Dr Berg Interviews Amy Berger on Alzheimer Disease and the Ketogenic Diet

Dr. Berg:

Guys, we're talking to Amy Berger and basically she's touching on amyloid plaquing there's a couple points about that. Sometimes it shows up, sometimes it doesn't, it's not the common thread. It's not the thing. There's a lot of misunderstood about it. There's more data that needs to be coming, but that's actually fascinating. And then just to kind of summarize a couple things the unique thing about Alzheimer's is there's, there's, there's a sugar problem. There's a lack of sugar <laugh> and it can be picked up on a pet scan of like an absence of sugar. So it's obvious somehow it's a the cells mitochondria cannot get sugar and they're basically starving, right?

Amy Berger:

Yeah. That's it in a, in a basic overview, that's the problem in the brain.

Dr. Berg:

And when they starve, then they lose the connections. Right? You got these communication, connections and synapses and they just kind of, you know, lose their communication lines.

Amy Berger:

Oh, exactly. I mean, if people, if people aren't familiar with the shape of a neuron, I mean, very basically like, let's say it looks like this. It's got the cell body, their main part. It's got all these little projections and the projections are how these cells communicate with each other. The messages are passed out of one and it's received at, at the ends of another. And because of this energy shortage, this fuel crisis in the brain, it takes energy just to maintain the shape of this cell, just to maintain the structure requires energy. So when the brain is starting to lose the ability to, to have enough energy in order to keep the main part of the cell alive, the cell body, these neurons actually retract. These projections are called axons and dendrites. The cell will actually retract these into the cell body in order just to keep the cell alive.

Amy Berger:

So what I, I liken it to a vacuum with the retractable cord. It's like, you just sucked that cord back in for storage, but now all of these synapses, all of these places where these cells are supposed to communicate are gone. So those cells are no longer communicated with each other. It makes perfect sense that that person is gonna have memory loss and behavior changes and personality disturbances. But, but the beautiful thing is even earlier, earlier on in my own research, I would say that these cells were starving to death, right? They were dying. They're actually not dying. The, the fascinating, promising thing in Alzheimer's research is like, again, when we give these people keto tones, whether it's through a ketogenic diet or these new exogenous keto substances, they have improved cognition. Now, if those cells were completely dead, they wouldn't get better. No one would ever have any improvement because if those cells were dead, it wouldn't matter if they could take up peak counts or not, cause they're dead. But the fact that when we get these cells, this great, fabulous alternative fuel, they sort of come back to life. They come back online, like

Amy Berger:

Interesting. It, it goes to show that those cells weren't dead. They were almost like hibernating. They were in a low power mode waiting to get enough fuel to come back and do what they have to do.

Dr. Berg:

So, so, but I I'm imagining there's not a lot of research just because who's gonna fund this because then there's no money, right? I mean,

Amy Berger:

Yeah, there is, there's not a lot of research, but there is some, and it's really, really promising. A lot of it is being done in Canada by a, a doctor named Steven Kuan and his colleagues. Fascinating. And thank goodness, it's not just in rats and it's not just in mice and Petri issues, but in human subjects with Alzheimer's and with the precursor, which is called mild cognitive impairment. Now people that, that are very elderly or have very severe, Alzheimer's do not show as good an improvement as someone who's in a milder state, but there is still a noticeable improvement.

Dr. Berg:

Wow.

Amy Berger:

Yeah.

Dr. Berg:

Now what about intermittent fasting? Because that creates neurogenesis now what's, what's your take on that?

Amy Berger:

I think fasting can be a very helpful tool. I don't think everyone needs to do it. And especially specifically in the Alzheimer's world, some of these people are, are already going to be underweight and frail and I don't recommend fasting for them. They should not be fasting. They should not be Cal, you know, calorie restricting, but for someone who's younger, like we said, maybe fifties and sixties with this early onset Alzheimer's, especially if they have other signs of metabolic disease, if they're, you know, have metabolic syndrome type issues. I think fasting can be great because anything that reduces insulin levels reduces blood glucose forces, you know, not forces, but helps the body transition more into that fat using state, I think should be helpful for any metabolic disorder, including Alzheimer's.

Dr. Berg:

I mean, even the, the topic of autophagy you know, you're gonna recycle these damaged proteins the folded proteins, all the different defects. I mean, I could imagine that that's probably gonna help, but I can see your point if someone's frail and they're you'd have to have it really supervised and really watch it closely. Fascinating. Now, just guys, if you haven't got this yet, she I wanted to emphasize one point, you don't just wake up with Alzheimer's overnight. It's a gradual thing you could even have. You could start to get this in your thirties, I guess, thirties or forties. Right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> I mean, and how many people go in a room and you're like, okay, what did I come in your for? They start to have a little bit of that. I mean, oh, where I put my keys memory issues.

Dr. Berg:

So, I mean, it's kind of a start of that. It's so if you take care of yourself now you could actually be in better shape cuz once you get it, it's so hard to backtrack. You know? I, I went to this, the home where my mother-in-law had put her and I'm looking around there's this, this place that they just take care of. Alzheimer's patients only. And I'm like, oh my gosh, if you could only just have, you know, let me just feed these people because they're feeding them every hour and a half they're putting and their snacks and they have to keep feeding them and feeding I'm like massive insulin. So, and it's just sad because I think probably the worst thing that happened to anyone is to lose your mind, stuck in your body, lose your mind, go from someone that's brilliant to someone that's completely, you know, not even there that's like the worst. I'd rather be hit by a bus myself, but

Amy Berger:

I mean, Alzheimer's disease is one of the most feared dreaded illnesses because at least unlike so many other conditions, there's literally nothing. There's nothing available to you, therapeutically. There's all of the drugs that are available for Alzheimer's are useless. They do nothing. It's like here, take this pill. Good luck. I mean, it's very sad, but that's the truth. There's nothing for them. And it's, you know, at least as far as we know, there's nothing you can do. You get it, you're gonna decline, decline, decline, and die. But you know, hopefully if, if people come to the summit or even just watch this video, I certainly believe there's so much we can do about this. We are like, I, I, I am very clear to say there is a lot that's not fully understood yet, but ju that doesn't mean we don't know anything that doesn't mean we don't have enough information to start taking action.

Amy Berger:

You know why we pretend like we're totally clueless about this, this illness? Why is it that over the last 50 or 60 years, we've had explosive increases in things like obesity type two diabetes, cardiovascular disease, even infertility P C S all these things. And yet when it comes to Alzheimer's disease, we just wanna pretend like, oh, this couldn't possibly be a diet and lifestyle disease when it comes to all those other conditions, even in the conventional medical world, nobody questions that there's a role for diet and lifestyle in that if not the primary driving role, nobody even pretends, like, that's not it anymore. Like, oh, oh, it doesn't matter what you eat. If you're diabetic, it doesn't matter what you, your diet doesn't cause heart disease. Right. But when it comes to Alzheimer's, we just dismiss even the mere possibility that this could also be every bit a metabolic dietary lifestyle illness.

Dr. Berg:

Absolutely. And I, I, I see it in my practice over and over and over again, of course it's not an official study, but I've observed, I know there's a huge connection. I know there's something to it. Now guys at the summit Amy's gonna talk about something that's a pretty exciting and it relates to having here, you are having normal blood sugars, right. Thinking you're fine, but you're not fine. There's some things that you guys need to know about that that relate to not just your brain, but even men's health and a lot of other conditions. So she's gonna talk about that. She's gonna cover this topic in depth. If you don't already have her book, Alzheimer's antidote. It's awesome. Awesome. You need to get it. It's on, it's actually on a Kindle. I don't know if it's a hardback, but it's Kindle for sure. Right?

Amy Berger:

Yeah. There's a Kindle version. There is also a paperback that they can get from Amazon. There's no, there's no audio book yet. I've had some requests. We just haven't had a chance to do that yet.

Dr. Berg:

Yeah. That's a lot of work. <Laugh> I know people are like, when are you gonna do that? I'll in my spare time.

Amy Berger:

Yeah. Right. <Laugh>

Dr. Berg:

Well, I just wanna say, thanks Amy, for taking the time for doing this, I think it's gonna help a lot of people and you guys you'll be able to see her at the event. I put a link down below for to get more information. All right. Well, thanks so much, Amy. I really appreciate it.

Amy Berger:

Yeah. Thanks for having me take care.

Dr. Berg:

Okay. Good.