True Patriot Love

00:00:00.000 Today on True Patriot Love, I'm lucky enough to have our resident psychotherapist Sim Chabra

00:00:10.680 with me to talk about a topic that I know a lot about because I've had a personal situation,

00:00:17.680 dementia. And hi Sim, how are you? Hi Paul, thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for coming. And you

00:00:24.120 know, this topic has popped up in the news quite a bit lately, and I really wanted you to come in

00:00:29.740 and to have this conversation. Because as we were just talking about, this topic with my mother that

00:00:36.960 I mentioned is a topic that I'm so passionate about because I saw my mom go through an awful

00:00:44.420 illness for eight years. She got Lewy body's disease. And for those of you who don't know what

00:00:52.440 Lewy body's disease, it's a it's a form of dementia. And it's a horrific form. Unfortunately,

00:00:59.100 you know, your eyesight goes, you hallucinate, you know, your body shuts down over time.

00:01:05.620 And it takes a long time and a painful, painful series of incidents you go through. But so when

00:01:13.260 this started coming up in the news, I really wanted to get together and do a show. And you know, I saw

00:01:18.020 like, well, of course, I got Kristoff. And thank you, Kristoff. And I got him to go through and he gave me

00:01:23.280 some stats about dementia. And I was astounded. I didn't really understand how many people suffered

00:01:31.200 from dementia in Canada. So by 2030, we're going to have a million people in Canada living with

00:01:38.580 dementia. Wow, that's a lot. A million. So if we're at 42 million people, you know, you know,

00:01:45.900 that's a lot. One in 40 are going to be dealing with dementia. And by 2050, we're going to have

00:01:54.380 1.7 million. So this is growing exponentially. Like it's, I think what people don't realize is

00:02:00.740 in the 19 early 1900s, we had very little dementia. You know, we had reported cases of

00:02:07.920 dementia, but it was it was a very low number. You know, and it's grown and grown and grown. And

00:02:13.660 is, you know, as the world is industrialized, we've seen the growing of this disease.

00:02:22.020 You know, we're going to talk about it more as we go along. But 25 different diseases and conditions

00:02:27.020 can cause dementia, i.e. diabetes. You hear about it all the time now.

00:02:33.120 And Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia. I think we all knew that it's like 60,

00:02:38.200 70 percent, which, you know, gets the most press. Today, just today, and not even in 2030,

00:02:45.260 we have 771,000 people living with dementia. I was like, OK.

00:02:51.540 By 2030, there'll be 187 new cases a year and 512 cases a day and 21 cases an hour.

00:03:09.540 So that's a 51 percent increase in the number of dementia cases a year.

00:03:15.340 So that's the incremental. That's how much it's actually jumping. And now when I got into this,

00:03:21.360 I said, OK, who does it hit? Right. And it hits females. Interesting. 1.00

00:03:27.360 60, 40. So it's 60 percent females, 40 percent males. So and I that was something I didn't know.

00:03:34.160 I kind of suspected, Sim, because it's interesting. You know, as my parents got older

00:03:39.720 and my mom got sick, I started, you know, spending more time with my mom's care and going and visiting,

00:03:47.320 you know, as you do as an as an adult son. And I was going in and out of these their apartment.

00:03:53.360 I was going in and out of their home and I was meeting all their friends. And I was starting to

00:03:58.060 realize that only the men were alive. So when I'd grown up, it was the opposite. Right.

00:04:04.300 It flipped. You'd saw more female widowers than you did men or widows. And, you know, then you then 1.00

00:04:11.760 I started meeting all these men whose wives had passed away, who had had dementia, Alzheimer's,

00:04:19.780 Parkinson's, you know, all these things. And they had passed away. This is something I really didn't

00:04:25.980 know. By 2050, almost one in every four people who developed dementia in Canada will be of Asian

00:04:34.340 origin. Really? Now that I would not have put it at that. So the Asian population has a much higher

00:04:43.940 propensity to get dementia. An estimated 4,800 people of African, uh, in 2020, an estimated 4,800 people

00:04:55.340 of African ancestry in Canada were living with dementia, which is predicted to reach over 29,000

00:05:02.680 by 2050. So they're going to see a huge, uh, in the African, uh, population, Latin, Central and South

00:05:11.440 America ancestry in Canada in 2020, there were 3,500 people living with dementia. They're going to be

00:05:18.760 18,500 people in 2050, a 334% increase for that population. So it's, it really is seeing different

00:05:31.400 ethnic groups. Uh, it is hitting different ethnic groups at a higher rate. Absolutely. Uh, you know,

00:05:37.680 one thing when you were mentioning those statistics, um, I was kind of like putting it into a generational

00:05:43.680 bracket. Yeah. And, you know, if you look at it right now, it's kind of like the tail end of the

00:05:49.880 silent generation and the silent generation is like your pre boomers. It's up to 1930s, 1940s, 0.80

00:05:57.700 and then your boomer generation is 45 onwards. Right. So in both lenses, you know, your statistics are

00:06:05.820 kind of alarming to kind of consider because on one lens you're looking at, uh, you know, in the next six

00:06:13.100 to 10 years, you're looking at the boomers that are at their peak entering into what is now

00:06:19.220 considered old age. Yeah. So that spike in those numbers in some ways makes sense. What kind of got

00:06:26.360 me off guard was more of the, um, cultural breakdowns. Yeah. Right. Because I wouldn't have

00:06:33.460 proportionately put such a high number coming in from those, uh, demographics, but it also kind of makes

00:06:40.760 sense because those children, they migrated. So the gen X was migrated. And now these parents,

00:06:46.500 they lived in their native countries and now they have immigrated here. Right. And as they're 0.97

00:06:53.360 integrating, so they may have lived here for a number of years, but when you come into old age,

00:06:56.980 you tend to go to what's familiar. And now all of a sudden they are in a foreign land and they're 0.98

00:07:04.080 starting anew. So those numbers kind of make sense in terms of elderly, um, immigrants because of a

00:07:13.760 sense of lack of familiarity and dementia, unfortunately is not only a diminished neurological

00:07:20.740 function, but it's also a diminished cognitive function. Right. And in old age, we regress back.

00:07:26.840 Right. So, so those numbers make sense. Yeah. Well, yeah, I was just, I didn't have a clue that

00:07:34.000 they were impacting those groups as much. Now it's interesting because you, you're mentioning baby

00:07:38.620 boomers. And so we will need, this is interesting. Canada will have more than 1 million care partners

00:07:46.640 for people living with dementia by 2050. So not only are we going to have 1.7 people with dementia,

00:07:52.460 we're going to need a million people because it's, it's such a, um, the care giving for this disease

00:07:58.580 is so high and so extensive that we're going to need a million people, um, which the care they provide

00:08:05.820 will be equivalent to 1.4 billion hours per year or 690,000 full-time jobs. The number of care partners

00:08:14.540 would nearly triple over a 30 year period. So this is, you know, this is quite costly for the community,

00:08:22.280 right? This is something that it's costing us billions of dollars to care for. It's painful,

00:08:26.960 as I mentioned from my personal experience. And the, one of the last stats that I picked up when

00:08:32.180 I looked at, and this is from the Alzheimer's site, you know, shout out to them. They did a good job at

00:08:36.800 breaking down the numbers for me. Um, if you live in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, or Alberta,

00:08:43.280 you will have the biggest increases in dementia by 2050. Ontario will have a 202% dementia increase

00:08:51.560 between 2050, sorry, 2020 and 2050. Uh, Ontario will have the most cases of dementia by 2050.

00:09:00.240 This will include, include 1.5 million new cases of Alzheimer's, 680,000 new cases of vascular dementia,

00:09:08.020 and 780 new cases of other types of dementia.

00:09:12.740 That's a lot of people going through the healthcare system that we do not have the tools for.

00:09:17.140 Exactly. And I was astounded by that. And I was also, and then I started thinking, so this is kind

00:09:22.580 of, as my mom is going through this horrific experience, I'm the whole time, and this is my

00:09:29.200 pragmatic, practical side of me. I'm thinking to myself, there must be some, uh, correlations for

00:09:37.020 things happening in the community that's doing this. Right? So I'm looking at their age. I'm looking

00:09:42.680 at, you know, mostly female driven. I'm looking at the spikes, like why it's increasing so much.

00:09:49.160 And I'm thinking to myself, we must be able to go back and kind of try to figure out how to dissect,

00:09:54.500 um, those, uh, incidences or things that are happening and figure out why.

00:10:01.680 Absolutely.

00:10:02.460 Yeah. You know, and I think that's something that I was, you know, I mentioned to you before the show,

00:10:07.500 I'm a little disappointed we haven't done. And I think we're going to, we're going to proceed and

00:10:11.280 do a show on that coming up because I think we tend to give ourself maybe too much slack. Um,

00:10:18.340 and we give ourselves too much rope saying, okay, you know, this is hard to figure out, but I think

00:10:23.320 we can do a better job at looking, uh, and testing and studying people who have it, figuring out when

00:10:30.180 they were born, where they were born, why they're getting it and try to go back and figure out how

00:10:34.920 to deal with it. But sorry, sorry. Go ahead. Let's finish your point for today. What I really wanted

00:10:40.180 to dig in with you is talk about, um, you know, the different diseases, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's

00:10:48.400 and the types of dementia, and then really talk about the risk factors and what we can do to

00:10:54.600 hopefully avoid it because I don't know, Sam, when I dug into it and I went through this with my mom,

00:11:01.520 there were a lot of drugs she was given after she was diagnosed. So there are a lot of things

00:11:08.040 they gave her to try to slow down. Unfortunately, in her case, they didn't work really well. You know,

00:11:14.600 they prolonged a lot of agony, I think in her case. Um, so, but there wasn't a lot of work done

00:11:21.680 before. And, you know, that was always my regret with my mom is that we didn't take

00:11:26.740 enough proactive steps in the very, very early stages when we saw it.

00:11:32.800 Yeah. I, I agree with, uh, what you just kind of highlighted and, and three points that came to me

00:11:39.980 is one, you know, how did we get here? Uh, looking at, you know, whether it's environmental factors,

00:11:46.100 whether it's personal life choices, whether it's historical turn of events, um,

00:11:52.760 you know, the medication part of it, like a lot of our, uh, health is designed for reactive care,

00:12:01.120 not proactive care. And that's something that we could kind of like, you know, approach a little

00:12:07.240 bit more. And we've kind of discussed this a bit about it. It's kind of like, how do we think ahead?

00:12:11.860 Because if in 2050, we're, we're going to be getting the surge and, you know, we're looking

00:12:16.880 at the baby boomers today and you're adding 12 to 13 years to them. So basically anybody that's in 0.97

00:12:23.260 their mid to late early sixties, so that, that late boomer generation, they're going to be at the

00:12:29.360 cusp of it, but the boomer generation, they're going to be in the, in the peak of it.

00:12:36.240 Oh yeah.

00:12:36.480 So it's kind of like, we have a 12 year headstart. What can we do today to kind of steer the ship a

00:12:42.300 bit, you know, and to use a poor analogy of the Titanic, you know, maybe we don't need to hit the

00:12:47.420 iceberg before we steer. Yeah. Right. Well, I hope not. You know, you look, and you know, I don't know,

00:12:54.140 uh, for those of you who haven't gone through it, right. To Alzheimer's, you know, the, the loss of

00:13:00.560 memory and the cognitive degeneration is the toughest part, you know, and I, um, my dad is

00:13:06.740 going on 90 right now and I'm starting to see the dementia and a little bit of Alzheimer's

00:13:10.720 right happening now. Um, you know, over time as people live longer, we seem to, we're seeing

00:13:17.400 them go into it, but, but we see it. And quite frankly, we're not moving to do anything. And

00:13:24.180 that's, that's, what's the frustrating thing right now. My grandmother had Alzheimer's and she got

00:13:31.760 diagnosed very late in the game to a point where, you know, when we looked back, we were like, these

00:13:41.040 signs were showing 10 years ago, but nobody was paying attention to it. Yeah. So, you know, I totally

00:13:46.940 agree with what you're, you're kind of saying there. It's kind of like, you know, we have an

00:13:51.460 opportunity to get ahead of it a little bit. Uh, we have enough case studies in terms of, um, over

00:13:57.340 the last 15 years, seeing people kind of go through dementia, whether it's through your personal

00:14:03.100 experience, my personal experience, um, in the general public, you know, you, you're seeing these

00:14:08.680 cases go up, you're seeing the care needed for it and kind of like, you know, take a step back,

00:14:13.840 whether it's through the health network, whether it's through policies in the way governments set

00:14:19.840 mandates, um, to kind of go, okay, Hey, look, this is something that's going to be prevalent.

00:14:26.500 It's going to be something that's going to require additional resources. Like you brought up, like

00:14:30.480 a, you know, a million support hour of workers compounded with the externalities that come with

00:14:37.900 that. So it's, it's definitely worth a conversation and exploring kind of going, okay, what can be done?

00:14:43.320 Yeah. You know, it's interesting. So my wife and I started watching a show. It's on Apple TV. If you get a

00:14:49.000 chance, it's a, it's an episode, it's a series, um, and it's called shrinking. And it's about a bunch

00:14:55.660 of therapists and they, if you start, I've heard of it. It's on my to watch list. Oh, you got to watch it. So

00:15:00.940 it's actually Harrison Ford and he's, he owns the clinic and, uh, he has, uh, Jessica Williams and

00:15:08.440 Jason Siegel. Jason Siegel is one of the producers or creators of it. Um, and they're therapists too. And they

00:15:14.560 treat a number of people. And as they're going through it, I think Harrison Ford does a miraculous

00:15:19.600 job. He's, uh, he, he is diagnosed with Parkinson's. And so the tremors in his hands, the, uh, he starts

00:15:29.340 to do the exercises, the, to try to, you know, stretch and do all these things, but they show his

00:15:36.720 battle with trying to maintain his profession while trying to still work, knowing his limited time and

00:15:43.240 knowing kind of, and figuring out his priority base and what he needs to prioritize. Now he's

00:15:48.280 being diagnosed with, uh, the, the disease, you know, and in my personal situation, you know, I saw

00:15:55.520 it myself, you know, as my mom got it, she had to kind of prioritize things before she, her memory was

00:16:00.960 gone before her eyesight was gone. And, you know, when you see that, and I thought, I think Harrison Ford's

00:16:06.880 doing a really great job on the show of, of the acting is incredible. The show is really good,

00:16:12.280 quite frankly. And, uh, but you know, you don't see people talk about it and to see actually a

00:16:17.200 character, um, on TV portraying someone with Parkinson's, I think it's timely. And I think

00:16:24.680 it's because more people are relating it to it now, given the numbers we're talking about.

00:16:29.280 I feel the, the relatability comes from the dual lens. It comes from not only the individual

00:16:35.900 experiencing it. So, you know, when you look at Harrison Ford, he's representing the 80 year old

00:16:41.840 that's kind of experiencing it, but then it's also the, the generations behind that are like

00:16:48.220 the, you know, the ones that are related. So as you're watching a loved one go through

00:16:51.860 that experience and now you're kind of like going, okay, what can I do? Because it's an

00:16:58.000 equal, it's not an equal loss in the sense of function, but it's a equal loss in terms of

00:17:04.200 quality of life because you're watching a person that you care for dearly kind of go on this

00:17:11.460 downward trend. You look into your, uh, abilities in terms of interventions, you know, whether it's

00:17:20.840 remedial exercises, whether it's, uh, actual, uh, medications and, and care, but it's that sense of

00:17:29.420 like, you know, loss of memory, then loss of sight, loss of function, loss of control. So, so it's kind

00:17:36.380 of like, it's one of those most painful things to watch because it's, it's prolonged and it's

00:17:42.840 something that we truly don't understand because brain function is complex to begin with on a day

00:17:48.300 to day basis because, you know, what we are aware of versus what the brain processes is far exceeding.

00:17:54.260 And now all of a sudden things that we take for granted, you know, like just naturally picking

00:17:59.780 something up or, and you start seeing interferences there pretty much like if you look at it through

00:18:04.760 a scientific lens, the brain has a gray matter and a white matter. And the gray matter is where

00:18:11.600 memory is stored and it's where core functions happen. And then white matter is where all the

00:18:17.040 connections are. And so it's kind of like with, uh, dementia, it's usually, you know, a change in those

00:18:24.080 things. And because they're so complex, it shows differently. That's why you don't have a standard

00:18:31.460 way of, um, measuring it because each person will show it in different ways for short periods of time,

00:18:38.780 long period of time. Uh, some medications will work, some medications will not work.

00:18:43.680 And now you're looking into like, it's anybody's game.

00:18:47.000 Right. Yeah. No, it's interesting. And, you know, uh, watching, you know, Indiana Jones, uh, on TV,

00:18:54.940 cause you know, you think of Harrison Ford, you know, and I go back to my childhood and I think of

00:18:59.200 Harrison Ford from that, the movies, you know, create movie. Yeah. Raiders of the Lost Ark. And,

00:19:03.780 and, you know, you're kind of, you're, you're watching him and you're thinking yourself, my goodness,

00:19:07.740 anyone can get this. So I thought the, the genius of this show, it's showing you sort of the,

00:19:14.000 uh, uh, you know, how we're all, uh, prone or we can be prone to this disease. It can affect any of

00:19:21.560 us. And you're watching this, which used to be kind of a superhero to all of us as kids, you know,

00:19:27.160 uh, doing all these great feats, you know, and, and even as a person, you know, Harrison Ford,

00:19:32.140 uh, you know, airplanes, helicopters, you know, he was a pilot, he was a carpenter by trade when he

00:19:38.680 went to Hollywood, uh, you know, just a very active person. And for him to be portraying this on TV is

00:19:45.560 really great because it shows you it can impact anyone. Um, you know what? And I, so then I dug in,

00:19:52.120 I said, okay, I'm, I'm, you know, looking at all this research and I'm getting a better understanding

00:19:57.140 and know what I know from my mom, as I mentioned, and my dad. And, uh, I thought, okay, how do I stop

00:20:03.360 this? Like, how do I, you know, and I have an older sister I mentioned to you before, she's already

00:20:09.700 started and she's doing all these, uh, brain training exercises. Uh, you know, she's, she gets

00:20:17.160 her fingers and she touches her fingers and, you know, she plays video games on screen to keep her,

00:20:23.300 you know, mind going. And she's already sort of very, uh, interested in doing this. She's,

00:20:29.500 she's dedicating herself to try to not, you know, have the same, uh, genetic disposition or genetic 0.89

00:20:36.300 outcome as my parents. And I understand why. Um, so then I started looking into it and there are 14

00:20:43.040 things that they say in the Lancet study that you can do if you want to reduce, uh, the chances of

00:20:49.820 dementia by almost 40%. So that's a good number. Yeah. So, uh, they recognize different factors and

00:20:58.340 these factors that contribute to it are number one, education. So you got to educate yourself and do

00:21:04.740 things to avoid, uh, getting dementia, hearing loss. So they said hearing loss is a big one.

00:21:12.380 So, and I thought that was interesting. Hypertension makes sense, right? Smoking, obesity, depression,

00:21:21.500 physical inactivity, uh, diabetes, excessive consumption, uh, of alcohol, traumatic brain

00:21:29.620 injury, air pollution, and social isolation. Um, they added two things, vision loss, uh, and basically,

00:21:39.340 uh, high levels of LDL cholesterol. So, you know, there's a lot on that list, but I think, you know,

00:21:47.480 there's some immediate things you can do right away, right? Weight control, you know, uh, smoking,

00:21:54.100 drinking, there's some easy ones on that list you can knock off. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think the

00:21:59.880 more people do that, um, hearing loss, well, you know, quite frankly, and vision loss, well,

00:22:05.900 unfortunately, sometimes that just happens, right? You know, through other, other things. Um, and then,

00:22:11.860 you know, uh, hypertension and depression, depression is a big one. I thought that was,

00:22:17.740 and I think they come, uh, the isolation and the depression seem to come all at the same time.

00:22:23.420 So, you know, when, when you were kind of going over that list, you know, I was looking at it and

00:22:27.600 going, okay, how would, how, what would be the best way to kind of categorize them, you know, and,

00:22:33.100 and, you know, two ways to kind of go things that are in my control, things that are not in my

00:22:38.520 control. Yes. So, you know, when you look at that hearing loss, visual loss, um, sometimes you have

00:22:47.940 genetic disposition, so you could have the best diet, but still have high blood pressure. You

00:22:52.220 could still have the best diet, but we were born with diabetes. So, you know, it's one of those gray 0.99

00:22:57.440 areas, but we kind of, kind of put it in things out of your control kind of thing. Things that are in

00:23:02.400 your control, um, in there, um, two main ones that you can absolutely control over is smoking and

00:23:11.100 drinking. Right. Because everything else has a sense of complexity to it. So we could kind of like,

00:23:17.240 go, okay, like isolation, right? It could be, it could be a, um, elderly Asian parent that migrated

00:23:27.720 because it's easier for the children to take care of them here or them here versus in the home

00:23:32.640 country. So now all of a sudden they're going to feel isolation. They're going to feel depression

00:23:37.920 because they were uprooted from an area of familiarity that they knew to an area that they

00:23:44.080 don't know. And the kids have to go to work and it's in, it's prevalent in the Asian culture and

00:23:49.740 in the South American culture a lot because parents tend to stay at home. Yeah.

00:23:54.960 Uh, a personal story. So this is years back. Uh, my mom's dad had come to visit us and he was kind

00:24:03.020 of getting to the age where he would have benefited from care. And, you know, we were trying to

00:24:09.640 convince him that, Hey, listen, you should move to Canada. Uh, you'll be happier here, dah, dah, dah,

00:24:14.560 you know, and he enjoyed it and all of that. And he was, you know, in his late seventies at the time.

00:24:21.480 And he pointed back and said, he said, as much as I understand what you're saying,

00:24:26.440 I would be a prisoner here. He goes, I may have low quality of certain arguments that you are making,

00:24:33.040 but I have the freedom to leave that freedom. Once it's gone, I have nothing to do. Right.

00:24:39.660 And it's always stuck with me, especially when I'm, you know, talking to friends or, right. And they

00:24:46.560 talk about that and I kind of like present that. So coming back to, you know, what you're, you're

00:24:51.920 bringing on that list and things we can control. We can in some ways, um, decide what kind of foods

00:24:59.500 we want to eat. Uh, we can decide what kind of sleep habits we want to have. Uh, we can regulate,

00:25:05.740 you know, when we are stressed, um, one of the things, because I work with depression and anxiety

00:25:11.920 in my clinic with quite a lot of, uh, individuals. Uh, one of the things is, well, how do I switch

00:25:17.640 things off? Because we're always going to think, we always have to problem solve something or the

00:25:22.500 other. Sure. And one of the things that I kind of impart with, with them is, you know, I've come up

00:25:27.880 with this acronym, it's called, um, the world can wait. So it's TWCW. And basically it's, yes,

00:25:36.080 you're going to have overwhelm. Uh, yes, something needs an image it's solving. And what this does is

00:25:44.400 that it gives you that microsecond of a break and, you know, and it's more functional when you're

00:25:50.800 trying to go to sleep because we all are trying to get sleep. The brain's running either it's a to-do

00:25:56.080 list for tomorrow or it's a missed list from today. Right. You're always going to have one or the

00:26:00.800 other. Right. And so this acronym, I tell them to kind of, kind of repeat to them repeatedly. Uh,

00:26:08.160 the world can wait, the world can wait, the world can wait. And what that does is that it disrupts

00:26:12.180 that calculated flow. Uh, and it allows them to then re-regulate because if you don't sleep well,

00:26:20.200 you're not rested. If you're not rested, you're just churning. Now, this is where you

00:26:26.020 have a hard time with diet because you still need to feel yourself to get through the day.

00:26:30.240 Yes. So, so this little technique that I kind of help them instill, it's to disrupt those

00:26:37.500 perpetual cycles of how do I get through the day? Yeah, no, that's terrific. And, you know, sleep,

00:26:43.920 uh, we're going to talk about in a minute, but, uh, we took, uh, made sure that all the light

00:26:49.440 in our room was gone quite, you know, uh, natural and not, uh, was gone from the room. We do a lot

00:26:56.360 of work to actually make sure that, you know, uh, sounds are isolated, uh, because my wife and I

00:27:02.440 realized through biohacking that we had to get better sleep and we weren't right because we're

00:27:08.400 busy people. We got a lot going on. So, and we also had to figure out, you know, as the night goes on,

00:27:13.660 we, we start to dim the lights, we start to get ready because, you know, as, uh, as, uh, you know,

00:27:20.300 our origin coming, you know, through, uh, mammals, we actually, uh, uh, as the sun went down,

00:27:29.120 we were actually starting to see the darkness come and that prepared us through melatonin to sleep,

00:27:35.240 right? So we actually slowly dim our lighting down until finally we actually go to sleep.

00:27:40.460 So, you know, causing our brain to think now it's time to sleep. So we do kind of biohacking things

00:27:46.420 to get our bodies ready to sleep and, and it's conscious, right? We had to sort of spend the time

00:27:51.940 to do that, uh, to get the, to get that going. You know, I like the way you've broken this down.

00:27:57.060 So you've broken it down into controllable things and non-controllable things. Well,

00:28:00.820 you know, uh, I know people, you're not seeing as many people smoke now. So I think that's positive.

00:28:06.780 I think that was a baby boomer. Quite frankly, we hit our peak for smoking probably in that era. 0.87

00:28:12.840 I think we're seeing less and less now. The, the, just people are vaping. So, yeah, so it's,

00:28:20.820 it's, it's redirected. Um, you're still, you're still inhaling chemicals. Yeah. Um,

00:28:27.320 why people wait, we could sit and kind of like talk till our faces turn blue, but

00:28:34.580 it's a way to regulate stress. Every, every action we do, whether it's, you know, caffeine,

00:28:43.320 uh, whether it's a muffin or whether it's vaping, they're all neurologically kind of hitting the

00:28:49.560 same thing. We're just trying to desregulate distress and a sense of anxiousness. Right.

00:28:56.040 So, you know, that's why like, we may not be smoking, but we're vaping. So we've just

00:29:01.780 redirected. It's like your double zero alcohol. Yeah. Yeah. You're still drinking. Yeah. Well,

00:29:08.360 it's interesting, you know, because, um, again, you know, I'm going back to the biohacking,

00:29:12.800 but we created a meditation zone. So quite frankly, to sort of de-stress and to sort of,

00:29:19.740 I, you know, I was, uh, for years kind of a yo-yo eater, a stress eater. So quite frankly,

00:29:25.200 over the years, what we, we did, and, uh, I still do it quite frankly, but I'd have to,

00:29:30.640 I have to really consciously make myself identify it and stop. Um, you know, we created a meditation

00:29:37.740 zone for there. We could actually help reduce the stress and the tension. Um,

00:29:42.800 which then was kind of neat because you know, when it came to alcohol, then when it came to sleep

00:29:48.840 and meditation, all those things, we found alcohol, we no longer needed. The challenge was I had a

00:29:55.300 harder time with it than my wife. My wife was, she easily got off it. She said, you know what? I'm 0.94

00:30:00.540 done with this. I'm just done. Yeah. I had to kind of figure out kind of biohacking tricks to replace

00:30:07.860 the sugar of the alcohol in my system. So, uh, I, I used what's called the Joe Nate and Joe Namath,

00:30:14.820 uh, uh, uh, alcohol method. And it was a famous football player. And I listened to him on Howard

00:30:21.540 Stern and he, he went through how he did it and he did it with, uh, replacing the alcohol sugars with

00:30:27.780 other sugars. And then he weaned himself off the food sugars. So he ate a, uh, basically a tub of ice

00:30:34.520 cream and a liter of, uh, Coke, or I think it was Dr. Pepper in his case. And he drank it every day.

00:30:43.480 And he used that to replace the alcohol sugars with the sugars of the ice cream and the Coke. I did a

00:30:50.040 similar thing, but not with that much Coke. I did diet root beer and ginger cookies and good choices.

00:30:56.120 Yeah. I used it to kind of wean myself off. Yeah. And then slowly I got off those two and then I never

00:31:01.080 went back to the alcohol. How did you find that path? Uh, it will like everything else, you know,

00:31:08.440 people ask me about dieting too, cause I do intermittent fasting and I always tell people,

00:31:13.720 you know what, I Jones the sugar for the first like five to seven days. And then after that,

00:31:20.520 I replace it, you know, with, uh, I, in this case, I'm replacing it in the morning with, uh,

00:31:27.560 very clean mold, free coffee and, uh, and fats, oils. And that's helping me get off the sugars in

00:31:35.880 the morning, allow me to intermittent fast longer. So it's all kind of figuring out the biohack that

00:31:41.960 works for you that you can get off the sugar and then help. Right. And that is the key. It's kind of

00:31:48.520 like, you got to individualize your own plan. There is no, uh, cut and paste program because

00:31:55.640 we all have our unique cravings and that's the key word. It's how do I manage my cravings?

00:32:03.000 You don't fight it. You don't resist it. You work with it and, and your body's going to require

00:32:09.480 a certain level of energy that's imaging because we have so many things that are happening

00:32:14.760 simultaneously. Yes. You know, you may be a shift worker. You may be a frontline worker that,

00:32:19.880 that works four days on, three days off, three days on, four days off. You could be a, um,

00:32:27.240 a service provider that works only the late night shifts. It could be, you know, working the gas

00:32:33.160 station. So for them, you know, if they're listening to us and they're like, well, you know what, I need to

00:32:39.240 get off whatever it is that I want to get off. No, find your rhythm, find your way to substitute sugars

00:32:49.160 and then go, okay, how do I phase that out? And then kind of go, okay, I may be a three day on,

00:32:54.440 four day off. Right. Your body doesn't know days of the week. Yeah. Your body knows patterns. Yes.

00:33:00.200 So, but if you can stay consistent, so if, you know, because you know, okay, you know, week one,

00:33:05.320 I'm working three and I'm off four, make sure that in those four, they're consistent. Then your body

00:33:09.960 remembers that, you know what, after so many cycles, I get back to my pattern. So then it'll be able to

00:33:17.800 allow you to get through those periods between the week, because it knows it remembers patterns

00:33:24.520 that this pattern is going to repeat itself. Discipline is the key and it's the long game. It's not

00:33:30.600 a three month progress. This is the long game because you're trying to minimize 2050.

00:33:37.000 So you got to play the long game. Yeah. Well, and that's, you know, from those dementia stats,

00:33:41.960 you're bang on Sim, because, you know, you look at those stats and you think to yourself, okay,

00:33:46.360 you know, 2050, well, that's, that seems long, but it's not that long. Right. You know, you look at it

00:33:52.840 and you think there, you know, there's a good chance. Well, you'll be here for sure. But me,

00:33:57.800 there's a good, there's a chance I will be too. Right. Yeah. And hopefully when I am, I'm healthy.

00:34:02.040 So, you know, by, by cutting the alcohol, getting the diet under control, the physical activity is

00:34:08.280 something I always did. I just gave too much priority to. So again, I had to balance that out.

00:34:14.280 Um, because you know, I, I overdid, I would go one way or the other. I'd either do very little of it,

00:34:19.960 or I do a lot of it, you know, and that, that was something I had to moderate and get under control.

00:34:25.480 Um, and then as, as far as, you know, uh, then this was an interesting one that I

00:34:31.640 recently did a little more work on my air quality and my air pollution.

00:34:37.800 Uh, yeah. So that was something, you know, and there's ways to do that. You know, for those of

00:34:44.120 you out there who don't know about it, there's different mold meters, there's different air

00:34:48.600 quality meters now that you can buy for pretty low cost. So then I, you know, I started, for example,

00:34:54.040 in my homes, I started doing a mold meter test. I started taking a look at, you know,

00:34:59.000 what my air quality was, um, you know, living in Toronto, quite frankly, it's a challenge sometimes.

00:35:05.800 And, you know, probably the large population, how busy we are, the stress components,

00:35:12.200 you have to really adapt to that. So I did do a lot of work on it. Um, not thinking of dementia,

00:35:18.200 just thinking of quality of life, but you know, when I'm reading this and I say to myself, okay,

00:35:22.360 you know, uh, those are, those are some of the things you need to do to keep the chances of

00:35:28.040 getting dementia down. And these are hopefully by 40%.

00:35:33.160 Absolutely. Because, you know, it's moderation. It's one of the things that I picked up when you

00:35:37.800 said, you know, in terms of your pendulum of exercises and activity, I feel all of us are guilty

00:35:44.120 of that. And we see that at the start of the year where, and then you talk to them mid-February and

00:35:51.320 like next year, right? And it's, and it's a repeated cycle. Um, consistency is key. Consistency

00:35:59.480 and discipline. If, if you could just commit to consistency and discipline, especially when it

00:36:05.160 gets challenging, you know, especially when you have the craving, especially, and stresses are your,

00:36:10.520 are, are everyone's lapse trigger. You know what I mean? We hit that lapse point of, you know,

00:36:15.640 you get a stress, you hit that lapse point, and then you're going to go to what's going to calm you

00:36:20.360 immediately. It's not a reflection of character. It's not a, then, you know, I tell this often,

00:36:27.800 it's not, it's, if that's your default, that's okay. You know what I mean? Well, let's look at how

00:36:33.160 often do you get there and what other things you would need simultaneously so that you feel supported.

00:36:38.680 So you're not resourcing to, you know, whether it's caffeine, uh, whether it's sugar, whether it's,

00:36:45.240 uh, hyperactivity in terms of excessive exercise, right? Cause anything on the extremes is detrimental

00:36:51.480 to health. Oh yeah. Right. For sure. Either side of the poles, not enough and too much. Right. So it's, 0.98

00:36:57.480 it's finding your middle and it's always unique to the individual because you have your, your

00:37:01.960 limitations because, you know, especially the late boomers, right? Because you could be, uh,

00:37:10.120 a middle, uh, like a boomer who's about, you know, 67, 70. So you're kind of like at that cusp,

00:37:16.520 but you may not be able to, um, do certain things, but you still need to find a way to minimize it.

00:37:21.960 Well, what's the most, what's the minimal activity you can do consistently? What's the minimal changes

00:37:28.520 you can instill, whether it's diet, whether it's lifestyle, whether it's habit, that's enough

00:37:34.120 because it's greater than zero. Yeah. Well, it's interesting. So the more I got into the biohacking,

00:37:39.480 which was probably something I didn't really, uh, think I would find it, it is that the more

00:37:46.920 exercise, or if you overexercise, you produce too much cortisol and that cortisol starts fighting

00:37:52.840 against a bunch of stuff in your body and it causes inflammation. It actually hurts your diet.

00:37:58.440 There's a number of things that it does. So there is a fine balance, even with exercise that you need

00:38:03.400 to maintain. So I used to love, you know, I was a gym rat for years. Like you could at five in the

00:38:08.520 morning, you would find me at a gym going for about an hour and a half, sweating, sweating, enjoying

00:38:14.760 lifting. And I had a great time, but quite frankly, I was not helping my joints or helping my weight loss.

00:38:21.800 I wasn't helping a lot. I was feeling the dopamines of exercise. So probably I got addicted

00:38:28.600 probably to that rush. Yeah. But it wasn't doing me any good from, uh, from a health person,

00:38:34.120 an overall health perspective, you know, I, and to my, you know, it's interesting getting ready for

00:38:39.640 this show. I started doing some research and I said, okay, there's gotta be a drug out there.

00:38:46.200 Like that, that went on the very, very early stages of, uh, dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's

00:38:53.960 that you can take, right. They would start to reverse this thing. And I did find one,

00:38:58.840 a recent one that in the fall, um, it was a Japanese company, uh, Lekin Map, Lekin Map. I'm

00:39:06.120 probably saying that wrong. If I am, I'm sorry, but it actually got approved by Health Canada.

00:39:12.920 The challenge is that it costs $30,000 a year

00:39:16.680 for people who are on it and the government's not going to pay for it. So there is an early,

00:39:24.360 early, early Alzheimer's drug that is available now. Yeah. It's super expensive. It's produced

00:39:30.200 here. It's actually in Mississauga. And so then I said, okay, in Canada, because we do a lot of work,

00:39:35.960 like I'm, I have a business by in Mississauga by, uh, Pill Hill, a lot of pharma companies. So I,

00:39:43.400 you know, uh, through the associations that I'm involved with and everything else, I always running

00:39:48.520 across pharma people. Um, and I said, okay, pardon me, how many of these, uh, pharma companies are

00:39:55.240 working on Alzheimer's drugs and tell you the truth. Uh, I can only find a few there. There's a bunch

00:40:01.720 mentioned that are working on, uh, antibodies for, uh, for dementia. Uh, this Japanese company,

00:40:10.600 uh, Isaiah, uh, Biogen and Roche are the three that I really find the prevalent ones. Um, there are more,

00:40:18.760 but quite frankly, these are the ones that are making some headway into it. So, you know, for those

00:40:23.560 of you out there, if you have someone suffering, please, you know, pay attention because there's a

00:40:28.200 lot going on. Unfortunately, some of it is cost prohibitive now. So as you get into it, you're

00:40:33.720 like, um, man, this is very expensive. It's time, you know, timely, expensive. And I understand it

00:40:40.840 takes a long time to develop these, but, um, unfortunately it's becoming a lot of it is

00:40:47.080 really drugs for the rich. The cost benefit ratio, right? Yeah. So unfortunately the normal cat won't

00:40:54.360 be able to afford these. And so, but some of it is available, but then, so then I started thinking,

00:40:59.800 okay, so, you know, the cost prohibitive of the really good, uh, drugs that will help you if you

00:41:05.880 get it. Um, so how do you, and what do you do to make sure, or try to make sure to stay off

00:41:13.800 or did not get dementia to stay off that track. And so then I started going back again to my biohacking

00:41:20.200 routes and I started looking at it and I started saying, okay, so right now, you know, um, you know,

00:41:25.640 we're personally in our lives, we have, uh, uh, red light therapy. So then I dug into red light

00:41:33.080 therapy and I'm okay. It's great, you know, for inflammation. It's great for regeneration. Um,

00:41:39.160 it helps with sleep. It helps all those things. And then you brought up something which I didn't

00:41:43.800 even think of and I haven't tried it yet. And the neurofeedback, uh, yeah. And you want to tell

00:41:51.080 us a little about that? Cause that was something I was very, I've been interested in cranial therapy

00:41:55.240 for a while. I don't do any nootropics or anything like that. Um, I've thought about it. Truth,

00:42:01.000 truthfully, uh, I played a lot of contact sports. So I have like, you know, I played hockey, I played

00:42:05.960 football. Um, you know, it's been a lot of years since I did that. I don't have any side effects that I can

00:42:11.720 feel, but, uh, you know, it does worry me quite frankly. And so the, the nootropics have come up

00:42:17.320 in conversations, uh, with old friends and college buddies, we've talked about it. Um, but, uh, neurofeedback

00:42:25.400 is an interesting one. So, I mean, I'll just give a quick rundown. Um, basically what neurofeedback

00:42:33.080 is, is that, you know, our brains work on certain brainwaves and when you have like sports is a very

00:42:41.560 common one, ADHD is another one where you have this, um, disruption in the way the brain communicates

00:42:49.000 within itself, because it's all about, uh, electromagnetic connections and neural connections,

00:42:55.320 right? So neurofeedback is a non-invasive. Um, and what happens is you're, you're hooked up

00:43:03.080 for a poor choice of word, um, where certain electrodes are put in certain parts of your brain

00:43:08.760 and then you're listening to music and you're watching a visual cue depending on the practitioner.

00:43:14.600 And what it does is that the music is flowing and anytime there's a disconnect, the music stops.

00:43:20.840 It forces your brain to reconnect. And once your brain reconnects in that wavelength,

00:43:25.640 the music or the image continues. So if you're watching an image, the image will stop.

00:43:29.720 And the idea is to have continuous flow. So what neurofeedback is doing is that it's retraining

00:43:34.440 the brain through a very non-invasive way, but it's just restoring frequency function.

00:43:40.760 So there is no conversation. There's no, uh, correction in terms of dialogue. Um,

00:43:47.240 but once you're done, you are of benefit of having a resource where you can talk to somebody because

00:43:53.400 now all of a sudden you've done is your brain was functioning a certain way and you're causing

00:43:57.160 it to change a certain way. So you're going to see that gap and that's where you need support

00:44:01.640 in the middle because you're going to then all of a sudden have this conflict because your brain is

00:44:06.360 going to keep going back to what it knows, but you're training it to go at a different way,

00:44:09.960 but you're correcting brain waves. So it's beyond conscious thought.

00:44:13.160 So, you know, uh, we're, we're opening a, we're opening a studio. So we're in the process now of

00:44:22.760 finding a location, building it. We have architectural designs and we have been talking

00:44:28.040 about cranial therapy. So this, this is really, so I want to dig into this more and talk about it

00:44:33.480 on future shows and when people should start it. So let's for now, like if I'm, so now we get it in,

00:44:40.600 I say to people, just do it once a week. There's no image of timeline. There is no,

00:44:45.720 you don't need a significant event for it. So for yourself, um, you could have said,

00:44:51.720 you know, and I played a lot of contact sports in my younger years, but your body finds a,

00:44:56.600 your mind finds a way to restore function. Right. Right. But the imprint stays. Yeah.

00:45:01.800 So now you could be like, Hey, you know what? I'll be proactive. Why don't I go back? Right.

00:45:06.120 Because you go through a series of tests. So you don't dictate what you want to get tested on.

00:45:10.840 You know, you go through a series of tests and then they determine, Hey, look, you know,

00:45:14.360 this is where it's dysregular. This is where you would benefit from it. And then once you have that,

00:45:19.000 then they'll create a treatment plan for you. So if you had a history of concussions,

00:45:24.760 you may qualify for a concussion protocol, even though you don't show symptoms of concussion.

00:45:29.240 Right. Right. You see, or you may qualify for a trauma response, uh, protocol because of the way

00:45:37.240 you registered that experience. Right. So, so that gets determined by the practitioner. Okay.

00:45:44.440 Right. But I don't see it being a, uh, age qualifier or an event qualifier. And just like,

00:45:52.440 you know, you, you talk about biohacking, you know, it's interesting because when you brought that up,

00:45:57.240 I was like, oh yeah, I Googled it and I'm on biohacking. It sounds so, you know,

00:46:03.320 what are you doing? Nothing. There's no biohacking. If you're taking multivitamins,

00:46:07.400 you're not biohacking, you're taking care of yourself. Right. If you're using certain

00:46:11.720 interventions that are a little bit more ahead of its time. Yes. You're being proactive. Right.

00:46:19.240 Because we, this is the beauty of what we are capable of, but it's also where we limit ourselves.

00:46:27.080 So, you know, instead of, um, big pharma learning from, you know, all the other alternative

00:46:33.880 resources, because at the end of the day, we're all working on biology. Yes.

00:46:37.480 It's not like big pharma has a monopoly on my body and it only, it's the only way for it to

00:46:43.720 find a remedy to a disease. Yeah. Right. So they could work with what's out there. And now all of a

00:46:51.880 sudden, you know, the, the, the Japanese pharma that's coming up with this intravenous drug,

00:46:57.000 I don't know how it has, is it administered intravenous? Okay. So now you're creating a

00:47:03.640 physiology change, which means you're telling the brain to do certain things, but work with these

00:47:09.560 alternatives. Right. And go, Hey, listen, what else can we do? So now we're co-joining. Right. And

00:47:16.600 that individual is going to go through a biological transformation. So now all of a sudden say you're

00:47:22.760 rejuvenating your, um, white matter, you benefit from neurofeedback. Yes.

00:47:29.320 Because now it's correcting it to a functional norm, not to its restorative norm. Right. So,

00:47:35.400 so that's where I think we missed the mark more, uh, more than not because they're not talking to

00:47:43.960 each other because we're still dealing with a biological function that no longer can perform.

00:47:50.440 Yeah. And I'm at a root level, that's what it is. It is. And I'm, I'm less, uh, I'm less prone to

00:47:56.760 taking the pharma route, you know, and I know in the biohacking world, there's a lot of guys,

00:48:01.400 uh, peptides, hormones, they do a lot of, a lot of that. I'm, I don't do it quite frankly,

00:48:07.080 because I think once you start replacing things in your body, unless you're sick,

00:48:12.600 it's not a good thing to do. So I, you know, when I, neurofeedback, when I started reading about it,

00:48:16.840 I'm like, Oh, I like this. Yeah. Yeah. So it seems to me, that's why I like, I'm again, what we do more,

00:48:22.360 um, is, you know, in our, in our world and, and what's going to be in our biohacking, uh, studios

00:48:29.400 is going to be a dieticians. It's red light, red light therapy, it's saunas, cold plunges,

00:48:37.800 you know, chambers. Um, it's those things, quite frankly, that, uh, cryo chambers, it's, it's those

00:48:44.680 things that, uh, when we do them, they naturally restore our neurons. They naturally, you know, they get

00:48:50.760 rid of inflammation, they do things, they relax us, they get rid of stress. Those are the things

00:48:56.520 that kind of regenerate our bodies and our cells. And so, you know, we, the, even, you know, I haven't,

00:49:02.760 I, you know, I do caffeine, but even, uh, I talked about, you know, guys have said to me recently,

00:49:08.120 do you try, uh, nootropics? And I've said, no, I don't really, really want to get on that. I do vitamins,

00:49:13.720 of course, but I don't really want to get on that because quite frankly, I don't feel like I have any

00:49:18.040 cognitive issues I want to deal with. And once I start changing my chemistry. Yeah. You know,

00:49:23.000 am I going to be relying on that? Am I going to have to do something else to adjust again? Yeah.

00:49:27.640 And I'd rather, uh, sometimes I think what we do is we, in, in the medicine and in life,

00:49:34.120 we throw everything on something and we don't know what's really fixing it. Right. Everything's

00:49:39.480 a placebo effect then. Yeah. Right. Like everything's that, you know, I think it's this event. Yeah.

00:49:44.360 Um, but we convince ourself, right. We psychologically convince ourself for feeling

00:49:49.320 better because we've thrown 10 things at the problem. Yeah. And we're like, okay, all these

00:49:53.800 10 things. Yeah. But then the side effects of those 10 things, and then we have to start backing out of

00:49:58.600 them and then we get nervous. So we kind of our own stress because now we're backing out of what made us

00:50:04.440 for a period of time feel better now. So that's why I'd like to, I'm, uh, I love the opinion that I

00:50:10.200 layer things in slowly. So, you know, if I like a diet, I'll try that diet when I come off alcohol.

00:50:16.120 So I'll get off alcohol first and then I'll try the diet and then I'll see how I'm feeling. And

00:50:21.000 then I'll layer in red light and then I'll layer in, you know, even, even from that perspective.

00:50:26.280 And like, it's probably the best approach and, you know, and more people should kind of understand

00:50:32.040 that it's a layered approach and it's a layered measured approach because then you can take a step back

00:50:37.560 and go, Hey, look, you know what, this is not working for me because now you're putting it a

00:50:43.240 better piece into the puzzle rather than throwing eight things in and saying nothing works because

00:50:48.600 you can't tell one from the other, you know, it's kind of like, you know, once the jambalaya is made,

00:50:53.720 the shrimp and the sausage are going to taste the same.

00:50:56.920 Exactly. Right. Exactly. No, don't complain. It's spicy.

00:51:01.800 Well, you know, it's interesting. So, and, you know, sleep was one of them you brought up earlier.

00:51:05.880 So, and I didn't want to, I didn't want the show to go by before I talked about that. So,

00:51:09.560 yeah, you know, there's some really interesting and you, you, you mentioned it and I just want

00:51:13.880 to go back to it. It sleep is critical. Absolutely. You know, it's your restorative process, quite

00:51:18.840 frankly, uh, and your, you know, REM sleep, deep sleep, light sleep. They're all very important in

00:51:24.760 how you function and how your day goes and how you're feeling, but you know, there's really interesting

00:51:30.520 things and they're simple. So when, uh, again, when I got into the biohacking world and I started

00:51:36.040 looking at it, just having a watch that monitors your sleep patterns throughout the evening, it sounds

00:51:41.960 silly, but it works. Absolutely. Yeah. So you can get up in the morning and say, okay, how was, you know,

00:51:47.080 I sleep, like I, you know, my wife says to me in the morning, she'll tell me how she slept and I'll

00:51:52.600 say to her, look at your watch. Yeah. She said, why? And I said, because you may feel you slept

00:51:57.880 that way, but you got to look at the, like the data, look at the data and then you'll know how

00:52:03.240 you slept. So then you can fine tune when the last time we ate, you know, how much water we drank,

00:52:11.240 right? When we started to reduce our light, like all those things we can actually start to look at

00:52:17.720 and figure out those processes. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And,

00:52:21.880 and then we can figure out how great a sleep we got. Yeah. So now we know the model for great sleep.

00:52:26.440 Yeah. That, that doesn't mean we're not out too late one night and we don't, you know,

00:52:29.880 that life isn't that standard, but you can at least see the perfect path. Right. And you know,

00:52:35.880 this doesn't require investment. This doesn't require economic resources. All it requires is a

00:52:42.680 consistent pattern where you're documenting and you could start with, you know, how, how your wife does it,

00:52:49.240 where it's, you know, free based non-technology. So you don't have accurate data per se. And you

00:52:56.120 could be like, you know, and this is something that I, I, I worked with, um, an individual because,

00:53:00.840 you know, they're like, I don't have good sleep habits. And I'm like, okay, none of us have good

00:53:05.800 sleep habits, but I can't tell you that. So, you know, what I, what I, what I suggested,

00:53:11.720 and we kind of like did something similar, I go, you know what, I just want you to do minute you wake

00:53:17.320 up. I want you to kind of like do a scan, not call it nothing. And imagine yourself like, you know,

00:53:24.680 a battery meter on a phone and from one to 10, give yourself a number and just measure that every

00:53:32.840 morning. And over time they realized they woke up between a four and a six ish. So I'm like, okay.

00:53:39.640 So when we translated that, we're like, okay, so it doesn't matter here, you're waking up 40%

00:53:46.520 energy. Why? And now they were able to then go back and do something similar. And eventually they

00:53:53.080 understood, ah, ah, so, so you could, you know, you could, you could start there or you could start

00:54:00.760 there, but what you bring up is phenomenally beautiful. It's what you're saying is you make

00:54:06.760 better decisions with information. Yeah. And the best way to get information is to collect it

00:54:11.400 yourself. Yeah. And how we got on to, how I got on this, the biohacking path, you know,

00:54:16.600 whether it's the cold plunges and the saunas and everything else is, you know, I started reading all

00:54:22.200 different, different books about, uh, people who are in Silicon Valley and what had happened was they

00:54:27.320 had worked so hard, slept so little, made some, like they were doing really well financially,

00:54:32.520 everything, but their life was a disaster. Their health was bad. Their weight was high.

00:54:38.520 They were having all kinds of early onsets of diseases that should have been for

00:54:44.360 70 and 80 year olds. Yeah. They were getting in their forties and fifties and they couldn't figure

00:54:48.920 out why. And they were kind of all getting together. And then they started to figure out,

00:54:52.680 okay, we have to figure out a way to, they called it biohacking, to do a number of things to regenerate

00:54:58.280 a bunch of cells that they had diminished through bad lifestyle. Yeah. Now we know where the words

00:55:02.760 came from. Yeah. A bunch of IT viewers. Yeah. That's where it came out of it. And I tell you

00:55:06.760 the truth, that's why I got on it. Cause I loved it because, you know, truthfully in my, my early

00:55:11.480 career was, uh, was really go, go like my early, when I got into business, it wasn't like the normal

00:55:17.560 path. I got into an industry that was a 24 seven business, didn't take holidays off. And it was very

00:55:23.640 adrenaline pumped. We all wanted to work, work, work. And you know, I was worried because I was

00:55:28.920 seeing friends and coworkers having really weird health problems at young ages. And I thought,

00:55:35.080 I want to avoid this. Right. Yeah. That's why I started, you know, the gym. And then I, I realized

00:55:39.720 the gym wasn't working for me. And then I kind of escalated, but you know, we get to the dementia issue

00:55:47.080 and you look at it and you say to yourself, as you're reading this research, which I'm glad we went

00:55:51.320 through today and I'm glad we had this conversation, you're realizing that there's still no cure for

00:55:56.760 this. Yeah. So the only cure you can really try to do is reduce and manage and manage. Yeah. Yeah.

00:56:04.040 And quite frankly, you know, that's, that's why some of the things we mentioned today, but I kind

00:56:08.600 of got onto, um, cause I had seen my parents and I had seen the way that life went for them. And

00:56:14.600 quite frankly, most of those things on that list that reduce it by 40%, they had, or didn't do.

00:56:20.440 Right. And you know, to, to kind of like bring it home a bit, you know, if, if an individual kind

00:56:25.800 of goes, okay, what does it mean to me? You know, and one of the best ways I could help you frame it

00:56:31.560 is think of it as a three-legged stool, right? You have your personal self. So that, you know,

00:56:37.880 things that we kind of brought up your sleep habits, things that are in your control, things that are not

00:56:41.160 in your control, but becoming awareness. So you have the individual, which is the body.

00:56:45.240 Uh, the second leg of the stool is the mind, right? So this is where it's like, you know,

00:56:50.520 the stresses we take on, um, the way we feel about ourselves, the way we interact and all of that stuff,

00:56:58.440 self beliefs and all of that. So that's your mental. And then the third leg is your surroundings,

00:57:03.240 which is your environment. So it could be very well, like, you know, you may be in a very high stress

00:57:07.800 work environment. You could be an entrepreneur, you could be a shift worker, right? And what you're doing

00:57:13.880 now is you're kind of looking at all three because they all have to work together.

00:57:19.160 And each individual, just like legs of a stool, have their own heights. So you can then march it,

00:57:27.000 match it to what it is that's unique to you and then find the resources that are, whether it's through

00:57:34.200 care, whether it's through support, whether it's through, you know, innovative, right? And then go,

00:57:40.360 okay, how do I balance my three legged stool? Because if you have that visual, then you know,

00:57:45.000 if one is off, why things are off. So then your 12 years, you're balancing what you need to balance,

00:57:51.320 but you actually have a visual that you can work with.

00:57:55.240 Yeah, no, I agree. Thank you, Sam. You know, Canadians are clicking on this topic. We talked

00:58:01.320 about that earlier. Canadians are interested in this topic and they're worried. And so I really appreciate

00:58:06.360 you taking the time. Thank you for having me. And thank you, everyone, for listening. Please

00:58:11.000 subscribe, download the app and stay tuned because we're going to do another show on this. It has a

00:58:16.840 personal impact on me, as I mentioned during the show, and it does on all of us. So stay tuned and hope

00:58:24.840 you watch.

Dementia Is Surging in Canada： Risk Factors, Prevention & Treatment

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