#26 How to Protect Yourself Against Alzheimer's Disease and Cognitive Decline with Amy Berger

Amy Berger (0:00)

When you're tired and you don't have enough energy, what happens? You get clumsy, you make mistakes you don't normally make, you're not your same, your mood is different. So what do we think happens when the brain itself doesn't get enough energy? It's going to make mistakes, it's going to get clumsy.

Alzheimer's disease really is a fuel crisis. It's an energy shortage in the brain. On an MRI, they can actually see that the volume of the person's brain has shrunk.

Siim Land (0:27)

Welcome to the Body Mind Empowerment Podcast. I'm your host Siim Land. And that's exactly what we're going to be talking about in today's episode. Our guest is Amy Berger. And she's a blogger and author and a researcher about Alzheimer's and cognitive decline. We're going to talk about what causes neurodegeneration and how you can protect yourself against this brain fog.

But before we forget ourselves, let's delve into the world of Body Mind Empowerment.

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Siim Land (1:03)

Everything the body needs.

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Siim Land (1:08)

Amy, I want to welcome you to the show.

Amy Berger (1:10)

Hi, thank you for having me.

Siim Land (1:12)

So maybe can you tell us like what's the current state of Alzheimer's research?

Amy Berger (1:17)

Yeah, it depends on what angle you're asking from. If you're talking about conventional medicine and the traditional doctors, the state is pretty sad. They really have very little to offer that's effective.

If you ask a conventional neurologist or MD, they have no idea what Alzheimer's is, why it's happening, why it's increasing, and they certainly have no idea of what to do about it. There's really no course of treatment. There's a couple of drugs on the market for this condition, but every single one of them basically does almost nothing.

At the very, very least, they may slow down the progression of Alzheimer's, a very small, you know, small amount, but overall, they really do very little to make any sort of positive impact on this illness. So that's the state. The state is you get diagnosed and you better get your affairs in order because they cannot help you.

Siim Land (2:17)

Yeah, it's quite interesting to see that the medical community has failed to even identify what's the main reason. So do you know what might be causing this kind of disease?

Amy Berger (2:33)

Well, yeah, I think it's not just me. It's not just that I have the secret. I mean, you know, in looking at the medical journals and reading the scientific literature on this condition, it is very clear that Alzheimer's disease is a metabolic problem. And when I say metabolic, I mean, it has to do with the way the brain gets energy. Alzheimer's disease really is a fuel crisis. It's an energy shortage in the brain.

And they actually refer to Alzheimer's disease as type 3 diabetes or diabetes of the brain. And those phrases are all over the scientific journals. And where that comes from is that this energy shortage in the brain is due to glucose.

Neurons and affected regions of the brain lose the ability to metabolize glucose. And this is not new information. This has been known for actually a couple of decades now, at least since the mid 1990s.

Now why that's happening is still unknown. There's a lot of speculation as to why. But ultimately, that's the fundamental problem is that these neurons, to put it simply, they're starving to death. They're withering, they're atrophying, they're actually wasting away. And this can be measured on an MRI. They can actually see that the volume of the person's brain has shrunk.

Siim Land (3:52)

Wow, I've seen those images, those scary pictures.

Amy Berger (3:55)

Yeah.

Your brain literally shrinks. I mean, again, this is not new information. This has been known for a long time with this illness.

Siim Land (4:04)

Yeah, you said like that it's linked to an energy crisis in the brain.

And it's quite interesting to hear that because they say that your brain needs a ton of glucose and sugar every day. So is it like information?

Amy Berger (4:21)

No, no, that's not information. But I mean, you bring up a good point. The reason it's such a huge problem when the brain is not getting enough energy is because the brain requires a constant supply of energy, even when you're asleep, even when you're sitting on the sofa watching TV and you think you're not using a whole lot of your brain power, your brain is really, you know, even when you're doing nothing, your brain uses about 20 to 25% of all the energy in your body, all the glucose, all the oxygen. So anything that disrupts that supply of constant energy to the brain is going to have massive implications for your memory, your cognitive function, your personality.