Change Your Brain Every Day - Kristin Cavallari Gets Real About Partying, Hypnosis, and Healing the Brain

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

Reality TV star and wellness advocate Kristin Cavallari joins Dr. Amen on the Change Your Brain Every Day podcast to explore her journey from teenage brain-damaging habits to her current pursuit of optimal health. Kristin opens up about motherhood, experimenting with controversial therapy treatments, and the transformative power of hypnosis. Can past damage to the brain be reversed? Dr. Amen answers this and many more question in this mind-bending episode. 00:00 Intro 01:15 Sponsor 02:34 Kristin/Goals 04:55 Losing Consciousness Intentionally? 07:07 Substance Abuse 10:33 Laguna Beach/Teen Years 15:00 Total Brain Assessment 17:134 Kristin’s SPECT Scan (Surface) 22:09 Kristin’s SPECT Scan (Active Interior) 24:10 Hypnosis/Altered States in Releasing Trauma 26:58 Psilocybin/Alcohol/Marijuana 33:48 Improving Kristin’s Brain 40:15 Football/Head Trauma 44:50 Brother’s Death 46:17 Family Dynamics 49:20 Sponsor 49:43 Wrap Up 

What kind of trouble did you get into? I was sneaking out a lot. I would get taken home by the cops. My friend James stole his parents' car. And we went and found an abandoned house. And we were drinking in the abandoned house. And what do you know? The cops came and took us home.

I would be out past curfew. Cops would take me home. I was sneaking out. One time I got taken home by the cops. And my dad didn't even know I was gone. He answered the door. And he was like, I thought you were sleeping. So it was a consistent thing for me.

Every day you are making your brain better or you are making it worse. Stay with us to learn how you can change your brain for the better every day. You can change your brain for the better every day. I'm so excited to welcome to the podcast, Kristin Cavallari, who is an influencer, reality TV star from Laguna Beach and the Hills. She is an entrepreneur and shifted from sort of an unhealthy lifestyle. We'll see if we see that on her scan

to a healthy lifestyle. We're gonna look at her, look at her brain. So excited to share this with her. Hi, I'm Dr. Daniel Lehmann. I've experienced firsthand the powerful impact that proper supplementation can have on your brain, your body, and your mind. That's why I founded BrainMD.

Our formulas are scientifically created from decades of clinical research designed to help you think clearer, feel better, and improve every aspect of your health. Whether it's Brain and Body Power Max, the same formula I used in the world's largest study of NFL players to optimize brain performance, to happy saffron, to boost mood and memory, and Pro Brain Biotics Max to improve the gut brain connection. BrainMD delivers the highest quality science back solutions to help you think and feel better. Tana and I take many of our products every day.

And as a special offer, just for our listeners, you can save 20 percent listeners, you can save 20% on your next order. Visit brainmd.com and use the code podcast 20 with a better brain always comes a better life. Thank you so much for doing this with us. Thank you. So we have a big mission. We want to end the concept of mental illness by getting people to fall in love with their brains. Right? So what if mental health was really brain health?

And I read your history, I reread it this morning. I've looked at your scans, I've looked at your testings. I sort of have a good idea. Tell me your goal. What would make this important for you? For me, it's really about optimal health. Everything I do, you know, I live a very healthy lifestyle with everything I do, and I always like to just have the knowledge so that I can be preventative with everything I'm doing.

So there isn't one specific thing that I'm looking for. It's more just, if there is something, I want to get ahead of it. Okay. And what makes you curious to look? That's a good question. Well, I definitely did not take care of myself in my teens and my early 20s.

And for about the last 13 years, really since I became pregnant for the first time, it's when I kind of switched and health became the most important thing to me. And I'm kind of curious if my partying has left an impact on my brain and or if the things I've been doing the last 13 years have also played a role. And if in fact you can, I know you say this, you're not stuck with the brain you're given or you have, you're not stuck with the brain you have. And so I'm curious what my brain looks like after taking care of myself all of these years, if in fact it's played a crucial role or not. That's a great question.

We're going to find out. That's a great question. Okay, so you're here to see if there's any lingering toxicity. Yeah, basically. Because it was sort of toxic. It was? Oh, just my life. Your history. When I read your history, I I'm like she's living a really healthy lifestyle that mitigates something but it was a little bit on the crazy side. It was. Now the one

question I have, in fact I have to go to it because I was like what is this? Oh no. I'm like, it was under, so you want to keep your brain healthy or rescue it, you have to prevent or treat the 11 major risk factors that steal your mind and we know what they are. And the mnemonic is bright minds. So those are the 11 respectors. So B is for blood flow. We'll look at the blood flow in your brain. R is retirement.

It's aging. Does your brain look older? Then you are. I is inflammation. G is genetics. What runs in your family? And there's some stuff. And H is head trauma, right?

And you're married, were married to a former NFL player. We've seen lots of NFL players and the answer is no, football's not good for your brain. Yeah. The T though is toxins. And there were some toxins in your past. But the question I had was actually in head trauma. And you responded with,

did things purposefully to lose consciousness? Oh my gosh, yeah. I wanna know more about that. Oh, this is awful. When I was in fifth grade, this was a long time ago, it was cool to make each other pass out. You would, I don't even remember exactly, but it was something where you'd go like this and take a lot of breaths in and you would literally pass out for, I don't remember if it was five, ten seconds,

whatever it was, but I probably did that a handful of times at school, at recess. This is what all the kids were doing, which is insane. So yeah. So you would hyperventilate to the point where you would pass out? That's so interesting. Yeah, it's idiotic really. Yeah, no. I mean, given your brain is the most oxygen hungry organ in your body. Yeah, I know.

Now that I'm a mom, I'm like, the stuff that I did. Why? Talk to me about the drug use when you were young. When did that start? I started young. I started smoking pot in eighth grade. My first time doing cocaine was my freshman year in high school when I was 15. And then from there, it was recreational,

but it happened frequently until I was about 23. Now you're the mother of three, right? How old are the kids? 12, 10, and almost nine. And so now you're a mom. Tell me what was going on with you that you started smoking pot in eighth grade? So my family dynamic growing up was difficult. Moved around a lot and basically moved around for my dad's job. I was born in Colorado, moved to Connecticut, moved back to Colorado, moved to a suburb in Chicago, which is where I started smoking pot. I was living with my mom, my stepdad, my stepbrother at the time,

my real brother and my dad were living in Laguna Beach. And, you know, I love my mom. She's my best friend now. But at the time, I felt like she was really wrapped up in her new marriage. And I was just sort of an afterthought. I was very much on my own. And I found a connection with my friends through Smoking Pot and loved it at first. I was getting into a ton of trouble. So I got essentially shipped off to Laguna Beach, California to go live with my dad. And as you're aware, I'm sure it's a very fast lifestyle

out here for kids. I think most of the parents in Laguna Beach kind of look the other way. There's a lot of money and kids have a lot of freedom and drugs are just prevalent. They're around. And so same thing. I didn't have a good relationship with my dad and I just, you know, started doing drugs again right away in my freshman year of high school and consistently throughout high school.

And you think mostly because of the disconnection? I think so. Of your mom and your dad, so they're not paying attention? Yeah, I would say I was very much neglected and that was, I had that rebellious streak in me too. And I think in a lot of ways it probably was, not a cry for help, but just a, I'm going to do whatever I want. You guys don't pay attention to me anyway, is kind of that rebellion.

Do you think that's natural for you? For me? Yeah. I've always been a little rebellious. Yeah. I still think I am a little. I've just learned how to tame it or do it in healthier ways. Because your brain isn't what I would think of as an oppositional brain.

Okay. I've actually published studies on oppositional defiant disorder. Oh, interesting. It's like no matter what you say, they say the opposite. Okay, I'm not like that, yeah. So how many times out of 10,

when your mom asks you to do something, would you do it the first time without arguing or fighting with her? Oh, you know what? I don't even remember. I don't remember ever. I don't think that was ever an issue for me of parents not being able to get me to do something. It was more just I was in school for the social scene. That's where I found my identity, because I didn't have an identity really at home. So it was more, this is where I kind of blossom and come to life, is through the social aspect. What did you want to do when you were a kid?

I had no idea. I had no idea. And then in high school, I think really with my dad's influence, I wanted to go to school to study broadcast journalism and sort of work my way into the entertainment world through that route. And then I got onto reality TV

in my junior year of high school, Laguna Beach, the real Orange County. And that just totally changed the course of my life. And you say with your dad's influence, what did he do? My dad, I think, wanted to be in entertainment, and so that didn't happen for him. So he sort of pushed me into it in a lot of ways. How interesting. Yeah.

So how are you going to be different with your children? I love that question. Well, having three kids, I see how different they all are. And I think it's really important to let them be them. And I think, my parents did a lot of great things too. From both of my parents, there are really great qualities that I'm taking from both of them. And then there are some really bad things

that they both did too. And so I will say I'm excited to take what I appreciated and do that with my own kids. So I will say I'm excited to take what I appreciated and do that with my own kids. My dad, I actually cut my dad out of my life a few years ago. He's your typical narcissist and I finally had had enough, but he still was able to instill a lot of great wisdom in me.

He's very spiritual. I get my business sense from him, my work ethic. And so there are great things from him. And then my mom is your typical, just very sweet Midwestern mom, who's always so supportive and so sweet and caring. Didn't really push me in a lot of ways or encourage me, but just was always supportive.

So I kind of want to blend the two for my children. And I think the most important thing for kids is support, love, and just being there for them. So that's what I'm gonna do with my kids and not push them in any one way direction, but also encourage them to try different things. Supervision is really important. Supervision.

Knowing your frontal lobes aren't developed until you're about 25 in girls were 27 and boys. And so early drug use, just a bad thing. Yeah. Now you can mitigate it. And I think you have I'll show you in a second. But I think it sounds like you didn't have good enough supervision. Right? And not punitive.

But if you're smoking pot, nobody knows it. Oh, my mom knew. And she didn't care? She cared. I just don't think she knew quite what to do with me. She read my diary, which I think that was traumatic in itself. Is that why she sent you away? That's probably on my brain assessment.

Is that why she sent you away? Right, yeah, I think so. She knew a little too much. What kind of trouble did you get into? I was sneaking out a lot. I would get taken home by the cops, just smoking pot, drinking. Taken home by the cops for? Well, one time, so ridiculous,

my friend James stole his parents' car and we went and found an abandoned house and we were drinking in the abandoned house. And what do you know, the cops came and took us home. Stuff like that. Which by the way, I consistently got into trouble in high school too. It didn't just stop once I moved to the gonna beach.

I mean, I would be out past curfew, cops would take me home, I was sneaking out. One time I got taken home by the cops and my dad didn't even know I was gone. He answered the door and he was like, I thought you were sleeping. So it was a consistent theme for me. Sounds like they were distracted. A little bit. Yeah. But when I, because one of the questions we asked was,

on a scale of zero to 10, how many bad things happened to you as a child? And you answered zero on that. I'm thinking there's probably more going on than... I think I missed that. I don't remember that question actually, because going on than... I think I missed that. I don't remember that question actually. Well, there were 10 questions. Oh.

Oh. And your hope score is really high, which is great. Good. And you actually score really well. Okay, good. Here we go. Okay. So this sort of looks at the major psychiatric stuff and it's like, oh no. Okay, that's good, yeah. And you're good at reading faces, that's what

this one is. Okay. And you tend to read positive faces faster than negative ones. So people have a lot of childhood trauma. Interesting. They negative ones. So people have a lot of childhood trauma. Interesting. They're suspicious. Okay. Because a lot of bad things happen. Yeah. Right? Like my wife, on a scale of zero to 10, she's an eight. Wow. And her, she's really good at reading faces and I'm like,

oh, I have tools to train that. Why would I want to do that? She's like, no, I'm keeping my suspiciousness. That's hilarious. Emotionally flexible, which means if you get your feelings hurt, you can let it go. Yeah. Not stressed, not anxious, not depressed.

Memory could be better. I'm not surprised. Could be better. Actually, not surprised. Could be better. Actually, your short-term memory is awesome, but you're long-term. That makes so much sense to me. I feel like I've blacked out my childhood. Yeah, so maybe there's more trauma.

Yeah. I mean, there's a reason. There's trauma for sure. Smoking pot and doing cocaine. And it's probably the rational part of you is like, it's probably not a good thing for me. Yeah. Right, but if you're blocking pain,

that's the way to do it. It's just- That makes sense. I don't suggest it. Yeah. Your focus is awesome, your planning is good, processing speed could be better. This is cognitive flexibility,

shifting attention could be better. You're a really positive person. This so protects you. Good, I've had to train myself to be like that. And you can, I mean that's sort of the cool thing, is you can, and you're resilient and you're social. So what can we do to get your memory better? That will help you.

And then, so we do a study called SPECT and SPECT looks at blood flow and activity, looks at how your brain works and basically shows us three things. Good activity, too little, or too much. And then my job is to balance it. If it's too low, how can we strengthen it? If it's too high, how can we calm it down?

And I want you to pay attention. Here's an example of a healthy scan. We're looking underneath the brain. Should just be full, even, and symmetrical. Here we're looking down from the top, so it'll look like a flat sheet. It's smooth. That's what we want yours to look like.

And past drug abuse sort of wrinkles the sheet. So we'll look. Here, blue is average activity. Red is the top 15%. White is the top 8%. White's like the super active parts, which should be back here in the cerebellum. I see your cerebellum's healthy,

but you have some other response. So, okay, wrinkled cheek. So, the past substance abuse, if you wouldn't have sort of got serious, this would be so much worse. Really? I mean, I have drug posters in 100,000 schools, prisons, hospitals around the world, and they're moth-eaten.

Wow. So odds are when you were 22, your brain looked awful. Wow. Odds are when you were 22, your brain looked awful. Wow. Even now it looks older than you are. Really? So let's get it to look as beautiful as you are. Let's get it to be even better. Okay.

But you just see the bumpiness. Yeah. I don't like that. I don't like that either. And it's why if your kids are not doing their homework, being less motivated, drug test them. If you were my child, I would have drug tested you. I'm like, no, we're not okay with this.

I adopted my two nieces because both their parents are drug addicts. And when the older one was 16, I caught her vaping and I grounded her for six months. And I'm like, no. You come from addiction, you need to be on addiction prevention program every day of your life. And she's writing 10 page papers on the impact of vaping on the planet. And we got really close because she couldn't go anywhere. And now she's a pre-med student. Oh wow, that's amazing. And I worry about her a lot.

Just because of the genetic pull. Right. So, um... Ever a concussion? I mean, not that I know of. Car accidents, falls, something like that. I was in a car accident. I dislocated my elbow. Tell me about it.

So, that was almost nine years ago and a car came out and hit me and I locked up and that's how I dislocated my elbow. You know the ambulance. It hit you from the left side? Yeah. Cause it looks like it happened right here. Oh, that's so interesting.

So here, this is the left side of your brain. See this little dent? Yeah. Overall, you have a great brain. Okay. Compared to the brains we all see, you have a great brain. Okay, good.

But it can be better. Yeah, okay. But it can be better. And it just looked like this part got hurt. So maybe when you got whacked, it slammed up against the other side. Interesting, yeah. Right, so if you're like this,

Yeah, it could have. And a car goes like this, your brain floats. Right. In water, in the cerebral spinal fluid. Right. And so if you go boom, the part that hits the skull is this.

So it'd be the opposite side. That makes sense. That's great, yeah. Wow. And memory is right there. Oh wow. Long-term memory. It's a part of your brain called the hippocampus,

which is Greek for seahorse. And every day your brain makes 700 new stem cells or baby seahorses. Oh wow. And so that's why. Alcohol kills them, marijuana kills them, cocaine kills them, chronic stress kills them. Wow. Being in a toxic marriage kills them. Oops, that's a surprise why.

Why have I? We can make this better. Okay. There's hope. So much. Okay. So it's a very interesting part of the brain. It's very busy. It's the first part of your brain that dies in Alzheimer's. So that's not where you're going. This is good. Okay. It actually goes with IQ and it's also part of the chatter in your head. You probably have a busy mind. Very busy. We're busy over here. Shut up. Give your mind a name so you can begin to just separate from the noise. I like that idea. I don't know what name you might give your mind. I'm gonna figure it out. I don't know. I named mine after my pet raccoon.

That's a good one. I'm like shut up. Go in your cage. We're not listening to you today. Your cerebellum is okay but part of it, this is called your thalamus, it's part of the feeling brain, part of your emotional brain. It's really busy. Oh, wow. And so I wonder if there's some past trauma that you're holding onto. And I saw there was some sexual stuff early. Was that significantly stressful to you? You know, there were two.

One was more emotional. One was physical, both with family members. And so, yeah, I think in a lot of ways, I didn't deal with it though, when I was younger, I've had to kind of deal with it as an adult How old were you? first one Freshman year of high school second was sophomore year. Well kind of um Kind of started fifth grade through sophomore year of high school with one person

That one was more physical. The one that was more emotional was my freshman year of high school. Part of the reason I moved to California. And you've actually done a lot of hypnosis. Yes. I love hypnosis. I'm obsessed with it. Before I became. A brain imaging person, it was a huge part of my practice, and I still do it and love it.

I love it. And you've also done some past life regression stuff, which I think is so interesting. Yeah, I love that stuff. Yeah, I actually did scans before and then during a past life regression. And that's the part of the brain that lit up. Oh, cool.

Oh, that is so cool to me. I mean, we have this life trauma, so we don't have to go. Yeah, we've got enough. Was it was it the Indians in the 1860s? So go try to heal every life. It seems like a lot actually on Saturday, too. I don't know if you've heard of this, but it's called the bionic method. It's in Venice and it's an energy massage, essentially,

but it's an emotional release. And this guy was able to find these different trigger points on me. And once I would release it, I was having tears just streaming down my face. And it was the most incredible feeling afterwards. So I've done Bufo DMT. And during that, which I know we don't like drugs,

but this was more for a spiritual, it was more of a spiritual, what's the word I'm looking for, ceremony. And I did it right when I found out my divorce was final actually, and the whole time my arms and my legs were really tingling. I was going like this the whole time.

And afterwards the shaman said, that's emotion quite literally trying to leave your body. And that was the lightest and freest I've ever felt. But it was the same feeling after this massage I had a couple days ago. So, I mean, does that stuff help with releasing that trauma? Do you believe in that? Well, it's not that I don't believe or not.

I just, I worry that it has more side effects than necessary. And I, as a psychiatrist, I get to see the fallout of bad trips. And I'm like, well, what about EMDR? Because EMDR does the same thing. Have you done EMDR? I haven't done that. Because that could actually be really helpful for you. Because it's often a huge release,

but you actually connect to the original traumas. And they get released. As opposed to we just talked about it, you get re-traumatized by it. And if we talk about it while you do the eye movement, it tends to come up and then dissipate and not come back. So, been a huge fan of the MDR. I get worried about psilocybin especially

because I've seen this party before. How neat, why? Yeah. In the 80s when I trained, Xanax came onto the market and it's not addictive and it's mommy's little helper. Yeah. Now look where we are. No, it's terrible.

It's terrible. Right? Once you start it, you can't stop it and it increases your risk of dementia. It's not good. And then in the early 90s, alcohol is a health food. I know. Once you start it, you can't stop it and it increases your risk of dementia. Yeah, it's not good. And then in the early 90s, alcohol is a health food. And I'm like, no, I know it increases the risk of seven different cancers. And it is the number one reason that will get someone to my office

because they drank and they took the decision maker on vacation and then they made bad decisions, they said something they shouldn't, they did something they shouldn't. I'm just not a fan of alcohol at all. That's interesting because I'm not a big drinker at all, but I will drink from time to time, but lately I've just been like, I wanna cut it out completely.

I feel like my body's actually in pain. The American Cancer Society came out against anti-alcohol because anti-alcohol is associated with an increased risk of seven different types of cancer. Plus your microbiome, the hundred trillion bugs you have in your gut, alcohol kills them. Yeah. What about psilocybin? That's interesting because I'm getting there. Okay, and then it was pain is the fifth vital sign and It's like your doctor should give you opiates and Purdue Pharma and their masterful marketing Campaign created this opiate epidemic that has killed 700,000 people in the last 20 years killed 700,000 people in the last 20 years. 191 million prescription for opiates. And opiates help your pain and then make it worse

because it pisses off the white blood cells in your body and they go to sleep and then they come back angry. And it's not good unless, you know, of course short term after surgery or something, but not long term. And then marijuana is innocuous, which is a complete lie. It didn't help your brain develop. Your brain is undergoing this wild development and you're like, oh, it's just marijuana.

And I think psilocybin's gonna go the same way. Interesting. See, I had girlfriends trying to convince me to do a psilocybin journey with them. And I would commit and then I would pull out and then I just, something was telling me not to do it. And it's been a year now when I finally just said, I think I'm gonna sit this one out.

You guys go ahead and do it, I'm not doing it. Yeah, you gotta ask yourself why. You know, what's my goal and what's the payoff? Right. And it's not legal. Right, right. I mean, there is that. Yeah, there's that too.

Right, it's not legal. And all the research on it, there's less than 1,000 participants in the research on it, there's less than a thousand participants in the research. It's not what is being portrayed. When they talk about it, it's like, there's 25 people in this study, 50 people in that. And so I'm like, tell me all the studies, right? Because I want to be informed. But I just feel like I've seen this party

before. Well, so let's say you have this trauma. How do you get rid of that? So you've already found hypnosis incredibly helpful. I would add EMDR for it. The cool thing about EMDR is no matter where we start, let's say we start with you had a blow up with one of the kids and you felt bad, whatever. Okay, go with that. Have your eyes go back and forth. Imagine yourself on a train.

And let's go back to the first time you felt bad. Like that. And see what it's connected to. Wow. And you know with the drugs it's sort of like magic. I'm not a huge fan of magic. I want to know why. So not a fan of ayahuasca. I've never done it. I'm not going to do it. I'm just curious. So Will Smith, so many of my patients have done ayahuasca. I'm sure. Sometimes go, oh, it's a miracle. But then they're still seeing me. Right. It's an incomplete narrative.

But I read Will Smith's autobiography, and I love him. I was a consultant on the movie Concussion. I mean, yes, and I did. And I thought he should got an Oscar nomination. And I was so I love him. And I read his book in February a couple of years ago, right before the Oscars. He did Iowa Oscar 14 times. And he's still smacking Chris Rock in public. And I'm like, no.

Anytime you're doing something like that 14 times, you're sort of addicted to the experience. Yeah, that's fair. Right? And so I look at people's brains. I want your brain to be as awesome as you are. Yeah, okay, that makes sense to me. Yeah. Good for my brain or bad for it? Good for my brain or bad for it? Solaceibin. Good for my brain or bad for it? And I'm like, we don't know. What it does, there are a couple of imaging studies, is it turns down the chowder. But I did a study with Ibogaine, it's also sort of in the family of the hallucinogenic drugs, calms the brain down, but too much. Oh, okay. And one of my friends, I have his scan five times,

terrible to start, better, better, freaking awesome. Oh. And then he went and did Ibogaine, and I'm like begging him, don't do it, don't mess with my work, don't do it. He did it, and his brain was terrible again. Really, from one time? Wow.

And it makes you feel terrible for like 12 hours. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I grew up Catholic and I'm grateful for it, but I'm not a fan of long suffering. Yeah, no, I think it's scary. All that stuff scares me quite honestly. So what I want you to hear is you have a great brain. Okay. There is some trauma. Yeah. It can be better. Okay. And I'm a fan of continuing the hypnosis work you've done, I would add AMDR to try to balance it.

I always think of my patients in these four big circles. It's, you know, your brain looked at it, it functions really well. Your mind is sort of your ant population. Automatic negative thoughts, the thoughts that come into your mind automatically ruin your day. So do you think your ants are more like Barstow? You know where Barstow is? No. It's this little tiny town in the middle of the

Mojave Desert. It's 10,000 people. Or more like New York City. Oh man, you know, I would say it's been more like New York, but I'm trying to train myself to have it be a bit quieter. Give your mind a name. I will. And whenever you feel sad or mad or nervous or out of control, write down what you're thinking. Okay.

It's so powerful. Okay. Whenever you feel sad, mad, nervous, or out of control, just write down what you're thinking. I'm excited. And ask yourself if it's true. Okay, cool, I like that. It's so helpful.

Yeah. And you have to do it like a hundred times, I like that. It's so helpful. Yeah. And you have to do it like 100 times, right? So, I'm working with this NBA player that I love and I'm just teaching him this and I'm like, so how many free throws did you have to shoot before you made more than 80% of it? Like thousands. You have to train your brain, especially if you had a lot of that when you were growing

up, you probably had a lot of it. You can't just do it twice. You have to make it a practice. And I think it's so much more powerful than soul assignment. Yeah. I mean, I'm excited about that. Yeah, sounds like it. And like you said, you've trained your mind to be more positive. Yeah, this is training. Like I was 28 in my psychiatric residency, and one of my professors said, You have to teach your patients not to believe every stupid thing they think. Yeah. And I'm like, but I believe every stupid thing I think.

But I mean, it's just not part of, right? Despite graduating from high school and college and medical school, no one had ever said question your own. Right. Right. You just think it's normal. Yeah. Well, it is normal until you realize there's something you can do about it. Yeah, not helpful. And ultimately, it's the class in logic, right? I'm like, my wife never listens to me. Which just disconnects you from that person. Absolutely, yes. And I'm like, well, is that true?

Right. No, she listens to me a lot. She's just not listening to me now. Right, right. But when you just insert the word never, you just created a disconnection. So I like the verse in the New Testament, know the truth, the truth will set you free. So these are the 11 risk factors. So blood flow, mostly healthy, but could be better.

Okay. Through exercise, because I do- I'm going to give you some supplements. Okay. You also are taking a whole bunch. I'm taking a ton because I'm working on my gut health. Retirement and aging, you're young, but I believe all of us should be on an Alzheimer's prevention program our whole life.

Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Well, especially if my brain looks older than me. Oh wow, okay, yeah. Yeah, great. Well, especially if my brain looks older than me. Let's make it look younger. Yes. Inflammation, we should check. Okay.

Genetics, talked about your dad. Your mom has hypertension. Somebody has hypertension. Yeah, my mom was a bit of a stress base. Yeah, some substance abuse. Brother, perhaps bipolar. Yeah, I think he was for sure. He was never, well, he was diagnosed

when he was really young, and then, I don't know if this is good or bad, but my dad said, you're not taking anything for it. And it just progressively got worse. It's bad. Yeah. And it just progressively got worse. As he got older. It's bad. If it was really true. Yeah.

And he did a lot of drugs in high school. He did a peyote trip and we, he had said it at the time, but he thinks it totally messed with his mind. Yeah. I know. I know. Sort of to the point. Yeah.

He was never quite the same. It's just risky. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's why I never did drugs because I'm like, why would I be out of control? You're smart. I think I was 10th grade and one of my best friends goes, oh, let's smoke this pot together. I'm like, are you insane?

That's not me. All my kids are like you. goes, oh, let's smoke this pot together. I'm like, are you insane? That's not me. My kids are like you. So I think what you want your kids to do. What? I think that's what you want your kids to do. Of course. Are you insane?

Are you? Of course. I am my oldest. Do you love your brain? I mean, I didn't know that I should love my brain. Well, right. It's not something you think about when you're young. Came a lot later.

Yeah. My oldest, I think, he says he never wants to drink or do drugs, which is great. I think just because he's seen other people around him and he realizes what they do. Well, and you have to ask yourself, why did Tom Brady play a brain damaging sport until he's 45?

Well, if you read his book, TB12, he did everything else right. Yeah, yeah. Which I did everything else right. Yeah. Yeah. Which I want to talk to you about, too. Just because my oldest is playing football. I want to know what things I can be doing to help him out. Golf is good. Great. I'll suggest that tennis.

Yeah, great. Table tennis is perfect. I'll get him into that. Yeah, great. I love that. Dancing playing game. Perfect. I'll get him into that. Yeah, great. I love that. Dancing. Okay, yeah. Except if you drink when you dance, it ruins the benefit. Yeah, he'll listen to me on that.

Perfect. I think you should have him watch Concussion. Yeah, not a bad idea, actually. I'm like, hey, I went and talked to Dr. Eamon. He's got 400 NFL brains and cool brains. Like, I had Dick Buccas's brain. Yeah. I went out and met him.

Your ex played for Chicago, and Dick's in the Hall of Fame. Oh yeah, I did a commercial with him, actually. He's awesome. He's great. Yeah, he did 800 hyperbaric sessions. Wow. He called me his brain savior. Wow, that's awesome. He's great. Yeah, he did 800 hyperbaric sessions. Wow. He called me his brain savior.

Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, I loved him. He died last year, I'm so sorry. Yeah, that's right. So sorry about that. Why not? Yeah, I mean, if you have a choice, don't hurt it. Yeah.

Right, you only get one. And it controls everything. Yeah. How you think, how you feel, how you act, how you get along with other people. It's the organ of love, of learning, of decision making and intelligence and it's soft. I mean this is really the thing to tell your son. Right. It's soft about the consistency of soft butter. Oh, really? Yeah. Wow. And it's housed in a really hard skull.

That if you look inside the skull, do you see the sharp bony ridges? Oh, yeah. This is not a good thing. Jeez. And so imagine every play you get hit. And the helmet doesn't protect against brain damage. It protects against skull fractures. And so every play your brain is doing this.

And so if you can imagine and you can being in the NFL where people are really big and they're really strong and they're really fast and the purpose is to tackle you. Right. Which means they're going to go after you and so inside your skull your brain is doing this and certain positions seem to be worse than others like offensive linemen because they get hit in the head all the time. But quarterbacks and defensive backs, they get big hits. I know that's the thing.

Because they're running fast. Maybe it's not as often but when they do they get divorced. Right. If you damage your brain you damage potentially the rest of your life. But I have active players. One signed an $80 million contract and I'm like, if you're going to play, you have to do everything else right. It's like, you have to read Tom Brady's book because he did everything else.

Right. Went to bed, didn't do drugs, ate clean. Right. No alcohol. No alcohol. Good supplements. Yeah. All of it.

Okay, yeah. Okay. So. That's what I'm gonna tell my son. And is your son big and strong and good and all those things? That's what I'm going to tell my son. And is your son big and strong and good and all those things? So he's in sixth grade and he's very little and because our school is so small we don't have a junior varsity team so he's playing against 6'5", 6'4", 8th graders and he's

half their size. Yeah. So I'm... I think it's okay to say no. I know. They just pulled him out the last game he didn't play because they were worried about his safety, which they should be because he's so small.

So hopefully he's not gonna play the rest of the season. Yeah. I think it's okay to try to get him interested in other things. Flag football. It's a gateway sport. I know. So I was at a conference in Orlando, Florida, the Future of Medicine conference, and a billionaire

there I was friends with, he said, my son really wants to play. What would you say? No. But he really wants to play. What would you say? No, but he really wants to. But he really wants to. And I hired him like an ex NFL player to be his coach. He said he really wants to. What if he said, Dad, I really want to do cocaine because the level of damage is about the same. Oh, that kills me. How were you when your brother died? Let's see.

It was almost nine years ago. So I was 28. So I had my daughter sailor on a Monday and my brother died that Friday. And it was the Friday after Thanksgiving. And what happened was, I'll and it was the Friday after Thanksgiving. And what happened was, I'll just give you the CliffsNote version, he was coming off of a bender, lived in Orange County with my dad, actually, in San Clemente.

He was driving to Chicago for Thanksgiving to come visit my mom and I and my family. And what we think happened was he pulled off in Utah and crashed his car. The airbag went off. He left his car running and his cell phone in the car. Because he was in this paranoia, he thought he was being followed, thought he was being chased. So he got out of his car, took off in the middle of nowhere in Utah.

And we think he ended up getting lost. He ended up dying of hypothermia. There were no drugs or alcohol in his system, but that was kind of like how it started, that journey to get there. And so that was almost nine years ago, and that was such a crazy time in my life because I had a newborn baby, and then my brother just died.

That's actually when I dislocated my elbow. So it was just this crazy time in my life. And so it was just, it was a really difficult time in my life. So. Yeah. Yeah. Besides your brother,

any other people with sort of serious mental health stuff? No, no. I don't know if you consider narcissism mental health, but my dad. Oh, of course. Okay, I do, but I don't know. But narcissism is I'm great, you're shit. So that's my dad.

I'm great. You're great if you believe everything I say. Yeah. Or if you find, if I can benefit you in one way, then I'm great. You're great if you believe everything I say. Yeah. Or if you find, if I can benefit you in one way, then I'm great. But only when you're bringing something to the table. Yeah. So that's, that's my dad. That's so hard. It was hard. I actually cut him out of my life about,

I guess it's been almost two years. Two years ago. He got physical with one of my words. I read this saying, I'm not sure if we posted it, but don't let your family of origin ruin the family you're creating. So I love that. That's ultimately what I did. Yeah. So, yeah.

Okay, because I'm just thinking of your son now. I'm gonna think about him all day long. It's if there's a vulnerability to mental health stuff. Because these things always stack. Yeah. Vulnerability to mental health stuff, multiple concussions. Okay, right.

Yeah. And he has a level of expectation From his dad that there's no way he's gonna live up to right, right so and it's one of the one of the curses I know of Being you know, I mean in their footsteps famous dad like that Yeah, so and that's the only way he feels connected to Jay too. So again, it's just sort of a dead end road. That's, it's challenging because it's never gonna be fulfilled. Right.

And I always say that's why God gave us parents so that they can help us make good decisions until our brain has developed. Right. Do you have COVID? I did. I had no symptoms. Wow.

Yeah. All right. So the take home. Yeah. You have a great brain. Still, it's older than you are because of some of the decisions you made when your brain wasn't finished developing. Yeah.

I want to make sure you're taking a really good multiple vitamin, high dose, high quality fish oil. I'm taking cod liver oil. Does that count? Okay. And a brain boost. That works in like six different ways. So I think that's the thing I'll add for you.

Along with focus and energy. These are for you. Okay, For you. Okay. Along with focus and energy. These are for you. Okay. Thank you. And then I'm going to put together your slides and I'll send them to you. Amazing. And then let's be friends. Let's do it.

Thank you. Questions? No. All my questions I'm going to ask you on my podcast. All right. Let's do it. This podcast is brought to you by the Change Your Brain Foundation, dedicated to ending the concept of mental illness by creating a revolution in brain health.

Go to changeyourbrain.org to learn how you can support our mission. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. Tana and I work really hard to provide free information that will make a meaningful difference in your life every day. Change your brain every day. If you liked it, please subscribe, leave us a review. And if you have a story of transformation

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