Change Your Brain Every Day - Energy Robbers, Fakers & Enhancers: What’s Fueling Your Fatigue?

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

If you’re tired of being tired, this episode is for you. Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen break down the three biggest categories that affect your energy: what steals it, what fakes it, and what truly enhances it. From toxic people (known as “energy vampires”) to tech overload, caffeine crashes to clean supplements, you’ll learn what’s draining your spark and the best ways to boost lasting energy—without burning out.   00:00 Intro 00:58 Energy Robbers, Fakers, & Enhancers 03:11 Uncontrolled Thoughts 04:29 Energy Vampires 07:43 Poor Sleep Habits 10:00 Processed Foods & Sugar 13:43 Decision Fatigue 16:09 Sponsor 16:56 Caffeine 18:57 Adrenaline Addiction 19:51 Social Media 20:08 Breakfast/Nutrition 25:08 Sunlight/Movement 25:39 Cold Plunges/Boundaries 27:05 Peak Energy 32:28 Wrap Up   Peak Energy and other brain-healthy supplements: https://brainmd.com

What I learned is very helpful. It's worth the whole podcast. When someone calls and I know they don't have good boundaries, I start the conversation with I only have a minute. I have another appointment and the appointment may only be with me. I have an appointment with me to like finish the chapter. And you know, have you ever noticed that sometimes people still, you could say that four or five times, I have to go.

And they still like, I have another meeting, I have another appointment and they still, oh, just one more thing and they'll keep going. And I've always thought in the past like, oh, it's rude for me to cut them off. No, it's actually rude for people to do that. So it's okay for you to draw that boundary and go, no, I actually have to go.

Every day 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 to Change Your Brain Every Day. Today's episode, we're gonna talk about energy, why so many people feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and stuck, and what you can do about it.

So, you know, whenever people go, oh, do you really not drink? Or do you not have sugar? And it's like, how can you have any fun? And I always go to them, what do you really want? And now that I'm 70, but quite frankly, I wanted the same thing at 40 or 50 or 60. I want energy.

I want memory. I want clarity. I want passion. I'm married to you. I want passion. I'm married to you. I want good decisions, but I always start with energy because if you don't have energy, you can't accomplish what you want for your life. So, we're going to break this podcast into three parts. We're going to talk about the energy robbers, the energy fakers, and the energy enhancers. So, we're going to talk about what steals

it, what gives you the illusion of energy but crashes you later, and how to build true lasting brain boosting energy. And then we're going to tell you, so excited about this, how one of our best selling products got the Grammy award in the supplement industry for the best nexty product. Let's talk about energy robbers first. Your energy isn't just about sleep or food or exercise. It's about all of those things, but it's also about how your brain handles everything that's going on in your life. Energy robbers can be things like alcohol, marijuana, late night television, or not having

blue blockers on your phone and staying on your phone too long. But also things like uncontrolled thoughts. So talk more about that. Well, you know, we always talk about the ants, the automatic negative thoughts that steal your happiness. And we did an episode recently, if you haven't heard it, go back and listen to it on negativity and negativity bias. But negativity and ants, they steal your energy. Your body hears, responds to every thought you have. And if they're negative, if they're scary, if they're hopeless, helpless, worthless, demeaning, it just steals your energy.

Well, have you ever noticed that when you have a negative thought, you tend to spin on it a lot as opposed to when you have a happy thought, we don't tend to spin on happy thoughts, right, as much. It's like, oh, we'll have a happy thought, we don't tend to spin on happy thoughts, right? As much. It's like, oh, we'll have a happy thought and that makes us happy. But when you have a negative thought, if you're mad at someone, it'll just keep playing over and over and over. That person might've done it one time, but you do it a thousand times. And it steals your energy. And your focus.

And yeah, it doesn't use your calories. It would be nice if it used your calories. So uncontrolled negative thinking and then toxic people. And so we often call them energy vampires. You have any examples that you want to share? So I often say that boundaries are critical if you grow up in crazy like I did. So the phrase, I love you and I will miss you is one of my favorite phrases

because of this very reason, energy vampires. So if you've got people in your life who don't have boundaries or you grew up in chronic stress and chronic chaos, you know what I'm talking about here. When you grow up in a family like I did where there's so much addiction and so much chaos and police are being called

because people are fighting all the time, this is something you have to learn how to draw boundaries with because that is, those are energy vampires. So I love you and I will miss you or I love you from a distance. Those are things I've learned how to say in my life. So let me give you a secret that I learned early in my career.

There are some people they just like you said, they have no boundaries. No boundaries. And so they'll call me late at night. And they'll just want to like, talk, talk, talk, not think at all that I might have something to do or that I'm doing something. And what I learned is very helpful. It's worth the whole podcast is when someone calls and I know they don't have good boundaries, I start the conversation with I only have a minute. I have another appointment and the appointment may only be with me. I have an appointment with me to like finish the chapter.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes people still, you could say that four or five times I have to go and they still like, I have another meeting, I have another appointment and they still, oh, just one more thing and they'll keep going. And I've always thought in the past like, oh, it's rude for me to cut them off. No, it's actually rude for people to do that. So it's okay for you to draw that boundary and go, no, I actually have to go. Like we're going to have to pick this up another time. So write this down. We teach people how to treat us by what we tolerate and how we communicate. So, if we allow that to happen over and over again, that's on us, right? It's on you to be responsible.

Responsible just means your ability to respond to this situation. And when people do that to me, it's like, why aren't you listening to me? Is there something about me that you don't like, that you don't respect? And I think just making it clear in a reasonable kind way, because I always try to be kind, but clarity is kindness. Yes. Because otherwise you don't want to, like you won't pick up the call from them, right? So if you're clear and they learn, it's better.

We have a good, a better relationship. Also poor sleep habits. And sometimes you and I could get into this. And I noticed, because I measure my heart rate variability every day, heart rate variability is a sign of heart health, that if we go to bed late, my heart rate variability in the morning is growing.

We get into it over you wanting to go to bed at eight and me wanting to go to bed at nine. No, no, no, no, that's not true. I want to be in bed getting ready to go to sleep at nine. So I might want to go to bed at nine thirty on a Saturday night instead. It's not true. It's up till 11 or 3 in the morning. That's so funny. We sound so old. It's just what do you really want? Energy, heart rate variability that's not in the tank.

So sleep habits. And I just know it's very clear for me. If I have good sleep discipline, I'm just better. For sure. Yeah, I think this is really important for most people. I think some of the things like I know for me, sometimes it's hard to get to sleep and I think that sometimes why I have a hard time like with the idea, okay, it's time to go to bed because I know I'm going to lay there because I have thyroid, time like with the idea, okay, it's time to go to bed because I know I'm gonna lay there because I have thyroid, this high thyroid thing.

And so I've learned like certain cocktails that I take at night, not that kind of cocktail, my supplement cocktail. So if I take magnesium and some time release melatonin, sometimes a little GABA, it'll help me calm down enough to be able to fall asleep more quickly. Well, one day you took TMG. Oh, yeah, I didn't know. We'll talk about that. That's a whole different thing. That's one of my favorite supplements. I didn't know you couldn't take it in the evening. And I was like up all night. We're going to do a mood podcast coming

up and we're going to talk about trimethylglycine or BTN. That's a whole different thing. So, you have to know the right things to take if you're going to take things to help you calm down at night. But otherwise you lay there and people end up on their phones and the more you're on your phone, the more it steals that ability to go to sleep easily. Right. Especially if you don't have blue light blockers on your phone. processed foods and sugar, short-term fake boost, long-term crash, which then leads to inflammation.

So, we talk about this a lot, but people don't really understand why. I feel like it's thrown around so much and people don't really get it. Processed foods, the really cheap fats or fried fats and sugar, they actually really do steal your energy, not only because you're not getting the nutrients, that's the obvious thing, but because they boost cortisol, because they increase inflammation, they actually steal your energy.

So if you're not getting that high nutrient value and you're not getting, you're not keeping your blood sugar stable, that's going to definitely cause those crashes in energy. One of my patients said, she usually eats really well, but they went to a play and her friend bought M&Ms and so she had a couple. And then she took home the box and ate the whole box and then just fell. And you feel terrible. You want to hear something, you want to hear good news? So, you know, I sent

a video to the legislature in Arizona about banning ultra processed foods and 11 artificial banning ultra processed foods and 11 artificial ingredients. And it passed. The governor signed it yesterday. I'm so excited, right? And the ultra processed foods are the ones that are just easy to give your kids, right? You have them in your purse. And I wonder why they have behavioral issues. And then, you know, they end up coming to see me. I'm so excited. This is a principle I've been thinking about. Science. Because we know ultra processed foods leads to things like hyperactivity, behavior problems, obesity, your problems, obesity, chronic pain, and then policy based on science. And this is beginning to happen around the world. Social media is bad for kids. Australia banned it for kids under 16. It's amazing. If you don't sleep, teenagers who sleep just an hour less than their peers have a higher incidence of anxiety,

depression, and suicide. Amazing. California went can't start school before eight o'clock. So now science then equals good public policy. I like that so much. So inflammation is literally the cornerstone of almost every chronic illness. So that's really interesting. So inflammation is the cornerstone of almost every chronic disease.

So some inflammation is necessary. So if you cut yourself or you burn yourself, like that acute inflammation is necessary for healing. But when it gets triggered and becomes chronic, it's like a low level fire that burns in your body. And that happens from things like the food we eat if it's not healthy. Or leaky gut.

Or leaky gut or like inflammatory reactions to things like allergies if you're having things or you have an autoimmune disorder, lots of things can cause it. So when that happens, it also causes inflammation in the brain. And these things definitely steal energy because your body's constantly trying to heal itself. So, an anti-inflammatory diet and figuring out what's causing you to react to certain things is really important for long-term health and energy. Tanner Iskra And then if you add modern day life from multitasking and tech overload, the constant alerts, you

end up with decision fatigue from all the mental cluster. You mean I'm not a superstar because I can multitask? No, you are a woman and women are better at it than men. I published a study on 46,000 scans looking at the difference between male and female brains. We should do a whole podcast on that. Anyways, women are better at it, but women are also chronically tired. And people don't talk about this, but we're now in our third generation of tired women because they're working outside the house more than ever before. Right. Not like when I was growing up, uh, where, you know, maybe a half a day a week, my mom had a job. It's like 90% of the time in California, moms are working full time out of the house. And so if you

think of primary caretakers for children, women are primary caretakers for the house, and now they're working full time, they're chronically tired. And they chronically feel guilty that they can't do everything. Well, and we tell you, you know, you get to that sandwich generation and you're taking care of children and you're taking care of parents and you're taking care of- Yes, you know about that, right? We both know about that. And so, if you get overloaded just because of all the things that you have to do. And so, if you're drinking at night to settle your brain down and then caffeinating in the morning, eating food on the run, which is generally ultra processed

food. Well, no wonder you're a mess. So, let's just ask the people listening, which of these do you have? And if you have a lot, that's great news. Because that means as you get rid of them, you're? And if you have a lot, that's great news, because that means as you get rid of them, you're going to feel so much better. There are days when I need to be at my best, whether it's back to back clinic sessions, long writing days or just keeping up with life. That's when I take peakek Energy from BrainMD.

It gives me clean, steady energy without jitters or crashes. And I'm not the only one who loves it. It just won a 2025 Nexty Award, beating over 500 other supplements. If you want real energy that lasts, check it out at brainmd.com and use the code podcast20 for 20% off.

Now, let's talk about energy fakers. Oh, this is an interesting one. So the obvious one I think everyone knows is caffeine. That's the obvious one. Like the coffee industry and coffee houses are everywhere. So that one I think most people know about. So I mean, I used to think the same thing. You know, I was a trauma nurse and I worked nights.

So you know, the pot of coffee every night and the bag of M&Ms were they were critical for my job and for me to get home alive. So it was hard. You have to figure out other strategies, you know, but that's the obvious one. But I think once you learn about what caffeine does to you, it spikes dopamine, it spikes adrenaline,

and then it drops flat, or you're drinking it so late at night that you stay up. And then what do you have to do? You have to do something to bring yourself down and calm down. It becomes this vicious cycle. So we're actually going to talk in a little bit, stay with us about a caffeine alternative that we like. Also energy drinks with caffeine, sugar, and artificial chemicals.

Yeah. Illusion of productivity. This one I have a personal beef with because they target the youth of today. They target high school students. They're targeting middle school students and college students. And they somehow, these kids think that these are healthy.

It's crazy to me. So how Monster Energy- But it's jacking up their cortisol. Promotes, right? They sponsor the surfing events in Huntington Beach. You see these huge or Red Bull. But do you know what that does to someone, a young person whose cortisol is constantly elevated,

it actually affects their brain development. We know that because when children grow up in chronic stress in their home, like in traumatic environments and they have elevated cortisol, it affects how their brain develops. Like this is not good for you. It's not good for your nervous system,

it's not good for your brain. Also energy fakers, adrenaline addicts, people who live in drama, crisis mode, they need that rush to fill alive, whether it's extreme skiing or constantly seeking out a new relationship. I think it's important the word you just said, adrenaline addiction. So cortisol addiction is also a thing. So when people grow up in chronic stress and drama and trauma, that actually they

don't know it, but it's subconscious, but it's also physical, but you become addicted to that, scared feeling or that high feeling or that like you almost need it to function. And so it's really important to understand it. And somebody who's really nice to you and consistent and reliable. Doesn't seem normal at all. This isn't about us. Stop it. Social media, right?

Can feel stimulating, but steals your attention and can drain your brain. And the question here, it's what's giving you a buzz that's actually burning you out. All right. So let's go to energy enhancers. Let's talk about the real stuff that brings energy back to your body, your mind, and your spirit. So I love this because, you know, I wrote Omni Diet and Brain Warrior's Way and some of the cookbooks I've written. It was about this because I grew up in a really unhealthy environment. I didn't want my daughter to, and I wanted to serve my family. So, but we're busy. So one of my favorite breakfasts, because breakfast is critical, especially for kids, is I call it my fast food is my shake, my smoothie in the morning.

That's my version of fast food because it's quick and easy, but it's power packed versus I'd see these kids going into school having donuts or bagels or whatever, and then they're getting in trouble, their behavior is affected. So if you're having a really healthy protein shake with, you know, loaded with nutrition, that's going to balance your blood sugar. It's going to stabilize your energy.

It's going to help you focus. So breakfast is critical or eggs. And here's the other thing. I think it's really important to, to know how your brain works. So if you have, if you're like me and you're a little ADD, then it's really important to you to know how your brain works. So if you have, if you're like me and you're a little ADD, then it's really important, don't look at me like that. It's really important to have protein and healthy fat for breakfast.

So my favorite fast food in the morning are smoothies. And I love that I've written all these recipes and cookbooks and I trained you how to make them, but it's the best, it's the best. Look at you laughing. Like I make the decaf cappuccino. Yeah. That I wrote the recipe for.

The brain healthy hot chocolate. Yeah, that I wrote the recipes. At night. I make the shake. Like, what is this? You wouldn't want to want to marry someone who wasn't smart. So anyways, this is my favorite breakfast because it's power packed, it's fast when you're in a rush and you can take it to go.

Well, I'm going to tell you a secret. I created BrainMD to get the products for me and for you and for our loved ones. And oh, by the way, we sell them to the world. And I like it because we, we control. Brain healthy shake in the morning. Yeah. We make protein powder that's both vanilla and chocolate. But it's super clean. It's very clean.

And it's plant protein because you insisted on that. So, from pea and rice and quinoa and chia seeds, it has inulin for fiber. It's sweetened with stevia. It has branched chain amino acids and it doesn't have anything else. It's got six carbohydrates, but three dietary fibers. So basically it has three net carbs in it. So I put the protein powder, I put a scoop of creatine. Then we're going to talk more about that. Which we're going to talk about the energy podcast and a scoop of neuro greens, it's just loaded with it. Smart collagen, which a new study on cognitive

benefits, omega-3 power squeeze. A lot of people don't want to take omega-3 capsules, and then something called smart mushrooms that has the active ingredients of three grams of lion's mane, reishi, cordyceps, turkey tail. So, cordyceps is known. So, all of this into a drink. In fact, I got a text this morning from Crystal who does the same thing. Crystal helps run our East Coast clinics and she goes, it just makes me feel so good. Plus, Bright Minds, which is our powder that has a multiple vitamin and a brain boost. So, rather than all the capsules, it's less than 200 calories.

And it nourishes your brain. So I want to say something about the mushrooms because cordyceps really boosts, there are studies on it, how it boosts energy, but mushrooms in general, all those mushrooms you talked about that's in the mushroom mix, it actually is, those are fantastic for boosting immunity. So that's why I like this as my fast food. It's just like power packed,

you know? And I know sometimes people are like, well, you know, you have to buy all these products and whatever. If you add it up, how much you spend on fast food when you're in a rush or stopping for lunch, I guarantee you it's way more expensive in a month. And this is an investment in your brain. Now there are other things to help your energy, especially sunlight and movement in the morning. For those people where it's winter, our bright minds, bright light therapy lamp increases energy, also increases memory, increases focus, helps your mood and reset your circadian rhythm. So, bright light in the morning can help. So, one of my favorite things is cold plunge. Absolutely love it if you do it first thing in the morning because our, as a society, we're doing all these things

that are bad habits that cause our cortisol to spike at the wrong times. And what cold plunge does, it's several things actually, if you do it first thing in the morning, it sort of resets that cortisol, you get that big spike from doing the cold plunge and then it drops down to a normal level which is what should happen. But it's beyond that. It actually, it is so energizing. I feel hyper caffeinated when I do cold plunge and it helps my pain, which

we're going to do a whole segment on pain. And it's this mental, there's this mental, we overcome this mental thing when you do a cold plunge. It's just, it's amazing. I love it when you do it. It's amazing. I hate doing it. And I love watching me. You make fun of me. I know. I live by the motto of no long suffering. I know. I try to get you to go in with me and you're like, you always stand out there laughing. And I'm like, why are you laughing? Get in. Why are you laughing? I've done it like, like twice. Twice. And

I'm like, no, I love it. But I also, you know, like doing things like getting beat up. And you know, we talked about this earlier, which is saying no, more often, boundaries are energy protection. Yes, boundaries for me are critical. So let's talk, I teased this earlier. So BrainMD has a brand new product called Peak Energy. It comes in both a capsule and a powder. One of my favorite products. And it's clearly a hit. But let me tell you why. And at Expo West, the

largest natural products event in the universe. I mean, there's literally 8,000 exhibitors there. And peak energy won the next award. What is the next big thing? And it's peak energy. Why? Well, it has ATP in it, which is the molecule of energy and paroxanthine. And I told you we have like a better form of caffeine or caffeine replacement. Parazanthine is actually a metabolite of caffeine, but it's the part of the molecule that doesn't make you pee, that doesn't make you anxious and that doesn't keep you up.

So first of all, I loved peak energy before peak energy was a star. So that should mean something. So it's not a competition before it wanted to Emmy. I actually, or whatever, I loved it before that. But no, what I love about it is, especially if you are like me, where you have those mid afternoon sort of dips, or you've got that little bit of ADD, what I really love is it really helps with focus, but it doesn't give you the jitteriness. So I used to have, you know, like something in the afternoon, I'd have, you know, like green tea. I still like my green tea, but I try not to have so much caffeine and I don't get jittery

when I do the peak energy. And paroxanthine, because I'm like, there's got got to be this can't be good for you because it feels good. Like things that feel as good shouldn't be this good. But I actually researched it because paroxanthine unlike caffeine, straight caffeine, caffeine restricts blood flow to the brain and paroxanthine actually increases blood flow to the brain. So while one is bad for the brain, the other one is actually shown to be pretty good for the brain. I just love it. It's amazing. It doesn't give you that thing to walk off.

Studies show it improves focus and cognitive performance, less sleep disruption. It enhances physical performance and different than caffeine, there's no need for liver conversion because the liver converts caffeine into paroxanthine. The other thing I love about it is it's not addictive. So like caffeine, literally your body craves more of it. This is one of those things that gives you energy and then you don't need to take it the next day if you don't feel the need for it. And you won't have to withdraw. the next day if you don't feel the need for it.

You won't feel that. Right. Also has fewer cardiovascular effects, less of an impact on blood sugar and heart rate, and has been shown to protect dopamine neurons and is strongly protective against neurodegeneration. So I love it. My favorite story with it was actually when we released it at a two-day executive meeting. And at the end of the executive meeting, I was taking everybody to the Laker game because I treat an NBA basketball player and he was playing in this game. And it's two o'clock in the afternoon, it's Tuesday, I'm tired, I'm a little bit irritable, too many numbers, too many discussions. And I'm like, how am I ever going to make the next nine

hours? Then I remembered, oh, we just released peak energy. So I took one capsule. And then I didn't think about it again until you and I were on our way home. It's quarter to 11. We're on the 405 freeway coming home from the Laker game. And I'm like, holy smokes. My energy was clean. smokes. My energy was clean. I was so focused because you know, if I have a player I'm watching every game, every play in the game. And I'm like, Whoa, that was so cool. And I use it regularly just to sort of top off the energy. So let me tell you my favorite story. So my niece walks in the other day and she goes, oh my gosh, I love that peak energy stuff.

Do you have a bottle of it? And I go, yeah, I'm so glad you like it. And she goes, yeah, it got me to stop drinking energy drinks because I stay up all night doing schoolwork. And she goes, now my friends want to buy it from me. And I go, you know, there's so much to unpack in that sentence. I don't know where to start. So glad you like it. Let's talk about the rest of that. I don't know where to start with that. But she loves it. It's got her doing something healthy now. Instead of I didn't even know she

was drinking energy drinks at night to stay up all night so she could do schoolwork because she's in a pretty rigorous program. Craziness. Energy. There are energy robbers, especially negative people. The energy fakers, energy drinks, and the energy enhancers, what you eat, how you think, who you spend time with, and things like peak energy. So to learn more, you can go to brainmd.com and we would just dearly love if you left us a comment, a question, a review and subscribe to this podcast because it's only going to get better.