Dr. Heather Sandison is revolutionizing dementia care through lifestyle medicine, personalized treatment, and immersive healing environments. In this episode, she shares the science behind reversing cognitive decline, explains the core principles of her residential brain health program, and debunks myths about Alzheimer’s. From ketones and sensory stimulation to genetic markers and oxidative stress, Dr. Sandison walks us through the root causes of dementia and what we can actually do about it. Whether you’re concerned about prevention, caregiving, or your own brain health, this conversation is packed with hope and healing.
Key Takeaways:
• Alzheimer’s may be preventable—and even reversible
• Lifestyle factors like diet, sleep, and sensory input matter
• Ketones support brain function and may reduce cognitive decline
• Personalized treatment plans are more effective than one-size-fits-all
• Empowering families is key to successful dementia care
Chapter Timestamps:
• 06:21 – Root causes of Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline
• 12:10 – Ketosis, blood sugar, and oxidative stress
• 19:40 – Marama: the first immersive dementia recovery facility
• 27:15 – Sensory stimulation and the role of family
• 35:00 – Genetic factors and personalized protocols
• 42:05 – What’s next: her book Reversing Alzheimer’s
Resources & Next Steps:
• Learn more: www.drheathersandison.com
• Follow Dr. Sandison on IG: @dr.heathersandison
• Pick up a copy of her book, Reversing Alzheimer’s
To learn more about Heather Sandison and her work, head over to www.drheathersandison.com/
IG @dr.heathersandison
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-lindsey-elmore-show--5952903/support.
Key Takeaways:
• Alzheimer’s may be preventable—and even reversible
• Lifestyle factors like diet, sleep, and sensory input matter
• Ketones support brain function and may reduce cognitive decline
• Personalized treatment plans are more effective than one-size-fits-all
• Empowering families is key to successful dementia care
Chapter Timestamps:
• 06:21 – Root causes of Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline
• 12:10 – Ketosis, blood sugar, and oxidative stress
• 19:40 – Marama: the first immersive dementia recovery facility
• 27:15 – Sensory stimulation and the role of family
• 35:00 – Genetic factors and personalized protocols
• 42:05 – What’s next: her book Reversing Alzheimer’s
Resources & Next Steps:
• Learn more: www.drheathersandison.com
• Follow Dr. Sandison on IG: @dr.heathersandison
• Pick up a copy of her book, Reversing Alzheimer’s
To learn more about Heather Sandison and her work, head over to www.drheathersandison.com/
IG @dr.heathersandison
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-lindsey-elmore-show--5952903/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 2 (00:44):
Welcome everybody to this week's edition of the Lindsay Elmore Show.
I have a bold assertion from my guest today who
claims that Alzheimer's is optional and reversible.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
You heard it here correctly.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
We're going to be talking about the buld old claim
that Alzheimer's is reversible. We're gonna be talking about how
we can fortify our brain health against cognitive decline, How
we can implement lifestyle changes that help to reverse the
effects of Alzheimer's, how we can transform our environment to
support overall cognitive wellness, and talk about how we can
(01:22):
do this with any budget. Because the fact of the
matter is Alzheimer's is not only a disease that affects
the patient. It affects the caregivers as well as the
family and friends around them. My guest's goal is not
simply to prevent or delay progression. It's actually to help
(01:47):
people return to independent living and to improve cognition, to
improve their mental faculties. This is so inspiring to me
because it's so against what medications claim to do, which
(02:07):
is simply to delay the progression of a devastating disease.
There has to be a better way. And if we
truly believe that this is a podcast for people who
believe that they deserve to be healthy, and if I
maintain my stance that I truly believe that nothing is
beyond healing nothing, we have to look at Alzheimer's disease
(02:32):
the same way. How can we create a circumstance, a
set of lifestyle interventions, a set of changes to our
environment that help to improve cognition, even in people with
severe cognitive decline, and even Alzheimer's. My guest today is
(02:55):
doctor Heather Sanderson and her book Reversing Alzheimer will be
published this June by HarperCollins, and I truly hope that
you find this conversation as inspiring and as hopeful as
I did. This is the Lindsay Elmore Show.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Welcome to The Lindsay Elmore Show, a podcast for people
who deserve to be healthy. With honest, open and enlightening
conversations with doctors, thought leaders, creatives and spiritual gurus. You'll
walk away with simple and tangible tips and tricks that
allow you to live your healthiest life so you can
(03:36):
pursue your dreams, overcome obstacles, and leave your mark. Doctor
Heather Sanderson is a distinguished naturopathic doctor and has devoted
her career to providing compassionate care and innovative solution to
those affected by dementia. Renowned for her pioneering work, Doctor
(03:58):
Sanderson has integrated groundbreaking, holistic and multimodal interventions seamlessly, creating clinical, residential, research,
and educational platforms. Her relentless dedication has not only transformed
the lives of patients and caregivers. She has also set
(04:19):
new standards in the field of dementia care. She is
the primary clinical investigator and author of the peer reviewed
article Observed Improvement in Cognition during a Personalized lifestyle intervention
in People with Cognitive Decline, which was published in the
Journal of Alzheimer's Disease in August of twenty twenty three.
(04:43):
She is the founder of Sulsare Health Clinic and Marama,
the first residential care facility for the elderly of its
entire kind. At Sulseare, doctor Sanderson and her team of
doctors and health coaches focused primarily on supporting patients looking
to optimize cognitive function, prevent mental decline, and reverse dementia
(05:09):
by addressing the root causes of the imbalances in the
brain and body. At Mirama, doctor Sanderson has created an
immersive residential experience in the lifestyle proven to best support
brain health, including personalized treatment plans, sensory stimulation, engaging activities,
(05:33):
and intensive cognitive therapies.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
She also hosts the.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Annual Reversing Alzheimer's Summit, and her new book, Reversing Alzheimer's
will be published by HarperCollins in June of twenty twenty
four to help scale her impact and her work at
the goal of making dementia rare and optional. Excited to
(06:01):
shatter common misconceptions about Alzheimer's and share what she has
learned about keeping your brain sharp at any age. Doctor
Heather Sanderson, Welcome to the Lindsay Elmore Show.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I'm so excited.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
We have had some wonderful podcast episodes about dementia and
Alzheimer's disease, and I think it speaks to the fact
of how fearful people are of these illnesses, how much
they impact family, how personally devastating they can be for
the care providers, and how undeniably haunted some of the
(06:42):
patients with Alzheimer's become just lost in their own minds.
I mean, you have worked for years in this area.
You're about to put on your fourth summit about Alzheimer's,
and your new book, Reversing Alzheimer's is going to be published.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
In g of twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Four, So I would love just to start out and
find out bring us kind of up to date. Where
are we with our understanding of Alzheimer's what causes it,
how we can prevent it, and how we can treat it.
And I know that's a lot of questions all in one,
but just bring us up to date a little bit.
Speaker 6 (07:22):
Yeah, and it's this is exactly my work. Thank you
for the opportunity to share, because my goal is to
change the narrative around Alzheimer's. People are still told by
their very well meaning neurologists that there's nothing you can
do to prevent or slow the decline of dementia. And
so a family will show up, you know, they're trying
(07:44):
to do the right thing. They're trying to go in
and see the doctor and be proactive. When they notice
that mom or their spouse isn't doing as well as
they were five years ago or ten years ago.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
They're starting to.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Repeat stories or repeat questions, and they're concerned about exactly
what you describe that hunting, terrible torturist decline that is Alzheimer's.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
And yet they get to the neurologist's.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
Office and they're referred for a four hour neuropsych testing
that it's extremely stressful and might not even change the
course of treatment. They make it some imaging, they might
get offered a couple of medications that really don't do much,
and then they're told to come back in six or
twelve months and will monitor the decline. They might have
(08:27):
their driver's license take it away. It doesn't leave them
feeling hopeful. It leaves them feeling defeated and yet to
be told that there's nothing you can do for Alzheimer's
or dementia is just factually inaccurate.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
It's heartbreaking to.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
Me because the truth of it is that it's almost
overwhelming how much we can do to combat this disease.
There are so many things that we can do, and
what you were describing, you know, like, what's our approach,
what's been going on with the research? So unfortunately, there's
an entire book written about this. It's called How Not
to Study a Disease, The Story of Alzheimer's by doctor
(09:08):
Carl Harup, and it essentially describes how we've been so
focused on this beta amyloid hypothesis that we kind of
forgot to take that step back and say, is does
this make sense anymore? I mean, we've spent billions of
dollars and many many, many hard working, smart individuals times
to really investigate this hypothesis, and yet ninety nine point
(09:30):
six percent of Alzheimer's medications don't work.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
They all fail.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
And this you would think, You know, if you were
a scientist who is looking to see if your hypothesis
made sense, you would go back to the drawing board
and be like, no, this doesn't work right, and we need.
What we need is a complex system science approach. It's
a complex disease. It's a chronic, complex disease that's caused
by many things, not just one.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
And so my mentor, doctor Dale Brettison, he describes us
really well and he is whose model I follow.
Speaker 6 (10:04):
The idea here is to evaluate what are all of
the things that might be affecting neuronal function for this
particular individual. So we systematically go through the toxins, the
nutrient imbalances, the structural things that might be going on, stressors.
Maybe this is too much or too little at the
wrong time. We need the right things in the right
(10:27):
place at the right time in order for the neurons
to function. It might be so we talked to toxins, nutrients, stressors,
structural issues. Infections can contribute to inflammation in the brain
and the dementia and also signaling changes as we age,
and so when we systematically apply this to an individual,
(10:47):
what we find is that it's not the same for
any two individuals. It might be a combination of toxic
exposure and traumatic brain injury and menopausal transition leading to
low trophic hormones. Plus maybe there's elevated hemoglobin AEC and
blood sugar leading to inflammation in the brain. And for
someone else, they have sleep apnea which leads to hypoxia
(11:09):
in night. They might have gum disease, and they might
have a different type of toxin that's elevated and high
stressors because they cared for someone with dementia and their
family maybe with it they have genetic predisposition. So you
can have very very different pathways that lead to a
diagnosis of dementia. And our goal is to identify those
(11:31):
with precision and with a structured approach so that we
don't miss anything, so that we're taking into consideration all
of these potential inputs that could create an output of dementia.
And so as we do that systematic systematically, it's a
precision medicine type approach.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Right.
Speaker 6 (11:49):
It's a complex approach that meets the needs of someone
with a complex medical condition instead of that kind of well,
I think it's an obsolete sort of perspective that there's
going to be one symptom of memory loss, that you're
going to be able to use a single molecule, a
single pharmaceutical intervention, or maybe a couple of pharmaceutical interventions
(12:10):
to create a symptomatic improvement. I think that's sort of
an outdated model. It doesn't it's a blend instrument that
doesn't meet the complexity of the disease that we're discussing.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
It really doesn't. And like you said, the meds simply
don't work. They simply just don't. The acetyl colon esterase
inhibitors are not great, the NMDA modulators are not great.
It just does not seem like there is a drug option.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Which can affect this.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And as you were talking, I was like, wait a minute,
she is so right, because we are so hyper focused
on that beta amyloid hypothesis of the you know, you
get the plaques and the neurofibrillatory tangles and all of this. Well,
then why are we using meds that have nothing to
do with those pathways? Like, what is it that's keeping
(13:04):
these meds on the market, and why are we not readdressing, neuroplasticity,
and so many other things. I'd like to take a
big step back because from everything that you said, I
feel like our listeners are going to be familiar with, like, hey,
if you get an infection and it gets in your brain,
it's probably going to cause some inflammation, hypoxia. Okay, probably
(13:25):
some brain damage right there. But genes, Okay, understand that stress.
Stress is poisonous to every single body system. Okay, fine,
But I'd love to dig into more about toxins that
you think are highly associated with cognitive decline and teach
us how blood, sugar and hormones affect our brain functioning.
Speaker 6 (13:51):
Okay, awesome, And I do you mind if I circle
back to the medication piece really quick.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:57):
In the news, I'm sure many of you have seen this.
You know, the new advances that breakthrough in Alzheimer's because
there are these monoclonal antibodies that are used to address
amyloid plaques in the brain and so LA can.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Be an agie holm.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
There are two medications that came out over the last
couple of years, and there was quite a bit of controversy.
So you may have read a news article about them.
Agacanamab or Agiehelm was actually pulled from the market recently
because of its ineffectiveness. And what I'm going to share
this model that we've used, We've researched it, so like
how do I know?
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Like how can I be so bold?
Speaker 6 (14:33):
I have a book called Reversing Alzheimer's Right, Well, we've
seen it.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
I've seen it in my practice.
Speaker 6 (14:39):
It's it's challenging, it's not easy. It's not as simple
as a medication or an ivy like a pill or
an iv.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
That you would use. It takes work.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
But when we applied this approach doctor Bretison's team as
well as myself, we've measured that you can reverse the
mild cognitive impairment that leads to Alzheimer's disease. And clinically
in my practice, I've seen people with diagnosed elsehe Himer's
disease improve. So and I can talk through those things.
But the medications, those monoclonal antibodies that we see.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
What they cause.
Speaker 6 (15:10):
In the best case scenario, they slow the rate of decline.
So you take a torturous process and you draw it
out and you have to intervene when someone has mild
cognitive compairment. This isn't a last ditch effort that you
use when someone has severe Alzheimer's disease. These are extremely
costly medications and they also have the potential to.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
Cause brain small brain bleeds and brain swelling, so you
have to be monitored for those.
Speaker 6 (15:39):
So it's not like you just go get hooked up
for an IV and you're good to go.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
You have to go back and.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
Get MRIs and make sure that there aren't these side
effects known as arias. So and then you mentioned two mechanisms,
the medications air acept and nemenda dnepazil or mamanteing. You
may have heard them called any of these names, but
there's basically two. You describe the mechanisms staceutical and esteries
(16:07):
inhibitors and the NMDA receptor agnus.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
They are.
Speaker 6 (16:12):
When we see there was a JAM article in December
of twenty nineteen that showed that people who started the
use of those medications, either in combination or separately, they
had worse cognition five years after starting them than if
they hadn't started them at all.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
So not only do they not.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
Work very well, some people will see a little bit
of a bum in cognitive function for the first few months,
but five years later you're looking at worsening of the disease.
So from a pharmaceutical perspective, we don't have anything right.
We have these monoclon my antibodies. They might slow the
rate of progression. From our perspective, that's not good enough.
(16:51):
What we want is improvement in cognition, and that is possible.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
We see it over and over and over again.
Speaker 6 (16:58):
It's been peer reviewed and published in the Journal of
Alzheimer's Disease twice now. And there's a clinical trial ongoing
right now that is a randomized control trial, and so
hopefully we'll be able to show even more you know,
causality here rather than just basically showing that it's possible,
will show that this is.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
The intervention that's making a difference.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
Okay, So going back to your questions about toxins, potentially
blood sugar and then hormones. So these are things that
are going to be circulating in our blood, right and
they're going to go up to our brain. We many
of us have thought of the blood brain barriers like
this sacred like wall, but nothing goes past. And yet
now we know that it's more permeable than what we
probably had imagined. And in the brain we can be
(17:43):
exposed to toxins. Toxins can accumulate, particularly if we aren't
getting good deep sleep at night.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
That's when the glymphatic.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
System rinses the brain and allows not only toxins that
might accumulate like biotoxins, micotoxins, heavy metals, chemical toxins, not
only those, but also that the metabolism of day to
day function right in including amyloid plaques that are associated
with Alzheimer's. After just one night of sleep deprivation, someone
in their twenties thirties forties will have measurable levels of
(18:12):
amyloid plaque that you can measure this after one night
of sleep bat to deprivation in someone with no symptoms.
So you can imagine that over decades of sleep deprivation,
these will'll accumulate. And so we want to make sure
we're getting that good sleep to rinse the brain of
the toxins. No toxins, right, you don't really want any
of them ever anywhere. Right, They're going to lead to aging, right,
(18:34):
They're going to require nutrients, they're going to require they're
going to require extra resource to metabolize them, to get
rid of them. The way my mentor again doctor Jale Brettison,
the way he talks about this, he's like, think of
your brain as a country.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
My brain is don.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
If you are stuck in attack and defend mode, Right,
if you're a country at war, you are spending all
of your resources and appropriately so, right, you want to
take that res source and get up over any infections
that you're defending against invaders or defending against that toxicity.
You want to fight that fight and be done with it.
And then you want to, like, if you're a country
(19:12):
at war, you shouldn't be building infrastructure, roads and schools
and all that, right, you should be focused on fighting
the fight and then shift your resources towards rebuilding and regeneration.
So the idea here is you want to identify what
are the infections, what are the toxins and the.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
Brain, and how can we eliminate them.
Speaker 6 (19:32):
So the first thing when it comes to toxicity is
to identify if you're where you're being exposed, right, if
there's mold in the house, if you're eating fish that
has high mercury, if there's maybe even still mercury in
your dental fillings, and then environmental pollutants. A lot of
this comes from petrochemicals and the environment, so considering an
air filter in your home or even looking at if
(19:54):
your personal care products, you know, am I being exposed
to thalades or PCBs or other things like that in
glyphosate round up this.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Can including eliminating.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
Grains which are high and you know they're highly genetically
modified so they tend to be higher in glyphosate, and
then also considering just switching to an organic diet, taking
your shoes off when you come in the house so
you're not tracking things in from outside and then you
know later barefoot and absorbing them. So there's lots of
different ways to approach this. I'm sure you've had many
doctors who have talked about detox and making sure you're
(20:28):
having a daily bowel movement and drinking plenty of water,
sweating regularly, breathwork. There's lots of ways to enhance your
detox pathways, and I'm happy to go into those further.
But I'm sure you've had that conversation with other people before.
Do you want to jump to hormones? Where do you
want to go next.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Yeah, let's jump to hormones.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Let's talk about it, because we've certainly talked about how
important sleep is. On our episode with Molly McLaughlin, we
do a deep dive into this glymphatic system that Heather
is referring to that kind of rinses the brain in
the night. And you can also go back and listen
to my episode with doctor Jabin Moore, and I believe
(21:12):
Jess Petros and I have talked about mold. Bridget Danner
and I have definitely talked about mold. So if you
want to go back to a deep dive into those topics,
go and check out those episodes.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
But yeah, let's talk about hormones and Alzheimer's.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
So, you know, many people became very afraid of women's
hormones after the Women's Health Initiative study was published.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
And you know, I think very famously women.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
Were pulled off of their hormone replacement in the kind
of early two thousands, and it went out of vogue
to treat women in menopause with hormone replacement.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Now fast forward twenty.
Speaker 6 (21:46):
Years later, it seems like that was very overblown.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
That the also, what we.
Speaker 6 (21:53):
Use exclusively is bioidentical hormone replacement. So when you look
at studies of from Finland, for example, there's a study
of an epidemiological study of nearly half a million women,
literally like four hundred and ninety six thousand women are
included in this and adding estrogen or estrogen plus progesterone.
You if you have your uterus, you need to do both. Okay,
(22:17):
so you can, you could do progesterone without estrogen, but
if you have a uterus you haven't had a hysterectomy,
you want to do estrogen with progesterone, and so to
prevent uterine cancer.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
And so they looked at both people.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
With estrogen only or progesterone only and then the combination,
and what they found was that you reduce the risk
of dying from breast cancer whether you initiate in your fifties, sixties.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
Or seventies.
Speaker 6 (22:39):
So these were many people were concerned that there was
an increased rate of breast cancer. But actually when you
look at really big trials or really big epidemiological data,
you don't see that. You see a reduction in risk,
and the reduction in risk is highest, so you get
the most amount of risk reduction if you initiate therapy
(23:01):
in your fifties, and then you get a little bit
less if you initiate in your sixties, and then you
get a little bit less if you're initiated in your seventies,
but you're getting a reduction in risk the whole time.
There's another trial out of the UK that shows a
reduction and all cause mortality for women on bioidentical or
excuse me, I don't know if it's necessarily bioidentical, but
on hormone replacement. So when we think about the brain,
(23:24):
the brain has receptors for estrogen. This is part of
why women get hot flashes, is because there are estrogen
receptors in the hypothalamus at the temperature set point of
the brain, and so when there's a lack of estrogen,
that's why they have these climacteric symptoms.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
Sleep.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
Our progesterone receptors can help us with sleep, and when
the progesterone isn't showing up, it can create sleep disturbances.
So the brain has tons of receptors for estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DTA,
pregnenolone for many of these trophic factors, and of course
thyroid and vitamin D are included in that list. Brain
drive norotrophic factor is another signal that goes to the brain,
(24:05):
but specifically around menopause. It's estrogen and progesterone that come
up most often, and I you know, sleep deformation. We
discussed if I can add a little progesterone which has
so so little risk, and you can get better sleep.
I mean, this is an excuse the pun, no brainer
all day long. Many people, I've never had any medication.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
I don't know. Maybe you can speak to this as
a pharmacists.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
I've never had any medication where more patients come in
and tell me it's their new best friend. Yeah, progesterone. Yeah,
it can just be a miracle for sleep, especially for
insomnia that starts with menopause and that has a massive
impact on the brain. Not to mention just the receptors
themselves in the brain that respond to estrogen and progesterone.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
No, when you think about it, so like you.
Speaker 6 (24:55):
When your hormones are peaking, whether you're male or female.
Right in the late teens, early twenties.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
This is when we're in school.
Speaker 6 (25:01):
We're like, we're making all those social connections and all
those we're building skills, and we're learning all these things
and we feel like we can take on the world.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
And we're not going back to that.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
Level of hormone, but we want to approximate that at
some level, because this is that neuroplasticity, that synaptoplasticity that
we're looking for that's associated with having some hormone. Now
you don't I'm not suggesting, you know, there's the Wily protocol.
I don't do that. That is where women are kept
cycling into their nineties. That's not what I'm talking about.
(25:31):
I'm talking about enough hormone that we're supporting. We have
the trophic factors that send the signals to the brain
to create new neurons and create new connections between them.
And also if the same signals get sent to the bones, right,
so we protect bone health. If we're using a little testosterone,
you get more muscle, which also protects bone health, brain health.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
And so the goal is.
Speaker 6 (25:52):
To have less risk of falls, less risk of fracture,
better heart health, and better brain health.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I okay, first and foremost, listeners, she just dropped a
word that we've never heard on the show before. We've
talked neuroplasticity, but she mentioned synaptoplasticity, which if we haven't
talked about synapses before, I don't know. But basically, when
your nerves get together, they don't actually touch, they have
the space in between, and it's called the synapse. And
so what you are alluding to is that those synapses
(26:21):
can also change, just like the wiring of the brain
can change. Now, I do want to come back. We're
going to come back to a one C. I promise
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Speaker 3 (28:39):
And now let's get back to the show.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I'd love to know, and it kind of boggles my
mind that I've never asked anybody this.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
On the show before.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Because bioidentical hormones are such a buzzword. Fundamentally, what is
different about bioidentical hormones versus the hormones that were used
in the Women's Health Initiative studies in like the original
hormone replacements that were Permarin et cetera. What's the fundamental
difference and why do you think they act so much
(29:13):
differently in the body.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
Yeah, So the way I think of it is, uh,
there's there's like seats on the bus, right, so you
have every every cell has its like receptor sites, and
it's a spot where somebody can sit down. And then
what's gonna happen on the other side of the cell membrane? Right,
So the cell membrane, if you think of like a glob,
a cell glob with its phospholipid bilayer, and then there's
(29:35):
a receptor site and in that site you can have
a different type, different types of estrogen sit down. So
our body makes three different types of estrogen E one,
E two, and E three, also known as estrone, estradyl,
and estreeol, and they're active in different ways.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Right.
Speaker 6 (29:52):
So strone we never replace because it's more associated with
inflammation estra dial This is what makes our lips plump
and our skin elastic, and our breasts larger. It makes
us look more feminine. And then estre aal the third
one is much more pelvicly active. So if you're struggling
with vaginal dryness or vaginal atrophy.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
This is going to be the most helpful.
Speaker 6 (30:15):
It can also help the pelvic floor at some level,
maybe prevent recurrent UTIs as you age, if that's something
that's going on for you.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
So it's more more gonna.
Speaker 6 (30:26):
Help with pelvic symptoms, and it's less inflammatory, So E
two more systemic, E one more inflammatory, E three more pelvic. Now,
all of these are the endogenous hormones that our body makes.
Now when we go to exogenous so estrogens that are
made outside the body. This is those oral birth control pills,
(30:46):
the non biodentical hormone replacement, and also zeno estrogens that
are in the environment that might be in like plastics
or other toxic exposures that look like estrogen. They might
look like one of those three are going to sit
down on that same seat in the bus. They're going
to take up that spot, but they're going to cause
a different cascade to happen on the inside of the cell.
(31:09):
So you're gonna get estrogen mimicry, but it's not exactly
the same and it's not as predictable. So there's also
another class of estrogens and they're phyto estrogens. So phytoestrogens
are the ones that come from plants.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
This is like your black cohash, your soy, your maka,
your hops, those kinds of plants.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
The fido the plant estrogens that can also sit down
on that seat on the bus and take up that seat,
and it's going to cause So then I think of
those three different estrogens, right, so you have each one
of them can sit down on the seat, and it's
going to create a cascade, like a waterfall of events
inside the cell, estrogen.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Cascade, if you will.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
And so if I think of that E two, let's
just take your systemic E two that you've made that
sits down on the seat on the bus and it
creates like a pretty tropical waterfall.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Like this beautiful.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
It creates your beautiful plump lips and your beautiful skit,
youthful skin, and you're you know it's that healthy estrogen
creates your cycle, your twenty day cycle in the you know,
your uterine lining, and then you have your zeno estrogens
or your non bioidentical hormones like your your oral birth
(32:22):
control pills. They sit down on that seat in the
bus and they create something unpredictable. I think of it
like a destructive flood instead of a beautiful waterfall. It
has the potential to become a flood, but it's like
a hurricane coming, like you don't know if it's gonna
pass you by and you're gonna be fine, or if
it's actually gonna hit and you're gonna end up with clotting,
(32:43):
with blood cloths and strokes and other issues associated with
that unpredictable estrogen.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
Effect in the cell.
Speaker 6 (32:51):
And then if you add the phytoestrogens, if they're the
ones taking that seat on the bus, then you get
I think of it like turning on the faucet. So
you're gonna get about one to one hundredth maybe one
sixtieth of the amount of estrogenic activity in the cell
as if you had an E two sitting in that seat,
But you're gonna get something. So this can axin often
(33:13):
help women who are struggling with hot flashes, who are
maybe extremely sensitive to hormone therapy. They can use the
phytoestrogens to turn on a little bit of estrogenic activity
but not create a flood, and also potentially take up
that spot so that a xeno estrogen doesn't sit down.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Okay, I love that because I am a big fan
of Soy. I think that Soy has just gotten this
absolutely terrible wrap. And you are more than welcome to
completely disagree with me on this. But listeners, if you're
if you're still not quite getting what she's talking about,
think about what we've talked about in the past about
(33:51):
the difference between T three and reverse T three and
the way that it binds the thyroid receptor but has
two completely different outcomes. One is more pro inflammatory, leads
to cortisol production and interacts with the way cortisol is
processed in our body, and the other one actually turns
on the metabolic functions of the cell.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
And so I love.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
What you said about things like black cohost, things like Soy,
things like MAKA being able to sit on that receptor
site and give it a little bit of activity, even
if it's not fully turning it back on. SO love
your definitions and your descriptions of how these are so
(34:35):
fundamentally different. Now, let's go back to diabetes, because it
is just such a plague in the United States, and
somebody listening today maybe just going like, crap, my ae
c's you know eight point two or seventeen you know.
But so, how does blood sugar lead to Alzheimer's disease?
Speaker 5 (34:56):
Okay? And soy? I am a soy fan.
Speaker 6 (34:58):
Yes, have yat nonprocessed, so there's soy in everything, right,
and a lot of it is ultra process SOI it's
one of the most genetically modified foods, and so they
spray it with a ton of life is eight right,
so at AMMI awesome, huge fan tofu, huge fan and
an organic and then tenpe I'm a huge fan.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
They're not that process right.
Speaker 6 (35:20):
When you start getting into like your soy less of
things that are added to ultra processed foods, I'm not
a fan. So people can end up eating a ton
of genetically modified soy that I think can be harmful,
and ultraprocessed foods probably the prescription if.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
You want diabetes.
Speaker 6 (35:39):
Right, So A and C hemoglob and A and C
fasting insulin homo I are fasting gluecose levels. These are
always to look at your kind of the way that
you metabolize glucose. So there's a couple of things that
apply regardless of your diabetes status. One, as we age,
(35:59):
we all become less insolent and glucose sensitive in the brain. Two,
we all have the ability we're like hybrid cars. We
all have the ability to go back and forth between
burning glucose for fuel and burning key tones for fuel.
And the brain in very rare instances where you make
keytnes and glucose available to the brain, the brain prefers
(36:20):
to burn keytnes, and so we can get into a
we can either get into a fasting mimicking state, into
a ketogenic diet, or if we are already kind of
struggling with cognitive decline and not yet ready to make
the full commitment to keto, we can add exogenous key
tones and get the brain the extra fuel it needs.
For many people as they age, what's going on cognitively
(36:43):
is that there isn't enough resource. So we talked about
how you know if your brain is at war, your
brain a stand is fighting against toxins and fighting against infections,
it's going to need a ton of energy. The brain
only makes up two percent of our body weight, but
it takes up twenty percent of our daily metabolic energy use.
And this means that if we are fighting infections and
(37:06):
fighting toxins, we're going to need even more of that resource.
And if we then use glucose as our fuel source
and we can't very efficiently turn it into ATP or
that currency that sells burn on, we need to change.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
And we have the opportunity.
Speaker 6 (37:22):
We are divinely designed to switch it up and use
keytnes for fuel so that we can meet that resource need.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
So the brain prefers keytnes to glucose.
Speaker 6 (37:33):
Okay, all right, And if you think about it, I
mean from like an evolutionary perspective, I just find this
so fascinating. Right, if you're starving, if you are in
uh so, basically three days of fasting will put.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
You into a ketogenic state.
Speaker 6 (37:47):
And if you can't find food, you need your brain
to turn on. You need to be sharp so that
you can figure out where to find the next food source. Right,
So your brain actually performs better in.
Speaker 5 (38:00):
A keutogenic state. And we see this all the time.
It's like the thing that will get people.
Speaker 6 (38:07):
With cognitive decline who are struggling cognitively. The most improvement
fastest is getting into quytosis, and it's challenging, it's not
super easy, but it is the thing that we see
make the biggest difference fastest.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
So if your A and C is elevated, this.
Speaker 6 (38:24):
Essentially is type three diabetes will become Alzheimer's right, So
these are very very closely connected. There's a couple of
things going on when we have this elevated glucose level
and elevated.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
Hemoglobin M seeds.
Speaker 6 (38:37):
So the difference between those A fasting glucose is what's
going on at that particular state and at that moment
in time, and a hemoglobin A ANDC is how much
sugar is attached to your blood cells.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
And so this is sort of an average.
Speaker 6 (38:49):
Of what your daily blood sugar would look like over
three months or so, give or take. So what we're
trying to do is lower the insulin as well as
the bloodshot because our brain is going to prefer keytnes
for fuel. There's a couple concepts here that I want
to go through. One is that the blood sugar itself
(39:11):
is toxic when it's too high.
Speaker 5 (39:13):
So not only are you not.
Speaker 6 (39:15):
Burning it, efficiently, but you're actually causing cell damage. It's inflammatory,
and insulin itself in really high states is also inflammatory.
So we think of blood sugar as being the problem,
but also insulin can lead to its own detrimental and
inflammatory effects at a cellular level. Now, the brain, in
(39:35):
the rare instance that we have both keytones and blood
sugar available, the brain prefers ketones, and from an evolutionary perspective,
you can imagine if you are if you're starving, if
you can't find your next meal that has carbohydrates in it,
then you need your brain to turn on. You need
to be able to figure out where that next meal
is going to come from. And so the brain and
(39:58):
the body, I mean, it's just it astounds me. It's
so impressive. It's like, why not put these tools to work.
When we burn sugar, it also creates a lot of
oxidaty of stress, and so it can contribute to aging.
This is one of the hallmarks of aging. And so
when we can burn ketones, they actually burn much cleaner,
and so no one's going to stay in keytosis forever.
(40:19):
That's not my suggestion, but being in ketosis and adding
exogenous keytones is a way to increase your ability to
more efficiently generate fuel in the brain, and that will
give your brain the resource it needs to potentially get
up and over those toxins to get up and over
kind of that bite against maybe an infectious invader or
(40:40):
a toxic invader, right, so that you can then refocus
your energy and your resources on regeneration.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Right.
Speaker 6 (40:47):
And this is going to come with that signaling, the
hormones that we discussed, and the exercise and blood flow.
Speaker 5 (40:53):
We're going to put all those things to work. Once
we can kind of get that energy state up. We
need to have the energy and the resource to utilize.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
What is your opinion about the difference between men and
women when it comes to ketosis.
Speaker 6 (41:08):
Well, first I'll start with when it comes to Alzheimer's, right,
So two thirds of Alzheimer's patients are women and many
many care providers of course, are also women. So women
are definitely much more affected than men by this disease.
Where you see Parkinson's, even frontotemporal dementia, other types of
(41:29):
dementia and neurodegenital diseases are more common in men. Alzheimer's
is much more common in women, and you know the
some of this has to do with potentially the changes
that happen with menopause, that steep decline and hormones. I
think other there's other pieces to it as well. You
know where we tend to be caregivers. Care givers for
(41:53):
if you are a care partner for someone with dementia,
your risk of becoming a patient with dementia is raised
by two and a half to six times. The worst
increase in risk is actually for a male partner of
a female spouse, but very very high rates of dementia
among caregivers. And so when but ketosis, So when it
(42:17):
comes to ketosis versus for men versus women, I don't
know that I've seen. I mean I feel like I've
seen it benefit both men and women. I don't know
if there's something specific you're you're thinking there.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
We've had women's hormone specialist on the show, Doctor Beth
Westy is an example of and she.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
It's not that she's not.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
A fan of keto, it's that she's not a fan
of keto all the time. And like you said, you
really can't stay in ketosis all the time.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
And so she.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Maintains that there is a differential stress level on women
who are menstruating or perhaps in that lutill phase where
the body's trying to calm back down, when katosis can.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Be a little bit riskier in women.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
But it sounds like as far as the Alzheimer's goes,
the data does show benefits in both men and women,
And it is frankly shocking that the risk of becoming
a patient with dementia goes up up to six times
if you are a caregiver for someone who has dementia.
(43:33):
I encourage you go back and listen.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
To the episode that I did with Beth.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
Kavanaugh about her life as a hospice care nurse and
just really how much end of life care can aid
not only the patient's health and well being, but also
the family's health and well being. And so is that
is truly truly shocking and really scary. I'd love to
(44:03):
know about some of your most transformational patients, patients that
just make you just glad you do what you do.
Speaker 5 (44:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (44:14):
So, yeah, most of my patients are also post menopausal females,
So that might have something to do, you know with
She's mentioning Quito's us is a hormetic We're getting a
hormetic effect. Right, So hormesis is where you're stressing the
system so that you get more resilience. And if you're
under a ton of stress, like maybe you don't want
to add more.
Speaker 5 (44:34):
But also Anna.
Speaker 6 (44:35):
Quebeca, I don't know if you've ever interviewed her, she's
another women's hormone expert, and she actually she has a
book called Menu Pause, which is essentially about going keto
through menopause and how effective and helpful that is. So
I think, you know, whenever you hear experts who have
different opinions about things, I think, go back.
Speaker 5 (44:54):
To your own experience and what is true for you.
Speaker 6 (44:57):
But I think keto is well where it's certainly as
a cycling female myself, I get a ton of benefits
from keto. I'm sharper, I have more energy, So like
from my personal experience, I get a ton of benefits
in ketosis. All right, So some patient stories, Oh my gosh,
they're so hard to even choose because there are so
many that are so inspiring. Just recently, I had a
woman over the past year. She came in with a
(45:19):
mocha of eight. So the Montreal Cognitive Assessment or a
Mocha score is how we.
Speaker 5 (45:25):
Categorize people. Basically, she had a single digit Mocha. It's
quite progressed.
Speaker 6 (45:29):
So a perfect score is thirty twenty six and above
is normal. Once you're getting into the low twenties, somebody
has probably noticeable cognitive impairment. They're repeating themselves, they're not
as sharp as they were. Certainly this is measurable cognitive decline.
And then in the teens, we have a lot of
confidence with patients who have Mocha scores eighteen, seventeen, eighteen
and above, we can usually get a lot of their
(45:50):
cognition bag if they're willing.
Speaker 5 (45:53):
To do the work. And then as it goes down,
we you know, it's harder and harder.
Speaker 6 (45:57):
It takes more time, it takes more effort, takes more energy,
and they have much more significant decline. So single digit
mochas many people are having trouble communicating. They need help
with activities of daily living. They're certainly not driving, they're
not cooking, they need help sometimes getting dressed, and even
they struggle to formulate.
Speaker 5 (46:15):
Sentences or come up with answers to questions.
Speaker 6 (46:18):
So I saw this patient and she came in with
her husband and her two daughters, and I she had
a Mocha of eight, and she had some struggles. Certainly
she was struggling cognitively, but she also had other health
issues and had trouble walking. She had struggled with it,
not getting enough food for a long time because of
(46:40):
stomach upset, and so she had a lot going on.
And I wasn't overly confident that we could help her.
But what got me excited was watching her family, watching
her daughters and her husband. It was I described it
like a game of volleyball.
Speaker 5 (46:55):
Like it was like bump, set spike.
Speaker 6 (46:56):
It was like one daughter would be like, all right,
I'm going to schedule that meeting, and then hey, sister,
can you make sure that you do the follow up
and order everything that's needed. And then the dad would
be like, all right, girls, I'll take care of this piece.
And I was just like watching them and they would laugh,
they would just they were enjoying it, and they loved
their moms so much. You could just see like the
adoration in their eyes and how committed they all were
(47:19):
to like teeming up to help and support her. And
so she went off and I got a call not
that long later and like she was in the hospital
with a gi bleed, like it had just been terrible,
and they were worried that some of the supplements might
have caused it, and what about this, and should we
really be doing this?
Speaker 5 (47:33):
And they were worried, and of course it scared.
Speaker 6 (47:36):
We got through that, and I saw her about six
months later, and she had improved dramatically.
Speaker 5 (47:43):
It was incredible.
Speaker 6 (47:44):
She had gotten on her a SEPAP, so she had
started treating her sleep at me as she'd gotten on
all of the medications and the supplements. She had started detoxifying,
we had started addressing some of the infectious diseases that
were going on in her mouth and else and in
her gut, and she was doing considerably better. Her Mocha
score was now up at a thirteen. They'd gone from
(48:06):
eight to thirteen, which when you talk to a lot
of doctors and neurologists they would say that'd be impossible,
that you would not expect that jump. Well, then six
more months later she came back and our Moca score
was at a fifteen. They had done a little bit
more and gotten a little bit more traction, and she
would fallen off some of the supplements and she wasn't
doing quite as well with some of the exercise pieces,
(48:27):
but she was still doing better and better, and so
you know, we keep checking in, remeasuring her blood values
and course correcting where we need to, but she continues
to improve.
Speaker 5 (48:42):
And it's really fun.
Speaker 6 (48:42):
Now I get to see the daughter as a patient
and the husband as a patient, and I get to
see kind of all of the pieces start fitting together,
and I'm really inspired by their collaboration. It really takes that,
especially for somebody who has more severe dementia.
Speaker 5 (48:57):
It takes support.
Speaker 6 (48:58):
You can't do it on your own, but watching them
do it and come together as a family, and then
to have them share with me, like even our cousins
were noticing that at Christmas, Mom was more engaged.
Speaker 5 (49:10):
She was back, She picked out, you know, the presents for.
Speaker 6 (49:14):
The grandkids, and she was there and present, and a
year ago we didn't even have that.
Speaker 3 (49:19):
Mm hmmm hmm.
Speaker 4 (49:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
It is really it is a.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
Special thing when you are a healthcare provider because you
are intimately woven into the family structure. And it warms
my heart that you say. The best part was like
watching her family.
Speaker 3 (49:40):
Just celebrate these huge winds.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
Some of the most touching patient stories that I have
ever had, our families that rally and just show how
much that they that they love their family member, and
what a huge blessing to extend her health span, not
just her lifespan. By as you were saying, we were
(50:04):
talking about the monoclonal antibody meds. You're taking like a
tortuous process and extending it and really just saying like, Okay,
you're not gonna get any worse, but you're also not
gonna get any better. And you know, listeners, you may
have heard me say it before, but when it comes
to safety as well as aggressiveness of medications and the
(50:28):
way that their mechanisms of action work, monoclonal antibodies are
more aggressive medications with more potential for severe side effects
versus most of the small molecules. Now, there are, of course,
exceptions to every rule, and we've had some monoclonal antibodies
that have been around for twenty five thirty years, so,
but in general, you don't want to jump directly to
(50:51):
a monoclonal anti body as a first step, which to
your point, you have to catch it and initiate the
medication when it is still in when you're still in
relatively good function. And my guess is most neurologists are
going to be leaning more towards a dnepazil or a
mamantane versus going to I haven't looked at the exact
(51:14):
pricing of this medication, but monoclonal antibodies can easily be
tens of thousands of dollars a year and so really
cost prohibitive for families. And mom's not getting better, you know,
Mom's just getting better.
Speaker 6 (51:29):
You said stopping the progression, but no, that's not what happens.
You still progress. You slow the decline by thirty percent
in the best case scenario.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
Drug research is a very very interesting landscape to learn
because what you just said is in we call it
dose versus poems. Right, what you just mentioned is a
disease oriented endpoint. You're going to slow progression of disease
(52:00):
by thirty percent, You're still going to progress.
Speaker 3 (52:02):
Okay, but that's not what the patient cares about.
Speaker 2 (52:05):
The patient doesn't care about whether or not they slow
the progression by thirty percent. They care about can they
button their shirt? And can they cook for themselves? And
can they still drive and still maintain independence. That is
a patient oriented endpoint that matters. And so to me,
what this clinical trial is measuring in the first place
(52:28):
is not actually what patients care about. And it is
shocking to me just how little people know about medications,
including just how little prescribers know about medications. And so
you get somebody that says, oh, this is a breakthrough drug,
it's new in class, and yes it's outrageously expensive.
Speaker 3 (52:49):
You would automatically assume that that.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
Drug has shown significant benefit, but you cannot always rely
on that being the case.
Speaker 3 (52:59):
And to your point, just as.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
We saw with the breakthrough drug zygris, which I look
back on my residency years, the drotrikajen alpha that was
an anti coag.
Speaker 3 (53:12):
For people in severe septic shock, and you had.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
To do all this calculation to see if they got it.
Three years ago by they took it off the market
because it just did nothing, did nothing. And yet you
can get a clinical trial to show you just about
just about anything. All right, everybody, we are rapidly running
out of time, but I want to hear just as
(53:37):
we part, you know you've really done something a little
bit different with your brand called is it Mirama Marama?
Speaker 3 (53:45):
How do you say it?
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Marama Marama, So a first residential memory care facility to
have the goal of returning cognitively declined patients to independent living.
And you say that you work with personalized treat plans
and sensory stimulation, engaging activities and intensive cognitive therapies. Talk
(54:06):
to us about just how fundamentally different this approaches than
what would happen to a patient who was placed in
a nursing home.
Speaker 1 (54:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (54:14):
So typically this is a really challenging decision for any family,
for anyone. You never hear anyone saying, Oh, I can't
wait to go to my nursing home. I can't wait
to move into memory care. And what we expect when
somebody does go to a place like that is that
they're going to go downhill. That this is basically a
place to park them to keep them safe until they die.
Speaker 5 (54:35):
And it's torture.
Speaker 6 (54:36):
It's so hard, it's so labor intensive, it is just
so heartbreaking.
Speaker 5 (54:41):
And what I was seeing.
Speaker 6 (54:43):
In my clinical practice in twenty seventeen, I was trained
by doctor Brendisson Bredison, and I came back to my
clinical practice and immediately I started seeing even severe patients
get better, get somewhat better, doing this approach that people
who couldn't get better were the ones who couldn't do it,
they couldn't implement. And I had a woman who reached
out and asked, Hey, my dad was diagnosed with dementia.
(55:03):
I want him to get doctor Brettison's approach. This makes
so much sense to me. But I've got a full
time job and kids I need to raise, and a
dog and had a husband and a house, and like,
I can't do it all, So help, Where do I
send him? And I realized that day that there was
nowhere to send him, that there was no place providing
an immersive experience in doctor Bredison's approach, And so I
(55:25):
thought to myself, how hard could this be? And nine
months later we had a care facility. And so that
is it's the answer to all of those women who
are calling me saying I want this, I want the
best care for my parent or my spouse. Where can
I send them to get this immersive experience? And we've
attracted people in all ends of the spectrum of dementia
(55:47):
over the past four years, and some have decided it's
the best place they want to stay long term. They've
been there three four years, their cognition gets a little better.
Speaker 5 (55:55):
Life happens, it gets a little worse. They get COVID,
they have a.
Speaker 6 (55:58):
Fall, you know, something happens, but it works for them
and their family. They feel like it's the best place
to get super healthy food, to have great care, to
be cognitively engaged in to live the best life possible.
Then we have other people who move in and they
come for six months and they return to independent living.
They come, they get an immersive experience, they get a
deep dive, they learn how to cook the meals, they
(56:18):
learn what a day should look like if you're optimizing
cognitive function, and the exercises and the engagement, and then
with that they move home with those tools and with
improved cognitive function. And that is our real goal, is
that people can delay or prevent the need to ever
move into memory care.
Speaker 2 (56:37):
I love that so much, you know it, really, I
think you are accomplishing your goal that you are setting
out to do, which is to change this conversation. You know,
I have a personal interest in changing the conversation around
all mental health conditions. And while Alzheimer's disease is not
(56:57):
exactly mental health.
Speaker 3 (56:59):
It's kind of is in a way.
Speaker 2 (57:02):
And we talk about true mental illness such as schizophrenia
and delusions, etc.
Speaker 3 (57:09):
As being some of the own.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
They're the only disease states that we that we criminalize
in the United States, and dementia is one of those
disease states that we just have fully accepted that there's
nothing you can do other than just sit by and watch.
And I'm so grateful to have you as a voice
of someone who is saying no, there is a completely
(57:31):
different approach to all of this. And just as one
final note, if you go back and listen to the
Doctor Renamafee episode, we do go over safety precautions for
family members who have been diagnosed with dementia. So if
someone in your life has been diagnosed with dementia with
(57:52):
Alzheimer's disease, go back listen to that episode, because I
want to make sure that you get some of those
safety pointers to where you can help prevent the falls,
prevent the COVID for you.
Speaker 3 (58:02):
Know, prevent the the.
Speaker 2 (58:06):
Gi bleeds and all of the things, and prevent the
wandering and have a way to find someone if they
do wander. So, Doctor Heather Sanderson, I have enjoyed our
conversation so much. Everybody Heather's book will be out. It's
called Reversing Alzheimer's. It will be out in June, and
I hope that everybody will go pick up a copy
(58:27):
of that.
Speaker 3 (58:28):
In the meantime, head.
Speaker 2 (58:30):
To doctor That's Dr Heather sand E Sun with an
I Sandasen dot com to find out more about Heather's
work and everything that she is doing. She also has
offered you a free ebook about how you can work
on either an elevated insulin level type two diabetes, helping
to improve cognitive function, metabolic flexibility, and offer just a
(58:54):
ton of other health benefits. Head to Heather doctor Heather
Sanderson dot com slash key to grab a copy of
the evebook. Doctor Heather Sanderson, thank you so much for
coming in and being a guest today on the Lindsay
Elmore Show.
Speaker 5 (59:07):
Lindsay has been such a privilege. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (59:12):
The Lindsay Oylmore Show is written and produced by me.
Speaker 2 (59:14):
Lindsey Elmore Show. Segments are produced by Sue Froco and
Mike Martin. Sound design and editing is by Jive Media.
You can donate to our show by heading to Lindsaylmore
dot com slash podcast or if you would like to
be a supporter of the show, head to Lindsaylmore dot
(59:34):
com slash supporter. Your contribution helps us to bring the
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Speaker 3 (59:41):
Our interview chair.
Speaker 2 (59:43):
Thank you for listening, Subscribe, rate and review the show
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Speaker 2 (00:44):
Welcome everybody to this week's edition of the Lindsay Elmore Show.
I have a bold assertion from my guest today who
claims that Alzheimer's is optional and reversible.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
You heard it here correctly.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
We're going to be talking about the buld old claim
that Alzheimer's is reversible. We're gonna be talking about how
we can fortify our brain health against cognitive decline, How
we can implement lifestyle changes that help to reverse the
effects of Alzheimer's, how we can transform our environment to
support overall cognitive wellness, and talk about how we can
(01:22):
do this with any budget. Because the fact of the
matter is Alzheimer's is not only a disease that affects
the patient. It affects the caregivers as well as the
family and friends around them. My guest's goal is not
simply to prevent or delay progression. It's actually to help
(01:47):
people return to independent living and to improve cognition, to
improve their mental faculties. This is so inspiring to me
because it's so against what medications claim to do, which
(02:07):
is simply to delay the progression of a devastating disease.
There has to be a better way. And if we
truly believe that this is a podcast for people who
believe that they deserve to be healthy, and if I
maintain my stance that I truly believe that nothing is
beyond healing nothing, we have to look at Alzheimer's disease
(02:32):
the same way. How can we create a circumstance, a
set of lifestyle interventions, a set of changes to our
environment that help to improve cognition, even in people with
severe cognitive decline, and even Alzheimer's. My guest today is
(02:55):
doctor Heather Sanderson and her book Reversing Alzheimer will be
published this June by HarperCollins, and I truly hope that
you find this conversation as inspiring and as hopeful as
I did. This is the Lindsay Elmore Show.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Welcome to The Lindsay Elmore Show, a podcast for people
who deserve to be healthy. With honest, open and enlightening
conversations with doctors, thought leaders, creatives and spiritual gurus. You'll
walk away with simple and tangible tips and tricks that
allow you to live your healthiest life so you can
(03:36):
pursue your dreams, overcome obstacles, and leave your mark. Doctor
Heather Sanderson is a distinguished naturopathic doctor and has devoted
her career to providing compassionate care and innovative solution to
those affected by dementia. Renowned for her pioneering work, Doctor
(03:58):
Sanderson has integrated groundbreaking, holistic and multimodal interventions seamlessly, creating clinical, residential, research,
and educational platforms. Her relentless dedication has not only transformed
the lives of patients and caregivers. She has also set
(04:19):
new standards in the field of dementia care. She is
the primary clinical investigator and author of the peer reviewed
article Observed Improvement in Cognition during a Personalized lifestyle intervention
in People with Cognitive Decline, which was published in the
Journal of Alzheimer's Disease in August of twenty twenty three.
(04:43):
She is the founder of Sulsare Health Clinic and Marama,
the first residential care facility for the elderly of its
entire kind. At Sulseare, doctor Sanderson and her team of
doctors and health coaches focused primarily on supporting patients looking
to optimize cognitive function, prevent mental decline, and reverse dementia
(05:09):
by addressing the root causes of the imbalances in the
brain and body. At Mirama, doctor Sanderson has created an
immersive residential experience in the lifestyle proven to best support
brain health, including personalized treatment plans, sensory stimulation, engaging activities,
(05:33):
and intensive cognitive therapies.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
She also hosts the.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Annual Reversing Alzheimer's Summit, and her new book, Reversing Alzheimer's
will be published by HarperCollins in June of twenty twenty
four to help scale her impact and her work at
the goal of making dementia rare and optional. Excited to
(06:01):
shatter common misconceptions about Alzheimer's and share what she has
learned about keeping your brain sharp at any age. Doctor
Heather Sanderson, Welcome to the Lindsay Elmore Show.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I'm so excited.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
We have had some wonderful podcast episodes about dementia and
Alzheimer's disease, and I think it speaks to the fact
of how fearful people are of these illnesses, how much
they impact family, how personally devastating they can be for
the care providers, and how undeniably haunted some of the
(06:42):
patients with Alzheimer's become just lost in their own minds.
I mean, you have worked for years in this area.
You're about to put on your fourth summit about Alzheimer's,
and your new book, Reversing Alzheimer's is going to be published.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
In g of twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Four, So I would love just to start out and
find out bring us kind of up to date. Where
are we with our understanding of Alzheimer's what causes it,
how we can prevent it, and how we can treat it.
And I know that's a lot of questions all in one,
but just bring us up to date a little bit.
Speaker 6 (07:22):
Yeah, and it's this is exactly my work. Thank you
for the opportunity to share, because my goal is to
change the narrative around Alzheimer's. People are still told by
their very well meaning neurologists that there's nothing you can
do to prevent or slow the decline of dementia. And
so a family will show up, you know, they're trying
(07:44):
to do the right thing. They're trying to go in
and see the doctor and be proactive. When they notice
that mom or their spouse isn't doing as well as
they were five years ago or ten years ago.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
They're starting to.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Repeat stories or repeat questions, and they're concerned about exactly
what you describe that hunting, terrible torturist decline that is Alzheimer's.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
And yet they get to the neurologist's.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
Office and they're referred for a four hour neuropsych testing
that it's extremely stressful and might not even change the
course of treatment. They make it some imaging, they might
get offered a couple of medications that really don't do much,
and then they're told to come back in six or
twelve months and will monitor the decline. They might have
(08:27):
their driver's license take it away. It doesn't leave them
feeling hopeful. It leaves them feeling defeated and yet to
be told that there's nothing you can do for Alzheimer's
or dementia is just factually inaccurate.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
It's heartbreaking to.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
Me because the truth of it is that it's almost
overwhelming how much we can do to combat this disease.
There are so many things that we can do, and
what you were describing, you know, like, what's our approach,
what's been going on with the research? So unfortunately, there's
an entire book written about this. It's called How Not
to Study a Disease, The Story of Alzheimer's by doctor
(09:08):
Carl Harup, and it essentially describes how we've been so
focused on this beta amyloid hypothesis that we kind of
forgot to take that step back and say, is does
this make sense anymore? I mean, we've spent billions of
dollars and many many, many hard working, smart individuals times
to really investigate this hypothesis, and yet ninety nine point
(09:30):
six percent of Alzheimer's medications don't work.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
They all fail.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
And this you would think, You know, if you were
a scientist who is looking to see if your hypothesis
made sense, you would go back to the drawing board
and be like, no, this doesn't work right, and we need.
What we need is a complex system science approach. It's
a complex disease. It's a chronic, complex disease that's caused
by many things, not just one.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
And so my mentor, doctor Dale Brettison, he describes us
really well and he is whose model I follow.
Speaker 6 (10:04):
The idea here is to evaluate what are all of
the things that might be affecting neuronal function for this
particular individual. So we systematically go through the toxins, the
nutrient imbalances, the structural things that might be going on, stressors.
Maybe this is too much or too little at the
wrong time. We need the right things in the right
(10:27):
place at the right time in order for the neurons
to function. It might be so we talked to toxins, nutrients, stressors,
structural issues. Infections can contribute to inflammation in the brain
and the dementia and also signaling changes as we age,
and so when we systematically apply this to an individual,
(10:47):
what we find is that it's not the same for
any two individuals. It might be a combination of toxic
exposure and traumatic brain injury and menopausal transition leading to
low trophic hormones. Plus maybe there's elevated hemoglobin AEC and
blood sugar leading to inflammation in the brain. And for
someone else, they have sleep apnea which leads to hypoxia
(11:09):
in night. They might have gum disease, and they might
have a different type of toxin that's elevated and high
stressors because they cared for someone with dementia and their
family maybe with it they have genetic predisposition. So you
can have very very different pathways that lead to a
diagnosis of dementia. And our goal is to identify those
(11:31):
with precision and with a structured approach so that we
don't miss anything, so that we're taking into consideration all
of these potential inputs that could create an output of dementia.
And so as we do that systematic systematically, it's a
precision medicine type approach.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Right.
Speaker 6 (11:49):
It's a complex approach that meets the needs of someone
with a complex medical condition instead of that kind of well,
I think it's an obsolete sort of perspective that there's
going to be one symptom of memory loss, that you're
going to be able to use a single molecule, a
single pharmaceutical intervention, or maybe a couple of pharmaceutical interventions
(12:10):
to create a symptomatic improvement. I think that's sort of
an outdated model. It doesn't it's a blend instrument that
doesn't meet the complexity of the disease that we're discussing.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
It really doesn't. And like you said, the meds simply
don't work. They simply just don't. The acetyl colon esterase
inhibitors are not great, the NMDA modulators are not great.
It just does not seem like there is a drug option.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Which can affect this.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And as you were talking, I was like, wait a minute,
she is so right, because we are so hyper focused
on that beta amyloid hypothesis of the you know, you
get the plaques and the neurofibrillatory tangles and all of this. Well,
then why are we using meds that have nothing to
do with those pathways? Like, what is it that's keeping
(13:04):
these meds on the market, and why are we not readdressing, neuroplasticity,
and so many other things. I'd like to take a
big step back because from everything that you said, I
feel like our listeners are going to be familiar with, like, hey,
if you get an infection and it gets in your brain,
it's probably going to cause some inflammation, hypoxia. Okay, probably
(13:25):
some brain damage right there. But genes, Okay, understand that stress.
Stress is poisonous to every single body system. Okay, fine,
But I'd love to dig into more about toxins that
you think are highly associated with cognitive decline and teach
us how blood, sugar and hormones affect our brain functioning.
Speaker 6 (13:51):
Okay, awesome, And I do you mind if I circle
back to the medication piece really quick.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:57):
In the news, I'm sure many of you have seen this.
You know, the new advances that breakthrough in Alzheimer's because
there are these monoclonal antibodies that are used to address
amyloid plaques in the brain and so LA can.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Be an agie holm.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
There are two medications that came out over the last
couple of years, and there was quite a bit of controversy.
So you may have read a news article about them.
Agacanamab or Agiehelm was actually pulled from the market recently
because of its ineffectiveness. And what I'm going to share
this model that we've used, We've researched it, so like
how do I know?
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Like how can I be so bold?
Speaker 6 (14:33):
I have a book called Reversing Alzheimer's Right, Well, we've
seen it.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
I've seen it in my practice.
Speaker 6 (14:39):
It's it's challenging, it's not easy. It's not as simple
as a medication or an ivy like a pill or
an iv.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
That you would use. It takes work.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
But when we applied this approach doctor Bretison's team as
well as myself, we've measured that you can reverse the
mild cognitive impairment that leads to Alzheimer's disease. And clinically
in my practice, I've seen people with diagnosed elsehe Himer's
disease improve. So and I can talk through those things.
But the medications, those monoclonal antibodies that we see.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
What they cause.
Speaker 6 (15:10):
In the best case scenario, they slow the rate of decline.
So you take a torturous process and you draw it
out and you have to intervene when someone has mild
cognitive compairment. This isn't a last ditch effort that you
use when someone has severe Alzheimer's disease. These are extremely
costly medications and they also have the potential to.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
Cause brain small brain bleeds and brain swelling, so you
have to be monitored for those.
Speaker 6 (15:39):
So it's not like you just go get hooked up
for an IV and you're good to go.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
You have to go back and.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
Get MRIs and make sure that there aren't these side
effects known as arias. So and then you mentioned two mechanisms,
the medications air acept and nemenda dnepazil or mamanteing. You
may have heard them called any of these names, but
there's basically two. You describe the mechanisms staceutical and esteries
(16:07):
inhibitors and the NMDA receptor agnus.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
They are.
Speaker 6 (16:12):
When we see there was a JAM article in December
of twenty nineteen that showed that people who started the
use of those medications, either in combination or separately, they
had worse cognition five years after starting them than if
they hadn't started them at all.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
So not only do they not.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
Work very well, some people will see a little bit
of a bum in cognitive function for the first few months,
but five years later you're looking at worsening of the disease.
So from a pharmaceutical perspective, we don't have anything right.
We have these monoclon my antibodies. They might slow the
rate of progression. From our perspective, that's not good enough.
(16:51):
What we want is improvement in cognition, and that is possible.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
We see it over and over and over again.
Speaker 6 (16:58):
It's been peer reviewed and published in the Journal of
Alzheimer's Disease twice now. And there's a clinical trial ongoing
right now that is a randomized control trial, and so
hopefully we'll be able to show even more you know,
causality here rather than just basically showing that it's possible,
will show that this is.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
The intervention that's making a difference.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
Okay, So going back to your questions about toxins, potentially
blood sugar and then hormones. So these are things that
are going to be circulating in our blood, right and
they're going to go up to our brain. We many
of us have thought of the blood brain barriers like
this sacred like wall, but nothing goes past. And yet
now we know that it's more permeable than what we
probably had imagined. And in the brain we can be
(17:43):
exposed to toxins. Toxins can accumulate, particularly if we aren't
getting good deep sleep at night.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
That's when the glymphatic.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
System rinses the brain and allows not only toxins that
might accumulate like biotoxins, micotoxins, heavy metals, chemical toxins, not
only those, but also that the metabolism of day to
day function right in including amyloid plaques that are associated
with Alzheimer's. After just one night of sleep deprivation, someone
in their twenties thirties forties will have measurable levels of
(18:12):
amyloid plaque that you can measure this after one night
of sleep bat to deprivation in someone with no symptoms.
So you can imagine that over decades of sleep deprivation,
these will'll accumulate. And so we want to make sure
we're getting that good sleep to rinse the brain of
the toxins. No toxins, right, you don't really want any
of them ever anywhere. Right, They're going to lead to aging, right,
(18:34):
They're going to require nutrients, they're going to require they're
going to require extra resource to metabolize them, to get
rid of them. The way my mentor again doctor Jale Brettison,
the way he talks about this, he's like, think of
your brain as a country.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
My brain is don.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
If you are stuck in attack and defend mode, Right,
if you're a country at war, you are spending all
of your resources and appropriately so, right, you want to
take that res source and get up over any infections
that you're defending against invaders or defending against that toxicity.
You want to fight that fight and be done with it.
And then you want to, like, if you're a country
(19:12):
at war, you shouldn't be building infrastructure, roads and schools
and all that, right, you should be focused on fighting
the fight and then shift your resources towards rebuilding and regeneration.
So the idea here is you want to identify what
are the infections, what are the toxins and the.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
Brain, and how can we eliminate them.
Speaker 6 (19:32):
So the first thing when it comes to toxicity is
to identify if you're where you're being exposed, right, if
there's mold in the house, if you're eating fish that
has high mercury, if there's maybe even still mercury in
your dental fillings, and then environmental pollutants. A lot of
this comes from petrochemicals and the environment, so considering an
air filter in your home or even looking at if
(19:54):
your personal care products, you know, am I being exposed
to thalades or PCBs or other things like that in
glyphosate round up this.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Can including eliminating.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
Grains which are high and you know they're highly genetically
modified so they tend to be higher in glyphosate, and
then also considering just switching to an organic diet, taking
your shoes off when you come in the house so
you're not tracking things in from outside and then you
know later barefoot and absorbing them. So there's lots of
different ways to approach this. I'm sure you've had many
doctors who have talked about detox and making sure you're
(20:28):
having a daily bowel movement and drinking plenty of water,
sweating regularly, breathwork. There's lots of ways to enhance your
detox pathways, and I'm happy to go into those further.
But I'm sure you've had that conversation with other people before.
Do you want to jump to hormones? Where do you
want to go next.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Yeah, let's jump to hormones.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Let's talk about it, because we've certainly talked about how
important sleep is. On our episode with Molly McLaughlin, we
do a deep dive into this glymphatic system that Heather
is referring to that kind of rinses the brain in
the night. And you can also go back and listen
to my episode with doctor Jabin Moore, and I believe
(21:12):
Jess Petros and I have talked about mold. Bridget Danner
and I have definitely talked about mold. So if you
want to go back to a deep dive into those topics,
go and check out those episodes.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
But yeah, let's talk about hormones and Alzheimer's.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
So, you know, many people became very afraid of women's
hormones after the Women's Health Initiative study was published.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
And you know, I think very famously women.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
Were pulled off of their hormone replacement in the kind
of early two thousands, and it went out of vogue
to treat women in menopause with hormone replacement.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Now fast forward twenty.
Speaker 6 (21:46):
Years later, it seems like that was very overblown.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
That the also, what we.
Speaker 6 (21:53):
Use exclusively is bioidentical hormone replacement. So when you look
at studies of from Finland, for example, there's a study
of an epidemiological study of nearly half a million women,
literally like four hundred and ninety six thousand women are
included in this and adding estrogen or estrogen plus progesterone.
You if you have your uterus, you need to do both. Okay,
(22:17):
so you can, you could do progesterone without estrogen, but
if you have a uterus you haven't had a hysterectomy,
you want to do estrogen with progesterone, and so to
prevent uterine cancer.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
And so they looked at both people.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
With estrogen only or progesterone only and then the combination,
and what they found was that you reduce the risk
of dying from breast cancer whether you initiate in your fifties, sixties.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
Or seventies.
Speaker 6 (22:39):
So these were many people were concerned that there was
an increased rate of breast cancer. But actually when you
look at really big trials or really big epidemiological data,
you don't see that. You see a reduction in risk,
and the reduction in risk is highest, so you get
the most amount of risk reduction if you initiate therapy
(23:01):
in your fifties, and then you get a little bit
less if you initiate in your sixties, and then you
get a little bit less if you're initiated in your seventies,
but you're getting a reduction in risk the whole time.
There's another trial out of the UK that shows a
reduction and all cause mortality for women on bioidentical or
excuse me, I don't know if it's necessarily bioidentical, but
on hormone replacement. So when we think about the brain,
(23:24):
the brain has receptors for estrogen. This is part of
why women get hot flashes, is because there are estrogen
receptors in the hypothalamus at the temperature set point of
the brain, and so when there's a lack of estrogen,
that's why they have these climacteric symptoms.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
Sleep.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
Our progesterone receptors can help us with sleep, and when
the progesterone isn't showing up, it can create sleep disturbances.
So the brain has tons of receptors for estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DTA,
pregnenolone for many of these trophic factors, and of course
thyroid and vitamin D are included in that list. Brain
drive norotrophic factor is another signal that goes to the brain,
(24:05):
but specifically around menopause. It's estrogen and progesterone that come
up most often, and I you know, sleep deformation. We
discussed if I can add a little progesterone which has
so so little risk, and you can get better sleep.
I mean, this is an excuse the pun, no brainer
all day long. Many people, I've never had any medication.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
I don't know. Maybe you can speak to this as
a pharmacists.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
I've never had any medication where more patients come in
and tell me it's their new best friend. Yeah, progesterone. Yeah,
it can just be a miracle for sleep, especially for
insomnia that starts with menopause and that has a massive
impact on the brain. Not to mention just the receptors
themselves in the brain that respond to estrogen and progesterone.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
No, when you think about it, so like you.
Speaker 6 (24:55):
When your hormones are peaking, whether you're male or female.
Right in the late teens, early twenties.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
This is when we're in school.
Speaker 6 (25:01):
We're like, we're making all those social connections and all
those we're building skills, and we're learning all these things
and we feel like we can take on the world.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
And we're not going back to that.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
Level of hormone, but we want to approximate that at
some level, because this is that neuroplasticity, that synaptoplasticity that
we're looking for that's associated with having some hormone. Now
you don't I'm not suggesting, you know, there's the Wily protocol.
I don't do that. That is where women are kept
cycling into their nineties. That's not what I'm talking about.
(25:31):
I'm talking about enough hormone that we're supporting. We have
the trophic factors that send the signals to the brain
to create new neurons and create new connections between them.
And also if the same signals get sent to the bones, right,
so we protect bone health. If we're using a little testosterone,
you get more muscle, which also protects bone health, brain health.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
And so the goal is.
Speaker 6 (25:52):
To have less risk of falls, less risk of fracture,
better heart health, and better brain health.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I okay, first and foremost, listeners, she just dropped a
word that we've never heard on the show before. We've
talked neuroplasticity, but she mentioned synaptoplasticity, which if we haven't
talked about synapses before, I don't know. But basically, when
your nerves get together, they don't actually touch, they have
the space in between, and it's called the synapse. And
so what you are alluding to is that those synapses
(26:21):
can also change, just like the wiring of the brain
can change. Now, I do want to come back. We're
going to come back to a one C. I promise
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Speaker 3 (28:39):
And now let's get back to the show.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I'd love to know, and it kind of boggles my
mind that I've never asked anybody this.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
On the show before.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Because bioidentical hormones are such a buzzword. Fundamentally, what is
different about bioidentical hormones versus the hormones that were used
in the Women's Health Initiative studies in like the original
hormone replacements that were Permarin et cetera. What's the fundamental
difference and why do you think they act so much
(29:13):
differently in the body.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
Yeah, So the way I think of it is, uh,
there's there's like seats on the bus, right, so you
have every every cell has its like receptor sites, and
it's a spot where somebody can sit down. And then
what's gonna happen on the other side of the cell membrane? Right,
So the cell membrane, if you think of like a glob,
a cell glob with its phospholipid bilayer, and then there's
(29:35):
a receptor site and in that site you can have
a different type, different types of estrogen sit down. So
our body makes three different types of estrogen E one,
E two, and E three, also known as estrone, estradyl,
and estreeol, and they're active in different ways.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Right.
Speaker 6 (29:52):
So strone we never replace because it's more associated with
inflammation estra dial This is what makes our lips plump
and our skin elastic, and our breasts larger. It makes
us look more feminine. And then estre aal the third
one is much more pelvicly active. So if you're struggling
with vaginal dryness or vaginal atrophy.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
This is going to be the most helpful.
Speaker 6 (30:15):
It can also help the pelvic floor at some level,
maybe prevent recurrent UTIs as you age, if that's something
that's going on for you.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
So it's more more gonna.
Speaker 6 (30:26):
Help with pelvic symptoms, and it's less inflammatory, So E
two more systemic, E one more inflammatory, E three more pelvic. Now,
all of these are the endogenous hormones that our body makes.
Now when we go to exogenous so estrogens that are
made outside the body. This is those oral birth control pills,
(30:46):
the non biodentical hormone replacement, and also zeno estrogens that
are in the environment that might be in like plastics
or other toxic exposures that look like estrogen. They might
look like one of those three are going to sit
down on that same seat in the bus. They're going
to take up that spot, but they're going to cause
a different cascade to happen on the inside of the cell.
(31:09):
So you're gonna get estrogen mimicry, but it's not exactly
the same and it's not as predictable. So there's also
another class of estrogens and they're phyto estrogens. So phytoestrogens
are the ones that come from plants.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
This is like your black cohash, your soy, your maka,
your hops, those kinds of plants.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
The fido the plant estrogens that can also sit down
on that seat on the bus and take up that seat,
and it's going to cause So then I think of
those three different estrogens, right, so you have each one
of them can sit down on the seat, and it's
going to create a cascade, like a waterfall of events
inside the cell, estrogen.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Cascade, if you will.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
And so if I think of that E two, let's
just take your systemic E two that you've made that
sits down on the seat on the bus and it
creates like a pretty tropical waterfall.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Like this beautiful.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
It creates your beautiful plump lips and your beautiful skit,
youthful skin, and you're you know it's that healthy estrogen
creates your cycle, your twenty day cycle in the you know,
your uterine lining, and then you have your zeno estrogens
or your non bioidentical hormones like your your oral birth
(32:22):
control pills. They sit down on that seat in the
bus and they create something unpredictable. I think of it
like a destructive flood instead of a beautiful waterfall. It
has the potential to become a flood, but it's like
a hurricane coming, like you don't know if it's gonna
pass you by and you're gonna be fine, or if
it's actually gonna hit and you're gonna end up with clotting,
(32:43):
with blood cloths and strokes and other issues associated with
that unpredictable estrogen.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
Effect in the cell.
Speaker 6 (32:51):
And then if you add the phytoestrogens, if they're the
ones taking that seat on the bus, then you get
I think of it like turning on the faucet. So
you're gonna get about one to one hundredth maybe one
sixtieth of the amount of estrogenic activity in the cell
as if you had an E two sitting in that seat,
But you're gonna get something. So this can axin often
(33:13):
help women who are struggling with hot flashes, who are
maybe extremely sensitive to hormone therapy. They can use the
phytoestrogens to turn on a little bit of estrogenic activity
but not create a flood, and also potentially take up
that spot so that a xeno estrogen doesn't sit down.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Okay, I love that because I am a big fan
of Soy. I think that Soy has just gotten this
absolutely terrible wrap. And you are more than welcome to
completely disagree with me on this. But listeners, if you're
if you're still not quite getting what she's talking about,
think about what we've talked about in the past about
(33:51):
the difference between T three and reverse T three and
the way that it binds the thyroid receptor but has
two completely different outcomes. One is more pro inflammatory, leads
to cortisol production and interacts with the way cortisol is
processed in our body, and the other one actually turns
on the metabolic functions of the cell.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
And so I love.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
What you said about things like black cohost, things like Soy,
things like MAKA being able to sit on that receptor
site and give it a little bit of activity, even
if it's not fully turning it back on. SO love
your definitions and your descriptions of how these are so
(34:35):
fundamentally different. Now, let's go back to diabetes, because it
is just such a plague in the United States, and
somebody listening today maybe just going like, crap, my ae
c's you know eight point two or seventeen you know.
But so, how does blood sugar lead to Alzheimer's disease?
Speaker 5 (34:56):
Okay? And soy? I am a soy fan.
Speaker 6 (34:58):
Yes, have yat nonprocessed, so there's soy in everything, right,
and a lot of it is ultra process SOI it's
one of the most genetically modified foods, and so they
spray it with a ton of life is eight right,
so at AMMI awesome, huge fan tofu, huge fan and
an organic and then tenpe I'm a huge fan.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
They're not that process right.
Speaker 6 (35:20):
When you start getting into like your soy less of
things that are added to ultra processed foods, I'm not
a fan. So people can end up eating a ton
of genetically modified soy that I think can be harmful,
and ultraprocessed foods probably the prescription if.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
You want diabetes.
Speaker 6 (35:39):
Right, So A and C hemoglob and A and C
fasting insulin homo I are fasting gluecose levels. These are
always to look at your kind of the way that
you metabolize glucose. So there's a couple of things that
apply regardless of your diabetes status. One, as we age,
(35:59):
we all become less insolent and glucose sensitive in the brain. Two,
we all have the ability we're like hybrid cars. We
all have the ability to go back and forth between
burning glucose for fuel and burning key tones for fuel.
And the brain in very rare instances where you make
keytnes and glucose available to the brain, the brain prefers
(36:20):
to burn keytnes, and so we can get into a
we can either get into a fasting mimicking state, into
a ketogenic diet, or if we are already kind of
struggling with cognitive decline and not yet ready to make
the full commitment to keto, we can add exogenous key
tones and get the brain the extra fuel it needs.
For many people as they age, what's going on cognitively
(36:43):
is that there isn't enough resource. So we talked about
how you know if your brain is at war, your
brain a stand is fighting against toxins and fighting against infections,
it's going to need a ton of energy. The brain
only makes up two percent of our body weight, but
it takes up twenty percent of our daily metabolic energy use.
And this means that if we are fighting infections and
(37:06):
fighting toxins, we're going to need even more of that resource.
And if we then use glucose as our fuel source
and we can't very efficiently turn it into ATP or
that currency that sells burn on, we need to change.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
And we have the opportunity.
Speaker 6 (37:22):
We are divinely designed to switch it up and use
keytnes for fuel so that we can meet that resource need.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
So the brain prefers keytnes to glucose.
Speaker 6 (37:33):
Okay, all right, And if you think about it, I
mean from like an evolutionary perspective, I just find this
so fascinating. Right, if you're starving, if you are in
uh so, basically three days of fasting will put.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
You into a ketogenic state.
Speaker 6 (37:47):
And if you can't find food, you need your brain
to turn on. You need to be sharp so that
you can figure out where to find the next food source. Right,
So your brain actually performs better in.
Speaker 5 (38:00):
A keutogenic state. And we see this all the time.
It's like the thing that will get people.
Speaker 6 (38:07):
With cognitive decline who are struggling cognitively. The most improvement
fastest is getting into quytosis, and it's challenging, it's not
super easy, but it is the thing that we see
make the biggest difference fastest.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
So if your A and C is elevated, this.
Speaker 6 (38:24):
Essentially is type three diabetes will become Alzheimer's right, So
these are very very closely connected. There's a couple of
things going on when we have this elevated glucose level
and elevated.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
Hemoglobin M seeds.
Speaker 6 (38:37):
So the difference between those A fasting glucose is what's
going on at that particular state and at that moment
in time, and a hemoglobin A ANDC is how much
sugar is attached to your blood cells.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
And so this is sort of an average.
Speaker 6 (38:49):
Of what your daily blood sugar would look like over
three months or so, give or take. So what we're
trying to do is lower the insulin as well as
the bloodshot because our brain is going to prefer keytnes
for fuel. There's a couple concepts here that I want
to go through. One is that the blood sugar itself
(39:11):
is toxic when it's too high.
Speaker 5 (39:13):
So not only are you not.
Speaker 6 (39:15):
Burning it, efficiently, but you're actually causing cell damage. It's inflammatory,
and insulin itself in really high states is also inflammatory.
So we think of blood sugar as being the problem,
but also insulin can lead to its own detrimental and
inflammatory effects at a cellular level. Now, the brain, in
(39:35):
the rare instance that we have both keytones and blood
sugar available, the brain prefers ketones, and from an evolutionary perspective,
you can imagine if you are if you're starving, if
you can't find your next meal that has carbohydrates in it,
then you need your brain to turn on. You need
to be able to figure out where that next meal
is going to come from. And so the brain and
(39:58):
the body, I mean, it's just it astounds me. It's
so impressive. It's like, why not put these tools to work.
When we burn sugar, it also creates a lot of
oxidaty of stress, and so it can contribute to aging.
This is one of the hallmarks of aging. And so
when we can burn ketones, they actually burn much cleaner,
and so no one's going to stay in keytosis forever.
(40:19):
That's not my suggestion, but being in ketosis and adding
exogenous keytones is a way to increase your ability to
more efficiently generate fuel in the brain, and that will
give your brain the resource it needs to potentially get
up and over those toxins to get up and over
kind of that bite against maybe an infectious invader or
(40:40):
a toxic invader, right, so that you can then refocus
your energy and your resources on regeneration.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Right.
Speaker 6 (40:47):
And this is going to come with that signaling, the
hormones that we discussed, and the exercise and blood flow.
Speaker 5 (40:53):
We're going to put all those things to work. Once
we can kind of get that energy state up. We
need to have the energy and the resource to utilize.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
What is your opinion about the difference between men and
women when it comes to ketosis.
Speaker 6 (41:08):
Well, first I'll start with when it comes to Alzheimer's, right,
So two thirds of Alzheimer's patients are women and many
many care providers of course, are also women. So women
are definitely much more affected than men by this disease.
Where you see Parkinson's, even frontotemporal dementia, other types of
(41:29):
dementia and neurodegenital diseases are more common in men. Alzheimer's
is much more common in women, and you know the
some of this has to do with potentially the changes
that happen with menopause, that steep decline and hormones. I
think other there's other pieces to it as well. You
know where we tend to be caregivers. Care givers for
(41:53):
if you are a care partner for someone with dementia,
your risk of becoming a patient with dementia is raised
by two and a half to six times. The worst
increase in risk is actually for a male partner of
a female spouse, but very very high rates of dementia
among caregivers. And so when but ketosis, So when it
(42:17):
comes to ketosis versus for men versus women, I don't
know that I've seen. I mean I feel like I've
seen it benefit both men and women. I don't know
if there's something specific you're you're thinking there.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
We've had women's hormone specialist on the show, Doctor Beth
Westy is an example of and she.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
It's not that she's not.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
A fan of keto, it's that she's not a fan
of keto all the time. And like you said, you
really can't stay in ketosis all the time.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
And so she.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Maintains that there is a differential stress level on women
who are menstruating or perhaps in that lutill phase where
the body's trying to calm back down, when katosis can.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Be a little bit riskier in women.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
But it sounds like as far as the Alzheimer's goes,
the data does show benefits in both men and women,
And it is frankly shocking that the risk of becoming
a patient with dementia goes up up to six times
if you are a caregiver for someone who has dementia.
(43:33):
I encourage you go back and listen.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
To the episode that I did with Beth.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
Kavanaugh about her life as a hospice care nurse and
just really how much end of life care can aid
not only the patient's health and well being, but also
the family's health and well being. And so is that
is truly truly shocking and really scary. I'd love to
(44:03):
know about some of your most transformational patients, patients that
just make you just glad you do what you do.
Speaker 5 (44:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (44:14):
So, yeah, most of my patients are also post menopausal females,
So that might have something to do, you know with
She's mentioning Quito's us is a hormetic We're getting a
hormetic effect. Right, So hormesis is where you're stressing the
system so that you get more resilience. And if you're
under a ton of stress, like maybe you don't want
to add more.
Speaker 5 (44:34):
But also Anna.
Speaker 6 (44:35):
Quebeca, I don't know if you've ever interviewed her, she's
another women's hormone expert, and she actually she has a
book called Menu Pause, which is essentially about going keto
through menopause and how effective and helpful that is. So
I think, you know, whenever you hear experts who have
different opinions about things, I think, go back.
Speaker 5 (44:54):
To your own experience and what is true for you.
Speaker 6 (44:57):
But I think keto is well where it's certainly as
a cycling female myself, I get a ton of benefits
from keto. I'm sharper, I have more energy, So like
from my personal experience, I get a ton of benefits
in ketosis. All right, So some patient stories, Oh my gosh,
they're so hard to even choose because there are so
many that are so inspiring. Just recently, I had a
woman over the past year. She came in with a
(45:19):
mocha of eight. So the Montreal Cognitive Assessment or a
Mocha score is how we.
Speaker 5 (45:25):
Categorize people. Basically, she had a single digit Mocha. It's
quite progressed.
Speaker 6 (45:29):
So a perfect score is thirty twenty six and above
is normal. Once you're getting into the low twenties, somebody
has probably noticeable cognitive impairment. They're repeating themselves, they're not
as sharp as they were. Certainly this is measurable cognitive decline.
And then in the teens, we have a lot of
confidence with patients who have Mocha scores eighteen, seventeen, eighteen
and above, we can usually get a lot of their
(45:50):
cognition bag if they're willing.
Speaker 5 (45:53):
To do the work. And then as it goes down,
we you know, it's harder and harder.
Speaker 6 (45:57):
It takes more time, it takes more effort, takes more energy,
and they have much more significant decline. So single digit
mochas many people are having trouble communicating. They need help
with activities of daily living. They're certainly not driving, they're
not cooking, they need help sometimes getting dressed, and even
they struggle to formulate.
Speaker 5 (46:15):
Sentences or come up with answers to questions.
Speaker 6 (46:18):
So I saw this patient and she came in with
her husband and her two daughters, and I she had
a Mocha of eight, and she had some struggles. Certainly
she was struggling cognitively, but she also had other health
issues and had trouble walking. She had struggled with it,
not getting enough food for a long time because of
(46:40):
stomach upset, and so she had a lot going on.
And I wasn't overly confident that we could help her.
But what got me excited was watching her family, watching
her daughters and her husband. It was I described it
like a game of volleyball.
Speaker 5 (46:55):
Like it was like bump, set spike.
Speaker 6 (46:56):
It was like one daughter would be like, all right,
I'm going to schedule that meeting, and then hey, sister,
can you make sure that you do the follow up
and order everything that's needed. And then the dad would
be like, all right, girls, I'll take care of this piece.
And I was just like watching them and they would laugh,
they would just they were enjoying it, and they loved
their moms so much. You could just see like the
adoration in their eyes and how committed they all were
(47:19):
to like teeming up to help and support her. And
so she went off and I got a call not
that long later and like she was in the hospital
with a gi bleed, like it had just been terrible,
and they were worried that some of the supplements might
have caused it, and what about this, and should we
really be doing this?
Speaker 5 (47:33):
And they were worried, and of course it scared.
Speaker 6 (47:36):
We got through that, and I saw her about six
months later, and she had improved dramatically.
Speaker 5 (47:43):
It was incredible.
Speaker 6 (47:44):
She had gotten on her a SEPAP, so she had
started treating her sleep at me as she'd gotten on
all of the medications and the supplements. She had started detoxifying,
we had started addressing some of the infectious diseases that
were going on in her mouth and else and in
her gut, and she was doing considerably better. Her Mocha
score was now up at a thirteen. They'd gone from
(48:06):
eight to thirteen, which when you talk to a lot
of doctors and neurologists they would say that'd be impossible,
that you would not expect that jump. Well, then six
more months later she came back and our Moca score
was at a fifteen. They had done a little bit
more and gotten a little bit more traction, and she
would fallen off some of the supplements and she wasn't
doing quite as well with some of the exercise pieces,
(48:27):
but she was still doing better and better, and so
you know, we keep checking in, remeasuring her blood values
and course correcting where we need to, but she continues
to improve.
Speaker 5 (48:42):
And it's really fun.
Speaker 6 (48:42):
Now I get to see the daughter as a patient
and the husband as a patient, and I get to
see kind of all of the pieces start fitting together,
and I'm really inspired by their collaboration. It really takes that,
especially for somebody who has more severe dementia.
Speaker 5 (48:57):
It takes support.
Speaker 6 (48:58):
You can't do it on your own, but watching them
do it and come together as a family, and then
to have them share with me, like even our cousins
were noticing that at Christmas, Mom was more engaged.
Speaker 5 (49:10):
She was back, She picked out, you know, the presents for.
Speaker 6 (49:14):
The grandkids, and she was there and present, and a
year ago we didn't even have that.
Speaker 3 (49:19):
Mm hmmm hmm.
Speaker 4 (49:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
It is really it is a.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
Special thing when you are a healthcare provider because you
are intimately woven into the family structure. And it warms
my heart that you say. The best part was like
watching her family.
Speaker 3 (49:40):
Just celebrate these huge winds.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
Some of the most touching patient stories that I have
ever had, our families that rally and just show how
much that they that they love their family member, and
what a huge blessing to extend her health span, not
just her lifespan. By as you were saying, we were
(50:04):
talking about the monoclonal antibody meds. You're taking like a
tortuous process and extending it and really just saying like, Okay,
you're not gonna get any worse, but you're also not
gonna get any better. And you know, listeners, you may
have heard me say it before, but when it comes
to safety as well as aggressiveness of medications and the
(50:28):
way that their mechanisms of action work, monoclonal antibodies are
more aggressive medications with more potential for severe side effects
versus most of the small molecules. Now, there are, of course,
exceptions to every rule, and we've had some monoclonal antibodies
that have been around for twenty five thirty years, so,
but in general, you don't want to jump directly to
(50:51):
a monoclonal anti body as a first step, which to
your point, you have to catch it and initiate the
medication when it is still in when you're still in
relatively good function. And my guess is most neurologists are
going to be leaning more towards a dnepazil or a
mamantane versus going to I haven't looked at the exact
(51:14):
pricing of this medication, but monoclonal antibodies can easily be
tens of thousands of dollars a year and so really
cost prohibitive for families. And mom's not getting better, you know,
Mom's just getting better.
Speaker 6 (51:29):
You said stopping the progression, but no, that's not what happens.
You still progress. You slow the decline by thirty percent
in the best case scenario.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
Drug research is a very very interesting landscape to learn
because what you just said is in we call it
dose versus poems. Right, what you just mentioned is a
disease oriented endpoint. You're going to slow progression of disease
(52:00):
by thirty percent, You're still going to progress.
Speaker 3 (52:02):
Okay, but that's not what the patient cares about.
Speaker 2 (52:05):
The patient doesn't care about whether or not they slow
the progression by thirty percent. They care about can they
button their shirt? And can they cook for themselves? And
can they still drive and still maintain independence. That is
a patient oriented endpoint that matters. And so to me,
what this clinical trial is measuring in the first place
(52:28):
is not actually what patients care about. And it is
shocking to me just how little people know about medications,
including just how little prescribers know about medications. And so
you get somebody that says, oh, this is a breakthrough drug,
it's new in class, and yes it's outrageously expensive.
Speaker 3 (52:49):
You would automatically assume that that.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
Drug has shown significant benefit, but you cannot always rely
on that being the case.
Speaker 3 (52:59):
And to your point, just as.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
We saw with the breakthrough drug zygris, which I look
back on my residency years, the drotrikajen alpha that was
an anti coag.
Speaker 3 (53:12):
For people in severe septic shock, and you had.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
To do all this calculation to see if they got it.
Three years ago by they took it off the market
because it just did nothing, did nothing. And yet you
can get a clinical trial to show you just about
just about anything. All right, everybody, we are rapidly running
out of time, but I want to hear just as
(53:37):
we part, you know you've really done something a little
bit different with your brand called is it Mirama Marama?
Speaker 3 (53:45):
How do you say it?
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Marama Marama, So a first residential memory care facility to
have the goal of returning cognitively declined patients to independent living.
And you say that you work with personalized treat plans
and sensory stimulation, engaging activities and intensive cognitive therapies. Talk
(54:06):
to us about just how fundamentally different this approaches than
what would happen to a patient who was placed in
a nursing home.
Speaker 1 (54:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (54:14):
So typically this is a really challenging decision for any family,
for anyone. You never hear anyone saying, Oh, I can't
wait to go to my nursing home. I can't wait
to move into memory care. And what we expect when
somebody does go to a place like that is that
they're going to go downhill. That this is basically a
place to park them to keep them safe until they die.
Speaker 5 (54:35):
And it's torture.
Speaker 6 (54:36):
It's so hard, it's so labor intensive, it is just
so heartbreaking.
Speaker 5 (54:41):
And what I was seeing.
Speaker 6 (54:43):
In my clinical practice in twenty seventeen, I was trained
by doctor Brendisson Bredison, and I came back to my
clinical practice and immediately I started seeing even severe patients
get better, get somewhat better, doing this approach that people
who couldn't get better were the ones who couldn't do it,
they couldn't implement. And I had a woman who reached
out and asked, Hey, my dad was diagnosed with dementia.
(55:03):
I want him to get doctor Brettison's approach. This makes
so much sense to me. But I've got a full
time job and kids I need to raise, and a
dog and had a husband and a house, and like,
I can't do it all, So help, Where do I
send him? And I realized that day that there was
nowhere to send him, that there was no place providing
an immersive experience in doctor Bredison's approach, And so I
(55:25):
thought to myself, how hard could this be? And nine
months later we had a care facility. And so that
is it's the answer to all of those women who
are calling me saying I want this, I want the
best care for my parent or my spouse. Where can
I send them to get this immersive experience? And we've
attracted people in all ends of the spectrum of dementia
(55:47):
over the past four years, and some have decided it's
the best place they want to stay long term. They've
been there three four years, their cognition gets a little better.
Speaker 5 (55:55):
Life happens, it gets a little worse. They get COVID,
they have a.
Speaker 6 (55:58):
Fall, you know, something happens, but it works for them
and their family. They feel like it's the best place
to get super healthy food, to have great care, to
be cognitively engaged in to live the best life possible.
Then we have other people who move in and they
come for six months and they return to independent living.
They come, they get an immersive experience, they get a
deep dive, they learn how to cook the meals, they
(56:18):
learn what a day should look like if you're optimizing
cognitive function, and the exercises and the engagement, and then
with that they move home with those tools and with
improved cognitive function. And that is our real goal, is
that people can delay or prevent the need to ever
move into memory care.
Speaker 2 (56:37):
I love that so much, you know it, really, I
think you are accomplishing your goal that you are setting
out to do, which is to change this conversation. You know,
I have a personal interest in changing the conversation around
all mental health conditions. And while Alzheimer's disease is not
(56:57):
exactly mental health.
Speaker 3 (56:59):
It's kind of is in a way.
Speaker 2 (57:02):
And we talk about true mental illness such as schizophrenia
and delusions, etc.
Speaker 3 (57:09):
As being some of the own.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
They're the only disease states that we that we criminalize
in the United States, and dementia is one of those
disease states that we just have fully accepted that there's
nothing you can do other than just sit by and watch.
And I'm so grateful to have you as a voice
of someone who is saying no, there is a completely
(57:31):
different approach to all of this. And just as one
final note, if you go back and listen to the
Doctor Renamafee episode, we do go over safety precautions for
family members who have been diagnosed with dementia. So if
someone in your life has been diagnosed with dementia with
(57:52):
Alzheimer's disease, go back listen to that episode, because I
want to make sure that you get some of those
safety pointers to where you can help prevent the falls,
prevent the COVID for you.
Speaker 3 (58:02):
Know, prevent the the.
Speaker 2 (58:06):
Gi bleeds and all of the things, and prevent the
wandering and have a way to find someone if they
do wander. So, Doctor Heather Sanderson, I have enjoyed our
conversation so much. Everybody Heather's book will be out. It's
called Reversing Alzheimer's. It will be out in June, and
I hope that everybody will go pick up a copy
(58:27):
of that.
Speaker 3 (58:28):
In the meantime, head.
Speaker 2 (58:30):
To doctor That's Dr Heather sand E Sun with an
I Sandasen dot com to find out more about Heather's
work and everything that she is doing. She also has
offered you a free ebook about how you can work
on either an elevated insulin level type two diabetes, helping
to improve cognitive function, metabolic flexibility, and offer just a
(58:54):
ton of other health benefits. Head to Heather doctor Heather
Sanderson dot com slash key to grab a copy of
the evebook. Doctor Heather Sanderson, thank you so much for
coming in and being a guest today on the Lindsay
Elmore Show.
Speaker 5 (59:07):
Lindsay has been such a privilege. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (59:12):
The Lindsay Oylmore Show is written and produced by me.
Speaker 2 (59:14):
Lindsey Elmore Show. Segments are produced by Sue Froco and
Mike Martin. Sound design and editing is by Jive Media.
You can donate to our show by heading to Lindsaylmore
dot com slash podcast or if you would like to
be a supporter of the show, head to Lindsaylmore dot
(59:34):
com slash supporter. Your contribution helps us to bring the
best guests into.
Speaker 3 (59:41):
Our interview chair.
Speaker 2 (59:43):
Thank you for listening, Subscribe, rate and review the show
on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you listen
to podcasts. Share this episode and all of your favorite
episodes with a friend and on On social media, be
sure to tag at Lindsay Elmore Show and help us
(01:00:05):
bring the pod to more people.
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