Supplements, aluminum and other dementia myths

  If I see that Prevagen commercial one more time, I just might scream. But instead, let's talk about supplements, aluminum, and other dementia myths. We're going to separate fact from fiction and debunk those myths.   I'm Dr.Vickie Petz Kasper and I want to help you make changes that make a difference. Healthy Looks Great On You podcast takes you to many medical school so you can learn the power of lifestyle medicine.

If you're ready to take control of your health, you're in the right  place. Whether you're focused on prevention or you're trying to manage a condition. I'll give you practical steps to start your own journey toward better health because healthy looks great on you.

This is episode 156, Supplements, Aluminum, and Other Dementia Myths. 

If you're a regular listener of this podcast and you listened closely last week, you know that I planned to talk about genetics today, but Sally, Steve and Lea, Greg, John and Sherry, and Barbara really got to me.  You don't know them? You must not watch TV at all. Those stupid commercials air every few minutes.  In this episode, we're going to bust some myths, but also amp up our game in the discernment category. We're gonna discuss Prevagen, aluminum, and their relationship to dementia, as well  as some other misunderstandings. But wait, Sally is a nurse, isn't she? Says so right on the commercial, a flight nurse.

Yeah, so she should know better. You see, she said she had a fear that she wouldn't be able to keep up and she wanted all the boost that she could get. Okay, let's stop right here because fear is a fantastic motivator when it comes to sales pitches.  People make purchases based on emotion. So this flight nurse who has all these medical resources available to her, heard from a friend.  Listen, friends don't let friends take scammy supplements.  I will give her some credit because she said she read the clinical study on it and it had good reviews.  I'm not sure which study she's referring to, but I did find a graph that has one bar going way up and the label says, In clinical trials, Prevagen has been shown to improve short term memory in people who were, and get this, normal or mildly cognitively impaired. Well, which is it? Because those two things are pretty different, aren't they? But here's an even better question. Compared to what? You see, the company's own study showed that a placebo, which in this case was a flour pill instead of a sugar pill, was equally effective at improving the nine cognitive skills that they looked at, including memory.

So you can either pay 40 to 90 a month on Prevagen. Or you could just do something like, eat a peanut, and voila! Your memory will improve.

Just like Steve and Leah. They live in the North Pole, and they're retired educators, but probably not science educators. And here's how they got started taking Prevagen. Steve said he saw one of those incredibly annoying commercials and thought, That makes sense.  Does it though?  You tell me. The active ingredient is  aquaporin. It's a calcium binding protein, and calcium is definitely linked to brain health and memory. Calcium is super important in communication between nerve cells in the brain. So it's gotta work, right? Well, here's what the announcer says. Can a protein originally found in jellyfish improve your memory? Our scientists say yes. Researchers have discovered a protein that actually supports healthier brain function. It's the breakthrough in a supplement called Prevagen.  Their scientists say yes, but sounds fishy to me.

Specifically it's made from jelly fish that luminesce. Now, these are some fascinating creatures, and honestly, I did not even know they existed until this summer. I went to the west coast to help my son move into a new apartment and we traveled down to Monterey Bay. There's an aquarium there that has all these luminescent jellyfish and one of them was neon red. It was one of the most fascinating things that I've ever seen.

But what does that have to do with memory?  Well, you might have a bright future if you're a Caribbean box jellyfish. Turns out they're capable of learning even though they don't have a brain. And what exactly can a jellyfish learn you ask? Well, they can learn to dodge obstacles, which can come in handy if you're running an obstacle course, I guess. 

Nah.  Now, Barbara is a retired librarian from Michigan. Five years ago, she says she had a lot going on. And she saw the Prevagen commercial. And she started taking it. And she noticed that her memory was better, and people tell her that she doesn't miss a beat.  I mean, she's dodging obstacles like a professional jellyfish.

I guess the bottom line is, those commercials work. But look, we don't have a lot in common with these jellyfish. They don't even have a brain . But they do have 24 eyes and that's pretty weird. 

But isn't it the number one supplement for memory recommended by pharmacists?  Maybe, but I couldn't verify that. But John is a pharmacist and he does a paid testimonial for Prevagen on the commercials. And he says he went ahead and gave it a try. And he feels like it's really helping, so he recommends it to his customers, family, and friends as a safe product to try. 

That's not how this works. In medicine, we don't recommend things because we want to give it a try or because we feel like it helps. But I imagine a lot of people are listening to John because consumers have spent more than a hundred and sixty five million dollars on this product in the last ten years.

And it's a hoax.

Maybe you noticed that their commercials changed recently. Well, that's because a complaint was filed back in 2017 with the Federal Trade Commission. Because studies showed that this protein doesn't even cross the blood brain barrier and it's probably digested in your stomach and never goes anywhere else.  This was the beginning of a  seven year legal battle that ended last month. And there are two claims that got them in hot water.

One of them was that Prevagen reduces memory problems associated with aging. Because it  doesn't.  The other one they said is that it was clinically shown to reduce memory problems associated with aging.  Now their website looks a little different since this case was settled last month, and it doesn't even make a claim that it helps anything.

They can't because it doesn't work. Now, you may hate big pharma, but I can promise you that if you could milk some protein out of a jellyfish and make a medicine out of it, they'd have done it. It's not like there's a shortage of jellyfish.  

But on the Prevagen website, they list three studies showing that it's safe. Not effective, safe. They're labeled Safety Study 1, Safety Study 2, and Safety Study 3. But nothing to indicate that it does anything.  They don't even pretend that it treats or cures anything. But, they do continue to aggressively market to an aging population who is concerned about memory loss. 

If you're going to forget anything, forget Prevagen.  Here's what they say now, I really feel like my memory has improved since I started taking Prevagen, or my wife thinks my memory is getting better.  

Greg is my favorite. He's got a lot of gigs and is the most accomplished and likable paid testimonial in the game. He's a motivational speaker so he has that edge. He noticed in his mid fifties that he was losing a bit, like walking into a room and forgetting why he came. Which, by the way, can be normal. And if you missed my episode on the difference between normal aging and early signs of dementia, I'll put a link in the show notes.  But he's been taking Prevagen for three years, and it's helped him tremendously.

Now, I'm not sure what it helps him with because he admits he has a very healthy lifestyle. And people tell him that he has a memory like an elephant. Guess they didn't know that aquaporin comes from jellyfish.  Now, maybe you've taken it and now you're just feeling a little silly. I get it. People put soap under their covers to try to help with restless legs. At least that's cheap. And desperate people do desperate things. Once I had tennis elbow really bad. I never played tennis, but I was desperate for relief. I ended up getting one of those copper bracelets and wearing it. Well, it's kind of cute, but it didn't work either. So I think we could all use some information.

So let's go to mini medical school. 

Today we're going to talk about medical research. Here's the deal. Our bodies are incredibly complex.   So there are some experiments in nature that you could design to measure things or to prove this or that. But when it comes to the human body, we are quite varied in our responses to different things. So, a lot of times there's not clear evidence to prove things. But you can't just make stuff up. Well, I mean, you can, but the pharmaceutical industry is required to prove that their products are safe and effective.  It's not a perfect system, but have you ever tried to actually read a package insert?

A lot of times it will say that a certain percentage of people had nausea or headache or even something more serious like a seizure.  But then the question becomes, would they have had the same thing even if they hadn't taken whatever drug you're reading about?  But they're required to report anything that comes up during the trial. 

And if you look at the absolute numbers, it might say something like 9 percent of people had nausea, and if you look at the placebo group, well, 9 percent of them had nausea, too.  But here's the deal, with the supplement industry, they don't have to do all of this. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act was passed in 1994. And they are exempt from having to prove claims that vitamins and supplements even work.  So the best advice I can give you is listen closely to what they're saying.  Just because somebody saw an ad and feels like something is helping, doesn't mean it works. 

And in general, be careful when looking at medical research. It's complicated. Traditionally, we consider the double blinded placebo controlled randomized trial to be the gold standard. It gives us the most reliable data, and That means that the person taking the medication or placebo nor the researcher who's evaluating the data about the medication or placebo knows which one they're taking. And that allegedly prevents what we call bias and helps us sort out the placebo effect. But even that's not perfect.

We also have to look at the power of the study. Typically, a well designed study has lots and lots of people in it. It's more meaningful if you look at that versus a handful of people. It's reported as the N, which logically stands for number. So if you see a study of about 400 people in the grand scheme of things, that's not really very big.  Often what researchers do is take a bunch of smaller studies and clump them together and try to increase the validity. We call that process a meta analysis. And it's not perfect science either.

Listen, science is hard. Research is complicated and math is a challenge for a lot of us, even researchers. Apparently, some really smart people are not exempt from this. Recently, there was a paper published that showed toxic levels of microplastics associated with those black cooking utensils you use to protect the Teflon on your pots and pans. It set off a firestorm of TikTok videos to help people get rid of those things.  But guess what?  They made a mathematical error and missed a decimal point. So what was actually being released was nowhere near the toxic level. But it was too late for a lot of poor soup spoons.  

Another problem we encounter in studies is extrapolating data from animal studies to humans. And I see a lot of reference articles to some reputable sources, but they're looking at things like the effect of some chemical in gigantic doses on some little animal, and that can cause misleading information. 

In the 1960s, rabbits were injected with high levels of aluminum, and they got lesions in their brain that look very similar to the lesions that people with Alzheimer's get in their brains. So they started looking at aluminum as a cause for dementia. And I'm old enough to remember feeling a little bit of caution drinking out of an aluminum can. 

Turns out, they did find aluminum in those plaques in the Alzheimer's brains of people. And that's scary. But hold on. Healthy brains also contain aluminum.  And despite looking for a link, there's no evidence that aluminum from cans or pots and pans or deodorant or antacids causes Alzheimer's.  So now that we've busted the myth that a jellyfish protein doesn't do anything besides waste your money, and that your pots and pans aren't out to get you, Let's talk about some more somber misinformation that people believe about dementia.

There are three falsehoods I want to address. Number one is that only older people get dementia. Number two is there's nothing that can be done about dementia. And unfortunately, number three is that dementia is always preventable, because it's not.  If you've been following this series on dementia, you know that the number one risk factor for developing dementia is age.

But that doesn't mean it only affects people over the age of 65. Early onset Alzheimer's can affect people in their 50s, 40s, and rarely even in their 30s. The symptoms are the same, but are often misdiagnosed. You can imagine partly that's because it's very rare and unexpected. It's also even more tragic because it's now affecting someone who may be still parenting children at home or maybe providing the family's income.  And it can feel very isolating for the person affected and their family. And let me just pause right here and say that if you or your loved one has dementia, regardless of their age, there is so much value in support groups.  I think this is so important that if you cannot find a support group in your area, I would challenge you to start your own. I'm sure you could get some help from the Alzheimer's Foundation or the Alzheimer's Association. But if your life is affected by someone with dementia, I urge you right now to Google Alzheimer's support groups in your area. 

If you're worried about yourself or someone you love, it's important to see a doctor. Because if anyone tells you that nothing can be done, they are falling for a myth.  The truth is that there are treatments available and lots of research is being done with new treatments in the pipeline. The earlier you get a diagnosis, the more opportunity you have to slow progression.

Not only that, there are some business aspects that you need to tend to to protect your family.  Lastly, I need to tell you that dementia is not always preventable.  I'm going to put some links in the show notes to all the episodes I've been doing on this series, and I stand by the fact that lifestyle matters. A lot. But even the most promising studies claim that 40 percent of dementia is preventable with lifestyle. And that means 60 percent isn't. 

Remember, I told you you needed to listen closely when paying attention to medical research. Nevertheless, don't you want to do all you can to protect your brain health? Lifestyle matters. The first recommendation is a healthy diet, physical fitness, social connectedness, stress management, avoiding tobacco and alcohol, and routinely getting a good night's sleep. 

And I have some exciting news for you about sleep. I'm going to do an entire series in the month of February about restorative sleep. I have a couple of resources on my website that you're gonna want to snag. Just go to www healthy looks great on you.com and you can find those. I've got an upcoming series of live webinars to help you with this as well.

Now that you know how to critically evaluate scientific medical studies, let's take a moment to focus on a study that was released in June of 2024 by Dr. Dean Ornish, and it looked at the effects of intensive lifestyle changes on the progression of mild cognitive impairment or early dementia due to Alzheimer's.

Now, this study was randomized and it was a clinical trial and that gives it some validity. And here's what they did. They took people with early Alzheimer's and randomly assigned them into two groups. One group implemented intense lifestyle changes, like the stuff I promote on this podcast. And they did it for almost six months. And the two groups were similar in their performance on standardized cognitive tests at the beginning of the study.  They also had blood work done to measure biomarkers of Alzheimer's. Specifically, these are things in your plasma. And after 20 weeks, they compared the intervention group with the no intervention group, and they found improvement in their performance on cognitive tests, as well as these biomarkers in their bloodstream. In addition, their gut microbiome improved, and that's super exciting.

Now, let's think critically. There were 51 people in this study, and that's not really very many. But still, the results showed that eating minimally processed, plant based, whole food, doing moderate aerobic exercise and resistance training, managing stress through meditation, breathing, and stretching, and attending support groups made a difference and the difference was statistically significant. 

71 percent of patients in the intervention group either improved or at least they didn't decline and all of the patients in the control group either stayed the same or got worse. Now I don't know about you but even though this is a small study that's pretty encouraging. I'll put a link to the study as well as an article about it from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine in the show notes. And I'll send it out to my email list.

So, even though all dementia isn't considered preventable,  let's do what we can to be healthy. Because healthy looks great on you.    

   The information contained in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not considered to be a substitute for medical advice. You should continue to follow up with your physician or health care provider and take medication as prescribed. Though the information in this podcast is evidence based, new research may develop and recommendations may change.

RESOURCES:

Dr. Ornish's study on dementia

American College of Lifestyle Medicine Article on Dr. Ornish's Study

Preventing Cognitive Decline 

Practical Tips for Caregivers of People with Dementia

Is Dementia Really Preventable?

10 Must Know Risk Factors for Dementia

Is it Normal Aging or Dementia?

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