Change Your Brain Every Day - How a NASCAR Driver Shifted Gears on his Brain Health – Pt. 3 with Chase Mattioli

Episode Date: October 3, 2018

As a former NASCAR driver, Chase Mattioli knows that for all the work mechanics do on the car, the most important element for optimizing performance is the brain of the driver. In the third episode documenting Chase’s story, he and Dr. Daniel Amen discuss the drastic shift he made in terms of how he took care of his body and his brain.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD, and addictions. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives for three decades using brain spec imaging to better target treatment and natural ways to heal the 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 nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. We're back. We're talking about Chase's journey and in our week on it's insane not to look at your brain. Some more reviews on the podcast. I love this one. Retham from the United States. Easy to follow.

Love the information. Helpful and insightful. Thank you for your guidance and sharing your information. Well, we love doing that. And I'm so grateful that you took the time to do this with me because there are so many people who are suffering. And they do exactly what you did. Things aren't right. And you go to professionals to get help.

But the help's incomplete at best because they didn't look at your brain they don't know that you're really struggling with the chronic effects of multiple um concussions mild traumatic brain injuries although we say mild not always irritates me because i'm like there's nothing mild when you actually look at the scan that it affected your frontal lobes, forethought, judgment, impulse control, organization, planning, empathy, learning from the mistakes you make. I mean, that's sort of important. Yeah. Facts, your temporal lobes, learning, memory, mood, stability, temper control. And even though you're really bright,

you're not getting to your potential because the organ that gets you to your potential, which is your brain, is not optimized. Right? I mean, you're working out and you want to optimize. I saw an NBA player last week and he texted me later. He said, I've spent thousands of hours thinking about and working out my biceps and I've not thought about my brain at all. How crazy is that?

That's crazy. Well, it's funny for me coming from the world of racing, like we don't work out our biceps. We do like conditioning for endurance training, but the best organ we ever use is our brain and our eyes. That's the number one thing we use, and nobody ever thought about optimizing the brain. And we optimize everything in the car. We have engineers that are crazy, and nobody thought, hmm, biggest computer in the car, and we're not even touching it?

What are we doing? So it was really cool when I came here. It made me look at the brain less as like that other thing in my body that nobody knows about and more so as something that I can actually impact and change and have an effect on the health of it. I don't think I ever thought of it as anything other than it's in there, it's cool, and that's how I think. Like, you don't think it's something I can play with almost. Right. And when we did your follow-up scan, it was better. How exciting is that? And we realized it can still be better still. And when you do the follow-up scan, you want to go, okay,

how am I doing? And what else can I do to make it better? So what were the things that you and Dr. Sud started with? And what has it evolved into? How have you changed your life? Well, the first thing was taking me off the medication. So I got off of all prescription medication and switched over to supplements. So I take brain MD supplements, serotonin mood support. I also take a little bit of focus energy and I take some brain and body power max. So in those, just so people know, so serotonin mood support helps your mood. Focus and energy actually helps activate your frontal lobes so that you have better sustained energy and focus. And then Brain and Body Power Max, multiple vitamin, but the best one on the planet we could design high doses of

omega-3 fatty acids and brain and memory power boost which has seven different things to optimize your brain in multiple ways in multiple mechanisms And so you're on a sophisticated supplement regimen. So that was the first thing that I started to do. And I think for a lot of people, supplements, the first thing is like, what pills? I've got to take all these. After you take a little bit of them, you feel the results right away. I'd rather take six pills of good supplements than one prescription pill that never makes me feel better.

So getting into that rhythm and routine was awesome. And then the next step was he looked at my gut and essentially said, it looks like you're having digestive issues. And as you know, the gut and brain connection is super important. I've heard that. I heard it's like really important. Yeah, right? It gets around.

So I went and got a test and found out or was diagnosed with having leaky gut syndrome. So I wasn't absorbing any of the nutrients that are going into my stomach or they're going right into my bloodstream, et cetera, and so forth. And that wasn't really good for my brain health or actually absorbing the supplements or anything else I was trying to do. That's a huge part of getting well. Yeah, absolutely. Huge.

Because when you have leaky gut, so your intestinal tract has a single cell lining. This one cell lining of your gut, you know, from your mouth to the other end. When it starts to leak, when that single cell lining actually, the junctions start to widen, that means you're getting toxins from the outside through your intestines into your body, which then make you sick, makes it hard to lose weight. You have more pain, you have brain fog. I think a lot of those things you had. Oh yeah. Well, and I had a horrible diet too. So first we fixed the stomach and then it was changed the diet. And the best way to start re-examining your diet is an elimination diet.

At least that's what I've come to find. So elimination diet is basically eliminating one food from your diet for a week, see how it reacts within you. I did that for about two or three weeks, and then I went and got a food sensitivity test done, the blood work. It's kind of like skipping ahead of the line. You can see what you're reactive to from a sensitivity standpoint. And sensitivity meaning almost like a mild allergy that causes inflammation, right? Cause redness, unwanted weight gain, et cetera, and so forth,

and probably a slew of problems I don't even know. So fixed my diet. I had to cut out a lot of things that I love, which was hard at first. Did the food sensitivity test and found out that I'm sensitive to tomatoes, almost all gluten, pork. I'm Italian, so that was my whole diet right there. Also grapes, so wine, yeast. When I learned this, I decided to stop drinking totally because alcohol A is horrible for me. It wasn't helping my gut at all.

And the fact that everything in it was bad for me just was a good wake-up call. So why do nurses, Tana's a nurse, why do nurses put alcohol on your skin before they give you a shot? Sterilize? Yeah. Decreases the bacteria in your skin. And how many bacteria in your gut right colonies trillion right and so people don't think really alcohol is harmful but it's disrupting the gut bacteria we call it the gut microbiome and those bacteria your friends They help to make neurotransmitters.

They help with digestion. They keep the intestinal lining healthy. And they make neurotransmitters. They're huge. They're huge. And it's hard because you said you love them. Oh, yeah. But I don't know if you've ever been in a bad relationship.

So I've been in bad relationships with women. Thank God I'm not now. But I'm never going to be in a bad relationship with food. I'm never going to love something that doesn't love me back. And so you're in a relationship that's really sort of abusive with food, right? You're in love with things that hurt you. Yeah, it likes me. It treats me nice when it wants to. It loves me. You don't know us. Yeah, that's exactly what food is. So I changed that relationship, and now it's more food is fuel. It feeds my brain, it feeds my stomach, and it makes me a better

person. So I mentioned in an earlier podcast, my family can barely stand me, but they're working on it, right? So every time they go to eat their pasta, I'm like, do you know what's in this? And do you know the gluten? And you know that? And they're like, don't care. Right, because they haven't suffered like you. But we're getting somewhere. So let me continue on what I did beyond the diet. So you said, you know, there's more stuff we can be doing, and one of them was HBOT.

So hyperbaric oxygen therapy. And luckily, working here, we have access to one that's fairly available. So I go every morning before work, and what it does is puts about 30 pounds of pressure on your body, and when it squeezes you, it's almost like squeezing a fruit and making the blood flow faster, right? So I do that every morning, and it's weird because people go, what does it do?

And I'm like, I don't really know. Increases blood flow to your brain. Well, they ask me what the feeling is, and I'm like, I don't really feel it. And then if I stopped doing it for a week or two weeks, then I just feel awful. Interesting. Yeah. Um, so I noticed when I don't do it, it's like one of those things that I guess is so subtly helpful that like, Oh, I feel better today, but you don't really like, it's not like taking like a shot of espresso in your wake. Um,

but it's been definitely helpful for me. I really enjoy doing that. And then going back to the dieting thing, what's cool for my family, like we started with the racetrack, right? So not only do I have these issues with my gut, stomach, and health, but most of my family members have a form of gastroparesis or some other form of gut issues. So we decided to kind of branch out of the racing business, and we're starting our own organic farm,

which we broke ground on about a month ago. Wow, congratulations. That's very exciting. Well, we're really excited because not a lot of people associate racing or NASCAR with organic food, but, I mean, it's where farmers go to watch their sports for the most part. So we'll be the first track to offer organic fruits

and vegetables at the facility when the fans come in. I love that. Well, and we'll be able to eat now, too, which is cool. You'll be able to eat when you go there. Yeah, it was hard for me. Now, you also lost a little bit of weight, too, right? Lost about 80 pounds. Wow.

Yeah, and it was— I've seen the before and after pictures. It's stunning. Yeah. And what does that do to your self-esteem? Doesn't hurt. Doesn't hurt. For me, yeah, I was about

80 pounds overweight. Um, I had a giant red Afro and I had tons of inflammation. So my skin was like a deeper shade of pink or red. So, you know, it was very attractive. Um, worked out great for me, but, um, no, it was really easy. Um, once I did the diet, the weight just started falling off. I lost 10, 20 pounds in about a month. And then after that, it just became like almost like a rolling effect where I was like, all right, I lost 10. I'm going to lose another five. And you get so excited about it. I'm sure anybody that does any kind of working out or physical activity, it's like, all right, I want to lose 20 pounds. Once you lose 20 pounds, I kind of want to lose five more pounds. And then you're like, oh, how do I put weight back on? I want muscle. So it. Once you lose 20 pounds, I kind of want to lose five more pounds. And then you're like, oh, how do I put weight back on?

I don't want muscle. So it's been fun for me. And you've also been cycling and weight training and doing the diet. And I guess I have to ask this question. Was getting healthy hard? Getting healthy, there's actually a really cool quote. And I reference it a lot. and it's not the best source, but it is what it is.

I was watching late-night television, and there's Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. They're two famous actors, and Jonah Hill recently lost a ton of weight, and he's on the talk show. And they're asking him, how'd you do it? What was it? And he goes, I just talked to Channing Tatum. He's in great shape.

He probably knows how to do this. And Channing said, it's easy or it's simple. It's not easy, right? So getting healthy is super simple. I mean, you read one of your books, the steps are all in there. It's not like there's some kind of secret code. It's just not easy. You're going to have to say no to food.

You're going to have to say no to going out with friends that want to do certain things that you know are bad for you. Like, you got to take responsibility for yourself which isn't easy because it's a war right and that's what we talk about everywhere you go someone's trying to shove bad food down your throat that will kill you early um and but consistent decisions over time transform your mind, your brain, and your body. I know one of my friends, I asked him if it was hard, and he said, being sick is hard. This is easy. It's 100% true. Yeah.

I mean, since I've gotten healthy, I can't go back. And so many people do that, right? They get on Jenny Craig or Nutrisystems. They lose a bunch of weight. One of my PBS in Houston, one of my hosts who I adore, I came to the station and I'd been there a bunch of times. And I'm like, Arnie, you've lost so much weight. How did you do that? He said, oh, I went on the HCG diet, human pregnancy hormone diet, and 500 calories a day.

And I'm like, oh, congratulations. He said, well, as a way to celebrate, today's my last day on the diet, I ordered two deep dish pizzas from this place in Chicago as a way to celebrate. And I just looked at him like he was the dumbest person on the planet. And he's like, what? I'm like, let me get this right. You just went to rehab. And as your way to celebrate, you're going to get drunk.

It's like, that's insane. That's ridiculous. So it's a lifestyle that you need to figure out, how can I maintain this over time? You know, I eat great food consistently. But food I love that loves me back. Because it's a relationship, right? And it's funny. Well, not funny.

But this past few weeks, we've installed the Bright Minds program here at Amen Clinics. So one of the best things to get healthy is to surround yourself with healthy people, right? Like we keep talking about. And now I'm in an environment where everybody's focused on it. It's easier for me because everybody that I'm surrounded with isn't trying to say, have that slice of pizza or let's go get that drink or, you know, let's skip and do this. Everybody's like, oh, no, like we're conscious about it. We want to do it.

And that would be my biggest piece of advice is start paying attention to the things that impact your health and start paying attention to the people that you surround yourself with because they'll make it easier for you. People are contagious. They are. Fastest way to get healthy. Find the healthiest person you can stand and spend as much time around him or her as possible. Stay with us.

Use the code podcast10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or on our supplements at brainmdhealth.com. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Go to iTunes and leave a review and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing to get a free signed copy of the Brain Warriors Way and the Brain Warriors Way cookbook we give away every month.