0:03

What if every experience,

0:06

every hardship, every obstacle

0:09

was given to you not to break

0:11

you, but to mold you and strengthen

0:13

you. What if the center of your suffering was actually

0:15

the key to ultimate health? And what if your

0:18

own pain was meant to be the catalyst

0:20

for your rate is purpose. Welcome to

0:22

bud belly life, empowering purpose, mind

0:25

to microbiome. I

0:28

know you you've touched a little bit on

0:31

cognitive decline , um,

0:33

and the, you know, Alzheimer's

0:36

and dementia , things like that. I

0:39

am absolutely fascinated or at

0:41

this piece. And I think it would really be who people to

0:43

know some of this. Um, so

0:45

when you talk about, like you said, the,

0:48

the hip hippocampus actually shrinks,

0:50

you say, you know, trauma can actually

0:52

shrink the hippocampus, correct

0:54

me if I'm wrong, I'm trying to reiterate here. This

0:56

is how we learn guys. This is how we teach the coaches, re

0:59

reiterate the things we learn , we'll

1:01

slip . Um , by

1:03

a quarter we can shrink the hippo campus

1:06

by a quarter because of trauma

1:08

or severe stress. Um, when

1:11

we see this, because sometimes

1:13

I feel like when people are diagnosed

1:16

with disorders, especially mental

1:18

health, behavioral, et cetera , um,

1:22

that they're all very similar and

1:24

they kinda run together. Right.

1:28

Um, and so when it comes

1:30

to dementia and Alzheimer's,

1:32

and things like that, you talk about that shrinking

1:35

of hippocampus and this lack of regenerating

1:38

new , fresh brain cells. Um, can, do

1:40

you believe you can reverse some

1:43

of that process, even in the older

1:45

community or people who are maybe younger

1:48

and experiencing some of those things? I mean, that's not beyond

1:50

the realm of possible too .

1:52

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um,

1:55

and there is beginning

1:57

evidence that this is the case, right? It used to

1:59

be thought that Alzheimer's, for example, once it

2:01

started, it was like falling off a cliff

2:04

. There's nothing you can do

2:06

to stop it. And they're now saying that

2:08

actually you can stop it. And in

2:10

some cases you can even reverse it to

2:12

some degree. Again, it depends how much damage

2:15

has been done. Um, once

2:17

the person has lost a good amount of their brain cells,

2:20

you know, it's like an amputated limb. It it's

2:22

not gonna grow back. Um , but

2:25

if it's just starting or

2:27

the person is just experiencing cognitive decline

2:29

or kind of brain fog, absolutely.

2:32

These are lifestyle , um,

2:37

disorders, these dementia,

2:39

cognitive decline, Alzheimer's,

2:43

you know, right now , um,

2:46

within a few years, the way the trajectory

2:49

is going , um,

2:51

it's, it's almost there now, but it , within

2:53

a few years, half

2:55

of the people who are 85 will

2:58

have Alzheimer's or dementia. Mm

3:02

. And since most of us

3:04

at this point are expected to live, to be

3:06

about 85. That's a pretty scary

3:09

statistic.

3:11

Um,

3:12

So Alzheimer's and

3:15

cognitive decline, cognitive

3:17

decline is what we experie before we

3:19

get into full blown Alzheimer's or

3:21

some other kind of dementia. Again,

3:24

they have these common neuro mechanisms.

3:26

There's this neurogenic slowing there

3:30

is , um, actually

3:32

with Alzheimer's Alzheimer's

3:34

being called , um, type

3:37

three diabetes because

3:40

it's a failure of , um,

3:43

glucose metabolism in the brain. There's

3:46

a lot of insulin resistance. And

3:48

so one of the things that there are a number of

3:50

clinical trials under being happening

3:53

right now, where that involve

3:55

a ketogenic diet, which

3:57

means that the brain is using

4:00

glucose so much for fuel as

4:02

it is using Keone bodies or

4:04

fat for fuel .

4:07

Um,

4:08

There's a physician in , uh

4:10

, Florida whose

4:12

husband , um, developed early

4:15

onset Alzheimer's and she

4:17

began feeding him at a certain point coconut oil

4:19

and then the ketogenic diet and

4:21

found that he came back , um,

4:24

not all the way back, but quite a bit back. Um,

4:28

Dale Bradon , who has the book at

4:30

the end of Alzheimer's talks about

4:32

reversing Alzheimer's in

4:35

some patients with ketogenic diet.

4:38

Um,

4:39

So getting

4:41

the brain to use ketones

4:44

or fat for fuel, rather than

4:46

just glucose gets

4:49

the brain operating at a higher rate ,

4:51

Um,

4:52

And also begins to then reverse

4:55

the insulin resistance that

4:58

most people who are over 40

5:01

have some degree of the

5:04

other thing is that Alzheimer's most

5:08

dementias, cognitive decline

5:10

have in common is inflammation,

5:13

right? Chronic inflammation is one

5:15

of these diseases are one of these conditions

5:19

that is behind so many

5:21

other conditions. It's

5:23

where, you know, we need a good, healthy,

5:26

inflammatory response. If we get an

5:28

infection or a cold or a

5:30

cut, we need to be able to Mount a defense

5:33

to get rid of the , um , invading

5:35

attackers. But

5:37

then we need to turn off that inflammatory

5:40

response and chronic inflammation

5:42

is where we don't turn it off. It's

5:45

where it keeps on going . And then the inflammation

5:47

begins to attack our

5:50

body's own cells. So

5:53

we now know that anxiety

5:56

is an inflammatory process . Depression

6:01

is an inflammatory process. There

6:04

are elevated inflammatory markers with depression

6:07

and the same with cognitive decline. And

6:09

Alzheimer's, these are inflammatory

6:11

processes, a

6:14

good blood test. Again, for everybody

6:16

to do , when you get your yearly physical

6:19

is called the high sensitivity C

6:22

reactive protein. And

6:25

if your level is over 0.0

6:29

0.5 for a male or 1.0 for

6:31

a female , it would be

6:33

really good to look at your

6:35

diet and to start E eating an

6:38

anti-inflammatory diet. And

6:41

the book goes into suggestions for

6:43

how to do this. And there's a number of nutrients

6:45

that we can take that also help that one

6:48

of these again, is omega3.

6:51

Another one is green tea extract.

6:54

Ideally we want 10 to 15 cups of green

6:56

tea a day, but we don't want

6:58

that much caffeine. You

7:00

can do , especially

7:01

If we have that's

7:05

All that

7:08

is liquid . Um

7:14

, so have caffeine free

7:17

green tea, extra, which

7:19

you can take , um , turmeric

7:23

or Curin powerful anti-inflammatory,

7:27

but you also need to do it with lipids,

7:30

like egg or bio,

7:33

a extract, which increases the bio bio

7:36

availability by around eight . Um,

7:41

Again, the book wasn't numbered , borage oil

7:43

is another really good one. Um, omega

7:46

seven , um, not

7:48

people , many people don't know about that. It's

7:50

another anti-inflammatory , um, tart

7:52

cherry extract. These things are powerful,

7:55

natural. Anti-inflammatories

7:58

that bring the inflammatory level

8:00

down .

8:02

Do you have a desire for fulfillment? That's

8:04

helping people tap into their own health mentally,

8:06

emotionally, and physically fire you up. Do

8:09

you believe in the impact of the gut microbiome on

8:11

overall wellness, you may

8:13

be an H WCA coach for

8:15

more info on our cutting edge health

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coach trainings. This it H

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w C aco.com

8:22

. So I have a story

8:24

for you , um, that it supports

8:27

the information you bring given. Um, and

8:29

I was on the road to it.

8:32

Well, it's not, it's a situation. So , um,

8:34

I, I, I was on

8:37

the path of kind

8:40

of working through some of this in my own head, in

8:42

my own opinions coming from a functional perspective. Um,

8:45

but I will tell you the information you've added

8:47

today in this interview, and

8:49

for you guys listening the session of interviews, if

8:51

you miss any of them , please go back and read or

8:54

listen to all of them . Um, but the information

8:56

you've given has filled in incredible

8:58

gaps. So there's someone very, very

9:00

close to me, you know, she's near 80

9:05

and she always been pretty sharp as

9:07

a attack , very, you know , uh, you

9:10

know, do a lot of stuff. Um, and

9:13

just a little bit about

9:15

her upbringing is, you

9:18

know, she , um , had gone through trauma as a

9:20

child. She lost her mother at only

9:22

12, and she had two little sisters to

9:24

take care of. Um, and

9:26

didn't have that role filled well,

9:29

just took on a very stoic

9:31

, um, mother

9:33

role at 12 years old without a

9:35

mom. And so, you know, she'd had this childhood trauma

9:38

got married very early at 18 , um,

9:41

you know, got married, stay married, had had

9:43

kids and, and did all that. And so, and

9:45

then , um, she's coming, you

9:47

know, coming up to 80 about now and

9:50

in the last two and a half years,

9:53

you know, she's, like I said, she's been really sharp. Um,

9:56

she does follow a lot as kind of traditional

9:58

medical directive, but not over the

10:00

top because she just comes from a generation that doesn't

10:03

rush to the doctor for every sniffle. I mean, that

10:05

just wasn't normal then. Um,

10:09

and so she, in

10:11

the last two to two and a half years, she

10:14

lost her husband who she'd been with since

10:16

she was, you know, 16,

10:19

17, 18, no , no different. Um, she'd

10:21

been taking care of him with congenial heart failure

10:24

for a , a couple years prior to

10:26

that. Um, and then she lost him

10:28

and was living alone. Um, and

10:31

then about a year later, her,

10:33

one of her daughters , um, her

10:36

cancer came back to a level , you know, stage

10:38

four level. Um, and it got really

10:40

scary and it was very stressful. Um, and

10:42

then this all happened. We got locked down with COVID about

10:45

the same time, and she was in

10:47

a lot more isolation because everybody was

10:49

worried about her with her age and exposing

10:51

her. So she was alone a lot. So we had

10:54

all of these events and

10:56

she over the last year , but

10:59

excessively recently been showing

11:01

very fast cognitive decline

11:03

to where they're calling it maybe , um, a

11:07

fast onset dementia symptoms.

11:10

And so they had put her on an antidepressant

11:12

in a year ago. They , um,

11:15

have then put her on other things, you know,

11:17

like do like her, you know, with her GI

11:19

issues now that are, you know, in my opinion,

11:22

not ironically , uh, happening

11:24

, um, the brain gut connection, the

11:26

body, the inflammation, right. But

11:28

we treat the symptoms in this, in

11:31

the typical approaches to treat symptoms. So she's been

11:33

put on, you know, the , the , the softeners

11:35

and the , this and that, and the fiber and the , all

11:37

the things. Um, and she's

11:40

been, had a rapid more rapid

11:43

decline in the last six months, I

11:45

would say. And to the point where they're

11:47

now wanting to like, test her brain and do all these things. And

11:50

I've, I've myself really

11:52

advocated, hardcore to see

11:54

someone in functional

11:57

medicine, someone with an approach like this, because

11:59

she'd been on very little medication, especially for

12:01

her age in this society of

12:03

the sad diet, she'd been on very little medications.

12:06

She was a very sharp woman and coming

12:08

from the emotional connection piece, that

12:10

trauma piece that I underst and , you

12:13

know, with her childhood and

12:15

then a two to three year time period of

12:18

time, period of all of those stressors.

12:20

When you said that stress an

12:23

aver , really an adverse experience can shrink the hippocampus

12:26

a quarter of its existence. Like

12:28

you said, that would be like losing a chamber of your

12:30

heart. I was, it

12:33

just, it just gave extra umph

12:36

to me in this situation.

12:39

Um, what would

12:41

you advocate for or

12:43

suggest to people who have a

12:46

loved one, or have someone close to them

12:48

who meets some of this criteria? What

12:51

is the, what is the, obviously,

12:53

I, it , we can stop, you know, if something, we

12:56

, we wanna stop something from exacerbating, maybe

12:58

we can't, like you said, when you lose brain cells, it's like losing

13:00

the limit . It doesn't just grow back per se . But

13:03

when do we know when it's actually

13:06

a brain cell loss and the difference

13:08

between cognitive decline and

13:10

how can we be vigilant in this and

13:12

not work against people? I love that you gave

13:15

the information about the antidepressants too, about what

13:17

they're actually doing.

13:21

Yeah. I mean, that is a

13:23

huge question. It's like, it's

13:26

one thing to do it for ourselves once we

13:28

learn about all this, but how

13:30

do you turn somebody else onto this? How do you interest in

13:32

this, particularly if they're really caught

13:34

up in the conventional medical paradigm,

13:38

because the conventional medical paradigm

13:40

is so much about symptom suppression

13:43

rather than about real healing. And

13:47

so again, I think like

13:49

you're suggesting a functional medicine person

13:51

would be great. Um, somebody

13:54

who really wants to really look at

13:56

how the brain can actually heal

14:00

rather than just have the symptoms be

14:02

suppressed. Um, you

14:06

know, when a spouse dies,

14:09

statistically, the chances of

14:11

the other spouse dying within a year, just

14:13

skyrocket , um , unless they

14:15

have some really close relationships and it sounds

14:17

like another one of her close relationships die , those

14:20

kind of stressors have a big impact

14:22

on the brain and cognitive functioning. Um,

14:26

therapy would be great for her to begin

14:28

to process some of this , um

14:31

, omega threes

14:33

. It just, the whole dietary thing would

14:35

be really important, but

14:37

again, sometimes people are so far

14:39

gone that they aren't able to do it. If you

14:41

can catch 'em where before it really

14:43

gets too far great

14:46

. Um, then things can sort

14:48

of start backing up and there can be regaining

14:50

a function in many cases. Um,

14:53

but it's hard when it's not, you, it's hard

14:55

to really interest somebody and turn

14:58

them on this. Um, sometimes

15:00

people are really open to it and , and they're just

15:02

ready other times, they're

15:04

just in another paradigm and it's

15:06

hard to get through.

15:08

And when it comes to, you know, cognitive

15:10

of issues, mental , um, you know, like dementia

15:13

Alzheimer's and cognitive decline

15:15

stuff, what's tricky. I think too,

15:17

is they often aren't in a place where

15:19

they're great at making their own decisions or following

15:21

through with habits or things. So,

15:24

so we're needing to communicate more

15:26

with the advocates and the people caretaking

15:29

or advocating for them , um,

15:32

to do that. And that's a , that's a lot of work. Um,

15:34

but if we can believe, I think if people,

15:37

if people had, they

15:40

do some of the work, if they could

15:42

feel the faith

15:45

and the , the confidence , um,

15:48

in the ability for if , for it

15:51

to do something, if, if they can understand

15:53

more of like, like I said, you've given us

15:55

some excellent science and some excellent

15:57

studies on some of this, this

15:59

stuff with the brain connection. And I

16:01

think that that helps people not

16:04

see this as holistic

16:07

stuff. Right. There's some real, real

16:10

facts here.

16:12

Yeah. And I think just one

16:14

of the piece I'd add around cognitive decline,

16:17

that since it starts 20 to

16:19

30 years before we see symptoms

16:22

that aside from really

16:25

healing and strengthening the brain, we

16:27

also need to work psychologically. Right?

16:29

And so we need to use

16:32

our brain right there

16:34

. There's measurable cognitive decline

16:36

at two points in our lives when

16:38

we graduate from college. And when we

16:40

retire, unless

16:43

after we graduate from college or retire,

16:46

we do something that uses the brain that

16:48

uses the mind. Then there is no cognitive

16:50

fall off . And so what this amounts

16:53

to is life long learning, right?

16:56

We need to be always learning new things

16:59

like listening to this podcast. It

17:02

is neurogenic . It is , it is that

17:05

stimulating the birth of new brand cells. It

17:07

, it , it's a good thing to do. It's creating new

17:09

connections and that's what keeps people sharp

17:12

to be , um, learning language,

17:15

to be learning to how to cook something

17:17

differently. It doesn't have to be reading. It can be

17:19

reading. It can be a class, it can be

17:21

on the web. It can be taking a

17:24

new way home from your work.

17:26

It can be travel to a new place. Um,

17:30

but learning new things I think is

17:32

hugely important for the brain. And it's

17:34

not just cross crossword puzzles. Crossword

17:37

puzzles makes us better at crossword puzzles,

17:39

but it doesn't really generalize. We

17:41

need to cross train the brain by

17:44

learning many new things.

17:49

Thank you for joining us for another

17:51

empowering episode of bud belly

17:53

life. For more information on gut health

17:55

and mindset, resources, visit bud belly life.com

17:58

and remember heal yourself and

18:00

then empower others to do the same.