Solving the 1trn Disease
[Applause]
solving
the one trillion dollar disease so today
i’m going to be talking to you about
what led me to this topic the whole food
plant-based diet and solving dementia
and alzheimer’s
why brain disease then i’m going to give
you the evidence the evidence to what i
believe to be
the conclusion then briefly some
solutions and finally
some concluding points so a whole food
plant-based site what led me to talk
about this
well it was year 10 i was watching a bbc
documentary
and i was just quite compelled when a 96
year old comes on the screen
and tells his age and he’s got no kind
of wrinkles he’s got no health problems
and he still says he walks about no one
helps him
to walk about and i was just really
intrigued about how
his lifestyle his diet maybe maybe could
have led to that
and it was only about two and a half
years don’t worry that was never going
to be enough for me to give up koftedes
and lambs of lugia which if you don’t
know is a very
uh it’s a delicacy of the greek diet and
yogurt as well i can’t give them up
um it was only two years later that i
eventually um uncovered the china study
and uh folks overnight documentary on
netflix and various other
studies that really helped me make the
decision to make the transition
to a whole food plant-based site before
i go into why i chose to focus this on
brain disease
i’d like to first make the distinction
that this is not about a vegan diet per
se i think veganism
is a useful term it’s a very short term
easier to remember than whole food
plant-based but at the same time
it’s not really sufficient you can live
off salt refined flour and other
processed foods and still be classed as
a vegan
a whole food plant-based diet is more
sufficient and inclusive of that
so the world alzheimer’s report of 2015
uh titled the global impact of dementia
estimated that in 2015
the cost of dementia and alzheimer’s was
818
billion dollars that was going to rise
in our
three years later to one trillion
dollars and you can see it’s going to
keep on rising
46 million people had the disease then
now that in 2030 that number is going to
be 76 million people
you see unlike cancer unlike stroke
unlike
coronary heart disease scientists are
really struggling to find a cure
and prevent dementia and alzheimer’s and
not only that this is one of the most
expensive not just economically but also
emotionally the most expensive disease
that people face that families face in
trying to solve
but what if this is not a normal part of
aging what if we can actually
prevent it or what does the evidence say
so
um before i go on to the evidence before
i begin to talk about it
i don’t take any credit for this this is
the work of scientists incredible
scientists
that gave up their reputation that got
ostracized and excommunicated
by scientific institutions because of
their institutional links to the
companies that relied
on processed foods on plant-based foods
and one one such being t colin campbell
the author
of the china study essentially a
literature review of all the nutrition
studies have been undertaken in the
second half
of the 20th century and so i do admire
those scientists that stuck with their
integrity because it is those scientists
that really drive the most change of
society
but here we go so there are three types
of brain disease first we’ve got
cognitive
impairment then we have vascular
dementia and then we have
alzheimer’s let’s start with cognitive
impairment this is the slow decline of
the brain
so you know people think when you get
older you begin to do calculations slow
you begin to forget a few things
but you know we think that’s inevitable
well cognitive impairment is a disease
it is diagnosed
and it is not one to ignore once two
percent of people with cognitive
impairment gone to uh
one to two percent of people without
cognitive impairment go on to develop
dementia
ten to twelve percent of people with it
go on to develop dementia that is a
tenfold
increase there is clearly something very
significant here so
it is what is also associated with
cardiovascular disease we stroke with
the onset of type 2 diabetes and that
makes sense since it shares the same
risk factors hypertension high
cholesterol free radical activity
wreaking havoc in the body
but if we can prevent this what if diet
can have an impact on this
well one study found that higher vitamin
e intake
reduces the risk of memory loss which
then leads to cognitive impairment
higher vitamin c also was found to
reduce memory loss in another study
vitamin e and vitamin c are antioxidants
only found
in plant-based products exclusively from
plant-based nutrition
another study of 260 elderly people
came to the conclusion that a diet with
less saturated fat less cholesterol
found naturally in plant-based foods in
processed foods
and higher in carbohydrates higher
vitamin c beta-carotene vitamin e the
same kind of findings
was advisable for less memory loss a
diet lower in vitamin c was associated
with slower
cognitive ability and the diet high in
vitamin b was associated with the
opposite the same findings
different studies the evidence is
clearly pointing to one thing here
so that was about seven studies all
showing that nutrients found exclusively
in plant-based
protein can all reduce the risk of
memory loss
all about animal-based protein well one
study actually found that instead of
just lacking the antioxidants just not
helping prevent it
animal protein can actually activate
free radical activity
free radical activity is something that
leads to the decline of the brain the
destruction the deterioration
of the mind and so we’re seeing the
first links of this divergent force
animal-based protein goes on to speed up
the development of these diseases
plant-based protein um actually prevents
it reverses it
okay so this um by the way that’s the
evidence so
i’m not lying okay anyway so let’s go on
to the more serious one
vascular dementia so you may have heard
of this people just call this dementia
um this is caused by silent strokes
small strokes that incapacitate parts of
the brain
which eventually is at least a severe
deterioration of the brain
and so preventing this really overlaps
with preventing
stroke societies have found if you can
prevent heart disease
you can prevent vascular dementia as
well what cause what causes heart
disease what causes stroke
it is simple it’s plaque building up in
the arteries building up in the blood
vessels
but i just want to make something very
clear your genes don’t determine your
future if you think i have a parent i
have a grandparent develop heart disease
that had stroke i’m also going to
develop a stroke well that’s just not
true your environment has a very very
big factor to play
in which genes are turned on which genes
are turned off
this was found in a study with japanese
people japanese people in hawaii
and in california has a higher incidence
of heart disease because of their higher
blood cholesterol than those living in
japan
and guess what those living in japan
they were more likely to smoke there is
clearly
something very strange going on here
what these people and how these people
change their diet so if you want to
reduce the risk of vascular dementia you
want to reduce your risk of stroke and
if you want to do that you want to
reduce your risk
of reduce your consumption of
cholesterol and the build up of
cholesterol in
and plaque in your blood vessels and
societies have found
that you want to first to do that to
reduce your risk of developing this
arteriosclerotic like blockages in your
in your blood
um in your blood vessels you want to
reduce your trans fats trans fats found
in junk foods
found naturally in animal waste protein
you want to also reduce saturated fats
once again
found in animal based protein and also
in processed
foods and also to a lesser extent
dietary cholesterol which is found in
animal derived foods
such as eggs but hold on a minute if we
just want to reduce cholesterol why
don’t we just
take satin drugs satin drugs seem to do
the job well that’s what doctors
prescribe
well slating drugs have adverse side
effects they have negative symptoms and
studies have found
that a plant-based protein reduces
cholesterol um just as effectively if
not more
effectively than statin drugs with no
zero
negative side effects in the publication
from the famous
freemium study um it was concluded that
an extra three servings of fruit and
veggie day reduces the risk of stroke
by 22 and if you can reduce the risk of
stroke you’re reducing your risk of
vascular dementia
the health of your arteries and your
vessels is undoubtedly
linked to what you eat okay and then
we’ve got alzheimer’s disease
alzheimer’s disease you may know it’s
caused by the accumulation of something
called beta amyloid it’s
it’s a similar concept to the the
cholesterol plaque that
causes strokes and leads to vascular
dementia in that these beta amyloid
accumulation
leads to the incapacity incapacitation
of the brain
studies have links let’s bring back the
genes here studies have linked a gene
called
apolipoprotein e epsilon 4 alley we’ll
have to practice that a few times
now think about this gene this gene if
it comes from your mum you’re three
times more likely to develop alzheimer’s
if it comes from your dad as well as
your mum you’re 10 to 15 times more
likely
to develop alzheimer’s now just think
about that do you think it’s on both
sides of the family
i know it’s on both sides of my family
and that’s really scary and it kind of
makes you feel quite isolated there’s
nothing
i can do i’m just going to develop
alzheimer’s when i’m older well that’s
not true
it was found that native africans had
lower rates of
alzheimer’s than african-americans
living in indiana and if you think oh
that’s just because the
african-americans living indiana might
have lived longer
well no these scientists say control for
them variables these are like to like
comparisons there is clearly something
going on
in the diets of these people so studies
show that high cholesterol diet
cholesterol coming in again a high
cholesterol diet
increases the risk of alzheimer’s
another study a study 5000 people came
to the same conclusion
that a diet lower in saturated fat
lowering cholesterol reduced
the risk of alzheimer’s and this is the
last
scientific piece of evidence so if
you’ve had enough you know it’s coming
to an end now
this said that a risk of disease this
study said that a risk of
developing alzheimer’s was increased by
3.3 times if your blood folic acid
levels were in the lowest third of
society
and it was increased by 4.5 times if
your
blood homocysteine levels were in the
highest thirds what’s folic acid
folic acid comes from leafy and green
vegetables whilst homocysteine
homocysteine is an amino acid
found in animal based foods once again
we see
that divergence so we’ve found
that a diet high in animal protein and
low in plant-based protein
speeds up the development of these
degenerative diseases which we
so fear in western society
that is the slides for vascular dementia
and
they they are the references for
alzheimer’s disease okay so i’m not
lying not lying here you can look these
up
okay so i haven’t really focused this
talk on okay so government have this
objective
we need to make people eat more
plant-based protein and less
animal-based protein
because i think that is um we haven’t
focused on the way they can implement
that because i think that is less
controversial
than the fact that this should be their
objective in the first place the fact
the government can change our behavior
is something that’s quite
widely accepted through nudge theory
through taxes through subsidies you know
consumers change their behavior
if something is more expensive in a
supermarket
so based on that based on the evidence
with the conclusion that a diet
which is um higher in terms of
plant-based protein in terms of
plant-based consumption compared to and
reducing
animal-based consumption based on that
conclusion the government can then
tax the foods we’re saying to reduce and
subsidize the foods in the supermarkets
that we want to increase
and then not consumers to make the
correct behavior but most importantly
provide the information
the transparent evidence on how what the
evidence says
on why this is the best option for
people to make
so just wrapping up now i’ve given you a
load of evidence of why
um a plant-based diet is more effective
in preventing generous diseases
than cures than other means that people
suggest and that reducing animal based
protein is going to be key if you want
to reduce your risk of these
degenerative diseases
now if you’re not convinced that’s fine
because i’ve just touched the surface
of the evidence there is an overwhelming
amount of evidence um there and i
wouldn’t have made the shift personally
if if i hadn’t been convinced and seen
the overwhelming amount of evidence it
took a long time to give up and milk was
the last one to go it took a long time
to give up
some of those foods but don’t despair
like one of the biggest fears is that
okay this is this is a very um strong
case and the evidence is pointing in
that direction and yes there’s more
evidence to be shown
but it is really kind of overwhelming
but what about the food what about the
taste why would i sacrifice that
you know i’m here to enjoy life well
what you’ll find is your taste buds
actually
change your taste buds actually adjust
over time
if i was faced with a full spinach
smoothie i’d probably throw up the first
time i have it but if i was to have a
berry smoothie and then add one
tablespoon of spinach and then the next
day add two tablespoons of spinach
my taste bars begin to change and they
begin to adjust and therefore you begin
to enjoy
the spinach movie i can tell you that i
do actually get enjoyment from the food
that i eat now and that if that
transition is slow i’m not suggesting
to go to cold turkey and just um just
give
up all animal protein or dairy based
foods what i’m saying is
try to just increase your consumption of
plant-based foods look at the evidence
see
if you are convinced see if you are
convinced with the evidence and the
studies that have been presented
and if you don’t have the time to read
the chinese study if you don’t have the
time
to read how not to die at least go on
netflix have a look at a documentary
called forks
overnight that is false overnight in in
terms of changing what you eat
instead of cutting your body open and
going through the radical cures that
scientists have found to try and deal
with these diseases
have a look at that documentary see what
the scientists say see what the evidence
says
these scientists having no vested
interest in giving this they don’t have
any
uh business benefit from doing this see
what they say
and see if that will convince you now
i’m not seeking a southern philosophy
here i’m seeking the truth i’m seeking
the truth based on evidence and that’s
what
science should be and that is why also
i’m quite skeptical of this term
veganism of this idea of
this ideology forming where the media is
very good at bringing people who get
very aggressive
and very angry about this matter that
everyone should be vegan i i’m not
advocating that
what i am advocating is that we look at
the evidence and as university students
in particular who are here
to develop your mind to develop yourself
so that you can maximize your potential
in the future
i’m sure you’re interested in being able
to have your health that will enable you
and enable you to deliver value to
society
to go on and develop and do and be
fulfilled and do what you were
you you were made to be and so dementia
especially alzheimer’s brain diseases
that is undoubtedly
going to stop you from doing that is
undoubtedly going to prevent you from
maximizing your potential
and if there’s a way to prevent it just
as something as simple as changing your
diet then surely
surely that will be something of value
so just look at this look into it
look at the documentary maybe ask me
questions and really kind of be
skeptical and look for the truth
your future self might just thank you
for it thank you
[Applause]