Lisa Welcomes Special Quest – Alicia Masari-Anderson, Ph.D

Are you caring for a loved one with dementia? You don't have to figure this out all on your own. Welcome to Truth, Lies Alzheimer's, the show that helps you reimagine a new relationship with your loved one, a relationship a little more free of stress and anxiety. Join host Lisa Skinner and her 30+ years of experience as she guides you on a new path to a better relationship with those you care for. Here's Lisa.

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to a brand new episode of The Truth, Lies Alzheimer's Show. I'm Lisa Skinner, your host. I have a very special guest here with me today, and I'm going to introduce her to you. She has a really special story to tell and a special message to go with it that she has come here today to share with everybody, and it's really important information. So don't go anywhere. You need to hear this. So it's my pleasure to introduce to y'all Alicia Massari Anderson. Welcome to the Truth, Lies and Alzheimer's Show. Alicia, thank you so much for for being here. And I'm going to let you tell us a little bit about your background and why you wanted to speak to an audience that has to do with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. So go right ahead.

Well, first of all, Lisa Skinner Skinner, thank you so much. It's an honor to be here in your podcast. Okay, so first of all, I'm actually from Mexico. I was raised and born in Mexico City, and I moved to Canada 25— sorry, 37 years ago. I was here when I was 25 to do a PhD. So now you know how old I am. I'm 63. I've been a university instructor for over 25 years in all areas of biology. And about 14 years ago, I decided to take my health into my own hands and I became a holistic nutritionist. And my life changed because of that. It truly changed. It changed my mood. It changed my physiology. You know, everything. I was a different person when I started, you know, changing my lifestyle, which is not an easy task to do. I understand it's, it's, it's difficult. It's a step by step. And anyway, so 5 years ago, when I, I taught at the, at a college, at a private college for doctors. To be, naturopathic doctors to be. So I really got into a lot of this natural way of living. And, uh, 5 years ago, 6 years ago or something like that, one of the companies that we use, that we use where we use, we promote supplements, opened a platform and said, oh, we can look at your genetics and all of that and really find out the root causes of it all. So I jumped into it. I was so excited, Lisa Skinner, about it. I was just so excited. It just so happens that DNA has 4 letters, A, T, Gs, and Cs, only 4. And if you have a typo on one, it's a huge problem. So I started looking at that. I'm like, okay, these people have typos. No, this is not right. I don't feel comfortable sharing the information. No, I, and I understood a lot of it and I was afraid of sharing it. So I stopped sharing it. And then I started listening to now our mentor. Her name is Dr. Penny Kendall-Reed. She is a naturopathic doctor in Toronto. Started listening to her, started really getting into what the way she was doing it. Um, and all of a sudden I'm like, I jumped in. I'm like, I'm in, I'm 100% in. And she was so excited because I, I'm a biologist for training. And she goes like, you get it, you get it. And I know, yeah, I know, I do get it. So anyway, um, what happens is that she teaches naturopathic doctors and I'm like, I just started thinking, how can I teach this to a normal person like a mom or like, you know, like, how can I teach this to a, to a real person? And so anyways, so last year we started teaching this course. And Lisa Skinner, all I can tell you is I'm in awe with what I'm seeing. I reset my genes. I can tell you 100% I reset my genes. But I already had a really healthy lifestyle.

Can you elaborate a little bit on—

Absolutely.

Exactly.

So anyway, so what did I mean about that? Why, why I've always looked after my health. Well, because my mother had Alzheimer's disease. And because I said, I'm not getting that. I already went through it. I already know what it's like. And hey, I don't want to leave that to my kids. I don't want that for myself. No, thank you. So when we, I started understanding the DNA, I realized that their genes that you can actually reset. What, what do we mean by that? Because you have a gene doesn't mean you have the disease. Why? Because it's the environment. You change the environment, you reset your genes. How do we change the environment? Well, naturally, with food, with sleep, with movement, with pooping, with peeing, with supplements if needed, with lifestyle. All of it. All of it. And so anyway, I never talk about what I do until I test it on me. Never, ever, ever. So I tested it on me and I phoned my business partner 3 and a half weeks later. I'm like, I already said what it is. I'm like, what does it mean? I'm like, I am way more relaxed. I was a lot— I'm a lot like my mother. My mother was like this go, go, go woman. Who nothing will stop her. When she got Alzheimer's, Lisa Skinner, sadly, she became a very aggressive person. She was just, she, her, her personality completely changed.

Yeah, we see that a lot with this disease that their personalities can do a complete 180.

My mother was—

some do and some don't. So yeah.

Yeah, I know my mother was this very live person, you know, very happy person and all that stuff. And all of a sudden her personality And it changed and she became like, really, really, it was very sad to see. She was really aggressive with everybody around her. She still recognized us. I don't know if she actually had Alzheimer's or just dementia, whatever you want to call it. Okay. And I'm like looking at what happened with my mother. And it's sad to say, but my mother was malnourished. Not because she didn't have the money, just because she didn't like to eat. And not only that, she didn't like to eat, but then it added a lot of stress that she's been carrying for many, many years because she took care of my dad for many years. My dad had a stroke, my dad couldn't move half his body, and my mother took care of him. So carrying this all through, plus not eating properly, plus not taking care of herself. She never slept at the end, Lisa, like her sleep was impossible. I went to Mexico one Christmas and I told my siblings after I left, I like, sorry, my mom cannot be stay, you know, stay alone at night. And they go, oh, don't worry, because it's 5 of us. The other 4 said, don't worry, we'll take turns and we'll go sleep with her. That lasted 2 weeks, of course, because nobody was sleeping. My mother couldn't calm down. My mother could not sleep at night. So how do I prevent that from happening to me? Because I don't have, I mean, most likely I have half my mom's genes, right? Absolutely. I have my dad's as well. And how can I prevent that from happening? Nobody in the family, like, had had what my mom, my mom had. None of her siblings. None, none. And I'm like, started looking at my genes and I realized how similar I am to my mother. In terms of what? In terms of my neurotransmitters. My dopamine is off the roof. I am the type of person that has to be doing something constantly. I cannot be sitting still doing nothing. Just like my mother. Just like my mother. My mother was just like, she loved her home and she'll go be moving, doing things, planting plants, moving things, always doing something. I am exactly like that. And then I realized, oh my gosh, what's wrong with my dopamine? Well, I am what Dr. Penny, our mentor, calls, calls herself as well. I'm a dopamine junkie. And what does that Dopamine is a neurotransmitter. I'm just putting here an example for two people to realize the power of genetics. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that motivates you to do things. It's really good to have it. But when you have too much of it, it's like, when am I turning off my brain? When am I turning off my body? Right? And Anyway, 3 and a half weeks later, changing my diet specifically what I need and the amount of protein, carbohydrates, fats that I need. When do I need to eat in the day? You know, how much I move my body, how well I sleep, the whole, the whole spiel. Okay. 3 and a half weeks later, I realized how calm I am.

So did you change your diet to A Mediterranean-style diet with the complex carbohydrates.

Yes, absolutely. I promote vegetables. I promote healthy food. I promote real food. I promote like eating, eating basically like the rainbow. I totally promote eating cruciferous vegetables a lot, like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and stuff. What do you have for lunch? I had a big, big piece of cauliflower, a lot of broccoli, always on my plate. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Yes. So, so anyway, I got it.

I got to tell you, and we'll pause just for a second.

Yes, absolutely.

Everything that Alicia is telling you is evidence-based and proven by studies that these things can truly make a difference. To lowering your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia later on in life. So if you're 20 years old today, if you're 35 years old today, you can start making these lifestyle decisions and lower your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in 30 or 40 years, right, Elisa? Absolutely.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And guess what else, Lisa Skinner, we have— I've been finding out, I've studied about 100 people. And out of these 100 people, we have a lot of us have something in common, and that is our liver doesn't detox toxins properly.

Yes.

So usually toxins, a lot of these toxins are soluble in fat, not soluble in water. So a lot of times we have them in our abdomen, you know, if we're overweight or whatever. But then you lose weight and people go like, oh, I hate losing weight because, you know, I get a headache and I'm tired and all of this. You also have to think, Lisa, that these fat-soluble toxins, okay, that are usually around our abdomen, our hips, wherever. Right? They're going to move to a place in the body. You lose the weight, but they're going to move to a place in the body that has a lot of fat as well. Where is this place? Right here. Your brain.

And what else can you tell us about these toxins? What do they create? Inflammation in our bodies, inflammation in our brains. And there have also been direct correlations to inflammation and developing Alzheimer's disease, correct?

Absolutely.

Yes, absolutely. So this is really important stuff to know.

Yeah, but how do I clean out? How do I clean my liver? Depends on your genes. I cannot tell you. Depends on your genes. Some people are very toxic. Some people are not as toxic, but depends on your genes. Now that I have a gene plan for you, because it's yours, it is your blueprint. We're all completely different. You know, unless you have a, like, an identical twin, you're completely different. And even identical twins depends on the environment how they express their genes. Now, if they come and tell you, oh, you have this gene, you're gonna have Alzheimer's disease. This is the good news. You can change the environment. So instead of going for this specific gene, you know, what we do is we work with 70 genes that turn on other genes. Imagine that your brain is on fire. Imagine that. How do you turn off the fire? Well, you need to get rid of the match and you need to get rid of the log. Am I right? What about if instead of turning off the fire from up here, We avoid it from turning it on in the first place. That's what 70 Genes will do for you, Lisa Skinner.

Wow.

It will turn off the expression of those genes in case you have them, as you said, as you told me, you know, like my, I'm interested in this topic because a lot of people in my family have it. Is it in your genes? Probably yes. Right? You want to, you want to avoid it? Oh yes. Do you want to not have it? Oh yes. I'm in. I'm in 100%. Because I've seen it. My mother sadly was very toxic. I came too late to the party right there when she passed away when she was 82. Right? But then on the other hand, it's like, if I can prevent me from getting that, oh, I'm doing everything that I can to do it.

I wish more people would take this seriously because we can't prevent developing Alzheimer's disease, but we can certainly make choices that will definitely lower our risk. And there are so many factors that will elevate a person's risk of developing. So the more that apply to any individual, the higher risk they're going to have of developing. So any of these things that Alicia and I are talking about, right now, if you can modify them, if you can change them, you will lower your risk. You might not be able to avert developing Alzheimer's, but at least you can rest, eat more easily, that you will lower your risk. And like Alicia says, I'm right there. I've had 8 family members live with this disease, with these diseases. I want to do everything I can to avert getting this disease. So yeah. Yeah.

And the beautiful thing is, Lisa Skinner, is like when we teach others, when I started doing this, I'm like, I don't have time for a one-on-one anymore. I really don't. I do. I teach a 12-week course for you to understand your genes. Why? Because the long-term is you are taking control of your health. You don't need to depend on somebody to take control of your health. I live in Canada. In Canada, I mean, you cannot— I can't even tell you too much about it, but the medical system is failing. It takes at least 6 months for you to be able to see a specialist, if you're lucky. It takes at least a month or two to be able to see your general practitioner, and that is if you have one.

Oh, I had no idea. So you really have to be your own advocate.

You have to be your own advocate. And the best way of doing it is take control of your own health.

Yes.

Take control of what you do every day.

Absolutely. I couldn't agree more.

We all drink water. We all move. We all sleep. We all pee. We all poop. We all do that, do that every single day. How can I optimize that? To reduce my risk of Alzheimer's, of all, or of any other illness, you know, and any other, any other health concern that you have, because a lot of that is inflammation. And if we can reduce inflammation, we reduce the outcome. It's like I'm getting rid of the fire. I am, I'm getting, I'm right there. I am at the very, very beginning before the fire is turned on. Can I turn off the fire once it's on? Yes, you can. Is it easy? It depends on you. Because again, you need to work with your, your mindset. You need to work with your, you know, you need to work as a whole because we're a whole, we're a whole. You cannot just say, oh, I'm just going to eat well and then wait for the sun to shine. Well, no. It's everything. It's everything. And we take a look, take a look at everything in our program. It's just amazing. I, I'm, I'm in love with it. I cannot tell you enough about, enough about it. But, um, yeah, no, I, I mean, nobody, what I'm seeing.

Because, well, don't keep us in suspense any longer. Tell us how we can find out more about your, is it, you said 12-week program?

It's a 12-week program. It's a, it's a 12-week program and you can definitely, I will share with you my, my website.

Please do.

It's www.imbalancelm.com/genereset_am. In other words, you can definitely be in contact and you know, you know what, you can book a consult to see if this is for you before you even jump into any of it. Another, another thing I want to mention is the following. Your genes never change. You were born with them. You actually, you got them the minute your, your dad's sperm fertilized your mom's sperm. So you only need one test for life. You don't need to be going for test after test after test and test yourself 6 months late. No, you need one test. And right now we got an amazing deal because Dr. Penny found a lab in Ontario that sends this sample worldwide. And all we need, all we need to get your DNA is your cheek cells. Send it back to the lab and then we can use your data to create your own blueprint. Oh, that sounds just It's as simple as that. It's as simple as that. It's, it's, it's easy. It's like you don't even need to be— I don't need a blood test. I just need your cheek cells. That's it. We can do it on babies. We can do it on everybody. It's easy. You can do it on somebody with Alzheimer's. Absolutely.

Now, do you test for the APOE4 gene?

AP, uh, let me just check. I have checked, I have checked for all the genes that turn on other genes. So the ApoA2 gene, not the 4, the ApoA2 gene has to do with saturated fat. How much saturated fat you should eat because you need, you need fat for your brain, basically.

Okay. So what do you do with that information?

What, what we do with that information is we put it in a platform from our mentor, Dr. Penny Kendall-Reed, and that gives you a 66-page report. And in 12 weeks, we give it to you step by step by step by step because it's very hard to understand. But once you get it, you will be in awe with what you find about you.

This sounds really, really encouraging. I would, I would really encourage people to talk. Yeah.

And, and we are going to have a challenge soon. Sometime this month. I don't remember. We have challenges once in a while, every 4 months or something for people to test. It's free. It's a free challenge. Just come in, just do the challenge, get an idea of what it's like. And then if you're ready for it, you can come in and You know, reset your genes. That's it.

Well, I think I would be interested in talking to you about that, but, uh, that's another conversation.

Yeah, we'll talk about it.

This has really been powerful, and I really am— I'm just thrilled that you, um, were able to come on and share this information. I think it gives people hope, and we need hope. We definitely need hope, especially when it comes to Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. It's not something that, you know, if you've gone through it, if you've experienced it, if you've had a loved one, if you're, if you're caring for somebody, um, you know what this journey is all about. And it's probably not anything you'd want to wish upon anybody. I mean, I know, I know, I know, because I've been doing this for 30 years. That people can live very meaningful, fulfilled lives. But I don't know if you had the choice to go through it or not, which one would you choose?

So believe me, I already chose. I'm not, whatever happened to my mom is not happening to me. Sorry. It's not going to happen to me. I already chose. This is my choice. And my choice is to share this with others.

All right, well, unfortunately we're out of time, so I want to thank you again for being here. This has been, um, really eye-opening, and best of luck to you. And I would encourage anybody to check into this, uh, if you have any concerns about, um, how effective resetting your genes can actually have, uh, on developing Alzheimer's disease or dementia in the future. So thanks again, Alicia. It was wonderful to meet you, and best of luck to you.

Thank you. To you too, and thank you so much for the work you do. It's so needed in the world.

Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, I've dedicated my life to raising awareness to this disease. I know the struggles that people are going through, And as we, I mentioned to you before we started recording the episode, the number of people who are projected to develop Alzheimer's disease and related dementia just in the next 20 years, according to the medical experts and the scientific community, is projected to triple if a cure or a treatment is not found. And we know from decades of studies that doing things like resetting your genes, cha— making better lifestyle choices can make a difference. So thank you for, again, for coming on and sharing what you do. Thank you for what you do. It is such an important possible outcome for all of our lives. And I think it's something that we really need to take more seriously. Wouldn't you agree?

I agree. I agree totally. Take control of your health. That's it.

Yeah.

You can take control of your health.

Yes. All right. So thanks again. I'm looking forward to publishing this episode so everybody has a chance to listen to what you brought to the table today.

Thank you.

Bye, Alicia.

Thank you for listening to Truth, Lies Alzheimer's. We hope you found something in today's episode that helps. We understand that caring for a loved one with dementia can be the challenge of a lifetime, but you don't have to do it alone. If you're ready for exclusive access to even more great content and resources, head on over to Facebook and join Lisa Skinner's Minding Dementia support group. We're a community of like-minded caregivers, and we're here to help.