo and theysay you can't possibly have.
Alzheimer's, which was our veryfirst turnaround on a diagnosis
(07:47):
for Alzheimer's.
There were probably 15 beyondthat.
Never once did anybody stay staywith that diagnosis because my
dad kept reversing a symptom.
That symptom being cognitiveissues.
So the neurologist gave him aclear bill of health.
He went away thinking, well,that was, they thought it was
pain.
That's why he was having issueswith cognition.
And when he finally was on thetaper.
(08:09):
He had issues with cognition.
Again, that's when he went outinto the research world and
started asking questions,looking for research papers.
What is there that that wouldsay that cognition could be
steroid responsive?
And that's where he starts tofind all these researchers
around the world.
Who are fascinated with hiscase.
So, go ahead.
Just a quick question.
(08:29):
What era are we talking about?
What, what year is this?
This is 2013 to 2015.
Okay.
Okay.
So this is not that long agoreally.
Okay.
Nope.
And so during that time, um, ofcourse you'd be talking the
medical community I, I put on mywebsite, which is curing
alzheimer's disease.com.
I put together, put together areally, you know, a silly
little, not silly, but justbecause I'm not professional, a
(08:51):
video and it's called.
In between.
So caught in between, and thisreally identifies what happens
to a patient, I think in anysituation.
But ours particularly, thecaught in between is you've got
medical at the base and that'swho's treating you.
And then you have science who'sin a lofty spot, and these two
groups don't talk.
(09:11):
And so as my dad's learningthese in this great information
from scientists.
The researcher or the, themedical doctors are saying it's
not gold standard and therefore,uh, we're not going to pay any
attention to that.
Alright, so going further.
My dad then is thinking, okay,this, there is something
neurologically wrong and I'mseeing this in the dental
office.
(09:31):
That's another great interestingpoint.
Medical and dental still aresuper separate.
The mouth is not connected tothe body.
It doesn't make sense.
But that's how it is right now.
Huh?
So what happens?
What do you mean the mouththat's it is not, it is not
covered by medical insurance.
Oh, I see what you're saying.
Your medical doctor doesn't careabout it.
Perspective.
Yeah.
Interesting.
What?
So, and yet, we know right nowdefinitively a hundred diseases
(09:54):
are caused from.
The pathogens in our mouth.
Wow.
So how is this?
And I think it'll change, butfor right now, this is where
we're at.
Hmm.
So anyway, my dad, as a dentist,as a profession professional
caring for people would see thisall the time.
And that is people that had gumdisease, gum diseases caused by
bacteria.
And so people would have gumdisease, it would go untreated,
(10:17):
either because they weren'tfollowing protocol or because it
was not managed well enough.
And then they eventually woulddevelop dementia.
And so if you talk to ahygienist, I invite anybody
listening on this podcast, nexttime you go to the dentist, ask
your hygienist, do you see acorrelation between oral gum
disease?
And dementia.
(10:38):
And they'll say, yes, we've beenseeing it a long time.
But again, this information justpay, it stays put super siloed.
So, so far I've learned twothings.
Mm-hmm.
I need to start reading more.
Yes.
Um, and I better start flossingevery single day, every day,
every day.
Every day.
Every single day.
Um, one other question iswatching YouTube videos qualify
as cognitive?
(10:59):
Uh, yes.
Absolutely.
You're doing all kinds ofthings, especially if they're
subtitled, cogniti, serve.
Yes, I think I have cognitivereverse.
Re Yeah.
Okay.
Well we can just switching acouple of things, figure that
out.
I hate to, to make light ofthis.
Oh, no, no.
It's, but it is very fascinatingto me.
It's especially fascinating.
Um, a while back, MinnesotaMasonic Charities had made a big
(11:20):
gift to the University ofMinnesota to create what's
called the Masonic Institute forthe Biology of Aging and
Metabolism.
And something got posted onLinkedIn and I made a comment.
And Weston Slander said, oh, Dr.
Laura's terrific.
You'll love working with her.
And I'm like, how does Westonslander that little punk that
went to high school with my son,know who Dr.
(11:42):
Laura is and well enough to saywhat a great, you know how great
she is.
Turns out he was a, he worked inher lab.
Yeah.
He worked in in her lab.
Yeah.
And, uh, so all of thesesealander, like everything is,
is, is drawing you toward.
The University of Minnesota.
Oh, absolutely.
Question.
Tell us about the lab, because Ithink what's unique about, yeah,
(12:04):
yeah.
So I was, okay, so you're right.
Thank you for scooting me along.
I'm gonna get better at this atsome point, but you, yes.
Hopefully you won't hear me.
Hit a button that says, is thisa long No, that's great story.
You gave us the basis your dad'sfinding and your dad's.
Issue.
So that's, we needed that job.
Absolutely.
Well, and you're not complainingabout it.
Oh my God.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay guys, so we'll go on.
So anyway, here's what happens.
(12:26):
Like, let's jump forward.
My dad is eventuallyexperimenting on himself.
He's using, um, protocols fromthe scientists that are around
the world who are eagerlywatching.
They only work on animal model.
They don't have a human example.
And yet my dad is actuallywalking them through.
Uh, a hypothesis.
And that hypothesis is theinfectious microbial hypothesis.
(12:49):
Something from my mouth isbroken through my blood brain
barrier, and what are we gonnado about it?
So they've given him protocols,he's taken those to d, different
doctors fired a couple who saidno, signed everything away, and
said, there's no, I'm literallydoing this with my full faculty,
because at this point, he stilldoes not have Alzheimer's, and
he is in control of hisfaculties, but it is a
(13:10):
progressive disease.
So with that being said.
We are taking both steroid.
We.
He and I, I mean, I'm, I'm likehis, his, uh, you know, ace in
the hall.
I'm right there with him.
Yeah.
Anyway, and so he's takingsteroid and then eventually we
add antibiotic onto on top ofit.
So this nice little cocktail isgreat, except for we don't know
(13:32):
how to feed the brain any kindof medication without running
into issues like, um, uh, resresistance.
We don't know how long how togive it.
We're actually, at this point,he's just taking it orally.
You can't give high levels ofanything orally.
Mm-hmm.
And so as a result, my dad doesdie.
And that is he dies ofsomething.
We actually are, the autopsysays of DI dementia of unknown
(13:54):
origin.
Remember 17 different doctorssaid you cannot have
Alzheimer's.
'cause nobody has ever reversedthe symptoms.
And when I speak about that,this is what's so amazing.
My dad would go from.
In a wheelchair, literallyunable to move his legs because
his parietal lobe is notcatching the right registering.
Yep.
(14:15):
Yep.
And within, uh, a change ofregimen.
He's up walking no cane, and hewould be able to go from
recognizing names, first names,last names to being almost moot,
sometimes not being able to eat.
And then being able to, tocompletely do his daily, daily,
you know, DOLs, whatever they'recalled, um, tasks of daily
(14:38):
living.
And, and it was all because ofthese medications and it was
clinically supported.
We have the records.
That show that, show this.
Okay.
So, so who's prescribing thesemedications to him?
If he's good?
Yeah.
Yeah, doctors, medical doctors.
So he would get MDs that would,that would buy in and, and,
okay.
And they would have to besomebody who's seen this before.
(14:58):
So urology sees this all thetime.
Oh yeah.
So they see these patients comein with a UTI, you know, you get
one and they go nuts as a kid.
Yeah.
But if you get one as a kid, ithurts.
But now our blood braininbarrier as we age, is actually
loosening bigger and biggerthings can get through, such as
virus.
I believe a lot of that, that,uh, brain fog that people have
from COVID is probably, um,going along this line, uh, and
(15:22):
bacteria and fungus.
So now we have a UTI and anelderly person and they go
batshit crazy, just like yousaid.
You talk about the challenges ofhomelessness.
People that are unhoused orhomeless or whatever we're
calling it these days, there,there appears to be a lot of
mental illness among thosepeople, and it makes you wonder,
is it because they're just nottaking care of their mouths?
(15:44):
I've been reading a whole bunchsince we had breakfast, the, uh,
on Monday.
Good, good.
I find it completelyfascinating.
Um, there's a lot there, there,there's a lot, real lot there.
A lot and, and mm-hmm.
It, it has become kind of amainstream.
Like there's a lot of people nowthat are looking at this, but
you have, you fund a laugh, solet's go there.
So this is what's so cool.
So my daddy dies.
(16:05):
What year did you done?
I said that twice.
2019 at the end of the year.
Just before COVID.
Thank goodness.
Because this would've beenreally, yeah, maybe not the same
outcome.
He orders his own autopsy.
Unprecedented.
Wow.
And so, yeah.
Right.
Wow.
And so we go in and, and we'vegot the university they're ready
to, to, to tell us what's goingon.
So the first thing they tell usis, what I see is bad news.
Now, first, just let's stepback.
(16:26):
You talk about this as theKindness Chronicles.
My dad, kindest guy in theworld.
Mm-hmm.
And what he was hoping, becausewe didn't have Alzheimer's,
that's so that we were told hewas gonna help 5% of the people
that were also misdiagnosed.
This was gonna be called theCrandall Disease.
And he was going to start afoundation and, and, and funnel
money that we would get some waymaybe from the sale of the
(16:49):
dental office.
Mm-hmm.
And we would, we would fund alab and they would come to this
conclusion and carve it out.
Of the Alzheimer's bucket and,and it would be solvable, and he
was really convinced of that.
So when I go in and theuniversity pathology team sits
me down and says, your dad hadthe worst Alzheimer's we've
ever.
Ever seen really, like peopledie long before this.
(17:10):
Hmm.
So there's so much.
So Alzheimer's is diagnosed bypathology, meaning the protein
deposition that's on in thebrain and in my dad's brain, in
his case, it was everywhere inhis brain.
There was not a place, they wasnot protein.
Now, the theory right now that'sbeing funded most generally is
that this protein kills neurons.
(17:31):
But I can tell you mostrecently, research is now coming
to find.
It does not, you can actuallyput those protein, uh, the put
protein like amyloid beta on topof a neuron and nothing happens.
You know what kills the neuroninflammation?
Hmm.
So now we have this bad news.
(17:51):
I'm thinking, I'm thinking it'sgood that dad's dead because he
would be really di disappointed.
And then they said, wait aminute, it's not that bad
because we're gonna go structureby structure.
Let's look at his brain.
So we're looking at likedeposition of protein, but let's
look at see, should his, hisbrain should be completely
devastated.
(18:11):
It should be dead by this point.
Necrotic, like the cauliflowerhead that you would see.
Mm-hmm.
But it's not, it's actuallyvibrant.
So they're going into thestructures like, let's talk the
hippocampus.
That should be a completelygone, that's where your memories
are started and that's wherethat short term memory right
there consolidates and goeselsewhere in your brain.
(18:32):
It's fine.
It's a little atrophied as theywrite.
It's age appropriate.
Mm-hmm.
Meaning it's completely capableof function.
So now they went system bysystem or structure by
structure, and then turned to meand said, this is the closest
we've ever come to Alzheimercuring Alzheimer's.
Let's start a.
(18:52):
And I was like, yeah, let's justdo it.
Wow.
You know what?
I didn't even have to thinkabout that.
And then to, you start writingchecks and then No, actually
not.
And so to this point, this iswhy this is kind of a heroic
story, right?
So I wait two years thinkingthat we're gonna get.
A, I don't know anything aboutscience.
I mean, I've had to learn itbackwards, obviously.
No, not a lot now been, I wasgonna say, I know's.
Been it's been a gas son.
(19:12):
Son.
My son has been, that's WestonWeston has been phenomenal in
helping me understand thebaseball bat Kid physiology.
Yes.
Oh his.
He's so smart's ridiculous.
No gloves.
So anyway, that being said, theycome back to us and they said,
we went to the NIH.
This is one of the reasons whythere might be some substance to
(19:34):
what's happening.
I'm not saying they're the badguy by any means, but in our
situation they were.
They said they don't like the,this particular hypothesis, they
like amyloid cascade.
They like that one, so they'renot gonna fund us.
So we went two years and withnothing.
So you can have your dad's brainback, and here's me.
So my middle name is Tenacitytimes 10.
(19:57):
A lot of people know that if youdon't know that, now you do.
Oh no, I hear that AnnaTenacity.
So Anna tenacity times 10.
So it takes me, I get myselfthat pity party.
So I go one day, and then thenext day I just pulled up my
girl pants and I said, you knowwhat?
We're gonna start a foundation.
I don't have the money.
But I'm gonna get that money.
Yep.
So I, that's when I started, Iand I and we, or incorporated in
(20:19):
2022.
It took a bit of time.
It's costly to start that.
And, and then we, we developedthis beautiful contract with the
university, so it's sponsored.
So I'm sponsoring a lab.
That means we're the only funderto.
And, you know, we're reliant ondonations.
Tell us about, so anybody hearsthis podcast if they donate,
help us.
(20:39):
Yeah.
You've got Dr.
Chen, Dr.
Liam Chen.
He's amazing.
This guy has published, I don'tknow, 67 75.
Some, you know, it, it falls offof his, his resume anytime you
wanna look at it.
But he is, Johns Hopkins,Harvard.
He's here at the U.
He's actually involved inParkinson's.
And he just published abreakthrough PLA paper that that
(21:00):
has absolutely pointed tobacteria in our body causing
that disease as well.
You don't know the impact thatjust you message could have on
curing.
Alzheimer's just so Iunderstand.
Yeah.
The belief is, is that 5% of thepeople that have Alzheimer's
have it as a result of oralhealth matters.
(21:23):
Did I understand that right?
Inflammation?
No.
And thanks for thatclarification.
Okay.
So, so, um, we believe, uh,going into this, that all a vast
majority of late onset,'causethere's a dnce.
Yep.
Okay.
Of late onset is going to be,um, at basis microbial.
And the only way that themicrobial challenges can present
(21:45):
is through oral health.
It's gonna come from a vastmajority is gonna come from the
mouth because if you look at theoverlap between gum disease and,
and.
Um, Alzheimer's.
It's really, really high.
In fact, there was ameta-analysis that we did in
advance of this.
Um, uh, or actually we foundthis, it was published on my
birthday, and I love theseserendipitous, serendipitous
(22:06):
types of things, but it was a,a, a 20 year re uh,
retrospective of all researchlooking at periodontal disease,
Alzheimer's disease, and wherethe overlap is.
And then they ran it through AIand it, and by the way, it was.
Beautifully done.
They're all very broad, veryrepresentative studies, so they
aren't, you know, five peopleand they're all white, right?
(22:28):
White.
So this is, so yeah.
The conclusion that has has comefrom this is that oral health.
Is one of the contributingfactors.
Yep.
It could.
So why aren't we talking to thefolks at, Proctor and Gamble,
you know, the people that doCrest and Colgate and Scope and
Listerine and John?
(22:49):
I can answer that.
Okay.
Caught in between because we'retalking science still.
We are not talking medicine.
It hasn't been proven and it, bythe way, but it, this is gonna
re-engineer a lot of things,but, so it hasn't been proven.
It sounds like that's what mylab's doing or the lab that I
fund.
Oh, by the way, it's called theAlzheimer's Legacy Lab.
I got to name it.
Okay.
And I named it after my dadbeing a legacy.
(23:11):
But I also wanna point, this issuper cool.
Like this is a fun cliff Clavenmoment.
So, um, what we have here is theguy that, that came up with
Alzheimer's, Eloise, Alzheimer.
Mm-hmm.
He had a contemporary, his namewas.
Oscar Fisher.
Mm-hmm.
They were both looking at thesesenile, diseased brains.
This is like in the early 19hundreds, AB a hundred years
(23:33):
ago.
Okay.
And Alzheimer's.
I knew that.
I know he did.
Thank you.
Because he's been reading.
Because I've been reading.
Reading absolutely.
Just started.
This is interesting.
So it, this is really greatbecause Alzheimer's gets, he
says it's the protein.
So now we have this calledAlzheimer's, and we're looking
at it being mostly, most likelyprotein.
Fisher says, wait a minute.
Look at all that oral bacteriain every one of these brains.
(23:56):
That doesn't exact, thatdoesn't, that's not supposed to
be there.
That's where it started.
But wait, there's more.
Yeah.
I One of the reasons that backin the early 19 hundreds, it was
hard for them To really studyAlzheimer's is because life
expectancy in these people Yep.
Was so much shorter that theywere dying of other natural
(24:19):
causes before their brain wouldeven have an opportunity to, get
the bacteria as serious.
How frustrating.
Oh my God.
I mean, but I just, I just findit just incredibly fascinating
and I do think, you know, whenyou're raising money Yeah.
One of the objectives is todramatize the need.
And I would think that, youknow, if I am a guy who's
(24:41):
working in a dental office, Iwould have articles.
You know this Dr.
Chen's articles about theinfluence that oral health can
have on, your brain's health,right?
Yes.
Keeping it healthy.
And that's, that's gonna come.
So what I think is so excitingabout what we're doing is, and
we've privatized.
(25:01):
Research funding at a time.
This is all the groundwork waslaid prior to the NIH pause.
So the, the real exciting thingI think from a feeling of, of,
of meaningfulness is we wereable to keep that moving forward
with no pause.
And as a result, we're actuallymoving into animal model three
(25:22):
years ahead of time.
So that is going to mean whatwe're doing.
Is, is going to yield theresult.
It unquestionably, it's gonnarevolutionize our understanding
of neurodegeneration with whatwe're doing.
Um, unquestionably, uh, it'shappening here in Minnesota,
which is really, reallyexciting.
Very cool.
Yeah.
(25:42):
And um, now as we're already inthere, we're kind of like the
first guy in, now we're startingto see more traction and more
labs.
We'll be starting and, andworking on it.
We've got a proprietary.
Um, phase pro protocol on this,so I can't talk about that, but
it's very well thought out thisis fascinating.
(26:03):
This is, I don't know how any ofthis works, um, it's super
interesting, Steve, real quickbefore you get into that, you
know when you go to the dentistand they take that little, that
little sharp thing and they go2, 2, 3, 2.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Two, four.
They count all, or you hearthose, the high numbers and it's
like, okay, yeah, that's aproblem.
You wanna have all low numbers.
(26:23):
Mm-hmm.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
And, um, I'm gonna start payingcloser attention to that.
'cause they're Yeah.
Checking out gum health, right?
They're actually, yeah, they'reactually telling you something
without telling you somethingcalled.
That would be a periodontist.
Periodontist.
So I think the periodontistshould be on board.
Absolutely.
You were, you were good to pointthat out.
We're gonna make some change.
Yeah.
I mean they're on my, myscientific committee, but as far
(26:43):
as being on my, you need to beon your giving you money
committee.
Yeah.
Right.
Well, that, that's where myquestion lies.
What is it?
Obviously you're onto somethinggreat here.
Mm-hmm.
What does it take in this worldwhere you have medical, dental.
And, uh, what was that?
Science Scientist science, allthose things in our minds, John
and I, like, we think that's,that's all one bucket.
(27:05):
It's not what you're saying.
What is it gonna take?
Is it gonna take more labs thatare doing similar work to you to
kind of create this culmination,like smart people?
That can see what your dad's puttogether.
Have to start seeing that.
Right?
Like what does it take, what doyou take to get that flag going?
Is it you?
You've started?
Yeah.
How does the KindnessChronicles?
(27:26):
I think that'll really put it onhead.
I think it's gonna blow apart.
Yeah.
It's gonna tell to send us out.
You're on top of something soexciting.
Yeah.
Um, and that your dad has kindof discovered Yeah.
What more Does it take more,more labs?
You know what, I, I have an, I,I actually have an idea.
Um, yeah, we forgot you werethere.
Go ahead, Jeff.
It's okay.
We need a, we need a, we need aMinnesota version of Aaron
(27:49):
Brach, and I think we just foundHerbert.
Yeah.
Oh God.
Aaron Brockovich.
Oh, that was a compliment, Anna.
Yeah.
I love it.
Alzheimer's, Anna, for sure.
Yeah.
Alzheimer's, Anna.
Well, and and I'm gonna go onrecord as to say, I think that,
you know, legitimately.
Gum disease could be your secondhighest risk factor for
Alzheimer's.
(28:09):
And, and that is a debatable,but we're gonna see everything
else that's in there.
Diabetics, that's a high risk.
Mm-hmm.
Any of the autoimmune,autoimmune diseases, women,
that's a, that's actually gen.
You know, being geneticallyfemale is a high risk factor.
But if you look at all thoserisk factors, they all share in
common periodontal disease or apropensity toward.
(28:32):
Having periodontal disease.
So if you really wanna switchthe numbers around, I think
number one is age.
This is an age related disease,and number two is periodontal
disease.
And if that didn't, was it, ifthat wasn't a mic drop, I think
that's a mic drop.
Yeah.
It's a wake up call That is avery wake up call.
Uhhuh and I, so the lessons thatwe've learned here, yeah.
So many.
This is the kindness chronicles.
(28:53):
Yeah.
You know, be kind to your, toyour choppers, you know, make
sure that you're keeping your,teeth in decent shape.
Yeah.
Um.
But yeah, start reading.
Exercising, we can go all kindsof places.
I quit eating so much ice cream.
Oh no.
That's a totally differentproblem.
Yeah.
Um, but hey Jeff, this, the factthat you went about 28 minutes
without saying anything isreally quite remarkable.
(29:15):
For starters, I want to, uh,acknowledge that I am certain
that you did all kinds ofresearch on this.
Uh, do you have any otherquestions?
We had the mic drop, but westill have, you know, a couple
minutes here.
You know, in the spirit of justkind of, this is a pretty heady,
uh, scientific conversation, soI'd like try to bring some pop
(29:35):
references.
Absolutely.
My.
Was my lifelong hygienist.
So I'm very familiar with it.
And I dunno if anybody remembersthe brush, brush, brush song in
Greece.
Oh yeah.
But he used to sing that to aslittle kids.
So I think we could maybe bringthat back in the spirit of,
(29:56):
would you like to sing some ofit for us?
No, I don't.
Let's not do that.
I'll not, it's from the fifties.
No.
If I were, if I were live in thestudio, maybe, but no.
Hey, real quick while we haveyou, you were at a function
today, honoring your brother,Chris.
Chris Hoffman.
Yep.
It was a social hour.
Athill Brewing Company.
I'm actually sitting in theparking lot right now in Ed.
(30:19):
Doesn't Edina always get the Oh,for you?
Actually, when Anna said that,uh, that Dr.
Chen went to Johns Hopkins andHarvard.
Harvard, yeah.
In my mind it went, oh, youmissed the chance.
Oh, good for you.
Yeah.
We like to make fun of the bluebloods.
Okay.
Tying it in with just the legacylab, which I love that story and
(30:39):
was great to be reading here andlearning about your dad and, um,
legacies in general.
But yeah, my brother Chrispassed away 10 years ago this,
uh, this past May.
And his employer Triple Tree puta nice little gathering together
and so I went down with, uh, myniece, Chris' daughter.
It was really fun to sharestories.
So maybe we'll talk about thaton a future episode.
(31:01):
Yeah.
Very nice.
So it's been pretty cool.
Very nice.
Very cool.
Anna, you've given us a lot tothink about.
Again, the name of your websiteis Thank you, curing alzheimer's
disease.com.
Dot com because that's ourintention.
Yep.
We're in it to win it.
Yeah.
And um, CAD, CAD Foundation.
CAD Foundation.
Mm-hmm.
Um, the fact that you'resupporting this lab is just, uh,
(31:25):
remarkable.
You seem to have the entirefamily involved in the process
to honor your father.
Dr.
Crandall had the, uh, for thoseof you that are in the white
Bear Lake area, he had thedental office that's just off
of, was it Stewart?
Yeah.
N 96.
So yeah, so right off of 96 and61.
That's kinda what I'd say.
It's, it looks like it'srecently renovated.
Dr.
(31:45):
Andrew Lund is knocking it down.
It's beautiful.
It, it's, it's lovely.
Do you have something?
So, okay, so.
I, I'll just, I can add too, youknow, as a dad of two daughters,
uh, who are trying to get theirin the world pretty
inspirational too, how, uh, adad inspired her daughter
continue on his legacy.
(32:06):
Pretty cool story and, um, verymuch appreciated and looking
forward to learning more aboutthis.
Anna, thank you for coming downhere, but I wanna ask you.
Right now what is, what's,what's in the pipeline?
What's the future?
What tomorrow?
Do you go to the You go to thelab.
Oh, you're so sweet.
I wanna know where you're goingright now.
He really is.
Yeah.
No, actually that's reallyexciting.
(32:26):
'cause I'm getting on a planetomorrow, as a matter of fact.
Yep.
I fly up to Toronto.
Ooh.
So I was just Toronto asked.
Right.
This is such a compliment.
The Alzheimer's AssociationInternational Conference asked
me to come up and speak.
There'll be 10,000.
Researchers at that conventionand I'm going up and I'm gonna
be putting it out there.
And you do, you speak a lot.
(32:47):
Have you done a lot of speakingstuff?
No.
You're very good at present.
No presenting here actually.
Thank you.
Nope, but I, I'm, this is myzone.
This, this is the guy to helpyou a little bit too.
Oh yeah.
Some obvious, obvious tips.
John, what could you tell her asa, as, just as a presenter going
in cold, bring a 10,000 people.
That's one.
Bring a towel if you start tosweat profusely.
'cause that's always my numberone thing.
I have a perspiration situation.
(33:09):
no, you're Anna, tenacity times10.
I don't think that you're gonnahave any problem.
Uh, yeah, you're gonna kill it.
I just wonder after you get donespeaking, if the local Walgreens
and CVSs up in Toronto are gonnabe, all of their dental floss
will be, uh, you know, I'mserious.
Like, I can't, can't wait to goupstairs and start working on my
(33:32):
gums.
I, I mean, so what is your goal?
You're there to inspire doctorsand, well, actually, scientists.
Scientists, yeah.
So, so.
Okay.
True.
You know, true transparency.
They want to know my secretsauce in funding labs.
Okay.
Because that makes sense.
These labs are having issueswith funding now.
(33:52):
Oh yeah.
So I'm crossing those barriers.
They're picking my, they'repicking my brain, and I'll be
challenged to see where you'regetting your money from.
How are you doing it?
What do you recommends?
Very practical advice.
And, and so that, and I'm, I'mco presenting with a pretty big
deal over in another.
University in Oregon.
But anyway, super.
It's not just me, but yeah, it'sexciting.
And then that's a, that's thecon, that's the conference to be
(34:15):
at everything.
Cutting edge.
A lot of times they take yourphone, uh, wow.
Stuff hasn't even beenpublished.
Oh, wow.
Wow.
So to be up there and have thatopportunity is gonna be
fantastic.
All right.
So we, we need to be the oneswho hear from you after, or, you
know, like, let's stay updatedbecause.
The exciting stuff.
Let's ride this train, man.
(34:35):
She's been to do some coolstuff.
Yeah.
We have to be a part of tellingpeople about where this, uh,
progress is going so we can be,you know, ahead of it.
The idea of taking my phone awaythough, it makes me very
uncomfortable.
Have you ever gone like 15minutes without your phone?
It's liberating.
Is it?
Yes.
I couldn't find my phone thismorning.
(34:57):
Do you know where it is?
It's liberating.
You, you know it's safe.
Then it's like, ah, I don't,I'm, I'm untethered kind.
Well, I was, I was afraid.
So here, I'm gonna just open avein as a hypochondriac.
Mm-hmm.
The idea of driving to workwithout my phone with me.
What would happen if I've turnedaround?
Yeah, I know it's weird.
Terrible, right?
(35:17):
What would happen?
Terrible if something happenedand I needed my phone.
You know, pretend like it's1980, you'd be lost
navigationally and mentally.
Oh God.
Because you couldn't listen.
You couldn't listen to theKindness Chronicles.
True.
And you couldn't follow GoogleMap.
That's true.
There's nothing I love more thanlistening to our podcast all day
long anyway.
(35:39):
Well, thank you Anna for coming.
Uh yes, thank you.
It's very exciting to have mecoming in studio.
Jeff, thanks again for, uh, forall that you do and we'll, uh,
we'll see you next week ofcourse.
And Steve, as always, great tosee Johnny clueless himself.
Yeah, you too.
Something like that.
Good luck.
Thanks for coming down here,Anna.
Good luck.
Good luck.
You'll knock him that and, uh,or break a leg, whatever the
(36:01):
saying is, try and see if youcan find Aaron Brockovich on the
plane.
Maybe that'll inspire you.
And on that note, off we go.
Oh, good for you.
(36:23):
Is this a long story?
Welcome to the KindnessChronicles, where we hope to
inject the world with a dose ofthe Minnesota kindness that it
desperately needs.
We've got Steve Brown in thestudio.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Hey, and then we've got JeffHoffman is, on the road on
assignment.
(00:37):
Are you there Jeff?
Hi Jeff.
I'm, how are you?
We have a special guest inStudio Anna.
She Lander, and we're gonna getto her in just a moment.
KG is at the, uh, the track,the, this is a bad night for kg,
but it's been chaos for me, so.
This is what you're getting.
You got the three of us, andthen Dempsey's down in, Texas.
He's in Texas.
(00:58):
He's, uh, he's on a, onassignment in Texas.
He is the, the, everybody's onassignment.
I would just like to start with,we lost a legend of music this
past, Couple of days.
he left some lovely gifts forthe community that I just wanted
to talk about.
Uh, Ozzy Osborne died.
Yeah.
Now Ozzy was an interestingcharacter.
He's definitely a, a character.
What do you think would hap, hefalls in that, what do you think
(01:19):
happened when he showed up atthe pearly gates?
Do you think He said, you know,God, all that devil stuff.
I was kidding.
I was just kidding about that.
He loved that moniker, thePrince of Darkness, that he was
just silly.
He's being, he's a, he's a sillyguy.
Did you happen to see thetribute concert that Tom Morello
organized?
I only saw some of it.
I saw it.
(01:39):
It was kind of sad.
And it was only like two weeksago.
Yeah.
July 5th or something.
And at the very end, uh, Ozzyappears out of the, uh, yes.
The stage in a chair in a black,it's more of a throne.
Yeah.
In this black throne.
Throne.
Yeah.
And, uh, you know, sings acouple of his, uh, his greatest
hits, he.
His second to last song was,mama I'm Coming Home.
(02:01):
Yeah.
Which was pretty interesting.
And then he did, uh.
Did a couple of Black Sabbathsongs with, uh, with the whole
original lineup from BlackSabbath.
Think how many hits and how muchtime he spent on the radio.
How many, how many times we'veheard Ozzy songs.
Black between Black Sabbath and,oh God, seventies, all the way
through.
He's, and I mean, for being sucha crazy character and so many
problems he's endured for a longtime.
(02:22):
But, and then he became reallyfamous when he had that, uh, the
show, the show with his family,what was it called?
Uh, Oz Osborn.
Os it was from oh two to oh fiveand uh, he had a very loving
family.
And that's where I started tokind of realize, this guy's
actually pretty cool.
You know, I was a Catholicschool kid, so Oh yeah.
When I saw, like, he was scarystuff that the Diary of a
(02:46):
madman, I mean, that stufffreaked me out when I was in, in
high school or uh, junior high.
I realized, oh, it was allmarketing.
It was an all an act because heloved his family.
Yeah.
He was a, a, a very smartbusiness person.
this tribute concert that wasdone, apparently it made like
$180 million.
Is that possible?
Well, it was a charity eventtoo.
(03:06):
No one, no one accepted anymoney for, for performing.
I know that.
It's just unbelievable.
Yeah.
So all the money apparently wasbeing donated to a, a variety of
different charities.
Ozzy had Parkinson's Disease.
Which is a brain disorder.
But what a, a, a neat guy.
Speaking of brain disorders,we're gonna pivot right away
Wow.
To our, uh, to our guests.
See how I did that?
Yeah.
Um, we have with us.
(03:27):
That was impressive.
Uh, a a a friend of mine from,uh, long ago, many years ago,
uh, her son Weston, and my sonJack, played football and
baseball together.
And Weston, uh, very, verybright young man.
Uh, I just a couple quick Westonstories.
Weston was.
I would say Weston is a guy thatkind of marches to the beat of
his own drum.
(03:47):
Okay.
He, he was this, he was like thebiggest, strongest guy, freshman
year in high school, and hedecided I don't want to be the
biggest guy in high school.
And how much weight did Westonlose?
I mean.
You gotta give me close to themic.
Yeah.
Okay.
Sorry.
This is my first shot at this.
Yeah, that's fine.
This is big fun.
Okay.
Um, actually we never weighedhim once.
(04:09):
Yeah.
He just got completely cut.
He went real and he went frombeing the starting left tackle
to a, a guy that played with therest of the regular sized human
beings, but he also was abaseball player and everybody
else used a, uh, an aluminumbat.
And wore gloves.
Weston was from the 1910s and heused a wood bat and no gloves.
(04:33):
Weston was an interesting cat,but a very good dude.
Wow.
Very interest.
Great guy.
Interesting.
And when you listen to hismother, you'll understand where
some of that, uh, attitude, soto speak comes from.
But Anna Sealander is theexecutive director of an
organization that is trying totake on, Alzheimer's disease and
(04:53):
you know, I mentioned Ozzy withhis, uh, his brain disorder.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, Anna has a very interestingstory.
For starters, why don't you tellus a little bit about.
where the motivation for this,foundation that you created came
from?
Sure.
Wait, Anna?
Yes.
Welcome to the KindnessChronicle.
Oh, sorry about that.
He welcome down to, we have herhere in studio too, which is
fantastic.
So it's good to, good to haveyou down here.
(05:13):
It's a pretty nice spot.
Oh, it's so, it's, yeah, right.
I'm impressed.
Surrounded by Legos.
Yeah.
And t-shirts, it's real.
It's got a mood.
Yes.
We, it's got a mood.
Mm-hmm.
Alright, so, and thank you Johnfor bringing me on, Steve.
Yeah.
Appreciate it.
Yeah.
Um, so first of all, we'recalled the curing Alzheimer's
Disease Foundation.
And, um, that is an interestingstory in that it wasn't our
(05:38):
initial plan.
I'm, I'm a marketer.
I'm a journalist.
Um, my dad was a dentist.
Uh, I helped him build up hispractice, getting it ready to
transition a dentist in WhiteBear Lake right in White Bear
Lake here in Minnesota.
Right.
And, and my dad, um, ended upsuddenly, or not suddenly to
him, but to those of us outsidebecause Alzheimer's is a very
(06:00):
interesting disease.
It slowly happens and in thevery early time, the person that
has it can actually do a lot ofthings to protect against.
Other people understanding thatthat might be the course that
they're on.
So, and my dad with lots ofcognitive reserve, which is a,
is a critical part of, um, oneof the reasons why.
(06:20):
It can take longer to bedetected from an outside source.
Um, people with a lot ofcognitive reserves, such as lots
of education is generally, orreading, and by the way, these
are the things you wanna do.
Yeah.
So everybody start reading moreand get more educ education.
Oh God.
Because that's really importantfor your brain.
But anyway, so my dad wasrecognizing that there was
(06:43):
something going on probablybefore any of us did.
Um, but he had a, a A a C, Acircumstance where he ended up
having, um, uh, a somethingcalled PMR, which is an
autoimmune disease, and thatbrought us over to Mayo.
And during the Mayo Run theysaid, um, you know, there's
something going on with yourcognition too, Dave.
(07:04):
His name is David Crandall.
And so we did a little bit oftesting and they said, yeah, you
could be really early on thatMCI.
This could be Alzheimer's.
Let's watch this.
So anyway, this particulardisease is addressed through
steroid.
So my dad went on steroid andall of the cognition issues went
away.
Hmm.
Now, what we know now isAlzheimer's is a disease of
(07:27):
inflammation.
Back at the time that was.
That was under, um, research andthat hadn't been determined
quite yet.
But here, my dad was having noissues with cognition after he
is taking steroids.
So it goes back to Mayo and theysay you can't possibly have.
Alzheimer's, which was our veryfirst turnaround on a diagnosis
(07:47):
for Alzheimer's.
There were probably 15 beyondthat.
Never once did anybody stay staywith that diagnosis because my
dad kept reversing a symptom.
That symptom being cognitiveissues.
So the neurologist gave him aclear bill of health.
He went away thinking, well,that was, they thought it was
pain.
That's why he was having issueswith cognition.
And when he finally was on thetaper.
(08:09):
He had issues with cognition.
Again, that's when he went outinto the research world and
started asking questions,looking for research papers.
What is there that that wouldsay that cognition could be
steroid responsive?
And that's where he starts tofind all these researchers
around the world.
Who are fascinated with hiscase.
So, go ahead.
Just a quick question.
(08:29):
What era are we talking about?
What, what year is this?
This is 2013 to 2015.
Okay.
Okay.
So this is not that long agoreally.
Okay.
Nope.
And so during that time, um, ofcourse you'd be talking the
medical community I, I put on mywebsite, which is curing
alzheimer's disease.com.
I put together, put together areally, you know, a silly
little, not silly, but justbecause I'm not professional, a
(08:51):
video and it's called.
In between.
So caught in between, and thisreally identifies what happens
to a patient, I think in anysituation.
But ours particularly, thecaught in between is you've got
medical at the base and that'swho's treating you.
And then you have science who'sin a lofty spot, and these two
groups don't talk.
(09:11):
And so as my dad's learningthese in this great information
from scientists.
The researcher or the, themedical doctors are saying it's
not gold standard and therefore,uh, we're not going to pay any
attention to that.
Alright, so going further.
My dad then is thinking, okay,this, there is something
neurologically wrong and I'mseeing this in the dental
office.
(09:31):
That's another great interestingpoint.
Medical and dental still aresuper separate.
The mouth is not connected tothe body.
It doesn't make sense.
But that's how it is right now.
Huh?
So what happens?
What do you mean the mouththat's it is not, it is not
covered by medical insurance.
Oh, I see what you're saying.
Your medical doctor doesn't careabout it.
Perspective.
Yeah.
Interesting.
What?
So, and yet, we know right nowdefinitively a hundred diseases
(09:54):
are caused from.
The pathogens in our mouth.
Wow.
So how is this?
And I think it'll change, butfor right now, this is where
we're at.
Hmm.
So anyway, my dad, as a dentist,as a profession professional
caring for people would see thisall the time.
And that is people that had gumdisease, gum diseases caused by
bacteria.
And so people would have gumdisease, it would go untreated,
(10:17):
either because they weren'tfollowing protocol or because it
was not managed well enough.
And then they eventually woulddevelop dementia.
And so if you talk to ahygienist, I invite anybody
listening on this podcast, nexttime you go to the dentist, ask
your hygienist, do you see acorrelation between oral gum
disease?
And dementia.
(10:38):
And they'll say, yes, we've beenseeing it a long time.
But again, this information justpay, it stays put super siloed.
So, so far I've learned twothings.
Mm-hmm.
I need to start reading more.
Yes.
Um, and I better start flossingevery single day, every day,
every day.
Every day.
Every single day.
Um, one other question iswatching YouTube videos qualify
as cognitive?
(10:59):
Uh, yes.
Absolutely.
You're doing all kinds ofthings, especially if they're
subtitled, cogniti, serve.
Yes, I think I have cognitivereverse.
Re Yeah.
Okay.
Well we can just switching acouple of things, figure that
out.
I hate to, to make light ofthis.
Oh, no, no.
It's, but it is very fascinatingto me.
It's especially fascinating.
Um, a while back, MinnesotaMasonic Charities had made a big
(11:20):
gift to the University ofMinnesota to create what's
called the Masonic Institute forthe Biology of Aging and
Metabolism.
And something got posted onLinkedIn and I made a comment.
And Weston Slander said, oh, Dr.
Laura's terrific.
You'll love working with her.
And I'm like, how does Westonslander that little punk that
went to high school with my son,know who Dr.
(11:42):
Laura is and well enough to saywhat a great, you know how great
she is.
Turns out he was a, he worked inher lab.
Yeah.
He worked in in her lab.
Yeah.
And, uh, so all of thesesealander, like everything is,
is, is drawing you toward.
The University of Minnesota.
Oh, absolutely.
Question.
Tell us about the lab, because Ithink what's unique about, yeah,
(12:04):
yeah.
So I was, okay, so you're right.
Thank you for scooting me along.
I'm gonna get better at this atsome point, but you, yes.
Hopefully you won't hear me.
Hit a button that says, is thisa long No, that's great story.
You gave us the basis your dad'sfinding and your dad's.
Issue.
So that's, we needed that job.
Absolutely.
Well, and you're not complainingabout it.
Oh my God.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay guys, so we'll go on.
So anyway, here's what happens.
(12:26):
Like, let's jump forward.
My dad is eventuallyexperimenting on himself.
He's using, um, protocols fromthe scientists that are around
the world who are eagerlywatching.
They only work on animal model.
They don't have a human example.
And yet my dad is actuallywalking them through.
Uh, a hypothesis.
And that hypothesis is theinfectious microbial hypothesis.
(12:49):
Something from my mouth isbroken through my blood brain
barrier, and what are we gonnado about it?
So they've given him protocols,he's taken those to d, different
doctors fired a couple who saidno, signed everything away, and
said, there's no, I'm literallydoing this with my full faculty,
because at this point, he stilldoes not have Alzheimer's, and
he is in control of hisfaculties, but it is a
(13:10):
progressive disease.
So with that being said.
We are taking both steroid.
We.
He and I, I mean, I'm, I'm likehis, his, uh, you know, ace in
the hall.
I'm right there with him.
Yeah.
Anyway, and so he's takingsteroid and then eventually we
add antibiotic onto on top ofit.
So this nice little cocktail isgreat, except for we don't know
(13:32):
how to feed the brain any kindof medication without running
into issues like, um, uh, resresistance.
We don't know how long how togive it.
We're actually, at this point,he's just taking it orally.
You can't give high levels ofanything orally.
Mm-hmm.
And so as a result, my dad doesdie.
And that is he dies ofsomething.
We actually are, the autopsysays of DI dementia of unknown
(13:54):
origin.
Remember 17 different doctorssaid you cannot have
Alzheimer's.
'cause nobody has ever reversedthe symptoms.
And when I speak about that,this is what's so amazing.
My dad would go from.
In a wheelchair, literallyunable to move his legs because
his parietal lobe is notcatching the right registering.
Yep.
(14:15):
Yep.
And within, uh, a change ofregimen.
He's up walking no cane, and hewould be able to go from
recognizing names, first names,last names to being almost moot,
sometimes not being able to eat.
And then being able to, tocompletely do his daily, daily,
you know, DOLs, whatever they'recalled, um, tasks of daily
(14:38):
living.
And, and it was all because ofthese medications and it was
clinically supported.
We have the records.
That show that, show this.
Okay.
So, so who's prescribing thesemedications to him?
If he's good?
Yeah.
Yeah, doctors, medical doctors.
So he would get MDs that would,that would buy in and, and,
okay.
And they would have to besomebody who's seen this before.
(14:58):
So urology sees this all thetime.
Oh yeah.
So they see these patients comein with a UTI, you know, you get
one and they go nuts as a kid.
Yeah.
But if you get one as a kid, ithurts.
But now our blood braininbarrier as we age, is actually
loosening bigger and biggerthings can get through, such as
virus.
I believe a lot of that, that,uh, brain fog that people have
from COVID is probably, um,going along this line, uh, and
(15:22):
bacteria and fungus.
So now we have a UTI and anelderly person and they go
batshit crazy, just like yousaid.
You talk about the challenges ofhomelessness.
People that are unhoused orhomeless or whatever we're
calling it these days, there,there appears to be a lot of
mental illness among thosepeople, and it makes you wonder,
is it because they're just nottaking care of their mouths?
(15:44):
I've been reading a whole bunchsince we had breakfast, the, uh,
on Monday.
Good, good.
I find it completelyfascinating.
Um, there's a lot there, there,there's a lot, real lot there.
A lot and, and mm-hmm.
It, it has become kind of amainstream.
Like there's a lot of people nowthat are looking at this, but
you have, you fund a laugh, solet's go there.
So this is what's so cool.
So my daddy dies.
(16:05):
What year did you done?
I said that twice.
2019 at the end of the year.
Just before COVID.
Thank goodness.
Because this would've beenreally, yeah, maybe not the same
outcome.
He orders his own autopsy.
Unprecedented.
Wow.
And so, yeah.
Right.
Wow.
And so we go in and, and we'vegot the university they're ready
to, to, to tell us what's goingon.
So the first thing they tell usis, what I see is bad news.
Now, first, just let's stepback.
(16:26):
You talk about this as theKindness Chronicles.
My dad, kindest guy in theworld.
Mm-hmm.
And what he was hoping, becausewe didn't have Alzheimer's,
that's so that we were told hewas gonna help 5% of the people
that were also misdiagnosed.
This was gonna be called theCrandall Disease.
And he was going to start afoundation and, and, and funnel
money that we would get some waymaybe from the sale of the
(16:49):
dental office.
Mm-hmm.
And we would, we would fund alab and they would come to this
conclusion and carve it out.
Of the Alzheimer's bucket and,and it would be solvable, and he
was really convinced of that.
So when I go in and theuniversity pathology team sits
me down and says, your dad hadthe worst Alzheimer's we've
ever.
Ever seen really, like peopledie long before this.
(17:10):
Hmm.
So there's so much.
So Alzheimer's is diagnosed bypathology, meaning the protein
deposition that's on in thebrain and in my dad's brain, in
his case, it was everywhere inhis brain.
There was not a place, they wasnot protein.
Now, the theory right now that'sbeing funded most generally is
that this protein kills neurons.
(17:31):
But I can tell you mostrecently, research is now coming
to find.
It does not, you can actuallyput those protein, uh, the put
protein like amyloid beta on topof a neuron and nothing happens.
You know what kills the neuroninflammation?
Hmm.
So now we have this bad news.
(17:51):
I'm thinking, I'm thinking it'sgood that dad's dead because he
would be really di disappointed.
And then they said, wait aminute, it's not that bad
because we're gonna go structureby structure.
Let's look at his brain.
So we're looking at likedeposition of protein, but let's
look at see, should his, hisbrain should be completely
devastated.
(18:11):
It should be dead by this point.
Necrotic, like the cauliflowerhead that you would see.
Mm-hmm.
But it's not, it's actuallyvibrant.
So they're going into thestructures like, let's talk the
hippocampus.
That should be a completelygone, that's where your memories
are started and that's wherethat short term memory right
there consolidates and goeselsewhere in your brain.
(18:32):
It's fine.
It's a little atrophied as theywrite.
It's age appropriate.
Mm-hmm.
Meaning it's completely capableof function.
So now they went system bysystem or structure by
structure, and then turned to meand said, this is the closest
we've ever come to Alzheimercuring Alzheimer's.
Let's start a.
(18:52):
And I was like, yeah, let's justdo it.
Wow.
You know what?
I didn't even have to thinkabout that.
And then to, you start writingchecks and then No, actually
not.
And so to this point, this iswhy this is kind of a heroic
story, right?
So I wait two years thinkingthat we're gonna get.
A, I don't know anything aboutscience.
I mean, I've had to learn itbackwards, obviously.
No, not a lot now been, I wasgonna say, I know's.
Been it's been a gas son.
(19:12):
Son.
My son has been, that's WestonWeston has been phenomenal in
helping me understand thebaseball bat Kid physiology.
Yes.
Oh his.
He's so smart's ridiculous.
No gloves.
So anyway, that being said, theycome back to us and they said,
we went to the NIH.
This is one of the reasons whythere might be some substance to
(19:34):
what's happening.
I'm not saying they're the badguy by any means, but in our
situation they were.
They said they don't like the,this particular hypothesis, they
like amyloid cascade.
They like that one, so they'renot gonna fund us.
So we went two years and withnothing.
So you can have your dad's brainback, and here's me.
So my middle name is Tenacitytimes 10.
(19:57):
A lot of people know that if youdon't know that, now you do.
Oh no, I hear that AnnaTenacity.
So Anna tenacity times 10.
So it takes me, I get myselfthat pity party.
So I go one day, and then thenext day I just pulled up my
girl pants and I said, you knowwhat?
We're gonna start a foundation.
I don't have the money.
But I'm gonna get that money.
Yep.
So I, that's when I started, Iand I and we, or incorporated in
(20:19):
2022.
It took a bit of time.
It's costly to start that.
And, and then we, we developedthis beautiful contract with the
university, so it's sponsored.
So I'm sponsoring a lab.
That means we're the only funderto.
And, you know, we're reliant ondonations.
Tell us about, so anybody hearsthis podcast if they donate,
help us.
(20:39):
Yeah.
You've got Dr.
Chen, Dr.
Liam Chen.
He's amazing.
This guy has published, I don'tknow, 67 75.
Some, you know, it, it falls offof his, his resume anytime you
wanna look at it.
But he is, Johns Hopkins,Harvard.
He's here at the U.
He's actually involved inParkinson's.
And he just published abreakthrough PLA paper that that
(21:00):
has absolutely pointed tobacteria in our body causing
that disease as well.
You don't know the impact thatjust you message could have on
curing.
Alzheimer's just so Iunderstand.
Yeah.
The belief is, is that 5% of thepeople that have Alzheimer's
have it as a result of oralhealth matters.
(21:23):
Did I understand that right?
Inflammation?
No.
And thanks for thatclarification.
Okay.
So, so, um, we believe, uh,going into this, that all a vast
majority of late onset,'causethere's a dnce.
Yep.
Okay.
Of late onset is going to be,um, at basis microbial.
And the only way that themicrobial challenges can present
(21:45):
is through oral health.
It's gonna come from a vastmajority is gonna come from the
mouth because if you look at theoverlap between gum disease and,
and.
Um, Alzheimer's.
It's really, really high.
In fact, there was ameta-analysis that we did in
advance of this.
Um, uh, or actually we foundthis, it was published on my
birthday, and I love theseserendipitous, serendipitous
(22:06):
types of things, but it was a,a, a 20 year re uh,
retrospective of all researchlooking at periodontal disease,
Alzheimer's disease, and wherethe overlap is.
And then they ran it through AIand it, and by the way, it was.
Beautifully done.
They're all very broad, veryrepresentative studies, so they
aren't, you know, five peopleand they're all white, right?
(22:28):
White.
So this is, so yeah.
The conclusion that has has comefrom this is that oral health.
Is one of the contributingfactors.
Yep.
It could.
So why aren't we talking to thefolks at, Proctor and Gamble,
you know, the people that doCrest and Colgate and Scope and
Listerine and John?
(22:49):
I can answer that.
Okay.
Caught in between because we'retalking science still.
We are not talking medicine.
It hasn't been proven and it, bythe way, but it, this is gonna
re-engineer a lot of things,but, so it hasn't been proven.
It sounds like that's what mylab's doing or the lab that I
fund.
Oh, by the way, it's called theAlzheimer's Legacy Lab.
I got to name it.
Okay.
And I named it after my dadbeing a legacy.
(23:11):
But I also wanna point, this issuper cool.
Like this is a fun cliff Clavenmoment.
So, um, what we have here is theguy that, that came up with
Alzheimer's, Eloise, Alzheimer.
Mm-hmm.
He had a contemporary, his namewas.
Oscar Fisher.
Mm-hmm.
They were both looking at thesesenile, diseased brains.
This is like in the early 19hundreds, AB a hundred years
(23:33):
ago.
Okay.
And Alzheimer's.
I knew that.
I know he did.
Thank you.
Because he's been reading.
Because I've been reading.
Reading absolutely.
Just started.
This is interesting.
So it, this is really greatbecause Alzheimer's gets, he
says it's the protein.
So now we have this calledAlzheimer's, and we're looking
at it being mostly, most likelyprotein.
Fisher says, wait a minute.
Look at all that oral bacteriain every one of these brains.
(23:56):
That doesn't exact, thatdoesn't, that's not supposed to
be there.
That's where it started.
But wait, there's more.
Yeah.
I One of the reasons that backin the early 19 hundreds, it was
hard for them To really studyAlzheimer's is because life
expectancy in these people Yep.
Was so much shorter that theywere dying of other natural
(24:19):
causes before their brain wouldeven have an opportunity to, get
the bacteria as serious.
How frustrating.
Oh my God.
I mean, but I just, I just findit just incredibly fascinating
and I do think, you know, whenyou're raising money Yeah.
One of the objectives is todramatize the need.
And I would think that, youknow, if I am a guy who's
(24:41):
working in a dental office, Iwould have articles.
You know this Dr.
Chen's articles about theinfluence that oral health can
have on, your brain's health,right?
Yes.
Keeping it healthy.
And that's, that's gonna come.
So what I think is so excitingabout what we're doing is, and
we've privatized.
(25:01):
Research funding at a time.
This is all the groundwork waslaid prior to the NIH pause.
So the, the real exciting thingI think from a feeling of, of,
of meaningfulness is we wereable to keep that moving forward
with no pause.
And as a result, we're actuallymoving into animal model three
(25:22):
years ahead of time.
So that is going to mean whatwe're doing.
Is, is going to yield theresult.
It unquestionably, it's gonnarevolutionize our understanding
of neurodegeneration with whatwe're doing.
Um, unquestionably, uh, it'shappening here in Minnesota,
which is really, reallyexciting.
Very cool.
Yeah.
(25:42):
And um, now as we're already inthere, we're kind of like the
first guy in, now we're startingto see more traction and more
labs.
We'll be starting and, andworking on it.
We've got a proprietary.
Um, phase pro protocol on this,so I can't talk about that, but
it's very well thought out thisis fascinating.
(26:03):
This is, I don't know how any ofthis works, um, it's super
interesting, Steve, real quickbefore you get into that, you
know when you go to the dentistand they take that little, that
little sharp thing and they go2, 2, 3, 2.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Two, four.
They count all, or you hearthose, the high numbers and it's
like, okay, yeah, that's aproblem.
You wanna have all low numbers.
(26:23):
Mm-hmm.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
And, um, I'm gonna start payingcloser attention to that.
'cause they're Yeah.
Checking out gum health, right?
They're actually, yeah, they'reactually telling you something
without telling you somethingcalled.
That would be a periodontist.
Periodontist.
So I think the periodontistshould be on board.
Absolutely.
You were, you were good to pointthat out.
We're gonna make some change.
Yeah.
I mean they're on my, myscientific committee, but as far
(26:43):
as being on my, you need to beon your giving you money
committee.
Yeah.
Right.
Well, that, that's where myquestion lies.
What is it?
Obviously you're onto somethinggreat here.
Mm-hmm.
What does it take in this worldwhere you have medical, dental.
And, uh, what was that?
Science Scientist science, allthose things in our minds, John
and I, like, we think that's,that's all one bucket.
(27:05):
It's not what you're saying.
What is it gonna take?
Is it gonna take more labs thatare doing similar work to you to
kind of create this culmination,like smart people?
That can see what your dad's puttogether.
Have to start seeing that.
Right?
Like what does it take, what doyou take to get that flag going?
Is it you?
You've started?
Yeah.
How does the KindnessChronicles?
(27:26):
I think that'll really put it onhead.
I think it's gonna blow apart.
Yeah.
It's gonna tell to send us out.
You're on top of something soexciting.
Yeah.
Um, and that your dad has kindof discovered Yeah.
What more Does it take more,more labs?
You know what, I, I have an, I,I actually have an idea.
Um, yeah, we forgot you werethere.
Go ahead, Jeff.
It's okay.
We need a, we need a, we need aMinnesota version of Aaron
(27:49):
Brach, and I think we just foundHerbert.
Yeah.
Oh God.
Aaron Brockovich.
Oh, that was a compliment, Anna.
Yeah.
I love it.
Alzheimer's, Anna, for sure.
Yeah.
Alzheimer's, Anna.
Well, and and I'm gonna go onrecord as to say, I think that,
you know, legitimately.
Gum disease could be your secondhighest risk factor for
Alzheimer's.
(28:09):
And, and that is a debatable,but we're gonna see everything
else that's in there.
Diabetics, that's a high risk.
Mm-hmm.
Any of the autoimmune,autoimmune diseases, women,
that's a, that's actually gen.
You know, being geneticallyfemale is a high risk factor.
But if you look at all thoserisk factors, they all share in
common periodontal disease or apropensity toward.
(28:32):
Having periodontal disease.
So if you really wanna switchthe numbers around, I think
number one is age.
This is an age related disease,and number two is periodontal
disease.
And if that didn't, was it, ifthat wasn't a mic drop, I think
that's a mic drop.
Yeah.
It's a wake up call That is avery wake up call.
Uhhuh and I, so the lessons thatwe've learned here, yeah.
So many.
This is the kindness chronicles.
(28:53):
Yeah.
You know, be kind to your, toyour choppers, you know, make
sure that you're keeping your,teeth in decent shape.
Yeah.
Um.
But yeah, start reading.
Exercising, we can go all kindsof places.
I quit eating so much ice cream.
Oh no.
That's a totally differentproblem.
Yeah.
Um, but hey Jeff, this, the factthat you went about 28 minutes
without saying anything isreally quite remarkable.
(29:15):
For starters, I want to, uh,acknowledge that I am certain
that you did all kinds ofresearch on this.
Uh, do you have any otherquestions?
We had the mic drop, but westill have, you know, a couple
minutes here.
You know, in the spirit of justkind of, this is a pretty heady,
uh, scientific conversation, soI'd like try to bring some pop
(29:35):
references.
Absolutely.
My.
Was my lifelong hygienist.
So I'm very familiar with it.
And I dunno if anybody remembersthe brush, brush, brush song in
Greece.
Oh yeah.
But he used to sing that to aslittle kids.
So I think we could maybe bringthat back in the spirit of,
(29:56):
would you like to sing some ofit for us?
No, I don't.
Let's not do that.
I'll not, it's from the fifties.
No.
If I were, if I were live in thestudio, maybe, but no.
Hey, real quick while we haveyou, you were at a function
today, honoring your brother,Chris.
Chris Hoffman.
Yep.
It was a social hour.
Athill Brewing Company.
I'm actually sitting in theparking lot right now in Ed.
(30:19):
Doesn't Edina always get the Oh,for you?
Actually, when Anna said that,uh, that Dr.
Chen went to Johns Hopkins andHarvard.
Harvard, yeah.
In my mind it went, oh, youmissed the chance.
Oh, good for you.
Yeah.
We like to make fun of the bluebloods.
Okay.
Tying it in with just the legacylab, which I love that story and
(30:39):
was great to be reading here andlearning about your dad and, um,
legacies in general.
But yeah, my brother Chrispassed away 10 years ago this,
uh, this past May.
And his employer Triple Tree puta nice little gathering together
and so I went down with, uh, myniece, Chris' daughter.
It was really fun to sharestories.
So maybe we'll talk about thaton a future episode.
(31:01):
Yeah.
Very nice.
So it's been pretty cool.
Very nice.
Very cool.
Anna, you've given us a lot tothink about.
Again, the name of your websiteis Thank you, curing alzheimer's
disease.com.
Dot com because that's ourintention.
Yep.
We're in it to win it.
Yeah.
And um, CAD, CAD Foundation.
CAD Foundation.
Mm-hmm.
Um, the fact that you'resupporting this lab is just, uh,
(31:25):
remarkable.
You seem to have the entirefamily involved in the process
to honor your father.
Dr.
Crandall had the, uh, for thoseof you that are in the white
Bear Lake area, he had thedental office that's just off
of, was it Stewart?
Yeah.
N 96.
So yeah, so right off of 96 and61.
That's kinda what I'd say.
It's, it looks like it'srecently renovated.
Dr.
(31:45):
Andrew Lund is knocking it down.
It's beautiful.
It, it's, it's lovely.
Do you have something?
So, okay, so.
I, I'll just, I can add too, youknow, as a dad of two daughters,
uh, who are trying to get theirin the world pretty
inspirational too, how, uh, adad inspired her daughter
continue on his legacy.
(32:06):
Pretty cool story and, um, verymuch appreciated and looking
forward to learning more aboutthis.
Anna, thank you for coming downhere, but I wanna ask you.
Right now what is, what's,what's in the pipeline?
What's the future?
What tomorrow?
Do you go to the You go to thelab.
Oh, you're so sweet.
I wanna know where you're goingright now.
He really is.
Yeah.
No, actually that's reallyexciting.
(32:26):
'cause I'm getting on a planetomorrow, as a matter of fact.
Yep.
I fly up to Toronto.
Ooh.
So I was just Toronto asked.
Right.
This is such a compliment.
The Alzheimer's AssociationInternational Conference asked
me to come up and speak.
There'll be 10,000.
Researchers at that conventionand I'm going up and I'm gonna
be putting it out there.
And you do, you speak a lot.
(32:47):
Have you done a lot of speakingstuff?
No.
You're very good at present.
No presenting here actually.
Thank you.
Nope, but I, I'm, this is myzone.
This, this is the guy to helpyou a little bit too.
Oh yeah.
Some obvious, obvious tips.
John, what could you tell her asa, as, just as a presenter going
in cold, bring a 10,000 people.
That's one.
Bring a towel if you start tosweat profusely.
'cause that's always my numberone thing.
I have a perspiration situation.
(33:09):
no, you're Anna, tenacity times10.
I don't think that you're gonnahave any problem.
Uh, yeah, you're gonna kill it.
I just wonder after you get donespeaking, if the local Walgreens
and CVSs up in Toronto are gonnabe, all of their dental floss
will be, uh, you know, I'mserious.
Like, I can't, can't wait to goupstairs and start working on my
(33:32):
gums.
I, I mean, so what is your goal?
You're there to inspire doctorsand, well, actually, scientists.
Scientists, yeah.
So, so.
Okay.
True.
You know, true transparency.
They want to know my secretsauce in funding labs.
Okay.
Because that makes sense.
These labs are having issueswith funding now.
(33:52):
Oh yeah.
So I'm crossing those barriers.
They're picking my, they'repicking my brain, and I'll be
challenged to see where you'regetting your money from.
How are you doing it?
What do you recommends?
Very practical advice.
And, and so that, and I'm, I'mco presenting with a pretty big
deal over in another.
University in Oregon.
But anyway, super.
It's not just me, but yeah, it'sexciting.
And then that's a, that's thecon, that's the conference to be
(34:15):
at everything.
Cutting edge.
A lot of times they take yourphone, uh, wow.
Stuff hasn't even beenpublished.
Oh, wow.
Wow.
So to be up there and have thatopportunity is gonna be
fantastic.
All right.
So we, we need to be the oneswho hear from you after, or, you
know, like, let's stay updatedbecause.
The exciting stuff.
Let's ride this train, man.
(34:35):
She's been to do some coolstuff.
Yeah.
We have to be a part of tellingpeople about where this, uh,
progress is going so we can be,you know, ahead of it.
The idea of taking my phone awaythough, it makes me very
uncomfortable.
Have you ever gone like 15minutes without your phone?
It's liberating.
Is it?
Yes.
I couldn't find my phone thismorning.
(34:57):
Do you know where it is?
It's liberating.
You, you know it's safe.
Then it's like, ah, I don't,I'm, I'm untethered kind.
Well, I was, I was afraid.
So here, I'm gonna just open avein as a hypochondriac.
Mm-hmm.
The idea of driving to workwithout my phone with me.
What would happen if I've turnedaround?
Yeah, I know it's weird.
Terrible, right?
(35:17):
What would happen?
Terrible if something happenedand I needed my phone.
You know, pretend like it's1980, you'd be lost
navigationally and mentally.
Oh God.
Because you couldn't listen.
You couldn't listen to theKindness Chronicles.
True.
And you couldn't follow GoogleMap.
That's true.
There's nothing I love more thanlistening to our podcast all day
long anyway.
(35:39):
Well, thank you Anna for coming.
Uh yes, thank you.
It's very exciting to have mecoming in studio.
Jeff, thanks again for, uh, forall that you do and we'll, uh,
we'll see you next week ofcourse.
And Steve, as always, great tosee Johnny clueless himself.
Yeah, you too.
Something like that.
Good luck.
Thanks for coming down here,Anna.
Good luck.
Good luck.
You'll knock him that and, uh,or break a leg, whatever the
(36:01):
saying is, try and see if youcan find Aaron Brockovich on the
plane.
Maybe that'll inspire you.
And on that note, off we go.
Oh, good for you.
(36:23):
Is this a long story?
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.