Change Your Brain Every Day - How to Overcome Your Genetic Biases

Episode Date: September 2, 2020

Dr. Daniel Amen often says that when it comes to positivity training, positive thinking isn’t necessarily the goal. What is most helpful is ACCURATE thinking, or thinking objectively without bias. But what if you seem to have a never-ending stream of negativity and stress in your thoughts? Surprisingly, this may be due to your genes. In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Daniel and Tana Amen continue the discussion from the End of Mental Illness Live Class by discussing how to overcome your genetic biases. To take The End of Mental Illness 6 Week Class and Challenge, visit https://endofmentalillness.com/brainhealthchallenge/

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. Hi, this is Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. We're so excited you're with us for this week's series. What we're doing is we're playing the live class from the end

of mental illness. We wanted you to join us on this journey because we had such a good time in our class. And the people who joined us had just saw such incredible transformation that we wanted to share the challenge with our tribe. So we wanted to share this with you and we hope that you will join us in the challenge. And so when you teach people this positivity training, how to notice what's good. I think one thing that I've actually heard people say, and I certainly had this question. Are you able to, so for people watching this who have grown up in trauma, are you able to learn positivity training but not necessarily sacrifice that part of you that's able to spot the thing that's a threat? Does that make sense? It's absolutely true, which is why, you know, those of you that listen to our podcast, The Brain Warrior's Way, The Brain Warrior's Way, I mean, the premise of it is you're in a war for the health of your brain. Everywhere you go, someone is trying to shove bad

food down your throat that will kill you early. They're trying to give you an addictive gadget. They're trying to scare you with the news to drive clicks. Everything is breaking news when everything is not breaking news. And we're in a war. So the idea is not pie in the sky, positive thinking. The idea is accurate thinking. But if you tend to be anxious or you tend to be depressed and your negativity bias is too high, it's going to drive you and the people you care about to have a lot more stress. So we are fans of accurate thinking. But on the podcast recently, we had Mark Wolin, who wrote this great book, It Didn't Start With You. And it was so clear why you're a little bit of a security freak. And I'm not. Because, you know, there's so many reasons. So many reasons. We didn't have it. Our entire lives were nothing alike.

Like nothing. Well, no, you're an only child. I'm one of seven. Right. I grew up in trauma. You grew up with like the kind of chaos you grew up with was like normal, like five sister. Right. That kind of chaos.

But not like what? Like who's going to break in my house? Is it a heroin addict coming in tonight that's going to like you know put axe marks in the wall but it wasn't just that i mean what we learned in that podcast is your grandmother right on and my mom did better than her parents on your mom's side your grandmother grew up during a war right where the tur Turks actually purposefully unleashed a famine on the people in Lebanon. Greater Syria. In Greater Syria, but, you know, what is now Lebanon.

And she got lost in the forest. For three days, when she was five years old. When she was five years old. So do you think security would have been one of her issues? She never got over that. She was five years old. When she was five years old. So do you think security would have been one of her issues? She never got over that. She was traumatized. And so when your grandmother was born, actually, when your grandmother was inside her mother at about five months, she's creating the eggs in her ovaries that has the genetic material, yes, for your mother, but also for you. And her chronic stress changed her genes, which meant it changed your mom's

genes. And then changed your genes. And that's why we talk about how important the end of mental illness is. Because it's not just about you. No. Ultimately, it's about generations. If you get a chance, you should listen to that podcast. Any of you who have sort of quirky or odd behaviors that you can't really explain, it's like, where did that come from? That podcast was pretty wild.

Like, you told me it was going to gonna blow my mind and it blew my mind. Because he talks about how it didn't start with you and he talks about your ancestral, the sort of DNA part of our behavior. And it's like, what? Like it sounded kind of weird to me, but it was so fascinating. And then when he started talking about it,

I'm like, oh, that's so true. That actually did, like that makes sense in my life. And I'm sure that a lot of people listening are thinking the same thing, so. and that's why these habits are so important to retrain your dna so you don't just pass it on and you know one of the things i did when i learned about this sort of genetic transmission is I went to my dad. And because, you know, growing up, my dad had two favorite words. One was bullshit.

And the other one was no. And I'm like, bullshit, no. Where does that come from? I'm like, why is he like that? And he always worked. I mean, he worked like 80 hours. Yeah, but he's a self-made person. I mean, he absolutely is. And when you realize he grew up during the Great Depression. And he had a similar background to my family. During the Great Depression and then during

World War II. He remembers all about during World War II. But then what I learned is, well, tell me about my grandfather. And I knew my grandfather on the other side because I was named after him. He was my best friend. He played football at Texas A&M. He was like 5'4 and 240 pounds, which is not good for him. Anyways, my other grandfather, and i didn't know this when he was 19 he came from the old country from the middle east uh to los angeles and with his brother and his sister and his brother borrowed his sister's car and his brother apparently was a bad driver and oh by the way they probably experienced some of the same stuff my grandmother did.

About the same time. And his brother got killed in a train accident when he was 19. And my grandfather never drove after that. Held a grudge against his sister for the rest of his life. And so clearly he was traumatized. And he was traumatized before he made my dad, which meant it changed his genes. It's called epigenetics. It changed his genes, which he gave to my dad, which then he gave it to me. And isn't that weird that both of our grandfathers were in accidents that involved trains? My grandfather was hit by a train.

That's so weird. What a coincidence. Weird, huh? Wow. All right. You do not have to believe everything you think. Now, we have a lot of questions to get to today. You guys have just done a great job.

Oh, my goodness. We have a lot of questions, but we have time. What do you suggest for seasonal affective disorder in terms of supplements and possible treatments? Well, thank you for asking that. The number one most studied, most effective treatment for seasonal affective disorder is bright light therapy. I'm taking one home tonight.

And I'll, um, tell my team they should post a link. We have a brand new Bright Minds Bright Light Therapy Lamp at BrainMD that you can purchase. And it has been shown to help with seasonal affective disorder, to help with sleep. I have one right here. Yeah. I'm taking it home tonight. Bless you. Supposed to give you energy, right one right here, yeah. I'm taking it home tonight. Bless you.

Supposed to give you energy, right? So here it is. And it has both bright white at the same intensity, the same brightness, 10,000 lux, it's bright. And blue light at the same frequency shown to be helpful to, so this is what light therapy can do. Helps with seasonal affective disorder, helps your mood, helps your focus, helps your energy, and helps reset your circadian rhythm to help you sleep more soundly and deeply 20 to 30 minutes a day do not look at the light just put it somewhere it's like while you're getting ready in the morning like when

you're doing your makeup it's just like perfect this doesn't damage your skin like a sun lamp it does not damage your skin like a sun lamp but don't look straight into it. So the treatment for seasonal affective disorder, make sure your vitamin D level is optimal. Normal is 30 to 100. Optimal for me is 60 to 100. There are studies that say people who are over 40 have half the risk of cancer to those who are under 20. Yeah, my endocrinologist, because of having the cancer that kept coming back, wants mine pretty close to 100. It keeps me pretty high. Two, this week I was more tired than usual.

Then Monday I was feeling nauseous. Why is it that when I feel this way, that I crave bad carbs? For instance, crackers and bread. Yeah, because you get that quick burst of energy. Now, the problem is you also get a crash afterwards. And also for some people, because it gives you that quick release of serotonin, so you get that little mood boost that's why people right but then you all but well the sugar too but then you will crash afterwards so the problem is it's not a long-term fix so if you're going to eat carbs to get that boost eat the right carbs that aren't going to

make you sick things like sweet potatoes and maybe even a little bit of brown rice or i don't suggest doing a lot of that don't make it your your staple, make it your condiment. But a little bit of oatmeal, steel cut oatmeal, or a little bit of sweet potato, just something to give you that little bit of boost, but not so much that you're going to like elevate your blood sugar and keep it sustained there. You're gonna like this question. Is there anywhere to get recipe ideas for an elimination diet that you would recommend? So in my cookbook, the Brain Warriors Way cookbook, we have and in the Brain Warriors Way, actually, like we go way into an elimination diet. The cookbook is designed to help you with that. All of the recipes are rather than telling people go on a cleanse or eat the certain way for

two weeks. It's designed to help people eat that way all the time. Also, my website, tanaayman.com, there are like hundreds of recipes to help you. Oh, look, they just put it up. And let's be clear. With your recipes from the Brain Warriors Way cookbook, it's all an elimination diet. Right. Because in the recipe, there's no gluten no dairy no corn it's not a two-week thing it's designed to help you eat that way all the time now you're going

to get a couple recipes you'll get a you'll get a significant number of them for free without opting in if you opt in you get hundreds of them so my suggestion opt in and you'll get tons of recipes and also buy the brain warriors way yeah the cookbook isn't just a cookbook so here's the nice thing. The website will give you a meal planning section. You can actually create your grocery list and all sorts of stuff like that. The cookbook has all sorts of tips. It's tips to help you make this work in your life for your kids, for budgeting, for time, you know, people who have like major time constraints.

It's designed to make your life work with this plan. So that's why it's just really helpful. 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. If you're considering coming to Amen Clinics or 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.