Alzheimer’s Breakthrough with Dr. Josh Helman, MD
Sep 17, 2026 · 59 min · 10 segments
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Miles NicholsGuest
Josh HelmanHost
And I'm seeing studies now that amyloid tissue itself can be antibacterial, that it may well be the body's, within the brain's own response to infection to stop the infection in the brain, in which case The amyloid is a good thing, not a bad thing.

It's a good thing that the brain can fight these, you know, spirochetes and other infections and hopefully bust up the biofilm, the biologic film that some of these infections can form in the brain and elsewhere.

The body, you know, I think there are reasons that it's not all bad that we're making, you know, antibodies and we're forming plaque that looks like it's I mean, it's almost like if you were to this is an old analogy, people probably heard it a million times.

But it's, you know, if you're if you're an alien observing the earth and you see, oh, fires and there are these firemen there and maybe it's, why are these firemen causing these fires? But it's not the cause, it's trying to clean up the damage that's being done.

And so there may be this brilliant sort of way in which the body is working to protect against something that's creating something else.

And yet there are byproducts or innocent bystanders that take some toll out of the brain function in order to protect from infection.

And yes, absolutely, there's evidence about the brain function may be trying to, you know, the body may be trying to protect against infection.

So with the fireman analogy, if you go to a site after it's been cleaned up or fire has been stopped, you go there and you find all the water by the fire and then you could come and make the conclusion, oh, it's the water that's causing all this problem.

And along those lines, tell us a little bit about your belief about the connection between the gut and the brain.

Because, I mean, obviously anatomically, you know, the brain's up here, the gut's down here.

There's a neurologist who said, you know, the last thing that I thought I'd be studying was the gut, but...

But he said, you know, we took these mice and we took a group and we gave this one half of the mice a probiotic lactobacillus rhamnosus and the other half a sterile broth, no probiotics in it.

And we subjected them both to a forced swim test, which is stressful for mice.

And I'm seeing studies now that amyloid tissue itself can be antibacterial, that it may well be the body's, within the brain's own response to infection to stop the infection in the brain, in which case The amyloid is a good thing, not a bad thing.

It's a good thing that the brain can fight these, you know, spirochetes and other infections and hopefully bust up the biofilm, the biologic film that some of these infections can form in the brain and elsewhere.

The body, you know, I think there are reasons that it's not all bad that we're making, you know, antibodies and we're forming plaque that looks like it's I mean, it's almost like if you were to this is an old analogy, people probably heard it a million times.

But it's, you know, if you're if you're an alien observing the earth and you see, oh, fires and there are these firemen there and maybe it's, why are these firemen causing these fires? But it's not the cause, it's trying to clean up the damage that's being done.

And so there may be this brilliant sort of way in which the body is working to protect against something that's creating something else.

And yet there are byproducts or innocent bystanders that take some toll out of the brain function in order to protect from infection.

And yes, absolutely, there's evidence about the brain function may be trying to, you know, the body may be trying to protect against infection.

So with the fireman analogy, if you go to a site after it's been cleaned up or fire has been stopped, you go there and you find all the water by the fire and then you could come and make the conclusion, oh, it's the water that's causing all this problem.

And along those lines, tell us a little bit about your belief about the connection between the gut and the brain.

Because, I mean, obviously anatomically, you know, the brain's up here, the gut's down here.

There's a neurologist who said, you know, the last thing that I thought I'd be studying was the gut, but...

But he said, you know, we took these mice and we took a group and we gave this one half of the mice a probiotic lactobacillus rhamnosus and the other half a sterile broth, no probiotics in it.

And we subjected them both to a forced swim test, which is stressful for mice.
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