Change Your Brain Every Day - Coronavirus Outbreak: How To Avoid Getting Sick

Episode Date: March 16, 2020

At this moment it certainly seems like the people with OCD who are constantly washing their hands are the smart ones, but in times of emergency it’s important to keep the proper perspective. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen weigh in on the public reaction to the coronavirus outbreak, and why it’s important to keep stress levels low to ease the burden on your immune system.

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. We are so happy you are with us. There is anxiety everywhere. It's always about something.

People who have OCD and have been washing their hands compulsively are now going, I told you so, I told you so. Well, and the conspiracy theorists are going, I told you so, I told you so. Everybody's got a theory. Well, it's not a conspiracy. One would think not. We're going to talk about coronavirus this week. And I know it's on the top of everybody's mind. And it's something that's

important from a neuroscience perspective. And so stay with us. We are going to talk about how to strengthen your immune system in the middle of a lot of anxiety for people. But first, you have a testimonial to read. From Sabrina. She says, just wanted to say thank you for sharing your knowledge on brain health. I'm 27 and going through PDD as well as fighting with my husband often. Since I've discovered your videos, podcast, and book, Feel Better Fast and Make It Last,

I've been using your techniques to improve my mind. Your recommendation to listen to mood-enhancing songs like Claire DeLune have saved my husband and I from fighting in front of our baby. Thank you and God bless. I love that. Isn't that great? That just made me so happy. And when you're happier and you're listening to music like that um your immune system is better

and being panicked actually hurts your immune system so um so we're going to talk about covid 19 so coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness that we've known about for a long time, from the common cold to more severe diseases like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, MERS, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, SARS. Now a novel coronavirus is a new strain that has not previously been identified in humans. Coronaviruses are zoonotic meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Detailed investigations found that SARS was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS from dromedary camels to humans. Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath, and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death.

Although what's interesting about COVID-19 is it's not seeming to affect children as much. And they think it might be the MMR, right? I'm not sure. That's what I've heard. And the elderly, don't look at me like that, are more vulnerable. Standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include regular hand washing. We're going to talk about that.

Covering your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing. Of course you should do that. Thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. Avoiding close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illnesses, such as coughing and sneezing. So as some of you know, we basically adopted our two nieces. And right after this happened, there was a rumor, turned out not to be true, that several children from China were coming new to their school.

And all of a sudden, none of the children showed up. Yeah, and so there was panic and my niece came home and she's like, I can't go to school. Nobody's going to school. There were four kids in class and there were parents,

literally there were parents protesting outside the school and there was a news van outside the school. And, you know, she's like, can I stay home tomorrow? And I said, let me do some research. And then she didn't understand why I didn't just say, yes, you can stay home. She didn't understand. And so I said, because here's the thing.

We don't buy into mass hysteria, number one. We're not going to buy into mass hysteria. Because the masses are often the, you can fill in the blank. So we don't, I was trying to teach her, we think for ourselves. I want you to think for yourself and not like everybody else, number one.

Just because there are people outside protesting does not make them right. So let me actually, so when I was in my philosophy class at a Christianian college at vanguard university my philosophy teacher said the masses are the asses right and it's like what does that mean it means and we talk about it in the brain warriors right sheep sheep dogs and wolves what does sheep do? They follow.

And they don't think. The herd, they don't think. They're vulnerable. But if a sheep gets blown off a cliff, as happened in Turkey, the other sheep often may just jump after. So when we say the masses or the asses, we don't want to demean anybody. No, it just means we want you to think. Mass hysteria is often not helpful.

Now, of course, we want you to be thoughtful. If you're sick, don't go to work. So as I was telling her about this, I said, you know, it's not that I always want you to be safe. And I'm going to do my homework on this. I'm going to figure out what what is going on but I don't want you to just all of a sudden think that just because there are people there protesting like that doesn't make them right all of a sudden okay I want I want you to slow down for a minute and let's do the research and so we did this

together and so I said I want you to think about something for a child to come here from China means they've had to go through quarantine means if they've gone through quarantine, they've had to go through this process. It means they're being watched number one. But what turned out was it turned out that the some of the moms that heard that this was happening didn't like the quarantine process. They wanted it doubled. Okay, well, I could understand why they're fearful, but that doesn't make it right. And what I was concerned about, and I told her, I said, I want you to think about this.

You don't get to just make decisions like that and then get everyone upset. There's a quarantine process for a reason. I understand their fear. It's their choice if they want to keep their kids home. But what I want you to think about, think about that child that's coming there. And what I want you to think about, think about that child that's coming there. And what I want you to think about is how they've already had to go through this

quarantine process. They're moving from another country. And now all of a sudden, think about all the kids that are being bullied simply because they are from another country. And maybe they're even American, but they live here, but they're another nationality. And they're now being bullied because of this. And that's what I don't want her to buy into. So it's like, I want you to start thinking for yourself and not thinking like everybody else. So we did a little research, and I'm like, no, you're going to school.

So there's no coronavirus that's been detected, and there was no reason for her to stay home. So if anything, we knew that that child had been quarantined. So that was probably safer then. And part of the problem is when you get your information from the news, as we've talked about and I talk about in my new book, The End of Mental Illness, is the news leads with the worst thing because your brain is programmed to pay attention to what's negative, to what's awful, to what's terrible, to what's scary, to what's traumatic. And so as we record

this, there's been 26 deaths in the United States. And I would never want to diminish that in any way. But we want you to be careful. There's multiples of that for the flu. And taking care of your immune system is really important. But being angry, upset, not sleeping is in fact damaging your immune system and your ability to fight whatever infection comes your way. Right. And it's interesting because one of the things, you know, that we would tell you is probably don't travel unless you have to, right? Unless it's a mandatory thing. But I do that anyways. So when he travels and he wants me to go with him, I'm like, I weigh it out because I tend to have a weaker immune system than he does

just because of all of my health issues from the past. I take really good care of myself. I do everything I can to build up my immune system. But when I travel a lot, I tend to weaken it and I tend to get sick faster than he does. So I'll weigh it out anyways. It's like, you're gonna be on the go. You're gonna be in three states in five days.

That's probably not a good move for me. And I'll, no, I don't need to do it. I'm not going to go. So I do that anyways. Because you are more vulnerable. I'm more vulnerable. And so you've heard me talk on this podcast, Russ, talk on this podcast about the app Think Dirty,

where you can actually scan your personal products and it'll tell you on a scale of 1 to 10 how quickly they're killing you. Well, now we find, and my new book has just been released, and so I'm traveling a lot to do television and radio, and I have a new public television. So I'm traveling a lot, which means I have to wash my hands a lot. But you don't know what is in the disinfectants, what's in the soap. Is it good for you or not?

And so I find I get healthy disinfectant and I take it with me. So. Well, we've never been a big fan of using, overusing disinfectants in a normal situation. This isn't a normal situation, right? This is, this is crucial that you try to protect yourself. So we're not in a normal situation right now. So using a disinfectant in this circumstance is not normal. And by the way, I always, you always said, I hope I never have to say thank you for my prepping, but say it. You can say it. You can say it. My wife is a prepper. It's true. Thank you. Thank you. Because I have water and toilet paper. And so you can say her frontal lobes were hard. Yes. We'll just say her frontal lobes work hard. So when we come back,

we are going to talk about how to strengthen your immune system to not only fight off the coronavirus, but also things like cancer. Stay with us. 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 considering coming to Amen Clinics

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