Change Your Brain Every Day - How The Notre Dame Killer Recovered His Brain - Part 1 of an Interview with Anthony Davis

Episode Date: April 17, 2017

Today on the Brain Warrior’s Way podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana interview guest Anthony Davis, also known as A.D., also known as the legendary 'Notre Dame Killer,' who scored a combined 10 touchdowns in the 1972 and 1974 games against the Irish and was runner-up in the '74 Heisman vote. They discuss his struggles with brain fog, memory issues and overall health.

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. Welcome back to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Tana and I are here with one of our dear friends, a Hall of Fame running back, Anthony Davisis from usc uh he's called the notre dame killer because in 1972 he scored six touchdowns against the university of notre dame in fact the notre dame students hated him so much they put his picture on the walkway uh on the campus so that they could walk on him

and in 1974 he scored four more touchdowns against the university of notre dame uh welcome anthony i just couldn't be more excited that you're with us oh thank you it was those those were years ago i don't even know how i was able to do that kind of, that feat on the field that day. I must have been in another zone. Like they said, another planet. You were in the zone that day, huh? I was one of those athletes that had one of those zone moments. That's awesome.

In a couple games. So we're going to do four podcasts with A.D., as his friends call him. And we're going to talk about football, but we're also going to talk about head injuries we're going to talk about youth sports we're also going to talk about people who are in the shadows of brain damage dementia and memory loss so to get started though can we hear a little bit i want to know to know about Anthony Davis and his story

and how we came to cross paths. Let's talk a little bit about that. Let's go back to year 2006, the late 2006. I had a friend by the name of Don Bacos. He was a pharmaceutical major at USC. He was a big follower of mine. He just took pictures of me when I played ball collegiately and professionally. That was one of his

passions. We met and I started going to different functions with him. We had a conversation. He says, Anthony, have you ever had your brain scanned? I said, have you ever had? I said, no. What do I need that for? I'm sharp as a tack. I'm right off a surge of, I'm a gastric bypass patient as well.

So he said, you know, you need to get that checked. I said, oh, come on. And so I started having some episodes of memory loss a little bit, I thought. Now that I know, I walked out of my house one day and got to my car and said, did I lock my door? Walked back, checked the door. It was okay. It was fine. And then a couple weeks later, I got in the car, drove about a mile away, didn't lock my door.

Went all the way back to my house, checked the door. I said, no, I got an issue. I said, no, I'm just tired and fatigued, whatever. This is what got me. I'm on the 405 freeway going north. And I blanked out. Oh. And I got a hold of Don.

I said, Don, you know, can you set something up? He says, well, you can go see Dr. Heyman, Dr. Daniel Heyman. I said, well, who was that? He says, well, he can go see Dr. Heyman, Dr. Daniel Heyman. I said, I asked him, who was that? He says, well, he does brain imaging and he can figure it out. And so got a hold of Dr. Heyman, came in, we discussed it, set up a time for me to get my brain scan, get the image. And then I came back to see Dr. Heyman. And of course, doc, he said, how many concussions do you think you had? I said, I think I've had one or two. He said, well, I got a little more. And he said, then you told me,

based on what we see in my diagnosis, is that you have the brain of an 85-year-old man. Ouch. Then I looked at you and I, well, Dr. Raymond, I said, Doc, you're nuts. I mean, I'm an older guy, but I'm not 85-year-old in the brain. So, and, you know, that was our start. And he put me on the supplement program. And I've been doing it ever since. Ten years later, here I am.

I feel much better. Well, and you called me not that long ago. You guys did a follow-up scan ten years later. And Daniel was just bouncing up and down in his chair like a little kid. Because apparently the follow-up scan was dramatically better, right? Right. His brain actually looked younger than he was. Ah. And so that's not what happens with scans over time.

Your brain ages, sort of like your skin. Under normal conditions. Falls off your face as you you age that same process happens in the brain and his damaged scan was dramatically better and i mean that's what makes me happy um and he's better um and And Anthony is really the father of our NFL work, that because of our relationship, as you started to feel better, you went, the commissioner should know about this. And so you wrote the commissioner a letter. We sent him some information.

At the time, the NFL was really having trouble with this issue you know I guess I would say I you know my thought was they're actively in denial about it they were denying players requests for disability and I mean it was a mess and it was highlighted in the movie concussion where both you and I were consultants on the movie with Will Smith, written by our friend Peter Landesman. And, you know, I mean, one of the things I love about you is you're passionate about not only taking care of yourself, but in taking care of people you care about. Yes. care of yourself but in taking care of people you care about yes i mean i have my former teammate he came in here a month ago to the clinic and uh marvin cobb who was a teammate at usc played with the cincinnati bingles and pittsburgh cedars who were having problems he had a stroke and he was

having memory loss before the stroke so he's on your program now and he says he's feeling much better actually talked to him this morning and uh yes it's a lot of former players that I've reached out to and still reaching out to. Well, and that study turned out to be just so important, not just in research but for the players in general. I mean, we've had some dramatic improvements in a lot of people's lives, and we feel so terrible about the ones that we haven't been able to help improve who did not have good outcomes?

Well, the thing is what I like to see, I like to see a comprehensive program put together leading the way with Dr. Amen and have a roundtable discussion about the concussion problem in the National Football League and all other collision sports. I think that's very important, you know, because I would like to see the National Football League, for example, to embrace the program. And if the guys are playing now, if they currently

are having issues, they should be on a program, the treatment, hyperbaric chamber treatment. And then once you leave, you're already on that program. That's what I like to see. And that goes for hockey, goes for boxing. Then also we got, outside of the sport, we got our armed forces, guys who are suffering in the shadows too, which have been to your clinic. A couple of guys have been in the clinic, talked to me about it.

And that's what I would really like to see. I'm not, you know, a lot of people would like to see the game abolished, but that's not going to happen. But, you know, since we have this program out, why not be involved and be on it? And be honest.

Yeah, absolutely. You got treatment for everything else but the brain. And that's the most important. And we don't look. I mean, that's the big issue. So I played football in high school. I loved it. Watched you like a crazy fan. And it wasn't until I started

looking at the brain doing brain spec imaging that we do here at Amen Clinics that I went, uh-oh. Because I would see high school players whose brains were damaged. My first college player had just been arrested for domestic violence. So I've done a fair amount of legal work, criminal work. And his attorney sent him to me. And the whole left side of his brain was damaged. And he was a middle linebacker at UC Berkeley. And I'm beginning to think, maybe this is not a good idea. that your brain is soft about the consistency of soft butter your skull is really hard and inside has sharp bony ridges is that hitting it repeatedly is not a good idea and even though you had told me you know i think i had maybe one or two

concussions it's actually not the big hits that get you. And Joe Louis said it, the famous heavyweight champion. He said it's not the big hits that cause dementia. It's the thousands of little hits. And if you stand next to Anthony, he's got big muscles. I always love that. He's got big muscles, which means when you ran, there was a collision that was happening.

And, you know, you played high school, you played college, you played professionally. So how many thousands of hits did you get and did you give? Yeah, it's just amazing. Now, you know, when you think about playing football, you think about the big hits. And I agree. I've been hitting the hit many times.

Every time I touched the ball, I was getting hit in the head. Right. By three or four or five guys every play. So those little hits are the ones that build up over time you guys quite frankly like someone my size standing next to you i would run the other way so you guys are like tanks okay well you picture a guy that's you know 200 plus pounds and you know they could run a 4 4 40 and they could run a 10 5 10 600 meters so that's a freight train country and when you make those collisions over a period of time, I mean, the damage is just done. I can't believe I did it.

Believe me, if I was armed with this knowledge that I know, I'd have never touched that field. Wow. Okay. So I want to hear that again. So even with your record and your level of success, you wouldn't do it again? No. And the fact with me, what's really frustrating for a guy like me that was blessed with talent i was a two-sport athlete and i was a number one top

draft pick in both sports so baseball was baseball the other one the baseball was in matter of fact if you go back to my neighborhood everyone who grew up with me and everybody who's followed me and scouted me that's what was that was my career so they thought you're going to do baseball 12 years old hey he's going into major okay so going back if you knew then what you know now you'd have chosen baseball absolutely oh my god that would have touched the football field and even though you can get a head injury in baseball and i've certainly seen many of them it's not the point right as opposed to in football collision is the point and next up we're going to talk about youth sports but one of the things i always love about anthony is his huge heart that he has and when you started feeling better you started talking to other players about it it's like hey you should get your brain scanned

and then um you asked me to speak at the los angeles chapter of the retired nfl players association i mean i just remember that night and i was so sad because one of the players asked me the same question six times. And it was clear there was a higher level of depression and dementia than anybody was talking about at the time. Absolutely. You've got to realize you spoke of the chapter. Look at all the chapters in the country. There's a lot of guys out there who who are suffering from the same situation i mean i it's endless players well and when they're retired it's like what we saw was that

these retired players their lives fall apart and we don't hear that story and that's what we're going to talk about in the shadows right it's the suffering in the shadows that you want to talk about yeah there's guys that are jobless You got guys that are homeless Domestic violence Domestic violence They got anger issues They have depression Don't sleep well

Sad You know, so, you know, don't eat right So you got a guy who played at 6'5", 225, 30 pounds, 50 pounds You say a linebacker blows up to 300 pounds Which is also, which I've learned through the Amy Clinic, is bad for the brain. Bad for the brain. So, and I learned, and obviously I learned it because I was 315 pounds at one time. And it did the damage too.

On top of the collisions, on top of the concussion problems I had, not only I was obese, but I had brain damage. Right. Wow. obese but i had brain damage right wow and and if you hit your frontal lobes over and over again so the front part of your brain is your brain supervisor it watches you it helps you make good decisions and in a society filled with terrible unhealthy food well you're just more likely to say yes that is good for you and that is why you can end up being significantly overweight because you can't say no um so much to talk about when we come back we are going to talk about well what do you do if your child wants to play football? Or they want to play another brain damaging sport,

hit soccer balls with their head, hockey, race cars, boxing. Stay with us. We'll be back with our friend, Anthony Davis. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. We have a special gift for you. It's an opportunity to win an evaluation at the Amen Clinics. All you have to do is subscribe to this podcast, leave a review, and rate us on iTunes. To learn more about Amen Clinics and the work we do, go to amenclinics.com.

You can also learn about our nutraceutical products at brainmdhealth.com. Thanks for listening.