Change Your Brain Every Day - Brain in the News: Which Country Consumes the Most Antidepressants?

Episode Date: October 9, 2019

It’s time for more Brain in the News! In this episode, the Amens contribute to the discussion of the brain health topics in the recent news cycle. This episode features a study on the world’s biggest consumers of antidepressants, a study on ashwagandha and schizophrenia, QEEG for concussions in junior hockey players, a teen who went blind from a bad diet, and a study on how eating fish can make you live longer.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your 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 nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com. Welcome back. We've been talking about toxins this week, toxic products, toxic household products, and now we are going to talk about brain in the news.

What have you got for us? So much, but first I want to read a review. I found all the Brain Warriors Way podcast today. I scrolled down and started listening. There's so much out there about these topics, but I felt I was finally listening to the truth. I love your honesty, the way you two complement each other, and real solutions or healthy alternatives that you offer. Thank you. I look forward to listening to more so I'm informed and can help myself, my family, and my friends. That's what brain warriors do. They give this away. Tana, you are brave for sharing your story, and I'm sure you have and will continue to give others hope. This is San Gauma.

We are so grateful that you listen. So brain in the news. There's so much in the news related to the brain. We have this whole stack of studies. Somebody sent me a graph yesterday of the world's biggest consumers of antidepressants. Oh, so interesting. The USA actually wasn't in the top 10. Really? The number one was Iceland.

Really? Do you think it's because of lack of sunshine? Absolutely. Oh, interesting. And they live in Iceland. It's probably not that much fun. But it's beautiful there, I hear. Stunning.

Yeah. The next one is Australia. Well, they do have sunshine, so I'm confused now. Well, I just finished watching Banished. Yeah, but you're going to get yourself in trouble. Be quiet. Just don't say anything else. Just don't.

Just don't. So it's a series on Amazon. But there was a high incidence. I mean, you know, they sent the criminals from England over to populate Australia. I knew you were going to do it. I knew you were going to do it. Australia. But just think about that.

Because, you know, here at Amen Clinics, we've scanned over 1,000 convicted felons. And when you look at someone who gets into trouble with the law, there is often- Yes, but if you watched it, not all of them were actually in trouble for legitimate reasons. That's true. No. But there would be a higher percentage of the population that perhaps struggled with mental health issues, which is what got them in trouble with the law. Now, Portugal is next. And why Portugal? I don't know, because there's plenty of sun in Portugal. And then the United Kingdom.

Well, I've been there. The weather sucks. Sweden. So again, north. Canada, north. Denmark, North. And Australia you could really think of as South because it's deep in the Southern Hemisphere. Also New Zealand and then Spain.

But Portugal and Spain sort of don't make sense because they're both on the Mediterranean. Finland, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, and South Korea. Now, probably the biggest consumers of antidepressants also go with how much money the pharmaceutical companies are pouring into marketing in those states. That's so interesting. Anyways, we should have Heather post a link to that on the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Brand new study just out yesterday on ashwagandha. Yeah, I saw that.

I loved it because it's a thousand milligrams a day of ashwagandha. We actually have ashwagandha in focus and energy because it relaxes you, but also helps you focus. But this study actually showed that adding ashwagandha to regular treatment for people with schizophrenia, so what we think of as one of the worst mental health issues, decrease their stress and decrease the number of positive symptoms they had and decrease the number of negative symptoms they have. So positive symptoms in schizophrenia are things like hallucinations, delusions, agitation. Negative symptoms, sort of the lack of motivation and the lack of energy. So I just thought that was really interesting. You know, you go to your doctor, most of them say, oh, supplements have no science. This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial showing significant benefit from basically an herb in 66 patients. Another study came out this week on utilizing QEEG, so quantitative EEG that we use here in the clinics to objectively document the nature and severity of concussions in junior hockey players.

And, um, you know, concussions are a major concern for hockey teams. So during one winter, all players on two junior hockey teams were assessed in order to establish a baseline for concussions. And then at the end, the QAEG was used as a measure of brain function. The results indicated that of the players assessed, so they assessed 46 players, two-thirds tested positive for concussions. Ouch. Only a minority were mild, where the majority was severe and it affected their frontal lobes and their temporal lobes uh the national hockey league is pretty much in denial about this issue i mean there's just no question how could they be in denial they're just like the whole goal is to like bash each other's heads in.

Well, no, that's the goal of football. I know, but if you have any watched hockey players- The goal of hockey, right. And they're decreasing the number of fights, but the younger you start playing hockey, the higher the incidence of concussions. Okay, another one. Blind from a bad diet. What?

Yes. Teen who ate mostly potato chips and fries lost his sight. So that's interesting. Researchers in the UK say that a teen has suffered vision loss after years of eating a highly limited diet consisting of snacking on Pringles potato chips as well as French fries, white bread, and some processed pork products. That's interesting because there are a lot of kids

who have texture issues. Think about like autistic kids, right? And they have a very restricted diet. Very restricted, right. So 14-year-old boy goes to the doctor, complaints of tiredness, extremely picky eater, eats what we just talked about. Overall, he appears okay. He's not overweight, takes no medications. Test shows he has anemia, low levels of vitamin B12. So he's given B12 injections and diet advice, but a year later, he has begun to lose vision. By age 17, he's legally blind. Turns out the boy's highly limited daily diet, lacking in healthy foods, vitamins, and minerals has led to optic neuropathy so that should be common sense right but it seems like it's not for a lot of people in society they just don't really understand well and there are places in the u.s and other

places that scientists call food deserts where they don't have grocery stores and big buck stores right where they can get fresh fruits and vegetables and so with a limited diet you know i've seen many patients they ate at little mart store at the gas station. Right. And so, if you're... And you see like truck drivers and things like that, they'll eat on the go

and so it's harder for... Where everything is processed, everything is fast and... And fiber is removed. What this article says is that can damage

virtually every organ in your body, including your eyes. And people actually don't know that the eyes are the only part of your brain that is uncovered. So your eyes are brain tissue. Right. And in many ways, they're the window to your soul. But if you don't get the nutrients you need,

they're not going to work properly. So the University of Bristol in England, that was their conclusion, that it was his diet, and they published a case study on this. I know. Crazy, huh? Right. So interesting. I've never heard of that being published as a case study, that it was diet that led to

that. So interesting. This case highlights the impact of diet on visual and physical health and the fact that calorie intake and BMI are not reliable indicators of nutritional status. I think we've said that. Yeah, more than once. Yeah. I mean, calories matter, but the quality of your calories matter more. All right. For this brain in the news, let's do one more. Association of fish and long-chain omega-3 fatty acid intake with total and cause-specific mortality. A prospective analysis. So this means they looked forward in 421,309 individuals.

Wow. So prevailing dietary guidelines recommend regular fish consumption. We should have said this. There are a lot of people just don't like fish. But they can take fish oil. However, the association of fish and long-chain omega-3 fatty acid intakes with mortality is unclear. So they took all of these people in an NIH AARP diet and health study, they were prospectively followed

for 16 years. And dietary intake was assessed using a questionnaire. And a total of 54,000 men and 30,000 plus women died during this follow-up time. A higher fish and omega-3 fatty acid intake was associated with lower total mortality, which means fewer of them died. Comparing the highest with the lowest quartile, so if they divide this group into four sections, the highest quartile versus the lowest quartile of fish intake, men had 9% lower mortality, 10% lower cardiovascular disease, lower cancer mortality, lower respiratory disease mortality, lower chronic liver disease mortality.

Why women had 8% lower mortality, lower cardiovascular disease, 38% lower Alzheimer's disease. So it's interesting. We've been saying for a long time, I mean, it helps with your quality of life, right? So brain health, heart health, all of those things, decreasing inflammation. So that makes sense. And now. And if you don't like fish, at least take your fish oil. So the two fish oil I took this morning means I'm going to be around longer to haunt you.

Yes. Well, I take six, so I'm going to be around a long time. As we come up on Halloween and day one of the fall evil ruler parties. Day one. Yes. If you learned anything in this Brain in the News podcast, please post it on any of your social media channels and hashtag BrainWarriorsWayPodcast.

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