Change Your Brain Every Day - Dr Amen Q&A Session 3 Part 1

Episode Date: January 14, 2017

Welcome back to another episode of our Q&A session. Today's episode we're going to talk about a couple of issues, but one thing that stood in this episode is a question about sugar and sweeteners. I know it's a hot topic and it's something you probably are asking yourself as well. So be sure to listen to the whole episode and learn some useful insights in today's questions, answered. 

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.

This is the part of the program that Tana and I actually love the most, where the audience gets to ask us questions, hopefully questions that you'll want to ask. So let's start. Hi, I'm William. I actually have a couple of questions. My first one is, what are some of the common medications that are prescribed today for ADD? And are they still prescribing things like Ritalin? I was given Ritalin as a child and I'm 44 now. So I would consider that like an older bed. But what are some of the common ones they're prescribing? And are they still doing ones like Ritalin today? So most people who get diagnosed with ADD are still getting stimulants. But what are some of the common ones they're prescribing, and are they still doing ones like Ritalin today?

So most people who get diagnosed with ADD are still getting stimulants. So Ritalin is a stimulant. It was actually released in the United States in 1954. One of the most widely prescribed, and for the right brain type, one of the safest medications. But Ritalin's fairly quick, you know, quick working, but quick off. And so people who take regular Ritalin often find their mood and focus go up and down quickly. So what is more common today is they're using slower acting forms of methylphenidate, which is the generic for Ritalin. So one of my favorites is Concerta, also Adderall, Vyvanse. They tend to be more level in how they work. Great controversy about those medications.

It's like, oh my God, that's speed. And they are stimulants, but as we talked about in the show, when people try to concentrate, their brain shut down rather than turning on. And the stimulant helps so that it doesn't turn off. They used to call those hyper pills when I was a child. Did you take your hyper pills?

Did you take your hyper pill? And isn't it interesting, though? You give someone a stimulant and it settles them down. You gave me a stimulant, totally wired. It would not be a good thing. So that's sort of the first clue. A good thing. So that's one of the clues. If you give someone caffeine and it calms them, you should be thinking about ADD. But the important question and one of the reasons that we wanted to do this show is ADD isn't one thing.

So you can have a hyperactive, restless, impulsive child who can't concentrate. They give one child the hyper pills and it's amazing. Calms them, settles them. They do better in school. You give another child, it sends them into orbit. They become violent. They can become violent. So knowing your type is absolutely essential. give another child, it sends them into orbit. They become violent. They can become violent.

So knowing your type is absolutely essential. And that actually brings my next question up. Is it possible to have a seven type combo? Like, can I be like a classic inattentive HADD patient? Like, can I have like a little bit of one and a little bit of another? Is that possible? So it's common for people to have more than one type. Now, you can't have a seven-type combo because if you are the classic type, hyperactive, restless, impulsive, can't concentrate, you are automatically not type two because type two is they have the hallmark features, short attention span, distractibility, disorganization, but they're not hyperactive or really terribly impulsive. So, but you could be classic over-focused, temporal low, anxious, sad, anxious, and ring of fire. So, and I always tell, because it's common.

I mean, people who come to the Amen Clinics, on average, have failed 3.3 doctors and six medications. And so we see complicated people. And when I get someone who has five or six types, I just go, it's such good news because you're likely to get so much. There's only one way to go. But the order then, and we said this several times in the show,

the order of the medication, the order of the supplements is critical. Because, for example, if you're type 4, so I talked about Chris in the show, or you're the ring of fire, we talked about Jared in the show, give them a stimulant, send them into orbit. But if we gave them something to stabilize their temporal lobe first, like an anti-seizure medicine, I did that with Chris. Unbelievable.

The stimulant then worked. But before they just gave him a stimulant, he starts hearing voices that aren't there. I mean, that's really crazy. And lastly, how do I go about getting those scans? Like what, how do I exactly go get the scan? Well, to get a scan, you just have to call the Amen Clinic. So I mean, we'd be happy to look at your brain. Now, one of the reasons I did this show is I know not everybody can get a scan, either because of the cost or because they don't live near one of our clinics. And so that's why I developed the questionnaire, so people know their type.

But the questionnaires aren't nearly as good as the scans, because the scans, I mean, you can see what type or types that you might have. The other thing the scan shows you, have you had head trauma? Because there's just that one line in the show that temporal lobe ADD, one of the causes is often head trauma. It's rampant in our patients. Or whether or not you've had toxic exposure. So a lot of our ADD people end up having substance abuse issues and you can so see it on the scan and it really motivates them to get clean. Well, if I can add one thing, you know, I hear it over and over. And as somebody who hasn't done this, you know, I hadn't seen it for nearly as long as you have.

When I see the change in people, it's amazing to me because when they see the picture of their brain and they realize this isn't my fault and the compliance goes way up and they get excited about the fact that there's actually something they can do. And so it just changes the game. It's just, you know, it's a whole different game at that point. Absolutely. Well, thank you very, very much. Thank you, William.

Hi, I'm Catherine Webb. And my family and I, we've been in an unsuccessful battle trying to find treatment for our 11-year-old daughter who has been diagnosed with ADD. And just looking at the ADD types, she exhibits many of the behaviors of over-focused and ring of fire. One of the struggles that I find, many of the treatments and strategies that you've mentioned are targeted towards people who want help, who recognize they have ADD. She's almost a preteen. She's 11 years old, and we have a difficult time just getting her to brush her teeth, much less want to change her diet, accept treatment. So we're looking to figure out what we can do to have her work within our family and help us to be better parents and parenting her. But the typical solutions that I've heard, you have to be a willing participant in that. Well, not necessarily. I mean, we see a ton of awful kids and teenagers. What you can do is

begin to change the food in the house. So you can do that. If you can get her to get scanned, and we bribe them. I mean, I'm a child psychiatrist. I know how to get my way with kids. As you find out what motivates them, because without the pictures, you're throwing darts in the dark at her. And she sounds like she's pretty demoralized.

And she's a great kid when you talk about bad kids. She is the most amazing, creative, all the wonderful qualities that you do find in children who have ADHD. And that sounds like a lot of the kids that we had in the program. They weren't bad kids, but they were frustrated. It's like, well, everything you've done for me hasn't worked. So it's only made me worse. So why do you want me to try something new? They're demoralized and stuck. So if she's over-focused, no matter what it is you suggest, she'll argue with you. And so we have lots of strategies on how to deal with that.

Like when they start to get stuck, you never argue with them. That's not the time to push. It's the time to sort of back off. And sort of the natural ways to boost serotonin. One of the things that, you know, I think of ring of fire, I want to boost first GABA, then serotonin, and then dopamine if I need to. And so to naturally boost serotonin, take her for a walk. So when I, cause I, Katie, my middle one, was very oppositional growing up. And what I realized, if I really wanted to have a discussion with her, I would first take her for a walk.

I wouldn't talk about anything important until about halfway through the walk when I'm raising her serotonin level. And from the food standpoint, you know, the natural tendency to raise serotonin, we, if you think of a woman with PMS, okay, just think of that. The natural tendency, just intuitively, you want to reach for things like pasta, rice, chocolate, wine, because these things naturally boost serotonin quickly. So the last thing you want to do, because sugar quickly raises serotonin, but that's the last thing you want to do, okay, because then you're going to have big problems later. Things like sweet potatoes, okay, or an apple with a little bit of almond butter, something like that.

Or hummus. Things like this are going to naturally help to boost that. So make some sweet potato mash, or I have a recipe for sweet potato pudding. Stuff like that is going to naturally help that. And for her, one of the frustrations too is her currency. When you're talking about finding your child's currency to be able to get them to buy into something, hers is sweets. She loves anything with sugar and that's what she really craves. And she finds that she craves that. Because it's probably medicine. Right, it's medicine. And being, she's the second of six children. So when she acts out in our home, you could imagine what happens. It completely turns our home upside down. So one of the keys... Where did this come from? Do you have any sense? As we talked about, it's a family disorder.

It's definitely family. My mother and my sister both have ADHD or ADD. So one of the things you can do is, for instance, I have 300 recipes and, you know, kids like food that tastes good. It's just a fact. Everybody does. So you want to find her favorites and find alternatives for them that taste amazing. And if you can, get her involved. Yes, and I agree. Being 11, she's less now influenced by her parents and way more influenced by her peers, obviously. And we have altered the food in our home. But when she leaves our home, she makes those food choices herself. So what I'm hoping to find is that she is going to notice a significant difference in how she feels and want to work and move towards that. You want to begin to influence her.

You know, I also have a book called New Skills for Frazzled Parents that I wrote for parents who have kids like this. And there's some very simple structured things to do. And because they're often so stressful, the bond between the parents and the child becomes strained. And so special time is really important. So it's 20 minutes. And during that 20 minutes, no commands, no questions, no directions. It's just to start working on that bond. And in your home, have very clear rules. Like in my house, we have posted rules. And one of my favorite ones for my oppositional child was no arguing with parents, which was, she's like, seriously? But what that means is we want to hear your opinion. More than twice constitutes arguing.

Because if you let them go on and on, it actually makes them worse. So there's a lot of useful things that can be really helpful for her. But we've seen a ton of them. And, you know, initially you say something to her, it's the over-focused ones, the ring of fire ones, it's like they wear Teflon. It's like no matter what it is you say, it bounces back.

They don't hear it. But if you sort of gently say it time after time, pretty soon they start to incorporate it in their unconscious. And I just have such luck when I can image them and show them they want a better brain, you know, especially if they have a reasonable IQ, then they begin to go, oh, it's not me, it's my brain. And then they get brain envy and they want a better brain. It's totally why I got obsessed with imaging because it helped my patients be more compliant. And I think she needs to see that so that she can kind of relinquish a lot of her helplessness feelings.

And well, and if she's more successful, her self-esteem goes up. And then she's a lot more cooperative. And if she has over-focused her ring of fire and it's stimulant, stimulant, stimulant, then she's worse, worse. And then she doesn't trust people. Thank you. Hi, my name is David. And I was wondering how you felt about replacing sugar with maybe an artificial sweetener occurring. No alcohol. It's not an alcohol and it's not sugar. It's called a sugar alcohol because it resembles half alcohol, half sugar. Doesn't make you high. Does not make you drunk and it is not sugar. Okay. So it's called erythritol. It actually tastes great. It does. And I actually, it's in a lot of my recipes in small amounts. But stevia is another great one.

Can you talk about sugar for a little bit in ADD? Absolutely. So sugar really, what it does is it really boosts your blood sugar really quickly. So not just sugar, but foods that quickly turn to sugar. So the big misconception is, well, we'll just avoid like table sugar. But it's not just table sugar. It's most grains actually's not just table sugar. It's most grains actually break down quickly to sugar. Okay. So things like rice, pasta, cereals,

waffles, pancakes, anything, bread, those types of foods quickly break down to sugar. And yes, I'm including wheat bread in that. Okay. Plus the fact that they include, they contain gluten and gluten's really, really not your friend. Okay. So you want to avoid foods that quickly turn to sugar. And I talk a lot about this in the book that's in the program material and in all of our other materials that we have at the clinics. So avoid foods that quickly turn to sugar because what this does quickly elevate your blood sugar, which then causes this insulin response. Your body doesn't like high blood sugar. So you then get this insulin response from your pancreas, which helps to bring blood sugar down.

But your body really, really doesn't like low blood sugar. So as your blood sugar begins to crash from that insulin response, you get all these symptoms. You get shakiness, headache, fatigue. Can't concentrate. And many people, now some people in the audience have heard me speak. And when they see this, when they see these symptoms, they think, oh, those are similar symptoms to things like

DTs or detox from drugs or withdrawal. Okay. They're very similar symptoms. So what ends up happening is that drives you automatically because your body doesn't like low blood sugar. It's actually a dangerous state, drives you, compels you to go eat sugar again. And the whole cycle starts all over again. Okay? So it's like a hypoglycemic state, which is a low blood sugar, drives you to go get the sugar again.

And then this whole crazy state keeps starting over and over. And that really triggers those ADD symptoms like over and over again. It's a really bad thing. So... And, you know, a lot of ADD people, you know, they're concerned about their weight,

so they won't drink a soda. They'll go get a diet soda, thinking that is somehow better for them. But a lot of people have negative reactions to aspartame. Really bad. And there's one study with Splenda or sucralose that said it decreases the bacteria in your gut. So for those of you that don't know, you have about five pounds of bugs in your body and they're good bugs and bad bugs. I know it sounds gross, right? In fact, it's so funny.

We were watching The Voice and Christina Aguilera, there was a bug on her chair. Anybody saw that? And she got all like freaked out by that. And I'm like, Christina, you have 10 trillion bugs in your body. So don't get freaked out by it. But when you have good ones to actually help you make healthy neurotransmitters and your mind works better. So there's actually this connection between the health of your gut and the health of your brain. So if you're drinking things that damage those good bugs, then you're not going to be thinking as well.

We like stevia because it actually has some medicinal benefits, but even the natural sweeteners you have to be careful with because the more you have them, the more your brain is going to crave them. So just in moderation on the natural ones, but I want to add one thing to that because since you asked the question about artificial sweeteners and why not to have them. Aspartame is actually what we call an excitotoxin in the brain. It's actually toxic to the neurons in your brain. Okay. So it makes them so excited they kill themselves. Right. So it's really bad for your brain. And the sucralose he was talking about is actually made from sugar. And it's

actually been shown to increase something in your body called hemoglobin A1c. So the measurement that they take in your body to measure your sugar over a three-month period, it's actually been shown to increase your blood sugar over a three-month period. Not your blood sugar, but the measurement that measures. So does anybody know how they created Splenda? Does anybody know why they created it? A killer? Yes. Ant killer.

It's a pesticide. Yes, it actually resembles that more than sugar. As a pesticide. In fact, if you have an ant infestation at home. Not in your head. What I want you to do is pour some Splenda on the ants and the next day they'll be dead. So if it's doing that, in fact, there are many gardeners that they carry these big boxes of Splenda with them because if they get, you know, like this bug infestation, they'll

pour the Splenda on it. You do not want that going into your body because you have this great relationship with these wonderful bugs that are helping make things like dopamine and serotonin and all the good things that we have been talking about. Probably more, David, than you wanted to hear. It's all right. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks for listening to today's show, The Brain Warrior's 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.