Boost Brain Power With Omega-3s

Robert Love, PhD

Thank you so much. It’s such an honor to be here with you, and I’m so glad we get to do this. It was so fun spending time with you in person. We got to work together virtually but instead spent time with you in person at a recent anti-aging conference. I’m just so delighted to be part of this.

Heather Sandison, ND

It’s great to connect again. One of the things I love about your message is the hope, but also the ability that you’ve had to impact so many people. 350 million views. That’s a lot of reach. It means that there’s a bigger impact. Part of that is your enthusiasm, your energy, and how you deliver them. I quickly want to go through some of the things that you think are the most important for someone who’s looking to prevent or even reverse cognitive decline.

Robert Love, PhD

I’m going to start with something a little controversial, which is that you can reverse cognitive decline. You can prevent Alzheimer’s disease. That is the current science. I shared the Dr. Dale Bredesen documentary. He’s a personal hero of mine. You’ve got to work with him. He’s on the summit. 

Heather Sandison, ND

He’s my co-host.

Robert Love, PhD

He’s your co-host. Do you think he’s a hero of mine? I shared his documentary on my TikTok. You would not believe the negative comments I got. People say there’s nothing you can do against Alzheimer’s. You’re trying to scam people. You’re lying to people. I said, Look, you’re doing this job; you’re watching the documentary. He shows you how he did it. people’s minds have been polluted by mainstream media that doesn’t share the current science with uninformed doctors. Even worse, doctors are delivering the nocebo effect, which we can go and do. Doctors tell patients there’s nothing they can do. There’s absolutely something you can do. I can do ten things after I’m done that are great. Number one is exercise. You’ve been great and talked with people about this dual-task exercise. Exercise is medicine for your brain. If you’re doctors and tell you to exercise to reduce the risk of dementia, please find another doctor. They are not informed as absolutely everyone can do exercise in the United States. It helps reduce the risk of not only dementia but also Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease, which are three major risk factors. exercise and get a lot of sleep. 20 years ago, a person advocating for little sleep said, Let’s work a bunch and not sleep very much. It turns out that was a bad idea. Sleep is so essential to not only restoring brain health, cleansing the brain with the lymphatic system, and helping get amyloid plaque and toxins out of the brain but also wiring up new memories and even growing new brain cells. I get a lot of flak for this. I’m sure you have as well. Neurogenesis—the birth of new brain cells—is possible. Research from Dr. Elizabeth Gould at Princeton University shows pretty much every mammal aside from bats. I don’t know why bats, but every mammal can grow new brain cells in our hippocampus, the memory center of our brain. The growth of your brain cells is associated with better memory. You, at age 90, you can grow new brain cells, which is not what we learned in high school. so the science is changing. The science is updated as science should. I don’t like the word should, as science is meant to. It is updated. The current science says you can prevent Alzheimer’s. There are steps you can take to reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. You can even grow new brain cells. I just want you to understand that that is the current state of science, and I don’t think that’s not being debated among the scientific community. It’s pretty much accepted for those of us who think this is our specialty. People who aren’t in the specialty don’t understand it; they’re not aware of it. But pretty much anyone who this is their work, knows Alzheimer’s can be the risk can be reduced, and it can be prevented. You’re helping to reverse Alzheimer’s. You and Dr. Bredesen are bringing people back from Alzheimer’s disease. That’s just amazing.

Heather Sandison, ND

It’s a lot of fun. You talked about exercise, sleep, and diet, which is another big one. Are there foods that help us prevent and potentially reverse dementia?

Robert Love, PhD

There are some foods. They’re great for the brain for a variety of reasons. One of my favorites is sardines. I’m a traveler right now. I’m in Thailand. That’s Bangkok outside the window. I’m one of these crazy people. I travel with food, so I brought sardines with me. I’m eating a lot of healthy fish as I travel. healthy fatty fish. These are fish that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids like DHEA, EPA, and specifically DHEA. It’s good for the brain. Our brain is made primarily of fat outside of water. if we’re going to repair our brain and have healthy fats to grow new brain cells, we want to make sure that we have healthy fats. Fish oil is a great source. If you’re vegan, you use omega-3 algae oil. I take a fish oil supplement, which I also brought, and then I brought a bunch of these. eating healthy, fatty fish. Then Dr. Bredesen published or publicized the SMASH fish: salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and herring. These are healthy fatty fish that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and low in mercury. We want to make sure we’re eating foods low in mercury. I have a mantra now about food. It’s unfortunate. This is what it’s come to, but it’s organic food, distilled water. We’ll talk about organic food, and distilled water because there are so many toxins in our environment. It wasn’t this way in the 1950s. I don’t know when it got this way, but it’s sunscreen as well. There are toxins. It’s so many things that it turns out the chemicals in sunscreen are wound up in breast milk. I found it.

Heather Sandison, ND

They kill the reef.

Robert Love, PhD

It is not to be.  The avobenzone is calming coral. If it’s accumulating in marine life, what’s it doing to us? We’re not doing the research. We’re just saying it’s safe. It’s unfortunate. I was at a store recently, and there’s a bottle of water like this that says fluoridated water for babies. I started freaking out, babies. Their blood-brain barrier isn’t fully formed until six months of age and mother’s milk. Breast milk filters out the fluoride. The human body knows babies aren’t supposed to get fluoride, and now they’re putting it directly in the water for babies. I thought, This is crazy, it’s unfortunate. Just to protect yourself and your family, I recommend organic food and distilled water because you won’t be drinking or eating the pesticides, heavy metals, and toxins that are found in these other things. Now what to do about the metals in the water? I put magnesium drops in my water. You can also do elements, which is a little bit expensive, but you can add magnesium and selenium drops to your water and a pinch of salt.

Heather Sandison, ND

I love the sea salt. I worry a bit about distilled water, especially because it will leach minerals out of your body. For a population of post-menopausal women, we’re so concerned about bone health as well as brain health. so I tend to recommend springwater. I’m a fan of Mountain Valley Spring Water. If you can get a source that is above the contamination, you can get good-quality water. I tend to drink out of glass because plastic is such an issue.

Robert Love, PhD

Microplastics are out.

Heather Sandison, ND

There was a recent study that said the nanoparticles of plastic in a plastic water bottle were much higher than we had anticipated. It was so interesting because more research needs to be done on its impact on the body. It might just flow through you. I was like, my God, we are poisoning people with this nanoplastic. Now we know how much, but we have no idea what the effect is on the endocrine system, on the brain, on the immune system, on all of them. We know that there are parabens, phthalates, and other things, and BPA is often in plastics, and that has a known endocrine effect. It’s just again; it’s wild, and we can go down the rabbit hole of fear-based responses to toxins. The best thing to do is feel empowered to make better decisions. Scientists say spring farm is a great place to learn if there’s spring water near you that you can potentially go to fill up glass jugs with and use.

Robert Love, PhD

No, my concern about non-distilled water is that there’s glyphosate now in rainwater, so glyphosate is a roundup. If there’s glyphosate in rainwater, my understanding is that there’s glyphosate everywhere. If there’s glyphosate in all the water, I want to be drinking either distilled water or reverse osmosis water. Distilled water would make.

Heather Sandison, ND

You add back the minerals. This is, like, a classic test question. The practice test question for medical school graduation is with the guy who comes into the ER and has heart issues. He’s having arrhythmias and an irregular heart rate, and it turns out it’s because he was drinking exclusively distilled water. Just be careful that you don’t become mineral-depleted because that can create other issues.

Robert Love, PhD

Amazing. It’s come to this point where we need to take everything out of our water because it’s so polluted and then add the minerals back in just to not get sick, just not to arm ourselves with the water. Sadly, we live in this amazing time where I’m in Thailand right now. You’re in California. We’re able to have this conversation for free and give us information to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people, which is amazing. At the same time, you can’t drink the water, but it’s such an interesting time to be alive with extremely high pollution rates and toxin rates in our environment. then people like you and Dr. Bredesen are reversing Alzheimer’s disease and the cognitive slide associated with Alzheimer’s disease. It’s just that I feel very blessed to be alive at such an interesting time.

Heather Sandison, ND

Making so much progress but also creating some problems on the side. The side effects of progress. Many people ask questions about supplements and the best supplements for brain health. Do you have recommendations there? 

Robert Love, PhD

Yes. What would be most helpful? I don’t necessarily want to repeat what other people have heard. I could go off on supplements for about an hour, just kind of off the top of my head. I can either give you kind of a fast I can give you a kind of a fast list of them or a kind of where people should start. What would be most helpful?

Heather Sandison, ND

Where to start? If you’re someone who is struggling with cognitive decline, maybe you’ve just started noticing your brain isn’t working the way it was five or ten years ago. You’re concerned because maybe you have a family history and you want to do everything you can to optimize your cognitive function. You mentioned fish oil. Is there a stack of supplements that you think someone in that position should take right out of the gate?

Robert Love, PhD

That’s a great point. Fish oil. Research from Dr. David Smith at Oxford found that those who took fish oil and a B-complex vitamin had a 3% reduction in their risk of Alzheimer’s disease. That’s a great place to start a methylated B-complex vitamin. Fish oil and B-Complex is a great place to start. I like a methylated B-complex; my favorite is Garden of Life. I have no affiliation with them, but I found that’s the most gentle on my stomach. I can take it on an empty stomach when I first wake up because I don’t take B-complex at night. I’ve done that. Keeps you up. It’s very stimulating. I like B-Complex in the morning or with fish oil. My new favorite thing is taking B-complex, and fish oil and then having my morning coffee about 90 minutes after waking up. Some magic happens when there’s a lot of B-complex in the brain. B-complex is necessary to make neurotransmitters a certain neurotransmitter, and then the fish oil, the healthy fat for the brain. Then you get the caffeine in there. It just amps up the pleasure of caffeine. If you’re not experiencing pleasure with your morning coffee, please do decaf for a week. Get clean, get cleaned out, get tested, then have a cup of coffee. It’s a fantastic experience. It’s delightful. Then, when you add the B-complex to the fish oil, it is terrific. Coffee is an interesting supplement. There are some researchers, one of whom I like, Dr. Brant Cortright. He shared that caffeine can inhibit neurogenesis, which is the growth of new brain cells. I said, Well, that’s no good. But then you look at other research. Caffeine helps reduce the formation of amyloid plaque in the brain. I fall on the side of caffeine because I like caffeine. If there’s research to show that, that can be good.  that’s what I like. But if you’re concerned, you can’t do decaf. But but a lot of benefits of caffeine and organic coffee, including the polyphenols in coffee. That’s an urge to drink. But that’s also something that can be brain-boosting, Certainly, if someone has depression, they’re having trouble getting moving, or they’re having trouble trying to exercise routine. If you’re not exercising, try drinking. Two cups of coffee, get B-Complex and find a little fish oil. You’ll feel good. You’re going to be willing to take that morning walk, get out there, and get moving. Fish oil B-complex is a great place to start a methylated B-complex. And then magnesium has become a lot more popular in the last couple of years. But remember, it wasn’t that calcium was thought to be a lot more important to health than magnesium 20 years ago. Now we’re learning how important magnesium is. use over 300 enzymatic processes in the body, from muscles to bones to the immune system to energy to brain health. Magnesium glycinate is an inexpensive magnesium to get started, and that can help with sleep and muscle relaxation. Then you’ve mentioned in other interviews Magnesium Threonate, that is a smaller form of magnesium that can cross the blood-brain barrier. It’s more expensive, but that can be specific, great benefits. I’d start there with those basic things that the brain needs: magnesium, fish oil, b-complex, and then zinc. Zinc is a great neuro neuro-protector, especially if we have too much copper that can create oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain. Zinc counteracts that. Zinc is neuroprotective; it’s an antioxidant. It’s also just good, generally speaking, for our immune system and other things in the brain and body as well. Zinc supplements are another great thing to add, and then once you’ve done those foundational things, you’re exercising, you’re getting good sleep, and you’ve turned the news off, I hope, because it’s stressful. I get stressed with the news, and I only watch it for five minutes. This is scary what’s happening in the world, or at least the way that they’re presenting it can be quite scary. I a Lion’s Mane Supplement I found to be helpful. Full disclosure: I sell a Lion’s Mane Supplement, and so I’m very familiar with it. But you don’t need to get my great Lion’s Mane Supplement; it will be able to help with several things. It can help improve sleep, help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and fall back to sleep. Lion’s Mane increases a growth factor in the brain called Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor BDNF. That’s a growth factor that facilitates the growth of new brain cells and new neural connections, so that’s valuable. Lion’s Mane can help facilitate the growth of brain cells. It’s anti-inflammatory, so it protects against inflammation, which is one of the major risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. It also supports it and helps your immune system. Once you’ve done those basic foundational things with the minerals, B-complex, and fish oil, you want to look for something like a cognitive enhancer. Lion’s Mane is a great place to start. It’s very safe. It’s also not very expensive either. that will get people started without spending too much money on getting started.

Heather Sandison, ND

Then outside of diet, exercise, sleep, and supplementation. Are there other things that you think are important to creating that neurogenesis and that neuroplasticity that we need to have a healthy brain in the long term?

Robert Love, PhD

This is something that people know when they say they don’t think they practice very much. It is travel with a curious mind. I’m in Bangkok, Thailand. It’s my first time in Asia ever. I can just feel my brain growing here. I’m learning so much. One, human beings are very visual creatures. We’re also very geographically oriented. You think about our ancestors. We had a tribe, and we knew the area around where we lived. We could think of where we walked to hunt, gather, and so forth, engage with neighboring tribes. If we went on the seas venturing in commerce, we thought in maps that we thought in images of our geography. Go to a new place. If you’re in the United States, travel to a different city in the U.S., look at a map of the new city, walk around and engage with the new terrain and the physical map, and just plot that in your mind. It’s interesting to look at a map, which is like a guide to what’s around you physically, and then to walk it, to know it, and to know where things are relative on that map. It’s a great exercise for understanding visual and spatial things in our brains. That’s one. Then two is just learning so many things. I was recently at a museum, the Jim Thompson Museum. This is a fascinating museum here in Bangkok. This person was a spy during World War II. Then he came to Thailand, and he loved it here. He moved here, and he saw there was just a great opportunity here. He loved the Thai people and Thai culture. 

He became the silk king of Thailand. He made it; he made a house right next to the Silk District and started doing business there. He brought in wealthy Americans, formed business partnerships, and started making great silk.  Then he got famous. You’re going to love this from The King And I. He provided the silks—the brightly colored silks—for The King and I on Broadway and then the movie. Then he got famous, and everybody wanted his particular silk from Thailand. We went on this tour of his house, and I’m asking questions at every single stop. At first, no one was saying anything. There’s walking like I was just a guy. Then I asked questions, What is this piece over here on the wall? It was this workstation. What kind of work did he do here? Eventually, other people started asking questions, but generally speaking, people don’t engage with their environment as much as they might. I could have you as a school kind of person. Life is a classroom, especially if I’m paying for a guided tour. I’m definitely in a classroom. ask questions, engage in your environment, and learn things. It’s just so interesting, especially when you go to a different culture and learn about different people and how they interact with their values. I’ve noticed security here in Asia, at least in Thailand, is very nice. I got in trouble for taking too many sardines on a plane, and I was arguing with them about it. They were very pleasant. In the United States, the security at the TSA is kind of confrontational and a little scary. I’m kind of afraid of being locked up for saying the wrong thing to them. The Thai security is very pleasant. They’ll do it, “Sir, it’s just too big. We’re sorry you can’t take this on.” They’re just very pleasant. So travel. Even just in your city. Go to a different neighborhood, walk around, and look at a map. Enjoy the landscape and architecture of the homes. If you can travel overseas, I’d recommend going to a place where your money goes further. It’s great to be able to vacation and be generous with the culture that you’re engaging with and not worry about money or your budget. Thailand is one of those places. There are several different countries where Indonesia is another one. Bali is another place where people can go where their dollar goes far. If you’re on a budget, you can find a great vacation in a country that’s going to be interesting. It is beautiful and great for your brain. That’s not going to hurt your bank account too much. Please do this. The sooner, the better. Most of us lose mobility as we age. If you’re over 50 or over 60, get to travel as soon as you can when you have the time in your schedule, because the sooner you do it, the better. Then you find out more about your favorite places. Then you get to come back to them.

Heather Sandison, ND

I would second that as well. On the spectrum of cognitive decline, even I have patients who want to get that last trip in with their partner or there’s an important wedding across the world that they want to get to, yet they have relatively severe cognitive decline or their partner dies. The decision-makers are kind of weighing the risks and benefits, the pluses and minuses of going on a trip like that. Jet lag is inherently stressful. Travel is inherently stressful. Now, this is a good stress if you can absorb it. Exactly what you’ve been describing; it’s such a sensorial experience. There’s the new foods that you get to taste, the new smells and spices of that place, the sounds and the music that’s important in that culture and that part of the world. In a place like what you’re seeing—the new buildings, the new people, the new faces—all of this can be very stimulating for the brain. Yet if you have relatively advanced dementia, this is totally disorienting and extremely stressful. I’ve seen patients who get that one last trip into Europe, and when they come back, it feels like things have gone downhill, and it takes quite a bit to recover from that. I just couldn’t agree with you more. Go now, go sooner rather than later. Get the benefits of travel. If it’s something that interests you, do that while it’s still beneficial for your brain and not just stressful.

Robert Love, PhD

Bring your supplements. I have my suitcase of things to keep me healthy. I bought a little blender, but I don’t use the blender in Thailand. If you plug straight in, you’ll blow that into your blender motor like I did. But I brought a bunch of healthy food. I brought supplements for three weeks, all organized for my morning and my night. In my day, I brought fish oil. I brought peptides, which are now hard to get. But I got my Thymosin alpha that I take when I fly to make sure that I’m not getting sick. I brought all the tools I could to be as healthy as possible and as happy as possible here. Because this is an important time, this is a valuable time. I do the same thing when I go to Burning Man. Burning Man is one of my favorite tools for revolution because I’m out in the middle of the desert working hard for free. I’ve paid money to go there and help build a camp and put on a speaker series. I want to be my very best self. I pack a lot of things to keep me in a healthy, positive mood, those two and a half, three weeks rolling out in the middle of the desert. When I travel, I prioritize my sleep. I block out nine hours for sleeping when I’m traveling.  Heather, I wondered if I could ask you a question.

Heather Sandison, ND

Absolutely.

Robert Love, PhD

With all these interviews done, I’d love to learn about your highlights and what’s been new to you. You’ve been cutting-edge in this field for quite some time. You’ve done so many different interviews with so many great minds. I’d love to hear what’s been most valuable in the health summit so far, and then what’s been new and what’s been curious. What’s the new data like? 

Heather Sandison, ND

There have been so many great talks. Yesterday I had the privilege of chatting with Dr. Joel Khan, who’s a very funny, very engaging, like you high-energy cardiologist. We were chatting about the intersection between brain health and heart health. So many people say, well, if I have to see my brain and eat all of these fats, then that might put my cardiovascular health at risk. As we chatted and as I’ve dug into this more, they want the same brain health and heart health. It’s about plumbing. It’s about delivering oxygen, blood, and nutrients and getting the toxins out. Making sure you’re getting things in and out, both of the heart and the brain, and that the cardiovascular system, the vascular system, is affected by the same things. The endothelial wall is going to be affected by toxins. It’s not going to pump as efficiently. You’re going to worry about those plaques. If the pathogen develops, it causes gingivitis. There’s so much more overlap than conflict in terms of brain health and heart health. Can you just chat with him? There are there’s research you referred to research. Coming through the research, there’s so much that’s conflicting. How to make sense of that has been one of the big questions kind of coming out of this year’s summit. I found an article about how great the ketogenic diet is for cardiovascular health. Again, I ran that by Dr. Joel Khan last night, and he was very cautionary. He’s like, this doesn’t fit with my clinical experience that you could have this diet that’s high in saturated fat, and potentially a lot of meat that would be beneficial for your cardiovascular system. The paper was so emphatic in its endorsement of the ketogenic diet for cardiovascular disease, and it cited things that made sense. The kitchen diet is anti-inflammatory. You get the weight loss that’s associated with If you have obesity, weight loss is associated with benefits for the cardiovascular system, brain health, sleep, and so many other things. There are ways that an increase in omega-3s can benefit cardiovascular disease as well as brain health as we discussed, However, the language looked more like a marketing statement than a scientific paper. He pointed out that potentially the journal was one that’s less and less credible.  having seen this, it didn’t feel quite right to me, but I didn’t have any. I scrolled immediately down to the conflict of interest section, and there was the author having nothing to declare and no conflicts to declare. It was just curious to me, like how hard it is to parse out the science and, I guess, make good decisions. How did it turn that into good advice? And so much of this is about a personal experience. Again, I was talking to Marian Newport, who is a ketogenic diet expert. She’ll be at the summit, and many of you may have heard of her but not know her name exactly. But she’s the one who helps her husband reverse his cognitive decline. When she started giving him tablespoons of coconut oil.

Robert Love, PhD

I see her videos. I remember seeing this.

Heather Sandison, ND

She was at the same conference we were at, and I wanted to introduce you guys because she is such a legend, she’s so kind, and she calls it a compulsion, but she’s so dedicated to understanding and learning more about how people can prevent and reverse cognitive decline. She just loved her husband so much. They were going from trying to get into all these different clinical trials to help him with his cognitive Alzheimer’s. That was how she stumbled across the research on coconut oil and MCT oils, and that benefited him dramatically. She wants everyone to know about it so that they don’t have to go through some of the same suffering that she and her husband went through. Yet again, there is this question. I sent her a paper after chatting with her and said, “Hey, what do you think of this? This guy is suggesting that MCT and coconut oil are bad for you and could cause all of these problems.” She was able to pick it apart. She’s much smarter than I am about these things. This is the beauty. You’ve hosted the summit. This is why I’m on my fourth summit because I get to pick the brains of people so much smarter than I am with expertise, so much deeper than I have. I get the benefit of it, my patients get the benefit of it, and hopefully, every viewer here gets the benefit of that. Talking through this particular science is very sciencey. But it was a blog article that referred back to science to make people feel like it was credible, yet you could poke holes in it everywhere. Unfortunately, Doctor Marian Newport, her experience has been that the people who are very critical of MCT oil and coconut oil tend to come from the soybean industry.

Robert Love, PhD

What a funny link.

Heather Sandison, ND

Oftentimes, you can kind of take these threads back to where the financial interest is. And many times, when something sounds more like a marketing piece than a scientific piece, if there isn’t humility in the conclusions being drawn, then it’s probably financially motivated. Often it is, but it’s very challenging to translate that language. I go back to my personal experience. How does this make me feel? I try everything that I recommend to people, and then, in my clinical practice, what have I seen as true?

Robert Love, PhD

Has MCT oil worked in your clinical practice or the ketogenic diet? What benefits have you seen with your patients?

Heather Sandison, ND

Astounding benefits. I have seen people recover the ability to know their grandchildren’s names. I have seen profound results from getting into ketosis. People debate the mechanism behind that. Of course, there’s this idea that it’s an ancestral diet that our bodies and our brains are designed to get into ketosis. But I interviewed somebody yesterday who said, No, the brain’s preferred source of fuel is glucose. I’m pretty sure that the research is that the brain’s preferred source of fuel is ketones, and there’s just a lot of conflicting information out there and finding either a provider you trust or being open to experimentation, and that every human body and brain is a little bit different. How we respond is going to be different, but common sense, and unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your perspective, this isn’t rocket surgery. It comes back to rocket science.

Robert Love, PhD

It’s brain science.

Heather Sandison, ND

But it’s not; it’s not so complicated that we can’t all benefit. It’s diet, it’s exercise, it’s sleep, and it’s stress management. It’s probably some supplementation because of the state of our food supply, our food systems, and our soil. Because of the number of toxins, as you mentioned, that we’re exposed to, we can avoid all of that. But it comes back to the fundamental basics that support health.

Robert Love, PhD

What I love about your work and Dr. Bredesen’s work is that they are about fundamentally improving health. It’s like when people ask me a question, What do I do to reduce my risk of Type-2 diabetes? What do I do to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease? What do I do to reduce the risk of dementia? Period. I have answers for you. Reducing the risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease, is the most common form of dementia. It’s these things. It’s exactly as you mentioned.

Heather Sandison, ND

Aging in general causes osteoporosis. If you get fancy, you can go into bioidentical hormone replacement. I’m a proponent of that. I do, as I started as a Naturopath. I thought of menopause as a very natural thing. Andropause is a very natural experience: our hormones should drop as we age. That that was part of that was a phase of life and we maybe can embrace that. Yet if one of our goals is high-quality bone health, reducing the risk of osteoporosis, reducing the risk of falls and fractures, and reducing the risk of cognitive decline, then I do think having that muscle mass that helps us increases insulin sensitivity. There are just so many benefits to bioidentical hormone replacement that I have switched my perspective. That’s also something to note, which is that as we learn more, we need to be willing to change our minds. I say Alzheimer’s is preventable and optional. I had someone say to me, but isn’t that blaming people for having Alzheimer’s, like suggesting it’s their fault? Ten years ago, I took it as gospel that there was nothing you could do for Alzheimer’s. 

In school, when I was in Bastyr and training, I remember very distinctly being told, Don’t ever tell anyone, there’s something you can do for Alzheimer’s or dementia that would be to give them false hope and that would be to do them harm. There is nothing that you can do about Alzheimer’s disease. I might.

Robert Love, PhD

Find a way. 

Heather Sandison, ND

It may have been an experience. I heard Dr. Bredesen speak, and he was saying the opposite. He was saying there’s a whole lot you can do. If you stack everything you learned in Naturopathic School or social medicine, what you get is better than oral health, and you do get a reversal.

Robert Love, PhD

I love the idea of stacking. If someone has a business and then reduces their expenses, their business makes more money. That would be if they reduced their expenses and increased their savings, and whether they invested or if you stacked these multiple behaviors for our diets, what if you did intermittent fasting in the morning with your organic coffee? Then what if you just cut out bad desserts and you’re eating healthy chocolate? What if you stack multiple health practices? Your health magnifies. I love that idea; that’s exactly what Dr. Bredesen shows. It’s like it’s not just one thing; it’s not enough people say, but taking Lion’s Mane is that going to help my mother, who has dementia, say it’s no; it’s not going to bring her back. It’s not going to be enough. She’s on a diet; exercise, improving her sleep, reducing her stress, and alignment can help manage your prognosis. Benefits of mood and sleep. Probably not cognition. Not right away. It’s not enough. I’d love it to be enough. I’d tell you it’s enough, and I’d happily sell it to you. It’s not enough. You have to stack these things. It’s so powerful to stack these things. You make a tremendous change in someone’s life. You stack diet, sleep, and exercise. 

Heather Sandison, ND

Without a doubt, You get into this virtuous cycle. Things start spiraling instead of going in that downhill spiral. You can stack them in both directions. You can have a crappy diet, you can get poor sleep, you can have a sedentary lifestyle, and you can amplify your risk of disease in every direction. But if you go in the other direction, then things start spiraling up, and you get protection and benefits for every single cell in your body.

Robert Love, PhD

Now that you are at home, watch this and start installing and practicing virtuous cycles. One thing I’ve done in my business is, when I get good news, I do a cold plunge. When I want to celebrate a business success, I do something healthy for my body, and I love a cold plunge. It’s so good.

Heather Sandison, ND

It’s so hard.

Robert Love, PhD

Proves increased dopamine. After eight hours and 30 minutes of pain, you feel better for eight hours, which is the best trade-off. I was at the airport two days ago, and they took like 20 tins of sardines from me, and I was quite sad.

Heather Sandison, ND

Heartbreaking.

Robert Love, PhD

It was heartbreaking. I’m like, please eat this. I’m on the plane. I’m kind of feeling like it’s not about the money. It’s $20 or $30. I’m upset that I made a mistake and lost it, and I’m sitting on the plane fuming. Most people do it. I’m going to reach for it for food. I want to eat more sugary foods. I have I have some dates. That’s kind of like what I’m thinking. That’s healthier for food, but that’s kind of like the coping mechanism a lot of us use to want to reach for food or calories, something sweet, salty, or fatty, and I’ll feel better. We have healthy food around us so that we can reach for something like an apple or something here. Mango is here. Mango sticky rice is so good here in Thailand. Then I picked out my journal, and I wrote what I looked at over the past week in a row, kind of my summary of the week. I did something positive, and I put down my journal. My stress was gone. I’m like, I took a stressful situation because I lost something valuable to me, and I practiced some journaling, and now I just feel productive. 

Now I just let that thing go. anytime you can stop and take notes, I noticed when you do a virtuous cycle instead of picking up a cigarette or a glass of wine when you feel stressed, take notes. When you go for a walk, just get a hug from someone, or write a text message of gratitude to someone. Do something positive instead of something negative for your health, note it, and say, I’m the type of person who engages in virtuous cycles. I’m the type of person who does something healthy when I feel stressed. Instead of reaching for the cigarette or the glass of wine, do something healthy and tell yourself you’re that type of person, and then that’ll get you started on the virtuous cycle. Notice that no other people notice. I noticed you’re feeling stressed if you go for a walk; that’s awesome. Like no one, notice the virtuous cycles and other people around you as well.

Heather Sandison, ND

Encourage them. We’re social creatures, so we’re going to be influenced by the people we choose to spend time with. That community is such an important piece of cognitive function. We all have those friends who are like, Let’s go drink the day away. They’re happy to ride off an afternoon, just drinking alcohol, consuming alcohol, and eating pizza. When you notice that, and then it’s hard if you’re sitting there with them, it’s like you want to drink too, or you want a piece of pizza too, or you want a hamburger too. It’s harder to make a healthier decision. If you are choosing to spend time with the person, it’s like, “Hey, you want to go to yoga with me? Do you want to go to that dance class with me? Hey, do you meet for smoothies or green juice instead of alcohol?” You can make a conscious decision to choose one over the other.

Robert Love, PhD

I’ve also found it fun to sit in a group that’s drinking alcohol and drinking coffee. Because I’m going, I’m going in the opposite direction. They’re getting slower, and it’s like their brains are getting a little slower. I’m drinking coffee, and I’m getting sharper and smarter. I also like that I’m taking notes on my phone; I’m getting ideas, and I’m able to joke with them a little bit more seriously because I’m a bit on a different planet. I like going to the opposite edge. I enjoy drinking it in and out of college. Dangerous drinking in college is way too much, and in graduate school, But life without alcohol is so much more fun. It’s so much more fun to be much more aware. I find it much more enjoyable to be aware of my environment than the temperature euphoria of alcohol, which has it. Alcohol feels nice. It tastes nice. It’s an interesting experience, but it’s dumbing down the senses. Long term, I found I was able to work at night after drinking a glass of wine, and I like working tonight. It’s what time is it? 11:30 is here right now. I like being able to work at night. It’s great. I like sleeping well. My sleep is so much better since I’m not drinking.

Heather Sandison, ND

The best feeling in the world is waking up feeling ready for your day. With alcohol, that’s challenging to do. I enjoy being on your TikTok live. You have a huge.

Robert Love, PhD

I want you back. Like if you see people like when’s Heather coming back. She’s so great.

Heather Sandison, ND

Well, I would love and would be honored to join you again at any time. It’s such a privilege to have you here at this summit. For all of our listeners, please let them know how they can find out more about you, the Lion’s Mane, and your TikTok account.

Robert Love, PhD

On social media, I’m Robert W.B. Love. If you look up Robert Love or Robert W.B. Love on either TikTok or Instagram; I’ll pop right up. I’m at 1.9 million followers on TikTok right now, and almost a million on Instagram right now. Then I’m also on Facebook as well. a million and five there. I post most of my stuff on TikTok. So that’s where the most content is. Instagram’s a little bit more; there’s less of that on there, and yet my TikTok Live is the best time. Let’s tell people when you and I are going to go live, Heather, and then we can answer questions directly. A lot of people write comments under videos. I’d love to answer them. When I first start and answer every single comment. Now, it’s just not feasible. I do the TikTok live so I can engage with people in person. I love answering the questions. Did you enjoy answering all the questions? When we were on TikTok,

Heather Sandison, ND

The time went by so fast. We spent two hours answering questions on TikTok Live when we were together last, and that was it.  It feels good to be able to provide value in real time to people who are looking for this information. The week that the summit goes live, let’s do it again and get people access to the summit. It’s free this week. Hopefully, in the form of these long-form conversations, you can learn a lot from a lot of different experts. Then I’d love for you and me to be able to share some of the time the answers to questions that come up that are coming up this first week in April.

Robert Love, PhD

Fantastic. We get to do other TikTok live, and that would be so fun. Then for those interested in Lion’s Mane, you just look up roarlionsmane.com. And you get a lot of information about the Lion’s Mane. If you get mine, you can get another lion’s mane. But, start with some of the other stuff. First, the B-complex, the magnesium, the fish oil, and then, if you want to kind of answer something after that, you can consider a Lion’s Mane. It’s a Lion’s Mane. It’s not necessary. People say, Why is Lion’s Mane different than magnesium? I’m like, Well, you need magnesium. You don’t need a Lion’s Mane. It’s great. You don’t need this. You need magnesium, and you need zinc. These are things your brain needs. Heather, thank you so much for having me on the show. It is so fun to be here with you and to be a part of something. I’m just so honored. I love your work. I love that. I love Dr. Bredesen’s work. It’s just an honor to be a part of your program.

Heather Sandison, ND

It’s such a privilege having you here. a ton of fun. Thank you, Robert.

Robert Love, PhD

Thank you so much.