Change Your Brain Every Day - Concussions and Reversing Brain Trauma

Episode Date: November 21, 2016

Concussions and traumatic brain injury are at epidemic proportions in our society.  Amen Clinics did the first and largest study on active and retired NFL players where we showed high levels of damage, but also the possibility of recovery in 80% of our players.  In this episode, we discuss our rehabilitation program.

Hi, I'm Donnie Osmond, and welcome to the Brain Warrior's Way, hosted by my friends Daniel and Tana Amon. Now, in this podcast, you're going to learn that the war for your health is one between your ears. That's right. If you're ready to be sharper and have better memory, mood, energy, and focus, well then stay with us. Here are Daniel and Tana Amen.

Welcome back. Today, we're going to talk about concussions and reversing brain trauma. So we talked about foods that reverse brain damage, so we don't have to do that again. So I think this is still a big concept for people because i get people writing into me all the time on facebook actually asking can i actually reverse brain damage that's just sort of perplexing to people well what i get excited about and this is why my big book change your brain change your life was so popular is we've seen through the brain imaging work we do here at amen Clinics is you're not stuck with the brain you have. You can make it better and we can prove it. And that is what has kept me excited, motivated for decades now. And let's just preface this with the big NFL study we did. So it was 2007 when Anthony Davis came into our clinic,

who is just one of the sweetest people. He was a Hall of Fame running back from USC. He was runner up for the Heisman Trophy in 1972. He played eight years in the NFL and his scan at 55 looked like it was 100 and it was bad. It was clearly a brain damaged pattern. And on the program that we're going to give you within a few months, he said he felt so much better. His memory was better. His temper was better. His focus was better. And then he was so excited. He had me

speak to the Los Angeles chapter of the Retired NFL Players Association. And it was there, I was so sad because I saw people with dementia and depression. And some of them were players I had idolized when I was a little boy growing up in Los Angeles. Didn't want to ask you the same question like six times. Six times. And I thought somebody should do a study on these players. And then, you know, growing up Catholic, whenever I'd say that to myself, the Catholic voice comes to me and says, well, why aren't you doing it? Right. Somebody is me. And in 1994, the NFL had actually formed its own concussion committee, yet it never sponsored a brain imaging study on players. Instead, they studied rats. They literally put little tiny

helmets on rats. That's just pathetic. Whack them in the head They literally put little tiny helmets on rats. That's just pathetic. Whack them in the head repeatedly, throw them down laundry chutes. Oh my God. You know, once they would sacrifice them and look at autopsy their brain, they went, well, we can't tell if playing football causes long-term brain damage. And I'm like, well, why don't you study players' brains rather than torturing these little rats. And even in front of Congress in 2009, Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, said the NFL didn't know if playing football

caused long-term brain damage. They were studying the issue. Maxine Waters, the congresswoman from California, smacked him and basically said, look, commissioner, telling us that you're studying football and head injuries is like the tobacco company is telling us they're studying lung cancer. It's a conflict of interest. But the problem with the NFL's position is, and I've seen this as a psychiatrist for decades, from patients, if you don't admit you have a problem, you can't do anything to solve the problem. And brain damage players were left without help or hope. And so in 2009, together with Anthony Davis and the Retired NFL Players Association, we

did the first and largest imaging study on active and retired NFL players, and the imaging just changed everything. So let's talk about Amen Clinic's Brain Optimization Program. What are the four simple steps to boost your mood, focus, memory, and decrease your risk for Alzheimer's disease all at the same time? I mean, this is what we did. Well, it's really exciting. And the first step is you have to assess your brain because you can't change what you don't measure. And here at Amen Clinic, we use imaging, we use SPECT, and we also do another study called quantitative EEG because we get a direct look at how someone's brain functions.

Now, everybody can't do that. So on BrainFit Life, our online program, Brain Health Anytime Anywhere, we actually have a neuropsychological assessment people can take that measures many areas of brain function, coordination, processing speed, mood, anxiety, memory, attention, and so on. Right. And so, like you said, not everyone's coming in for a scan. I know that. And we talk to a lot of people. We communicate with a lot of our people very directly on Facebook. And when they say that, it's like we have a lot of resources for people. Brain Fit Life is one of them. Web Neuro, like you talked about, is a really great resource. And so we also have a brain type assessment, don't we, that you created for

people to be able to know what type of brain they have. Right on amenclinics.com. It's called Brain Health Assessment. And they can take that for free. They'll know what their brain type is. There's 16 different types, but also get sort of a brain fit score. How healthy is my brain based on the habits that I engage in every day? So step number one is assess your brain. Step number two is know and optimize your important numbers. Now, why is that important? So like you said, if you don't measure, you can't change what you don't measure. So things like your body mass index, your BMI, you got to know what optimal weight is for you because as your size, if your body weight is up. The size and function of your brain goes down. Right. Which is, I always say, should scare the fat off anyone. And in our study, half, 50% of our NFL players were in the obese category.

Exactly. Not just big boned. Because of the damage to their frontal lobes, they had problems with impulse control. Right. Now, we don't want you to be too thin either. That's actually not good for you either. We want you to know your optimal range. Things like blood pressure, because blood pressure makes a difference in getting the right amount of blood and oxygen to your brain. Fasting blood glucose, because if your blood sugar is too high, it's very bad for

your brain. High blood sugar actually makes your vessels brittle. So we want you to be in that optimal range. Again, know your numbers and get them optimal. Right. And too low can cause problems with anxiety and dizziness. But if you don't measure it, you don't know it. Right. And people get angry when they have low blood sugar. Hemoglobin A1c is actually a measure of your blood sugar over a three-month period. So that's actually a very nice, accurate measure of what you've been doing over a long period of time. It's not a snapshot. And then cholesterol, we talked a little bit about cholesterol early on in a different program, a different podcast. But cholesterol is interesting because you don't want your

cholesterol to get too low because it's really important for brain function and your ability to form hormones. But it is important to know what kind of cholesterol you make because whether it's really important for brain function and your ability to form hormones. But it is important to know what kind of cholesterol you make because whether it's high or low, it's really, that isn't as important as knowing if the type of cholesterol your body makes is healthy or not. And so it's really good to get someone who knows about how to read an extended profile. So ask your doctor about an extended profile to know whether or not you're making small, dense particles or big, fluffy particles. There's also C-reactive protein, which is a measure of inflammation. Homocysteine, high homocysteine levels, usually due to B vitamin.

Problems are associated with things like Alzheimer's disease. Vitamin D and hormones like thyroid, testosterone. There's a whole new literature around when people get a head injury or a concussion, it actually hurts their pituitary gland, which is involved in hormone regulation. Right. And I can tell you, if your thyroid's off, I can tell you from experience, it'll make you feel miserable, whether it's too high or too low. And so really important to get those checked. And so assess your brain, know your important numbers, and then we go after optimizing the brain through many different mechanisms. And what I love about this is that this is actually really simple. I mean, it doesn't get simpler as far as if you're

really talking about somebody who needs to reverse brain damage, it doesn't sort of get simpler than being able to do a few, you know, take something as simple as this. So tell us about it. So assess your brain, get your important numbers checked, fight the war on multiple fronts. You know, I mean, that's why we call it the brain warriors way. There are multiple battlefields. So we use omega-3 fatty acids to decrease inflammation. We use ginkgo, one of my favorite supplements to help boost blood flow to the brain. B vitamins for nutrient loading. Hooper's Zena boosts acetylcholine, which is the brain's learning and memory. Right. Neurotransmitter.

Alpha-lipoic acid for blood sugar stabilization. And one of my favorite supplements n-acetyl cysteine because it's a super antioxidant and there's so many fascinating studies on it to decrease cravings help with depression help detoxify your body now you just mentioned like six different things and people are thinking i have to take six different supplements but that's not necessarily true so we've actually made it a lot simpler than that. We have, and they can look on BrainMD to learn more about our combinations, supplements. And then, you know, it was about 11 years ago when I wrote Preventing Alzheimer's with my friend Rod Schenkel. And as we wrote that book, I was so happy with it when we were finished,

because we had a very clear plan on how you prevent Alzheimer's. And it's the same plan for reversing brain damage. And how you prevent Alzheimer's disease or reverse brain damage is you attack all of the risk factors for accelerated aging and dementia. That's so interesting. They're almost all except the genetic risk factors preventable or treatable. And even the genetic ones, we now know through this concept called epigenetics, that we can turn on or off certain genes with our habits. So in The Brain Warrior's Way, in our book, we have a whole section on how you prevent Alzheimer's disease is you prevent the risk factor. So things like obesity, diabetes,

heart disease, and hypertension, it's diet and exercise. And that's why we said in our earlier podcast, there are many ways to get sick. There's really one way to get well. Right. So what's good for your brain is good for your heart is good for everything else. Low hormone levels. So if they're low, you can optimize them. I mean, you take thyroid every day. And progesterone, and I get my hormones optimized. It's just a critical thing to keep your brain and your body young. If you smoke... It's a disaster.

It's a disaster. So stopping it is really important, and doing whatever you can to stop it. Drug and alcohol abuse, you need to get rid of those. You know, I collect orchids. I have the most beautiful orchid in my office now is if I kept poisoning it, there's no way if it was hurt, it would come back. So you have to get rid of the poison. Sleep apnea is a nightmare for brain function. And so getting it diagnosed and treated. Interestingly, excessive stress. So we all know like people are like trying to get rid of stress in their life. You can't really get rid of stress. It's a normal part of life. So we talk about

managing your stress. What do you do to manage stress positively? And in one study, I thought this was so fascinating. People who view stress in their lives as a negative thing were the ones who were affected negatively by it and it actually they died 30 more often of stress-related illnesses people who managed their stress in a positive way and didn't view it negatively and they used it to help other people like they actually helped people had zero effects of like from death from stress-related illnesses so interesting you need to manage your. So having a regular stress management practice. And in the Brain Warriors Way book,

that's under the training and habits on how to manage your stress. Right. Having untreated ADD triples the risk of Alzheimer's disease. And it's treatable. It's also true for untreated depression and PTSD. Right.

So getting your mental health right is critical to reversing brain damage. Right. We talk about exercise. So I've often said exercise is my medicine. Like I'm not kidding. So some people, you know, talk about exercise being difficult, but once you get into a routine and you start to feel how good it feels for your brain, you know, for me, it's like medicine. If it's not, then just at least make it clear that when you exercise, you are improving brain function. So at least twice a week and pick something you love because all movement matters. It doesn't have to be like a dreaded exercise routine. Just pick something you love to do. I love karate. Daniel loves table tennis. And you're more likely to actually stick with it. Because you love it. No new learning increases your risk of Alzheimer's

disease. So always learning something new is a critical strategy for reversing brain damage. The standard American diet elevates it. This is what we talked about last podcast. Doing the Brain Warriors Whey Diet can help. And as you age, things just, they get harder for your body to manage. So being even more serious is absolutely essential. Now, when we took our players through these four steps, assessing your brain, knowing your important numbers, a multiple mechanism approach, and then attacking all the risk factors, 80% of our players showed improvement. These are people with clear evidence of brain damage.

80% showed improvement, especially in memory, attention, mood, and sleep. And one of our favorite brain warriors, Duvall Love, who was an offensive guard for the Rams for 12 years, he was morbidly obese. He scored very poorly on the cognitive tests and his brain looked awful. After a year, he'd lost 110 pounds. That's amazing. And his brain looked so much better. He actually went back to graduate school. Wow. I was so proud of him. And he was just much more serious about his brain health.

And Freddie Dreyer, who was a Los Angeles Ram and also an actor, said with the program, I've replaced a part of me that had slowly slipped away. My mind is sharper and I have the mental energy and clarity I had lost. So exciting. We see this so often. And it's not just for football players. We've seen people who've damaged their brain from addictions do so much better.

We've seen people have ADD. Their brains can be better. Even people with early dementia, we've seen them come back from the edge. You are not stuck with the brain you have. You can make it better. That's why Tan and I are so excited about The Brain Warrior's Way. Thanks for listening to today's show, the Brain Warriors Way. Why don't you head over to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. That's brainwarriorswaypodcast.com, where Daniel and Tana have a gift for you just for subscribing to the show. And when you post your review on iTunes, you'll be entered into a drawing where you can win a VIP visit to one of the Amen clinics. I'm Donnie Osmond,

and I invite you to step up your brain game by joining us in the next episode.