Dr David Perlmutter: Dementia Risk, Blood Sugar, Sleep and Alcohol

“Alzheimer's disease. One is called metformin, which is a diabetes pill. And the other is actually an ADHD drug called Stratera. And this is a trial of about 1,000 people.”

“dementia. That said, the reason I bring it up is metformin is a metabolic drug. It's a diabetes drug. Think about that. They've moved away from targeting beta-amyloid to finally recognizing that metabolism is a central player here.”

“to the drug that's now being used in the Alzheimer's trial right here in England. Think about that. That metformin. Metformin does many things that exercise does.”

“But again, upstream of all of this is the energetics. It's the mitochondrial fun. And this is what is so sensitive to our metabolism, to insulin, to exercise on the positive side, to metformin on the medication side. We're damaging our mitochondria, and that's causing it to malfunction and then change from the M1 to the evil twin.”

“our ability to get rid of defective mitochondria. Exercise does it. And metformin does it as well. This drug that is being used right here in England now is part of a treatment protocol for Alzheimer's. Metformin? Is that what metformin is?”

“The question was asked: how many of you are taking metformin? This is about eight years ago. And I think 80% of the scientists raised their hands. What you're not hearing from me right now is that we should all jump on board and take metformin.”

“It's, I think, about a $70 million project. He can't get funding because metformin has gone off patent, so nobody's going to get the brass ring at the end of the day. But it's looking at the intervention of taking this drug, metformin, to see what effect it has on longevity and dementia for that matter.”

“Exercise is the single most validated reproducible longevity intervention available. Multiple randomized control trials have demonstrated that metformin actively interferes with exercise's adaptations. Number two is risk of masking lifestyle fundamentals in long-form clinical data.”

“And metformin was described and rapamycin was described. What led the list, and you know, and he's a big NAD guy, as you know, what led the list was exercise in terms of these aging clocks.”

“the foods that I loved. Why do you think this is so useful? For the reason that you just described, and that is we're talking about a continuous glucose monitor. So I don't know if there's really one in here, but this is... There probably is. Yeah. It's personalized medicine.”

“But, you know, and I'm not saying you need to wear a CGM at all times, but I think it's extremely valuable and now available without a prescription. There was a big pushback in America about making CGMs, continuous glucose monitors available to people without a prescription.”

“it's useless. I mean, I'll give you a clue, but we can do so much better. A few things that I've discovered from looking at my own continuous glucose monitor that surprised me, and things that I liked, but I am now, you know, I'm a little bit more conscious of. One of them is barbecue sauce, which I loved.”

“came out, I think, the day after my birthday, August 27th. I'll link it below. Brain Defenders, Harness the Power of Your Immune Cells to Protect Your Brain for Life. And I know there's lots of my audience that are especially keen to avoid dementia and Alzheimer's because it runs in their family and they've seen the horrific consequences of the disease.”

“family and they've seen the horrific consequences of the disease. And this is a wonderful book to feel to sort of take back a bit of agency as you describe and feel like there is some control over something that feels so helpless. You bet. And you're a good man.”

“So all the good things. What I'm not seeing here is the number one source of polyphenols on the planet, at least in terms of consumption, that is coffee. So there's a vote. Oh, close enough. Got some coffee right here.”

“But I find it threatening. Alcohol itself is a neurotoxin. And I think it's, let's get our polyphenols from what you just described, what you just showed, from coffee and extra virgin olive oil. I think I'll tread lightly here at risk of becoming an internet meme.”

“some of those. Extra virgin olive oil is one of them that I love. I eat a lot of because I had it contains lots of polyphenols. It does. And, you know, it's really one of the keys we've now come to understand of the so-called Mediterranean diet.”

“But I find it threatening. Alcohol itself is a neurotoxin. And I think it's, let's get our polyphenols from what you just described, what you just showed, from coffee and extra virgin olive oil. I think I'll tread lightly here at risk of becoming an internet meme.”

“With consumption, then the risk went down a bit. One glass of wine per day for women, two glass of wine per day for men. But then the U comes back up. So we thought there was a sweet spot. And it turns out that reassessing that indicates that really any alcohol consumption is probably not good for the brain.”

“You know, have a glass of red wine. We know that many people in the blue zones, for example, will drink some wine, as do I from time to time. But I find it threatening. Alcohol itself is a neurotoxin. And I think it's, let's get our polyphenols from what you just described, what you just showed, from coffee and extra virgin olive oil.”

“So what does that mean for us? Like for the average person? I have a 40 hertz light generator on my desk. Oh, really? So you can go and buy it? You bet. I do. I mean, what does that do for you, according to the science? Oh, according to the science, it is keeping my microglia doing what they need to do.”

“watching you and recording you all night long when you're sleeping. I found it very creepy. But you have access to an Oura Ring, an Apple Watch, a whoop, and you can measure your sleep and with pretty good reliability, get a sense as to its quality and its quantity.”

“It's 40 to 50% sugar, which shocked me. Balsamic glaze, 40 to 50% sugar. Has this commercial fat-free French dressing, which turned out to be 35% sugar. Why fat-free? It said fat-free on it. I thought it was healthy.”

“Austin, as you know, and I wrote a book called Brainwash. It's right there on top. And we define in this book something called disconnection syndrome at a microscopic level. And we talked about that, how the brain gets disconnected from its prefrontal cortex, our gift as humans.”

“saw a powerful study come out of Havana, Cuba, of all places, giving an intranasal treatment of something called erythropoietin, which is something made by the kidneys, that had effects in existing Alzheimer's patients that were mind-blowing.”

“Balsamic glaze, 40 to 50% sugar. Has this commercial fat-free French dressing, which turned out to be 35% sugar. Why fat-free? It said fat-free on it. I thought it was healthy. Yeah. They do a lot of those sort of tricks on labels.”

“What else do you take? I take DHEA from fish oil. So is that omega-3? Omega-3. But we want to look at the DHA content. So my fish oil that I take contains, I'm getting about 1,000 milligrams a day of DHA.”

“So we're, in a sense, nurturing ourselves, but we're also nurturing our gut bacteria. This Himalayan tartary buckwheat is probably one of the richest sources of these polyphenols on the planet. What's a polyphenol and how does that help my brain? So again, a polyphenol is a targeting molecule that activates pathways to create antioxidants in the body.”

“Good fat, the extra virgin olive oil with nuts and seeds. In clinical trials on mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer's, a keto diet or ketone supplementation, which you can get through various ketone shocks, rescues roughly 10 to 18% of the brain's total energy supply, directly closing up to 80% of the fuel gap left by impaired glucose metabolism.”

“So because of my unique genetics, I have to take a different type of B vitamin called methylated B vitamin. So that's first and foremost for me. Vitamin D, methylated, yeah. Methylated for me and for probably about 25% of the global population.”

“And there was a narrative at one point that it was healthy for you. So like back in the sunny D days, I thought if I drank orange juice. Yeah, sunny D days, that's not necessarily juice. I mean, what is sunny D? I thought it was like one of my five-a-day fruit and veg.”

“watching you and recording you all night long when you're sleeping. I found it very creepy. But you have access to an Oura Ring, an Apple Watch, a whoop, and you can measure your sleep and with pretty good reliability, get a sense as to its quality and its quantity.”

“medications, oh, we happen to have them here. For example, proton pump-inhibiting drugs. These are acid-blocking drugs that people take because they think they need to lower their stomach acid based upon what they're seeing on television or elsewhere.”

“That's why the blackberry is black. It's why the onions are colored. We have blueberries and I guess raspberries as well. You know, do they contain sugar? Yes, they do, but they contain sugar in a way that it's released more slowly into the body. And again, coupled with the polyphenols, these are chemicals that are red by our gut bacteria.”

“And I think context is important. The argument was, well, red wine has polyphenols vis-à-vis our previous discussion. You know, have a glass of red wine. We know that many people in the blue zones, for example, will drink some wine, as do I from time to time.”

“brain, create Parkinson's. And now they've developed an offset for that. They're giving the mice MPTP, but giving them something else called RNS60 that was able to keep these mice from having that damage occur by activation of their microglial cells.”

“I'll give you one other thing not mentioned, and that is that in America, though we don't have GMO wheat, GMO, genetically modified crops are created such that glyphosate or Roundup can be sprayed to kill the weeds, but the plant is resistant and will survive.”

“importantly, this powerful tool that we looked at, a pair of running shoes. That is the salvation, in my opinion. What did the Cochrane analysis that was just published say about these Alzheimer's drugs?”

“Alzheimer's disease. One is called metformin, which is a diabetes pill. And the other is actually an ADHD drug called Stratera. And this is a trial of about 1,000 people. It's going to take 18 months to treat Alzheimer's patients.”

“So like back in the sunny D days, I thought if I drank orange juice. Yeah, sunny D days, that's not necessarily juice. I mean, what is sunny D? I thought it was like one of my five-a-day fruit and veg. Yeah, yeah. I thought it was healthy. Yeah. It's crazy. How old are you?”

“And then he was like, and then there's this liquid we poured in. And I was like, wow. The white chocolate I eat is 70% sugar. Milk chocolate would love white chocolate. Really? Why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you? I know, of course. The brain is programmed to find sweet. That's your survival mechanism.”

“watching you and recording you all night long when you're sleeping. I found it very creepy. But you have access to an Oura Ring, an Apple Watch, a whoop, and you can measure your sleep and with pretty good reliability, get a sense as to its quality and its quantity.”