Transcript
Speaker: We're just going to store it on the desktop. There we go. There's the desktop. Sarah Kort's special desktop full of 187,000 files. That I always know where they are because they're right in front of my face. You sound like my husband. I'm like, Nathan, your clothes are everywhere. He's like, no, they're all in a specific place on the floor exactly where I put them. And I'm going to be upset if you move them off the floor because i put everything where I need it. i'm like, listen, if I know where everything is, yeah, if it's if my system works for me.
Speaker: Those are his exact words, Sarah. Yeah. I'm Laurel Beversdorf, strength and conditioning coach. And I'm Dr. Sarah Court, physical therapist. For too long, women have been sidelined in strength training. Oh, you mean handed pink dumbbells and told to sculpt?
Speaker: Whatever that means. We're here to change that with tools, evidence, and ideas that center women's needs and voices. Welcome to the conversation. Welcome to the Movement Logic Podcast. My name is Sarah Kort. I'm a physical therapist.
Speaker: And today, this is part two of our Make Louisa Nicola Make Sense episodes. We split it into two because the original recording was over three hours long, and we thought that was a mean thing to do to you.
Speaker: So if you have not yet listened to part one, Make Louise and Nicola Make Sense Part One, you definitely should stop right now, go and listen to it, because in that episode, we outlined very clearly the current...
Speaker: evidence around what the risk factors actually are for Alzheimer's disease and the appropriate way that those risk factors should be interpreted.
Speaker: We did this because we wanted you to know what the actual statistics are, how to interpret them, and what the risk factors really mean for you from very reliable sources like the Alzheimer's Association and the Lancet so that you could then compare that to what Louisa Nicola is saying and doing and how she is taking those facts and manipulating them to scare you into buying her products.
Speaker: So definitely go back and listen to that first for context. Before we get to the second part of the episode, I just wanted to let you guys know that Lift for Longevity, our six-month barbell, evidence-based, evidence-based weightlifting course for women,
Speaker: starts again on September 28th. If you are interested in that, you want to learn more about it, you want to get some fun freebie videos, and you want to get your questions answered about the course, then you should get on our interest list.
Speaker: It's the only place you're going to get all of that information, plus the only available discount on the course should you decide to take it. If you are on our regular mailing list, you need to go and get yourself on this special separate interest list. And that is available at the link in our show notes.
Speaker: With no further ado, here is part two of Make Louisa Nicola Make Sense.
Speaker: Myth number four, the female brain literally eats itself during menopause without hormone therapy. Oh, boy. Yeah. So we're going to listen to this gem. This is a clip from a conversation she had with Kelly Kasperson, who is a urologist who pushes testosterone therapy.
Speaker: We'll let that sink in. We are well overdue on a Kelly Kasperson episode. Yeah, we are. really are. Did I hear this correctly? That Dr. Brinton said after menopause, when estrogen goes down, the brain can't utilize glucose, so the brain eats itself.
Speaker: Did I get that right? Clear this up for me. I'm like, this is what I heard. And you're like, yep. A female's brain literally eats itself during menopause if you don't replace it with hormone replacement therapy. Estrogen in the brain does multiple things. One of them is it helps with glucose metabolism.
Speaker: What do we see in women at the onset of menopause? We see a reduction in brain glucose metabolism of 20 to 30%. So when the brain cells don't have glucose to operate, to function, glucose is the main primary fuel source for the brain. What does it do? Well, it doesn't sit there in a starved state because neurons are smart and they're hungry. So it says, how can i feed myself?
Speaker: And I don't have any available ketones right now. So it makes its own ketones by using the fat in the brain. Your brain is literally just eating itself.
Speaker: Oh my God. I mean, i think my brain is eating itself from having listened to that. It's like, I don't want to be here anymore. I'm going to eat myself. I want to live in a world where this clip goes viral on Instagram and people lose their fucking mind.
Speaker: For the wrong reasons. We think she may be drawing on 2021 research paper from Moscone et al. that provides evidence that menopause is indeed associated with measurable differences in brain structure and metabolism.
Speaker: However, it does not provide evidence that menopause causes Alzheimer's disease, nor does it ever fucking show that these brain changes inevitably lead to your brain eating itself or any other form of dementia or cognitive decline.
Speaker: Okay, but interestingly, the study did find that during the menopause transition, some brain regions showed lower glucose metabolism So suggesting that menopause is associated with changes in brain glucose metabolism, blood flow, ATP production, structured amyloid markers.
Speaker: That is not eating itself. Okay. That is not what that means. Nope. And the paper showed that, this is very interesting, postmenopausal women showed lower glucose metabolism in some regions, but also higher cerebral blood flow and ATP production, preserved cognition, and some gray matter recovery. So they the authors describe this as possible progression. compensatory adaptation.
Speaker: The papers showed that, and this is cool, that some structural measures appeared to recover after menopause. So the brain is changing, it's going through a transition, and then it recovers these structural measures, suggesting that at least part of this process, really what it represents is adaptation, not degeneration.
Speaker: The brain is changing, not self-cannibalizing. And then the using its own fat to survive claim is probably a distorted version of the paper's discussion of possible alternative fuel use, including ketones.
Speaker: Okay. That is also not the same thing as saying the brain is consuming itself. And the study did not directly show that brain fat was being used as fuel in case that's what she's trying to say. It's yeah, I don't again, like pull it out of your ass claim. Like what? How did you go from the brain is changing and using fuel differently to its eating itself?
Speaker: So, yeah, I don't know. She's essentially implying that if you don't get on MHT, is this whole thing an endorsement for for hormones? It sounds like it. If you don't go on MHT, your brain will rot away.
Speaker: and and so another really important thing to note, NAMS, or now just called the Menopause Society, says hormone therapy is effective for couple things. This is why you take hormone therapy.
Speaker: For vasomotor symptoms and genitourinary syndrome of menopause. but it is not recommended at any age to prevent or treat cognitive decline or dementia. I would like to include, and I will find it for you, a link from a scientist who used to be the president of the Menopause Society.
Speaker: I'm blanking on her name. Anyway, she's a like hardcore scientists who created an excellent post that looked at some of the studies that were used or misused by some grifters to show or suggests that menopause does cause cognitive decline or dementia.
Speaker: And, or she, you know, uses the, she points out these studies and what they actually showed, or she uses evidence to refute the claim that menopause causes dementia. So, oh, her name is Mackie.
Speaker: I'm going to pop that into the show notes for us because you should follow her. Great. So the entire, the entire claim from your brain is eating itself is wrong.
Speaker: And that you need to be on hormone therapy in order to prevent Alzheimer's is wrong. The entire clip is wrong. Nothing is true about it. Nothing is true. She does. i mean, she, and this takes us into our next myth.
Speaker: She does say exercise is your insurance, but she, and I've been thinking about this a lot. She, alongside Stacey Sims and Vonda Wright are all obsessed with zone five. And I, I don't, I don't get it.
Speaker: And I not, not right now, but somewhere else, maybe there is a ah post or a episode about why are they all? But anyway, she's written two part series in her sub stack.
Speaker: about not, quote unquote, wasting your time in zone two. She's brought this up a lot in other interviews. And basically, Laurel, if you're someone who's not doing any aerobic exercise at all and you don't have a lot of time, according to Louisa Nicola, the answer is zone five, bitches.
Speaker: She pitches it as like a time saver. Don't go for a walk, go for a sprint. Yeah. Anyway. So unlike her friends, Stacey Sims and Vonda Wright, who are both pushing this zone five or nothing for muscle and bone, which is not true. Louisa Nicola is pushing it for Alzheimer's prevention protection with an incredible piece of mechanistic theater where she takes a series of mechanisms and then links them all together to create completely unsupported conclusions.
Speaker: Here's what she does. I'm gonna do this medium fast if I can. So exercise gives you increased what's called brain derived neurotrophic factor, BDNF.
Speaker: It's often called fertilizer for the brain. It helps neurons survive and grow. It contributes to learning and memory. There is evidence that acute high intensity exercise meaning in that moment, causes larger increases in circulating BDNF than moderate exercise, but that does not translate into lower Alzheimer's incidence decades later.
Speaker: Lactate. High-intensity exercise produces a lot of lactate. Lactate crosses the blood-brain barrier. Neurons can use lactate as fuel. Lactate also stimulates that BDNF.
Speaker: Therefore, Alzheimer's prevention. Right. VO two max higher VO two max is associated with lower mortality, better cardiovascular health, lower dementia risk, healthier aging.
Speaker: But then again, improving VO two max is not the same as proving that zone five is in uniquely protective against Alzheimer's mitochondria. Zone five creates stronger mitochondrial adaptations than zone two.
Speaker: There is evidence for this. There is not good evidence that it connects to long-term Alzheimer's prevention. neuroplasticity, right? Higher intensity exercise leads to greater neuroplasticity.
Speaker: Well, what it really shows is that high intensity exercise creates more BDNF, but she's making this leap from BDNF to neuroplasticity and thus better learning, greater cognitive reserve, protection from dementia.
Speaker: But there's no clinical evidence to connect any of these things. And also, I'm always thinking about this. If zone five was really so superior, surely the physical activity guidelines would support this, but they don't.
Speaker: The physical activity guidelines worldwide support a mix of moderate or vigorous aerobic activity plus muscle strengthening exercise. That's it.
Speaker: They're not saying zone two only. They're not saying zone five only. They're saying do enough activity, include strength training, include include aerobic training, match the intensity to the person in front of you.
Speaker: if yeah if If there was anything else, if the answer was anything else than that, we would know it already. This is not like your doctors don't want you to know about zone five, right? It's just not. Yeah, the Lancet actually looked at an RCT that looked at high intensity interval training and moderate intensity continuous training and then a control group.
Speaker: The control group was not sedentary. So they were encouraged to follow the National Physical Activity Guidelines. And by the end, 96% of the control group was meeting those guidelines. lines And there was no significant differences between the groups in cognitive function or the odds of developing mild cognitive impairment after five years. What do you think about that, Luis and Nicola?
Speaker: Okay, heavy resistance training is uniquely necessary for brain protection. Yeah. As we were saying. I did a post about a post that Luis and Nelcola created, which we are calling an example of evidence cosplay in which she stands in front of a paper and lies about it. yes she's not She's not unique in this. Lots and lots of people, like the stand and point at a paper is a very commonly used.
Speaker: It's a thing's a thing that exists in the world. Yeah. You must lift heavy weights. I don't care what people are telling you on the internet regarding lifting light weights, lifting heavy weights, because I'm not talking about muscle growth. A new randomized control trial was just published in GiroScience, which showed that lifting heavy weights makes your brain younger.
Speaker: That is not what the paper says. The authors say moderate and heavy resistance training both slowed brain aging, not heavy only, both. So in this study, they took 309 healthy adults aged to they split them into three groups.
Speaker: Group 1 lifted heavy weights 3 times a week with a trainer at the gym. Group 2 went to the gym once a week and did 2 lighter sessions at home on their own. And Group 3 did nothing, they just lived their normal life.
Speaker: So three groups, heavy, moderate, and then a control group that did nothing. But the differences they found were actually between the exercise group and the group that did nothing, not the heavy group and the moderate group. Both groups that exercised had lower brain ages and the control group did not. They did not find that heavy was better than moderate. This paper wasn't even a brand new lifting trial. This 2025 paper that Luisa Nicola is telling us about used participants from an older study called the LISA trial. And in that study, the heavy group trained at about 70 to 85% of a one rep max, which isn't even actually considered heavy according to most exercise scientists. The moderate group trained around 50 to 65% of a one rep max, which is often considered lighter loads. But even with these differences in loads, both of these groups showed the same reduction in brain age. So this paper in no way, shape or form shows that you have to lift heavy. It shows that resistance training in general helped compared to doing nothing.
Speaker: They used a special AI model, basically a brain age calculator that looks at how your brain's networks are connecting and tells you how old your brain looks compared to your actual age.
Speaker: Those who lifted heavy weights had brains that looked 1.4 years to 2.3 years younger than their actual brain age. Oh, and here's the most craziest part, the brain aging didn't stop because they did another fMRI study one year after this protocol finished, and guess what?
Speaker: the brains of the people who lifted weights were still younger. we get to luis nicola's most inaccurate claim of the entire reel that one point four to two point three year reduction was seen in both the moderate and heavy groups not just the heavy both exercise groups had brains that looked younger than the non-exercise control group so you cannot say Heavy lifting made the brain younger when they all improved. The next time you're at the gym, lift heavy, not for your body, but for your brain.
Speaker: The paper actually showed that moderate and heavy groups, which were technically light and moderate groups, both improved brain aging. So why are you telling people that it only worked for the heavy group?
Speaker: Yeah. And so i'm like, I'm really, I'm really curious, Sarah, do you think she read the paper? i mean, but the thing is, in that original post you made, you said, did she read the paper? Maybe she only read the abstract, but it says that moderate and heavy work in the abstract. That's the thing. Even if she only read the abstract, she's still got it wrong.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. So the paper found that both exercise groups had lower brain age compared to the non-exercise control group. It did not find that heavy was better.
Speaker: It also, what they call or she calls heavy was not, it what they call heavy too, was not truly like like widely accepted as heavy. The heavy group trained around 70 to 85% of a 1RM. Typically, we think of heavy as anything upwards of 80%, 5%.
Speaker: five percent And the moderate group trained 50 to 65%, which is actually considered light. Mm-hmm. in most exercise science contexts. Okay. So anyway, depending on how you classify intensity, this is a comparison between moderate versus light, not moderate versus heavy and both groups improved. So the takeaway is is really simple, which is that resistance training is better than doing nothing.
Speaker: It's not that you must lift heavy or your brain won't improve. hu And, Yeah, I just like what is she doing here? It's not science communication. Well, that's not that's not what's happening in this post.
Speaker: What is happening? What's doubly weird is like she's standing in front of a paper that doesn't support her claim. Like, I'm sure there must have been some other paper out there she could find, right, that you've got a little closer. You know what? That's the problem, Sarah. I don't think there is. Yeah.
Speaker: i'm I'm regularly going into the comments section on posts from influencers who are saying that it has to be heavy and asking them for PMIDs. Nice. And like one of them recently was like, I am basing this off of Stacey Sims course, Menopause 2.0. And I was like, oh, okay. So what, she's a scientist. What are the studies that she uses to support this? And I mean, it's been crickets. I haven't, there's been no response. Of course. not There is no evidence is the problem. It's like,
Speaker: I don't know what we're doing here. That's why it's evidence cosplay. Right. they we're We're dressing up like it's evidence, right? We're putting on an evidence costume and we're pretending. I'm just floored that there are now hundreds of thousands potentially of people, maybe not that many. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. Tens of thousands of people, thousands of people at least, who believe that it has to be heavy. Okay.
Speaker: And it's based on nothing. Nope. Not a thing. It's real how its is real hard to get that toothpaste back in the tube. Yeah.
Speaker: Okay. So the last... myth that we want to debunk is that least Nicola pretty much pushes creatine for everybody. She thinks everybody and their mother needs to be on creatine.
Speaker: She actually pushes it much more broadly than just for people who have Alzheimer's or even dementia. And she starts this Diary of Your CEO episode. The episode starts with them talking about what's this white powder? Because there's like a bowl of white powder in front of them.
Speaker: And the joke is like, is this cocaine? ah No, it's creatine. It also made me flash on. Have you ever seen the movie Scarface? Kind of. my dad that That's the type of movie that when I was like eight years old, my dad would be like, you want to watch a movie and when you watch something like Scarface. Oh, my God. Yeah. So if that lets you in a little bit on how I was raised and the influence my father had on me. Wow, that tells me a lot. i grew i grew up I grew up loving violent mobster movies. Oh, well, then you should really head on back and we give Scarface a watch because it's a classic. i'm but to be To be honest, I'm sure I have seen it. It was when I was like, you know, my brain was still developing and it was like all of, you know.
Speaker: 10 years old. Super appropriate for a 10 year old. So he's Al Pacino plays this Cuban immigrant who comes to Miami for people who haven't seen it and and becomes this like drug lord in Miami. But of course, you know, as the wisdom goes, don't get high on your own supply. He starts doing way too much cocaine. And basically the end of the movie is him having this like huge shootout as at his house.
Speaker: But it starts with him in his office with like a mountain of cocaine in front of him. And i'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure he just shoves his whole face in it and like sniffs. Yes. And then picks his face up and it's covered in cocaine. It's a very famous scene. Yeah. Yeah. So that's kind of what I flashed on. Is this cocaine? Okay. So her her argument around why everyone needs creatine.
Speaker: is that creatine should be thought of as a brain supplement because it supports ATP, which is the energy that cellose cells use in neurons specifically.
Speaker: Her target audience in these interviews, it's not people with dementia, but healthy adults who want to quote unquote maintain brain function, reduce future dementia. But she cites a study in this clip that does not say what she says that it says.
Speaker: We have this white powder in front of me. You've got a big smile on your face. I do because i don't care who you are, you should definitely be having this. let's talk about creatine. Phenomenal research shows you can creatine your way out of sleep deprivation. It can protect your brain against a concussion, stroke, from stress. And there was a study done on Alzheimer's disease patients. And they found that patients not only preserved their cognitive functions, but they had more energy and they were able to exercise And I know this because I'm a clinician. And over the last decade, I've been surrounded by the greatest neurosurgeons in the world studying the brain.
Speaker: So she cites, once again, she cites a specific study that does not even come close to saying what she says it says. So in this clip, she says there was a study done on Alzheimer's patients, and they found that patients not only preserved their cognitive functions, but they had more energy and they were able to exercise more.
Speaker: So the study she's talking about, because I found it. is creatine monohydrate pilot, notice that word pilot in Alzheimer's, feasibility, brain creatine and cognition.
Speaker: Now, literally the second line of the abstract of this paper, and I'm gonna quote it, there is currently no clinical evidence demonstrating the effects of creatine monohydrate in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
Speaker: well I mean, she literally says there is, and there literally isn't. There's little bits of evidence that suggest you can slightly improve brain function with creatine if you are sleep deprived, but not that you can, as she says, creatine your way out of sleep deprivation.
Speaker: what a What an irresponsible thing to say. But also, like also do you think we're stupid? like I don't know. Does she think people are that stupid? you can't You can't out anything out of sleep deprivation.
Speaker: No. What can you do? Snort Coke, maybe. Right. But that still doesn't that still doesn't get rid of your sleep deprivation. That'll wake you up. Famously, the only way you can get out of sleep deprivation is by actually sleeping. like You can't use other self to mimic the effect of sleep. It just doesn't work, right?
Speaker: So she also claims that creatine can protect your brain from a concussion. Nope. There's some animal studies for creatine after a concussion where it had mild benefits, but mild benefits is not the same thing as protecting your brain from a concussion. She claims it can protect your brain against a stroke.
Speaker: Nope. Again, there's a little bit of animal studies. There's very interesting preclinical research only. She also likes to say that you need it for menopausal symptoms of brain fog.
Speaker: But guess what, Laurel? Do you think there's evidence for this? No. No, it turns out no. So creatine, you know, of all the supplements out there, Creatine is legitimately one of the more promising ones because it actually has some research that shows that it does something.
Speaker: Now, in my opinion, the amount of something that it does that we know at the moment is is so low as to be only useful for competitive athletes trying to get one more rep or someone who's really going after like a little bit more strength. It can help. Or speed.
Speaker: Or speed, right? but but And in those instances, by itself, it does nothing. You have to be working on these things, right? You can't just take it and then suddenly you're like, I'm better at this. But it does not have good evidence to claim that it improves bone, brain fog, mood, hot flashes, Alzheimer's risk. Cognitive function.
Speaker: Cognitive function, right? There's basically every symptom of menopause. there's no There's no evidence to prove that creatine is going to help with any of that. now There is some evidence, and this is what a lot of people are really leaning into and trying to use as evidence of proof that it helps your brain.
Speaker: But really what we have is this. So there was a 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis that found moderate evidence in improving memory, low quality evidence in processing speed and attention,
Speaker: But there was no significant improvement in overall cognitive function. There was no significant improvement in executive function. Even the authors emphasized more studies are needed, that there's not great quality evidence out there. And most importantly, most of the effects were found in people who were older or already suffering from dementia, not healthy optimizers buying supplements.
Speaker: Yeah. Right? her message often moves from, you know, this is promising emerging, emerging evidence to here's what you should do. Right. She just continues to have this confidence of a recommendation that is literally probably decades ahead of any evidence to support it.
Speaker: Can I say something? Please say something. It's that plus she's taking ah population that was studied like people with cognitive decline people who have experienced cognitive setbacks of various kinds, whether it was like some type of traumatic brain injury or something related to dementia or whatever, who are receiving these higher doses of creatine and experiencing some benefits from it. There are there are some promising studies looking at that population. yes She's taking those findings and then using them to make claims on a fucking podcast, right Diary of CEO.
Speaker: The population of people listening to that podcast are not the same population in which these these results were, you know right promising results were were found. So that this is this is such,
Speaker: classic grifter misuse of science like mo okay which is you're gonna over promise you're gonna misconstrue the benefits for a different population that wasn't even studied you're going to take what are like pretty good outcomes and make them sound amazing and everybody needs to do this and you're gonna, for example, cure your own sleep deprivation by taking creatine. It's just a sludge of crock shit. But what I find very surprising and interesting is that she doesn't sell creatine.
Speaker: I know. weird. then you gotta wonder like what skin in the game... why is she so gung-ho on the team creatine for everyone bandwagon if she's she doesn't stand a profit from it? So that's interesting to me because a lot of times that you know people pushing creatine sell creatine. It's very predictable. But in this case, she doesn't.
Speaker: Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. We'll keep an eye on this. Right. right I mean, there was a period of time where Vonda Wright didn't sell supplements. Right. So this may be just part of...
Speaker: as she's developing her brand. The lead up to her selling it. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: All right. So again, if you're on Instagram, you follow us, you follow people like us, you probably have seen Louisa Nicola's clips and because she tends to go viral, her clips tend to do really well.
Speaker: Her content works for Instagram because of a combination of things. One, I want to say something about her editing, the way that her reels are edited. There's a Very quick succession of clips. and oftentimes very emotional music. And she is, you know, she's a very attractive woman.
Speaker: The lighting is excellent. she is Zoomed in on her. She's, you know, she's she's pretty. She's beautiful. And yeah she is well, you know, she sounds very confident when she speaks. She's well-spoken. Like, there's a lot of things that she can do as a performer, for lack of a better word, that will draw attention to her. But then also the editing of these reels is very attention grabbing. But there's other reasons, I think, too, why her reels do so well, especially in this day and age. One is that she likes to portray women as uniquely vulnerable to these particular, you know, warnings and outcomes and like everything kind of wrapped up in her narrative of like why we need to care about, for example, Alzheimer's or taking creatine. Okay. And then She talks a lot about the medical system's failure.
Speaker: she She infuses her reels with a sense of urgency that like the threat is imminent. We need to act now. starts in your 30s, that whole thing.
Speaker: So she's she's really big on on knowing certain biomarkers. And we're going to get into some of her products that she sells, but it's really obvious to me why she would want us to care about these biomarkers because she offers a service that helps you figure out what where you are in terms of certain biomarkers.
Speaker: it's It's kind of a version of the Peter Attia model, right? Where it was like, well you need to be checking all these different levels in your body, like get all these special tests from your doctor that most people do not need. But appealing to people with some money to spend on this just in case it's going to show you, give you some information when the information it gives you may or may not actually lead to anything conclusive in your health.
Speaker: Right, but she's done everything right up until this point to convince you that you really need to know what these biomarkers are, which is she's let you know that as a woman, you're uniquely vulnerable. She's let you know that you can't count on the medical system. She's let you know that you need to act now. And now you need to know about these biomarkers. And and and also, you need to know about these special protocols that will help you keep your brain safe or improve your brain health, right? And of course, she also sells these protocols in the form of courses and, you know, things like that.
Speaker: And then she obviously continues to reinforce the fear surrounding a disease like Alzheimer's, which is that you're going to lose your identity. You won't.
Speaker: know your grandchildren you won't know your family and again back to the urgency piece of it this is happening right now as you listen to me like your brain is heading in this direction right now it's already started yeah yeah and and so i think that she has chosen the right disease too to really capture our attention because it is a very inherently scary disease in people's minds, pun intended, because... Sorry.
Speaker: Did you see how I did that? I did. was coming out of my mouth and I'm like, this is good. We're going to go with it. We're going to go with it. yeah because you, okay, you get Alzheimer's and you basically lose yourself. Yeah.
Speaker: And this is especially horrific for you the people that love you and and and who, you know, want you to know them, but also don't know you anymore. So I think that we're looking at, we're looking at something that if you just kind of brushed by it or just kind of encountered it for the first time, you might go like, oh, great. She's raising awareness about A disease and she's pointing out something true, which is that women are more susceptible to getting Alzheimer's she's showing us some, you know, ways to help our brains like strength training and, you know, maybe creatine, which isn't probably going to hurt you. And she's got all of these like things that you can do to help your brain. But when you look underneath it at the tactics that she's using and the claims that she's making and the way that she's using science to do it, you realize that there's a lot of dishonesty. There's a lot of, first of all, inaccuracies.
Speaker: Okay. But then we wonder, okay, How could you be so inaccurate? How could you misinterpret this paper so egregiously if it says in the abstract the opposite of what you're saying in the real? So all you've got to wonder if it's on purpose.
Speaker: Okay, so it's like you're being you're being extremely inaccurate on purpose. This is called misinformation, potentially disinformation, right? Because like I'm going to disinform you for my own nefarious ends, right? Which we can assume is just, it's it's clicks and attention. i kind of get the sense that she that's she really likes that, but then also profit, money, right? Right, right. oh Yeah, I i mean...
Speaker: What's really tricky about people like her is that on the surface, if you don't look underneath the surface, it looks pretty good. Right. Right. But it definitely it definitely looks legitimate because it's so yeah so it's so well produced. Yeah. And it's and she has credentials.
Speaker: Exactly. I mean, that's that's what a lot of these online doctors or like to a clinical adjacent doctor type, you know, they're leaning into that authority. Very much so. So.
Speaker: What can I buy from Louisa Nicola? Let's find out. So the first product, this is like what we might call top of the funnel content in her marketing funnel. And it's called the brain code.
Speaker: And it says on her website for women, 35 plus your brain is changing. You still have time to protect it. And it's a $127 one-time payment.
Speaker: And it's supposed to help women, this is from her website, not necessarily true, reduce Alzheimer's risk, understand their brain health, optimize cognitive performance, build a personalized prevention strategy, improve sleep focus and energy, understand APOE4, which is that gene,
Speaker: that some people have, reduce brain fog and create an Alzheimer's prevention plan. Sarah, I have a question, honest question. Yeah, yeah. What kind of consumer goes to Luisa Nicola's website, sees that price, reads through the list, and doesn't just Google everything on the list and go, well, that was a lot cheaper than $127?
Speaker: Like what kind of consumer thinks that Luis Nicola is uniquely going to like provide them with special information that they can't just fucking Google? Honestly, i think a lot of people, I think a lot of people, people like you and I are used to looking at stuff like this and going, yeah, I think this is a sales product, but look, if you know, can I just add something?
Speaker: Sure. We sell things like we have, we have bullet point lists on our sales page for power play and we have bullet point lists on our sales page for live for longevity. But the thing we're the thing we're actually delivering on in those courses is like a exercise how to, with like videos that show you how to do the exercises and ways to put the exercises together into a program. And like and then on top of Live for Longevity, there's coaching and live classes twice a week. And right and and this is just like, I'm gonna help you learn about these things.
Speaker: I mean, I guess like it's like a protocol of things to do in your life that maybe you would need her to curate for you that you wouldn't necessarily be able to find online, I guess. I'm kind of answering my own question, but it's like what kind of consumer goes and like reads through this list and thinks that they can't just Google this. So it's got six modules.
Speaker: So each module, quote unquote, solves one of these problems, right? So the first one is like understanding your exact risk factors. The second one is what blood test panels you should have your doctor order.
Speaker: The third one is about exercise. And here's a, here's a weekly structure for exercise. The fourth one is about figuring out how to sleep because according to her, your brain shrinks by 60% at night to flush out toxins. I'm literally just reading that for the first time.
Speaker: Would you do me a favor and do a like reality check on that sentence while we're talking? ah Five is about nutrition. And then module six is about supplements and nutrition.
Speaker: I think she is, she doesn't sell a supplement herself, but now I am recalling, I think she's on the board for like momentous. So she's, she's really claiming that she's going to help you address all of these different aspects of your life.
Speaker: And therefore, It's a one-stop shop. I think that's the appeal is instead of you having to go and figure out all these different things for yourself about how to avoid Alzheimer's, she's saying, buy my product. It's everything you need. You don't have to go anywhere else. And that's really appealing.
Speaker: right? Particularly if you are especially afraid of afraid of getting Alzheimer's. And she's certainly framing it as if everyone should be afraid of getting Alzheimer's because it's going to happen to everybody if you don't start doing something about it.
Speaker: I had two thoughts. One is we need to look into this supplement company, Momentus. Yes. and do an episode I think like this is totally blowing our cover in case anyone from Momentus is listening, but It would be fun to have like probably you because you got the PT credit or i me me too because I'm a personal trainer, like go through the process of becoming some type of an affiliate for them. Yeah, totally. We should see like what the incentives are and what is all entailed in that.
Speaker: ah We should both try to do it. Yeah. So I have the report from consensus about whether or not your brain shrinks by 60% every night to flush out toxins. Would you like me to share?
Speaker: Sure. What I found? Okay. Yes, please. It says no, the brain does not shrink by 60% to flush out toxins. Why am I shocked? Yeah. And so they looked at 4.9 million different papers and found 20, 20 that address this particular question. and the TLDR is the literature supports sleep related fluid in space changes, but not a claim that the whole brain shrinks by 60% in humans.
Speaker: Rodent work linked sleep to expansion of interstitial or extracellular space. and faster waste clearance. While newer studies and reviews show the mechanism is still debated and mainly differ across species, how much does the brain shrink during sleep?
Speaker: Let's see what this says. Have you seen that cartoon of Homer Simpson's brain? No, it's like, I think it's, i don't know if it's from an episode, but it's like they put Homer's brain in an x-ray and it's just like mostly empty. yeah thinking Oh yeah. I think what is left. If your brain shrinks by 60%, that means 40% of you. That means this little tiny brain. Then like every time you turn in your sleep, it's rattling around. You're giving yourself a concussion. It doesn't, it makes no sense. It's just good Lord. Okay.
Speaker: So here's here's here's my follow-up question was, how much does the brain shrink during sleep? It says, human MRI studies suggest very small whole brain changes on the order of tenths of a percent across the day, not dramatic overnight shrinkage. The often repeated 60% number refers to a mouse finding that interstitial or extracellular space of volume fraction increased by more than 60% during sleep, not the whole brain shrank. By 60%.
Speaker: I mean, my God, it's just another example, right? She just does this over and over and over again. Why is nobody calling her out on this? well This is what I don't understand. I mean, we are. But why are why is nobody bigger than us calling? Why doesn't she work at a... heart Like...
Speaker: ah This is what happens when I get upset is I run out of words. But you were just about to say, doesn't she work at a research center? And then I'm remembering our conversation with Jen Gunter in the DMs. Did you ever follow through on that?
Speaker: I did not. Okay. But I should. Yeah. When Laurel made her post that we talked about earlier in this episode, We got a message from Jen Gunter in our DMs that was also kind of like, this is unbelievable, and suggested that she thinks that that Louisa Nicola needs to be reported to somebody somewhere. I don't know enough about where Louisa Nicola works. If she's currently associated with an institution like a university, then she definitely, somebody needs to be telling them, but think she's actually now just kind of
Speaker: gone into her company only. I don't know that she's associated with an institution anymore. Yeah. It looks like she works for herself now. Yeah. Yeah. So she's free to say anything.
Speaker: We use barbells in our Lift for Largevity course, and we feel really strongly about barbells. Laurel, why is that? Because you can't under load if you own a bar and some plates.
Speaker: You're never going to run out of weight in order to be able to continue driving changes to your strength. And as long as you are getting stronger, you're probably not risking sarcopenia. You're probably not as likely to get an osteoporosis diagnosis. You're not as likely to fall and fracture. You're also not as likely to fall.
Speaker: you are going to probably have a better chance of being able to continue doing all the things you want to be able to do later in life, to live independently, to continue to engage in life's most meaningful experiences and best adventures because you're going to be physically capable.
Speaker: So barbells are not the only way to do that, but they're a damn good way to do that. If you are someone who wants to train at home and that is the people that we tend to,
Speaker: have in our course and also that listen to this podcast. And these are women usually who are not as interested in going to the gym and maybe feel a little out of place. And we address those those issues as well. I think the gym is a wonderful place potentially for everyone to be. But if you want to train at home and you want to continue to get stronger and you don't want to have to constantly be buying more and more and more pieces of equipment, one bar, a couple pairs of plates,
Speaker: And a rack to put the bar in, you're probably done. That's it. You're yeah you're good to go. Yeah. We do have people take the course who go to the gym and and they'll even take our live class at the gym. But you're right. That's definitely not the majority. The majority of people are are lifting at home. And I've even found that there's some women who, when I start to talk to them about this, they're like, oh yeah, my husband or my son or my somebody has a whole setup in the garage, for example, but I've never used it. Right. Or like I get on the bike or I run on the treadmill or I use dumbbells. Right. So we've often found that there's women who have this equipment already in their house, but nobody's ever taught them or encouraged them to use it.
Speaker: If you would like to make sure you hear about a future upcoming Lift for Longevity course, get on our interest list via the link in our show notes.
Speaker: So on on that note, the fact that she's free to say everything, I would like to read the full copy from the Brain Code sales page. And Laurel is going to make a buzzer sound every time she does her classic move of overreaching from what the evidence actually shows to what she is claiming.
Speaker: Do you have your buzzer sound ready? I do. You want to hear it ahead of time or do you want to be surprised? I think I'd like to be surprised. Also, this is unrelated and maybe it's just because I'm a little bit of a spelling and a grammar snob. There are so many typos on her website. like and And weirdly, there's a lot of Alzheimer's typos. Like sometimes she doesn't use the apostrophe or sometimes she doesn't capitalize it.
Speaker: And I'm like, you'd think she would get that one, right Because she's talking about all the time. is this Is this just part of my bias against her? Am I just a spelling snob? I think that it is ironic.
Speaker: e Okay, here we go. Here's the copy. Laurel's going to buzz when something's not proven. Here we go. Alzheimer's doesn't begin in old age.
Speaker: I don't know what I was expecting, but it was not that. I haven't done that since was like 13. Oh my God. That was very satisfying. Oh, that was so, you did such a good job. Okay. Still got it. All right, here we go. Here's the next one.
Speaker: So we are, she already said Alzheimer's doesn't begin in old age. It begins silently in midlife.
Speaker: Right now, 60 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer's disease. By 2050, that number will reach 160 million and 70% of those will be women.
Speaker: Oh God, this is gonna be very hard to get through this. Okay. But here's what most women are never told. Cognitive decline is not a normal part of aging. And Alzheimer's is not something you simply wait and see about.
Speaker: If you're in your 40s or 50s and noticing brain fog, word finding difficulty, mental fatigue, slower recall, or that quiet fear of something feels off, this isn't you being dramatic and it isn't stress alone. ah It's biology.
Speaker: Physicians and clinicians come to me for evidence-based strategies to protect brain health in women. I created the brain code because too many women are reassured instead of informed during the exact years when early action matters most.
Speaker: Why is it funny every single time? We used to think Alzheimer's affected more women than men because we simply live longer, but that is wrong. women have a hormonal shift in midlife that increases their risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Speaker: During this period, women can expect up to 30% decline in metabolic activity in the hippocampus, the brain's memory center. Yeah, that we decided that was a baby fart noise because it's kind of wrong. The accurate read on that is that researchers measure a brain and change metabolism, but it doesn't automatically mean women are losing brain function or heading towards Alzheimer's, right?
Speaker: Okay. When estrogen drops, the brain's ability to generate and use energy changes. Memory doesn't disappear overnight. It erodes quietly unless you intervene.
Speaker: For years, women were told not to worry. Or worse, they were scared away from meaningful prevention conversations by outdated, oversimplified messaging. The result? Millions of women losing cognitive ground they never had to lose.
Speaker: That's why I created BrainCode, a clear, science-driven prevention framework for women who want to protect their memory, clarity, and independence starting now.
Speaker: There we go. So again, we didn't make the fart noise on everything she said. And that's a very classic pseudoscience tactic. A little bit of it's right. And a lot of it's wrong.
Speaker: who lot of you really A lot of it really stinks. It is just your best of, you know, playlist right of pseudoscientific pseudoscience tactics, right?
Speaker: lots of scaremongering lots of overreaching lots of exaggerating lots of just flat out incorrect information inflating numbers it's a lot of just hogwash and it it's all I think designed ultimately to get you to act right yeah Yeah.
Speaker: So I discovered that when you, cause I tried to buy brain code, I was just curious. You, when you go to buy the brain code, there's a fun upsell at the checkout where you can add something called the brain boosting morning protocol for only $37. And here's the copy about this. Most women get their mornings wrong.
Speaker: Uh-oh. They check their phone first, skip the light. Skip the light? What does that mean? Don't go outside and get daylight, I guess? Take supplements at random times and wonder why they still have brain fog by 10 a.m.
Speaker: This printable guide fixes that. You get the exact morning sequence I follow every day, designed to fit into your busy schedule, plus a seven-day tracker to see the difference in your energy, focus, and sleep.
Speaker: Start tomorrow, print the checklist, protect your brain from the moment you wake up. Good lord. So, op okay, so like this makes me think if I just reverse all of these statements that I'll get my morning right. So if I don't check my phone first, if I go outside in the morning, I guess, and if I schedule my supplement intake for to be the same time every day, i won't have brain fog. So again, why do I need this fucking course?
Speaker: Well, because you don't know how much light and you don't know what time to take your supplements and, you know, and which supplements. Oh, you know, the important ones. She'll tell you, don't worry. Okay. And then separate note.
Speaker: So from the FAQ on this sales page, it says, and this is a quote, what about the APOE4 gene? And it says, having APOE4 doesn't seal your fate.
Speaker: Brain codes, That's how it's written. Brain codes includes specific protocols for APOE4 carriers. The program helps you understand your status and take targeted action. Now.
Speaker: There is evidence that the APOE4 gene increases your Alzheimer's risk, but there's no evidence for gene-specific lifestyle protocols, right? yeah She's basically saying like, yes, that's going to put you at more risk, but you should still buy my brain code because it's going to help you figure out the best protocol for this gene or whatever.
Speaker: This is part about the regular brain code, which is- Right. Okay. Exactly. Exactly. The morning protocol is only $37. It's a deal. It's a deal. Yeah. Okay. Now, all right now we got the big kahuna.
Speaker: Yeah. We got the main product on offer. The one she really, really probably wants you to buy. Yeah. So we got all these entryway products and then we got this big one.
Speaker: The idea probably being, this is my understanding kind of of how it works is like if someone is, you know, hasn't given you any money at all they're probably not going to just hand you thousands of dollars so make a product that's a little bit less expensive and see if they'll buy that and then they're much more likely to to spend more money on ah and a higher ticket.
Speaker: yeah price or a higher ticket product, so this is where we see this higher ticket product the decode panel here it is folks, it is ah mere.
Speaker: This is a one-time, non-refundable payment, and it's available in either Los Angeles or New York City. And here's what you get.
Speaker: You get a huge panel of clinical testing, labs, and blood work. Some for Alzheimer's dementia specific markers and some just for general health like body composition, balance testing.
Speaker: You also get the brain code included for free, which if we're already paying five grand, that better fucking be included. these but And we get a 60-minute consultation with Louisa Nicola herself in which she, you know, says it's the biggest value. Obviously, that's like really This the value of this. Yeah, this is where we get like, you know, all of almost all of the value of that close to $5,000 investment. And she will personally go through your labs with you.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. So we're getting a bunch of blood tests. Where have we where have we seen this before? peter didnt This is now becoming like a business model, right? Yes. Yes. Also, Mary Claire Haver, does she have blood tests associated with her tests?
Speaker: concierge-esque service, which is not really concierge medicine, but just like the in-body exam. You meet with like a nurse practitioner yes get an in-body exam and like probably some blood work or something. And you have a conversation and and she charges like $2,000, but Mary Claire Herbert doesn't even have to be there for it.
Speaker: Whereas Louisa Nicole is like, i will I will show up for this for $5,000. She's basically saying it's a steal that you get to see me for $5,000 for hour. Yeah. And so obviously this is aimed at a very specific tier of socioeconomic status. And she writes in her sales page, right?
Speaker: yeah i've so I've seen women pay $8,000 or more at longevity clinics in LA for less comprehensive testing. Oh my God, the horror. They were robbed.
Speaker: And you know, $5,000, what a bargain in comparison. Dude, it's almost, it's like ah almost a it's 40%. I don't know if the math is right on that discount, you know, it's that's basically free. It's almost free.
Speaker: And it's only available in LA and New York where you're going to find a lot of people, obviously with a lot of disposable income who are willing to spend it on unnecessary stuff like this. yeah So yeah, whichever product you might buy,
Speaker: the The page, you know, it leans into this sense of urgency and fear and this idea that every day your brain is losing more and more connections. The prevention window is open now. You need to act now.
Speaker: Whatever happened to your mother or your aunt or your grandmother or your grandmother's aunt doesn't have to be what happens to you. And the brain fog and the memory lapses that you're experiencing right now, they might be Alzheimer's.
Speaker: but it's not inevitable you could do something and 95 97 of alzheimer's cases are preventable so the fact that you're not doing anything is fucking crazy like what are you waiting for will you act on it it really does it really does so sound like what kind of an idiot wouldn't do this, right? Like what you're like you're throwing you're throwing your brain away. Every day you're a little bit dumber. I mean, I feel that to be true sometimes, but I don't think that means I'm getting Alzheimer's.
Speaker: I mean, seriously. Oh God. All right. So if somebody was providing actual evidence-based brain health advice, what would that sound like, right?
Speaker: Unsurprisingly, the same way that good exercise and nutrition advice is incredibly basic and pretty dull, it's the same thing for actual evidence-based dementia risk reduction, right?
Speaker: So the recommendations are this. Exercise and move regularly. Get enough sleep. And if you have sleep apnea, treat that. manage your blood pressure if you need to, manage your diabetes or your metabolic health if you need to, address any hearing or vision loss, don't smoke, try not to drink or much of either of those, get care for any depression or social isolation,
Speaker: do what you can to protect yourself against traumatic brain injury, which is, you know, for most people, like just don't get hit in the head by a car or whatever, but like wear a helmet, wear a seatbelt. Yeah. Wear a helmet, wear seatbelt. Maybe don't play football. Yes, exactly.
Speaker: And then if you have high LDL cholesterol, then you're going to address that. So, you know, as we've said, this is part of those 14 modifiable risk factors from the Lancet commission.
Speaker: that potentially if all of them were eliminated, we could prevent or delay 45% of cases. It's certainly not 95% preventable, and it's certainly not a guarantee for any individual.
Speaker: Risk reduction is a real thing. You can take on risk reduction behaviors. Risk reduction is not the same thing as a guarantee, but her language is a lot about having a guarantee.
Speaker: If you buy her products, go through her protocols. But also a lot of what she talks about and correct me if I'm wrong, because I think you've unfortunately had to expose yourself to a lot more of Luis Nicola's messaging than I did for this episode.
Speaker: But does she regularly address on this list? Okay. Does she regularly address, for example, high LDL levels? Does she...
Speaker: regularly discuss the problem with depression and social isolation. Does she talk about reducing alcohol intake regularly? Does she, I think I've heard her mentioned hearing and maybe vision loss. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker: um Managing blood pressure, sleep apnea, these things like how bullish because she's very bullish yes on creatine and lifting heavy weights. Yes. And maybe zone five. Right.
Speaker: Yes. Is she as bullish on reducing LDL levels and, you know, making sure you're getting out and like seeing people so that you're not socially isolated? She's very bullish on some of these things, but but under the heading of it has to be the way that I tell you to do it. right Whereas the reality is, no, it doesn't.
Speaker: right She's out there saying zone two is a waste of time. It's not. right She's out there saying you have to lift heavy. No, you don't. So she's making these very specific protocols using evidence incorrectly.
Speaker: Right. to To try to prove that these protocols are the requirement. And it's all pointing towards get the brain code and, you know, get on board and possibly get my whole panel of of tests. Right. So in terms of things like, you know, managing your diabetes your your or your blood pressure your or your high LDL, that's sort of in the like, make sure you get these tests from your doctor. Or like if you if you go in for the...
Speaker: The $5,000 thing is like, she's going to test all those things for you. Yeah. But I'm, I'm very curious actually, because I feel like there's, there's a lot of room for her to start selling more actual products, right? Like, like creatine or things like that. And I'm very curious where she's going with this and and what she's going to claim.
Speaker: And we've got a little bit of a PS about this as well, about a new claim of hers, which is going to be annoying. Right. But yeah, that's that's my that's my answer to, does she address all this? Yes, ish. But she doesn't address it from an evidence-based position.
Speaker: She addresses it from a misuse of evidence, therefore, you must do it my way position. And when we looked at this Lancet commission report and looked a little closer and found that actually of the 14 modifiable risk factors,
Speaker: There are two tied for first place in terms of how significantly risk would be reduced if you fixed these problems tied for first is hearing loss and LDL cholesterol.
Speaker: If you address those two, you've done, you've done things that are possibly more significant than any of the others. Yeah. Then,
Speaker: Less education in early life and social isolation in later life. Address those. Tied for technically next place is air pollution, depression, and traumatic brain injury.
Speaker: Then we have physical inactivity tied with diabetes, smoking, hypertension, and vision loss. And in last place, we have obesity and excess alcohol consumption.
Speaker: Interesting. And there's not a big difference between these, by the way. Okay, so like the estimated population attributable fraction right which is the idea that if you completely eliminated this risk factor what percent reduction would we see in dementia cases okay tied for first place hearing loss and high cholesterol if we eliminated those as risk factors like nobody gets hearing loss and nobody has ldl levels that are you know too high you only get a seven percent reduction but seven percent is greater than the rest of them so if you
Speaker: Eliminate the problem of less education in early life and social isolation and later life a 5% reduction. If you get rid of air pollution, depression and traumatic brain injury a 3% reduction. If you get rid of physical inactivity, diabetes, smoking, and hypertension, as well as untreated vision loss 2% reduction.
Speaker: if you get rid of obesity and excess alcohol consumption a one percent reduction now of course this population attributable fraction is based on a model it's complex but like just to put this into perspective like physical inactivity is kind of in the middle yeah like number one tied for number one is ldl cholesterol and hearing loss like those are not kind of a big deal yeah and what i was thinking about while you were talking about this was you know It's interesting how the things that she focuses on the most, which are the things that she can sell you stuff about, right? Like blood testing, like how people are all wigged out about their blood sugar all the time who do not have diabetes and never will. But she can jump on that, the metabolism bandwagon. She can jump on the exercise bandwagon and she can jump on all of these things. It's not...
Speaker: It's not a brand to say, hey, go out and get some hearing aids and reduce your cholesterol. You know what i mean? It has to feel like these are things, and and it's not untrue. These things, improving physical activity does reduce the risk. It doesn't reduce it as much to your point as getting some hearing aids.
Speaker: Well, being physically active reduces risk in in in a number of different chronic diseases. In fact, I would i would venture to say all of them. Yeah. I mean, my i' I'll never forget talking to my talking to the internist who is my patient, who's a very smart man. And I asked him one time,
Speaker: except for people who need specific medications for chronic conditions. Is there anything better than exercise for your general health? I think I said, is there a medication you can take that's better than exercise for your general health? And he said no.
Speaker: Yeah. Right. Yeah. So Sarah, do you know what it costs to pay out of pocket for a blood panel that would tell you your LDL levels and would tell you whether you have diabetes and would tell you whether you have hypertension? And also out-of-pocket vision test and an out-of-pocket hearing loss test. Because I think if we paid for all these out-of-pocket, we would find, what do you think These tests would cost out of pocket, assuming someone doesn't have health insurance. Yeah.
Speaker: And then do you think it would be $5,000, which is what Luis and Nicole is charging you to like sit down with you and then then also potentially talk to you about your alcohol consumption and potentially talk to you about your early life education problem and your social isolation problem? Yeah.
Speaker: But Laurel, you're missing the point of the $5,000. The point of the $5,000 is that you get to sit down with Louisa Nicola. Right. it's It's basically, what's the thing that all the celebrities do where they like make a little video that says, hi, person, and it costs some sort of money? Is it cameo?
Speaker: Yes. Okay. So there's this thing called, do you know about this? There's this thing called cameo where like certain celebrities, you could go on and say, hey, 50 cent. I have no idea, but let's just say, Hey, 50 cent. If I give you $500, will you make a little video telling my niece happy birthday sort of thing?
Speaker: So that's, that's the effect is the cameo effect. You're going to get to sit down with celebrity, Dr. Louisa Nicola. and Sorry. She's not even a doctor celebrity. Neuroscience, theologist, right? Yeah, not MD, but- Not MD, but doctor, right? Because you're, Laurel, here's the thing.
Speaker: You're a dum-dum. You don't know what to do with the results. And not only that, there is no way you could find out what any of that means on the internet. Thank God for Louisa Nicola. I think what we're seeing, right, is like, okay, now I get why it's really important that she has, you know, the presence that she has online with like,
Speaker: The hair and the makeup and the outfits and holding the brain in the bucket of white powder. And it's really important that she gets these clicks and gets these social media followings. She's on the scientific advisory board of the premium supplement company Momentus. She regularly partners with them to formulate, endorse, and promote science-based cognitive and physical performance.
Speaker: So she's she's working for Momentus. That's why she's so pro-creatine. That's why she's bullish on creatine. This may be similar to what Vonda Wright did with AlgaeCal. This may be a situation where at first she's endorsing someone else's product and then she realizes, hey it's actually way better for me financially if I make my own version of this.
Speaker: So that could ah this is I'm just guessing. That is complete guess. But that could be what's happening. Or she may be getting some sort of financial incentive.
Speaker: the way that I was told, like, you'll be put on these web pages and, and as a, you know, doctor endorsing this product. Does she talk about momentous on her social media?
Speaker: She talks a lot about creatine and I'm going down to the bottom of her captions and it's really, i'm looking for CTAs at the bottom of her captions. She's got a sub stack.
Speaker: the sub pushing articles She's pushing She's sending people to her her podcast interviews. she's let's I'm sure you looked at the links in her bio because that's where you find all of her.
Speaker: Yeah, she's got the brain code. I mean, it looks like she really wants you to buy the brain code. And it makes sense because that's the $127 offering, which is not hard. offering which is not hard It's not a painful price for people. Like it's a pretty easy amount of money for people of ah a certain socioeconomic status to just kind of be like, okay, fine. like You know what You convinced me, here's my $127. And then they get the ups. Then, right, they go through the course, they stay in her brand ecosystem, and eventually they're rich enough to decide, you know what? 5K doesn't sound so so bad. Right. that's what That's what that funnel is functioning as, is this like, yeah.
Speaker: Funnel to 5K. That's right. Well, and I have a feeling also that she probably has a lot of private clientele. This is what it seemed like from from when she moved to the US. She works with all of these people like NFL players and...
Speaker: executives with too much money and the people who want to just optimize everything within sight. So I think there's a lot of that going on sort of in the background. But again, it's going to be very interesting to see what happens and if she ends up starting to make her own products, because that is a trillion dollar industry. And, you know, who better than the brain doctor to tell you what supplements to take so that you don't get Alzheimer's.
Speaker: this This is our our little weird PS. and This pissed me off so hard. From her sub stack, where she's very active, in October 2025.
Speaker: And the title is, Why I'm Bullish on GLP-1s. This hormone could prevent Alzheimer's and cancer. Her article is mostly unsighted.
Speaker: there's Wow. She says a bunch of things and doesn't back it up. She makes plausible claims, but again, turns early observational data mechanism into way stronger conclusions than the evidence actually supports.
Speaker: The article says GLP-1s could, quote, prevent Alzheimer's and cancer, quote, reduce breast cancer tumors by 20%, and may help create, quote, a world without type 2 diabetes.
Speaker: But she provides no direct citations for these claims. And I have to say, fuck you very much for claiming that GLP-1 drugs reduce breast cancer tumors by 20%.
Speaker: Like talk about targeting an audience of women that I'm a part of, which I obviously feel more sensitive about, but also that are scared most of the time, right?
Speaker: it's It's just, it felt a little unclear to me why she would write this because it's so full of unsupported claims. The only reason for it in my mind would be this is her soft starting on-ramp into selling GLP-1s. And maybe that's something that Momentus is already doing. I don't know.
Speaker: Laurel, do you have thoughts? I do. i don't think that these promises about what GLP-1s could do and the magnitude of changes that could happen population-wide because of the use of GLP-1s. I don't think it's defensible at all. Like, it there might be some changes, but how would she be able to determine these exact percentages? i mean, I'm sure there will be some changes, but these exact percentages, I'm like, where is she getting reduced breast cancer tumors by 20%? That's a very specific statement.
Speaker: You know what i mean? Like breast cancer tumors by 20%. Where the fuck is she getting this? Well, it's a specific statement that also says nothing specifically. Like, does this mean I'm going to get 20% fewer individual tumors? Does this mean my tumor is going to be 20% smaller? Does this mean I have a 20% reduced risk of getting breast cancer? Like it's a sentence that doesn't actually mean anything that she's saying super confidently.
Speaker: Yeah. Here's, here's what I want people to take away from this episode. Apart from the fact that this woman is a snake oil salesman, Alzheimer's prevention really does deserve serious discussion. This is a disease that is affecting a lot of people and it is important that we talk about it.
Speaker: Women's brain health deserves serious discussion, but What she is doing is turning menopause brain fog into a countdown clock to Alzheimer's and turning possible indications that are preclinical numbers, all of this possible maybe language, and she's turning it in into, you're going to get Alzheimer's if you don't follow my protocol.
Speaker: And that's not actual real Alzheimer's prevention that we could see happening population wide. Right. And so that's one of the reasons why I find her pretty despicable.
Speaker: Sometimes some of these people bother me more than others. And for whatever reason, this lady bothers me a lot. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. This is kind of unrelated, but I'm curious of all the people we've done these kind of expose.
Speaker: Let's make them make sense. Let's look under the hood slash make them make sense episodes on. I just quickly made a list of like the the big heavy hitters. We got Stacey Sims, Mary Claire Haver, Vonda Wright.
Speaker: We haven't done an episode about Peter Atiyah, but we've mentioned him enough. And we haven't done an episode about Huberman, but we've mentioned him enough. And then there's also now Luis Nicola, McGill, but you know. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. So, I mean, and then Lauren Fishman, right? Right. Who I would consider to be like the smallest fish yeah of them all. Which he would hate to know that you would call him that.
Speaker: I get the sense he thinks he's a pretty big fish. Yeah. Who is your least favorite? Oh, God. I mean, my gut least favorite is always Mary Claire Haver. Yeah.
Speaker: Because she sells along with all of her other stuff. She sells a in my mind, Republican tinged, but certainly conservative look and appeal. And that's kind of the point. i don't know. There's just something about her that really rubs me the wrong way.
Speaker: Do you know what i mean? Oh, yeah. We're going to do a very special episode about the Republican tinged take of many of these influencers plus a very problematic fertility doctor online um about, you know, birth control, hormonal birth control. But yeah, I hear you on the Mary Claire Haver. Also, I think that her impact has been enormous because of her following.
Speaker: She's been extremely successful And yeah, I think, think you're, I think actually you're right in terms of like, who's possibly been the worst for women for women.
Speaker: yeah And who, who is the, I think the bigger possible threat to women yeah because of how savvy she is. i just, it's Stacey Sims, you know, it's Stacey Sims. I think Louisa Nicola is doing her best to reach the ranks of, you know, people like Mary Claire Haver and, Stacey Sims, but like right now the biggest fish in this pond are Sims, Mary Claire Haver, VonderWright is a close third place.
Speaker: Yeah. But then there's, you know, Atiyah and Huberman. Atiyah is kind of done because he is a, you know, friends with us child rapist. Huberman is also...
Speaker: very freaking problematic. His he's more problematic just to kind of everybody. If we're talking about problematic for women, I think Sims and Haver are the top of the list for sure. And I think it's really Haver. I think Haver wins honestly over Sims. Yeah. Because I don't think Sims is, is embedded in the menopause space and like pushing, she's not pushing hormones.
Speaker: No, but she's pushing her menopause course. Right. Right, but it's mostly around, so you got to think about like, what are the spheres of influence here? And so Sims, it's going to be, they're being influenced around diet and exercise, I think, more than anything. With Marie Claire Haver, who's a medical doctor, they're being convinced that they could benefit from all of these untested hormone interventions.
Speaker: And Marie Claire Haver is also platforming folks in a way that Sims isn't like Mary Claire Haver has a podcast. Stacey Sims, to my knowledge right now, does not. And I feel like it's the platforming of bad actors, fountains of misinformation that's a problem. That's Huberman's big yeah thing, right? Which is that he pushes supplements and then he also platforms these wackadoos. Yeah. But then Mary Claire Haver is a medical doctor who is making recommendations through the misinterpretation of research and or without any research behind it.
Speaker: And she occupies this weird Republican sort of space that is misogyny dressed up as feminism. Thank you. That's what I was trying to say before.
Speaker: Fucking concerning and disturbing. yeah And i think she's like, i think she's the big dog here. i think she's the one that if we're going to say like, where is the biggest problem? I think it's her.
Speaker: So while you were talking, I asked Google, who is more famous, Stacey Sims or Mary Claire Haver? And it said Mary Claire Haver is more famous by overall social media reach and book sales.
Speaker: Mary Claire Haver is more generally famous if we're going by social media reach, like how many people follow her. Yeah. And I think Mary Claire Haver, if we see like her potential audience is like all women who.
Speaker: Right. are going to experience menopause, which is most women, right? Unless yeah. And then Sims is like, active women, women who are interested in strength training, and who can write who can stomach the idea of five by fives or like women, and eating purple potatoes, who Yeah, who are like, I feel tired and wired what insanely complicated protocols and like,
Speaker: incredibly difficult to implement exercise routines should i jump head first into you know what i mean like i feel like sims's messaging is self she's self-editing her her potential audience size whereas mary claire haber is like You know, are you You've been failed. Are you a woman? You've been failed by the medical system. You need hormones.
Speaker: Right, right. All right. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Hopefully it gave you a lot of information. What is actual useful Alzheimer's related information? What are actually useful, applicable risk reduction behaviors that you could put into place potentially if you need to?
Speaker: And how Louisa Nicola is basically... relying on you being scared of Alzheimer's to buy her programs. This podcast is financed by Laurel and I individually ourselves. We have no sponsors. And as a result, we rely on you, the listener, to help spread the word. So if you liked this episode, you can forward it to a friend.
Speaker: And you could also rate review, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts for sure. And we will be back in two weeks. Woo-woo! This is Sarah. I just wanted to add a little PS to this, which is I got real curious about how challenging it would be to become a momentous affiliate or ambassador. So I went to their website and I applied and guess what folks, it took less than half an hour before they approved me. And they started sending me information about campaigns and codes and what I needed to do next.
Speaker: So If there was any doubt in your mind as to how rigorous the application process is for Momentus, I'm here to tell you it's not. Stay safe out there. We'll see you in two weeks.
