How To Reverse Alzheimer's | Heather Sandison ND

Dr. Heather Sandison was told in medical school that suggesting you could help someone with Alzheimer's was promoting false hope. Then she ran a clinical trial and 74% of participants with measurable cognitive impairment improved in six months.

In this episode, Dr. Sandison breaks down the five things you can start doing today to protect your brain - no doctor visit required - and explains why the conventional approach to Alzheimer's has failed, what her clinical trial revealed, and how she's working to make Alzheimer's optional in this generation.

We discuss:
- Why the amyloid hypothesis has failed after billions of dollars and decades of research
- The clinical trial results: 74% of cognitively impaired participants improved in 6 months
- Five actionable brain health strategies: blood sugar control, sleep, exercise, toxin reduction, and stress management
- Why continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) are a powerful first step
- The critical role of sleep and glymphatic brain detox in preventing neurodegeneration
- Dual-task exercise: why pickleball, dancing, and Pilates beat the treadmill for brain health
- Toxins as a causal factor: mercury, glyphosate, microplastics, and mycotoxins
- APOE4 genetic risk: what it means and what you can do about it starting young
- The ketosis connection: a patient who recognizes his grandkids in ketosis and doesn't without it
- Comprehensive functional medicine testing: what to ask for and why
- Glyphosate in U.S. grains: why people can eat bread in Europe but not America
- Marama: the residential memory recovery program changing Alzheimer's care
- Why Alzheimer's, diabetes, cancer, and mental illness share the same root causes
- Dr. Sandison's one request: optimize your sleep tonight

Guest: Dr. Heather Sandison, ND
Website: Solcere Health (solcere.com) | Marama (myvibrantvita.com)
Book: "Reversing Alzheimer's: The New Toolkit to Improve Cognition and Protect Brain Health" - NYT Bestseller, available on Amazon and wherever books are sold

Mentioned in this episode:
- Dr. Dale Bredesen - Bredesen Protocol
- Chris Palmer, MD - Brain Energy / Ketogenic therapy for mental illness
- Thomas Seyfried - Cancer as a metabolic disease
- P-tau 217 - Early Alzheimer's biomarker
- Stelo and Lingo - Over-the-counter continuous glucose monit

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Transcript

Meet Dr. Heather Sandison

Speaker 1 0:02

Dr Heather Sandison is the New York Times bestselling author of Reversing Alzheimer's the new toolkit to improve cognition and protect brain health. She is a renowned naturopathic doctor specializing in neurocognitive medicine and also is the founder of Solsair Health Clinic, a premier brain optimization clinic based in San Diego and Marama. A residential program changing memory care to memory recovery. Good, you look good and we're recording right now. Hey, heather, welcome to the program.

Speaker 2 0:43

Thank you so much for having me, Rob. It's a pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1 0:46

It's been a while since you were on the show, but I'm so excited to talk about your new book relatively new book on reversing Alzheimer's and all the implications of that for everyone. But before we do, could you just take a moment and tell us a little bit about your journey getting here and maybe what inspired you to write this book?

Speaker 2 1:10

Yeah, I started as a skeptic. I was a doctor who believed in supporting people's health, not just in treating disease. I'm trained as a naturopathic doctor, so we're looking for root cause medicine. We're thinking of doctors as teachers, supporting the natural healing mechanisms that everybody has. However, I remember being told in medical school that there was nothing I could do to support someone with Alzheimer's and that, in fact, to suggest that I could would be to promote false hope, it would be to do harm. And so I bought this. Promote false hope, it would be to do harm. And so I bought this. I thought you know, this is a smart person instructing me. And this was really the narrative around Alzheimer's was that once you had it, there was no turning back. It was just a downward slope towards demise.

Speaker 2 1:58

Then, a few years out of my training, I was at a conference and I heard a talk by Dr Dale Bredesen where he explained that in fact, he had seen people who had reversed their cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer's. And I was, of course, skeptical. I did not believe him, but the reason I sat through the talk and then signed up for more training with him was because it made sense to me. It was the common sense, that is functional medicine or naturopathic medicine, that, at a very basic level, what we're doing is we're taking the junk out that's going to impede the functioning of our cells and we're putting everything in that nourishes and supports. And this is a totally different paradigm from the conventional system that says okay, what's that single molecule that we can patent and make money off of, that a doctor can deliver in a 15 minute or a seven minute visit. That's very simple and people just swallow a pill. We can limit the variables and we can get a cure. Unfortunately, alzheimer's doesn't fit in that simplified box. Right, it is not gosh. We have tried. We have, as a society, spent billions of dollars and decades of smart people's time beating our head against that wall.

Speaker 2 3:16

This amyloid hypothesis right, that it's misfolded proteins causing Alzheimer's or dementia or age-related memory loss, and that if we just get rid of them, this will go away. Unfortunately, that hasn't panned out. We're actually quite good at getting rid of amyloid, but cognition doesn't improve. And so this paradigm shift that we need an intervention, a solution that matches the complexity of the disease process, and Dr Bredesen's approach does just that. And what we see in clinical practice is that people's cognition improves, their health improves, they get off of their diabetes medications, their weight optimizes, their blood pressure is more optimal, their mood is better, they sleep better, they're generally healthier, and this is the side effect of doing a more comprehensive and, yes, more complex, more precise, more individualized type of medicine, which I hope is where we are going in the future of medicine generally.

Skeptic to Believer in Alzheimer's Reversal

Speaker 1 4:22

Yeah, and for those who are unfamiliar, your book is called Reversing Alzheimer's. But for a lot of people when you say reversing Alzheimer's they go what, is that even possible? So maybe you could just define that a little bit. What do you mean by reversing Alzheimer's and how realistic is that goal? And you know what? What percentage of patients or what, who does it, who can, who could expect this kind of outcome?

Speaker 2 4:52

Yeah.

Speaker 2 4:52

So great question. And this is not guaranteed, right? Just quick caveat here this is not guaranteed. It doesn't work for a hundred percent of people. And reversing the, the pathophysiological process that leads to amyloid plaque accumulation and neurodegenerative disease, this is much, much, much easier earlier on, right, it's much easier to prevent than to reverse. It's much easier to delay than to reverse. However, what we've seen is that it is possible. And, to your point, many people don't put reversing and Alzheimer's in the same concept, like in the same sentence. Right, that was what we're told for so long, for too long, that you couldn't do it. And yet we see over and over again that many people can.

Speaker 2 5:38

So I had the privilege of doing a clinical trial in my office. It was a feasibility trial. Clinical trial in my office it was a feasibility trial. There was just one arm. So this was the first step going towards a randomized control trial.

Speaker 2 5:50

But we took 23 participants through a six-month intervention and they all had measurable cognitive impairment. So they had what we call a MOCA score. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment is how we assessed where they were cognitively. Montreal cognitive assessment is how we assessed where they were cognitively and a perfect score is 30, 26 and above is normal, and we only recruited participants who had MOCA scores of 13 to 23. So these participants had to have measurable cognitive impairment. As we go towards zero on that MOCA score, we're basically going towards needing support with activities of daily living not being able to formulate sentences, come up with words, very challenging to communicate, until people have a MOCA score of zero, where they're often nonverbal.

Speaker 2 6:38

So very, very sad. Obviously, this disease is absolutely heartbreaking and I didn't know what to expect when we started this trial. I had certainly seen people in my clinical practice improve, but the reason that we did the trial was because people were asking how likely is it if I put my loved one through this, if we change their diet, get them exercising differently, have them take all these supplements, if we do all this, if we put in the effort and the time and the money that it takes, how likely is it that they will get better? What a great question, right? I didn't know the answer and what we found after six months is that 74% of our participants improved. That's well over half, right? This is the majority of our participants improve their cognitive function.

Speaker 2 7:30

Now, not everybody went back to a hundred percent better, right? But many people improved, which is that's not what conventional medicine will tell you, right? They'll say that that's impossible, that you can't reverse the disease process. So this isn't a cure. This isn't. You know, I think of. You get pneumonia, you take antibiotics and it resolves and you never think about it again. Right, that's a cure. When we're talking about Alzheimer's, we are talking about a reversal of the neurodegenerative process, a reversal of the cognitive decline. But if you stop and we see this, we saw this with people who are in the clinical trial If you stop the diet, you go back to eating cake and cookies, you go back to a sedentary lifestyle, you stop taking the nutrients, you let the toxins pile up, it will come right back. This is about management and it's about creating a lifestyle that optimizes brain health long-term, and it's so. I don't want anyone to think of this as me suggesting that there's a cure for Alzheimer's. It's really about reversing the neurodegenerative process and optimizing cognitive function at any age and at any stage.

Speaker 1 8:36

Yeah, I mean I guess, if you think about it, sort of a late stage Alzheimer's patient. My mom just passed away with Alzheimer's not that long ago, before I knew about your program and Dale's work and other things, but you know she had state of the art care. But you know state of the art care is being, you know, in a room, a memory care unit, where you're fed sugary things and very little stimulation, and so I guess what I'm saying is kind of a low bar for lifestyle and you know you could see how lifestyle just relatively simple lifestyle improvements to the things you're talking about could have benefits. So what are the biggest myths and misconceptions about Alzheimer's that you hope this book dispels? I mean, why isn't everybody doing this? That's the pushback. First, tell us the myths and misconceptions. Where are people missing the boat? If I go to a medical school or traditional teachings on Alzheimer's, I'm going to get a very different approach than what you're doing.

Speaker 2 9:42

Yeah, and fortunately's the case Now. It makes my heart sing when I see someone come in and they've been to Kaiser and they say reduce your sugar consumption and increase blueberries and start exercising more. I'm just so thrilled that the narrative really is changing, rob, compared to 10 years ago. We are seeing even in conventional circles, people are having this conversation in a different way. They're no longer promoting false hopelessness, right, that there's nothing you can do. I think they're starting to grasp that there's actually an overwhelming amount that we can do and it's time to refer out right, it's not just about the medications that don't work very well and so you know, the biggest misconception is that there's nothing you can do. Right, that's certainly number one. And then what I want people to take away are the five things that you can do, starting today, without having to see a doctor. Now, I highly recommend seeing a doctor, of course. I highly recommend getting help, because I think one of the biggest challenges is that behavior change, lifestyle change, is hard for all of us, let alone someone with cognitive decline. So, getting these changes to happen, I recommend working with a health coach. That's why we created Marama, which is a residential and immersive experience, but getting support so that these things are implementable, so that you take that action. We can all learn about this stuff and much of it is common sense, but it doesn't work if you don't do it Right. So what do we do? So I want people to leave with five simple things that they could do today.

Speaker 2 11:11

One, a continuous glucose monitor is a great way to start understanding your body's relationship with sugar. We know that increases in blood sugar, diabetes, certainly insulin resistance all of these contribute to not only the dysregulated blood sugar and resource utilization, but they increase inflammation, which is associated with Alzheimer's and dementia. So, reducing your blood sugar, stabilizing your blood sugar, understanding what impacts your blood sugar, because it's not just what we eat, but it's also stress levels and sleep and our exercise habits All of these things have a role to play in terms of our metabolism. So understanding that so that we can change our behavior. And we have that data. We can't lie to ourselves about what our blood sugar is doing when we're measuring it. So there's just in the past six months, there are several, or there's two at least, continuous glucose monitors that are available without a prescription. A stello and a lingo are the two that are available without a prescription, and so you can stick these on and know for a couple of weeks what's happening to your blood sugar. So that's step one is getting metabolism under control and potentially getting into ketosis, adding coconut oil, olive oil, increasing those fats that your brain loves to burn.

Speaker 2 12:33

Number two is sleep. I really think and I'm sure you've seen this in your practice but having sleep apnea, having a sleep disorder, this sets your brain up for dysregulation, for neurodegeneration. Good quality sleep, enough of it, is crucial to brain health as we age. My joke is always don't let these numbers keep you from sleeping tonight. But you want to get at least seven hours, 60 minutes of deep sleep, an hour and a half of REM sleep, and if we can be hitting somewhere around this consistently, we're probably in pretty good shape. But if we aren't getting oxygen into our brain because our airway is compressed because of sleep apnea, if we have a REM sleep disorder, of course it's associated with neurodegenerative disease. If our sleep is interrupted because of our prostate or whatever is going on, we need to figure out how to get good quality sleep. This is a high priority. So I recommend people doing the chore, whatever it takes, to get the sleep study done or get the CPAP to work, doing that intervention so you get that quality sleep.

Speaker 2 13:48

This is when we rinse the brain of the toxins, when that glymphatic system gets the amyloid out, gets the mercury out, gets the daily metabolites out of the brain. It's also when we integrate memories. It's when we take the bite out of those stressful situations. We need to get REM sleep, deep sleep and enough sleep. So blood sugar, sleep, exercise. I recommend at least 200 minutes a week of some sort of dual task exercise which is where you're engaging cognitively at the same time as you're engaging physically. So this might be going to a Zumba class, a yoga class, a Pilates class where you're cued by an instructor, or it might be just walking and talking but getting your heart rate up and intellectually engaging. So we've talked about glucose, about sleep, about exercise.

Speaker 2 14:42

Toxins are another one. Toxic accumulation is a causal level factor when it comes to Alzheimer's and dementia. We know that mercury is directly neurodegenerative, neurotoxic. We know that glyphosate is. We know that microplastics are higher in people with dementia. There are mycotoxins which come from water-damaged buildings that directly impact neuroinflammation. So reducing the toxic burden of our brain is another really important component to reducing our risk of Alzheimer's and dementia.

Speaker 2 15:14

And we can do this by, one, having a bowel movement every day and two, sweating. What we see is that studies out of Scandinavia show that sweating regularly in a sauna which can be social added bonus, extra points if you sauna with someone, and also safety points, right, so never sauna alone. Stay hydrated, but sauna can increase our happiness. Basically it reduces our risk for depression and anxiety and it also is very effective at getting toxins out of the system through our sweat. So even sweating just 10 minutes can help to reduce our circulating toxins significantly, and then, if we rinse off with cool water after close our pores, get those toxins going down the drain rather than back into our body and stay super hydrated. That can be a really, really helpful way to reduce disease risk and improve our mood, which is so and immune function, inflammation I mean. There's just so many benefits to sweating regularly.

Five Essential Brain Health Strategies

Speaker 2 16:14

And then the last one, number five, is stress management Getting our stress levels under control. We all have stressors and this is really about balance. We want purpose and meaning. We need reasons that we're getting out of bed, whether it's grandkids or work or volunteering or church or whatever your purpose and meaning is. That's crucially important to aging. We don't heal in isolation, we heal in community, and so finding our tribe, spending time with them in meaningful relationships, is really essential to aging well and changing that relationship. With stress, people who are under significant amounts of stress cortisol, a stress hormone, can become toxic to the brain. So we want to make sure that we have enough stress, enough good stress, but not so much that our hippocampus, our memory center of the brain, is shrinking because those hormones have become so toxic.

Speaker 1 17:13

Yeah, I love those points. Let me drill down on a couple of those. Love those points. Let me drill down on a couple of those. First of all, exercise see a lot of both, as you say, brain and physical exercise. In physical exercise, I'm wondering, how do you think about and certainly muscles are a great source of BDNF and brain-derived neurotropic factor for hippocampal volumes and all that. We're hearing more and more about strength training versus cardio. What's your? We're hearing more and more about strength training versus cardio. What are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 2 17:44

Yeah, I think whatever you will do right, it needs to be implementable, and so one of the most important things as I coach people through implementing this, through making these actionable, is what is going to be fun, because you're going to hear this podcast and maybe you make an appointment or you get to the gym, or you say you're going to get to the gym. After listening, you're inspired for a week or two. But what is going to keep you going back? And there's a few things. One is making it, your identity right and making it. I am someone who plays pickleball or I am someone who goes to Pilates four times a week. If it becomes part of your identity, it's more likely to stick. And if it's fun, it's more likely to stick. So if you enjoy it, versus feeling like you're being tortured, that you have to do it. If it goes from I have to get to the gym or I have to exercise today to I get to exercise today, that can help us make that stick. So I you know I'm tempted to say I don't care what type of exercise, just move Right. However, there are some that that seem to be a little bit better than others. So muscle is, like you mentioned very important, I think, strength training. It gets harder and harder as we age to build muscle, so doing that earlier rather than waiting until later.

Speaker 2 19:04

I am a huge fan of Pilates. I think, um, one of the risks as we age is also falls, fall risks and breaking, fracturing, particularly hips and women. This can lead to that just awful demise, right Like where you go broken hip into the hospital, into skilled nursing and then to hospice. And when we can maintain our balance and our bone strength through exercise as we age, we reduce a lot of that risk. Um so Pilates is really helpful for balance. It's really helpful for strength training. Um so Pilates is really helpful for balance. It's really helpful for strength training, helpful for for core.

Speaker 2 19:40

But also working with a personal trainer or a physical therapist. Many people who are Medicare eligible don't realize that you get access to 12 sessions with a PT, a physical therapist, per year. You don't have to have a fall or a sprain or go to the orthopedist to get that. You can ask your primary care provider for a referral just to help maintain balance and to get an exercise routine designed specifically for you. So you may have some old injuries that you're worried about. You don't wanna just go to the gym and end up with a new injury. That's gonna prove this is totally counterproductive right To end up with a new injury that prevents you from exercising. So getting some professional help if you're just getting started is great.

Speaker 2 20:23

I love, love, love racket sports and dancing. And the reasons why here is that you're engaging multiple parts of the brain. Right With racket sports you've got the hand-eye coordination. Often it's outside. It's very social. You're getting fast, twitch muscle going. You've got a plain pickleball. I was playing pickleball with friends last week and it's just so much fun Lots of laughter, but also it's a challenge to keep up with the scoring and who's serving.

Speaker 2 20:51

Which side am I on, going back and forth. It's a lot of fun. But also that dual task engagement. Now dancing, ballroom dancing. I think we've heard for decades now that this is associated with a reduced risk of dementia. There's spatial awareness, there's kinesthetic awareness. There's the cueing, potentially from an instructor. There's the music that's getting at those auditory parts of the brain. There's the again, the social engagement. There's remembering the steps, where am I meant to be in space. All of these pieces are stimulating multiple parts of the brain at the same time and hopefully you're having fun. I think dancing and pickleball they just sound like fun, they are fun. So again, number one thing just move and do something you enjoy. So you keep doing, it becomes part of your identity.

Speaker 1 21:40

Yeah, that's great. Talking about prevention a little bit, you've made a compelling argument that if my MOCA score is dropping, I can't find my keys, whatever. That I have symptoms, that it's really worth making these changes and pushing back the onset, delaying the onset, whatever. But we're hearing more and more with other chronic diseases like diabetes or cancer, heart disease, mental illness, that they begin not days or weeks before a doctor makes a diagnosis. They actually begin decades before the doctor might. Is that true for Alzheimer's disease also? Or weeks before a doctor makes a diagnosis, they actually begin decades before the doctor might. Is that true for Alzheimer's disease also? And should we do see patients who are thinking about this or want to make changes before the onset of symptoms, or is that something else?

Speaker 2 22:34

Oh, the luxury of prevention, rob. This is my favorite. It's when someone comes in and they say, like I don't have symptoms yet, but my mom passed away with Alzheimer's or my, you know, all of my uncles passed away with Alzheimer's and so did my dad, and it was so heartbreaking. I don't want to do that to my kids. It is such a luxury when we get to start there, and 10 years ago I would have people say, oh, I don't want to know my genetic risk because it's just going to keep me up at night, it's just going to give me anxiety, and I don't. I don't feel confident that I would be able to do anything about it. What are we going to do? It's just fate, and the truth is that's that just couldn't be further from the truth at this stage. There's an overwhelming amount that we know we can do, and so identifying risk factors early now we can look at P tau 217, we can be looking at these earlier markers of change in the brain and at genetic risk, so that we can make different decisions and we can take control of the risk factors. We know from the Lancet paper 40% of worldwide dementias are preventable and there are modifiable risk factors that we can all take advantage of optimizing so that we don't end up with dementia. I really think that we can make Alzheimer's optional in this generation. So how do we? How do we do that? I think part of it is looking at these early markers early physiologic markers like PTAL and then looking at our genetic risk so the entire population if you take everyone excluding genetic risk. There's a 13% risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's in your lifetime If you have APOE.

Speaker 2 24:14

A-p-o-e is an elephant. If you have one copy of a four, so you get one from mom and one from dad the copies that you get are either called two, three or four. So if you get one copy from mom or dad that's a four your risk goes up to 30%. And if you get two copies four from mom and a four from dad your risk goes up to well over 50%, and this can be very scary. This goes up to well over 50% and this can be very scary.

Speaker 2 24:38

However, if I have a child who is looking at different career paths and I know that they're ApoE4 positive, I'm going to try to convince them that they shouldn't do shift work, that they should make sure that they prioritize their sleep at night, that they eat a healthier diet earlier on, that they create those good exercise habits earlier on, that they avoid traumatic brain injuries more aggressively than maybe some of their peers who don't have that genetic risk. There's a lot that we can do, even starting at a very young age. We see that APOE4-4 positive patients who are even in their teens and 20s already have a difference in cognition compared to their peers.

Speaker 1 25:21

Interesting. Yeah, the whole APOE4 story is fascinating. It was one guest was talking about how our ancestors, like greater than 10,000 years ago, the APOE4 allele was the dominant allele and it conveyed a survival advantage because it was pro-inflammatory in the brain and the heart and was useful against parasites and other things. But now that same allele has a downside with this. But that's fascinating. Yeah, that's great advice.

Speaker 1 25:58

I want to shift to one of the things you beautifully talked about lifestyle and the advantages of this program, which makes a lot of sense. Everything you said I can see the upside. I don't really see much downside other than just opportunity cost for playing pickleball or or, you know, eating a certain type of food. But it's. It's interesting because if you, if we take away the, the toxin part of it, specific neurotoxins specifically, it reminds me I just had Chris Palmer talking to Chris Palmer on the show and he has a lifestyle program for mental illness you know he's a psychiatrist that does ketogenic therapy for moving patients out of the hospitals some, not all, but it's very, very similar to this ketogenic diet, sleep, exercise. And you know, tom Seyfried, you know, with cancer therapy and others, it's a similar type program diabetes, reversal type two diabetes. You know it's this, so is this overlap coincidental, or why is that?

Speaker 2 27:11

Well, I think again, coming back to what is functional medicine? Right, I think Dr Bredesen's approach is essentially functional medicine package for optimal cognitive function. And what functional medicine does, what naturopathic medicine does, is it seeks to optimize the function of every cell in the body. The body is designed to heal, and so what we're doing is we're taking the junk out and we're putting all the good stuff in so that we can, the cells can, function optimally. Right, like it's really that simple.

Exercise for Brain Optimization

Speaker 2 27:40

And so I think where we get stuck is again, it's it's the paradigm of modern medicine that here I'm going to give you a pill and it's going to fix you, when really what we need to do is say how does my body run optimally on sleep, connected to other people, having purpose and meaning, eating good, whole foods, getting in and out of ketosis, not just burning sugar, especially excessive sugar, for decades. Right, it's about getting movement. We're designed to move. It's using the divine design of the body to optimize cellular function. It's common sense, just uncommon practice. In this day and age, with technology and highly processed foods and our busy lives and our disconnection from each other, it's very easy to fall into these traps and, depending on our genetic predisposition it might be cancer for one person and diabetes for another, and Alzheimer's for another, mental illness for another. But what we're looking to do is optimize a complex system.

Speaker 1 28:47

And talking about optimizing things, you mentioned some tests. You know the genetic tests, apoe4 and other biomarkers specifically for Alzheimer's disease and other biomarkers specifically for Alzheimer's disease Are there. Or what tests do you recommend just for overall metabolic health, kind of short of forgetting my keys or having a mental impairment like the earliest signs. Are there tests that you recommend that and this is almost more in the wellness space, kind of the healthy prevention space because any tests that you find particularly effective there you mentioned continuous glucose monitors. Certainly, yeah, that's a great one.

Speaker 2 29:30

Yeah, you know, I think whenever you hit 40 or 45, 50, the earlier the better, doing sort of a comprehensive workup. Now I would do the same thing for someone with early stages, even late stage, that I would for someone at that in prevention. Right, maybe you don't have to go as quickly, you don't have to spend as much, but I highly recommend, and I think that what I'd love to see happen over, you know, in the future of of our medical system, is that everybody gets an opportunity to do this, maybe when they turn 20, 30, 40, 50, and to evaluate what junk has accumulated, what good stuff am I missing? And so we run a, what we call a full female or male panel, and this is a. My clinic, solceri um, and my colleagues and I there run comprehensive testing on anyone that will do it right. So we're looking for nutrient levels, vitamin D, we're looking for B levels, we're looking for minerals. Do you have enough of the good stuff that's going to make your body function? Of course, omegas. Then we're looking at all of I think of it like the lab work that your conventional doctor would do. But on steroids, we're looking at all of I think of it like the lab work that your conventional doctor would do, but on steroids. We're looking at a thyroid panel, but instead of two markers we're looking at 10. We're looking at a cholesterol panel, but instead of just two or three markers, we're looking at that advanced cardiometabolic workup LP, little a, sdldl, apob, of course, lppla2 or the plaque. We're looking at those much more risky numbers and evaluating where people are. We're looking at the complete metabolic panels and also we're looking at cystatin C and GGT for liver and kidney function.

Speaker 2 31:08

We're diving deep into each of the kind of conventional labs, but those are typically more downstream, right. So going upstream, causal level, what's going to cause imbalances in the system? Toxins so we test for heavy metals, we test for environmental pollutants, we test for glyphosate, we text for mycotoxins. I can't tell you how many people have said no, no, no, I've never been exposed to mold or a water damage building. And sure enough, they come back with crazy high levels because they're not aware of it. So we want to get rid of those. Even if you're not aware of them, they can still be causing a bunch of damage.

Speaker 2 31:42

We do a stool test on everyone. We want to know is the gut microbiome in balance? Do you have leaky gut? Are you digesting and absorbing your nutrients? We also run nutrient panels and then we look at a laundry list of infections that can cause infectious burden. When that accumulates that can also trigger neuroinflammation, particularly herpes viruses, p gingivalis in the mouth, and then COVID of course can do that and tick-borne diseases.

Speaker 2 32:12

So we're looking for what are all the things at a causal level that might throw off the nervous system. We look at cortisol levels, we look at cortisol levels, we look at hormone levels. So you can go as deep as you want, but I recommend working with the functional medicine provider, and I think some people try to do a little bit here and a little bit there, and I think it actually works better if you do all the labs at once, because then you can start to prioritize and you're not missing pieces. What used to happen is I would worry like, oh, I don't want them to spend another $300. But then we spend 12 months going, gosh, I wish I had just run that mycotoxin test out of the gate, because that's where the real imbalance is. Or I wish I had just run that stool test when the day I met her, rather than waiting for 12 or 18 months and then scratching our heads going where is the real imbalance here?

Speaker 1 33:04

Quick question about the glyphosate test. If you're in the US, where our grains are routinely bathed in glyphosate, unlike many other countries around the world, is everybody's glyphosate elevated or is there a threshold that you look at Like? If it's super elevated, that's a problem, but otherwise, or do you recommend people not eat grains as part of this program, or do you recommend people not eat grains as part of this program?

Speaker 2 33:29

Yeah, I do recommend people avoid grains. Of course, if you are having them here and there, make sure that they're organic. But even then we see that I've never tested anybody whose glyphosate level is at zero, so it's ubiquitous. It is everywhere Glycine, so an amino acid called glycine that is quite calming to the nervous system, um, that can help to basically get glyphosate out. We see that uh glyphosate levels will come down with glycine supplementation as well as with um, with avoidance Of course. It's really interesting.

Speaker 2 34:02

I can't tell you how many people over the years have said I can't eat bread in the U S. I, my child or my child can't I. A friend of mine last night was saying how their three-year-old gets night terrors in the U? S if they have any bit of gluten containing products. But in Europe he can have croissants and he can have bread and it's not an issue Fascinating, absolutely fascinating. How many times I've heard this. In Europe I can eat all the bread I want, but in the US I get this and this and this symptom. So really interesting. There's definitely something going on there with the pesticides and herbicides and the differences in the quality of the food.

Speaker 1 34:42

Yeah, I've heard that too, and certainly the glyphosate is different, but all the other herbicides and pesticides as well with that. So Solseri is an outpatient service clinic that you have that's based in San Diego, but people can see you from all over the country, right? They just have to go there once for basic evaluation and then they can be seen on a remote basis, correct?

Speaker 2 35:09

Yeah, we have a lot of people fly in and establish care, meet with us in person Important to meet people in person to provide good care and then, yes, we can do follow-up for a year after that. So get them set up on a plan and then usually by the time that they're in maintenance, there's somebody closer to home who can help with kind of the fine tuning over the years. But, yeah, we can get people started. Certainly we see great results within six to nine months. Routinely, although not guaranteed, but we consistently see really incredible, miraculous reversals of cognitive impairment that are. It's why I get up in the morning. That's so fun and so fulfilling to see these changes.

Functional Medicine Tests for Prevention

Speaker 1 35:49

And it seems like this program would also be for those that are looking, looking at prevention or at the sort of they're high risk for it, but maybe they don't have symptoms yet, or they don't have a diagnosis, but they just want to embrace a lifestyle and identify any factors that they need to really drill down on correct.

Speaker 2 36:08

Absolutely. You know, the first sign that your cognition is not what it was that I gosh. I would never have missed that word or I would never forgotten that name 10 years ago. That's when you want to get help, and I think previously people would say oh they're, what are they going to do for me? The doctor can't do anything to help me, so why would I even go? They're just going to take my driver's license away, and that is the. That is what we want to dispel. That is a myth that needs to be gone. See a Bredesen drain provider, a functional medicine provider, a health coach, anybody who can help you get your cognition optimized sooner rather than later, because we don't want that neurodegenerative process to take hold right. We want to reverse that at the earliest stage. Possible is when it's easiest and least expensive.

Speaker 1 36:55

Yeah, so don't wait till you're forgetting your keys, or earlier is better. Prevention is best of all. If you can do it, then on the on the sort of the other side, you also have a program that you're affiliated with called Marama. That's more in an inpatient Alzheimer's nursing home type facilities. Is that right?

Speaker 2 37:19

Yeah, I created Marama because we had patients reaching out saying, hey, my mom or my uncle or someone I love has this disease and I want them to get on the diet, I want them to get the social engagement. I want them to get the social engagement, I want them in a non-toxic environment. How do I do this? Bredesen protocol it's a full-time job and I've already got a full-time job and kids to raise and pets to feed and a household to manage, and I heard that often enough that I was like, okay, how hard could it be to just create a destination, a place where people could come and get that immersive experience? And so that's what we've created.

Speaker 2 37:51

We have a community in Kansas, in Wichita, kansas, right now, and we're working to create more of those across the country with collaborating with existing senior living communities, and we're really excited to just share that. We see really impressive improvements in cognitive function for people who get to engage in that program and it's a lot of fun. It's very inspiring. Typically, people wait to kind of till later stages, when they need memory care, to move into the Kansas location, but we're doing everything we can to increase access to people earlier on in the process. But for caregivers. Caregivers are at higher risk of developing Alzheimer's and dementia and I think Barama is a service to them as well to get them that respite, to get them that break, so that they know that their loved one is getting the best care possible out there.

Speaker 1 38:41

And is there a center in San Diego also? You mentioned one in Wichita. Is there one in San Diego too, right?

Speaker 2 38:48

now it's just Kansas. We're looking for opening up a Southern California location in the next six months or so.

Speaker 1 38:54

Yeah, we had an interview about this many months ago and you were talking about the centers, and one of the quotes that our producer pulled out and I've repeated many times is he telling the story about a patient. About, just briefly when he's in ketosis he recognizes his grandkids and knows their names and everything, and when he goes out of ketosis he doesn't remember him. And you know everybody's different, but for that individual, ketosis was key to his mental functioning. Functioning and certainly that particular patient.

Speaker 2 39:29

He also was incontinent when he was out of ketosis.

Speaker 1 39:33

Wow.

Speaker 2 39:34

And got his continence back when he wasn't and this, for anyone listening who doesn't know, that's control of your bladder. So he had urinary incontinence when he was not in ketosis. And this is dignity, right? That ability to get up and use the bathroom when you need to and not wet your pants. That is your dignity as you age.

Speaker 2 39:52

And if it's as simple as getting in, I mean, of course, that story is so compelling because of the emotional piece of knowing who your family is right. But your dignity like if so many people lose the will to live when they can't maintain their dignity, people will say over and over again I don't will to live when they can't maintain their dignity. People will say over and over again I don't want to live like that. I would choose not to if I could. And so this simple shift in our metabolism can give that back. It's just don't leave that on the table, right, try it, experiment with it, get into ketosis, understand your metabolism when, what's going on with your blood sugar, so that you can maintain that for as long as possible.

Solseri Clinic and Marama Residential Program

Speaker 1 40:33

Yeah, and to be clear, ketosis doesn't work for everybody, but that it works for anybody is a miracle. It's magical and there's really no downside to it. So everybody should be, you know, should be, at least have a trial of this. For you know, Chris say, is it for all the mental illness things and you know, and for Alzheimer's disease as well?

Speaker 2 41:00

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. At least experiment with it Exactly. We're almost out of time. Last question If you could leave listeners with one action to take to protect their brain health, what would that be?

Speaker 2 41:24

Diet does 50% of the lifting, but I think it's hardest to change for many people. If you're not quite ready to change your diet, get the CGM. But sleep is one of those things that who doesn't look forward to a great night of sleep, right? Do that easy thing today. Prioritize good sleep, and for you that might mean getting to bed a little bit earlier. Maybe you know you should go to bed a little bit earlier. Maybe you know you should go to bed a half an hour earlier or an hour earlier, so that you get that those hours before midnight that tend to be more rich and deep and REM sleep. Or maybe it's picking up the phone and making the appointment for the sleep study that you know you should do. Or maybe you already have a CPAP at home and you're just not wearing it because it's uncomfortable, or you've convinced yourself it doesn't work or you don't need it. Treat sleep apnea aggressively, so do whatever it takes to optimize your sleep tonight. That is my one request from our listeners today.

Speaker 1 42:22

That's a yeah. That's a great message that we can all benefit from, certainly, so thank you so much. This is Dr Heather Sandison. The book is Reversing Alzheimer's the New Toolkit to Improve Cognition and Protect Brain Health. It's a great book. I highly recommend it. It's very readable. You've got to get this book. Thanks so much, heather, for joining us today and thanks so much for all the great work you're doing. Thank's very readable. You've got to get this book. Thanks so much, heather, for joining us today and thanks so much for all the great work you're doing.

Speaker 2 42:53

Thank you, Rob. Such a pleasure to be here.