THINKWELL

AGEWELL

Dr. Gregg’s Path of Discovery: Why Oral Health Matters for Alzheimer’s and Longevity

00;02;39;23 – 00;03;06;02
Unknown
daughter is early 40s, and I began to read. What is it, Lisa mosconi. So I got all those books and, and, read them and gave them to her. So, Doctor Merrill advised her to get all of her things in order before she had any official diagnosis, which we did.

00;03;06;04 – 00;03;41;03
Unknown
So she, is also a 3 or 4. So this is great because, yeah, I, I love that this is like the generational piece rate. You saw what happened to your mom and my dad. That’s a big part of my story. Mom and dad. And then now and then there’s you. And then there’s your daughter. So my, my so my daughter, is a physician at UC Irvine.

00;03;41;05 – 00;04;07;06
Unknown
And I, my cardiologist, she got me a cardiologist there because I’m a specialist. And so we just had a phone conversation last week, and I was telling her, she asked me why. Oh, she wanted me on a baby aspirin. And I said, well, my geriatric psychiatrist maybe said, maybe I shouldn’t do that. I won’t say that.

00;04;07;08 – 00;04;35;07
Unknown
That’s the that’s a small joke. But anyway. Anyway, she she’s kind of paused and said, well, I have another, patient, a doctor here who is kind of going through that same thing and I it’s just kind of curious. Are you vegan? And I said, no, but I know you’re talking about my daughter.

00;04;35;09 – 00;05;02;17
Unknown
She did for the cardiologist and forgot. And my daughter referred me to her. So anyway, so now Aaron is going through, the, she’s gone through all the bloodwork with doctor Brad has some great six sessions with Molly. Great. Oh, good. And so she and I are kind of, partnering up on some of this diet piece because she’s vegan, and I’m not.

00;05;02;19 – 00;05;30;03
Unknown
I love it is Molly. It. Does Molly suggest a vegan diet? No, no, she works with it. Yeah. Good. Yeah. She works with anything, and that’s what’s good about her. Everything. Everything’s good. Are you familiar with the Smothers Brothers? I don’t think so. Oh, well, Tommy Smothers is famous for hosting, tasting, the tasting? Tasting. All right, so you already know about these mix a little bit.

00;05;30;10 – 00;05;48;03
Unknown
He’s going to keep it pretty close. If you feel like you need to move around, you can grab the mic and just reposition it. But you want it about you. You put it where you want. I think that’s a good spot to work with. Heather knows the drill. I’ll just be intimidated. I need to learn from you how to cut and splice to.

00;05;48;05 – 00;06;06;25
Unknown
I can teach you, Heather, on my podcast. And I was like this. This is the only interview I’ve been, like, actually nervous for. I don’t know what it is about you, Heather. Oh, no. Well, it’s the unknown. The the nervous parts always. Oh, I like it. You like? At some point I see the screen. I can’t see that.

00;06;06;25 – 00;06;39;27
Unknown
But it makes it like. Oh, I do like, Yeah. Okay. Everything’s dialed and roll and. Very right. You want me to let you know when you’re at a certain time or anything? Well, I like the clock, too. It’s actually right there. Yeah. It’s accurate. Yeah. No, I think I we usually aim for like, 40, 45 minutes, so, like, if we, if we had go and, and then what I’d like to do, if you don’t mind, is record the conversation and then I’ll introduce you at the end.

00;06;40;00 – 00;07;04;19
Unknown
So I know it’s a little funky, but I want to do that before I leave. Yeah. Is that okay? Yeah. So basically we have the conversation, and then at the end I say, you know, welcome. My guest today is and we talk about this this and this. And so it’s kind of a teaser to get people to stay and just in case our conversation takes a fun turn, then I can capture that in the introduction.

00;07;04;23 – 00;07;25;18
Unknown
Okay. In a way that’s hopefully compelling. So yeah, I think every recording. Yeah. Everything system. So I feel funny calling you Bill. I think it’s what’s coming up for me because, but you know what? I’m just going to do it. I’m just going to call you that. Was that okay? It’s fine. Okay. I remember what you mean.

00;07;25;18 – 00;07;49;05
Unknown
Like, that’s, awkward. Well, because you’re. I think I have, like, a reference for your, your career and everything that you’ve done, and so like that, I don’t know, I just feel like it’s respectful of more respectful to call you Doctor Greg. It would. It would be respectful if you thought of me as a friend, Bill. All right.

00;07;49;07 – 00;08;19;13
Unknown
Okay. And and one of the things that has occurred as I’ve moved on in life is going from role to sole. So the role of a doctor is past history. I have to move forward to something better, something bigger. It sounds like maybe you are wonderful. Thank you. I’m excited to have this conversation with you today. Less than I am excited to be with you.

00;08;19;13 – 00;08;45;29
Unknown
I, shared with you that your book was the most, practical, practical, applicable book on Alzheimer’s that I’ve read. And you podcasts are such a delightful, diverse, information piece. It’s just wonderful. So thank you. Well, I want to get into your story. Okay. I have kind of as we were chatting about this, there’s two big pieces, that I want to dive into.

00;08;45;29 – 00;09;12;10
Unknown
One is that the practical and professional side of things? But you also have a deeply personal story here. And I want to start with the professional piece, because you bring this very unique perspective of a dentist and really a whole health dentist for you and someone who looks at a tooth and separates it from the rest of the body, but someone who really has thought through how our oral health is connected to our whole body health.

00;09;12;12 – 00;09;21;12
Unknown
What kind of directed you down that path? How? What made you start thinking that way?

00;09;21;15 – 00;10;00;10
Unknown
I almost have to get back to, epigenetics and, family history. Come from a long line of family doctors, a great uncle, grandfather, a grand uncle, my dad, and, family doctors. I’ll tell you the story of my grandfather because I absolutely love it. 1977, I was graduating from dental school, and my grandfather was there, and I said, Poppy, you’ve lived in the most amazing times in health care.

00;10;00;10 – 00;10;22;27
Unknown
I mean, when you got started, there weren’t antibiotics, there weren’t X-rays, there was nothing. And now we’ve just come out with this estimate 12, which will from one blood draw will take 12 different analysis of blood. I said, this is just amazing. You just must be amazed. And he said, well, Billy, see, you’re afraid to call me Bill.

00;10;22;27 – 00;11;04;18
Unknown
And Billy. I have to tell you, when I got started, all we could do was listen and exam. And if we really listened most of the time, that patient told us what was wrong. The difference is, there wasn’t a lot we could do about it. So then we had to learn to comfort. Then we started getting all these tests and we stopped listening and we missed the diagnosis more and more because we didn’t hear from the patient.

00;11;04;21 – 00;11;42;13
Unknown
So we started to do a lot of things, but sometimes they were the wrong things because we didn’t listen deeply enough. So you say, how did I get started in this? I have to say that probably was the start of it. Yeah. So as I became a dentist and as I began teaching in different forms, I kind of became known as eventually the fluffy guy, the guy who kind of, listened to the story behind the story, and the dentist who listens a novel concept.

00;11;42;15 – 00;12;13;02
Unknown
So most dentists basically were plumbers of the mouth, were technicians. So, most dentists are very technically oriented. So they think, gosh, we can solve everything, anything with technique and technology, but you can’t solve it if the patient doesn’t accept it. And then you start learning more and more. How do we get people to accept what’s in their best interests?

00;12;13;04 – 00;12;41;01
Unknown
And that’s really, the key in dentistry, at least the way I enjoyed practicing it. The communication. Yes. So you have some practical tips for how people can take care of their oral health. What what do you recommend people do on a daily basis. Well, obviously on a daily basis it’s pretty simple. Brush and floss.

00;12;41;03 – 00;12;56;16
Unknown
The little catch in there as we dentists are wonderful guilt throwers telling people you should floss. And how come you don’t floss? And how come you don’t floss every day? But you know something? We never teach people to floss. Dewey.

00;12;56;18 – 00;13;20;15
Unknown
So, yeah. How do you start dental floss? Well, you start simply one tooth. So I used to tell patients, just do your front tooth, that’s all. Don’t even try anything else. And they come back a little bit later and they maybe done 2 or 3 teeth. I’d say, great. Now I only want you to floss the bottom teeth.

00;13;20;18 – 00;13;40;17
Unknown
Why are the bottom teeth? Well, they’re the ones that are crooked and they’re hard to get the dental floss through. And so people would get frustrated. No, I just want you to do one bottom tooth, and pretty soon they can do some others. And isn’t that wonderful? And the next thing with dental floss that everybody says and say everybody, but they say yes.

00;13;40;17 – 00;14;02;25
Unknown
Well, I hate putting floss in. I’m afraid I’m going to pull something out, but, well, why do you pull up? Let’s put the dental floss in and drag it out the side so you don’t have to pop it in and pop it out, pop it in and drag it out. So now let’s just try a corner tooth, pop it in and drag it out.

00;14;02;27 – 00;14;25;24
Unknown
So enough of that. And now I don’t want them to go on until they can do that without looking in the mirror. Now I’ll drive people crazy because I walk around the house dental floss thing, but I get it done. I don’t need a mirror. Pop it in, go around, drag it out, move on. What do you think of those floss picks?

00;14;25;27 – 00;14;57;18
Unknown
Okay, so in cleaning one’s teeth, the story is they can do two things really, really well. One is a toothbrush. Pick the other one wisely so the tooth feeds, the tooth picks. All of those are wonderful. My favorite thing for people are called the go betweens. That little tiny, plastic toothpicks, if you will. Yeah. You can buy a two year supply at Costco for ten bucks, and they just go between your teeth.

00;14;57;21 – 00;15;22;27
Unknown
So those are my second favorite thing. If you can’t do that, there are, plastic comb tips. There’s a lot you can do. The goal is to get to the point where you can use dental floss. So we don’t need to give up on the other, but we can add it in. And certainly for seniors, certainly for people with any kind of, hand dexterity issues.

00;15;22;29 – 00;15;48;15
Unknown
We have lots and lots of Aids. And is there a favorite toothbrush ready that the classic commercial on TV? Right. Nine out of ten dentists recommend I it. Do you have recommendations like the electric toothbrushes versus the manual kind of old school toothbrushes, the round head versus one. Is there a difference between all of these things or is it just marketing and gimmicks?

00;15;48;18 – 00;16;16;09
Unknown
I tell you, one of the funniest seminars I’ve ever attended was a gentleman who went through all the types of toothbrushes, all the types of floss, all of everything. And what you’ll notice is the shapes change every year. It’s like hands and shoes. There’s just a new fad. Yeah. What is that? They add new colors. Crest can say new and improved over and over and over again.

00;16;16;09 – 00;16;50;02
Unknown
Isn’t that interesting? So the real answer is the best toothbrushes one you use. Yeah. Doesn’t matter beyond that. Small enough that you can get into the back. I love the mechanical toothbrushes. My wife swears by the water pick toothbrush, which both has a water jet coming out the center of it, and as a toothbrush, with, many, many people don’t like the mechanical toothbrushes because it’s just too much.

00;16;50;05 – 00;17;09;18
Unknown
It vibrates. People don’t use mechanical toothbrushes correctly. Oh. How are you meant to use them? I have one, yeah. Okay. Which one do you have? I have the Sonicare. Okay. Sonicare. They’re great. And how do you like it? I love it, perfect. My teeth actually don’t feel. I don’t feel clean. Yes, I’m traveling and I don’t have it with me.

00;17;09;26 – 00;17;32;18
Unknown
It just doesn’t feel the same. Yes. And there’s a whole lot of truth to that that we can discuss. But the actual maximum effectiveness of the Sonicare is right at the tip of the bristles. So most people will use a Sonicare like a hand toothbrush and brush with the Sonicare, and you’re not getting the full benefit of it.

00;17;32;21 – 00;17;53;10
Unknown
You want to keep it real lightly, okay, and just barely touching and go around. So if you notice your bristles are flattening out, you’re probably pressing too hard on. No matter what toothbrush you’re using, you’re probably pressing too hard. Even a handheld toothbrush, if you have to buy one every three months because it’s flattening, you’re probably brushing too hard.

00;17;53;12 – 00;18;16;05
Unknown
Okay, brushing should be on the light side and about two minutes. Is that like a 30s per quadrant? Is that what you recommend that that’s certainly best. And of course the Sonicare has a timer on it. So it makes it really, really easy. Yeah, yeah. Are there any other things you mentioned? Your wife has a toothbrush with the water picks and people bring up the water thing.

00;18;16;09 – 00;18;30;19
Unknown
And is that something that you recommend? And also toothpaste. What type of toothpaste? Toothpaste is pretty simple for me. I go to Walmart and buy the 99 cent toothpaste.

00;18;30;22 – 00;19;03;26
Unknown
All right, I’m getting I’m getting that, you know, something more than ten times that much. But that is like a hydroxyapatite. Do you have any thoughts about what’s in there and fluoride? Where what are your thoughts about fluoride? Let’s start with the hydroxyapatite. And, all the different additives are really neither here nor there. A lot of people, of course, love tooth of, Tom’s of Maine because it’s, natural.

00;19;03;28 – 00;19;37;13
Unknown
But all they do is go get, you know, natural. Abrasives and natural fluoride and so forth. Again, it’s not important what’s there. So, Some of the newer ones that have the additives that, in theory, read mineralized teeth. I think those are helpful. Fluoride. There’s not enough fluoride in toothpaste to do the world’s greatest help.

00;19;37;15 – 00;20;03;05
Unknown
If you need fluoride, it really needs to be a prescription dose, 1.1%. Having said that, there’s no good reason for it not to be in it. Fluoride has got it. And, received a really bad reputation. My history in dentistry, when I got started, fluoride wasn’t quite as common, certainly not in the water.

00;20;03;07 – 00;20;27;26
Unknown
And we would see kids with three, four or 5 or 6 cavities a couple times a year, just was not that uncommon. Then we got fluoridation in the water and we got, recommendations by pediatricians for supplementation for fluoride. And it got to be when I’d been in practice about ten years, I just did not see cavities in kids.

00;20;27;28 – 00;20;53;04
Unknown
Wow. Just didn’t see them. My kids grew up, they we had fluoridation when they were pregnant. My wife was taking a small dose of fluoride because the baby teeth are forming in utero. And then the kids started with fluoride drops about the age of two. My kids just didn’t have cavities. So, fluoride got a bad rap.

00;20;53;04 – 00;21;24;08
Unknown
And when people would come to me and talk about the dangers of fluoride, you know, I’m far more worried about the dangers of filling materials. I think that’s far more potentially damaging. So kind of pick your poison. I don’t care which one you pick. It. Why does when I get a bad rap. I think it gets it for the same reason we now have the anti-vaxxers.

00;21;24;10 – 00;21;51;22
Unknown
You get some little piece of information and and it’s exploded and sensationalized and and Kerry. Just way, way, way too far. There are only two things in history that have been studied extensively, and that’s smoking and tobacco and that’s fluoride. And, so the studies leading up to the proper amount of fluoride there, they’re just a gazillion of them.

00;21;51;24 – 00;22;14;20
Unknown
It’s very, very safe. But you only need one study that shows elevated doses of fluoride are bad and they start calling it a poison. We’re not talking about elevated doses. We’re talking about appropriate amounts. Right. We talk a lot about that. And just our this approach to supporting brain health. Right. It’s not the right amounts in the right place at the right time.

00;22;14;20 – 00;22;39;29
Unknown
Yes. And when you ask, anything can be a poison when you’ve got too much of it. Interesting. Okay. So if I could deviate slightly I don’t want to get away from this one part of the topic that I think is really important for the oral systemic link and Alzheimer’s and all of that, because, yes, home care is critical, but I don’t care if you’re the best philosopher in the world.

00;22;40;02 – 00;23;05;13
Unknown
You can only do the parts that are accessible. So the professional hygiene visits are critical. So let’s start way, way, way at the beginning with the fun story about that. How often should one see a dentist? Trick question. Just put it in your head that six months, every six months. Where did that come from? Where did that come from?

00;23;05;13 – 00;23;35;13
Unknown
My mother told me, and before that, her dentist told her. Before that I had no idea. Pepsodent ads in the 1940s and early 50s, Pepsodent got this idea that maybe we can get the dental association to recommend our toothpaste. There had been no such thing as professional recommendations before that. So the dental association so, so, Pepsodent said. How about we come up with a little jingle, brush your teeth every night and see your dentist twice a year?

00;23;35;15 – 00;23;55;22
Unknown
Oh, interesting. And the dental society said, well, people don’t see dentists regularly anyway. That’s really a good idea. So they gave the dental stamp of approval, which had never been done before the accident, and they could say, we got the dental stamp of approval. Brush your teeth every day, twice a day, and see your dentist twice a year.

00;23;55;24 – 00;24;23;04
Unknown
Wow. Okay then. So along comes dental insurance. How often did you get your teeth cleaned at a dentist? Everybody knows every six months. Dental insurance. That’s every six months. Wow. We dentist loved that. Most patient dentistry until the mid 50s into the 60s was episodic. You went in for problems, you didn’t go and much for preventive care. So yeah, this is wonderful.

00;24;23;06 – 00;24;55;19
Unknown
Yeah. So how often should you. Well that depends on a whole bunch of factors doesn’t it. What your genetics. What are the medications you take your age, your history. All of everything put together. Now what we know the gum should fit around the tooth like a really tight turtleneck shirt. The bacteria start crawling underneath and form layers, and only at the bottom layer are the pathological bacteria.

00;24;55;21 – 00;25;21;24
Unknown
Those are all the anaerobic kids that do all the really bad things, and they’re the ones that get into the system. Guess what? You can’t floss and get those out. Now you can take the surface layer off so that they’re much less active. So that’s where dental flossing is really, really good. The sad news is if you come in today and I get your teeth.

00;25;21;24 – 00;25;49;09
Unknown
Absolutely. By the way, what is cleaning teeth? You know what? That’s so. But what we should be doing. Because what we’re worried about is biofilm. The bacterial film on the teeth. So we should be the breeding, the biofilm. So I get your mouth absolutely as clean as it could be. Absolutely. As few bacteria as possible. How fast do they come back?

00;25;49;09 – 00;26;19;15
Unknown
This is really, really impressive. Just like instantly I would within a few days. It’s almost back. Now, obviously they’re not as active though. That’s pathological. But within about 90 days, three months they begin to develop their condominiums and their cities and throwing parties and doing all the bad things below the gum line. So technically, to remove the biofilm should be about every three months, much more frequently.

00;26;19;18 – 00;26;45;19
Unknown
Yes. Now. But we have to put all the host factors in there. Well, because are there good bacteria in the mouth. Oh, shouldn’t be sterile. No no, no there’s absolutely good bacteria. In fact, when I was in dental school, they were doing the first studies on de breeding the streptococcus bacteria because that’s what caused cavities. And what they discovered was all of a sudden there were all these GI problems.

00;26;45;22 – 00;27;13;29
Unknown
So the good bacteria chewing mixes bacteria in with the food. Yeah. So chewing is essential. Mouth bacteria are essential. But you need to breed the bad bacteria every three months. Well, not if you’re completely healthy. Not if you have very few fillings. Not if you’re really good dental floss or. Not if, your parents are on your side.

00;27;14;01 – 00;27;38;03
Unknown
In my situation, my grandparents and my parents never lost teeth. I kind of won the tooth genetic lottery. I learned early in my career. My wife. Not so much. She would develop all this tartar, especially lower front teeth. And she’d want to go in and get her teeth cleaned more frequently. And I kept saying why, she is the world’s best, floss.

00;27;38;03 – 00;28;01;28
Unknown
Or twice a day. There is absolutely no reason you need to go ahead and get your teeth cleaned. And she come in every three months, and she had all this tartar I did. So anyway, she didn’t win that part of the genetic lottery. So you have to understand that what medications as we age. Sadly, it’s really nice.

00;28;01;28 – 00;28;28;08
Unknown
Turtleneck barrier. The gum line. Right? Is. Yeah. Just like your skin doesn’t have the elasticity. It’s not in the gums either. So you really need to get it to breed it every three months in less, you’re ideally healthy. And that should be at the discretion at of really the hygienist. And that has to do with bleeding points.

00;28;28;11 – 00;28;51;16
Unknown
We all go to the dentist and they do all these weird numbers. You have three, two, three and two, three, four and all of that which measure this susceptibility. What’s far more important isn’t the number of bleeding points. If you have a large number, even a 4 or 5, not bleeding. I’m not too worried. If you have a two that’s bleeding.

00;28;51;17 – 00;29;14;17
Unknown
I don’t know about that. I see, so that’s an interesting question to ask the dentist. But yeah okay. So water pigs oil pulling. There’s all these extra things that you can do. How important are they? I know you’ve talked. You really emphasize brushing and flossing but these other things. Is there ever a time when we should do more than just brushing floss?

00;29;14;19 – 00;29;40;01
Unknown
Those are so controversial. And, again, it depends on so many other things. You know, if you’re susceptible, if you have some issues, you want to try most anything. I don’t think that’s bad at all. One of the concerns I have. And I’ll just throw this out there,

00;29;40;03 – 00;30;07;27
Unknown
You have dentists who want to do everything on every person. They don’t individualize for each person. What’s best, for example, we can certainly get into it is replacing silver fillings because silver has the mercury. Well, if there is multiple teeth where 50 to 80% of the chewing surface is silver fillings, I don’t want those. And they’re either.

00;30;07;29 – 00;30;36;16
Unknown
But if we have a half a dozen tiny, tiny little silver fillings, that’s just not enough to give off enough mercury to worry about. But sometimes dentists want to get rid of absolutely every silver filling just because it’s silver. Well, I don’t know about that, but I wanted to ask about that. The filling in materials, we haven’t used it, but I understand it’s we haven’t used amalgam filling for 20 odd years.

00;30;36;19 – 00;30;58;20
Unknown
And it’s doesn’t it settle a bit so it has the potential to crack the teeth? Yes. It expands and contracts and can crack teeth. Yes it would. Most of them at this stage are going to be pretty old. Very old. Yeah. Because people dentist haven’t been using them for a long time. So yeah. Would you recommend that they be removed for that reason.

00;30;58;22 – 00;31;28;09
Unknown
Depends on the size. I can think of many, many examples where they’re small fillings. Before we had resins to do, pit and fissure sealants on teeth. Some really, really good dentists would drill very shallow, fillings, put in silver filling material because we didn’t have the resins. I’ve seen those present 40, 50 years not doing anything.

00;31;28;12 – 00;31;54;28
Unknown
So it depends. Very stable. Just depends. And what about root canals? What is your view on root canals? Well done. Root canals. I prefer a well done root canal too. Having a tooth removed and an implant. People think implants are the answer to everything. And they’re really not, because you just develop a whole different set of issues and concerns.

00;31;54;28 – 00;32;18;20
Unknown
You’re going to get bacteria around implants and peri implant. Titus, inflammation around implants is a big deal now because we put implants in the wrong places. So I’d rather have a well done root canal. And what makes it a well done root canal? In today’s world, and I forget the name of it. I think they call it the gentle wave.

00;32;18;23 – 00;32;49;15
Unknown
But it’s where we do clean the canal. You’re depleting it very thoroughly with, an ultrasonic and a water spray. A root canal. It’s really nothing more than a tube in it, too. So you need to make sure that that tube is really, really clean. And my friend who’s, ended down, as the specialist says, if the canal is really, really clean, I can fill it with peanut butter and be okay.

00;32;49;18 – 00;33;16;04
Unknown
The point being, and it can be, time consuming and detailed. So again, yeah, there are general dentists who can do a really, really good job, but if I didn’t know the general dentist, I’d see a specialist for that. I think there’s a vast difference between, specialists doing really, really good root canals on a general dentist doing so.

00;33;16;04 – 00;33;40;22
Unknown
So. And I did a lot root, a lot of root canals, body history. I actually really, really enjoyed it. And then when they came up with some of these gentle wave things and I realized I didn’t want to invest in that, I wasn’t doing my patients a favor to keep doing it. And, so well done. That’s fine.

00;33;40;24 – 00;34;08;23
Unknown
Not well done. You leave the potential of, focal point, a notice of future infection rate. So, if one is really, really concerned, I would go to a specialist and ended honest and nowadays they have the CBC, CT scans and they can really look at it very detailed. And you can tell if that’s an active infection or a scar.

00;34;08;25 – 00;34;24;29
Unknown
This is the cone beam. Some people will be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Do you have any other professional advice for our listeners? Oh, I’d have to think,

00;34;25;02 – 00;34;45;24
Unknown
I think the one other thing I’d say, since it is, comes up and as an issue is, is how do I find a good dentist for some of this? And my reply to that is, it’s your job to interview the dentist, not the other way around. And what are some good questions to ask that dentist when you’re interviewing them?

00;34;45;24 – 00;35;08;11
Unknown
Well, the first thing I personally would do, I’d go through the normal exam process and not want to confront too much right up front. That’s just my personality. But once I got to the high journalist, I’d want to ask, so how much time do you have for a visit? And I don’t personally think you can be thorough in less than an hour.

00;35;08;14 – 00;35;37;20
Unknown
The 30 minute cleanings are sort of like, sweeping under the rug and then walking out. And I would ask, how much time are you going to teach flossing. We always we divide our hygiene visits into thirds. 20, 20, 20, 20 minutes was catching up. What are the proactive things you’re doing in your life for a healthy lifestyle?

00;35;37;22 – 00;36;14;04
Unknown
Because we want to emphasize a healthy lifestyle, not just teeth. And then we’d review their home care. Show me how you floss. Do you have any problem areas having problems with? How about if we introduce this go between would you try that. So that’s really the connection with them and their responsibility to keep things clean. And then my story, was always if they can’t debris the area, get it as clean as possible in 2020 five minutes, there’s too much there.

00;36;14;04 – 00;36;50;27
Unknown
And we need to schedule a separate visit. Got it. Especially if there’s a lot of bleeding points, because you’re not going to cure bleeding points and in one visit. And then the final 20 minutes is just review, which you’ve gone over, set up the next visit and stress the importance of the next visit. One of my friends who was an expert in all of this stuff, a periodontist, you know, the number one role of a hygienist and a dental visit is to get the patient to commit to come back at the appropriate interval.

00;36;50;29 – 00;37;11;18
Unknown
If it’s three months, that’s what’s best. Now, in our office, they would graduate. If you were really, really clean at three months, you could graduate to four months. So any way to get back to the original question, I think those are questions I would ask of the hygienist, not necessarily the dentist. I see you got it.

00;37;11;20 – 00;37;34;09
Unknown
Good. Well, very, very helpful information, about how to best put your dentist to work for you. No, I want to put this into the context of your personal journey. So your mom and dad both had age related memory loss. So you watched both of them go through that process, right? Actually, dad did not. Okay, but mom did.

00;37;34;10 – 00;38;05;04
Unknown
Mom did. And you were three for positive, correct? So you’ve got one copy of the ability for correct and for your daughter the next generation. Correct. So this has been a big part of your family’s story. Yes. And to tell us how you’ve navigated that. Well, poorly at first, like I think most everybody, mom began to slip in her mid 60s and we noticed all of that.

00;38;05;06 – 00;38;34;29
Unknown
Interestingly enough, she was in an experimental program for Alzheimer’s at, UCLA. My dad, being a physician, got her in there, and she ended up having a stroke in that program. Nobody knows why it was the placebo, as she said, anyway, or was it the mid and we just don’t know why. So at that point, you know, dad self cared for mom.

00;38;34;29 – 00;39;06;21
Unknown
We literally had a hospital bed in the family room, and he was taking care of her. And I was watching his self-care and his health plummet quite quickly. He would finish the ice cream mom didn’t eat. So, he’s about my height and probably 150 pounds more than me. Yeah, at my age. So mom passed away, and, how long was that process?

00;39;06;21 – 00;39;34;23
Unknown
In the mid 60s. She started. She saw signs. She was about 70 when dad finally decided to go and get her tested. He was in denial for a while. And it was fairly early in, the program that she had the stroke, and she actually lived with the stroke for eight months. So that was not a really drawn out process.

00;39;34;25 – 00;40;02;21
Unknown
But still very impactful on your dad as a caregiver? Very much so. So, you know, that’s where the caregiver piece slips in there because he never recovered from that health issue. He he was very overweight all the way through his. And he passed away in 2013. So, you know, that was, 13 years of that.

00;40;02;24 – 00;40;37;03
Unknown
And, it was a it was a rough final ten years and for sure, a rough final three years. We were able to arrange for him to stay home because that was his emphasis. So I actually, took a day out of, cut my days of work, by one full day. Thursday was that day, so I drove up to see him.

00;40;37;05 – 00;41;16;21
Unknown
What’s going on within that? But he just never got got better and ended up his last three years or so. Or pretty rough. I want to contrast that with my father in law, who was very active, staying fit cognitively. And, physically, literally rearranging his, estate the day before he passed away. Well, the woo hoo part of that story is, I had been off doing some of my seminars.

00;41;16;21 – 00;41;43;06
Unknown
I got back on a Friday, my wife had some board meetings. So, I said, well, I’ve got your dad for the weekend. And he ended up falling. Ending up in the E.R.. I got a call for Saturday morning. Went in and visited with him house and went off to the board meeting. They they gave my father in law some morphine and said, well, nothing’s bad.

00;41;43;06 – 00;42;07;06
Unknown
So they took him home, which was okay. That was his request. And, he called it Bill’s happy to see because I was, ministering at that point. He was on a hospice, and I was giving him the morphine. So, Saturday night, I sat, Alison got home, and I said, we need to go see your dad.

00;42;07;08 – 00;42;30;03
Unknown
I need to, you know, give him his morphine. And she said, oh, you know, really good. I’ll go see him tomorrow. And. No, no, you need to come with me tonight. And he was watching the Laker game and I gave him morphine. He was basically CPAp intolerant. So we just put him on cannula that night rather than having him, fight through the CPAp and got a call.

00;42;30;03 – 00;42;55;27
Unknown
Actually, I woke up bright eyed at 3:00, and we got a call at 4:00 that he had passed away. So he was bright, active, intact, right until the end. And so that is what influenced me, that that’s the way I want to be. Yeah. So I had the two fascinating, contrast. Another thing that was very moving to me.

00;42;55;27 – 00;43;21;23
Unknown
You see, I had a longitudinal brain health, my brain study, which my, wife’s grandmother was in, and one of my patients was in, and he was very, mentally intact. And, PBS actually did a special on the people that they were, tracing out. I don’t know if you ever saw it, but it’s just fascinating.

00;43;21;25 – 00;43;50;12
Unknown
And this one gentleman got to be, I want to say 104, certainly over 100, and was pretty cognitively intact. And upon his passing, they did the brain biopsy. And, statement was he had more in the way of plaques and tangles, than any brain they had biopsied. And yet he was intact. So I’m going to be that guy.

00;43;50;15 – 00;44;09;24
Unknown
You know, it really opens up this possibility, right? When we see that there are people who have become centenarians who have age, they have plenty of plaques and tangles, but they’re cognitively intact, right? It tells us what there is. Although, of course, the amyloid plaques and tangles, all the talk, all of them is folded. Proteins are associated with Alzheimer’s.

00;44;09;27 – 00;44;44;26
Unknown
It’s not an inevitability. If they’re there, that we lose function. So there’s a difference between Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s dementia. And that. Tell us about your personal journey. Kind of navigating. I know you made a discovery in 2019. Oh, my first discovery was 2010, which was a blessing. Diagnosed with celiac disease. And I did that because my daughter got to know, an expert when she was in medical school and said that you’ve got to get tested.

00;44;44;26 – 00;45;10;11
Unknown
And I said, fine. So I go to my, primary care doc, and he says, why? And I said, oh, just humor me. And sure enough, I came out positive. So back then, the only thing you could do was read the labels, you know, just avoid gluten. Yeah. So I had, a struggle of three months. But then I had a fairly extensive time where I could be pretty darn good with it.

00;45;10;13 – 00;45;28;04
Unknown
So then in 2019, I was given a gift of the end of Alzheimer’s by Doctor Peterson. And I read that, and I said, okay, I never wanted to have a study because I just didn’t want to know why bother? So I said, okay, I better go do that. So I go see my primary care doctor. And he said, why?

00;45;28;04 – 00;45;51;17
Unknown
And I said, well, just humor me. So he did the test. I came out EPO, E3 for positive and literally sat me down, pulled the chair up next to me. He looked at me and he said, I want you to go home and rest. You just need to take really good care of yourself. I don’t want you to worry about there’s nothing we can do about this, yada yada yada.

00;45;51;17 – 00;46;08;25
Unknown
And I said, well, I just read this book. There’s lots we can do. So, so I contacted, I knew Doctor Brisson was at UCLA at the time I contacted them. They said, no, you want to see this guy Doctor Merrill? And I said, no, I want to see Doctor Mary said, no, you want to sit down?

00;46;08;26 – 00;46;40;29
Unknown
Okay. So I went to see Doctor Merrill and that was, March of 2020. And we all know what else happened in March of 2020. So I had my root frame of blood tests and I had my cognitive test. And, at the time, of course, he asked if I felt, I was at all cognitively impaired. And I said, well, you know, like everybody, I forget things here and there, and I don’t know about that.

00;46;41;01 – 00;47;01;21
Unknown
So my first cognitive test was, okay, I didn’t show any cognitive decline, so I didn’t qualify for the study he was doing. But nevertheless, I think he liked, the history and the track record and all of that. So I just started, a little bit at a time, doing this and this and this and that.

00;47;01;23 – 00;47;21;26
Unknown
What kind of things were you doing? Where you taking supplements? Were you changing your diet, exercising differently? Sleeping differently? Yes. All of the above. All of the above. Fun story two I went in and I had just been introduced not that long before to the ordering, so I went in to Doctor Merrill and he asked about it.

00;47;21;26 – 00;47;46;01
Unknown
And next thing I know, six months later I went in here and there were rings. So that was kind of fun. So I’ve always been kind of, sort of because of my profession, proactive and health focused. I had been exercising. I had started a few years before with the personal trainer, because I knew I wanted to be, fairly fit and healthy, like your father in law.

00;47;46;04 – 00;47;54;19
Unknown
Like my father in law. I knew there had to be more to it. I had been to,

00;47;54;22 – 00;48;22;04
Unknown
I had been to a presentation by, cardiologist at the Cooper clinic who said we were discovering that muscle and lifting weights could be more important than aerobic exercise now. Okay, so I got, started on all of that, and I kind of got into the concept of balance and fitness and core and and whole body rather than just weights or just hit or just this or that.

00;48;22;05 – 00;48;44;06
Unknown
And I just, I kind of enjoyed it. So I had gotten started on exercise, and the answer is the same. I started real simply. I, I went to, trainer and I said, teach me some things I can do. And so we had two sessions of that, and I did those things. And then I went back for another session and said, okay, give me some more things.

00;48;44;06 – 00;49;08;04
Unknown
And okay, I did those things. And one of the tricks there is I’m like everybody, you know, getting to the gym was brutal. So, I had learned when I first started exercising, a guy told me, it’s really simple. Just put on your shoes. So I promised myself. I put on my shoes, and I take a step out the door.

00;49;08;07 – 00;49;30;26
Unknown
And that became a walk around the block. And that became a walk for a mile. And that became a jog. And, and my first really couple of years of putting on shoes, taking one step out the door. I gave myself permission, I think twice, to turn around and say, no, ain’t happening today. Some days I’d walk a mile, some days I jog three miles.

00;49;30;26 – 00;49;50;12
Unknown
But I had to walk out the front door. So the same thing with the exercise. I just had to go show up and I give myself permission to do what I call a 50% workout. You know, a Google workout. Wow. Most of the time it turns out okay. The second round is going to be a full workout. In the third round, I’m really going to do it.

00;49;50;14 – 00;50;21;09
Unknown
So it’s just start and day to day I just start simply. I just. And so I’d been doing that. One of my, blessings is I’m curious. So I’ve always been a voracious learner. So, I started listening to podcasts and reading books, and I just kept at it and at it and at it, and I would try this, and I would try that, and I’m still trying it.

00;50;21;09 – 00;50;45;20
Unknown
I’m still thinking around with this and that and that and this, right now it’s a little bit more on sleep to get a little more deep sleep. What do you strategies for that? I’ll let you know when I’ve got, I increased my, magnesium out three and 8 to 3 before bed. I thought, well, two is doing okay.

00;50;45;20 – 00;51;13;07
Unknown
Maybe three would be better. Has it worked out so far? I don’t know about that. I do two the, for ketone ester. Do a little, half a milliliter. I guess it’s about two milliliter shot of that before bedtime. Sometimes it, sometimes it doesn’t. What I am evolving to is I need to have all my protein before three.

00;51;13;10 – 00;51;40;23
Unknown
Not all, but most. And then a really light dinner. So, last night, for different reasons. No excuse, but, I’m human. We went to Mexican food, a little bit later than usual. So last night, deep sleep was not present. Well, it’s kind of obvious, isn’t it? I think the point is. Be curious. Do this and do that.

00;51;40;26 – 00;52;07;15
Unknown
I’ll share with you what I’ve been working on lately. That is a huge help for me. You know, I have done journaling. I’ve done all the gratitude journaling. I’ve tried all of that. I forget now where I first heard it were, some podcast or some place that captured delights. You smile. Yeah. What brings you joy?

00;52;07;17 – 00;52;25;21
Unknown
Yeah. Have you heard about the delights? No, I haven’t, but I love the I love the word delight. I know my favorites. Well, that’s what happened to me. I just went, wow. Okay, so now I count my delights each day. I don’t do a gratitude journal anymore. And so what brings you joy? What ends up on that delight list?

00;52;25;22 – 00;52;49;17
Unknown
Oh my gosh, so many things. Saturday. You know, I’ve got my to do list. I’ll share with you how I do it. My to do list. But Saturday I kind of sort of got started and I got sidetracked. So I call that now a putz day. So I punched around. And then Sunday there were a couple of other things that I putz around.

00;52;49;23 – 00;53;22;17
Unknown
So when I did my delights, guess what was a delight perhaps in around Patsy? What a delight. Granddaughter’s a huge putting delight. Grand boys, but they moved to Spain, so, But they’re still a delight. What shifts in my mind is gratitude. I kind of go. Oh, okay. Well, I’ve done all those before, but delight keeps me in the now.

00;53;22;20 – 00;53;47;21
Unknown
So I walk out to walk the dogs, and I look at the trees against the sky. And I go, wow, the green against the blue. How delightful. I’ll frequently sit outside to have lunch and it’s much better for me to look at the birds and go, what a delight! I don’t have to say I’m grateful for being so, it you’re right.

00;53;47;21 – 00;54;20;15
Unknown
It incorporates joy, wonder, and. Oh, yeah, and we can spin that off because I know so many of the people you’ve spoken with have talked about, a spiritual element, which I think is huge. I did, spiritual background, and my spiritual background is Celtic spirituality, which then devolved into Quaker. And that’s a spirituality of now.

00;54;20;15 – 00;55;01;09
Unknown
So I went, wow, isn’t that interesting? I can actually pull from the heritage epigenetics of the spirituality of now. So my curiosity, became I wonder if we misspelled God, because we all know backwards as the OG. Well, maybe it shouldn’t be, GW and wag where the G is for gratitude. And, A is for all and W is for wonder.

00;55;01;12 – 00;55;30;06
Unknown
So can I stay in spiritual delight? Wonder at all? So I try to do that every day. I start my day that way. I list my delights from the day before together with the word. A word because I have to remember the word or word the next morning, or it doesn’t count. Right? Right. You’re exercising that memory.

00;55;30;08 – 00;56;09;22
Unknown
And and so then, I, I missed my daily to dos on a three by five card, handwritten every day. Yeah. If I didn’t do it the day before, it goes in to the next day. Handwritten. Why? Well, studies show that that activates a different part of your brain. I always used to share the study where they had college students listen to a lecture, take notes on a computer, on a lecture, and handwrite and doodle.

00;56;09;25 – 00;56;50;12
Unknown
Well, just listen. Was run retention only slightly better. Was doing it on the computer and doodling and handwriting or almost the same retention. In other words, doodling kept that part of the brain, that part of the memory circuit alert. Wow. So so you put that to work every day, every day, every day. And, my encouragement for pre dementia, my encouragement for early dementia, as the dementia person to write it down doesn’t have to be on a three by five card.

00;56;50;17 – 00;57;25;04
Unknown
Big ol sheet of paper. It’s just fine. But handwrite it because you’re activating that. Early on when I was first diagnosed, I would get a lot, you know, I’d retired and I was diagnosed, and I was gone through my grief process of, Well, tell me about the diagnosis. So you talked about a discovery. Okay. So there’s the language that you use, and but, sure, I, I slip into doctor language too fast, and I pride myself on, communication, clarity.

00;57;25;07 – 00;57;52;27
Unknown
And I do not have an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. I haven’t Alzheimer’s discovery. Yeah. Because I equate Alzheimer’s with dementia, so I don’t accept that part of it. And have you seen Doctor Miller and the rest of the neuro psych evaluation team? Schnell. Yeah. Yes, doctor. Healer. For cognitive testing recently. The last one was slightly under a year ago.

00;57;53;00 – 00;58;32;04
Unknown
And how was it? That one was not so good? Oh. I mean, no, it was fine. I’m still intact. My first one. I forget the specifics, so let’s just kind of give a guesstimate. I was maybe 95th percentile. Okay, I was okay. Yeah. The next one, I’d actually increased to 96. And I had done better in most of the elements, for whatever reason, the next one after that, which was about a year following, that by then it was remote.

00;58;32;04 – 00;58;38;17
Unknown
So it was zoom and,

00;58;38;19 – 00;58;56;12
Unknown
I’m remembering it now. The very first one was where they gave you the list of, like, 20 words, and I’d been practicing that. I knew how to do it. I’d been working with Molly on memory coaching. I knew how to do it, but they went through it really fast in my brain, like, whoa, you’re not ready for that?

00;58;56;14 – 00;59;18;12
Unknown
And my brain just shut down and I just listened to I think I got 2 or 3 words and they read them 2 or 3 times. So the second time I’m going, okay, I got remember the, well, I didn’t do so well. And the third time I just kind of relaxed. So anyway, I ended up recalling them.

00;59;18;12 – 00;59;42;09
Unknown
Okay. But it was like I got bucked off the horse right at the beginning. And the rest of the time I was in that, analyzing how the heck I was doing rather than just relaxing and doing it. So I actually, emailed Doctor Merrill and I said, well, I blew that. Now I’m going to be officially encouraged to decline.

00;59;42;12 – 01;00;03;26
Unknown
And it turned out it really wasn’t that bad. I’d slip down to like the 92nd, 93rd percentile. And Doctor Miller says, oh, we’ve got all the ways to adjust for that sort of thing. So anyway, the moral of the story is I’m completely convinced if I were to do it again, I’d be back in the 97, 98%.

01;00;03;26 – 01;00;14;08
Unknown
So I’m not too worried about it. Again, I think that he has a question. Is, is all your effort working? I have a great answer for that.

01;00;14;11 – 01;00;33;01
Unknown
Who cares if it’s not? One of my good friends asked me a similar question. He said, what if all this positive mental attitude, and what if all of this effort, and what if all of this is just for notch? You get to the final stage and you just find out none of it’s true. And the answer is really quite simple.

01;00;33;01 – 01;00;56;18
Unknown
It’s okay. I’ve had 20 years of feeling really, really great. Yeah. And I tell people when they ask me, well, why do you do all these things? And my answer is always, you know, I never knew how bad I felt until I felt great. And I feel better now. And I did a year ago, and I’m going to feel better next year.

01;00;56;20 – 01;01;19;27
Unknown
And even if something happens, I’ll still feel better because I’d rather feel better. Yeah, we’ll talk about that a bit with this. Spread us an approach with that. The side effects are that the diabetes resolves that blood pressure resolves, that people can mood improve, their sleep improves. And yeah, generally like a side effect is that life is better.

01;01;19;29 – 01;01;50;05
Unknown
And so why not? Why not? The effort is worth it, it sounds like. So one last thing that I’ve been working on, which parallels with several of your other people. I heard and I took it to heart. Is the brain the mind or is the mind and the brain? Or if we lose our brain, do we lose our mind?

01;01;50;07 – 01;02;15;22
Unknown
Or if we lose our mind, or we lose our brain in a way to decide? Well, what I’ve decided is that this is a huge value, vast universe. And I actually believe that there’s a universal mind that we can tap into so I don’t have to hold everything in my ever so feeble mind. I can enlarge it to include a universal mind.

01;02;15;24 – 01;02;37;09
Unknown
So when I do, contemplation meditation, I spend most of my time trying to tap into to the very best I can, always failing. But we’ll try again. Universal mind. So you don’t mean ChatGPT?

01;02;37;12 – 01;03;00;22
Unknown
Oh, you want to go down a different rabbit hole. How do you know that way. Just for clarifying. I, I love it I think you know, that is my attempt when I do meditation practice as well as to tap into that universal mind and get that strength from source. Right. Somewhere along the line somebody said, can you understand infinity?

01;03;00;24 – 01;03;08;03
Unknown
Well, yes, God is infinity. How can you expect to understand?

01;03;08;05 – 01;03;28;23
Unknown
This acceptance that we want to understand it all. We want to know it all, that we’re yeah. You shared also that there was one other project that you, are working on and that, estate planning. Not probably in the way that that comes to mind for a lot of people, which is like getting your trust in order and talking to the attorneys and the financial planners.

01;03;28;23 – 01;03;54;23
Unknown
But in this and more soft ways, can you describe what that means for you? Thank you for asking, because I think that is, one of the most important things. When I first discovered and was first going through my kind of grief and rediscovery process, on this, I kept thinking, what is it about dementia that I’m just so petrified of?

01;03;54;23 – 01;04;21;28
Unknown
And it of course, it was my mom’s demise, and I miss my dad’s loss of health, even though he had his mind intact. His health. Now, I said, I just don’t want my grandkids to know me that way. I’d rather in my life than have my grandkids know me that way. And so then somewhere along the line, somebody was talking about a living well, and they said, well, no, it’s not that well, it’s the living part.

01;04;22;00 – 01;04;50;28
Unknown
Write a letter to your loved ones now. So I have been composing letters to loved ones. I have been writing about our heritage. Well, our family heritage is interesting, especially spiritual heritage. As I said about the Celtic and the, Quaker. Because I want the grandkids to know that. And so I started off handwriting because I wanted them to see the handwriting.

01;04;50;28 – 01;05;14;22
Unknown
And then somebody said, well, you know, today we have, audio. Wow, that’s pretty cool. So I’m going to start reading my, findings, to the grandkids. And then somebody said, well, we’ve got video. I said, well, okay, well now maybe they can see me. I can really know you. They can know me because isn’t that what we really fear?

01;05;14;24 – 01;05;50;01
Unknown
Yes. They’re not what we really fear. Not being known. Yeah. Another fascinating concept. I touched my grandfather 19 years more in 1900. Yeah. Shared the impact of that on me. My dad, me, my kids, my grandkids are right around ten now, so, you know, wherever, let’s just say, well, they were born right around 2010. Let’s say they live to 90, you know, they they can get to 20, 200.

01;05;50;04 – 01;06;22;26
Unknown
No, 20, 100. My life can be impactful. 200 years worth from the start. Not knowing to them carrying it on an impressive this intergenerational wisdom transfer. That’s so much a part of my why why I do this work. Why I hope to, you know, increase the ripple effect of Doctor Peterson’s work. It’s because of that, that wisdom and experience and how it’s this un renewable resource.

01;06;22;29 – 01;06;45;05
Unknown
Right. But we’re squandering it in so many cases when someone goes down that path of dementia and if it’s avoidable, I mean, it’s a squandered resource. And the the impact that you shared that this really opened up your conversation with your grandpa. It really opened up how you ended up practicing. And the people that you helped through your dental practice.

01;06;45;07 – 01;07;12;26
Unknown
And it’s just unbelievable, the infinite ways that those relationships can impact future generations. Bill, it is such a delight to have you here. You will be on my list of delight today as you. Thank you so much for taking the time to come in person and to be here and to share your story with us. Thank you. Thank you for putting me at ease so I could just kind of talk.

01;07;12;28 – 01;07;25;00
Unknown
You did amazing. I was so impressed. I might tell my stories. Yeah. That’s great. Thank you for sharing your stories. Is there anything else that you want to share?

01;07;25;02 – 01;07;52;22
Unknown
Oh, gosh, not that comes the top, top of my mind. I will just share the one thing that your gift is what you just described, which is taking doctor practice and scientific stuff, which a lot of us can get lost in to the ever so human practical part, the emotional part, which is where the connection is. Thank you that that’s the goal.

01;07;52;22 – 01;08;11;24
Unknown
And I think I you know, if somebody asked me to write the book, it’s like I, I have nothing unique to say doctor reticence doing it. I think seeing everything. And so I appreciate that that you see that I’ve added some value. I was worried that I might not, but I think we also share this is sort of a coaching strategy.

01;08;11;24 – 01;08;28;05
Unknown
I don’t know, maybe. I certainly coach myself this way and I hope that it helps other people. But this idea of starting small, yeah. So that you can feel successful and then you can add on rather than get overwhelmed. Yes. And caught up. Yes. Yes I when I record an