Change Your Brain Every Day - How Does Walking Improve Mood & Brain Health?

Episode Date: April 14, 2021

Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana chat about how exercise and High Intensity Training shape thinking and can lengthen life span. Dr. Amen also reminds listeners about the correlation between certain bacteria and mental illnesses.

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. Today, we're going to do Brain in the News and talk more about COVID bad habits. And one of them is being sedentary. It's, to the TV and not getting outside. So your vitamin D level goes down and not exercising. Well, a brand new study came out that actually showed brisk walking improves brain health and thinking and helps with memory. So according to a year-long study of people who had mild cognitive impairment, so they're already struggling. In the study, middle-aged and older people with early signs of memory loss raised their cognitive stores after they started walking five times a week. Regular exercise also amplified

healthy blood flow to their brains. The changes in their brains and minds were consequential, the study concludes, and could have implications not just for those with serious memory problems, but for any of us whose memories are starting to fade. And there's another interesting study that shows if you walk, if you're 80 and you walk three miles an hour, you have a 90% chance of living until you're 90. But if you're 80 and you're only walking a mile an hour, you have a 90% chance. You are not going to live until you're 90. So I often say walk like you're late. Yeah.

It's funny though. I think it's important to know you. Cause like I, that's fine. I walking for me is nice. Um, but I know my brain, I need an, like I need intensity. I got to feel normal. I need for me is nice. Um, but I know my brain, I need an, like, I need intensity.

I got to feel normal. I need more like hit type training. So that, that bursting type training. So it's, it's important to know that because my mood changes almost instantly. And hit or high intensity training has actually been shown to do so many good things for your brain and body and so if you're a walker i'm a walker and a ping pong player if you're a walker walk as fast as you can for 30 to 60 seconds and then go back to a normal pace but a normal fast. Or sprint, if you can. And then stop. And we've been going to the gym morning, three days a week. You've been torturing me. Feeling muscles I haven't felt in decades. It's so good for you.

I want to keep you around with me. Well, that's good to know. I wasn't sure after the first couple of times if you were trying to kill me or not. I'm like, I wonder if she's trying to get rid of you. She's saying she's trying to take you around. She's trying to sit down. It's like my butt hurts so bad. So doing all these squats.

It's good. And then I do jump rope in between or burpees or something like that to keep the heart rate up. So move. I mean, we say this over and over again. Brain warriors are fit. And it's not my natural tendency. My dad always hated when I said I come from a family of fat people. I have a brother and sister, both 150 pounds overweight. I nudge them and nudge

them. And then I went, wait a minute, I care more about this than you do, which is not good. But I have the genetic vulnerability and I look at a piece of cake and gain a pound. So I have to be really intentional. And for me, it's more than about weight. I don't feel normal. I just don't feel right if I don't exercise. My mood immediately starts to, like, I just get brain fog. I feel more negative. I'm not as happy.

There are just so many benefits to this. The next study we want to talk about is really important. Bartonella, which is one of the Lyme co-infections, is linked to schizophrenia. Of 17 patients with schizophrenia, 12 had Bartonella DNA in their blood compared to only one of 13 in a control group. According to the questionnaires, both patient and controls reported similar pet ownership and flea exposure because that transmits Bartonella, as does ticks, can also do it. But it's this idea that if you're experiencing a psychotic thought process, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, a brief psychotic episode,

somebody should look at your brain because if you don't look, you don't know. I say that all the time. If you don't look, you don't know. I say that all the time. If you don't look, you don't know. And it's just critical to go, why not to go, oh, you have schizophrenia. Schizophrenia tells you what it is. It doesn't tell you what causes it. It's like depression tells you what it is, but it doesn't tell you what causes it. And if you don't know the cause, then you can't properly treat it.

And that's why people often feel hopeless when someone gets diagnosed with schizophrenia. It's like, oh, they're going to have this the rest of their life. But you don't know what's causing it. And that is critical. If you take a map of the United States and you look at the highest incidence of schizophrenia, it's the Northeast, the Northeast, the North Midwest and the West Coast. And then you look at the highest incidence of Lyme, it's almost overlapped, almost identical. And so it just means somebody should look look and evaluate you to see whether or not you've had an infectious process in the brain.

Another thing in the news has been these mass shootings, Atlanta, Boulder, Colorado, and then just recently in Orange, not very far from our house. And there was an editorial in USA Today that basically said mental illness has nothing to do. How would you possibly say that? And it just blows me away that- I mean, anybody who does- Anybody who does something like that has a brain and a mind that is clearly not working right. And of course, there's always an element

of choice. I used to think free will was black or white. We either had it or you didn't. But when you look at the scans that we have, it's gray. Most of us, I think, have about 80% free will. Give you a six- pack of Michelob and you have 50% but if you're starting with a troubled brain, and then give somebody math or alcohol or other things. They don't have much. And let's be clear, that does not mean that they should have an excuse to go without as we don't get to go home no right because i'm huge on accountability you need to protect the innocent well we need to protect our society right first that that's primary but if they acted badly because of a damaged organ,

most people go to jail, go home. So wouldn't we want to rehabilitate the organ of behavior, which is the brain? So I think both of us really, we agree that the number one thing to do is protect the innocent and protect society. But we should also be evaluating and treating the people who do bad things. Because most people go to jail to home. And if you can decrease recidivism,

then you're making a positive impact on our society. So with that, in the next episode, I'm going to answer some of your questions. 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.

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