Change Your Brain Every Day - How We Are Fixing Gary Busey’s Brain- Pt. 2 with Gary Busey

Episode Date: June 6, 2018

Dr. Daniel Amen is on a mission to fix Gary Busey’s brain. In this episode of the podcast, they are joined by Tana Amen and Gary’s partner Stephanie to discuss the intervention techniques laid out for Gary to help him get his brain back on track. Dr. Amen describes how Gary can address all of the BRIGHT MINDS risk factors that play a part in his brain function.

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. And stay tuned for a special code for a discount to Amen Clinics for a full evaluation, as well as any of our supplements at brainmdhealth.com. You guys have been together 10 years. 10 years. And you have an 8-year-old son. We've been together 32 lifetimes. In this lifetime, 10 years.

In this lifetime, 10 years. And what were the things that you can share that you were concerned about? Impulse control. What? Impulse control. What is that? Memory. My memory is, I'll play a memory game with any one of you in here.

Yeah, but that's old term stuff. No, no, I'm talking about the memory, not old term stuff. That's her question, though. Let her answer her question from her perspective. You mean she asks a question to herself? What do you think she's going to answer? Is she going to answer the way she wants to? Forget the question to herself? What do you think she's going to answer? She's going to answer the way she wants to. Forget the question mark.

So memory, impulse control. Yeah. And we talked about Memory Rescue, my new book, and Bright Minds, which are the risk factors that steal your mind. Thank you so much. God bless you. factors that steal your mind. Thank you so much. And with that, and what I'm excited to be on this journey with you is how much of this dormant brain function can coming back now. And if we can get it back... We will. We are. Then, and we've agreed to document this to give other people hope who've had

brain injuries. That's why we're here. Yes, indeed. I think he's going to surprise you. I think that part of the brain that you say is dead, I think he's going to, of all people, I really have a feeling he's going to bring it back somehow. No, it's coming back. It's coming back. And I'm going to do you a favor. I'm going to find the guy that did that to your hair.

Yay! Oh, my gosh. So since we... Look at my hair when I say that. So since we met, I guess about a month ago... Oh, my gosh, what is different? What are you doing different to start this healing journey? Well, I eat.

Your stomach is this big. I eat very little. Nutritional, organic. And she is a master at that for me. Water, water, water, water, water, water, water, water, water, water. No cigars, no marijuana. That's ridiculous because that stops your brain from working properly. And I know that from experience and I know it from stopping it.

No soda? So you feel better from stopping it, you're saying? What? You feel better after stopping it. I don't feel better, I know better. Good. And we have knowledge of being better, better after stopping it. I don't feel better. I know better. Good. And we have knowledge of being better. You already feel it.

So, less cigars. No cigars. No cigars. No cigars or marijuana. No pot. More water. I'm so proud of you. Yeah.

Thank you. Do you pay me now or do I walk away? The check is in the mail, Gary. The check is in the mail. I'm going to pay you with longevity. He's doing the supplements, your supplements. Doing the supplements twice a day. He's also...

I feel like I've got the neck of a thoroughbred horse swallowing those pills. He's swallowing one pop. It's crazy. Your throat has to open up that big to swallow the pills. You get me. Well, I'm not sure we recommend taking them all at once. That's what I keep telling him.

I'm like, take them a few at a time. That's my life story. I do everything all at once. I get that sense. I get that sense, yes. He's cut out soda and all the sugary drinks. Awesome. He's starting to learn more about nutrition.

That's what he needs is learn more about it. I'm learning. There's a chapter in your book that he's reading. He's read multiple times. And I gave you Tana's cookbook, right? The Brain Warrior's Way cookbook. What? I gave you Tana's cookbook.

She wrote a cookbook called The Brain Warrior's Way. What is that? Her book. He's like, cook? I have to cook? Yeah. No, he doesn't cook. Do you have it do you have

you're one of your recipes i really like it's making waffles with raisin branded Cheerios in them that's really no no no she can't deny it no don't do this so tell me about your diet he's getting a poke on that one that's the you are a troublemaker he are a troublemaker. He's a troublemaker. Behave yourself, poke. Yes. You know what I love it when I do? We'd be in a meeting where I'm trying to get him to behave himself, and I'll kick his foot.

Oh, no. Why do you think I have high heels on? Why are you kicking my foot? Yes. No, he does that too. In front of all the people. He does that too. It's the same thing to me.

I started wearing high heels. I thought if I'm going to get in trouble, I'm at least going to stomp his foot with my high heels. No, no, no. Get out of that. Wear football cleats and just stomp on his foot. Okay. Thank you for that too. I thought if I'm going to get in trouble, I'm at least going to stomp his foot with my high heels. No, no, don't do that. Wear football cleats and just stomp on his foot. Okay, thank you for that, too. I like that. Because he does.

He's like, why are you kicking me? He's got a lot of shoes with cleats on it for women who have to kick their husbands under the table. Forget that. Don't listen to this. Don't listen to that. That's very unfair. It's next on my list. Have you ever been hit in the head real hard with a little league bat?

Oh, dear Lord, no. What? It's not a habit that I think I want to like. You play a horn? Dear Lord, no. Dr. Raymond, let's get back on track somehow. So why, Gary? Why what?

Ask her about getting hit in the head with a bat. I didn't have anything else to say. It just came out without effort, you know? See, that was the impulse filtering stuff I was talking about. But you have to admit, it does make him funny. Sometimes. Yeah. Most of the time.

It's pretty funny. I saw him. So I want to give you a compliment. Finally. No, there's many. There's many. Before we came in, I had just met you. And before we walked in, one thing you do so masterfully and beautifully is you take everyone in the room into consideration.

You make sure that everyone feels welcomed. They're very important to me. Yeah, I noticed that. My heart, my spirit. And I noticed that. And that's lovely because not everyone does that. Well, all those people I met, they're right here, are so special to me in what they do,

where they come from, where they are, and where they're going. And that to me is, I give them a green flag. Go, get it. And it's lovely. And to come in and induce myself

with my heart and my spirit, I let them know by that I'm on their team. And I love that. And then you turned right around and acted like you ran into a door and scared the heck out of me. Oh, that's a fun thing to do in Tokyo.

Not for a trauma nurse. It's not good. For who? A trauma nurse. I'm a trauma nurse. And you ran into a door. You are a living trauma. An LT over here.

Okay, stop doing that. I'll get you. Yes, I have stories about the living trauma, but we're here to talk about recovering from traumatic brain injury. Wow. Gary and I and Stephanie, we're working on a documentary fixing Gary Busey's brain. I think we should be fixing Gary Busey's life. I think we should be fixing Gary Busey's life. I think we should expand that.

Well, but don't you think if you fix the brain, the life begins to get better. Change your brain, change your life. I heard that somewhere. We're very excited about that. What did you say? We're referencing his book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. Another great book. Yeah, that goes for everybody living, whether you've had a traumatic brain injury or not.

As you grow older, your brain grows older. But as you stay young, your brain stays young. And that's young in the way you feel about your life, the others, the people you work with, your family, your job, whatever it is. And remember this. If you're going through something that's just, ah, I hate this. I don't want to be in this. This is horrible. Repeat these four words to yourself. It could be worse. And that gives you a feeling of,

ah, yeah, that, ah, feeling. It's where your brain likes to reside. And I always liked this too shall pass. It's going to pass one way or another. It's going to pass. This too shall pass. It's going to pass. This too shall pass. It's gonna pass. Whatever the bad situation is... Talking about passing gas? Why did I know he was gonna do that? You know, it's a saying, this too shall pass. I love that saying. I want to tell you what the abuse is and for fart is. Oh God. Because a fart is something everybody does is a natural bodily function. F-A-R-T stands for feeling a rectal transmission. It's okay to fart in an elevator and say,

let's play name, name, smell. That way everyone's included in what you do with your body. That's hilarious. What about sin? You better jump in here, buddy. I'm lost. We're all good. What about sin? Sin, S-I-N stands for self-imposed nonsense. I like that. Which is what it is. And after a head injury, SIN is actually more likely because if you hurt the front part of your brain, well, that's the part of you that stops you from saying things you shouldn't say or doing things you shouldn't do. And after the head injury, you actually, initially you came out against the helmet law. I read that in the book. And then after you came to your senses, and you really thought about it,

you came out in favor of the helmet law. You know what I did? I had a press symposium at the Bonaventure Hotel in L.A. I recanted everything I said about the helmet. I said, stupid, you don't need a helmet. And George Herbert Walker Bush, press, heard it, invited me to ask a White House briefing. And that language became the beginning language of the Traumatic act which i created and clinton signed it to an act in 1997 and i was the first and last page from the white house this pig of the act that created traumatic brain injury act with all the senators that worked on it signed it underneath

that's a very proud moment of my life concerning what I've been through and what I can give from that to help others. So important. I mean, that's a historic for us. It's more than important. And think of the lives saved. Yeah. Because you came out and said, this is really important. Yeah, I need you to wear your helmet. I even encourage people to wear helmets when they take showers. I don't know what to say to that. You don't get it? Not to. Wear a helmet in there and you'll find out. And when you drop the soap, be careful. Okay.

Oh dear. So as part of the healing process, what we're going to do is we're actually going to go after each of the bright minds risk factors. And so let's just go through them and let's talk about what I want you to do for each of them. So B in bright minds is for blood flow. Low blood flow is the number one brain imaging predictor of Alzheimer's disease. What do you mean blood flow? Blood flow to your brain. And when we did the spec scan on you, we saw really low blood flow, especially to the front part of your brain.

Where you said it was dormant, that's low blood flow. Doctor said dead. Okay. I'll choose another word. So no, that's low blood flow. Doctor said dead. Okay. I'll choose the other two words. So no blood flow, low blood flow. Which was really interesting because the injury happened on the right side. The injury happened on the right side. As you said, whap whap. But the damage, it's called a coup, contra coup injury, happened on the left side.

But it can be so much better. So how do you know, besides if you had a spec scan, whether you have low blood flow? If you have hypertension, you have hypertension. No, I don't. Now it's being treated, right? Prove it. Yes, it's being treated. So that means if you have hypertension, you have to treat it.

That's really important. Did you say tweet or treat? Treat. Please don't tweet. Let's tweet. Get our phones. If you have any form of heart disease, you have to treat that effectively because your brain uses 20% of the blood flow in your body. So you have to fix any vascular problem if you

don't exercise. So treating hypertension, are you exercising? Yeah. What are you doing? I need to walk more. Okay. Then there's a gym across the street that has free weights. And he is strong. In fact, when he gives me a hug, I'm like, please don't break my ribs. He's strong. And he's big.

Welcome to the gym. don't break my ribs. He's strong. He's big. Welcome to the gym. The R in bright minds is retirement and aging. As when you stop learning, your brain starts dying. And you're 73 even though you don't look like you're 73. The older we get,

the more serious we need to be about doing the right things. Oh, with blood flow. What? Marijuana lowers blood flow to the brain. Cigars, nicotine, lowers blood flow to the brain. So getting rid of that. I never inhale a cigar.

I'm so proud of you. Thank you. I'm so proud of you. Even though you don't inhale, it comes through your mucous membranes. Say that again. Because he always says, I don't inhale. Yeah, but even secondhand smoke is bad. That's what Clinton said too.

Yeah. Right? Listen, listen. Listen, say it again. Listen plainly. It goes through the mucous membranes in your mouth. Yeah. So you get the nicotine.

That constricts blood flow that's bad. Well, see, my throat closes out on a nail. He has no mucous membranes. He has no mucous membranes. What? He's immune. Okay. So we're on R, retirement and aging. My throat closes out on a nail. He has no mucous membranes. He has no mucous membranes. What? He's immune. Okay, so we're on R, retirement and aging.

You need to be learning new things. I am. Now you play the guitar. In fact, in the Buddy Holly story, you were just amazing. And you sang all the songs and played all the instruments, correct? You were so good. Amazing.

I stands for inflammation. When inflammation comes from the Latin word to set a fire, it's like you have a low level fire in your body. And when I tested your inflammatory markers, there's a blood test called C-reactive protein was way too high. And after we do the podcast today, we're going to go meet with Dr. Phil today. And we're going to talk about how to get your body in the best shape. And you feel better. Pain goes down. So in general.

I love pain. So the omega-3. I'm talking about window pain. Ah, yes. The omega-3 fatty acids that are in the supplements, they help decrease inflammation. And if you cook with things like turmeric, that's in curry. Like who? Curry. Like if you eat curry. Do you like curries? No. Okay. So do you like fish? I give him a turmeric supplement. Okay. Well, that's good. So turmeric is a great supplement because it helps decrease inflammation. G is genetics. So what do you have that runs in

your family? Your mom, your dad, aunts, uncles, cousins? Quickness, speed, doesn't think before I speak. I got that all my life. Gary, you got to think before you speak. I did think. I'll try it again. Okay. I stop and say the same thing. He says, you're not thinking. I say, yes, I am. It's funny how- Ageism and trauma, which is obvious. It's funny how, it's funny what I've learned from being with you, that we all have invisible ways emotionally of denying what our truth is. Of course. Everybody does.

They're called blind spots for a reason. Blind spots? Right. That's like driving stupid on a freeway. But we have them and they're blind spots for a reason. So in bright minds, back to that, we'll have to make this abuseism. The H is head trauma. And so not only did you have the major head trauma.

TBI. You had thousands of little ones playing football. Right. Every hit. And here we did the big NFL stuff. Radiation in the face. We're going to get to that. That's on the T.

Oh. Uh-oh. I didn't know all that. Get ready. So the T in Bright Mind stands for toxins. And you had cancer in one of your sinuses. Right here. And they took it out.

Yeah. And then they radiated you. They gave you like, turned out to be whole brain radiation. That's something I didn't want to do. You didn't want to do it, but the doctor thought it would be the best course. The doctor told me, radiation kills cancer roots. Cancer roots cannot be seen by microscopes. If you have one cancer root, you got cancer again.

I went, oh, shit. I should have gone to my cancer doctor chester griffiths told him that he would have said no don't do it well you did it and that may have contributed to the damage we saw on the left front side of his brain so if we have football and we have the motorcycle accident now we have the radiation. And then other toxins, cocaine is clearly a toxin. Marijuana is a toxin. Cigarette smoke is a toxin. I don't smoke cigarettes.

Cigar smoke is a toxin. So we have all those toxins. And what you do is you stop the toxin. That's the first thing. And then you support the four organs of detoxification. So your kidneys drink more water. You already said you're drinking water.

Your gut eat more fiber. So lots of vegetables, really important. And do you take a probiotic? Right. Let me do this. Probiotic's great. The liver, don't drink. And eat brassicas. What's brassica? They're special vegetables that detoxify you. Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli.

That's what we eat all the time. What about sauerkraut? Yes. Sauerkraut is great. I love sauerkraut. I know. So fermented foods are great. So sauerkraut. I know. Yeah. No, so fermented foods are great. So sauerkraut, kimchi. Sauerkraut is fermented. So sauerkraut and kimchi because of the probiotics.

I was just asking you if you took a probiotic. We got the one that you told me to order. Mm-hmm. Good. That's the one I'm giving, but I think I forgot to give it to you today. As long as you're taking it. Okay. So that's the bright part. Oh, and then sweating with exercise.

Because your skin is actually the largest detoxification organ in your body. And saunas. Do you like taking saunas? Yeah. Saunas. There's a study from Finland where people who took saunas five to seven times a week cut their risk of Alzheimer's disease by 2 thirds.

Wow. So a dramatic decrease. So sweating is really good. The M in bright minds, mental health. Depression increases your risk of trouble. I don't have any depression. ADD increases. I have no depression.

I love that. The second I is immunity and infections. A lot of infections actually cause brain problems. Lyme disease, herpes. What does Lyme disease do to you? It's a bacteria you actually get from a deer tick. It's called a spirochete. And it can damage your joints. But a lot of people don't know it actually can damage your brain. And people can have pretty severe emotional reactions from it. So with immunity, how to boost it is you optimize your vitamin D level,

which is something we'll talk about, but also eating mushrooms, garlic, and onions. So figure out what are those you like. I love all that. Those are really good for you. Salad. Mushrooms, garlic, and ween. The N in Bright Minds is so important for you because they're called neurohormone deficiencies. When your hormones are low, testosterone, thyroid, DHEA. I've got to get my testosterone up and I have that medicine. You do. You do. You do. And we're going to talk to Dr. Phil today about it.

But this is really important that very few people know about. When you have a severe brain injury, it actually hurts a part of your brain called your pituitary gland and it turns off hormone production of a lot of different things. And it often gets overlooked. For you, your thyroid was low, way too low, and your testosterone. So just fixing that, if that was all we did- You'd feel better. You would feel better.

Memory would be better. You'd be sharp. Well, I don't know if you need to be. You're already like- He's pretty sharp. He's razor sharp. You ought to let me play my memory game with you. No.

Well, we got to do that before the end. He has to play it with Tanner. He has to play it with Tanner. It's a start. The memory game. So we're going to fix the hormones. D is diabesity, which is a combination of being overweight and having high blood sugar. Your blood sugar was way too high. Now it's probably better if you're eating the way that we talked about. No sugar. Sugar is death for the brain. It is the devil.

Sugar is the devil. Okay, ready to play the memory game? Oh, dear. Almost done. Almost there. I'm kidding. Take your time. But since we met, how much weight have you lost?

35, maybe 60. Oh, my gosh. Oh, no. Oh, no. I was like, what? I've lost three and a half inches off my waist. Maybe 15 or 10. That's awesome. 15. He looks significantly different. lost three and a half inches off my waist. Oh dear. Maybe 15 or 10.

That's awesome. 15. He looks significantly different. But it hasn't been that long either. That's fantastic. I am so proud of you. That is so important. I'm proud of you too.

And people don't know, I published two studies that show as your weight goes up, the actual physical size and function of your brain goes down, which should scare the fat off anyone. And with 40% of Americans- Scare the fat off you. That's funny. I like that. Thank you.

With 40% of America obese, it's the biggest brain drain in the history of the United States. Listen, when I was in Pittsburgh, wherever I go in the Midwest, it's like, boom. People put on their clothes and they look like a potato in a leotard. And it's our food supplies. You know, food engineers are not helping us. It's tragic. It's tragic all the chemicals being put into our food are not helping. Oh, my God.

All the processed food. It's just tragic. And you are so lucky to be with stephanie because i know she got she's a blessing man she gets it which is also good because you have an eight-year-old son yeah and for you doing the right thing yeah is he is more likely to do the right things because children do what we do not what we tell them to do. Oh, I know that. And so you're going to model. Yes.

Luke, look at me. No. Luke, is your dad talking to you? Look at my eyes. Why? I can hear you. Speak. All right.

The S in bright minds is for sleep. Sleep is absolutely essential. He's good at that. Oh, I love sleeping. He has no problem there. But having things like sleep apnea or just bad, bad, bad for the brain. So taking care of your sleep. So that's really the program.

I mean, that's what we're going to work on. And my goal is when Buseyisms comes out September 4th, is that you are even more sharp, more together than you are now. And certainly from when I first saw you. You know what now stands for? N-O-W. No other way. No other way than to get help. I like that. 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.

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