This Breakthrough in Alzheimer’s Research Can Save Millions of Lives - With Dr. David Perlmutter

Shawn Stevenson (0:00)

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This is a special news alert. Most people are still unaware that neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, are now in the five leading causes of death here in the United States. Today, you're going to discover a true breakthrough in our ability to end this epidemic, and everyone needs to know about this. This is one of the most important interviews that I've ever done, and it's definitely one of my favorite interviews of the year. You're going to discover cutting-edge science about the brain's immune system, clinically proven strategies to protect your brain from degeneration, and much more. So, without further ado, let's dive in with our special guest and topic of the day. Dr. David Perlmutter is a board-certified neurologist and six-time New York Times best-selling author, including the author of the number one New York Times bestseller, Grain Brain, The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs and Sugar.

His brand new book, Brain Defenders, represents a massive paradigm shift in neuroscience, moving away from the failed amyloid-targeting drugs towards the concept of immunometabolism, the groundbreaking science of how our brain's microglial immune cells can be reprogrammed to protect us rather than destroy us. This shift in the conversation moves us into proactive and preventative strategies, with key research-backed strategies to improve brain health beyond what we've understood up until now. Let's dive in this conversation with the incredible Dr. David Perlmutter. Well, today we're going to dive in on a subject matter that first of all, we need to get a lot more awareness about the severity of the situation, but also talk about where we need to really put our focus. You've done an amazing job putting this new book together for us. Can you start off by talking about the current state of affairs, just so people are aware when it comes to dementia and Alzheimer's?

David Perlmutter (2:17)

Sure. My hope is that we'll broaden our conversation well beyond just that issue as if that's not a super important issue. But ultimately, you and I are going to talk about all neurodegenerative conditions because they're all united by one fundamental mechanism and that is a shift in the brain's immune system. But that is a great segue to Alzheimer's because I call it an epidemic. I mean, here we have a disease affecting about 7 million Americans, 53 million people worldwide and it's almost universally fatal. No one really talks about that, but it's the third leading cause of death in America, is Alzheimer's disease. So this, we need to contextualize this as an epidemic, call it like it is. Why we don't is beyond me.

But the challenge for me is really messaging the world or to anyone who will listen, which is why I'm grateful to be here today, to the idea that Alzheimer's is not caused by the accumulation of a particular protein called beta-amyloid in the brain, full stop. And yet, if you ask somebody, what is the cause of Alzheimer's? They're gonna say, well, even doctors, we grow too much beta-amyloid in the brain, next thing you know, things fall apart. It just isn't true. And I cover that in the book.

And after I submitted the manuscript for this, as in last month, a what's called a Cochrane analysis was published, which is the gold standard scientific review of a topic. And the topic they reviewed is how effective are the drugs that target this beta-amyloid in the treatment of Alzheimer's? In their conclusion, they looked at 20,342 individuals in 17 studies over 18 months per study. They found that the utility of these drugs, how they worked was useless basically. The word they used was trivial.

In the face of significant, sometimes life-threatening side effects of these drugs, the drugs get rid of the amyloid in the brain, and yet the patients still decline and ultimately die of Alzheimer's. And yet that's what's FDA approved. That's what's messaged on TV commercials at night, and what doctors are being targeted by advertisements to prescribe. So, you know, I don't want to curse the darkness. I want to light the single candle here, you know, in trying to be in line with model health, right? Give people the tools. But that's the groundwork upon which we build the idea of empowering people to make changes and redefine the destiny of their brains. That's what our time together is going to be all about. So that's the biggest myth.

And that is that we should live our lives however we choose. And then suddenly when we're cognitively a little bit impaired, that we go to the doctor and he or she prescribes this drug, it's really unfair. It's a disservice. And we can do better. Yes.