Change Your Brain Every Day - How You Can Take Better Care of Your Brain Without Going to the Doctor

Episode Date: October 22, 2018

In Daniel G. Amen, M.D., new book, Feel Better Fast and Make It Last, he outlines the steps you can take to get yourself feeling right quickly. The first step is all about the brain. In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Amen and his wife Tana give you helpful tips to take better care of your brain.

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. We're continuing our series on feel better fast and make it last. We're having so much fun. We just talked about how Tana is the whole brain experience for me. Not sure that that's always a good thing, but I keep you on your toes. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Just remember that the next time I scare you when pit bulls come around. Oh, my goodness. You are a whole brain experience. I'll just never forget. We left the parking lot, and you're like oh my god I have PTSD and I'm like I know me too wasn't that terrible and you look at me and you go no because of you I was like

like me what did I do I'm not the one who attacked us it was your reaction screaming to a den I'm mama bear you didn't know if you had a gun didn't at the moment it didn't matter it was just reaction actually probably wasn't that smart i actually said to him i think he better because brain xl is the formula that feel better fast is based on. And the B in brain is actually brain, that if you want to feel better

fast, you have to take care of the physical functioning of your brain. Those of you that listen to the Brain Warriors way, that is not a surprise. But how can you do that, in fact, to feel better fast? And I horrified myself a number of years ago when I figured out brain health is really three things. Brain envy, you got to care about it. Avoid anything that hurts your brain. Do things that help it. And so how do you know what to do and what to avoid? And when I wrote Memory Rescue, we came up with this great mnemonic that I just want to refresh your memory with. It's bright minds. So if you want to know what to avoid and what to do, if you want to keep your brain healthy or rescue it if it's headed to the dark place, you have to prevent or treat the 11 major risk factors that steal your mind and then feel better fast and make it last. I go through a summary of those.

If you really want to know, like, all the science behind each of them, get my book memory rescue. But, you know, since we live in a cliff note society, I don't know if you read them when you were in high school and college. I certainly did. It's like, let me just tell me the meat of Macbeth scope. That's so funny. So this is like the cliff notes of brain health. The B in bright minds is for blood flow.

Low blood flow is the number one brain imaging predictor of Alzheimer's disease. Anything that decreases blood flow prematurely ages your brain. So yes, if you get a scan, you know if you have low blood flow. But hypertension, any form of heart disease, erectile dysfunction not exercising those are all symptoms that you may have low blood flow to your brain if you have brain fog to increase blood flow exercise that's why exercise is so important i've become obsessed with my fitbit and when we were in Europe recently, Chloe was so excited that she'd get 25,000 steps a day. A little worn out, but so excited. Exercise is just so important.

Supplements like ginkgo, then positine, increase blood flow. And food like beets, cayenne pepper, oregano. increase blood flow and food. Yeah. Like beets, cayenne pepper, oregano. Oh my goodness. The lamb chops in Greece. Oh, they were so good. They were so good.

And what did they do? How did they make them so good? It was like three things. Well, they marinated them overnight, but they've used oregano, salt, pepper, and a little olive oil. Like it was amazing. And it's the first time I've ever heard you say they were as good or better than mine ever in a restaurant. And your lamb chops. Mine have rosemary, thyme, and sage.

But those were amazing and they were so simple. So simple. Yeah. So good. The R in Bright Minds is retirement and aging. When you stop learning, your brain starts dying. So make new learning part of your everyday life. The I is inflammation.

How do you know if you have inflammation in your body? C, reactive protein. That's a blood test. Yeah. So when we were in Europe, people always, including me occasionally, get this thought like, oh, I'm so good all the time. It's okay if I relax a little, right? So we were in Europe and of course I wanted to try the famous Angelina's hot chocolate

and I had a couple croissants. And so all of a sudden I'm waking up and I'm like, oh my God, my hands hurt so bad. What did I do to my hands? I thought I hurt my hand. Couldn't open and close my hands. And we're walking and on the last day, I thought I sprained my ankle. My ankle swelled up so badly.

It was the inflammation. So you think you can get away with a little, but in my case, some people can get away with more than others. I can't get away with very much at all, just because I'm prone to it with my health history. That's inflammation. So I mean, some of us need to see reactive protein tests.

Some of us just know. If you're actually paying attention, when your pain increases, I had brain fog from hell. I, like, felt hungover. And just, you know, that you can't clear the cobwebs. That's inflammation starting. So inflammation can be pain, can be brain fog. Inflammation's associated with depression and dementia.

Good news is it goes away fast. And so a blood test. If you do the right thing. C-reactive protein. Another one, your omega-3 index. Low levels of omega-3 fatty acids. Rampant in our society. One study, 97% of people have low levels of omega-3 fatty acids.

So it's so important. So anti-inflammatory, omega-3s, omega-3 power, BrainMD, you know, our company, highly purified, highly concentrated, can really help normalize your omega-3 index. We certainly see that among our patients. Also, probiotics, getting your gut right, really helps tamp down inflammation in the body. Yeah. So just a little side note, when I was feeling the pain and my ankle swelled up in my hand, I couldn't get my ring on. And this was only just like a few days of this. And I wasn't even eating. I was still like, you know, 85, 15 or 80, 20. I was still eating mostly.

Compared to what most people ate, I was eating still really good. So I just increased my fish oil. And I went 100%. I mean, 100% clean, just ate like heavily plant-based, little bit of clean, like very clean protein and did green drinks and a lot of water. Three days, three days. Inflammation gone, hands stopped hurting.

Ankle was fine. It wasn't, I didn't sprain it. So just, you can reverse it pretty quickly. That's feeling better fast by doing the right things, right? Because you love yourself. Right. And you love your husband because when you're in pain, I'm in pain too. Well, and the thought that, the thought that came to my mind was we're having this great vacation and here's what helps me. And some people need something to help them. What came to my mind, it's about loving myself, but it was also, look, I get to go on these great vacations with my daughter and my husband. I'm not willing to feel like an old mom.

We did this for my 50th birthday, and I generally feel much younger than my age. So I'm like, I don't really feel my age. I've never really felt my age, and all of a sudden, I felt my age. And I'm like, whoa, that was fast. I'm not willing to do that if I can do something to prevent it. Now, things happen, and some of us can fast. Like I'm not willing to do that if I can do something to prevent it. Now things happen and some of us can't, but I can. That was completely self-induced, self-inflicted.

And I'm like, I'm not willing to age myself prematurely and take that time away from my family and not go do fun things and not go hiking and not be the cool fun mom when I can be, right? If something were to happen and I couldn't, that's very different than me. Self-inducing it, self-inflicting it.

That's not okay. That just wasn't okay with me. So, so let's go through, um, two more, uh, of the risk factors and then we'll complete it,

um, in the next podcast. So for inflammation, omega-3 fatty acids, curcumin. I put that in too. We also make brain curcumins. It helps me so much because I know I'm inflamed when my knees hurt. And even doctors will recommend that. My chiropractor recommends it.

It's a great anti-inflammatory. I put that in my supplements too. But I take two omega-3 power, three brain curcumins every day. I take four and I take three of those. And my knees don't hurt. Yeah. And I walked, I mean, some days we walked 11 miles. Right.

And some of it was actually uphill when we went to Walmart. We walked almost 100 miles in 10 days because we had travel days in there. Yeah. It was really awesome. So, anti-inflammatory, probiotics, omega-3s, brain curcumins, and eating right, just as you had mentioned. The G in bright minds is genetics. Know what runs in your families. And genes are not a death sentence. They should be a wake-up call to get healthy. And the genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease, for example,

many scientists think it's too much of beta amyloid protein in the brain. Well, they've actually found that curcumins, vitamin D, blueberries, green tea decrease the beta amyloid load in the brain. And so many of my colleagues, what's the med? What's the med? Let's do all these medication trials. And I'm like, well, why don't you do natural things to help the brain? Well, I'm not at risk for Alzheimer's disease in my family history,

but I am at risk for heart disease. Yeah, see, I'm at at risk for Alzheimer's disease in my family history, but I am at risk for heart disease. Yes, I'm at risk for so many things. And so doing the right thing can help decrease your risk. It's funny that you say that because I'm not at risk for Alzheimer's disease, but we've got cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart disease. Depression. You name it, depression. And those things are the risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, right? So for so long, I thought, you know, this isn't fair.

Genetically, I'm just like, it just sucks. Like, right, I've had cancer three times. I was really sick as a kid. And like I said, I go off track a little bit and it just really affects me. But, you know, then I started thinking, what did I used to tell my daughter when she was little? Fair is a place where they sell bad food and they have farm animals, right? Near us, it's a city called Pomona. It's a place with bad food and farm animals, right?

So it has nothing to do with life. Life is not fair. Stuff happens to people. It happens to babies. It's not fair. It's about what you do to take control and make it better. So get over the fact that it's not fair. You take two fish oil.

I have to take four. That's what makes me feel better, right? So what? Just do it. And the most important strategy for the G in Bright Minds, genetics, is if you have stuff in your family, you need to be serious about doing the right thing. So often I've heard it said, oh, obesity runs in my family. That's why I'm fat. Well, obesity runs in my family, but I'm not fat. Why? Because I don't give into the behaviors making bright minds is head trauma. You want to keep your brain healthy or rescue it if it's headed to the dark place.

You have to prevent that. Or if you've had it, I was just on Dr. Phil yesterday talking about fixing Gary Busey's brain. You know, we've done a podcast week with Gary. Traumatic brain injury ruins people's lives. And so doing whatever you can to avoid it, including when I was driving in Greece, being super careful in those little tiny cars, wear your seatbelt, be thoughtful. Yeah, it's funny. You start thinking differently.

When you were renting a car, you even called me. You said they have this little car. I'm like, do they have an SUV? Like, it's weird. You start thinking differently. When you were renting a car, you even called me. You said they have this little car. I'm like, do they have an SUV? Like, it's weird. You start thinking differently because you just, when you know what we know, you know, yeah, we want to be environmentally cautious, but we also want to be cautious of, you know, our own bodies and our brains and being in small cars scares me. Safe cars are really important.

Okay. Stay with us. We're going to finish Bright Minds to help you feel better fast. If you go to feelbetterfast.com, you can pre-order the book. And if you pre-order the book, we will give you immediately the introduction and chapter one of the book. We'd be able to download that. We'll also give you a quick start guide to go, you know, what are the cliff notes to feel better fast? How can I get through feel better fast fast? We'll also give you feel better fast audios, hypnosis audios. I do for you. And we'll give you Tana's brand new cookbook. We'll give you a digital copy of the 10-day Brain Boost. Stay with us.

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. Go to iTunes and leave a review and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing to get a free signed copy of the Brain Warriors Way and the Brain Warriors Way cookbook we give away every month. Thank you.