Change Your Brain Every Day - Concussions/TBI: What Happens in the Brain?

Episode Date: March 26, 2019

New research shows us the surprising impact a concussion can have on your brain and your life. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen continue their discussion on hidden brain injuries by delving into the topic of concussions. Learn about the physical effects that take place after even a minor concussion, and how it can affect your daily life.

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 hope listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast soothes whatever brain injuries you've had. For sure. You soothe me every day. I was just going

to say the same thing. Do you have a review? I do. So this is from Laura Louise. Excellent. Self-care first. Then we are more able and available to do the rest of life in a quality paced fashion. Love that. We're always telling people that. So new research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows that even mild concussions sustained in ordinary community settings might be more detrimental than anyone anticipated, except me. The long-term risk of suicide increases threefold in adults if they've experienced even one concussion. Additional study reiterated the seriousness of traumatic brain injury,

stating it is the leading cause of death and disability in young adults in the developed world. And that individuals with mild TBI, think concussion, had an elevated risk of suicide by 81%. Wow. The link between TBIs contributing to poor outcomes later in life was recently investigated in much greater depth. Research published in PLOS Medicine studied more than a million people born since 1973

and followed them to see how head injuries impact their lives in the coming decades. And what they're gonna find, there's a higher incidence of depression. There's a higher incidence of ADD. There's a higher incidence of learning problems, a higher incidence of panic disorder, a higher incidence not only of suicide, but also homicide. There's a higher incidence of divorce,

incarceration, bankruptcy, because when your brain works right, you work right. And when your brain is troubled for whatever reason, such as a concussion, you have trouble in your life. Right. I certainly witnessed that with my mom and that was not her first concussion, but this one was bad and it just really changed her life right and it really changed her life right the first time i scanned her i said hey did you ever have a head injury she goes no she was calling me about oh dear lord she was still calling me three weeks later oh i forgot to tell him about this oh i forgot to tell him about that accident i'm like that was that explained my whole life growing up so why do they ruin your life and why does no one know about it because they end up having emotional problems so panic

attacks depression suicidal thoughts relationship problems domestic violence and they go see therapists. And because most therapists have never been trained about the brain, and even psychiatrists never look at the brain, you then assume it's depression. And they had low activity in their frontal lobes and low activity in their temporal lobes. And he goes to his family doctor, even goes to a good psychiatrist, and he goes, well, I'm depressed. And he meets six out of the nine criteria. So he gets a diagnosis of depression and they put him on an SSRI. That's the standard first thing to do. Which is what happened to me. Standard first thing to do is they put you on a serotonin, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. And what does serotonin do in your brain?

It calms it down. Drops your frontal lobes. So if you have low frontal lobes to start. It could ruin your life. If someone drops them further. It can actually disinhibit you and ruin your life. You get a thought, Oh, I'd be better off dead. And then you make a suicide attempt because your frontal lobes, which are also involved in empathy, doesn't see the pain that it's going to cause other people.

Yeah, no, it's ridiculous. They put me on an SSR and it was terrible when I was going through my depression. I took myself off of it. They tried to double my dose when I told them I didn't think it was working. Crazy. But I wanted to point something out because you mentioned earlier that most therapists are not trained to deal with the brain. So just to FYI, because we're going to get inundated with people going, well, but my therapist isn't, what do I do? We actually do have a network on our website of people who are trained in our work.

So just want to put that out there. Yeah. And you can also come to one of the clinics because as I always say, how do you know unless you look? If you've had a concussion or a fall or a car accident and the traditional things you're doing are not working, someone should look at your brain. If people go, hey, Daniel, single most important thing you've learned from 150,000 scans is mild traumatic brain injury

ruins people's lives. And nobody knows about it because most therapists aren't looking so in the study we published in plus one uh i think i downloaded a gazillion times uh we did a world literature review on spacked and traumatic brain injury there were 1600 citations so, let's stop saying there's no science behind the imaging work. 91% of times it affected people's frontal lobes. So it affected the prefrontal cortex. If there was no science behind it, why would they use it so much in research? And why do we use it in the hospital? I'm just curious. Because they didn't know about the science.

And if somebody doesn't know about it, they say there's no science. Anyways, 91% affects your prefrontal cortex. So what kind of problems would you have if you hurt the front third of your brain? Judgment, impulse control, lack of empathy. So being overly spontaneous to the point of being impulsive. your executive function would be So by executive function, it's sort of like the boss at work. Right. Or a parent. Or a parent. And if... You can't effectively parent yourself.

Right. So it's basically the part of your brain that makes decisions. And if you've hurt the prefrontal cortex, the decisions you make might not be as good. You say the first stupid thing that comes to your mind, which can get you into all sorts of hot water if you're married, especially to a redhead. Why do you always say that? You're going to make them think I am so mean. You're awesome. I married you. Why do you always say that? You're going to make them think I am so mean. You're awesome. I married you. I married you because I love you and because you're awesome. I noticed you choked on that I love you. Are you afraid of me?

Absolutely. You have elevated my fear. I've elevated your frontal lobes, let's be clear. I don't know if you've elevated them or stunned them. I hope we make better decisions. But think about it. is involved in everything in your marriage, in your health, in your money, in your work. And so if your prefrontal cortex is hurt, the decisions you make are not as effective and that can damage every area of your life.

And one of my favorite stories is Jose, who I was on the Dr. Phil show. Now, see, he should have been afraid of someone like me. He would have. He would have been afraid. Right. Yeah. We did a show on Dr. Phil about cheaters, about people who are unfaithful in their relationships. But repeatedly. And he had cheated on his wife eight times in a couple of years.

And Dr. Phil said, my dad said, if you see a rat, there's 50 more behind the wall. So he's like, there's probably more to this than Jose was admitting. And he had low frontal lobe function in a traumatic brain injury pattern. And I'm like, do you ever have a brain injury? And he said, no. And I'm like, and I go, you know, are you sure? Have you ever fallen off, fallen out of a tree, fell off a fence, dove into a shallow pool, been in a car accident, played sports, having concussions? He said, well, I'm a mixed martial artist.

I'm like, okay, that'll do it. And then he played football for four years. And then he said, and I break bottles with my head. I'm like, what? He said, yeah, it's sort of like a party trick. I can take a beer bottle and go boom against my forehead. I would have broken a bottle over his head. Yes, you would have.

Yes. That is true. We'll talk about your traumatic brain injury in a little bit. And so the first thing for him, it's, well, what do you want? Because some people want a promiscuous lifestyle. But he wanted to be married. He didn't want his child to grow up in a broken home like he grew up in. And so if he knew what he wanted and clearly his behavior was not getting what he wanted because his wife had a loaded gun at home and she was ready to use it on him.

She was so angry. And, but still that didn't dissuade him. What I needed to do was get him to know what he wanted and then fix his frontal lobes, which we did with diet, exercise, supplements. We'll talk about that. And they're still married. And now I think it's like eight years later, he's got his nurse anesthetist degree. I mean, he finished college. He got his master's degree. That's amazing. So, you know, you hear about a story where someone was unfaithful

once, but it wasn't around a chronic situation, and you can heal from that over time. But when someone does it eight times or more, or it's just a chronic situation, you have to ask yourself, what's going on? And they're doing it because they don't want to. Now, if it's because that's the kind of relationship they want, then you should just be with a partner who has the same values you do. But if not, then you have to, I mean, you hear it all the time, like, why? When your behavior is not, then you have to, I mean, you hear it all the time. Like why? When your behavior

is not getting you what you want, you should be thinking about the brain. And now hopefully after listening to these podcasts, you're going, oh my goodness, I fell out of a second story window when I was seven. Do you think that counts? Probably. Stay with us. When we come back, we're going to talk about more, especially healing from traumatic brain injuries. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe. So you'll always know when there's a new episode. And while you're at it, feel free to give us a review or five-star rating as that helps others find the podcast. If you're interested in coming to Amen Clinics, use the code PODCAST10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com.

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