Change Your Brain Every Day - How to Keep Your Memory Strong as You Age, with Joan Lunden

Episode Date: July 15, 2020

Have you ever walked into a room and immediately forgotten why you came in? You’re not alone. In fact, that’s the title of former Good Morning America host Joan Lunden’s new book. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel and Tana Amen are once again joined by Joan for a discussion on how to keep your mind and memory strong, even as the aging slowly process begins to work against you. For more info on Joan's new book "Why Did I Come Into this Room?' visit https://www.amazon.com/Why-Come-into-This-Room/dp/1948677296

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. We are here with you in London, having a fabulous time talking about your new book, Why Did I Come Into This Room? Joan, so many people complain about memory and Alzheimer's is expected to triple in the next 25 years.

And if you're blessed to live to 85, you have a 50% chance, 5-0% chance of being diagnosed with dementia of one form or another. I know you're not okay with those odds and neither am I. But the exciting thing is you can do something about it. In your research, what were some of the most important factors that you learned about aging and memory? Well, besides the obvious, which is eating healthy, as clean as possible, nutrient dense proteins, lots of vegetables and fruits, and also not gorging yourself, like those are the obvious, but also drinking alcohol and smoking some of these things to stay away from them, which new language, a new instrument, something new, something you didn't know before. Because as Dr. Amen will tell us, there was a time when the experts thought that we were born with a certain amount of neurons and that was it. And that was it.

And then they started like deteriorating. Now we know that we can grow new neurons. So if you challenge your brain, you can grow new neurons, but the neurons that you create with exercise, those are the neurons that are the most adept. Correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Amen to those are the ones that are the most adept at connecting to if I'm wrong, Dr. Amen, those are the ones that are most adept at connecting to the central system. And that's really what they want. That's what they need to do. So as soon as I learned that going out and doing my power walk and my jog

wasn't just for my waistline, it was to keep my cognitive thinking and that that was the best way. And I couldn't put my sneakers on fast enough. So, you know, I mean, that's what I try these days to make sure that I do, that I get in that exercise, like really good aerobic exercise, and that I challenge my brain. My choice of brain challenges are jigsaw puzzles. And the problem is I've gotten so good at them that I don't think they're challenging enough anymore. So then I picked up this book of crossword puzzles and I thought, I've never done crossword puzzles. Like, I don't know why, but I've never done them. So I tried one and I was horrible. And I thought, great, this is a fabulous brain teaser, something I'm not

really that good at. But, know, that's I'm just always trying to do something new and different and a challenge my brain. Because my mom had dementia. My mom started, we started seeing signs of it maybe late 70s, really, I think was the early 80s, maybe. But, you know, she dealt with dementia. She didn't die until she was almost 95. And she was pretty healthy until the end. But that loss of cognitive thinking and that dementia that set in, you know, it ruled her life in her last, you know, five to eight years. You mentioned one thing, when you talked about exercise, one of the reasons exercise we know is the fountain of youth is because it releases something called BDNF, which is just so important, not only for keeping us young, but also for your brain health.

So maybe you want to talk to them a little bit about BDNF in the brain and exercise because it's just such an important- That stands for brain-derived neurotrophic factor, neurotrophic growing the brain. So exercise does that. But what you were talking about is so smart. It's exercise and new learning. And if you can do new learning while you're exercising, it actually is stronger. Which is why I love martial arts. I don't get hit in the head. I don't want them to hit me in the head. I like to hit other people, but I don't like to get hit. But it's because it's so complicated. It's complex moves, right?

It's really great. It's the same thing I do. I have a trainer. Some days we do hip-hop classes, and some days we do aerobics. But we're listening to her give us the the cue of what to do our brain then has to tell our body to do it and that is the best kind of exercise like earlier today i did a 45 minute tabata and you know that's high and hits training high intensive interval training so you do real intense know, 20 seconds and rest for 10.

Intense for 20, rest for 10. And you do that for eight times, and then you go on to the next exercise, and you do eight exercises. And you're listening to this person, and anyone can go online and Google Tabata, T-A-B-A-T-A. It was developed by the Japanese. The guy's last name was Tabata. And you can find all different ones. You can pick the music you like. You can have the intervals be, you know, a minute if you want, although that's going to kill you, let me tell you. But, you know, 15, 10, 20, 10, pick us

some music that you like. And once you click go, it will tell you everything to do. It will say, get ready for Tabata one, five, four, three, two, workout. And at 15, 20 seconds, it'll say, you know, Tabata one completed, rest for 10 minutes, it will take you right through it. So it's really a no brainer, you can do it on your laptop, your phone, whatever. But they really do that really pumps that oxygen and all those nutrients. And all that BDNF, whatever. Yeah. Yeah, that's, and that's the same BDNF. Yeah. And brain derived neurotrophic factor. They actually found high intensity training increases the number of mitochondria in your cells.

Mitochondria, the little energy power plants in each of your cells. So if you struggle with low energy, I mean, yes, you should measure your thyroid and optimize your thyroid. But high-int intensity training can actually elevate your energy over time. And it's totally something you can do at home. So you don't have to have the excuse, oh, the gyms close. I can't do that. And we know that because people, people, when they don't exercise, they're like, oh, I just don't feel good. And if they can just make themselves do it for a week, people who exercise have more energy. They just feel better, right?

And they actually looked at people who exercise for an hour versus those who exercise for just a few minutes with high intensity training. They got the same. We do Tabata in martial arts and it is addictive. It's addictive because it just makes you feel so

good. And in a way, it's a no-braer because you're listening. All you have to do is- It's a big brainer. Yeah, that's right. I couldn't say no brainer to you. I think back to when I was at Good Morning America and I was turning 40 and I'd had three children. I hadn't lost the weight, all the weight from each one. And I knew I needed to lose weight. I was just exhausted all the time. But I used to say to myself, God, I'm so exhausted now. I can't possibly work out.

I'll even get more. But then I just completely, I took the years. I turned 39. I said between 39 and 40, I'm changing my life. I had seen the cover of a magazine, it had the Charlie's Angels on it. That Farrah Fawcett and all of them, Jacqueline. And it said, fit fabulous in 40. And I said, I want to be that. And I took that year from 39 to 40. And I'm telling you that I transformed not just my body.

I transformed my life because I was then in charge of my energy level instead of my energy level being in charge of my life. And I found all of a sudden, even though it was hard in the beginning, that I'd come out of the gym, I'd be bouncing off the walls. I'd be so full of energy. And I would never have thought that. And you sleep better. I sleep better. I mean, and I got to tell you, what had happened with that? Well, when I was 29 years old, I got married. And I married a guy who was 39 years old. Didn't work out, three great kids, but we got divorced. And 20 years later, when I was 49, I got married again. And again,

I married a guy who was 39. She got the math. What I did is when you all of a sudden have all this energy and you are happy with yourself. Yeah. There's a zubrance for life that comes out of you. Yeah. There's a shininess. Your eyes sparkle. Your skin glows.

All these things. And what it does, it attracts other people. Yeah. But it's got to start inside you. Well, I've been sitting here thinking you are beautiful and you exude this, not just energy, there's a confidence about you. And that is, there's nothing more beautiful with women. So you are, yes, you are fortunate, you are blessed, you were born beautiful. But what's more beautiful is when that comes out, because you see a lot of beautiful women who don't have that. And it's sad when you see that because it's sort of like shuts them down. Um, but when a beauty, when, when, even if a woman

is just somewhat attractive, but she's got that, it's just beautiful and it attracts people. So I've been doing good morning America. I knew that every morning at 7am that my, um, effusiveness, my happiness for the day, that was going to be the first thing that would affect you at home, even before whatever news I had to deliver. So when I left my dressing room, I remember I used to always get down every morning and do like 20 setups because it just makes you sit up straighter. And I looked in the mirror and I smiled. I put that smile on my face. Then I was like ready to leave my dressing room, go down, put my mic on and be ready at seven to say good morning, America,

in a way that really affected people that were at home dealing with, you know, whatever they were dealing with trying to get kids up and ready for school and get breakfast on the table. And like, here we were in your house, you wouldn't have had your best friend over, right? That was important. And I think that everyone can take away this, when you wake up in the morning, before you get out of bed, before you put your feet on the floor, tell yourself, this is going to be an awesome day. Because the most important things you say all day long are the things you say to yourself. And if you start that

day out saying, I'm going to have a great time today and I'm going to accomplish things or whatever it is you want to do, tell yourself before you put your feet on the floor. I love that. It's one of the tiny habits in the end of mental illness. Today is going to be a great day. He wakes up in the morning and to the kids, he always asks them, why is today going to be a great day? He makes them answer him. They're like sitting there looking at him.

He's like, no, you actually have to answer me. And there we go. What went well today? Because where you bring your attention always determines how you feel. Stay with us. We'll be back one more time with Joan Lunden, author of Why Did I Come Into This Room? Available anywhere. Great books are sold. Stay with us. We're trying some of the brain healthy supplements from BrainMD. You can use the code PODCAST10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or a 10% discount on all supplements at brainmdhealth.com. For more information, give us a call at 855-978-1363.