The studio fell silent when Penn Holderness, the family man who won over the internet with The Holderness Family videos, lost his voice live on CNN's The Lead. He had come on to talk about his mother, who died a few weeks ago after ten years with Alzheimer's. And he ended up revealing what her brain showed after it was donated to science.
"She hadn't spoken in five years," Penn said, his voice breaking. "When she died, she donated her own brain to Duke's Alzheimer's research center. We cried watching the car take her body away. I thought it would help someone twenty years from now. I never imagined it would help me. And this fast."
So, if your father or mother had Alzheimer's... if you forget a name and immediately think "it's starting"... if you're afraid you're next in the family...
It's not age. And your genes don't decide. It's something Big Pharma has been hiding for decades.
Days after the funeral, Duke called Penn with two results. The first was his: two copies of the APOE4 gene, the biggest known genetic risk for Alzheimer's, with up to 15 times the chance of developing the disease. "I spent ten years waiting for my sentence to come down," he said.
The second was his mother's. The report showed her brain overrun with microplastics, stuck around her neurons. To scientists, this wasn't news. Last year, researchers at the University of New Mexico found microplastics in every human brain they analyzed, and up to 10 times more in people with dementia.
And it was exactly what Elon Musk had revealed weeks earlier, based on a 1978 NASA file that stayed secret for nearly 50 years.
"She would have died knowing my name"
Jake Tapper: "Penn, Elon Musk said the answer to Alzheimer's wasn't going to come from a new drug, but from a file NASA had hidden. Does your mother's report confirm that?"
Penn Holderness: "It does. What erased my mom wasn't age, and it wasn't her genes. It was the microplastics that get into your body through tap water, the air and packaged food. They stick around your neurons like plastic wrap and block your memories from getting through.
The memories are still there. They're just trapped. And what eats me up inside is knowing there's a natural way out, and that the pharmaceutical industry spent decades not telling anyone. The NASA file shows the main compound in the protocol is in Vicks VapoRub. It costs $4, it's sold without a prescription, and nobody can patent it."
Jake Tapper: "And you started the protocol?"
Penn Holderness: "Yes, every morning. It only takes 10 seconds. Within two weeks, my head was clearer than it had been in years. The nurse who cared for my mom started the protocol with an 84-year-old man who hadn't recognized his daughter in two years. Last week, he called her by name and asked why she was crying.
If my mom had known about this ten years ago, she would have died knowing my name."
Jake Tapper: "Penn, thank you. Musk recorded a full video showing what the 1978 file says about the compound in Vicks and how the protocol works. The pharmaceutical industry has already pulled this video down 7 times. The full version is right below. Pay close attention, because this could be the difference between losing who you are... and still being yourself for years to come."
UPDATE: Penn's interview passed 2.1 million views in 24 hours. Musk's video has already been taken down 7 times, and we don't know how long this copy will stay up.
Attention: microplastics build up silently, years before the first memory slip. Find out in the video how to get them out of your brain. The sooner you start, the better your memory gets.