Full Transcript Introduction to the Neuroinflammation Summit 0:00 Hi everyone. 0:00 My name is Doctor Richard Horwitz. 0:01 I'm the co-host of this year's DrTalks Healing Lyme 2026 summit, 0:06 and the focus of our summit this year is the Neuroinflammation 0:09 Brain Protection Summit. 0:11 And I'm going to be interviewing Doctor Myriah, who is with me today. 0:15 So I am so happy to have you as my co-host. 0:17 This is the third year in a row 0:19 that we're doing this, so this is really great 0:21 that we have a chance to do this and kind of share things with people so 0:24 they can get their health back in order. 0:25 So thank you for doing this. 0:27 Absolutely. 0:28 I'm honored and excited to be hosting this for the third year straight 0:32 with you as well. 0:33 So and I'm so happy that we have new information to share. 0:37 And you have, as always, a new amazing study that you're working on. 0:41 So it's going to be so and in fact, well, why don't we just kind of jump in 0:46 and explain that 0:47 the reason this summit came about, the way that Maria and I are doing it, 0:51 is because I started discovering in the last year 0:54 that, I mean, it probably has at least 50% of the chronic line. 0:57 Patients I was checking had signs of inflammation going on in their brain. 1:02 They were showing low beta amyloid ratios in some of the Alzheimer's markers 1:07 that we expect to be seeing in Alzheimer's, like Peter 181 Peter 217, 1:12 neuro filament light. 1:13 And these markers just became available in the last couple of years. 1:16 So I don't even know 1:18 if you'd even been checking them because I had not been regularly. 1:21 So I decided to stop, start checking them. 1:24 And I was a little bit surprised to see so many of these people had these markers. 1:28 And then the question became, well, okay, brain fog and memory concentration 1:32 problems is one of the major problems that people have. 1:35 Apart from being fatigue and having aches and pains. 1:38 But the brain fog is a big issue, 1:40 including, of course, the neuropsychiatric component. 1:43 So what could we do? 1:44 And this led to my doing a study, which we'll talk about in a bit, 1:48 but I submitted a article to the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease 1:51 Case Studies showing we could reverse some of these Alzheimer's 1:55 markers in chronic Lyme disease, 1:58 using some of the protocols that we're going to talk today about. 2:01 So you're going to be discussing with me today some of the, 2:03 natural ways that we can help support brain function. 2:06 I'll be discussing a little bit not so much on this podcast today. 2:10 About that, some combination therapy. 2:11 We'll, we'll save that for another, we can just touch upon it today. 2:15 But, you know, it's an important topic because, when you look 2:18 at the rates of dementia, I don't think most people know this. 2:21 The rates of dementia, according to the scientific studies, 2:24 are 42% of people above 55 years old. 2:27 And it's like, 2:29 what? 2:30 And I know people don't realize that when they get amyloid in the brain, 2:34 Borrelia burgdorferi, Lyme disease is one of the causes of amyloid production. 2:38 It was published by Doctor Judith McCloskey. 2:41 I mean, she did 4 or 5 articles on this years ago, and, Doctor 2:45 Ivor Shopee published several years ago that and this is autopsy studies. 2:49 They found p tau, beta amyloid and biofilm 2:53 in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and also Parkinson's patients. 2:57 So this is really important because knowing that the dementia rates 3:01 with people having cognitive issues is so strong going forward, 3:04 we thought, you know, because we have brand new information, 3:07 this might be a perfect opportunity to share this information
How Lyme and Co-Infections Drive Brain Inflammation 3:10 and discuss some of the natural ways that we can heal people. 3:13 So, right. 3:14 Why don't we start off with your practice? 3:15 Why don't you tell us a little bit what is happening in the brain 3:18 when these people come in and they have Lyme and they say, hey, 3:21 I've got brain fog, I've got memory concentration problems, I can't think 3:25 what exactly is going on in people's brains when this is happening. 3:28 Yeah. 3:29 So, you know, it's funny, 3:30 a lot of people think that it's just from being tired, not feeling well. 3:33 It's the logistics of having a chronic disease. 3:36 But really when we're talking about brain fog, cognitive decline, 3:41 even mood changes or risk of dementia, 3:45 we're really looking at neuroinflammation. 3:48 And so that is simply just inflammation of the nerve cells of the brain. 3:54 And one of the key players in this process is a cell called the microglia cell. 4:00 And it's really, the brain's immune resilient immune cell. 4:05 So it's a cell that acts almost as a security guard, 4:09 but also the cleanup crew. 4:11 And it's constantly scanning for infection 4:15 for toxins, for cellular injury. 4:18 And when we have these vector borne diseases like Borrelia 4:22 or Bartonella crossing the blood brain barrier, 4:25 or we get some of these inflammatory cytokines coming into the brain, 4:31 these microglia actually switch into defense mode. 4:35 And in the short term this is a very normal protective process. 4:39 But when they stay activated chronically, they start releasing 4:44 and driving these pro and inflammatory chemicals 4:48 that actually damage the neurons and the brain cells. 4:52 And so this is when occasional brain 4:55 fog kind of switches into persistent. 4:58 Or we can start to see mood changes, 5:02 memory changes and really the development of neuropsychiatric symptoms. 5:08 So it's so it's so important to recognize that like these chronic Lyme 5:14 and other vector borne disease infections aren't just an infection. 5:19 It's actually cellular changes in the body 5:23 where these cells become stuck in this defense mode. 5:26 And this defense mode just keeps 5:30 pushing inflammation, right. 5:33 Yeah. These micro glial cells, it's interesting. 5:35 They they're associated with definitely chronic Lyme, 5:38 but they do show up in Alzheimer's disease. 5:40 They show up in Parkinson's, they show up in autism spectrum disorder. 5:43 They show up in, ADHD. 5:45 Whenever you're dealing with, 5:47 an inflammatory process in the brain, you're right. 5:49 These micro glial cells are playing a big role. It's. 5:52 By the way, 5:53 I don't know if you take low dose naltrexone, 5:54 but part of the reason I've been on LDN 5:56 for as long as I have been is because it's one of those things. 5:59 And we'll get to this in a second that, 6:01 you know, can help block a little bit of that microglial activation. 6:04 I still have a lot of work to do in the field, and I'm sure you do too. 6:07 We need our brains and interact with us. 6:09 So so let's go a little bit more into those inflammatory chemicals. 6:12 So when we're talking about inflammatory chemicals 6:15 these switches that get turned on which specific cytokines 6:19 we talking about in this process that are driving it. 6:21 Yeah. So I'll get to the specifics in a SoC. 6:24 I think it's important for the listeners to understand like these cytokines 6:28 simply are just chemical messengers of inflammation 6:32 that all have fancy like numeric names. 6:36 And what these cytokines do is 6:37 they act as little messengers in between the immune cells. 6:41 But they also can influence the development of certain 6:46 T cells, of B cells, of how they interact with each other. 6:51 And ultimately can lead to the immune imbalance, dysfunction, 6:56 or what I call immuno incompetence that allows these infections 7:00 to really evade the immune system and remain chronic. 7:04 So the ones the pro-inflammatory cytokines that really do a number on the brain 7:10 are nuclear factor kappa beta tumor necrosis factor alpha. 7:15 And then we have the interleukins like interleukin one beta 7:19 IL six, IL eight and IL 18 being the main ones. 7:23 But there's others. 7:25 And when the microglia cell gets activated, 7:29 they stimulate the release of these cytokines. 7:33 And now interleukin one beta is particularly important. 7:36 Not that they're not all important. 7:38 And they don't all drive major inflammatory issues in the brain. 7:43 But IO1 beta is closely 7:46 tied to something called an LRP three inflammation. 7:50 And this is like a fire alarm or a smoke detector 7:54 inside of the immune cells. 7:57 And so in a chronic infection that alarm doesn't shut off. 8:02 And we get stuck in this loop of infection causing microglial activation 8:07 causing cytokine release causing more microglial activation. 8:12 And this loop is really what is driving the sustained brain inflammation, 8:18 as well as a lot of the other symptoms that these patients are dealing with. 8:22 Yeah. No. 8:23 And you know, when you 8:23 when you look at the biochemistry of it and we don't need to go into 8:26 you know too much detail what people need to understand. 8:28 And this is really the key. 8:29 When you get Borrelia burgdorferi you get Bartonella into the brain. 8:33 It turns on these microglia. 8:35 This is switch in your nucleus called NF kappa B. 8:38 You turn on this switch, here comes all these inflammatory cytokines. 8:41 And what do they do. 8:42 They fog you out. 8:43 You can think you get brain fog. 8:45 You you can't find words. 8:46 You walk into rooms, you forget why you're walking in. 8:49 Your mood gets affected. 8:51 It can make you depressed, anxious. 8:52 Some of the people, of course, with lemon, Bartonella, 8:54 especially Bart, they get rage. 8:57 They can get psychosis. 8:58 So these inflammatory molecules are underlying, 9:01 a lot of those 9:01 neuropsychiatric manifestations, whether we're talking about chronic Lyme 9:05 or we're talking about Alzheimer's or really 9:07 because they're all inflammatory brain diseases. Right? 9:09 So it's part of the reason, by the way, in my practice, 9:12 I don't know what supplements you take every day, but I do block 9:16 NF kappa B with an acetylcysteine alpha lipoic acid in glutathione. 9:20 So, you know, in the evening when my wife and I are taking supplements, 9:24 it's part of the reason we take those supplements is because it's probably 9:27 one of the most important inflammatory pathways, 9:30 and it's the one also, when you get a hard time reaction 9:33 when you're killing off Borelli 9:34 Bergdorf, right, with Lyme treatments, whether herbs or antibiotics,
Inflammatory Cytokines and Microglial Activation 9:37 it's also the switch nf kappa B that throws out these cytokines. 9:41 And that's one of the ways you block it. 9:44 Have you found 9:44 those have been effective in your practice and in helping with hoaxes? 9:47 The same things we've been basically using. 9:50 Yeah, absolutely. 9:51 Those as well as Japanese knotweed Chinese skullcap 9:55 are extremely helpful for blocking NF kappa betas. 9:59 Well, and the LRP three inflammasome, interestingly 10:02 enough, is also blocked in part by low dose melatonin. 10:05 So even though and the limbic haze 10:06 of course gets sleep issues like you get sleep issues in your foggy. 10:10 But it's interesting that the Nlrp3 inflammasome is affected by melatonin. 10:15 So it's part of the reason and our protocols 10:17 when we describe it we say, listen, even if your sleep's not terrible, 10:20 you might want to consider just a small dose of melatonin, 10:24 a milligram 1.5mg, just because it does act on those Nlrp3 inflammasome. 10:29 Sure, you've been using those 10:30 also in your protocols with the Japanese knotweed and the rest. 10:33 Yeah, absolutely. Sleep is so important. 10:36 And you know, one of the things that drives brain 10:39 inflammation too, like and I'll and I'll get to your point of melatonin. 10:43 But you know we have the tryptophan through five HTP 10:47 serotonin melatonin pathway. 10:50 And a lot of times the presence of various microorganisms 10:55 like Borrelia and the inflammation that they cause increases. 10:59 This enzyme, called Iddo and Iddo, actually 11:03 blocks the conversion of tryptophan into melatonin 11:07 and instead sends us down on a pathway where the body makes 11:12 a really pro-inflammatory chemical called Quinn folic acid and uric acid. 11:18 And so not only are those pro 11:22 excitatory neurotoxins, but also if you're disrupting 11:26 the development of or production of melatonin in the body. 11:30 Now we can't sleep as well. 11:32 And if we're disrupting serotonin 11:34 now, we're going to have, you know, more depression, anxiety, etc.. 11:38 And so Chinese skullcap actually inhibits that enzyme ID. 11:44 Oh, and on top of that, Chinese skullcap contains melatonin. 11:49 So if we use one of our doses of Chinese skullcap 11:53 at bedtime, we can get some naturally occurring melatonin. 11:57 And we can also help to shut off that enzyme and help give our body back 12:02 the ability to produce our own melatonin and serotonin and sleep. 12:07 Because sleep is so important, you know, it's not just a mental break. 12:12 It's literally when our body is repairing, right? 12:17 And we're doing lymphatic drainage and we're actually cleansing 12:21 and detoxifying the brain and all of the nerve cells. 12:24 So melatonin has so many greater benefits. 12:29 It's neuroprotective. 12:30 It does so many things to help with the immune system and heal the body. 12:35 Yeah. 12:35 It's again, of the 70 supplements that I swallow every day, it's 12:38 the reason before bedtime, I take just a tiny bit, you know, 12:41 just knowing that all these environment, I don't think I'd have chronic Lyme. 12:45 I got rid of it 30 something years ago. 12:46 But just knowing the dementia rates and how inflammation is now affecting 12:51 so many people, whether you're talking again about chronic Lyme mood 12:54 disorders, Alzheimer's, autism, ADHD, brain inflammation is a big problem. 12:59 And, you know, it's affecting large swaths of our society. 13:02 And as you know, when you have Lyme, you don't fall asleep easily 13:06 and you keep staying up in the middle of the night, 13:08 which again pushes the microglial activation and the Nlrp3 inflammasome. 13:12 So, so regarding sleep just for a second, because it it's so crucial 13:15 your favorite sleep herbs 13:17 I've loved for example Gabel Theanine and you know valerian root kit 13:22 because I think in this conversation about turning off brain inflammation 13:25 it's important to talk about it. 13:27 What are some of your favorite herbs that you like? 13:28 So so obviously, for the reasons that I stated, Chinese 13:31 skullcap ashwagandha is also lovely. 13:35 Helps to balance the 2217 branches 13:39 of the immune system, protects the adrenals, helps to level out cortisol. 13:43 So that's a favorite fast food title serine. 13:47 So fast food title 13:48 serine can help you to keep your blood sugar and cortisol steady overnight. 13:52 So especially if you're having like that, waking at 3 a.m. 13:56 when you feel like you know you're going to open your eyes 13:58 and it's going to be light out, but then you find out it's 3 a.m. 14:02 that sort of early cortisol surge, if you're deficient 14:05 in the title serine, that can be very helpful. 14:08 And Borrelia, as well as a lot of the other vector borne 14:11 diseases, they need our phospholipids, and they're breaking them down 14:15 out of our cell membranes and robbing them from us. 14:19 So phosphate title serine is something for me. 14:22 That's a must. 14:23 And again, that will help with sleep. 14:25 Obviously if thoughts are ruminating 14:28 and we feel a little more anxious, we can use the Gaba and the Theanine. 14:33 I do love passionflower, valerian, things like that as well. 14:38 California poppy I mean, there there are a host of different herbs. 14:42 And I think if we can kind of figure out, okay, 14:45 why aren't we sleeping, you know, is it a cortisol spike? 14:49 Is it anxiety and rumination in the middle of the night? 14:54 You know, is it because we're simply not making enough melatonin because of Iddo? 15:00 If we can kind of figure out the root cause, and usually with vector borne 15:05 disease, it's root causes, you know, then we can pick 15:09 which herb or nutraceutical to use to try to address that. 15:15 And magnesium, you know, magnesium is is probably my number one go to, 15:21 especially if the patient isn't having regular bowel movements. 15:25 He's CMll three and eight for the brain versus magnesium malate or glycine eight. 15:29 So it depends what else is going on. 15:33 So if it's more for the brain three and eight for sure. 15:37 If I'm looking for a really good well-rounded 15:40 magnesium, that's not going to cause any bowel issues. 15:43 I'll typically go for like a glycine or glycine eight. 15:47 So so usually a combination 15:50 of those 2 or 1 or the other depending. 15:54 Yeah. 15:54 No I've and I use exactly the I do the same thing. 15:56 Exactly in that way. 15:58 Figuring out 15:58 because the malate is also good for magnesium for mitochondrial function. 16:03 But the glycine aid also is perfect for it. 16:05 Great. 16:05 So the other thing about sleep, by the way, 16:08 which is important 16:08 in protecting your brain because it is a cause of dementia, right? 16:11 People not sleeping from whatever cause. 16:13 It's interesting in the chronic Lyme patients I've seen that. 16:17 I don't know, maybe 10% of even the young thin women had sleep apnea, 16:20 and we didn't expect it until we did a sleep study. 16:23 You know, the men I would have looked at benign prostatic hypertrophy, 16:26 some of the women in menopause, they needed some hormone replacement 16:30 with bioidentical because the estrogen was just too low and right. 16:33 Change a little progesterone to hit the receptors and get them back to sleep. 16:37 But you bring up a good point, which is it's not just the Lyme 16:40 that's getting a problem with sleep, 16:42 which is contributing to the brain inflammation. 16:45 You have to figure out is it line, is it barred? 16:48 Is it from the ideal pathway in melatonin. 16:50 Is it benign prostatic hypertrophy. 16:53 Is it menopause. 16:54 Is it too much cortisol. 16:55 We need phosphate little serine. 16:57 You need to break those down. And you're right. 16:59 So it's a good point I think people need to don't just
Sleep, Melatonin, and Brain Protection 17:03 take a drug or just take the herb for it. 17:05 Get to the root cause of course. 17:06 Which is always what what is the best way? 17:08 So how does this fit into, beta amyloid and pito? 17:12 Because we are starting to find this part of the reason again, 17:15 this summit, I think, for people is so important is because, 17:19 and as far as I know, I've not seen any other doctors talk about it. 17:22 Our summit is the first one that's releasing it. 17:24 And I submitted a paper to the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Case Studies, 17:28 which was accepted with revisions. 17:29 I sent it back. 17:30 I'm waiting to hear back from them. 17:32 But hopefully it will be accepted. 17:34 But it was exciting because it was a PTL patient 17:38 rash Eliza positive C6, Elisa positive IgG, CDC positive, 17:43 Western blood positive CDC positive IgG, Western blood positive, immuno blah. 17:48 Like every criteria for chronic Lyme. 17:51 And she had elevated markers where her Peter 217 one. 17:56 This is a biomarker 17:57 by the way, that anyone now can get through question lab LabCorp. 18:00 It was elevated and I spoke to her about doing some combination therapy 18:04 because we needed some way 18:05 of lowering down the brain inflammation, explained to people a little bit about, 18:09 you know, ketone, beta amyloid and why this is a problem for the brain. 18:13 Yeah. 18:14 So, I mean, I think most people that have heard anything about Alzheimer's 18:18 understand or, 18:18 you know, have heard about this, the beta amyloid plaque, right, theory. 18:23 And so the interesting thing is that there's growing discussion 18:27 that this might be just a normal part of the innate immune system. 18:33 So there's many researchers that propose that the development of the amyloid 18:38 is actually like an initial protective measure, 18:43 where the body is trying to make like an antimicrobial 18:46 net to help to trap these microbes. 18:50 So in that framework, it's not just pathological, it's actually protective. 18:56 But again, like when the microglia are constantly driving this inflammation 19:02 and this inflammation is inhibiting the brain's ability 19:05 to function normally, we can't clear the amyloid. 19:09 And then that's when it becomes a problem because we can't resolve it. 19:14 So then it becomes pathologic. 19:16 So it starts out as this totally normal immune event 19:20 to protect the brain but ends up causing issue. 19:24 And then the situation with tau protein is is very similar. 19:28 So tau acts as a scaffolding inside of neurons 19:32 but under inflammatory stress. 19:35 The Tao becomes abnormally phosphorylated. 19:38 And then that's where the P comes from with pito. 19:41 So it's for phosphorylation. 19:43 And the p tau disrupts neuronal transport 19:47 systems and contributes to the tangle formation. 19:51 So again, like a lot of other things that we see, it's this infection driven 19:57 inflammatory loop that's driving the amyloid and the tau pathology. 20:03 But that's further stimulating the microglial activation, 20:07 which worsens inflammation, which causes more of like this neuro immune response. 20:12 And it's just this feedforward vicious cycle. 20:15 And you know, the problem right now, because I'm also accepted 20:19 to be a reviewer for the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. 20:21 And I'm looking at a study now that they sent to me. 20:24 The problem with it is, is that any infections 20:26 and it doesn't have to be bacteria like Lyme or Bartonella, 20:29 viral infections, Covid herpes virus one and two. 20:33 Herpes virus seven eight. 20:35 Parasites toxoplasmosis, Candida species. 20:38 Believe it or not, that get in the brain. 20:40 These have all been associated with beta amyloid and petal formation, but 20:44 also so is environmental toxins they found in people exposed to pesticides. 20:48 They found the same amyloid production in the brain because, again, 20:52 of the microglial activation, 20:53 the analog P three inflammasome, the same inflammatory pathway, 20:58 whether it was infections, whether it was infections and toxins. 21:01 So the problem is most of us are exposed to these things. 21:05 And that's why I think this summit is going to be so important for people. 21:08 Because the question is, what can you do about it? Right. 21:10 You're right. 21:11 Beta amyloid is a naturally this is what the medical research is showing. 21:15 It's not just there. 21:16 It's there actually to try and protect you. 21:17 But the problem is it it ends up hurting you after a while 21:21 because of you know, the the amyloid, as you said. 21:24 And the p tau just stops the communication between the neurons. 21:27 And that's when you start having the memory concentration problems. 21:30 How do we intervene. 21:31 So for example is as linfox we're doing different things from 21:35 my perspective, we'll talk about DAPs on it a second. 21:38 How are you intervening in this inflammatory cascade. 21:41 What are you doing to help your patients with it. 21:43 Sure. 21:44 So I guess starting upstream for me is is most important. 21:47 So with one of the most upstream pro-inflammatory 21:51 pro-inflammatory cytokines being that nuclear factor, kappa beta, 21:55 we can look to various herbs to shut that down. 21:58 We can also look at herbs that are going to decrease the Nlrp3 inflammasome. 22:04 We can look to herbs that are going to turn off galectin three. 22:07 And then everything else from there is is kind of downstream. 22:11 And I want to make sure that we talk about nutrition, the microbiome, 22:15 things like that before we end, because it plays such a crucial role. 22:21 And there's such a connection between the gut and the brain. 22:24 But my go to botanicals are, like I said earlier, 22:29 Japanese knotweed because it's shown to reduce that and all our P3 activation 22:34 and calms the microglial inflammation, as well 22:37 as a host of the other inflammatory cytokines. 22:41 Chinese skullcap modulates specifically nuclear factor kappa beta 22:46 and has regulating effects with most inflammasome 22:50 we have that supports mitochondrial function in the brain 22:54 and also down break regulates inflammatory signaling. 22:58 One of my favorite is lion's mane. 23:00 This is something I just more recently started using and have become fascinated 23:05 with, not only for its ability to inhibit all of these inflammatory cytokines, 23:12 but its ability to protect the brain from so many different angles. 23:17 And then we have curcumin, we have quercetin, 23:20 we have an acetylcysteine, as well as a host of other bio, bio flavonoids. 23:27 And, you 23:28 know, each one of these herbs and what I love so much about them 23:32 is their multi-faceted benefits, 23:36 that go far beyond a lot of their antimicrobial actions. 23:42 Yeah. 23:42 You know, when I was learning about Japanese 23:43 knotweed in Chinese sculpture, 23:45 it was initially regarding like the BSE had done, can I 23:48 that the parasite was resistant and you know, there was a fact 23:51 a ABC had done canning with these herbs. 23:52 But really the point you're making is 23:55 these really need to be used regularly in line treatments. 23:57 And by the way, I take cordyceps 23:59 and I take lion's mane as part of my like, you know, some of these supplements. 24:02 One of our neighbors who's actually not that far away, I, Sharlene 24:05 Chai, came probably about six months ago and told me about Go Mushroom. 24:08 She she bought a mushroom farm up in Hudson and just it's all organically. 24:13 So I'm taking her her dropper so. 24:15 And lion's mane by the way. 24:17 And this is really important. 24:19 It increases brain drive. 24:21 Neurotrope factor DNF. 24:23 They've shown that lion's mane 24:25 I, I can't get the Latin name her curriculum or academy. 24:29 You know what I'm talking about. 24:31 It increases those brain derived neurotrophic folks 24:34 just like exercise helps to increase it in your brain. 24:37 So does lion's mane. 24:39 So again, I think these are great clues, things for people who have chronic Lyme 24:43 who say and cordyceps, of course, for energy in general, 24:46 not general mitochondrial support but brain very important. 24:49 And and by the way, in this hypothesis of why people get brain fog
Beta Amyloid, Tau, and Alzheimeru2019s Markers 24:53 and cognitive issues and even go towards dementia, the amyloid hypothesis is 24:58 only one of the hypotheses that's out there. 25:00 They have found in some people, when they take out the amyloid 25:03 with amylase that that low, they still can have PTL. 25:06 That is a problem that's causing these neuronal miscommunications in the brain. 25:10 So I think it's really important to use a lot of the tools in the toolbox. 25:14 Getting the mold and the heavy metals 25:15 out of the body, right, which drive the inflammasome right in the brain 25:19 and turn on the microglial activation when when you're talking about the gut. 25:24 When I did the research for this article, 25:27 and I this will be published hopefully soon. 25:29 I showed that all 16 factors infections, environmental toxins, 25:34 the gut with the microbiome of the gut, leaky gut. 25:38 They showed that with leaky gut, when you get lipopolysaccharide LPs 25:42 that gets across, it affects the blood brain barrier and makes it leaky or what? 25:46 All this gut stuff is getting into your system. 25:49 And now the blood brain barrier is leak here. 25:51 As you said earlier, 25:52 you're getting these inflammatory cytokines that are getting across 25:55 into the brain, making it worse. 25:57 But it's the same thing with lack of sleep, 25:59 vitamin mineral deficiencies, mitochondrial dysfunction, autonomic 26:03 all 16 factors that I have talked about before. 26:06 They're all associated with Alzheimer's disease. 26:09 And we all see them in these chronic Lyme populations. 26:11 So you're right. 26:12 I mean, it's not just a question, of course, of 26:14 of taking herbs and hitting the bugs. 26:16 The gut is extremely important in there. 26:18 What else with the gut specifically, what else did 26:21 you want to say about the gut? 26:22 Because it is an important the gut brain connection. 26:24 I think people don't realize they I think many people know 26:27 most of your serotonin is made in your gut, 26:29 right, with Pires patches for the immunity, 26:31 but they don't really understand the relationship. 26:33 Why don't you talk a little bit about the source? 26:37 I think I mean, my gosh, we could talk about this for hours, 26:41 but I think, you know, the biggest point is that these inflammatory 26:44 cytokines loosen what are called the tight junctions. 26:47 And so the tight junction is like the cement that holds the cells 26:51 together and gives the gut the ability to be selectively permeable, 26:55 meaning it's letting in the nutrients, letting in, you know, things 26:59 that we want to bring into the body once it's been appropriately broken down 27:05 and digested. 27:06 But it also keeps out other pathogens 27:10 that were being exposed to, you know, through our food toxins. 27:14 You know, our lymphatics dump into our intestines 27:17 so that we can clear all of that waste product out of the body. 27:22 And when the gut becomes leaky, we now are re absorbing 27:27 all of these things that we want to keep out of the body. 27:30 And sometimes we're letting foods in as polypeptides 27:34 instead of their individual amino acids, for example, with proteins. 27:38 And then the immune system doesn't know what this is and it starts 27:41 making various antibodies to it. 27:45 And so I always say, you know, we only have so much reserve 27:48 for our immune system. 27:50 We're already busy, hopefully fighting all of these infections, 27:54 plus the viruses and everything else that we're being exposed to. 27:57 The last thing we need to do is to be wasting 28:01 our immune reserves, fighting foods that we're eating. 28:05 So I think it is so helpful to know 28:08 what our immune system individually has decided 28:13 that it's not going to like and make antibodies against and temporarily 28:17 remove those things from the body during treatment because they for sure 28:22 are driving immune confusion as well as inflammation in the body. 28:27 And at a point they will actually inhibit your ability 28:30 to repair the gut and the gut lining. 28:33 So I think that so that we're not having creaks, crazy hexes, 28:38 so that we're not more toxic than we need 28:41 to be working on healing that gut barrier is crucial. 28:45 And I usually spend about a month 28:47 trying to do this before I actually get someone on there. 28:51 I call it sort of the killers of their protocol, 28:55 and that's because when you have, 28:57 a higher permeability with your intestine, you are way more likely to hurt 29:02 because your toxic load is already high, you're already more inflamed. 29:07 And as your body's breaking, or as the organism is breaking down 29:11 its outer cell wall and releasing this LPs, it's 29:16 going to drive inflammation and acidity and make the body hurt. 29:21 So the better the body is detoxing 29:24 and the better the body is able to deal with and eliminate LPs 29:28 from dysbiosis, as well as LPs from killing, for example, Borrelia. 29:35 The less inflamed you're going to be, that more, able, you are going to be to detox 29:40 and not have these crazy inflammatory reactions. 29:44 So moving from beyond, like the leaky gut in the dysbiosis, 29:49 you know, most people, I think, have heard that over 70% 29:52 of your immune system literally is in your gut 29:56 and that our immune systems can't function properly 30:00 if we don't have, our microbiome 30:03 that is healthy and diverse and balanced. 30:06 So our microbiome and all that good healthy bacteria actually can shut down 30:12 inflammation, or it can drive it and it can either support 30:16 a healthy immune system or it can lead to more immune dysfunction. 30:22 And so there are specific 30:25 probiotics like Lactobacillus, Romanos, Lactobacillus plantarum, 30:30 and Bifidobacterium long term, as well as some other species 30:35 that actually support gut barrier integrity 30:39 and help to calm the inflammatory signaling. 30:43 I, I use exactly the same strains, and it's interesting, 30:46 when I was doing the research again on brain inflammation, 30:49 whether it was ADHD or autism, Alzheimer's, it shows up that these wrong 30:55 bacteria, basically all these environmental toxins, people 30:58 normally think like they get into your cells, they get into your brain. 31:01 But the other thing they do is they destroy the microbiome of your gut. 31:04 And what they discovered in each of these different diseases, whether you're 31:07 talking about chronic Lyme or not, it you're have the wrong type of microbiome. 31:12 You're losing short chain 31:13 fatty acid bacteria in the gut that are needed to lower inflammation. 31:17 You start to get leaky gut. 31:18 You get 31:19 cell activation from some of these foods getting across in sensitive people. 31:23 And again, because of this gut axis, and even gut, brain, liver axis 31:27 where the liver's not functioning properly from all these toxins, it's overloaded. 31:31 You're going to get end up 31:32 getting brain inflammation and it's all going to get worse. 31:34 So, I use similar probiotics. 31:36 In fact, I take them myself as part of the supplements, 31:39 I mean, the ones that I use. 31:40 But you're right, 31:40 those are some of the most key probiotics that we use in our practice. 31:44 When I'm when I'm doing the adaption protocol, the reason I designed it 31:47 with the probiotics 350 billion from is imagine is has 18 different 31:51 acid resistant strains with a REM gnosis which exactly. 31:55 And longevity 31:56 all the ones you were talking about are in there with Saccharomyces bility 32:00 to stop, you know, C diff, but also crowd out the Candida. 32:03 I used the author biotic, Sarah Clarke. 32:05 I mean, you're right, 32:06 we need those good bacteria because of the gut brain connection. 32:09 So, what are your favorites for healing leaky gut? 32:12 I mean, I've used bovine immunoglobulins and different things. 32:14 Do you have some favorites? 32:15 Because I found probably leaky gut is at least in 50% of our patients dry? 32:20 Absolutely. 32:21 Yeah. What what what are your favorites for for healing that. 32:24 So actually I, I love aloe and my very good friend, Doctor Jill, 32:29 that's one of her favorite, immunomodulators. 32:32 So I didn't even realize how much 32:35 it's able to modulate the immune system in the gut. 32:38 It also binds mycotoxins. 32:41 It's a very powerful binder for mycotoxins for LPs, and it's just so soothing. 32:47 So that's actually one of my favorite things for healing the gut. 32:51 I definitely do the eyes. 32:54 I also like ESP, we have to make sure that the levels of EPA and DHEA 32:59 are what they should be, because we cannot heal the intestine 33:03 if we're deficient in those too Omega three fatty acids. 33:07 And we need vitamin A, we need vitamin D. 33:11 I'm just trying to think of like the foundational pieces. 33:14 Beyond that, I would say getting into using glutamine 33:18 and again, making sure that we're not driving glutamate, 33:22 but using glutamine, especially if a micronutrient panel 33:26 shows glutamine deficiency from an intracellular perspective. 33:30 I like Jim Olson. 33:31 Herbs like slippery, marshmallow. 33:34 I'll use diglycerides.
Herbal and Nutritional Strategies for Brain Support 33:36 Glycerin is, I would say those are my big go tos. 33:39 But really, you know, following that functional medicine for our protocol, 33:44 where the first are is you are removing 33:47 all of the things that are driving the inflammation. 33:50 And so, you know, this comes down to various toxins, food sensitivities, 33:57 whether they're 33:58 opportunistic or commensal infections or 34:02 if they are stealth infections like Lyme, Bartonella, Bartonella loves that. 34:07 Got right. 34:08 Borrelia loves the gut. 34:09 It wants to break down the collagen. 34:11 So identifying all of the things that are drivers and removing them. 34:16 Then step number two, repairing the lining. 34:21 So some of the things that we talked about, like Alo, DL, 34:25 slippery L, marshmallow, glutamine, etc., 34:28 then we want to re inoculate 34:31 with all of the healthy probiotic materials. 34:34 You know that we spoke of. 34:36 And then it's funny, I usually don't have to get to step four 34:40 if I've done a good job with steps one, two, and three. 34:43 But step four would be to actually replenish, any digestive enzymes, right? 34:48 So if someone has hypochlorite hydra, or they're not able to make the stomach acid, 34:55 we can't expect their pancreatic enzymes to be released properly 35:00 because our body actually elicits 35:03 the release of bicarbonate and pancreatic enzymes in response 35:07 to a very, very acidic chyme moving into the small intestine. 35:12 So a lot of people want to move right to pancreatic enzymes. 35:16 But if we don't go upstream and start with the hydrochloric acid, 35:20 right, like we're bypassing our body's own chance 35:24 to just appropriately release the bicarb and the enzymes so that they can work. 35:30 But really, I try to always think through like the four hour protocol 35:34 in steps to restore gut function, because you can throw people 35:39 on a bunch of soothing herbs, but if you haven't 35:42 addressed the first step and you haven't removed, 35:46 you know, the microbes and the foods and the toxins and all of the things 35:50 that were driving it in the first place, it's like pushing a boulder up the hill. 35:55 Yeah. So a couple of questions regarding that. 35:57 So in your patients, because, you know, David Perlmutter 36:00 speaks a lot about getting gluten out of the diet and the rest. 36:03 And sometimes, you know, the local labs, you do an anti-glare at an antibody or, 36:07 a TTG, you can always find it, but you do a Syrah panel right there, 36:11 three x or four x, and all of a sudden you find there are these gluten markers. 36:15 And it's not so easy for me to get these panels. 36:18 How do you advise your patients regarding gluten? 36:21 Because a lot of people ask this because, you know, David has brought it up a lot. 36:24 Do you strictly avoid whether they have the markers or not or, 36:27 or you feel like if, for example, the local markers are negative, 36:31 but they haven't done six panels, it's enough? 36:33 Where do you lie on that kind of spectrum? 36:36 So I will tell you, and I think you know this about me by now. 36:40 I make very, very few blanket statements. 36:44 I believe wholeheartedly and passionately 36:48 in personalized, individualized medicine. 36:51 But I have one blanket statement no gluten, no dairy, no sugar. 36:56 And I will say it over and over and over again. 36:58 And I and I have my reasons and I mean, to get a little bit 37:02 more in-depth with your question, I have had patients that have no movement 37:08 on, like, you know, a celiac profile where we're looking at the you know, 37:12 the antibodies against gliadin as well as the others. 37:16 And then I will do a flat out 37:18 like antibodies to glue and antibodies to wheat, etc.. 37:22 I've had it come back negative, and then I've had patients who have wanted 37:25 to do more in-depth panels like Cyrus or like the Wheat Zoomer, for example. 37:31 And holy cow, the things that you see come back 37:35 and these markers are coming back, showing in a lot of patients 37:41 the driving of like an auto immune 37:44 response in the body do not only to gluten 37:48 like there's so many other components of wheat for example, 37:53 that drive inflammation and like an autoimmune process. 37:58 And unless you're spending hundreds of dollars doing these tests, 38:04 you know you're not going to find it. 38:06 You know, I was always taught that gluten increases online. 38:10 It's one of the main drivers of Sonya Lynn. 38:12 And Sonya Lynn breaks down those tight junctions. 38:15 And I mean, for me, just for that reason alone, 38:20 I think that that's enough to warrant not having gluten. 38:24 And I don't mean go out and buy all of the expensive 38:28 cookies and crackers and breads and pastas and nonsense, 38:33 because none of that stuff is good for you anyways, 38:37 whether it has gluten or doesn't have, 38:39 you know, the the carb load on those gluten free, 38:41 you got to be really, really careful with it. 38:43 But I think you're making a good point because you can get non celiac gluten 38:47 sensitivity right. 38:48 It's those markers will not always show up. 38:50 And because of the gut 38:51 brain axis because of what we're talking about today of protecting the brain, 38:54 you've got to make sure that there is no major inflammation going on in the gut. 38:58 I mean, look, we've we've had people 39:00 even with candida overgrowth that we treat the Candida who say, my brain fog 39:04 gets better, that it wasn't just the Lyme, it wasn't just the bite. 39:07 It wasn't just the mold toxins. 39:09 It was because the gut was off with too much candida, right. 39:12 Producing some of the toxins. 39:13 So it it's tricky. 39:15 The gut the gut brain axis is, is an important one. 39:17 So I'm glad we brought that up. 39:19 And you sometimes also do like the GI map Kids Aid. 39:23 Do you think it's necessary to really check this in most people? 39:26 Because not everybody of course has the finances to do the full panels. 39:29 Yep. And again, that was my point. 39:31 Just don't eat the gluten. It's free right? 39:33 We don't need to do a fancy bells and whistle test. 39:36 So I will do various whether it's, you know, the GI map or some things. 39:41 Some are similar. 39:42 And only when indicated. 39:45 And so let me explain. 39:46 I feel like I'm pretty good at making a hypothetical, 39:51 you know, sort of educated guess as to what's going on gut wise, just from, 39:56 you know, doing this for 20 years at this point 39:59 and knowing what these infections due to the body and then going through, 40:02 you know, their various treatment 40:03 and knowing how that harms the gut potentially as well. 40:07 So sometimes if someone is having such severe 40:11 gut issues and I really need to get a handle on okay, 40:15 we've tried circulating through the probiotics. 40:18 We've tried all of these other things. 40:20 And it just like is it feels like the gut health isn't improving. 40:24 I will use certain GI tests to look and try to see 40:28 the species of the various probiotics. 40:32 And what we're missing specifically in that patient, 40:35 because, I mean, we can take the top ten most useful probiotics, but 40:40 if that patient already has sufficient levels of those, 40:44 and maybe they're missing some of the other less well known species, then 40:49 it's like we have to look at that person and what they are missing, you know? 40:55 And that's what we have to focus on getting into them. 40:58 It doesn't matter how high quality the probiotic is, if they already have 41:01 enough of that genus and species of organisms knowing it. 41:06 And I found sometimes you may have found the same 41:08 that adding prebiotics like the molecular fiber. 41:11 I find adding soluble and not soluble fiber is really great as providing a food 41:16 for the probiotics, but also at the same time, it's finding some of the toxins 41:20 and getting them out of the intrahepatic circulation. 41:22 Right? 41:22 So I mean, there's 41:23 there's multiple benefits of it's not just probiotics, it's prebiotics. 41:27 And even in some cases post biotics PDC activate, which has some killed 41:31 bacteria, helps to stimulate those Pires patches in your gut your immune system. 41:35 So you are fighting your natural killer cells. 41:37 Kick up your immune system works better with interferon gamma. 41:40 The gut is really, really important 41:42 when we're talking about even protecting the brain. 41:44 So that I think is important. 41:45 So good. I mean, I think we've covered it. 41:47 So let me just I'll have one final comment on this. 41:50 So the reason we're doing this summit, specifically about the Neuroinflammation 41:55 Brain Protection Summit is because the rates of dementia are rising dramatically 41:59 and it has been published in the literature that Lyme is a potential cause. 42:04 A Briley Bergdorf, right, has been found in the brain creating amyloid.
Gut-Brain Axis and Leaky Gut Repair 42:07 And I would say right now, it's one of the big areas 42:10 that my colleagues and including myself, by the way, until recently, 42:15 we were not really looking at it 42:16 because we didn't have the markers to be able to check. 42:19 I would encourage 42:20 people who were listening to the summit, if your doctor has not tried 42:24 getting you these markers to look for inflammation like beta amyloid 42, 42:28 Patel 181, Patel 217 neuro filament light. 42:33 If you have a family history of Alzheimer's, you can get an AP gene 42:37 to find out. 42:37 Like if you're 44 and you've got a higher risk. 42:40 But the point being, there are things you can do to reverse your risk. 42:45 One of them is getting rid of Lyme disease and getting rid of Bartonella 42:49 and getting rid of mold, because all 16 factors drive brain inflammation. 42:54 And it's important, 42:55 as Maria talked about earlier, you've got to shut off those inflammasome. 43:00 You got to shut off the micro glial cells causing the inflammation. 43:03 Because the more amyloid in the more detail 43:05 that you get in the brain, the worse the memory concentrations going to be. 43:08 As time goes on, I will be discussing and in a future episode 43:12 that you'll be interviewing me, the details. 43:14 But the exciting part is we did find that we at least have one case study 43:19 in a pure, chronic Lyme PTSD patient where we reverse 43:23 these Alzheimer's markers and her beta amyloid ratios improved. 43:27 There was clearly less beta amyloid, and the PDL level reversed to normal, 43:31 which, by the way, is unheard of. 43:32 It's not even reported in the literature like you can normally do it. 43:35 The drugs that are out there right now for Alzheimer's, like Lecanemab, 43:39 these monoclonal antibodies, they're shrinking the brain, 43:43 because brain bleeds, but there's no proof that they're actually stopping 43:46 the dementia. 43:47 They may be slowing it down slightly, but it's not stopping it. 43:50 What we're discussing today is how do we get to those root causes, right. 43:55 How do we protect your brain going forward. 43:57 So and I'll, I'll talk about the study on Daptone 44:00 and why I think it's so important in a future episode. 44:03 So hang in there. So sum right. Any final thoughts? This this was great. 44:06 I think we gave people up a good idea about some of the mechanisms, 44:10 the importance of the gut brain axis, the importance of the microbiome, 44:13 these micro glial cells, inflammasome changes. 44:16 We went through the basics of it. 44:18 What else do you want to 44:19 share with people at this point in time that you think is important? 44:23 And, and for example, I gave you some ideas. 44:26 Some of our patients with Lyme, the B12 levels are borderline. 44:32 They don't meet like the methyl melnick acid may not be necessarily 44:35 high, which is a called B12, but they're borderline with it. 44:38 Or the folic acid levels are on the borderline side or their mineral levels. 44:42 Their red blood cell levels are just a little bit on the low side. 44:46 You want to talk a little bit about like, 44:48 what else we can do to protect the brain here? 44:51 Because I think there's a lot of things out there that people are just not doing. 44:55 I mean, you keep sugar out of your diet, you want to stop diabetes 44:59 and metabolic syndrome. You need to get to sleep. 45:01 You need to exercise. 45:02 There are things you can do to protect your brain 45:05 with lion's mane, Cordyceps, all that stuff we talked about. 45:08 What else? 45:09 From a, you know, point of view of daily living, what else 45:12 do you recommend to people to help protect their brain from neuroinflammation? 45:15 I think the only thing that we've really missed is mitigating stress, 45:20 working on the nervous system, you know, addressing disorder. 45:24 Nami. 45:24 Meditation, gratitude, getting out in sunlight, grounding, 45:29 doing all of the things to step away from a very, very busy, 45:35 toxic life for a lot of us 45:38 and just taking the time to be still 45:42 and to be quiet and to just take a moment to really soothe 45:48 our own nervous systems and connect to nature. 45:53 Yeah. No, it's it's a good point. 45:54 And in fact, on the 16.6 mark associated with dementia 45:58 and Alzheimer's, autonomic dysfunction is really part of it. 46:02 And you probably see the same thing 46:03 I do, which is most of our patients coming in are highly stressed. 46:07 We see a lot of PTSD with people who have had trauma, 46:10 abuse from different sources that keeps that system. 46:13 You're right in an inflammatory mode. 46:16 And some of that disorder Nami is due to lime, it's due to Bard, it's due to mold. 46:20 There's a lot of reasons why it happens. 46:22 Long Covid is part of it also. 46:24 But you're right, I think that lifestyle of exercise, diet, 46:27 sleep and including the stress pieces is really, really important. 46:31 I tell people five minutes three times per day just to start 46:35 doing basic breathing techniques through the nose. 46:38 Following the breath. 46:39 If you get distracted, come back. 46:40 There's some really simple techniques. 46:42 That we use to use some of the apps. 46:44 Do you like some of the newer ones that have come out for people with this? 46:47 So I don't have an app that I love. 46:49 I do really like the brain tapping system. 46:52 It's a headset with a light shield that has like binaural beats 46:56 and different sequencing of flashing lights and just really 46:59 beautiful music and soothing like guided imaging anywhere 47:03 from seven minutes to like, you know, there's ones that are 45 minutes long.
Stress Reduction and Closing Thoughts 47:08 So I love that. 47:09 I love various deep breathing exercises. 47:13 And then lately, my big thing, I went to a seven day 47:17 intensive meditation retreat with Doctor 47:20 Joe Dispenza, and that was honestly life changing for me. 47:24 So my go to is listening to, you know, a myriad 47:28 of his various prerecorded meditations that are on his website. 47:33 No. That's great. 47:34 I mean, he's very obviously very well known in the field. 47:36 And, you know, for me, I've been I've been blessed, of course, 47:39 because I've had Tibetan teachers for 45 years that I've been able to be following. 47:43 So. Right. 47:43 This was great. 47:44 I want to thank you so much for joining us today. 47:46 So I think people again, it got a lot of it as far as like 47:50 how do we start to approach this problem of brain inflammation. 47:53 And we'll talk in other episodes 47:54 about treating Lyme and some of these co-infections. 47:57 But I think it's important to take that perspective 48:00 that this is a big problem that we now present. 48:03 Yeah, 48:03 we can't just assume our brains will stay healthy right, as we age at this point. 48:07 So so I think it's important to integrate 48:09 a lot of the herbal and natural things we talked about today to, to protect. 48:13 So thank you. Thank you for taking the time. 48:15 Again, my name is Doctor Richard Horowitz and with my co-host Autumn Rae Hinchey. 48:18 Today we're co-host for the Doctor Talk Healing Line 2026 summit. 48:22 And we're focusing specifically on the neuroinflammation brain protection 48:26 aspect, of how we can protect ourselves going forward 48:29 so we can have a healthy and happy life and brain so we can keep 48:32 keep one of the most important organs going as we keep getting older. 48:35 So thank you so much for joining me today. 48:37 And we'll see you again soon for another episode. 48:40 All right. Bye bye bye bye.
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