Dr. Justin Marchegiani and Dr. Alex Nelson discuss functional neurology, brain health, and natural strategies to improve cognitive function and quality of life.
🧠 Understanding functional neurology is crucial for cognitive health.
🌱 Natural strategies can enhance brain function and life quality.
👶 Early intervention in children with neurodevelopmental disorders is key.
💊 Conventional medicine often treats symptoms rather than root causes.
⚖️ Balancing nutrition and lifestyle is essential for brain health.
📵 Reducing screen time can improve children’s behavior and cognitive function.
🍏 Nutrition education is often lacking in conventional medical training.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And we are live. It's Dr. Justin Marchegiani here in the house with Dr. Alex Nelson, who is a functional neurologist. We're going to be diving into functional neurology, how to build a healthy brain. If your brain is not functioning optimally, you have brain fog, cognitive issues, neurological issues, brain inflammation, whatever that spectrum of symptoms is.
We're going to talk about getting to the root cause. Again, Dr. Alex is a functional neurologist in the Kansas City Lee Summit area. website we'll put down below. Dr. Alex, what's your website?
Dr. Alex Nelson: Dr. Alex Axe HMLfunctionalcare. Marchegiani
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Be right in the description below. So Dr. Alex, see patient in person as well as worldwide like I do on the functional medicine side.
So we're going to dive into these root cause topics today. Dr. Alex, how we doing, man?
Dr. Alex Nelson: Awesome. Thank you for having me. I'm excited. Dr. Justin Marchegiani
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Awesome. Well, very cool. So I know you started off as a chiropractor like I did as well, and you decided to get continuing education, Carrick, IAFNR, a lot of these different functional neurological groups.
I know you had a lot of education in nutrition and functional medicine. Tell me, how did you come from just, you know, the chiropractic education and then moving deeper into more of these Dr. Justin Marchegiani, he's
Dr. Alex Nelson: the founder and CEO of Neurology Club, and Marchegiani, CEO of Neurology Club, and he's gonna be talking So as esoteric as that sounds, then when I was going through school, I started taking courses and I knew I was going to do neurology.
And then I started hearing kids and I learned my mainly from my main academic mentor, Dr. Robert Malelo, and. Our main focus is kids and kids with, uh, developmental, uh, disorders, uh, everything from learning disorders, ADHD, autism, um, other, uh, sensory processing disorders as well. And we do work with adults after we started working with kids, what happened was, uh, the kids would start to get a little better or they get better, substantially better, and then the kid, the parents would shove them aside and say, now it's my turn.
Uh, so we, we do work with adults, but primarily kids.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And when we look at functional neurological issues with kids, and we look at the treatments, I always like to look at compare and contrast, right? Conventional medicine has a handful of tools in their, in their tool belt, and it's kind of making a list as you're talking here. But you have, uh, SSRI medication.
You have stimulants to overstimulate to help with focus. These are your Ritalin, your amphetamines. You have your typical, like you see it more with kind of autism, but your antipsychotics, like your Risperidol, your Abilify. You have things that work more on GABA and your benzodiazepines, whether it's Klonopin, etc.
You have your anti convulsants, and then you have your different layers of behavioral therapy, whether it's cognitive or speech or occupational, uh, and that's kinda it. I mean, there isn't a lot in between there, um, is that a pretty good summary of what conventional medicine has to offer across the board there?
Dr. Alex Nelson: It's a silly analogy, but this comes from Dr. James Chestnut. Uh, when it comes to Western medicine and particularly in neurology, they're really good at being a firefighter. If your house burns down, IE your health or your brain, and you need something emergency to get you out of fix, uh, Western medicine's awesome at that.
Uh, but don't call them to rebuild your house. Uh, you need contractors, you need. You, you need Dr. Justin, you need me, you need other like minded practitioners because we have the, um, we have the hammers and we have the nails, they have the axes and the fire hoses and, and absolutely right. It's just limited with what they do.
Cause that's their training. There's nothing wrong with it. Uh, it's just that we have to have. our side of the coin or um, our training to be able to help these people with these chronic health problems.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Dr. Justin Marchegiani And I see patients that are so needing a diagnosis, like I need a diagnosis, I need diagnosis.
But the problem with a lot of diagnoses, a diagnosis mostly is there so a doctor can get paid from an insurance company and recommend a medication or a surgical procedure. But most of the time that diagnosis does not go upstream and connect to the root cause. Diagnosis if I had a broken arm is very helpful.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani because I can apply a surgery and a procedure that's gonna fix that. The underlying cause does not have to be addressed because it was an isolated one off. It was a car accident, that car accident only happened once, ideally it won't happen again. It's not an issue. The problem with what we're dealing with is we're having kids and adults with little mini car accidents every day, every second.
And so if I just palliatively treat the brain or if I overly stimulate with a methamphetamine, Well, most of these kids are already stressed and inflamed. Their brain stem, their amygdala, that fight or flight response in the back of their brain stem is already in overdrive. So putting it more in overdrive does nothing to fix the underlying issue.
And so when you look at root cause on one side, palliative on the other side, you can see a lot of times, it may help in the short run, but in the long run, it actually makes the problem worse.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Yes. Yes. And probably the best example of that, which is on the rise with adults is the diagnosis of ADHD. I, it seems like more and more adults I talked to, they're going into their therapists and or professionals and they're getting diagnosed.
And the kicker with this is they're, they're getting medicated. And the problem is going to be, and I kind of put reminders in my phone when I run into these people, because the problem is going to be in about a year, the symptoms are going to get worse. Uh, your child's, if you go back to your child, if your child gets diagnosed, it's almost clockwork, what's going to happen is they're going to get diagnosed.
They're going to get medication. Schoolwork might improve over that year, but then after that next year to 18 months, it's going to go back down. It's going to get worse. And then you're going to be on the medical merry go round. Is. most of the situations.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And the issue is if we had patients, we had young kids or even adults that had unlimited amounts of these medications, they're getting treated.
They're on every single one of these. You're not fixing the underlying issue because obviously the people that you're seeing have already gone down this path for many years and they're not happy. They see the symptoms getting worse over time. So you know, obviously the solution isn't an unlimited amount of these medications being thrown at them.
I mean, I imagine you're seeing patients that have already gone down this route. What's their general experience? Like, is it like, Dr. Alex? I've gone down this route and I'm exhausted. It's not working or have they not even gone down that route, but they, they want to go down your path first. What's that?
What's that patient look like?
Dr. Alex Nelson: Uh, unfortunately, it's probably like a lot of your patients. Uh, I assume, uh, and that's, unfortunately, people have already been down the medical route. They, they didn't get where they wanted to get or in some cases they got worse and they, Kind of woke up one day or they finally maybe listened to a loved one or something.
And that parent or that person came in and they're like, I am ready to listen to what you have to say and do what you have to offer. Because I now understand that what I was doing before was just putting a bandaid on it. And I want to see what we can do to get down to the root cause as much as, as possible.
And that's, it would be so much easier to have those people come in and Early on, but unfortunately with how people are getting educated, uh, online or just with how the pharmaceutical industry, uh, will put massive amounts of marketing and advertising out. People are going towards the medical route.
However, maybe you've experienced this and something I've noted is in the time of COVID, uh, you can almost say people got a little quote, red pilled. And we had more, we have more and more people coming in and I do not mean this in a braggadocious way. I do not want to come off arrogant at all, but more and more people are wanting my, my wife, who I practice with her and I to act as their primary care.
Because they want to listen to what we have to say first. Now, does that mean that we act like a primary care and we give meds and all that? No, in fact, we still say you need to go to your primary care because there's things that they do and check for that we're not going to, and we don't have the training to, but they will come back to us and they'll say, they're recommending this.
What do you recommend? And they're listening to what we have to say. first and considering what we have to say first. And that's very encouraging.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Dr. Justin Marchegiani Well, I think a lot of this just started with a massive distrust from conventional medical authorities during COVID. I think people just saying, Hey, let's just shut down the schools.
Uh, let's just stay inside. Let's not get vitamin D. Let's not get fresh air. And I think we looked at the devastation a year or two later. I mean, we have kids that, you know, are years behind that they may never get back to that literacy rate or that progression rate that they were at school and learning.
And then, And a lot of these kids needed to be with teachers. That's the only way that they can discover abuse and all kinds of things that are not happening right at home. And I think that. all stem from people in the public health and medical institutions, um, not making good decisions and that broke trust.
Also, there's a book out there by Cassie and Callie Means, or Casey Means, and she's a former Stanford doctor. It's called Good Energy, but in that book, there's a couple of stats and the average child or 13 year old and less, 70 percent of their diets process food and the average doctor. has no education in nutrition at all.
I mean, even at Stanford, zero, very little, or if they know about it, it's from a disease perspective, right? Oh, Barry, Barry B1 deficiency or, you know, scurvy is vitamin C. They don't know it from a functional nutritional perspective. And so it's very difficult to build healthy brains and bodies and metabolism is when 70 percent of your diet is processed crap.
And the average medical doctor has no education in it.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Yeah. And in all, I'll still hear people come in and, uh, they'll, we'll have a child with health issues, uh, immune system dysregulation, uh, uh, it could be ADHD. It can be name it. And they'll come in and unfortunately they'll say, well, the pediatrician says that a diet doesn't matter.
And then you have to, then you start talking about, okay, why would they say that? And sometimes that's purely just that's not in their training because their job is to see a problem, diagnose, and then treat. And the treatment is usually medication. So if it's outside of that realm, that's out of their black and white.
Uh, everything else is gray. It's unknown or it is unapplicable. And that's pretty much the mindset of. of a medical doctor. And that's why some people are getting turned off by that, and they're seeking other means to get their health needs if they can't figure it out on their own. Dr. Justin Marchegiani
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: 100%.
And I don't think it's, you know, any big conspiracy like your doctor has all this information and is withholding it from you. And there's like, you know, I picture like a guy with a top hat and a monocle and a smoke filled room, right? With cigars, like they're not, it's not that right. Uh, corrupt. I think it just comes down to the average doctor lives 10 years less than the average patient.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani So it's not like these doctors have all this information and they're just withholding it from you. Their education is drugs and surgery. They're primarily founded by Big Food, Big Agra, and Big Pharma. And then if you go look at how that happened, I mean, you can go back to the Abraham Flexner Report 1910, paid for by the Carnegie Endowment that took medical schools in the direction of pharmaceutical and surgical care, moving away from chiropractic, naturopath, homeopathy.
That's kind of where, you We had a much more broader medical institution a hundred years ago and it's gotten way more specialized. Um, and it, it started there. And if you go read Good Energy, they kind of talk about where that started and how it's gotten to be where it is. And so then the average doctor, their curriculum and their education is this.
But the problem is there's a lot of hubris and arrogance behind it that if that doctor thinks, hey, if it was important, I would have been taught it at Harvard or Stanford. The problem is, it's not true, right? Because the powers to be and what created that curriculum for you, put that information in this track here, but all of this stuff that we're talking about nutrition wise, functional neurology wise is over here.
So that's, I think that's really the difference is just that the curriculum is very limited. I mean, for instance, the American Diabetic Association, Dr. Justin Marchegiani makes no specific recommendations of carbohydrates and sugar in diet to diabetics when we know diabetes is a disease of high blood sugar.
I mean, that's just not a main kind of where we're at with nutrition. It's crazy.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I tell my patients that all the time and there's a there is a neuropathy clinic two doors down from us. And it is a tragedy seeing these people try to even walk and there's nothing changing with their health.
It, it, it is, it, it, it's mind blowing. Absolutely mind blowing.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So I brought both my kids to see you and I know you did a very, It's very specific, kind of unique workup. I just, I like to always compare and contrast, right? Someone goes see their pediatrician or they go to see a neurologist, right? They're a mom or a dad that has a kid who's five or six or seven.
They know there's some brain issues, some learning issues. Just kind of compare and contrast for a few minutes. what does your assessment look like and then compare it to the general pediatrician or pediatric neurologist workup? Evan Brand
Dr. Alex Nelson: So, to be as brief as I can, it usually starts with consultation.
We wanna get the parents on the phone or in the office. If the child comes too, that's great. Uh, get to know them just like we did with you guys. Then make sure it's a fit. We wanna make sure parents are comfortable, make sure we're comfortable, make sure we think we can help you. Then, uh, Dr. Justin Marchegiani After that, we send you home with a chunk of paperwork and get to know the child on paper.
And then as long as everything lines up and there's no, what's called contradictions to care, then we're gonna have you come in for the exam. The exam can be anywhere from one to, uh, it can be more, uh, one hours, two hours, uh, three hours. Uh, today I did, uh, took me two hours to get through an exam, uh, on this, uh, 18 year old girl with autism.
And when the, when they come in for the exam, uh, development, it's going to be more development related. So I'm going to be looking at what's called a permanent reflexes. If those are present, then the next stage of development, uh, core strength, gross motor skills, and, uh, in general, muscle tone is going to be down.
It's going to be low. We're going to have issues. If that's going to have issues, then the next thing, um, that needs to develop, which is generally speaking, sensory processing. including your vestibular system, which is your brain's awareness, where your head is in space, your purpose of the system, your brain's awareness, where your body is in space and your bagel system, which is your brain's awareness of what's going on inside and amongst other things, then that's going to have issues.
Then next thing is fine motor skills, then an ocular motor control included in that. Then on top of all that, we have, uh, At the top of a tree, if you will, is going to be our cognitive, social, emotional, and physical traits. And we all want to see those four big topics and our kids be great. We want them to be socially with it.
You know, we want them to be emotionally with it as well. We want them to be Patrick Mahomes physically. We want them to, um, also, uh, just be great humans. And. If that's not enough to ask, if you have all of that stuff going on under the hood, then we're going to have problems. So depending on the child, um, Dr.
Lauren and I will assess it depending on the age. It could take, um, 50 points of data and observation up to 300 or more, and it takes hours. And then we go over the results and lay it out. And as long as it makes sense and everyone wants to move forward, then we start going to a brain based functional neurological program where we're working on the underlying.
areas of the brain that aren't working as well as they, they could. Dr.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Justin Marchegiani So essentially you have these refluxes in kids in delta two, but you see it more in kids as they mature, as their brain developments, develops these refluxes drop, right? So you're assessing whether these refluxes are apparent, and then you're also doing tests to look at the function of the nervous system, correct?
Dr. Justin
Dr. Alex Nelson: Marchegiani Absolutely.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Dr. Justin Marchegiani So what are the, what are some of the people listening, what are some of the, just your top three tests that you look at to really get a window to how that nervous system's working?
Dr. Alex Nelson: Dr. David Jockers Uh, probably my favorite are the primitive reflexes.
So the big one is, is that child has a retained Moreau reflex, that's the baby startle reflex. If that's present, we're gonna have heightened sympathetic nervous system activity. I like to look at the bagel system. If that bagel tone is low, we're going to have digestive issues, immune system issues. We're going to have socially emotional issues.
Um, that person is not going to be healthy, uh, by a lot of, a lot of means. Then I like to look at eye function. I use both bedside and a system called right eye where it's really cool. It's a computer with cameras at the bottom that watch how well the eyes move. So the kids. And adults stand in front of the computer and they just move their eyes and they're like, Oh my gosh, this sees how my eyes are moving.
And it's great. And it measures down to the micrometer how your eyes are moving. The eyes are a window into the brain. And that tells me a lot of information.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Dr. Justin Marchegiani That's very cool. Now, when you're looking at the brain, right, there's different parts of the brain, we have, you know, our cerebrum up top, and especially the frontal cortex.
which is higher learning, um, problem solving, uh, predicting outcome of actions, right, behavioral stuff. And then we have cerebellum in the back here, that big bump on the back, that's gonna be more balanced. It's gonna, it's gonna feed into the, to the cortex, but it's mainly on balance side of the fence. And then we have our brain stem in the back, which is gonna have, you know, medulla, pons, uh, midbrain, which is gonna have a lot more of the, you know, blood pressure, breathing, respiration, but a lot more of that kind of amygdala fight or flight response.
Is that correct? And so when you, when you're looking at a patient, are you, are you looking at these different imbalances and these different parts of the brain? Just, just, can you go a little bit deeper?
Dr. Alex Nelson: Yes. So I'm looking at all of that and the brain develops from the bottom up and I typically start the exam from the medulla, which is the lowest part of that brainstem up to the pons.
And then you said the midbrain go into the limbic system. The cerebellum is huge.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: The
Dr. Alex Nelson: cerebellum, there's more neurons in that cerebellum than there is in your cortex. And the cerebellum, yeah, the cerebellum is the master coordinator of the brain. It coordinates our motor function and our balance, but it coordinates our thoughts and it coordinates our emotions.
So go to sleep thinking about that tonight. Uh, and then we go into the separate lobes of the brain, the occipital lobe, temporal lobe, uh, parietal lobe, and of course the frontal lobes. And then we like to divide that out left and right and make sure we're having, uh, we're looking at the functions of all of that and that's done with.
Um, general core strength exercises, balance exercises, sensory integration, checking, uh, looking at how the eyes are moving five major areas in the brain control, how the eyes move. That's a great way to know into the brain again. Uh, lots of checklists because some of these things are cognitive and academic tasking or logic and reasoning tasking.
There's a lot of questionnaires and tasks and, uh, Uh, uh, questionnaires and just standardized checklist that we use, we look at this general function and that gives us a great window in it's functional neurology is what I call the clinical application of, uh, neuropsychology because a neuropsych will take the neurology and then apply it to try to help them cycle psychologically.
That's what funk neuro is. Whether we're working on a brain that's kind of demented or, or ADHD, we're looking at the areas that aren't working as they should, because we know what's normal. And then we're usually going after the areas that are under functioning. You can go after the higher functioning areas, but that's another topic.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. So when we look at this functional medicine kind of, I think dovetails perfectly with functional neurology. We look at most functional, we look at most neurologist tools, right? It's going to be mostly drugs. very little on the surgery side, unless there's like a, some kind of an acute bleed, then you're going to a neurosurgeon, right?
But for the most part, it's going to be medication where we're doing, we're looking at the cortex, we're looking at the hemisphere, we're looking at the different parts of the brain and how they manifest symptomatically with, with movements or functional testing. And then you're providing stimulus. to bring some of those parts of the brain up.
Can you just give me a couple of examples? Obviously, it's going to be specific. So if you're listening at home, like what are a couple of symptoms that you would see maybe with the cortex, hemisphericity, or a cerebellum? And what would be a couple of simple movements that could be done to bring one side up over the other?
Dr. Alex Nelson: You know, going back to the vagus nerve, that's probably the biggest one. So can't, you can get a little hemispheric with, with working on that vagus nerve. But, uh, simple breathing techniques is going to activate that Vegas, um, applying heat on your abdomen will activate that Vegas nerve. The Vegas nerve controls all those organs down there, including digestion.
And if you can tap into the physical attributes of that Vegas nerve, it's going to, that information is going to go in and talk to the corresponding areas that will eventually. Um, relay information up to the cortex that deal with social and emotional understanding. So like in office, for example, we have this device, uh, we put a electrical pad on, on the person, like maybe on their left hand, or I might put on their left leg, and then we will put a probe on their left ear.
And particularly on their Simba concha, and then we turn the probe on and it's sending a little electrical signal in and that's talking to the vagus nerve. And what's interesting is if I put on their left hand, and then I bring on some vibratory tactile input on the rest of their left body, then that information is going to activate their right brain.
And then their vagus nerve is getting activated at the same time. I might also use one of our cold lasers, uh, from shed light, where I'll be shining light, um, on their brain. At the same time, I could also be running, uh, specific tones at the same time to get more hemispheric input into the brain, uh, to activate.
Maybe the left or right side. So if I want to activate that right side more, I'm going to bring more sound in on the left side, uh, because 60 percent of your auditory input crosses over. Um, that's, that's probably one of the best examples. And that's what we do, uh, quite a bit of because, uh, the rates of anxieties and depressions are up and that is a.
pretty big, uh, function that is contributed by a lack of vagal tone input. Dr. Justin Marchegiani
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: In the vagus nerve, essentially, it's a cranial nerve number 10, right? And vagus literally translates to the wanderer. So it wanders from the brain all the way down to the, to the organs and it hits that parasympathetic that's kind of rest and relax, right?
And so when we go parasympathetic, that takes us away from that brainstem amygdala kind of fight or flight response that's more sympathetic. Is that right?
Dr. Alex Nelson: Correct. Correct.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: What else can we do that activates the parasympathetic in alignment with that vagus nerve?
Dr. Alex Nelson: So, outside of breathing techniques, and there's breathing, simple breathing techniques like box breathing.
People can look up box breathing. There's great tutorials online. Uh, you can look up, uh, 1 to 2 ratio breathing. So the amount of time you take breathing in, double it breathing out. Breathing in is a sympathetic nervous system activity. Breathing out is a parasympathetic nervous system activity. Uh, it's why when you are panicked or worked up, it's a good idea to breathe in, but breathe out very slowly because it's going to activate the parasympathetics.
Um, the other, uh, next best thing outside of, uh, if we can go into nutritional means is exercise. There's nothing that metabolizes cortisol better than actually sleep and exercise. If we can, uh, have the person move and get their heart rate up, there is no better prescription on the planet for, um, getting that vagus nerve, that vagal system to not necessarily directly engage, but secondarily engage because the frontal lobes are going to kick in more.
We're going to have more endorphins. We're going to have better top down approach to that vagus nerve.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: A hundred percent. One of the things I do with my patients, I do functional glucose tolerance testing. We'll get a really good blood sugar meter. I like the, uh, the keto mojo cause it's got a Bluetooth link so you can graph it to your cell phone.
You can see the graph on it. So we'll do a before we eat test and then we'll do a one, two hour, three hour, and we can see how our blood sugar goes in that first couple of hours. Cause that first hour or two is where we dump most of our insulin. And most people, they literally live their life on a blood sugar roller coaster.
And when you spike up really high, you make a lot of insulin, your beta cells, the pancreas go crazy. And then a lot of times. if you're, you know, not fully insulin resistant or diabetic yet. Now you have this reactive hypoglycemic drop and then now your blood sugar goes to the floor and now you're making lots of adrenaline and cortisol to pick up, um, your blood sugar.
And so when you do that, that creates more of this fight or flight sympathetic response. And people say, how does exercise help with cortisol? Well, what happens is when you spike cortisol, You actually are mobilizing a bunch of glucose because prehistorically, stressing cortisol meant I needed to run or fight something and I needed instantaneous fuel for my arms and legs to use.
The problem is when we're stressed at our computer or at our car, that glucose is like we just ate a freaking candy bar and now we're not using it. And so by getting some movement, even a simple five or 10 minute walk that clears out the glucose from the cortisol, which then prevents that insulin resistance.
kind of pathway from happening. Thoughts on that? My,
Dr. Alex Nelson: so I couldn't have said it any better. The one thing that comes to mind, if people don't already know this, because if, if we don't need to go into controversy, uh, by all means, but if, if autism does not bankrupt our country, um, Then and or dementia will.
And in the world of, um, in the world of research in, when it comes to dementia and the most common form of that is Alzheimer's, uh, in the world of research, it's called type three diabetes. Whenever it comes to a brain that is, um, falling to dementia, Or degenerating, whether it's subclinical or clinical, there is always, always, always a blood sugar component.
And there's always a, with that within that same system is, um, the stress handling system. Um, it's, it's not going to be up to snuff to handle it. Uh, so for people that are concerned about having a brain that might not be up to par one day, or you're concerned about your loved ones, it is. keeping your blood sugar in a healthy range is what is, is number one.
That is always what we go after before we even talk about working on your brain and having come in the office and do fun brain exercises. I'm like, well, we got to go over what you're putting in your mouth and how much of it, because it, all of that work doesn't matter. 100%.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I'm going to pull up a tab here.
This is really important. So Blue Cross did a spot, a study, right? This is an in house study with all the people that are Blue Cross insurance. members. Oh, wow. And this came out right at the time of COVID, right? So this is like February 27, 2020. So you can, you can go back in time to what was going on then, but this is crazy.
So this is people that have Blue Cross check out these numbers. The numbers of diagnosed people with Alzheimer's and dementia in the 30 to 44 age group went up 373%. What? And among 45, yeah, so 373 percent between 30 year old to 44 year old adults. This is crazy, right? And when you go back and I, I'm a mechanism guy, right?
I know you are too in functional neurology world. But if you just go type in something called insulin degrading enzyme, okay? Insulin degrading enzyme is an enzyme that breaks down and metabolizes insulin. It is in the brain. It's active in the brain. The problem with that enzyme, that enzyme is also responsible for clearing out inflammation and plaque in the brain.
Problem is you only have so much of it. So imagine someone spills a bunch of water on the floor, right, you go to mop that water up, right, let's call that water, glucose, and insulin. Let's say someone spills another bit of liquid and that is more inflammation and plaque. The problem is that mop is already saturated, it can't clear up the other mess in the brain.
So this is a sign that our brains are overloaded. And part of it has to do with, like you said, type three diabetes, and then you get in the nitty gritty. It's the insulin degrading enzyme. That is the issue that's being stressed there.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Whoa. So I'm kind of speechless. I did not know this stat. Uh,
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: so
Dr. Alex Nelson: this
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I'll put it in the chat too.
I'll put it in the chat, people listening. My
Dr. Alex Nelson: gosh. So, uh, of course that's a relative stat. So I I'd like to know what the numbers are, like how many, how many adults that are in my age group. Your age group are walking around with dementia. Yes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: This is from the Blue Cross Blue Shield website. This is not like some, you know, BuzzFeed article, right?
This is internal studies from their own, from their own Blue Cross Blue Shield people, which, you know, is in the millions of people.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Okay. Cause I, you know, I, I joke and I say this tongue in cheek, but after COVID, I started questioning people's frontal lobes, especially on the road driving. I'm like, Oh, this is, this is someone who's not doing good here.
It's just based on the behavior of the car, right? Right, right, right. This completely validates it. Uh, but this goes hand in hand. Uh, this goes hand in hand with things like, um, simply trying intermittent fasting and what that can do to clean my brain. It is, uh, I am an, I am unapologetically, uh, uh, Christian.
So whether you believe we've been on the planet 6 million years, 6 billion years or 6, 000, the thing is, we are meant to go a long time without food. A long time, regardless, and our, our brains and our bodies are really good at actually detoxifying and cleansing itself, uh, by not eating food. And that's why intermittent fasting is such a, almost like a fad.
Now, uh, people are like, Oh, I'm doing fasting. I'm like, yeah, you've been doing it for 10 years. Like you're not exactly supposed to do it. You know, all the time, every day, but, uh, that brings up the point of fasting and, uh, not chronically overloading your, your system with food. So
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: here's the thing. Go ahead.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Oh, no, no, go ahead.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So it's been said out there that they're trying to pass Ozempic for obese children, right? You know, under 13 years old as a, as a first line therapy, just give me your, your knee jerk reaction.
Dr. Alex Nelson: The first, unfortunately, thing that comes to mind is, uh, cancer, uh, and that's because, so, well, uh, these, these medications, they are rough on the pancreas and the liver. So these drugs that are being used for type one, sorry, type two diabetes, and then now people are using it for weight loss. What they're not talking about is the risk of pancreatic and liver cancers go up.
Um, As a first line therapy, I don't see that kid necessarily getting off the medication then, especially through hormonal changes at, at being 13, 14, 15 years of age. And I'm not sure what that's going to do to their, um, HPA access. to be honest with you.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I agree. I mean, I always look at the mechanism of the drug, right?
So mechanism one, right? Glucagon like peptide one. So it's basically increasing glucose production when glucose goes up, but it's decreasing it overall to it's paralyzing the stomach in a way. So food sits longer in the stomach. So it creates a satiation signal. So essentially what you're doing is you're manipulating the satiation signal in the brain.
So now you're more in control of your appetite, but the problem is. You still have to have education about eating the right foods because if you're still eating processed food, then that's a problem because now you're eating less food. So now the food still processed. Now we got a big problem of nutritional efficiencies, right?
And um, and number two, what does that do to digestion? How does that impact absorption of other nutrients? I mean, we saw it with like metformin cause all kinds of methylation B vitamin issues. And um, we know that it hits the addiction center of the brain where now you may not get any pleasure out of eating.
Okay. And so now do you eat enough? We know there's all kinds of muscle wasting data on people with taking those Zempik because they don't eat enough protein. So now their muscle starts to waste. And so now it's like you literally have to force food. Imagine like after a Thanksgiving Day dinner, like someone forcing more food in you.
That's what eating most of the time is like. medications.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Yeah. And now you're, now you're doing that to a teenager who is naturally, let's just say they're neurotypical, uh, quote, uh, they're already going through a stage in their life where they're going to be obstinate. So then, Yeah. They're supposed to grow, um, they're supposed to nourish their bodies quite a bit more than an adult.
And now you're going to,
there's so much in my mind now, now, and talk about the females who, uh, have, have a heavy, have it heavy on their hearts on how they look. And we have these females who are you going to try to convince a female who lost weight? With taking this drug to eat, uh, because they, they finally look decent. They're not going to eat.
And now we're going to end up having, um, uh, brain based just in my world, brain based, nutritional deficiency problems. We're going to, like you said, they're not gonna eat protein. We'll, we'll end up having, I don't, are we going to end up having people with true berry, berry walk around? Because,
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: yeah,
Dr. Alex Nelson: I, or, or,
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: or
Dr. Alex Nelson: I'm just thinking just like actual old school, very, very scurvy, uh, where people are not, uh, not getting nutrients because they're, they're simply not eating.
Oh gosh. I agree.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And also if we're. I know it's crazy. I mean also if we're impacting the part of the brain that allows pleasure from food and that we're also seeing it, we're seeing it now being used for addiction because it cuts off that addiction. But I mean, you would know better than me, but I mean those areas are probably pretty close to the areas of the brain that allow you to feel pleasure being with your spouse, doing the hobby, being with your kids.
I imagine those pleasure centers are pretty close and you probably see other apathy and other mood and depression related issues maybe as a side effect of these medications.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Yes. Uh, yeah. Uh, addiction is addiction is addiction. It doesn't matter if you're getting your pleasure from your technology or sex, drugs, rock and roll.
Um, but then if you are not getting pleasure from things, then yeah, apathy is going down. I wonder what these drugs do to dopamine in the long run. What is that going to do to? Dopamine production, metabolism levels in general. Um, that, that is very concerning. So then now you have, now you have a teenager who doesn't want to eat.
They're going to be even more apathetic there. I mean, good luck seeing them come out of their house, come out of their room. If they have a phone in their hand, let alone being on this drug. Uh, I did not know they're doing this. I, I, I know that they're pushing for this drug to be used a lot. Um, and there's.
Uh, a lot going on behind the scenes to get it marketed and really get it pushed. It's going to be coming. A lot of people are going to see these ads more, but not on kids. That's holy cow.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And my general recommendation is if you're three, 400 pounds, two, three, 400 pounds overweight and you don't have, you don't ever get full, that satiation signal is broken due to constant insulin resistance and, and hyper stimulating, hyper palatable dopamine foods.
Maybe that makes sense for a period of time. My general recommendation, if you use it. chart your food, make sure you're getting enough protein, one pound per pound of body weight, and make sure you chart your, your micronutrients. Make sure they're all checking off, use an app like chronometer, make sure your micros and macros make sense.
Um, and, but always try to get to the root cause. I think going the functional neurology, functional medicine way, there's so many other tools we have in our tool belt, nutritionally, nutrient wise, exercise wise. Uh, hormone wise that I think may be a better approach. And also what if you're hypoadrenal, hypothyroid, and then you're going that?
Well, there's so many other systems that are broken that I consider a higher up that need to be worked on first.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Oh my gosh. Holy cow. Yeah, that, uh, that is mind blowing. Now I am. Now I got to put that on my list and go down this rabbit hole and see when this is coming because this is scary, not good.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And so we can imagine, we can imagine like these 30 to 44 year olds in this Blue Cross Blue Shield study that are, they're being diagnosed, right?
We know that diagnosis has probably been coming for 10, 20 years. So now are we starting to see the first signs, the first step in the direction of Alzheimer's and dementia with 6, year olds? I'm going to guess that's, it's starting there at least it's got to start somewhere, right?
Dr. Alex Nelson: I mean, I don't want to say even early as in their third or fourth decade of life, but oh my gosh, uh, I, there certainly could be some with, with the right, I'll say recipe, uh, in the teen years, I could see signs of that occurring, uh, with, with the quote, right medications, like a GLP one, um, you know, anti psychotic, um, and the continued, um, Um, Just abuse of their, uh, whether they know it or not, abuse of their body with diet and exercise and just improper sleep hygiene, all of that.
I could see that. I could 100 percent see that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So what do you see on your functional neurological assessments? I mean, obviously you may do a diet diary. You may talk about nutrition and just gleam it from that and from their daily routine. But what are you seeing from a manifestation physically in your testing?
Dr. Alex Nelson: Uh, the biggest thing when these issues are present. Oh yeah. Uh, the biggest thing with, with, uh, most of these, Situations is I'm working with primarily people with attention issues, um, sensory problem, sensory processing problems, again, uh, children on the spectrum. The thing is, is these people are out of shape, whether it's physically they're overweight or they just do not have strength.
That is, that is a very big, big ordeal. Um, this is a, this is a bit of a bombshell, but to put it in perspective, if you have a nonverbal child, um, depending on how old they are. And again, this is not to be braggadocious, not to sound arrogant. This is not what this is supposed to be, but the muscle tone of a nonverbal kid is going to be very low.
They're going to be a sack of potatoes. They're not going to be able to move their body
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: well.
Dr. Alex Nelson: The foundation to find motor skills and your verbal skills are a fine motor skill. The foundation of fine motor skills is core strength and gross motor skills. So to get a child to talk, um, that is nonverbal. Uh, we hound them and we kick their butts.
Basically we look like personal trainers and we get them to move. Their bodies, that is the ultra worst case scenario when you have a kid who's non verbal. Um, otherwise a lot of these kids, uh, whether they're verbal or non verbal, they are just, they're out of shape. So more and more of our program is being.
Physically oriented. And then we're trying our best to have, um, have other practitioners. Like I needed to start sending families to you so they can, you can see them on the nutritional needs cause it's getting to be overwhelming or other practitioners like you to take care of them nutritionally and then.
Our next office is going to basically have a whole, uh, it's almost going to look like a personal training studio and some part of it because of how much physical exercise these, these kiddos need.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So you said some things that really hit a chord. So you're talking about kids that are non verbal, they need to move.
So you're talking about fine motor skills. What are some examples of fine motor skill exercise?
Dr. Alex Nelson: So with, with kiddos on the spectrum, uh, for instance, uh, they, we always want them to learn how to use a pencil draw. Uh, we want them to be able to button their shirt, try to dress themselves. We want them to be able to talk.
We want them to verbalize. We are, we are, um, organisms that are meant to speak. And if. And if they're not speaking, then there's, um, obviously something wrong, but that is not necessarily a, uh, a verbal problem. It is a downstream, um, or upstream, if you will. And it's going to be a gross motor, uh, or a core strength problem.
So sometimes these kiddos, you can get some of their other fine motor skills taken care of, but because. Uh, verbal skills is such a, uh, it is such a dominant task of the brain. If you will, it takes a lot of metabolic activity. Um, you can get them to use their hands a little bit, but get them to use their mouth.
Uh, that takes a little bit more and it's usually. stemming from this core strength and gross motor skills problem.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Dr. Justin Marchegiani And I imagine too, in your office, you're using a lot of laser technology. So you're doing probably some of these movements plus stimulating deeper parts of the brain at the same time.
I'm probably, you probably get better results doing that, right? Evan
Dr. Alex Nelson: Brand Yeah. And we hook, we hook them up on electrical equipment to do the strengthening for them, all, all sorts of things at the same time. Dr. Justin Marchegiani
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So it hits an accelerator. So you're giving parents exercises at home, but then you're doing things in the office that are kind of supercharging it.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Yes, it kind of more advanced forms of it involving technology.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So you kind of talked about patients that you see, you give an example of like the nonverbal patient. What would that, you know, again, not saying that that particular patient, but that kind of patient in general, what would their kid's diet be like?
Dr. Alex Nelson: Most of the time, uh, those kiddos are very picky. They, uh, they, Have poor olfaction systems. That's part of what's going on with that brain disorder. Um, and that is because their sensory systems are very at what's called close to threshold. So if you're talking about a neuron, you got to follow me to your people.
When it's at rest, it's down here. When it's ready to fire, it's up here. Uh, most of the time they're here. And it doesn't take much to overspill it. So if these kids often they walk in a room and they could smell delicious baked cookies and it's gross to them because it's too much input for their system and they, and they're like, that's disgusting.
And, and out, out the room to go. So that's why bland chicken nuggets and mac and cheese are good because it's carbohydrates, sugar for their adrenals and then it's, uh, a gluten, just baked into a chicken that's been processed and it's gonna taste good. Um, so their diets are usually, usually just that maybe a couple other things, but not much past that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And you say gluten is a problem, right? From an inflammation standpoint in the brain. In your office
Dr. Alex Nelson: a hundred percent. If it's not a it, it's inflammatory for the brain one. And then most of the time people are sensitive to it too. And that it's a kind of a hum dinger and at least the gluten in our country, it's, we're not really meant to eat it.
Uh, at least, at least not regularly, every day, three times a day. It's right. Not meant for our brain.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Exactly. Now let's just kind of go over some parenting skills. So you got a kid who's really picky. How do you handle it? Like my natural approach is this is one it's environment. Like the other crap is not around because if the kids can't see the other things, it's just a sense of, this is all we got.
Once there's that reservation of like, there's nothing else hiding around the corner. Okay. And then hunger kind of sits in and then they're more open to eating healthier food. So I might recommend a take is environment number one and number two. Parents should be modeling the things that they want their kids to eat.
They should be eating it. Having that family dinner or family meal where they're eating the thing as well, uh, kind of creates that, Hey, you know, it's good for the goose. It's good for the gander. What's your take on that? And what else would you add to it? How forceful should you be outside of just saying, Hey, well, if you don't want to eat it, then we'll just go hungry at this meal.
How do you handle it?
Dr. Alex Nelson: Well, it's not only that, but then you, uh, I do a lot of, I try to advocate for a lot of the ad. Um, ad rule. So, um, yeah, I got the chicken nuggets and he got the Mac and cheese over here, but you have to try this. And I'm not saying like, try your leaf of lettuce. Like, no, no, no. Um, you're going to have this much and children on the spectrum are, um, they need expectations.
So you tell them exactly that you say you eat this right here, right here. Then you can have, um, lay it out for them. And, and then even lay it out before you even have dinner. So expectations, um, do, do well with these kids. You say, we're going to eat in one hour, one hour. You're going to have your chicken nuggets, Mac and cheese.
Before that, you're going to have, I'm going to have a little square on your plate and you're going to eat all of that other food in that, in that square. If you do not, then you don't, then you can, then you make your deal. Whatever it is, you take something away. Uh, of that food and you make that, you can make that the award if you will, or you, or you simply just say, uh, point blank period, cause they understand black and white.
That's all their brains know is you eat this before that or nothing. Eventually they'll get it. Some people are like, Well, my kid's gonna starve and I'm like, your kid's gonna be okay for less than 24 hours without food. It's okay.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Exactly. Your kid's just trying to figure out how much they can get away with.
And once they feel like there's no wiggle room, they'll do the right thing. Uh, in my family, it's very similar as well, right? So if let's say there's some berries or something that's more carbohydrate rich, that's, you know, cleaner, maybe some sweet potato fries and some avocado oil or a handful of fresh blueberries, those are put off to the side and we're eating our protein or fat.
and maybe a no thank you bite of the vegetable first. And the no thank you bite isn't even about getting nutrition. It's about exposing that taste to the brain. So the brain gets there to normalize that taste. And the biggest problem I have is, okay, you do it, but you piss and moan and whine the whole way doing it.
And my whole thing is if you piss and moan and whine, but do it, it's as if you didn't do it. And we have a small little table and I move that table outside. I'm like, all right, pick the table up. So we go out my patio. Now we close the door. Now you can eat out there. So if you're going to piss and moan, no one can hear you, right?
If he falls in the woods, no one hears it. It's like, did it happen? Sure. Right. So that's kind of my, my, um, you know, obviously I had that more masculine energy. Um, my wife's more nurturing about it. So we kind of balance each other out.
Dr. Alex Nelson: And it's harder with kids with needs, but a couple of simple tactics can go a long way.
It doesn't matter if your kid's neurotypical or if they have issues, it's a behavioral, there's going to be behavior driving it. And you don't, I I'm saying I, it might sound rude as I say this, but you don't need a frontal lobe to train, to, to, to, to train behavior behavior is, um, if you can get a, a severely, um, special needs child to have some basic, um, Function and behavior.
That's not their frontal lobes doing that. That's other lower brain centers. It's the same for food. So a hundred percent modeling, a hundred percent setting expectations and, uh, giving them, giving them, um, even long term expectations. You can say, you can even tell them in like in a week, we're going to start this four days, three, two, one today we're doing this, uh, and that goes a long way because you're introducing change in their life and most of them don't do good with change.
So setting the expectation is. Massive for these kids.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. And also if there's a processed food that, you know, your kids are eating, that's not healthy and, but let's say you've kind of, let's say this information is new for you and you're trying to make a change. A really good thing is take that food in the house and have your kid throw that food in the trash with you on trash day and say bye to it.
Bye. That's it. Kids do the same thing with pacifiers. Hook it up to a balloon. Bye Passy. Same thing with food. And that way the kid can see that they're part of the change in environment. It's no longer going to be there and they can see that.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Yeah, that's huge. That's uh, I like that a lot. That's massive.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yep. So it's environment. It's, it's framing. The framing thing out is, is so key because so many parents, they're parenting kids like this in the moment and kids in the moment, once they get a surprise, their limbic system gets fired up and it's going to take 20, 30 minutes to come down from that. So you're going to be dealing with an irrational kid all dinner long so that the framing of expectations ahead of time is, is so crucial.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Yeah. It goes a long way. It's, it's so important to these kids. Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Very good. Well, I know we're going to wrap up here in a few minutes, but what else are you seeing? Like, what are some other simple issues? I shouldn't say simple, it's all complicated, but maybe you, maybe you have simple steps, um, to address it.
What are the big issues that you're seeing with parents that are coming into your office? And what are just like some simple strategies that people are missing? Like too much carbohydrate, too much inflammatory food, uh, not enough movement. Like what are some simple things someone can listen to and start implementing today without being under the care of a doctor?
Dr. Alex Nelson: Uh, technology. So there's, uh, we're all guilty of it, but technology is getting, uh, overused. So too many, I, I, I am not a parent of a child with special needs. So this is not a judgment. And again, some of it might sound harsh. Uh, these kids have to get off devices. Uh, addiction is addiction, whether it is, um, electronics or sex, drugs, rock and roll, you have to take that away.
They're getting their dopamine from the, from these devices. The only reason that they quote behave, behave better and they do better, um, is because they're getting such a dopamine rush while they're on it. They're completely zombied out and locked in. So they need to, uh, uh, we need to have the children off, uh, parents, uh, need to kind of go back and think about good old fashioned American family days and go outside for walks, go outside and play, uh, sit around a living room without.
And the electronics going, it is actually liberating after you do it for a while. Um, something, uh, I can't believe I have to even use this term, a device list dinner. Like I have my phone here to watch the time. Cause I got to get back to the office in 15 minutes, but normally this, I'm going to keep this away from me.
Um, There should be no devices near the dinner table. Dinner time is social time. It is time to catch up on what is going on in your, in your child's life. Special needs are not, uh, open ended questions. Like, how was your day? That doesn't go anywhere. Um, Hey, little Johnny, how was that math test today?
Didn't go well. Hey, bust it out right here. Let's go over it right now. Like, yeah, let's look at it. Let, let me see that. And yeah, I don't care if the broccoli gets on it. I want to see, I want to see a math test. Let's talk about it. Let's figure it out. Make, make dinner time, social time devices need to go.
Uh, our local school district and Lee summit is talking about the board, some rumor, maybe Nick would know more about having, uh, No phones at schools. Uh, I will get up there in front of anyone and say, yes, and you'll, you're going to, you're going to see kids go through, you'll see kids go through withdraw, but, uh, after that, uh, you will see if they want to be motivated for test scores and, uh, federal funding, you will see, um, scores go up a hundred percent, it'll be unbelievable.
And you'll see drug usage go down. By the way, the number one place to get drugs is. Snapchat.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes. And also two kids are, you know, our generation that was in school 20, 30 years ago. Okay, great. You were bullied at school. Crap. It sucks. Right. But now the bullying never ends because now you're on social media, Snapchat, Instagram, and the bullying is relentless and it's around the clock.
Right. So I agree. It should be zero technology. Phones should be able to be brought into school. Zero. I fully support that in my home. We have very little technology time, maybe 30 minutes, an hour a week, and my kids have to earn it. So it's, it's left brain, right brain exercise, right? So it's left brain, go play baseball, go play catch, go run around, right brain, go build your magnet tiles up, go play some music, go create something, right?
So we're trying to. Think about things to get both sides of the brain in there and not rely on a screen to over stimulate them and bathe their neurons and dopamine. So I think that's important that go with the foundational things first, right? It's like old foods don't cause new disease. Well, all the exercises are good for the brain, right?
Legos, go for a walk, go throw the ball around, hide in the seat, cops and robbers, right? Keep it simple. Keep it old school.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Yeah. It goes a long way. Absolutely.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Cool. And I think that's so important on the school stuff. I think that is so important. And kids do not realize, parents do not realize the people that created these devices in Silicon Valley do not let their kids use it.
Just remember that. Or if you do, it's like, It's like 95 5, right? It's a very small percent of the time and, and try to use it for, for more beneficial type of means. Anything else, Dr. Alex, you wanna leave us with?
Dr. Alex Nelson: You know, I'm kinda tapped at the moment. Uh, I'm blessed to say we're, we're busy with this stuff every day.
I gotta get back. so I can get to a patient but this is
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: great.
Dr. Alex Nelson: No, th
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: if someone wants to get a that work?
Dr. Alex Nelson: You can go the care dot com. You can fin and instagram. We post ma
Dr. I think underscore Alex Nelson on Instagram. You won't see much brain stuff there. Honestly, uh, you'll see more personal things that are posted, but HMO functional care. com. You can find us all there and, and what we're all about. People can come in for consultations to get to know us and see if it's a fit or not.
And then also
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Dr. Justin Marchegiani
Dr. Alex Nelson: Oh, I was about to say also that our, our podcast, we'll have to have you on mine, uh, the Dr. Alex show.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: The Dr. Alex show. Awesome. Well, very cool. We'll put the link down below if you guys are driving or you're walking and you can't quite get to your computer, look at the description below, we'll pin a comment as well to get ahold of Dr.
Alex. Dr. Alex, he's patients in person in the Kansas City, Lee summit area, as well as worldwide telemedicine wise, if you don't have someone in your area. So Dr. Alex, it was a pleasure having you on the podcast, I appreciate all the knowledge you dropped him. People are listening. You know, if you can benefit, share with one family member or friend, try to take one action point and try to apply it to you and your kids lives.
Thanks so much, Dr. Alex. Appreciate it.
Dr. Alex Nelson: Thank you.
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