How to Change Your Brain's Destiny Before It's Too Late | Dr. David Perlmutter – EP 809

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**John R. Miles** (1:00)
What if the cells designed to protect your brain can actually become the ones that damage it? When Dr. David Perlmutter joined me on Passion Struck, he explained how the brain's own immune system can shift from protecting your neurons to damaging them and why the choices you make every day may influence which direction they take. Take a listen to this.

**David Perlmutter** (1:24)
We're going to call those the microglial cells. And they are very sensitive to metabolism. When our metabolism is doing what it should do, keeping our blood sugar in check, our weight in check, our blood pressure where it needs to be, reducing inflammation, then these brain immune cells are supportive. They're nurturing our synapses. They're nurturing the blood-brain barrier. They're doing their best to keep our neurons functional and firing appropriately. But they can shift on us. They can turn their backs and become what I call in the book the evil twin, same cell.
It can shift when they are challenged by inflammation or metabolism issues in the body, and now they are destructive.

**John R. Miles** (2:06)
It's your friend John, and welcome to Passion Struck. I'm so glad you're here. Whether you're a long-time listener or someone who just discovered the show, thank you for pressing play today.
Maybe you've built the life you were supposed to want, but you've quietly wondered why it still doesn't feel like enough.
If that's you, you're in the right place. Every week, I sit down with the world's top scientists, researchers, and thinkers to uncover what it actually takes to build an intentional life that matters.
Thanks for joining me. Let's get into it.
Welcome back to episode 809 of Passion Struck. We're continuing our series, The Adaptive Brain, How Your Mind Learns, Changes, and Heals. So far, we've been exploring all the different forces that shape who we become. But today's conversation takes us somewhere we haven't gone yet, inside the biology of the brain itself. Because here's something I didn't fully appreciate before this conversation. Our brains aren't just responding to our thoughts and experiences, they're responding to the physical environment we create for them every single day. What we eat, how much we sleep, how much we move, our metabolism, our inflammation, even the health of our mouth and our gut can send signals that influence what's happening inside the brain. In the center of this story are cells most of us have probably never heard of, microglia, the brain's immune cells. Joining me today is Dr. David Perlmutter, a board certified neurologist, New York Times' number one bestselling author, and longtime advocate for understanding the connection between lifestyle, metabolism and brain health. His new book Brain Defenders brings decades of research together around a fascinating idea that the brain's immune system may be one of the key mechanisms determining whether our brains remain healthy or move toward decline. What I found especially interesting is that David doesn't frame us as something that only matters when we're older or already experiencing cognitive problems. He argues that the trajectory of brain health begins much earlier with the metabolic and lifestyle choices we're making decades before symptoms ever appear. And he believes we have more influence over that trajectory than we often realize. That makes this conversation so much more than dementia or Parkinson's. It's about agency. It's about understanding that the brain we're going to have years from now is being shaped by the environment we're creating for it today. So let's dive in. Here's my conversation with Dr. David Perlmutter. Thank you for choosing Passion Struck and choosing me to be your hosting guide on your journey to creating an intentional life that matters. Now, let that journey begin.