How Brain Inflammation Drives Depression, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's

For decades, we've thought about conditions like Alzheimer's disease, depression, and Parkinson's disease as disorders of the brain. But what if that's only part of the story? Emerging science is revealing that many of the factors driving cognitive decline, mental illness, and neurodegenerative disease may begin far outside the brain itself—in our metabolism, our immune system, our gut microbiome, our hormones, and even the environment we're exposed to every day. As part of our summer series, we're revisiting some of the most important conversations we've had on the topic of brain health. In this special compilation episode, you'll hear from leading experts Dr. Richard Isaacson, Dr. Chris Palmer, and Drs. Ray Dorsey and Michael Okun as they explore the new science of brain health and what it means for preventing cognitive decline, supporting mental health, and protecting our brains as we age. What I find most encouraging about this research is that it challenges the idea that brain decline is simply an inevitable part of aging. Instead, it suggests that many of the biggest drivers of brain health are things we can influence through the choices we make, the environments we create, and the ways we care for our bodies long before symptoms ever appear. View Show Notes From This Episode Sign up for Dr. Hyman’s Brainshaping Academy to learn how to nourish the biological systems that support your mental, emotional, and cognitive health https://drhyman.com/products/brainshaping?utm_source=dr_hyman_show&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=may_27&utm_content=link Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman https://drhyman.com/pages/picks?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal https://drhyman.com/pages/longevity?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Join the 10-Day Detox to Reset Your Health https://drhyman.com/pages/10-day-detox Join the Hyman Hive for Expert Support and Real Results https://drhyman.com/pages/hyman-hive This episode is brought to you by Timeline, Sunlighten, Seed, BIOptimzers, Paleovalley, and Pique. Support healthy aging and get 20% off at timeline.com/drhyman with code HYMAN. Discover why so many people are using sunlighten.com and save up to $2,100 today and free shipping with code HYMAN. Make your microbiome part of your daily routine with seed.com/hyman and save 25% with code 25HYMAN. Go to bioptimizers.com/hyman and use code HYMAN to save 15% off your order, plus get a free gift. Shop nutrient-rich foods and supplements at paleovalley.com/hyman and save 15% off your first order. Elevate your daily wellness ritual at piquelife.com/hyman and enjoy 15% off for life plus free gift (0:00) Understanding brain dysfunction, inflammation, and lifestyle interventions (0:21) Heavy metals, toxins, and Parkinson's disease (3:30) Introduction to the summer series on brain health (4:02) The MIND diet, precision nutrition, and brain-healthy fats (9:06) Vitamins, supplements, and caloric intake for cognitive health (11:23) Vitamin D, B complex, and reversing mild cognitive impairment (14:05) Additional supplements and intensive lifestyle interventions (17:18) Importance of magnesium and metabolic health (18:24) Multimodal treatments, hormone replacement therapy, and individualized care (26:49) Biopsychosocial factors, stress, and the gut-brain connection (32:30) Inflammation, energy dysregulation, and metabolism in brain health (42:33) Parkinson's disease: causes, history, and environmental factors (46:02) Leaky brain, blood-brain barrier, and Parkinson's as a whole-body disease (49:00) Closing remarks, disclaimer, and gratitude to sponsors

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  The narrative needs to be there is something wrong with this person's brain or body or combination of the two that is causing dysfunction or dysregulation that can be fixed.

• 0:13Dr. Mark Hyman?

  The brain only has so many ways of saying ouch. When it's inflamed, you don't feel it. People who are depressed have inflamed brains. Autism has inflamed brains. Alzheimer's has inflamed brain.

• 0:21Speaker 02

  If you look at multimodal lifestyle intervention that included exercise, nutrition, vitamins, supplements. Sleep. Sleep. Stress management. Stress management, keeping the brain engaged, learning something new. Social connection. Yep, intensive lifestyle intervention. Of all the interventions that we tried, moved the needle the most.

• 0:37Dr. Mark Hyman?

  More than any of these billion-dollar ramaloid drug studies. Because coal was what they used to heat and do industry with, and that's full of mercury and lead.

• 0:46Speaker 03

  And so we look in the brains of people with Parkinson's. They have high levels of heavy metal.

• 0:49Speaker 00

  Is there's a big myth about Parkinson's. And the myth is, is that it's just a brain disease.

• 0:54Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Yeah.

• 0:55Speaker 00

  It's a whole body disease, Mark.

• 0:57Dr. Mark Hyman?

  People ask me all the time, what supplements I take personally. I'm constantly evaluating new research, new compounds, and new products. The truth is, there aren't many that make the cut. One that does is Timeline powered by Mitopure. If you follow my work, you've heard me talk about mitochondrial health. Now mitochondria are responsible for producing about 90% of the energy in your body. And when they're functioning well, you feel the difference. More vitality, better physical function, more of the energy you need to do the things you love. The challenge is that as we age, our ability to maintain healthy mitochondria naturally declines. That's why I take Mitopure daily. Mitopure contains urolithin A, clinically studied postbiotic that supports mitophagy, which is your body's natural process for renewing mitochondria.

• 1:39Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And what I like most is that it targets one of the root mechanisms of aging rather than simply addressing the symptoms. This bag might worth it 18 years of research, multiple human clinical studies. It's one of the simplest additions I've made to support my long-term health. And now with Timeline's new lower pricing, it's never been easier to try. Go to Timeline.com and use the code HYMAN to get 20% off your order. One of the things I talk about constantly with patients is the idea that the body isn't broken, it's just not getting what it means to do its job. That's really the whole promise of functional medicine. We're not playing whack-a-mole with symptoms. We're asking, what do the underlying systems need to actually function? And one of the tools I keep coming back to in my own routine is my sunlight and sauna. Infrared therapy is one of the most underrated recovery inputs out there.

• 2:24Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And I say input intentionally, the same way I talk about sleep or nutrition. Not a luxury, it's a condition your body can use. What separates Sunlight specifically is their pulse IQ technology. It delivers red light plus near, mid and far infrared wavelengths independently. So you're not just getting blended wavelengths plus heat, you're getting a targeted personalized session. Now, if you're already dialed in on food and exercise, this is the piece most people are missing. Go to sunlighten.com and use the code HIME, you'll save up to $2,100 plus get free shipping.

• 2:56Dr. Mark Hyman?

  For decades, we thought about conditions like Alzheimer's disease, depression, Parkinson's disease as disorders of the brain. But what if that's only part of the story? Merging science is revealing that many of the factors driving cognitive decline, mental illness, and neurodegenerative disease may begin far outside the brain itself. And our metabolism, our immune system, our gut microbiome, our hormones, and even the environment we're exposed to every single day. As part of our summer series, we're revisiting some of the most important conversations we have on the topic of brain health. In this special compilation episode, you'll hear from leading experts, Dr. Richard Isaacson, Dr. Chris Palmer, and doctors Ray Dorsey and Michael Okun, as they explore the new science of brain health and what it means for preventing cognitive decline, supporting mental health,

• 3:41Dr. Mark Hyman?

  and protecting our brains as we age. And what I find most encouraging about this research is that it challenges the idea that brain decline is simply an inevitable part of aging. Instead, it suggests that many of the biggest drivers of brain health are things we can influence through choices we make and the environments we create. And the ways we care for our bodies long before symptoms ever appear. So let's dive in. Let's talk about nutrition. Yeah, there's a, there's the mind diet, which is Mediterranean. And you know, like, the way I think about it is, is, you know, if food is medicine, what's the drug? What's the dose? What's the duration? Right? And I think, yes, the mind diet, which is a sort of a modified Mediterranean diet, lots of omega-3 fats and anti-inflammatory foods, great.

• 4:23Dr. Mark Hyman?

  But there's, there's different levels that you can push on the gas pedal to get more effect. I had a patient once who had MCI, mild cognitive impairment. She had a whole bunch of problems, the 21 things, and we fixed all of them. Her thyroid was off, she had heavy metals, she was prediabetic, she had methylation issues and high homocysteine, she had low omega-3 fats. I mean, just the list went on and on. And we fixed everything, and her cognitive function dramatically improved. And then after like three or four years, she started noticing a little bit of the dwindling. And I said, geez, why don't we try a ketogenic diet? Because I've been reading about ketogenic diets and changing the metabolism of the brain by cutting out all sugar and starch and carbohydrates, pretty much, and eating 75% fat. And we did it, and like, the lights came back on. And I was like, holy

• 5:08Dr. Mark Hyman?

  cow. So again, how do you approach diet with, with all this?

• 5:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, so nutrition and dietary patterns versus single or multiple nutrients, like, this is, this is a long topic. And you and I both have written books about this, and we could talk about this probably for an hour. But to me, different diets, you know, we're not in the realm yet where precision nutrition is like, easy off the shelf, straightforward. But different people, I believe, need to follow different dietary patterns. And, and I too, back in, I think, 2007 was the first time that I put someone on a ketogenic diet and, and saw something that I just did not think was possible. But then I've had other people where I put on ketogenic diets and like, things kind of went the wrong way. And, and to me, you know, it, we're not, we're going to get there very soon, where one day we'll

• 5:57Speaker 02

  have, you know, whether it's a blood test, or a genetic test, or something where we could put into a computer, and the computer will spit out exactly what the person could eat. Until, until we get to that time, I think, you think about the big bucket. So the Mediterranean-style diet, fatty fish, brain-healthy fats, omega-3 fatty acids, especially people with one or more copies of the APOE4 gene, like, we have to have enough omega-3 brain-healthy fats, otherwise, people will have cognitive decline. And the synopsis-

• 6:24Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Because a lot of your brain is made up of DHA, which is 60%, as far as I remember, which is-

• 6:29Speaker 02

  And, and DHA and EPA are the two most brain-healthy fats. And DHA is especially important for people with one or more copies of the APOE4 variant. So, brain-healthy fats, that's PUFA, it's polyunsaturated fat. Then you have monounsaturated fats, monounsaturated fats. Like, if you want to drink olive oil, like, an ounce or two a day, and your doctor says, okay- That's like anti-tau protein like that is good for.

• 6:52Dr. Mark Hyman?

  But it's gotta be good olive oil.

• 6:53Speaker 02

  It's gotta be quality.

• 6:54Dr. Mark Hyman?

  It's gotta be bitter and burn the back of your tongue. Otherwise it doesn't have the polyphenols.

• 6:58Speaker 02

  Exactly. And 60%, one study I read of the alcohol, of the, of the olive oil out there is corrupt. Exactly. So, you know, getting quality olive oil, um, like literally taking a shot of it, one or two shots a day, or pouring it on everything. Um, you know, I have olive oil stashed in different parts of the house and just pour it on, pour it on whatever I can get of them because I need, and if it burns the mouth, yep, that's exactly the, the proxy has a taste to it. So, um, avocados, olive oil, fatty fish, brain healthy fats are like so critical. Um, green leafy vegetables. So, you know, berries, you know, half a cup of strawberries or blueberries, uh, two to three times a week. Nurses health study published over a decade ago showed you could delay cognitive decline just by eating berries on a regular basis by two years, just from one intervention.

• 7:41Dr. Mark Hyman?

  That's why I gave you a berry shake this morning.

• 7:43Speaker 02

  You did. It was good with, with goat milk whey, which was a first for me. So I, I appreciate it, uh, which is, uh, really nutritious and, and actually tasted really good. So, you know, green leafy vegetables, high antioxidants. Um, people should be eating mostly plant-based. Um, you know, I.

• 7:58Dr. Mark Hyman?

  I would call it plant-rich.

• 7:59Speaker 02

  Yeah. Plant-rich, yeah. Plant-rich, plant-rich. And, you know, there's totally diff.

• 8:04Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Cause plant-based is vegan.

• 8:05Speaker 02

  Yeah. Oh, no, no.

• 8:05Dr. Mark Hyman?

  That might be problematic for people who want to build muscle.

• 8:07Speaker 02

  Mostly plant-rich. Okay. Yeah. That's a better, and I wouldn't maybe, maybe, yeah, I don't know the exact terminology, but, you know, and then like, meat is all not created equal, like, like red meat, grass-fed beef is totally different than other beef that isn't, you know, whatever. So, I think people need to eat, you know, where they feel comfortable with, whether ethically or, or otherwise, they need to get protein levels, whether it's through whey protein, through goat, or, or whey protein through regular milk from cows. I think each person needs their own individual kind of, um, thing. And some people may be more sensitive to one thing versus the other. And there's lots of different.

• 8:38Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And I saw you putting like cocoa polyphenols in your.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. I travel, I travel with, uh, dark cocoa powder, which is completely ridiculous, but I never leave home without my dark cocoa powder. And yeah, I have, I have coffee in the morning with dark cocoa powder because to me, actually caffeinated coffee, I think is brain healthy and has been shown to have better brain outcomes. Dark cocoa powder, um, again, it has to be like pure and not have the heavy metals in it and things like that. But, um, dark cocoa powder can help with insulin regulation, blood pressure control, and has shown to be beneficial for, for brain health too.

• 9:06Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Richard is, starts this morning with a mocha.

• 9:08Speaker 02

  I do. A mocha for your, a mocha for your memory in the morning.

• 9:11Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And it's funny because Mocha is actually one of the names for a test we use, a Montanal Cognitive Assessment Test, which is actually something you can actually do at home. It's something you download on the internet and it's a pretty good way of tracking your your brain health.

• 9:26Speaker 02

  Exactly. Yeah. We don't want people to do it too much at home because then they practice and the doctor see the doctor and they memorize the test. But I don't disagree. Yeah, for sure. There are definitely ways to track.

• 9:34Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So fatty fatty foods, omega three fats, monounsaturated fats, berries, leafy greens.

• 9:39Speaker 02

  You know, nuts and seeds.

• 9:41Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Antioxidants.

• 9:42Speaker 02

  You know, balancing the omega six with omega threes. There's so much nuance with nutrition, but I think that's it. Also, the elf diet.

• 9:49Dr. Mark Hyman?

  What's that?

• 9:50Speaker 02

  Oh, my.

• 9:51Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Eating moss in the Arctic Circle.

• 9:53Speaker 02

  I just Dr. Mark Hyman on a dietary pattern that he's never heard of. Well, this is this is a great day. I'm never going to forget this day. The elf diet. Eat less food.

• 10:05Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Oh, eat less food. Yeah, yeah. Like Michael Pollan, eat food, not too much, mostly plants, right?

• 10:09Speaker 02

  Yep. So just less, like people just eat so much in excess, like it's it's crazy. And, you know, there was a study out of Mayo that showed that people that ate like, I think the cutoff was like 2100 calories a day, less than 2100 or more have, you know, delayed cognitive decline. And, and again, this is like imprecise.

• 10:27Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So the Okinawa principle, right? Harihachi Bu, which is eat a percent.

• 10:30Speaker 02

  Percent full, exactly. Harihachi Bu. That's exactly it. So the take home here is though, if you're trying to gain muscle, well, you better eat sufficient protein and calories because you need both carbs and protein to build muscle. And you don't want to like just, you know, starve yourself and there's good carbs and bad carbs and know the difference. That's really key.

• 10:49Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Berries and leafy greens are carbs.

• 10:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And, you know, some whole grains in moderation, I think are okay, but it but not if a person's not active, you know. So, so anyway, yeah, nutrition's tricky. You know, vitamins, we talked about, you know, omega three fatty acids, but vitamin D, especially people with one or more copies of the APOE four variant. We check vitamin D. And just like you mentioned earlier, we don't just tell everyone to take vitamin D. But I think the statistic in Miami, as as an example, 60% of the people in Miami, even with sun exposure, are deficient in vitamin. So we check vitamin D.

• 11:23Dr. Mark Hyman?

  We have to be naked between 10 and 2 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon for 20 minutes. And if you're not, you're not going to get enough vitamin D. If you're, if you're, if you're a lifeguard, you will, but otherwise forget it.

• 11:32Speaker 02

  Exactly. If you wore sunscreen now, people are indoors. And yeah, you know, I usually tell people you need 15 minutes of, of 12 to 15 minutes between the hours of 11 and one to try to split the difference. I don't want to, you know, it's, it's, it's hard to know for sure, but, um, you know, we, we check vitamin D and supplement if needed. We also talk a lot about B complex vitamins and B complex vitamins again, are not something that's one size fits everyone. The Vitacog study, which was published over a decade ago, showed that when people had a marker in their blood called homocysteine. If homocysteine is high, the people that took B complex vitamins, B12 folic acid and a tiny little bit of B6. Those people, not only did they have slightly improved memory function on cognitive testing, but those people actually also had slower shrinkage of the memory.

• 12:17Speaker 02

  Sorry, of the, of the total shrinkage of the total brain size.

• 12:19Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So yeah, I know the paper published a few years ago in Jammer, in the England Journal, I read where if your homocysteine was over 14, you're 50% more likely to get Alzheimer's or dementia. And that's again, something we test that function health and also methylmalonic acid, which is a marker of B12 function. And I, I remember a patient who came to me who was, you know, a very successful businesswoman, was on multiple boards. She was in her early eighties and she's like, I got diagnosed with MCI, mild cognitive impairment, early dementia. And she was pretty upset and I'm like, well, I don't know, let's see what we find. And she had extremely high homocysteine and high methylmalonic acid, which is a marker of B12, which are better, probably better than measuring folate and B12 in the blood.

• 12:57Speaker 02

  Probably had a double MTHFR mutation.

• 13:00Dr. Mark Hyman?

  She had the genetics that made her having trouble with her metabolic pathways. Yeah. And she was older and probably not absorbing B12, which is common. As you get older, you get less stomach acid and so on and so forth. There are people taking acid blockers, they don't get, I mean, that's what that made me crazy. I mean, there's the third most leading prescribed drugs after statins and psychiatric drugs is the acid blocking drug, which are now over the counter. And they, they're, they're dangerous to take long term, fine, short term, but long term. And so I, I said, I found this and I gave her B12 shots and I gave her high dose of methylfolate and some B6, some of these methylating nutrients. And completely cured her MCI. Now, it's not that everybody with MCI or predementia has that problem. It's just that she had that problem. And then a number of years later,

• 13:45Dr. Mark Hyman?

  probably five years later, I got a call from her and I thought, oh, she's probably going downhill. And I'm a little worried about her and I saw on my schedule and I'm like, what's going on? She says, well, I'm going for a trek in Bhutan. She's 85 and I want to know what I should be doing to prepare and take and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, okay, great.

• 14:02Speaker 02

  Amazing.

• 14:03Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Yeah. What else? Supplements? What other supplements? Vitamin D, fish oil, the B vitamins?

• 14:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, turmeric, I think, you know, curcumin, the active ingredient curry. I think in certain people, especially with elevated amyloid levels in the blood, you know, we usually, we sometimes use this. And I think in terms of like the, the, the big picture, those are like the one size fits many ones. But I mean, the list just, I mean, the list is really long. So I mean, there's, there's definitely other things people can do. But, but the take home here is, you know, we check it in the blood, we do the history and then we personalize the plant for them. So I think nutrition is, is really nutrition and exercise are like critical, critical levers. And, you know, in our research study that we presented data that I can talk about, because we presented this at the 2025 Alzheimer's Association International Conference

• 14:51Speaker 02

  in July 2025. And we showed that when you looked at, and I'll talk about different interventions in a moment, but if you look at multimodal lifestyle intervention that included exercise, nutrition, vitamins, supplements, sleep, sleep, a lot of stress management, keeping the brain engaged, learning something new. Yep. Seeing a doctor on a regular basis to make sure their blood pressure, cholesterol, you know, blood sugar is all modified and in an optimal range for specifically for them. When you, when you put all those together, but no drugs, if you look at the groupings of, of the categories of the people we followed.

• 15:28Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So intensive lifestyle intervention?

• 15:30Speaker 02

  Intensive lifestyle intervention. Of all the interventions that we tried, moved the needle the most.

• 15:34Dr. Mark Hyman?

  More than any of these billion dollar amyloid drug studies.

• 15:37Speaker 02

  In our, in our, in our study that we've, you know, this hasn't been fully published, but I can talk about it because we presented an abstract form. There are people that, for example, took GLP-1 drugs and GLP-1 drugs are tricky because you know I believe that too high a dose if you're not eating right and doing the right thing you can you know lose muscle and have all the things lower dose you know I'm more of like the microdose crew when it comes to GLP-1s. GLP-1's positive effect on biomarkers you know in my opinion based on the our results you know impressive results when used in the right person at the right dose for the right duration of time.

• 16:09Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Bloating, gas, irregularity are often brushed off as minor issues, but they can really interfere with your quality of life. I see this all the time with patients who feel uncomfortable after meals, worried about digestion when they travel or frustrated that nothing they've tried actually works. That's one reason I continue to recommend SEED. Their DSO-1 daily symbiotic was designed differently from most probiotics in the market. Many probiotics don't survive digestion, but DSO-1 uses a capsule, in capsule delivery system designed to help the strain survive and reach your colon where they can actually do their job. It's a 24-strain probiotic and prebiotic clinically shown to improve regularity, reduce bloating, and alleviate gas.

• 16:50Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And what pressed me most is the level of scientific rigor behind the product, which is what led me to join SEED's clinical board. Go to seed.com/hyman and use the code 25HYMAN to get 25% off your first month. That's S E E D dot com slash Hyman and use the code 25HYMAN. Summer is supposed to be the season where we feel more energized, travel, and heat and schedule changes and longer days can actually throw off sleep, recovery, and stress levels pretty quickly. That's one reason I recommend magnesium with so many patients is involved in hundreds of biochemical reactions in the body, including regulating the nervous system, supporting muscle recovery, and helping your body transition into restful sleep.

• 17:29Dr. Mark Hyman?

  The challenge is that magnesium deficiency is incredibly common and many supplements only contain one or two forms that aren't always well absorbed and that's why I recommend magnesium breakthrough by BiOptimizers. It contains seven different forms of magnesium designed to support your brain, your muscles, your stress response, sleep quality, all in one formula. So go to bioptimizers.com/hyman and use the code HYMAN to save 15% off your order. Plus, get a free travel size bottle of their best selling mass enzymes digestive enzymes while the supplies last. Well, they improve metabolic health, which, and there's many roads to roam to do that, right? If you radically improve your diet. I mean, I mean, before GLP-1s were on the market, I was reversing diabetes, getting people lose 200 pounds, 100 pounds, 150 pounds. You, you can do it.

• 18:14Dr. Mark Hyman?

  It's just, it's just, and I think my guess is that they would do a head-to-head comparison of GLP-1s and the same diet that you would eat if you were on GLP-1s. There would be no difference in any of the biology. That's my point.

• 18:24Speaker 02

  So while multimodal treatments, you know, I would say work the best, the other categories that worked exceptionally well, that meaning exceptionally well to me means statistically significant improvements in a variety of pathologic proteins that are associated with neurodegenerative disease.

• 18:40Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So you're testing, not guessing.

• 18:41Speaker 02

  We test everything.

• 18:42Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Here, let me try these 20 things and let's cross our fingers and maybe do a, like a sort of semi, semi-subjective objective test, which is a bunch of questions.

• 18:51Speaker 02

  We try something.

• 18:52Dr. Mark Hyman?

  You're actually looking at blood tests that show changes.

• 18:54Speaker 02

  Try one thing, we repeat it. We don't try 10 things that, well, for multimodal interventions, we try a group. And then if we're going to try a drug, we're going to recheck the 150 biomarker proteins. We check the proteins on different machines, in duplicates, every blood test we do, we run twice. This is not normal. This is not cost effective. We do it anyway because we care about quality, not about anything else. But, and, and we just try to do things as rigorous as humanly possible. And what we show is that when we do these tests, we call these NF1 studies, we'll try a GLP-1 and we'll check. We'll try hormone replacement therapy, like hormone replacement therapy, bio-identical hormones for women during the perimenopause transition. In the right woman, at the right dose, the women in our, in our little hormone replacement

• 19:39Speaker 02

  therapy group, believe it or not, the age ranges from 42 to 67. We have multiple women that have actually started on hormone replacement therapy with approval and agreement by the GYN and the primary care doctor and our, and our team. We've had. I'll just say what I feel like I should say amazing success with using hormone replacement therapy and and when that rapid drop of estrogen comes in a genetically susceptible woman, you know, we did this whole women's brain imaging study at Cornell and spent, you know, millions and millions of dollars on this. Women that had, you know, hormone replacement therapy onboard had better brain volumes and less amyloid, but it had never really

• 20:21Speaker 02

  been proven in a in a study that you could use hormone replacement therapy. And then there was this that women's health study that used like synthetic hormones and horse urine derived whatever, like when you use a bio identical patch and you use progesterone and we talked to the GYN and we talked to the doctors, hormone replacement therapy during the perimenopause transition has helped improve brain biomarkers associated with Alzheimer's and neurodegenerative disease risk. It's been striking. So

• 20:47Dr. Mark Hyman?

  This is more than just what has been done before, which is population based studies, which can't really directly look at cause and effect. You're actually looking at blood biomarkers that change that improve the the blood biomarkers that are associated with neurodegenerative disease. That's a big deal. And the other thing I wanted to say is that the consensus most that I've heard is that it's it's important to start right away after your menopausal transition. But what I hear you saying is that you can actually start it later.

• 21:14Speaker 02

  What end early? I want to start.

• 21:15Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Both, both.

• 21:16Speaker 02

  I would say yes.

• 21:17Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Start early. Does that mean every woman should be on hormone replacement therapy? Like, what? What are the implications here?

• 21:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, this is these are these are really, you know, and by the way, why hasn't this been better studied? Why are we the only group to my knowledge?

• 21:31Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Because we have misogynistic research infrastructure.

• 21:34Speaker 02

  Like, it's, it's just so, it's demoralizing. It's just so wrong that women are taught that like, oh, you're having night sweats. Oh, oh, you don't feel good. Oh, you're having brain fog. Oh, okay. Sorry. You know, we'll see you back in six months. Perimenopause is a neurological disease. Like, you're just gonna have a woman suffer? These are, these are symptoms that are treated. Oh, go change the temperature in your room and maybe you'll sweat less. Or maybe change your sheets, get better sheets. Like, like, no, this is a medical condition. Like, really? Or, like, you know, the cooling thing? Like, okay, or a weighted, like, fine, okay. Treat the problem. And what we've shown is that, you know, through ridiculous amounts of time, effort, money spent and research,

• 22:19Speaker 02

  which needs to be quadrupled or probably increased even much more than that. We've shown that when we use hormone replacement therapy in the right woman, at the right dose, the right duration and collaboration with a multidisciplinary team, when we start seeing the estrogen drop, even if the symptoms are very mild, you get the estrogen back up, the tau starts coming down. Even though the tau wasn't elevated to a degree where we're like, uh-oh, sky is falling. But the tau is higher than it should be in that woman who's 47 years old. And this whole concept of like, you know, ah, it's normal. Well, no, optimal is where we want a brain protein. Normal, a little borderline, a little high. Like, no.

• 23:03Speaker 02

  In order to have the most benefit, we need to make these incremental changes. And hormone replacement therapy during the perimenopause transition, to me, is one of the most impactful tools that we can use to reduce the risk of cognitive decline, dementia, Alzheimer's disease in women. And, and I think, you know, it's tricky. I think there's risks and benefits with every one of these decisions. But, um, you know, I've just seen too many women suffer and it's just not fair.

• 23:28Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So if they're symptomatic, or if you, if you do evaluations, you have a higher risk based on your Alzheimer's risk score, which you've developed, then maybe it's a good idea. But even, even if you're not symptomatic.

• 23:37Speaker 02

  Well, I think if you're symptomatic, it's like, like, how could you not? I think it's like, you know, it's unethical not to try to figure out how to. In our cohort, we track estrogen, estradiol levels and other hormone levels. You know, I mean, women 21 and above. We also, this is crazy, but like, you know, this hasn't been done before to my knowledge. We do multiple blood draws through the menstrual cycle to try to figure out, like, as estrogen and progesterone change during the cycle. Guess what? P-tau 217 changes and these other markers change too. How has this never been done before? So we have women, we have like, thank you, thank you, I'm not going to say their code numbers in our research study. They get six blood draws on day one, on day three, on day seven. Like we get six blood draws during the menstrual cycle.

• 24:22Speaker 02

  We're just trying to figure out like, what should the P-tau be at? What, depending on what day the blood was drawn, we need to correct for what the tau level should be based on where the estrogen and progesterone is. Like, these are things that just haven't been figured out yet. And these are the types of questions we're asking. And these are the types of things that need to be figured out. And when you take this approach, precision, personalized, individualized approach, we've seen women in their early 40s, like 42 is the earliest we've started, where we've seen the estrogen going down and we've seen the amyloid going up. Well, maybe they're a little symptomatic, but it's not really bothering them. But we're going to start on low dose hormone replacement therapy.

• 25:06Speaker 02

  If everyone is in agreement, and guess what? She feels better.

• 25:13Speaker 02

  Her cholesterol comes down. That's interesting.

• 25:17Speaker 02

  Her amyloid is improving, even though it wasn't abnormal. And this is really the key. Like, we have to personalize these therapies and we have to, you know, we also just monitor for a change. We've been monitoring these women for so long. We see the change and then you intervene. And so to me, it's if symptomatic, like, please talk to your doctor. And if your doctor says tough it out, like, go to another doctor. If you're pre-symptomatic, follow it closely. I think women pre-menopause, perimenopause should, should probably get checked every six to 12 months for these brain biomarkers and hormones.

• 25:51Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So essentially what you're saying is if you're symptomatic, don't suffer. And if you're not symptomatic and you have a lot of risk factors and some of these blood biomarkers that were, that are emerging are abnormal, then it's better to get it out early, even if you're not symptomatic.

• 26:05Speaker 02

  I believe that specifically in people that are at the highest, women that are in the highest risk category, which are APOE four positive, especially women with two copies of the APOE four variant. Some of the most striking improvements, actually, one, one woman is actually, lives in Austin. One woman is in California. I mean, I know these cases, like, you know, the back of my, my, my mind, like, I, You just start and you see everything improve.

• 26:28Dr. Mark Hyman?

  This is honestly, Richard, why we co-founded Function. And I don't mean to kind of oversell it here, but these tests are not things that your doctor likes to order or often will order. And for very low cost, we've dramatically reduced the cost. You can get all these biomarkers, including APOE 4 and some of these brain biomarkers. And then you can kind of start to decide what to do and take control of your own health.

• 26:49Speaker 00

  The narrative needs to be, there is something wrong with this person's brain or body or combination of the two that is causing dysfunction or dysregulation

• 27:03Speaker 00

  that can be fixed. If we can ask the question, what might be causing the problem? And we can systematically look for causes.

• 27:13Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So what do we know now about those causes? And what are the mechanisms that are going on that are causing this brain dysfunction? Because it's things like insulin resistance, inflammation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, all these fundamental concepts that are rooted in functional medicine thinking that we've been talking about for decades. It's happening in the brain and we know what's causing it. And yet we're not treating it. So can you talk about what are those causes in a little bit more depth? And how do we start to begin to think about fixing those and even diagnosing them?

• 27:41Speaker 00

  So the part of the field that I really want to embrace, which has been around for, you know, 50, 60 years, is this concept of bio psychosocial. Biological, psychological and social. Those are the root causes and we know it. So adverse childhood experiences, if they occur early enough in life, they increase risk for all of the mental disorders and even autism spectrum. If you, if an infant is severely neglected or abused, that infant is at much higher risk of developing autism. Because that infant will never learn appropriate social skills.

• 28:23Speaker 00

  But every label in DSM 5 TR is increased. Your increased risk from adverse childhood experience. What else do adverse childhood experiences increase risk for? Obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, all sorts of other physical metabolic health conditions.

• 28:44Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Yeah, anybody listening, you should go online and look up the ACE questionnaire, ACE, it's Adverse Childhood Events, and get your score. And it'll tell you what your score is, and the higher your score, the more likely you are to have your health issues driven by what happened to you. Because it's, what happens to you is not just a emotional thing. It actually gets written in your epigenome and written in your biology in a way that changes everything and drives inflammation. So when you have adverse events happening to you, it literally turns on different genes that drive different metabolic pathways. They drive inflammation and oxidative stress and even things like insulin resistance. We, we know the biology of this.

• 29:25Speaker 00

  And interestingly can change your gut microbiome. So we just had a paper out, research study out in last year showing that amygdala activation, so this is your threat system in the brain. The amygdala actually activates a certain specific pathway in the vagus nerve, which then lands on something called Brunner's glands in your digestive tract that secretes an enzyme that changes the acidity of your gastrointestinal tract that within an hour changes your gut microbiome. And so stress and trauma impact your gut microbiome,

• 30:05Speaker 00

  which can then impact whole body health, mental health, all of it. But as you might know, what you eat also impacts your gut microbiome. And so we need to put it together. So even if stress or trauma is causing changes in your gut microbiome that then increase your risk for a disorder, we can use diet and nutrition to treat those changes in your gut microbiome to restore a healthier gut microbiome, which will then reduce your risk for disease or improve your health.

• 30:44Dr. Mark Hyman?

  One thing I've learned over the years is that healthy Meeting is a lot easier when you have better options available before you're starting. Whether I'm traveling in between meetings or just getting a quick bite, Paleo Valley Sticks are one of the snacks that I reach for most often. They're made with 100% grass-fed and finished beef, organic spices, and unlike most meats sticks, they're naturally fermented instead of relying on unnecessary additives or shortcut additives. And just as important, they actually taste good. They're tender, savory, and satisfying, so you're not choosing between convenience and quality. Have a better option ready when hunger hits. Go to paleovalley.com/hyman to save 15% off your first order today. One of the biggest myths in health and wellness is that younger-looking skin comes from what you put on your skin.

• 31:27Dr. Mark Hyman?

  The truth is that skin is often a reflection of what's happening inside your body. Chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and poor hydration can all accelerate the visible signs of aging, no matter how many expensive products you use. And that's why me and my team recommend the Radiant Skin Duo from Peak. It combines two powerful tools for healthy aging. Sun Goddess Matcha provides antioxidant compounds that help combat oxidative stress while delivering calm, focused energy without the crash. And the BT Foundation is a beauty-focused electrolyte designed to support deep cellular hydration with ingredients like hyaluronic acid, ceramides, and trace minerals. What I love is that this approach addresses two of the biggest drivers of aging in the skin: inflammation and dehydration.

• 32:09Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Together, they help support brighter, healthier-looking skin while also supporting energy, metabolism, and overall wellness. It's a simple daily ritual that helps nourish your body from the inside out. To try the Radiant Skin Duo, visit peaklife.com/hyman and receive 15% off. That's P-I-Q-U-E life.com/hyman. Just one note on that because it's really important. It seems to me a final common pathway is anything that triggers inflammation, whether it's toxins, your diet, psychological stress, changes in your microbiome, allergens, infection.

• 32:48Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Anything can drive changes that drive inflammation that ends up in your brain that causes mitochondrial dysfunction. And that becomes part of the root dysfunction in the brain that you fix with the changes that you do with diet and other therapies, right?

• 33:04Speaker 00

  Yes, that's the way I think about it. So I, I think-

• 33:07Dr. Mark Hyman?

  There's many roads to Rome and there's many things that can drive it, but the brain only has so many ways of saying ouch. And so when it, when it's inflamed, you don't feel it. But when you look at the science, people who are depressed have inflamed brains, autism has inflamed brains, Alzheimer's has inflamed brain. All the psychiatric illnesses, their brains are literally inflamed on fire, but we, we don't feel it except as psychiatric symptoms. And we think of it as something that is, like you said, genetic or because of it's in our head as opposed to it's in our body and there's something we can do to find the root cause and fix it.

• 33:39Speaker 00

  I think about inflammation, I mean, the way that I think about it really is that there are a series of pathways that are all connected, like a series of dominos that are connected. And so inflammation is one of those dominos. It is not the only domino because all of us get inflamed when we get a cold. And that includes brain inflammation. And yet, most people don't become psychiatrically ill from a cold. Some do, but not, most don't. And on and on. COVID infection caused severe neuroinflammation.

• 34:19Dr. Mark Hyman?

  I mean, I remember when I got COVID, I got severely depressed afterwards and I could feel my brain. And I'm like, wow, I've never felt this before. And I felt suicidal. And I actually took exosomes and it was gone like literally in a day.

• 34:33Speaker 00

  So the su-

• 34:34Dr. Mark Hyman?

  It was really-

• 34:35Speaker 00

  The depression part is common. And, and a lot of people don't think about that, but researchers have been talking about this for decades. High levels of inflammation cause behavioral motivational changes in most animals. So if you get the flu-

• 34:55Speaker 00

  You have a decrease in energy. You have a decrease in confidence. You are less likely to take risks. And what does that do? That drives you to want to go to your bedroom, get under the covers and hide from the world and stay away from the world. You are less interested in reproduction, less interested in sex. Even if the opportunity is right there, you're like, get the hell away from me. Leave me alone. I'm sick. I don't feel well. Leave me alone. Let me recover. And in my mind, those are all adaptive responses. That your body is hardwired to have this response. And the response is conservation of energy

• 35:40Speaker 00

  because your body is expending tremendous amounts of energy on your immune system right now. It is waging war on this thing that is infecting you and trying to take your life. It is waging war and it is spending every ounce of energy possible to create new immune cells, antibodies, cytokines, other things that are all trying to defend your life. And it is telling you as an organism, do not spend an ounce of energy that is unnecessary. Get into bed. Go into that cave and hide from the world. Don't challenge anyone right now. Don't go out and get into a fight where you have to fight or flee.

• 36:25Speaker 00

  Don't do anything. Stay away. Hide from the world. The suicide out. So that part is actually really common with infections and high levels of inflammation. The suicidality part is not. And that's where I think about the brain becoming dysregulated from the neuroinflammation. And people getting all of the constellation of symptoms.

• 36:49Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Well, you talk about the genetic vulnerabilities, but then there's a lot of inputs that can drive the same final common pathway of energy dysregulation in your brain cells, right? Diet, sugar, refined carbs, which affects everybody. I mean, 93% of Americans are metabolic. Well, I can help you at some level, you know, I would say most of those have some degree of insulin resistance. We've got to test for it at Function Health, the company I started with a bunch of folks. We actually can measure insulin resistance and we can see the degree. It's probably over 90% of people who we test have some degree of insulin resistance. It's pretty striking, you know, chronic stress and trauma. So psychological traumas can be transmitted into biological signals, sleep deprivation, substance use,

• 37:31Dr. Mark Hyman?

  toxins, we talked about microplastics in a minute, not exercising and being sedentary drives inflammation and anything like infections or allergens, microbiome changes, all those kind of lead to this final dysfunction, which you kind of think is at the root of it. And when you look at things like Alzheimer's or autism, which are not psychiatric particularly diseases, the same phenomena is going on. Suzanne Go, who's been on the podcast, talks about mitochondrial dysfunction, autism and treating kids by treating their mitochondria and helping them with autism. And you're doing the same thing with mental illness. So can you talk about this kind of final common pathway of energy dysregulation? And how it ties everything together? Because there's a lot of ways to roll on this, but the final dysfunction is very similar. And the therapies can be cross diseases very effective.

• 38:16Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So whether you have fibromyalgia, you have, you know, alcohol use disorder or eating disorder, whether you have Alzheimer's, autism, depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, anxiety, PTSD. These can be impacted by changing your diet.

• 38:29Speaker 00

  The way that I think about it, because some people think, oh, you know, Chris Palmer, you're being too reductionistic. You're saying everything's mitochondrial dysfunction. And so I really like, I'm struggling. How can I explain this so people understand what I'm really trying to say?

• 38:46Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Yeah.

• 38:46Speaker 00

  So what I'm really trying to say

• 38:48Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Run the edge of our

• 38:49Speaker 00

  is that biological, like wide range of biological, whether it's infections or, you know, hormones or like all sorts of things, microbiome, diet, biological, psychological, social and environmental, in particular, environmental toxins. All of those four buckets are the root causes of chronic disease.

• 39:15Speaker 00

  Those four buckets, so there are lots of things that go into those four buckets. But they all converge at this central pathway called metabolism mitochondria. Mitochondria are regulating and controlling metabolism because they are, they are really, mitochondria.

• 39:38Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Give us a 60 second, like when you say metabolism, people, I have a slow metabolism. You're not talking about that.

• 39:42Speaker 00

  I'm not talking about that.

• 39:43Dr. Mark Hyman?

  What you mean by metabolism, because it's important for you to understand.

• 39:46Speaker 00

  So most people think of metabolism as burning calories and yes, it is burning calories. Most people think of it as, well, it's metabolic syndrome. It's high blood pressure, high glucose, insulin resistance. That's metabolism. Yes, those things are tiny parts of metabolism, but metabolism in fact is a fundamental definition of a living organism. The ability to take food and turn it into energy or building blocks is a fundamental definition of a living organism. Viruses cannot do that independently. And so many biological authorities will say viruses are not independent living organisms. They are not a life form under themselves.

• 40:29Speaker 00

  They, so life, a living organism, whether it's a bacterium to a human being and everything in between, has to be able to take food, oxygen, nutrients, and turn that into energy or building blocks to maintain life. And in fact, the absence of metabolism, the cessation of metabolism is the definition of death. There are zero exceptions. There is no cause of death that does not involve the cessation of metabolism.

• 41:10Speaker 00

  Suffocate somebody, you're depriving them of oxygen, which stops metabolism. Starvation, toxins, you will not find any toxin that can kill a human being that does not disrupt metabolism.

• 41:27Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Cyanide, that's what it does. Boom, you're dead in seconds because it interrupts.

• 41:30Speaker 00

  It is a mitochondrial toxin. Arsenic, a mitochondrial toxin. Tylenol overdose, mitochondrial toxin. Alcohol poisoning, mitochondrial toxin.

• 41:41Speaker 00

  You can go on and on and the reason is not, it's not. You know, when I first started doing this work, I was initially like shocked by what I'm saying. And I was a little bit in disbelief. I'm like, it can't be that simple. It is that simple. And why is it that simple? Because metabolism is a fundamental law. Like, we don't really have laws like they do in physics. They have laws and. This is a law of biology. Metabolism is fundamental to life. The absence of metabolism is the definition of death.

• 42:17Speaker 00

  Disregulation of metabolism. This is what I am proposing. Disregulation of metabolism leads to chronic disease.

• 42:27Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Yeah.

• 42:28Speaker 00

  Dysfunction of mitochondria broadly leads to chronic disease.

• 42:33Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Ray, Michael, just sort of talking to me about, you know, Parkinson's, what is it? Give us a little background on the biology of it and then the increasing incidence of it. And what you think are the major reasons why we're seeing this is increasing, dramatic increasing incidence, it's like orders of magnitude. It's not just like a 10 or 20% increase.

• 42:53Speaker 03

  Parkinson's, the first major description of the disease was by Dr. James Parkinson in 1817 in London. So he's 61, he's a surgeon, actually, and he's actually even a geologist. And he sees something new on the streets of London, something so new that at 61, he bothers to write a case series. He basically writes his case series on six people. Five, at least five of whom are men. They're all older. And they have tremor, which has long since been described, but they have this stoop posture, this hunched posture and this tendency to walk faster and faster. And to fall forward. And he said in 1817, this has not been described in medical literature.

• 43:28Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Really?

• 43:28Speaker 03

  This is 1817. So in 1817, Dr. Parkinson just says that Parkinson's, that became known as Parkinson's, has not been described in medical literature. Ergo, I'm describing something new.

• 43:37Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And this was the beginning of the industrial revolution.

• 43:39Speaker 03

  And it's the beginning of the industrial revolution. And where is it? It's in London.

• 43:42Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Yeah.

• 43:43Speaker 03

  And air quality in 1800 London is equivalent to what is in Delhi, India today. It's equivalent to what was over in New York City with the Canadian wildfires. Remember two or three summers ago? The skies turned orange. That was every day 1800 London.

• 43:58Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Yeah.

• 43:59Speaker 03

  So I think Dr. Parkinson is describing the effects of chronic exposure to high levels of air pollution. And so Parkinson's, we think as

• 44:08Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And by the way, it was coal.

• 44:09Speaker 03

  Coal.

• 44:10Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Because coal was what they used to heat and do industry with, and that's full of mercury and lead.

• 44:14Speaker 03

  Exactly. And so we look in the brains of people with Parkinson's, they have high levels of heavy metal. And so when you look at smog in LA, for example, you're seeing little pieces of dirt and soot that are suspend the air. The fancy term is particulate matter. Most of them we cough out or sneeze out, but some are so small, less than one thirtieth the width of our hair, they penetrate the nerve that hangs down, they're responsible for smell that hangs down in our nasal passages. And hitchhiking on those pieces of dirt and soot are toxic metals.

• 44:43Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Wow. So it's a superhighway from your nose to your brain.

• 44:46Speaker 03

  Exactly. It's the front door to your brain.

• 44:48Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Wow.

• 44:48Speaker 03

  And it's the blood brain barrier you remember from medical school, right? Doesn't let, let things in.

• 44:52Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Well, kind of it does.

• 44:53Speaker 03

  But it does, but this It's a little leaky. But this, this is the front door. This is, doesn't go through the blood brain barrier. It's just going through the olfactory nerve, this nerve responsible for smell that's hanging it. And hitchhiking are these metals, lead from gasoline, iron from brakes, platinum from catalytic converters. And so people with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's both have high, high levels of metals in our brain. No one's really been able to explain why, but I think one of the reasons why is air pollution, which is one of the toxins that are inhaled that lead to Parkinson's.

• 45:22Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Yeah, we're exposed to, I mean, listen, we're exposed to mercury in the fish we eat, lead is, you know, in their food. And, you know, if you eat a lot of kale, it's grown in urban environments, it just picks up all the lead. You know, what, what, what you said was so interesting to me about the leaky brain because, you know, when I was in, in sort of my early years of practicing, we were talking about a leaky gut. And I used to get laughed at all the time by traditional doctors because they're like, oh, that's nonsense. It's just, you know, your quack. And for a long time, I've also basically been saying that there's a leaky brain. Well, you, Michael, you, you sort of just sort of brought this attention because I think people don't really understand what that is. I mean, leaky gut is when the berry breaks down and food and poop leak in and infect your immune system

• 46:07Dr. Mark Hyman?

  and then start to cause all kinds of havoc. And, and as you mentioned, Michael, Michael, that you basically have this barrier, this Brain barrier, but it becomes permeable and then all of a sudden things get in from the outside. So it's not like a like completely impenetrable barrier. And I think we're seeing increasingly things that cause a leaky brain like stress and many other things like toxins. So maybe you could talk a little bit about this leaky brain phenomenon because it's really how the toxins get into the brain that are causing all these problems. When you do biopsies and you're finding toxins and heavy metals in the brains, like what's happening?

• 46:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, and you're absolutely, you know, spot on when you talk about leaky gut too. And it turns out the gut is also a pathway, you know, where you can hitchhike in and potentially cause Parkinson as well. And we talk about now brain first Parkinson and gut first Parkinson. And, uh, and so this leakiness, you know, this permeability to, you know, to stress and, and other factors that can get across is really important. So if you think about the brain as having like a force field, if you're a Star Wars fan, you know, it's kind of got like a force field. And we've always kind of taught all the medical students, we've taught everybody in medicine that this is this impenetrable.

• 47:22Dr. Mark Hyman?

  That's right.

• 47:23Speaker 04

  Nothing's gonna get through this force field area. It's actually not correct. Not only is it not right, but as we develop, you know, treatments and as we develop, you know, different, you know, therapies, we're actually able to defeat the blood brain barrier is what we call it, or the BBB. We're able to defeat that. And, and it's so super important for us to remember that things can get through it. We can use that for therapeutics. We can also need to be thinking about that for cause and getting to the root cause of Parkinson. And one other thing.

• 47:56Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And even treatment.

• 47:57Speaker 04

  And even treatment. But one other thing I just wanted to bring into the discussion and, and I'm so glad that you mentioned the gut is there's a big myth about Parkinson. And the myth is, is that it's just a brain disease.

• 48:07Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Yeah.

• 48:08Speaker 04

  It's a whole body disease, Mark. And, and, and we see it in the gut, you know, we see the proteins in the gut. We see it in the skin. We see it in multiple systems. And so we.

• 48:18Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Proteins that are expressed in the body in Parkinson.

• 48:21Speaker 04

  Absolutely. And so.

• 48:22Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And misfolded.

• 48:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, and misfolded. I mean, we have twice the risk. Of malignant skin cancer, you know, melanoma and Parkinson's disease, twice the risk of osteoporosis and Parkinson's disease. This is a whole body disease. And as we think about it, and I love, you know, kind of how you describe yourself as someone that, that, you know, thinks of everyone, thinks of the whole, we have to start thinking about Parkinson's in a different way. It's not just a brain disease, and it's not just the disease of dopamine. There are certainly multiple circuits in the brain. And then, you know, this barrier that we, you know, have, you know, invested so much in, in all of our textbooks, we've got to rewrite that.

• 49:00Dr. Mark Hyman?

  If you love this podcast, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it. You can find me on all social media channels at Dr. Mark Hyman. Please reach out. I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the Dr. Hyman Show wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at Dr. Mark Hyman for video versions of this podcast and more. Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on the Dr. Hyman Show. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Ultra Wellness Center, my work at Cleveland Clinic, and Function Health, where I am Chief Medical Officer. This podcast represents my opinions and my guests' opinions. Neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional.

• 49:45Dr. Mark Hyman?

  This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, please seek out a qualified medical practitioner. And if you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, visit my clinic, the Ultra Wellness Center at UltraWellnessCenter.com, and request to become a patient. It's important to have someone in your corner who is a trained, licensed healthcare practitioner, and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health. This podcast is free as part of my mission to bring practical ways of improving health to the public. So I'd like to express gratitude to sponsors that made today's podcast possible. Thanks so much again for listening. When it comes to supplements, you only want the best for your body, the kind with the highest quality, cleanest, and most potent ingredients you can get. That's exactly what

• 50:30Dr. Mark Hyman?

  you'll find at my supplement store, where I've hand-selected each and every product to meet the most rigorous standards. For safety, purity, and effectiveness. These are the only supplements I recommend to my patients, and they're also what I use myself. Whether you want to optimize longevity, or reduce your disease risk, or you're looking to improve your sleep, blood sugar, metabolism, gut health, you name it, DrHyman.com has the world's best selection of top-quality, premium supplements, all backed by science and expertly vetted by me, Dr. Mark Hyman. So check out DrHyman.com, because when it comes to your health, nothing less than the very best will do. That's DrHyman.com, D-R-H-Y-Man dot com.