Prepare to have your health questions answered
here on Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions with
Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center
in downtown Ventura. Now, here's Dr. Todd. Good
afternoon. I'm Dr. Todd Bankley, board certified
doctor of non -force chiropractic and clinical
nutritionist. Thanks for tuning in today. We're
going to talk about a continuation of three in
a row now, a series on Alzheimer's and dementia.
I got more than the usual number of questions
after last week's show and the week before that,
but especially after last week's about creatine,
how to use it, where to get it, et cetera. I'm
going to talk a little bit more about where to
get more information about creatine and its effects
on dementia here in a little bit. But before
I do that, as always, when I start any discussion
about alzheimer's and dementia the focus is always
has to be on prevention and sometimes people
get tired of me talking about that because most
people want a solution well certainly a lot of
people uh who knows what most of us or many of
us at least probably most of us tell me if i'm
wrong know someone who has suffered or still
is suffering the devastating effects of dementia
and you know it's it's a it's a kind of inevitable
for some people But it is not inevitable for
everyone. And the difference between that is
often genetic. We're going to talk about the
APOE gene again. But for many of us, one of the
reasons, the main reason probably that it's so
common is because the same process that causes
heart disease, one of the number one diseases
in America, the number one and two causes of
death are always heart disease and cancer. And
they kind of trade places once in a while. But
all of the same processes that result in loss
of circulation, hardening of the arteries, formation
of plaques that can cause heart attacks and strokes,
all of these effects. on your cardiovascular
system, which are mostly preventable, mostly
the result of lifestyle, mostly the result of
not eating enough good food and too much bad
food that causes inflammation, that drives the
formation of tears in the lining of your vessels
that then start the process of plaque formation.
That inflammatory diet and stressful lifestyles
causes and at least dramatically accelerates
the progress of cardiovascular disease. All those
same processes, dramatically increase your risk
of dementia. The same process that causes a lack
of circulation and little clots to form and blockages
of microvessels in the brain causes loss of brain
tissue, which causes ultimately the symptoms,
memory loss and other symptoms. So prevention
is key. And here's a really interesting study
that just came out in May of 2025 to bring that
home. The title is Risk Factors for Alzheimer's
Disease and Cognitive Function Before Middle
Age. and a United States representative population.
So this is published in Lancet Regional Health.
This is kind of an American version of the British
Journal. So Lancet Regional Health America is
May 2025. Study on young Americans published
in a British Journal. Key factors for Alzheimer's
are linked to cognitive function as early as
ages 24 to 44. So that's a broad range, but 24
to 44. Wow, most people don't notice the symptoms
until much later. And if you do, and it's called
early onset dementia. So this is highlighting,
really highlighting and bringing home why people
need to focus on prevention in the U .S. and
elsewhere. So data from this U .S. National Longitudinal
Study of Adolescent Adult Health. That's the
original study that they analyzed. 15 ,000 participants
enrolled in 95. They were enrolled in the years
1994 to 1995 when they were in junior high and
high school, grades 7 through 12. And then they
were followed through 2018. So 15 ,000 young
Americans began this study in 1994 and 1995 when
they were in seventh grade and it followed through
graduation from high school. which was in the
year 2018 on average. And again, ages 10 through
18 were followed up at ages 24 through 34, and
again from ages 34 to 44. So there was multiple
overlapping studies. That's why there's no one
starting date and ending date, but they were
averaging. participants from a number of years
and, you know, collating the information from
that. So the important thing is this is the first
study to systematically examine Alzheimer's disease
risk factors in a large sample of generally healthy
individuals. aged 24 to 44 in the U .S., and
they targeted this range specifically to identify
the earliest associations between known key Alzheimer's
disease risk factors and cognitive function patterns
before midlife. And so the findings of this study
suggest that risk profiles for Alzheimer's emerge
long before middle age, revealing early manifestations
of cognitive patterns that may predict the decline
typically observed. In older populations. So
what does that mean? The diabetes risk factors
included cardiovascular risk factors, amyloid,
what they call the ATN biomarkers, which are
biomarkers for amyloid, tau proteins, and neurodegeneration.
So these are tests that have been around for
a while. Under a microscope, damaged brain tissue,
when they do an autopsy on people with Alzheimer's,
they have consistently shown that people with
Alzheimer's have a huge buildup. proteins in
the brain that are really scar tissue in the
brain. They're the result of a chronic inflammatory
process that has gone in overdrive, produced
way too much. So it's a normal process is the
point. There's normally amyloid proteins and
tau proteins in the brain, but it gets accelerated.
And the acceleration of the formation of scar
tissue anywhere in the body is almost always
the result of some kind of chronic inflammatory
process. And that's important because chronic
inflammatory processes are largely preventable.
You can eat food that is less inflammatory. You
can take nutrients that help control inflammation.
You can reduce your stress that helps control
inflammation. Long before you end up with a permanent
irreversible degenerative condition. and long
before you need to take anti -inflammatory drugs
like corticosteroids, etc. So anyway, the risk
factors for Alzheimer's disease that they're
looking at in this study are cardiovascular risk
factors, standard blood tests that measure your
cardiovascular risk because they know that is
directly associated with your level of disease
risk for dementia, and then the amyloid proteins,
tau proteins, and other neurodegeneration markers,
so these are known as the ATN biomarkers, as
well as immune. measures of your immune system
function. For those of you who want to know more
specific details and aren't going to rush out
and look up this study online, in addition to
age, education, sex, systolic blood pressure,
and body mass index, they measured cholesterol,
physical activity, the APOE gene, which we're
going to talk about more, and also total tau
and neurofilament light. which are the talent
amyloid proteins I mentioned before, high sensitivity
CRP, which is a measure of systemic inflammation
anywhere in the body, as well as immune system
related interleukins, which are the things that
show up in your bloodstream when you have a lot
of inflammation happening. So they measured IL
-beta, IL -6, IL -8, and IL -10. Those are all
interleukins that are associated with inflammatory
reactions produced by the immune system, as well
as tumor necrosis factor. Alpha, another one
of those markers for inflammation. And they were
surprised to find that these were elevated in
younger populations. In addition to these biomarkers,
home interviewers conducted cognitive assessments
among all the participants of things like word
recall. Delayed word recall and backward digit
span, counting backwards. They were read a 15
-word list for word recall and asked to recall
as many of the 15 words as possible. And then
their cognitive scores were standardized and
analyzed to associate with higher memory function.
The study goes on to list many, many pages of
really specific technical data that is of interest
to neurologists with sentences like this. Among
adults aged 24 to 34, each one point increase
in the CAIDE score was associated with a 0 .03
standard deviation decrease in the average backward
digit span score adjusted for covariates. So
if you thought that sounded like dense reading,
good, because that's why I'm not going to read
any more of that. or refer to any more of that.
So it's important that they're doing all that
because it's specific and detailed and reproducible,
and that is the things that they measure when
you do studies like these. But the easy way to
think about it is that their findings show that
Alzheimer's disease risk factors, measurable
disease risk factors, which have been known about
for a long time, are measurable in early adulthood
in the U .S. population over two to four decades.
Earlier than previously thought, the several
key risk factors for Alzheimer's disease associated
with standard measures of cognition in 24 to
44 -year -olds show that these things are already
being expressed and measurable with standard
tests as early as age 25. 24 and very common,
relatively much more common than previously thought
in 34 and especially 44 -year -olds. So the signs
of cognitive decline, the signs of damage to
the brain, the signs of measurable loss in function
are showing up in U .S. adults in their 30s.
That's so and so important because anyone can
do the things that I'm talking about all the
time to prevent that, to dramatically reduce
your risk of basically just taking care of your
health. Eating good food, actually the things
you hear about all the time, maybe you get tired
of hearing about, this is proving that it will
actually work, dramatically reduce your risk
of dementia if you just take care of your health
and take care of your heart. Exercise, eat good
food. reduce stress, and get tested for the things
that you can measure, like these cardiovascular
risk factors that they measured in these 20 and
30, or anybody can measure those right now, standard
blood tests. Unfortunately, most doctors don't
do those tests routinely. You have to spend a
little money out of pocket to order some of those
extra tests, like C -reactive protein, some other
markers of inflammation, some more sophisticated
markers of stress on the heart, apart from just
cholesterol. But these are all things that you
can measure now. which may then, when you see
your results, motivate you to take a little bit
better care of yourself or someone you love.
You know, a lot of listeners are thinking about
people that they want to help in their lives,
and I'd love to help you do that if you have
somebody that you love, your father, your uncle,
your sister, your cousin, somebody that you know,
maybe you strongly suspect that could use some
help, and maybe they're a little reluctant. Maybe
they don't want to. They don't want to. They
think they're fine. Everyone thinks they're fine
until symptoms start. But maybe they've started
to get a couple of symptoms and you think, man,
this is a good time. Let's see if we can get
them to maybe take a couple of steps to improve
their health. I'd love an opportunity to help
you help that person. And one of the ways that
that is made possible is just by simply getting
them to come in one time. Come into the office,
get the workup, get the blood tests. Just tell
them to come check it out. Find out what's really
happening on the inside with their health right
now. They don't have to make any grand decisions.
Maybe they're not going to do anything differently
at all. Just tell them to get it checked out.
It's amazing what you can find out on tests.
And then when you see those numbers, Numbers
staring you in the face with your number at the
top of that, your name at the top of that report.
You know, now you know something's going on,
something that is worth spending a little time
investing a little bit in your health now. I'm
Dr. Todd Binkley. You're listening to Safe, Effective,
Natural Solutions to Almost Any Health Challenge.
Today we're talking about how to identify earlier
signs of risk for dementia, for cardiovascular
disease, which is always associated with that.
Common tests that most doctors don't do, but
which may motivate you and people you love to
take better care of themselves to prevent the
risk of this devastating disease. disease called
Alzheimer's. So one of the other most important
tests that anyone can do, if you can get your
doctor to order it, great. If you can't, I can
order it for you. And that is the APOE gene.
So the APOE gene, alpo -lipoprotein E, has several
different forms, E2, 3, and 4. You have two of
each. It's a little bit technical, but the bottom
line is if you get that gene test, you can tell
whether or not you have two twos, two threes,
two fours, or a combination of a two and a three
or three and a four. The worst is to have a three
and a four or two fours, which dramatically increase
your risk of dementia and further makes your
risk of getting severe dementia. 25 -fold increased
risk if you have a head injury, even a mild head
injury. So one of the things that I always recommend
that people do when they get this APOE gene test
and find out that they have the highest tier
risk factors, three and four, is anytime you
get even a mild bump on the head, immediately
take an Advil. or some curcumin, some kind of
natural anti -inflammatory, or even if nothing
else is available, even take some ibuprofen to
immediately blunt that inflammation. Because
the research has shown that a tiny amount of
inflammation to your brain, when you have that
gene profile, dramatically, 25 -fold increased
risk of developing Alzheimer's. Here's another
study that just came out, published in May of
2025, in Alzheimer's and Dementia. where researchers
did a systematic review of primary studies, genetic
studies of neuropsychiatric symptoms, mild cognitive
impairment, and or Alzheimer's dementia, and
they did genome -wide association studies, G
-W -A -S, genome -wide association studies, performed
for psychosis and affective symptoms in Alzheimer's
dementia with significant associations found
for psychosis. So what does that mean? Well,
they're not only... using this data and, you
know, broad expanses collating a number of different
studies to just find the risk factors that we've
been talking about already on this show. But
they're also looking specifically for things
that cause an increased risk of some of the most
devastating effects. Alzheimer's is often worse.
often, very often worse for the caregivers, not
for the person who has the dementia so much as
the person who has to take care of that person.
When you have to take care of your father or
your mother or your sister or brother, and they
don't even know your name anymore, that's the
worst part. But if they're, that's bad enough,
even if they don't remember you, but it's so
much worse if they're agitated and anxious and
have delusions and hallucinations. So this test
is showing that this APOE gene, certain variants
of it, are strongly associated with increased
risk of agitation, anxiety, apathy, where they
just don't feel like doing anything, delusions
and hallucinations, and mild cognitive impairment,
the early form, and full -blown. Alzheimer's
dementia. So all of these most devastating effects
of Alzheimer's are strongly associated with APOE
gene status. So last time I checked, I can get
that test for you through LabCorp for $337. And
some people just don't want to even consider
it, but I still recommend it. The 23andMe gene
test. Why do we recommend it? Isn't that a little
bit scary given some corporation, your DNA, who
knows what they're going to do with it? As of
this recording, the company is still in bankruptcy
proceedings, but there also is rumor. The website
is still up. You can still order the test. mumblings
that someone is going to buy it, perhaps even
the person that originally developed the technology
that they use. So hopefully it will stick around.
Hopefully someone will be responsible and maintain
the privacy of that data and not just exploit
it like everything else, but I don't know. There's
so much of that going on right now that we don't
even know about. And I'm focused on what's beneficial
to people that I see in my practice right now.
And for $150, you can get the APOE gene and a
dozen other really important gene tests for your
health for $149. So if you've got an unlimited
budget, you can spend thousands of dollars to
get the useful information from those tests.
They are available through other labs, but it's
just a wealth of information that you can get
for $149. from 23andMe, including this APOE gene
test. And if it comes back that your APOE gene
test status is you have APOE2, variant number
two, two of those, or one number two and one
number three, then it means that you have lower
risk of the worst forms of Alzheimer's. Conversely,
if you have two fours, two four variants of that
gene, then you have the highest probability of
developing dementia and having the worst time
of it if you do. That's why I love having people
do this test because when you know that, this
is well -established research, when you know
that, and you get it as early as possible in
your 30s and 40s, hopefully some people will
be listening or tell somebody earlier because
most of the people don't even pay any attention
to dementia until they're in their 60s or 70s
or 80s. Anyone can get this test now and start
doing things. Be motivated to do things early
to reduce your risk because none of it is inevitable.
The gene doesn't mean that you're definitely
going to get these. things, it means you're likely
to, if you're just a member of the standard population
that eats the standard crappy American diet and
doesn't exercise that much and has a lot of stress.
When you see these studies of populations, remember,
that's studies of general population that don't
do anything, most of whom don't do anything to
take care of their health. So if you know that
you have that gene component of those risk factors,
then you can motivate yourself and folks that
you love to take better care of your health and
beat those odds. I'm Dr. Todd Bankley. You're
listening to Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions
to almost any health challenge. I had a few more
questions after last week's show asking about
creatine. Where can I find out more information
about creatine? Well, here's a good source, the
Mayo Clinic. If you go to the Mayo Clinic and
just search for creatine, they will tell you
that creatine is a compound that comes from three
amino acids. It's found mostly in your body's
muscles as well as in the brain. And that most
people get creatine from seafood. and red meat,
though most people get it at levels far below
those found in synthetically made creatine supplements.
Well, you can get creatine supplements that are
not synthetically made, that are extracted from
beef, but a lot of people don't like that idea.
And this is one of the occasions where synthetically
making it is just a combination of amino acids.
It's not voodoo science or anything that has
any problems associated with it. synthetically
made creatine supplements are vegan. So even
if you're worried about eating beef or animal
products, you're fine just to get a powdered
supplement. The body's liver, pancreas, and kidneys
can also make about a gram of creatine. And your
body stores creatine as phosphocreatine, primarily
in muscles where it's used for energy, which
is why it's so popular with athletes. People
also use oral creatine to treat certain brain
disorders, neuromuscular conditions, congestive
heart failure, and other conditions. If you look
up creatine on the Mayo Clinic website, a good
source of general health information, they also
remind us that proper hydration is crucial when
using creatine supplements to minimize the risk
of dehydration and muscle cramps. If you have
any other questions about creatine, where to
get it, what kind to take, how much to take,
what does it do for you, what should you take
with it or not with it, or anything that related
to that or any other aspect of your health, as
always, please email me your questions at drbinkley
at binkleyhealingcenter .com. My website is binkleyhealingcenter
.com. The email is drbinkley. at binkleyhealingcenter
.com, which is where you can see all, listen
to all of the past episodes of this show, as
well as on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
You can also text me. I'll give you my cell phone.
Just be aware that my ringer is always off. That's
how I'm able to give my cell phone out on air
because I never answer my phone. If you want
to talk on the phone, you'll have to leave a
message and I'd be happy to call you back. But
you can text me anytime. You won't bother me
because I'll see the screen light up. And if
I'm not busy, I'll answer it right away. That's
the way, that's the fastest way to get a response.
My cell phone is 805 -218 -3939. Text me your
questions. I'd be happy to answer them. Finally
today, there's another great study that came
out. This is really, I don't know, maybe it should
be surprising. It's actually not that surprising
to me because I test toxins in a lot of people.
A lot of people have heard about the effects
of toxins. A lot of people have educated themselves
to become really concerned about it. And then,
you know, most of us think, well, toxins are
everywhere. What are you going to do? How do
I even know if they're impacting me? Well, how
you know is you get tested. You can measure your
body's burden of heavy metals like lead, mercury,
arsenic, cadmium, and uranium by doing a hair
test. This stuff is excreted through your sweat
glands and hair follicles. It accumulates in
your hair as it grows out, which can be collected
and sent into a lab. That's why they use hair
for drug testing, similar mechanism. And you
can also do a urine test to measure your body.
body burden of heavy metals, they don't show
up on blood tests so well. If you have heavy
metals showing up in a blood test, then that
usually means you've had a really significant
or ongoing recent exposure or an ongoing exposure,
which is really bad. But lots of people show
low or below range. tests for those heavy metals
on a blood test. And yet when you take those
same people and do a hair test or a specific
type of urine test, you'll find that these things,
because they're stored in fat cells and not circulating
in your blood, that people have more than they
know about it. And when you find that out, you
can do something to release it. So here's a study
that was published in JAMA, Journal of the American
Medical Association, living within one mile of
a golf course. was associated with double the
odds of developing Parkinson's disease. So we've
been talking about Alzheimer's, but Parkinson's
disease is another neurodegenerative condition,
obviously a completely different disease, but
when it comes to the things you can do to prevent.
neuro -generative conditions, there's a lot of
overlap. So all the things that you can do to
reduce your risk of Alzheimer's disease will
also tend to reduce your risk of Parkinson's.
And that includes avoiding exposure to these
toxins. So the odds of living within a mile of
a golf course because of the pesticides and other
toxic chemicals they put on the grass to keep
that lawn so pretty and clean. Living within
a mile of a golf course is more than double the
odds of developing Parkinson's disease compared
with living six miles. So just the difference
between two miles away and six miles away of
a golf course doubles your risk of developing
Parkinson's disease. This is published by Dr.
Brittany Krzyzewski. PhD of the Barrow Neurological
Institute in Phoenix, reported in JAMA this past
month, May of 2025. It was a study done in Minnesota
involving 419 Parkinson's cases and over 5 ,000
controls, median age 72. This was done over several
years, from 1991 to 2015. They collected data
from 139 golf courses and 224 water services
areas. So the odds of getting Parkinson's disease.
decreased by 9 % for every mile increase in the
distance from a golf course up to 18 miles. Wow,
that's pretty eye -opening. I got so entranced
with it that I didn't just realize we're about
out of time. So do something this week to be
healthier than you were last week. Have a wonderful
weekend. You've been listening to Safe, Effective
Natural Solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley. If you
have a health question you want discussed on
the show, email your health questions to drbinkley
at binkleyhealingcenter .com. Take advantage
of this opportunity to ask questions for yourself
and for your loved ones because our health matters.
Join him next Friday at 2 p .m. for Safe, Effective
Natural Solutions here on 98 .3 FM, The Word.