Prevent And Improve Your Cognitive Health

Peter Wilhelmsson

That’s exciting for me. I’m in love with the brain and I’m in love with the heart and I’m in love with all the connections between the brain and the heart and the gut and all this wonderful, mysterious world within us.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And that’s the thing is that there is you can’t separate one from the other. I mean they all work in conjunction with each other, so you and that’s the beauty I know in the book that you just that get launched on amazon just just last year, which is a it’s a you know, talking about very in detail on how to save your brain because that is becoming a plague. But what I want to do is first give you know a little bit of an intro of you so that people know the tremendous experience that you have, you are from my native country Sweden. So I’ll read some Swedish words and then we’ll do it in English right after. So people get the flavor for Swedish a little bit, you know, during this interview because I love Sweden, I love Swedish. So Peter Wilhelmsson has worked in the natural medicine industry for over 40 years. He has authored or co authored 14 books and over 100 course manuals through the years is most comprehensive book. Netting medicines. Got up slugs book or you would say is encyclopedia nutritional medicine. It’s a 833 page encyclopedia and it is the most comprehensive encyclopedia of nutritional medicine. In Scandinavia. Peter’s two most recent books are published in Sweden in 2016 and 2019. The first one, which in English means faster, stronger. Healthier is a 600 page book on integrative sports nutrition. His second book, new, which translates into save your brain now and you can find that at save your brain now dot com is a 471 page book on Brain health Code written with PhD neuroscientist Hided Glory. This book was published in Swedish 2019 and updated 2021 then launched on amazon in October 2021 with the help of bestsellers publishing. He has lectured on lifestyle nutritional, functional and natural medicine internationally for over 35 years lecturing in 15 or in 12 countries. Peter was the clinical director of Strand Gordon Health retreat and fall in Sweden from 85 to 90. For Peter was the president of the Swedish Nature Empathic Association During the years of 2000 through 2006. He also found that he was also the founder of Alpha Plus Wholesale distributorship on nutritional products in 1983, which is sold in 2018 Peter’s work clinically with patients for over 20 years or 40 years has been the founder and director of integrated functional medicine clinic in fallen in Sweden since 1994 and Peter currently works as a consultant, product developer, educator, author and as a part time practice in functional medicine in Sweden. Well Peter such such a great, such a it’s so fun to have you here.

Peter Wilhelmsson

Thank you very much.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah. You I would say that I would consider you as being the leader leading nature Empathic Doctor in Sweden, you know, with all your experience and background and everything that you’ve done.

Peter Wilhelmsson

Thank you. Yeah, I’m pretty old now. So I’ve had a lot of time to do a lot of things. I’ve kept busy

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

But you’re also proof of if you take care of yourself well you can stay vital and young and full of energy. I mean you have on facebook I follow you as Peter the rabbit, you know because you like vegetables and you like to be fast.

Peter Wilhelmsson

Thank you. Yeah. And even if I’m becoming Peter the tortoise, I can still finish the race ahead of the rabbit. Stay focused right?

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah, exactly. As long as you get there and that is the key. So tell me a little bit, I mean as we’re seeing nowadays people are struggling more and more as we get older with dementia with Alzheimer’s it is becoming a huge epidemic. I mean if we’re talking about epidemic that is truly an epidemic. So why do you feel that this is taking place now versus what was happening for?

Peter Wilhelmsson

Well, I think we’re basically sort of we’ve sold our oats, let’s say we’re reaping the lifestyle, misdirection that’s been happening for the planet. And for the people last 50 years with mono agriculture, GMOs, fast foods and ultra processed foods and then people just looking for quick fixes and gravitating to quick fix pharmaceutical solutions instead of thinking of the causes. So, for instance, Alzheimers very, it’s called also type three diabetes. Right? So one of my main messages is we can do so much and it’s so cheap, inexpensive if we catch things very early and certain things is common sense. 

For instance to get a check up on your car or go to the dentist and clean your teeth and check if you have a little cavity and then, you know, you get instructions and hopefully you don’t get a bigger cavity. But in the health care system, it’s very strange that we as we get older, often attribute symptoms and diseases to aging, especially like dimension Alzheimer’s, you know, we just joke about it and because we ignore it because we’re in denial because we’re just hope, hoping or fearful. You know, whether we have the bad luck of the draw, we don’t do anything with, you know, diabetes and Alzheimer’s they take 20 to 25 years to develop in 98% of cases. Now there is a a genetic form that can by people in the but when they’re in their thirties, forties, fifties, but that’s between one and 2%. 

You have these pre sin million genes that are mutations. But most of the things that set us up are actually snips which are sort of corroded messages that are dirty jeans that we can wash with natural solutions and lifestyle solutions. But the and you just get these headlines in even natural magazines that say, well just exercise and it will protect you or just eat a mediterranean diet or protect you. You just get these very weak little suggestions and then because people don’t know enough and don’t do enough that this progression of disease and destruction is just you know speeding up and raging within them until you know, until it’s too late. You know, and they have to, You know, deal with it because their relatives and their friends, everybody is noticing they can’t pay their bills and they can’t function anymore. But like you know, if they would have done something 10, 15, 20 years earlier, of course they could have delayed it for 10 2030 years and you know, you know gone to sleep before they got it.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah, so I mean and that is you know, we’re recognizing the importance of epigenetic like you’re talking about, you know, where, how our lifestyle, what we eat, how we detoxify all these different things and how they impact the genetic function and maximize their function if we do things right. And it’s always fascinating to me that the medical profession, they always take that kind of watch and wait type of stance, which means that they don’t step in until you are highly symptomatic because at that time they step in with pharmaceuticals and try to manage the disease. But if the disease is not there, they don’t have any tools, they don’t have any preventative tools, they don’t have any supportive tools. And that’s why that message that you have in your book becomes so important is to so that people can start to bring these type of tools in before they become symptomatic. You know, it’s not time to act, you know, when you are symptomatic, it’s time to act now in order to prevent those type of things to take place 2030 years later on.

Peter Wilhelmsson

Right? We we both work educating and inspiring people with wake up calls and actually I now I’m a 70 plus year old guy and I better have a passion for, you know, people being healthy when they’re in their pension years or their golden years, whatever you wanna call it, what uses it, you know, earning a lot of money or or working all the time or doing all this stuff and then when you’re in your sixties and seventies, you’re going downhill like spiraling downhill with all these operations and drugs and procedures and diseases and you know, you you probably saved up money with your Ira or whatever, you know, you got your but you can’t enjoy life because you didn’t put that, that you weren’t paying attention, 

You weren’t doing the things that ensured healthier lifestyle, happier, healthier golden years with your grandkids or your hobbies or whatever your passion is, you know, plan like you plan your finances for your golden years, you have to play plan your health vitality goals or your, you know, being vital and healthy and happy during those years, their gift to us. And so I want to inspire people like you do to get checked up, get the therapies, do the lifestyle, you know, do the things that keep them healthy as long as possible. And of course we might need medical interventions, but for the most part, you know, we can fix this if we just have the expertise, have the doctors like you that check us up and take care of us and then, you know, do our part

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And I really like how you draw the parallel to our finances because we all know that, you know, when we retire, we need to have money past retirement because we are not continually getting the same income when we stop working. So we need to plan for that over time and it’s the same like you’re mentioning, you know, with our health, you know, as we then get to a certain, you know, times in our life we don’t have the same hormonal support. We don’t have the same ability to regenerate. Our genes are not functioning, you know, at the same level as it did When we were 20. So we need to be able to account for that and then, you know, create habits and develop habits so that we then put ourselves in the position when we’re retiring and when we’re getting to a certain age that we then have money in the bank to work with rather than being completely nutritionally deficient at that time.

Peter Wilhelmsson

Yes. And many people talk about burnout and there’s a lot of, of course there’s a lot of reasons for burnout on many different levels. But basically you know, you’re you’re you’re building up reserves for the future. Just like if you don’t have money on your water heater goals or your blue freaks or leaks or whatever. You need to have reserves for, you know, traumas or accidents or some kind of disease and you need to build up those reserves. You need to be a steward of those reserves. You need to honor those reserves and your functions do decline because as you said, the hormones do recline and your digestive, you know, vitality declines or production of hydrochloric acid and enzymes and and your metabolism, things gradually declined. But you can keep them going more optimally. If you’re if you’re more progressive, you know, if you’re taking care of yourself and also to your attitude, because if you just do whatever you do and then you get mad when you get a disease and blame it on fate or on God, or bad luck or bad luck the door, It’s like that, that’s not a winning formula. 

But if you see if you see yourselves and your body and your kidneys, you know, if you see them as a gift, it’s the vehicle we have, you know, on this journey, on this planet, forever long, we’re on this planet, it’s a gift. So if you see it as a gift, like when I go out in the morning, I have this herb garden and I just tune into, okay, what should I support today? And I go pick herbs for my kidneys and say thank you kidneys. You’re doing such those, you know, those like, amazing, amazing filtering job of the kidneys and regulating so many functions. Thank you kidneys. I’m gonna thank you by drinking this herbal tea or thank you liver. So if you have this love affair with your, you know, with your brain, your body, you know, it’s an appreciation because health is a gift, we can’t take it for granted because we know we can lose it at any time. And so every day is a gift. So if you see every day as a gift and you start the day with thankfulness with prayer with meditation and then you approach the day like that and you say okay. I’m so thankful for my health. How can I improve it? How can I be a good steward of it? How can I thank my body back for leading me on this wonderful journey through life instead of being afraid of cancer or being afraid of a chronic disease that you don’t know if you gonna have it. But but and it’s scary and and and you just hope that you don’t get it. It’s like there’s no plan, there’s no strategy. There’s no you know nothing to prevent these things. And actually you’re drawing it to you because you have so much fear. And the society and the media is making your victim like your victim cancer. You can’t do anything about it. 

Let’s hope they find the drug for it. And in my area of expertise now with the brain, I keep getting these letters from the Brain Research Association in Sweden saying, Yeah, we haven’t found, we haven’t solved the mystery yet. We need more research. We’ve been working on this for 40 years were very good doctors were very good researchers. But we haven’t solved it yet. So please send in your money because we see that we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. You know, it’s like they keep ignoring the basics, you know, that there’s a function and then there’s a progressive loss of function and then there’s progress. There’s causes of that. Such as toxicity, such as insulin resistance, such as inflammation, such as trauma, such as concussion, repetitive concussions in whatever boxing or whatever it is. There’s a lot of things that drive that degeneration of communication within the brain. And then look at it. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t understand

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Because they always look for that one drug that’s gonna fix everything. And obviously, you know, if they did find the solution, they’ll be out of a job. So I’m not sure how motivated they are. I mean, it’s kind of giving that feeling that they are progressing in the research. Yeah. And they’re publishing papers. But, you know, do you really want the end where we’ve solved this and now we can move on. I mean, does a person really want that if you are dependent on, you know paying for your house and your boat and all that from from the research you’re doing. You know that that’s always my question.

Peter Wilhelmsson

Yeah. I’m sure there’s, you know, I’ve met a lot of wonderful researchers and there’s a lot of well intent of many people. But I think also the problem is that the whole pharmaceutical industry developed their monopoly on healthcare during this twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, right. And they were they shut down homeopathic colleges, women’s colleges, natural medicine studies at the doctor programs and so forth. And then they got the antibiotics and the antibiotics. Was that silver bullet you know that that was that quick fix that made things disappear. And that is a miracle drug. Now it’s been so abused and misused, it’s not working very well anymore. But when it came for the 2030 years it they really rode that wave and they somehow equated then that we can do this with any disease. And then they went into biotech and they thought well if we break the gene, you know the genome we can we can reprogram the genes and we can we can prevent and we can solve disease because we can use new biotech drugs to manipulate the genes and then they found out that yes there is some success with the CRISPR technique and so forth. 

But in chronic diseases they are so complex and they’re so related to our lifestyle and our environment and epa genetics and our thinking and and everything our gut flora which is 99% of our D. N. A. Or 90% you know of our ourselves are like outnumber about 91 but it’s just they have this thinking and then in the television series you see er and all these you’re rescuing people who with operations with fantastic medical you know interventions and then so you’re riding this wave again and then you’re thinking we just need research we need and so you’re thinking that complex chronic diseases which have many triggers and many drivers and the personality and thinking behind it, they can be solved by by a drug and that’s it just doesn’t work that way.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And so obviously, you know, the dementia, Alzheimer’s you know is one of these complex disorders that is multifactorial meaning that there’s there’s several drivers that then adds up to the result of dementia or Alzheimer. You kind of listed a number of things you know fast you know and and earlier. But do you mind kind of going through some of the main drivers again? And that would then translate into dementia into Alzheimer’s so that people really have a clear picture of what can be involved.

Peter Wilhelmsson

Yes. During the last 40 years the research has been focused mostly on the amyloid plaque in the tau protein because they are like toxins and byproducts and they are the effects of immune system reactions to assaults. And so they have you know tried to register like 270 different drugs. They’ve registered a couple of them that may slow a little bit the progress but they’re trying to target the effects. So you’re you have a Micro Leah, you have an immune system in the brain and it does clear itself out. There is a detox system in the brain to get rid of debris. You’re always rebuilding cells or recycling cells or making new cells and there’s all these old cells and different debris in different parts of the body that has to has to be cleared out. So at night when we sleep we have this lymphatic system, we have the autopsy ji, which won a Nobel prize in the research of an autopsy gee a few years ago.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And what is that for people that don’t know? Khafaji.

Peter Wilhelmsson

Alright, so when we talk about detox traditionally, when we’re both nature path. So we’ve studied this a lot and the traditions of wonderful detox, you know, fasting or liver detox or gut detox or you know, kidney detox, whatever. There’s or sweating detox, there’s all these kinds of big detox systems that we have to keep clear if we’re going to be healthy. Well, there’s also like a little interest senator detox that happens that’s inside the cells because when we talk about detox generally we’re talking about these big systems like deliver the limp or whatever. So inside each cell there’s an autopsy gee, there’s a either there’s a recycling of parts that are breaking down and building new proteins, new structures or else there’s a clearing of debris that filters through the cell wall into the the lymphatic system. 

Or can go through the where can go through the cranial fluid, the spinal fluid or it drains down the neck area into your lymph system. You have the Vienna carving on the left, your lymph system drains down there. So there’s a drainage system for the brain. And this was just discovered 2,014 in Denmark actually. Because if you look at the medical books, you see if you look at the old medical books, basically anything before 2,018 you’ll see the lymph system stops at the head. But actually there’s a lymphatic system that drains into the neck lymph system. 

So that is a detox system and for that to work you need to sleep properly and you need to have a good lymphatic flow and you need to have a healthy, healthy immune system in your brain, your micro cleo which are like little vacuum cleaners. So one of these drivers is a leaky gut which you talked about written about and that is, there’s perforation, small perforations, irritations in the small intestine tissue. And so you know microbes can get in, their toxins can get in there, Gluten can get in there. Lightbulb palace aka rides, bacteria can get in there and then because they’ll be actually inside the body when they go through the small intestine when they’re in the intestinal system, they’re actually sort of outside the body there in this tube and then eventually you’ll get some poop at the end of it. But if they filter into your small intestine, that’s where your nutrients are supposed to go. And then there’s all these like microbes and maybe things that shouldn’t be in there allergens. Your immune system gets all alarmed. So you build these antibodies and there’s a correlation between your leaky gut and your leaky brain. So actually also there’s even tighter sort of a guarding system so that not unwanted particles get into your brain. So if these unwanted particles or infections, infectious agents get into your brain that is even more serious. So there’s a very tight structure. They’re keeping them out. It’s like if you’re in a you’re going to go to a bar and you have these bodyguards, right? And they let in certain people into the bar because they want people you can have had a beer or two and then you go in and you have fun. You pay a lot of money and you make the bar work, right? But you don’t they don’t let in the guys with the knives, right? They don’t let the people with the guns, they don’t let in the terrorists into the bar. Well your gut intestinal barrier and your brain barrier need to keep the bad guys out or or else we’re spiraling into bad health. So one of the protective things is having the really good gut gut flora and the gut integrity of the tissue in the small intestine. And the same with this little barrier that’s between the blood blood and the brain tissue. So when we’re eating we’re taking a lot of cortisone or taking certain drugs like the P. P. I. Drugs or we’re eating a lot of gluten or we’re taking a lot of toxins or were very very stressed. There are many things and that can disrupt this barrier. So it opens up a little bit so then unwanted particles come into it. 

And then when they go up to the brain they can come in and sort of pollute the brain over, overwhelm the brain. So that’s one of the one of these drivers can be this the integrity of your intestinal barrier then that also is coupled often with inflammation. Long term information. So Dr. Perlmutter calls it the brain on fire basically you have this low grade inflammatory you know progression that’s happening for maybe years. You and you do your high sense of Crp and maybe it’s just two or three and the doctor says it’s okay but you really should have under one. But a lot of the lab markers they want you to have three or four. I mean you know it’s okay with three or four. So if you have this low grade inflammation, that’s why we emphasize anti anti-inflammatory diet and getting rid of the processed foods and a lot of the additives and things that can trigger inflammation.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

So one of the things that I just want to kind of highlight because you talked about the amyloid plaque you know and and we all think well that is the cause of Alzheimer. But what you’re mentioning at that is actually an effect, meaning that is a protective mechanism that the immune system used in response to, you know these chemicals, these toxins, different pathogens that are then entering into the brain because it’s becoming leaky, you know the blood brain barrier, you know like they are not you know the the guards outside the bar, you know that the bouncers, they’re not doing a very good job. So things are just kind of entering in and that is directly correlated with the same kind of leaky nous along the gut lining. So by working on your gut lining, you’re then also working on your blood brain barrier to seal that up so so that these different pathogens and chemicals cannot enter into the brain which then obviously results in that the immune system do not need to produce these amyloid plaques that scientists are saying then associated with Alzheimer’s but we know now that you know it’s just a symptom

Peter Wilhelmsson

That’s a great summary. Thank you very much to carry on also. you could see then that you have the guts integrity and then you also have the microbiome, you have this rich flora, you have the dendrites which have these feelers which is partly innate innate immune system. They have feelers they’re sort of right on the membrane so they have feelers going up into where your food passes you fibers and your food passes and then they’re signaling the different kinds of lymphocytes and Lucas is different white blood cells, what’s passing what’s coming? So they’re like look out there like these bouncers looking out for bad people and they’re giving information the whole time. So and that’s your innate new system. You have your natural killer cells, you have the macrophages. And the macrophages also vera states called the Swedish scientist who have known for many years, she passed away. But she shows videos of and she did research showing that actually the Macrophages can carry aluminum to your brain. 

So, aluminum, heavy metals, aluminum. There are several studies showing that aluminum or aluminum, however you want to pronounce it. It’s also correlated with Alzheimer’s and also other heavy metals and it can be chemicals today on their Swedish radio. They talked about the fast forever chemicals that are everywhere and they said now they’re seeing that there’s no safe dose, there’s no safe and now they’re starting to read and trying to you know, find them and put them on labels and all that stuff. And maybe some of you saw this movie Dark Waters with Mike Mark Ruffalo about the Dupont Chemical factory. So we have all these insults the last 50 years from chemicals from heavy metals, from amalgams from over vaccination and from all these, you know, all these pollutants, environmental you know, stressors and then we have the junk food. It’s all and then the stress and people addicted to their phones and people not sleeping, staying up and doing gaming or watching tv or waking up because somebody might have liked them on the phone or whatever. It’s like it’s crazy. It’s like we’re just setting ourselves up for all this horrible outcome of chronic disease.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

So in your mind, what would be a winning formula? I mean if you if you just cannot do a if you say these are the lifestyle, these are the patterns that you need to follow. Obviously we can’t control everything that we’re exposed to. We can control whether we get aluminum through vac vaccine nations or whether we have silver fillings in our teeth. You know, we can control that and obviously we can control if we choose to eat food that’s filled with glyphosate, which we know is just ripping the gut apart, which obviously is an hidden impact in the brain so we can control those things. But what would a lifestyle be, you know that is than supportive of brain health so that we continually invest in ourselves. So when we hit that age, we are less likely to be suffering from dementia. And Alzheimer’s

Peter Wilhelmsson

Well because we’re, we often have a herd mentality. It’s wonderful if we can find like minded friends or friends with have, you know, new acquaintances, friends go to classes, be on community social media clubs or whatever. There’s all so much information out there, but sometimes it’s just too much and you don’t know what to do because there’s like you can’t do like 1000 good things every day. So you have to filter down and see and that’s where it’s so important to, to regularly go to a practitioner like yourself because they can give you a perspective and maybe in your case it’s the stillness, the meditation, the time away alone in nature. Maybe that’s really important for you or maybe it’s asleep or maybe it’s your diet or maybe it’s your, you know, your exercise program or your social connections or forgiving your wife or your mother or your father or going on an inner journey of forgiveness and love. 

So all these things affect you. And so if you see it as a discovery and instead of a confusion, okay, how can I improve, what can I do? You know, how can I get this rough diamond? How can I get it to be a shining light and then you, you find though, you will find those resources because that’s your mindset and there’s so many summits I mean, but it’s very good to find a local person who you admire put your trust in and then go there and do your checkups, you know, like do do a good big blood panel every year because you may have no symptoms, but there may be something progressing, you know, on something happening inside you. That’s not good. And if you do some lab tests and basic lab tests, you can catch it early and then it’s very easy to fix it. So 

I think that we often the things we really like our good at, we can overdo those. Like if you’re a sporty person or you like to go to the GM all the time, then you think I’ve had people who are really sporty and I’m sporty too. I love sport working on stuff, but like they got like help with their, their chronic disease by working out, right? So then they think everything that happens, they can fix by working out. I had one of these people like they say, and they were training like 25 hours a week, like, hey, hey, slow down. I said, yeah, but I started getting these symptoms must mean I have to work out more so and then I have osteopathic teacher friend in England. He says that the sickest people he has are these gurus that sit around, you know, and meditate all day. And then if you’ve been to a high Krishna restaurant or an Indian restaurant, you know, they eat all this rice and all these sugar laden crappy foods sometimes. 

So it’s like, you need the perspective of other people, friends practitioners because you will guess that you’re doing something and you might not do enough, like a lot of practice and say, well, it’s enough to, you know, exercise. The studies show it’s enough to walk like, you know, two or three hours a week. Yeah, that’s like the R. D. I. I mean that’s like the lowest, lowest, lowest, lowest level, but for metabolic syndrome has been shown in studies, you need to walk at least 12,000 steps. And of course, in anti aging and longevity communities, they have an average of 18 to 24,000 steps. It doesn’t have to be walking. But I’m just saying that a lot of times in the newspapers and so forth, or a lot of the doctors who usually don’t have much education lifestyle anyway, they’ll say, oh yeah, you walk your dog three or four times a week, oh, that’s good. And people just don’t realize if they were rev that up and do a little weight lifting and do a little more exercise, wow, what a difference. So a lot of people, they just don’t do enough other people do way too much and then they ignore their relationship and they’re always stressed or their work they’re addicted to their work or they’re addicted to whatever you know sugar or or video games or their mobile phone or whatever.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah you have to find joy in your life. You have to have purpose. You need to feel connected. I mean these are fundamental components and yes you can do all these fiscal things. You can take these supplements you can eat that diet and you can exercise but if you miss the the mental spiritual emotional component then you are you’re still shooting yourself in the foot and and likewise you know like you say these meditators you know they sit and meditate and they may be all blissful and they’re doing great but they’re eating garbage they’re not moving and they’re not doing all these other components so it’s bringing these different aspects together. That becomes so key and like with exercise you know we you know we’re talking about the lymphatic drainage you know that becomes key. We talk about Alzheimer’s dementia being you know stage three diabetes you know to regulate blood sugar and we know exercise obviously is key for that and you know we also know it boosts the immune system partition repair and I mean it does so many things and you know it activates A. M. You know the A. M. P. K. And it does so many different things that are anti-aging. But obviously like you’re mentioning everything needs to be in a balance. You can’t just think that one thing I’m going to write this source and this is all it is

Peter Wilhelmsson

Right. And that’s what often you see on the headlines with Alzheimer’s or whatever you see like oh to see the Mediterranean diet, the research has shown that that helps against Alzheimer’s and people think that’s all I have to do or or just exercise. So that’s why they need to get the knowledge that practitioners such as you have the perspective. So you put a holistic program together. And also I mean some of the really good quick fixes we have are things like a power plate. You know just 10 minutes a day on a power plate, like a vibration machine. You can do resistance exercise. Your lymphatic star drained or saunas. I do saunas 56 days a week. 

I have a wood burning song. I have all what you call infrared sauna. I go to the gym two or three times a week. I always do a song after the gym And I keep telling people all these people go to the gym and they’re wearing these chemically impregnated tights and then they’re sweating and they’re not they’re not even they’re not showering, they’re not signing their driving home or bicycling home. So it’s like they’re re absorbing all these toxins. But I mean sweat. You know you get a third less colds just doing regular Saunders three times a week. It’s it’s I mean you get a better immune system. It’s an excellent quick way to detox. I mean quick. I mean it takes several weeks but you’re gonna be detoxing, you’re gonna be detoxing if you eat organic foods. 

There’s studies showing that and then of course we have great supplements like Cla rela and other types of supplements that even quick in that detoxing. So we can stay ahead of this toxin game all whether it’s life or whatever. It is. Just a few things incorporated like saunas three times a week for 30 minutes. And then taking maybe extra coral or other supplements that help detox and eating, choosing organic organic foods and eating regularly. Like I eat one really big salad a day organic foods that does so much. That basic little recipe of saunas. And then you know drinking water, drinking some herbal teas and I mean I I take a lot of supplements but not everybody can afford to take 20 different supplements. So you have these basic at least take the basic 34 supplements. And in my book, save your brain now I have all these top 12 list for superfoods for the brain and herbs for the brain and these different drivers of dementia like we talked about insulin resistance and inflammation and toxicity. You know like you got Nicky brain, we have all these things that a practitioner can help identify okay what are your top three drivers of your disease? Like you do okay what can you do with your lifestyle, what to do with your diet and what can we help you with? In terms of I. V. S. Or or reflexology or whatever, you know some kind of a frequency machine or whatever there’s there’s all types of I love getting like I get massages, I go to chiropractic, I get acupuncture. I mean that’s like me loving myself, I’m just getting all this wonderful treatment you know and and so it’s just a way to love myself instead of eating candy or pizza. Oh I eat candy pizza, I put that money on chiropractic or acupuncture or whatever an ivy so we can do so much and that’s what I want to convey you know empowerment. That because it’s media is making us such victim especially during these last couple of years or it’s just the thinking there’s so much fear and victimization. So we need to do everything to empower people and show them that their health is in their hands.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And I love how you like me to go to the you know your herb garden and you’re taking this and this is you know your your way of showing love to your body and obviously you know for all the hard work that your body is doing every day you know the the heart is as you know, beating so many times, you know, every every minute and obviously throughout a whole lifetime, I mean that that’s a muscle that’s worked the hardest out of all all your muscles and so you need, you know what with your habits, how you’re showing appreciation, you know, for all the wonderful, amazing things that taking place every nano second in your body and that is beyond our intelligence and by developing habit to show that appreciation back for this beautiful creation that we have.

Peter Wilhelmsson

Yes, and I mean, just a simple thing that’s very powerful is just writing a little journal and writing three things or five things every morning. What you’re thankful for, you can do in the car, You know, just just being, starting the day with thankfulness. I’m exploring all these morning routines now that I don’t have to work these 85 hour weeks anymore. So when I saw my company said, Okay, no more than a 40 hour work week now. So now I basically I study, you know, 15, 20 hours, I work about 25-30 hours and then I’m developing this morning routines, okay, how can I optimize my morning routine? So I’m playing with that now for years. You know, my time of reading devotion, prayer, meditation, exercise. What kind of exercise, you know, these listening to positive stuff like make it fun, you know, morning walks, whatever. Just if you have, if you have independent schedule or flexible schedule if you have or if you have a lot more time because your, your pension or whatever just find the morning routine that gives you life to give you inspiration. That’s a part of your purpose. Whatever your purpose is, if you’re volunteering at a school or, or if you’re teaching, you know teaching extra or whatever you’re doing to help society that will give you purpose. Volunteerism has been shown to extend your life, you know, going and helping people at the blood bank or whatever, whatever at the hospital, holding little babies, you know, and giving them love, you know, there’s people doing all these wonderful things, so I have never understood why people say, oh, I’m so bored after I retired from work, well, I can’t relate to that. But you know, there’s this all so many ways you can, you can get back to your community, you can go to the car felt center and volunteer and be a greeter there instead of a Walmart. Right?

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

I would love that. I would love have warm friendly greeters that just wanna love on the patients as they’re coming. That would be amazing. So, if an individual is starting to kind of feel, I know that you have kind of extensive outline in your book, you know, and you know what to do and so forth. But for people listening, if they feel that there’s all kind of cognitive decline that is happening, what are some action steps that they can take to try to turn that around.

Peter Wilhelmsson

Yeah. So there I have a scale of 0 to 20 progressive scale on cognitive decline, dysfunctions. So they can sort of tune in and do tests. I have a little bit of memory tests and tests like that. And then of course there’s more structured tests where you have these different clinics that give you more, you know, scientific tests. But if you see that you can start with the diet take out or You know, progressively take out the ultra processed foods and the whatever is your addictive foods and then your the gluten of course take out the gluten, maybe the milk products and definitely take out the ultra processed foods and see how how the brain brain fog is affected or your vitality is affected and then that may help 10%, 30%, 50%. And then you just stack the next thing you can, you can just every month you can do something positive. Of course, there’s a lot of youtube videos, there’s a lot of books like my book that gives a lot of different steps to take and then when you get stuck or you get a yearly physical and then things are starting to happen and you don’t know what to do or you feel you need more coaching, then you you go to a professional and they identify a priority of what you’re to do. So you’re not losing a bunch of time, guess where you know guessing it’s better to test than to guess. You know it’s like better to get really good advice whether it’s financial advice, marriage various advice or health advice to get great. 

So you know what to prioritize because you might spend you know two or three years doing the wrong thing because you just don’t have the knowledge. So but the basic things are of course exercise sleep and eating and not just saying healthy but being more specific. We can take I. G. I. G. Tests I. G. A. Test we can do food panels. You might be allergic to things you don’t even know about. It doesn’t have to be gluten or milk. It’s just that’s the most common. You can be have a brain health problems because you’re eating other things that you weren’t even you didn’t even know about. Or if you do have fast or detox and your brain clears up and then you reintroduce things. You can reintroduce foods one at a time or a few foods a day and then you’ll see oh when I started eating this food I started getting my brain fog back so explore the foods because it’s so basic. So do the detox is or take away what you suspect and do detox is or take these lab tests that show your hidden food sensitivities. That’s not the same as your I. G. E. Allergenic tests from the medical doctor. These are more you’re under underlying bubbling. It’s not like a volcano eruption that’s more like an I. G. It’s more like a bubbling little irritation. So I would investigate the foods because you’re eating so many times a day and you’re you know make sure you’re eating the right foods and doing the right movement And then your mindset as we both talked about the importance of having goals and a mission and the relationships loving relationships positive people. So I mean I think that’s a good place to start

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And then also hydration. I mean that is obviously if the brain is not hydrated then you I mean we know we need electrical charge in order to be able to generate energy. And without fluid we can’t generate that electrical charge. Nor can we, you know flush out the toxins. So you know, talk a little bit about hydration. You know what amount of water, what kind of water you know, what should you do there?

Peter Wilhelmsson

Well one thing I thought was fascinating when I was reading a lot about the brain was these the information and like the neural transmitters going from your neuron to neuron or or the messages going from one nerve cell to another nerve cell because it’s both a chemical message. It can be dopamine or it can be serotonin whatever. And then it’s also like a little flash of electrical charge, like jumping that little gap to see it. You need that little charge electrical charge. And so like you’re saying here, we need the water to carry. We have a whole extra cellular matrix in the in the fashion, in the whole system, there’s a whole communication system that’s like in our tissues, in our fashion, in our tissues. And that’s all basically fluid driven or water driven. So the water is very important. And then finding, I mean Sweden, we’re very fortunate. I’m thank 

for Sweden every time I go to the States and drink your chlorinated overly chlorinated water, go to a restaurant. Oh my goodness! So we have and a lot of it, we have 100,000 lakes here. So everybody can live near a lake. And we have very strict environmental laws. So where I live in my little village, we’ve tested our water, it’s pretty clean, but I also have an extra filtration system. It’s like extra luxury. But basically we have very good water here. But if you don’t know what kind of what’s in your water, you could be getting heavy metals, like you could or you can get too much copper or too much lead or you can get you know, other other metals, or you could be getting chemicals from the agriculture and then they don’t water systems to filter out a lot of the hormones and drugs that end up in the p you know, so so you can be getting a slow toxic load by drinking. So I would investigate to make sure you have a good filter water filter, make sure you have really good water. And then at least drink half of your you know, half of your fluid intake with this clean clear healthy water. 

And then the rest can be like tease, you might want to drink a cup of coffee, you know, a couple of cups of coffee, you might want to drink teas, you might want to drink one of the detox is is diluted juices. I don’t recommend drinking juice straight because it can give you too much of a sugar low. But if you dilute like we here here we have Lincoln juice, or bill berry juice, or we have there’s cranberry juice, there’s pomegranate juice. And if you do, if you just dilute that like 4567 times. You’re just getting a little bit of that cranberry juice. That’s or you can just take the kids to get them to drink water, they can put lemon in the water, they can put berries in the water. You know, if you have four or five kids, they can, each kid can be responsible for the water. You’re drinking and you’re just putting a few bears, they’re putting a few berries in there, or a little bit of ginger in there, or a little bit of lemon or a little bit of apple or a little bit of pineapple. 

So instead of having, you know, horrible cola’s and pop sodas, then they’re just, they’re they’re making these flavored waters, but they’re getting like 99% water, 90% 1 and then they get a little bit of berry, berry juice in it. So I think, you know, you can do a lot of creative things just make sure you can buy a probably a good decent water filter with ceramic based or filter or you know, in your office maybe just for a few $100. And then of course there’s reverse osmosis and then there’s, we have like ultraviolet and all this stuff, fancy stuff. But basically you want to get, you want to talk to your water filter person or company and make sure they do tests and show your tests before and after that, they’re getting out at least 97 98 99% of all the stuff you want, you want them to get out of there. But if you have distilled water or reverse osmosis water, you’re also losing a lot of minerals. So you should be you know, putting some kind of mineral concentrates or just be aware that distilled water is more detoxing and it’s, it’s charged and they’ll help you detox, but you should not drink a lot of distilled water in the long run if you’re not adding trace minerals, like, like you have the in Utah there, you have a lot of these old dinosaur bone minerals, I don’t know what they call them, but trace mineral solutions. So yeah, I think also another thing about water tip for water and weight loss or whatever is a lot of people eat because they’re nervous or they, you know, we like to comfort ourselves with food or we think we’re hungry. But actually if we drink one or two glasses of water, then we’re not hungry anymore. So feeling like, oh, I gotta eat something, Just drink two glasses of water and you might not have to eat something because a lot of people eat too many little snacks throughout the day and when their body maybe wants to be clearing things out and wants to rest. So I like this. It works well for me to have 14, 16 hours between my last meal and the and the brunch the next day because you’re allowing that rest, you’re honoring your body, allowing the detox and you’re allowing the rest for the body and then you’re you’re only drinking maybe water in the morning and teeth.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

And yeah, regards to like soda pops, you know, you’re talking about the kids and you’re going through all those more and more healthier suggestions. I mean, so here with the soda pop, obviously, frequently they’re either in a plastic bottle or they are in a aluminum can and so you have an an acidic fluid, you know, that’s stored in in that container for an extended period of time that will then obviously kind of corrode some of that material into the fluid. So every time you’re drinking that you’re then feeding your body with aluminum or with these plastic substances that are then driving dementia, driving alzheimer’s clogging up these different receptor sites where we’re talking about the neurotransmitters there, they’re jumping from one nerve to the other and they have to land on the other side. 

And if we have aluminum or or chemicals that are blocking there, then you know, that that jump cannot take place and we don’t have a continuation of the signal. So it becomes so key then to, you know, like you’re saying to stay away from those things and in addition to being an acidic, you know, for kids, it will then you know, for the body then to neutralize those assets and we’ll pull away calcium and minerals and things from the bone, you know, So now your d mineral. Izing your kids, you know by drinking the soda, you know, so you want the kids to flourish and grow and and now they’re not because they’re drinking that junk in what are some for, I mean there are a number of supplements that obviously we can take and that are generally good for our health but if we just look at dimension Alzheimer’s what would be kind of your top three supplements that you feel everyone should, everyone would benefit from if they took these supplements. If they’re concerned about dementia, alzheimer’s

Peter Wilhelmsson

Alright. Well one thing reconnected the water, there, one interesting study they’ve done is they found that silica is actually helping to detox aluminum and metal. So they found actually by even the Fiji water or the waters that have more silica in them actually. People regularly drink that even though I’m against plastic waters, you never know how long some of these plastic bottles have been on a freighter with direct sunlight, you know, putting plastic into the water. But they did an interesting study where they took different mineral waters and they found that the of course if you have waters that have heavy metals are way too much sodium, not so much magnesium and so forth. The mineral balance of the water can affect it. And they found that the silicone was really protective actually and it detox is fluoride and of course another tip then is with that go for a healthy flora free for you know, toothpaste or whatever you use for your mouth washers. 

Great herbal natural ways to do mouthwashes, you have coconut oil, you know oil pulling and stuff so but with these supplements because people don’t want to be taking five or 10 different bottles of vitamins and minerals. So I would just look for a high quality multi that’s absorbable and I’m sure you have those and because you may have 15 2030 ingredients in them you’ll have to take me before or six capsules. Beast taking 456 bottles. And then if you have a specific problem like with methylation then that’s like a certain type of genetic or epigenetic problem you have that your practitioner will show you. Then you might need a methylated vitamins and there’s extra with Alzheimer’s or extra need for B. 12 often. And then all of us need high levels of vitamin D. So I suggest that you stay within the 60 to 90 nanograms emperor meal leader. So you get that tested. So stay in that optimal level with your D. Vitamin. 

And then you’re in terms of the oils. I would take the use a lot of coconut oil or M. C. T. Oil or C. Eight carbolic acid. Actually coconut oil has both acrylic acid and that it also has a lot of the middle chain fatty acids that are easily converted into energy. And so I would take use coconut milk, coconut oil because that’s really helped a lot of people with dementia and the omega threes of course whether you’re taking an algae source or fish source high levels about equating to one can of sardines, that’s about 2503 1000 mg of E. P. A. Plus D. H. A. A lot of people just think well I’m taking omega threes but they’re only taking like 500 to 1000 mg of E. P. A. Plus D. H. A. But for your brain actually you really need sort of more D. H. A. But for inflammation you need more E. P. A. But just not to be too complicated. Just take eat a can of sardines or anchovies every day like my wife does in the morning if you or take you know you have or maybe take a you maybe have to take a tablespoon fish oil. So you don’t have to take you know six capsules or something. But get you and you can measure the ratios of omega six and omega threes and and different saturated fats and good ones and bad ones. So get the facts right because your brain is 60% fat. Get the fats, eat those walnuts, eat those sardines, eat those avocados. You know eat those good fat and get rid of processed foods because most of your bad fats are in your candies. Your breads and it’s vegetable, it’s like cheap soy oil or corn oil and it’s heated so it becomes very toxic and they put it in processed food. So in the chips the french fries, all that stuff has these toxic fats it’s horrible for your brain. So get the fats right take a good multi. And then when you’re aging I think it’s always good to take some kind of good adapted in herbs. Like I talk about back open from ironic medicine and you also have Tulsi. Those are and you have one called gotu kola. All those are very good for the brain. 

So the back opa is fantastic. There’s good studies for it. Otherwise you have arctic or Swedish herb, arctic routes that I have. My backyard rodeo to rodeo. I’m sorry rodeo. Right? Think of rodeo in Texas. You gotta hook for that. So rodeo Ola. So take that some people do well in convincing some people don’t. There are some good research on ginseng. Two or Siberian ginseng. So because these sort of increase low levels of vitality or they decrease overstimulation, they adapt, they help your adrenals and your different hormonal systems adapt better to stress. So I think as your aging too I always take adapted genes that can be adapted in mushrooms or adapting herbs. So I think that taking a really good multi taking extra vitamin D. Taking the the good fats and the the omega omega three’s extra mounts and then the you know the oil I think is a good base and then if you’re toxic of course things like whatever detox products you have to help pull toxins out are good to take.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

Yeah and talking about silica I mean a great herb you know which has a lot of silica in it. You know you have horse tail or another name for it is shaped grass and you just need to simmer that for a little bit you know to be able to pull out the silica so that that’s a good good thing to do once in a while to help to pull out that aluminum that you’re talking about. And silica is crucial for kind of tissue integrity for both bones and and so it makes it harder for you know, things like cancer and pathogens and things to kind of move forward, you know, so it has a very protective quality in itself. So well Peter you always, I mean there’s a reason why you’ve written so many books and created so many courses because I mean the amount of knowledge and experience and then and you you’re really a an example of what it looks like to live healthy and have a healthy mindset and to take care of yourself and have gratitude for what your body is doing. You know because you are active and then your joined life and that is what it’s supposed to be when you retire,

Peter Wilhelmsson

Thank you very much. I love Mike’s connection to you and I feel your true brother and I love what you’re doing for inspiring people and helping people on all levels. So keep up the great work blessings to you and your staff and your clinic and your growth on all levels and anyone listening to this, you’re wonderful. Take the journey and love yourself and enjoy the ride and appreciate each day of your life. It’s a gift and you are a gift to the world.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

I love that. That’s beautiful. That’s beautiful. Thank you. And also, where can they find your book again there? What is the name of your book and where they can find it?

Peter Wilhelmsson

Yes. Save your brain. Now we have a website. Saveyourbrainnow.com with just a little basic information about the book, but it’s on amazon. So if you go on amazon and write and save your brain now, which I have of course, sort of split feelings about recommending. I mean, I’m a little business owner like Michael, so I like to help the little local businesses. I feel a little bit bad about, you know, plugging amazon. But anyway, it’s there and I think you’ll find a lot of really great tips and Michael can help you implement those in a in a in a priority prioritized, so that you are very effective in your health journey and you are progressing the whole time. That’s wonderful to have mentors and teachers and practitioners. We all need help. Practitioners definitely need other practitioners and we need to be a strength encouragement to one another because we do have a lot of opposition and we do have a huge message and we need a lot of help spreading this message.

Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD

I love it. Well, thank you so much Peter. I have such great admiration, respect for you and everything that you do. So thank you so much for sharing your wisdom.