Change Your Brain Every Day - Can Infections Cause Memory Issues?

Episode Date: October 25, 2017

It’s important to constantly strengthen and build up your immunity in order to keep your memory sharp. In Part 9 of the Memory Rescue series, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen discuss how some infectious diseases can wreak havoc on your brain. Learn what you can do to build up your immune system.

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 to Memory Rescue. We are doing a whole series on my new book, Memory Rescue, and taking a bright minds approach. So how you keep your brain healthy or rescue it if you think it's headed to the dark place is you attack all of the risk factors. And we've talked about them with bright minds. B is for blood flow. R is

retirement and aging. I is for inflammation. G is for genetics. H is head trauma. T is toxins. We just talked about mental health. Today, we're going to talk about immunity and infections. And people who have autoimmune disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, Lyme, herpes, other infections, even cancer, because cancer is an immune system disorder, actually have a higher risk. So we talked about during this Bright Minds series how I'm one of those people who gets sick a lot when we travel, and I forever have to fight, you know, do things to keep my immunity built up. So in addition to having cancer in the past, which led to other health issues, I had mononucleosis when I was nine. So when you get mono,

that is something that apparently stays in your system. Right. So it never goes away. Well, the Epstein-Barr antibodies will stay in your system. Stay sort of dormant, but if you get run down, it will rear its ugly head. And so those are people that have to pay attention. And like my karate master just went through chemotherapy, and it's just been hell watching him come back. He's a fighter. He's very strong.

I mean, stronger than most people, but he got sepsis. It's like every time he turns around, there's something, you know, thank God he's got a nurse as a wife who's, you know, she's sort of tough. But gratefully, I mean, he had two different kinds of cancer. Right. And he's come back. But having to watch all of this and pay attention. So let's... So how do people know if they have an immune system disorder or an infectious disorder? So, you know, something like herpes where you get outbreaks, you know, either oral or genital outbreaks.

I mean, you know that. But there are some labs that show... And you know your immunity is vulnerable. Low levels of vitamin D are associated with more vulnerable to immune system problems. You can have positive infectious labs. So we would see the Epstein-Barr titers in you, you know, you can be tested for Lyme, for something called toxoplasmosis, which is a parasitic infection. We actually see it on scans too. We'll see scalloping or what really looks like a toxic appearance. And this is like, why is a psychiatrist interested in infectious disease in the brain? Because they cause a lot of psychiatric problems. I actually think 20 years from now, it's going to be a whole subspecialty of psychiatric

medicine, infectious disease psychiatry, for example. So if you have the vulnerability, MS is another one because it's your body attacking the myelin in your brain. And we have a friend who has MS who on a very serious gluten-free, dairy-free diet, she's not had a relapse of her MS. Well, she had one episode and she said she had been traveling and she got a little lazy with her diet. And so, and that she noticed it immediately. So if you're struggling with brain fog or memory issues, consider being tested for exposure to infectious diseases.

A lot of the articles I publish are in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. And they had a whole editorial with 33 physicians saying infectious disease is a major cause of Alzheimer's disease. We need to be serious about it. So some of the interventions, do an elimination diet for a month to see if you have allergies that are damaging your immune system. Very common, just like you had talked about with Aslan. Right. Avoid hiking where you may be bitten by a deer tick. Okay.

There are ways you can manage that, but that's a whole nother podcast. We'll talk about that one another time because I like to go out with my daughter. You can actually do things to be able to go out and still not get bit by ticks. So I also write decrease alcohol. Why do nurses, I'm here with the nurse,

swab alcohol on your skin before they give you a shot because it kills bacteria to decrease the bacteria drinking excessive alcohol can upset gut bacteria which is critical to immunity and then i also said watch a comedy or go to a comedy club because they've been shown to boost immunity laughing laughing boosts. As long as it's happy laughter rather than mean laughter. What? Don Rickles did not improve anybody's immunity. Oh, that's hilarious. Like he would make fun of people.

So there are supplements support for boosting your immune system, especially vitamin D, also vitamin C, aged garlic. Therapeutic mushrooms. There's been a whole group of studies recently published on not magic mushrooms. But like cordyceps. So cordyceps, interesting. Do you know where that came from? The Chinese army used to give it to their horses because it increased blood flow and made the horses stronger and faster. Fascinating. Melatonin has been shown to increase immunity, as has zinc. Foods to avoid sugar. Man, this is all- Always. Everything. Sodas, processed foods, high omega-6.

So notice that it's all the same things for all the risk factors. Avoid these foods. Well, these are a little bit different. For avoiding, you're absolutely right. But immune-enhancing foods, raw crushed garlic, onions, shallots, and mushrooms. And some people don't like the taste of garlic. You can take aged garlic supplements if you don't. I love garlic. So I do too. Our house always smells like garlic cooking. But when we travel, I will sometimes boost my garlic intake with aged garlic because it boosts your immunity and I have to watch

traveling. And I boost my vitamin D. Interestingly, my doctor likes my vitamin D close to 100. You know, they say 60 to 80. Not my doctor. He wants it close to 100. Well, you're an A student. I always like to be at the top of my class. You wanted to be at the bottom of anybody's class. Vitamin D rich foods. So yes, you can take a supplement,

but tuna, eggs, mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, beef liver. I'm going to take the supplement. Cod liver oil. Zinc-rich foods like oysters, beef, lamb, spinach, shiitake and cremini mushrooms, asparagus, sesame and pumpkin seeds. We've heard those a number of times. Also lion's mane, portabella, shiitake, white button mushrooms have been shown to help. Chris Christopherson came and saw one of our doctors, not here, but at the Whitaker Clinic where he also worked. And he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Mark Filliday, the doctor, discovered he had Lyme. And on an antibiotic and hyperbaric oxygen, Chris got his brain back. That's pretty crazy. And he's back on the road touring again. But we've seen that happen a number of times. This is a very important risk factor to understand. Do you have an infection or immune system problem? Make sure it's properly diagnosed and treated. It could rescue your memory. Stay with us. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast.

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