Dr. Paul Cox

When you think of medical researchers; those men and women who spend unimaginable hours in their laboratories in search of those evasive answers to mankind’s diseases, we conger up images of lab coats, microscopes, petri dishes, and complicated instruments that appear to have been created by NASA. All of this is true as you walk through the laboratory of Dr. Paul Alan Cox 's Brain Chemistry Labs, a Non-profit Research Institute in Jackson, Wyoming. In this non-profit environment, NOT driven by big pharmacy money, you will meet a team of passionate scientists who come from as far as England and Australia.

You’ll see those petri dishes with unidentifiable substances, vials of testing samples, and special freezers that hold brain tissue from hundreds of donated brains from around the world. This very well could be ground zero for an answer to some of our most challenging neurodegenerative diseases we, as a human race, face from ALS, to Parkinson’s to that BIG DOG in the room, Alzheimer’s.

As I mentioned, the extremely passionate driving force behind the institute in this laboratory is Dr. Paul Alan Cox, Ph.D. a Harvard graduate and ethnobotanist who could be compared to a modern-day Indiana Jones treasure hunter. He’s not searching for that elusive crown of jewels or relic from some far away, exotic and remote culture but rather, trying to save our families and society from the anguish of devastating diseases. His methods are no different from Dr. Jones in the sense he does travel to far-reaching places and spends vast amounts of time with indigenous cultures from places such as Arctic Lappland, Okinawa, Guam, and Samoa. His very different approach to research is so common sense based it’s almost embarrassing to his world of highbrow researchers. “I spend time with indigenous people from around the world to better understand how and why they suffer high incidence of a disease or why it’s non-existent altogether.” Over the years, his work has led to impressive discoveries as he spends his time with the world’s best medicine cabinet that mother earth has given us – plant life. Probably his most notable is his discovery of the anti-HIV/AIDS properties of prostratin, which is a protein kinase C activator found in the bark of trees in Samoa.

Now, this extremely versatile adventure traveler that can sit and speak languages comfortable with the leaders of visited villages is chasing down Alzheimer’s. He’s doing so with such a deep passion that he may have uncovered what none of us want to hear – that, yes, we as a global society, are messing up our precious world with pollutants and toxins that are feeding the cyanobacteria that gave the planet its life force, to begin with. As we flush sewage and agricultural effluents into rivers, lakes, and estuaries, our waste nourishes cyanobacteria and thus, creates blooms. What none of us understand is that living deep in this emerald planet are toxins that have significant impact on our neurological existence.

This is why filming with Dr. Cox was so important to our film, as a filmmaker I am in search of those who are on the front lines attempting to find answers about those age-related diseases as we live longer. I can assure you what Dr. Cox has brought to this film is extraordinary. As he suggests: what if we can enjoy a long life without Alzheimer’s, like the Ogimi Villagers he has studied? What if conforming our diet to theirs could reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s? What if we stopped nourishing cyanobacterial blooms by getting serious about waste treatment and clean water? Could the answer be that simple? Could the Doctor in this small laboratory at the base of the Teton Mountains, whose father was a National Park Ranger, whose team is unafraid to pursue the wisdom of indigenous people because it could lead to answers, discover a possible cure or better understanding? We’ve stood on the sidelines as some of the largest pharmaceutical companies toss in the towel and walk off the playing field because the costs to the board and shareholders have reached billions and we still don’t have that silver bullet for ALS, Parkinson’s and of course Alzheimer’s. But could a small non-for profit organization in a remote part of Wyoming succeed where so many have failed?

Yes, Dr. Paul Cox is still in the game, not for the money but for people, for families… for you and me.

We are honored and fortunate to have Paul, a very humble guy, in our film and we can’t thank him enough for what he will teach us.

I'll close with a shout out to another brilliant filmmaker from Sweden, Bo Landin. After four years of following Dr. Cox, he produced a dynamic film titled Toxin Puzzle, narrated by Harrison Ford. If you get a chance to review this film, I highly suggest it.

I also need to thank local world-renowned videographer Peter Pilafian for spending the day with my team, filming.

To learn more about how you can support this very important film, please go to: http://ontodaysfrontlines.com/alzheimers/