This video, based on a lecture by Dr. David Perlmutter, discusses 14 things that can increase your risk of brain problems like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. It explains how things like not learning enough when you're young, being lonely, or getting head injuries can hurt your brain. The video also talks about how conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity can cause inflammation and damage to your brain. Finally, it gives five tips to help protect your brain, such as eating certain foods and exercising.
Key Takeaways
1
Early education and mental stimulation help build a strong 'cognitive reserve' in your brain, making it more resilient later in life.
2
Social isolation is very damaging to the brain as it reduces mental stimulation, increases stress and depression, and leads to chronic inflammation.
3
Traumatic brain injuries can lead to chronic inflammation and speed up neurodegeneration, making omega-3 fats important for recovery.
4
Hearing and vision loss can increase the risk of Alzheimer's because the brain has to work harder, diverting resources away from memory and attention.
5
Chronic high blood pressure damages small blood vessels in the brain, reducing blood flow and leading to inflammation and tissue damage.
6
Diabetes, often called 'Type 3 Diabetes' in relation to dementia, causes insulin resistance and the formation of harmful compounds called Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs).
7
Obesity, especially around the waist, produces inflammatory cytokines that increase the risk for inflammation, insulin resistance, and cognitive decline.
8
Environmental toxins like air pollution, smoking, and pesticides create free radicals that cause oxidative stress and damage brain neurons.
9
Excessive alcohol use damages neurons directly, creates oxidative stress and inflammation, and causes nutritional deficiencies vital for the nervous system.
10
High LDL cholesterol can lead to plaque buildup in blood vessels, inflammation, and damage to the blood-brain barrier, making the brain more vulnerable to toxins.
11
To reduce the damaging effects of AGEs, adopt a low-AGE diet by choosing water-based cooking methods like steaming or stewing over grilling or frying.
12
Maintaining good glycemic control, with fasting blood sugar below 95 and A1c below 5.4, is crucial for preventing brain problems.
13
Boost your antioxidant intake through foods and supplements to counteract inflammation caused by AGEs.
14
Regular exercise improves insulin sensitivity, lowers inflammation, and reduces the damaging effects of AGEs.
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0:01
good morning and welcome to another
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edition of today's nutrition where we
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look at what is new in research what's
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hot in the news or any topic that can
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help us lose weight feel great or live
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longer better usually all three well
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today I'm going to talk about the one
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and only lecture I was able to stay for
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at my favorite conference that I go to
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every year in New York City the
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integrative healthc care
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Symposium I planned on being there all
0:29
weekend but instead I got called back
0:33
for the early birth of a granddaughter
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my first granddaughter so of course
0:39
babies come
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first so worth it okay but you know and
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I can simply order the recording so that
0:46
I can bring you the latest the most
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up-to-date research on Healthcare in the
0:51
21st century so you won't miss a thing
0:54
but honestly after almost 50 years of
0:57
doing this I really do believe we do it
1:00
for our children and our
1:03
grandchildren we have had such an
1:05
increase in chronic disease in the last
1:08
5060 years due to toxic food epidemic
1:12
use of pharmaceutical drugs
1:14
environmental toxins I mean we just
1:17
cannot continue to do this if we want to
1:22
survive let alone Thrive you know here
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we are in the US we now live 5 years
1:29
less than and Canadians our neighbors to
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the North or any other country that is
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our economic
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equal we have to see where we need to
1:41
clean things up so that we can reverse
1:44
these problems and at the conference the
1:46
one the only lecture that I could do go
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to you know and I I'm glad this was the
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one that I could go to because it was by
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one of my favorite doctors Dr David
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pearlmutter my favorite neurologist
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his specialty is preventing neurological
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diseases some of his bestselling books
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that you might enjoy number one and he
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wrote this a long time ago the Grain
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Brain surviving truth or I'm sorry the
2:14
surprising truth about wheat carbs and
2:17
sugar your brain's secret silent Killers
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he's a huge proponent of glutenfree low
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carb low starch then the next one the
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brain maker the power of gut microbes to
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heal and protect your brain for life
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again huge proponent of vegetables to
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feed those little gut microbes third one
2:42
the Grain Brain Whole Life Plan boosting
2:47
brain performance losing weight and
2:49
achieving Optimal Health and then he a
2:52
couple years ago he wrote the one the
2:53
little unusual drop acid the surprising
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surprising news science on uric acid
3:00
acid the real culprit behind
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hypertension heart disease and stroke
3:06
and uric acid is something that everyone
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should have tested at least once it used
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to be on the yearly profile but they've
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taken it off there and it is important
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to know where you are on that because it
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does have a strong correlation to
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strokes and heart disease yeah I I had a
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friend that as soon as he retired had
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sorts of problems that left his
3:33
retirement less than optimal and then
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you've got brain wash his latest one
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detox your mind for clearer thinking
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deeper relationships and Lasting
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happiness you know Dr pearlmutter
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understands that the brain isn't
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isolated from your body it is an
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extension of your body and you just have
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to have a healthy body to have a healthy
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mind if you stress if you eat junk if
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you don't exercise if you're exposed to
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toxins if you don't sleep the body and
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the brain are both going to suffer you
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know it's like the six Heavenly steps
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that I write about in my book get out of
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H hormone hell you got to get them all
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right so the body can be healthy and
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with chronic degenerative disorders
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especially those that affect the brain
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the brain has the biggest consequences
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and despite decades and and billions of
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dollars on Research going down the wrong
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path medicine still finds themselves at
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a loss when the challenge comes to
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Alzheimer's and
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Parkinson's there still is not a good
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medical
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treatment but I'm going to cover some of
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the things that Dr Pearl mutter talked
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about and uh what I'm going to cover
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today is is just the 14 modifiable risk
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factor fa s that can prevent or delay
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dementia and the first one I love it and
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hands off or hats off to the crunchy
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moms out there because that
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early intervention early in life quality
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education and early life you know that's
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what's thought to build what we call
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cognitive Reserve engaging in learning
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and mental stimulation from that early
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age helps build
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strong neural networks basically think
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of it as a spiderweb just like getting
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all sorts of connections and the more
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stimulation the brain has at an early
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age the better brain plasticity the
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better those networks so that later on
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in life if there's a little
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challenge more capable at responding so
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also throughout life quality education
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is also important associated with
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healthier Lifestyles and better
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Financial conditions which in themselves
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reduce the risk of Alzheimer's so
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challenge Minds throughout the life
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cycle starting as young as possible and
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the next thing social isolation is
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probably one of the worst because it
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ties together a whole bunch of the risk
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factors that increase the risk for
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Alzheimer's disease so many so many
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things are wrapped up in here when
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social isolation you're reducing that
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cognitive stimulation you know just like
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in children where you want to have a lot
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of that you know to really stretch and
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and make the Mind work to build that
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cognitive Reserve without social
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experiences the brain has less
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resilience you know run through the same
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old Pathways losing connection to others
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so the brain gets smaller and smaller
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with fewer and fewer memories not good
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so you need that stimulation and another
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thing social is isolation does is it
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increases the risk for stress and
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depression
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loneliness and isolation are linked to
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these and when you've got higher stress
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hormones like cortisol that damages the
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brain hippocampus which is the memory
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and
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learning something else that is goes
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with isolation is more inflammation and
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I'm not sure why but isolation itself
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increases chronic inflammation which
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breaks down the brain accelerating
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Alzheimer's disease and then you know
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when when you've got isolation other
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lifestyle factors kind of fall apart
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like physical activity and a good
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healthy diet all of those affect the
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brain third thing traumatic brain injury
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so traumatic brain injury if it leads to
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chronic inflammation if that acute
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inflammation does not get resolved and
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it ends up in chronic inflammation that
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causes prolonged damage to the neurons
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and accelerates neurod degeneration
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think boxers soccer football players you
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got to load up with a lot of omega-3
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fats that is a cre a key nutritional
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boost here and uh we know that that also
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disrupts the bloodb brain barrier so you
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get lot more toxins going in and sort
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of it hinders the clearance of the beta
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ameloid
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plaque then a couple interesting things
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here hearing loss or vision loss is
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associated to an increased risk for
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Alzheimer's and it's kind of like the
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brain is working harder and it has to
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divert resources that normally would be
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from the memory and the attention so
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it's kind of diverting things so that
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part of the brain gets smaller while
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you're trying to hear and see so
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definitely Associated to structural
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changes in the brain and
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overall reduced brain health so keep up
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those eye appointments and the hearing
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test we know high blood pressure is a
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problem for the heart but anything that
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affects the heart is going to affect the
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brain so chronic high blood pressure is
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going to damage small blood vessels in
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the
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brain reducing blood flow causing
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inflammation brain tissue damage and
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neuro degener degeneration so you've got
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to keep good blood flow going to bring
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in the nutrients bring in the oxygen but
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also to carry out the toxins including
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beta and amid you know so if you've got
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that high blood pressure it is causing
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chronic inflammation and oxidative
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stress think rusting of the
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brain next thing and this is huge it is
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diabetes forever nutritional uh
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functional nutritionists functional
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doctors have been calling
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diabetes linked to dementia type 3
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diabetes it um forever if somebody has
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had someone in the family diagnosed with
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dementia I always said do they have a
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sweet tooth always always they say yes
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so high blood sugar leads to insulin
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resistance and proper
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insulin you've got to have the right
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level for nerve growth nerve survival
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and brain
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flexibility so whenever you've got
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insulin resistance you've got improper
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signaling that can contribute to
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alzheimer's I'm going to go over this a
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little bit more later but there's also
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compounds that are called Advanced
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glycation and products talked about this
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before and the abbreviation is ages for
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advanced glycation and products in
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diabetes excess sugar reacts to proteins
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you know kind of like when you Brown
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your bread or you grill or fry the meat
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that Browning is associated to formation
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of these age
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compounds triggers inflammation
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oxidative stress building up those
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toxins causing vascular damage causing
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inflammation causing oxidative stress
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you see kind of a theme going here it's
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kind of all that vascular the
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inflammation the oxidative stress kind
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of goes with all of it and even the next
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one I'm going to go over
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obesity obesity is inflammatory you know
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whenever you've got that extra weight
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around the waistline that extra weight
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is producing
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inflammatory cyto kindes you've probably
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heard the word cyto kind when it came to
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co co itself that virus caused an
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increased cyto kind storm they called it
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but people that had the worst outcomes
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that were hospitalized more often had a
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higher mortality risk were those that
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came in preinflammatory
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that increases your risk for all that
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inflammation and insulin resistance
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that's that goes with it too vascular
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problems you got the ages again and um
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all related to cognitive decline and
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increase risk for Alzheimer's disease
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it's just a hot mess you know then then
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other toxins I'm going to talk about
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because you know fat is a toxin as well
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and it holds on to toxins but whether
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you're talking air pollution or whether
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you're talking
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smoking all of those are toxins
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environmental toxins you know those
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those chemicals whether it's cigarette
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smoke or
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pesticides those create free radicals
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that in your body causes oxidative
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stress that's why you need
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antioxidants to clear out the free
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radicals if not
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but that causes damage to the
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neurons developed more plaquing beta
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ameloid plaque so
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smoking
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pesticides air pollution and even now
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with all of the fires in California or a
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couple years ago where we had all of the
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the California or the Canadian fires
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increase risk for the same old things
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oxidative stress inflammation vascular
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inflammation vascular damage direct
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neurotoxicity and reducing cognitive
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decline or and reducing cognitive
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Reserve increasing decline next thing
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I'm going to talk about a lot more in uh
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a couple weeks but excessive alcohol use
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does the same things that other toxins
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do with the addition
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of
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alcohol when it is broken down in the
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body there is a byproduct called acetal
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Al aldah which damages neurons directly
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kills off those brain cells okay you
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never get them back so excess alcohol
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toxic to the nerves creates oxidative
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stress creates inflammation in addition
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to that it causes
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nutritional deficiencies especially B1 B
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vitamins are so important for the
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nervous system vascular damage reduces
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cognitive reserve and then um one of the
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last things of course high LDL
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cholesterol definitely can cause buildup
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of plaque in the blood vessels and that
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LDL is the kind that can rust in the
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blood vessels causing more
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inflammation um promoting the formation
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of beta ameloid plaque and that vascular
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damage caused by the high LDL can even
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compromise the bloodb brain barrier
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that's the brain's kind of protective
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shield so you get a lot more
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inflammatory compounds going into the
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brain and having more problem getting
16:21
rid of the
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toxins okay so and then we had air
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pollution okay so there are the 14
16:30
and I could go more into the micral
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cells that we want to revert back into
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the healthy ones but I think I'm just
16:38
going to go straight onto what you can
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do to get rid of the ages because these
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ages the advanced glycation end products
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will actually sit on a receptor that's
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an r and so they put them together and
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they call them the rage and rage oh my
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gosh they do they are so damaging so
17:02
destructive so I'm going to give you the
17:05
five key strategies to stop that stop
17:08
the rage expression and activity in your
17:11
body in your brain first one you know I
17:15
got to say it it's a low AG diet so all
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those things that are created in high
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temperature cooking like grilling like
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frying so better to choose waterbased
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methods like steaming and stewing that
17:32
lowers the ages so you are going to
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reduce any
17:38
raging okay so that's good so think
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steaming think stewing um more in the
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oven rather than grilling or frying on
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top number two improve glycemic control
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keep that blood sugar in check it is so
17:56
important you don't want to end up with
17:59
problems because you did not control
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your blood sugar uh we want to keep it
18:04
in a good healthy range we don't want to
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have spikes basically fasting blood
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sugar anything over 95 you're getting
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into trouble you always want to keep
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your hemoglobin
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A1c down down down below
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5.4 okay and that's really good if you
18:21
ever want to get a hold of a continuous
18:23
glucose monitor without a prescription
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let me know I can get you access I think
18:30
it's very important I wear one of mine
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at least seasonally at least four times
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a year I wear one got one on right now
18:37
uh third thing boost your antioxidant
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intake through Foods supplements all
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those good things they are directly
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going to counteract the rage so you
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don't have that inflammation fourth
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thing engage in regular exercise
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consistent physical activity improves
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insulin sensitivity
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lowers inflammation reduces the Raging
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and that is so critically important boy
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oh boy you can undo a lot with regular
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activity and then managing your weight
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ultimately that's going to be one of the
19:14
best things to lower rage activity so
19:17
there you have another edition of
19:20
today's nutrition where we help you live
19:24
longer better I hope today's topic helps
19:27
you or someone you love as always you
19:29
can go to my website Deb for.com to
19:32
listen again or on YouTube under Dr Deb
19:35
for or any place to listen to podcast
19:38
thanks for listening and I hope you have
19:40
a wonderful and very healthy day
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14 Modifiable Risk Factors to Protect Your Brain
Deb Ford DCN RDN
16 views
Mar 10, 2025
19:45
How you live makes a difference in how your body and brain age. Listen for the little things you can do on a regular basis to protect and build a healthier brain and body. Easy little things