Latest / SOTA Personal Training Podcast / Turning Alzheimer’s Fear into Action (w/ Hal Kaufman)

Transcript

Turning Alzheimer’s Fear into Action (w/ Hal Kaufman) · SOTA Personal Training Podcast

• 0:00
  Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the SODA Personal Training
• 0:03
  Podcast. Coach Phil here and I am with a
• 0:07
  special guest. Our client Hal is joining us
• 0:10
  today to help walk through brain health and a series of somewhat
• 0:17
  personal and also just really important details around fitness
• 0:21
  and health and longevity. So we're really excited to have
• 0:24
  you here. Hal, thank you for doing this.
• 0:26
  Thanks for having me. As far as our format, what we
• 0:30
  want to do is equip you guys with some some takeaways, some
• 0:34
  education, but how, what's like the biggest theme here that you
• 0:37
  think kind of encapsulates what we'll go over today?
• 0:40
  You know, I don't think a lot of people think about brain health
• 0:43
  at all. They might think about their
• 0:45
  general health. They might try and eat well.
• 0:47
  They'll come to soda or their club or wherever and, and work
• 0:51
  out and do some cardio and not realize that a lot of that stuff
• 0:54
  is actually really helpful for brain health.
• 0:56
  But there might be a few other things to do as well.
• 1:01
  So I think that's a a key take away is just to put a little
• 1:04
  more focus on brain health specifically because, you know,
• 1:06
  if we want to live a long healthy life, if you don't have
• 1:09
  your brain, you're going to be in trouble there.
• 1:11
  Right, well, I know you're big Peter TA fan.
• 1:13
  I'm sure we'll touch on a few of.
• 1:14
  His of his of him. Procedures, if you will, but you
• 1:19
  know, he really talks about this idea of health span, which is
• 1:22
  not the number of years, but the number of quality years.
• 1:24
  I think it's often overlooked. So this is a really important
• 1:27
  topic and it's a lot of this is kind of like the choose tough
• 1:31
  now or later thing when it comes to fitness.
• 1:33
  So I think it's a really important thing for people to to
• 1:36
  understand and, and hear about so well why you just kind of
• 1:40
  introduce yourself a little bit. You been a member here for for
• 1:43
  years, three years ago or so. You've been lifting weights here
• 1:46
  ever since. But feel free to kind introduce
• 1:48
  your background a little bit and you know who you are.
• 1:52
  Yeah, I have a bit of a geeky techie background.
• 1:56
  I worked in IT for years. I was a consultant for years,
• 2:00
  and then I sort of got into brainhealthandstartedacompanycalledlowerdementiariskyoucanfindme@lowerdementiarisk.com.
• 2:08
  And I also write a lot on Substack and and company might
• 2:11
  be too strong of a word. I really just enjoy learning
• 2:14
  about things that I'm interested in and then if it's useful to
• 2:18
  others, sharing that. And that's really what lower
• 2:20
  dementia risk is there. You know, there's not a whole
• 2:22
  lot of service opportunity, although there's certainly some.
• 2:25
  But it's mainly about me writing, sharing my experience,
• 2:29
  sharing my journey and if people can get a couple Nuggets of
• 2:31
  value out of that, then I'm happy.
• 2:34
  So that's a quick background. Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:38
  And I've, I've looked several times at the, the articles
• 2:40
  you've written and they're really, really helpful because
• 2:42
  there's, and then that's a genetics and what can and can't
• 2:45
  you prevent? And it, it helps you look
• 2:47
  through a different scope and a different lens of longevity.
• 2:49
  And at the end of the day, empowering, even if the news is
• 2:52
  less than optimal about the reality, it's being able to
• 2:55
  equip people with those tools is really important.
• 3:00
  You know, tell me a little bit about why this topic matters to
• 3:04
  you. Yeah, brain health is is a bit
• 3:09
  self preservation in terms of how I think about it.
• 3:12
  Both of my parents had Alzheimer's, so my mom was
• 3:15
  diagnosed in 2001. She suffered for 10 years.
• 3:18
  My dad had it a year before she died and died eight years after
• 3:26
  that. So really for about 18 years, I
• 3:29
  was deep into experiencing this, sadly, with my parents and
• 3:32
  watching the decline. We would go to the Mayo Clinic
• 3:36
  frequently, you know, once a year at least to their
• 3:38
  appointments. And, you know, I heard a lot of
• 3:42
  plan for the future kind of stuff, the inevitable bad future
• 3:45
  kind of stuff. And the tune has changed.
• 3:47
  I actually just saw something on Facebook right before I came in
• 3:51
  where their doctor, the doctor that my parents work with is now
• 3:55
  talking about being a little more preventative and, and
• 3:58
  trying to get early diagnosis of people before they have
• 4:01
  symptoms, which is phenomenal. But at that time, no fault to
• 4:04
  anyone. They were really talking about
• 4:06
  preparing for this future, you know, get, get stuff in order,
• 4:09
  if you will. And about five years after my,
• 4:12
  for about five years after my dad died, I just, you know, was,
• 4:18
  I wouldn't say I was overcome, but there was pressure on my
• 4:21
  shoulders every single day. I thought about me getting
• 4:24
  dementia and I didn't really think about that at all while
• 4:26
  they were alive. But after they were gone, I
• 4:28
  thought about it literally every single day for about 5 years.
• 4:31
  Not in a debilitating sense, but it was there.
• 4:35
  And then you mentioned Peter Attia.
• 4:37
  Then I heard a podcast from Peter Attia.
• 4:40
  I looked through his stuff and he was the first doctor that I
• 4:44
  heard said, no, you can do a whole bunch of stuff to decrease
• 4:47
  your risk of getting dementia and cardiovascular disease and a
• 4:50
  whole bunch of other things that we will all, you know,
• 4:53
  potentially die from. So that I grabbed on to that
• 4:57
  with both hands. I mean, that was really exciting
• 4:59
  to me. I went deep into Peter Otiland,
• 5:02
  as you know, and really started, that was the beginning of my
• 5:07
  journey of learning about, oh, well, what are these things that
• 5:10
  I can do to decrease my risk of dementia because I'm at higher
• 5:14
  risk? Both my parents had it.
• 5:16
  I know that, but it's not inevitable.
• 5:18
  It's not all genetics. And so as I was learning more
• 5:21
  and more, I learned that that was the case that I had some
• 5:23
  power here. And I'm going to try and do you
• 5:26
  know, I'm, I want to live my life and you know, Yep, I want
• 5:29
  to drink every once in a while. I want some sugar every once in
• 5:31
  a while. I don't want to work out some
• 5:33
  days. So I want to live my life, but I
• 5:36
  also want to decrease my risk of this as much as I possibly can,
• 5:39
  right? And obviously this is like a
• 5:42
  it's a very bleak idea for a lot of people.
• 5:45
  Like it's really scary. But I think at the end of the
• 5:47
  day, we can do both. We can find that middle ground.
• 5:50
  We can still do things to prevent the risk of those items.
• 5:53
  And we can still live life. We don't need to sacrifice
• 5:57
  everything just for that one sake.
• 5:59
  There's a way to do both for the most part.
• 6:02
  Yeah. Those of you listening, Peter T
• 6:03
  is he's got a book outlive that's it's like a major
• 6:07
  bestseller. It really, I think launched him
• 6:09
  into the the public view. And then he's got his podcast.
• 6:13
  It's called the Drive, correct? The drive he was just on 60
• 6:16
  minutes about, I don't know, sometime in the last week I
• 6:18
  think. Yeah, they were grilling him a
• 6:19
  little bit, like, how much does this cost?
• 6:21
  And he's got a very tailored program.
• 6:24
  I'm not in his program but I devour his, his videos in his
• 6:28
  book and all that stuff. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
• 6:31
  I was really hesitant because it, you know, every, every guy
• 6:35
  over 50, you know, kept hearing Peter Tia and it was, it was
• 6:39
  like anytime there's that frequency of something, it's
• 6:42
  like, is this like trendy or, you know, something along those
• 6:44
  lines? Like I'm going to read the book.
• 6:46
  And it was phenomenal. Like I appreciate his, his
• 6:50
  message and how he approached it and talks about his background.
• 6:53
  So he does have a lot of merit. And I think that's where that's
• 6:55
  where medicine should go. And in the book talks about
• 6:58
  medicine, 2 point O versus 3 point O, which is basically it's
• 7:01
  all about prevention. And you know, for us and me
• 7:05
  personally, that's why I always got into training is like, it's
• 7:08
  the preventative side. And I wanted to go to PT school
• 7:11
  and do the list. When I was shadowing, you'd see
• 7:13
  people on the other end of I heard now and it's not too late.
• 7:19
  But when I started training, it was like, these are all people
• 7:21
  who want to get ahead of this. And the energy is totally
• 7:23
  different. And it was it was just a massive
• 7:26
  shift in my own psychology with that.
• 7:28
  So, so yeah, it's really, really important stuff.
• 7:33
  We talked about, you know, why this topic matters quite a bit.
• 7:37
  I want you to kind of highlight, you know, the idea of this like
• 7:40
  normal aging versus what's maybe not normal, right, when people
• 7:44
  think about brain health long term.
• 7:46
  Do you want to kind of share on that a little bit?
• 7:48
  Yeah, so I'm 57. I, I mean, I don't know why I'm
• 7:53
  bringing this up, but a couple now I'm going to bring this up.
• 7:55
  So, you know, we made this, we scheduled when this podcast was
• 7:59
  going to be recorded, I don't know, a week or so ago.
• 8:01
  And a couple days after that I texted you, I can't remember
• 8:04
  when we schedule it. I wrote it down somewhere.
• 8:06
  I don't know where that piece of paper is.
• 8:07
  So this is all really embarrassing, but I, I'm happy
• 8:10
  to say this is normal aging at 57.
• 8:13
  I do have to write more things down.
• 8:15
  I also have to keep those pieces of paper in order.
• 8:18
  And that's harder than it used to be.
• 8:20
  I can't multitask as much. It takes me longer to learn new
• 8:23
  things. Julie, my wife and I are
• 8:26
  learning new card games and learning new things and it it
• 8:29
  does take me longer than it used to and my kids will, you know,
• 8:33
  certainly attest to that fact. But that's normal.
• 8:37
  Aging executive function slows down things.
• 8:39
  Slow down. Losing your keys, that's normal.
• 8:42
  Not ever being able to find your keys or remember that person's
• 8:46
  name or know what the keys are for, or being able to drive a
• 8:50
  route that you've driven 100 times, that is less normal.
• 8:54
  Those are certainly warning signs.
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  And that actually happened to my mom.
• 8:57
  My mom one time was driving, I think home from the beauty shop,
• 9:01
  hair salon, whatever, and she's done it 100 times and couldn't
• 9:05
  figure out how to get home and was driving around for a while
• 9:08
  and maybe eventually called my dad.
• 9:09
  I don't remember exactly. But you know, that was a sign
• 9:12
  that, oh, something unusual is happening.
• 9:13
  Don't know that it's dementia, maybe it's stress, could be a
• 9:16
  whole bunch of things. Maybe she's tired.
• 9:18
  But you know, obviously it turned into what it turned into.
• 9:21
  So, you know, that's sort of some examples of normal versus
• 9:24
  not normal. Stuff, Right, right.
• 9:27
  Exactly. I mean, you should see the stack
• 9:29
  of, you know, sticky notes that I end up taking with me because
• 9:32
  I, I just don't even try to remember it.
• 9:34
  I'm just like, I'm writing it down.
• 9:35
  I'll I'll sequentially put that into a notebook and that
• 9:39
  notebook might go into like a Notion dashboard or something.
• 9:43
  Maybe it's the ADHD that I can't keep it all together.
• 9:46
  Systems. Systems are good, whatever works
• 9:48
  for you and and I think you need more systems the older you get.
• 9:51
  Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that makes sense.
• 9:53
  I think people hold you a lot of a lot of pride around doing some
• 9:56
  of that stuff. You know, the autonomy of no, I
• 9:59
  don't. No, I'm just my memory is just
• 10:01
  kind of, you know, a little funky today.
• 10:02
  But I think there's a sense of that that might get in the way
• 10:05
  of things for some people. Or they're just under slept like
• 10:08
  many. People that that, I mean, when
• 10:10
  I'm anxious or stressed or didn't get a good night's sleep,
• 10:14
  I can often tell that that affects my cognition and what
• 10:17
  I'm doing during the day. And I think it's important to
• 10:19
  understand, it's important for me to understand what's normal
• 10:22
  and what's maybe something else because you get nervous.
• 10:26
  I got nervous, you know, for years.
• 10:28
  Again, those five years, you know, I noticed things that were
• 10:31
  changing with me and I'm like, uh oh, here, here it is.
• 10:33
  It's starting. And, you know, hopefully it
• 10:36
  wasn't. We won't know for a while.
• 10:38
  But you know, it's knowing that Nope, that's OK that's normal.
• 10:43
  You're just getting older and things are a little bit slower.
• 10:45
  That's all right. Calms me a little bit.
• 10:48
  So I think it's important for people to understand, you know,
• 10:51
  I think that's a good question. What is normal aging and what
• 10:54
  maybe isn't? Right, well, and a lot of people
• 10:56
  when they get when they get scared about something like this
• 10:59
  or many things, I'm sure with their health that I don't want
• 11:02
  to make the doctor appointment or what not.
• 11:04
  People will go one of two ways. There's kind of the the action
• 11:07
  base is what you did it, which is to take it head on, learn as
• 11:11
  much as you can. Eventually yourself.
• 11:12
  Eventually, right? Not right away, I.
• 11:13
  Took time, right there's the stages of readiness to change
• 11:16
  and adopt those things, but most people will, you know,
• 11:19
  perpetually wait, right. I've seen that within my own, my
• 11:24
  own family, there's like a now it's fine, you know, and it's
• 11:27
  like, well, and that person has to be ready to, to say yes to
• 11:31
  that next step. They they have to be the one
• 11:35
  that can be, they're really tough.
• 11:36
  So, you know, in our notes here, we put this 30,000 foot is a
• 11:42
  30,000 foot view essentially. Yeah.
• 11:44
  Tell me a little bit more about that.
• 11:46
  Yeah, when you know, when you're thinking about what the brain
• 11:49
  needs to thrive, I I think that just in the simple terms, two
• 11:54
  key things. One is to really decrease
• 11:56
  inflammation and not acute inflammation.
• 11:58
  Like if I punch you in the arm and you're black and blue and
• 12:01
  you swell a little bit and it's warm, you know, that's an acute
• 12:03
  inflammation. Your body, your immune systems
• 12:06
  going to attack what happened and fix it and be gone in a
• 12:09
  couple days. I'm talking about chronic
• 12:11
  inflammation in your brain. So you are stressed, you're not
• 12:15
  sleeping, there's maybe toxins involved.
• 12:18
  You know, there's something going on where your inflammation
• 12:21
  levels are just too high for too long and that's really bad.
• 12:25
  That's just going to slow everything down and you're going
• 12:28
  to have cognitive decline eventually, probably.
• 12:31
  So really focusing on inflammation, there's simple
• 12:33
  blood tests you can take to, to assess the inflammation in your
• 12:37
  whole system. And then you can, you know,
• 12:39
  learn, you know, I, I was a little high with my
• 12:41
  inflammation, frankly. I learned that I had a genetic
• 12:46
  mutation, the MTHFR gene, which sounds like it stands for
• 12:50
  something bad, but it doesn't. That caused me to not process B
• 12:55
  vitamins well, which addresses inflammation in your brain and
• 12:58
  throughout your body. I take a supplement now and it
• 13:01
  addressed it very quickly. So not an issue anymore.
• 13:04
  But so that's, you know, that's just one example of a simple
• 13:07
  test, but a really big issue if you have chronic inflammation.
• 13:11
  And then the other is blood flow.
• 13:13
  You know, the blood brings nutrients, brings oxygen into
• 13:16
  your brain and the rest of your body.
• 13:17
  It takes toxins out. If you don't have good blood
• 13:20
  flow, you're going to have potential issues there.
• 13:24
  And both of those things, the inflammation and blood flow, I
• 13:27
  mean, exercise and nutrition, I mean, it's not just those
• 13:30
  things. Sleep, I mean, there's a whole
• 13:31
  bunch of stress. There's a whole bunch of things.
• 13:33
  But you know, those are two big things that you focus on in
• 13:36
  particular that are critical for both blood flow and
• 13:41
  inflammation. Yeah, that was going to be my
• 13:43
  question is people are listening.
• 13:44
  They're like, what? That doesn't sound good.
• 13:46
  How do I, how do I do this? And a lot of times it comes back
• 13:49
  to a lot of these fundamental principles of what most people I
• 13:52
  think know is, is how to be healthy, right?
• 13:54
  I should exercise and you get my sleep still.
• 13:57
  It's simple, but not easy to do for a lot of people.
• 13:59
  But the other thing you talked about was just the power of
• 14:03
  medicine, right? It's, it's, it's not an end all
• 14:06
  be all. We're in the greatest stage ever
• 14:08
  of medicine that's ever existed. And it can really work for us,
• 14:11
  hopefully to quell some that fear and also empower people to
• 14:14
  say, OK, I, I have time to figure this out and there's
• 14:17
  tools. And, you know, our healthcare
• 14:20
  system is, is particularly well set up to address problems that
• 14:26
  exist. And that's great.
• 14:28
  And when I have a problem, I'm going to go to my doctor and I
• 14:30
  hope they can address it through surgery, through medication,
• 14:33
  whatever the case may be. But a lot of this is we don't
• 14:36
  want the dementia, we don't want symptoms, we don't want the
• 14:40
  problem. And our healthcare system is a
• 14:42
  little less suited to preventative stuff.
• 14:45
  I think it'll get better, but so that's a challenge and it really
• 14:48
  requires you, each of us, to take that on on our own, be our
• 14:53
  own best advocates in this area. Yeah, exactly.
• 14:56
  That's a huge, huge component is no one's, no one's coming to
• 15:01
  save us, right. So we got to we got to treat
• 15:03
  that with the reality that it is.
• 15:05
  And again, be our best self advocates as you very well put.
• 15:10
  PRT talks about this in this book too.
• 15:12
  But this idea of medicine is great.
• 15:14
  So we are living longer. But again, that last 10 years of
• 15:17
  life is really dictated by the previous, you know, 30 to 40.
• 15:23
  And right around 40 is when we're going to start to see some
• 15:25
  of the aches and pains and the lifestyle.
• 15:30
  You know, people go to college, they might still be active and
• 15:32
  then that first job hits and they have a family and like the
• 15:35
  pressure is on. And then usually people around
• 15:38
  when they're in their 50s or so, they say, I've got a little bit
• 15:40
  of breathing room, but we got 20 years of habits under our belt
• 15:44
  that are potentially very hard to break.
• 15:46
  And also we just don't have the energy we used to.
• 15:50
  So it's, it's really tricky, but it's something you've taken head
• 15:53
  on. I mean, you being here and I've,
• 15:55
  I've seen that shift in you just committing to the process for
• 15:57
  the, the greater, you know, more impactful goal of why you're
• 16:02
  going to the gym everyday. It's, it's, it's awesome to see.
• 16:05
  So I want to commend you for that.
• 16:07
  I'll take it. Yeah, please do.
• 16:11
  Yeah, let's kind of move on here.
• 16:12
  So we're talking about, you know approach baseline if you few
• 16:17
  things like modifiable risk factors.
• 16:19
  Tell me a little bit more about that.
• 16:22
  Yeah, so when I talk to people, people often ask me cuz they
• 16:25
  know I'm into this. Well, what should I do?
• 16:28
  And this is kind of I'm a logical guy, I like data.
• 16:32
  So I tell people the first thing is figure out where you are at.
• 16:36
  Same thing when you have a new client here at the gym.
• 16:39
  You know, I look around, I've been here for three years.
• 16:41
  I'm never doing the same exercises as anyone else.
• 16:44
  Not everyone, but anyone. We're all doing different
• 16:47
  things. We're all working out, but we
• 16:49
  are doing different exercises, different reps, different
• 16:52
  weight, different sets, different number.
• 16:54
  You know, all that stuff is different for all of us because
• 16:57
  we're all individuals. And so I tell people to get a
• 17:00
  baseline, figure out where you are cuz what I'm doing, you
• 17:03
  know, I talked about B vitamins and my, you know, high
• 17:06
  homocysteine, you know, inflammation levels.
• 17:09
  I talked about that. But someone else may not have
• 17:11
  those issues. So, you know, I recommend people
• 17:14
  get blood tests, you know, much more extensive blood tests than
• 17:19
  what you would get at your annual physical.
• 17:21
  Those are great to start, but they're not everything.
• 17:24
  So a much more comprehensive blood panel is one thing.
• 17:28
  Do a cognitive test, especially if you feel like you are at
• 17:30
  risk. And it's not an intelligence
• 17:32
  test, but it, it tests, you know, how your reaction, how
• 17:36
  quickly your reaction time is executive function skills, you
• 17:39
  know, cognitive abilities. And that's good just to have a
• 17:42
  baseline. If you're perfect on it, great.
• 17:44
  Five years from now, when you feel like you might have issues
• 17:47
  and you want to retake it, you might identify areas where you
• 17:49
  are less perfect and you may be able to do some things about
• 17:53
  that. So blood tests, cognitive tests,
• 17:55
  and then these modifiable risk factors.
• 17:57
  The Lancet organization put out a paper, they do, I think every
• 18:02
  year of modifiable risk factors that if we could take, if we
• 18:06
  could address these risk factors, it might address almost
• 18:08
  half of the dementia cases, Alzheimer's cases out there.
• 18:11
  So these are the things that are in your control, smoking,
• 18:15
  hearing, vision, exercise, nutrition, those types of things
• 18:18
  are on the list. And so I have people just look
• 18:22
  at that list of 14 things and just kind of grade yourself.
• 18:25
  Like, do you feel like you're doing well there that that's not
• 18:27
  an issue? Is sleeping issue?
• 18:28
  No, I sleep 8 hours a night. I have no issues sleeping.
• 18:31
  Great. And let's not talk about that
• 18:32
  anymore. What about nutrition?
• 18:34
  Well, I, you know, I like to drink, I like my sugar and I
• 18:37
  like my, you know, other bad foods and oh, well, maybe that's
• 18:40
  an area to talk about. So at least assess where you are
• 18:42
  there and just get a baseline. And then after you have a
• 18:45
  baseline, maybe there's some things you need to change.
• 18:48
  Maybe you need to eat better, maybe you need to exercise more.
• 18:51
  Maybe your blood test results show something like they did for
• 18:54
  me that you know, you need to make, take a couple supplements
• 18:57
  or maybe eat differently instead of taking supplements.
• 18:59
  Maybe there's a prescription. So you do some interventions and
• 19:02
  then you retest, not necessarily the cognitive stuff, but the
• 19:06
  blood stuff and see if it moved the needle where it needed to
• 19:09
  because you're trying to optimize levels.
• 19:11
  And then you know, more interventions and just kind of
• 19:13
  rinse and repeat. Keep, keep doing that.
• 19:15
  You don't have to do it that frequently, but you know, you
• 19:17
  might do it every three or six months to start and then you
• 19:19
  might just do it every year or or two after that.
• 19:22
  But at least, you know, know where you are.
• 19:25
  Try some different interventions to change what needs to be
• 19:28
  changed and retest and see if those things work.
• 19:31
  And if not, you know, try different things.
• 19:33
  Right. Absolutely.
• 19:35
  So that's kind of my approach and how I think about it and
• 19:37
  just sort of a logical way, yeah.
• 19:40
  Just to repeat that phrase. So you said almost half of of
• 19:45
  Alzheimer's cases are are largely preventable through, you
• 19:50
  know, lifestyle choices and assessment.
• 19:52
  Yeah. So I have in front of me from
• 19:54
  The Lancet, you know, a graphic that they have and and they say
• 19:57
  half of all dementia cases worldwide could be prevented or
• 20:01
  delayed by addressing 14 modifiable risk factors.
• 20:05
  And then they list those list factors out with the percentage
• 20:08
  impact that they have. Now this isn't for me.
• 20:10
  An individual, this is a population level.
• 20:13
  So, but you know, if you're thinking about well, what's in
• 20:16
  my, I can't change my change my genetics, I can change
• 20:20
  modifiable risk factors. By definition, they're
• 20:22
  modifiable. And So what are the things on
• 20:25
  there and where am I maybe weak? And if I already know I'm at
• 20:28
  high risk, I'm going to try and address those things.
• 20:31
  So it's nice to have that list at least.
• 20:33
  Yeah. Oh, seriously.
• 20:34
  I mean, that's, that's such a big statistic.
• 20:36
  You know, it's like, and, and again, as you said, there's some
• 20:39
  of these that maybe you are doing great.
• 20:41
  So it's not like you have to change your life 14 ways.
• 20:43
  You know, maybe it's a couple big ones.
• 20:45
  And then he'd go from. There I I had a handful that oh,
• 20:48
  I should look into these a little bit more.
• 20:49
  I'm sure we all do. Yeah, and it's nice to know.
• 20:53
  I mean, it was, I mean, you can look at this half empty or half
• 20:55
  full. For me, it was nice to know, oh,
• 20:57
  I can address maybe half my risk.
• 21:00
  Again, that's not exactly what they're saying, but that's how
• 21:02
  I'm going to take it. I can address maybe half my risk
• 21:06
  through these modifiable risk factors, things that I can do.
• 21:09
  So that's the positive. The negative is, you know, half
• 21:11
  my risk is maybe genetic and I can't do anything about it.
• 21:14
  Whatever. I can't worry about things I
• 21:16
  can't control. So I focus on the 50% and that's
• 21:19
  big to me. That's a big, you know, it's
• 21:21
  not, I thought it was all genetics.
• 21:23
  That was sort of my take away from all those Mayo visits.
• 21:26
  I thought it was all genetics and now I found out, you know,
• 21:29
  maybe it's only half genetics. It's like, wow, I can, that's
• 21:32
  empowering. Yeah, a lot of people feel that
• 21:34
  way, though. I'm still sure of people
• 21:36
  listening to this. And and I think most population,
• 21:38
  the narrative is that's just part of aging, right?
• 21:41
  Your body starts to hurt and then you eventually, you know,
• 21:44
  get in the chair. And it's like, it doesn't have
• 21:46
  to be that way. People can rewrite their aging
• 21:49
  narrative, at least have some say in it.
• 21:52
  It's we are, we are not powerless.
• 21:54
  Yeah, I mean, the biggest risk factor for dementia, for
• 21:57
  Alzheimer's is age, but that doesn't make it normal.
• 22:02
  Just because it's more common as you get older doesn't make it
• 22:05
  normal. It's a disease.
• 22:06
  It's cancer, it's cardiovascular disease.
• 22:09
  It's it's a disease. So it's not normal by
• 22:12
  definition. And and you know, we're learning
• 22:15
  more and more about how we can maybe prevent it, just like, you
• 22:17
  know, we get our cholesterol checked, our blood pressure to
• 22:20
  try and address cardiovascular disease before we have a heart
• 22:24
  attack or something. You know, this is the same
• 22:26
  thing. What can we be doing to assess
• 22:28
  our risk before we have an event or symptoms and maybe push that
• 22:33
  out ten years or maybe avoid it altogether?
• 22:36
  Right, exactly. Oh, makes a lot of sense in here
• 22:41
  when we talk about people come in and I mean, this is kind of
• 22:45
  work we're doing here in a sense, right.
• 22:47
  We don't say necessarily, well, we're treating for, you know,
• 22:50
  prevention of Alzheimer's, but when people will come in, they,
• 22:52
  they they've got this track record of habits.
• 22:54
  We always say that assessment creates awareness and awareness
• 22:57
  is what can precipitate change. Just by knowing that's going to
• 23:00
  guide a lot of almost subconscious or unconscious
• 23:03
  thoughts and actions. And so just measuring things,
• 23:06
  which is sometimes the biggest step is the most impactful.
• 23:10
  And like even just that knowing is, is power in a lot of ways
• 23:14
  for a lot of people. So, OK, awesome.
• 23:19
  Yeah. And you said like, you know,
• 23:20
  three to six months maybe every so often to start just on the
• 23:22
  front end. And then as people going to get
• 23:24
  more of a a baseline set of tests and things like that,
• 23:28
  yearly is probably a a reasonable timeline.
• 23:31
  Yeah. I mean, when you start new, a
• 23:32
  new prescription or new supplements, you know, you
• 23:36
  usually give it three months or so and then you can retest if
• 23:39
  you want. But there's longer term things
• 23:41
  that you know, you, you can take longer to test and certainly
• 23:45
  after you're stable, you know, I take a vitamin D supplement and
• 23:48
  more than I used to because I was low in vitamin D like most
• 23:51
  of us probably are, especially here in Minnesota.
• 23:55
  So, you know, I, I test that once a year roughly.
• 23:58
  I know it's pretty stable. I don't worry about it anymore.
• 24:01
  But other things change over time.
• 24:03
  So you want to keep some tabs on it?
• 24:05
  Right. Well, like anything, if you're
• 24:07
  treating and taking this on with like a lifestyle approach, you
• 24:11
  can almost look at that as medicine, like movement,
• 24:13
  nutrition, those things are our medicine.
• 24:15
  So just doing those things doesn't have to be a medication
• 24:18
  to do these. So that's great.
• 24:22
  You want to jump into the evidence a little bit.
• 24:25
  Yeah, I'm gonna give it a big caveat.
• 24:27
  I I'm not A, I'm not a huge, you know, so I know you want or
• 24:31
  people want, you know, prove this to me.
• 24:33
  Show me the study that proves that doing A will resolve B.
• 24:37
  And you know, there's plenty of mouse studies and other animal
• 24:41
  studies and, and whatever human studies, you know, a real large
• 24:46
  human double blinded random control trial kind of study is
• 24:50
  really difficult. It's really costly.
• 24:52
  And when you're talking about preventative stuff, who's going
• 24:55
  to fund that? Sadly, no one.
• 24:57
  You know, if it if it's a drug, then the drug companies will
• 25:00
  fund all those studies and they spend billions on studies to
• 25:04
  sell their drugs. But if you're trying to prevent
• 25:06
  having to take the drug in the first place, you know, sadly
• 25:09
  not, you know it, it's hard to fund those kinds of studies.
• 25:11
  So, and we've also learned, you know, this, I'm not trying to
• 25:15
  make a political comment, but sometimes, you know, things that
• 25:17
  we thought were true in science, we learn more and they are, are
• 25:23
  not true when we found out we were wrong.
• 25:25
  And and that is science that's supposed to work that way.
• 25:28
  You know, we, we do the best we can.
• 25:30
  We make some judgments, we get some standards in place, and
• 25:33
  then over time we learn different things.
• 25:35
  We learn different things about cholesterol, You know, we learn
• 25:37
  different things about everything.
• 25:39
  So I don't throw that stuff out, but but I also kind of feel like
• 25:44
  since we're not ever going to have perfect data and I'm trying
• 25:47
  to prevent stuff, I, I, again, I'm a logical person, you know,
• 25:52
  tell me why exercise and eating better is going to hurt me.
• 25:57
  Like, I can't necessarily prove that I'm not going to get
• 25:59
  dementia because I'm working out three times a week and eating
• 26:02
  better, but I can't see any downside.
• 26:05
  There's a huge downside. There's huge risk of not working
• 26:09
  out and not eating well and not sleeping well and being really
• 26:13
  stressful and a whole bunch of other things.
• 26:14
  There's lots of downside there. So I don't feel like I need to
• 26:17
  prove the positive because it's just, it's logic enough for me
• 26:23
  to take that on. You know, I do.
• 26:25
  I do love this Lancet report because it lays out these 14
• 26:27
  things. There's plenty of studies that I
• 26:29
  could show, but, you know, I'm not an expert.
• 26:31
  Most of us aren't experts at reading through these studies
• 26:34
  and be able to, you know, call BS on them when, when there's
• 26:37
  stuff in there that we that's, you know, not really true.
• 26:41
  Like even this Mayo Clinic thing I read today, you know, about
• 26:46
  the preventative work that they're doing with Alzheimer's.
• 26:49
  You know, it's, it's all people local in Olmsted County, in
• 26:51
  southern Minnesota, around Rochester.
• 26:54
  Well, I don't know how diverse is that population?
• 26:56
  Like, how much does that really extend to everybody?
• 26:58
  You know men, women, you know different races, different.
• 27:01
  You know everything. Exactly.
• 27:03
  So, you know, it's good that they're doing that for sure, and
• 27:06
  it's great that they have the people close because it's easy
• 27:08
  to track them and I'm sure that's why they're doing it that
• 27:10
  way. But you know, we might learn
• 27:11
  that that doesn't necessarily extend to everyone.
• 27:14
  They're still we're always going to be learning.
• 27:16
  Yeah, I mean, it's the psych major and we've learned how to
• 27:19
  run, study and use all the numbers on a very small scale
• 27:22
  and you realize how easy it is to change like the R value, I
• 27:26
  believe it is to make your arguments and nothing is
• 27:28
  actually proven. There's a lot of correlation,
• 27:31
  not causation. And that's another level into
• 27:34
  research that people will never see.
• 27:35
  They'll just, if anything, look the abstract and try to get an
• 27:38
  idea, but you won't really know until you look at the numbers
• 27:42
  and how they actually went through it.
• 27:44
  And then they often will get critique too and it's got to be
• 27:47
  done several times. So just like you said, this all
• 27:49
  comes back to being your own best advocate for yourself in
• 27:53
  doing what feels right and make sure it's in the right
• 27:55
  direction. Yeah, and I'm just not educated.
• 27:57
  I'm not smart enough to to read through those studies.
• 28:00
  I mean, I can read them and just like I read that Mayo Clinic
• 28:04
  Alzheimer's preventative study article and I saw some things
• 28:07
  that were kind of warning signs to me or, or, you know,
• 28:11
  different risk factors, I guess. But, but I don't, I don't get
• 28:15
  hung up on that because again, I, I feel like it's the risk of
• 28:19
  not doing these things is much greater than the risk of doing
• 28:22
  them. And so I don't need much more
• 28:24
  information than that. Yep.
• 28:26
  No, exactly. And that's a good way to play
• 28:28
  it. It's like, well, let's look at
• 28:29
  are we trying to find the one small thing that does prove this
• 28:31
  one thing or the other body of evidence that you already
• 28:34
  probably know? But yeah, the Lance has been
• 28:37
  great and it's not one I'd actually been exposed to until
• 28:40
  recently. And just looking at that really
• 28:43
  helps paint a picture. And in here we have kind of our
• 28:45
  4 pillars and that's just to make it digestible.
• 28:49
  But this is a really good way to present it to people.
• 28:51
  So those you listening and check it out and just see where you're
• 28:55
  at. This is a small, you know,
• 28:57
  tactical goal for now is just go look at it.
• 29:00
  Just take a step in if this is something you might be concerned
• 29:03
  about or someone you know and love is as well.
• 29:07
  OK, excellent to talk about diet stuff.
• 29:12
  Yeah, I, I kind of have the same approach with diet every.
• 29:17
  I know people that are carnivores, they literally only
• 29:21
  eat, eat and eggs. And I think it's crazy.
• 29:24
  I would never do it. I'm not interested in it doing
• 29:26
  it. But they feel great and they've
• 29:29
  had blood tests and, and calcium scores and they're doing OK.
• 29:34
  And so it could work for them or work for them during this period
• 29:37
  of their life and maybe not for other periods and it might not
• 29:40
  work for other people. So I don't, again, I don't get
• 29:42
  too hung up on what people are doing there.
• 29:46
  You know, I, there's a lot of information on the mind
• 29:50
  Mediterranean diet, if especially if you're at higher
• 29:52
  risk of dementia, you know, olive oil, you know, lots of
• 29:57
  olive oil, healthy nuts, salmon, you know, less red meat, more
• 30:03
  fish, chicken would be OK. But you know, it depends on the
• 30:06
  diet. So, you know, there's a lot of
• 30:08
  information out there. I don't get too hung up on diets
• 30:11
  either. I mean, it's, it's impossible.
• 30:14
  You know, the any study related to diet is nearly, I'm not gonna
• 30:17
  say it's worthless, but it's really, really hard to get
• 30:20
  anything useful out of it. Darn close to worthless though.
• 30:23
  It's tough. I mean, you have people filling
• 30:24
  out. Forms, you know, what did you
• 30:25
  eat 2 days ago? Like, I don't know what I just
• 30:27
  had for lunch an hour ago. And so it's just not accurate.
• 30:31
  Or they know, well, I'm in the study and I'm supposed to track
• 30:34
  stuff, but I went to Dairy Queen and then I had cake for dinner.
• 30:37
  But I'm not going to write that down because I won't look good.
• 30:40
  So it's, you know, and there's a million other factors.
• 30:42
  I mean, the fact that I come into soda and can afford to come
• 30:45
  here, not that it's that expensive, but that I choose to
• 30:48
  spend some money to come here probably also means I'm I have
• 30:52
  money to spend elsewhere, that I'm also healthy in different
• 30:54
  areas of my life. I mean, there's all these, you
• 30:56
  know, confounding aspects of this.
• 30:59
  And so it's really hard to tease out well, how much is lifting
• 31:02
  weights helping me with XI? Don't know because I'm also
• 31:05
  eating more protein and, you know, sleeping well and focusing
• 31:08
  in this area and that area and taking these prescriptions and
• 31:11
  these supplements. So, but, but I don't really
• 31:14
  care. Like I don't need to know that
• 31:16
  because I'm not doing the study. I just know that I'm, I'm
• 31:19
  affecting my long term health and I feel really much better in
• 31:23
  the short term too, just getting, you know, hormones in
• 31:26
  line and vitamins, eating better and lifting weights and doing
• 31:30
  cardio. I feel better right now whether
• 31:32
  or not I get dementia 10 or 20 or 30 years from now.
• 31:34
  And that's, that's good enough. That's really, and that's really
• 31:37
  important. A lot of people may come in here
• 31:39
  and see me. They you say, what are your
• 31:41
  goals? You what do you want to do in
• 31:42
  it? You know, you, you get further
• 31:45
  far enough along with them and they just say, I just I just
• 31:47
  want to feel better. I just don't feel good.
• 31:50
  And so we want to do things that help you do that now because the
• 31:54
  rest of it will just come from feeling better now that just
• 31:57
  that will probably lead to more activity making healthier
• 32:00
  choices. You're not as stressed, you're
• 32:01
  sleeping better. So if you can get that ball
• 32:04
  rolling, there really is a snowball effect for sure with,
• 32:08
  with diets, one things we try to help out with, but it is so
• 32:10
  multifaceted. And yes, for my own research,
• 32:14
  it's like there's not one diet that's the king, right?
• 32:17
  You get the, the trendy diets, you know, keto and every, let's
• 32:20
  see, was it like a year, two years ago, everyone was just
• 32:24
  coconut, coconut oil, right? Or whatever it was, they were
• 32:28
  just, they're brushing your teeth with it.
• 32:30
  It's like something's come and go.
• 32:32
  The thing with things like the carnivore diet, there's a lot of
• 32:34
  trains of thought as to why that feels good for people.
• 32:37
  But every diet people feel better because maybe not because
• 32:40
  they're having just eggs and meat, right?
• 32:42
  It's just they're not having snicker bars.
• 32:45
  And it's, you know, it's, it's that side of it that I think
• 32:47
  people they look at the dye and they're like, well, that's it.
• 32:51
  But really, what could we have removed?
• 32:53
  And probably have the same result as well.
• 32:56
  So I mean just eating, you know, focusing.
• 32:58
  On protein and trying to eat a little more protein or a lot
• 33:02
  maybe for some people, especially as we get older, you
• 33:05
  need, I believe you need more protein then you're just more
• 33:08
  satiated. You're, you're more full during
• 33:11
  the day and you're not going to snack and eat the crap that you
• 33:13
  were eating before. So you don't have to go
• 33:15
  carnivore. You can just maybe just eat a
• 33:17
  little more protein with some vegetables, with some fruit that
• 33:19
  can be your sugar and you might not crave anything else.
• 33:22
  Yes, well, I almost guarantee that.
• 33:24
  Will be the case. And stay hydrated too, because
• 33:27
  you might might just be thirsty sometimes.
• 33:29
  But yeah, we say you probably never going to overeat things
• 33:32
  like lean protein, fruits and veggies.
• 33:34
  We say have as many of those as you want all the time because
• 33:36
  they're going to satiate you and you're going to get full at the
• 33:38
  right time and all the right things happen.
• 33:42
  It leaves room for the stuff that maybe isn't, isn't on the
• 33:45
  list, so to speak. But you got a little bit
• 33:47
  balanced balance approach to all this.
• 33:50
  I I think also for a lot of. People diet comes down to if
• 33:53
  you're trying to lose weight, just eating less push, you know,
• 33:56
  push, you know, make your plate of food.
• 33:59
  You don't have to fill it up, but make a normal good plate of
• 34:01
  food. And then that you're done after
• 34:04
  that, you know, at least give yourself 10 minutes after you
• 34:07
  eat to see if you know, am I really still hungry?
• 34:09
  But if you know, you don't give yourself any time for your brain
• 34:12
  to catch up to what you just put in your stomach, you're just
• 34:15
  going to keep eating. So I would, you know, push the
• 34:17
  plate away and just have that plate of food and that's was
• 34:20
  probably enough for you and we just got to think about.
• 34:23
  It we're still, everyone's so busy.
• 34:24
  They just like scarfed on their food, their race into the kids
• 34:27
  thing and this and that. But this is important.
• 34:29
  It's got to slow down once in a while.
• 34:31
  Just by thinking about it, It's it's going to have a massive,
• 34:34
  massive effect. We are our portion sizes have
• 34:38
  been ruined forever. Like, you're not going to go
• 34:40
  back down. There was something I heard.
• 34:42
  I don't know if it's true, but it was funny that the the
• 34:45
  depiction of the Last Supper. Over the years, the plates have
• 34:47
  gotten bigger just to help reflect what modern day is like.
• 34:51
  Because if they were tiny, they'd be like, what are they
• 34:52
  doing? This is weird.
• 34:54
  Why are they all so thin? But I don't know.
• 34:58
  I don't know if that's true at all.
• 35:00
  I should probably check in. That's funny.
• 35:04
  So yeah, diet's tricky, but protein, like less sugar, less,
• 35:08
  less. The stuff we already know,
• 35:09
  everyone knows is probably pro pro inflammatory, leads to
• 35:12
  overeating, all sorts of stuff. All that stuff in a in a box in
• 35:16
  a. Can with, you know, 20-30
• 35:18
  different ingredients you don't know what they are and they're
• 35:20
  long chemical sounding names probably aren't good for you.
• 35:24
  You know broccoli. You know what broccoli is?
• 35:26
  Yes, get broccoli. 100% broccoli you.
• 35:29
  Know what that is? Have salmon, Yeah.
• 35:32
  But yeah, the stuff in the middle of the grocery store is
• 35:35
  good as it looks is probably not very good for you.
• 35:38
  I can't take my kids in the grocery.
• 35:40
  Store there's too many colors and all the stuffs in the middle
• 35:43
  and like, Oh my gosh, I got to get out of here.
• 35:45
  And the other thing is people have decision fatigue with food.
• 35:47
  They're like what cooking and what are we going to have?
• 35:50
  Keep it simple, Sean. I just talked about this
• 35:52
  recently. We're like salmon veggies and
• 35:54
  like a little rice. Like that's, that's an A+ meal.
• 35:58
  It's going to be delicious if you give it a little bit of time
• 36:00
  and it's going to help your health in a big way if you keep
• 36:02
  doing it. So as far as supplements, which
• 36:06
  are going to be kind of related, we're going to talk about some
• 36:09
  snake oil right now. OK, I'm ready.
• 36:14
  Tell me about some. Of the supplements when we're,
• 36:17
  you know, being marketed, I've seen all the ones there's a
• 36:20
  there's all these brain supplements I've seen that one
• 36:23
  was called like focus and they got a little caffeine in it and
• 36:26
  they say it's going to help you know your, your cognition.
• 36:30
  Are they all a bunk or are they is there some merit?
• 36:34
  I I think there's. Some merit, but I, you know, the
• 36:38
  industry overall has a bad reputation.
• 36:40
  There's probably a reason for that.
• 36:42
  I, I go back to the blood tests. I mean, if, if I wouldn't just
• 36:47
  go into a store and buy vitamin D and Omega, you might need
• 36:51
  vitamin D and Omega, but wouldn't you like to know if you
• 36:53
  need it and then how much you might need and then retest to
• 36:56
  see if the quantity you're taking, you know, meets the need
• 37:00
  that you're trying to fulfill. So I'm all about, you know,
• 37:02
  measuring, figuring out what you need.
• 37:04
  I think multivitamins are great, but maybe you don't need all of
• 37:07
  that stuff and maybe you need more of other, other things.
• 37:11
  And so, you know, if you're measuring, you know, I was low
• 37:14
  on vitamin D, magnesium, one or two other things and I
• 37:21
  supplement with those. I can't get them out of my diet.
• 37:23
  I, I need to supplement. Part of the problem was this
• 37:26
  MTHFR gene that help give me issues with metabolizing vitamin
• 37:32
  BB12. So I take another, that's
• 37:35
  another supplement I take. So I think supplements are
• 37:37
  great. You should get, you know,
• 37:39
  supplements that are as clean as possible, good manufacturing
• 37:42
  process, all that stuff. And you can see that on the
• 37:43
  label or research it. That's fine, but I wouldn't just
• 37:47
  walk in the store Willy nilly and say, oh, you know, people
• 37:50
  say Omega is really important for your brain.
• 37:52
  Omega is really important for your brain.
• 37:54
  But first, just get a sense of, you know, is that an issue for
• 37:57
  you? If it's not, don't waste your
• 37:58
  time and money. But if it is, you know, a lot of
• 38:01
  these supplements are not expensive.
• 38:03
  You know, well tested, well handled by people, doesn't cause
• 38:07
  any issues. So yeah, I'm a huge fan of
• 38:10
  supplements. I take a bunch, a bunch, but,
• 38:12
  you know, I take a half dozen probably, but I take them where
• 38:15
  I know I need them. So it's very personalized and
• 38:19
  targeted. Yeah, yeah, they're, they're.
• 38:21
  Important if we know that there's a need for it, right?
• 38:24
  Not if the guy at GNC tells you you should.
• 38:27
  You should get this. You know 17 year old kid.
• 38:30
  Are GN CS still around? I haven't seen one in a long
• 38:33
  time. I don't know there there was one
• 38:35
  in. Ridgedale, I don't think it's
• 38:36
  there anymore. I don't think that one's there
• 38:37
  and. I think I know why, but the
• 38:41
  creatine is one that's really gotten some traction lately and
• 38:44
  had some apparently some favorable research.
• 38:48
  Doctor Rhonda Patrick, who I I love her stuff.
• 38:50
  She's very research based despite its limitations.
• 38:53
  But is that one that you take right now?
• 38:55
  I do. I actually recently upped.
• 38:57
  It. So I take for years.
• 38:59
  Last couple years I was taking 5g and I thought initially I was
• 39:03
  taking it. Well, I was initially taking it
• 39:05
  as a part of kind of my workout routine.
• 39:08
  It brings water into your muscles so you look better, but
• 39:11
  it's also healthier for your muscles.
• 39:13
  You it really, I think it helped me with recovery and big issues
• 39:16
  working out and then just being exhausted and sore.
• 39:21
  I think addresses that a little bit.
• 39:22
  But then I found out it's neuroprotective.
• 39:24
  I don't know exactly how, but it's neuroprotective.
• 39:26
  And then I recently, you know, maybe in the last six months,
• 39:29
  read a bunch of articles and research that talked about the
• 39:34
  brain benefits and maybe 5 grams aren't enough.
• 39:38
  So I recently started taking 10 grams.
• 39:40
  I'll probably just stay there. Some people that upset their
• 39:42
  stomach, but I don't have that issue.
• 39:45
  I take it in powder form. There's also pills, but you have
• 39:48
  to take a lot of pills to get 5 or 10 grams.
• 39:51
  So yeah, I'm, I think it's helped a lot in the short term.
• 39:56
  What it's doing long term. Again, I, I don't know.
• 39:58
  I have no way of knowing that or measuring that, but I don't,
• 40:02
  it's so many people have taken it for so many decades, mostly
• 40:06
  for working out related purposes.
• 40:08
  The neural stuff is relatively new, but it's incredibly safe
• 40:13
  from, I mean, I've never heard anything other than there is no
• 40:16
  downside. It's really safe.
• 40:17
  It's been used so many times, by so many people for so long.
• 40:21
  Very widely studied and it's. Very, very cost effective as far
• 40:25
  as supplementation. Yeah, it's cheap.
• 40:27
  You just toss it and whatever you have.
• 40:29
  But yeah, that spillover effect is something they're they're
• 40:32
  starting to hear more about. So it's like, well, gosh, isn't
• 40:35
  that a steroid? You know, that's kind of like
• 40:37
  the the mentality of what is that?
• 40:38
  And well, no, your parents will probably be taking it or what,
• 40:41
  who, you know, whoever. But even if you don't work out,
• 40:44
  it sounds like it might have some benefit.
• 40:45
  So do you take it? Yeah, absolutely.
• 40:48
  I noticed a matter of fact. It's supposed to, you know,
• 40:50
  obviously help replenish the ATP and it's.
• 40:52
  So when I, when I lift after taking creatine, I whether it's
• 40:56
  a psychosomatic effect or not, I can lift more every single time
• 40:59
  I take it because if there's periods where I don't and people
• 41:03
  get confused the whole loading phase, you don't have to worry
• 41:05
  about that. Do you just take it whenever
• 41:08
  just it'll do its job? I'm all for psychosomatic.
• 41:12
  Like it's real. It's.
• 41:14
  Real. It really is if it works.
• 41:15
  Whatever, give me a. Placebo, I don't care.
• 41:17
  They've studied that the placebo pack is 100.
• 41:19
  Percent real and when I was to you taking studying you know we
• 41:23
  studied that a lot and crazy stuff will happen if you believe
• 41:26
  it will in your body that's really fascinating so now as
• 41:32
  far. As brain.
• 41:33
  Games. I want to talk about that a
• 41:34
  little bit. So is this just Sudoku or what
• 41:39
  are we talking about? More than that, you know there?
• 41:43
  Yeah, I mean there's lots. Of games out there, puzzles, you
• 41:45
  know, whatever. I, I think I tried Brain HQ for
• 41:49
  a while as a part of this whole program I was on.
• 41:51
  They were saying, oh, you'll try and see what happens.
• 41:54
  And I got better at those Brain HQ games, but I didn't really
• 41:59
  see it translate to the rest of my life.
• 42:02
  I think if you play Sudoku or, or crossword puzzles or whatever
• 42:06
  word games, you'll get better at those games.
• 42:09
  I don't know if it'll transfer to anything else.
• 42:13
  If you're doing it in a social atmosphere, I think it's great
• 42:16
  because social super important for avoiding dementia.
• 42:19
  You know, that's definitely one of the 14 risk factors.
• 42:22
  So I think that can be really helpful.
• 42:25
  I did you know, there are two parts of Brain HQ that were
• 42:30
  fascinating to me, having nothing to do with.
• 42:33
  It's a little off topic here, but I was, you know, I could, I
• 42:36
  could get better at almost all of the games except for two
• 42:39
  categories. 1 is facial recognition and two is
• 42:44
  remembering conversations. And it struck me, I, I mean it,
• 42:49
  the the worst you are at things, the more it'll try and get you
• 42:51
  to work on it. And so I, I did tons of these
• 42:54
  things and I, you know, they would show you for a second or
• 42:57
  two a face and then they'll show you after that, you know, six
• 43:01
  faces, but at different angles. And you had to figure out, you
• 43:05
  had to figure out, you know, which, you know, which faces
• 43:11
  match. And it was, it was impossible
• 43:14
  for me to do. And so it really struck me as,
• 43:17
  you know, oh, my whole life I've really struggled with, you know,
• 43:21
  identifying with people in that way and remembering, oh, have we
• 43:24
  met before and remembering their story.
• 43:26
  And it affected me. It still affects me socially.
• 43:29
  So it was really interesting to me.
• 43:30
  Again, I couldn't get better at it.
• 43:33
  It is just a big weakness of mine.
• 43:35
  And other people have it too. But it's definitely a weakness
• 43:38
  of mine, sadly. So it was interesting from that
• 43:41
  perspective. But that wasn't really the point
• 43:43
  of your question. Yeah.
• 43:44
  Did it help me, you know, become sharper in other areas of my
• 43:47
  life? It didn't for me.
• 43:49
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 43:50
  Well, no, and that's if you listen to a podcast, you know,
• 43:53
  Sean's all about the tangents. He only gets 2, but I think
• 43:56
  that's definitely worth, you know, reiterating because I
• 44:00
  think a lot of it has to do with maybe it's it's the fact that
• 44:03
  you're kind of the Jack of all trades.
• 44:04
  You're doing different games. The process of learning is
• 44:06
  probably what's most valuable. Not getting really good at at
• 44:09
  chess or something necessarily just using your brain in
• 44:12
  different ways. I'm I would be willing to assume
• 44:15
  that that helps it in a lot of ways versus doing the same
• 44:18
  thing. Yeah.
• 44:19
  And if you're playing the game? With other people, I think
• 44:21
  that's good. But there's lots of things, you
• 44:23
  know, you can, you know, forget about games for a second, but
• 44:26
  you could learn a new language. You know, if you're going to
• 44:29
  Spain next year, you know, learn a little Spanish, right?
• 44:33
  Or, you know, I was, I played drums in high school and then
• 44:36
  didn't play for 30 years and then picked it up again and
• 44:39
  joined a band and we do some gigs.
• 44:41
  That was super good for me. I mean, just having the music
• 44:44
  back is important for my brain. And with a band that's social,
• 44:48
  we're doing stuff that's stress and anxiety, but in a positive
• 44:52
  way. So, you know, I think you can
• 44:56
  pick up sports or music or other activities you did or new
• 45:00
  activities, I think is definitely helpful.
• 45:02
  I mean, all that builds, you know, neuroplasticity, I mean,
• 45:05
  it, it helps your brain, you know, your brain is not, doesn't
• 45:09
  have a fixed number of cells and just diminishes over time.
• 45:12
  You can rebuild and repair, but, you know, you have to work at
• 45:16
  it. It's like lifting weights and
• 45:17
  doing cardio like a muscle. Yeah.
• 45:19
  Yeah, I played music for the longest time and we had a house
• 45:23
  and I had a drum sit downstairs. I didn't know you drum, so it
• 45:26
  was really fascinating to see drum.
• 45:28
  I mean, I just do it. It just kind of comes naturally,
• 45:30
  so I'm OK at it, but I don't know how to really do all the
• 45:34
  patterns. But I can hold beat.
• 45:37
  But you know, getting back into that, we just we sold our house
• 45:39
  for an apartment. So all I have is like a guitar
• 45:41
  and we have our girls have like a tiny toy guitar.
• 45:45
  And I started with that little 1 and I was just like, there's
• 45:47
  something came back to me and there's just that creative
• 45:50
  process. And I think that's a lot of is
• 45:52
  creating something, solving problems.
• 45:54
  It it after I do that, I don't know, I feel way better.
• 45:58
  It's it's meditative. I can think more clearly just by
• 46:01
  taking a little break, but I don't think people give
• 46:04
  themselves enough little breaks to do stuff like that, or they
• 46:06
  don't have a hobby or activity that allows them to do that.
• 46:10
  I think hobbies are really important.
• 46:12
  And I just had, you know, such great memories from playing
• 46:14
  music in high school. And so it, it's just, it's all
• 46:18
  connected. It it's so positive for me.
• 46:21
  It's so spiritual and therapeutic.
• 46:24
  It's it's great. I love it.
• 46:25
  No, that's great. That's really.
• 46:26
  Important, really important. Check us out at lower level dot
• 46:30
  band. Lower level dot.
• 46:32
  Band go online. Check it out.
• 46:35
  We have a video there that again I made.
• 46:37
  I made that video with the help of a friend Aaron shout out, but
• 46:41
  made the video. We went into a studio and did
• 46:43
  some recording. It was a super cool experience
• 46:46
  and so you can check it out. Check us out at lower level dot
• 46:49
  band. That's amazing.
• 46:51
  OK. So do you go out and like play
• 46:52
  gigs and stuff too? Yeah, we've been doing a few a.
• 46:55
  Year Some of us would like to do more, Some of us are busy,
• 46:59
  unhappy with a couple. I'm sure that's tricky to.
• 47:01
  Yeah, but we practice, you know? Almost every week, yeah.
• 47:05
  Oh, that's great. That's.
• 47:06
  Something I want to get back to eventually.
• 47:07
  I have a friend who was in the same band of high school.
• 47:10
  He went to McNally Smith College in Saint Paul, shut down now,
• 47:13
  but he he went from music production.
• 47:15
  He's building a studio in his house and I can't wait.
• 47:19
  I hope it pushes me. Actually, we're going to go
• 47:21
  tomorrow for the first time in probably a year and a half.
• 47:23
  We're going to play together, so I'm excited.
• 47:26
  So OK about you have some notes here about how does brain health
• 47:33
  connect with physical health? I think we've kind of hit on
• 47:35
  this quite a bit. There's this very multi faceted
• 47:38
  approach and thought process behind making this work for us.
• 47:42
  Is there anything else on that you think is worth sharing?
• 47:46
  No, I mean I, I. Brain, your, our body is a
• 47:48
  system, so it's all connected. So, you know, and this is a
• 47:52
  good, this is a good thing because it builds on each other.
• 47:55
  What's good for your heart, what's good for your gut is
• 47:57
  going to be good for your brain, you know, and, and so the things
• 48:01
  that we are talking about and other things we even haven't
• 48:03
  talked about yet, you know, our common sense, like you're not
• 48:06
  going to be shocked that, oh, I should eat better or exercise.
• 48:09
  And like, none of that is earth shattering news.
• 48:13
  A Tia I think does a really good job in being more specific on,
• 48:16
  well, what does exercise mean? What should you know and how do
• 48:19
  you measure, you know, where should you be in terms of lean
• 48:22
  muscle mass or being able to do your VO2 Max test or that kind
• 48:26
  of stuff. So I think he's great there.
• 48:27
  And I'm a data guy, so I love that stuff from him.
• 48:31
  But, you know, I, I, I think people who are coming to the gym
• 48:34
  and already doing cardio, lifting weights, eating healthy,
• 48:40
  getting good sleep, watching, you know, they're drinking and
• 48:43
  other things, you know, all that is good for your whole body.
• 48:47
  And that is your brain is a part of your body.
• 48:49
  So I think what's good for the good for the brain is good for
• 48:52
  the rest of you and vice versa. Yeah, something I learned in.
• 48:55
  College was that we, we don't seem to, a lot of people don't
• 49:00
  know, but there are so many nerve endings in your, in your
• 49:03
  gut. And so they've done some studies
• 49:05
  more recently about that. You know, our diet related to
• 49:09
  mental health, like people eat better and obviously when they
• 49:12
  exercise for a different reason, we have less severe instance of
• 49:17
  depression, anxiety and lifting weights.
• 49:20
  I could tell you probably 1,000,000 reasons why, but one
• 49:22
  of them is it, it's essentially operating like an endocrine
• 49:24
  system. And so again, in that, in that
• 49:27
  light of feeling good now and how that will just unlock other
• 49:30
  things just without you even having to think about it, it's
• 49:35
  it's a really big deal and people won't have to do it very
• 49:38
  long. I don't think we'll break into
• 49:39
  the metrics of, you know, what Peter Tia says, but it's lift
• 49:43
  heavy, you know, Sprint once in a while, walk a ton and, you
• 49:48
  know, just eat sensibly, commit to a bigger commit to the big
• 49:52
  picture. I think people only look what's
• 49:54
  in front of them, you know, a little bit, whether it's summer
• 49:57
  or that wedding, my son's wedding or something like that,
• 50:01
  you know, think, think long term.
• 50:02
  What do you want life to look like it 607080 you know, if
• 50:06
  we're lucky, Yeah. I mean, it's so simple.
• 50:09
  But it's so hard. Isn't that funny?
• 50:11
  It really. Is everyone knows not now this
• 50:14
  is very it's not, it's really groundbreaking.
• 50:17
  You know, a few things that are like, oh, that's some new
• 50:20
  suggestions, but generally it, it really is, it's very simple
• 50:26
  in nature and I really envy. I mean, there's people who love
• 50:30
  to work out. I mean, they get jazzed when
• 50:32
  they're coming in. They feel great, They're so
• 50:36
  motivated and they just kill it every single time.
• 50:39
  I am not one of those people. I, you know, again, I've been
• 50:42
  coming here for three years. I don't like working out.
• 50:45
  Frankly, if I were to be honest, that's why it's so impressive.
• 50:48
  Though is you're like, I still got to go take the decision
• 50:51
  making almost out of it. You're like, it's just something
• 50:54
  you got to do. It's like brushing your teeth.
• 50:55
  It's on my schedule and I'm I'm. Doing it, but I but I and I do
• 51:00
  feel wet better after doing it. I see the improvements.
• 51:04
  It still doesn't connect to my brain that I'm going to run in
• 51:07
  today. You know, it's just like, oh
• 51:08
  God, I gotta go work out again. So many of the things I'd like
• 51:11
  to do. Just get in the car and put it
• 51:13
  in gears like you know, But it's working.
• 51:15
  Everyone always feels. Better, yes.
• 51:16
  No, you've done tremendously well.
• 51:18
  I mean, I worked with the other day for the first time in a long
• 51:20
  time and it was it was really cool to see.
• 51:23
  I don't know you've you've come a long way and it's it's really
• 51:26
  awesome to see your your work ethic at at play.
• 51:31
  Yeah. As far as sleep stress, is it as
• 51:34
  simple as just sleep more? Just get off the phone before
• 51:38
  you go to bed. I mean if you have.
• 51:40
  Sleep issues. I use the aura ring for a month
• 51:43
  to see, you know, I, I thought I slept well and it turned out I,
• 51:47
  I do, I get enough REM sleep and deep sleep and all that kind of
• 51:50
  stuff. So I didn't have a problem
• 51:51
  there, but it was again worth testing and I may have a problem
• 51:54
  in the future and I'll test it some other way or or you know,
• 51:57
  or is pretty popular right now, so maybe I would do that again.
• 52:00
  So I think it's good to think about and, and maybe even test
• 52:04
  and see if you have any issues. I, I look at my phone before I
• 52:09
  go to bed. It's the first thing I look at.
• 52:11
  I mean, all the bad, a lot of bad habits, but I sleep well.
• 52:15
  I get my deep sleep that I need. I sleep around 7 hours.
• 52:19
  You know, 7 to 9 is, is good, 7 or 8 is, is, is good.
• 52:23
  You know, if you're only getting 6 or fewer hours, that could be
• 52:27
  a problem. And sleep is really important
• 52:29
  for cleaning out your brain. I mean, your body is kind of
• 52:32
  shut down, but it's working hard at getting junk out of your
• 52:35
  brain in particular. So sleep is really critical.
• 52:39
  I've read that, you know, if you're taking anything that sort
• 52:42
  of helps you sleep, you may be getting the hours, but you may
• 52:46
  not be getting the deep sleep and REM sleep you need.
• 52:50
  And so, you know, instead of a, a crutch of whatever those
• 52:53
  things are that you're taking melatonin or whatever, it might
• 52:56
  be better to, you know, do some housekeeping and try and get a,
• 53:00
  a consistent sleep schedule and get rid of the stimulating
• 53:05
  stuff. Don't drink coffee, don't eat,
• 53:06
  you know, at night, don't look at your screen a couple hours
• 53:10
  before going to bed. Don't watch TV, read a book or
• 53:12
  whatever or listen to calming music, you know, take a warm
• 53:16
  bath or shower or whatever. You know, if you need those
• 53:18
  kinds of help, those those things to help you fall asleep
• 53:23
  and stay asleep, then do that. So I, I do sleep is certainly
• 53:28
  important. I don't have that issue.
• 53:30
  A lot of people do. And you know, drinking alcohol,
• 53:34
  you know, when I drink, you know, even if it's just a drink
• 53:37
  or two, never too much then more than two drinks anyway.
• 53:40
  But, you know, if I have a drink, even I do not sleep as
• 53:43
  well that night. When I have a lot of sugar, I do
• 53:46
  not sleep as well anymore, which is a good, you know, it makes me
• 53:50
  feel good, like, oh, yeah, my body didn't like that.
• 53:52
  That's why I don't do it very often.
• 53:54
  But, you know, I still do it occasionally.
• 53:55
  Yeah. So yeah, I think getting some
• 53:58
  good sleep habits is is critical for a lot of people, 100%.
• 54:02
  And just like you said, you, you know, getting some assessment
• 54:05
  was a lot of people will say, oh, I do the phone thing and I
• 54:09
  wake up and I do it right away. And that's bad.
• 54:11
  That's bad. But sometimes if you actually
• 54:13
  get some, a metric behind that too, and maybe you are still
• 54:16
  getting your sleep. And so you don't have to feel
• 54:18
  bad about that. It's just you got to be equipped
• 54:19
  with the right information and, and numbers to help make an
• 54:22
  informed decision. And and it could, there could.
• 54:24
  Be a medical issue. Why you know, you're not
• 54:27
  sleeping deeply enough. You could have sleep apnea.
• 54:29
  You can go in and get tested for that.
• 54:31
  You know, if you're with someone in the bed and and you know
• 54:34
  you're snoring a lot, that could be a sign that you have sleep
• 54:37
  apnea. You're waking yourself up.
• 54:38
  You're not getting that deep REM sleep that you need.
• 54:41
  And so you know there's stuff you can do to address that.
• 54:44
  People discover that a ton. That people they'll like fly on
• 54:46
  an airplane, someone's like you. I think you have sleep apnea,
• 54:50
  right? And I've heard a bunch of
• 54:52
  stories of people saying that and it's like they had no idea
• 54:55
  they might live alone like they could have.
• 54:57
  And then they get the C pap and they they do that and then they
• 55:00
  work on their health. Maybe they don't need it, but
• 55:02
  for that period of time there was like, wow, I had no idea
• 55:05
  what I was missing out on. And sleep is a tricky one
• 55:07
  because we're really, really good at walking around in under
• 55:10
  slept state. They did a study that showed
• 55:13
  that our sleep will go down and we will see.
• 55:17
  We will see a, a, a maximal decrease in like certain
• 55:21
  functioning. But cognition can continue to to
• 55:24
  drop over time. But it's just sneaky because you
• 55:26
  won't. You won't know until you get a
• 55:28
  few good nights of sleep again what you were missing.
• 55:30
  Yeah, I can't imagine how. People feel for years not
• 55:34
  getting that deep sleep and then they get the issue addressed by
• 55:39
  whatever means. And then you know how they feel
• 55:42
  those next days when they're getting a full good night of
• 55:45
  sleep. I can't imagine how how much
• 55:47
  better they feel like a whole their life.
• 55:49
  Yeah, I. Got two kids right now.
• 55:50
  So I go through that weekly, you know, get a couple string a
• 55:52
  couple nights together. Today's one of them.
• 55:54
  And I'm like, I can speak better.
• 55:55
  I can see like it's, it's wild. So some of it is perhaps
• 56:00
  temporary and unpreventable to a degree, but point is, you don't
• 56:05
  pay attention to it. It's a big deal, especially as
• 56:07
  you age. I mean when you're younger.
• 56:08
  We get a lot. We get away with tons of stuff.
• 56:10
  Eating poorly, not exercising, not sleeping well, drinking
• 56:14
  more. Your body has much less
• 56:16
  tolerance for all that stuff and more as you age.
• 56:19
  I think it's right when you turn.
• 56:21
  Like, I don't know, everyone says it's every decade it
• 56:24
  changes, right. Well, wait till you're 30, wait
• 56:25
  till you're 40. And I'm telling the 20 some year
• 56:28
  olds I'm like, you can't you're not gonna be able to drink
• 56:30
  anymore because I have one or two and Rexit sleep, fall asleep
• 56:34
  earlier sleep quality deep wave cycles.
• 56:38
  They're they're gone. So you wake up.
• 56:39
  I feel horrible. I only had one drink.
• 56:41
  Yeah, it's because of that. Yep.
• 56:44
  As far as social engagement, is there any anything kind of rude
• 56:48
  in that? Is it just spending quality time
• 56:50
  with people that you care about doing fun things?
• 56:52
  Is there any other metric with that that they've that you
• 56:54
  found? You know, I, I think it's.
• 56:57
  Just the interaction is good for your brain.
• 57:00
  Like when we lose our sight or you know, we become not go blind
• 57:04
  necessarily, but you know, we have vision issues or hearing
• 57:07
  issues, then that part of your brain is not being stimulated
• 57:10
  like it used to. So you get hearing aid, you get
• 57:12
  glasses so you can continue to stimulate that.
• 57:15
  So I think the social stuff is all just all that all that
• 57:20
  stimulation and having conversations and remembering
• 57:22
  what you talked about last time and being interesting and
• 57:25
  interested in people and showing empathy and and all of that I
• 57:29
  think is critical. I'm trying to get into
• 57:32
  volunteering more and just so it's not even people you might
• 57:35
  know or have close bonds with, although that's obviously great
• 57:39
  and important to hang out with friends and family, but just
• 57:43
  getting yourself in more social situations.
• 57:45
  I mean that the band the same thing.
• 57:47
  You know, that was a reason, just the social aspect of it.
• 57:50
  So I do think social plays a big role and, you know, as we, you
• 57:54
  know, maybe can't think as clearly or or are tired more or
• 57:58
  are hearing or vision isn't as good, You know, the world sort
• 58:01
  of closes in a little bit and we're less comfortable going out
• 58:04
  and being social because it's uncomfortable.
• 58:07
  And you really have to fight against that because it it'll
• 58:09
  just build on itself and be a bigger problem.
• 58:12
  And I remember, you know, one of the things that Mayo Clinic did
• 58:15
  tell my parents, I remember this clearly is it was a lot of plan
• 58:18
  for the future. They said, you know, keep doing
• 58:20
  social things with your friends, you know, because that that will
• 58:22
  just help. I mean, even then they were
• 58:24
  saying that to just keep that social engagement going because
• 58:28
  otherwise you're just going to be at home staring at ATV or the
• 58:31
  wall or something, right? Isolation is not good.
• 58:34
  No for anyone. At all I mean I was going to say
• 58:39
  except for the criminals right, but even they have a lot more
• 58:41
  social interaction than a lot of people right.
• 58:43
  You know, it's, I don't think it's something to realize.
• 58:47
  And just like you said, it gets harder to seek that out because
• 58:51
  it's we don't like our comfort zone a lot of times.
• 58:54
  Like I can see myself going in that path be like, I don't want
• 58:57
  to bother anyone with this. I don't want to be a a burden.
• 59:00
  I'm just going to stay home. And I feel like that that's
• 59:03
  probably dangerous and I like being at home.
• 59:04
  I'm I'm introverted. My wife is somewhat.
• 59:06
  Introverted, we know we, we like hanging out at home.
• 59:09
  We have to, you know, sort of make ourselves sometimes get out
• 59:12
  and do things with people and we love it when we do.
• 59:16
  So, you know, it's a it's a balance and we all have
• 59:18
  different tendencies. I know other people that get,
• 59:20
  you know, tons of energy by being in big groups of people.
• 59:23
  I mean that I can last about an hour.
• 59:25
  I can literally, you know, say, oh, I think I've been here an
• 59:27
  hour and I'll look at my watch because I'm just drained.
• 59:29
  Right on the nose, Right on the nose.
• 59:31
  That's funny. I'm the same.
• 59:32
  Way too. I could ask Katie before we go
• 59:34
  somewhere. I'm like, what's the timeline?
• 59:36
  You know, if it's a group of her friends and they all know each
• 59:39
  other and I gotta gotta do the small talk thing, I'll just play
• 59:42
  with the kids for a lit then then I'm like, all right, I
• 59:44
  think it's I think I've hit my my cap.
• 59:47
  So we're we're in the same boat there.
• 59:51
  Yeah, Speaking of which, we're basically right in an hour right
• 59:53
  now. So we're both pretty much tapped
• 59:56
  out. I know we're like.
• 59:58
  How much longer? But.
• 59:59
  But no, is there anything else you think is kind of worth worth
• 1:00:02
  sharing from all the, you know, things we covered, which is a
• 1:00:04
  lot? I will say this, we didn't cover
• 1:00:07
  a lot. We didn't even cover half of
• 1:00:08
  what we plan to cover, no. But that's kind of how it I
• 1:00:11
  think it how it goes. And I think every piece of it
• 1:00:13
  was important. This could be a 2 hour episode,
• 1:00:16
  but I don't know if this will get out before our, our seminar
• 1:00:20
  next, next Tuesday. But you can be sharing some of
• 1:00:23
  these, some of the same things, a little bit more of like AI
• 1:00:26
  suppose a, a workshop format. We're going to help kind of help
• 1:00:29
  people install these into their their lives in a bit more of a
• 1:00:32
  practical, individualized way if we can.
• 1:00:34
  So do you think we missed any really important blocks of
• 1:00:38
  information? I don't think so.
• 1:00:40
  I mean, we could talk forever, as you said, I think.
• 1:00:42
  The, the key is to, you know, it's all the obvious stuff, but
• 1:00:47
  then the extra stuff that we don't know about or don't think
• 1:00:50
  about is the maybe more extensive blood work.
• 1:00:53
  And a lot of people aren't going to do that.
• 1:00:54
  They're not going to spend the money or they're afraid of it or
• 1:00:57
  they're afraid of what the results will be.
• 1:00:58
  I actually, there's some genetic markers that you can get with a
• 1:01:04
  simple blood test and it tells you really somewhat clearly your
• 1:01:09
  whether you have an increased risk of getting Alzheimer's.
• 1:01:12
  And I struggled. I'm a quick decision maker.
• 1:01:14
  I'm all over the stuff. As you obviously know.
• 1:01:17
  I struggled with wanting to get that test for a year.
• 1:01:21
  So yeah, I like, what if it says this?
• 1:01:23
  What if it says that? You know, if it says Goodwill,
• 1:01:24
  I'd be less motivated to be healthy.
• 1:01:26
  If it says bad, am I gonna, you know, crawl in a shell like, so
• 1:01:30
  it's, you know, it's not necessarily easy.
• 1:01:32
  So people that don't want to do all these blood tests, they
• 1:01:34
  totally get most of them, though.
• 1:01:37
  The 99% of them are, you know, the vitamin D, the magnesium,
• 1:01:41
  your hormone levels, you know, all that kind of stuff, you
• 1:01:45
  know, omegas and, and cholesterol and stuff, some
• 1:01:48
  stuff that you might get at an annual physical.
• 1:01:50
  So I think, you know, the newest thing for people is the idea of
• 1:01:54
  getting a more extensive blood draw and just understanding, you
• 1:01:58
  know, where are you at? And are there some risks there?
• 1:02:02
  Just like if your cholesterol is high or your blood pressure is,
• 1:02:05
  isn't right? You know, those are signals
• 1:02:07
  that, oh, we need to do some things.
• 1:02:09
  Let's try diet, let's try exercise.
• 1:02:11
  Oh, we also have this medicine if that doesn't work.
• 1:02:13
  So it's the same thing. We just don't think about that
• 1:02:16
  for our brain. And I think that's a new concept
• 1:02:18
  for a lot of people. Yeah.
• 1:02:19
  One that I think will continue to grow for.
• 1:02:21
  Exactly the reasons for sitting down and talking about this
• 1:02:24
  right now, there was been one question that I had related to
• 1:02:27
  blood work before I let you go is most people just go under
• 1:02:30
  their their run-of-the-mill quarterly check in the doctor,
• 1:02:35
  you know, they do their thing and there's not much guidance
• 1:02:37
  or, or things beyond that, which is really irks me.
• 1:02:41
  But if people were gonna get a more comprehensive blood work
• 1:02:47
  done, are there local clinics? Do any of them mail in services?
• 1:02:53
  Are they even worth looking at to your knowledge?
• 1:02:55
  Yeah, I think here I'm just pulling up on this piece of
• 1:02:57
  paper here. So there are a couple companies
• 1:03:01
  that focus on brain health specifically and will help you
• 1:03:04
  get these tests done. You'll just go to quest, do a
• 1:03:06
  big blood draw. They'll quest will send them the
• 1:03:08
  you know, so you can do that wherever you are.
• 1:03:11
  I worked with a company called a mine for all seasons.
• 1:03:13
  They're phenomenal. They have a like a subscription
• 1:03:18
  model where you pay maybe $25.00 a month and you get access to a
• 1:03:22
  bunch of things or you can spend a couple $1000 and do a whole
• 1:03:25
  big blood draw and, and get a road map from them.
• 1:03:27
  And so that was, I love that. Apollo Health is another
• 1:03:31
  organization led by Dale Bredesen, who's a neurologist
• 1:03:35
  who's very well known in this space.
• 1:03:37
  So that's worthwhile, especially if you're at higher risk.
• 1:03:40
  You might want to do that stuff if it's more, you know, I'm not
• 1:03:43
  at higher risk or I don't think I am and I just want some big
• 1:03:46
  blood draws. Function health and you know, I
• 1:03:49
  get serve these ads on on Facebook all the time.
• 1:03:52
  Function health is a big one. Inside tracker is another one
• 1:03:56
  And, and they'll do, you know, I think function health last I
• 1:03:59
  look was maybe 3 or $400.00 for two very extensive blood draws.
• 1:04:07
  And doctors will look at them or, or P as will look at them.
• 1:04:10
  Physician assistants will look at them.
• 1:04:12
  You'll have a conversation for the things that are sort of out
• 1:04:14
  of bounds. So you get some access to
• 1:04:16
  medical professionals. It's very extensive.
• 1:04:19
  You can get brain specific or, or other aspects depending on
• 1:04:22
  what you want to do. And you can always take those
• 1:04:25
  results to your doctor and say, hey, I did this.
• 1:04:28
  You may or may not support it, but whatever.
• 1:04:30
  Here's a bunch of data. This is what these guys told me.
• 1:04:33
  What do you think? Because you know me better, you
• 1:04:35
  know my background, you know what other medicines I'm taking
• 1:04:37
  and whatever. So it's at least more data you
• 1:04:40
  can use to have a conversation with your regular doctor, right?
• 1:04:44
  Yeah, exactly. No, That's that's great.
• 1:04:46
  Neither things I'm thinking of and I've not done 1 yet.
• 1:04:49
  I think Sean did an extensive blood work test to see where he
• 1:04:51
  was at and because he eats a lot of high fat and he won't look at
• 1:04:54
  his cholesterol and like it was all good.
• 1:04:56
  But you know, I got two young kids and I'm starting to think
• 1:04:59
  like I got to set the stage, you know, busy operation we have
• 1:05:02
  here. We got girls, they got to be
• 1:05:04
  everywhere. We got 2 sports tonight.
• 1:05:06
  I'm not even sure how we're going to get them in two places
• 1:05:08
  at once, but things do. It's easy for things to slip
• 1:05:11
  away and it's easy for, you know, 1020 years to go by and
• 1:05:17
  again, what were the last couple decades like?
• 1:05:19
  So as I've gone this journey with coaching and what not, our
• 1:05:23
  emphasis is is very much reflected even my own personal
• 1:05:26
  journey of what's important. And before I have kids and
• 1:05:29
  before the stuff was important, it was like, yeah, I get it.
• 1:05:32
  And it's that shifted. I truly have more conviction and
• 1:05:36
  and what we're doing and why it's important.
• 1:05:37
  And then I think that's a palpable thing.
• 1:05:40
  And some we're going to keep rolling with.
• 1:05:43
  This is a huge part of it. So I want to thank you so much
• 1:05:46
  for doing this. Alice's, this has been really
• 1:05:48
  great. This was really good
• 1:05:49
  information. And I mean more important 'cause
• 1:05:53
  than than almost anything, you know, living a long, healthy
• 1:05:56
  life. I don't know why I was so
• 1:05:57
  nervous. I don't know why I you did
• 1:05:59
  great. It was awesome.
• 1:06:01
  Now people can find your website.
• 1:06:03
  It's remind me lower dementia risk.com I'm on sub.
• 1:06:07
  Stack, which is I think lower dementia risk.substack.com,
• 1:06:13
  there's almost more information there now than on my website,
• 1:06:15
  but I'll sync those up at some point So yeah, check it out.
• 1:06:19
  I am, you know, you can e-mail me at hal@lowerdementiarisk.com
• 1:06:23
  if you have questions, if you want to talk, you know, if you
• 1:06:25
  need help in some way I'm, you know, I'm, I'm available for
• 1:06:29
  that kind of stuff. We'd love to well, love to help
• 1:06:31
  people. No, this is great.
• 1:06:33
  This is obviously something you're really passionate about
• 1:06:35
  and. And it shows.
• 1:06:37
  Like I said, it's really important stuff.
• 1:06:38
  So thank you for for offering to to help.
• 1:06:41
  Of course, awesome either closing notes.
• 1:06:43
  Hell no, I think we're good. Awesome.
• 1:06:46
  Again, thank you for doing. This thank you everyone for
• 1:06:48
  listening. Check out Hell's website if you
• 1:06:50
  have more questions, comments, concerns, and yeah, we'll see
• 1:06:54
  you guys in the next one. Thank you.
• 1:06:55
  See you later.