Neurotherapy: The Rise of Energy Medicine in Alzheimer’s Reversal

Introduction and Guest Welcome 0:00

This is doctor talks. Real talk from real doctors. Only issues that matter to you most. Hello and welcome to the Reversing Alzheimer's Summit. I'm one of your host, James Maskell, and I'm super excited to welcome someone who's on the cutting edge of the conversation about Alzheimer's that causes some of the new, innovative tools and really creating the kind of transformation that we'd love to see here. So a warm welcome to Doctor Cheng Ruan. He is the founder of Texas Sense of a Lifestyle medicine.

He's also doing incredible things in the Houston area to bring new understanding to the understanding of the interplay of energy, medicine and functional integrative medicine, as well as some awesome, leading edge technology. So we're grateful to have you here, doc. Hey, thanks a lot. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. There's a few things that I want to make sure that everyone who listens to our summit knows that. I think you have sort of unique access to. And I guess one of the first things I wanted to check in on is, you know, when we had conversations about this before, I think you're aware through your care and the work you're doing, some of the the causes of Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline that you may not hear about, you know, out there in the world.

And this is true, obviously, seeing a lot of cases and working with it. So what are some of the unlikely causes that you've seen that maybe aren't on people's radars? Yeah. So just off the top of my head, like some of the biggest misses by far are, infections that are really, really close to the brain. So this could be chronic sinus infections that people thought were just allergies.

Hidden Causes of Cognitive Decline 1:35

This could be, mass dental infections, periodontal infections and stuff like that. So the reason is because, we know that specific organisms, at the end of the day, it shares, different systems, such as detox systems with our brain. And that is anything that's connecting the brain down to our thorax or chest right here physically can cause any restrictions and decrease the blood flow, lymphatic flow or lymphatic flow, which basically the immune system of the brain itself. And if anything so becomes a problem plumbing problem.

So anything decreases that we're gonna solve them. That becomes an issue such as sinus infections, dental functions and stuff like that. So we already know for example, that heating develops and other different types of organisms that we've found in teeth and other organisms that our sinuses end up being in these plaques that we find in people with Alzheimer's disease, which are amyloid plaques and tau protein and stuff like that. So at the end of the day, like you're dental hygiene, your sinus hygiene is extraordinarily important to prevent the progression of disease.

But at the same time that infection, it so could be the one that's causing memory issues. So in my practice we use, EEGs, which are basically electrodes that we have on the brain to look at the patterns that are there. And we're able to tease out some patterns on the EEG that's correlating with these infections, causing a lot of sleep disruptions and stuff like that. So that's number one infections near the brain. Number two, anything that causes a decrease of dumping of lymphatics from the head down.

So it could be something as simple as posture. So your posture is pretty much this way. You had very much this way. It actually impedes the flow of the lymphatics coming down from the head down. Right. Yeah. And also some people have, dental issues where their bite is a bit crooked and that causes a lot of head and neck strain. Right. That causes posture issues. That is actually one of the hallmarks of chronic, of brain atrophy, which is basically brain shrinkage. Another part is what we call tech neck and these days everyone's on their phones looking this direction.

So the call is the forward head posture. As the head is coming more forward, we're seeing that becomes issues. And once again that has to do. It's a bit of a plumbing problem, not just a plumbing problem. It's a bit of a plumbing problem where the lymphatics within the head and neck has to be drained downwards in order for detoxification to occur. So that's a big one. Posture is huge when it comes to kinds of issues, right? And the third one that's most commonly missed is a bit of a combination between the first one.

The second one which is environmental toxins. So that's still brought us in was the inhalation. Also I was talking about environmental toxins causing issues with, brain development and also brain shrinkage we call atrophy, which correlates with memory loss. But a lot of the ways that we deal with environmental toxins are trying to improve the flow of the lymphatics from the brain downwards. Right. And so this could be mold exposure or water damage. Home. This could be a freshly. We had a patient with a freshly painted kitchen and started having some severe memory issues.

Shortly after that, because there's a lot of volatile organic chemicals that are basically going into the air from the kitchen and stuff like that, right? Or it could be as simple as chronic allergies. So we have a patient who basically has a lot of allergies, the horses, he ended up moving from Kansas down to Texas on a horse ranch with his daughter and developed major cognitive issues. But when he's away from that, he's actually a lot more awake and talkative. So even the chronic allergies, if if prolonged enough, we can consider those environmental toxins as well.

So having the best friends with your allergies or any doctor and stuff like that is not a bad idea. And we want to get to the root of memory loss as soon as possible. Those are the top three I think people are missing the most. Yeah, I think those are great. And I could see how those could actually like interact with each other. So like, I know for my father, one of the things that was with him, obviously there was a mold thing. So that was key. But then I think it was getting him up, jumped up and sinus.

Sinus, Dental, and Sleep Disruption 6:00

And that was, you know, that it's interesting. You said like proximity to the brain. Yes. Like what you're saying is like the brain is in sort of like a, a flow system of, of, and, and moving things out and when things get stuck, it's more likely to go sideways. Absolutely. So let's imagine that our skull is a series of caves. And these caves are called sinuses. All right. So the sinuses have a very interesting job. And so our whole body, 85% of a type of nitrogen gas called nitric oxide, is created or manifested well in the actual sinuses, air of the sinuses.

And so nitric oxide depletion can cause memory issues shrinkage, ADHD, depression anxiety, etc., etc.. Right. So what happens is that's air moving in these caves. So in the sinuses the sinuses have a a cover on it called the mucosa. And then below the cover you have the sub mucosa. So there's a lot of nerve endings that actually goes into the sinuses similar to the teeth as well. So these are branches of what's called the triangular nerve. And charging nerve is kind of like my hand on the side of my face.

There's different branches that branch out of right here okay. And so there's specific branches that go into the sinuses and go into the front for teeth right here in the maxilla and part of the mandible. And there's sensory nerve. So there's sensing that something is wrong. So if you have mold that's in something is wrong. So what it does is goes back into this part of the brain called the hypothalamus. And it shuts off the regulation of another nerve called the vagus nerve. So the vagus nerve is the nerves. It calms you down.

And we're designed to do this because this is how we sense danger. So if you have chronic sinuses you have dental infections. Your brain is dangerous signals always on what that does is that because the vagus nerve gets kind of cut off, a lot of things happen to the body. Heart rate becomes dysregulated, blood pressure becomes dysregulated, which is a term we call this autonomia. Your gut microbiome changes rapidly just like that. You know, in the able to get into deep sleep. Very much so. A lot of sinus obstruction or even dental infections causes really improper sleep.

And we know that proper sleep is required for the brain's really heal itself. Right at the end of the day, all clinicians know like if you have to sleep, you have body. And so if there's any sinus issues and these caves are kind of gunked up with mucus, and it's not making this nitric oxide and the nerves going back to the brain and say, hey, hey, hey, something's wrong. Danger mode. We kind of have to listen to it. Now the question is, well, how do you know it's doing that? Well, a lot of times we look at somebody and they have these dark circles in the eye called allergic shiners.

Maybe it's a little baggy, right? And then a lot of times their eyes look sunken in and they have TMJ issues because their body is telling the the muscles of the jaw to clench to open up these airways. Right. And as you're clenching and as you're trying to open up these airways, if it's not, if it's not enough, then you can get like a lot of TMJ problems clenching, grinding. Your dentist can even say where marks on the teeth. Those are huge issues to be taken care of immediately. Some people have obstructive sleep apnea, where the airway gets so obstructive and that causes airflow velocity issues.

So sleep apnea is a huge portion of the population that have a lot of these memory issues. Right? So these are the these are like physical things that we have to make sure that we treat right away before things. You know, get worse. I mean, the whole song is called Reversing Alzheimer's, but part of the reversibility is making sure that you're actually getting air to your brain. Your body's getting the, the, the signals to the vagus nerve to actually work so the organs can work, the gut can work, and then everything becomes a happy marriage.

That's awesome. But you got so much great, great info. And I know that you see a high volume of patients and super big fan of everything that you're doing. That Texas Center for Lifestyle Medicine. If you're in the Houston area, you're in for a treat. And if you're inside Texas, I know that you, you know, deal with so many patients there, and I highly recommend it. I really want to touch into some of the cool solutions because you, always on the cutting edge and, you know, we haven't really had anything on this, summit about anything related to, like, energy medicine.

Obviously. You see, things like vagus nerve interaction is kind of energy medicine in a certain way. But yeah. Share with us a little bit about some of the things that you're excited about. And on the cutting, street thing. Absolutely. So we recently we added a new department to the program that's run by a neurologist called synaptic. Synaptic is a branch of neurology division at Texas Center for medicine, where we serve the population that's in assisted living and memory care facilities. And so what we're doing for them is we're providing the latest, technologies and data and research on what actually moves

Frequency-Based and Group Therapies 10:50

the needle and improving the quality of life and improving cognition. So, my favorite thing really, in the last two years, is looking at frequency based therapeutics. So a couple of years ago, there's ultrasonic frequency therapies, are approved for Parkinson's, and now they're approved for Alzheimer's disease. Right. And these are done in some of the educational institutions. Now, this is widely, widely, there. But what we do know is that whenever you're looking at frequency based, therapeutics, anything around the 40Hz, which is a sound frequency, is able to not only improve cognition, we're also improve the folding of these proteins, amyloid plaque that we actually see right now.

Frequency, frequency ultrasonic frequency therapy has been used for a whole lot of things. Even some EMTs used to break up mucus in the sinuses. Right. It's perhaps there's a mucus busting effect, and perhaps there's a vibrational effect where it's allowing the cerebrospinal fluid, which is the fluid, the base of the brain, to move a lot more readily. And therefore you don't need a lot of toxins in. But we're seeing that this energy based or frequency based medicine is coming into fruition quite a bit.

There's something new, and maybe by the time the summit's actually released, the FDA approved, it's actually, specific, certain devices that our focus on accommodative sound is called near infrared. So near infrared, you just kind of see these gadgets all over the internet right now. One of them is called the Mindy. When the 250. Do all devices use the infrared to improve the blood flow to the frontal lobe like it's developed by NASA and another Swedish company? So we're seeing all these self-help improvement devices that's on the market right now.

And actually, a lot of it is, is really improving positive function. But some of it is going through FDA trials right now with specific medical devices that are coming out. So I think 2025 is a really exciting year for cognitive decline and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. So what we are doing is whatever is coming out, we want to be able to to have it and provide non pharmacol therapeutics for frequency based, training for the people with cognitive issues. So on the synaptic our program s y and a k, the synaptic program we have is designed to do this.

Let's get people with cognitive issues, at certain facilities to access this. And, and then work with them over time to see improvements. But what we're also doing is that we're doing group visits with them as well. So we're doing group visits with them on a sound frequency training. So some people call that sound healing, right? We have Tai Chi qigong and we know Taichi and Qigong breathwork modalities. Ashley can significant impact the kinds of decline not only just decrease the progression, but dramatically reduce the mental health issues that are surrounding, cognitive issues right now.

Yeah. So these programs are are something that we've done for a number of years. We just put them into the assisted living and memory care facility. But the outcomes are actually really good. And my hope is to get more group programs in the, in the US, North America, covered by insurance so that we're able to continue on with this. That's super cool. So how do you expect that to happen? You expect like, you know, like, assisted living to get the machines and you do it, you know, you can do it there?

Or does it have to be done by a doctor? No, it's gotta be done by, by by clinicians. So these facilities just provide the space and we provide basically everything else. And so what happens then is that assisted living and independent living and memory care already have programs such as this, but rarely is a direct focus specifically for decline or dementia or stuff like that. Like ours is. Right. And so, for example, we just did, patient was looking at their mapping data. We can say, hey, we increase your blood flow to the frontal lobe.

This percentage compared to the last time that we did it, which is a week ago. And this is where the the progression is going. I think that's really the new age of improving cognitive function for the folks that are listening at home. I think this is a good opportunity to understand that a lot of the new technology that's coming out that is based on, these meditation machines, different headbands and stuff like that, there's a lot of science behind that. And because these things are getting more expensive in the consumer market, they're still great to do.

But we're seeing this new giant shift toward sort of these FDA approved products on the back end, being developed. And I think it's going to it's going to be really, really good because the initial data is good, and these are some medical devices that are coming out. So I'm really, really hopeful. That's really cool. You know, you mentioned tai chi and qigong. You know I love to see the average assisted living or memory care play. So senior living like with 50 people out on the on the grass doing it together like you'd see in China.

What what do you think the chances are. But like a a cultural shift of that size and scale. Yeah, James, we already did it two weeks ago is our first, first day we had our initial few people sign up in these, actually both of my memory care facilities. And then we, have, we have a breathwork entitled qigong Master on on staff was actually sort of I helped those himself and it's, health coaches led, you know, group systems and group therapies. And so, it's something that I've dreamed about for such a long time.

And I think two weeks ago, it finally happened. It was really fun to kind of get the feedback from people and, and the family members as well, anything to reduce the loneliness and isolation and give the sense of dignity and also get the sense of just feeling significant on a day to day basis for them is already like quite difficult. But when you provide something like that in a group community, it's, it's it's really fun to us. Yeah. Tell me a little bit more. I mean, obviously this is an area where we've had a lot of agreement and, you know, innovation together, like, it seems to me that like the, the community and having the right community around you, is the number one thing that you can do to, you know, to reverse because ultimately, even through this whole summit, it's like the heart of the thing to do is the more likely that you'll do it consistently if you have some sort of support, right?

Yeah. I think is is this is, we see that people heal much better in groups than one on one visits with the doctor or even with the health coach, actually, or a dietitian. And it has to do with the mentality of I am not here alone.

Community Healing in Memory Care 17:25

And because you can interact with other people, not only is the compliance higher, which I don't like, use the word compliance. So let's let's just call it excitement. And that only is the excitement for this, for this much better. You're using the community as a as a source of healing. And we see over and over again in multiple longitudinal data, especially with the VA data, seeing that community based or group based therapy is good for pretty much all the chronic disease, states. So we know that loneliness and isolation is the number one risk factor when it comes to, all cause mortality.

So death for many causes. Right. And the a lot of times in our group sessions, in fact, I'm in a room right now because my main, my main, my main room is used in a tight group right now. Like, I see them and they're happy a lot of times. For a lot of them, the only time that gets really interact with people at this deep, meaningful level is in our facility, right. And so because of that, you're creating this community and creating this bond. And one of the coolest part about like, what we do is a lot of, a lot of the things that people are saying, we are able to capture that information and build upon it.

So I'll give you a really good example. James, we have this patient that comes in, Korean War veteran and, loss of spouse about 11, 12 years ago. And then somebody I've known for a very long time, and he's saying that, well, you know, not only is my mood better, my memory is intense. And it seems to getting better. I'm more engaged with the people around me and the people in the room is that I actually look younger. And he's like, you know what? I feel like this mass is kind of lifted off and I don't have to, like, just be so harsh and protect myself anymore, right?

You know, the guy's over nine years old. It's really fun to actually hear something like that. Makes a huge impact on our community. And another really interesting fact is that hospitalizations and E.R. visits are actually less in the group visits. And so if people come together in a, in a group, we're able to not just get more access to them, on a weekly basis when someone that's been showing up for five weeks in a row, all of a sudden week number six and seven, not showing up, someone's going to be reaching out like our team was like, hey, hey, what's going on? Right.

So we we're inconsistencies that are there and believe or not, a lot of times we have found people that required a lot of emergency services. Right. But over time, what happens is people feel like they're they're in a group, their immune function gets better, their need fossilization goes down. And as you see the group grow, there's people who may be 1 to 2 years ahead of the new people coming in, and they're providing that community support. It's almost like the chain keeps moving, right? The legacy kind of keeps moving for them, and it gives them a sense of tremendous amount of purpose in the groups.

And I think that's something that's really, really fun to watch. Over the last eight years that we've been doing groups awesome. Well, look, I think you got so much to add for to, you know, obviously doing this so effectively and that I guess what I'd love to do just because it's you and I know you and I know how much you think about these things. You know, this summer it's called reversing Alzheimer's. And, you know, ultimately, you know, we we hope that there's some scale that can really come to this.

And I guess I just maybe finish off by just maybe you sharing a vision of what do you think health care would have to look like in order to really turn the corner here? I mean, obviously everywhere you're seeing, you're seeing the numbers going up. It's getting earlier. It's getting worse. You know, what would it look like in the sort of, in the, in the, in the end state where we have, a health system that is able to help people either avoid Alzheimer's altogether or only have to deal with at the very end of their life.

What do you see that that would have to happen for that to work. Yeah. Good question. I think with Alzheimer's and memory loss, a big part of it is how complex it is. Right? But there's one piece of technology that can make very complex, ideas come to life, and that's artificial intelligence. And, you know, I've been working with AI for a very long time and looking how AI is able to analyze the patient histories and documentation. Even the AI actually on

AI and the Future of Alzheimer's Care 21:35

the front end can even quote unquote talk to the patients though, right? It's able to ask things such as, hey, how's your teeth been? Any bleeding gums? Right. That's a bleeding gums. A huge, huge question there. That's should be part of every neurological assessment. The only bleeding gums and these periodontal issues and cause can cause a lot of conflict. And then what is the mental health like we now know and this is you know, February 2025, we now know that a lot of people are more comfortable talking to an intake AI than they are talking to their doctor.

We now know that's the thing. Before it was sort of a mystery. And so on over. We're looking at people talking into the AI or typing. We can get information from them. The family members, other, other, historians, basically, people are able to provide the history, right? We're able to see a lot of different points of view. And that gives us the ability to analyze that large amount of data. Plus, the AI is also absorbing information from their medical records, hospitalizations. Right. What was the last MRI was the last Pet scan, etc., etc..

Right. And other records from the neurologists, from the psychiatrist, whatever it is. Right. And so this large amount of information used to be very taxing, overwhelming for clinicians. Now we now like it because the more we can get into the AI, and the more we can ask the AI to retrieve some of this information, how really applies to the patient. And so it's going to make something that's drastically, drastically too complex to execute on. Something is a lot easier in bite sized chunks. And that's what we've been seeing right.

So imagine this. Imagine that. Let's say you have a family member that has Alzheimer's disease is maybe not talking very much. And you can, get access to an app or an AI that says, hey, you know, tell me the story of what's been going on, and you have no time limitations with the, you can tell the story for an hour and a half. You want to write all the information, give, compartmentalize, and extract it so that when you actually meet the doctor, they are able to to already have so much information that's there.

And you spend a lot of times on on figuring out like, what's next so drastically reduces the cost of care, improves implementation on the backend. What happens is that because the AI knows this person's, information, it's able to track longitudinally means they. How did the person do what was the MRI like a few months later? Right. So what happens is that we as doctors can go into and say, hey, how's this patient been doing? Like literally talking to it like it's Starburst or something, right. How's this patient have been doing extracting that information.

So lets us know, are we going on the right track. There's something that we had to pivot, move and change. And that's the only way I can think. Like moving forward, how we can, you know, practice medicine. So for those of you who are terrified of AI there, I agree, there's there's a bit of a terror to it because sometimes it'll be unpredictable. But what I'm saying is AI is already used in multiple other industries. I think doctors are a little bit late to the game, but using it for retrieving the information, understanding and then executing on it, I think has to be where the future is going, arguably has to be where the present is going.

Awesome. Well, Doug, I really want to appreciate you for sharing your wisdom here. On the, Reversing Alzheimer's Summit, I feel a lot more, excited and happy about the future, knowing that there's pioneers like yourself doing it, and it's going to take a big team to execute on it. I think what we've hearing on this summit is all the different, you know, clinical leading edge insights to help any person, avoid it for themselves or their family. But ultimately it is going to take, you know, the building of a new system.

And I think, you've got a lot of the elements there that are already working with them. Yeah. I just wanted to thank you for, for being on the on the cutting edge. I know it's not always easy to try new things and and do those things, but I know a ton of value gets delivered to everyone from all of your innovation. So thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you for having me on I appreciate it. This has been the, Reversing Alzheimer's Summit.

Closing Remarks 25:35

I'm one of your host, James Maskell. If this was interesting to you, and you, have someone in mind that you think may have a hidden dental infection, or maybe, you know, some of this information is is useful. Make sure to forward it to them. And, check out some of the other sessions happening today and tomorrow on the summit. We've got great speakers all week. Thanks so much for tuning in. And we'll see you next time. Thank you for tuning in to Doctor Talks. We hope today's episode has enlightened and inspired you on your path to optimal health.

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