Dispelling Brain Health Misunderstandings: A Response to Joe Rogan and Max Lugavere

This episode is dedicated to clarification of a podcast between Joe Rogan and Max Lugavere, two popular influencers that have a large audience. They discussed Alzheimer’s disease and brain health in general and some of the information that was shared was not accurate, which can be really harmful.

This is by no means an attack on Rogan or Lugavere. After listening to the conversation, we think Lugavere may not be quite familiar with the data regarding brain health, and it would be important to set the record straight and share the evidence with people and let them decide what’s best for them. Having seen thousands of patients with dementia, whether it’s Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal lobe dementia, Lewy Body Dementia and others, we feel it’s our responsibility to share evidence based data as opposed to feel-good, self confirming anecdotes.

Relevant references:

Ketogenic Diet: Phillips, M. C et al. (2021). Randomized crossover trial of a modified ketogenic diet in Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer's research & therapy, 13(1), 1-12.

Lilamand, M et al. (2022). Efficacy and Safety of Ketone Supplementation or Ketogenic Diets for Alzheimer's Disease: A Mini Review. Frontiers in Nutrition, 1324.

Włodarek, D. (2021). Food for thought: the emerging role of a ketogenic diet in Alzheimer’s disease management. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 21(7), 727-730.

Cronjé, H et al. (2021). Ketogenic therapies in mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Current Opinion in Lipidology, 32(5), 330-332.

LDL Cholesterol metabolism and risk of Alzheimer’s: Andrews, S et al., collaborators of the Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium. (2021). Causal associations between modifiable risk factors and the Alzheimer's phenome. Annals of neurology, 89(1), 54-65.

Olmastroni, E et al. (2022). Statin use and risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 29(5), 804-814.

Iwagami, M et al. (2021). Blood cholesterol and risk of dementia in more than 1· 8 million people over two decades: a retrospective cohort study. The Lancet Healthy Longevity, 2(8), e498-e506.

Tan, Z. S et al. (2003). Plasma total cholesterol level as a risk factor for Alzheimer disease: the Framingham Study. Archives of Internal Medicine, 163(9), 1053-1057.

Kivipelto, M et al. (2002). Apolipoprotein E ε4 allele, elevated midlife total cholesterol level, and high midlife systolic blood pressure are independent risk factors for late-life Alzheimer disease. Annals of internal medicine, 137(3), 149-155.

Zhou, Z et al. (2020). Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 12, 5.

Sáiz-Vazquez, O et al. (2020). Cholesterol and Alzheimer’s disease risk: a meta-meta-analysis. Brain sciences, 10(6), 386.

Wingo, A. P et al. (2022). LDL cholesterol is associated with higher AD neuropathology burden independent of APOE. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 93(9), 930-938.

The Nigerian Paradox Study: Hall, K et al. (2006). Cholesterol, APOE genotype, and Alzheimer disease: an epidemiologic study of Nigerian Yoruba. Neurology, 66(2), 223-227.

Vascular health and Alzheimer’s disease: Levit, A et al. (2020). Neurovascular unit dysregulation, white matter disease, and executive dysfunction: the shared triad of vascular cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease. Geroscience, 42(2), 445-465.

The Effect of Lifestyle on Alzheimer’s Risk: Dhana, K et al. (2020). Healthy lifestyle and the risk of Alzheimer dementia: Findings from 2 longitudinal studies. Neurology, 95(4), e374-e383.

Risk Reduction of Cognitive Decline and Dementia: WHO Guidelines. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2019. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/312180/9789241550543-eng.pdf. Accessed December 4, 2019.

MIND Diet: Morris, M. C et al. (2015). MIND diet associated with reduced incidence of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 11(9), 1007-1014.

Morris, M. C et al. (2015). MIND diet slows cognitive decline with aging. Alzheimer's & dementia, 11(9), 1015-1022.

van den Brink, A. C et al. (2019). The Mediterranean, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), and Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diets are associated with less cognitive decline and a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease—a review. Advances in Nutrition, 10(6), 1040-1065.

Kheirouri, S., & Alizadeh, M. (2021). MIND diet and cognitive performance in older adults: a systematic review. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 1-19.

Hosking, D. E et al. (2019). MIND not Mediterranean diet related to 12-year incidence of cognitive impairment in an Australian longitudinal cohort study. Alzheimer's & Dementi...