Change Your Brain Every Day - Can Drinking Alcohol Help You Live Longer?

Episode Date: May 30, 2018

We all know about the negative effects of heavy alcohol consumption, but is it true that there are health benefits for drinking just 1-2 glasses of wine a week? In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen break down just exactly what alcohol does to your body and brain, and if light alcohol consumption really is a smart way to increase longevity.

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. And stay tuned for a special code for a discount to Amen Clinics for a full evaluation, as well as any of our supplements at brainmdhealth.com. Welcome back, everybody. I want to start by reading from MDG from the US, the highlight of my morning. Dear Dr. Amen and Tana, I don't even know where to begin. I've left a review before, but I just can't help but leave another. Your podcasts have changed my

life. Never before have I been so protective of my brain health she's a brain warrior love that and the brain health of those i love i am inspired i am amazed i am empowered tana makes me want to start taking self-defense classes for real i listen to your podcasts in the morning when i walk, and I have to stop walking sometimes so I can share them right away. See, I don't text and walk, thanks to you. By now, people are probably sick of me sharing. Good.

When I discovered you were doing a talk on the Daniel Plan at Saddleback in February, I knew I just had to go. Just before heading out, I was talking to my family about the work you do. Someone then said to me, he sounds like a rock star. And I said, yes, he is in my life. I am not a rock star. Tana told me when we first started dating, she would never date a rock star or anybody famous. No interest. Anyways, it goes on and on, but I'm so grateful. I mean, that's our goal. This is why we do this. Our goal is to create warriors.

So we heard a really great message at church recently, and it really made sense to me because it was really about time management. Like, how are you spending your time? And if you do something purposeful, your time will sort of automatically, you'll start automatically managing your time better. Because you run it through the filter of, does it fit my values, and does it fulfill my purpose? And if it doesn't, why are you wasting your time with it? It becomes easier to say no to things. For us, we have this question, like, does it have my purpose? And if it doesn't, why are you wasting your time with it? It becomes easier to say no to things. For us, we have this question,

like does it have eternal value? Does it fit this purpose of what we're trying to do? And it becomes much easier to say no to things. And one of the things I loved was when they said, it's actually like all these verses in the Bible, it was so interesting to me. But about how it was really about prioritizing, but really how you can't keep taking on new things,

even things that are good for you, without clearing out all the other things you're doing. You have to continually be pruning, right, and taking things off of your plate. And this is why people can't get stuff done. You get more done by doing less of the stuff that's not making a difference. So we do this because it makes a difference. So actually in my new book, Feel Better Fast and Make It Last, under the prefrontal cortex,

because that's the part of your brain that watches you, it supervises you, one of the strategies to strengthen that is learn to say no. So when someone asks you to do something or you get the idea to volunteer, just before you say yes, say, I have to think about it. Stop. And then stop and evaluate, just like Tana said, does this fit the goals I have for my life? Because we get all sorts of opportunities that are so cool. Sometimes it's hard to say no. Well, today I got invited to speak at the Bar Association in New York City, and I turned it down. Right.

Because it's right in the middle of my book launch and our new public television, and I'm like, I would love to do it, but I'm not sure it would love me back. Well, and you get asked to speak in Asia and in Europe, and it would be fun family vacations at the same time, but it doesn't fit. It's like exhausting, right? So it's okay to say no. Now, that brings us to the topic for today, which can one extra glass of wine shorten your life by 30 minutes.

And when you drink... But we need to not do fake news. We don't want to make people upset. It's the extra glass of wine. So let's talk about what that means. Well, so it's above the limit of having five or six glasses a week. Now, we would say even that is probably a lot. Well, I would say it's ridiculous.

Because it's a lot for your brain. It's too much for you to handle. I mean, just think of the extra calories. Well, and we already know there are studies. In fact, I'm going to... Okay, while you're doing that, while you're getting the calories... I'm going to calculate the number of extra calories. And while you're getting the calories, I'm going to say we already know there are studies

out there that one glass of wine per week or one drink per week increases a woman's risk of cancer more than a man's. So we would say that's probably a little too much. But there's another problem. When you drink every day, it not only sort of depresses your whole system, so if you're prone to depression and anxiety and things like that,

but it increases your risk of making bad decisions. So you become more impulsive and you make bad decisions. So if you're trying to lose weight or you're trying to not engage in risky behavior, you're more likely to do those things. So there are other reasons, but let's focus on the death part of this. Well, the reason I'm not a fan of alcohol is I see the effect on the scans. Genco makes your brain healthier, fuller, fatter, healthier. Alcohol makes it smaller.

Right. There's a new study. Maybe we talked about this. They found that older people, like me, make as many baby hippocampi or seahorses, right? We've talked about the hippocampus is great for seahorse, that my brain makes as many baby seahorses as Chloe's brain. Right. But mine don't live because I have lower blood flow to my brain so I can't nourish those new cells that are being made in my brain and so over time as you get older the brain shrinks and I'm not okay with that I don't want anything

shrinking except the fat the extra fat I have, right? Right. So I think getting your seahorses drunk is just a bad idea. And I just calculated it. If you have two drinks a day, which is common. I mean, most people think that that's within the sort of recommended guidelines. Which is ridiculous. But just the extra calories from that, and they're mostly empty calories, will put 21 pounds of fat a year on your body. But that's not...

I mean, let's think about all the bad decisions you're likely to make. Let's think about... I mean, there's things like DUIs. There's all kinds of things. But in addition to that- Okay, but most people are going to go, I never drink that. I drink at home. I know, whatever. So let's talk about one thing though, because I really like what you said about the hippocampi. So we have mentioned, because people always ask me this, I get bombarded with questions. I always do. And I love that. We like that you're paying attention, but I want to be able to answer them in the podcast.

When we have mentioned on PBS or in our books, you know, two glasses of wine a week, you should be okay because, and the reason we say that is because you should be engaging in enough positive activity. Now, you know, if you don't drink at all, that's great. But if you're going to drink and you limit it to two normal size glasses a week, then one or two, you are hopefully engaging in enough positive activity that you can counteract what it's doing to your body, if that makes sense. So you're not doing so much damage. So that's really damage control, correct? Yeah. So I was at the California Naturopathic Association on Sunday and I spoke.

And someone came up and they said, well, what about all the research on alcohol and longevity? And it's like, no, it doesn't make you live longer. Now, it may help your heart. There is some evidence, but according to the studies from Johns Hopkins, people who drink every day have smaller brains. And I would just argue, if you're going to live a long time, you don't want a smaller brain. So let me ask you a question. So we know about the resveratrol, which you can take resveratrol. The being good for your heart, doesn't it have something to do with stress? Like relaxing, the fact that you relax.

Because there are a lot of people who are anxious, they're stressed out, and so you tend to relax, right? They like alcohol for that. So I was with somebody yesterday. Oh, I used to. I mean, I was clearly. And it's like, well, how do I relax? And I'm like, well, there's like 20 other ways to do it.

Like there are 20 other ways to live longer. Yeah. So let me give you one of my tips because I fully bought into that before I met you and saw the scans and I'm like, oh, a glass of wine at night after work is okay because it was a healthy thing, right? It was good for your heart. So then I saw the scans and I'm like, oh, maybe I need a different goal. And then my daughter came to me and said, you have to live to 100. And I went, okay, well, that was a little bit of a guilt trip. And now I have to figure out how to do that. And probably drinking every day is not going to do that, right? So I learned a long time ago that drinking all the time is not going to get me to my goals of being here and being healthy and having a really sharp memory in mind. But I am an anxious person by nature.

I tend to be a little bit wired by nature. Really? Yeah, a little bit. Do you think anybody listening to the podcast would believe that? Well, it's part of why I go hit stuff every day. So I cannot tell you how good it feels. Not me. Oh, I can't. No, no, I don't hit you. But I cannot tell you how good it feels to go just like get that energy out and hit pads. Just feels so good. Anyways, so one of the things I do at night to just chill and take that edge off since I'm not drinking wine every night is I get either Valerian tea or there's all kinds of different bedtime teas, sleepy time teas that are very relaxing, even chamomile tea or lavender tea. But I actually shave some ginger into it, which is really good

for digestion because sometimes people don't sleep well because of digestion. And I put some cayenne pepper in it. I know that sounds crazy. A little bit of cayenne pepper and maybe a couple drops of stevia. And that little bit of a bite helps you to sip on it a little longer.

It really tastes, it's interesting taste. It tastes really good. It's got sort of that pungent, savory taste that's strong, but it really takes the edge off and helps you to relax. So that's one of my tips for at nighttime, helping you to relax. And take a lavender bath. So when people say they drink to live longer, I would probably say there are lots of other ways to live longer. That one we know increases the risk of seven different cancers. Right. So I would suggest you go sign up for karate. Don't hit people, but go hit pads.

It really will help you. I promise. You're looking at me with that look again. And, you know, it's this one question, you know, it's so funny. When Chloe was two, I used to indoctrinate her into brain health. I guess with warriors, you need, you know, warrior basic training. Yeah, but now we've actually instilled an anxiety disorder, I think. You're good at that. She's awesome. But you're good at doing that.

But I would ask her this question. And this is what I want you to ask you as you're listening to the podcast. Is what you're doing today, whether it's alcohol, marijuana, crap food, not sleeping, being addicted to your gadgets, whatever, is what you're doing today good for your brain or bad for it? And if it's bad for it, you have to ask yourself, what's the payoff, what's the benefit? And are you going for short-term gain or long-term gain?

So short-term gain can give you long-term pain. And I always want you to do, Tana And I always want you to do, Tana and I always want you to do things that help you feel better now and later as opposed to now but hurt you later. And there are, when you ask that question, there are people out there who are going to answer, I want short-term, I want to be out of pain right now.

So you should probably, if you're one of those people who has experienced a lot of pain, there's something going on in your life and you're like, I just need to be out of pain. And that's why you do some of the things you do. Either listen to our podcast on grief. There might be something else going on with you and maybe you need to get some help for that. Believe me, we understand. Or I just had a patient this week, a young girl who was very depressed and she had Hashimoto's thyroiditis. We should do a whole podcast on thyroid. Yeah. That would be really valuable to people. All right. Stay with us. You're listening to The Brain Warrior's Way. Use the code podcast10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation

at amenclinics.com or on our supplements at brainmdhealth.com. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Go to iTunes and leave a review and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing to get a free signed copy of the Brain Warriors Way and the Brain Warriors Way cookbook we give away every month.