Spindrift March 5, 2020

MAIN PROGRAM

Dr. Dung Trinh (pronounced “Young”), Chief Medical Officer at Irvine Clinical Research. He came to talk about Alzheimer’s, the disease of our brain that’s increasingly on our minds.

Dr. Trinh’s approach to brain health is two-fold: education and clinical trials. Education covers food, nutrition, and lifestyle. Clinical trials are needed because there is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s; it’s the #3 killer behind #2 Heart Disease and #1 Cancer.

There are 100,000 people in Orange County with Alzheimer’s and nowhere near enough beds for them. In the US, the progression of the disease doubles every 5 years from age 65 onward. People in other countries don’t have much Alzheimer’s so it’s clearly not just age as a factor of progression.

40% of people in their 80’s have memory loss. Memories are connective patterns in the brain. Plaque proteins adhere to brain cells and block communication. This beta-amyloid plaque builds up for 15 to 20 years prior to memory loss symptoms becoming evident.

There is a gene associated with Alzheimer’s. The gene is worldwide; with 25% having it, they are predisposed to developing the disease. Lifestyle is very important to the development or deterrence of its onset and progression. Women have a higher risk of having it, in part from living an average of 4+ years longer than men.

Just 6 years ago, only an autopsy could con-firm plaque in the brain. Now, there is a PET scan to detect it. This means that we can catch early-onset! Clinical trials give one the opportunity to receive a free brain scan. These trials show that 4/5 have no plaque. Thankfully for the 1/5 who do have it, there are medicines being developed to help remove the plaque.

Immunotherapy is a technique that trains the immune system to respond and eliminate the disease. This has been useful in dropping the rate of cancer deaths in 2019. Immunotherapy is being used in 12 trials for Alzheimer’s with one of them showing great promise having passed phase 3 trials. This candidate therapy is going to the FDA for approval. It removes 100% of plaque! n the last 5 years we’ve made progress in being able to detect plaques on the brain. It’s called Aducanumab.

Aside from immunotherapy, there are three “buckets” of issues that we can work with to reduce our risk: circulation, inflammation, and toxins. High blood pressure or high cholesterol causes poor circulation that can lead to the development of plaque in our brain. If one takes medication that controls these factors there is no increased risk. Take your meds!

Inflammation, a normal and required response for the body to heal from injury, is very problematic if sustained for a long period of time. Most of our issues from disease are attributable to inflammation and Dr. Trinh considers Alzheimer’s to be inflammation of the brain.

Toxins are shown to be a contributing factor, with higher rates of pollution correlating to higher incidence of Alzheimer’s. The food we consume contain pesticides and hormones that don’t naturally occur. These toxins create inflammation. Dr. Trinh says: go organic!

There are six things we can do:

1) Physical exercise of 1/2 hr a day to address circulation.
2) Brain exercise to cause your brain to work on its wiring.
3) Sleep well, 7 hours or more, it allows toxins and wastes to be removed from the brain.
4) Socialization, the stimulus of being with others lowers risk.
5) Keep medical conditions under control.
6) Nutrition: avoid inflammatory foods and consume antioxidant foods, they reduce inflammation. A proper diet reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s by 54%.

Dr. Trinh has a background that’s very interesting as well. He was 5 years old when he boarded a Chinook departing for the USS Midway on April 29, 1975. Yes, he’s one of the fortunate few who were rescued from the US Embassy rooftop during the evacuation from Viet Nam. At 18 he joined the US Marine Corps to serve his adopted country. Oo-rah, Semper Fi!