One woman's story of getting better - a conversation with Julie Gregory
Release Date: 11/15/2017
Alzheimer’s Disease - Going Beyond the Hypothesis
Evolving Past Alzheimer's
What if what we thought to be the primary cause ofAlzheimer'swas not true? Dr. NateBergman delves into a research article published by Dr. Weaver to assess if the primary cause of Alzheimer's can be limited to only the amyloid area. For years it has been believed that the main causes of Alzheimer’s disease are the abnormal build-up of proteins in and around the brain cells. The main toxic protein involved in this is called the amyloid beta which accumulates and builds up like plaque around the brain cells. However, in recent times, the hypothesis that originated in 2006 and was believed by...
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Brain Stimulation for Early Alzheimer's Disease
Evolving Past Alzheimer's
In This Episode You Will Learn: Where are you in your career right now? Neuroscience research is fascinating. Dr. Ted is most interested in attention, perception, and memory. These three things work together harmoniously because you can’t remember something you ignore, and it’s difficult to notice something if you don’t perceive it in the beginning. Dr. Ted studied how the brain encodes beats. He uses music perception to enable people to pay attention, listen, and remember information. He worked with Adam Gaza and researched aging's attention, memory, and perception. Their...
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Strong Heart, Sharp Mind with Marwan Sabbagh MD
Evolving Past Alzheimer's
6 Effective Ways of Heart Disease Prevention Anyone who wishes to optimize health by protecting the heart and brain must listen to this! Dr. Marwan Sabbagh and Joe Piscatella combine the six most effective principles for heart disease prevention. They unfold valuable heart and brain facts in their new book Strong Heart, Sharp Mind, which are equally beneficial for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease. In a way, they open hope for effective heart disease treatments, dealing with Alzheimer's, and other brain ailments with a multidisciplinary approach. What is good for your heart is good for...
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Strong Heart, Sharp Mind with Marwan Sabbagh MD
Evolving Past Alzheimer's
A familiar guest rejoins us for the show! Marwan Sabbagh MD is currently a professor of Neurology at Barrow Neurological Institute and a leader in Alzheimer's disease diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Sabbagh and his bestselling co-author and heart disease survivor, Joe Piscatella reveals new hope for treating and preventing these heart, blood vessel, and brain diseases like Alzheimer's with their new book, Strong Heart, Sharp Mind. We discuss how, for the first time in his career, Dr Sabbagh is starting to see people with very early Alzheimer's hold the symptoms at bay. He attributes, in part, to...
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Plasma Exchange, Albumin & IVIg for Alzheimer's - AMBAR Trial Results with Merce Boada MD PhD
Evolving Past Alzheimer's
The conversation had on this episode is a little complex but is an excellent review in how science is done and "how the sausage is made" in terms of medical evidence in peer review for Alzheimer's treatments. We discuss the results of the - The Alzheimer Management by Albumin Replacement - where people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's showed significant improvements after having their blood plasma exchanged in addition to receiving either IV Albumin as well as IVIg (in some of the experimental groups). The study doesn't offer an explanation of the mechanisms around why Albumin...
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Towards Understanding "Lyme" & Alzheimer's Relationships with Alan MacDonald MD
Evolving Past Alzheimer's
In July 2021, the journal Frontiers in Neurology reported on "groundbreaking research" out of Tulane pointing to the relationship between Lyme disease and Alzheimer’s dementia. But since the 1980s our guest on this episode, Dr. Alan MacDonald, was stirring up the scientific debate by publishing and presenting data from his pathology laboratory that the bacteria - Borrelia Burgdorferi often synonymous with what's called Lyme disease, because of its association with its US origins in the town of Lyme, Connecticut. Dr. MacDonald graduated with an MD from Columbia University. ...
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Our Sense of Smell - Brainwaves of COVID and Alzheimer's with Thom Cleland PhD
Evolving Past Alzheimer's
This is a more theoretical episode that gives us some idea about what might be happening with the rhythms of an Alzheimer's or POST-COVID brain.
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Our Brains Need Meditation - Here's Why with Hemal Patel PhD
Evolving Past Alzheimer's
In this episode, we go deep into the potential benefits of specialized meditation for our immune systems, brain-related proteins, Alzheimer's, cellular energy, and much more. Our guest, Dr Hemal Patel - is a full professor and serves as the Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of California, San Diego.
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Lisa's Story - Chap. 2 - Living Well with Alzheimer's
Evolving Past Alzheimer's
Earlier this year, podcast episode #65 - we spoke to Lisa and her daughters Stacy and Natalie. They told us about how they were Living Well with Alzheimer's and improving using lifestyle and personalized approach. Her cognitive decline had stabilized and seen small, but significant improvements in brain function. This episode we review some of the elements that have led to their success
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Usable Technology for Brain Aging & Dementia with Ben Hampstead PhD
Evolving Past Alzheimer's
“We’re actually able to change the brain, even in the face of things like Alzheimer’s disease.” This was the statement made by our guest for this show, Dr. Ben Hampstead. Dr. Hampstead is a professor at the Univ of Michigan and leads a lab that is doing several studies using transcranial direct current stimulation for mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's, and other forms of cognitive impairment.
info_outlineOn the cusp of her 50th birthday Julie Gregory started to experience symptoms of cognitive decline. Feeling alone and terrified, and given her family history of Alzheimer's, Julie sought to do something. Julie learned that she was an ApoE-4 homozygote - in other words she has both genetic copies of the ApoE4 gene which increased her chance of developing Alzheimer's by 50% - 90%. This episode discusses Julie's health journey and what she done to improve her cognitive and general health.
Along with a few other people, Julie founded ApoE4.Info Inc. - a crowdsourced website that brings people info in science and self-experimentation for those with one or two copies of the high risk gene for developing Alzheimer's (ie the ApoE4 gene).
Important NOTE: not everyone that is diagnosed with Alzheimer's has copies of the ApoE4 gene.
Julie's Most Effective Strategies for Brain Health
- Exercise 60 minutes per day - low and moderate intensities.
- "Super clean diet" - no grains, high numbers of natural colors, high vegetables, healthy fats (she focuses on plant fats and less so on the saturated animal fats).
- Reduced cerebral glucose utilization - ketones can create alternate fuel (mild ketosis) you can do this by reducing sugar intake and ingesting MCT oil
- Optimizing sleep - blue blocker glasses 3 hours before bed (to ramp up melatonin production)
- Meditation - any kind for any amount of time
- Impeccable tooth care- coconut oil pulling (10 minutes per day). Julie uses non-fluoride toothpaste
- "Skin Deep Database" by the Environmental Working Group- to find safe skin care products
Minute 22:30 - Discussion about Babesia Duncani, Lyme related infections, chronic microbial infections (ie potential infectious micro-organisms) and how the research seems to suggest that these may lead to some of the proteins (beta amyloid in specific) that we know our causally related to Alzheimer's. Also, Julie tells her story about getting tested and treated for some of these infections.
Minute 32:01 On why talking about Alzheimer's or Pre-Alzheimer's is such a touchy subject and the goal of APOE4.INFO - the crowd-sourced website that Julie and others founded to help those looking for accurate information. They have an active forum and facebook page that you can interact with. We also discuss the ethical controversy of genetic testing to understand your Alzheimer's risk (spoiler alert: Julie and I are both fans of checking) and the controversy around talking about the view that Alzheimer's is potentially reversible and preventable.
Find out more about Julie's organization to help you understand your risk: apoE4.info