David Perlmutter

And so I think that let's focus on keeping people healthy rather than waiting for them to become sick and then trying to develop treatments for that illness.

The Nei Jing, the Yellow Emperor, let me throw a little philosophy at you.

We've both had coffee, or I know I've had coffee.

I had a little bit.

Good.

Fourth century BC said that prevention is the ultimate principle of wisdom.

To cure a disease after it has manifest is like digging a well when one feels thirsty or forging weapons when the war has already begun.

Or as John Kennedy said in his inaugural address, the time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining.

And that's why you're here.

That's what this conference is about, keeping people healthy, not waiting for them to become sick and then saying, oh, what should we do?

You know, as it relates to Alzheimer's, the changes metabolically that presage the development of the cognitive issues begin 20 or 30 years ahead of time.

That's why I talk to somebody who's 28 right now and not waiting till somebody is 65 or 70 and comes to me and says, you know,

My memory's fading.

Because what's going on in your metabolism right now is critical in terms of your brain's fate, your brain's destiny.

And you, my friend, are the architect of your brain's destiny, not me as a neurologist.

Have you seen the average age, when it comes to diagnosis, drop over the years?

Well, I've seen the parameters for the diagnosis change.

And that has now started to encompass younger and younger people.

worrisome part of what I just said is that there's a trend to diagnose people based upon blood markers and or brain scanning, specific types of brain scan looking for beta amyloid.

And that's worrisome because that opens the door to introducing treatments that are not very safe.