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

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Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Ask Mark Anything. My name is Hershel Peretz. I'm the Doctor Hyman Community Manager and I am I'm joined by Darcy Gross.

Hi, Darcy. Hi.

And Darcy is 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 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. It's really become clear that this is very much a lifestyle disease that just like heart disease or cancer or diabetes, that it's really related to food. What are the foods that cause Alzheimer's? and recently it's been called type 3 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, 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 fat. 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, the things like olive oil, avocados, nuts and seeds, extremely important brain foods. So I would, 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 is older, and he was diabetic. His A1C was really high. and, 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, five, anything over 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, 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, processed 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 15 years ago in my UltraMind 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 can 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, and 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? How would you do a child different than an adult with that diagnosis?

Yeah, great question. I wrote an article years ago about autism and Alzheimer's. They're often the same disease at different ends of the age spectrum. 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 in 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 have 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. 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, 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 vitamin is not going to help, right? But if you, 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, you know, 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. And cases both all along the spectrum from, you know, 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 ADHD too. So I think 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 is 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 just, 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. And it was effective. basically removed all these chemicals and processed food, but there's even been more data recently where they, for example, took 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 like juice, like pomegranate juice or whatever. And it was dramatic. The effects were really dramatic in terms of the kids and how they when they ate 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. It's happening more and more. There's departments of nutritional psychiatry and metabolic psychiatry at Harvard and Stanford. So 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 setting. Encourage you to listen to that. 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. The thing I would say is that in the spectrum of autism, and I think ADD is sort of in that spectrum, a lot of work's been 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.

Questions.

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.

Just be careful which button you push on the jukebox. 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 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 feel sluggish and I get kind of sick to my stomach if I actually exercise or go for a run or jog or do something aerobic or even do weight training. assistant 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, 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 Proteage Group, which was all the experts in protein from around the world. And they basically summarized all the research and they looked 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, that what they call the RDA is 0.8 grams per kilo. Now, 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 a protein. So you need actually more. So more exercise, more protein. As you get older, if you want to stay fit and healthy, the question is what kind of protein should you eat and how much protein should you eat? Generally, what I say depends on your size, right? 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. Um, 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 a 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, 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, after you exercise. So what if you're vegan, and you don't wanna eat meat? Well, you can do it, but it requires large and 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, you know, 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 high, higher concentrations of protein that you can get. They're often spiked in, in, 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, but they're modified. So these are highly processed foods. you know, you're not going to get it from eating grains 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, it's not just one study. It's. It's hundreds of studies on this. So I think it's really important to understand that 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 chain amino acid supplements. There's one I, I use from thorn research called amino acid complex, which has been researched a lot in Europe. And this was the company, I think was bought by thorn. And, and they actually have high levels of these protein synthesizing amino acids that increase protein synthesis with high levels of leucine. And you can take that as a supplement, 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, pretty much 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 to Eat, and the Pegan 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 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. Hyman Plus. Then head on over to the Doctors Pharmacy on Apple Podcast and sign up for your seven day free trial.

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