The Brain Doctor That Figured Out The Cause Of Dementia - Dr. David Perlmutter
Neurologist David Perlmutter tells Steven Bartlett that Alzheimer's is largely a preventable metabolic condition driven by the brain's immune cells turning destructive. He walks through his top lifestyle risks: inactivity, isolation, poor sleep and diet.
The gist
-
Perlmutter cites a Framingham-based study where the most active middle-aged people had about 45% lower Alzheimer's risk, and active older APOE4 carriers about 67% lower.
-
Perlmutter learned from a continuous glucose monitor that cashews spiked his blood sugar; Bartlett found barbecue sauce and balsamic glaze were 40 to 50% sugar.
-
Perlmutter favors polyphenol-rich foods like coffee, extra virgin olive oil and dark chocolate above 80%, and calls alcohol itself a neurotoxin.
-
Perlmutter keeps a 40 Hz light device by his computer, citing MIT research suggesting it turns the brain's immune cells back to a supportive state.
-
Perlmutter backs the ketogenic diet for mitochondria and takes methylated B vitamins for his MTHFR gene plus fish oil with about 1,000 mg DHA.
"For me, it was cashews. I had no clue that cashews would raise my blood sugar the way they did. And I had the glucose monitor on, and it lit up when I ate cashews... I'm not saying you need to wear a continuous glucose monitor at all times, but I think it's extremely valuable ..."
▶ Play at 45:18
Steven Bartlett uses it
"I think this is probably one of the most important things that I did in terms of figuring out the truth about the foods that I loved... A few things that I've discovered from looking at my own continuous glucose monitor: barbecue sauce, which I loved, it's 40 to 50% sugar."
▶ Play at 44:4513 creators recommend it, including David Sinclair, Mark Hyman, MD, and Rhonda Patrick.
See all on the Continuous glucose monitors page
Steven Bartlett uses it
"Extra virgin olive oil is one of them that I love and I eat a lot of because it contains lots of polyphenols."
▶ Play at 58:155 creators recommend it, including Dariush Mozaffarian, Bryan Johnson, and David Sinclair.
See all on the Extra virgin olive oil page"Dark chocolate. So the number that you look for is you want to go north of 80%. Because the higher that is, the lower generally is going to be the sugar content."
▶ Play at 58:43"I keep a device right by my computer screen and it's passively shining that light into my eyes. Can I prove that it's doing anything wonderful for me? No. But am I a believer in the science? You bet I am."
▶ Play at 1:12:50"This is an upstream energy deficiency, the inability of the brain to use energy. You can bypass that with the ketogenic diet and also in Parkinson's... I think what you want to try to establish is flexibility such that when you do decide you're going to fast for a day or two....."
▶ Play at 1:38:378 creators recommend it, including Tim Ferriss, Chris Palmer, and David Baszucki.
See all on the Ketogenic diet page"I take DHA from fish oil... Omega-3. But we want to look at the DHA content. So my fish oil that I take contains... I'm getting about 1,000 milligrams a day of DHA."
▶ Play at 1:41:1417 creators recommend it, including Mark Hyman, MD, Andrew Huberman, and Rhonda Patrick.
See all on the Fish oil page"So because of my unique genetics I have to take a different type of B vitamin called methylated B vitamin. So that's first and foremost for me... methylated for me and for probably about 25% of the global population."
▶ Play at 1:40:572 creators recommend it, including David Sinclair.
See all on the Vitamin B pageWhat they recommend · 8 picks
Health & fitness
3 picks · David Perlmutter and Steven Bartlett
"For me, it was cashews. I had no clue that cashews would raise my blood sugar the way they did. And I had the glucose monitor on, and it lit up when I ate cashews... I'm not say..."
"This is an upstream energy deficiency, the inability of the brain to use energy. You can bypass that with the ketogenic diet and also in Parkinson's... I think what you want to ..."
"I think this is probably one of the most important things that I did in terms of figuring out the truth about the foods that I loved... A few things that I've discovered from lo..."
Steven, Joe, Tim and Peter agree on 21 things
See what they all use, in their own words. Paid ads are left out.
See what they all swear by Or pick your own peopleSupplements
2 picks · David Perlmutter ·David's supplements →
"So because of my unique genetics I have to take a different type of B vitamin called methylated B vitamin. So that's first and foremost for me... methylated for me and for proba..."
Other picks
3 picks · David Perlmutter and Steven Bartlett
"I keep a device right by my computer screen and it's passively shining that light into my eyes. Can I prove that it's doing anything wonderful for me? No. But am I a believer in..."
"Dark chocolate. So the number that you look for is you want to go north of 80%. Because the higher that is, the lower generally is going to be the sugar content."
"Extra virgin olive oil is one of them that I love and I eat a lot of because it contains lots of polyphenols."
David Perlmutter
6 picks · guest
"For me, it was cashews. I had no clue that cashews would raise my blood sugar the way they did. And I had the glucose monitor on, and it lit up when I ate cashews... I'm not say..."
"I keep a device right by my computer screen and it's passively shining that light into my eyes. Can I prove that it's doing anything wonderful for me? No. But am I a believer in..."
"This is an upstream energy deficiency, the inability of the brain to use energy. You can bypass that with the ketogenic diet and also in Parkinson's... I think what you want to ..."
Steven Bartlett
2 picks · host
"I think this is probably one of the most important things that I did in terms of figuring out the truth about the foods that I loved... A few things that I've discovered from lo..."
"Extra virgin olive oil is one of them that I love and I eat a lot of because it contains lots of polyphenols."
Made by someone on this episode
Also mentioned
Ads in this episode
Cometeer, Pipedrive, GrokBot, LinkedIn Hiring Pro. They're paid, so we keep them out of the picks above.
See what Steven recommends without being paid →Related episodes
Episodes covering similar topics
More from Steven Bartlett