Drive with Dr. Peter Attia: #38 - Francisco Gonzalez-Lima, Ph.D.: Advancing Alzheimer’s disease treatment and prevention – is AD actually a vascular and metabolic disease?

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Our knowledge of the brain surpasses any other organ yet there’s a TON that we still don’t know about it“We have not made any significant progress in Alzheimer’s disease research. This is the largest failure of the biomedical research enterprise during my lifetime.”Today, many believe that if we find out what’s happening with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease (EOAD) cases then we can cure the more common senile, older age late-onset dementia – this is NOT true (the pathologies are vastly different)Even though a VERY small percentage of people that are described as having Alzheimer’s disease belong to this early-onset category, this is where over 90% of the research is focused The epidemiology shows that there’s no greater association with Alzheimer’s disease (or cardiovascular disease) than age3 alternative Alzheimer’s disease treatment methods: Methylene blue, infrared light, and the ketogenic dietThe health of the heart is very closely related to the health of the brainWhatever you do that improves cardiovascular health will also improve brain health

Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org



Subscribe to the Drive with Dr. Peter Attia Podcast

In this episode, Francisco Gonzalez-Lima, a Professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology & Toxicology, explains the vascular hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease which says the central problem is a progressive neuronal energy crisis of impaired blood flow to the brain and impaired mitochondrial respiration. He walks us through the ways we can intervene in this process and also shares details of the exciting future of Alzheimer’s treatment and prevention.

We discuss:

Background and interest in the brain [5:15]; The unique nature of the human brain [9:15]; Why we’ve made so little progress in Alzheimer’s research [23:00]; The amyloid beta hypothesis [28:30]; Hypometabolism in the brain leading to cognitive decline [39:30]; Early signs of AD, and deciphering between age-related decline versus something pathologic [47:45]; The vascular hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease [54:00]; The relationship between mitochondria, cytochrome c oxidase, and Alzheimer’s disease [1:08:00]; Chronic inhibition of cytochrome c oxidase leads to chronic neurodegenerative disease [1:22:45]; Major risk factors for AD, head trauma, and other forms of dementia [1:33:45]; Methylene blue for treating and preventing neurodegeneration [1:38:15]; Current standard of care for AD, and the reasons for a lack of advancement [2:01:45]; Near infrared light as a targeted treatment for cognitive decline [2:05:30]; The ketogenic diet as a treatment and preventative measure [2:13:15]; Exciting future research coming from Francisco [2:13:00]; Methylene blue for traumatic brain injuries [2:25:15]; and More.

Learn more at www.PeterAttiaMD.com

Connect with Peter on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.