In this first lesson, Dr. Perlmutter reviews the limitations and risks of current Alzheimer's treatments, particularly drugs targeting beta-amyloid. While these drugs reduce amyloid in the brain, they offer minimal cognitive benefits and can cause serious side effects, such as brain shrinkage and swelling. You’ll learn the importance of early prevention, lifestyle changes to maintain metabolic health (which is a key driver of Alzheimer’s), and ways you can prevent brain degeneration long before symptoms appear.

Dr. David Perlmutter shares a groundbreaking perspective on Alzheimer's disease, challenging the traditional focus on beta-amyloid. Instead, he highlights the critical role of brain metabolism, particularly how the brain uses glucose, in the development of Alzheimer's. 

He reviews the power of your lifestyle choices in preventing or delaying the disease and offers actionable strategies you can do based on recent research. You’ll also learn about new treatments that target brain metabolism, showing promise in improving cognitive function in Alzheimer’s patients.

Today we dive even deeper into the connection between brain metabolism and Alzheimer's disease, this time through the lens of nitric oxide. This molecule, which is essential for vasodilation and neurotransmission, is at the center of groundbreaking insights into how exercise and certain medications influence Alzheimer's risk. Dr. Perlmutter also discusses the significant impact of our oral microbiome on nitric oxide — and thus brain health. Maybe it’s time to stop using that mouthwash!

It doesn't seem likely that humans evolved to have our brains decline in this way — and indeed, we didn’t. Our genome was honed over countless generations to keep us healthy and cognitively intact, but we are living in a way that goes against our physiology. By re-aligning our lifestyle with our genetic makeup we can enjoy optimal brain health for many years.

Higher uric acid levels are associated with obesity, insulin resistance, elevated blood pressure, increased triglycerides, and dyslipidemia — but millions of years this was an evolutionary advantage. Why? Because during a long epoch of food scarcity, only the fattest of our ancestors survived. 

In this lesson, Dr. Perlmutter delves into how uric acid is a “metabolic linchin” and how elevated uric acid levels stemming from our modern diet impacts conditions like Alzheimer’s.

As we have discussed already in this course, uric acid elevation reduces nitric oxide, a fundamental player in metabolic health. But what is the primary reason we have elevated uric acid? Fructose. This lesson explores how high fructose (think: high fructose corn syrup, among other processed food and drinks sources) increases your risk for developing metabolic issues and Alzheimer’s through the step of raising uric acid, which in turn inhibits nitric oxide.

In one study, people who consumed three or more sugar-sweetened beverages each week had a logical memory equal to somebody 13 years older than their current age! This lesson continues our important discussion about fructose’s negative effects on your body and brain. 

In the final video of the course, you’ll learn which foods can naturally inhibit uric acid (and thus support brain and metabolic health) along with the five supplements Dr. Perlmutter recommends for managing uric acid levels.