Stop Alzheimer's Decades Before It Starts | Dr. Perlmutter EP 817

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:10What has been, in your opinion, or with the research that you've seen, the biggest cause of this spike in Alzheimer's over the last 20, 30 years, and the fact that it just seems like it's just going to keep growing? What is the main causes of this? And is it bigger in America versus the rest of the world, or is it kind of equal around the world? Lots of good questions. And And let's take a step back. Those statistics are worrisome. They are staggering. And they don't encompass the real issue, which is well beyond that Alzheimer's patient. And that is, what does this incredible increase in Alzheimer's do to family members and loved ones and caregivers?

0:56What is the economic impact of the loss of brain function of the population in general? and the fact that the rate of increase of Alzheimer's is far beyond the fact that our population is aging. One would expect that as the population ages, we would see an increase, but the rate of increase far exceeds that. So we know that there's something operating in the background, and the fact that it's changing, i.e. increasing, indicates that it is not genetic. If it were genetic, it'd be static. The genes wouldn't suddenly become more prevalent in the population. So we take a step back and ask ourselves, well, what is really going on?

1:37Where are we in the understanding of what in the heck is going on? And let's look at health in general, and then we'll focus on Alzheimer's, because general health and Alzheimer's are not disparate issues. The same issues that are affecting the general health of the global population are at play in terms of undermining what's going on in the brain, making a good brain go bad. and it is in a word metabolism metabolism is the main thing making a brain go bad that's right and it's not it is not I'll say it maybe three times the accumulation of this protein called beta amyloid so so what makes up of a metabolism for a human being how cells use energy and the progressive problems with our metabolic health are the number one cause of death on planet earth.

2:31Really? Not COVID, not any other infectious disease, not war. It is the progressive loss of metabolic function that underlies our chronic degenerative conditions like diabetes and various forms of cancer and heart disease and yes, Alzheimer's as well. Before you go on, if you could, we hear the word metabolism a lot. You say, oh, I've got a slow metabolism or his metabolism is really fast or whatever it might be. If I'm hearing the word metabolism for the first time when I'm nine years old or something or 12 years old, could you explain it to me like I'm 12 and say, this is what a metabolism is and here's how it works.

3:09As if I've never understood it before, how do you break it down in simple terms? Totally glad that you asked that question. I feel like I scripted you to ask and I'm going to respond to the nine-year-old. because we all know that our cells are doing things. They're making proteins. They're clearing away waste products, etc. Every cell does something different in the human body, but to carry out any work, we have to have a fuel source and use that fuel to power the engine that allows the cell to do its thing. A car goes nowhere unless it has a battery pack or it uses gasoline. So it's the process of using fuel to carry out the various functions of the cell that we call metabolism.

3:54Now if your car's metabolism is not working well, if for some reason for example you mixed your fuel with water or something, then the car is going to sputter and come to a screeching halt because it's metabolically compromised. That's what we are doing to the human brain. We are giving threats to the human brain that are compromising its ability to use fuel appropriately. Now by and large the fuel is glucose which is a good thing. Can the brain use fats? Can it use ketones for fuel? Yes it can. So we really need to drill down on what's going on that allows the brain to use glucose and where is the furnace where is it burning this glucose to produce energy and it's it's doing so in parts of the cell organelles that are called mitochondria now so metabolism is connected to mitochondria to a significant degree yes there is and mitochondria is in the brain so mitochondria are little tiny organelles that live within the brain cells each brain cell may have as even though you see a diagram here's the mitochondria here are the ribosomes here's the nucleus typically a brain cell may have as many as a thousand mitochondria each cell one cell one cell so how many mitochondria do we have in our brain it's a number that is incalculable so billions trillions millions trillions trillions of mitochondria throughout the human body as well in fact that you know virtually every cell in the body does contain mitochondria with the exception for example the red blood cell.

5:37So the issue then is recognizing the brain is a hugely energy hungry organ using a lot of energy day in and day out. The brain truthfully never rests. When we sleep the brain isn't going to sleep it's actually diverting its tasks to cleaning things up and getting ready for the next day. While other parts of your body your muscles etc are resting at night your heart is resting at night. But that said, the brain is very energy hungry, and as such, problems with metabolism, how it creates the energy, would be very obvious then in the brain. And it's really the first place to suffer. The reality is that the metabolic defects of the brain that presage to the development of Alzheimer's disease begin 20 to 30 years prior to the clinical manifestations.

6:34In other words, the changing in memory, the issues with carrying out purposeful activities, where suddenly now, though the problem began two decades ago when we could have paid attention, now that mom or dad or husband or wife is beginning to have issues remembering the grandchildren's name, the Wi-Fi codes, how to use their iPhone getting lost. Now we take notice and begin to think about well what drug can we use now that it's fourth and long. The point I'm trying to make is an important mission is to emphasize that our brain function, our health of the brain, the brain's ability to resist degeneration is dependent upon metabolism and we need to begin paying attention to that metabolism 20, 30, 40 years prior to when the typical medical intervention is then implemented to deal with a problem.

7:33Well, you know, as John Kennedy said, the time to fix a roof is when the sun is shining. So we really need to start getting the word out that our brain depends upon good metabolism.

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8:42Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.