Preventing Alzheimer’s and Dementia with John Easterling Part 2 – Episode

Empowering You Organically – Season 4 – Episode 28

Title: Can Alzheimer’s and Dementia Be Prevented Naturally?

Hosts: Jonathan Hunsaker & TeriAnn Trevenen

Guest: “Amazon” John Easterling, Plant Medicine Formulator

Description:  Ready to take your brain health to the next level? Ready to be proactive, or even reverse, the signs of brain aging? Then this episode is definitely for you! We are fortunate to have “Amazon” John Easterling, Plant Medicine Formulator, with us again this week. He dives into the plant medicine treasures he’s found in the Amazon Rainforest that beautifully support healthy brain function and help you ward off brain aging.

FEATURED PRODUCT

• SUPERCHARGE YOUR MEMORY:Designed to support your brain for the rest of your life, Ageless Brain contains 8 high-quality, superstar nutrients from the Amazon Rainforest to help supercharge your memory and brain function.
• END BRAIN FOG:Ingredients like Dragon’s Blood & Camu Camu eliminate brain fog, fuzzy thinking, and embarrassing “senior moments”, and are loaded with antioxidants to prevent free radical damage, reduce inflammation, and support healthy cells.
• PROMOTE CALM FEELINGS:Cat’s Claw can help repair damaged DNA and strengthen communication between neurons while Guayusa helps you stay relaxed, relieve anxiety, and stay focused.
• ORGANIC INGREDIENTS:Each plant was grown in the Amazon to strict organic standards to ensure the best quality and potency, then dried and ground to a fine powder, so that everything stays intact in this formula.

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ABOUT “AMAZON JOHN” EASTERLING

Since 1976 John Easterling has been an explorer and treasure hunter in the Amazon Rainforest. It was there, after a personal health crisis, he was introduced to the traditional use of medicinal plants by the Indigenous People in Peru.

Since then his passion for plant medicine has only accelerated.

Easterling’s original degree is in Environmental Studies, he founded the Amazon Herb Company in 1990 and serves on the board of the Amazon Center of Environmental Education and Research.

Amazon John’s 28 years of Plant Medicine experience have been profiled on TV and Radio including “Good Morning America” and “Fox and Friends”.  His product formulations have sold over $100 million worldwide.

John has been featured in two PBS documentaries, World News Report “Amazon John and Rainforest Medicines” and Jean Michel Cousteau’s “Return to the Amazon.”

Easterling believes the dramatic growth and interest in plant medicine is still in its early stages and will continue to significantly improve life experiences and healthy outcomes into the future.

Causes of Alzheimer’s and Dementia

• Beta amyloid plaquing.
  • “So when you get plaquing, your spark plug would foul, and you couldn’t start your engine. So same thing here. You get that plaquing in there, and it just can’t transmit to the next one, and you don’t remember. You can’t access that data where you put your keys.”
• Tau tangle, where you get the neurons that really just become tangled.
• Inflammation is a really big deal, and actually these other factors are really caused by it. It’s a kind of inflammatory response from your brain to protect itself sometimes, developing this amyloid plaquing to seal off what it sees as an insult.
• Involvement of Candida in brain issues.
  • Recent research showed was that people did not think before that the Candida could cross the blood brain barrier. Now they found that it actually can.
  • It travels through your body doing that, looking for a place to reside where the biological terrain is right. If you introduce a lot of sugar and a lot of carbs into that terrain, they really love that.
  • When these Candida cross that blood brain barrier, the brain recognizes that as an insult, and then you have this coating process. The brain will try to coat that to seal it off.

Prevention

• Lifestyle and diet – low sugar, more green vegetables
• Probiotics after a course of antibiotics – maintain a diverse colony-forming units of probiotics.
• Maintain healthy inflammation levels throughout the body.
• Exercise – improves the microcirculation to the brain.
• Sleep – get quality sleep each night (7-9 hours).
• Lower your exposure to environmental toxins.

Botanicals to Improve Brain Health

Una de Gato – Cat’s Claw

• Primarily known for its ability to stimulate the macrophage phagocytosis activity, which is our immune system.
• Source of epicatechins and the brain derived neurotropic.
• Stimulates neurogenesis – the creation of new brain cells.

Camu Camu

• Tremendous source for a whole food vitamin C.
• Powerful anti-inflammatory.
• Increases the proper cycling of serotonin.
• Potent source of polyphenols, quercetin, and resveratrol.

Bacopa

• Reduces brain amyloid levels in mice by as much as 60%.
• Increases cognitive function in humans.
• An ayurvedic plant.

Cinnamon – cinnamaldehyde

• Able to break down tau tangles.
• It’s anti-inflammatory.
• Balances sugar levels.

Cacao

• Is anti-inflammatory.
• Helps increase microcirculation in the brain.
• Contains epicatechins, which have been shown to be very helpful for brain chemistry and to help to slow down the death of healthy brain cells

Pau d’Arco

• Many medicinal properties include antifungal, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antiviral and anti-parasitic.
• Scientists have found that Pau d’Arco has a unique, two-pronged effect on fungal infections. … In this way, it is able to kill off a variety of bacteria, fungi, and yeast, including Candida albicans.
• Good source of polyphenols.
• Anti-inflammatory.

Dragon’s Blood – Sangra de Grado

• Pure antioxidant by dry weight.
• Great source of proanthocyanidins.
• Anti-inflammatory.
• Helps facilitate the breakdown of plaquing in the brain.

Guayusa

• Substitute for caffeine.
• Enables ‘first time’ memories to be recalled.
• Anti-inflammatory.

Signs of Alzheimer’s and Dementia

People may experience:

• Cognitive: mental decline, difficulty thinking and understanding, confusion in the evening hours, delusion, disorientation, forgetfulness, making things up, mental confusion, difficulty concentrating, inability to create new memories, inability to do simple math, or inability to recognize common things
• Behavioral: aggression, agitation, difficulty with self care, irritability, meaningless repetition of own words, personality changes, restlessness, lack of restraint, or wandering and getting lost
• Mood: anger, apathy, general discontent, loneliness, or mood swings
• Psychological: depression, hallucinations, or paranoia
• Also common: inability to combine muscle movements, jumbled speech, or loss of appetite

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Episode 28 – Can Alzheimer’s and Dementia Be Prevented Naturally?

Subscribe to Empowering You Organically 
Never miss an episode! 

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Episode 28 – Can Alzheimer’s and Dementia Be Prevented Naturally?

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TeriAnn:         Hey everyone, welcome to another podcast of Empowering You Organically. We are excited to have Amazon John Easterling back with us again for a second time. We had him on last week, and we had a fascinating podcast on brain health. We’re back to talk a little bit more about that, and dive deeper into brain health.

TeriAnn:           I want to touch a little bit on Amazon John and his background. Since 1976, John Easterling has been an explorer and treasure hunter in the Amazon rainforest. It was there, after a personal health crisis, he was introduced to the traditional use of medicinal plants by the indigenous people in Peru. Since then, his passion for plant medicine has only accelerated. John’s original degree is in Environmental Studies. He founded the Amazon Herb Company in 1990 and serves on the board of the Amazon Center of Environmental Education and Research.

TeriAnn:           John’s 28 years of plant medicine experience have been profiled on TV and radio, including Good Morning America and Fox and Friends. His product formulations have sold over 100 million worldwide. John has been featured in two PBS documentaries, World News Report: Amazon John and Rainforest Medicines, and Return To The Amazon. John believes the dramatic growth in interest in plant medicine is still in its early stages and will continue to significantly improve life experiences and healthy outcomes in the future.

TeriAnn:           To learn a little bit more about John and his background, you can go back to our podcast from last week. We dive a little bit deeper into his background and how he came to be at this point in his life, experiencing life with the indigenous people in Peru, his treasure hunting and how that’s evolved over time into natural medicine and plant medicine. Really, really fascinating, I highly encourage you to go back and listen to it, to get a feel for more of what he’s done in his past. Incredible stories, no doubt.

TeriAnn:         Last week on the podcast, we talked about what we can do, we talked about Alzheimer’s and dementia, and how it’s impacting our society. We talked about what we can do, as far as our health, diet, exercise, sleep, and beyond, to support a healthy brain and just a healthy body overall, but more specifically the brain and what we’re seeing with the brain and brain health when it comes to aging.

TeriAnn:           Today, we are going to dive a little further into actual ingredients that you have stumbled upon, that are impacting people in their health, and supporting a healthier brain. Talk a little bit about that. Let’s just touch on that briefly, how you stumbled on these ingredients. I don’t want to go too far down that path, because we talked about that last week, but how you stumbled upon these ingredients and how they came to be a part of your life and your diet, personally.

Amazon John:   As you know TeriAnn, they really changed my whole life experience, when I was in the rainforest early on about 30 years ago. I was introduced to a variety of botanicals that they made for me originally as a tea, and then we’ve been working with those and many, many others over the past 30 years. Things like Una de Gato is pretty common in the Amazon rainforest. Primarily known for its ability to stimulate the macrophage phagocytosis activity, which is our immune system. It has a series of proximal alkaloids in the inner bark that really help do that. Now we’re seeing how anti-inflammatory it is as well.

Amazon John:   These botanicals, something like they have a synergy in the whole plant as opposed to an isolate. It’s called like an entourage effect so that different chemistry in that plant helps demodulate the expression of other chemistry in that plant. The reason that this plant is good for this, right? But that’s just because we’ve been trained in an isolate auto like this.

Amazon John:               Perhaps this drug or this pharmaceutical is good for this because it is an isolate and it does one thing, but a plant, when you do a whole plant detraction you get this synergy. Not only all the chemistry that’s there, all the nutritional factor, all the energetics, and each one of those is in this plant in a specific profile for a reason in the way it expresses itself.

Amazon John:   When I talk about the earlier plants that I’ve done as it turns out we find more and more uses for those plants because of the modulation and the expression of the other things that are in that. Una de Gato is one. It just comes to mind.

Amazon John:   First, we’re using it as an immune support. It’s a wonderful antioxidant in immune support, things that are very, very important in brain health. It’s an important anti-inflammatory, again very important in brain health. But more than that now when we’re looking at brain health with Una de Gato as a brain derived neurotropic factor meaning that it has the ability to put into play this protein, this synthesis of this neurogenesis of actually building new brain cells, and that’s really important.

Amazon John:   There’s a few other things that are also that brain derived neurotropic factors. So, when you say, “What are you going to look for in a formula,” you want something with some brain derived neurotropic factor type of ingredients and cat’s claw is a great one in that it not only has that it has the other important constituents especially in brain health with the anti-inflammatories, and the immune health as well.

TeriAnn:           Let me just lay some groundwork here. In our previous podcast we talked about Alzheimer’s and dementia, the plaquing and the tangling, and you can get more educated on that in the previous podcast. But we talked about the fact that it’s not only about prevention before it happens and once it does happen sustaining where you are and just maintaining, but also the fact that we can see some reversal there.

TeriAnn:           And so, some of these ingredients you’re talking about the cell regeneration and repair, that’s what we’re talking about there. We’re talking about brain health and how this can really impact people when it comes to a healthy brain and when comes to Alzheimer’s and dementia.

TeriAnn:           Some of these things that you stumbled upon that you’re doing research around are not only preventing things like Alzheimer’s and dementia, but they’re also helping to support and maintain a healthy brain even when you get to the point, for those of us that to get to the point where we’re diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia, that we can actually see some reversal there. So fascinating. So fascinating. It’s such an amazing conversation to have with how prevalent that is in our society right now.

TeriAnn:           Before we get too far into the ingredient, let’s talk a little bit about the major causative factors in aging brains and what we’re seeing. We’re going to talk a little about the ingredients and how that ties back to it, but what are some of those causative factors?

Amazon John:   Well, as we talked about last week, it seems to be once people hit 65 they come in at a super high risk. It starts off at 65 one out of 10 have dementia and for people that are over 65 years old one third of the deaths are going to be with dementia. So it’s huge. It’s a bigger cause of death than both prostate cancer and breast cancer combined. So it’s a big issue.

Amazon John:   Lifestyle changes are important, you know, anti-inflammatory type of lifestyle. Watch out for fungus, yeast, and molds that come from that particular overuse of antibiotics. It can set up a systemic environment in your body that’s going to be very detrimental to your brain and the rest of your body. Exercise. You’ve got to get that circulation. You’ve got to get the new blood flow, fresh nutrients going through, or you become even higher risk. So those things you can do.

Amazon John:   Now, if you look at some of the specific ingredients, and you’re right we’re looking at not only trying to slow it down or prevent it, we’re looking at kind of reversing this process. This is what’s really exciting and this is what the research shows in rats. So, if you look at the mice studies and the rat studies on a lot of these ingredients and/or some of the individual components of these ingredients, that’s what you’re going to see.

Amazon John:   You’re going to see that in like bacopa that’s one of the botanicals here that’s been very well studied. There’s just an abstract, a bacopa extract reduces brain amyloid levels in mice by as much as 60%. So we’re talking about this accumulating there and not just trying to stop it and save that. We’re talking about reducing that by 60%.

Amazon John:   There’s other ingredients here, quercetin, resveratrol, a lot of your polyphenols. All these things are really important in actually breaking that down.

Amazon John:   So the causative factors, we would say if you look at someone with Alzheimer, when someone dies of Alzheimer’s, if you really look at their brain there is normally almost every time lots and lots of this amyloid plaquing. So you can say that the amyloid plaquing is the brain’s natural response, inflammatory response, to an insult. So [inaudible 00:10:00], fungus, mold, bacteria, injury, something has insulted the brain. So it wants to go encapsulate that and keep that from harming it so it encapsulated with this amyloid plaquing, but then the plaquing itself becomes an issue for other neuron processes. So that’s one thing.

Amazon John:   Tau tangling which is also where you get a lot of the neurons into these tau protein tangles and things that can resolve that like cinnamaldehyde can break that down, which is part cinnamon. I love cinnamon. It’s so common, but it’s so misunderstood and unappreciated for its total therapeutic value.

TeriAnn:           We think it’s just to put in baked goods. Cinnamon, right?

Amazon John:               Yeah.

TeriAnn:           I mean that’s what most people look at it as.

Amazon John:           You put a lot of it in there while you’re putting it in.

TeriAnn:           Yeah, just dump it in.

Amazon John:               I love cinnamon.

TeriAnn:                       Yeah, I do too.

Amazon John:   There’s things like vitamin C is an anti-inflammatory. It’s very important. That’s why you see Camu Camu, one of the reasons you see camu camu.

Amazon John:   It’s funny with the Camu Camu, Martin, who runs our plantation in Peru of camu, many, many years ago, it’s been probably 20 years not, he came and said, “John, we really should be planting Camu Camuhere in this flood plain.” It’s under water three months of the year and I said, “Well, that’s known for it’s a high source of natural occurring vitamin C. That’s kind of nice, but I’m in the rainforest. Vitamin C. I’m talking something a lot more exotic than that.” But I said, “Okay, let’s do that.”

Amazon John:   He’s the kind of guy who’s got this perception and this vision that I never question when he comes up with an idea. Well, I do question it, but then I always say, “Okay, let’s do what you’re thinking here.”

Amazon John:   And we had our first camu harvest, our first camu berry harvest, and the plant itself, like I say, when the rains come in the rainforest it rains a lot and the water levels will rise like 30 feet. So they come up the river bank, go into the camu fields, and then just keep going up, and just cover up the plants completely underwater for three months. So you’d think they would die, but then when you dig those out, boom, they spring right back to life. They love that water.

Amazon John:   One of the great things about that is that because it’s bringing the flood waters in its bringing that rich biomass of the entire rainforest to these camu fields. We never fertilize it. We don’t do anything. We just put them out there. So all the plants in the rain forest, 100,000 species, are contributing their leaves, their stems, their branches. When the trees fall over they’re contributing all of their chemistry, all their energetics, all their nutritional factors to that rich biomass. The rains picked that up and bring it straight to our camu.

TeriAnn:           That’s so beautiful.

Amazon John:   It is so beautiful. And so, they, for their own life experience, they can reach into that biomass and pull out this extraordinary profile chemistry of intelligence of nutritional factors.

Amazon John:   And so, I remember when we first harvested the camu. We dried it and we ground it up into powder, and I licked it. Yeah, it was kind a tart like you’d expect something with that concentrate of vitamin C, but within one minute I said, “This is not about vitamin C. Something happened.” It shifted a biological terrain and now I know what’s happened because it increases the proper cycling of serotonin, you know, your feel good transmitter, and so I was just feeling really good. Everything became really positive and bright, and a little more social, a little more at ease.

TeriAnn:           Just from licking that out of your hand, that grounded powder right from the plant?

Amazon John:   Yeah, from the camu.

TeriAnn:           That’s amazing.

Amazon John: I said, “Martin, you’re brilliant. This is not about vitamin C. This is about a lot of other things going on.” So now we know it’s got this huge profile of polyphenols and leucine, valine, serine, which are important to amino acids that are really cool because if you don’t have enough of those in your diet it results in moodiness and depression. So it’s wonderful for that aspect. And now what we’re seeing is in some of the new research these amino acids break down these tau tangles that we’re talking …

TeriAnn:           Right.

Amazon John:   So you start off with this plant for one thing and you recognize it’s got this powerhouse profile that can do so much. So as we see the individual research on some of the chemistry of these things we say, “Wait a minute. We have it in a synergistic entourage form with a profile of other things that can really naturally modulate the expression in a healthy way of that chemistry in this plant.”

TeriAnn:           It’s so beautiful when you think about that image. You have all the water coming down and contributing to this plant. And then what you just spoke about, I mean you’re not suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia, but you licked this powder and how it impacts you from doing that. And then you talk about how it goes into the brain. It’s multifaceted in what it’s helping with. I mean serotonin levels and how it impacted you there, but then it’s going in and it’s breaking down these tangles which are contributing to poor brain health.

TeriAnn:           It’s just fascinating. I love that imagery of all that working together and then how it comes to helping so many different ways. I think that’s the beauty in plant medicine.

TeriAnn:         And, you know, just in being transparent, one of the reasons we wanted to connect with you is because of your background in plant medicine. We talk a lot about at Organixx having products that are blend. We’re passionate about that because it’s getting all of these benefits out of one product and I know that’s something that you’re well versed in as well. When we came to you wanting something for brain health, it’s beautiful that all these things coming out of the Amazon support the brain health. We knew you had all this education and information.

TeriAnn:           And so, we’ve actually formulated a product with John for brain health and whether or not it’s our product or another product that you take this information we’re going to talk about with the ingredients that you’ve brought to us, which are so beautiful. It’s so beautiful. I’ve heard you talk about these before and we’re going to talk about them now. But be looking for some of these things because the research and the information that’s coming out of this and some of the work that you’re doing in how this benefits people with their brain health and supporting a healthy brain is just fascinating.

TeriAnn:           So, I want to go through these ingredients and talk a little bit about each one of them. Just to give you the list, there’s Camu Camu, cat’s claw, bacopa, cinnamon, cacao, Pau d’Arco, dragon’s blood, and Guayusa. Did I say them all right?

Amazon John:                         You did.

TeriAnn:         I tried to. We talked about them quite a bit so I hope I have them right. I’ve learned quite a bit just from listening in the past. So, let’s go through those. We just talked about camu camu. That was such a beautiful story how that all happened. You’re always going to trust your friend now, right, moving forward?

Amazon John:   He saved my life over the years. Yeah, always.

TeriAnn:           That was such a powerful experience. Such a power experience in seeing what he brought to you and how that benefit you.

TeriAnn:           Let’s talk a little bit more about Camu Camuand some more of the research behind it. You talked about the serotonin levels and you talked about breaking down those tangles. What else are we seeing with Camu Camu that’s so important when it comes to brain health?

Amazon John:   When it comes to brain health if you look at research that’s done on individual ingredients, you’ll find that quercetin is excellent for brain health. A whole broad spectrum of polyphenols is good for that, resveratrol, and all of these things are found in Camu Camu. It just happens to be one of those plants that really has all of these factors. From the beginning of my experience with Camu Camu I recognized that this is I think its main purpose or main place in the world.

Amazon John:   And so, we can see what the chemistry is doing and then we can understand and perhaps having knowing this of what else we’re getting maybe at a subconscious level, which would be the intelligence, the plant intelligence, of 100,000 species of plants coming in to that biomass that are in there in minute degrees or at least the imprint of that is in the Camu Camu, which makes that important.

Amazon John:   Some other important ingredients you might want to look at would be the epicatechin and the      brain derived neurotropic factor, which will take us to the next thing on the list there which is a cat’s claw. Not only have the immune support and anti- inflammatory support. Pretty much 90% of everything that’s in this formula, also one of the benefits individually is an anti-inflammatory. So, we’re talking about inflammatory issue here I believe, first of all.

Amazon John:   Then all these other sub ingredients are working very specifically to mobilize to improve cognitive function, the brain health and to improve the attitude and the ability to perform, self-confidence, memory, focus, the ability to learn, new learning, neurogenesis in the brain. We’re learning new things and storing that data in a place that we can recall and just building the gray matter. So that’s             camu, Una de Gato.

Amazon John:   Bacopa is actually an ayurvedic plant, but I couldn’t leave it out because it’s a member of the plant kingdom and it’s got …

TeriAnn:         It fits right in there, doesn’t it?

Amazon John:   It fits right in and it’s got really good research around it on reducing amyloid plaquing and increasing cognitive function for people. So there’s rat studies. There’s some people studies as well. So there’s some really great data on that particular plant specifically with Alzheimer and dementia brain health issues.

TeriAnn:           Off the top of your head, what’s probably the most fascinating thing you’ve seen come out of the research that you’ve seen on that particular ingredient?

Amazon John:   It is the degree to which it dissolves and eliminates the amyloid plaquing, up to 60% in mice. I mean that’s a huge reversal because-

TeriAnn:           Huge. 60%?

Amazon John:   Yeah.

TeriAnn:           Think about that. That’s huge.

Amazon John:   Well, you think about it because if you look at the Alzheimer’s Association or those really large organizations that you know with a good heart are trying to embrace this huge patient database of people and share information with them. I mean even in most of the data you’ll see is, well, once you start getting Alzheimer and dementia there’s nothing you can do. It’s just going to be a progression.

Amazon John:   And yet, what we’re seeing is with the latest data here a lot of these botanicals in the plants is, “No, wait a minutes. You can reverse that 60% after.” And they take these mice and intentionally put them in a position where they’re loaded with amyloid plaque. So they’re well down the track and we’re seeing that reversal.

TeriAnn:         Well, I talk about the fascinating side of that being this pharmaceutical versus natural medicine conversation that’s going on when we talk about plant medicine and supplements. You had spoken in our last podcast about how they’re kind of putting the brakes on research on pharmaceuticals and how they can impact Alzheimer’s and dementia and reverse it or improve brain health because they’re just not seeing a lot there. But when we go to the plant medicine side of things, when we go to the natural medicine side of things, there’s plenty of research and information around ingredients that are doing the very thing they’re putting the brakes on.

TeriAnn:           And so, I love this conversation of natural medicine and plant medicine coming back to the forefront of being something that can turn this around in our society. It’s so prevalent and becoming such a huge issue. I think when you talk about it like that it just sheds new light on what we can do to improve our brain health overall.

TeriAnn:           So, we talked about … Did we … Now we’re onto cinnamon. Let’s talk about cinnamon. I love this one. I’ve heard you talk about this one. Cinnamon and cacao, those were the two when we’ve been talking about these ingredients that blew me away the most in what goes on behind them as far as how they can benefit you. So let’s talk about those a little bit, those two.

Amazon John:   Yeah, cinnamon and cacao. Cinnamon has these cinnamaldehydes that are actually been shown to break up some of the tau tangles that we talked about, one of the causative factors of the progression of this issue, which is really nice. And then even smelling cinnamon or eating cinnamon, there’s a little study done where two groups were taking a test, I mean divided up. One group got cinnamon, a cinnamon chewing gum, and/or they just smelled cinnamon before they took the test and had higher test scores.

TeriAnn:           Wow.

Amazon John:   So, it effects something. I don’t know if it’s untangling the tau tangles that quickly, instantly, but it’s doing-

TeriAnn:                       Just from the scent?

Amazon John:           It’s doing something. Maybe we don’t completely understand exactly what it’s doing, but we do see the outcome on that.

Amazon John:   Cinnamon is also an anti-inflammatory as well and it helps to balance the blood sugar levels. We know sugar levels especially when you’re looking at the yeast in the candida in and these other offenders it’s a systemic thing.

Amazon John:   I like cinnamon for all of those reasons. Like all these plants you’re talking about there’s multiple reasons to like them as opposed to perhaps some isolates from these. That’s simply because since we’ve crawled out of the cave, we’ve been eating plants. Our bodies understand plants. We’ve been dependent on the plant kingdom for food, shelter, for medicine, so when we’re eating plant compounds our body understands that type of chemistry, those profiles of chemistry.

Amazon John:   When we’re eating an isolate, the body has trouble trying to figure that out. It may do something. It’s going to do something, but then it’s going to cause other issues to come about because the body doesn’t recognize that as-

TeriAnn:           It’s trying to figure out where it goes, what it does, and how it fits into the system where it doesn’t belong.

Amazon John:   Yeah, I like that. So that’s cinnamon. Then cacao. I love cacao for so many reasons. It’s an anti-inflammatory. It really microcirculation. I mentioned about how circulations really important, how exercise is so important, and to facilitate that microcirculation in the brain is really, really, critical.

Amazon John:   It also has epicatechins in it, which have been shown to be very helpful for brain chemistry and to help to slow down the death of healthy brain cells. They’re all going through a cycle. They’re being born. They have a lifespan. They breakdown. More are being born. It helps preserve and keep healthy the cells that are there.

Amazon John:   And some of the other things causing neurogenesis like the cat’s claw for example, which stimulates the production of new brain cells. So you have the ability to learn new things, more memory, and more learning capacity. and you slow down the apoptotic affect where the cells are dying and you can actually be growing new brain cells.

Amazon John:   So cacao is-

TeriAnn:           So powerful.

Amazon John:   Yeah, so underestimated.

TeriAnn:           So much we don’t know. Most people don’t know about it. We don’t know all of the benefits of that.

TeriAnn:           Before we go onto the next ingredient you mentioned many times anti-inflammatory and many times on this podcast we’ve talked about inflammation. Inflammation is our way of knowing, our body’s way of knowing, something’s wrong.

TeriAnn:           And so, when you talk about the power of some of these ingredients as anti-inflammatory, share a little bit about your knowledge around inflammation the brain. Why it’s important to have ingredients that benefit you from an inflammation perspective and decreasing inflammation in the body, but what we’re seeing with inflammation in the brain because I think that’s really, really important for people to understand. It’s another way for our body to know something’s wrong, but specifically in relation to the brain.

Amazon John:   Specifically in the brain? Inflammation can be very detrimental because you’ve got the brain that’s encased in the skull. So, it’s in a confined space. And normally when you have inflammation you have swelling, right?

TeriAnn:           Absolutely.

Amazon John:   Swelling and inflammation pretty much go together. So, if you get a big inflammatory response happening in the brain, the brain sees something as a big enough insult to where it’s really starting to inflame, you can be in a very critical and time sensitive dangerous position. So, inflammation of the brain is something you want to not subject yourself to.

Amazon John:   All these small things that are just a continuous progression of these issues are normally the result of something that’s stimulating an inflammatory response to that and that’s going to be the plaquing or something like that where the brain is seeing something coming in viruses, fungus, mold, bacteria, some kind of insult injury, and really try to prevent that from contaminating other parts of the brain. So, we’re trying to isolate that and secrete this substance around it to say, “Okay, I’m protecting myself here,” but then that in itself becomes an issue too around the nervous system neurons [crosstalk 00:28:26].

TeriAnn:           It’s really interesting too when you think about that we’re learning more and more about the brain all the time. You just talked about research around candida and what we’re seeing about that in the brain and things we didn’t know before. I think that’s a fascinating tie to that conversation where brain health is so critical. We don’t even know all the thing are impacting our brain. We’re still learning in that conversation of inflammation as well.

TeriAnn:           Next ingredient on the list Pau d’Arco. Let’s talk about this one.

Amazon John:   Well, that ties right into your candida point. People who are really familiar with the herbs and botanicals in herbology will look at Pau d’Arco and think, “Well, why is that one in there?” The reason it is the latest data is showing, and this is as new as last month and it needs to be repeated and go forward, but it shows that the candida can actually cross the blood brain barrier and when it does that then you’ve got an insult in the brain.

Amazon John: The issue with the candida is it’s so wide spread in the population primarily because of overuse of antibiotics and not repopulating the microbiome with the proper probiotics and diversity of microbes. People normally don’t do that. They go through a round of antibiotics and then the yeast it kills off the microbe bacteria that are keeping the yeast in check.

Amazon John:   I guess you’ve got to think about the microbe volume. You’ve got hundreds of kinds of diversity and strains of microbials, bacteria, yeast, fungi, mold, that are living in our gut that are there. They have a colony. They’re doing a job. They’re good. They’re good for us.

Amazon John:   It’s when this colony becomes imbalanced, and you imbalance that colony with antibiotics and antibiotics kills bacteria. It’s a lot of good bacteria there that gets killed. And so, the fungus side of the equation now has free fun because it’s not being kept in check. So, the candida really launches out and too often I see people being treated for candida with more antibiotics. And so, it becomes a chronic issue for them.

TeriAnn:           A bigger issue. Yeah, a vicious cycle.

Amazon John:   A vicious cycle. So, you really need to treat the fungus and the candida with an antifungal type of an agent and that’s why Pau d’Arco is there. Pau d’Arco is a beautiful antifungal, anti-candida, inner bark of a tree. It grows in Brazil. It grows in a area that a lot of other trees around it will have yeast and fungi, mushroom and things, different things growing on them, and this one never does because it has these antifungal properties.

TeriAnn:           Amazing. That’s amazing.

Amazon John:   It’s also anti-inflammatory. Also has polyphenols in it. So, if we can stop … I mean you see the use of antibodies, you see the issue of Alzheimer’s and dementia, both rocketing like this and you begin to understand there may be a correlation here.

TeriAnn:           Yeah, you scratch your head a little bit. What’s happening between the two?

Amazon John:   Candida could be a real part of that because it’s systemic. It goes through your whole body and now we just found out that it can pass through your blood brain barrier, so then we know it’s an insult. We know it’s going to create an inflammatory issue there. We know it’s going to create that plaquing. So, if we can keep that under control with the Pau d’Arco and enjoy the other benefits it has to go along with that, then we’re addressing this in a place that is brand new.

Amazon John:   I like to address it from look at all the causative factors and angles and see if we can develop a profile of things here that are synergistic that are going to interfere with those processes, reverse those processes, and have positive benefit outside of it as well.

TeriAnn:           Awesome. I love that. It’s incredible. Incredible all these plants that you’ve discovered and most people have never heard of and what they can do for your health.

TeriAnn:           The next one is dragon’s blood. I just love the name, but let’s talk about dragon’s blood.

Amazon John:   Dragon’s blood. I’ve called it Sangra de Grado for so long. I’m trying to convert to dragon’s blood which is the English translation for it. Dragon’s blood is a tree, a very fast-growing tree. It lives in the Amazon and it gets 30 feet tall in just like three of four years.

Amazon John:   You hit it with a machete, croton lechleri is the botanical name for the tree, and it bleeds this sap just like blood. And so, it’s kind of given us an indication of something. This is important. If you dry that sap, it’s like 90% proanthocyanins. It’s like a pure anti-oxidant by dry weight. So, what we have is a dried resin of that sap that’s part of this product.

Amazon John:   Those anthocyanidins have also to be very helpful with all these brain issues not only as an anti-inflammatory, but helping to facilitate the breakdown of the plaquing and all the other issues there. So, this is really important because it’s almost pure anti-oxidants or pure proanthocyanin and it doesn’t take a whole lot of it to really be synergistic with everything else going on there.

TeriAnn:           Love it.

TeriAnn:           The last thing on the list is Guayusa. Did I say that right again?

Amazon John:   You did.

TeriAnn:           Okay, good. Let’s talk about that one.

Amazon John: Yeah, Guayusa, that is a plant that was introduced to me by a gentleman who was in his 70s. I was at our camu fields in Peru and he was collecting sarsaparilla for us. He would go out. He’d collect it in this area that was infested with [shushupays 00:34:49] or rattlesnakes. No one else would go there. That was the best sarsaparilla.

TeriAnn:           I wouldn’t go. I don’t like snakes. You would not find me there at all. I don’t blame people for not wanting to go there.

Amazon John:   He was just a brilliant guy. He’d paddle up with his four-year-old daughter. So, I always listen to what he has to say. I was having a conversation with him and his daughter was just so bright, clear, and happy, and I said, “What do you do in your village for like brain health, happiness, and these things?” And he said that mothers when they were breastfeeding, they would make a tea out or Guayusa. The mothers would drink it and it made the babies smarter.

TeriAnn:           Wow.

Amazon John:   I thought, “Well, that’s really fascinating.” And so, he gave me some Guayusa. I took it home and his deal was to put five leaves in a liter of water and just let it sit overnight then drink it the next day, so I did when I got back to Florida and there was nothing else. I was waiting for something to really happen. It was like nothing really happened. It was very, very subtle, but what I did notice was it was one of days when the phone would ring and you would kind of know who it was before you picked it up. That’s when we actually picked up phones off our desk, I guess.

TeriAnn:           Yeah, way back when.

Amazon John:               Way back when. And then I was drawing. I was working on a label for horse formula and I had this spiral, this kind of galactic spiral drawn out with stars in the background. I went to lunch at a restaurant, I’m waiting for a table, and I looked on the wall and there was my label. It was in a picture, almost just like the label that I was drawing. That’s unusual.

Amazon John:   But the most important thing that happened to me which really my attention around Guayusa was when I was driving home from work at night and I would pass a service station, a gas station. I would look at the gas station ahead. I had this memory of when I when I was in high school. I had a Camaro and I had friends that had Mustangs or different kind of cars like we had back then. On the weekend we would go sit around and polish our cars at the service station, right? It was a pleasant memory.

Amazon John:   And then at the next stop light I had another memory. I got home and I said, “Wait a minute. That’s the first time I’ve thought about that event since the event happened.” It was a first-time memory because normally we’re recycling memories, right? We’re remembering the same things over and over again.

TeriAnn:           Yeah.

Amazon John:   It was like it had reached down and just brought a brand-new memory to light, like “Hey, how about this? Hey, remember that?” I wasn’t trying to think about anything. It was just a brand-new memory. So that got my attention. I haven’t seen any research or anything like that to see if that’s happening with other people and it was very, very subtle, but that’s what we see with that.

Amazon John:   Now, that one also has, and the reason it’s being used, it’s becoming very popular in America now as a substitute to other forms caffeine, you know, to green tea or coffee or a variety of other things.

TeriAnn:           Interesting.

Amazon John:   Because it does have a certain degree of caffeine in that. So, you see it’s a lesser degree entity on the list when we talk about caffeine. There are studies with caffeine with Alzheimer’s and dementia that show it has a significant positive impact on people over 60. Drinking a heavy coffee consumption really slows down the progression of Alzheimer’s and dementia. That was pretty interesting to see.

TeriAnn:           That is really interesting. Really interesting.

Amazon John:   It carries a little bit of caffeine there and then it has that other ability that I just described. Why that was happening, I don’t know. I just felt compelled that it had to be a minor part in this formula.

TeriAnn:           I think it makes a lot of sense.

TeriAnn:           So when it comes to all these ingredients and we spoke a little bit ago about blends and how important blends are, when we talk about this formulation that you’ve compiled and all these amazing ingredients and the synergistic blend, why, Why all these together? I mean, obviously you’ve gone through all the benefits and things like that, but talk about the synergistic blend and how important it is.

Amazon John:   Well, the synergy, in the plant kingdom we call it entourage affect. The entourage has become a very popular term. It’s actually coined by Rafael Mechoulam in Israel and he coined it around cannabis because the research he was doing with cannabis was isolating like CBD, for example, or THC. He’s the first guy that’s every isolated the THC from cannabis back in the 60s. I had the privilege to meet him in Israel at his lab in Jerusalem last year and spend a little time with him.

Amazon John:   He coined this term because what we’re seeing in Cannabis is people are focused on different cannabinoids, THC, or CBD, or CBG, or CBC, and so these isolates are coming to market and even being mixed with oils or a soluble as a presentation. But what he clearly identified, and seeing it reproduced in Spain in research as well with breast cancer, is that the whole plant extract or the entourage effect, the entourage of all the other profile and ingredients there, not only cannabinoids but the terpenes because of a plant we talked about earlier has all of this chemistry, nutrition, and information there to modulate the expression based on what our body needs.

Amazon John:   So they’re seeing much great effect cannabis with the entourage effect and when they were getting excited about that I said, “Well, the way the plant kingdom works.” It’s not just cannabis, but these other plants as well is the entourage effect of those ingredients.

Amazon John: For example, the anti-inflammatory effect with Camu Camu when they did the research and said, “Hey, look, this has anti-inflammatory benefit. Well, it’s because of vitamin C that’s in it.” So they isolated the vitamin C and had, yeah, okay this many milligrams of vitamin C. And then ran the study with the whole camu versus that same amount of vitamin C, and the camu full plant extract had more inflammatory benefit than the vitamin C. So they said, “Hey, there’s something else going on,” which there always is.

Amazon John:   An entourage effect, that full profile naturally occurring chemistry and nutrition, [inaudible 00:42:09] in that plant modulating expression. Our body understands that. It understands what to do, how much to do, and that’s why it’s so critical to have each plant with that. And then you combine these plants and you get the entourage of the entourage.

TeriAnn:           Yeah, they’re more powerful together. Then it adds onto it.

Amazon John:   They’re more powerful together. That’s not always the case, but you want to select the plants that share certain similarities. For example, all these are anti-inflammatory. Many of them have polyphenols. Several have epicatechins. Several have the ability to create a neurogenesis the brain derived neurotropic factor. So they just make a really nice family together.

TeriAnn:         Yeah, that’s absolutely just a beautiful combination of incredible ingredients some of which many people have never heard of before, but the research behind them and what they’re doing when it comes to brain health is just incredible.

TeriAnn:           To close this out today I want to talk about this synergistic blend and these ingredients that we’ve put together. We’ve talked here and there about the different benefits of taking all these ingredients together, but let’s recap some of those that come to the top of your mind when it comes to the synergistic blend.

TeriAnn:           We’ve talked a lot about Alzheimer’s and dementia and some of the reversal of that so talk a little bit about that, but also for people who aren’t experiencing that what they’re going to see as far as cognitive function and brain health overall. Just speak to some of those benefits.

Amazon John:   Well, you’re exactly right, Teri. I’ve talked about a lot of the causative factors, the issues, and how this addresses all that. But ultimately, okay, what are the benefits that we’re really looking for? It’s in cognitive ability, so new learning processes, memory, the ability to have a greater degree of confidence, become more social. I mean these are all, you know, when you have a healthy brain and strong recall, and are having a conversation and you remember the words you want to use and recalling the events to tie in.

Amazon John:   That’s what you being to see is those things breakdown, right? You become uncomfortable because you’re not recalling as well as you would like. And so, there’s just how comfortable you feel in the world and about who you are. And especially if you’re beginning to have new memories and actually not only recall the things that you’ve already put into your database, but you’re able to go to another level and recall things.

Amazon John:   Because all of our experiences since we were born, right, we were there when those things happened and so that’s imprinted some place, but we tend to recall just a certain amount thing as we go through life. When you have that deeper ability to recall other first-time memories, it’s really rich.

TeriAnn:           It’s amazing. Amazing. This has been absolutely fascinating. Truly you have tapped into some of the greatest treasures in the Amazon Rainforest and beyond, and your experience is benefiting so many people.

TeriAnn:           I love what you said in the first podcast about you’ve gone and found these treasures, but it’s just about finding treasures for you, we’re all finding treasures, but treasures that benefit so many people. I think you’ve truly tapped into this here in so many things that you’ve done.

TeriAnn:           I appreciate you being here today. I appreciate the conversation. I appreciate your background experience that you’re sharing with the world. I know I’ve learned a great deal about brain health that I didn’t know before. So, thank you for being here.

Amazon John:   Thank you, Teri. I love what you’re doing. I love what you’re doing with Organixx. I love your whole concept, your theory, and the information that you’re putting out to people. Educated people are healthy people [crosstalk 00:46:18].

TeriAnn:           That’s absolutely true. I love that statement so much. Well, thank you so much.

TeriAnn:         If you want to check out this podcast you can go to EnpoweringYouOrganically.com. We have show notes, Cliff Notes. You can download this podcast. We are also on iTunes so please check us out there.

TeriAnn:           We had another podcast that we filmed previously with John Easterling that released last week so be sure to check that one out for more information.

TeriAnn:           Thank you for joining us. We’ll see you here again soon. Have a great day everyone.

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Episode 28 – Can Alzheimer’s and Dementia Be Prevented Naturally?

Camu Camu

Cat’s Claw, Uña De Gato (Uncaria Tomentosa)

Sangre de Drago – Dragon’s Blood

Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor And Its Clinical Implications

Bacopa monniera Extract Reduces Amyloid Levels In Psapp Mice

Why Cinnamon May Hold Secrets to Alzheimer’s Prevention

Cacao

Pau d‘Arco

Proanthocyanidins

Guayusa

Raphael Mechoulam

Alzheimer’s & Dementia Resource Center

Alzheimer’s & Dementia Facts & Figures

Alzheimer’s & Dementia Facts & Figures

Tau, tangles, and Alzheimer’s disease

Amyloid Plaques and Neurofibrillary Tangles

Candidiasis

Plant polyphenols as dietary antioxidants in human health and disease

Anthocyanins

Epicatechin

Caffeine reverses cognitive impairment and decreases brain amyloid-beta levels in aged Alzheimer's disease mice

Organixx’s NEW Ageless Brain – Nutrition for your brain.