Kind: captions
Language: en
today I'm going to talk about six
harmful foods that can feed disease and
can lead to dementia the first one is
ultro processed foods the second one are
foods with added sugar the third one are
foods with a lot of salt high sodium the
fourth one are foods that can injure
your gums and cause
gingivitis the fifth one is alcohol the
sixth one is highly fatty foods are you
ready we're going to in all right here
it goes first let's go ahead and Define
what is dementia now most of us probably
think of dementia as Alzheimer's disease
maybe well Alzheimer's is a kind of
dementia but dementia itself is a whole
spectrum of different types of brain
conditions where our brain uh is not
functioning uh normally so you could
have impaired intellectual function uh
you can have problems with cognition
which is thinking memory the ability to
do complex tasks or complex analysis and
uh interference with your social skills
which actually requires brain power as
well obviously and dementia can actually
result be the result from a huge number
of health conditions um and can also be
kind of a brain only problem so this is
actually not one thing it's a lot of
different things and to some extent
diens is sort of like a final common
pathway um of of brain compromise all
right so now that you know that got to
think about what are the symptoms of
dementia well the ones that you might
suspect are in fact important symptoms
like poor memory all right usually the
person with dementia doesn't realize
that they have poor memory it's usually
other people who are around them that
notice that their memory is actually
impaired that's important to know um
another symptom is confusion
disorientation right so when you
actually see people that you know kind
of don't seem to be aware of their
surroundings they may not be oriented to
person space or time or they might just
be a little confused about things that's
another kind of Warning Sign uh uh
there's even more subtle signs like for
example someone who has trouble planning
or coordinating activities now there's a
lot of people I know who actually have
trouble planning and coordinating
activities but this is sort of think
about a change from what you would uh
normally know this person to be able to
do so somebody who's normally you know
quite together and with it able to plan
and coordinate things suddenly the next
time you see them they're they're like
having problems doing it all right um
and by the way that planning isn't
necessarily a complex vacation or a
wedding or anything complicated like
that even planning meals can actually be
difficult you know what are you going to
have for lunch what are you going to
have for dinner and these are um
conversations that come up naturally
between people and usually it's uh
somebody in the family or a friend who
notices that that that there's
difficulty in coordinating all right
even basic tasks all right like going
out to run an errand could be actually
difficult for someone with early onset
dementia now simple tasks uh could be
effective but certainly complex tasks
are affected by uh dementia you know
something like U managing your finances
paying bills but even simple things like
ty shoes can be challenging all right H
what do I do next that those kinds of
things are one sign of dementia now
remember I told you there's a lot of
different causes of dementia these are
sort of the final common Pathways these
kinds of things that you might actually
noticed um problems with logic or
reasoning all right somebody comes up
with a an explanation for something that
just doesn't make any sense at all you
know um that's a symptom people who get
lost easily all right because remember I
told you they're not oriented maybe
they're not oriented to space or time or
location so it's all out of whack and so
if they're driving a car maybe they get
lost if they take a walk out in their
own neighborhood they may may have been
living there for 20 or 30 or 40 years
they don't quite know exactly how to get
back to their house that's another
warning sign and of course difficulty in
communicating words finding trouble now
we all have a little bit of that you
know from time to time but this is sort
of a repeated uh pattern that seems un
noticeable and unusual and so these are
the many different kinds of not so
subtle but also can be subtle uh signs
that and symptoms that something is
actually not quite right with the brain
all right so dementia is always
involving the brain but it could be
other things that are going on in the
body that do affect the brain as well
all right some people with dementia
actually have personality changes so
they could be super irritated or they
get angry easily and again these are
things that they might not actually
appreciate but people around them
appreciate or they might be depressed or
appear depressed they could be anxious
people with dementia can actually be
quite anxious um for the reasons like
they're confused and disoriented um
frustrated and they can't actually
remember words or uh solve a task uh
they can even get agitated or even
paranoid all right so those are also
things to look out for um some people
with dementia actually have
inappropriate behavior so you know you
can draw your own conclusion what that
is there a big long range of
inappropriate behaviors touching or
speaking in certain ways using certain
language you know uh but anything that
seems out of character and inappropriate
behavior-wise um could be a sign of
dementia hallucinations you know seeing
or hearing things that aren't there um
that's also one of the things that can
happen now look all of these signs and
symptoms can come from other things as
well but I'm giving you kind of a big
picture you can kind of see these are
brain disorders or brain problems uh
that are either IM emanating from the
brain itself or other physical things
are happening that can actually affect
uh the brain and how well it functions
now so if you take a look at um what
actually is going on in the brain all
right because it is actually happening
in the brain uh and one thing is
problems with nerves now the brain uh is
a
complex organ it is made of billions of
neurons millions and millions of neurons
all right uh that are all having to
communicate to each other your brain has
two halves the left half and the right
half it sits in your skull there's a
hind brain which actually is where like
sits right next to your spinal cord and
then your spinal cord goes right down
into your spine down the middle of a
hole in your spine and that's how you
actually function oh by the way your
eyes Boop your eyes actually connect
right into your brain in fact the eyes
are kind of a window into the brain so
one type of dementia uh can occur when
there's abnormal proteins that are
deposited in the brain proteins that
that that may be there like in the in
the background but then there's a lot of
a lot of that Protein that's there for
example these would be the amalo plaques
that you see in the tangles actually you
see uh in Alzheimer's disease the other
thing that can actually cause dementia
uh are hardening or narrowing of the
blood vessels that are feeding your
brain cells your neurons all right now
you may have heard me talk about this
before but the human body has 60,000
miles worth of blood vessels packed
inside us that's a lot but guess what
the human brain your brain has 400 miles
of that and it's actually all blood
vessels that are feeding your brain now
not
surprisingly the to run a complex organ
like the brain you need a lot of
circulation you need a lot of blood flow
you need a lot of oxygen right so the
oxygen that we breathe and the nutrients
that we eat uh all pass through these
blood vessels that are the highways and
byways of the brain to deliver those
nutrients deliver that oxygen to those
brain cells all right those neurons
now what can happen when your blood
vessels get hardened or they get
narrowed for blockages atherosclerosis
you know plaques narrowing uh the blood
vessels including the small blood
vessels then the blood flow gets reduced
and when you don't have as much blood
flow in your body including your brain
then the nerve cells in your brain
become relatively starved of oxygen and
nutrients and they start to malfunction
right so that's called vascular dementia
vascular because it has to do with the
blood vessels and one of the signs of
vascular dementia is actually slowed
thinking and the inability to focus or
problem solve all right and by the way
for vascular dementia that's what you
see mostly slow thinking and inability
to focus or solve a problem that's much
more common than the memory loss that
you see in Alzheimer's disease so these
types of different types of dementia
have different characteristics and you
see more of one sign uh or symptom in
one type of demena versus the other then
there's Louis body dementia which is a
pretty common type of demension where
there are clumps of Louis body proteins
remember I told you these are proteins
that shouldn't be there but then kind of
like gather up into these big clumps in
the brain and Louis body dementia is one
another cause of Dementia in addition to
vascular dementia and Alzheimer's
disease
and by the way these louy body clumps
are also seen in another neurological
condition called Parkinson's disease now
most people with Parkinson's disease
which is a movement disorder right
people are actually tremoring um shaking
that's Parkinson's disease Michael J fox
say Parkinson's disease uh um that's a
movement disorder but eventually because
of these proteins we think the Luby body
proteins they accumulate in the brain
the Parkinson's patients they will
develop dementia as well all right so we
talked about Alzheimer's we talked about
vascular dementia we talked about Louis
body dementia we talked about dementia
that ultimately comes uh emerges in
Parkinson's disease and then there's
fronto temporal dementia okay frontal
temporal dementia you might have heard
about this Bruce Willis has it um this
is the breakdown of the neurons in the
frontal right here and the temporal
that's both sides on the side of your
brain okay the side loes of the brain
and these are breakdown of the neuro
neurons in the areas of your brain that
control personality that control
behavior and control language as well
now obviously if you have breakdown of
the nerve functioning brain function of
Personality behavior and language it's
going to lead to a noticeable um problem
and that is fronto temporal dementia so
based on what I've told you so far
dementia is pretty complex right okay
now we in the medical community and I'm
speaking as a doctor we don't have a
complete understanding of these
dementias and what causes them and we
have incomplete treatments for them as
well which is why it's so important to
try to prevent them if you can and also
we be but also to recognize which things
can actually make the increase the risk
uh which is what we're finding out from
research and eventually we'll actually
find more more effective ways to
actually uh treat the brain disorders
that lead to dementia as well but until
that time let me say that we do know
that diet and lifestyle plays a big role
all right so I'm going to tell you about
foods that you need actually need to
know about and what they can actually do
what we think they do to actually
contribute to
dementia food number one the first food
I want to talk about is a class of foods
called ultr processed foods or U PFS all
right and Ultra processed foods have
been making a lot of news recently
because of the fact that the research is
just stacking now to be
pretty uh incontrovertible meaning
convincing that people who eat a lot of
ultra processed foods have a higher risk
of all forms many many different types
of chronic diseases diabetes obesity
cardiovascular disease cancer autoimmune
conditions I mean the list goes on and
on but it turns out to be linked to a
higher risk of dementia as well so what
are Ultra processed foods these are
foods that are made in a factory where
the factory takes ingredients and starts
to change the makeup of the ingredients
to create a form of the food that
doesn't naturally occur in nature all
right so I like to give an example of um
when you were a kid you might have eaten
these animal crackers I can tell you
that wheat doesn't come in the form of
of circus animals like little crackers
right so that's an example where a
factory took a a raw ingredient that's
Whole Food plant-based like wheat and
then molded it extruded it shaped it
into something that isn't really how the
food would normally appear then Ultra
processed foods U will con will
additionally put additives into that
food product could be a preservative
usually is a preserve could be
artificial uh um flavoring could be
artificial coloring all right uh and
they put them into the product so these
products will actually last a long time
H and they are engineered to be tasty so
you can put all kinds of chemicals in to
make the food highly desirable and this
is part of the food industry and I know
the food industry gets a lot of flak for
it but I would argue that that's what
they're in the business to do so they're
doing a good job
what we need to do as consumers is to
recognize that consuming Ultra processed
foods can have many uh negative Health
consequences and one of them is
increasing the risk for dementia all
right so let me just kind of give you
some data on this it was a study by
researchers at the Sal poloo medical
school in Brazil and they were looking
at the eating habits of a lot of adults
fact 11,000 adults over 8 years and then
they looked at their cognitive skills
and and what these researchers found is
that those people among those 11,000
adults who ate the most ultr processed
foods again these are foods that I'm
sure we've all have them in our pantry
we all have grew up eating them you know
chips and snacks and junk food uh comes
in a box comes in a bag comes in a can
comes in a jar um uh filled with really
interesting colors and flavors you know
the stuff you see on advertising on
television for example exle um those
people who ate the most Ultra processed
foods had a
28% faster accelerated decline over the
course of eight years in their cognitive
test score so basically they were seeing
how people performed on thinking tests
cognitive tests and they found that
those who actually were eating a lot of
ultra processed food had a 28% faster
decline over the period of time all
right so what are the cognitive skills
that they saw declining memory
the ability to use words all right
phonation um and uh ability to plan we
all plan our day uh can you imagine if
you didn't sort of if you were
struggling with how you plan your day
all right just like basic stuff um and
difficulty executing goals all right so
these are the things they were looking
at memory ability to use words ability
to plan and ab ability to execute to to
achieve a goal and they compared this
with people who uh ate low amounts of
Ultra processed foods all right and they
found again higher decline in cognitive
ability based on more Ultra processed
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now back to the other video now there
was another study that showed the
harmful effect of eating Ultra processed
foods and they found that the harm was
strongest in uh in the people who were
eating a lot of these Ultra processed
foods between the ages of 35 and 60 now
let me kind of give you some context of
why this study matters you know by the
time you're noticing dementia it's
usually in people who are older right so
in their late 60s 7s 80s Etc that's
where we tend to think dementia is more
common and in fact it is but it turns
out that the that that later problem
with dementia was worse more striking in
people who were eating a ton of junk
food Ultra processed foods between the
ages of 35 and 60 now that those are the
super vibrant years right like basically
you're in you're you're in the middle of
adulthood having a job and and the
reason that this is important is that it
shows you how important it is to um cut
down or cut out the ultra processed
foods earlier in life don't wait until
you have Dementia or somebody tells you
you have dementia um before you go oh
man okay I'm GNA I quit now it's really
important
uh when you're young and healthy and
vibrant between the ages of 35 and 60
right um to really cut them down all
right because ultimately later on if you
eat a lot that's what this one study
actually showed that it actually put you
at a higher risk later years decades
down the line so one of the questions
that you're probably asking is well so
how do these Ultra processed foods
affect the brain like why are they so
bad now and we don't have a full
understanding of this I'm a scientist
and uh you always know you're talking to
a real scientist when um when somebody
says that they're not really sure they
don't have the full answer because
scientists spend most of uh their time
like when I'm with my scientist colleagu
scientific colleagues we spend most of
our time talking about what we don't
know not what we know so we don't have a
full understanding of how Ultra
processed foods affects the brain but we
do know that the brain consumes up about
20% of the body's energy to function so
it's got a high metabolic uh activity
and most of that fuel that energy comes
from the food that we eat so just like
you know if you think about U your your
brain and your body like a car right
you're going to be filling up the car
with fuel at the gas station well when
we eat our food that's actually filling
up our body with energy and that energy
by the way gets stored in muscle fat and
liver your fat cells in fact
specifically are fuel tanks and I wrote
about this in my book e to beat your
diet got it right here you're interested
in how body fat Works uh check this book
out but we're talking about the brain
now all right uh and this is an area
that I'm I'm doing research on now the
key is that if you're filling up the car
with gas fuel uh you really want to
choose the highest quality fuel now it's
okay uh if you occasionally you put low
the low quality fuel in your car your
car is going to be able to take it you
won't notice it all right but if you
continuously consistently you know week
in and week out month after month year
after year all you're doing is putting
poor quality fuel into your car it's not
going to run as long or as well as a car
of somebody who actually takes care of
actually putting uh high quality fuel
into the car and that's how it works
with food and the Brain as well when we
actually eat foods that are poor quality
in terms of foods like Ultra processed
foods Foods that's like putting poor
quality fuel into our body um incl and
the brain gets affected now we've all
grown up eating junk food I'm sure you
have as well I mean think about it like
at school school you know the teachers
actually the schools actually serve
snacks that are not good for you you go
to a sports event uh what do you do
you're buying junk food or a movie you
know I can't tell you how scary it is to
eat movie theater popcorn with that fake
butter that they put on on it all right
these are all
artificial contrived Foods poor quality
fuel all right now do it once in a while
you're going to be fine your body will
bounce right back it's called resiliency
our body is really hardwired to be quite
resilient but you do it frequently maybe
constantly and you're not actually
eating the good quality foods all right
so you're eating mostly ultr processed
foods it's pretty common actually um
when you're not eating the good quality
Whole Foods whole plant-based Foods
you're going to be trouble it's like
putting poor quality fuel in your car
you know uh for the life of the car it's
just not going to run as well so what
should you do uh the healthy foods are
whole plant-based foods containing
fruits and vegetables nuts and seeds or
legumes right these would be beans and
uh peas and things like that herbs and
spices all right these are the and
healthy oils so this is sort of like the
healthy traditional Mediterranean diet
that's what they eat there right in the
Asian diet they don't really eat olive
oil in Asia but a lot of the other SIM
similar uh whole plant-based foods are
the ingredients for the traditional
diets which are known to be the
healthiest diets um uh around the world
and these same diets are actually good
for the brain all right good for the
rest of the body but we're talking about
dementia mediteran diet traditional
mediteran diet traditional Asian diets
that are largely plant-based and with a
lot of dietary fiber good for the brain
all right so here's the thing I'm not
telling you to swear off uh Ultra
processed foods and never buy any you're
going to you're going to be eating once
in a while all right even me you know
like just wandering through life I'm you
know I can talk about principles but I
like to also recognize that we you know
like we're humans so we have to live a
real life and every now and then you
like you just grab something and it's an
ultra processed food so the key thing is
not to
uh you know just swear off them I mean
if you can do it that's fine but more
realistically what you want to do is to
reduce your intake whenever possible so
I very rarely eat Ultra processed foods
occasionally I do but but mostly I'm
putting high quality fuel in my body so
here are my three sort of tips for you
on how to actually uh counter the harms
of ultra processed food so first eat
more whole plant-based foods and buy the
ingredients yourself so you know where
they're coming from buy the highest
quality ingredients and cook them
yourself this is actually what they do
in traditional healthy Asian uh
households and in the Mediterranean
traditionally now you know where
everything is and you where it comes
from because you bought it and now
you're actually preparing yourself
there's no guess work there's nothing
that comes out of a box and you're not
really sure what's in it all right so if
you eat more of those whole plant-based
foods that you cook yourself you're
going to have less room for Ultra
processed foods more good stuff leaves
less room for the bad stuff that's my
first tip my second tip is actually read
the ingredient label when you buy
anything that's not fresh okay so just
step into a grocery store and you're
trying to figure out is this an ultra
processed food or not all right pick it
up and just quickly look at the
ingredient label it's on every single
food it's mandated by law and take a
look at it you know and if it's got a
long list of ingredients and as you get
into the ingredients you can't pronounce
them you can't you don't know what their
what the role of it is like listen I
mean I'm a scientist and I don't
understand what the role of some of
these additives are in when I read it
ingredient label but when you see that
that just set off a red flag in your
head H this is probably an ultra
processed food you don't know what's in
it you don't feel comfortable putting
into your body and don't buy it all
right in fact this is actually a good
practice in a grosser door then then go
look for another product nearby on the
same shelf or in the same area pick it
up and look make sure that they the
ingredients label don't show th those
those unusual things that you don't know
what they do in your body all right so
never hesitate to put back something
that you don't recognize as good for you
all right third tip when you to cut down
or cut out snacking now snacking is sort
of um very natural right like when you
were kids we were given snacks at snack
time like dur at school uh or you know
summer camp or whatever it is but as we
got older you know like we would be
sneaking snacks or just taking grabbing
a snack when we were at home right and
then we develop these habits when we're
adults where we're just reaching and
just munching on things and you know
when you're eating when you're
distracted that's not very good because
you're often not mindfully choosing to
foods are actually good for you now most
snack foods are Ultra processed foods
all right so that should just tell you
right there if you're reaching for a
bowl of bag of whatever that's a snack
that's probably Ultra process so cut
those down cut those out and you'll be
eliminating Ultra processed or lowering
ultr processed food from your diet and
that actually will lower the risk for um
uh brain uh consequences including
dementia all right
now the next food I want to talk about
that can feed thease and lead to
dementia is any food uh or beverage that
contains a lot of added sugar and you're
eating a lot of it regularly all right
so look we all just you know we all have
a sweet tooth I got a sweet tooth all
right and when I was a kid I couldn't
wait for Halloween you got all this
candy in front of you or go to a candy
the proverbial kid in to candy store I
remember that exact feeling but here's
the thing that we now know when it comes
to your health super sweet Foods where
the sweetness is because sugar has been
added to the food you know sodas uh
juices candies factory made cookies and
cakes you know these are the things that
a sweet tooth would have these types of
foods are not only Ultra processed they
come out of a factory but often times
they're also empty calories now let me
explain to you what that means empty
calories me you get calories I mean you
get a lot of sugar all right but not a
lot of the other stuff that can be
healthy in food like polyphenols like
dietary fiber like you would get that um
like you might have a a a piece of candy
that is apple flavored all right and
it's just sugar sugar added to it so
you're going to get a big glucose dump
which you know we we live off of glucose
but the thing is that it's missing what
would be in a real Apple which contains
polyphenols Li like chlorogenic acid and
it contains the um orsolic acid in his
skin and it contains dietary fiber so U
all of these other things the
polyphenols the uh the dietary fiber
they activate our body's Health defenses
which I wrote about in my book Eat to
beat disease I'm just showing you if you
want to learn about all about the body
Health defenses check out that book um
so the whole the whole food always giv
you more than just sugar sweetened stuff
now sugar sweetened things um are not
only Ultra processed but they give you
this huge metabolic load of sugar and
that's calories right so remember I told
you when you're eating food you're
putting fuel in your body if just like
going to the gas station with your car
you're putting gasoline in you know um
how do you measure gasoline as gallons
or maybe liters if you're in Europe um
in food we call the measure of the
energy of the fuel we're putting into
body we call it calories very simple if
you actually consume too many calories
you're going to overwhelm your metabolic
Machinery because your body then has to
store those extra calories in fat cells
all right and when there's too many
calories you're taking in your body
Fat's going to increase in size because
you're going to keep loading up loading
more fuel into the fuel tank that's a
fat cell also called an A diosy and so
you're going to you have a lot of sugar
you're going to be loading up another
Fat cell and another Fat cell and
another Fat cell oh man there's still so
much sugar let's go aad and create new
fat cells and then they're going to
expand and another Fat cell and it's
going to span so on and so forth and you
can kind of see your fuel tanks in your
body your fat cells are just going to
get bigger because it storing a lot of
energy all right this is basically uh
why eating a lot of sugar actually leads
to weight gain now the other thing that
happens is that when your fat cells
actually start to accumulate and get
bigger and biger bigger and bigger all
right this actually causes inflammation
and the reason it causes inflammation is
because that fat Mass all right um has
to uh live off its own blood supply and
when it starts growing bigger and bigger
and bigger it's kind of like a tumor it
outgrows its own regular blood supply
and now parts of the amound of fat is
actually starved of oxygen on the inside
like areas just doesn't have enough
blood flow to be able to sustain it and
that's called hypoxia all right h y p x
i a it's an important term to know about
because hypoxia is a setup for all kinds
of things um heart attack stroke but in
the case of um uh your body fat hypoxia
stimulates inflammation and when your
fat gets inflamed guess what that
inflammation derails a lot of the
hormonal patterns that are coming from
your fat going to your brain signaling
to figure out how to actually control
your blood sugar it it reeks Havoc okay
the analogy that I give is that if
you've ever been to a symphony you know
they're playing classical music like
Beethoven's Fifth right it's a really
Grand piece of music composition um and
there's all these musicians on a
conductor and everything is being played
according to the music and everything's
coordinated together that's your body
fat normally orchestrating your
metabolism because your body fat
releases a hormone called adiponectin
and AD Entin collaborates with insulin
to bring in that blood sugar into your
muscles and and store it into your fat
and even to your liver you need that
Aenon in order for insulin sensitivity
but with
inflammation it's like a a gang of Rowdy
thugs breaking into a Symphony Hall
during the performance of bet fins fifth
storming the stage and kicking over the
instruments you've created chaos and now
this Symphony that Norm plays perfectly
together coordinated no longer
coordinated some of the instruments on
the ground um and a dionin is one of
those instruments so when a dipine
nectin is derailed all right because of
inflammation guess what it can't
collaborate with insulin to help insulin
bring in blood sugar and now you've got
insulin resistance and insulin
resistance and inflammation uh can be
caused by eating a lot of excess added
sugar all right and then what happens s
with insulin resistance then your blood
sugars are going to rise and you're
still eating more sugar it's going to
keep on Rising and your body's unable to
absorb or process or store the sugar
that you're eating more and more of
because of insulin resistance now this
is actually the setup to a problem
called metabolic syndrome all right and
that metabolic syndrome if you get that
that's puts you on the road towards type
two diabetes you see so look having uh
having a soda uh having a fruit juice or
you know having a doughnut or piece of
cake or something some candy that's not
going to give you metab box in to run
away but if you're actually constantly
eating this stuff and constantly having
added sugar um this is actually what's
going to set you on that road towards
Badness all right and by the way that
metabolic syndrome leading to type two
diabetes guess what people with type two
diabetes are prone more prone to
developing dementia um so so you can say
that uh some people believe that
dementia is actually a metabolic disease
well I think that's true if you have
metabolic syndrome and your body's
metabolism upset that can affect your
brain um by the way Diabetes Type 2
diabetes is also linked to a higher risk
of Alzheimer's disease and because
diabetes damages blood vessels um the
lining of the blood vessels is called
the endothelial lining when you've got
type 2 diabetes for many years the
lining of your blood vessels uh become
sickly it's not normal and uh you can
actually form narrowing uh more quickly
in the blood vessels remember when you
got naring in the blood vessels in your
brain those 400 miles wor the blood
vessels guess what that's vascular
dementia right so diabetes is the setup
for all this and eating a lot of added
sugar that and ultrapress foods that
actually lead a metabolic syndrome and
legit a type two diabetes I'm talking
about over the course of years right
okay this kind of diet in lifestyle and
the pattern of eating over years
actually can lead you towards the path
of dementia now the other kind of blood
vessel area that gets damaged that can
be very very um harmful is the blood
brain barrier now for those of you who
don't know what the blood brain barrier
is um we got our circulation in our
whole body and the same blood that's
pumping out of our heart you know into
your kidneys actually gets up into the
brain as well and the key thing though
is that um Mother Nature designed our
brain to have an extra filter so if
there's something really noxious running
around that extra filter will protect
our brain from getting something bad um
into the brain well guess what when you
have metabolic syndrome that progresses
the type two diabetes which can occur
when you're actually having a poor diet
and a ton of extra added sugar as one of
the many things that you're not doing um
yourself a favor by eating then then
that filter called the blood brain
barrier which are just blood V
specialized blood vessel an area of
specialized blood vessels that breaks
down now your filters bad all right and
now toxic substances can get into your
brain so that may be that may well be
one of the reasons why with vascular
damage okay over a long period of time
from metabolic syndrome into type two
diabetes that may be why that um that
diabetes actually increases your risk
for different types of dementia as well
right so how bad is this risk of type 2
diabetes Well this has been studied it's
type 2 diabetes is associated with a
550% increased risk of developing
dementia and by the way that risk is uh
uh kind of spread out unevenly with
different populations turns out uh it's
actually uh pretty high even higher than
50% in certain groups like The Asian
population all right okay so what's the
solution uh to this problem
well pretty simple just watch your
sugary foods like I said we all have a
sweet tooth we're all drawn towards
sweet things U but limit them limit them
to an occasional treat only and whenever
possible avoid factorymade sweets
whether it's a food or a candy or a cake
or beverage um again you can avoid uh
all these things if you just pick up the
package and read the ingredient label
and if sugar is like in the first three
or four uh five uh lists you know they
have to the way they list this by the
way an ingredient Li in case you didn't
know they list the ingredients first
that are present in the highest amounts
right that's how the ingredient label
works so when you see sugar way up there
at the beginning sugar and water all
right like for a beverage you know
that's sugar sweetened so I would watch
out for that and by the way so the
things to watch out for sodas sweet
fruit juices commercial beverages that
are sweetened that might have added
sugar listen even some healthy beverages
you know like orange juice is supposed
to be healthy kombucha is supposed to be
healthy all right um but please they're
made it a factory so please read the
label you might find that something good
has something added into it that takes
away some of the goodness I call it one
step forward two steps back you don't
want to be doing that and the best way
to prevent that is by checking the
ingredient label to see if it's sugar
sweet when it comes to this all right
now the next food that can feed disease
that lead to dementia
are super salty foods super salty foods
now super salty foods basically can lead
to vascular dementia which is damage to
the blood vessels and to and therefore
damages the brain let me explain it to
you a little bit salt um is very tasty
that's why if you go to a restaurant if
you ever go to an open kitchen watch the
chef who's preparing your meal all right
if you have a sitting at the counter
maybe you're actually you know at the
chef's counter and you can actually see
them cooking watch how they how much
salt they put in their food most
restaurants add a lot of salt into their
food now salt is critical for our health
we need salt in our body in fact our
nerves including the nerves in our brain
require sodium salt in order to be able
to function in fact it's kind of an
electrical current but if you eat too
much salt too off it what that's going
to do is build up a lot of sodium in our
blood and high salt in the blood leads
to blood vessel damage all right now I'm
an expert in blood vessels and one of
the things worst thing that can happen
is you actually damage or rip up the
lining of your blood vessels so think
about blood vessels like a like a garden
hose inside the uh the walls of your
garden hose all right um is a lining of
cells this is the lining of your blood
vessels called the endoth L lining and
it's very thin it's like a layer of
plastic wrap inside blood vessels and
this plastic wrap is super slippery all
right when it's in healthy position when
it's in a healthy state it is slippery
like an ice skating ring after the Rings
after a Zamboni you know the polisher
ice polisher cleans the ice right you
can actually take a sweater if you ever
been ice skating throw it after the ice
has been polished and that sweater will
would just Glide all the way across the
the end of the rink now uh when the
lining of the blood vessels is damaged
all right now that smooth lining isn't
smooth anymore and guess what blood
cells can stick to the lining and that
sticking to the lining can cause a blood
clot so what am I talking about let's go
back to the skating rink all right so
you know normal healthy blood vessels
are like a skating rink after the
Zamboni the Pol ice polisher has been
driving through it super slick nothing's
going to stick to it in fact that's why
it's it's the most slippery ice but
after a hockey game or after a session
where the Public's been skating and all
kinds of people have been skating with
different skill sets all right what
happens with the ice it's damaged the
surface of the ice is damaged it's rough
right um needs to be cleaned but when
the ice is really rough you throw that
sweater on it it's not going to go very
far it's going to stick to the to the um
ragged ice surface and stay there and
when that happens in the blood vessels
where you've got damage to the lining of
the blood vessels it's like damaging the
I the surface of the ice and an ice
skating ring now you stand their chance
of actually having blood cells stick
there and forming a blood clot and blood
clots in blood vessels in bless vessels
heading to the brain or in the brain
that is a big disaster frankly and when
the clots are big enough you want to
having a stroke all right and strokes
are a common cause of brain damage it's
a cardiovascular dis disease all right
and that's actually something that you
want to avoid so high salt diet actually
can damage the lining of blood vessels
now there's another thing that can
happen with high salt in your diet all
right and they can cause dementia if
that's by causing hypertension all right
and make your uh blood vessels in your
brain remember the 400 miles it can make
them really stiff okay and hard now high
high salt leads to hypertension all
right and high blood pressure leads to
hard of the arteries in the brain and
then this is linked to vascular dementia
one of those dementias that we talked
about at the very very beginning and of
course hardening of the arteries can
also lead to a stroke and if you have a
stroke you're going to be killing some
brain cells some brain cells are going
to die right and at any stage in life we
want to keep as many brain cells uh
around and active as we as we possibly
can all right so what's the numerical
risk of hypertension high blood pressure
and dementia well this has been studied
and one study out of Australia um had
researchers looking at
34,500 people that's a lot of people and
these people are all participants in
different clinical studies clinical
trials in fact there were 17 clinical
studies altoe so this is this this
particular study out of Australia is
what they call a metaanalysis so that's
a detailed uh uh study statistical study
and integration across the finding ings
the results from many many different
studies right to say all right do we
find something or not well what they
found is that people with untreated high
blood pressure untreated high blood
pressure were
42% more likely higher risk of
developing dementia compared to healthy
people let me repeat that people with
high blood pressure that's not treated
have a 42% increase risk for developing
dementia compared to healthy people and
if you properly treated for high blood
pressure um the risk uh was a little bit
lower so it's 26% elevated uh compared
to untreated high blood pressure which
is 42% uh elevated so the mere fact you
have high blood pressure put you at risk
but if you don't treat your high blood
pressure don't see a doctor don't kind
of get on top of your game so you might
need medication but you certainly need
to lower the salt in your diet which is
what how we started this whole uh Point
uh it puts you at super high risk for
dementia all right so what's the
solution to this pretty easy limit your
salt intake go for the low sodium if
you're buying a buying something look
for the low sodium version if you're um
uh seasoning your food put the seasoning
in as you're cooking it don't put extra
salt at your dinner table that you might
actually put some extra salt in it all
right um and when you're and when you're
cooking be gentle with the amount of
salt you put in all right less is more
you can always add more salt if you need
it all right and taste it but you can't
take it out you can't take take the salt
out all right and a little salty food
every now and then is fine all right
it's the regular consumption of very
salty foods uh like if you eat out all
the time you're probably eating a lot of
sodium that's what does you in all right
and by the way the other way you can
actually just kind of check yourself out
to see if you have high blood pressure
which you know it all by itself is a
risk factor for dementia one thing you
do is just check your own blood pressure
every now and then all right it's like
weighing yourself in the scale you can
go to a drugstore nowy an
inexpensive battery powered blood
pressure machine all right the same kind
of batteries you put into a flashlight
and check to see if you have high blood
pressure right so um you know 120 over
70 is normal blood pressure once you get
to 130s and 140s uh the top number and
into the 80s and 90s the bottom number
you're moving towards hypertension all
right now nobody expects you to
interpret your own blood pressure other
than to know if it's consistently High I
always tell people if you going to take
your blood pressure write it down on a
piece of paper like a diary or write it
into your calendar or make a note of it
in your phone all right and then you
should see your doctor have a have a
regular doctor's visit and uh and during
the visit for a regular checkup you know
the nurse is going to take your blood
pressure and and weigh you but you're
going to get your blood pressure taken
as a matter of routine but if you record
your own home blood pressures that
actually is probably a more accurate
reflection of what your blood pressure
really is because everybody who goes to
the doctor's office your blood pressure
is a little higher just because people
tend to get nervous um when they're in
the doctor's office we call that the
White Coat Syndrome blood pressure is
always a little bit higher but you know
what you might have been racing through
traffic or couldn't find parking or late
for the didn't want to be late for the
appointment so you're rushing all those
things will raise your blood pressure so
that's why I tell say record your blood
pressure by the way uh best way to take
your blood pressure is to do it take it
three times times in a row all right and
throw the first me reading out all right
um and then see what the last two
readings are record them all right and
then you can show the doctor your blood
pressure diary that's super helpful to
us when we're actually seeing a patient
all right so the other thing by lowering
the amount of sodium uh salt in your
diet it also helps to lower your risk of
a heart attack kidney disease eye
disease many other conditions that you
can avoid all right uh so again this is
just something to be mindful of don't
eat a lot of salt okay what's the fourth
thing that puts you at risk for dementia
well gum disease
gingivitis and research has shown that
your gum health is linked to brain
health now this is a relatively new
discovery just over the course of the
last 10 years or so but the evidence is
getting clearer and clearer so what is
gingivitis gingivitis the gingeras your
gums Ginger fitis itis refers to
inflammation so gingivitis is an
inflammation of the gums and when your
gums are inflamed that really is
starting to be tagged to many different
diseases throughout the body like uh
heart disease and brain disease like
dementia once again why does this happen
we don't really have an exact
understanding of why it happens but the
evidence is starting to emerge that this
may have to do with your oral microbiome
now you've heard of the microbiome in
terms of gut microbiome but guess what
your gut starts with your mouth it ends
with your enus and there's 40 ft in
between there but we usually we think
about our lower gut microbiome as our
gut microbiome but guess what the oral
microbiome the microbiome in your mouth
on your tongue on your teeth growing
along your gums and on your pallet these
healthy bacteria in your mouth actually
um have a function for health that we
don't fully understand but we think it's
critical uh uh the connections are
critical of good oral health for
microbiome to brain health that's what
we're actually beginning to uh see now
the healthy uh bacteria in your mouth
your oral microbiome they are in the
crevices of your gum like right you know
like your big tooth sticking down with a
root right kind of like a like a Stak in
the ground and your and gum and into
your gums and there's a little divot
that goes down into the root of the
tooth look the healthy bacteria are
actually right there and the gum uh is
normally not inflamed but when it gets
inflamed you don't brush your teeth if
you have other kinds of infection in
your mouth man your gums are inflamed
you might have bleeding that going on
there and what we think is that when you
have disbiosis that's a problem with a
healthy gut microbiome that's a setup
for dementia well hello if you're
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now we do know that gut microbiome
healthy gut microbiome bacteria lower
inflammation they produce short chain
fatty acids that can promote healing
streamlines your metabolism and we do
know that the gut microbiome can signal
to the brain we've known that for years
all right in fact good healthy gut
bacteria basically text message your
brain to release social hormones so
there is this gut brain connection gut
brain axis that connects the entire
length of your gut to your bra brain we
also know that healthy bacteria one that
I've done research on called
lactobacillus rudari L ruide okay uh we
know that this bacteria definitely
communicates with your brain and prompts
your brain to release social hormones
like oxytocin now oxytocin is the social
hormone that comes out of your brain
that makes you feel pleasure happiness
um it's a very very important thing so
we already know bacteria that's found
the gut can communicate to the brain and
we know that when your oral microbiome
the healthy gut bacteria in your mouth
is Disturbed all right like with
gingivitis that that disturbance
unhealthy gut micro oral microbiome gut
microbiome actually is linked to
dementia all right okay so this is the
something really really important uh to
to know about the link between uh
gingivitis
is particularly strong with Alzheimer's
disease and Studies have been done uh
you know in people who have Alzheimer's
disease uh and they look in their gums
and they tend to have inflammation uh
and people who have gum disease but no
Alzheimer's they actually uh develop
Alzheimer's much more commonly and
faster than people who um don't have gum
disease in fact if you measure memory
alone people with gum disease have a
faster six fold faster decline in their
memory compared to people with
Alzheimer's disease who have healthy
gums let me say that again people with
Alzheimer's all right if they have
healthy gums their memory is going to
decline a bit you know with their over
time with because of their condition
their brain condition but if they got
gingivitis inflammation of their gums
disposes unhealthy oral microbiome their
memory decline