What if reversing cognitive decline could actually be a reality? In this episode, Joe Fier sits down with Dr. Edwin Lee, a co-founder of MD Lifespan and leading practitioner in therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE), to explore real-life breakthroughs in brain health. Dr. Lee shares remarkable stories of individuals—some as old as 79—who have experienced significant cognitive improvement, and he details the science and protocols making these outcomes possible. The conversation dives into the role of toxins, peptides, stem cells, and practical lifestyle adjustments in optimizing cognitive health and longevity.

Topics Discussed

• Dr. Edwin Lee’s Background in Endocrinology, functional medicine, and his path to MD Lifespan
• How TPE works and its impact on brain health and cognitive decline. Plus, real-world case studies, including dramatic reversals in memory loss and brain fog
• The role of microplastics and environmental toxins in Alzheimer’s and dementia
• Regenerative Techniques Beyond TPE like the use of exosomes, peptides (like Epithalon), and stem cells for neuroregeneration
• Practical Tips for Reducing Toxin Exposure like safe alternatives to bottled water, plastic, and Teflon cookware

Resources Mentioned

• SavePeptides.org: https://savepeptides.org/
• Book: The End of Alzheimer’s by Dr. Dale Bredesen: https://www.amazon.com/End-Alzheimers-Program-Prevent-Cognitive/dp/0735216207

Connect with Us

• TPE Blueprint Podcast Website: https://mdlifespan.com/the-tpe-blueprint-podcasts/
• MDLifespan Website: https://mdlifespan.com/
• Guidebooks: https://mdlifespan.com/guidebooks/
• Follow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/mdlifespan 
• Subscribe and Listen: https://mdlifespan.com/the-tpe-blueprint-podcasts/

If you enjoyed today’s episode and want to stay on top of the latest in TPE and regenerative wellness, be sure to subscribe to the TPE Blueprint Podcast on your favorite platform. Share this episode with a friend who cares about brain health, and join our community for regular updates, resources, and expert interviews!

Disclaimer:

MDLifespan PlasmaXchange protocols are designed to support general health and wellness. They are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information provided on this podcast is for educational purposes only and should not replace medical advice. Please consult with your healthcare provider before beginning any new health program, especially if you have a medical condition or are taking prescribed medications.

What if reversing cognitive decline wasn't just a dream, but actually a reality.

Today on the episode, I'm chatting with Dr. Ed Lee and we're diving into a case

study and a lot more that's completely rewriting the rules of brain health.

Let's dive into it.

Dr. Ed Lee, it's great to have you here and thank you for your time today.

How are you doing?

Yeah.

Thank you for inviting me.

Of course.

Well, hey, you're part of the MD lifespan, uh, team.

So I guess tell us how you are, you know, working with

Therapeutic Plasma Exchange, TPE.

'cause you're actually delivering these services and you're

doing some really cool stuff.

You have a study that released as well pretty recently, so, um, yeah, give

us your background a little bit there.

well, I'm an endocrinologist, um, by training and, um, I've been

doing functional medicine and wellness practice for some time.

And I've known Dr. Paul Savage, who founded, uh, MD Lifespan, and

I've been doing TPE for probably like, uh, two years before we met.

Uh, and so I published a paper on reversing, uh, cognitive decline in a

79-year-old gentleman using, uh, TPE, but also some other regenerative uh, stuff.

We can talk later.

And, uh, Paul and I started talking and we knew, we knew each other prior.

And, uh, so he said, Hey, do you wanna be a co-founder of, uh, MD Lifespan?

I said, sure.

And he needed a secret recipe on how to reverse dementia, so I gave it to him.

let's talk about that.

I feel like that's pretty enticing.

Is.

Um, reversing dementia.

Like, uh, maybe, maybe we start, 'cause you mentioned the study in the 79-year-old

who actually now is more closer to 80.

'cause I think that was a year ago we were just talking about, and he's

still doing great, which is great.

I'll just, uh, I'll seed that there, but tell, tell me about, um, maybe the

overview of like, the thinking of this, of like how you think, uh, you know, TPE

plays with this reversing dementia, brain health, and then referencing the study

Oh, Joe, it's, it's very simple.

It's removing all these toxins out of the brain, and if you can remove toxins

out of your body, your, your, your body and your brain will get better.

So it's not just only that patient, his name is I'll, I'll

just say Frank is his first name.

He, he couldn't even finish the sentence.

That's how bad he was.

He would, when he first came to see me, he would stop and he, I usually can kind

of figure out which way a patient can go.

But when I first interviewed, it was that awkward silence.

I had no idea what he was trying to say.

he was also having issues with memory recall like 10 years prior.

So this was progressively getting worse.

And he said after, before the third session of doing TPE, he goes, he

goes, Dr. Lee, my brain is clicked on.

It just like a click went on, a light bulb went on.

He goes, I used to, was a professional trader and I was trading stocks.

He goes, I gotta make a lot of money to afford you, so I gotta

go back in the stock market.

And he made some money there.

So,

Good for him.

How, how long did it take?

Like how many sessions before that click happened?

for him, it, it took, um, before the third, uh, session,

we, we did five in one year.

Uh, but I have other people, um, I have a younger one, a younger patient in her late

forties, and she just has severe brain fog and it's progressive getting worse.

She would walk in her room and not recall why she goes there.

She had problems with name recall and anyway, she, she said it was

each time got better, but the fifth one just cleaned out everything.

It just was amazing.

She, she was at a Christmas, um.

Get together with her family and they play this memory game, and she always lost.

And this year she, she won.

So it's just like she, her family is thinking like, who

is our, who is this person?

You look like my sister.

You look like my daughter.

But, uh, you don't act like her.

So

Like, do you think that's a pretty common outcome that you're seeing

with folks going through TPE?

And of course there's a range, and I'm curious of the other, because you said

earlier, you know, you can usually tell a way which way a patient's gonna go.

For my mother, it was one session.

She basically had issues with memory.

Uh, she denied, uh, she had mo you know, issues with her, um, memory loss, but.

We did a cruise like two years ago and her sister went, my aunt

went and they stayed together.

And at the end of the cruise, my aunt, who's younger than my mother, said, I will

never do another cruise with your mother.

'cause she kept asking the same questions over and over and over again.

And I noticed her memory was going down and, and she visits from Pennsylvania

to Florida and she stays about three months, uh, every time she visits and.

She was even getting lost in walking in our gated community, which is a oval.

And it's like I bumped into her.

She goes, where's your house?

I was like, mom, we're just three more houses down.

It's just walk, keep walking.

You'll find it.

But, uh,

You'll get there.

Yeah.

she, she was convinced that she had memory issues be not because of

her sister, not because I said so.

It's because of my wife.

Um, and my mother and my wife had a discussion and my wife opened up the

freezer and took out some egg rolls and said, you made it last week.

And took out another package and said, you made it a month ago.

And it was my mother's handwriting.

She is like always like put, always labels things in the freezer and that

was the aha moment for my mother 'cause she just didn't believe her sister.

And she just never remembers.

But that moment she goes, oh, I do have a memory issue.

So I remember calling one patient, uh, that was scheduled to do

therapeutic plasma exchange.

And I told, I said, my mom's leaving, you know, soon I need, she needs to do it.

I have to push you back.

And so anyway, so she would, she was, my patient was flexible.

Understood.

And that one session, uh, doing that plus.

Doing, we did exosomes up the nose and I did peptide called

epithalon, E-P-I-T-H-A-L-O-N.

And we also used a little, uh, mesenchymal stem cells.

So I did both mesenchymal stem cells and exosomes.

And uh, there's a study that's showing if you use epithalon prior to using

the stem cells, you can convert the stem cells into a new neuro.

Oh wow.

Holy

moly.

the thing is our brain cannot develop new neurons.

It's like you have X amount of brain cells.

So with neurodegenerative disease disease, you start losing these new neurons.

But unfortunately, the FDA wants to ban all these peptides.

And I have a, um, foundation and, uh, anyway, it's a

non-for-profit organization.

To save peptides, so hopefully people can sign up, uh, and

try to save it from the FDA.

What's the name of it?

Let's,

save peptides.org, and uh, just please go there.

And,

Well, I'll be signing the petition right after this.

You know, you make it easy, so pay save peptides.org.

That's, that's awesome.

You're doing that.

Yeah, it's not.com.

Dot org.

Dot org.

Yeah, I got it.

We will put it in the notes and everything so it's easy for folks to access.

Well keep talking about this whole brain health thing though, because

that's what fascinates me with, um, like I said, the new, the neurons.

yes, with Frank, we did a, um, all my patients that come in, we do

a, a kind of a, a, uh, subjective, um, sorry, an objective testing.

Uh, to see how their brain function is.

And there's a computer program called CNS Vitals, um, C-N-S-C-N-S, vital signs.

And uh, so it's a, they do it on their lap, they do it, they can do it at home.

Um, but some of my patients who have memory issues, they don't know how to use

a computer, they'll do it in my office.

Uh, 'cause they don't even know what a mouse is.

So, um, anyway, so, uh, we've noticed with Frank, his scores were

generally almost all in the red.

And, um, a year later he basically got basically more, more in the midline.

And then I retested, uh, which after I published, I tested

him again and he's even better.

So he's continuing to get better so the brain can recover.

Uh, but if the main thing is get rid of the bad stuff, um, and then if you can

give the good stuff, which is not easy.

Um, because the FDA, you know, is trying to take away peptides.

So, uh, I'm now experimenting without using epithalon 'cause it's harder

and harder to get that peptide.

But, uh, I'm using, uh, just trying to use as exosomes, which are, um, tiny

little like bubbles that are regenerative.

So if you can get these exosomes from stem cells, umbilical cord stem cells.

They can secrete exosomes.

These exosomes are so regenerative.

It, it, it is, it can reduce inflammation.

They've done studies where they induce liver failure in, in a rat

and then use human exosomes, um, which are not rat exosomes and the,

but they have, they've noticed those human exosomes can help the liver.

Um, the, the rat liver goes from cirrhosis to normal.

Wow.

So exosomes are the really magical part of regeneration.

Uh, so I know we have peptides that can, if we have epithalon with,

uh, the mesenchymal stem cells.

There's a study that was published that shows that, uh, using human stem

cells, um, from, from men, um, from their, from their mouth cavity, the

buccal cavity, um, and then put in a petri dish and then use epithalon.

You, they grew new neurons, uh, because it turns on five, four, or five different

genes to make a certain protein.

And those proteins are needed for, for basically neurogenesis.

So you need the right environment, so for the, the stem cells to convert.

So how do you know the stem cells can convert to heart cell or to a neuron?

epithalon seems that turns it into brain cells,

To brain cells.

Okay.

So you can kind of target it that way or, you know, guide it that way if you will.

Uh.

we call it in vitro study.

It wasn't done live, but it was done in a Petri dish.

So I, you know, I said, I read that article, it's like, oh, let,

let's try this on, on you, Frank.

He goes, okay, I know you're not a rat, but I mean, but I

mean, we'll, we'll try this.

And, he was one of my first per patients we did, uh, TPE on.

And, uh, so we, we were on the beginning stage.

Um, he had a pee, so he had to stop.

So we only did a half exchange.

Because it

takes what, a few hours, right.

At

yeah, first, yeah, it took like three hours and, uh, we were doing really slow

and now you can do it about 90 minutes.

But, uh, it was a learning curve for us.

But anyway, the first two times.

It when he had to take a, um, he had to go to the bathroom really bad.

We, we had to stop it, so he never got the full benefit.

But before the third one, he already started feeling better.

Despite doing like a half on the first session, a half on the second

session, he, he started getting better.

So, which is.

It's, it's very exciting.

Well, it, you mentioned, you know, it's, you need the right environment.

So I guess, talk to me about this whole, I guess, the sequence of

how you think things through and.

You know, this could be for other physicians listening as well, and

other people just considering TPE, like kind of the order of events,

Nutrition, exercise, um, sleep.

They're all critical.

So, um, you know, there, there's a, there's a, uh, doctor that,

uh, he's, uh, Dale, um, Breon.

He has written the book on reversing Alzheimer's and he has

the, the Dale Bresin protocol.

But, um, not everybody can take hormones.

Like my mother, she is a survivor of breast cancer.

So she is estrogen positive, um, and progesterone positive receptors.

So she cannot take estrogen or progesterone.

So estrogen deficiency will basically lead to, uh, brain, um, cognitive.

Well, her brain will shrink.

And so I've noticed then since she'd been on that Tamoxifen, her

brain just was going downhill.

So she wasn't gonna die.

She's not gonna die of brain, I mean breast cancer, but she's gonna.

You know, if I didn't do anything, she's gonna die of basically

of dementia, which is terrible.

So, uh, not everyone can do hormones, um, but a majority of people can.

But if you can do the hormones, that will really help.

But I have patients who've been on hormones for 15 plus years

and they still get dementia

interesting.

because I've been doing, I'm almost in practice for, oh.

Close to 30 years.

So I've seen a lot over my time.

So even patients who are optimized, you can't get rid of the toxins,

so the toxins will accumulate and it'll basically destroy whatever

organ it's accumulated the most.

Unfortunately, the brain will accumulate a lot of microplastics

and it will accumulate a lot of different other fast soluble toxins.

Yeah, and talk to me about that.

And like, so the toxin thing specifically, because like where you

said the accumulation, so a lot of microplastics in the brain and of

Yeah, there was a study, autopsy study that showed that, um, this was done

like I think out on the West coast and, uh, they basically noticed like,

um, in regards to microplastic, um, I can't remember exact number, but it was

like 20 or 20 times higher than people who, who didn't have, uh, dementia.

So they, they, they basically studied, it was postpartum, I mean, postmortem,

meaning, uh, the patient's already died so they know what they died of.

And they basically looked at the brain and compared to someone who died

of a heart attack, and they looked compared to the brains, and the brain

basically has like 20 to probably 30 times higher amount of microplastics.

So, uh, and that's, that's not just one study.

There, there was other studies that they're showing.

Or a higher amount of like, microplastics in the olfactory bulb.

So when you breathe in, you know, it's in the air, it's in the water.

And, uh, and they've done rat studies where they contaminated

the water with microplastics.

And, uh, the thing is that, uh, within couple, within a month, the, the, the,

the rodents would have cognitive decline.

And that's just, I mean, that's just environmental stuff.

And we've talked a lot, you know, Dr. Savage has been on here multiple times.

We broke down.

So yeah, definitely reference those.

Listening and watching, go check out those previous episodes where

we break all those environmental factors mainly in your house.

Unfortunately, it's something like 500 times more toxic is what he was saying.

but not many people are gonna live under a tree.

You can't fix it all anyway.

Right?

Like what's, what's your vision?

And, and we can kinda like close it up a little bit here is, is, you

know, I'm, I'm, I'm thinking of like, what would the recommendation be, you

know, and not everyone's gonna get TPE, it's right now, it's so early.

But I want to just at least paint a picture of what's possible.

And that's, you know, speaking with you.

And then also kind of, so it's almost like what are the options right now for people

to kind of clear out some of these toxins?

In your mind, TPE being probably the best way, uh, but just your thoughts

there, but also where the future goes for like the average person and what's,

what could be available for them.

Well, I, there's some couple simple things.

Uh, stop drinking from bottled water, uh, 'cause that has BPA

and other phalates and other, uh, toxins there that will accumulate.

And, uh, if you do cook, try to use, avoid the, um, Teflon, because that's

the PFAS, that's the forever chemicals.

So, you know, if you have the spatula that's Teflon, that's a black one, just

throw it away and get either, um, ceramic or basically stainless steel, um, so

that, that you can reduce that forever.

Um, chemical that would PFAS, um, and then.

Um, there's use air filtration and, uh, try to, um, water filtration

to try to get rid of some toxins.

But we live in a toxic world.

There's no place on earth that you're gonna be avoided, uh, that

you're gonna be free of toxins.

Uh, they've done a study in, uh, basically in the South Pole and it

was on 60 minutes and I remember watching it and they drilled.

Some they went down pretty far to sample the ice and they carbonated.

It was like 200 years ago.

And then they looked at how many chemicals there were and

there was tons of chemicals 200

Geez,

So that's the south pole.

It's in the water.

It's in the wind.

So where, where are you gonna go?

Uh, even in space, there's, you know, radiation.

So it's this, we have to deal with, uh, what we have.

But I think a, a lot of things is have a, I mean, a positive attitude, be

happy, be grad, have gratitude and, uh, love, um, and have family and

friends and just give back to society.

I think that that's really, that's I think, really important and sleep

well and exercise that all helps.

But, uh, eventually if you can afford it, um, get.

Okay.

Therapeutic plasma exchange, and hopefully with MD lifespan, as it

expands, it'll become more affordable and I believe everyone can get it done.

Uh, so it's just, um, it's right now pricey, but over time, hopefully with

volume, the price will come down.

That's the goal with MD Lifespan is to, to expand it and to make it more affordable.

I love it.

Yeah, and that's, that's what I, I love about what Dr. Savage is doing, what

you're doing as a founding member and.

Yeah, just over, I, I'd say over the coming years, I know the plan is to, yeah.

To make it more accessible.

And ideally this podcast will be that access at first of information.

So then, uh, yeah, when the time is right, whenever it is for someone's timeline,

you know, they can jump into it and make that, you know, at least have the control

a little bit more so than, than not at

Yes,

Well, Dr. Dr. Lee, I appreciate you.

I urge folks, everyone go to save peptides.org and,

and give us on the petition.

It's

you very

clear.

Of course.

All

right,

Take care.

soon.

Bye.