0:01 Why don't we just begin with the
0:03 personal because I think that's the most
0:06 universal. And all of my friends of my
0:09 vintage um or younger, no one's getting
0:12 younger, so they're all contending with
0:14 aging parents and what to do with them,
0:17 how to help them. Can you speak to just
0:19 some of the circumstances with your
0:22 parents and what you have used as
0:24 interventions that have seemed to have
0:27 an effect? Both of my parents are taking
0:30 a multivitamin. And you might go, well,
0:32 multivitamin really, what's that going
0:34 to do? And I'll tell you, we've come
0:37 full circle. You know, 10 years ago,
0:40 there was a huge splash that was made in
0:42 the media. Big article came out and it
0:44 was called enough is enough.
0:47 Multivitamins are not only useless, they
0:48 may be harmful.
0:50 And it was a study that looked at a
0:51 variety of different studies. It's
0:54 called a metaanalysis that basically
0:55 said, well, you know, all these vitamins
0:56 that you're taking are useless and in
0:58 some cases they can be harmful because
1:01 they can allow cancer to to grow faster.
1:03 And I sort of debunked that, you know,
1:05 10 years ago. But over the course of
1:07 those 10 years, and as you mentioned in
1:09 the intro here, you know, science is
1:11 always changing and revisions are made.
1:15 We learn new things. And in that 10-year
1:17 frame, three different randomized
1:18 control trials have come out. And
1:20 randomized control trials are really key
1:23 because you are comparing, you know,
1:25 this intervention which in this case was
1:27 a multivitamin to a placebo because
1:30 people taking anything are obviously
1:32 going to want a positive effect and many
1:34 people do anticipate that and they can
1:36 actually change their biology. Placebo
1:37 is a real thing. >> Mhm.
1:38 >> Mhm.
1:40 >> So three trials came out looking at the
1:43 effect of multivitamins on cognition.
1:45 And I'm talking the multivitamin that
1:46 was used was the standard
1:48 run-of-the-mill. It was sententrum silver.
1:49 silver.
1:50 >> Centrum. I knew it was going to be
1:52 Centrum. Yeah.
1:53 >> It was the vitamin that you would go
1:55 that's the one vitamin that's not going
1:56 to have any effect. It's like the you
1:59 know, but actually it turns out it's got
2:01 over 40 essential nutrients in it and
2:04 it's also got some other nonvitamins. So
2:06 things that are like polyphenols like
2:08 luteine, zeazanthin. These are actually
2:09 really important for eye health but also
2:10 the brain. >> Yeah.
2:10 >> Yeah.
2:12 >> And these three randomized control
2:14 trials were two years long.
2:17 And what they showed was that taking a
2:20 multivitamin for two years had pretty
2:21 enormous effects on cognitive aging.
2:23 These were in older adults. These were
2:25 adults were 65 years of age or older.
2:28 That's where my parents are. And after 2
2:30 years of taking the multivitamin, they
2:33 had improved cognition on a battery of
2:36 different tests. That equated to like
2:38 reducing global cognitive aging by about
2:41 2 years. And on top of that, they
2:44 reduced their episodic aging by five
2:46 years, almost five years. It was 4.8
2:48 years. Episodic memory is the kind of
2:50 memory that's involved in remembering
2:52 events, things that that happen in your
2:55 life. And so that's a big effect. 5
2:58 years of reduced
3:00 >> episodic brain aging, episodic memory,
3:00 brain aging.
3:04 >> Mhm. And so I think that anyone that's
3:05 concerned about their parents, one of
3:07 the easiest things that you can do in
3:10 terms of improving cognition, now I
3:12 should mention these were older adults,
3:14 yes, but they weren't older adults with
3:16 neurodeenerative disease. So these these
3:18 were older adults that were otherwise
3:20 didn't have any sort of neurogenerative
3:22 disease. That's also important because
3:24 >> once you get to a pathological state,
3:26 you you kind of have to do more things
3:27 to help improve cognition than just a
3:29 multivitamin. Mhm.
3:30 >> That's what I have my mom and my dad on
3:31 a multivitamin. That's the easiest
3:34 thing. Vitamin D is also another
3:36 no-brainer. I mean, 70% of the US
3:38 population has insufficient levels of
3:41 vitamin D. Older adults are even higher
3:42 than that. So, you know, almost the
3:44 majority of all older adults are vitamin
3:45 D deficient. I mean, most people aren't
3:48 going outside. And even if they are
3:50 going outside, they're either wearing
3:52 sunscreen or just the fact that they're
3:54 older affects their their skin's ability
3:57 to make vitamin D3 from the sun, from
4:00 UVB radiation from the sun. And so
4:02 there's much less efficient at it. In
4:03 fact, a 70-year-old makes about four
4:05 times less vitamin D than their former
4:06 20-year-old self.
4:08 >> So vitamin D supplement is a low hanging
4:09 fruit. It's super easy to bring someone
4:12 up to level. If you just had to give a
4:14 couple of bullets on the things that you
4:17 feel confident in having your mom and
4:21 dad continue doing or taking,
4:22 >> let's start with the supplements cuz
4:25 like you said, it's sort of a
4:27 lowhanging fruit in a sense from a
4:28 behavioral change perspective, >> right?
4:29 >> right?
4:30 >> What do you have them doing?
4:32 >> I guess I'll kind of zoom out and talk
4:33 about, you know, I think you listened to
4:36 a podcast I did with Dr. Mark Matson
4:37 many several years ago and I mentioned
4:39 that my dad was diagnosed with
4:40 Parkinson's disease
4:43 >> in 2017 and that's an important context
4:45 to consider like what sort of
4:47 supplements I'm giving my dad and also
4:48 the fact that you have to think about
4:50 compliance like what were your parents I
4:52 do have a parent that'll take a lot of vitamins
4:52 vitamins
4:53 >> actually do
4:54 >> or a few vitamins right
4:57 >> so with my dad knowing his disease with
4:59 Parkinson's disease multivitamin was in
5:01 there because that's already like so
5:02 important just to cover a lot of bases
5:04 you're getting a lot of different you
5:05 know vitamins and minerals And then it
5:07 was omega-3. And in fact, it was a high
5:09 DHA. And he's getting about two grams a
5:12 day. And there's a lot of evidence that
5:15 omega-3 can help with dopamineergic
5:18 transmission, can help with a lot of
5:20 brain function, particularly as it
5:22 relates to Parkinson's disease as well
5:23 as Alzheimer's disease.
5:25 >> So that was the second supplements that
5:27 he's, you know, taking. And then the
5:28 last one that I could really get him to
5:30 take was
5:33 ubiquininal, which is a reduced form of
5:36 CoQ10. Now, co-enzyme Q10 is actually
5:38 something that we have inside of our
5:41 cells and it's involved in mitochondrial health.
5:42 health.
5:45 >> So, having a depleted CoQ10 can lead to
5:49 mitochondrial toxicity. And so, taking
5:50 CoQ10, there's actually been some early
5:53 studies with even Parkinson's disease
5:54 patients showing that supplementing with
5:56 CoQ10 can be beneficial. And he's
5:58 actually taken those supplements for for
6:02 many, many years now. And very I would
6:05 say surprisingly but also I'm thankful
6:07 that his Parkinson's disease has
6:09 progressed very very slowly. So it's
6:12 been 9 years you know almost 10 years
6:15 and he's really essentially had this
6:17 Parkinson's disease limited to one
6:19 tremor in his hand.
6:22 >> So that's great and that's all I can say is
6:23 is
6:25 >> yeah it's great news. It's great news
6:26 and you never really know at the end of
6:30 the day what is the reason for that. But
6:32 he's convinced, I'm convinced, his
6:34 doctor's convinced that he should keep
6:35 doing what he's doing and that it seems
6:36 to be beneficial. >> Mhm.
6:37 >> Mhm.
6:38 >> My dad is one of those guys that doesn't
6:40 like to take a lot of pills. If he would
6:41 take more, I would give him more.
6:43 >> If he were willing to take more, what
6:44 would you give him?
6:47 >> I would also give him sulurophane. >> Mhm.
6:48 >> Mhm.
6:50 >> Definitely tried, but he doesn't want to
6:53 take more pills. So sulurophane is it's
6:56 a compound that is formed when you eat
6:58 cruciferous vegetables like broccoli,
7:00 cauliflower for example and it's formed
7:01 from something inside of it called
7:04 glucaraphin. When you break the plant
7:06 tissue when you bite it or you know chop
7:08 it up or whatever it forms sulforophane
7:10 sulforophane is not necessarily in the
7:12 plant itself. It just gets formed when
7:14 you break the plant tissue. That's a
7:15 technical thing. So I'm just going to
7:17 talk about sulforophane and call it
7:19 sulforophane as if it's part of you know
7:20 the plant but it's not. Just so you know.
7:21 know. >> Yeah.
7:21 >> Yeah.
7:23 >> Sulfurophane, like I said, it's
7:24 something that's formed in these
7:26 cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli
7:28 sprouts, the young young sprout of
7:31 broccoli actually is the best source of
7:34 it. It has 100 times more of that active
7:36 precursor glucaraphin than mature
7:38 broccoli. So that's the best dietary
7:39 source of it.
7:40 >> Are you growing your own broccoli
7:42 sprouts or are you doing off the shelf now?
7:42 now?
7:45 >> I'm off the shelf now. I used to. I used
7:47 to. It's work. It's not that much work,
7:48 but it is work. But you also like you
7:50 have to be very fidious about not having
7:52 it contaminated and that's where the
7:54 real work comes in. But I like it
7:56 because there are people that can't
7:58 afford the supplement and this gives
8:01 them another another way to to basically
8:05 get it. Yeah. For cheap. So the reason I
8:07 really like sulfurophane and why I want
8:09 both my parents on it and my mom has
8:10 been taking it, we can talk about that
8:12 in a minute, is because it is the most
8:15 potent dietary activator of this system
8:18 that we have called NRF2, which is this
8:20 major system. It's a basically a
8:23 transcription factor that activates a
8:25 lot of different genes inside of our
8:26 body. And it activates genes that are
8:28 involved in stress. It activates a lot
8:30 of what are called stress response
8:31 genes. And these are the kind of things
8:33 that are activated when you're doing
8:36 stressful things like exercise or you
8:37 know if you're fasting. >> Yeah.
8:38 >> Yeah.
8:40 >> So you really want this pathway to be active
8:41 active
8:42 >> because a little bit of stress right
8:46 it's like chronic overdose of stress bad
8:50 but little doses of stress has this I
8:51 guess what would you call it hormetic effect.
8:52 effect. >> Exactly.
8:52 >> Exactly.
8:54 >> Right. Am I getting that right? Yeah. >> Yeah.
8:55 >> Yeah.
8:56 >> You nailed it. So essentially we're
8:57 talking about what is sometimes called
8:59 ustress or good stress. It's these small
9:02 doses of stress where, you know, your
9:04 body's responding to that stress by
9:05 activating all these beneficial pathways
9:07 that deal with stress. Whether we're
9:10 talking about antioxidant pathways,
9:12 anti-inflammatory pathways, pathways
9:14 involved in clearing out damage, you
9:15 know, damaged stuff from your cells like
9:17 autophagy, just all sorts of beneficial
9:19 stuff, right? Those pathways are
9:21 activated for a longer period of time
9:23 than the acute stress that you're giving
9:25 it. So in this case the sulfurophane is
9:26 a little bit of an acute stress like
9:28 polyphenols in general are. >> Mhm.
9:29 >> Mhm.
9:31 >> The amount of time that you're ingesting
9:33 that polyphenol is very small and
9:35 digesting in. The reality is is that
9:36 it's activating these stress response
9:38 pathways that last you know on the
9:40 orders of like 24 to 48 hours sometimes
9:43 longer. So you're having this beneficial effect
9:43 effect
9:45 >> that's overall beneficial from that
9:47 little bit of stress. And so sulurophane
9:49 activates NRF2 and one of the main
9:51 pathways that it's activating is
9:54 increasing glutathione production. And
9:55 it's been shown in a couple different
9:56 human studies that it increases
9:59 glutathione in both plasma but also in
10:00 the brain. >> Yeah,
10:00 >> Yeah,
10:02 >> glutathione is the major antioxidant
10:04 that we have in our body and it's very
10:06 important in the brain. super important
10:10 for not only preventing brain aging but
10:14 also for dealing with dysfunction in the
10:15 case of acute injury like traumatic
10:18 brain injury or in the case of
10:19 Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's
10:21 disease which are other types of injury
10:23 on the brain glutathione plays a big
10:26 role there and so I obviously would want
10:29 my dad to be taking sulurophane and
10:30 there's a supplement out there that I
10:33 use that has been used in many like 12
10:35 or so different studies and so it's you
10:37 know It's been shown to be beneficial
10:38 across the board and that is something
10:41 that I do give my mom. Now, the reason I
10:42 gave it to my mom, well, I was kind of
10:44 hoping my mom interestingly has two
10:47 other types of sort of brain dysfunction
10:49 um problems, but they're not
10:50 neurodeenerative in the sense of
10:52 Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's
10:55 disease are it's kind of like a
10:56 something going wrong in the brain and
10:58 it it affects her motor control. So, she
11:00 has tremors. She has essential tremor
11:03 and she has orthostatic tremor. And I
11:05 have secretly wanted the increase in
11:10 glutathione to affect those tremors.
11:12 But when I gave the sulfurophane to my
11:15 mom, because I knew the placebo effect,
11:18 I did tell her that we were using it to
11:20 detoxify these chemicals that are
11:23 associated with plastic like BPA because
11:25 that's also been something that I'm I'm
11:28 using sulfurophane for because that NRF2
11:30 pathway does activate what are called
11:32 phase 2 detoxification enzymes. And it's
11:34 been shown to detoxify. Even if you're
11:36 living in like a city like New York or
11:38 LA where there's a lot of air pollution,
11:40 it's been shown to detoxify benzene.
11:42 Within 24 hours, people start excreting
11:44 60% more benzene from their body. Now,
11:46 benzene is something that is found in
11:48 air pollution. It's also in cigarettes.
11:49 >> Yes. Don't drink your own urine if
11:50 you're taking sulfurophane is what
11:52 you're saying.
11:54 >> Definitely don't do that. But also, if
11:56 you're living in a polluted place, I
11:57 tell all my friends in LA, I'm like,
11:59 "You have to be taking sulfurophane.
12:01 It's a non-negotiable, right?" So I told
12:02 her to take the sulurophane because I
12:04 wanted her to detoxify BPA because she
12:06 does eat a lot of processed foods and
12:09 stuff which are found in plastic.
12:10 Anyway, so she started taking it and she
12:13 came back to me and told me that it was
12:15 helping her tremors and that she wanted more.
12:15 more.
12:17 >> How long did that take?
12:19 >> Not long. It was actually I think within
12:22 a week or so, maybe maybe two. It was
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