Dhru Purohit Show - Neurologist Reveals the Three Shocking Reasons Why Parkinson's Disease and Other Brain Disorders Are on the Rise with Ray Dorsey, MD

Episode Date: October 30, 2023

This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health, Bioptimizers, and Joovv. Today on The Dhru Purohit Podcast, Dhru sits down with neurologist Dr. Ray Dorsey to discuss the root causes of Parkinson's disease and how environmental toxins, like trichloroethylene (TCE), radically increase our likelihood of developing it. Dr. Ray Dorsey is a neurologist and researcher known for his groundbreaking work in the field of Parkinson's disease. After completing his undergraduate studies at Stanford University, Dr. Dorsey earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Dorsey has significantly contributed to Parkinson's disease research. His work on the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) and other research projects has advanced the field's knowledge and treatment options. Dr. Dorsey also co-authored the groundbreaking book titled Ending Parkinson's Disease: A Prescription for Action." In this episode, Dhru and Dr. Dorsey dive into (audio version / Apple Subscriber version): -The three environmental toxins responsible for the rise in Parkinson’s disease (2:06 / 2:06)  -What is trichloroethylene (TCE) (3:15 / 3:15)  -How toxins impact our mitochondria (5:41 / 5:41) -The importance of air quality for longevity (17:05 / 14:30)   -The earliest cases of Parkinson’s (27:22  / 24:36)  -The link between pesticides and Parkinson’s (29:35 / 26:48)  -The research around toxins and Parkinson’s (31:55 / 28:50) -The traditional medicine approach to disease (35:56 / 32:20) -The role of misfolded proteins (44:56 / 40:52)  -How exposure during early periods in life can impact the development of Parkinson’s (52:30 / 48:30)   -Testing to determine toxin exposure (58:06 / 56:09)  -Dr. Dorsey’s dietary recommendations (1:04:24 / 1:00:31) -Dry cleaning and exposure to toxins (1:12:35 / 1:08:26)  -The role of exercise in prevention (1:23:46 / 1:19:46) -The correlation between rates of pesticide and rates of Parkinson’s (1:33:23 / 1:26:20) Also mentioned in this episode: -Dr. Dorsey’s book Ending Parkinson’s Disease -The Parkinson's Project Access more than 3,000 specialty lab tests with Rupa Health. You can check out a free, live demo with a Q&A or create an account at RupaHealth.com today. Get 10% off and a special bonus gift with your Bioptimizers purchase. Go to magbreakthrough.com/dhru and use the code DHRU10 at checkout. Right now, Joovv is offering an exclusive offer on your first order. Head over to Joovv.com/dhru and apply my code DHRU. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So it may be that brain disease doesn't actually begin the brain, but it might begin in the nose or in the gut, and that these are two of the major ports of entry for air pollution, certain pesticides, and chemicals like trichloride. Did you know that there are three key toxicants, according to today's guest, that are a direct contributor to your likelihood of getting Parkinson's disease and possibly other brain disorders? If you're curious about this topic, today's episode is for you. Welcome to the Drew Proet podcast. Each week we explore the inner workings of the brain and the body with one of the brightest minds in wellness, medicine, and mindset. This week's guest is Dr. Ray Dorsey, and he's here today to talk about the root causes of Parkinson's disease and how environmental toxins are radically increasing our likelihood of developing it. Now, a little bit more about Dr. Dorsey. Dr. Ray Dorsey is a neurologist and a researcher known for his groundbreaking work in the field of Parkinson's disease.

After completing his undergraduate study from Harvard University, Dr. Dorsey earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He then pursued further training in neurology completing his residency at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a fellowship in movement disorders at Columbia University. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Dorsey made significant contributions to Parkinson's disease research. His work on the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative and other research projects has advanced the field's knowledge and treatment options. Dorsey is also the co-author of the book, Ending Parkinson's Disease, A Prescription for Action, which is the focus of today's conversation. The book delves deep into the current state of Parkinson's disease, highlighting the limitations of existing treatments and emphasizing the need for a more

comprehensive patient-centered approach. Moreover, the book and today's episode suggest practical strategies and actions that anyone can take to advance the research, increase awareness, and ultimately work towards ending Parkinson's disease today. Dr. Ray Dorsey, welcome. What are these three toxin categories that are breaking our brains and how are they doing it? First of all, Drew, I'd be with you, and thanks for working on helping out fix our brains.

So I think the three environmental toxins that are principally responsible for the rise in Parkinson's disease are certain pesticides, the poster child for them being a pesticide called paracot, widely used as a weed killer. The second are commonly used dry cleaning chemicals, including this one called tri-chloralethylene. And the third is one familiar to Southern Californians, and that's air pollution. Before we break things down a little further in Parkinson's disease and the different ways that it can develop, let's just give a quick little highlight on each of these three,

outdoor air pollution, the pesticides, and the trichloralethylene. What are the main sources and exposure of each of those. And maybe we could work backwards with also some good and recent news that came out recently that the EPA is exploring about trichloroethylene in particular. So trichlorathylene or TCE is a really, really simple molecule. So your listeners know the all of them know that water is H2O, which means it just has three atoms, two hydrogens, and one oxygen. Tricloratylene is very simple. It's got six atoms. It's got two carbon atoms in black, one hydrogen atom in white and three chlorine atoms in green, hence its name, trichloral ethylene. This chemical is initially developed in 1864, so I think at the time of President Abraham

Lincoln was the president, and has been used since the 1920, so since shortly after World War II. And it's been used in everything. It's been used to decapinate coffee, was found in Sanko or other de-conafinated coffees in the 1970s. It's been used to de-greased metal, and it's been to use to dry, clean clothes. It's found in carpet cleaners. It's found in gun cleaners. It's found in typewriter correction fluid. It's found in a wide variety of consumer goods. And this chemical is known to cause cancer. There's no question about that. The EPA says it's carcinogenic by all routes of exposure. The World Health Organization says that it causes cancer. And yesterday, the EPA, long last proposed a ban on nearly all uses of trichloroethylene in the United States,

and this ban would go in effect in a year. And I think by taking that action, they are preventing generations of individuals from developing cancer in the future. And I think they're also likely preventing generations of individuals from developing Parkinson disease in the future. However, the problem is not just the use of trichlorothylene, which in the 1970s is estimated that 10 million Americans worked with this. and semiconductor industry, in mechanics,

and printers and painters and taxidermists and varnish workers, all work with it. But there are numerous thousands of contaminated sites, including contaminated sites in Newport Beach, California, where I went to high school and not too far from where you're sitting right now in Southern California and in sites in Woburn, Massachusetts, north of Massachusetts, north of Boston.

There are dozens of dry, at least a dozen dry cleaning sites in Rochester, New York, that are contaminated with this chemical. and a closely related chemical. So these sites are all around us, but the good news is EPA has banned future uses of it. This proposed ban would go in effect in a year, is my understanding. But we still have more work to do to contain, remediate, and clean up these contaminated sites throughout the country. You know, how are these toxins actually creating a situation where they're breaking, in particular, it seems, are mitochondria?

Yeah. So if you think about the brain, it's basically an energy-guzzling organ. The brain is only about 3% of our body's weight, but it consumes 20% of our blood's glucose or energy supplies. And within the brain, there are many different kinds of cells, and the cell that consumes the most energy are the nerve cells, also called neurons. And many of these neurons are chalk full of mitochondria. And certain cells in the brain that are responsible for Parkinson's disease and produce a chemical called dopamine are basically just big garbage bags that are filled with just. jelly beans, and those jelly beans are mitochondria. And if you think about it, these pesticides, especially paraquot, trichloroethylene, and air pollution are all known to damage mitochondria.

And they actually kind of bypass our normal protective mechanisms that we have. We have the gut, we have the blood-brain barrier. But all of these guys are inhaled. And so this could be a way of exploiting the front door to our brain that these environmental toxins, all of which we know damage the energy producing parts of cells. And we know that the cells that are lost in Parkinson's disease have huge energy demands and that these things are inhaled. So I think you can weave together a story by which these toxicans are causing many people to have, likely many people to have Parkinson's.

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10% off and a special bonus gift with your purchase. Just head over to mag breakthrough.com slash drew and use the code Drew 10 at checkout. That's MAG, M-A-G, B-R-E-A-K, T-H-R-O-U-G-H-R-U-G-H-R-U with the code Drew-10. Now back to today's episode. Before we go to pesticides and outdoor air pollution, and talk about some of the top ways that people are getting this exposure that could be linked strongly with Parkinson's disease. At least that's where you're coming from with the research. How did you feel when you saw that proposed ban?

You know, today is October 21st that we're recording this interview, 2023. And you more than anybody and your team that you work with that you've also co-authored the book with have been sounding the alarm about why it's so important to ban this chemical. How did you feel when you saw the news? Well, it felt great, but the people who deserve credit for it are people like in Hoover, Massachusetts. I know if you've ever read the book, A Civil Action, and watched the movie A Civil Action starring John Travolta. Their children in a town north of Boston had TCE in their drinking water, and those children developed and ultimately died from leukemia.

And it was women, I think, by her name is Ms. Anderson, who, you know, when she went to Boston in Children's Hospital with her, I think her son, I think it was her son with leukemia. You know, she told the doctor, you know, it's not just my son who's got leukemia. You know, it's two or three kids up the street or developing it and it could be in the water. The doctor thought, no, of course the mom was right.

And so the book, Civil Action, you know, really put this on the map. Another great author, Dan Fagan, wrote a book called Tom's River, New Jersey, talking about TCE, contaminating the water in Tom's River, New Jersey, and leading to cancer. Carrie Reinhardt, her daughter, died of a rare brain tumor that's typically only found in adults, but affected her daughter in Franklin, Indiana, which was contaminated with TCE, and at least 82 children in that small town had developed a cancer, and she started a nonprofit

called if it was your child, you know, highlighting, you know, these chemicals are everywhere, and what would you do if it's affecting your child? And then there are researchers from around the country and around the world who have been working on this. And then there's a story of Camp Lejeune. So this, many of your listeners have heard about Camp Lejeune, this marine base in North Carolina that was contaminated with this chemical trichlorathlon and closely related chemicals and cause children there to develop cancer. So, you know, children of Marines developing cancer. And then a recent study showed that Marines who served there when they were healthy, when they were 20 years old, 30 years later have a 70% increased risk of developing Parkinson's

disease compared to Marines who served at Camp Pendleton in California. So there's lots of credit to be had for this, including the EPA. Dr. Friedhof and her team have been a fantastic job. But this is, I like to say, I heard future generations cheering when the EPA banned trichloropylene yesterday, I propose the ban because I think future generations are much less likely to develop cancer, including leukemia, including prostate cancer, including multimiloma, non-hachshundlema, liver cancer, and kidney cancer. And I think future generations are less likely to develop Parkinson disease because of this action if implemented. You know, in your advocacy in your book, you're very clear that the people who have developed Parkinson's disease and potentially these

other brain disorders that many people are suffering from, they're victims. And for a long time, the industry knew that these chemicals like trichloroethylene were linked to Parkinson's, is there any chance in this proposed ban by the EPA that just was announced? Is there any chance of it not going through because of industry capture? I hope not, but, you know, it's kind of hard to imagine in my mind that that a century of causing cancer is not enough to get a chemical ban. Well, that's the hope. And so, but we need to be really vigilant. We need to hold our elected officials responsible for responding to the needs of people. You know, there's a reason that one and eight women have breast cancer. There's a reason that one and eight men get prostate cancer. There is a reason why rates of cancer are increasing among Americans under the age of 50. There's a reason that rates of cancer are increasing worldwide among people under the age of 50. We need to stop. Think about what the underlying causes are that are driving the rights. the increases in the rates of cancer that are driving the increases in the rates of Parkinson's disease and think about what in our environment, what can we control to prevent people from

ever developing these debilitating and deadly diseases? We'll come back to pesticides and outdoor air pollution, but just as you were sharing that, what was your awakening moment for yourself? In your medical training, in your training in neurology, when did you first realize that environmental factors were a key part of how certain chronic diseases like Parkinson's disease could end up developing. My guess is that you weren't really taught much about that in medical school. You're right. I wasn't for maybe I must have missed it. Because I don't think I ever learned anything. I don't think I even heard about tri-chlorathleen

when I was in medical school. The real gift is I had a sabbatical about five or six years ago and I spent a lot of time reading the work of my colleague, a woman, Dr. Caroline Tanner, who's a professor of neurology and an epidemiologist at University of California, San Francisco, she and her colleagues had done a study looking at TCE 10 years ago and founding that the rates of T.Rates of Parkinson's among twins who had either worked with it or had hobby exposure to TCE were increased rates of Parkinson's by 500%. And then research from other researchers, Don Gash and Kentucky and others have showed that when you feed TCE to laboratory mice or rats, they develop the clinical and pathological features of Parkinson's. And they look at

lose those dopamine producing nerve cells in the brain. And then I read a lot more Dr. Tanner's work showing that in the late 1990s, that twin studies suggested that environmental causes were the predominant explanation for people who develop Parkinson's disease. She showed that exposure to paraquot. And then 10 years ago, was in among farmers, was associated 150% increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease. Dr. Jeff Bronsty and Dr.

Ritz at UCLA, not too far from where you're sitting, did research showing that air pollution and well water drinking were associated with Parkinson's disease. So I had the gift of a sabbatical in which I read a lot of literature, and the more I read, you know, a lot of time you go down rabbit holes, but this time you kept going and you kept going and kept going and I'm not even, I don't think I'm even close to finding the true extent of the effect of these environmental toxins on Parkinson's disease and other brain diseases, including Alzheimer's, disease, ALS, intellectual disabilities, brain cancer, and many others. Let's unpack more of the findings that you've presented inside of the book, ending

Parkinson's Disease, a prescription for action. People can find it in the show notes below, and there's a beautiful screen capture right there on your screen. Outdoor air pollution, air pollution in general. Now, the EPA themselves say that indoor air can be up to two to five times more. polluted for most people living in America, then even outdoor air. So I'm hearing you both say it's air pollution as a whole. It's outdoor air, but then also people can be mindful of indoor air because it can be so toxic. Is that accurate? Yeah. So let's do indoor air first,

because that's really people are probably less familiar with. And but many people know that radon can evaporate from the soil and enter people's basements, for example, and it increases the risk of lung cancer. It turns out other chemicals, including trichloathleen, in a very closely related chemical called perchlorothylene, which just has one more chlorine atom on it and has hence the prefix per, which means four. These chemicals can contaminate groundwater, which is about 15 feet or 15 to 50 feet below our surface

and form underground rivers. And these underground rivers that are contaminate with these chemicals, these chemicals are readily volatile. They evaporate and they can evaporate into people's homes, schools and workplaces undetected. And then people can be breathing in these chemicals and never know about it and be increasing their risk for developing cancer

and likely increasing their risk for developing Parkinson's disease. In Newport Beach, California, at less than a half mile from where I went to high school in Cronomar High School, there's a former aerospace facility that's been contaminated with trichlorethylene and a closely related chemical called perchlorathylene.

It's been rezoned and made into residential homes. So there are multi-million dollar homes in Newport Beach, California, about three miles from the Pacific Ocean or from Pacific Coast Highway that are sitting on top of a plume of trichlorithylene and perchlorethylene. That trichlorethylene and perchlorethylene has been documented, documented to be evaporating into the homes above this plume. And they have found trichlorithene or perchloritheline in people's master bedrooms in their living rooms and in their pits playrooms. mind-blowing, first of all, right?

That it's not just, you know, when we heard about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and we heard about these areas. Often these places feel far away from a lot of the centers of population. And by the way, those are the only ones, those are the ones that we found out about. But as many, like Aaron Brockovich have said, there's probably 50 to 150 plus Flint, Michigan that are out there. We just don't know yet that the water quality is that bad. And I'm hearing you say in the same way that there are many places around the U.S.

that could have this exposure to these toxins, which can show up in the groundwater, but also could be off gassing and exposing people through air quality, both indoor and outdoor. There are thousands. They're not 150 of these contaminated sites. There are thousands. Half of the Superfund sites in the United States are contaminated with this chemical. I told you there are 12, at least 12 dry cleaning sites just in, in Rochester, New York, alone, there are thousands of these sites. I visited them in New York.

I visited them in Indiana. I visited them in West Virginia. I visited them in Kentucky. I visit them in Arizona. I visited them in California. I visited them in North Carolina. I don't think there's a state in the country that doesn't have these contaminated sites. It's estimated that up to 30 percent of groundwater in the United States is contaminate with these chemicals. And there is a reason why people are getting cancer and there's a reason why people are getting Parkinson's disease. And I think one of the major reasons for both of those is trichloroethylene. There was a study done in Italy. So this is not just the United States that found trichlorothylene in the blood and urine of three quarters of the men in Italy. These chemicals are everywhere. Dry cleaning is still using, lots of dry cleaners are still

using per chloroethylene that releases gas. When you take your dry cleaning into your car, you are now breathing in per chlorathylene. These chemicals dissolve in your fat. Your brain is a fatty substance. You bring your daughter into a dry cleaner with a chocolate ice cream cone. When you leave that dry cleaner, if they're dry cleaning on site, your daughter's now eating per chlorathlethyl. Crazy. Absolutely crazy. You know, how we went down this pathway as we were talking about, you said, let's talk about indoor air pollution first, and then we're going to talk about outdoor air. And it's not just TCE, largely what you're also talking about, even though there may not be as much of a direct link and there's so many different toxins that can be found

inside the home, TCE being one of the biggest ones and most pervasive one in its direct link to Parkinson's disease and cancer and other chronic diseases, but general particulate matter inside the home that comes from off-gassing of new furniture, paints that are there, carpets that are largely made out of synthetic fibers increasingly. There's a whole list of things that could add, even though the air looks clean. We can't see these, you know, part of particulates, but we're breathing them in. And could they also be contributing to our overall exposure? So I don't know. I focus on Parkinson's disease. So I look at the world of narrow view. And I think there are other indoor air contaminants that could be. Some of those

indoor cancams can be coming from outside, you know, just from the ambient air when we're outside. And that has filled with particulate matter. And that particulate matter can be carrying toxic metals with it. We also know that people in agricultural areas or even people who work on sports fields or play on sports fields or golf courses that are sprayed with pesticides, you know, they're walking in them when they bring their shoes into the house, they can be bringing these chemicals into their homes and then pollute their indoor air that way. I recommend increasingly recommend such people who live in areas of high pollution such as Southern California think about air filters or air purifiers so they can decrease their exposure to these chemicals. Well, one thing that

you've been sharing as you've been going on the podcast circuit a little bit is that even a place like Rochester, you know, now because of wildfires and things like that, you know, the air quality could be significantly impacted, you know, short period of time, but that even places like New York City, I think you were referencing in a friend's podcast that New York City this past June had the worst air quality in the entire world because of all the wildfire contaminants that were coming down from Canada. So it seems like wherever we are, you know, getting a high quality air filter and you can go look up online or look at EWG, you can find them, could be an extra way to protect your health.

Yeah, if you want to live a short and unhealthy life, breathe polluted air. And so there are lots of ways that people get air pollution. You know, selling California, you know, people remember that 50s and 60s, the air pollution was so bad in Los Angeles. People wore masks, not because of COVID-1950, but because of air pollution and because of the burning effects of air pollution, the governor of California in the 1960 said we should eliminate all unnecessary driving in Southern California.

The governor of California in the 1960 said we should eliminate all unnecessary driving in Southern California because of the toxic effects of air pollution. That governor was Ronald Reagan. So there are tons of reasons to do so. Air pollution as a whole costs every human being in the world on average three years of life expectancy. If we didn't have air pollution, industrial air pollution in the world, all of us in general will be living three years of life longer.

And so this is air pollution is strongly linked to heart disease, strongly linked to stroke, strongly linked to a wide range of lung diseases. And increasingly it's likely has been linked to brain diseases, especially Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. And so what is air pollution? So when you're looking out in the smog, you can see smog, right? you know, in Southern California, it's visible. And what you're seeing is particulate matter, which is just little pieces of dirt and soot, many of them about 1 30th the width of your hair. And hitchhiking on these pieces of dirt and soot are toxic metals, lead from leaded gasoline before it was banned, iron from brake pads, platinum from catalytic converters.

Most of that particulate matter, we either catch in our hairs in our snows and our nose and sneeze them out or we cough them out. But some are so small, they're called small particulate matter or ultra-fine particular matter, they can actually bypass our normal protective mechanisms, enter the nerve responsible for smell, which is hanging down from the base of our brain, and make its way back to the smell centers of the brain. A really, really, really smart and creative scientist named Dr. Lillian Calderon Garci Duenas, who's now at the University of Montana, was from Mexico. And as you might recall, Mexico City had the worst air quality in the world in the early 1990s.

And she wanted to know what the effects of this was on kids. And so she looked at the brains of young children and young adults who died prematurely from car accidents and gun violence in Mexico City. And she looked at 203 brains. In 202 of those 203 brains, she found the evidence of Alzheimer's pathology. And in over 20% of the brain, she found. evidence of Parkinson's pathology. This pathology was found in children as young as 11 months old. Wow. And obviously 11 month old doesn't have Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease, but it's quite concerning that the seeds of the future cases of Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's

disease might be being placed in our children simply because of where we live and what we're allowing them to breathe. I heard you mentioned that even during the original London fog episode, you saw some of the earliest documented cases of Parkinson's disease. Is that true? Well, so Dr. Parkinson's describes Parkinson's disease, and he says when he's describing Parkinson's disease, he says this has not been classified in the medical literature. He's 61 years old. He's been around the block a few times. He's a well-read man. And you think about it, he's writing a case series of six individuals with a likely a new disease, a disease that hadn't been classified in the medical literature. And there weren't synthetic pesticides back then.

Those were largely producing World War II. And there weren't, trichlorethylene wasn't developed. We told you until 1864 and not widely used until 1920. So what was causing Parkinson's disease that Dr. Parkinson's described in 1817? He didn't call it Parkinson disease. He called it shaking palsy. And I think it's air pollution. And air quality in London in 1800 was 20 times worse than it is today.

for those of you watch the TV series The Crown, you can see the London fog in 1952 when Winston Churchill was Prime Minister. It killed an estimated 12,000 people and led to mass hospitalizations in the first Clean Air Act in the modern world about three years later. The air quality that Dr. Parkinson was experiencing was twice as bad as it was in 1950s London. And so I think he was describing what's likely the result of chronic exposure to air pollution. in London. And it turns out that the areas of the world that are most industrialized, like the U.S. and Canada, have the highest rates of disease, and areas of the world that are undergoing the most rapid industrialization and have the fastest, and have among the worst air quality

in the world like India and China have the fastest increasing rates about Parkinson's disease. And so I think Dr. Parkinson may have been describing a disease tied to high levels of industrial industrial air pollution in London, which was the capital of the Industrial Revolution in 1800s about the peak of the Industrial Revolution. Your world is Parkinson's disease and then looking at these environmental factors. What do we know about pesticides in particular and the link that's there? So pesticides have the most evidence for all these environmental toxins. The amount of evidence is most robust for pesticides.

I mentioned to you that farmers who work with certain pesticides, including pesticides, called Paraquot, widely used on corn, cotton, and vineyards widely used in Central California, which has among the highest rates of Parkinson's disease in the United States, is associated with a 150% increased risk in developing Parkinson's disease. We know when we feed Paraquot to laboratory animals that they produce the clinical and pathological features of Parkinson's disease. Indeed, according to reporting from the British investigative, of Journal of the Guardian, the manufacturer of Paraquot knew about its toxic effects since at least

the 1960s. They fed Paraquot not to one, not to two, but to three different species of animals, and they all developed clinical features that would be consistent with Parkinson's disease in the 1960s, and didn't seek to withdraw the chemical, didn't seek to introduce a safer alternative to my knowledge. Instead, they doubled down on their, quote, blockbuster product, engaged in a freedom to sell, and use of paraquot in the United States, including in Central California, has more than doubled over the last five years, which data are available. Over 30 countries, including China, have banned paraquot, but the United States has not. You know, all this and your sabbatical and your reading and the extra research that's come out of

that has led you to believe that Parkinson's is a largely preventable disease if we can get, of course, it's more complicated than just these three, but these three, again, outdoor air pollution, indoor air pollution, pesticides, and TCE and its derivatives that you mentioned, if we can get those under control, then Parkinson's disease is a largely preventable disease. And when in, oh, sorry, go ahead, please. I even say sometimes it's largely a man-made disease. And the good news is that this is likely preventable. I think it's very likely preventable.

There's one high-quality study that shows the incidence, the number of new cases of Parkinson's disease is decreasing, and that's in the Netherlands in a study called the Rotterdam study. And there they showed between 1990 and approximately 2,000 rates of Parkinson's disease, new cases, decreased adjusted for age by about 60%. crazy amount, crazy amount decrease in a short period of time. I then went back and looked at these three major environmental toxin, so not the only ones, but three major ones, and found that levels of pesticides, especially fat soluble pesticides in the fatty tissue of humans in the Netherlands,

decreased between 75 and 90 percent in the decades leading up to that decrease in the incidence. I looked at levels of air pollution, which decreased between 50 and 90 percent in the Netherlands in the decades before the decrease in the incidence of Parkinson's. And in 1981, decades before the decrease, Netherlands had about the lowest level of trichlorathleen in the outdoor air in all of Europe. And so, Link, this is an association, this is going back in time. This is not ideally how you would do a research study. But there's clearly an association with a decrease in these environmental toxicants and a tie to decreases in the rates of Parkinson's disease. That suggests for all of us, for United States, for Southern California, for California,

for the country and the world, that if we control our environment, that we can decrease likely the rates of Parkinson's disease. And I don't think it's just Parkinson's disease. I told you about T.C. is known to cause cancer. We can decrease cancer. We can cause air pollution is linked to Alzheimer's disease. we can decrease the number of people likely affected with Alzheimer's disease by cleaning up our air. And we've done that. We've already done that in Southern California. The air quality in Southern California is 50 to 90% better today than it was in the 1970s. You know, and at the same time, there are more people in Southern California. There are more cars on the road and the economy is growing more.

So you can have a better economy. You can have more people. You can have more cars and less air pollution. This is all possible. In fact, they might all be synergistic. So we can accomplish all this. And if we do that, we'll all live longer and healthier lives. I can't think of better things that physicians and doctors should be doing than trying to get us to live longer and healthier lives, free of medications by it. Today's episode is brought to you by Juv. One of the easiest ways to boost cellular health naturally is red light therapy. Jove has been my go-to device for harnessing the power of red light therapy for years. Let me tell you why I love it.

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Just sit back, relax, and let your body soak in the rejuvenating red light. Right now, Juve is offering my podcast community an exclusive discount on your first order. Head over to juve.com slash Drew and use my code D-H-R-U during checkout. That's juve, jove, joe-o-vv-d-h-R-U to get your exclusive discount today. It's an important reminder, and really it's the larger reminder that today's conversation is not just about Parkinson's disease, even though that's your area of expertise and focus, is that many of the things that would help us prevent that would have other, most likely, implications as well. So do you ever get frustrated when, or how do you feel? feel when people go to Google and they type in, you know, is Parkinson's disease preventable? And, you know, the first link that shows up is the Mayo Clinic. And it says, because the causes of

Parkinson's is unknown. There are no proven ways to prevent the disease. You know, is that frustrating? How do you see that? You know, do you understand that largely your work is also, even though you're borrowing and collecting from decades of data that existed, larger your work is about raising awareness that people have not connected the dots? So one of the shortcomings of American medicine, which I'm part of, I was trained at the oldest medical school in the country, is that American medicine goes from disease to treatment, often with not asking how you go from disease to cause.

And the first question you should ask a doctor when you're diagnosed with conditions why I got this condition. And I'll give you a few reasons why that is. One, if you don't know why you cause the disease, it's really hard to cure it. In fact, I can't think of very many diseases at all, we can cure medically where we don't know what's cause. And anyone with Alzheimer's disease, with ALS, with autism, with Parkinson's disease,

most people want to be cured of those diseases. But if we don't know what it's caused, it's really difficult to cure it. Like contrast, some people remember stomach ulcers, bleeding ulcers. Do you remember what people used to think bleeding ulcers were due to? Yeah, I heard you and Dr. David Perlmutter, a colleague of mine talk about this, but they used to treat it by like, you know, doing something with the vagus nerve, an overactive vagus nerve? They're an overactive, vagus nerve, but really people thought it was stress. Stress. But it turns out stomach ulcers aren't due to stress.

You know, you can stop your heart. And you can, you're also good thing, but it's H. pylori, bacteria. And once we found out what the cause is, you just give people antibiotics and that was the end of stomach ulcers. Almost no one, very few people die of bleeding stomach ulcers. second reason is if you're diagnosed with the condition, you should stop getting exposed to the causes of the disease. If you're diagnosed with lung cancer, what's the first thing the doctor's going to tell you to do? Stop smoking, but no one tells someone with Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease to minimize your risk of air pollution or to minimize your risk of pesticides. A few people do I do, but most people don't. And then third, what greater gift to future generations?

Sometimes, you know, diseases stink and sometimes we've got the short end of the stick, but it's incumbent upon us to ensure that future generations don't suffer from the same ailments that we do. We live largely in a world free of polio. We live in a world where drinking and driving is socially unacceptable. We live in a world where HIV is preventable and treatable. These are all gifts that we inherited from previous generations. Few of us had any active role in that. Those are gifts we receive. And just like you have an obligation to receive, you have an obligation to reciprocate. And I can't think of a better gift than we can do to future generations. is to give a world where Parkinson's is increasingly less common, where many of these cancers

simply never affect children where parents and families never have to bury their children because of a preventable cancer. I can't think of a much better gift than those. There's been awareness for a long time of, okay, there's diabetes, but there's also pre-diabetes, and a lot more people in America are suffering from pre-diabetes. There are experts in autoimmune conditions that have come on this podcast that are starting to raise the awareness about pre-automune, things that we can be looking at ahead of time before we're on our way to an official diagnosis. Researchers in Alzheimer's are thinking about early cognitive decline, and are you on

the track that's there? Is there something that exists in that same category with Parkinson's disease? Is there a pre- Parkinson's disease that people should be thinking about? Yes, but that they should be first thinking about is not even getting to pre-Parkin disease. I don't want them to get to pre-Parckin disease. I don't want to get to pre-Alzheimer disease. and I'm going to get into pre-diabetes. Listen, in 1990, only one in 10 Americans was obese.

Today, over 30% of Americans are obese. Why is that? I think it's because it changes in our diet, right? It can't be changes in our genetics, and our willpower hasn't changed in 30 years, right? You know, we didn't put soda machines in kids' schools in the 1930s and 40s and 50s, right? That would be unconscionable to do that.

We do that every day in the United States, in Southern California all the time. We give soda to children in school. I mean, what are we thinking about? And then we're wondering why everyone's getting diabetes and then we're going to pay for expensive medications to reverse that diabetes. I mean, there is a much easier way and much saner way,

a much more favorable way, a much more equitable way, a much more fair way to do this and just prevent people from getting exposure to things that are harmful to their health. And we don't need to be putting it in front of kids just like we don't put guns and other, we don't put pornography, ideally. We're not putting these things in front of kids

because we know there are bad consequences to doing that. If we get rid of pesticides, if certain pesticides, if we get rid of air pollution, if we get rid of chemicals that have been known to cause cancer that have been around for 100 years, we're going to have just a fewer of these diseases, and we're going to live longer, healthier lives.

Today, life expectancy in the United States is less than when I was in medical school. unfathomable that life expectancy today, 25 years after I was in medical school, is lower. The greatest accomplishment in the 20th century was a 35-year increase in life expectancy in virtually every part of the world. The greatest accomplishment, perhaps in human history, a 35-year gain in life expectancy for every person, on average, 35 years of life expectancy gained in the 20th century, and we're giving it back. We're giving it back the greatest gift grace accomplishment perhaps in human history because we're not making rational decisions about our

environment. If we make rational decisions about our environment about what we eat, what we breathe, and what we drink, we will all live longer, healthier, and likely happier lives. I think there's a lot of people that are listening today, which is like, how do I find a doctor like you, the amount of passion, the level of awareness? Because many people go, whether it's their primary care doctor or those individuals that are listening today that might be sitting here with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's or something else. And they've gone to their doctor and they've said, you know, is there anything that I could have done to have either prevented this or are there major things outside of prescription drugs, which great, there's a lot of prescription drugs that

are available in treating a lot of these things that I could do. And largely a lot of people hear that things like, you know, and I know this firsthand from my mom having been diagnosed with breast cancer and individual has been diagnosed with all sorts of diseases, they'll hear things like there's no evidence that such and such has any link to diet. There's no evidence that such and such has any link to this. So I want to come back to your story a little bit. Before you had your awakening during your sabbatical, your sort of red pill moment where you could no longer look at the world the same way, how did you think about Parkinson's disease? And what was your hope about what would help us get to the root cause of it.

Again, before this sabbatical and your unearthing of these three toxicant categories and their contribution to Parkinson's. I didn't think much about the root causes of Parkinson's disease. I was like most physicians and not thinking about it. We had identified some genetic causes, and about 15% of people can carry genetic risk back from the disease, but that's saying 85% don't that we know of. and about only 15% of people have a family history of the disease.

So we knew that there were environmental factors, but I had not spent much time. You know, I was trained at, the oldest medical school in the country, trained at some of the top hospitals and institutions in the United States and have had a very privileged education with some outstanding teachers, and I didn't think about it. And now I do, and I can't stop thinking about it, because I think it's incumbent upon us to create a world where people don't have these diseases. And so I just can't think of a better gift.

There's a book. My son's a philosophy student, and he introduced me to the book called What We O the Future, and it really looks at things like climate change. And, you know, climate change is going to have some short-term ramifications for us, but it's going to have a lot of big ramifications for future generations. And I think what we owe the future is a world where Parkinson's disease is increasingly rare. We owe a future where kids don't die of cancer. We owe a world where Alzheimer's disease is infecting six million Americans. We owe a future where people are living longer and healthier lives. And I think these things are all achievable. We're Americans, we're ambitious, you know, we're entrepreneurial. We can apply all of our skills and things to some of the great

health challenges of our time and dramatically transform life for all of us. Can we take a moment here to break down Parkinson's disease a little bit more? Help us understand this idea of misfolded proteins and its role that it plays in the development of Parkinson's. Yeah, so this is hard. So Stanley Prusner, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, I mean, the most famous neurologist, no one knows who a neurologist are, but it's only Prusner is a neurologist at University of California, San Francisco, and he introduced the idea that misfolded proteins can cause disease, like preon diseases. And so people know DNA is the genetic material that's found in all of our cells.

Chromosomes are just long strands of DNA, and genes are little pieces of DNA. And what does DNA do? DNA is basically a roadmap, a construction manual for the production of proteins. All of our functions in our cells are largely carried out by proteins. All the little workers inside of ourselves are proteins. And these proteins have a structure. And part of that structure is that they make folds, just like a blanket has a fold in it. Some proteins fold in a certain way.

Some diseases lead to a misfolding. And you can imagine if you're piling a thing of clothes and if the second shirt in your pile of ten shirts is misfolded, all the other shirts are not quite as nice and neat that are above. it. And some of this misfolding of a protein can spread, and it can spread from nerve cell to nerve cell to nerve cell. And I told you, when you get diagnosed with a condition, you should say, ask the doctor, what caused the disease? So what causes misfolding? And it looks like certain pesticides and some of these other toxins can cause misfolding of a protein. The protein's name in Parkinson's disease is called alpha sinuclein. There are other diseases associated with different

misfolding of proteins like amyloid and Alzheimer's disease, but in Parkinson's, appears that these toxicans can cause misfolding of alpha sinucleum. This really, really smart pathologist Hico Brock in 2003 postulated that Parkinson's disease does not begin in the brain. He said that Parkinson's, heretofore considered a brain disease, and neurolachic disease does not begin in the brain. He said he thought would begin in the gut because he thought that the part of the biggest nerve, which connects our brain stem, the base of our brain to our gut, could lead, be a highway connection by which misfolding of a protein in your gut, for example, due to an ingested pesticide, whether ingesting that in well water or on food, for example, could lead to misfolding of a protein in your gut.

and that misfolding of a protein in your gut could spread via the biggest nerve to other nerve cells in your brain stem, and then from your brain stem up to higher parts of your brain, that including the area of the brain that's affected in Parkinson's disease that controls movement, and then later to parts of your brain that are responsible for thinking. In addition to that model of spread, another really smart nuclear medicine position named Per Borcomer, and Denmark has introduced a brain-first model disease, in addition to a gut first model or body first, that Parkinson's begins in the nose, and that you inhale these toxicants, these toxins lead to misfolding of alpha synuclein

in your smell centers, and for there, lead to misfolding different parts of the brain. So it may be that Parkinson's disease doesn't actually begin the brain, but it might begin in the nose or in the gut, and that these are two of the major ports of entry for air pollution, these certain pesticides and chemicals like trichloric. And as it fair to say for an individual who eventually develops Parkinson's disease is that it could be a combination of those things. It could be the nose exposure, it could be the gut exposure of pesticides through food.

So you're getting attacked on all fronts when it comes to these misvaled proteins. It could be. Dr. Borgheimer thinks that just like smokers, when they develop cancer, they usually only develop one cancer. Like when you're diagnosed with lung cancer, lung cancer in one part of your lung. You don't have 50 cancers throughout your lung when you're diagnosed. So he actually thinks it's most likely one focus that it could be. Now, you're getting exposed to your nose and your gut. You might be increasing your chances of it occurring in

different locations. And certainly the dose and duration are likely part of it. But it's likely, as far as we know in 2023, that it begins in a single focus. Now, that focus could be the gut, especially if you're ingesting toxicants, or it could be in your nose, especially if you're inhaling toxicants and what the factors are that determine where it begins are still remain to be worked out. But that's our current thing. This might be a basic question. It might be a dumb question, but you'll tell me because you're the expert. When these toxins get inside of our body and they interact with these proteins, what is mechanically happening that they are doing that is causing this sort of wrecking ball type damage to our body.

Like if we could see through an electron microscope or something like, what are they doing? We know, we have heard of viruses, hijacking cells and replicating and other things, but what are these toxins actually doing on a mechanical level to these proteins in our body? So I spend my time in front of a computer screen and not in the laboratory. So I'm going to have to tell you to invite Dr. Brianna D. Miranda an outstanding neurotoxychologist at the University of Alabama, Burringham, invite her on to your show, Drew, and she'll tell you how these toxins lead to misfolding of the protein, because that's the kind of stuff that she does.

Okay. Do you know anything big picture in terms of what makes these toxicants unique? Is it that they are, you know, free radicals? And so they're highly volatile inside of the body. And so they are literally causing wrecking ball-like carnage? Any thoughts about that? Yeah, so I think all of the ones I've described largely damaged the energy producing parts of cells. And it turns out the nerve cells that produce dopamine in the brain, I told you, are chock full of mitochondria, which might explain why they are selectively vulnerable to these mitochondrial toxin. It turns out there are other nerve cells in our body that are also chock full of mitochondria. So if you think about the nerves that are responsible for controlling movement, you have literally a nerve cell that goes from your brain down to your spinal core, which might be a meter, three feet in length, another one that goes from your spinal cord down to your foot. That's another three feet in length. I'm six with five, so I'm a tall guy.

So, and these things are also potentially damaged by these mitochondrial toxins, and diseases like ALS-Bulgaric disease are also linked to pesticides. So I think what's the cells that are most vulnerable to these mitochondrial toxicans are nerve cells. These nerve cells have huge amounts of mitochondria on it. And these nerve cells, especially in the area of the brain that produces dopamine and are chock full, even more full of mitochondria, which might explain why they are more vulnerable to these toxicants than other nerve cells, for example. A lot of people listening here today are pretty familiar with the idea of choosing a better dry, cleaning option and a lot of people listening today are probably shopping organic or at least avoiding the you know the dirty dozen that are out there but part of your advocacy and work is is that

we are also trying to make the world a better place because some of this exposure that people have had that could express itself as Parkinson's disease diagnosis later on in life could been from exposure many many years ago can you chat about that yeah So it turns out that we mentioned who among the exposed gets Parkinson's disease. So only 10% of smokers develop lung cancer. The vast majority of smokers don't get lung cancer. Some get emphysema, some get heart disease, some get stroke. What are the factors by which we determine who among farmers working with Paracot, for example,

are most likely to develop Parkinson's disease? Some of it might be due to genetics. And so certain people have variations the way they metabolize. these pesticides. Some of them might be explained by when people are exposed. And so I think, I think, I don't know, I think that children and even infants and even babies and perhaps even in utero are at greater risk for the effects of these toxicants. You can imagine that the same amount of pesticides is going to have a much bigger effect on a one-year-old than on a full-grown adult. It also turns out that the blood-brain barrier is less developed and that the brain is more developing in young children and therefore may be more susceptible to its effects.

We also know that it takes years and likely decades and likely multiple decades for these diseases to become manifest. You don't smoke a cigarette and get lung cancer the next day. You have to smoke cigarettes usually for some period of time. And it's usually some period of time later when you develop. lung cancer. And I think the same may be true for Parkinson's disease. And so I think it's really incumbent not to worry, not only to be not only focused on adults or even older adults and the health effects of these toxin, but to really be thinking about them for kids. There is from Camp Lejeune, many of you know the former basketball player, former Laker for Laker fans, Brian Grant,

developed Parkinson's disease, likely, perhaps while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, didn't have a very good season that year, but was diagnosed with Parkinson's at age 36. It turns out when he was three years old, a three-year-old boy, he was living at the Marine Base Camp Lejeune that was contaminated with trichloroethylene. His father was a Marine station there, and he was likely drinking in level water that was containing with this at levels anywhere between 70 to 3,000 times the safe levels. He was there during the peak contamination. Chemicals readily volatile.

And so not only was he drinking, likely drinking this water, but when he was bathing, taking a bath, and the water's warm, this is being evaporated. He's likely breathing it in. And so I think we need to think about what's happening to children when they're getting exposed to these toxicans because I think that could be planting the seed for future cases of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

And we talked to you about the Mexico City study where we saw Alzheimer's pathology and children as young as 11 months old. So I think these toxicans, early childhood exposure could be a critical issue. We also know for pesticides, for example, that early childhood exposure is really detrimental in terms of causing intellectual disabilities. One of the resources in your book is basically a map of all of these sort of sites that are around the country that people can look at and sort of double check and make sure that they're not living next to, you've mentioned a few of them, that they're not living next to one of

these areas, at least with the TCE, that have this, you know, deep potential exposure. You mentioned Newport Beach. There's another one that's just north of me. I believe that's in Ventura, in that area, Ventura County, which is a site that has been shut down for many years that has massive level of exposure and contamination of TCE. Yeah, so this is one of the maps. So this is It's just Silicon Valley. So I don't know how far you are from the 101 freeway, but there are 15 superfund sites contaminate with TCE along a seven-mile stretch of the 101 freeway in Sunnyvale, California.

15 superfund sites, most toxic sites in the country, contaminant with tri-flow ephaline along a seven-mile stretch in Sunnyvale, California, some of the most expensive real estate in the country. And that's because TCE was widely used in semiconductor. industry to clean off electronics. And so one of the headquarters of Google is situated on a former fair child semiconductor and Intel site that was contaminated with a TCE.

So we highlight in the book, Ms. Jane Horton, who lives near that site and was found to have TCE in her indoor air. And the good news is that this is readily remediable. All you need to do is get an equivalent of a radar remediation system put in. It sucks the air underneath your foundation, vents it above your house. and you can breathe free and fresh, clean air in your house, free of TCE, free of radon, and free of increasing your risk of cancer and likely Parkinson's. When it comes to some of these exposures that are there, you've already given us a few tips.

We're going to get into a bunch more in a minute, but you've told us about the importance of using a high-quality water filter, you know, no shade on companies that are made in these plastic jugs that you get from Walmart or wherever, but that's not a high-quality water filter. you know, we're looking for something that's high quality. You know, we talk about a high quality air filter, preferably something that's like HEPA-based. When it comes to testing your home, but then also testing your body, are there consumer-level tests that are available for people to see if they're being exposed to some of these toxicants that you mentioned in the book? Yeah, so I'm not a toxicologist, and so I recommend a carbon filter for water. Like, you know, I'm not here to endorse any brands, but Pure and Britta and things like that can help reduce your exposure to chemicals.

and the pesticides in your water. And we talked about air filters, which can reduce your exposure to particulate matter and other chemicals in your indoor air. And when you're driving, you can roll up your windows and turn your air on circulation and decrease your exposure to particular matter, especially when you're driving.

Testing your home, people have had their homes, basements tested for radon. The testing for tri-chlorophylene is very similar to that for getting a home tested for radon. I've never had in my house tested for trichlorone. or athlete. Fortunately, I live in my house was likely on a cornfield before it was a house. So you should only, so just to interrupt, just to clarify, so you should only really get tested if you think that you were nearby a site, right, for TCE, right? That's the, we're not telling

everybody to get tested. Yeah, no. And be clear, but there are lots of, like, if I live near a dry cleaner, I would get my home tested. If I live near a site that was in metal fabrication or anything with degreasing metal, I'd get my home tested. If I live near a landfill, where I'd test my water, and I would probably test my indoor air. So there are lots of reasons why I would think about testing indoor air. And then you can get a tested, and if it's found to have high levels of trichlor athlete,

is addressable. You get, I think the cost is like $1,500 to $2,000. You get a radiation system that basically pumps the air underneath your foundation from where the chemicals coming up from the ground and vents it above your house. It goes in the atmosphere in Duluths. You know, not perfect solution, but, you know, it's a very practical solution. Lots of people have radon remediation systems in.

I think even one of our homes had a radon remediation system put in. And that's a way to address indoor air pollution. Are there any consumer level tests for the body to look at either urine or blood? So I love it. I love there to be. I don't know that the challenges, as we alluded to, is that if you're getting current exposure to TCE, for example, or perchloratline, if likely, if you are working a dry cleaner, I think there are tests in your blood and urine that could be done to see if you're getting

ongoing exposure to it. Now, as we mentioned, most people were exposed to it at some point in the past, and to my knowledge, there aren't readily available tests for testing it. I alluded to the fact that some pesticides dissolve in fat, and so there have been research studies that have looked at people's fatty tissue, their adipose tissue, and found like high levels of DDT or the metabolites of DDT in their fat. And that's one way to do it. You're probably, Ness going to ask me, he's their way to get these toxicans out of your body. And so there was one study that looked at trying to get high levels, and maybe back up, and people with Parkinson's, they have high levels of iron in their brain, perhaps from air pollution, perhaps from other causes. And there was a study looking at a

Calation therapy to take the iron out. The chelation therapy and oral pill worked. It took the iron out, but it actually made their Parkinson's disease worse and caused lots of other adverse effects. The study was published in New England Journal of Medicine and really unfortunately demonstrated the safety risks with chelation therapy. So there aren't good ways of getting these toxicans out that we know of. There are lots of things that people can do to modify the course of the disease, including their changes in their diet. to use an exercise, limiting ongoing exposure to these toxicants.

But there aren't great ways right now that we know we can take the medicine to take the toxin out. Yeah, medical detoxification is a whole, you know, expertise. And there's not a lot of people that specialize in it. There have been some functional medicine, integrative doctors that have been on this podcast that have a deep experience from working with a lot of different patients that are out there. You know, people really have to dig deep and try to find individuals that are there. Once somebody has a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, again, your core reminder is that still,

just like if you got lung cancer, you would tell the patient stop smoking, if that's something that they're doing, which is by and large what a lot of people are doing who have lung cancer. But outside of avoiding the toxicants in the first place, Is there any other things that could be supportive to that individual? Yeah, there are hundreds of things that people can be doing. So there's evidence that people with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's who are exposed to high levels of air pollution after they've been diagnosed, have an increased risk of getting hospitalized. So if you have Parkinson's disease and you can choose to live in an area with low levels of air pollution, If you can't choose to live in areas of low levels of air pollution, I would get an air filter.

My kids got, their grandparents, who live in Southern California, air filters for their bedroom and their kitchen, you know where we spend most a lot of time. I put a carbon filter on my water. We didn't talk about people, and a lot of Californians get their water from a well. These tend to be rural residents. If you get your water from a well, those wells are not regulated by the safe drinking water. act, and so they're infrequently tested. They're prone to be contaminated with pesticides because there's wash off from nearby farms. The wells tend to be shallow.

And some of them can be contaminated with industrial chemicals like trichlorethylene. So if you get your water from a well, you should have your well tested specifically for pesticides and specifically for trichlorethylene and perchlorethylene, because many of the testing is mainly aimed at testing for bacteria, which you don't want in your water, but misses these other chemicals and then putting a carbon filter on it. On terms of your diet, there's increasing evidence that people who eat a Mediterranean diet not only are a lower risk for developing a Parkinson's disease, but may be beneficial for it. At a minimum, a Mediterranean diet, which is low in animal products, is likely to expose you to less concentrated levels of pesticides as they make their way

up the food chain. So I recommend for people with Parkinson's to eat a Mediterranean diet, low in animal products, high in fruits and vegetables. If you can, I buy organic. I wash all my fruits and vegetables, even the organic ones with water and a pesticide wash. Pesticide wash is just basically soap for your vegetables, and it removes the fat soluble pesticides that aren't readily washed off with just water. So there are ways to improve your air quality. There's ways to improve your water quality, and there's ways to improve your food quality, all of which I think are instrumental for addressing that parkins disease, even after you've had the disease, and we haven't even gotten to exercise and other things like that.

I've heard you mentioned before on other podcasts, you know, the Mediterranean diet approach and how you yourself have chosen to go, you know, in this direction, and you have also lowered the amount of animal products that you've consumed. Are you at all familiar with the work of a researcher in the multiple sclerosis space? Dr. Terry Wals, are you familiar at all with her Walsh protocol? No. So Dr. Terry Walls was diagnosed with progressive MS. She's been on this podcast before. At one point in time, she was banned by the Multiple Scrosis Foundation for giving any lectures

where she would talk about, you know, talking at the different various chapters of the MS Foundation. And then fast forward a few years later after she had essentially, you know, largely driven her progressive MS, which left her wheelchair bound, driven it into, you know, not. remission, but basically not having those same symptoms and being wheelchair bound to now walking, she developed this whole process called the Walls Protocol and then was given a million dollar grant by the Multiple Scrosis Foundation. So she went from being banned to being given a million dollar grant to further her research. And she's done a lot of really interesting research in the space. I'm bringing her up because even though her work is an MS, a lot of the people that she's trained in the Walls Protocol and a lot of the research that she's put together, many people anecdotally

online have also reported that following her walls protocol, they've seen improvements in Parkinson's disease, which largely are very similar to a lot of things that you talk about. Reducing exposure. She herself was grown, she was raised on a farm in Iowa and was exposed to all sorts of pesticides, you know, growing up. Of course, getting out of ultra-processed foods. Ultra-processed foods themselves have seemed to have higher sources and concentration of pesticides just through their nature of how they're being, you know, manufactured and put together. The one thing she says about animal protein that I just wanted to get your sort of thoughts on is that in particular, a lot of these patients seem to have, whether it's their toxic burden

or other factors, they seem to have deep nutritional deficiencies. So certain things like targeted amounts of organ meats are recommended for them to be brought in to help them replenish. Now, you're not familiar with their work, and I'm not asking you to directly comment on that. What is it in particular about the low animal protein? Is it your concern around that animal foods could have exposure to higher toxins? And are you okay with individuals who still might be able to consume some animal products, but that they would be from very clean sources the same way that somebody might get organic food, they might go out there and get, you know, grass fed or pasture-raised, you know, chicken.

Yeah, I think it's sometimes what we don't eat. So I'll give you an example. So there was a pesticide called heptichlor that was banned the United States. But in Hawaii, the Pineapple Grover's Association wanted an exemption to use heptoclore on their cash crop pineapples. And so that was granted. And they sprayed half the core on the pineapples. And then they fed the chop of the pineapple, like the green, leafy part on top of the pineapple. They fed that to cows.

And the cows ate the heptochlor lace chop, chop. And then they concentrated that fat soluble pesticide in their milk. And then that milk made its way onto the show. in Hawaii, leading to a recall of milk in Hawaii, I think, in the 1970s. Researchers happened to be doing a different study looking at heart disease and aging, and they did a study, and they found that high consumers of milk in Hawaii had a higher rate of Parkinson's disease. Then they followed these individuals to their death, and then looked at their brains, and lo and behold, they had fewer of those dopamine-producing

nerve cells in the area of parts of the brain that are known to be affected by Parkinson's. Those who drank high levels of milk had fewer dopamine-producing nerve cells in the parts of the brain affected by Parkinson's, and they found the metabolite of heptichlor in the person's brain. They found the smoking gun, all because likely possibly because heptochlor was being sprayed on the feed that was being consumed by the cows. And so you think about the same thing has been happened in Japan. I think it was whale blubber. I can't remember which fish it was. Certain pesticides like heptoclore were sprayed on rice patties coming out of World War II. They made their way into the fat of fish in Japan, aquatic animals in Japan. And they made their way

into the fatty tissues of humans. In Japan, where rates of these pesticides in people's fat, increase from the 1940s all the way until about the 1980s, surely after these pesticides were banned. So for me, for Parkinson's disease, I'm most concerned about getting exposed to toxicans in the food that we eat, and therefore, you know, the less fish and animals you eat, the less these things make their way up into food chain. If you eat, you know, organically grown animals that are less exposed to these things, I think your risks and my concern, you're concerned. would be less from a Parkinson's standpoint. In your research at all, and a lot of people talk about this, it's probably one of the more

well-known pesticides, have you seen any link to glyphosate and Parkinson's disease? So glyphosate is this weed killer. Paracquot is such a toxic weed killer that it kills the weeds that glyphosate or roundup doesn't kill. Wow. So the evidence on glyphosate and Parkinson's disease is much more limited. I personally don't think it's a major contributor to Parkinson's disease. But it turns out, as you might know, that especially farmers aren't just exposed to one pesticide.

They're often, it's my colleague, Dr. Boss Bloom, let's point out a cocktail of pesticides. And it could turn out that these combinations of pesticides might have synergistic effects that amplify the risks of Parkinson's disease. But I think we know a bunch of pesticides that we know, damage the energy producing parts of cells. We know that when they're fed to animals, they reproduce the features of disease. In fact, some of our animal models of Parkinson's are based on pesticide exposures to these animals, and there's a lot of epidemiological data for them. Paraphot and other ones like Hephtercloricorpoporpe or others, wrote known,

are I think are all much more strongly linked to Parkinson's disease than glyphus. Now, glyphosate has also been linked to cancer, and that's a whole other talk, and lots of people far better versed than I am to talk about that. Are green dry cleaners? Are they actually green? Are they any better? Is there any way to navigate this space? Sometimes, you know, I'm very fortunate.

I largely get to work from home. I only typically use a dry cleaner when I get ready for a wedding or I have to wear a suit for a special occasion. But I know a lot of people have to regularly use dry cleaners. What is your, you know, research and travels, shown you is that are they better for you or do we need a little bit more transparency in that industry? Well, I'll say this, perchlorathleen, this trichloratylene with one more chlorine item is not good for you. And so I'll just read you a little bit. I, you know, I'm kind of weird.

And it is you probably have a little thing on that tetrachlorophthalene or per chloroethylene right next to me. and this is from the National Library of Medicine report that I got, and I think it's produced by the federal government. And this is on tetrachloroethylene or perchlorathylene, and I'll just read a little bit of it for you. Perchlorahethylene has been frequently found in higher levels in fatty foods in residence and markets near dry cleaning establishments. So if you live, if you're in New York City,

you live in an apartment building, oftentimes the ground floor is a dry cleaner, right? So you come out, you drop off your dry cleaning, you go to work, you come back, you're dry cleaning up. If you live in an apartment building above that dry cleaner, because this chemical is volatile, you will have, you can have perchlorothylene in your indoor air at levels that are unsafe. And because perchlorethylene dissolves in fact, when you open your refrigerator door, you can find perchloratylene in the butter and the marjor in the refrigerator.

Wow. This is from the study. Perchlorothylene, they call tetrachlorothylene, same thing, has been frequently found in higher levels than fatty foods in residence and markets near dry cleaning establishments. In Germany, the concentrations of per chloroethylene in foods in a supermarket near a dry cleaning shop were 110 parts per billion in margarine, you know, usually wanted this to be less than five, seven in her butter, 36 in cheese spread, 21 in butter, 25 in flour, 36 in cornstarch. The concentration found in foods taken into a dry cleaning shop were two parts per billion in food shirber, 1,330 in chocolate-coated ice cream when I mentioned your daughter, 4,450 in chocolate and nut-coated ice cream and 18,750 in an ice cream confection.

Butter obtained from a supermarket located near a dry cleaning establishment contained concentrations between 100 and 1,000 parts per billion. whereas other shops not near dry cleaning have less than 50. Concentrations in butter in apartments above a coin-operated dry cleaners in Hamburg, Germany, were as high as 58,000 parts per billion. Concentrations of 500 to 5,000 parts per billion were found in four of six, four or 56 margarine samples from a supermarket in D.C. The concentrations remaining samples were 100 to 500 in some samples. So, yeah, I get really, really, really, really. concerned about dry cleaning. I don't use a dry cleaner that uses perchlorethylene. I think they use

a silicon-based solvent. I don't know what the safety risk of it are, but I've got to be less than per chlorathleen. All this to dry clean clothes. And then, you know, men, when they get their shirts, they're often laundered, so they're not dry clean. So, but if I were getting dry clean clothes, I would not be using perchlorathleen at all. The EPA has determined that perchlorathleen poses an unreasonable risk to human health. And earlier this year proposed a ban on all consumer applications of perchlorathlain, including a phase out of its use in dry cleaning over the next 10 years. I think California is working on a bill that would ban the use of perchlor alkaline and dry cleaning hopefully before that time. Is TCE and PCE, is it similar to lead

in the sense that there's no safe level of exposure? Some of my colleagues would, I've seen some of my colleagues think that that might be the case. I just don't know. I go by what are the published standards. States vary. Some states have stricter limits than other states. And in general, the levels that have been deemed to be safe have only been decreasing over time. And, you know, I'm so concerned about it that, you know, I put a carbon filter,

even though presumably the water coming into my house has been tested and found to have at least subthreshold levels of these counts. chemicals in it, but I want even lower than that. Yeah. I was at a friend's house earlier this year and I drank their water and I was like, oh, man, you know, you guys just moved in this house. I got to get you a water filter, right? This just tastes like normal tap water.

He's like, come on, man. Like we didn't grow up drinking, you know, filtered water. I was like, yeah, I know. But like there's all these chemicals that we didn't grow up getting exposed to or maybe not in these highest concentrations. And so environmental working group, which is a nonprofit, it, eWG.org, they have a water database. And I typed it in for my area here in Los Angeles, my zip code. And I was surprised to see that even though the TCE and the PCE was lower than what

the legal limit is, and I think the legal limit is five parts per billion, there was still elevated levels of TCE found in the water supply at 0.0602 parts per billion. So it's just another reminder that, and then adding on top of it, the last mile, which would have all sorts of additional exposure. You know, they're testing this water right out of the water facility location, but then it has to go through a whole bunch of pipes. There could be cracks. There could be exposure. There could be, you know, waste sites that this has to go through. So who knows how much worse off it is. So just another reminder, get a high quality water filter. I personally prefer reverse osmosis. You know, I think that's one of the best ones. You know, I think that's one of the best ones.

you can get and it's going to be cheaper for you and you're not going to have and you're going to have more of the other toxins removed from there as well too it's just going to be one of those things that's going to be beneficial for your health across the board yeah and by the way i used to think uh like your friend i used to think the water we drink was safe i used to think the food we eat was safe and the air we breathe was safe uh i no longer think so is your family now like dad you should have never taking that sabbatical, like, what the heck? You know, we're working on our sons. You know, they still eat like the same food that, you know, other American teenagers

and young adults eat. I think we're all getting increasingly aware of this. And I think it's really hopeful. I mean, think about it. If these toxicans are contributing to these disease and we reduce our exposure to these toxins, then our risk of getting cancer, our risk of getting breast cancer, our risk of getting Parkinson's disease of Alzheimer's disease, all the disease, all the disease, these things we can reduce. Now, many of these things are determined by our societal, our societal

environment, and those of us who are physicians and have higher incomes, you know, are much better position to address this and have the privilege of being able to, you know, afford organic produce and the like. But if we minimize our exposure to these toxicans, we can all live longer, healthier lives and spending a lot less time with doctors and a lot less time taking medications and a lot less money spending on medications. Great reminder. So step one, you know, avoid these toxicants in the first place, right? We talked about those three categories extensively in the main ways that people would get exposed to them. Number two, which is a no-brainer, it's going to improve your waistline as well, is reduce your consumption of calories from

ultra-processed foods, right? Highly minimize those. We are in America amongst the young population, I believe it's 70% before the pandemic. So it's probably gone up. since the pandemic because we know everybody's drinking crap and eating crap way more than they were even before the pandemic. Number three here, we've talked about air quality and getting an good quality filter if you can afford it. And if you can't, often just opening the windows in your car, in your home, especially if the outdoor air is going to be in a better position. If the outdoor air is not in a good position, then you obviously have to be mindful of that, especially if you live close to one of these sort of, you know, areas that might be off. off-gassing, like you're living close to a dry cleaner, right? Or you live near a highway.

Or you live near a highway. I mean, LA Times has done some outstanding reporting on this. I think the general guidelines is that people should not be living within 500 meters of a highway, yet we're building schools, I think, that sometimes are closer than that. You know, anyone jogging in Southern California sees the film that's on your car when you drive. You know, if that film is going on your car, what are you inhaling when you're driving through traffic? Were you inhaling when, if you live near the 405 freeway or multiple freeways? I think these are all major considerations that were overlooked. Yeah. And sometimes we can't,

you know, we are where we are and we have to make do the best. I live in a very nice area of Los Angeles. And I would say that I am not 500 meters from the 405, but I'm probably not that much off. And it's still a nice area. And regularly on my balcony, I will see this layer of soot that's there, tire dust, you know, the particulates that have gathered in the air, lead from, you know, this, that, whatever it might be. I can't control that. That's where I live right now at the moment. We're not planning on moving anytime soon.

But what I can do is that I, because I really care about indoor air quality, I'd rather splurge on a filter, a high-quality air filter than I would on some vacation to Cancun or something. not that they cost anywhere near the same, but I'm just saying for me that health is a priority because it's not just that I'm trying to avoid Parkinson's disease. Air quality, especially indoor air quality, has a deep link with cardiovascular disease. We've had many cardiologists on this podcast talking about the importance of protecting the endothelial lining inside of the body and how things like air pollutants and especially PM2.5, these particulate matters that are 2.5 and bigger, can be things.

regularly, I know that these things work because I monitor the air quality inside of my house using a few different devices that are there. So when my air filters on, my air quality on average in the house in different rooms is anywhere from like a 93 to 100 on a scale of 100. When it's off, just from the leakage and the off gassing inside, the air quality can quickly drop down to like the low 70s, which I know long term is not a good situation. Right. So we talked about water quality, air quality, and then generally speaking, once you've started to move away from the ultra-processed foods, you know, focusing on, as you were mentioning, more of a Mediterranean-style diet where you're getting all the healthy things that are being added in. Is there anything else that we missed, like,

exercise, which I know you're a big fan of? Yeah, so it turns out that vigorous exercise is equivalent of three and a half to four hours of exercise running or swimming a week is associated with a 20% decreased risk developing Parkinson's disease. And numerous studies have demonstrated that exercise for people with Parkinson's disease is very beneficial. Usually enough exercise to make you sweat, but other than that, it's dealer's choice. Everything from yoga to ballroom dancing to bicycling to Tai Chi have all been shown to be beneficial for people with Parkinson's disease. So I recommend if people can do so at least an hour a day of exercise if they have Parkinson's disease. And I always say if I had Parkinson's, I would do two hours a day.

What are some future studies that you'd like to see conducted in the space of Parkinson's, which is your area of expertise, to build on top of the body of work that you've gathered and collected in your book, ending Parkinson's disease, a prescription for action? I would love us to be able to get an assay and to look at people with Parkinson's disease compared to like age match controls and see if they have higher levels of pesticides in them, if they have higher levels of trichloroethylene in them, if they have greater evidence of exposure to air pollution. I think that would be an enormously beneficial study for the field would really give us additional evidence that my hypothesis about environmental toxins causing Parkinson's is, even more robust. And most of this research is not research that I've done. Most of this research that my friends and colleagues have done. So I think that would be a fantastic step. And then I think we need to think just from a risk-benefit standpoint, even the absence of proof, you know,

very few, very few things in life can you prove an absence of proof, what are we doing in terms of dry-cleaning? I mean, is per-chlorathylene? Is a dry-clean cloth soup worth an increased risk of cancer? Is it and increased risk of the parkinsonies. I think the answer to that is clearly no. I think we can do lots of things in our society to prevent our exposure to these toxins. I wanted to ask you, as you started to put your name out there and write a book, which not all researchers in this space go to that next level, but I so appreciate it because at the end of the day, it's these consumers and advocacy who are trying to make better decisions and choices. Have you received any pushback from peers in your space?

So when all proceeds from our books are being, authors of doing all the proceeds in the book to efforts to prevent and end Parkinson's, I think some, like, I was skeptical about the role of environmental toxicans in Parkinson's before I wrote the book. And so as I wrote the book, I became increasingly less skeptical.

I think even my co-authors were skeptical, even though one of them had done research in 2000 in the most cited study this century demonstrating that chronic exposure to a pesticide called rote-nome led laboratory animals to develop the clinical and pathological features of Parkinson's. I think they were skeptical. Now, some of them are even greater evangelite evangelical than I am. One's more concerned about glyphosate than I am, for example. And I think there's still resistance in our community. I'm actually sitting here writing a paper in which we're debating whether genetic or environmental causes are the principal

factors underlying that Parkinson's disease. We obviously think it's environmental ones. I think we're gradually making headways. I think the newer generation, younger physicians, this makes a lot more intuitive sense. They're a little bit more exposed to it. The idea that that environmental toxins and that pesticides have adverse health consequences is not like newer rocket science to them. That's what they grew up thinking and being taught. I think it's a little bit harder for Zoom. My other colleagues who think Parkinson's might just be a natural consequence of aging. I obviously don't think that's the case. The real challenge is getting is informing the public. And that's why the work that you do is so important, Drew, because the people who change the course of these diseases aren't neurologists.

The people who change the course of diseases are ordinary Americans and ordinary people from all different parts of the world. Those are the people who led the march of dimes. It wasn't like Jonas Sock wasn't leading the march of dimes. He's the beneficiary of those dimes that led him to develop a vaccine that had led us to have a nearly world free of Parkinson's along with Albert Sabin. You know, the people who changed the course of HIV weren't infectious disease doctors. Many doctors refused to care for people with HIV. Many hospitals refused to admit patients with HIV. And it was people in the 1980s in New York City and in San Francisco who changed the course. of HIV, you know, were blamed for their disease and confronted enormous stigma against them,

enormous discrimination and made a lot of people, including many of us, uncomfortable. But by changing, the dialogue around HIV, they have prevented millions of us, including possibly you, possibly me, from ever developing HIV. What a wonderful gift. And it was, you know, people most directly affected by drinking and driving as Candace Leitner, I think she's from California, whose 12-year-old daughter was struck by a drunk driver and killed four days later. Four days after her daughter's death, she started an organization that would become the mothers against drinking and driving. Americans, 10,000 Americans fewer die from drinking and driving each year because of the work of man. 10,000 Americans. Think about that. 10,000

communities aren't bearing a teenager in their school because of the work of Candace Leitner and mothers against drunk driving. These are the heroes. These are the heroines. These are the people who change the course of diseases and allow us to live longer, healthier lives, lives, free of unspeakable suffering. Powerful. As we wind down here, Dr. Dorsey, I wanted you just for a quick moment here. You know, you mentioned something, which is that you are writing a paper where you're debating with peers that are in your space about what are the primary contributors to Parkinson's. Is it genetic or is it these environmental aspects, which you firmly believe, and you're building on top of the research of other individuals who also believe that as well, too.

If you had to steal man the argument that people who think it's genetic, because, you know, I'd love to hear that because as a layperson, I'm thinking, you know, this is new, right? Like, yes, we may have not had the level of sophistication and diagnosis that we have today, but isn't it so clear just like our rise in obesity that this is a new phenomenon? So what would somebody who thought that this was genetic, if you had to take their side for a second and argue on their behalf, what information are they looking at that would even lead them to that conclusion? So, one, there are some purely genetic causes of Parkinson's disease.

They account for about 1 to 2% of people with Parkinson's who have a pure genetic form. They usually have a very young of age of onset, and so there are some, they're rare. They exist. There are other genetic causes, you know, up to 15, maybe 20%, they might push it, were their genetic risk factors. The people, these 15 to 20% of people, they have a less than 50-50 risk of developing the disease. So even if you are in these 15% to 20%, your likelihood of the people, you're a lot of the disease. develop, you're more likely than not to never develop Parkinson's disease, but that's what they

would say. And then they would say these genetic risk factors combined with aging, we're living longer lives. And as you live longer lives, your risk of Parkinson's disease goes up. Turns out, as you live longer lives, your risk of lung cancer goes up too. Doesn't mean that it's due to the aging. I think it's due to longevity. These diseases take many years to unfold. And then they would argue that we haven't identified all the genetic causes of the disease. And so that's what I think they would make the argument that there are some rare genetic causes. There are some genetic risk factors that account for 15 to 20 percent of people who have the disease have these. They're known, by the way, the genetic risk factors interact with pesticides, for example. So that's a big, great explanation

why some people expose to pesticides to develop the disease and why some don't. And that there are research to be done and will find other ones. I kind of think it's unlikely. we've, you know, sequenced the human genome for 20 years, and we've made huge headway in our terms of knowledge. If they're hiding, they're hiding really, really, really well, and then that it's tied to aging. But lots of diseases are tied to aging. It just doesn't mean, you know, you don't put a laboratory mouse in the lab and let it live for a long period of time, and then spontaneously it develops Parkinson's.

That just doesn't happen. They have to be exposed to these toxins for this time. Yeah, I appreciate you taking their argument for a second and looking at it through their lens so that our audience can benefit because they're not the expert that you are, you know, who's having these conversations. And obviously, you don't agree with those conclusions that are there and that you feel, correct or if we're wrong, the evidence is so strong, which is what we spent the last hour and a half on, that there's a high likelihood that these are being driven, Parkinson's disease in particular, by these environmental factors. And there might even be natural experimentation,

not perfect, but I have heard you talk about some natural experimentation that have happened between different communities showcasing, I believe it was in the military, that, you know, you expose these individuals and the rates of Parkinson's disease go through the roof. Yeah, I mean, so the contrary is, listen, we know in Canada, they looked at rates of pesticide use in different areas of Quebec and compared to race to Parkinson's. there was a near perfect correlation between rates of pesticide use and rates of Parkinson's in Canada. As you know, there's almost nothing that has a perfect correlation. You know, if you took the height of athletes and their likelihood to play basketball, it wouldn't be a perfect correlation.

But a near perfect correlation between rates of pesticide use and rates of Parkinson's in Canada, same thing has been done in France and found the same thing. Rates of pesticides in different vineyards in France had a near perfect correlation with rates of Parkinson's disease. We know that within the United States, there's a tenfold variation in the rates of parkinsies. Genetics don't vary tenfold, whether you live in Arizona or in Kansas. And we know there's a fivefold variation in rates of parkinsies worldwide. Areas the world that are most industrialized like the United States and Canada have a five-time higher rate of parkincers, adjusted for age, than areas of the world that are less industrialized like sub-Saharan Africa,

and areas of the world that are undergoing the most rapid industrialization like China and India, increasing uses of air pollution, increasing uses of trichlorethylene, have the fastest increasing rates of Parkinson's disease, trichloroplin, especially in China. So there's tons and tons of evidence that these things are tied to environmental factors. We also need to recognize that there are diseases that are almost purely environmental. Lung cancer in the United States 100 years ago almost didn't exist. I'll say again, lung cancer deaths in the United States 100 years ago were almost zero. It was so rare that doctors considered lung cancer when they saw it a once-in-a-lifetime oddity.

They gather all the doctors and students around to show them because they never thought they'd see a case. Wow. That's because cigarettes were introduced in the early 1900s and then 25 years after cigarettes were introduced. You see a beautiful and corresponding rise, not beautiful, terrible, corresponding rise in the rates of lung cancer, decreases in LA in the 1960s and 70s, and you see decreasing rates of lung cancer. I'll give you another example. You have maybe some teenagers or some moms with some teenagers listening. I asked my friends about acne.

Why in the world do all American teenagers get acne? What would be the purpose of getting acne? And she goes, it might be a disease of Western civilization. So it looked at an article from the archives of dermatology that looked at hunter-gatherer populations from Papua New Guinea and Paraguay. and they looked at thousands of these hunter-gatherers, including teenagers. You know how many cases of acne they found in these populations? How many?

None. Not a single one, not a blackhead. And that's because they thought because industrial desired ultra-processed foods have a high glycemic load, these high levels of insulin production and production of acne. I'm not a dermatologist. I don't know if that's the right explanation. But there are lots of diseases that just don't exist and didn't exist in different parts of the world. And I think that's a huge, excellent, huge indicator that our environments are determining our health.

Some of your people have listened to Blue Zones, the Netflix documentary. And they conclude that when they look at high, these are all communities with high rates of centenarians, 100-year-olds. And the guy who did it really nice job, he includes in the end that is our environment that's dictating our health. And I think that's true for our health in general. And I think it's particularly true for Parkinson's disease. It's a great and powerful reminder. Dr. Ray Dorsey, this has been fantastic. Thank you for coming on the podcast and highlighting your work with us.

Again, please, everyone, pick up a copy of the book, ending Parkinson's Disease, a Prescription for Action. This has been beautiful. How can our audience continue to follow along with you and some of your co-authors on this journey of awareness and advocacy that you're on? Yeah, so if any of your listeners can't afford a copy of the book, they can just email us at info at endingpd.org with their mailing address and we'll send them a copy for free. If you can't afford a copy of the book, you can email us at info at endingpd.org and we'll send

you one for free. If you can't afford a copy, please purchase one. You can get at Amazon. You can get in the library. You can get lots of different locations. All the proceeds for all the authors are going to efforts to prevent and end Parkinson's disease. If you have a story, if you work in dry cleaning, you develop Parkinson's disease, I'd love to hear from you. If you have a questions related to Parkinson's, you can just email us at info at endingpd.org. Powerful. Dr. Ray Dorsey, thank you. You are an incredible communicator.

I'm so thankful that you wrote this book. And on behalf of you and your colleagues, you are the one that's on the tour because you have an incredible ability to highlight the world that's possible if we got to the root of removing these toxicants and that we don't have. to head towards a direction where every decade or so, our lifespan here in America continues to go down. There's a different way of going about things, and you've laid it out in your book and on the podcast today. Thank you very much, Drew. Thank you very much for bringing it for creating this an opportunity to help improve the health of not only our brains, but our bodies and ourselves throughout Southern California and the country and ideally around the world. Hi, everyone, Drew here. Two quick things. Number one, thank you so much for listening to this podcast.

If you haven't already subscribed, just hit the subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. And by the way, if you love this episode, it would mean the world to me. And it's the number one thing that you can do to support this podcast is share with a friend, share with a friend who would benefit from listening. Number two, before I go, I just had to tell you about something that I've been working on that I'm super excited about. It's my weekly newsletter. And it's called Try This.

Every Friday, yes, every Friday, 52 weeks a year, I send out an email. easy-to-digest protocol of simple steps that you or anyone you love can follow to optimize your own health. We cover everything from nutrition to mindset to metabolic health, sleep, community, longevity, and so much more. If you want to get on this email list, which is, by the way, free and get my weekly step-by-step protocols for whole-body health and optimization, click the link in the show notes that's called Try This, or just go to drewproet.com. That's d hr u p u r o hit dot com and click on the tab that says try this