Change Your Brain Every Day - Marijuana vs. Alcohol

Episode Date: March 8, 2018

Neither alcohol nor marijuana is good for you in larger doses, but when it comes to smaller amounts, which is actually worse for your health? In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen weigh in on the effects that alcohol and marijuana can have on your brain and body.Neither alcohol nor marijuana is good for you in larger doses, but when it comes to smaller amounts, which is actually worse for your health? In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen weigh in on the effects that alcohol and marijuana can have on your brain and body.

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. Welcome back. So today we're going to talk about a very controversial topic, marijuana versus alcohol. I know everyone gets so wound up over this topic, but before we do, I want to just remind people that we are offering a 10% discount if you use the code at the end of

the podcast. The goal of this is to get people to share the podcast. Yes, you could just share the code, but that just share the code, but that defeats the purpose of you sharing this information with someone you love to help them get healthy. We're trying to help you in this journey to get the people you love healthy so you have a bigger community of healthy people. So, and when we came up with the topic, marijuana versus alcohol, it's because there's new research showing how marijuana actually damages the structure of the brain's integrity. But then there was yet another study that showed alcohol was person to do. So I think of it almost as the Joker versus Lex Luthor. Yeah, I know initially you said Batman and Superman. I'm like, no, they're good guys. You can't use that.

Well, and many people think of them as good guys and in small doses in certain circumstances they can be okay the problem is this one small people think of alcohol as a health right and marijuana as medicine and our experience here at Amen Clinics is neither one of them are really great for you. And so we just, we wanted to talk about it in a really balanced way. 26 states have legalized marijuana. In 10 states, it's actually legal for the diagnosis of dementia. And I published a study. So confusing.

Last year on a thousand pot smokers. And we showed virtually every area of the brain is lower in blood flow, especially the hippocampus. The hippocampus is that seahorse-shaped structure that helps process memories and your mood. And it was significantly lower in people who smoked pot versus people who didn't. We're actually, I haven't told you this yet, but we're working on a new aging study. And people who smoke marijuana, their brain age on average was three years older than people who didn't smoke marijuana. So is there a time when marijuana may in fact be a research-based treatment for a number of disorders?

Yes, I think that's true. And now that it's legal in a number of states, there will be more research and more research funding. The hope is it's not going to be the kind of marijuana that most people got before that was raised with pesticides, that was cut with other toxins. But at the moment, we're not fans, except in certain situations.

Our father-in-law died of pancreatic cancer and lymphoma. He was blessed with two cancers at once, which was pretty crazy. It was crazy. Severe pain at the end of life. He was in severe pain at the end of his life. Yeah, they gave him morphine. Nothing worked except for the medical marijuana worked. Yeah. So, I mean, we're huge fans of him in that situation. He was in hospice care. It's like give him what he needs. And I am a huge fan of it being legal.

I am not. Why? Because putting potheads in jail is a bad idea. Sleep deprive them, chronically stress them, give them terrible food, and then let them hang out with people who do seriously bad things. It is a bad use of our resources, but let's not say it's good for you. So... I'm not a fan, just to be clear. And why are you not a fan given my very rational argument that I just laid out? Because I don't think it's rational. Oh. So now let me back up a

minute. I grew up in a home because people are thinking I'm just like, just a witch right now. I grew up in a home with excessive drug abuse. So not my mother, to be clear, but there was excessive drug abuse around me. So I'm a bit intolerant just FYI you know I've not seen it really enhance many people right but for example like our father-in-law who died that's medical use that he used it medically it was completely appropriate that was met and it was helpful but it was medical. And it was helpful. But it was medical. To decrease his suffering when he died. Now my... He was clearly not as cognitively intact. So I had to spend over a year going back and forth to Oregon for

some family issues for a family member. Don't want to get into why, but I was spending time up there where it is not only legal, it is just everywhere. And the level of homelessness, unemployment, and the big thing, the number of kids taken out of the home, it just was sickening to me. So we're going to get a lot of hate mail. I don't care. I'm not really trying to be popular. Okay. I'm just saying. So from a brain perspective, we've seen it's not helpful. It does not help your brain work better, grow better, and so on. But neither does alcohol. Right.

And, you know, for so long, and it was totally not popular because I've been saying alcohol is not a health food for many, many years. And I'm going to be really honest. You got me to change my perspective because I didn't know that. Okay. So I don't have a problem with alcohol. So I thought, well, it's legal. It's not a big deal. I don't drink and drive. So I'm a responsible person who can drink a glass of wine and having one every night. Well, it's supposedly good for you. I actually didn't realize that. You got me to change my perspective.

And the reason besides the obvious one that when you work in an emergency room, you see a lot of problems with alcohol. You see the effects of drunk drivers. You see domestic violence. You see people making really bad decisions. You recently said tequila is one of the- Should come with a warning label that it may cause pregnancy. Yes.

That it may cause pregnancy. Yes. Right? Because it's all about decision making. Yes. And then if you put on top of that, according to a study from Johns Hopkins, people who drink every day have smaller brains. And when it comes to your brain, size matters.

And then on top of that, it increases the risk. There's a direct correlation between the amount you drink and seven different kinds of cancer, including mouth cancer, throat cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, uterine cancer. And then it's like I'm married to a nurse. Why do nurses put alcohol on your skin? To kill bacteria. Before they give you a shot, it's to kill bacteria. Well, you have a hundred trillion bacteria in your gut that help make neurotransmitters and drinking alcohol disrupts healthy gut

bacteria. So, you know, we don't need to say one is good. Both of them are not your friend. And I've seen the devastation of both in my family, so I get that. And, you know, personally, when I saw that evidence, I'm like, oh, not a good idea. And it was easy for me. But it's not easy for everybody. You should never have a drink. If you go to a wedding and you have champagne, or if you have one or two a week, it's not a problem. Drinking every day, what I've seen on the imaging work we do, it's a problem and it's associated to a smaller brain.

We want you to fall in love with things that are good for you. We keep talking about our nieces that we sort of adopted and there's this phrase I have drilled into their head. You only want to be in love with things that love you back. And at least from what I've seen on the brain imaging work and the clinical work we've done over the last three decades here at Amen Clinics, neither alcohol or marijuana love you back. 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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