This podcast (recorded July 22, 2024) features hosts Wendie Trubow and Ed Levitan interviewing Dr. Greg Eckel about rising neurodegenerative diseases. They discuss evidence and clinical impressions that onset of mild cognitive impairment is shifting younger, projections of larger dementia prevalence by 2030, environmental drivers (toxicant exposure, declining soil mineral content), and epigenetics — including multi-generation epidemiologic examples linking ancestral nutrition/trauma to descendant health. The episode emphasizes that genes are not destiny and lifestyle/environmental choices (nutrition, sleep, stress, movement, social factors) account for much of disease risk.
Questions this episode answers
July 22, 2024.
47 years old (cited as Blue Cross Blue Shield actuarial data, 2017).
By 2030, about 50% of adults over the age of 65 will have some form of dementia/Alzheimer's (as stated in the episode).
Swedish records showed that if a grandfather experienced a feast during puberty, descendants two generations later were more likely to have diabetes/heart disease and died on average six years earlier; if a grandfather experienced famine during puberty, descendants two generations later were reported to live on average 25 years longer (as described by the hosts).
Genes account for about 15% of health outcomes while the other 85% is attributed to environment/lifestyle (as cited in the episode).
Chapters
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Hold on to your hats.
Do you feel like neurodegenerative diseases are on the rise? And if so, why?
Well, they definitely are so on a lot of different fronts. So I'll give you a for instance. So for dementia Alzheimer's in the Blue Cross Blue Shield actuarial data in 2017, so this is even many years ago, the average age of onset of mild cognitive impairment, which is the first step into dementia Alzheimer's, the average age was not 65. It wasn't 50. It was 47 years old. No average age, yes.
This is only five years ago, Greg.
This is only five years ago. And so, you know, the predictions or projections for Alzheimer's, by 2030, they're basically saying 50% of adults over the age of 65 will have some form of dementia slash Alzheimer's. I mean, there's some differentiation in there. But I will tell you, as I have really specialized in brain regeneration over the last four, four and a half years, I am seeing patients that basically collect a bunch of diagnosis. You know, it's almost as if neurologists, you know, they can. They can diagnose like, anybody's business, but they have no solutions. And I feel bad for them because it's heartbreaking when you see this, like, and they're writing patients off like, oh, you have dementia Alzheimer's. Well, not knowing. Yeah, see you later. You know, here's a medication that may extend your memory for three to four months, but, you know, basically, you know, get your affairs in order. We know that not to be the truth, but that's the system that we're dealing with because it's hard to get the information out there as far as there is a lot of things that we can be doing for folks. So that's Alzheimer's, dementia, Parkinson's rates are also on the rise. Multiple sclerosis is on the rise. All of the neurodegenerative states. So there are magnets in that, multiple fronts. So one is on the topic of this summit, which is around toxicants and the amount of toxins we are exposed to on a day to day, annual, week to week, month to month, annual basis basis is really unheard of. And it's a great experiment. And you know, one of the basic tenets of naturopathic medicine is treat the cause well. When it's your environment, that's an issue. So, you know, we're all basically loving Mother Earth and seeing the connection between clean air, clean water, clean food. Right. I mean, these are should be basic rights and tenants for inhabitants of planet Earth. And we don't treat it that way. Like I our biosphere is our home and it affects us. You know, what happens in the macrocosm, the environment happens in the microcosm in our bodies. That's an ancient Chinese saying of wisdom. And to really experience that microcosm, macrocosm is the truth. And so looking at that, that's one level. So levels of toxicants are on the rise and our exposures, you know, levels of nutrients in our soil to feed our bodies nutritionally is also playing a role there.
And it's actually not on the rise, it's on the decline.
Yeah, the mineral content is going down, which is, it's expediting all of these other issues. Thank you for that clarification. And the hidden component here, though, that I think a lot of folks aren't addressing, we're hearing more and more about trauma, general trauma, adverse childhood experiences, the ACE scores. You know, I have a kind of a quaint saying is nobody gets out of here alive. You know, we're born, we live and we die, but it's that component of the living component. When you look at levels of trauma. I have a working hypothesis clinically where I'm seeing as our species has been on the planet longer, we have more of an ancestral lineage. So there are epigenetic changes that maybe our great great, great, great great great grandmother had some stressors in her life that three through epigenetic switches and now the illness is expressing today.
Greg, I want to pause you right there.
Yeah.
Talk to the audience about epigenetics because some of them listening might not know what you're talking about. So they're like, wait, what?
Yeah, so there's our genes, right in our genes. And when we get into this discussion, I'm going to put a huge asterisk here because it's, it's kind of cutting edge therapeutics and understanding and it's very common, complex. So I'm going with the kind of the day to day, this is the best knowledge today. So we have our genes and our genes are not our destiny. Just because you have a gene doesn't mean you're going to express it. And so we know the epigenetics is what overlays our genes. So that's the soup that we swim in. And we have Bruce Lipton to thank for a whole really breakthrough of this understanding. He was growing stem cells in a petri dish and he saw, in fact, actually, actually visualized the medium that the cells were growing in mattered. So that is the epigenetic. So the medium that your body is functioning in matters. Are you running around in chronic stress, which throws inflammation off? Are you eating Twinkies and donuts and hot dogs? You know, that's the fuel for what your body uses to create itself anew in the future. Every seven years, all of your cells of your body are new, so you have an opportunity all the time for renewal. So that's what I'm talking about, the epigenetics. It's what surrounds the gene which then allows expression of the gene.
So have you, have you heard the study about. In Sweden, some epidemiology, Epidemiologists went to Sweden, to this small little town that had meticulous records on their. On their inhabitants and found. They looked back a couple hundred years and found that if your grandfather went through a famine or a feast during puberty, it altered your lifespan and your health span, actually. So if the. If your grandparent went through a feast during puberty, two generations down was significantly more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, and die on average six years earlier than the general population. But the reverse, if your grandparent went through a famine during. During the puberty time, their offspring two generations down were significantly more likely, to the tune of 25 years, less likely to get chronic disease and live on average 25 years longer. Like that's a huge spread.
Yeah, yeah.
And there's epigenetics.
Yeah. And those that also happened in Quebec, there was a great freeze, and they've followed that for two to three generations now, and same findings. So that's the component. It's made our jobs a lot complicated because a lot of us don't know our family lineage or the tree. And in reality, it matters to a point, because you can't go back. There's nothing you can do about it. But you can make different choices and decisions today, knowing maybe you have the deck stacked against you.
Right. I mean, as Joe Pizorno talks about, you're only about. Your genes account for 15% of what's happening, whereas the other 85% is in your control. Yeah, right. What's in your environment? You're eating, you're sleeping, you're pooping your thoughts. Your intimacy with others, your movement, your stress reduction, all of that is in your control.
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