Participants: Margot Marshall (Host), Dr. Eddie Ramirez
Series Code: HL
Program Code: HL000014A
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00:15 Welcome to "Healthy Living!"
00:17 I'm your host Margot Marshall. 00:19 There are 36 documented causes of dementia, 00:23 like a roof with 36 holes in it. 00:26 What are those causes and is there anything we can do 00:30 to prevent this disease? Stay tuned. 01:08 My guest today is Dr. Eddie Ramirez. 01:11 Eddie is currently involved in a cutting-edge clinical trial 01:15 to stop dementia. 01:17 Tell us, Eddie, what exactly is dementia? 01:21 Well that's actually a very good question because 01:24 that is a huge problem in today's world. 01:28 How big a problem is it? 01:30 Well one of the standardized definitions of dementia 01:34 is the decline of information processing abilities accompanied 01:40 by changes in personality and behavior. 01:44 In other words, as the brain starts to affect the normal 01:48 processing, the personality and the behavior change, 01:52 and this is actually an umbrella 01:55 definition which means there are different types 01:58 of dementia - there's not only one. 02:01 Being the most common of them the Alzheimer's dementia. 02:06 And, yes, I'm involved in doing research in this. 02:10 We are working together with a hospital in India, 02:15 and we're starting to establish a protocol - there's so much 02:20 research coming up with this hot topic of today and big 02:24 universities like, in California, UCLA, UC Berkeley; 02:30 they are coming up with fascinating research that 02:33 shows that dementia can be stopped if you are able 02:39 to implement lifestyle changes within the 10 first years 02:44 of its origin. 02:46 That is really, really good to hear. 02:48 One, to think that it could be stopped because I don't 02:50 know whether perhaps people tuning in actually understand 02:53 that - maybe they think once it starts, 02:56 well it's just downhill, but it can be stopped. 02:59 That is really, really good and the other thing I think is 03:01 encouraging - you talked about a 10-year window of time 03:05 to actually stop it or even maybe 03:08 turn it around? Is that possible? 03:10 That's right! So that was the old thinking - "dementia 03:14 cannot be stopped," but the current research is showing 03:19 there is hope when you start those changes at the beginning. 03:25 At the beginning - okay, so that's important 03:27 just to act fairly quickly but within that window of time, 03:31 and during that window of time of 10 years. 03:33 That's really, really, really good news! 03:36 And I'm really glad - I've got to say this, I need to say it, 03:40 We are very privileged to have you right there on the 03:43 cutting edge of this new research to be able to tell us 03:46 those things and also later some of the solutions, 03:50 what we can do to stop it. 03:52 So we're very, very pleased to have you on our program. 03:55 Thank you and unfortunately, we don't have the time to deal 04:00 with the 36 well-documented lifestyle changes that we 04:05 need to do but we will highlight some of the most important ones. 04:09 However, we know that dementia is becoming very common. 04:14 In fact, we can see, on the screen, how common this 04:18 problem is, in Australia, to the point that it has become 04:21 the second leading cause of death in Australia. 04:26 That is huge! Absolutely huge! 04:29 Which tells me that if you live in Australia, 04:32 and you live like the average Australian, you have 04:37 a huge risk of developing dementia! 04:41 I'm glad you're tuning in today. 04:44 I want you to grab some paper and a pen because you're 04:48 going to have to take some notes on changes that I'll be 04:52 proposing to you and you decide if you want to implement them. 04:56 We do know that those changes have been documented 04:59 in the scientific literature to help you maintain 05:03 that healthy brain because you know, once the brain 05:06 is gone, everything is gone. 05:08 So make sure that you take care of that brain. 05:12 That's right and I think the worst part about this particular 05:15 disease or group of diseases is that you just lose your 05:20 independence and that's really sad. 05:23 I think that's probably one of the most difficult things 05:26 to come to terms with, I think in any illness, 05:31 you know, not to be independent. 05:33 That's right and that's why we're seeing 05:36 an increase of this problem. 05:38 The latest statistics show that 1 in 10 people over the 05:44 age of 65 will develop that dementia. 05:47 And in fact, 3 out of 10 people over 80 we will have to 05:52 diagnose those people with dementia. 05:56 So that is quite important, and not only that, 05:59 dementia is a labor-intensive problem. 06:05 It requires, here in Australia, 1.2 million people to care 06:11 for those 350,000 people that have dementia 06:15 here in Australia and after the age of 65, the probability 06:24 of having dementia increases; and again, it has to do with 06:30 the way you live. 06:31 So imagine, this is not like diabetes - seeing my patient 06:36 with diabetes, I see him once a month to check his medications, 06:39 his control, and so forth, and then he goes home 06:42 and he takes care of himself. 06:44 But somebody with dementia, you cannot do that, 06:48 you need somebody monitoring them, watching them, 06:52 helping them step-by-step and that's 06:54 why it's so labor-intensive. 06:57 And you cannot say, "Well I don't care about that, 06:59 I don't have dementia. 07:00 "Yes, you may not have dementia, but your taxes 07:03 need to help with this and everybody is affected 07:08 when dementia increases. 07:09 So this is something we all need to take notice of 07:11 because we're all affected by it, yes. 07:14 That's an interesting perspective 07:16 that you put on that. 07:18 And a common question that I get in my medical practice 07:22 is, "Doctor, am I getting dementia or is this normal?" 07:28 I'd be very interested to hear about that because, you know, 07:32 as people do get older, our memories start to just 07:35 stray a little bit or it's not so easy to recall things, 07:38 and do you assume, if that's beginning to happen, 07:42 that you're on your way to dementia? Is that the case? 07:44 That's right, so we need to... 07:46 Is that right? Laughter. 07:48 We need to differentiate between normal aging 07:51 and dementia. So there's a difference. 07:52 There is a difference. Alright. 07:54 Not everybody that ages necessarily needs to have 08:00 dementia. 08:01 See, normal aging - the brain slows down a little bit, 08:05 and you can see that in the fact that communications 08:09 slows and the ability to process 08:12 slows but the intelligence stays the same. 08:14 Your ability to plan and use the frontal lobe of your brain 08:21 continues to be normal and your thinking and reaction 08:27 times slows down. 08:29 In fact, there's actually a relationship between 08:32 the lifestyle that you have and this impact. 08:35 If you had the wrong type of lifestyle, your brain is 08:40 going to slow down more and it's going to do it faster. 08:43 Your brain vessels that go to your brain - they're 08:46 very delicate and anything that interrupts that blood flow 08:51 will have a big effect. 08:53 Alright, so we've established that normal aging is 08:56 not dementia but you've also said that the rate that we 09:01 slow down in normal aging, is affected by our lifestyle. 09:05 That's right! There's actually a published research 09:08 that shows that the faster you walk as you age, 09:13 it actually will predict your longevity. 09:16 People that walk slower as they age, the probability 09:21 of having medical problems and even dying - increases. 09:25 That's why, as we will be talking about it in a few 09:29 minutes, things like exercise are so important. 09:33 And I want you to see this as an investment - you make 09:37 good investment choices, later on you will get good 09:41 dividends and the investment will grow. 09:44 You make poor choices today, and believe me, 09:48 the bill will arrive sooner or later. 09:51 I'm surprised - people that have my age that are my friends, 09:55 some of them are very sick and need to take all kinds of 10:00 medications and so forth and that is a reflection 10:04 of the lifestyle that they are living. 10:07 How important your brain is regarding the things like 10:10 oxygen and blood flow, statistically speaking - only 10:14 2% of your whole weight is what your brain weighs. 10:20 Yet 25% of all the oxygen of the body is consumed 10:25 by your brain. That's incredible! 10:28 So anything that decreases a tiny little bit - the blood flow 10:32 or the oxygen, will have a huge effect in your mental health. 10:38 That's right, so any decrease would be about 12 times as 10:42 much the impact on oxygen delivery - is that right? 10:45 That's exactly the point! It's big, yes. 10:48 So why don't we start talking about some of those strategies 10:55 that we need to do: #1. In order to 10:58 prevent dementia. 11:00 #2. If dementia is in its early stages, what we can do. 11:06 See, we can divide dementia problems between mild, 11:12 moderate, and severe. 11:14 In the mild type of dementia, many times the person 11:17 is not even aware they have the problem. 11:20 They start forgetting things, especially new information, 11:25 they have problems capturing that new information. 11:28 I need to tell you a telephone, you're supposed to hold it 11:31 for a few seconds, then you can dial it - that's simple 11:33 operation - they have problems with that. 11:36 Their intelligence starts to decrease and then they come 11:40 to a point in which they start to realize 11:42 something is not right - creates anxiety and so forth. 11:45 Then you go to the second stage, the one that is moderate 11:48 in which is very well-marked that 11:51 something is not right there. 11:53 The person starts even forgetting their loved ones, 11:56 their friends and normal things that you and I would be 12:00 difficult to forget, they forget. 12:03 And then you enter into the severe type in which the person 12:06 is completely dependent on others for care. 12:10 So we're talking about the mild problems as it just 12:14 started - that's what research is showing that we can 12:16 stop this problem. 12:18 So we can see on the screen, the #1 point we need to 12:22 deal with is to understand that there are early symptoms 12:27 for Alzheimer's and problems with memory that are episodic, 12:34 difficulty with that short term memory and remembering that. 12:38 Problems naming objects, problems finding common words. 12:44 These tell us something is not right. 12:47 If you have this type of problems, I would suggest 12:50 that you go to your physician or your medical professional. 12:54 There are standardized tests to see if something is right or 12:59 if this is not normal. 13:01 You mentioned "episodes" there, Eddie, what would we be 13:04 talking about there - so this is when some of these things 13:07 manifest themselves (More markedly) once in a while 13:11 perhaps and then things go along smoothly and then 13:14 there's another - is that what we're talking about? 13:16 That's right, so it's not like when you are conversing 13:21 with somebody and you have a friend - a long time ago 13:24 since you've seen him, you may forget his name. 13:26 That's something normal - the brain tries to keep the new 13:29 information that you're using very easily accessible. 13:33 So you may forget, "Oh what's his name, oh, oh, 13:36 oh and it was Mark, it was Mark!" 13:38 But when you are having this type of Alzheimer's type 13:43 of issue, the problem is more severe - things that it would be 13:48 hard for you to forget - these people start to 13:52 forget this type of issues. 13:53 So let's deal with the solutions that we need to do 13:57 in order to help the problem of dementia. 14:02 #1. The first thing you need to do, very important, 14:06 is to follow a plant-based diet. 14:10 We know that things like simple carbohydrates, you know, 14:14 the sugars and the white flours, those things what they do 14:19 in the body - they create an insulin spike. 14:24 And you know, things that affect you and give you a risk 14:29 for diabetes will also give you 14:33 a risk for mental-type of problems. 14:37 Oh that's an interesting connection. 14:39 So that's why some researchers call dementia the brother 14:45 of diabetes! 14:46 That's an incredible thing to have that link. 14:48 So we know that people that have dementia, many of them 14:52 actually have what is called "insulin resistance." 14:57 That's the reason why if things help with diabetes, 15:02 will also help to prevent dementia. 15:05 Keeping the blood sugar under better control? 15:07 That's right, keeping that blood sugar low and so forth. 15:09 So make sure that you are following a 15:12 plan to avoid that diabetes! 15:15 Somebody with diabetes has a high risk of dementia, 15:18 so beware of that. 15:20 Then we have the second point that we can see on the screen. 15:23 Make sure you are dealing well with your stress! 15:28 Stress that is chronic is actually 15:32 quite harmful to the brain. 15:35 Once in a while that you get an emergency and so forth 15:38 a stressful situation, it's fine. 15:40 But to live under that high level constant type of stress 15:46 that is very harmful to the brain. 15:50 That's why I encourage patients to use spiritual resources. 15:54 You know, read the Bible, read something inspirational, 15:58 pray - don't keep that anger and hate and 16:04 unforgiveness in your heart. 16:06 These types of feelings are very harmful to your 16:10 mental health and you don't win absolutely anything 16:14 by harboring these types of feelings - so use 16:18 spiritual resources to help you deal with that stress. 16:23 Then we have the next point and that is sleep. 16:27 Sleep is such an important thing to prevent dementia. 16:32 See current research is telling us that when you are 16:36 sleeping, you are actually cleansing and cleaning all those 16:42 neurons as a car that is functioning and it needs to be 16:47 generating all that smoke - that why you have a pipe 16:51 called the "muffler" to get that smoke out of the motor 16:55 because if that smoke stayed in the motor, 16:58 the motor would stop - it couldn't work properly. 17:02 In the same way, your cells in the brain that we said 17:06 use 25% of your oxygen have high metabolism generate 17:12 many waste products and those waste products need to be 17:17 dealt with and when you are sleeping, the brain 17:21 changes - these are fascinating things that are happening 17:24 when you're sleeping and the brain goes ahead and 17:28 starts removing all those toxins. 17:30 But if you are not sleeping your 7- 8 hours, 17:35 those toxins stay there and they have a very negative 17:40 effect on your health. 17:42 That makes a whole lot of sense and I've never understood 17:45 that before - it's really good that you... 17:47 I like to understand why things happen and that was a 17:49 really good explanation. 17:51 So make sure you are sleeping enough - I even recorded a 17:57 program on melatonin here on 3ABN, I suggest you 18:00 find that program if you have issues with your sleep. 18:05 Also, apart from sleep, we also have another point that 18:09 is extremely essential for mental health and that is 18:13 exercise! 18:15 We live in such a sedentary society today. 18:20 Everything is so easy, you know. 18:22 I have visited Africa many times and you get a little glimpse 18:28 of how our ancestors used to live there. 18:32 You know, there in Africa in the area that I spent 18:36 some months, there are no grocery stores. 18:40 Where do people buy their food? 18:42 That's unimaginable! 18:44 They have to plant their food; you're lazy, 18:47 you don't want to plant - you go hungry! 18:48 There is no other option, you know. 18:50 So people are constantly working. 18:53 You want water? There's no faucet you just 18:55 open and the beautiful, clean water comes out. 18:58 No! You get a bucket, you walk 4 kilometers, get to the 19:02 river, get to where the pump is, get your water, 19:05 and walk back. 19:07 You want to cook something? 19:08 There's no such thing as a stove that you just turn on, 19:11 and nice and warm. 19:13 No! You need to go with an axe, walk your kilometers, 19:17 cut a piece of wood, bring it back. 19:19 Our ancestors used to live like this. 19:23 Everything they were doing was constant activity 19:28 throughout the day. 19:29 And you know, today I ask my patients - "I want you to 19:33 do 30 minutes of exercise minimum." 19:35 What do they say? "Oh 30 minutes, 19:38 that is too much!" 19:40 You know for one of those people in rural Africa, 19:44 that would be a vacation day, you know - the day 19:46 they only need to do 30 minutes of exercise. Wow. 19:48 So current research shows that it's not only that you need to 19:53 login your 45 minute walk in the morning - you need to 19:57 find ways of being constantly active throughout the day. 20:04 It's a good idea if you want to go to measure the number of 20:08 steps you're taking and a good goal would be 6,000, 20:12 but a better goal would be 10,000 steps per day. 20:16 I sometimes need to do a little bit of computer work. 20:20 My undergraduate is computer science, so use 20:22 lots of computers and I have chosen to have 20:26 a standing desk. Good! 20:28 In that way, I am actually doing activity. 20:32 There are actually treadmills that you can do 20:35 a desk treadmill and get that benefit. 20:38 The next point I want to talk about is "challenge your brain." 20:44 This is such an important issue 20:46 and I see this in the clinical practice. 20:48 The patient comes, very happy, telling me, "Doctor, 20:51 guess what? I just finished my job and I 20:55 finally retire!" 20:57 Instead of saying, "Congratulations, that's great!" 21:00 I say, "No, wait a minute, you need to 21:03 get yourself in trouble." 21:05 And I see this, you know, people that retire and 21:10 they become sedentary and they decrease the challenge 21:15 to their brain - those people are going to go 21:18 down really quickly. 21:19 So find yourself ways to get yourself in "trouble." 21:24 Some of the populations that are longest lived 21:26 don't even have a word for "retire." That's right! 21:29 And they can't understand even the concept of retiring. 21:31 And when you talk to them about it, they're like 21:33 - they don't get it," it's like "what are you talking about, 21:36 this is not what we do." Yes. 21:39 So that's why it's so important to find challenges 21:43 for your brain! 21:44 Like what? What sort of challenges? 21:46 For example, find yourself a way of doing 21:49 volunteering work. 21:51 Now you have plenty of time, don't just think on 21:55 yourself, think of others. 21:57 As you are serving others, you actually receive a 22:02 blessing yourself. 22:04 I know there are many different programs like the 22:07 "CHIP Program" here in Australia. 22:09 You can volunteer there, you can learn new things; 22:12 learn your languages; travel; find things 22:16 you're not used to doing like using a new musical 22:19 instrument - in that way you'll challenge your brain. 22:22 We have the next point on the screen about how to 22:27 deal with that dementia and that has to do with your diet. 22:31 See, animal products have too much saturated fat and that 22:38 saturated fat actually will increase your risk of dementia. 22:43 So that's why what we need to do is we need to cut down 22:47 animal products and in that way, we avoid most of the 22:51 saturated fat and we need to focus ourselves 22:54 in using good healthy oils such as the ones that are found 23:00 in nuts - that is the type of fat that your brain 23:05 likes to use. 23:06 And not only that, we also see on our screen the next very 23:13 important point and that point has to do with avoiding 23:18 those hydrogenated types of oils and using vitamins 23:25 if they are needed - both points are very important. 23:29 Partially hydrogenated oils function in your body 23:35 by damaging the delicate blood vessels that you have. 23:40 Where do you find this? 23:41 Read your ingredients - many of the baked products 23:46 that are in packages, you find those 23:49 types of partially hydrogenated oils. 23:53 And vitamins, you know, things like vitamin B12, vitamin D, 23:58 and many other vitamins may be needed and after we take a blood 24:02 test - then we know what is needed, then you can take them. 24:05 We know that taking minerals - just because your taking 24:09 minerals may have actually a harmful effect, 24:12 so use what you need. 24:16 There are people that try to sell you this or that - be 24:19 careful, use things that you need, 24:22 not things that you don't need. 24:23 The next point that we have on the screen is "probiotics." 24:28 And probiotics are things that help keep a good 24:35 intestinal flora health. 24:37 So I encourage my patients to find, for example, 24:41 soy yogurt that would be a very good source of probiotic 24:46 or also prebiotic. 24:49 Prebiotics are things that encourage the growth 24:52 of good bacteria. 24:53 One of the best ones you can use is legumes, 24:58 so make sure you put legumes. 24:59 And one last thing I want to mention - switch yourself 25:03 if you're very interested in preventing dementia, 25:05 to a two-meal setting. 25:08 Some people say, "Doctor, I cannot 25:09 do that, I'm going to be hungry." 25:11 Believe me, if you're eating good quality food, 25:15 you are not going to be hungry. 25:17 I work in lifestyle centers in which we put every patient 25:21 on two meals a day and there is no problem. 25:23 So you may be thinking, "Doctor how effective 25:26 this program actually is?" 25:29 Well it's actually published in the scientific literature 25:34 cases in which we are reversing this problem. 25:39 That's the word I really like to hear. 25:41 It's really good - you know you can stop this disease 25:44 in that first 10 years, but reversing is a really 25:47 beautiful word for any disease and I'm sure that people 25:51 listening to this program are going to be thinking, 25:54 "I need to know how to do this." 25:56 Let's watch on the screen, the clinical case that is 25:59 published and the reference is there if you're interested 26:01 in finding it. 26:03 This lady was 68 years old, she was diagnosed 26:07 with dementia - we started the lifestyle changes 26:10 UCLA University and 2 and 1-1/2 years later, now at age 70, 26:17 she remains asymptomatic and continues to work fulltime. 26:21 The lady had the dementia diagnosed. 26:25 That's right, no symptoms currently. 26:26 The lady had the dementia diagnosed; the lady starts 26:30 the lifestyle interventions; dementia is stopped! 26:33 She gets sick and she says, "You know, forget it, 26:36 I'm not gonna follow this program." 26:38 Dementia comes back. 26:40 She follows again the program and dementia stops 26:44 and that is exactly how the article closes. 26:47 She continues to work fulltime. 26:50 If you have dementia, you're going to have problems 26:53 working fulltime; she is healthy and so forth. 26:56 So make sure that you try to implement all these things. 27:01 Currently, I'm involved in developing this program 27:04 at the level of community. 27:06 I'm going to be developing a program in which I can 27:09 teach communities how to implement these 27:12 principles to approach this problem. 27:15 And you're going to be doing one locally, I hope? 27:18 Absolutely! We plan to do this also in Australia 27:21 as we plan to do this all over the world. 27:24 So as you can see, you can choose your health 27:29 of the future. 27:30 By the choices you take today, they will have positive 27:35 or negative consequences. 27:37 The latest research that we have regarding dementia 27:40 is that our choices have big consequences. 27:44 And what I would encourage you to do is to contact 27:47 3ABN Australia and they can give you my information 27:51 if you want to find out more about those holes 27:54 and how to plug them in so you can avoid 27:57 this horrible problem of dementia. 28:00 Oh thank you so much, that's been very informative, 28:03 and I'm sure it has been very encouraging 28:05 to a lot of our people. 28:07 We hope today's program will help you to get more out of 28:09 life and if you'd like to watch our programs on demand, 28:13 just go to our website at: 3abnaustralia.org.au 28:18 and click on the watch button. 28:20 We hope you will join us next time and get more information 28:23 about other topics that is very, very useful to know. 28:26 And God bless you! |
Revised 2019-09-13