The Dr. Hyman Show - Exclusive Dr. Hyman+ Ask Mark Anything: Diet And Alzheimer’s, ADHD, Autism And More

Episode Date: December 27, 2022

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Hey podcast community, Dr. Mark here. I'm so excited to offer you a seven-day free trial of my revolutionary new platform called Dr. Hyman Plus. For seven days you get special access to all the private content included in Dr. Hyman Plus entirely free. It's so easy to sign up. Just go to Apple Podcast on your phone and click try free button on the Doctors Pharmacy podcast. You'll get exclusive access to ad-free Doctors Pharmacy podcast episodes and functional medicine deep dives where a practitioner dives into topics like heart health, muscle health, insulin resistance, and more to help you understand the root cause of specific ailments and walk you through the steps to improve your health today. You'll also get access to all my Ask Mark Anything Q&As where

I answer the community's biggest health and wellness questions. Because I'm so sure you're going to love this platform, I am offering you free access to all of this content for seven days and a teaser of my brand new Ask Mark Anything episode. Head on over to the Doctors Pharmacy podcast on Apple podcast and sign up for your free trial. Okay, here we go. Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Ask Mark Anything. My name is Herschel Perth. I'm the Dr. Hyman Community Manager, and I am joined by Darcy Gross. Hi, Darcy. Hi. And Darcy's a producer of the Longevity Roadmap docuseries. And of course, we have our expert, Dr. Hyman here. Hi, Dr. Hyman. Hi, everybody. Thanks for being with us here today. And so we've collected all of your

questions from the Ask Mark Anything tab. And of course, we're here to Ask Mark Anything. So let's go ahead and get started. So we're here at our first question. Are there any foods or supplements that you would recommend for someone who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's? And are there certain foods that should be avoided? Yes, yes, yes. And yes, I think, you know, the reality is that for a long time, we didn't know why we get Alzheimer's. We didn't understand it. We're looking for blocking some pathways related to amyloid. That's just been a dead end. We spent over $2 billion, 400 studies with no outcomes that really work.

And it's really become clear that this is very much a lifestyle disease, just like heart disease or cancer or diabetes, that it's really related to food. So what are the foods that cause Alzheimer's? And recently it's been called type three diabetes, which is, should tell you why, what it's about, which is sugar and starch. So we know that increasing levels of sugar and starch cause dementia and that diabetics have four times the risk of dementia as everybody else.

So if you want to remember things as you get older, don't be eating starch and sugar. Insulin resistance in the brain is a big, huge factor. So that is a big, big, big deal. And that should be a take home for you. Fat is the other thing you should be concerned about. Basically not enough fat and eating the wrong kinds of fats. So eating trans fats, having refined oils, not good, but eating plenty of omega-3 fats, saturated fats. Your brain is actually made up of a lot of saturated fat. There are people who may not tolerate saturated fats, but most of us are fine. The things like olive oil, avocados, nuts and seeds, extremely important brain foods. So I would also increase your intake of a whole host of phytochemicals that are really important for inflammation,

for regulating cleanup in the brain, for regulating mitochondrial function. And the brain and the Alzheimer's have huge amounts of, sorry, the brain has huge amounts of mitochondria. And in Alzheimer's, mitochondria are injured and damaged, and that leads to brain dysfunction and memory loss. So keeping your mitochondria healthy is really important. And the main way to do that is to eat the right diet, which is low in starch and sugar, high in phytochemicals, high in the right fats. In fact, fat's the better fuel.

And there's actually a number of research studies that show that ketogenic diets, which are 70% or more fat, less than 5% carbs and the rest protein, have really beneficial therapeutic effects. And I've had a number of patients who I've had with Alzheimer's who I've used this in, and it's been profound. I just had one yesterday that I talked to who's actually a pretty famous musician who's older. And he was diabetic. His A1C was really high and was blood sugar not well regulated. And just changing his diet, his memory improved, his function improved, he looks better.

And his number, his A1C came down to five, which is perfect. I mean, anything under five and a half is great. And he's at five, which is a tremendous result. And we see the changes in cognitive function. So it's important to really understand that food plays a huge role in your brain function and your risk of Alzheimer's. And particularly if you have certain genetic predispositions, you have to even be more attentive. So bottom line, cut out the starch and sugar, process food, eat whole foods, phytonutrient rich, lots of fats, good fats, and maybe even a ketogenic diet if you're already progressed. So I don't recommend ketogenic diets for everybody, but if you have an end stage disease like diabetes or Alzheimer's or certain conditions like autism, Parkinson's, brain cancer, it can be extremely effective as a therapeutic strategy. So I think the good news is that we now know through the work of people like Dale Bredesen and others, and I wrote about this, God, 15 years ago

in My Ultra Mind Solution, that we have enormous capacity to influence our brain function through what we eat and through our lifestyle and through dealing with other factors like environmental toxins and the microbiome and other things. So really important to focus on all those things as a way to keep your brain healthy. We talk about heart health, but we don't necessarily talk about how to keep our brain healthy. It's really important. Yeah, that's super helpful. Thank you. So all the things that you should focus on are also things for prevention as well. So super important. Darcy, over to you. Yeah, kind of a similar question, even though it doesn't feel similar unless you're really into functional medicine, which you are, of course, we all are in this community.

But the question is really about ADHD and what nutritional or supplement recommendations would you have for somebody with ADHD? And of course, is that different if this somebody is a child, like how would you do a child different than an adult with that diagnosis? Yeah, great question. I think, you know, I wrote an article years ago about autism and Alzheimer's. And, you know, they're often the same disease at different ends of the age spectrum. And autism is part of the spectrum of disorders of the brain that we see in children, including ADD, learning disabilities, various kinds of things like Tourette's, all are on the spectrum of brain dysfunction.

And just like with Alzheimer's, it's highly influenced by our diet and nutritional status. And I've had many cases of ADD and even autism that I've been successfully treating and have treated and even cured using a very comprehensive approach of functional medicine, but really focused on cleaning up the diet and optimizing nutritional levels. So cleaning up the diet means getting rid of common food allergens, gluten and dairy are often factors, getting rid of processed food, having more nutrient-dense food, phytochemicals, good fats, and so forth, low starch and sugar, all of which play a huge role in brain function. In terms of supplementation, you know, you have to figure out what the cause is. If a kid's cause of ADD is lead, you know, taking a vitamin is not going to help, right?

But if you have patients, for example, who have gut issues and heavy metal issues and other factors, you have to treat those. And then you can use supplementation to make a huge difference. And the things that we know are really effective for ADD are things like magnesium, zinc, omega-3 fats, the B vitamins, particularly B6, folate, B12. Those are really foundational, sometimes need higher doses. And those can really, really help in cases both all along the spectrum from mild ADD to severe ADD to learning issues and even autism anywhere along the spectrum or

Asperger's. So I'm really very bullish on the use of diet and the right nutritional supplementation in these children to really improve their cognitive function. And even as adults, often adults are suffering from ADD too. So I think all across the spectrum, it's really important to focus on your nutrition and to reset the system. The 10-day detox diet is a great way to kind of reboot everything. When your computer is just spinning and none of the programs are working and everything's kind of off, sometimes you just need a big reset and turn off and reboot. Well,

the 10-Day Detox Diet was designed to do that. I've used it for decades in my practice, and I sort of developed it over the years based on my learnings from both the research and clinical medicine. And it's just remarkably effective in treating everything from autoimmune issues, to digestive problems, to ADD, to memory disorders, diabetes. It's quite remarkable. So it's worth a try and see what happens. But we know that kids are really influenced by food. And one of the other things I should mention is that there's a lot of data, for example, on food sensitivities in these kids, as well as food additives. So food sensitivities like gluten and dairy play a role, are probably the number one and two issues, but also food additives, colorings, dyes, preservatives.

They do affect the brain. Decades ago, there was a guy named Dr. Feingold who created the Feingold diet for ADD, kids who had ADD and they gave them either colored kind of red liquid that was kind of full of additives and dyes or like a naturally flavored colored juice like pomegranate juice or whatever. And it was dramatic. The effects were really dramatic in terms of the kids and how they uh when they ate the the dye were just off the wall and when they had the sort of natural food they were not so i think there's plenty of evidence about diet and the brain um it's happening more and more there's departments of nutritional psychiatry and metabolic psychiatry at hardwood and stanford so i think i think we're seeing an era of changing our view of the brain. Even in severe diseases like schizophrenia,

Dr. Christopher Palmer has been on my podcast. I encourage you to listen to that. We'll link to that in the show notes. But he's a Harvard psychiatrist who discovered that using ketogenic diets could cure schizophrenia. And it kind of woke him up to the role of diet and nutrition in psychiatric disorders and them being a mitochondrial issue. Another thing I would say is that in the spectrum of autism, and I think ADD is sort of in that spectrum, there's a lot of work being done. Suzanne Goh, who's a pediatric neurologist trained at Harvard and Oxford, brilliant woman, has done a lot of research on mitochondrial dysfunction in kids' brains and has done

functional MRI imaging and seen just low energy states and has used nutritional supplementation with mitochondrial cofactors to improve the cognitive function of these kids to basically even minimize, reduce, or even get rid of the autistic symptoms. Again, autism is a syndrome. It's not one thing and not all cases are related to just this one problem, but it can be very effective. And so things like CoQ10 and carnitine and various compounds that are mitochondrial boosters can make a big difference in in these conditions yeah wow that that was a very fascinating response and i it was just

really encompassed so many different factors and we we and our community members truly appreciate the depth that you just went into on that and i also wanted to mention that i think a lot of us really had our eyes open when you presented this type of information in broken brain the docu-series that was really all about this exact type of thing which for all of our dr hyman plus community members you have access to as a reminder so there's an entire episode in broken brain 1 on ADHD and autism. So I encourage you, if you're the member who had this question, or if you were kind of curious, check out Broken Brain 1. And we can figure out exactly which episode, I think it was three or four. And you

can check it out as part of your Dr. Hyman Plus membership. So a note to the members, and thank you so much, Dr. Hyman, for that answer. Yeah, just be careful which button you put on the push on the jukebox. Yeah. You never know which song you're going to get. They're all good ones. So that's good. All right. So our next question, we know that you've talked a lot about working out and how important

it is to exercise. So this question is about that. And it says, do you recommend eating before your workout? And if so, what do you suggest that the person eat? What should you have after your workout? Does timing matter for all of this? Yes, yes. And yes, it matters. The problem is, you know, it depends on your workout. For example, you know, I'm going to work out today later because I have stuff to do in the morning. So obviously I'm going to eat during the day and I'm going to work out today later because I had stuff to do in the morning. So obviously I'm going to eat during the day and, and I'm going to obviously be eating before I work out, but generally I work out in the morning and I don't usually eat before, although you can,

if you eat too much for me, I just, I just feel sluggish and I get kind of, you know, sick to my stomach. If I actually exercise or go for a run or jog or do something aerobic or, or even do weight training. So I think you have to be listening to your own body, but for the most part, I don't think it's necessary to eat before you exercise. However, it's very important to have adequate protein, particularly after exercise, particularly after strength training. And that's usually within one hour to maximum two hours after you eat why because that's when your muscles are primed to take the protein in the food you're eating and turn them into new muscle if you if

you don't take that protein after eating i mean after exercising you're going to be wasting the opportunity to feed your muscles the way they need to be fed to build new muscle which is the name of the game to prevent muscle loss sarcopenia and all the consequences that go with that, that are related to aging, including diabetes and even cancer, dementia, heart disease, obesity, and frailty and disability, all connected to this loss of muscle. So when you eat protein is really important. And there was a large review of all the science on protein that was done by the group called the Protege Group, which was all the experts in protein from around the world. And they basically summarize all the research and they looked at, particularly as we get older, what's important. And they found, you know, we talk about

what protein is the right amount, what kind of protein, you know, they found that, you know, the minimum amount that's recommended, what they call the RDA, is 0.8 grams per kilo. Now, people have to understand that that's the minimum amount you need to not get a protein deficiency state. It's not the optimal amount for health or for building muscle. That may be 1.2, 1.5, 2 grams per kilo. Particularly as you get older, you need even more because you get something called anabolic resistance, where your muscles resist the benefits of exercise and of protein. So you need even more because you get something called anabolic resistance where your muscles resist the benefits of exercise and of protein so you need actually more so more exercise more protein as you get older if you want to stay fit and healthy so the question is what kind of protein should you eat and how much protein should we eat generally what i say depends on your size

right so if you're you can kind of gauge it by the size of your palm. If it's a animal-based protein, it's usually the size of your palm. If you're Shaquille O'Neal, it's that size. If you're five years old, it's that size, right? So it's really, it's really based on, on your, your height and weight and your overall size. However, usually about 30 grams, 25 to 30, up to 40, 45 grams as you get older, is necessary to have a high quality protein after you exercise. Now, where should that protein come from? What's high quality protein? Well, within protein, there are amino acids. And amino acids are the building blocks of protein. They're the building blocks of muscle. There is one particular amino acid in a class of amino acids called branched chain amino acids, specifically leucine, which is a rate limiting

amino acid, meaning that it's required. And if you don't have it, you can't turn on the switch. Like the light switch for building muscle doesn't go on. So it just gets turned into calories and energy that you use as you would use sugar or, or fats. So the key is to have the right kind of protein, the right amount of protein, um protein after you exercise. So what if you're vegan and you don't want to eat meat? Well, you can do it, but it requires large amounts. For example, if you have a need for 30 grams of protein, that's four ounces of chicken or beef or maybe five or six ounces of fish. That's like six cups of brown rice or two cups of beans. That's a lot of food and a lot of calories. So instead of 200 calories and 30 grams of protein, you're getting 1200 calories and 30 grams of protein

and starchy calories too along with it. So you have to be really confident of the quality of protein. So what can you do? Well, you can take processed protein powders that are vegan, that are higher concentrations of protein that you can get. They're often spiked in not in a bad way, but in a good way with branched amino acids that actually help with muscle synthesis.

And there's vegan sport proteins, but they're modified. So these are highly processed foods. You're not going to get it from eating brains and greens just by themselves. Unfortunately, I hate to say it. But that's the science. I didn't make it up. It's not an ideological perspective. It's just the science. So you can check it out yourself, you can read the studies. I've written a lot about them in my new book,

young forever, all the references are there. But data is a data. And I think you know, there's not just one study, it's it's hundreds of studies on this. So I think it's really important to understand your muscle is the most important organ in your body for health and longevity long-term, and you have to keep it up and you have to maintain it. And if you, if you don't want to eat meat, you could take branched gene amino acid supplements. There's one I, I use from Thorne research called amino acid complex, which has been

researched a lot in Europe. And it was the company, I think it was bought bought by thorne and and they actually have high levels of these protein synthesizing amino acids that increase uh protein synthesis with high levels of leucine and you can take that as a supplement uh for example which would be very helpful if you want to do that as opposed to just you know eating animal protein but for most of us particularly as we age i think you know i hate to say it, but animal protein is really important. And I think there's a lot of misinformation about animal protein and meat. And I've written a lot about this in my book, Food, What Should I Eat?

And the Peking Diet and many essays and articles, podcasts. So you can listen to those things. But I think the bottom line is we need protein after we exercise. We need at least usually about 30 grams, 25 to 30, up to even 40. And we need the right quality protein, which is 30 grams, 25 to 30, up to even 40. And we need the right quality protein, which is usually animal-based or jacked up plant proteins. Well, I hope you enjoyed that teaser of exclusive content that you get every single month with Dr. Hyman Plus. If you want to listen to the full episode and get access to ad-free podcast episodes,

plus Ask Mark Anything episodes, plus monthly functional deep dive episodes. I guess that's why we call it Dr. Iman Plus. Then head on over to The Doctor's Pharmacy on Apple Podcasts and sign up for your seven-day free trial. Hi, everyone. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only.

This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search their find a practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who's trained, who's a licensed healthcare practitioner, and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health.