Change Your Brain Every Day - Alcohol: The Holiday Spirit(s) You’re Better Off Without

Episode Date: December 20, 2018

Many of us look for ways to cope with the holidays at the bottom of the bottle. Whether it’s dealing with your crazy aunt, masking your insecurities around successful siblings, or fighting off depression, it’s all too easy to turn to alcohol to help us survive the holiday season. But are we actually making things worse? Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen weigh in on why it’s a good idea to steer clear of booze during the holiday season.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD, and addictions. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives for three decades using brain spec imaging to better target treatment and natural ways to heal the brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Welcome back. Happy holidays to all of you. And if you're listening to this sometime in April, well, happy holidays for next year. Or happy Easter. This is from WebPause. We are so powerful,

yet most of us don't even begin to realize the incredible magic of our full potential. So true. Daniel and Tana Amon are on the cutting edge. They offer anyone who chooses to elevate their lives to new heights an exciting way to engage life in a totally new and empowering way. That

will surely change their lives. These are some cool testimonials. I love this. It's like my favorite part. I'm so happy you're happy. No, it makes me happy. Because when you're happy, I'm happy. Like, helps us start our day, like, really cool. I like it. All right. So we agreed in this podcast, because it's the holiday, to take on alcohol. So we're going to talk about the benefits of alcohol. Go ahead. So what are the benefits of alcohol?

Let's be honest. Are there any benefits, any at all? Kills bacteria. Right, kills bacteria. So as a nurse, you put it on people's skin. Why? To disinfect it, to kill the bugs. So there's some evidence.

It's been used as an anesthetic in surgery. That's scary. To get people so drunk that oh well and like in battlefields like when they don't have anesthesia oh yeah we get them sloshed yeah you want to pass out right right so they don't so they don't try and kill you um so that's one thing small very very very small amounts are still studies being done this is juries out on this i think but there are some studies that show that very small amounts, very occasionally, may have the effect of what is it? What's the word I'm thinking of?

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger? Hormesis. Hormesis. So a tiny amount, it's like a little bit of poison makes you stronger because it makes you almost immune to it. Same reason vegetables are good for you. But when they say that, they're talking about very small amounts very occasionally. And most people can't do that. Some researchers and some not. Some are saying

14 drinks a week is fine. But most of the research shows that that leads to cancer. So, yeah. So why am I not a fan? And it was very fashionable in the 90s to not a fan? And it was very fashionable in the 90s to be a fan of drinking.

Oh, I was a nurse, and in the hospital it was like, oh, no, have a drink a day. Have a glass of wine a day. And you were going to Loma Linda? Well, they don't drink at all, but a lot of the doctors that go there are not Seventh-day Adventists. But the research was have one last of one day most people don't know that seventh that Loma Linda is in they also don't drink coffee or eat meat or I mean they're and it's one of the blue zone right that people even though it is a smog filled place full of drugs and gang that Loma Linda and... That Loma Linda in San Bernardino, Loma Linda specifically,

is one of the blue zones. It's a bubble. Where people live longer than anywhere in the world. So I have to tell you, it was so weird. When I started working there, I used to carry my own backpack with my coffee and my meat because there was like nowhere. You couldn't find it anywhere.

And I'm like, okay, there's something a little weird about this place. They were the nicest people ever. I loved my education, but I hadn't quite gotten. And I'm like, okay, there's something a little weird about this place. They were the nicest people ever. I loved my education, but I hadn't quite gotten used to this whole, like, temperance idea, right? So I'm like, this is just a little odd. I can't get coffee or meat or anything anywhere. And so I'm like, okay, I have to, like, figure this whole thing out. So I bring all my own stuff in my contraband.

So I started working in the hospital after I graduated, and I began to really appreciate their lifestyle what they're about I'm not 17 Adventist but I really do appreciate what they're about and as a Christian I just love what they do so I started working in the hospital and all of a sudden I'd see these and I'm working in an ICU unit I'm working in a level a trauma unit but we would get overflow sometimes from the other units. And so some of the surgical patients would come in and some of these patients were coming in

and I'm like, 99, 103. But that wasn't the most amazing part. These patients had no medical history. They're on like no medications, one medication. I'm like, what? I'm on like three or four. What, what is this? So I was like, what is going on? And you would look at them and they had no lines, no lines in their face. They're like, they just had like little tiny smile lines. And I'm like,

I have more wrinkles than this person. And I was like barely 30. And so I was like, what is going on here? And I just, I started to to put together this idea, this life of temperance might have something to it. There just might be something to this idea. So in the 90s, it was very popular that alcohol was a health food. But we, starting in 1991, started looking at the brain through using brain-spec imaging we do here at Amen Clinics. And it was so clear from the moment I ordered my first scan that alcohol was not a health fit, that it prematurely ages the brain. And if your brain's not right, you're not right.

And so I held on to this position because I have the scans, right? I mean, there's just nothing more powerful in my mind than getting a direct look at the organ that runs your life. But, you know, our first clinic was in Northern California near the Napa Valley. So there's always this conflict. But I held that position despite colleagues telling me I was wrong. And then it turned out that the studies that showed alcohol was associated with longevity were flawed. And sponsored by who? The wine industry. And then it turned out that alcohol is directly related to seven different

kinds of cancer. So we know chemotherapy is not good for your brain. We know that chronic stress from having a diagnosis of cancer is not good for your brain. So it's associated with mouth cancer and esophageal cancer and stomach cancer and intestinal cancer and colon cancer and breast cancer and liver cancer. And I'm sorry, anything that's associated with cancer, you should limit. And in addition, and i don't even know why i'm saying this because i make more money if you drink right i mean you have more you have more fights with your wife you're more likely to get fired you're more likely to be depressed you're more likely to have trouble that you need us that if you're a drinker than if you're're not. But I'm only kidding. So those are the physical reasons.

But you're more fun when you drink. All right, so let's clarify. So I am not a person who never drinks. So I have an occasional glass of wine. I might have three glasses of wine a month. So that's on average. I'll have two or three glasses a month. And I never have more than one at a time because I don't like losing control.

So if we're socially out, I may have a glass if I'm not driving. And you like the taste of wine. I do. And I don't. With dinner, I like the taste of wine. Right. Yeah. So if you're driving, I may have a glass of wine or if I'm at home, whatever, but I want to say something about this because it took on new meaning for me. So, well, I have an

issue with, with drugs. Obviously I was, um, what'd you call that? I had shock therapy as a child. So yeah, I had shock therapy as a child with drugs. So I've never, I've always been, you know, what that means is you grow up with a lot of drugs where you saw horrific things. And interestingly, alcohol was never one of them. Alcohol was never one of the drugs. My mom didn't drink. My uncle did heroin. So that was just never one of the drugs.

And so alcohol was never a big thing in my house. So having a drink now and then was never a big thing. And I don't like losing control. But sadly enough, recently it became a big thing and I don't like losing control but sadly enough recently it became a big thing in our house not because of us because my nieces who we got out of foster care there's a lot of addiction on that side of the family my half sister so my on that side of the family there was a lot of addiction and alcohol was was it was heavily abused. So when they came to stay with us and, you know, they do holidays with us now, now I see alcohol very differently. It's not something you can just

enjoy occasionally. It's something now I have to really look at differently. There's zero alcohol during the holidays. So last year, even this year at Thanksgiving, what were some of the things they said? Well, okay. So yeah, that's what I wanted to bring up. So one of my nieces, this was really important. This is why I see. She's eight. This is why I see the holidays so differently now and why we don't have, we don't have alcohol at all during the holidays because of the addiction.

Okay. Because, yeah, I can have a glass of wine, but a lot of people can't do that. And we would never, ever have alcohol in the house because of the people who can't right there's but there's some people go well why do i have to give up my fun because of the other you don't have to it's about love so for me it's about love so it's about supporting my nieces and my and the rest of the people that have issues with it some people can have a drink and some people cannot so i just wouldn't and i want the rest of the people that have issues with it. Some people can have a drink and some people cannot. So I just wouldn't. And I want the rest of my family to enjoy the holidays.

For me, it's about family. So one of my nieces. So you're giving the gift of comfort. And love. By not drinking. Yeah, and love. So one of my nieces, though, this was when it became really clear to me. We were sitting around outside by the fire and she said holidays are so different now she

goes i still am getting used to it and i said what do you mean and she said i don't know they're just so mellow they're so like comfortable and quiet and they're just so they're so relaxed and i said i don't understand she goes well there's no police being called there's no screaming i'm like what like because we didn't do holidays together before they lived in another state she's like yeah there's no police there's no screaming there's no one throwing stuff and like threatening each other and there's and i'm like i literally like my jaw like almost hit the table and she we've never had a holiday like that and she goes well not since i was little but she said she goes yeah there's no alcohol and i just

so whether i can have a glass of wine or not is not the point it's it's not so we talked about the benefits of alcohol on the other, not only is it cancer, but it's associated with premature aging in your brain. I don't know about you. I'm not okay with that. It also drops your frontal lobes, so you're more likely to say something that will hurt people's feelings. And the problem with the brain is it has memory.

When you say that terrible thing, that person will remember it maybe the rest of their life. In addition, alcohol drops your frontal lobes and it increases cravings for food. So you actually eat way more calories and you don't remember that you ate way more calories. I saw one guy last year who was really headed toward Alzheimer's disease. When you looked at his brain, it was really terrible.

And I'm like, how much do you drink? And he had three scotches a day. And I just added up the calories from the three one ounce shots of scotch a day and it was like 25 pounds of fat he was putting on his body and just cutting out the scotch his brain was better so and his weight was better and I want to throw one thing in all of the studies so the all still there's still a lot of controversy over whether there's health benefits to small, and when I say small amounts, I mean small amounts of alcohol.

Not one of them are related to hard liquor. They're all related to small amounts of wine. Hard liquor is actually the most toxic. Right. So we want you to love your brain and not pickle it. We want you to love your brain and not pickle it. I want you to love your brain and not poison it. So how can people – so I already talked about why I don't have alcohol in my family during the holidays.

If people don't have the same issues we have – because not everybody has the same issues we have. So let's just say they don't have the addiction issues. They don't have problems with police being called. They don't have problems with foster care and all of this other stuff, the drama that've had in our family my family um that's not their issue okay so how can they safely have a drink what is the amount they can have what is a way and then we'll also talk about what are the alternatives because there's no reason to have it if you don't need it. So... Dr. You know, I tell my patients two to three normal-sized glasses of alcohol a week, that that's probably okay. Except the studies with cancer showed any alcohol showed an increased risk.

And that's why I stay to like two or three a month, like a couple of months for me. Dr. I think two or three a month is probably more rational. And then you have to go, if this is potentially harmful for me, why do I need it? What am I treating? And for a lot of people, it's social anxiety. That, you know, they feel anxious in social situations and alcohol is the grace. It just helps them feel more comfortable. So what are some of the other things you could do to help you feel more comfortable and there are things you know we talk about regularly in the brain warriors way killing the ants the automatic negative thoughts the 1840 60 rule you know right

thinking everybody's thinking about you because they're not meditation hypnosis and so when we have parties company parties and we have family events we don't have alcohol so what are the things we do i make a big giant thing of spot when you when you make things pretty it tends to draw people away from because the mind is the brain is so visual right so we make large jars get those really pretty large jars to serve water with and make them beautiful so i'll put cranberry like a big string of cranberries inside of it and some blueberries you can even throw watermelon slices or something like that inside and just a few drops of stevia and so just flavors it just a tad and sparkling water with stevia with right in a wine glass with a little bit of lime juice or lemon juice in a wine glass looks

beautiful cranberry juice right there's so many things. And tea. You can do. So one of the things I like is hot tea with some shaved ginger and cayenne because it gives it a bite so you'll sip it slowly. Those are some nice things that. Or saffron because that'll help your mood. Yep. Happy holidays. So there's a whole section in the cookbook, Brain Warrior's Way, on how to do that if that's what you'd like to do. Great.

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