Dr. Martin shares a small study showing how Alzheimer’s was reversed in patients. Not just stopped, but reversed! What’s encouraging is the study didn’t look at genetics, but instead at lifestyle. They looked at Alzheimer's the way it should be, as a metabolic disease.
Many people think that Alzheimer’s is simply aging of the brain, when it’s really not that at all. It’s a neurodegenerative disease, and this study is showing how lifestyle changes can dramatically affect its progression.
Dr. Martin unpacks the study in today’s episode. He shares the changes they made resulting in this breakthrough discovery!
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by MartinClinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr. Martin: Good morning, everyone. And once again, welcome to another Live this morning. Hope you're having a great start to your day, that you've had your vitamin C, coffee. I'm bringing you good news this morning, okay, because we're going to talk about Alzheimer's. Is it preventable? Well, I say yes. Let's get a couple of things straight so that we know what we're talking about here. Is Alzheimer's aging of the brain? It's aging, is it? No, it's not. Not really. Now, this is a small study, but I've got to bring it to you and it's written by Dr. Melissa Schilling in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. So there's actually a journal, and there should be, I mean the number three killer in North America is Alzheimer's. And we're seeing it in younger and younger people. It's scary. The number one killer in the United kingdom is not COVID, it's Alzheimer's. But there's some interesting things in this study, where they had people that were diagnosed with Alzheimer's and they were actually able to reverse it.
Now this was again, a very small study, but it's encouraging because the idea of this, and this is what I really liked about the study, is they didn't talk about genetics. It's not a genetic disease, meaning that if mommy gets Alzheimer's, your mother, your grandmother had Alzheimer's, doesn't mean you're getting it. It's not passed down. And medicine is finally, not all of them, but some of them, they're finally looking at lifestyle. They're looking at Alzheimer's the way it should be looked at, as a chronic disease, a metabolic disease. And so the subjects that were in this small study, and I admit it's a small study, but the problem with Alzheimer's is, one of the biggest things is the pharmaceutical industry.
Now, again, I don't want to be always railing on them because they do some wonderful things. So don't say, well, Dr. Martin doesn't like the pharmaceutical industry. Nah, I do. But I got to call them when they run everything, including the treatment of Alzheimer's. And we brought to you, I can't even remember what number of the podcast it is, but we brought to you the FDA, the latest medication that got approved for treatment. Well, Cleveland Clinic would have nothing to do with it. All of the Cleveland Clinics in the United States will have nothing to do with a new drug approved by the FDA, because what was it? 11 out of 12 on the committee that recommends drugs said, nah, it doesn't work, but they passed it anyway. Because there was such a vacuum. Nothing works in Alzheimer's. Big pharma they spend, and I get it, they spend billions, not millions, billions trying to find a medication. Cause that's what they do. They're not going to talk about lifestyle. We can't leave it to big pharma to talk about the importance of metabolic syndrome. They won't do it.
They don't sit around in a boardroom and these scientists that worked for them, they don't sit around and go, you know what the prob... Alzheimer's is a metabolic disease. They don't say that. They want to come up with a medication. Take this, you won't get Alzheimer's or if you do, it will make you better. No, it's not happening because they're looking for love in all the wrong places, guys. It's not going to happen by medication. I'm telling you, it's lifestyle. It's you taking control of your body. The good thing is that even some people, again, small study showing that once they had it, they were able to reverse it. And they did some very specific things going after your metabolism.
Now, remember, remember I bring this out, if I don't bring it out every day it's every second day, what do I say? 88% of the population are in trouble because they have some form of metabolic disorder. They either have high blood pressure, even high normal, again, within normal limits of blood glucose. Why do you think I want to see your A1C guys? It's an average of your blood sugars. And people that know their business are always lowering the bar for A1C because they know metabolic changes start to occur. You start to get inflammation. You start to have trouble when it's, well they said 4.7. Wow, that is extremely low. It's the importance of food because blood glucose, guys, is food. Part of metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, is food. There's nothing that will affect your blood sugar and your blood pressure like food.
And high triglycerides is part of metabolic syndrome. There's only one way you're going to get high triglycerides, if you're a carboholic. "Oh, my daddy had high triglycerides. I guess me too." No, they don't even look at triglycerides most of the time. Every day, every day, every day. And I don't blame you guys. Okay? I'm not blaming you. My audience, I don't blame. But every day I get asked to look at, "Oh, my doctor just called me, my cholesterol is high." Ooh, you insist on giving me a headache. Who, who cares? You can't make me care about your cholesterol. I want it to be high. Your HDL got to be high and LDL, I don't care. It don't matter. But you get high triglycerides, very simply. You're a carboholic. "Oh, I didn't think I was", I look at triglycerides and a lot of times I see blood work and it's upside down. The triglycerides are high and their HDL is low and I go, well, that's upside down. "Well, how did I get there?" Food.
So what this study, interesting, Dr. Melissa Schilling. And she came up with some other interesting things. To reverse Alzheimer's, here's what they did. They lowered blood sugar. Well how'd they do that? Food. They changed their diets. They went on a very low carb diet. Okay? Two, what did they do? Exercise, vitamin E. Vitamin E. Did you guys get our email this morning? If you don't get our emails, you got to sign up for it. Sign up for our emails. Why? Very, very instructive because we put a teaching in there this morning on bones and bones and muscles are directly related. Sarcopenia, weak muscles, and osteoporosis are sisters. Twin sisters. You take a coin and you flip it. And osteoporosis, sarcopenia, weak muscles, weak bones. But what else did we talk about? Strong muscles, strong brain.
Every time you do something, I mean, first of all, just move and you know what? Here's what they know. The stronger your muscles, especially your legs, the better your brain operates. Whenever I do legs, I think of my brain. It's brain day, it's not leg day, it's brain day. Okay? You need muscles. So what they did in this study, they lowered blood sugar, food. They increased exercise, vitamin E. The real one. They optimized, this is number three, if you're taking notes, they optimized vitamin D. Well, there you go. Vitamin D? I never heard of it. Is there ever a day that I don't talk about vitamin D? I know, I know, you're so narrow-minded, Dr. Martin. Yeah, but I'm a focuser guys. Like you don't need 17 different things. You need vitamin D because every organ in your body has an antenna, a solar panel, attached to it. VitDerma. I'm dead serious about VitDerma though, I'm dead serious about it. I know I joke a lot but I'm dead serious about VitDerma. What we could have done with VitDerma in the last 18 months. What we could have done with VitDerma. No money in it. Follow the money.
Here's another one they did. Okay, so they lowered blood sugar. They got them exercising, vitamin E. They optimized their vitamin D. They optimized it because what they're finding with Alzheimer's, like a lot of other chronic conditions, metabolic conditions, people are very low in vitamin D. If you insist on being a carboholic, you're probably are going to have, even if you sit in the sun, are going to low levels of vitamin D. Things work together guys, things work together.
Here's another one, number four, on the hit parade, what they did. They lowered homocysteine, don't get too excited. What is that? Homocysteine is a test. It's an important test but you want to know what lowers homocysteine? Well, lower your insulin and it will help. But you know what lowers it? B12! When you don't have enough B12. 80, 90% of the population, they don't have optimized B12 levels. You need optimized, like vitamin D. "I'm normal doc." Normal ain't good enough. You want to prevent Alzheimer's? Normal isn't good enough. I talked to you yesterday about the thyroid. "My blood test is normal." It doesn't matter, you still got a sluggish thyroid And it's the same with B12. "Doc my B12. My doc said my B12 was high." Good, good. You want to aim high. B12, your brain doesn't work without B12.
You want to get me excited? Tell me about the modern world. I cringe, "red meat is acidic. Ooh, it going to kill ya. It's going to get your cholesterol, your red meat. Don't eat that. Ooh." Because you need B12. And B12 is only found in red meat. Okay. It drives me nuts. And what these people did to reverse Alzheimer's. Reverse it. They optimize the B12 levels. Vitamin D and B12. If you are a vegetarian or you are a vegan, if your family, members of your family, please can you at least get them to take B12 as a supplement and vitamin D cause they're going to be low in that too.
Number five, this is very interesting. This one will blow your socks off. Listen to what I'm going to say now. They got these subjects in their study to get dirty. And I don't mean dirty dancing. I mean, out in the soil. One of the big connections this Dr. Melissa Schilling noted is the lack of bacteria. Now think along with me, guys, what did I say yesterday? The day before, the day before that, the day before that, you know what elevates my blood pressure? Is when people over clean. Spray, spray, spray, spray! Wash! All those hand sanitizers and this and that, all the chemicals, but it's not only that it strips away everything! You want to get rid of a virus, guys, well get rid of every human being on the planet and every animal. You will no longer have bacteria and viruses. Hello! We're meant to live in that environment. Don't over clean, get dirty.
Can you believe it? This is bringing it back, in this study, this is bringing it back to a couple of things. We're trying to live in a pristine environment. You know why they said this, by the way, the study actually tells you why. They said, where they're seeing Alzheimer's is in industrialized nations. Like you go to Africa and there's very little or no Alzheimer's there. Stompin’ Tom used to have a song, "Bugs, bugs, bugs. If I had them all in jugs." Anyway, I used to love Stompin’ Tom. Guys, don't over clean! One of the things that is a factor in destroying bacteria, your microbiome, is antibiotics. Not just cleaning, over cleaning. Antibiotics. It wipes everything out. You need bacteria. Don't be so scared of it.
Let me bring this up. This is a study that goes along with this. Listen to this. There's a link between herpes simplex, chickenpox, and neurodegenerative diseases. The immune system, guys, listen, here's what they're saying. Viruses get activated. You get the chicken pox as a kid? Now I'm going to say something controversial. It shouldn't be controversial, but it is, okay. But I'm going to say it. What we should have, no seriously, is bring everybody together and get the virus. Have a party so that we can get herd immunity. You ever hear of a chicken pox party? You get somebody who's got a chicken pox, go to their house and get it. Because your immune system now flags it and puts it to bed. That's how your body works. It's so smart. It says, oh, there's chicken pox. I now have an antigen to it. I flag it. And now you go to bed.
And the only way that comes out is when your immune system goes down. When your immune system sinks like the Titanic, the virus is activated. You don't have enough friendly bacteria, your immune system doesn't work. You don't have enough vitamin D, your immune system doesn't work properly. Even B12. New study came out. New study came out. I have it right here, B12 and the immune system. Where have you heard that before? If you're low in B12, you have lower amounts of T cells. Those are your Navy seals coming out of your lymphatic system and natural killer cells. They mop up cancer cells and bad bugs. Guys, your immune system wants bugs. They want bacteria. They want viruses. You can't suppress that all the time. You can't. Don't over clean.
Okay... I'm excited. I'm excited. And again, you see the importance of probiotics. Leaky gut, leaky brain. What happens in Vegas? Doesn't stay in Vegas. What happens in your gut gets transported to your brain. Through the blood, through the 10th cranial nerve, the vagus nerve. There's a connection between your brain and your gut. You get butterflies. That's the connection, it's your 10th cranial nerve. What if you don't have enough good guys? Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease of the brain. It's in the family, in my opinion, of autoimmune. Your body overreacts when your blood sugar is high and you don't have enough bacteria and you're not exercising, and you're not taking vitamin D and you don't have enough B12. It's a neurodegenerative disease. It's not an aging disease, and there's no drug in the universe, present or future, that's going to fix that, guys. It's lifestyle. And now we have a disruption of microbiome because of the overuse of antibiotics, because of all of the chemicals in our industrialized nation.
And good luck, are you going to go live in Africa? Nah, you're not. You're going to live in North America. So you got to take steps to protect your brain. Now I'm going to do a whole teaching on this, but here's another thing they looked at. Is increased levels of uric acid. And we're going to do a whole teaching on that. But again, it's the diet and it ain't purines. This is not gout I'm talking about. It's not kidney stones I'm talking about. It's elevated levels of uric acid without any symptoms of that, they just did a marker and they found in Alzheimer's that uric acid levels were high. These people didn't have gout, now maybe some of them did. But I'm going to explain that to you. We're going to go into a deep dive on that biomarker. Why it's important and how it gets elevated. Again, guys, it's lifestyle. It's food. It's food.
Isn't that encouraging, though, guys? I think you'd agree with me. It's not negative, it's encouraging. Not everything we can control in life. I know that. Okay. I'm well aware of that. You ain't going to stop yourself from aging. Okay? You can slow it down, though. You can't stop it. Let's be reasonable. You know, that loss of the brain, man, it's one of the biggest fears in society, over the age of 50 people say, "You know what? Alzheimer's, Ooh, I don't want that. I don't want that." I think we're all in agreement about that. Okay? So this is a really interesting episode. I'd like you as much as possible to share it and get your folks and your friends and family, whatever, get them to listen to the podcast. It'll be out in about a week or so. Okay, we just clean it up and turn it into a podcast. So then they can download it and you can listen to this again on your smart device. Okay?
We thank you for the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people and do that, and I think in terms of our Facebook reach, we're well over the three million mark. Now, we appreciate that guys. We're just trying to get the message out. Okay. But again, if you haven't signed up for our newsletters, then do that. Sign up for the newsletters, the emails that we sent out. Okay, so guys, I hope you enjoyed that session. Keep your brain, keep your memory. Okay. And so those are the steps that we talked about today. It's very, very encouraging. There's light at the end of this tunnel, guys. I really like it. And I was encouraged to see. It's almost like some confirmation of things that you and I have been talking about for a long time. What we can do. Okay. So tomorrow's question and answer, Friday. Okay. We love that session. So send in your questions, not too late, get your questions to us and we'll try and cover all of them tomorrow. Okay. Love you guys. And we'll talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!