373: Preventing Alzheimer’s: Muscle, Sleep, + Metabolic Health | Louisa Nicola

Be Well by Kelly Leveque

Kelly Leveque

Nutrition, Education, Health & Fitness, Alternative Health, Self-improvement

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2026

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, I sit down with neuroscientist Louisa Nicola to unpack what women actually need to know about Alzheimer’s risk, cognitive decline, and long term brain protection. We break down APOE genetics, advanced blood biomarkers that can now detect amyloid and tau with remarkable accuracy, and why brain health is inseparable from metabolic health. Louisa explains how muscle acts as a metabolic sink for glucose, why resistance training and high intensity intervals stimulate BDNF, and how sleep drives the glymphatic system to clear amyloid from the brain. If you want practical tools to assess your personal risk, understand your labs, and build a proactive prevention plan decades before symptoms appear, this conversation is for you. → Leave Us A Voice Message! Topics Discussed: → What does APOE4 mean for Alzheimer’s risk? → Can exercise prevent cognitive decline? → Do blood tests detect early Alzheimer’s? → How does perimenopause affect brain health? → Does hormone therapy reduce dementia risk? Sponsored By: → Timeline | Support your cells and how you age with Mitopure® Gummies from Timeline. Visit https://timeline.com/KELLY and save up to 39% off your Mitopure® Gummies. → Be Well By Kelly Protein Powder & Essentials | Get $10 off your order with PODCAST10 at https://bewellbykelly.com. → Cozy Earth | Head to https://cozyearth.com and use code BEWELL for up to 20% off. And if you get a post-purchase survey, make sure you tell them you heard about Cozy Earth right here at the Be Well by Kelly podcast. → LMNT | Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at https://drinklmnt.com/Kelly. Find your favorite LMNT flavor, or share with a friend. Timestamps: → 00:00:00 - Introduction → 00:01:27 - Mission to end Alzheimer's → 00:03:28 - Women’s rate of Alzheimer's → 00:04:11 - Alzheimer’s overview → 00:07:44 - Education level & health → 00:09:57 - Anatomy → 00:14:16 - Neuroplasticity & glucose → 00:19:38 - Amyloid-beta → 00:26:41 - LDL Cholesterol → 00:28:36 - Preparing for menopause → 00:31:30 - Blood testing recommendations → 00:34:26 - Lifestyle interventions → 00:39:05 - Nutrition & the MIND diet → 00:42:19 - Zone 2 vs zone 5 training → 00:44:36 - Lactic acid → 00:47:58 - HRT is protective → 00:50:19 - When to test for HRT → 00:51:56 - Testosterone + brain health → 00:53:40 - Cognitive reserve → 00:57:12 - Hot flashes → 00:58:13 - Quick fixes → 01:00:01 - Brain surgery → 01:05:38 - The brain code Show Links: → Function | Own your health for $365 a year. That’s a dollar a day. Learn more and join using my link. Visit https://www.functionhealth.com/bewellbykelly and use gift code BEWELL25 for a $25 credit toward your membership Further Listening: → How to Take Control of Your Health in a Toxic Food Landscape | Max Lugavere Check Out Louisa: → Instagram → The Brain Code Check Out Kelly: → Instagram → Youtube → Facebook

Transcript

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0:00.0	of education that you receive actually plays a huge role on cognition and Alzheimer's prevention.
0:06.9	65 million people currently have Alzheimer's disease and 70% of all of those cases are female.
0:13.3	A lot of women have been scared and fined out of taking hormone replacement therapy.
0:17.3	There is some studies now to show that actually having multiple
0:21.4	pregnancies could be protective against Alzheimer's disease. Baby hear that, we're going for four.
0:26.8	Yeah. Wow. Okay, great. You are very protected.
0:33.1	You're listening to Be Well by Kelly Leveck.
0:39.0	Louisa Nicola, I have wanted you to sit at this table.
0:42.8	It feels like for months.
0:44.4	And then we got to meet in person at a baby shower.
0:47.1	And then I really wanted you to come tell us all about our brain,
0:51.9	the prevention of Alzheimer's, the things that are in our control,
0:55.3	or at least motivate us to do those things, and to share your knowledge. I've had, we talked
1:00.0	about it. I've had Dr. Dale Bredesen on the show, Max Lugavir, some people who really are,
1:05.2	you know, fighting the good fight for Alzheimer's research and just to share the information.
1:10.4	But when I heard you on a few podcasts,
1:13.0	I was like, that's it. I love a 101 all about a disease state and how we can prevent it or,
1:19.7	you know, like what our risks really are. And I feel like you are that exact expert. And I'm so
1:24.6	grateful that you're sitting at this table. Thanks for being here. Well, thank you
1:27.6	very much. It's one way that I can fulfill my mission, which is to end Alzheimer's disease.
1:33.7	It's a phenomenal mission. It feels really personal. What, like, what was it that really pulled
1:41.2	at your heartstrings to have this mission? Everyone asks me that. And to be quite clear, nobody in my family has actually had
	...

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