Patrick Holford: Simple Wisdom for a Healthy Life

My guest today is Dr Louise Newson. She is a physician, women’s hormone specialist and member of the UK Government’s Menopause Taskforce. She is also an award-winning doctor, educator, and author, committed to increasing awareness and knowledge of perimenopause and menopause. Described as the ‘medic who kickstarted the menopause revolution’, she has empowered a generation of women to have a greater understanding, choice and control over their treatment, bodies and mind. I’ll be talking about her latest book - ‘The Definitive Guide to the Perimenopause and Menopause’.   You can take part in Alzheimer's Prevention Day on Tuesday 20 May. Find out more about what you can do to help prevent cognitive decline, dementia and Alzheimer's, and share it with friends and family.  Visit my website for more on brain health - www.patrickholford.com and read my books ‘Alzheimer’s: Prevention is the Cure’ and How to Balance Your Hormones.

In this insightful discussion, Dr. Dale Bredesen, a renowned neurologist and author of 'The End of Alzheimer's', shares groundbreaking strategies for combating cognitive decline. He explores the innovative Ketoflex 12.3 dietary framework, emphasizing metabolic flexibility and plant-rich nutrition. Bredesen challenges the myth of inevitable memory loss with aging, advocating for proactive cognitive testing and stress management techniques like HeartMath. He delves into the impact of viral infections and the significance of the APOE4 gene, highlighting lifestyle changes that empower brain health.

What is autism? Is it truly on the rise, along with the broader concept of ‘neurodivergence’? With one in six children now identified as having special educational needs, could this increase be due to over-diagnosis, genetic factors, or something more? In this episode, I’m joined by three pioneers in the field—experts with extensive experience working with thousands of children diagnosed with autism. Together, we uncover the true scale of the issue and explore why our children's mental and physical health is under attack. Joining me are: Dr. Lorene Amet – Director of The Lauriston Centre in the UK, holding a DPhil in Molecular Biology from the University of Oxford and a Master’s in Autism Education. She has conducted postdoctoral research at Princeton and Edinburgh universities. Beth Lambert – Founder of Documenting Hope, a non-profit dedicated to children's health. She’s a teacher and the author of A Compromised Generation: The Epidemic of Chronic Illness in America’s Children, as well as co-author of Brain Under Attack. Dr. Heather Tallman Ruhm – A board-certified physician with a Master’s degree in Public Health Policy. She has over a decade of experience as a college professor and serves as a medical advisor for Documenting Hope. Together, we dive deep into what’s beneath the surface - examining why our children's well-being is increasingly under threat. Further Information Read more in my book Upgrade Your Brain and on my website www.patrickholford.com    

To what extent is a child’s mental health set in pregnancy? What can women do in pregnancy to ensure optimal mental health for their child? Also, what happens to women’s brains and mental health when their nutrition is sub-optimal in pregnancy? How can we help children and teenagers to achieve their full potential for mental health? In this podcast, I'm speaking to Julia Rucklidge, Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology and the Director of the Mental Health and Nutrition Research Group at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Learn more on my website - nutrition for Children's Health and Pregnancy as well as my books Optimum Nutrition for your Child and Optimum Nutrition Before, During and After Pregnancy.

Emma Beswick, a nutrigenomics expert and founder of LifecodeGX, unpacks the fascinating interplay between our genes and lifestyle choices. She breaks down how our understanding of genetics can tailor personal nutrition, offering insights into genetic polymorphisms that affect health. Emma discusses conditions like sickle cell anemia and its evolutionary advantages, and how genetic variations can influence risks for diseases like Alzheimer’s. The conversation also highlights the critical role of methylation and the significance of personalized dietary strategies.

Dr Christopher Palmer is a Harvard psychiatrist and researcher working at the interface of metabolism and mental health. He is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the Founder and Director of the Metabolic and Mental Health Program and Director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education, both at Harvard and at the McLean Hospital. He is author of the best-selling book, Brain Energy, in which he argues that mental disorders are metabolic disorders impacting the brain, and is leading the way to a paradigm shift in psychiatry towards new ways of understanding and treating mental health. Go to my website for more information on nutrition and mental health as well as the ketogenic diet. See also my book Upgrade Your Brain. Sign up to my E-News at www.patrickholford.com to receive news updates.

The latest iteration of the highly influential Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, authored by numerous professors from around the world, led by University College London’s psychiatry Professor Gill Livingston has, for the third time, ignored the hardest hitting evidence for homocysteine lowering B vitamins, misrepresented the science on omega-3 and concluded that the evidence for ‘unhealthy diet’ didn’t meet their high bar for inclusion as a modifiable risk factor. Several eminent professors are up in arms and have written to the Lancet. In this podcast I interview three of them – Professor Joshua Miller, Professor of Nutritional Science at Rutgers University; omega-3 expert Professor William Harris from the Fatty Acid Research Institute (FARI) and Professor Richard Johnson from Colorado University’s School of Medicine - to explore how the establishment continue to side-line nutrition. Read more on Alzheimer's, Dementia and brain health on my website.  Read the Lancet report.  More about Food for the Brain.

I’m talking to Steve Bennett, author of The Fibre First Diet, a book which proposes that simply re-ordering the foods you eat can trim your waistline and prevent diseases. We get under the hood of what’s really going on and how to gain control of your weight and health without feeling deprived. We will explore insulin resistance and how to reverse it, what really drives hunger, quick solutions to cut your cravings and why not all fibres are created equal. Also, the Japanese fibre that doctors prescribe to help reverse diabetes. Find out about his book The Fibre First Diet.  Find out more on weight-loss and blood sugar balance on my website.

Keeping your brain young is a science. Ageing happens because of oxidation (think wrinkly skin). Nowhere is there more oxidation activity than the brain because your brain uses more energy than any other organ and generates more oxidants. There are 7 key antioxidants which, together recycle each other. These are vitamin C, E, glutathione, anthocyanins, co-enzymeQ10 and alpha lipoic acid. There’s a second line of defence involving B vitamins and minerals such as selenium and zinc. In this podcast I’ll be talking with the antioxidant expert Associate Professor David Vauzour, Dr Filip Van Hulle, a leading expert in CoQ10 and brilliant analytical chemist Dr Konrad Kowalski who has developed a simple test to find out how your brain is ageing and what to do about it. What anti-ages your brain also anti-ages your body. Listen to this podcast to add years to your life and life to your years. Find out more about how to Upgrade Your Brain.

In this podcast, I bring the three top scientists who know more about fats and the brain than any others - Professor Michael Crawford, visiting Professor at Imperial College London and head of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition, Professor William Harris from the Fatty Acid Research Institute (FARI) and neuroscientist Dr Simon Dyall, a director of of the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids -  to get inside our brains. I’m most interested in the point of disagreement, the contradictions, the evidence that doesn’t fit the model. So often, by stirring things up we learn something new. Is it all about omega DHA? So why is evidence for EPA sometimes working even better for mental health? What about phospholipids? Is it all about choline, which is just one of five phospholipids. Where does vitamin D, a fat based hormone fit in? These are some of the topics we explore. Find out more about the Upgrade Your Brain campaign on my website.