Change Your Brain Every Day - Change Your Brain, Change Your Body – Part 2

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

If you want a better body, it starts by getting a better brain. Discover the secrets to enhanced physical health and mental well-being in the second episode of this two-part series. Dr. Amen and Tana dive into the “MINDS” risk factors behind mood struggles, focus problems, weight issues, diabetes, and other physical health issues. Revealing some of their own personal struggles, they guide you to simple solutions to brighten your moods, enhance mental clarity, and bolster physical well-being. 00:00 Intro 00:51 Brain Health Risk Factors 01:38 M is for Mindstorms/Mental Health 08:20 I is for Immunity/Infections 14:37 Sponsor 15:55 N is for Neurohormones 20:28 D is for Diabesity 25:09 S is for Sleep 26:36 The One Thing to Do 28:20 Supplementation 33:26 Wrap Up

We are finishing part two of Bright Minds, so we'll be focusing on minds today. You know, the reason we're doing it, the beginning of relaunching the podcast, is this information is just foundational. If we just go, what's the one thing to do for your mental health? It's don't believe every stupid thing you think. Minds, we're going gonna talk about mental health issues, immunity and infections, neurohormones,

diabetes and sleep. So these are all just critical. Every day you are making your brain better or you are making it worse. Stay with us to learn how you are making your brain better or you are making it worse. Stay with us to learn how you can change your brain for the better every day. Welcome back. We are finishing part two of Bright Minds. So we'll be focusing on minds today.

And these are the risk factors that you want to avoid to keep your mind bright. And you know, the reason we're doing it beginning of relaunching the podcast is this information is just foundational. And so we've already talked about bright in the bright minds. So blood flow, retirement and aging, inflammation, genetics, head trauma and toxins.

And minds, we're gonna talk about mental health issues, immunity and infections, neurohormones, diabetes, and sleep. So these are all just critical. And as we dive into M, and M has actually had two over the years. It was mind storms, which is sort of abnormal electrical activity in the brain, which can be things like seizures. But I have treated so many people that have sort of sub seizure threshold, like irritability, deja vu, spaciness. But I really like M for mental health, anxiety, depression, having a high ACE score, low hopelessness, high negativity. We're going to do a whole podcast coming up on negativity.

But did you know depression doubles the risk of Alzheimer's in women and quadruples the risk in men? So we're going to do a whole podcast on depression coming up and I think that's really important for anybody who's ever been depressed, it's just awful. You've been there. Oh, it's like a pain you can't describe. You can't get away from it.

And anxiety is so common. It's just overwhelming our society and the simple answers actually make your brain worse, right? The simple answers are let's drug your brain into behaving right with benzos, benzodiazepines like Xanax, Ativan, Clonopin, Valium. It's actually been found to increase the risk of dementia. So, those are something I don't like prescribing. Also, under mental health is chronic stress. And, you know, coming out of the pandemic,

coming out of the political divide, the level of cortisol, the salt is really high. So cortisol is one of the, it's a hormone stress. You need some people have low cortisol levels, Addison disease, they can't fight infections. But when it's chronic, when it's high and chronic, think about raising an autistic child. It's high and it's chronic. Thinking about being in a job you hate, it's high and it's chronic. Or chronic stress and trauma, like, you know, when you grow up in a household that is just

chronically abusive and unpredictable. Right. Or being in a marriage that is just chronically abusive and unpredictable. Right. Or being in a marriage where... They're fighting and abuse. ...it's just fat. And cortisol shrinks the hippocampus, major sort of mood and memory structure in the brain, and it makes you fat.

It actually puts fat around your belly. And so having tools to manage your mental health are absolutely essential. And so many of my patients come in and I don't wanna be anxious anymore. And I'm like, well, we're not gonna get rid of your anxiety. Think of it on a scale of zero to a hundred. Yours is now 80. Let's cut it to 50.

Always want you to have enough anxiety and you always give me enough anxiety about behaving properly. That's funny. Yeah, I tend to live a little high on the anxiety scale. You want to have enough anxiety that you make good decisions. You know, people who have low levels of anxiety die early from accidents and preventable illnesses. Actually people have antisocial personality disorder, their body's physiology doesn't react like most normal people, which is why they don't use lie detector tests in court because lie detector tests work for most normal people, but for people who are psychopaths or so-so. Right. They have no… They don't tend to react with sweat gland activity or muscle tension when they tell a lie.

Hence, that's that term, stone cold killer. They just like… A little bit of reptilian. All right. So helping this mental health risk, appropriate anxiety, managing the stress, which I think it comes down to, and so many of my patients killing the ants, the automatic negative thoughts that just steal their happiness. Well, and it really is. It's really interesting. I don't think I knew this until my adult years, but learning to discipline your mind and meditation and prayer and really learning to,

I mean, for me, one of the things that really helped me was learning to get that 30,000 foot view and ask yourself, you know, is this important? Is this going to matter? Like watching it from a distance, like a movie and you know is this going to matter in a short time? You know what I mean? Like those types of skills which goes right along with killing the ants. But it's those go hand in hand for me for just being able to manage your mind and it makes such a massive difference in mental health for me. And the exercise I teach my patients, I teach every one of them this. Whenever you feel sad, mad, nervous or out of control, write down what you're thinking. And then just ask yourself whether or not it's true, whether or not it's absolutely

or not, it's absolutely true. And meditate on the opposite of the thing that you're worrying about. So powerful. You know, my book, Captain Snout and the Superpower Questions, I'm so proud of that book. It has almost 1,000 reviews. And parents say it makes a huge difference for the attitude of the kids, but it also makes a huge difference for them.

So if you've not seen my book, Captain Snout and the Superpower Questions, it's amazing. The second eye and bright minds, so important, is immunity and infections. And this is such a big deal. And you remember when Chloe went off to Texas for college, she ended up with five infections. Like the big five. And I don't think that's uncommon when kids leave for college because you think about it, it's their first time leaving home, they're in a dorm and they are, you know, they're surrounded by, you know, so many kids, they're living a lifestyle that is, you know, not the healthiest and they're not sleeping and they're up all night and they're, you know,

they're first time being away from home and they're adulting and it's just not uncommon that this happens. So, you know, I think you try to explain to them how important this is and they just think you're being crazy. Dr. Justin Marchegiani Well, and she'd also gotten the COVID vaccine right before she went and got sick. Dr. Patrick Pate She got COVID and pneumonia right afterwards. So that was- So COVID, pneumonia, Lyme disease, which is- Mono, strep. A major cause of psychiatric illness along with Epstein-Barr and strep and-

And it's just, it's some of these infections are just what go around. Mycoplasma and pneumonia. And I remember being so irritated because I remember them going, oh, she has the frat flu. And I'm like, what the hell is frat flu? Like, it's just like they just put this weird label like this is just normal. But these kids are suffering. And many college dorms are filled with mold. Then they're not sleeping and maybe drinking more than they should.

It's just the prescription for disaster. But another one of the big lessons I've learned from imaging, it's like I'm a psychiatrist. Why should I care about infectious disease? Because it's a major cause of psychiatric illness. There's actually in the Journal of a journal of Alzheimer's disease, a consensus statement with 33 scientists writing infectious disease is a major cause of Alzheimer's disease and nobody knows about certain herpes viruses or mycoplasma pneumonia or toxoplasmosis. It's just very important to know about it. And ultimately, where does your immunity come from? Sixty percent of it is in your gut. And so, like you were saying earlier, in fact, I remember this funny story. Our first date, you told me,

because I asked you why you wanted to be a nurse. What did you say? Well, I was a frequent flyer in the hospital. I mean, so many people I knew were sick. Chronic disease ran in my family, but I was always sick. And so, I was a frequent flyer. And when I was four years old, I had upper and lower GI studies because I was sick all the time and I had terrible, you know, stomach issues. So yeah, I think it just was a natural transition. What happened at four years old and you're like, don't shrink.

Here we go. Here we go. There's a theme here. There's our first date and you almost canceled. I didn't want to be, I didn't want to go out with a shrink who was going to shrink me. And I'm like, here we go. Turned out to be the best decision I ever made. But you did shrink me.

And then what happened when you were four years old? So, I had one uncle murdered in a drug deal gone wrong because of my other uncle who was a heroin addict. And then he tried to commit suicide with an overdose of heroin. Yeah, it was pretty rough. I remember the police coming to the house and just my mother and grandmother screaming and it was just pure chaos. And it was, it was one of the scariest days of my life. Definitely. And I had a lot of scary days, but that day was particularly scary. And I'm like, do you think it's related? No.

That's what I say. I was not super psychologically savvy at the time. I was just this hard charging, you know, tromatose. And there's research that suggests if you're traumatized as a child, it changes your microbiome. It changes your microbiome, it changes your brain development. It changed. Now I'm now I understand this. I've since then done a whole bunch of research and studying upon this.

And so chronic stress makes you more vulnerable to immune system issues. And so, if you have cancer and diabetes in your family, and then you're under… so, all of these bright minds risk factors stack on top of each other, then it can actually influence the thyroid cancer you had in your 20s that were hurt multiple times. And so if you have immune system issues, I think you need a stool sample. I think somebody needs to do a serious evaluation of your gut microbiome. You also need to know your vitamin D level and foods like onions and mushrooms and garlic tend to boost immunity as well. Well, and vitamin D is really interesting because if your gut isn't healthy or if your

thyroid is off, you can be taking vitamin D and not absorbing it appropriately. And if your gut is not healthy, you can be taking thyroid and not absorbing it the way you think you are. So really important to have these things checked. So that's why, you know, the dose of vitamin D that maybe your spouse is taking or that your friend is taking is not the same dose you might need. Like for the longest time, I had to take 10,000 units of vitamin D just to get, to be at a really healthy level but now I take half of that because my gut is healthy. So it's it's not that simple right? You want to be getting these numbers checked, you want to be getting your gut healthy because it changes. Hi I'm Dr. Daniel Lehmann. I've experienced firsthand the powerful impact

that proper supplementation can have on your brain, your body, and your mind. That's why I founded BrainMD. Our formulas are scientifically created from decades of clinical research designed to help you think clearer, feel better, and improve every aspect of your health. Whether it's Brain and Body Power Max, the same formula I used in the world's

largest study of NFL players to optimize brain performance, to happy saffron, to boost mood and memory, and Pro Brain Biotics Max to improve the gut-brain connection. BrainMD delivers the highest quality science-backed solutions to help you think and feel better. Tana and I take many of our products every day. And as a special offer, just for our listeners, you can save 20% on your next order. Visit brainmd.com and use the code podcast20. With a better brain, always comes a better life. So let's move to N, neurohormones.

We're gonna do a lot of podcasts on hormones. And when you think of neurohormones, these are hormones that affect your brain, which is most hormones, right? It's thyroid. It's quite a big deal in your life. I've been through thyroid hell. I know low thyroid, I know high thyroid, I know all of it. And so you were 25 when they took out your thyroid? Dr. Julie Kwan No, I was 23.

Tanner Iskra You were 23. Dr. Julie Kwan Yeah. Tanner Iskra And it just changed so many things in your life. Dr. Julie Kwan It s really important to go to someone who really knows the right things to test because just getting a basic thyroid panel is not it. So very, very important. And if you have low thyroid, yeah, it can make you feel really, really awful. But high thyroid can make you feel really, really awful, that wired and tired feeling. So, you know, you get depressed, you get anxious, you get all

these different feelings, depending on, you know, what your thyroid level is. And it also affects your memory, it affects motivation. So it's very important to make sure thyroid level is. And it also affects your memory. It affects motivation. So, it's very important to make sure thyroid is optimized. And too often. I mean, I just saw this incredibly wealthy, wonderful person who started having panic attacks. And then his doctor goes, oh, it's stress and anxiety and put them on lexapro. But then check his thyroid. That's what happened to me. We mentioned in the beginning of the episode that I went through depression and it was

like, it's like this, this one of the worst things I've ever been through in my life. It was probably worse than the cancer itself, quite frankly, because it was like, I couldn't crawl out of my own skin and I just couldn't get away from it. And this was a long time ago, and I still think that they're not very great in general at dealing with this. But back then, they really were. And rather than explaining to me that when they took my thyroid out, and back then the way they did the treatments was very

different now than how they do it now, I, I was, had no thyroid in my system basically for a couple of months and I didn't understand that that was gonna really make me, wasn't gonna kill me, it was gonna make me wish I was dead. And so no one explained that. So really understanding what this is gonna do to you is super important. So you've got these people walking around

that are not optimized, feeling like they're just like depressed and sometimes want to die and no one is explaining, oh, maybe we should check your thyroid. Maybe it's not just that you have a Prozac deficiency, you know, maybe you do need that ultimately, but how about we check everything else first? Well, and with your brain, Prozac was actually the wrong thing. Completely the wrong thing. Almost ruined my life. But gave you interesting stories. Some I wish I could forget, but yes.

Other hormones like progesterone. Like you often say, if you didn't take your progesterone. I would be on the six o'clock news or divorce probably. And I don't think everybody's the same. And there are some women who can't take it because of their their genetic history or their cancer in their family. But for me, it was very, very helpful. And most people don't know. And we're going to do a whole podcast on PMS on

perimenopause, menopause, puberty. But if your progesterone is low, you often can't sleep, you're irritable. Just itchy in your skin. Anxious. Yeah. And often what happens is it goes low 10 years before women go into menopause. They end up on ambient to sleep, Xanax to calm their irritability and anxiety and something like Lexapro. Yeah, I just noticed I was starting to feel prickly. And then all of a sudden I was like able to sleep better, my hair was better, like lots of things. And you were nicer to me. Thank you. I'm grateful. Estrogen as well.

Testosterone is so important. And so it's just something to know about. You want a better brain, you have to have better hormones. And you said a word that's very important because so many people get their hormones back and they're normal, but they're not optimal. Right. Right. So, now we get to diabetes and it's where your blood sugar is high or your weight is

high or both. And if you have this one risk factor, you actually have 10 of the 11 risk factors because being overweight, which is now 75% of the population, being overweight decreases blood flow to the brain. I published three studies, one on healthy people, healthy normal sort of psychologically people, one on NFL players, and one on a massive database of 33,000 scans, and it showed as your weight went up, the actual size and function of the brain went down almost in a linear fashion. And that's a bad thing. It prematurely ages the brain, the fat on your body increases inflammation. It changes your genes in a negative way. It stores toxins. You're more likely to be anxious and depressed. It

decreases your healthy immune system. It changes your hormones. Being overweight actually turns healthy testosterone into unhealthy cancer promoting forms of estrogen. And you don't sleep as well. So the only one you don't have is head trauma. So interesting. I mentioned this in our previous episode, but I have become sort of obsessed with my continuous blood glucose monitor.

And it's like the best food nanny there is. And so I've never had a problem really with my weight, but I, because I have diabetes in my family and I can just tend to just inch, if I eat too much fruit, my hemoglobin A1C, my blood sugar will just creep up. And it's just, I've always had to really watch it because it's just in my family.

So I'm just very conscious of it. I watch how many carbs I eat. I just, but I put this thing on and it is the best food nanny there is. It's annoying. Not going to lie. It's super annoying. But not only do you learn a lot. Did you say food nanny? It's like a food nanny. It's just, it's crazy, but it's like, it's, you learn a lot. So, it makes you move more. Like just, I'll find that like, because your blood sugar goes down every time you move. So I find myself taking little 10, 15 minute walks here and there that maybe I wouldn't have done before. But also, like I noticed it's like this modification, it modifies your behavior. So maybe, maybe it saves me 10 or

15 different things during the week that I'm like, oh, I could have a bite of that. Or I could have, you know, like that extra, whatever, half of an apple or an extra, you know, whatever that I would have had that has more carbs in it than I needed. Naked carbs versus carbs wrapped in fiber or wrapped in fat, you know, maybe whatever it is, but more than I needed to eat.

And so, or maybe a mint that I was gonna pick up and eat. Just little tiny things, but maybe 15 times a month, I'll notice to pick up and eat, just little tiny things, but maybe 15 times a month, I'll notice I'm like, oh, that's 15 times this month that I was going to eat something that I didn't eat, that I just didn't eat. So it's just that little nanny, you know, going, don't do it, don't do it. And when you really add that up through the month, it's like, that was a lot actually. So and you had been diagnosed with pre-diabetes. Yeah.

And I was, and I was the fittest I had ever been. So you have to be, and part of that's because of the high cortisol. So it's very complicated. You have to know how all this works together. So fitness does not equal health. And that's a really important thing to know. And I think the Brain Warrior's Way cookbook

is the perfect antidote to obesity and diabetes. is the perfect antidote to obesity and diabetes. And for people who have type 2 diabetes, you can reverse that with the right plan. You can make it better. I mean, you might not get rid of it, but you can clearly decrease the need for medication and many people can eliminate their medication if they get serious about eating a brain healthy balanced diet. And all 120 of the recipes you have in the book are sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free. They're amazing. And then we come to sleep.

So important. And now we have a new puppy. And the puppy is deemed mine. And so I'm the one that gets up with it. So I'm making sure after five or six, she's not having water because sleep is so important. And I don't have the hormones that will bounce back from mommy brain. I love her so much. Oh, she's so cute. Yeah, I was actually at first, I was like, okay, this is going to be really sad because, you know, you did like everyone in the family sort of decided she was going to be what they're both our dogs, but she's more your puppy because my dog is obsessed with

me and he's like not going to tolerate it. Now I'm like, oh, I'm so glad my dog's not going to tolerate her being my dog because now you have to get up in the middle of the night. dog because now you have to get up in the middle of the night. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, M.D. And I do, but I also notice the nights I don't sleep, my blood sugar is higher throughout the day. And so making sleep a priority because when you sleep, your brain cleans or washes itself and your cortisol is lower when you sleep. itself. And if you don't sleep seven, eight hours a night, trash builds up in your brain and it becomes harder to think.

Yeah. And your cortisol goes up when you don't sleep. So. So overall, these are the bright minds and you know, I love this so much. And so if we just go, what's the one thing to do for your mental health? It's don't believe every stupid thing you think. And what's the one thing you could do for your immunity? It's know your vitamin D level. It's the one thing you could do for your hormones. Measure them, right? Can't change what you don't measure. It's the one thing to do for diabetes. Only love food that loves you back.

Or put on a continuous glucose monitor. So simple. And you're right, food nanny, I like that, I'm gonna steal that. And sleep, it's like go to bed a half an hour early. I've got a sleep cocktail that I love too. Just because I'm, my brain doesn't shut off. It just like spins and spins and spins.

And so- I know it wakes up spinning and I hear it. Yeah, spills all over you. I know. So, but I take three to 400 milligrams of magnesium. I take a time release melatonin. I take restful sleep that I love. And then on days that I'm particularly stressed out, I'll take a little bit of GABA and sometimes

nylthionine that combo. If I take the GABA and nylilfianine. That combo, if I take the GABA and nilfianine together, it's definitely going to knock me out. So it depends on how stressed out I am. But that combo makes sure my room is completely dark, very cool. I wear a mask and I wear earplugs. And that combo is definitely great for me sleeping. So let's just go through bright minds again, because we have a few minutes. And just what are the supplements that BrainMD might actually have to help people? So- Magnesium. For blood flow, magnesium works to help increase

blood flow. And we have magnesium chewables. Magnesium is also in calm my brain. But we have advanced blood flow. I mean, I created a formula with my team specifically to increase blood flow. And one of the primary ingredients is ginkgo because the prettiest brains I've ever seen because the prettiest brains I've ever seen take ginkgo. Retirement and aging, it would be bright minds powder. So I should create a bright minds powder to go after all of the risk factors. But it's NervVite Plus or Super brain directed multiple vitamin plus brain and memory power boost

in one scoop in a shake or in a glass of water. Today, that's all you need. For inflammation, we have brain curcumin. Cucumins have been shown to decrease inflammation. And omega-3 fatty acids, we have omega-3 power, it's our best seller always. But we also have a vegan omega-3 that's stunning. It is such a great product and comes from algae. We also have omega-3 power squeeze, which tastes like candy.

It's so good. So that's for inflammation. For genetics, we actually have neuro-C, which is liposomal vitamin C, which is so helpful. For head trauma, it's brain and body power max, which is my NFL formula. To detoxify, we have N-Acetyl Cysteine. It's actually a brand new product for me, but I use N-Acetyl Cysteine for so many things, including decreased cravings for mental health, happy saffron. I love happy saffron so much. I've taken it nearly five years. Can you believe it's been out almost five years? For immunity, we have ProBrain Biotics Max and Smart Mushrooms. We haven't talked

about lion's mane, but it's good for your brain, but also good for your gut and immunity. For but also good for your gut and immunity. For neurohormones, we actually have three products. We have a new menopause product. We have a PMS relief product. So many husbands thank me for that. What'd you say PMS stands for? Pass my sweats and punish my spouse. And we have Brain Team Max, which helps boost healthy testosterone levels.

One of our participants is actually one of our own doctors. When she took it, her free testosterone went up 85%. And she said she didn't realize what she really had was post-paragraph depression from depleted hormones. And for diabetes, we have craving control. We also have smart metabolic burn. And for sleep, we have restful sleep. And perhaps one of my favorite, put me to sleep. So bright minds is really sort of the roadmap for your life. If you want a healthy brain, I'm going to keep your brain healthy or rescue it to prevent or treat the bright minds risk factors. So I do think it's really important that you know your individual needs when it comes to the bright minds, but I also think that there are some basics that pretty much everybody

can benefit from on a daily basis. And I think it's important for people to know that, like the multivitamin, fish oil, vitamin D, know your number and get that checked because everyone can benefit from optimizing those and probiotics, probiotics, probiotics, you got to have a healthy gut. So I think those very basics for pretty much everyone. And you're gonna get that foundation and then from there you need to know, for example, some of the things that really help

some people to relax like 5-HTP doesn't help everybody. Like for me, it makes me feel like I'm walking through mud and just completely stoned. But GABA really helps me. So knowing your particular type is really important and being able to individualize this. But those basics are just such a strong foundation to get started. Well, and people can know their brain type by taking our free brain health assessment,

brainhealthassessment.com. You'll know which of the 16 brain types you have. So, leave a comment, a question, please, a review. Subscribe and share with the people you care about because what Tana and I have learned is you really have to get this information. But once you get it, you have to give it away because it is in the act of giving that you create your own support making it more likely you'll stay on the Bright Minds program.