Insane Results in Assisted Living Homes | Hal Cranmer

Intro

How many of your residents, what percentage are actually on a carnivore diet? We have 25 to 30% in about 9 years of doing this, I've probably had seven people move back home. That's crazy. A lot of businesses are trying to cut costs. How can we keep the food budget low? Or how can we make food an attractive marketing things, you know, beautiful pies and cakes and ice cream with all kinds of frosty decorations on them. Well, that's great and looks wonderful, but it's not going to help their health.

I get people come in in pretty rough shape. They don't move into assisted living when they're diabetic. They move in when they're diabetic and they've got the foot amputated, and they're going blind, and their dementia's kicking in. So, it's not like I can just make this miraculous, they're back to normal kind of thing, but we can definitely make progress. Hal Cranmer, welcome to my podcast. It's wonderful to be here. Thank you for inviting me, Michaela.

I'm really excited to cover what you do, but before we get started, can you give me a brief background about what it is you do? Sure. Um, I own four assisted living homes in the Phoenix area.

The carnivore diet in assisted living

Um, most assisted living are big large facilities. Uh, maybe 100 beds or so. Mine are residential homes, fit about We're licensed for 10 residents in each home. We have a caregiving staff that takes care of them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365. Um, and um, we try to make them as healthy as we can. Okay, so so let's get into this. I reached out to have you on because I heard that you monitor the diet of people who are in your homes, and I haven't heard of any other assisted living places that do that, which is crazy.

Um, this last summer I had two grandparents pass away. And one of them very old guy. He was like 93. So, he had a he had a great life, but he was put into assisted living at the end, and he can't tolerate gluten at all as many people can't. And my mom was just driven crazy because they kept feeding him gluten. He kept falling asleep. She was like, "Can you just stop?"

And there was like there were no healthy options, and that was just what it looked like, and there were no options. So, what what it is what is it that you do with um your elderly people? It's elderly people, right, for assisted living? It it's primarily elderly people. We do get younger people come in that have some kind of chronic health condition um that that may be, you know, hopefully we can get them better, but they may be spending the rest of their lives in assisted living. The youngest I've had um I think was 38. Oh, man.

Yeah. And uh so, uh I had a 40-year-old lady that um we she came to us very overweight. She'd spent 9 years in a skilled nursing facility. So, she was she entered that facility when she was 31. Um we we got her down 230 lb in 9 months on the carnivore diet. Ho ho ho. her to assist to independent living. So, um yeah.

So, you know, we can't we we focus on the elderly people, but we can help the younger ones as well with the chronic diseases. So, I really focus on uh low-carb meals as much as I can. Um I have a varying degree of acceptance of that with the families. Um I'm hoping that someday I can just divert families to a place that's not into what I'm doing if they don't want that, but I still want to help as many as I can. Um some families just have trouble with their mom just eating meat, so we have ketogenic meals. And then if the family wants to bring in extra food or something, they want something different than that, I just tell them, bring it to them in their room away from everyone else and and leave with any leftovers cuz I don't want everyone else to go, well, how come they get the ice cream we don't? That kind of thing.

Yeah. But most of the families are very on board. Once they see what we're doing, they're really on board.

Improving health with low-carb diets

And when the Department of Health comes in and inspects us, they're like, wow, you've got like the healthiest assisted living residents we've seen. And we're not doing anything that complicated. Okay, so how many of your what do you what would you say patients? Residents. Residents. How how many of your residents are are what percentage are actually on a carnivore diet? I would say we have probably 25 to 30%.

That's crazy. Okay. And then a a good percentage of those are on a ketogenic diet. most of the others are on a ketogenic diet. I I don't know if you've heard of a lady named Maria Emmerich, but she she heard me on one of my other podcasts and sent me all her cookbooks and we became friends.

Success stories: Weight loss and independence

And she's a wonderful lady and I hired a health coach who's certified by her to really and she's very good at making meals that look like normal meals, even processed food meals. And and yet they're getting a very low-carb nutritious meal out of it. So we've been our cooks have been been embracing her recipes along with sort of other research they've done. So even the ones that are kind of hesitant about it, we just show them they're having a normal meal and they're you know, that here's your keto lasagna for tonight and it works. Wow. Okay. So what kind of differences do you see in residents?

Do you see differences when they come in and then when they've stayed there for a while time for a while and then have you had people leave and go back home? So, in in about nine years of doing this, I've probably had seven people move back home. That's crazy. Yeah. So, are these elderly people? Elderly people move back home, yeah. And a few one or two young people, too.

But, mostly elderly people. Um the ones that move back home, they come in with the attitude of I want to be go home. A lot Everyone comes into our homes with I don't want to be here. I want to live at home. I want to die at home. But, some of them are like, "Wow, you're taking care of me, doing all my laundry, cooking all my meals, you know?" And sort of gradually settle in.

Others, the ones that really want to move back home, are like every day, "I'm getting closer." You know, they really want to move back home. So, they work really hard at it. But, even if I can get them where they're well enough that their family can take them out of the home to go to a restaurant for dinner or they can go home for a weekend or they can go um for the holidays, you know, to to visit friends.

Cognitive improvements through diet

We had a guy uh go on a cruise with his family and we sent a caregiver. We let him borrow a caregiver. They paid for her cruise and she kind of watched over him while he was on the cruise. He was 98 years old and came back, passed away six months later. But, biggest smile on his face for those six months cuz he had a wonderful time with his family. So, even if I can't get you home, I can get you you know, to enjoy life a little and it's not every day wake up, get in the recliner, watch TV, eat, go back to bed kind of thing. And and that's my goal.

I mean, I'd love to send everyone home, but I get people come in in pretty rough shape a lot of the times. They don't move into assisted living when they're, you know, diabetic. You know, they move in when they're diabetic and they've got the foot amputated and they're going blind and their dementia's kicking in and, you know, that kind of thing. So, it's not like I can just make this miraculous they're back to normal kind of thing, but we can definitely make progress with them. That's crazy. Okay, well, first off, congratulations. Thank you.

And then that's that's like hopefully, my hope is this kind of thing spreads and it's just implemented everywhere cuz the quality of food in hospitals and in long-term living and in these areas where people are stuck is so bad. It's shocking that that's allowed. So, I guess my first question would be, have you had any like, how did you get away with this kind of? Not that it's not the right thing to do, but why are you allowed to do it? Are Is there any pushback? Um I can't speak to hospitals. I don't run a hospital.

But, in assisted living, uh the Arizona Department of Health Services regulates us. Uh and that's where my license is with. They come in and inspect us and they have a whole bunch of rules and guidelines and they have you know, the the guidelines more are the food pyramid, the ones that we all make fun of and everything. Um and they the mandatory thing is they want a menu posted of the next week's meals. Yeah. They don't seem to really clamp down on what's posted on that menu, but they need they want you to be able to tell the residents and their family what you're going to be serving over the next week. Okay.

So, I just, you know, they're very picky about coming in and okay, you you're taking trazodone and it's 50 mg twice a day. Show me your mediset container that has two pills in there. You know, very which they should be with prescription drugs. But they really don't, you know, they're looking in the fridge to make sure there's not spoiled food or out-of-date food or things like that. But what food you have in there they didn't. So that's what got me thinking is well, I no one seems to care what I serve them.

The role of the department of health

So let's see if we can serve them something healthy and and make them better. And that's so really it's it's not so much you have to serve certain food. It's you can serve whatever you want. So a lot of businesses are trying to cut costs. So they're how can we keep the food budget low or how can we make food an attractive marketing thing so we can make, you know, beautiful pies and cakes and ice cream with all kinds of frosty decorations on them and, you know, those kind of things. Well, that's great and looks wonderful, but it's not going to help their health any. Yeah.

Have you have you had residents with cognitive decline show improvement on the carnivore diet or on the ketogenic diet? I I have I have one resident who moved back came to us um showing a a score on a MoCA test. I don't know if you know what the MoCA test is. the MoCA test? But I can't really even remember what it stands for, but it's it's a a it's a bunch of questions sheet of paper uh that that helps to diagnose dementia. And the scores are from zero to 30. Zero to 21, I think, is you have some kind of cognitive decline dementia. 21 through 26 is like mild cognitive decline. You're starting in dementia.

Then 27 to 30 would be you or me, you know, normal people. So this lady came to us scoring a 15 on her MoCA. She left us um like 7 or 8 months later scoring a um 26. That's crazy. Almost to the normal range. Yeah, she's living in an apartment Seattle. She and Mary Emrick are now good friends.

She's thinking of moving down here and helping me with all this stuff. Well, no wonder. And she's a keto fanatic so but we're seeing other people's memory improve. I've got a guy in my house who came to us on hospice with a couple months to live. He's completely off hospice. He was barely able to stand up. He's walking around and he he was non-verbal.

He started to talk and and recognize his wife. He comes and hugs his wife now and and things like that. So yes, we are seeing memory improvements. We're seeing improved mocha scores. It does make a difference. It's It's a lot slower. Like I can fix diabetes really quick.

Type two anyway.

Reversing Alzheimer’s and dementia

The the the dementia and Alzheimer's is a lot tougher. Yeah. Yeah, we had my mom's sister is my my grandma died from dementia like fairly fairly young in her 50s. Terrible. Just terrible disease. It's the worst disease ever. Yeah.

My uncle died of ALS Lou Gehrig's disease. That's the worst I think but Alzheimer's is pretty close to the worst. No, that's true. ALS Yeah, I had a great uncle pass away from ALS. That's brutal. Yes, but in that of what I've seen Alzheimer's is the next worst one. Yeah.

No. And Parkinson's isn't so hot either but yes. Yeah. Parkinson's there seems to be some interesting stuff too. So we don't just do the food with Alzheimer's too. We have a outside company consultant group called a mind for all seasons that they they come in if if people want to put their mom or dad on the program and do a whole bunch of blood work so we could Alzheimer's um there's a lot of contributing factors to getting Alzheimer's disease and there's like 36 to 40 different contributing factors whether it's toxins in your body whether it's inflammation insulin resistance vitamin mineral deficiencies there's all these different so we we send them out to a lab and they get a ton of blood work to and we get a report from this group of here's all the things that are wrong with them so not only do we do the food but we also do supplementation with different vitamins we do red light therapy we do saunas things like that to sort of just attack Alzheimer's from all around the toxic toxic loads in people's bodies directly contribute to Alzheimer's the glyphosate the mold the chemicals that you may have been around during your working life that kind of thing so anything we can do to detoxify them as well as well as food helps detoxify we give them stuff like glutathione things like that depending on the results of those labs. Wow so do you guys monitor air quality in there too?

For mold? Somewhat. I think a lot of people come to Arizona because mold isn't such a big deal here but it can be I mean I've had a leaky roof so if we I have people come in and check for mold but I don't I I'm not as good at doing all the HEPA filters and things like that that may be the next thing just managing all what I'm doing right now challenging. Oh my gosh no what you're doing is incredible the reason I moved to Arizona was because I got hit with mold in Florida I didn't know that oh Florida is like living in a swamp I lived in Florida for 7 years I know what you mean I got quite ill fairly rapidly even and I was like I had non-toxic products I'm on a carnivore diet. I was like, what is happening and finally realized uh we had mold in our H vac. I was like, okay, desert. Move into the desert.

Yeah. No, the mold you get here is your shower's leaking or or you know, after a big rainstorm if you just don't do anything about it kind of, but it's it's not very common. Yeah, yeah, agreed. You guys want to purchase this magical supplement. See how it shines. And reduce your poisoning by alcohol. We're available on Amazon now.

Um I hope you're enjoying this episode. Why did you like what's your background? I could probably take up the whole podcast with that. I I started like I went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, the military academy. So I wanted to be a pilot my whole life. Um I got out of there. I flew some diplomatic airlift out of Japan for a couple years.

I went down to Florida. I flew for the Air Force Special Operations Command. I flew C-130s. Uh went to Bosnia, Kosovo, all those kind of things. Um got out, flew for an airline for a couple years. Uh US Air. And then 9/11 happened and it kind of ended my flying career.

There were just no jobs. Half the pilots in America were laid off. Mhm. And so I went into manufacturing. It was the only job I could find up in Minnesota. My sister-in-law got me a job at her company. Uh I was a financial auditor.

Then I went into supply chain. I rose up to be a plant manager of a big aerospace machining plant. Wow. Um but I was doing some rental properties on the side, flipping houses kind of thing, dealing with a lot of old. And And uh another investor told me um hey, you should look into assisted living. It cash flows better. And I was renting to like a bunch of college kids and they're like they don't have keg parties in assisted living.

So I uh I looked into it. We'd I went I actually went to flight school at the old uh Mesa Gateway Airport. It used to be called Williams Air Force Base. And um so we'd always wanted to move back to Arizona. My kids wanted to go to ASU and everything like that. So I took a class in assisted living down here. Uh liked what I saw.

Uh the guy who taught the class had a realtor. He's like, I got a bunch of homes for sale if you're interested. And I'm like, yeah, I'm interested. So talked to my wife. We took the leap of faith and moved down here and uh been doing assisted living for about 9 years now. And then how did you get into assisted living and then decide to implement like strategies for health? Cuz that doesn't that doesn't happen.

It's more like normal assisted living is like maintenance, trying to remove pain and death. It's not let's get you better in here. Right. Absolutely. So um when I got into assisted living, I I looked around and was just like, wait a minute. We just let them sit here till they die? And and everyone's like, well, no, that we, you know, change their diapers and we, you know, give them activities, bingo and stuff.

And we, you know, give them showers, but the medical people come in and take care of their health. We don't really do that stuff. Or we feed them, that kind of thing. And I'm like, but the medical people aren't I mean, yes, they're not dying right away, but they're not getting any better. And they're like, well, they're old, so they don't get better. And I'm like, well, that's BS. Yeah.

So, I just started Googling stuff. I mean, I'd always been a workout kind of guy. I like to I I wasn't a huge diet guy. I just thought I could out workout a bad diet, you know, like everyone thinks. So, I just started going I had I had one guy, who was another pilot. It was really One of the great things about assisted living is you meet these people who were part of history. This guy was a pilot in the Berlin Airlift.

Wow. And he came in and he gave me the, I don't want to be here, I want to go home. And I'm like, well, how badly? And he's like, really badly. I want to be with my wife. And so, um, I said, okay, well, we're going to just take away the sugar.

Addressing cravings and transitioning to healthier diets

We're going to You're not going to eat dessert, okay? We're going to have salads and lean meat and, you know, what I just My mom told me was good for you. And I hired a trainer to work with him. And in about four or five months, I said, you The deal is, if you can get out of that wheelchair and walk and get in your wife's car, you can leave. Aw. And in in four months, he got out and walked down the the sidewalk, got in his wife's car, and they left. And I was like, we should do that for other people.

Um, so, I just I just started Googling and searched on the internet and and and I went through uh the trainer was a big was a vegetarian. So, he's like, "Oh, you got to do the vegan thing. That'll get them all healthy and everything." Yeah. So, we tried that next. I hired some ve- vegan nutritionists, and they gave me lists of ingredients that I had to like run all over town trying to find these weird spices and vegetables and things like that. And I'm like, "I don't have time for this.

I'm running four homes. I got to fill them. I got to, you know, deal with inspections, all this kind of stuff." So, um A- And then maybe a month into the vegan or 2 months into the vegan thing all the residents were rebelling. They're like, "I'm not eating a salad for breakfast. I want eggs. I want, you know, bacon.

I want cereal." So, I had just A- And I wasn't seeing any real improvements. Either they weren't eating and losing weight, or they were the eating wasn't doing much for them. So, I fired the nutritionist and um said, "That's not working." So, we went back to just like, "Let's eat good stuff, you know, not sugary stuff." And people were still improving a little on that, but then I I uh I got this thing called I I heard on a podcast a guy named uh John Jaquish. I don't know if you've heard of him.

Yes. Yes. Okay. He He developed this exercise equipment called an X3. And uh so, it's like, "Okay, he wrote a book called weightlifting is a waste of time and so is cardio." And I thought, "Okay, I got to read this book." So, I I like lifting weights my whole life.

I'm like, "Have I wasted all my time?" So, I bought his equipment, which is this band thing. But in the book, it says, "You've got to do a carnivore diet for the best gains." And so, I just tried the carnivore diet from that. Ah. And was like, "Holy cow, I feel amazing." And I was gaining weight on it.

A lot of people I do carnivore for weight loss. Um and I'm like, "Wow, this is this is really cool. So I just I went to my home and said, we ought to do the carnivore diet. And all the characters like, we can't. No, we can't there's no way they're going to do that. So I backed off and said, okay, well, it seems like there's this thing called a ketogenic diet, too. So let's start with that and we'll move to carnivore if we have to or something if we can.

Yeah. And so we just started, you know, reading the carb labels and things like that and tried to, you know, give them low carb vegetables, give them a lot of meat, a lot of fish, things like that. And and we were seeing lots of improvement. Um and and then I went to um the uh so I have two homes that accept Medicaid patients. And and Medicaid, as you'd probably know, doesn't pay much. So I'm like I went to one of the the insurance companies that administers Medicaid and I said, what what's your troublesome pop- population? How can I help you and and raise my rates so I can like, you know, make some money on these Medicaid homes?

And they said, well, um our obese individuals. No one wants them. We have this hospital that has all the obese people. And I met a girl I went to a hospital and toured it. I met a girl who was a thousand pounds. I I just I just I I couldn't believe that these people and they this was their life. They're going to be in this hospital the rest of their lives.

So I'm like, fine, I'll try it. So I I hired a guy um from Las Vegas who I met through that John Jaquish. His name's Daniel Maguiar and he um he has a amazing site. It's dmprotrainer.com and he helps people virtually. And I said, "Okay, I I can um Medicaid's going to pay me to pay you to help virtually this lady." And so, we had her on weekly conference calls with this guy. He's a huge like bodybuilder, eats the carnivore diet, believes in X3, all that kind of stuff.

And we bought her an X3 and for 9 months she came to our home and she was just losing, losing, losing. So, she got down 230 lb in 9 months. You know, she's uh when I come over there, she's like, "Hell, you can see my collarbone." And and just hearing that kind of stuff, you're like, "Oh, love this." You know, and just when I hit on something and it's working, I'm like, "Oh, yes. This is it." So, um I hope I'm not rambling.

No, no, keep going. This is awesome. So, so then you know, I have all these people who have dementia and I have ladies who are 95 lb as you probably see that are 90 years old. They don't need to lose weight. So, uh while I'm doing that, I'm looking up uh something I I found this guy Dr. Dale Bredesen who um spent 30 years researching Alzheimer's. He's a neuro um what's the neurologist.

And um actually was reversing Alzheimer's in certain people and he was using a functional medicine approach. He was the one who came up with there's 35 or 40 causes of Alzheimer's. And the um so, I went to his website, saw I I it took me two or three years of trying to convince people, "Let's try this." And what finally a lady said, "I want to do it for my mom." So, we signed her up, we got all the blood tests, uh they came back with a report and everything and they said, "You got to hire someone as a health coach to sort of help you through that's certified in the Bredesen protocol." And that's where I hired a mind for all seasons. Um and so we've been doing sort of his protocol ever since.

The only difference is he's a very much more plant-based guy, and he he he likes to say he didn't say meat is a condiment, but I I keep thinking, you know, he wants to he wants you to eat a a bounty of vegetables, and I'm kind of I see so many more results on the carnivore diet that I I kind of shy away from that. Everything else in his protocol I totally believe in. That's where we got the red light therapy, the sauna. We've taken people for hyperbaric oxygen treatment. All those kind of things help with the dementia, as well as exercise. So I've hired personal trainers that come in and exercise our our residents multiple times a week to to and we try to take them out on walks. We get them sunshine, vitamin D, all that kind of stuff is all in his protocol.

And so um and that's where we keep keep seeing the improvement. So it's been a you know, trying to find these experts and saying how can how can we work this? And I'm listening to podcast, listening to you, you know, your story. I show that to families all the time. Like listen to this girl's TED Talk to show you what can be done on this diet. And so um and it's neat cuz we're starting to form a community. I have I have volunteers coming from the local community saying I reversed my diabetes on a carnivore diet.

I want to help other people do it, you know, or I've seen this work. I want to help. And it's just I think it's so neat to be able to spread this. So it's not even just in an assisted living home. I'd love to destroy the assisted living business. I'd love everyone to stay at home, eat well, exercise, and and get rid of all these diseases. It'd be wonderful.

I'll turn my places into rental properties, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow, that's crazy. So then, can I ask how much it costs for this kind of thing? Like for a resident? Sure. Um I I really try to keep my costs down uh cuz I want I I want the family to participate and and make it a team.

And just to give a reference, uh there's a lady out in San Diego that does just the Bredesen protocol. If you don't want to do that, go somewhere else kind of thing. She charges like 15,000 a month. Now, people have long-term insurance that can pay for that. My cost generally around 5,000 a month for a private room And that's what for um a semi-private. Now, with the Bredesen protocol, there's additional like the families have to pay for the labs. Um we take them One of the contributing factors to dementia is uh bad teeth.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. people with dementia and Alzheimer's, a lot of times because the periodontal disease, the gingivitis, migrates to your brain and causes problems. So, we take them to dentists. So, they got to have dental insurance. Um you know, we um if we do hyperbaric oxygen therapy, that's outside. So, that's going to cost you extra. But I bought red light, I bought saunas, things like that. So, if those kind of things are all included in the price.

And that includes 24/7 care, that includes all your meals, carnivore or keto. And that includes, you know, um all the medication management. We'll try to do activities, take them out to the local zoos, or we take them up to Lake Pleasant for boat rides, or we, you know, take them to movies and things like that. I want them to feel like there's a purpose to doing this. Like your your life's not over. You can still go do stuff. That's incredible.

That pricing is incredible, I think. That's what I'm I'm trying to help, you know. A- As as we do more and more of this, it may and costs go up like everyone else is doing, it may go up some, but I'm really I want you to get better, you know? I want a reputation of go see how we get better and we'll figure out how to pay for it one way or the other kind of thing. Even my Medicaid home, um you know, which the they get they pay me like 3 to 4,000 a month. I don't give them all the amenities, the red lights and the saunas, but I still feed them well. Um I have a a guy in there that's been in a wheelchair since he was in high school out of football injury.

He's about 60 now and we're getting him to walk again at No. slowly. He's standing up and using We have like bars in the house and he's kind of walk Wow. he's lost 37 lb and he's uh his doctor told him his kidney function starting to come back. So, um you know, we're it just jazzy like you you get excited to get up in the morning and go do this stuff cuz he's when people when people have a success story, you know, you just feel like I'm really making a contribution here. Yeah, when I when I got healthy and like reversed all my issues, my life changed so dramatically that I was like, whatever I do, I can't forget where I was at. Like I cannot forget how sick I was. And luckily getting out of that took a little bit bit of time. Like I I was on a really low carb diet to begin with, which worked wonderfully, but then didn't work so well and I kept cutting things out further and further and was like, I could still feel the autoimmunity and things and it was there enough I had to get off a bunch of medications, which was hor- horrible.

And so I I got hit repeatedly with health issues for long enough that I was like, okay, it's embedded in my head. I can remember how sick I was cuz you get quite foggy when you're sick. So, when you pop out of it, you're like, what? That was old me. On to the next thing." But I was like, "I'm going to have to keep talking about this until everybody knows about it because it's these cog especially like cognitive decline and these neurological diseases especially that hit people at the end of their their life are so sad. They're so sad.

And to know that maybe not for everyone, but I would say most people can be improved or at least their suffering can lessen and maybe they can even reverse it. Do you know how angry that's going to make people when they find out that that was possible? Yeah. It's like you can't you can't even fathom it. Right. Absolutely. Couple things about Alzheimer's and dementia, too, is you see the symptoms in your 60s and 70s and 80s, but it starts in your 20s, 30s, and 40s, 50s.

So if you can get a handle on the stuff that causes Alzheimer's when you're younger, it's a very it can be an optional disease. It's not like you're just "Well, my mom had it, so I'm getting it." You know, if you eat right, you exercise a lot, you take care of yourself, you have a very low chance of getting Alzheimer's. There is an Alzheimer's gene that um will say you have a higher risk, but every all these experts I talked to say, "I know when you test a community like of memory care residents, only like a quarter of them have that gene. And and a lot of the others that have Alzheimer's don't have that gene. And there's a lot of people who have that gene in the population that don't will never get Alzheimer's. So um you can really fight this stuff.

And you know, you can't you can't just rely on, 'Well, when I get sick, I'll take some medication cuz the Alzheimer's medication doesn't do anything Yeah. for you. Yeah, and you've probably kept up to date with how much of that research was debunked in the last couple of years. Well, the the the studies that uh said that the beta amyloid plaques and stuff in your brain a lot of those studies were fraudulent. I know. They're they they the data was falsified. Yes, exactly. So, all these drugs are going after something that really isn't the problem.

Yeah. Or maybe one of the problem that those plaques, from what I understand, are defensive mechanisms to the insults of other stuff going in your brain. It's the other stuff that you need to fix, not reduce the plaques. Yeah. You should talk talk to I'll loop you in with uh Max Lugavere. He's a friend and um his mom passed away from Alzheimer's, so he does a lot with nutrition, but I'm sure he'd be interested in talking with you. Uh yeah, that I hope the people who did those studies are in jail.

Oh, yeah. Like because I remember when my grandma uh was diagnosed with uh dementia, we did, you know, my parents poured into the research and it was all about the amyloid plaques. Oh, yeah. Like what medications work. And then it oh, it turns out it might be a defense mechanism. That's not the same thing. Right.

Not at all. And and it's it's sad because you know, they're calling Alzheimer's type 3 diabetes now. And so, you know, if you have diabetes, your chance of getting Alzheimer's go up dramatically. So, fix the diabetes and you may fix the Alzheimer's at the same time, amongst other things, you know, don't get near mold, um you know, eat good meals that aren't a bunch of processed foods that are depleting your your body of vitamins and things like that. And and you stay healthy.

Reducing cognitive decline with ketogenic diets

As I tell people, I've never checked someone into my assisted living home who's followed a carnivore or keto diet. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I I've checked a whole lot of them in that, you know, ate a bunch of processed food, they had no idea about it. So, um to me, that's a big sign of here's here's how to fix this. And medications, you know, when you get to that age and everything, the medication just eases the pain. They don't improve you.

It's a lot of the medication is how can they this help us control this person? And it's really sad cuz you're like, then we shouldn't call it medication. We should call it chemical restraints or something like that, you know? So, it's just uh I see people come into my homes on, you know, 25, 30 different medications, and some of those medications are to counteract the side effects of other medications. My record is a guy at 54 medications when he came to us. So, I'm just like, you know, anything over four or five medications, you're doing a science experiment, cuz I'm sure there are no studies out there saying that combination of drugs and what it does to you. Wow.

Yeah. So, what's at the moment, what's stopping you from trying to expand? Is it manpower? It's caregivers. Money. It's caregivers. Um it's not a job that people It's hard.

It's hard. It's not uh one that, you know, makes a ton of money. I try my best to take care of my caregivers, and I've been very blessed with wonderful caregivers. Many of them have been with me 5 to 8 years, like the whole time I've been doing this. Um I'm actually working with an immigration attorney to bring some of the caregivers' families over here from overseas to to help us out. Like, I'll pay to go through the immigration process. You have them help out in my homes.

And as we do that, maybe I can look at expanding some, but it's just I'm very hesitant about finding good help uh to do that expansion. I I'd rather if I expanded, I'd want to buy an existing one that already had caregivers rather than start from the ground up and start recruiting cuz if I go on Indeed or Craigslist or, you know, websites for job opportunities, I get horrible ones. All my caregivers come from friends and family of my current caregivers. Like, if we happen to lose one, I'll just I I have two ladies that I call my HR department. And I go to them and say, "Send the word out. We need some more caregivers." And they, through their network, bring, you know, "Oh, call this person." kind of thing.

Yeah. That's smart. If I could find if I felt like that was under control, I would expand. But I'd love to show other people how to do this. I I would welcome that competition. I want to make people better, and I can only do 40 at a time here. So, and, you know, my people tend to last a long time, so I don't get many openings.

Yeah. Interesting. I know. Well, thank you for coming on. I I think the more people talk about it, and the more people that try out the diets, and the more people that see these results, then it'll just naturally spread. But I was shocked to hear that you were doing it and actually implementing it somewhere, cuz I hadn't heard of that. My parents, like, my mom in particular was like, as soon as we were on this diet, and we felt, you know, like different people, she was like, "We've got to set up a house, and then we have to get people in that house.

She was talking mostly about like external family that are still ill and she's you know, she goes after people harder than I do. I go online but I'm like I can tell if you're interested or not and I'm not going to convince you if you're not interested in person. She was like we have to set up a house and get people in the house and then get that horrible food away from them and just wait for them to get used to it and then let them leave once they're better. And I was like I know that would be like it would be nice to have centers you could go to where you could help get off some of these addictive foods. Do you have when you transition people in and take these processed foods out of their diet, do they experience cravings or do you do it gently? No, they experience cravings. Yeah, so what does that look like?

Especially the dementia people. Yeah. cuz they're inflamed. A lot of them have diabetes, things like that. So it's a a gradual thing and we'll have family members bring in some food to them if we need to or something but we really will will will like I said with Maria's recipes, we can make uh carnivore ice cream out of egg whites and stuff like that. And so we'll try to do that cuz a lot of them with dementia, you know, they see the ice cream, they think it's ice cream and they kind of tell themselves. Plus older people's taste buds aren't what they used to be and so it it definitely doesn't taste like Häagen-Dazs but it's it's not bad. And so we can uh help them you know, tran- make that transition.

A- and with the dementia, a lot of times we can make that transition a lot quicker cuz the the memory of the bad stuff fades, it seems like quicker as well. So the ones that are still alert are um sometimes it takes a little more convincing but also the peer pressure in the house like they see other people eating that way. Yeah, that helps. it helps come around rather than you're just sitting there with your thoughts of man, I could really use a candy bar right now or soda or something like that. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah. So, it does I mean, I'd love to have some homes where I just have a cook and people can come and go, you know, live communally, work with each other and you know, and the cook just brings in the food, they heat it up and cook it and all that. helpful, especially people who were really ill. Like I know there there are a number of people who go on So, the version of the carnivore diet I do is the lion diet.

It was just meat. I really impressed you do that. I I only do it out of necessity. If I if I if I didn't have to, I wouldn't be on it for sure. It it's like takes tried it and I'm That's why I'm so impressed you could do it. no, only only cuz I have to. But um it would be so useful for people to have a community and to be able to kind of detox somewhere. It's impossible to do that.

Like I have chronically ill people reach out that are like have autoimmunity or something like that and they're living in a house with other people in it. And they they just can't. Like they start getting like basically carb withdrawal, right? And they're still chronically ill cuz the diet hasn't helped yet and it's like I'm already miserable and now my diet isn't even fun and there's food everywhere and it's just like you you have to be a very very specific type of individual to be able to withstand that type of peer pressure to hold fast to a carnivore diet without a community. Very much so. That's why I thought a community would be a a fantastic thing to do, especially with younger people. I mean, I'd love doing it in an assisted living.

But it would it would bring the cost for everyone down a whole lot, too. You know, it'd be more you're in a rental house, maybe a little surcharge for the food kind of thing, but um you could a lot of people could afford it, they could get the chronic disease taken care of and then, you know, we could see Alzheimer's rates drop dramatically. We could see everything, cancer, heart disease. I mean, I always thought of the cholesterol thing, that was one of my big hang-ups with the carnivore diet when I first heard about it, but the more you research, the more you realize heart disease is caused by inflammation, insulin resistance, things like that. It's not the cholesterol. And so, um you know, educating people on that starts making them think, "Okay, well, maybe I can do this more, you know, I have heart disease, so what's ice cream going to do to me?" Well, that's contributing to heart disease kind of thing.

Yeah. So, um all the rates of all those diseases could come way down if people looked at this earlier and and maybe not do the extreme you did, but uh you know, even just cut out the processed food, go to the whole food, go to meat, go to fish, eat eggs, those kind of things and uh you could transform American health care with it. I'm impressed. So, so the the diet I do seems to only be necessary for people who have like autoimmunity, mostly. The autoimmunity part's complicated and I think, like you said, that's toxin burden, it's probably underlying infections, like a lot is going on there uh to make you so sensitive to food that you're that restricted. But, I'm impressed that you've been able to improve cognitive decline and that's with I've heard this, too. I mean, I know other people who talk about ketogenic diets for cognitive decline, but you've seen that.

Yeah. Have you seen a massive difference between a ketogenic diet and a carnivore diet with your patients? No, uh I I haven't. Okay. It's um I I would say the people on the carnivore diet, I do see more improvement than I do on the ketogenic diet, but it it's not like dramatic. Like they're still improving on the ketogenic diet. It's just not as fast as the carnivore.

And some of the people I I hate to say this, but it's not like a guaranteed fix. I've got you know, people with dementia that they just seem to be going along steadily, which which I've been told by doctors that's still an improvement because dementia is a continuous decline. So if they're stable, you're doing well, kind of thing. Uh you know, it's me like not good enough. I want to do better. But am I missing here? Right.

Right. Exactly. I'm always searching for what's What is the missing link here? But um but I do I do see better improvement on the carnivore diet than I do on the ketogenic diet. It's it's hard. I mean, as they get further into dementia, it's the the chance of improvement get worse and worse. But especially the ones that are um early on in dementia, and there's some dementias like Lewy body dementia where they have hallucinations and things like that that I'm still trying to work out what's going on there and why can't, you know, we just do it diet, but it's it's not as easy.

It's nerve cells take a lot longer to regenerate than other cells. Yeah. They do. Mhm. They really do. But they do regenerate. It's not They used to think that once they're damaged, they're done.

That's not true. Yeah. I had that experience. So I had to get off of antidepressants, which was a would not recommend. Yes. No, all the ones that we try to do that, we do it very gradually. There's this company called Autro um uh that's picking up, and it was started by a doctor who had a miserable time with extended withdrawal, which is really neurological damage from being on these medications for so long.

And so he has a group of doctors he put together that are They're operating in a number of states. They're not all across America yet that show people how to taper properly. Now, they don't implement I don't know if they implement dietary changes. I know they don't implement a ketogenic or a carnivore diet, which helps so much with that, but they do teach people proper tapering schedule, which is incredibly important cuz most people taper linearly and then Sure. it's a disaster. Yes. Yeah.

Challenge of tapering off medications

But they do they why do they taper? Like, do they just try to get you off of it fast or is there an indication that you're ready to to come off it? Um I think most of the people going to them have recognized that they're not they're either not helping that person or they're stuck on them when they're feeling better. So, they're you know, they've their brain is adapted to them, but they don't need them anymore and they can't get off of them. So, I I think those are the main people and people who experience severe withdrawal cuz not everybody does. So, they just teach people and they compound your medication for you so that it can go down at the proper dose over a long period of time. Wow, I'd love to get in touch with them.

Yeah, yeah, I can put you in touch. They're They're They're really good. Okay. Um and I'm in touch with them cuz that was like something my family went through that was brutal. But, I'm sure what happens is your brain gets used to it and then your brain has to like almost regrow and retrain different areas and it takes a while, but you can do it. Right. It just takes longer.

We've tapered a couple people like the guy with 54 medications we've tapered some of his. And uh he uh he was having bad nightmares and stuff. Aw. Yeah. Yeah, it's horrible. It is and I was I'll put you in touch with these guys. Okay.

Yeah, I'll put you in touch with these guys for sure. It's the low dose that's really hard to get off of. Yeah. Because if you probably already know this, neurotransmitter saturation. You get like the low doses will saturate 70 or 80% of your neurotransmitters and then when you get it to these massive doses, they're only working on the last like 8 to 10% that hasn't already been saturated. So removing the majority of it only removes about 30% of the saturation of neurotransmitters. So they do a like a it's not exponential exactly, but the tapering at the lower doses is much longer and slower and they figured it all out which you can't usually get access to.

Right. Oh, I I just rely on the doctors that come in our homes like and I Yeah. And they they just told me to take them slowly, but they don't there's not a a road map of how to do it They have it. Okay. I'll I'll loop you in with them. Yeah, cuz I see antidepressants like candy everywhere. Oof, yeah.

I know. That that's one of the things I've been trying to raise awareness about too because what? It's like a fifth of people in America have an autoimmune disorder. It's way higher for, you know, obesity, chronic diseases everywhere. I think 20% of America's on psych medication and they're impossible to get off of unless you know how to taper them and no one knows how to taper them. It's just like and then there's this diet that everyone thinks is a fad diet that works and it just like Oof. Yeah, I know I see on the internet they like don't eat meat if you want avoid diabetes and I'm like how is that even like physically possible?

There's no carbs. Diabetes needs carbs. So but that's what they put out there and I'm just it's mind-boggling to me. You go on the American Diabetes Association website and the recipes are like, you know, 25% sugar and 30% carbs and 40% protein and you're like your Diabetes Association is to make sure people continue having diabetes. Is that the idea here? I know. I know.

It's hard not to think It's hard not to think that it's set up from the top or something. But then you talk to you talk to doctors and it's like Well, I do think the food pyramid screwed everybody over. I think it's And that was run by corporations and we know that. So, that's not even a conspiracy. That's actually what happened. And then they trained all the doctors and now we are where we are. There's a lot of that.

I mean, the whole cholesterol thing There's documented proof that some I think the sugar industry paid some Harvard doctors to say it's cholesterol, not sugar. Yeah. For heart disease. And I just like, you know, what happened to that first do no harm thing in medical school? They I don't know what these people were thinking. They were probably I mean, they didn't have a view of what the future would look like. The person who was like, "Yeah, we'll blame fat."

And it was like, you know how many people that killed? Yes. Oh, it's insane. And and they've known about ketogenic diets since like the 1920s. Like they actually used it for therapy for things like epilepsy. So, it's not like this is a brand new fad thing. They did stuff They found stuff that worked cuz the medications weren't like crazy.

They didn't have a ton of them back then. So, they had to find stuff that actually worked. Mhm. And then the medications came in, took over and it was easier to take a pill. Although, they don't work that well and anti-epileptics are very difficult to get off of, too. They like fall into the same category as psych meds for withdrawal. Yeah.

So, yeah. And like painkillers and things like that. You know, you have pain. This gets me off the pain, but it makes me addicted to it. So, it's uh you know, diet is not the easiest road and that's I think that's one of the biggest barriers is you know, well, why should we do that when we can just have this doctor give us a medication? You know, me saying "Well, that medication's not going to work." It's It's not convincing to them.

Well, you're not a doctor. Yeah. All right. I've been doing this 9 years. I've seen people take that medication and nothing happens. So, how did you So, you said you've been doing this for 9 years.

Using diet to address diabetes and heart disease

Is that how long you've been implementing like ketogenic diet in? No, it's been probably maybe 3 years now, 3 or 4 years. I did I started really in earnest during COVID. Cuz I was you know, we got all the lockdowns really hard cuz you got old people and they're the most vulnerable and everything. So, I thought especially before all this vaccine stuff came out and everything, okay, how can we keep them healthy? So, let's do the And that And that's sort of when I discovered the X3 thing, too. But, um you know, what can we do that's not going to have people pass away here?

And so, uh I That's when I implemented the diet. We also got a bunch of vitamin C and D just looking on the internet. And I just I also did everything I could to have my residents see their families during COVID. Actually see them, not Zoom see them. Cuz Zoom would They'd just be like, Aw. So, we would We would set up like uh I bought like commercial clothing racks and we'd put clear shower curtains. We'd put them on Wow. the front porch on either side of the shower curtain.

Or we'd have them sit at the front door and the family, you know, be 6 ft away or, you know, whatever we could do that met Department of Health requirements. And I called the Department of Health The Arizona Department of Health was really cool about it. They said, "Don't do anything that will get you in the newspapers." And I'm like, "Okay, fine." And And then as as we did more and more more of that, we realized hey, they're not getting sick by seeing their families. So, then we just started having their families come in and we just do it outside. We'd have backyard barbecues or parties and things like that.

We had a lady turn 100 during COVID. So, we had a we had got the local police to have a parade with all the cars in front of her and we set up a throne in front of the house and had this 100 banner and we had a big party in the backyard afterwards. No problems at all. So, I just, you know, took steps and thought them seeing their family is probably the best defense against COVID I have. That they're happy, that they're not depressed, that they're not just going to go downhill cuz they're like, "I'm never going to see anyone again. I got to wear this stupid mask." All this stuff.

Oh. So, um I think the COVID and the X3 together kind of said this is what I need to do. And then once the Bredesen protocol kicked in, I'm like, "Oh yeah, this is it." The 780 people that I've sent home um the first one was probably in the first 2 years I did it and that was just eliminating the processed food. So, it's not like all of them did it because they were carnivore and keto. It was varying problems and things like that, but it was all just eating natural food helped. But most of the I'd say three or four of them are in the last three or four years kind of thing.

Wow. Yeah. I've got I just put up So, I get chronically ill people and they can't do the carnivore like they can't do the carnivore diet and they're, you know, bedridden or something like that and they're surrounded by other foods and they're miserably depressed. And they're just like, "This is too hard. Like I can't handle it." They can't do it because medically or they can't do it because it's just too hard? you know, it it's they can't they don't have enough will, part of it, but also they can't get out of bed well and it just anything additionally hard is too much cuz their life is too hard already. Right.

And so I've got this weaning protocol for people that's kind of like you're still eating the same thing. Right. But it's not the same thing. It looks like the same thing, but it's the healthy version of the same thing. So I have I think I have my my list called it's called like healthy foods for lazy people, something like that. Nice. Or it's like you can still eat your you know, it's not a carnivore diet, but like eat your pizza and your spaghetti and stuff, but it's the healthy versions of those.

So like grain-free, usually, you know, sugar-free, all that. Yep. And then have different diets for like first you replace all your foods that are like bread and buns and pizza and cakes with the healthy version of that. And then you start cutting out the healthy versions of the cakes and the buns and stuff and like moving people over slowly. That works better. That sounds like a great idea. Another thing we do is uh we'll do like a keto day and then a carnivore day, you know, like Yeah.

So you have something to look forward to. Like, okay, today's going to be hard just eating the meat thing, but tomorrow I'm going to get a little they're going to ease up on me, you know, so it we just and then we just try to space out the the cheat days or whatever Yeah. That that works. So That's a good idea. Um yeah, we we try to work with each person and see what they can do. But I have a nurse currently who came to us um she's lost 60 lb in 3 months and uh she was a nurse for 40 years and had no idea of these kind of nutrition things before she came to us. I like how do they not tell you guys about this stuff?

I don't think they know. Like I don't think people know. No. They're going to know though. That's that's yours and my job. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Yeah. And the more that know and try it and succeed, they become evangelists Yeah. for it. And the word spreads and spreads. They don't keep it to themselves. You know, and it's it's really neat to see. My cousin started texting me. He's lost 60 lb.

He had uh colon cancer. He just went in for a colonoscopy. It was totally clear. Wow. down to 10 g or less of carbs a day and he's doing the And he's like, "This is awesome. I'm grilling steaks. I'm eating burgers." No, I know.

I know. Compared to being chronically ill, even people like, "How do you do the diet?" And the version I'm on for the carnivore diet, like I can't do Maria's recipes. But so the version I'm on sucks in the realm of carnivore diet, but compared to how I used to feel, Mhm. it's a miracle. Yes. I was like, "This doesn't suck. I get to survive off of steak."

Yeah, exactly. who's going to say no to that? Right. Anyway, so yeah. And someone told me um there is no food on this earth that tastes as good as the as being feeling healthy. That's That's me. Yeah. And so there isn't a food that I should eat that could hurt my health that would be the taste would be better than that.

Yeah, nothing tastes as good as healthy feels. I I Yes, there you go. Thank you. And I I think of that every time I get tempted with something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's funny. Cuz I don't think you ever get rid of the temptations completely. No, not really. It fades. If you only eat meat, it does fade. I've walked into kitchens. It's such a weird experience.

I've been doing it It'll be 7 years in November December. Yeah, December. And I'll walk into kitchens. My brother, who eats a regular diet, he'll be cooking something and I won't be able to recognize the smell anymore. Isn't that weird? I'm like, "What is that?" That's an onion.

I'm like, "Wow." Cuz that's strong smell. I know. They They just don't They don't hit the same circuits. I'm sure if I started eating them again, then I'd rebuild that right away. But it was like super weird. Like that out.

I I haven't noticed that, but then Yeah, certain smells they just don't like. My brain's just pruned that part of my brain, I guess. Like that's not an important smell anymore. I'm amazed by how much it removes your appetite. Like you just you could go Like I The last time I ate was last night, and I just haven't been hungry all day. I'll probably go have a steak tonight or something, but it's No, the last time I ate was yesterday, too. And I remember eating at 1:00.

Yeah. It's 4:00. Right. And I remember normal diet but if I hadn't had something by 9:00 in the morning, I'm like Yeah, shaky. to have something. Yeah. And it really you just don't need it. Mhm.

I tried uh my dad wanted This is when I was still sick before I figured out there's a link to diet. My dad was like, "Oh, we I've read studies on fasting and helping chronically ill people. You know, you should try fasting." And I was in university. I think I went I don't know 6 hours and was like I'm I feel like I'm going to die. Yeah. Right?

And that was from, you know, how sick I was, the number of medications I was on, and what I was eating. But once you transition to low carb or keto or carnivore Carnivore's especially then it's like, "Yeah, you you can eat pretty infrequently." It was crazy It's crazy, actually. Yeah. I I know sometimes I have to remind Oh, I should eat. I don't want to cuz I do lose weight if I go 2 days or something without fast. Yeah.

We We feed our residents usually around 4:00 to 5:00, somewhere in there, and then we tell them the kitchen's closed until 8:00 7:30, 8:00 the next morning for breakfast. So, we can get 14, 15, 16 hours of them fasting every night, and I think that helps a lot, too. Yeah, yeah. It would. the three hour one of the things on the Bredesen protocol is to try to not eat three hours before your bedtime, too. And and it helps them sleep and it seems like our residents really their sleeps improves when they've been with us a little while. Wow. Which is huge for dementia, too.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, how? That's incredible. I'm going to loop you in after we're done. I'll loop you in with a few people.

I hope I hope it expands. Thank you. Uh me, too. I I want to help as many people as I can, um either through expanding assisted living or just getting the word out. I mean, this is not complicated. People can do this on their own. Um where can people go online to learn more about you?

So, our assisted living website's called a paradiseforparents.com. A in front of it. Um and then I I put out like a I do a newsletter sort of three times a week, either stuff we're doing in our um assisted living homes or something I found out about talking to a doctor or a specialist like your friend. Um and I I I just made an ebook called uh well, it's how to do carnivore on a budget cuz one of the questions I get is um how can you afford carnivore? And a lot of assisted living places are like, well, well, we don't want to spend all that money on food. Actually, I find at my own home I actually eat my dollar wise my food budget's gone down because I don't go to restaurants. I don't buy food that gets thrown away.

You know, it's I I shop for bargains when when there's a bargain at the supermarket on meat, I clear the supermarket out of it and put it in my freezer. Um so, I wrote this ebook carnivore on a budget of different ways you can save money buying meat, fish, chicken, eggs, things like that. And it's the website's carnivoreonabudget.com and it has an ebook and you can it'll sign you up for my newsletter if you're interested. I don't really sell much on the newsletter. I just try to get word out of what I'm finding just to help other people. Um, and then I'm on Facebook at Paradise for Parents Assisted Living and I've got an Instagram. You just look up my name and I'm probably most active on Twitter with my Hal Cranmer.

Um, just cuz it seems like I I find a lot of good I follow a lot of good people who've had success on the carnivore diet or very interested in the carnivore diet. And so I can see they post their latest links to latest studies and stuff like that. yeah. So, um, it's really good information. In fact, I go to Twitter sometimes say, I have this problem with a resident and I get like tons of feedback from all kinds of experts, which is really cool. Aw, that's so cool. Mhm. That's so cool.

I feel like most like I think it's I'm so glad that you're picky about caregivers. I've had you can get some nasty experiences with ooh. It's like some people who sign up to take care of other people are in it because they want power, not to not to help other people and that's scary when you're sick or old. It is, very much. And uh, you know, I hear horror stories of caregivers in people's homes stealing tons of stuff, identity theft, you know, abuse, all that kind of stuff. Our industry has a horrible reputation to begin with. No one talks about, "Hey, I sent someone home."

They talk about, "Oh, there was a case of sexual abuse in this care home or something." Yeah. A, I'm trying to change that, but B, I agree. And that's why I ask my best caregivers, "Give me you know, find another caregiver cuz they won't um they won't bring in a bad one. You know, they'll they'll they'll know and they'll talk in their community if this one's bad, this one's not. So, um they're kind of my screening cuz it's really hard to screen someone just on an interview. Oh, yeah.

Like impossible. know. Yeah, yeah. Like impossible. Okay, that's cool. Well, I'm going to link all of those in the description for anybody watching or listening. Awesome. those will be linked. Um good luck with everything you're doing.

Thank you. And thank you for having me. I can't tell you how inspiring your story is and and you know, I tell people about you everywhere I go cuz I just think it's amazing what you've done for yourself. Thank you. Mhm. I was pretty pissed off. I was pretty pissed off.

I was That was a lot of years of re- That was a lot of pain for a very long time. Yeah, but it's ended and I was like, "Are you joking?" It was It was that It was diet That was all I had to do? I would have done anything. And all I had to do was change the way I was eating? But a lot of people you tell them that and they still don't do it. So, it's kudos to you to do it.

I mean, I I tell When people come to me, a lot of times the family members overwhelmed because they're their mom's been up all night with dementia. You probably saw it with your relatives. Um you know, they're exhausted. They're They got kids they got to take care of. Job They go to a regular job and then they're up all night with their their elderly parent. I I always tell them, "Thank you for your service." because I think those people are so the unsung heroes of America because they're doing it completely out of love. There's no compensation for them or anything like that.

They're paying back their parents for what their parents did for them when they were young. And so, I'd like to say thank you for your service, too, cuz what you tell everyone is inspiring a tons of people. And I tell friends I'm going on your podcast, they're like, "Oh my god, she's my hero." So, um I think you're changing lives, as well. Well, thank you. So, well, hopefully we spread this to more people. I sure hope so.

We'll do everything I can. Yeah, thanks for coming on. Thank you. I really appreciate it, McKaela.