October 29, 2025 • 44 mins
Memory loss isn’t always a one-way street. In fact, it can be the first sign your brain is asking for help.
In this episode of Your Health Toolkit: The Neurology Sessions, Dr. Lauren Young and Dr. Ashley Burkman sit down with Dr. Heather Sandison, naturopathic physician, researcher, and founder of memory care residential community, Marama, to chart a new path through brain fog, mild cognitive impairment, and early Alzheimer’s. Rather than chasing symptoms, Dr. Sandison focuses on six root causes of cognitive decline: toxins, nutrients, stressors, structure, signaling, and infections. The result is a personalized, humane, and data-driven approach that’s helping patients regain memory, joy, and identity.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- How multi-modal, lifestyle-based programs are producing measurable cognitive gains within months.
- The six root drivers of brain decline and how to start addressing them at home.
- What the Bredesen approach reveals about neuroplasticity and brain repair.
- How focusing on everyday lifestyle changes can improve brain volume and function.
- Practical testing strategies for toxins, infections, hormones, glucose, and circulation.
- How caregivers can protect their own health and energy on this journey.
If you’ve ever been told “there’s nothing to be done,” this conversation offers a hopeful, evidence-based alternative - one built on community, daily habits, and the body’s capacity to heal.
Resources & Links:
- Learn more about Dr. Heather Sandison: https://www.drheathersandison.com
- Explore Marama: https://www.maramaexperience.com
- Listen to Dr. Sandison’s podcast Think Well, Age Well https://www.drheathersandison.com/thinkwell-agewell
- Explore more from Your Health Toolkit: https://www.ctnaturalhealth.com/podcasts
Your Health Toolkit is a podcast created by the physicians from Collaborative Natural Health Partners (CNHP) – your go-to hub for holistic and integrated family healthcare in Connecticut and New York. At CNHP, we’ve crafted a special blend of expertise, bringing together naturopathic physicians (NPs), osteopathic medicine physicians (DOs), and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) to offer you a warm, integrative, patient-centered approach to health and wellness. If you’re interested in learning more, head over to our website or follow us on Facebook or Instagram for information, articles, and resources to take the guesswork out of your health.
Your Health Toolkit is a podcast presented for general information and educational purposes only. The discussions presented by Dr. Lauren Young and the show’s guests should not be considered medical advice but rather a conversation starter with your doctor. Everyone’s body is unique, and we recommend having a discussion with your personal healthcare team before trying anything discussed on the show.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Lauren Young (00:01):
Hi there, welcome to your health toolkit.
I'm Dr.
Lauren Young and I'm Dr.
Ashley Berkman.
Dr.
Berkman and I have been workingtogether for over a decade at
Collaborative Natural HealthPartners.
We've decided to put together abrand new series all around
neurology.
Dr. Ashley Burkman (00:15):
Yes, thanks so much for inviting me to be
part of this series.
Brain and nervous system healthis something I care deeply
about, both in my work and mypersonal life.
I see many patients whonavigate through tough diagnoses
like Parkinson's, MS,Alzheimer's, either for
themselves or for someone theylove, and it can feel like a
lot.
Dr. Lauren Young (00:31):
So over this series of episodes, we're going
to be bringing you guysspecialists from around the
country on functional neurologyand integrative medicine to
explore what's really going onwith nervous systems and brains
and what we can actually doabout it.
Dr. Ashley Burkman (00:43):
These conversations with these experts
have been eye-opening, veryinspiring, and we can't wait to
share them with all of you.
So let's dive in.
Dr. Lauren Young (00:51):
Hi there, and welcome to your health toolkit.
I'm Dr.
Lauren Young, and we're sothrilled for you to be joining
us today for our Brain Healthseries.
So far, we've exploredheart-brain connections and how
to power up your brain cells bysupporting your mitochondria.
And today we're going to bediving into looking at memory,
brain fog, and how to supportsomeone with dementia or
Alzheimer's, or even talk aboutprevention for yourself.
(01:12):
This conversation is going togive you a lot of clarity and
hope.
And then I'm honored also toinvite Dr.
Heather Sanderson to theconversation.
Dr.
Sanderson is a naturopathicphysician and founder of Silcere
Health Clinic and Morama, aresidential memory care facility
in San Diego, California.
She is a leading voice in theefforts to reverse cognitive
(01:33):
decline naturally, and her workintegrates cutting-edge
research, functional medicine,and compassion to help patients
not only improve but thrive.
So, Dr.
Sandison, Dr.
Berkman, welcome to your healthtoolkit.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah.
So we're all naturopathicphysicians here practicing
functional medicine and reallyknow that all conditions have
(01:53):
multiple layers to them andaspects to them.
One thing that's really awesomeabout what you're doing is your
clinic and everything thatyou're encompassing really shows
a lot of different roadmaps tohow cognitive decline happens
and how we can reverse it.
Do you want to speak to thosepaths and kind of your
experience in the clinic?
Dr. Heather Sandison (02:13):
Yeah, so basically I practice what Dr.
Bredison has been talking aboutfor many years.
He wrote his book, The End ofAlzheimer's, in 2017.
It was a New York Timesbestseller instantly, and I felt
super fortunate that right ashis book was launching, I was
there doing the training withhim.
And then when I got back intoclinical practice after getting
(02:34):
the training and I saw miracleshappen before my eyes.
I was a skeptic, like you, I'msure I learned in school there
was nothing that we could do forsomeone struggling with
Alzheimer's.
And then when Dr.
I saw Dr.
Bettison talk at an IMMHconference before I did his
training, I was like, this makessense.
Like even though I've been toldthis can't happen, this is an
impossibility.
(02:55):
What he's telling me isbasically stacking all of
naturopathic medicine, all offunctional medicine, doing it
all, getting the toxins out, youknow, getting the hormones
balanced, optimizing the gut andnutrients, getting the toxins
and the infectious burden down,all of balancing for stress and
treating, you know, establishingthe conditions for health,
right?
All of our tenets ofnaturopathic medicine.
(03:17):
When we add all those up, youactually do get better neuronal
function, which and bettercognitive function.
And, you know, this was like alight bulb went off for me.
I was like, well, maybe we'llgo see.
Like maybe he's there, he's onto something here.
I don't know.
If I could treat Alzheimer's,then you know, everything else
is cake.
So I went to the training andthen I went back into practice
(03:38):
and I watched it work.
Like despite my hesitation andmy skepticism, people were
getting better.
And then, so the essentiallythe Bredison approach, again, is
applying functional andnaturopathic medicine to the
brain.
And so there's nuances, youknow, we of course need to
understand more the medicationsand the testing that are
specific to this.
But essentially, what we'relooking for is how do we
(04:00):
establish health?
How do we establish thoseconditions for health in the
brain?
So we're getting it.
I think of what we're lookingfor are imbalances, right?
Too much, too little in thewrong place at the wrong time.
And potentially we can applythat sort of concept whenever
there's a complex system, thebrain being one of them, right?
But any education systems andpolitical systems and financial
(04:22):
systems, any complex system inthe world, you can apply this
sort of framework to that.
It's imbalance causingdysfunction, dysregulation.
And so what we want is tocreate, you know, function.
And we do that by supportingbalance in the system.
So in the case of the brain, Iwould argue that there's six
causal level factors.
So a lot of people will say,oh, well, all of dementia is
(04:45):
caused by inflammation.
I say, well, with that, thatbegs the question, what caused
the inflammation, right?
So how that's where we want toplay is at that primary causal
level, not the secondary andtertiary cascade, which is where
I would put like amyloid andtau.
This is the cascade that isthat is a response to some
(05:06):
perturbation, some imbalance inthe system.
So these six causal levelfactors that we're looking at in
a medical setting are toxins,nutrients, stressors, structure,
signaling, and infections.
And when we can understandwhat's going on for a particular
individual in these differentcategories, then we can treat
(05:28):
more precisely, right?
So it's a precisionmedicine-based approach.
We can, you know, some oneperson will have traumatic brain
injuries and diabetes andgenetic predisposition, right?
That's their molecularstructure, has an imbalance.
And somebody else, it doesn'thave any of those things, right?
But they have super high toxicburden and they have some
(05:49):
infectious burden, they haveLyme disease and herpes and P.
gingivalis, and that is theirpicture.
And those are very differenttreatment paths, and they're not
mutually exclusive, right?
You could have all of thosethings.
And some people who are older,like they've had a lifetime to
collect all this stuff, right?
So that's the medicine piece.
And then what we see over andover again is that, again, this
(06:13):
ethos from naturopathicmedicine.
I we were just chatting about,I had been, I was at AAMP and
Louise Edwards gave thiswonderful talk.
And she kept saying over andover again, okay, what is our
essential job, our number onejob as naturopathic doctors?
And she had 300 people in theaudience like saying out loud,
establish conditions for health.
Establish conditions forhealth.
(06:33):
You know, so Mirama was bornout of the we had, we were
creating sort of a reputation inSan Diego for helping people
with cognitive decline.
And yet it takes work, right?
It's hard to change your diet,to change your exercise routine,
to socialize more.
I mean, it's a full-time job,and it's hard for people with
(06:56):
full cognitive capacity, letalone those who are slipping.
And so I was getting theseinquiries.
Hey, my uncle, my dad, my momhas been diagnosed with dementia
or is on this slippery slidetowards Alzheimer's, and I want
them doing everything that youand Dr.
Bettison are talking about, butI can't do it all myself.
Where do I send them?
(07:16):
And so that was the concept ofMorama, which was a fully
immersive, is a fully immersiveexperience in Dr.
Bettison's approach.
It's the lifestyle, it's thatfoundational lifestyle cake,
right?
The icing is all the testing,the functional medicine testing
and the supplements and thetreatment and the hormones and
the prescriptions.
But just getting the diet, theexercise, the socialization, the
(07:38):
creative engagement, the funand the joy and a non-toxic
environment, all of those thingsand people around you who think
that you're going to getbetter, who expect you to
improve.
That is what we do at Morama.
So um that was really fun andwonderful and exciting.
We opened that uh in March of2020, the week before the world
(07:59):
shut down, which is a totallydifferent story.
But it was, it was actually inretrospect, it was wonderful.
It slowed us down.
We got a really good team, wehad time to train people, and um
it was it was actually a reallywonderful experience in
retrospect.
It was challenging gettingthrough it.
But the other thing thathappened kind of with COVID
happening at the same time, aswell as um, you know, just
(08:23):
people's feedback that we getalong the way trying to create
solutions for those who arestruggling with dementia in
their families or it orpersonally, is I don't want my
mom to move to California.
I want her to be here with me.
I don't want to separate frommy husband.
I want him here with me.
I'm gonna take the best care ofhim.
And I we're not ready for himto be in memory care.
And so then from that was bornour coaching program, where
(08:46):
essentially we coach 25 peopleat a time who are all over the
country, all over the world, infact, and we help them create
Mirama at home.
This the environment, the diet,the exercise, and we we talk
through it, we talk through thestruggles, we share resources,
and we kind of teach the um thecomponents that are in the book
and in my book, ReversingAlzheimer's and in Dr.
(09:07):
Madison's books.
Dr. Lauren Young (09:09):
That sounds amazing.
Yeah, the Mirama piece ofthings just sounds so um
blissful and magical.
Can you walk me through a dayof what it looks like for a
patient living there?
Dr. Heather Sandison (09:19):
Yeah, so the whole day is designed around
how to you know optimize foryour brain health.
The priority is to be doingsomething that that supports
your brain at any given awakemoment, right?
And even when you're sleeping.
So residents have breakfastaround eight, and with that, the
staff manages all theirsupplements and medications.
(09:39):
So at breakfast, anythingthat's and even before
breakfast, if you're on thyroidor something on an empty
stomach, they'll bring it to youin your room.
And the rooms each have onspeed.
So the Morama where we havespace right now is in Kansas,
it's in Wichita, Kansas, andit's a beautiful, beautiful
community.
It's got 16 rooms around twokind of living rooms.
(10:00):
So there's eight, eight, uh,eight rooms around two larger
living, communal living spaces,and then in the middle is the
kitchen and also a big sunroomwhere we have our brain gym.
So eight o'clock is whenbreakfast starts, and everybody
convenes around the table in themiddle and has an organic
ketogenic breakfast that isprepared by Chef Damien who
cooks.
He always says, I cook from theheart.
(10:21):
It's so fun, and his food is sodelicious.
Um, and so there's breakfast,and then after breakfast,
typically they're going for awalk.
So if the weather's good,they'll be outside.
If it's not, they have a bigum, it's like a basically a
track upstairs around there's alibrary, and it's um it's a big
vaulted ceiling, and there'slike a loop around that they can
(10:42):
do and inside if there's ifit's too hot or too cold
outside.
And then after that, there's ameditation.
Um, so after the walk, theymeditate for 15 to 20 minutes.
Usually we do the kirtan kriya.
Um, and then by that time, it'susually snack time, and there's
a green juice or some kind ofyummy organic keto snack.
And then after that, typicallywe're getting into some sort of
(11:04):
creative activity.
So whether it's uh, you know,there's a holiday coming up,
there will be something relatedto that, making gifts around
Christmas or Valentine's Day,um, there's puzzles, there's
things that are challenging.
A lot of this is dependent onhow, you know, where on the
spectrum someone is with theircognitive impairment and what
their personal interests are.
(11:24):
So we have one gentleman who isvery interested in theology and
um he and and in personaldevelopment.
He was a therapist as aprofession, and um he reads, he
loves to read.
So he doesn't always remembereverything that he's read, but
he takes notes, and that's whathe's interested in.
(11:45):
Whereas other women are tend tobe more interested in the
crafts and you know, makingChristmas ornaments or you know,
making cards to send home tofamily or doing collages and
putting photo albums.
We'll have families send photosthat we can then they can put
photo albums together and likename people and talk about their
memories together.
So we have different activitieslike that that are seasonal and
(12:09):
you know, tactile.
We want to engage senses wherethere's smell and taste and it's
a lot of cooking.
There's a lot of involvement incooking, getting sauces
together and doing things likethat with Damien.
He gets them involved.
And then after lunch in theafternoon, um typically while
they're digesting, we'll go backto that.
It's kind of finishing offwhatever the creative activity
(12:30):
is.
We have this really neat thingcalled Balavisex, which is where
you have a red and a blue ball,and the goal is to like bounce
them in unison and it makes thisnoise.
And so everybody there isbasically like bouncing right,
left.
Um, they even throw them backand forth to each other.
It sometimes it's just this achaotic mess, but it usually
(12:51):
everybody's laughing and it'sfun, and it helps with balance
and with coordination and memoryto remember which one you're
meant to drop and catch and allthese things.
So that one's really fun.
And then there's the brain gymin the afternoon.
Um so usually around 2:30,they're headed into the brain
gym where there's a circuit, asauna, there's the exercising
with oxygen um component.
(13:13):
There is a we have a biomat,which I I had one, and we put it
over there because we hadsomebody who was pretty anxious
back in 2020, like early on, andthey loved it.
And we noticed it was good forposture because it relaxes the
muscles in the back.
It's kind of this firm mat thatheats up.
And we noticed that peoplewould like calm, they would be
(13:36):
really calm, it puts them in aparasympathetic state, and then
they would walk more uprightwhen they got up because I think
it was just relaxing muscles,postural muscles.
So that we've we've never letthat go.
We've basically like doubleddown, and now we have two of
them because it's the favoritespot.
So we use red light therapy, weuse V light, which is uh a red
light specific for the brain,and then we also have Juve
(13:58):
lights that are that are morewhole body.
So we have had a hyperbaricchamber kind of go back and
forth on that.
We always have a rowing machineand a and a bike and weight,
some you know, um lightweightsand bands and things like that,
so that we can do PT exercisesdepending on what's going on for
people.
So we have an activitiescoordinator who takes people
(14:19):
through that whole circuit.
And then usually everybody'sready for a nap after that.
Uh and then there's dinner, anddinner's all all the meals are
organic and ketogenic.
And after dinner, it'stypically playing cards, doing
puzzles, kind of winding down,listening to music.
We have had residents who willplay music for everyone.
(14:39):
That's really fun.
Um, and Uno uh is a favorite,bananagrams is another favorite,
so just kind of depending onthe interests of the of the
group, we'll do games and stufflike that.
And then tea.
There's fasting for three hoursbefore bed.
Dr. Ashley Burkman (14:57):
Awesome.
I will say, with um personalexperience, I used to work as a
CNA in a memory care unit umthrough high school and um
undergrad.
And it was my very favoritewhenever a family member would
come in and they would tell us,like, oh, you know, they were
really into this, or you learnabout their life.
Because I as a CNA I didn'thave wasn't pervy to their
charts.
I was just there to care forthem.
And it was so much fun to liketalk about something that they
(15:19):
liked, and they would just allof a sudden light up and just
like want to share that withyou.
And so it's cool that you guysincorporate that because taking
on what somebody remembers andknows, it was just interesting
to see how it's like, wow, youreally you need help with all
this, but you totally know allthis other stuff.
It's awesome.
Dr. Heather Sandison (15:33):
It's so fun.
We we go down to the garden andwe have this one resident
Roxana, and she, you know, shestruggled with short-term memory
loss.
She did actually did a lotbetter at Mirama.
Um, but we would take her downto the garden and she would be
like, oh no, the marigolds needto be here because they need to
be next to this, because that'show you keep the bugs away.
And you have to have geraniumsif we're gonna be planting that.
And it was like, I was like, ohmy gosh, like you're just a
(15:54):
gardening expert.
And she just felt so she'scontributing, she's part of it.
And then, you know, she wantsto take everybody down there to
see what sprouted and to harvestthings and then make sure that
they're in the meals thatthey're preparing.
I mean, it's really there's somuch life to live.
And I think that's thechallenge with society these
(16:15):
days is we think of these peopleas like they're just sort of
neglected, right?
Like, oh, life is just goingdownhill.
Poor them.
They're so sick, they're notpart of they can't contribute,
there's nothing they can do,it's so much work.
But actually, there's like somuch life to live there.
There's so much joy to be hadin connection.
It just takes a littlecuriosity and a little bit of
(16:36):
effort to figure out how toconnect with that person as
their brain changes.
Dr. Ashley Burkman (16:40):
It's so amazing.
Because I feel like disabilityin general just kind of gets put
into that box of like, you'redisabled, you're broken, there's
nothing you can do, when it'squite the opposite.
So it's such a cool story tohear about the gardening.
Dr. Lauren Young (16:52):
And and honestly, uh, neurology across
the board, right?
Like there's just this likethere's it's kind of why we
decided to put this together.
It's just there's this like,oh, well, there's not much to be
done, just go down this path.
And so it's so exciting to hearabout that.
And really, you know, it's itsounds like a beautiful, simple
day that could happen at any umlike nursing facility, but then
infused with all theseprinciples and paths that are
(17:14):
bringing you this greatdirection, like right, the
ketogenic diet and making surewe're using all our all our
monctories are going and andgetting all that movement and
stuff.
It's uh really awesome, reallyawesome.
Dr. Heather Sandison (17:25):
Um Yeah, I think the issue, the challenge
is it's labor, right?
It's it requires a lot ofpeople to keep everyone engaged.
It's very easy to have someonejust like walk off and go to
their room and take a nap.
And sometimes people are tiredand they need to take a nap,
right?
We're not abusive.
Um but we if you have anenthusiastic cheerleader who's
(17:47):
like, all right, who's ready toget into this?
And they know, right?
They know how to personallyconnect and what's gonna light
someone up, they can keep peopleplaying the game.
They can keep them doing it,but that takes creativity, it
takes effort, it takesenthusiasm.
And so you can't just havesomeone who's there to sit on
their phone, right?
(18:07):
That's not and and so you gottapay a little bit more and you
have to have more people becauseit's exhausting, but it it can
be done.
Dr. Lauren Young (18:16):
But I love the idea of an Amarama at home
because again, a big piece ofall of that is really what
you're giving, which is hope,and like telling people, no,
this doesn't have to be theanswer.
There are options and there aretools, and we're gonna give
them to you.
So that sounds so awesome.
Um we're gonna take a quickbreak, but when we come back,
we're gonna dive into more ofthese specifics and your
experiences and stuff.
(18:36):
And Dr.
Sanderson, this has been soenlightening and inspiring.
So thank you so much.
We'll be right back.
If you're a fan of this show,you'll know we talk a lot about
conventional and naturopathicmedicine and how they can play a
role in your overall health.
We call this collaborativemedicine.
And through the work we do atCollaborative Natural Health
Partners, we're able to givepeople the knowledge and tools
they need to feel great everysingle day.
(18:56):
If you're interested inlearning more, head over to our
website, ctnaturalhealth.com,where you'll find articles,
courses, and a bunch ofresources to take the guesswork
out of your health.
Don't wait for your nextcheckup.
The doctor will see you now.
Welcome back.
Um, we are here on your healthtoolkit with uh Dr.
(19:17):
Sandison and Dr.
Berkman talking about rootcauses of memory uh loss and
cognitive decline and what wecan really do about it.
So we just had this greatexperience at Morama with you,
which is awesome to experience aday there.
Um, just really, again, goingafter that foundational um
lifestyle medicine for sure.
Uh so now I want to do a deeperdive into just the research and
(19:40):
the the science and themedicine that you're doing with
people who are coming to you forall this.
Dr. Heather Sandison (19:47):
Sure.
So the research, it's helpfulto have sort of a timeline, I
guess.
So in 2014, Dr.
Bredison published the firstcase series.
It was a 10-case series thatshowed people were recovering
their age-related memory loss.
And then in 2017, there was ahundred participants, excuse me,
not a hundred participants, ahundred person case series
(20:09):
published.
So it was a larger case series,essentially establishing the
that this was happening, thatthere this was a pattern that we
were seeing and able tomeasure.
And then in 2022, he publishedwith Kat Toops is the lead
author on the a trial publishedin the Journal of Alzheimer's
disease in July of 2022 thattook 25 participants through a
(20:33):
nine-month intervention.
So they had baseline testingand then testing throughout the
process and then nine-monthtesting.
They could compared before andafter.
So this was a feasibilitytrial, and there was no control
group.
It was just 25 participantsbefore and after testing.
And what they saw was that 84%of their participants improved
after nine months.
(20:54):
And they took participants withMOCA scores down to 19.
So a MOCA is the MontrealCognitive Assessment, and so
it's a blunt tool, but it's likemany people have probably seen
it.
It's a one-page PDF where youidentify zoo animals, tell
people where you are in time andspace, do some math that's
actually kind of hard.
And then you get a number outof 30.
30 out of 30 is perfect, 26 andabove is normal.
(21:15):
And these participants who werein that trial only could go
down to a 19.
So it was quite more mildcognitive impairment.
And um 84% of them in ninemonths got better.
In 2023, we were able topublish our trial, which was
very similar.
We took participants with MOCAscores between 12 and 23, and we
(21:38):
did not exclude people with adiagnosis of Alzheimer's.
So we had more progressedpatients, and we had 23 of them
complete a six-monthintervention.
So it was more progressedparticipants, and we had a
six-month intervention insteadof a nine-month intervention,
but it it essentially replicatedwhat they had done, which was a
(21:58):
clinical experience.
Like what do people experiencewhen they go in to see a Gretzen
trained provider practicingthis sort of functional
naturopathic medicine?
And we had 74% of ourparticipants improve.
We had statisticallysignificant increases in memory,
overall composite cognition, inMOCA scores.
We used Cambridge BrainScience's battery of cognitive
(22:19):
testing for our testing tobecause the MOCA isn't really
appropriate for doing before andafter testing.
It's just not a good enoughinstrument.
And then we also hadstatistically significant
improvements across the mean inuh quality of life and sleep.
So this was, and I wish that wehad tested the care partners,
right, the spouses, because theyalso report improvements in
(22:41):
quality of life.
So these are two studies thatwere done in 2022, 2023, both
published in the Journal ofAlzheimer's Disease.
Then a year later, in June of2024, Dean Ornish published his
trial, which was a controlledtrial.
They took, I think it was 40participants.
It was a little bit biggernumber, split into two, and it
(23:02):
was a four-month intervention.
So even quicker intervention.
It was less of the precisionmedicine, and it, but it was
supplements.
It was a vegan diet instead ofan organic ketogenic diet.
They went plant-based.
They had support groups,supplements, exercise, um, some
coaching, lifestyle coaching,and they saw a statistically
(23:24):
significant difference betweenthe control group and the
intervention arm.
And they saw improvements incognition.
And these were people withearly Alzheimer's disease.
So they were, they were also ameasurably cognitively declined
group.
So those three studies,although small, are very, very
exciting.
And Dr.
Bredison right now is workingwith five different clinical
(23:47):
sites around the country fromCleveland and Florida,
California.
Um and they are have, I think,70 participants in a controlled
trial.
And they the preliminary datais showing a big difference.
In fact, what they did was withthe control arm, they did a
crossover.
And Craig Tanneo in in um inFlorida is one of the people
(24:08):
who's just like, it's so theresults are so exciting.
They're really fun to seebecause even that control arm is
like shifting um after they getthe intervention uh when they
switch over.
So so I I Craig Tanneo, KatToops, um, Nate Bergman, um,
there's uh David Hossey, um,there's six providers.
(24:32):
I'm missing one.
Oh, Christine Burke.
So there's a bunch of providersacross the country who have
done this and they know thisstuff forward backwards and
forwards, and they're you know,getting results with patients
both in the trial and outside ofthe trial.
So really fun, really excitingstuff happening in the research
world around this.
We uh collaborate reallyclosely with Pacific
(24:53):
Neuroscience Institute, and theyjust published a paper which is
actually winning an award nextweek at the Alzheimer's
Conference.
They looked at Pranovo, do youguys have Prenovo, the um IFL
Betty MRI scans?
Dr. Ashley Burkman (25:05):
Yeah, I think that's in Boston and New
York or something.
Yeah, like in the big biggercities.
Yeah.
Dr. Heather Sandison (25:10):
They took data from Prenovo and it was
like 10,000 studies.
Um, and they showed thatexercise how exercise has an
impact on volumetrics, on brainvolumes.
Cool.
You know, just validating againthat over and over again that
these lifestyle interventionshave a huge impact on cognitive
(25:32):
function, on brain health as weage.
Yeah, for sure.
Dr. Lauren Young (25:35):
Um Yeah, it's it's exciting how much is
happening in this arena.
Um, and uh the validating whatwe already know as naturopathic
physicians always feels good,right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Burkman (25:45):
I think it's cool that you mentioned.
Oh go ahead, sorry.
No, no, no, go ahead.
Um, about the caregiver, andlike that would have been an
interesting piece to havebecause I've looked at some of
the research on that, and thecaregiver is at risk for
cognitive decline and evenAlzheimer's specifically because
of the stress and their lack ofsleep and lack of self-care.
So I think it's really a coolexperience to have a
marama-at-home experience forthe whole family because it's
(26:07):
not just for a patient, it's forthe whole family.
Everyone could use some of thistype of medicine.
Dr. Heather Sandison (26:12):
Without a doubt, yeah, the data suggests
that care partners who care forsomeone with Alzheimer's are
anywhere from two and a half tosix times more likely to be
diagnosed with diet withdementia later in their life.
And the highest risk is in amale uh husband of a woman who
is suffering with dementia.
So we whenever we have someonejoin the coaching program or
(26:33):
come into the clinic, we alwaysare considering that the care
partner is also our patient andthat their their sus the
sustainability, sustainabilityis one of our core values for
us, for patients, forcaregivers, because it is such a
hard job and it's a marathon,not a sprint.
And so it's, you know, Irecommend every caregiver, even
(26:55):
if they don't think they needit, take eight hours a week,
hopefully continuously.
Maybe it's in four-hour blocks,you know, for negotiating.
But ideally, it's an eight-hourblock that they have to
themselves where they don't talkabout dementia, they don't,
they don't care for grandkids,they don't care for anybody,
they just get their exercise,they eat good food, they see
their friends, they have anidentity outside of caregiving.
(27:15):
And then, yeah, when whenthey're engaging in the in the
diet and the exercise and allthe lifestyle pieces, instead of
being like, oh, she needs it,but I I can still have my cake
and cookies, you know, we reallytry to emphasize, like, no,
everybody's gonna be moresuccessful if we have if we're
all on the same team and allkind of doing the same same
stuff.
Dr. Lauren Young (27:35):
I love that.
I love that.
Um, yeah, you know, we we had asimilar conversation with Terry
Wall.
She said the same thing.
Like, I mean, realistically,this is good medicine for
everyone in the family.
So I love that for sure.
Um so I know I want to just,you know, we're talking about
when you go and see a Bredisonprovider, just give a cursory
overview of the kind ofexperience for a patient to go
(27:58):
see someone who is trained inkind of these this approach.
What kind of testing would theyexpect?
What kind of things would theywant to think about, that type
of thing?
Dr. Heather Sandison (28:09):
Yeah, so there's different levels.
And Dr.
Bettison works with ApolloHealth.
Um, and they you can basicallydo this through like AI, right
through them without necessarilyhaving a provider.
You can get labs done throughthem, and then it'll give you an
AI printout of the type ofAlzheimer's you have.
Like, is it more toxic?
Is it more, you know, uhresource insufficiency?
(28:30):
Like what what type of is itmore inflammatory?
And you can use that definitelyto get started.
I think that's a great, really,really valuable resource.
And then if you want to see aprovider, you know, not
providers do this with differentdegrees of enthusiasm.
So um get get a referral.
But health coaches, I think,are actually one of the best
(28:51):
kept secrets.
You know, a health coach is awonderful way to, I mean, talk
about bang for your buck becauseagain, the foundations are so
crucial.
So I wouldn't want anyone toshow up to a naturopath or a
Bredison trained provider anddrop three to five thousand
dollars on lab testing,functional lab testing, if
they're not eating well, ifthey're not getting exercise, if
they're not getting greatsleep, get those foundational
(29:14):
pieces.
If they're not socializing,right, get the everything.
If you're gonna do detox, ifyou're gonna do hormone
supplementation andoptimization, if you're gonna
kill any bugs, all that stuff,all that intervention work that
the Nash Path or the BredisonTrain provider is gonna help you
with, it's gonna work so muchbetter in the context of the
that foundational lifestylepiece being in place already.
(29:35):
So I highly recommend doingdoing as much as you can on your
own first.
But a lot of people need moresupport than that.
So I'll I'll just speak fromour how we do it.
So a patient comes in and likeI saw a prevention patient
yesterday.
It was really fun.
She her mom has Alzheimer'sright now, she's living in a
(29:56):
care home with her dad, and shehas ApoE.
And she's 60 years old.
She's noticing some smallchanges, like she has to keep
track of her calendar a littlemore closely.
She's having struggling withnames and words a little bit
more than she used to, but she'sdefinitely subjective, right?
We're not picking up anythingwe can measure in terms of her
(30:16):
decline.
But I'm gonna spend 90 minuteswith her collecting information
about her risk factors, hermodifiable risk factors as
defined by the Lancet Commissionreport.
And then I'm also askingdetailed questions about her
diet, her exercise, her bowelmovements, her sleep, her stress
levels, and where that comesfrom, toxic exposure, infectious
(30:37):
exposure, right?
We're going deep into a lot ofthose things.
And typically people have, youknow, you know, there's UTIs
that they get recurrently orsomething, herpes uh outbreaks,
or something that they getrecurrently that we want to
optimize to reduce thatneuroinflammation.
So we went through that processand then the labs that we do,
(30:57):
so through Apollo, you'll getthings that you can get at
LabCorp and Quest.
Now I like to look a littledeeper, and these things can
cost money, but here's I knowvery well how much memory care
costs.
It can run you $8,000 to$15,000 a month, right?
So if we spend three to fivethousand dollars on some lab
work where we really understandwhat might be the drivers or the
(31:19):
smoking guns when it comes toneurodegeneration, we might
actually be saving, like even ifwe just delay going into memory
care for six months.
Like you, we you're it's a goodROI.
It's a great return on theinvestment of the labs, right?
So, and then there's thesupplements and everything.
We got to treat it and retest.
But what we budgeted for ourclinical trial participants was
(31:39):
$25,000 for six months.
We didn't use that much foranybody.
The most that we spent was$19,000 for an extremely
complicated patient who got aton of IVs.
So that's with cash pay for allthe labs.
And that, you know, that priceis huge.
A lot of, you know, for a lotof people, that's just not
accessible.
(32:00):
And I, you know, I wish thatinsurance covered all of this.
I think that this should beaccessible because I think it
reduces the cost long term forpeople.
However, when you're doing themath, oftentimes spending that
is a lot less than what it costsfor memory care or even
assisted living.
And for getting care into yourhome, like one-on-one care, that
(32:22):
is that just gets exorbitantlyexpensive.
So people can spend $20,000,$30,000 a month having someone
come to the home.
So the lab testing that we dois again, I break it down into
these different categories: toxins, nutrients, stressors, (32:35):
undefined
structure, signaling, andinfections.
So toxins I think of in threeflavors.
We have our mycotoxins, ourheavy metals, and then our
chemical toxins, theenvironmental pollutants,
including glyphosate and usuallypetrochemicals, styrene,
benzene, that kind of thing.
So we look at all of those andwe're looking to stop the
exposure and then to abuse thebinders, you know, where we can
(32:58):
use specific binders that arepreferentially bind the toxin
that you have.
We we do that too.
So we're looking to get thoseout into a minimum.
And then with nutrients, we runa nutrient panel and look for,
you know, you genetically, youbecause of the burdens that you
have in your body, because ofyour age, because of what's
going on, you might need moreantioxidants or B vitamins or
(33:19):
minerals or whatever it is.
And so we're looking fornutrient balance.
Now you can have too littlenutrients, but you can also have
too much sugar.
It's one of the things that wewe see is often connected to
dementia and Alzheimer's.
Sometimes you'll hear peoplecolloquially say, oh,
Alzheimer's is type 3 diabetes.
And that certainly we see thatelevated blood sugar, elevated
(33:42):
weight, elevated blood pressureare modifiable risk factors when
it comes to dementia.
The vast majority of mypatients don't have diabetes,
right?
But still have dementia, right?
So you what we don't want to dois say that all dementia is
caused by herpes or all dementiais caused by diabetes.
Every dementia patient has adifferent path that they took.
And what we want to do isunderstand what path took you to
(34:05):
age-related memory loss, and sothat we can sort of unravel
that and and support neuronalfunction.
So we're looking for imbalancesin nutrients, we're looking for
imbalances and stressors.
We talked about the stress ofcaregiving.
We run cortisol levels, we dosalivary cortisol levels.
And what we're looking for hereis that you have enough purpose
(34:25):
and meaning to get up and outof bed and show up for
something, right?
But that you aren't sooverwhelmed and burdened by
stress that you are are fallingapart, right?
And you need enough movementand exercise, but not too much.
We we want that hormeticeffect, right?
We want to stress the system sothat there's more resilience,
but we don't want it leading tofrailty or decompensation.
(34:47):
So it's that balance that we'relooking for when it comes to
stressors.
Um, and and fasting, right?
Having a fasting-mimicking dietis a type of stressor in some
ways, but it's a good stressor.
So we want to we want to flexthe muscle and create resilience
without decompensating.
And then when it comes to um,so we've talked about toxins,
(35:07):
nutrients, stressors, structure.
So with structure, we want it'sI think of it like plumbing,
right?
We need we need enough airthrough the airway to get oxygen
to our lungs so that we canmake sure that our brain has
oxygen at night when we sleep inparticular.
So here we're looking forobstructive sleep apnea, we're
looking for plaques that wouldkeep, you know, anything that's
gonna keep blood flow from thebrain, we wanna understand.
(35:30):
Also, you know, if your hipbone's not connected to your leg
bone and you have sci, right,and you have sciatica, this is
chronic pain, it can keep youfrom sleeping.
It's a it's a chronic stressor.
So we're asking questions aboutchronic pain and about um, you
know, anything thatstructurally, the way a
chiropractor or an orthopedistmight think about it, we want to
(35:50):
understand that and how thatmight be playing a role in
either preventing blood flow orimpinging nerves, creating pain,
creating more stress and or orinterfering with the ability to
exercise or sleep or engage inlife.
Then the other structuralcomponent that's kind of macro,
so the micro structure isgenetics.
There's the genetics, uh, weall for people who have family
(36:11):
members under 60 who have had orunder 65 who have had severe
dementias, which we see, youknow, uh I mean that's who comes
to us sometimes, unfortunately.
But we're looking for the earlyonset Alzheimer's genetics,
which include APP or amyloidprecursor protein, and then
Prisillin 1 and 2.
(36:31):
Those are relatively rare.
Um, and so we're we're lookingfor them only in certain
patients.
The one that we more commonlyare looking for is ApoE, APOE,
apolipoprotein E as an elephant.
And what we see is that peoplewho have a copy, one or two
copies of APOE4 from mom or dador both have a much higher risk
(36:56):
of developing dementia in theirlifetime.
And so we need to be proactive.
We need to be more proactiveabout prevention.
So that's structure signaling.
We're looking at sex hormones,thyroid hormones, BDNF, like
what are all the signals, right?
We want to get out of the,excuse me, we want to get out of
the fight, fight, freeze,defend attack mode and into the
(37:17):
connection mode, into that rest,digest, heal state at the
neuronal level.
So at the in the in the brain,we think of the microglia.
When we're activatingmicroglia, this is part of that
cascade that leads to amyloidand tau.
What we want to do is we wantto send signals that tell the
microglia, the immune system ofthe brain, you can calm down.
You don't need to attack, youdon't need to defend.
(37:38):
What we want to do is createsignals that help with
connection, synaptic connectionto create new connections in the
brain.
So that BDNF brain-derivednootrophic factor, which
exercise helps a lot with that,whole coffee bean extract can
help with that, no tropicformulas can help with this, but
we want to be sending thosesignals, which include
testosterone, estrogen,progesterone, pregnant alone,
(37:59):
DHEA, thyroid, vitamin D,vitamin K, all of these are
hormones that basically signalto the brain to be in growth
connection mode.
And then with infections, thesewe want to look for.
There's, if you Google H.
pylori and dementia, you willfind that there's a PubMed
article out there connectingthem.
What we essentially want to dois reduce infectious burden.
(38:20):
But there's five or six herethat are more connected to
cognitive decline and moreconsistently connected to
cognitive impairment andAlzheimer's and that microglial
activation than others.
And viruses, especially theviruses that live in the nervous
system, like HSV1 inparticular, which causes cold
sores, that has a connection.
And a lot of these have beenfound basically on autopsies in
(38:43):
the amyloid plaques and tangles.
We see that thesemicroorganisms are there.
And essentially what'shappening is that amyloid and
tau are antimicrobial.
They're there to protect us,they're there to wall these off
so that the rest of our brainisn't affected.
And so we see that there's likean upregulation to protect the
brain.
The brain is not sterile,right?
(39:03):
There's uh Dr.
Redison has actually beentalking recently about like the
um the brain biome, right?
That there is that this ideathat there are probably some
good bugs that enter the brain,and then there's others that are
going to activate themicroglia.
So HSV1, P.
gingivalis associated withgingivitis, and some of the
other gingivis,gingivitis-associated bacteria
are more associated.
(39:25):
And then shingles.
So we see that when people havethe shingles vaccine, that they
there was a great study out ofthe UK and Wales.
It was done in Wales wherepeople who were born one week
got the shingles, you know, theywere gonna turn 80 some or 70
on, you know, one day if theylike separated them, right?
So there were people born aweek apart, and some of them got
(39:46):
the sh people born the weekearlier got the shingles shot,
and the people were born theweek later, I think it might be
the opposite.
Sorry, I'm doing a terrible jobdescribing this.
Essentially, there were twogroups who were very, very
similar in age.
Some of them got the shinglesshot and some of them didn't.
And they saw seven years laterthe people who got the shingles
um vaccine were 20% less likelyto be diagnosed with dementia.
(40:07):
Um, and that is consistent.
We see that with the shingrixvaccine in the US, that 18% less
likelihood to get dementia.
So those um, you know,vaccines, it depends on the
person and the body.
There's no one right answer foreveryone.
That's a whole ordeal.
(40:28):
But the data suggests thatreducing viral burden is does
reduce basically inflammation inthe brain.
And then the other one is Imean, COVID, COVID is a pretty
different mechanism.
This is essentially the ideahere is that it's reducing blood
flow through the arterialsystem, that that their blood
(40:48):
becomes more hypercoagulable,more sticky, if you will, and
that we're not getting as muchperfusion.
And if when you have reducedperfusion, you're gonna end up
with atrophy, you're gonna endup with dysregulation.
So we usually use a differentum, instead of being really
aggressively antiviral, we'll bemore interested in like how do
we reduce cytokines and how dowe increase perfusion?
(41:09):
And then the other one is theyou guys are on the East Coast
is uh the tick-borne diseases.
For sure.
Um, spirochetes, limespirochetes have been found in
the brains of people withAlzheimer's.
So and you know, neurosyphilis, neurolime, this is
well documented.
So um, and we see RichieHorwit, Horwitz, um, he has
(41:29):
documented cases of people whoare suffering with m age-related
memory impairment who haveimproved with treatment of
Bartonella libesia and andborrelia.
So something to keep in mindand something that we test for.
So we test for all thesethings, the you know, there's a
test for each of these things.
So that's essentially whatwe're doing is we're trying to
systematically go through eachof these risk factors and and re
(41:52):
you know, reduce them, turnthem off.
Dr. Lauren Young (41:55):
Yeah, yeah.
Um, thank you so much forwalking us through all of that.
I think it's it like reallyspeaks to the depth that you go
into every individual and reallylook at what is going on with
them, kind of like you had said,but this really brings us
through the whole piece of it.
Um, it's really helpful.
I didn't mention the stooltest.
Oh my god.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
We love our microbiome in ourbrain, right?
(42:16):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, there's so much coolmedicine out there, and I love
how organized you guys are withlooking at the whole piece of
it.
And again, coming back to thoselike foundational pieces that
just need to be there.
Because if you're not usingyour foremunctories, then like
where can you go from there typeof thing.
So um there were five.
What's the fifth one?
(42:38):
Wait, urination, defecation,perspiration, respiration.
What uh what's the other one?
Dr. Heather Sandison (42:43):
Wait, okay.
Maybe I think of them, I thinkof them as organs, but I think
liver, lungs, skin, and lymphand bowels.
Oh, okay.
Dr. Lauren Young (42:54):
This is fun.
I like yours.
Oh, yeah.
Oh well, and now we're gonna bethe little takeaways.
I love it.
I'm gonna I'm gonna leteverybody know, I'm gonna think
about the the five versus thefour now.
Dr. Heather Sandison (43:10):
The way you said it, like respiration
defecation.
I I like it has like a ring toit.
I want to do, I want to takeyours.
Dr. Lauren Young (43:16):
Well, thank you for that swap today.
That's great.
unknown (43:20):
Dr.
Dr. Lauren Young (43:21):
Sanderson, this has been um so enlightening
but inspiring too.
Like you really are a brightlight in the community for
people who are staring at ascary diagnosis, you know.
So from a Rama at home throughto Rama in person to your
clinic, um, thank you foreverything you're doing for the
community.
It's really exciting.
And thank you for your timehere today.
Um, I do want to make sure wegive our listeners a plug for
(43:43):
your new upcoming podcastbecause I know I'll be listening
to it if you want to speak toit really quickly.
Dr. Heather Sandison (43:48):
Yeah, I think we'll age well is our new
podcast.
Uh, I'm just I'm having theconversations that I want to
have.
I'm basically interviewingpeople over 70 who I want to be
when I grow up and learning fromtheir wisdom and experience how
to age gracefully, how to agewell, not to not to like resist
aging, but really to lean intothose years, those golden years
and make them the best yet.
(44:09):
I love it.
Dr. Lauren Young (44:10):
I love it.
This overall goal of likesustainable living your best is
just a great message foreverybody.
So thanks, Dr.
Sandison, Dr.
Berkman, for your time today.
To all our listeners, thank youfor tuning in to your health
toolkit.
We absolutely love talkingabout health and wellness.
So if you have a question or atopic idea, please find us
online at ctnaturalhealth.com oron social media.
(44:31):
Until next time, it's me, Dr.
Lauren Young, wishing you thebest in health, happiness, and
longevity.
Hi there, welcome to your health toolkit.
I'm Dr.
Lauren Young and I'm Dr.
Ashley Berkman.
Dr.
Berkman and I have been workingtogether for over a decade at
Collaborative Natural HealthPartners.
We've decided to put together abrand new series all around
neurology.
Dr. Ashley Burkman (00:15):
Yes, thanks so much for inviting me to be
part of this series.
Brain and nervous system healthis something I care deeply
about, both in my work and mypersonal life.
I see many patients whonavigate through tough diagnoses
like Parkinson's, MS,Alzheimer's, either for
themselves or for someone theylove, and it can feel like a
lot.
Dr. Lauren Young (00:31):
So over this series of episodes, we're going
to be bringing you guysspecialists from around the
country on functional neurologyand integrative medicine to
explore what's really going onwith nervous systems and brains
and what we can actually doabout it.
Dr. Ashley Burkman (00:43):
These conversations with these experts
have been eye-opening, veryinspiring, and we can't wait to
share them with all of you.
So let's dive in.
Dr. Lauren Young (00:51):
Hi there, and welcome to your health toolkit.
I'm Dr.
Lauren Young, and we're sothrilled for you to be joining
us today for our Brain Healthseries.
So far, we've exploredheart-brain connections and how
to power up your brain cells bysupporting your mitochondria.
And today we're going to bediving into looking at memory,
brain fog, and how to supportsomeone with dementia or
Alzheimer's, or even talk aboutprevention for yourself.
(01:12):
This conversation is going togive you a lot of clarity and
hope.
And then I'm honored also toinvite Dr.
Heather Sanderson to theconversation.
Dr.
Sanderson is a naturopathicphysician and founder of Silcere
Health Clinic and Morama, aresidential memory care facility
in San Diego, California.
She is a leading voice in theefforts to reverse cognitive
(01:33):
decline naturally, and her workintegrates cutting-edge
research, functional medicine,and compassion to help patients
not only improve but thrive.
So, Dr.
Sandison, Dr.
Berkman, welcome to your healthtoolkit.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah.
So we're all naturopathicphysicians here practicing
functional medicine and reallyknow that all conditions have
(01:53):
multiple layers to them andaspects to them.
One thing that's really awesomeabout what you're doing is your
clinic and everything thatyou're encompassing really shows
a lot of different roadmaps tohow cognitive decline happens
and how we can reverse it.
Do you want to speak to thosepaths and kind of your
experience in the clinic?
Dr. Heather Sandison (02:13):
Yeah, so basically I practice what Dr.
Bredison has been talking aboutfor many years.
He wrote his book, The End ofAlzheimer's, in 2017.
It was a New York Timesbestseller instantly, and I felt
super fortunate that right ashis book was launching, I was
there doing the training withhim.
And then when I got back intoclinical practice after getting
(02:34):
the training and I saw miracleshappen before my eyes.
I was a skeptic, like you, I'msure I learned in school there
was nothing that we could do forsomeone struggling with
Alzheimer's.
And then when Dr.
I saw Dr.
Bettison talk at an IMMHconference before I did his
training, I was like, this makessense.
Like even though I've been toldthis can't happen, this is an
impossibility.
(02:55):
What he's telling me isbasically stacking all of
naturopathic medicine, all offunctional medicine, doing it
all, getting the toxins out, youknow, getting the hormones
balanced, optimizing the gut andnutrients, getting the toxins
and the infectious burden down,all of balancing for stress and
treating, you know, establishingthe conditions for health,
right?
All of our tenets ofnaturopathic medicine.
(03:17):
When we add all those up, youactually do get better neuronal
function, which and bettercognitive function.
And, you know, this was like alight bulb went off for me.
I was like, well, maybe we'llgo see.
Like maybe he's there, he's onto something here.
I don't know.
If I could treat Alzheimer's,then you know, everything else
is cake.
So I went to the training andthen I went back into practice
(03:38):
and I watched it work.
Like despite my hesitation andmy skepticism, people were
getting better.
And then, so the essentiallythe Bredison approach, again, is
applying functional andnaturopathic medicine to the
brain.
And so there's nuances, youknow, we of course need to
understand more the medicationsand the testing that are
specific to this.
But essentially, what we'relooking for is how do we
(04:00):
establish health?
How do we establish thoseconditions for health in the
brain?
So we're getting it.
I think of what we're lookingfor are imbalances, right?
Too much, too little in thewrong place at the wrong time.
And potentially we can applythat sort of concept whenever
there's a complex system, thebrain being one of them, right?
But any education systems andpolitical systems and financial
(04:22):
systems, any complex system inthe world, you can apply this
sort of framework to that.
It's imbalance causingdysfunction, dysregulation.
And so what we want is tocreate, you know, function.
And we do that by supportingbalance in the system.
So in the case of the brain, Iwould argue that there's six
causal level factors.
So a lot of people will say,oh, well, all of dementia is
(04:45):
caused by inflammation.
I say, well, with that, thatbegs the question, what caused
the inflammation, right?
So how that's where we want toplay is at that primary causal
level, not the secondary andtertiary cascade, which is where
I would put like amyloid andtau.
This is the cascade that isthat is a response to some
(05:06):
perturbation, some imbalance inthe system.
So these six causal levelfactors that we're looking at in
a medical setting are toxins,nutrients, stressors, structure,
signaling, and infections.
And when we can understandwhat's going on for a particular
individual in these differentcategories, then we can treat
(05:28):
more precisely, right?
So it's a precisionmedicine-based approach.
We can, you know, some oneperson will have traumatic brain
injuries and diabetes andgenetic predisposition, right?
That's their molecularstructure, has an imbalance.
And somebody else, it doesn'thave any of those things, right?
But they have super high toxicburden and they have some
(05:49):
infectious burden, they haveLyme disease and herpes and P.
gingivalis, and that is theirpicture.
And those are very differenttreatment paths, and they're not
mutually exclusive, right?
You could have all of thosethings.
And some people who are older,like they've had a lifetime to
collect all this stuff, right?
So that's the medicine piece.
And then what we see over andover again is that, again, this
(06:13):
ethos from naturopathicmedicine.
I we were just chatting about,I had been, I was at AAMP and
Louise Edwards gave thiswonderful talk.
And she kept saying over andover again, okay, what is our
essential job, our number onejob as naturopathic doctors?
And she had 300 people in theaudience like saying out loud,
establish conditions for health.
Establish conditions forhealth.
(06:33):
You know, so Mirama was bornout of the we had, we were
creating sort of a reputation inSan Diego for helping people
with cognitive decline.
And yet it takes work, right?
It's hard to change your diet,to change your exercise routine,
to socialize more.
I mean, it's a full-time job,and it's hard for people with
(06:56):
full cognitive capacity, letalone those who are slipping.
And so I was getting theseinquiries.
Hey, my uncle, my dad, my momhas been diagnosed with dementia
or is on this slippery slidetowards Alzheimer's, and I want
them doing everything that youand Dr.
Bettison are talking about, butI can't do it all myself.
Where do I send them?
(07:16):
And so that was the concept ofMorama, which was a fully
immersive, is a fully immersiveexperience in Dr.
Bettison's approach.
It's the lifestyle, it's thatfoundational lifestyle cake,
right?
The icing is all the testing,the functional medicine testing
and the supplements and thetreatment and the hormones and
the prescriptions.
But just getting the diet, theexercise, the socialization, the
(07:38):
creative engagement, the funand the joy and a non-toxic
environment, all of those thingsand people around you who think
that you're going to getbetter, who expect you to
improve.
That is what we do at Morama.
So um that was really fun andwonderful and exciting.
We opened that uh in March of2020, the week before the world
(07:59):
shut down, which is a totallydifferent story.
But it was, it was actually inretrospect, it was wonderful.
It slowed us down.
We got a really good team, wehad time to train people, and um
it was it was actually a reallywonderful experience in
retrospect.
It was challenging gettingthrough it.
But the other thing thathappened kind of with COVID
happening at the same time, aswell as um, you know, just
(08:23):
people's feedback that we getalong the way trying to create
solutions for those who arestruggling with dementia in
their families or it orpersonally, is I don't want my
mom to move to California.
I want her to be here with me.
I don't want to separate frommy husband.
I want him here with me.
I'm gonna take the best care ofhim.
And I we're not ready for himto be in memory care.
And so then from that was bornour coaching program, where
(08:46):
essentially we coach 25 peopleat a time who are all over the
country, all over the world, infact, and we help them create
Mirama at home.
This the environment, the diet,the exercise, and we we talk
through it, we talk through thestruggles, we share resources,
and we kind of teach the um thecomponents that are in the book
and in my book, ReversingAlzheimer's and in Dr.
(09:07):
Madison's books.
Dr. Lauren Young (09:09):
That sounds amazing.
Yeah, the Mirama piece ofthings just sounds so um
blissful and magical.
Can you walk me through a dayof what it looks like for a
patient living there?
Dr. Heather Sandison (09:19):
Yeah, so the whole day is designed around
how to you know optimize foryour brain health.
The priority is to be doingsomething that that supports
your brain at any given awakemoment, right?
And even when you're sleeping.
So residents have breakfastaround eight, and with that, the
staff manages all theirsupplements and medications.
(09:39):
So at breakfast, anythingthat's and even before
breakfast, if you're on thyroidor something on an empty
stomach, they'll bring it to youin your room.
And the rooms each have onspeed.
So the Morama where we havespace right now is in Kansas,
it's in Wichita, Kansas, andit's a beautiful, beautiful
community.
It's got 16 rooms around twokind of living rooms.
(10:00):
So there's eight, eight, uh,eight rooms around two larger
living, communal living spaces,and then in the middle is the
kitchen and also a big sunroomwhere we have our brain gym.
So eight o'clock is whenbreakfast starts, and everybody
convenes around the table in themiddle and has an organic
ketogenic breakfast that isprepared by Chef Damien who
cooks.
He always says, I cook from theheart.
(10:21):
It's so fun, and his food is sodelicious.
Um, and so there's breakfast,and then after breakfast,
typically they're going for awalk.
So if the weather's good,they'll be outside.
If it's not, they have a bigum, it's like a basically a
track upstairs around there's alibrary, and it's um it's a big
vaulted ceiling, and there'slike a loop around that they can
(10:42):
do and inside if there's ifit's too hot or too cold
outside.
And then after that, there's ameditation.
Um, so after the walk, theymeditate for 15 to 20 minutes.
Usually we do the kirtan kriya.
Um, and then by that time, it'susually snack time, and there's
a green juice or some kind ofyummy organic keto snack.
And then after that, typicallywe're getting into some sort of
(11:04):
creative activity.
So whether it's uh, you know,there's a holiday coming up,
there will be something relatedto that, making gifts around
Christmas or Valentine's Day,um, there's puzzles, there's
things that are challenging.
A lot of this is dependent onhow, you know, where on the
spectrum someone is with theircognitive impairment and what
their personal interests are.
(11:24):
So we have one gentleman who isvery interested in theology and
um he and and in personaldevelopment.
He was a therapist as aprofession, and um he reads, he
loves to read.
So he doesn't always remembereverything that he's read, but
he takes notes, and that's whathe's interested in.
(11:45):
Whereas other women are tend tobe more interested in the
crafts and you know, makingChristmas ornaments or you know,
making cards to send home tofamily or doing collages and
putting photo albums.
We'll have families send photosthat we can then they can put
photo albums together and likename people and talk about their
memories together.
So we have different activitieslike that that are seasonal and
(12:09):
you know, tactile.
We want to engage senses wherethere's smell and taste and it's
a lot of cooking.
There's a lot of involvement incooking, getting sauces
together and doing things likethat with Damien.
He gets them involved.
And then after lunch in theafternoon, um typically while
they're digesting, we'll go backto that.
It's kind of finishing offwhatever the creative activity
(12:30):
is.
We have this really neat thingcalled Balavisex, which is where
you have a red and a blue ball,and the goal is to like bounce
them in unison and it makes thisnoise.
And so everybody there isbasically like bouncing right,
left.
Um, they even throw them backand forth to each other.
It sometimes it's just this achaotic mess, but it usually
(12:51):
everybody's laughing and it'sfun, and it helps with balance
and with coordination and memoryto remember which one you're
meant to drop and catch and allthese things.
So that one's really fun.
And then there's the brain gymin the afternoon.
Um so usually around 2:30,they're headed into the brain
gym where there's a circuit, asauna, there's the exercising
with oxygen um component.
(13:13):
There is a we have a biomat,which I I had one, and we put it
over there because we hadsomebody who was pretty anxious
back in 2020, like early on, andthey loved it.
And we noticed it was good forposture because it relaxes the
muscles in the back.
It's kind of this firm mat thatheats up.
And we noticed that peoplewould like calm, they would be
(13:36):
really calm, it puts them in aparasympathetic state, and then
they would walk more uprightwhen they got up because I think
it was just relaxing muscles,postural muscles.
So that we've we've never letthat go.
We've basically like doubleddown, and now we have two of
them because it's the favoritespot.
So we use red light therapy, weuse V light, which is uh a red
light specific for the brain,and then we also have Juve
(13:58):
lights that are that are morewhole body.
So we have had a hyperbaricchamber kind of go back and
forth on that.
We always have a rowing machineand a and a bike and weight,
some you know, um lightweightsand bands and things like that,
so that we can do PT exercisesdepending on what's going on for
people.
So we have an activitiescoordinator who takes people
(14:19):
through that whole circuit.
And then usually everybody'sready for a nap after that.
Uh and then there's dinner, anddinner's all all the meals are
organic and ketogenic.
And after dinner, it'stypically playing cards, doing
puzzles, kind of winding down,listening to music.
We have had residents who willplay music for everyone.
(14:39):
That's really fun.
Um, and Uno uh is a favorite,bananagrams is another favorite,
so just kind of depending onthe interests of the of the
group, we'll do games and stufflike that.
And then tea.
There's fasting for three hoursbefore bed.
Dr. Ashley Burkman (14:57):
Awesome.
I will say, with um personalexperience, I used to work as a
CNA in a memory care unit umthrough high school and um
undergrad.
And it was my very favoritewhenever a family member would
come in and they would tell us,like, oh, you know, they were
really into this, or you learnabout their life.
Because I as a CNA I didn'thave wasn't pervy to their
charts.
I was just there to care forthem.
And it was so much fun to liketalk about something that they
(15:19):
liked, and they would just allof a sudden light up and just
like want to share that withyou.
And so it's cool that you guysincorporate that because taking
on what somebody remembers andknows, it was just interesting
to see how it's like, wow, youreally you need help with all
this, but you totally know allthis other stuff.
It's awesome.
Dr. Heather Sandison (15:33):
It's so fun.
We we go down to the garden andwe have this one resident
Roxana, and she, you know, shestruggled with short-term memory
loss.
She did actually did a lotbetter at Mirama.
Um, but we would take her downto the garden and she would be
like, oh no, the marigolds needto be here because they need to
be next to this, because that'show you keep the bugs away.
And you have to have geraniumsif we're gonna be planting that.
And it was like, I was like, ohmy gosh, like you're just a
(15:54):
gardening expert.
And she just felt so she'scontributing, she's part of it.
And then, you know, she wantsto take everybody down there to
see what sprouted and to harvestthings and then make sure that
they're in the meals thatthey're preparing.
I mean, it's really there's somuch life to live.
And I think that's thechallenge with society these
(16:15):
days is we think of these peopleas like they're just sort of
neglected, right?
Like, oh, life is just goingdownhill.
Poor them.
They're so sick, they're notpart of they can't contribute,
there's nothing they can do,it's so much work.
But actually, there's like somuch life to live there.
There's so much joy to be hadin connection.
It just takes a littlecuriosity and a little bit of
(16:36):
effort to figure out how toconnect with that person as
their brain changes.
Dr. Ashley Burkman (16:40):
It's so amazing.
Because I feel like disabilityin general just kind of gets put
into that box of like, you'redisabled, you're broken, there's
nothing you can do, when it'squite the opposite.
So it's such a cool story tohear about the gardening.
Dr. Lauren Young (16:52):
And and honestly, uh, neurology across
the board, right?
Like there's just this likethere's it's kind of why we
decided to put this together.
It's just there's this like,oh, well, there's not much to be
done, just go down this path.
And so it's so exciting to hearabout that.
And really, you know, it's itsounds like a beautiful, simple
day that could happen at any umlike nursing facility, but then
infused with all theseprinciples and paths that are
(17:14):
bringing you this greatdirection, like right, the
ketogenic diet and making surewe're using all our all our
monctories are going and andgetting all that movement and
stuff.
It's uh really awesome, reallyawesome.
Dr. Heather Sandison (17:25):
Um Yeah, I think the issue, the challenge
is it's labor, right?
It's it requires a lot ofpeople to keep everyone engaged.
It's very easy to have someonejust like walk off and go to
their room and take a nap.
And sometimes people are tiredand they need to take a nap,
right?
We're not abusive.
Um but we if you have anenthusiastic cheerleader who's
(17:47):
like, all right, who's ready toget into this?
And they know, right?
They know how to personallyconnect and what's gonna light
someone up, they can keep peopleplaying the game.
They can keep them doing it,but that takes creativity, it
takes effort, it takesenthusiasm.
And so you can't just havesomeone who's there to sit on
their phone, right?
(18:07):
That's not and and so you gottapay a little bit more and you
have to have more people becauseit's exhausting, but it it can
be done.
Dr. Lauren Young (18:16):
But I love the idea of an Amarama at home
because again, a big piece ofall of that is really what
you're giving, which is hope,and like telling people, no,
this doesn't have to be theanswer.
There are options and there aretools, and we're gonna give
them to you.
So that sounds so awesome.
Um we're gonna take a quickbreak, but when we come back,
we're gonna dive into more ofthese specifics and your
experiences and stuff.
(18:36):
And Dr.
Sanderson, this has been soenlightening and inspiring.
So thank you so much.
We'll be right back.
If you're a fan of this show,you'll know we talk a lot about
conventional and naturopathicmedicine and how they can play a
role in your overall health.
We call this collaborativemedicine.
And through the work we do atCollaborative Natural Health
Partners, we're able to givepeople the knowledge and tools
they need to feel great everysingle day.
(18:56):
If you're interested inlearning more, head over to our
website, ctnaturalhealth.com,where you'll find articles,
courses, and a bunch ofresources to take the guesswork
out of your health.
Don't wait for your nextcheckup.
The doctor will see you now.
Welcome back.
Um, we are here on your healthtoolkit with uh Dr.
(19:17):
Sandison and Dr.
Berkman talking about rootcauses of memory uh loss and
cognitive decline and what wecan really do about it.
So we just had this greatexperience at Morama with you,
which is awesome to experience aday there.
Um, just really, again, goingafter that foundational um
lifestyle medicine for sure.
Uh so now I want to do a deeperdive into just the research and
(19:40):
the the science and themedicine that you're doing with
people who are coming to you forall this.
Dr. Heather Sandison (19:47):
Sure.
So the research, it's helpfulto have sort of a timeline, I
guess.
So in 2014, Dr.
Bredison published the firstcase series.
It was a 10-case series thatshowed people were recovering
their age-related memory loss.
And then in 2017, there was ahundred participants, excuse me,
not a hundred participants, ahundred person case series
(20:09):
published.
So it was a larger case series,essentially establishing the
that this was happening, thatthere this was a pattern that we
were seeing and able tomeasure.
And then in 2022, he publishedwith Kat Toops is the lead
author on the a trial publishedin the Journal of Alzheimer's
disease in July of 2022 thattook 25 participants through a
(20:33):
nine-month intervention.
So they had baseline testingand then testing throughout the
process and then nine-monthtesting.
They could compared before andafter.
So this was a feasibilitytrial, and there was no control
group.
It was just 25 participantsbefore and after testing.
And what they saw was that 84%of their participants improved
after nine months.
(20:54):
And they took participants withMOCA scores down to 19.
So a MOCA is the MontrealCognitive Assessment, and so
it's a blunt tool, but it's likemany people have probably seen
it.
It's a one-page PDF where youidentify zoo animals, tell
people where you are in time andspace, do some math that's
actually kind of hard.
And then you get a number outof 30.
30 out of 30 is perfect, 26 andabove is normal.
(21:15):
And these participants who werein that trial only could go
down to a 19.
So it was quite more mildcognitive impairment.
And um 84% of them in ninemonths got better.
In 2023, we were able topublish our trial, which was
very similar.
We took participants with MOCAscores between 12 and 23, and we
(21:38):
did not exclude people with adiagnosis of Alzheimer's.
So we had more progressedpatients, and we had 23 of them
complete a six-monthintervention.
So it was more progressedparticipants, and we had a
six-month intervention insteadof a nine-month intervention,
but it it essentially replicatedwhat they had done, which was a
(21:58):
clinical experience.
Like what do people experiencewhen they go in to see a Gretzen
trained provider practicingthis sort of functional
naturopathic medicine?
And we had 74% of ourparticipants improve.
We had statisticallysignificant increases in memory,
overall composite cognition, inMOCA scores.
We used Cambridge BrainScience's battery of cognitive
(22:19):
testing for our testing tobecause the MOCA isn't really
appropriate for doing before andafter testing.
It's just not a good enoughinstrument.
And then we also hadstatistically significant
improvements across the mean inuh quality of life and sleep.
So this was, and I wish that wehad tested the care partners,
right, the spouses, because theyalso report improvements in
(22:41):
quality of life.
So these are two studies thatwere done in 2022, 2023, both
published in the Journal ofAlzheimer's Disease.
Then a year later, in June of2024, Dean Ornish published his
trial, which was a controlledtrial.
They took, I think it was 40participants.
It was a little bit biggernumber, split into two, and it
(23:02):
was a four-month intervention.
So even quicker intervention.
It was less of the precisionmedicine, and it, but it was
supplements.
It was a vegan diet instead ofan organic ketogenic diet.
They went plant-based.
They had support groups,supplements, exercise, um, some
coaching, lifestyle coaching,and they saw a statistically
(23:24):
significant difference betweenthe control group and the
intervention arm.
And they saw improvements incognition.
And these were people withearly Alzheimer's disease.
So they were, they were also ameasurably cognitively declined
group.
So those three studies,although small, are very, very
exciting.
And Dr.
Bredison right now is workingwith five different clinical
(23:47):
sites around the country fromCleveland and Florida,
California.
Um and they are have, I think,70 participants in a controlled
trial.
And they the preliminary datais showing a big difference.
In fact, what they did was withthe control arm, they did a
crossover.
And Craig Tanneo in in um inFlorida is one of the people
(24:08):
who's just like, it's so theresults are so exciting.
They're really fun to seebecause even that control arm is
like shifting um after they getthe intervention uh when they
switch over.
So so I I Craig Tanneo, KatToops, um, Nate Bergman, um,
there's uh David Hossey, um,there's six providers.
(24:32):
I'm missing one.
Oh, Christine Burke.
So there's a bunch of providersacross the country who have
done this and they know thisstuff forward backwards and
forwards, and they're you know,getting results with patients
both in the trial and outside ofthe trial.
So really fun, really excitingstuff happening in the research
world around this.
We uh collaborate reallyclosely with Pacific
(24:53):
Neuroscience Institute, and theyjust published a paper which is
actually winning an award nextweek at the Alzheimer's
Conference.
They looked at Pranovo, do youguys have Prenovo, the um IFL
Betty MRI scans?
Dr. Ashley Burkman (25:05):
Yeah, I think that's in Boston and New
York or something.
Yeah, like in the big biggercities.
Yeah.
Dr. Heather Sandison (25:10):
They took data from Prenovo and it was
like 10,000 studies.
Um, and they showed thatexercise how exercise has an
impact on volumetrics, on brainvolumes.
Cool.
You know, just validating againthat over and over again that
these lifestyle interventionshave a huge impact on cognitive
(25:32):
function, on brain health as weage.
Yeah, for sure.
Dr. Lauren Young (25:35):
Um Yeah, it's it's exciting how much is
happening in this arena.
Um, and uh the validating whatwe already know as naturopathic
physicians always feels good,right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Burkman (25:45):
I think it's cool that you mentioned.
Oh go ahead, sorry.
No, no, no, go ahead.
Um, about the caregiver, andlike that would have been an
interesting piece to havebecause I've looked at some of
the research on that, and thecaregiver is at risk for
cognitive decline and evenAlzheimer's specifically because
of the stress and their lack ofsleep and lack of self-care.
So I think it's really a coolexperience to have a
marama-at-home experience forthe whole family because it's
(26:07):
not just for a patient, it's forthe whole family.
Everyone could use some of thistype of medicine.
Dr. Heather Sandison (26:12):
Without a doubt, yeah, the data suggests
that care partners who care forsomeone with Alzheimer's are
anywhere from two and a half tosix times more likely to be
diagnosed with diet withdementia later in their life.
And the highest risk is in amale uh husband of a woman who
is suffering with dementia.
So we whenever we have someonejoin the coaching program or
(26:33):
come into the clinic, we alwaysare considering that the care
partner is also our patient andthat their their sus the
sustainability, sustainabilityis one of our core values for
us, for patients, forcaregivers, because it is such a
hard job and it's a marathon,not a sprint.
And so it's, you know, Irecommend every caregiver, even
(26:55):
if they don't think they needit, take eight hours a week,
hopefully continuously.
Maybe it's in four-hour blocks,you know, for negotiating.
But ideally, it's an eight-hourblock that they have to
themselves where they don't talkabout dementia, they don't,
they don't care for grandkids,they don't care for anybody,
they just get their exercise,they eat good food, they see
their friends, they have anidentity outside of caregiving.
(27:15):
And then, yeah, when whenthey're engaging in the in the
diet and the exercise and allthe lifestyle pieces, instead of
being like, oh, she needs it,but I I can still have my cake
and cookies, you know, we reallytry to emphasize, like, no,
everybody's gonna be moresuccessful if we have if we're
all on the same team and allkind of doing the same same
stuff.
Dr. Lauren Young (27:35):
I love that.
I love that.
Um, yeah, you know, we we had asimilar conversation with Terry
Wall.
She said the same thing.
Like, I mean, realistically,this is good medicine for
everyone in the family.
So I love that for sure.
Um so I know I want to just,you know, we're talking about
when you go and see a Bredisonprovider, just give a cursory
overview of the kind ofexperience for a patient to go
(27:58):
see someone who is trained inkind of these this approach.
What kind of testing would theyexpect?
What kind of things would theywant to think about, that type
of thing?
Dr. Heather Sandison (28:09):
Yeah, so there's different levels.
And Dr.
Bettison works with ApolloHealth.
Um, and they you can basicallydo this through like AI, right
through them without necessarilyhaving a provider.
You can get labs done throughthem, and then it'll give you an
AI printout of the type ofAlzheimer's you have.
Like, is it more toxic?
Is it more, you know, uhresource insufficiency?
(28:30):
Like what what type of is itmore inflammatory?
And you can use that definitelyto get started.
I think that's a great, really,really valuable resource.
And then if you want to see aprovider, you know, not
providers do this with differentdegrees of enthusiasm.
So um get get a referral.
But health coaches, I think,are actually one of the best
(28:51):
kept secrets.
You know, a health coach is awonderful way to, I mean, talk
about bang for your buck becauseagain, the foundations are so
crucial.
So I wouldn't want anyone toshow up to a naturopath or a
Bredison trained provider anddrop three to five thousand
dollars on lab testing,functional lab testing, if
they're not eating well, ifthey're not getting exercise, if
they're not getting greatsleep, get those foundational
(29:14):
pieces.
If they're not socializing,right, get the everything.
If you're gonna do detox, ifyou're gonna do hormone
supplementation andoptimization, if you're gonna
kill any bugs, all that stuff,all that intervention work that
the Nash Path or the BredisonTrain provider is gonna help you
with, it's gonna work so muchbetter in the context of the
that foundational lifestylepiece being in place already.
(29:35):
So I highly recommend doingdoing as much as you can on your
own first.
But a lot of people need moresupport than that.
So I'll I'll just speak fromour how we do it.
So a patient comes in and likeI saw a prevention patient
yesterday.
It was really fun.
She her mom has Alzheimer'sright now, she's living in a
(29:56):
care home with her dad, and shehas ApoE.
And she's 60 years old.
She's noticing some smallchanges, like she has to keep
track of her calendar a littlemore closely.
She's having struggling withnames and words a little bit
more than she used to, but she'sdefinitely subjective, right?
We're not picking up anythingwe can measure in terms of her
(30:16):
decline.
But I'm gonna spend 90 minuteswith her collecting information
about her risk factors, hermodifiable risk factors as
defined by the Lancet Commissionreport.
And then I'm also askingdetailed questions about her
diet, her exercise, her bowelmovements, her sleep, her stress
levels, and where that comesfrom, toxic exposure, infectious
(30:37):
exposure, right?
We're going deep into a lot ofthose things.
And typically people have, youknow, you know, there's UTIs
that they get recurrently orsomething, herpes uh outbreaks,
or something that they getrecurrently that we want to
optimize to reduce thatneuroinflammation.
So we went through that processand then the labs that we do,
(30:57):
so through Apollo, you'll getthings that you can get at
LabCorp and Quest.
Now I like to look a littledeeper, and these things can
cost money, but here's I knowvery well how much memory care
costs.
It can run you $8,000 to$15,000 a month, right?
So if we spend three to fivethousand dollars on some lab
work where we really understandwhat might be the drivers or the
(31:19):
smoking guns when it comes toneurodegeneration, we might
actually be saving, like even ifwe just delay going into memory
care for six months.
Like you, we you're it's a goodROI.
It's a great return on theinvestment of the labs, right?
So, and then there's thesupplements and everything.
We got to treat it and retest.
But what we budgeted for ourclinical trial participants was
(31:39):
$25,000 for six months.
We didn't use that much foranybody.
The most that we spent was$19,000 for an extremely
complicated patient who got aton of IVs.
So that's with cash pay for allthe labs.
And that, you know, that priceis huge.
A lot of, you know, for a lotof people, that's just not
accessible.
(32:00):
And I, you know, I wish thatinsurance covered all of this.
I think that this should beaccessible because I think it
reduces the cost long term forpeople.
However, when you're doing themath, oftentimes spending that
is a lot less than what it costsfor memory care or even
assisted living.
And for getting care into yourhome, like one-on-one care, that
(32:22):
is that just gets exorbitantlyexpensive.
So people can spend $20,000,$30,000 a month having someone
come to the home.
So the lab testing that we dois again, I break it down into
these different categories: toxins, nutrients, stressors, (32:35):
undefined
structure, signaling, andinfections.
So toxins I think of in threeflavors.
We have our mycotoxins, ourheavy metals, and then our
chemical toxins, theenvironmental pollutants,
including glyphosate and usuallypetrochemicals, styrene,
benzene, that kind of thing.
So we look at all of those andwe're looking to stop the
exposure and then to abuse thebinders, you know, where we can
(32:58):
use specific binders that arepreferentially bind the toxin
that you have.
We we do that too.
So we're looking to get thoseout into a minimum.
And then with nutrients, we runa nutrient panel and look for,
you know, you genetically, youbecause of the burdens that you
have in your body, because ofyour age, because of what's
going on, you might need moreantioxidants or B vitamins or
(33:19):
minerals or whatever it is.
And so we're looking fornutrient balance.
Now you can have too littlenutrients, but you can also have
too much sugar.
It's one of the things that wewe see is often connected to
dementia and Alzheimer's.
Sometimes you'll hear peoplecolloquially say, oh,
Alzheimer's is type 3 diabetes.
And that certainly we see thatelevated blood sugar, elevated
(33:42):
weight, elevated blood pressureare modifiable risk factors when
it comes to dementia.
The vast majority of mypatients don't have diabetes,
right?
But still have dementia, right?
So you what we don't want to dois say that all dementia is
caused by herpes or all dementiais caused by diabetes.
Every dementia patient has adifferent path that they took.
And what we want to do isunderstand what path took you to
(34:05):
age-related memory loss, and sothat we can sort of unravel
that and and support neuronalfunction.
So we're looking for imbalancesin nutrients, we're looking for
imbalances and stressors.
We talked about the stress ofcaregiving.
We run cortisol levels, we dosalivary cortisol levels.
And what we're looking for hereis that you have enough purpose
(34:25):
and meaning to get up and outof bed and show up for
something, right?
But that you aren't sooverwhelmed and burdened by
stress that you are are fallingapart, right?
And you need enough movementand exercise, but not too much.
We we want that hormeticeffect, right?
We want to stress the system sothat there's more resilience,
but we don't want it leading tofrailty or decompensation.
(34:47):
So it's that balance that we'relooking for when it comes to
stressors.
Um, and and fasting, right?
Having a fasting-mimicking dietis a type of stressor in some
ways, but it's a good stressor.
So we want to we want to flexthe muscle and create resilience
without decompensating.
And then when it comes to um,so we've talked about toxins,
(35:07):
nutrients, stressors, structure.
So with structure, we want it'sI think of it like plumbing,
right?
We need we need enough airthrough the airway to get oxygen
to our lungs so that we canmake sure that our brain has
oxygen at night when we sleep inparticular.
So here we're looking forobstructive sleep apnea, we're
looking for plaques that wouldkeep, you know, anything that's
gonna keep blood flow from thebrain, we wanna understand.
(35:30):
Also, you know, if your hipbone's not connected to your leg
bone and you have sci, right,and you have sciatica, this is
chronic pain, it can keep youfrom sleeping.
It's a it's a chronic stressor.
So we're asking questions aboutchronic pain and about um, you
know, anything thatstructurally, the way a
chiropractor or an orthopedistmight think about it, we want to
(35:50):
understand that and how thatmight be playing a role in
either preventing blood flow orimpinging nerves, creating pain,
creating more stress and or orinterfering with the ability to
exercise or sleep or engage inlife.
Then the other structuralcomponent that's kind of macro,
so the micro structure isgenetics.
There's the genetics, uh, weall for people who have family
(36:11):
members under 60 who have had orunder 65 who have had severe
dementias, which we see, youknow, uh I mean that's who comes
to us sometimes, unfortunately.
But we're looking for the earlyonset Alzheimer's genetics,
which include APP or amyloidprecursor protein, and then
Prisillin 1 and 2.
(36:31):
Those are relatively rare.
Um, and so we're we're lookingfor them only in certain
patients.
The one that we more commonlyare looking for is ApoE, APOE,
apolipoprotein E as an elephant.
And what we see is that peoplewho have a copy, one or two
copies of APOE4 from mom or dador both have a much higher risk
(36:56):
of developing dementia in theirlifetime.
And so we need to be proactive.
We need to be more proactiveabout prevention.
So that's structure signaling.
We're looking at sex hormones,thyroid hormones, BDNF, like
what are all the signals, right?
We want to get out of the,excuse me, we want to get out of
the fight, fight, freeze,defend attack mode and into the
(37:17):
connection mode, into that rest,digest, heal state at the
neuronal level.
So at the in the in the brain,we think of the microglia.
When we're activatingmicroglia, this is part of that
cascade that leads to amyloidand tau.
What we want to do is we wantto send signals that tell the
microglia, the immune system ofthe brain, you can calm down.
You don't need to attack, youdon't need to defend.
(37:38):
What we want to do is createsignals that help with
connection, synaptic connectionto create new connections in the
brain.
So that BDNF brain-derivednootrophic factor, which
exercise helps a lot with that,whole coffee bean extract can
help with that, no tropicformulas can help with this, but
we want to be sending thosesignals, which include
testosterone, estrogen,progesterone, pregnant alone,
(37:59):
DHEA, thyroid, vitamin D,vitamin K, all of these are
hormones that basically signalto the brain to be in growth
connection mode.
And then with infections, thesewe want to look for.
There's, if you Google H.
pylori and dementia, you willfind that there's a PubMed
article out there connectingthem.
What we essentially want to dois reduce infectious burden.
(38:20):
But there's five or six herethat are more connected to
cognitive decline and moreconsistently connected to
cognitive impairment andAlzheimer's and that microglial
activation than others.
And viruses, especially theviruses that live in the nervous
system, like HSV1 inparticular, which causes cold
sores, that has a connection.
And a lot of these have beenfound basically on autopsies in
(38:43):
the amyloid plaques and tangles.
We see that thesemicroorganisms are there.
And essentially what'shappening is that amyloid and
tau are antimicrobial.
They're there to protect us,they're there to wall these off
so that the rest of our brainisn't affected.
And so we see that there's likean upregulation to protect the
brain.
The brain is not sterile,right?
(39:03):
There's uh Dr.
Redison has actually beentalking recently about like the
um the brain biome, right?
That there is that this ideathat there are probably some
good bugs that enter the brain,and then there's others that are
going to activate themicroglia.
So HSV1, P.
gingivalis associated withgingivitis, and some of the
other gingivis,gingivitis-associated bacteria
are more associated.
(39:25):
And then shingles.
So we see that when people havethe shingles vaccine, that they
there was a great study out ofthe UK and Wales.
It was done in Wales wherepeople who were born one week
got the shingles, you know, theywere gonna turn 80 some or 70
on, you know, one day if theylike separated them, right?
So there were people born aweek apart, and some of them got
(39:46):
the sh people born the weekearlier got the shingles shot,
and the people were born theweek later, I think it might be
the opposite.
Sorry, I'm doing a terrible jobdescribing this.
Essentially, there were twogroups who were very, very
similar in age.
Some of them got the shinglesshot and some of them didn't.
And they saw seven years laterthe people who got the shingles
um vaccine were 20% less likelyto be diagnosed with dementia.
(40:07):
Um, and that is consistent.
We see that with the shingrixvaccine in the US, that 18% less
likelihood to get dementia.
So those um, you know,vaccines, it depends on the
person and the body.
There's no one right answer foreveryone.
That's a whole ordeal.
(40:28):
But the data suggests thatreducing viral burden is does
reduce basically inflammation inthe brain.
And then the other one is Imean, COVID, COVID is a pretty
different mechanism.
This is essentially the ideahere is that it's reducing blood
flow through the arterialsystem, that that their blood
(40:48):
becomes more hypercoagulable,more sticky, if you will, and
that we're not getting as muchperfusion.
And if when you have reducedperfusion, you're gonna end up
with atrophy, you're gonna endup with dysregulation.
So we usually use a differentum, instead of being really
aggressively antiviral, we'll bemore interested in like how do
we reduce cytokines and how dowe increase perfusion?
(41:09):
And then the other one is theyou guys are on the East Coast
is uh the tick-borne diseases.
For sure.
Um, spirochetes, limespirochetes have been found in
the brains of people withAlzheimer's.
So and you know, neurosyphilis, neurolime, this is
well documented.
So um, and we see RichieHorwit, Horwitz, um, he has
(41:29):
documented cases of people whoare suffering with m age-related
memory impairment who haveimproved with treatment of
Bartonella libesia and andborrelia.
So something to keep in mindand something that we test for.
So we test for all thesethings, the you know, there's a
test for each of these things.
So that's essentially whatwe're doing is we're trying to
systematically go through eachof these risk factors and and re
(41:52):
you know, reduce them, turnthem off.
Dr. Lauren Young (41:55):
Yeah, yeah.
Um, thank you so much forwalking us through all of that.
I think it's it like reallyspeaks to the depth that you go
into every individual and reallylook at what is going on with
them, kind of like you had said,but this really brings us
through the whole piece of it.
Um, it's really helpful.
I didn't mention the stooltest.
Oh my god.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
We love our microbiome in ourbrain, right?
(42:16):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, there's so much coolmedicine out there, and I love
how organized you guys are withlooking at the whole piece of
it.
And again, coming back to thoselike foundational pieces that
just need to be there.
Because if you're not usingyour foremunctories, then like
where can you go from there typeof thing.
So um there were five.
What's the fifth one?
(42:38):
Wait, urination, defecation,perspiration, respiration.
What uh what's the other one?
Dr. Heather Sandison (42:43):
Wait, okay.
Maybe I think of them, I thinkof them as organs, but I think
liver, lungs, skin, and lymphand bowels.
Oh, okay.
Dr. Lauren Young (42:54):
This is fun.
I like yours.
Oh, yeah.
Oh well, and now we're gonna bethe little takeaways.
I love it.
I'm gonna I'm gonna leteverybody know, I'm gonna think
about the the five versus thefour now.
Dr. Heather Sandison (43:10):
The way you said it, like respiration
defecation.
I I like it has like a ring toit.
I want to do, I want to takeyours.
Dr. Lauren Young (43:16):
Well, thank you for that swap today.
That's great.
unknown (43:20):
Dr.
Dr. Lauren Young (43:21):
Sanderson, this has been um so enlightening
but inspiring too.
Like you really are a brightlight in the community for
people who are staring at ascary diagnosis, you know.
So from a Rama at home throughto Rama in person to your
clinic, um, thank you foreverything you're doing for the
community.
It's really exciting.
And thank you for your timehere today.
Um, I do want to make sure wegive our listeners a plug for
(43:43):
your new upcoming podcastbecause I know I'll be listening
to it if you want to speak toit really quickly.
Dr. Heather Sandison (43:48):
Yeah, I think we'll age well is our new
podcast.
Uh, I'm just I'm having theconversations that I want to
have.
I'm basically interviewingpeople over 70 who I want to be
when I grow up and learning fromtheir wisdom and experience how
to age gracefully, how to agewell, not to not to like resist
aging, but really to lean intothose years, those golden years
and make them the best yet.
(44:09):
I love it.
Dr. Lauren Young (44:10):
I love it.
This overall goal of likesustainable living your best is
just a great message foreverybody.
So thanks, Dr.
Sandison, Dr.
Berkman, for your time today.
To all our listeners, thank youfor tuning in to your health
toolkit.
We absolutely love talkingabout health and wellness.
So if you have a question or atopic idea, please find us
online at ctnaturalhealth.com oron social media.
(44:31):
Until next time, it's me, Dr.
Lauren Young, wishing you thebest in health, happiness, and
longevity.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Medal of Honor: Stories of Courage
Rewarded for bravery that goes above and beyond the call of duty, the Medal of Honor is the United States’ top military decoration. The stories we tell are about the heroes who have distinguished themselves by acts of heroism and courage that have saved lives. From Judith Resnik, the second woman in space, to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice, these are stories about those who have done the improbable and unexpected, who have sacrificed something in the name of something much bigger than themselves. Every Wednesday on Medal of Honor, uncover what their experiences tell us about the nature of sacrifice, why people put their lives in danger for others, and what happens after you’ve become a hero. Special thanks to series creator Dan McGinn, to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and Adam Plumpton. Medal of Honor begins on May 28. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear ad-free episodes one week early. Find Pushkin+ on the Medal of Honor show page in Apple or at Pushkin.fm. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com