Patrick Holford: Simple Wisdom for a Healthy Life

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.

My guest today is Dan Kittredge, who knows more about what makes food nutritious than anyone I know. Dan Kittredge has been an organic farmer for more than 30 years and is the founder and executive director of the Bionutrient Food Association (BFA), a non-profit whose mission is to “increase quality in the food supply.” Known as one of the leading proponents of “nutrient density,” Dan works to demonstrate the connections between soil health, plant health, and human health. Out of these efforts was born the Bionutrient Institute, which has engineered a prototype of a hand-held consumer spectrometer, designed to test nutrient density at point of picking or purchase. He has decades of experience literally testing growing methods and measuring the nutrient density both in plants and livestock. As people extol the benefits of organic, zero-dig, regenerative farming and the harms of our herbicide and pesticides laden food supply, Dan has actually been measuring and working out what farmers and growers have to do to get the healthiest soil for the healthiest plants. Not only am I honoured to have Dan as my podcast guest but also he’s coming to our farm in the Black Mountains in June to teach us, and others, how to grow super-nutritious food. See foodforthebrain.org/kittredge-workshop

Ask the man in the street what’s driving Alzheimer’s and they’ll probably say a third is in the genes. Or that it’s just what happens when you age. Neither of these statements are true. Alzheimer’s is a largely preventable disease and my guests today are tackling the two fundamental questions. Firstly, what are the positive and negative behaviours – diet, lifestyle, environment – that prevent and drive dementia? And secondly, how do you change those behaviours. In today’s podcast I talk with Assistant Professor Tommy Wood, from the University of Washington about the what, then Dr Kristina Curtis, a behavioural scientist and honorary lecturer at the University College London who heads the Applied Behaviour Change team, about the how of behaviour change. Go to my website for more information on nutrition and mental health See also my book Optimum Nutrition for the Mind. In April I'll be publishing my new book Upgrade Your Brain - sign up to my E-News at www.patrickholford.com to receive news updates and book availability.

My podcast guest is Dr Georgia Ede, MD, a Harvard-trained, board-certified psychiatrist based in Northampton, Massachusetts, USA. Her interest in nutrition arose after discovering a new way of low carb ketogenic eating that reversed several bewildering health problems. Her speciality is nutritional and metabolic psychiatry and ketogenic diets. Her passion is empowering people with psychiatric conditions to reduce or eliminate the need for medications by changing how they eat. But which changes are worth making, and why? That’s both the subject of her new book Change Your Diet Change Your Mind, just out, and this podcast. Go to my website for more information on ketogenic dieting in the Go Hybrid section and for nutrition and mental health See also my book Optimum Nutrition for the Mind. In April I'll be publishing my new book Upgrade Your Brain - sign up to my E-News at www.patrickholford.com to receive news updates and book availability.

My guest today is Uma Naiidoo who founded and directed the first and only hospital-based program in Nutritional, Lifestyle and Metabolic Psychiatry and is Director of Nutritional and Psychiatry Service at Massachusetts General Hospital and serves on the faculty of Harvard Medical school. Her books Your Brain on Food and The Food Mood Connection are bestsellers in the US. Here we focus on anxiety and her new book How to Calm Your Mind with Food - out yesterday. For more on nutrition and anxiety see the Anxiety topic on my website. Also see my book The Stress Cure.

My podcast guest today is a legend in the world of omega-3. Dr Bill Harris is Professor in the Department of Medicine in the Sanford School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota. He has been a front runner in measuring omega-3 status and developed the omega-3 index, running studies on the effects of omega-3, with more than 300 published pieces of research to date, backed by five National Institutes of Health grants. Perhaps best known for his expertise in relation to omega-3 and heart health. He obtained his PhD doctorate. in Human Nutrition from the University of Minnesota and did post-doctoral fellowships in Clinical Nutrition and Lipid Metabolism with Dr. Bill Connor at the Oregon Health Sciences University back in the 80’s and has had his finger on the pulse of oemga-3 research ever since. In this podcast, we are discussing his latest study on omega-3 status as a predictor of Alzheimer’s and dementia risk. Read more about Alzheimer's and Dementia on my website. Also see my book The Alzheimer's Prevention Plan.

Homo sapiens brain size is 20% less than it was 29,000 years ago. IQ is also falling 7% a generation. Mental illness is on the increase. Why? Why are our brains shrinking? Today’s guest is Professor Michael Crawford. He discovered that brains are made out of omega-3 DHA in the 1970s. He is the Director of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition. At Chelsea & Westminster he has shown that pregnant women lacking omega-3 make a ‘filler fat’ called oleic acid, blood levels of which predict brain developmental and cognitive problems in their babies. His new book The Shrinking Brain explains why humanity is devolving, with dire consequences, unless we take action now to put nutrition and brain health at the top of the agenda. Find out more about brain health on my website.

For a change, in this month’s podcast I’m interviewed by Philly J Lay, a long-standing advocate for our health and that of our planet. She is passionate in her belief that everything is connected and that when we learn to heal ourselves, we will start to heal this beautiful planet. After a near death experience and years of grief, resulting in a range of chronic illnesses, she discovered personalised natural medicine and the associated miracles of the body and power of the mind, which she wrote about in her first book, The Natural Wellness Journal. In this podcast she interviews me about my health journey and why I’m passionate about the power of optimum nutrition on mental health. We'll be covering: Visit my website to learn more about optimum nutrition and mental health. Or see my books The Optimum Nutrition Bible, Optimum Nutrition for the Mind and The Alzheimer's Prevention Plan.

We are told serotonin deficiency causes depression; too much cholesterol excess causes heart disease; too much acid causes heartburn. Now we are being told too much amyloid causes Alzheimer’s. These statements are the key rationale for selling antidepressants, cholesterol lowering drugs, antacids and soon, anti-amyloid antibody injections. But are they true or are they myth stories designed to sell drugs, cloaked in dubious circumstantial evidence, backed up by medical guidelines, but not by the actual science or what actually causes these diseases? Join me in conversation with award-winning medical journalist, Jerome Burne. Read more in my blogs and reports on my website.

To answer these and other questions and explore the whole role ketones and fat play in your brain health, my podcast guest this month is the leading world expert, Professor Stephen Cunnane, who heads the Brain Research Team at Sherbrooke University in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Professor Stephen Cunnane holds the clinical research chair in ketotherapeutics. His research is focused on how ketogenic interventions (supplements, diets) can help prevent Alzheimer’s, slow down cognitive decline and deliver more ‘brain power’. We will also be talking about the latest research showing how ketogenic diets can help Parkinson’s, epilepsy and other mental and neurological conditions including their effects on mood and anxiety. Find out more about Ketogenic dieting and mind health on my website.

The number of children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders has escalated from 1 in 250 to 1 in 58 last year in the US. Although often described as ‘genetic’ obviously the genes haven’t changed, so what’s going on in the environment that’s driving this rapid breakdown in neurodevelopment? Paul Shattock OBE has spent his life researching autism, and is the Chair of the ESPA (Education and Services for People with Autism) and former director of the Autism Research Unit at the University of Sunderland. There he showed that many autistic children had ‘casomorphins’ and ‘gliadorphins’ – opioids created from wheat and milk when the gut is leaky – in their urine. This is but one of many factors linked to increasing risk for ASD and other neurodevelopmental problems. We’ll be having a frank discussion about everything from vitamins to vaccines, essential fats to environmental toxins - learning from a man whose dedicated decades to finding out what’s going on and how to help children and their families. For more information about nutrition and brain health go to the mind health topic on my website or see Optimum Nutrition for the Mind.

Professor Thomas Seyfried is renowned in the field of cancer for helping keep people with aggressive cancers stay alive by following his science-based protocols. How? That’s what we will find out. Thomas Seyfried is Professor of Biology at Boston College and received his PhD in Genetics and Biochemistry from the University of Illinois back in 1976 when genetics was in its infancy. He was Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine. He has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Academy of Complimentary and Integrative Medicine among others and the Uncompromising Science Award from the American College of Nutrition for his work on cancer. Tom has over 200 peer-reviewed publications to his name and is author of the book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer. You can read more about cancer and my ketogenic/low carb Hybrid diet on my website.

In this podcast I interview two pioneers in making food healthy, from the soil up. Bob Quinn is a botanist with a PhD in plant biochemistry, who helped convert thousands of acres across Montana to growing ancient grains (Kamut) organically. He was the first in Montana to mill whole grain, organic flour starting in 1986. By 1991 he had certified his entire 3 generation family wheat and cattle ranch as organic. He continues to experiment to improve regenerative organic systems and find better ways to grow dry land vegetables, fruit trees and berries in Montana, not only rebuilding the soil, but also the farming community for the benefit of health for all. Tim Parton is a Farm Manager in South Staffordshire in the UK. Tim farms in a biological way maximizing the value of nutrition to get the best out of the crops. He does not use insecticides, seed treatments, growth regulators or fungicides, as when the plant is balanced the need for synthetic inputs drops away. Tim has won many awards including Soil Farmer of the Year 2017, Arable Innovator of the Year 2019, Sustainable Farmer of the Year 2019 and Innovation Farmer of the Year 2020. Together, we’ll explore the journey between the soil and your health and why soil degeneration, and modern farming practices are partly responsible for declining mental and physical health. We will also explore the fundamental principles of regenerative farming and gardening. See more information on my website and nutrition and the environment. Find more about my rap Fight the Flour.

In this podcast I’m talking to Dr William Grant, regarding the recent study showing that those who supplement vitamin D have much less risk for Alzheimer’s and dementia. He knows more about vitamin D and the effects of sunlight than anyone I know. He’s not a medical doctor but a PhD - in physics with an entire career at NASA. After retiring from NASA, he formed the non-profit organisation, "Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center” in San Francisco to continue his work on the roles of diet and UVB/ vitamin D in reducing risk of chronic and infectious diseases. He published a review of the role of vitamin D in risk of dementia in 2009 followed by several additional publications on vitamin D and Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. He has 284 publications regarding vitamin D listed at pubmed.gov. You can read more about Alzheimer's and Dementia on my website.

Do you even need them? Is a lack of anti-depressants really the cause of our suffering and are they causing their own suffering in withdrawal? One in two who try to come off them have significant withdrawal symptoms, half of which are classified as severe. I interview John Read who is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London. He has published several research papers on anti-depressant medication. John is Chair of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal. We will also meet Luke Montagu, who became dependent on antidepressants and sleeping pills, had a horrific withdrawal and successfully sued his doctor. He then set up the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry to campaign for change and provide support to others. I’ll also be speaking with psychiatrist Dr Hyla Cass MD, previously Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and author of several books: Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) , on how she helps people get off anti-depressants using an optimum nutrition approach. Her book Supplement Your Prescription was the first to show how prescribed psychiatric drugs deplete nutrients and how to correct this. For more information about the connection between nutrition and depression visit the Depression and Mood topic section on my website.

Both the UK and US report record-breaking excess deaths mainly from cardiovascular disease. Why? Is this a covid infection or lockdown knock on effect? Should we be concerned about repeated mRNA vaccines? Is it the consequence of health service overload? Are statins the answer, as UK government proposes? What’s going on and what can you do to reduce your risk? I invite back Dr Tess Lawrie from the World Council for Health to enlighten us on all things covid-related and Dr Malcolm Kendrick, expert in all things cardiovascular and cholesterol related, to explore these topics with you and point the way forward. Dr Malcolm Kendrick, a GP who lives and works for the NHS in Cheshire, is author of The Clot Thickens and The Great Cholesterol Con. Dr Tess Lawrie is the Director of the Evidence-Based Medicine Consultancy Ltd, author of over 80 published research papers and is committed to improving the quality of healthcare globally through rigorous research as a founder member of the World Council for Health. See my website for further information on Heart Health.

Healthcare is broken. Both costs and disease rates are rising. The NHS in the UK is the fastest growing failing business. Who is driving the health agenda? Why is prevention ignored and natural medicine under accelerating attack? Are we the losers and big Pharma the winners? In this podcast I explore this subject with Dr Rob Verkerk, founder of the Alliance for Natural Health who has directed legal actions to protect the right to natural health across a wide range of issues from vaccines to vitamins. As scientific director, he’s authored some 60 papers and knows the inside politics of the health agenda and what needs to be done to not only protect our rights but also fix healthcare. Visit my website to find out more about prevention and government health legislation.

Patrick Holford in conversation with Dr David Perlmutter. My guest this month is Dr David Perlmutter - a legend in the field of nutritional medicine. He is a Board-Certified Neurologist and serves on the Board of Directors and is a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition. He is six-time New York Times bestselling author. In fact, you may have read one of his books including Grain Brain or perhaps Brain Maker. I’m here to talk with him about his latest book – 'Drop Acid'. Not LSD, but uric acid. We discuss its pivotal role in your health and the metabolic diseases that are devastating humanity, and why we should all become aware of our uric acid level, and why and how to lower it. Read more about uric acid in relation to gout in Goodbye to Gout and more about the Low GL Diet and Healthy Eating on my website.

There’s a massive increase in both the number of children and adults with allergic-like reactions to foods and chemicals and the severity of these reactions, as well as auto-immune disease, where the immune system, which should be our friend, starts attacking, not only foods and chemicals but our body. Many people are cruising out of covid or vaccination highly compromised, with such auto-immune issues. What is going on? In this podcast I interview Antony Haynes, author of the award-winning Food Intolerance Bible, a pioneer in functional medicine and leading expert in auto-immune disease with 30 years’ experience. Therefore, one of the most common approaches he recommends to his clients involves, not just avoidance, but support for mucosal immunity & integrity, in order to improve oral tolerance. Join us at the cutting edge of science and successful resolution of immune system break downs to learn how to turn to your immune system into your friend, not your foe. See the Immunity and Auto-Immune Disease topic area on my website for more information on immune health.

Has the covid pandemic left you feeling depressed and unmotivated? My favourite psychiatrist, known for her expertise in non-pharmaceutical approaches to depression and mental illness, is Dr Hyla Cass. I had the pleasure of co-authoring a book with her - Natural Highs, in 2001. At that time Dr Cass was an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a highly acclaimed innovator and expert in the fields of integrative medicine, psychiatry, and addiction recovery, including withdrawal from anti-depressant medication. She is also an expert in CBD and its effects on mood, sleep and anxiety. In this podcast we look under the hood of psychiatry to come up with the best ways up from feeling down. For further information about natural support for mental health see The Feel Good Factor and www.patrickholford.com/topic/mental-health/