Change Your Brain Every Day - One Traumatic Brain Injury Can Ruin Your Life and Here’s How

Episode Date: April 10, 2018

Did you know that your brain is about the consistency of soft butter, and that it’s housed in a skull with sharp, bony ridges? There’s no way around it: our brains are fragile and easily damaged. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen discuss the major risk factors for brain injury, as well as what to do if you’ve already had one.

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. There was a new study that I pulled to evaluate this. So the study wanted to evaluate whether having a history of a brain injury was associated with Alzheimer's disease. And it tripled the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

People really just don't get it. Your brain is soft about the consistency of soft butter. I didn't even know that. I know, because we think of it as being, like if you've gone to any sort of anatomy physiology classes in medical or nursing school, you think of it as this rubber ball. So as a nurse, did you ever do anatomy on cadavers?

Not on cadavers, no. But we did see brains in formaldehyde. And so you think of it as this rubber ball. Firmed, fixed, and rubbery. Right. Right. And Irma was my best friend. I mean, for a year, she was my cadaver.

Right. She's 84. She's very cute. Right. I got to see her. I got, for a year, she was my cadaver. Right. She's 84. She's very cute. Right. I got to see her. I got to really know her on the inside. Right. Well, and I did do Elmo.

Elmo was a cat. And even though it was a cat, the brain was very rubbery. Right? So. Yeah. And that's what happens to it when it's firm, fixed in formaldehyde. But when I started our brain imaging work in 1991, I'm like, these brains are hurt. And then one of my friends who's a neurosurgeon said, did you know the brain is

really the consistency of soft butter? That's amazing. Tofu, custard, somewhere between egg whites and jello. In fact, toothpaste is another thing they've described. And when a neurosurgeon goes into your brain, he has to be very careful with the suction because he doesn't want to suction a part of the tissue. Right. I've actually been in neurosurgery. Because I'm a neurosurgical ice unit nurse. I've been in a couple of-

And you work for Medtronics. Right. Doing deep brain stimulation. And so the mapping is very precise, but you have to be very, I've seen them very careful with suction. And when you actually freshly harvest a brain, there's actually some very cool videos online. And you take that brain that's just taken out of someone's skull and put it on the table. It actually begins to fall. Oh, interesting.

Toward the table. It's really interesting. So your brain that makes you who you are, your brain is involved in everything you do, how you think, how you feel, how you act, how you get along with other people. Your brain is the organ of loving, learning, and behavior. It's the organ of intelligence, character, personality, and every single decision you make. And when it works right, you work right. And when the brain is troubled, you have trouble in your life. Well, I mean, just think about they used to do lobotomies. Come on.

I mean, it should be fairly obvious. Do you know how they did those? No. Through the nose. No, through the eyes. Through the upper wall. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on. I mean, it should be fairly obvious. Do you know how they did those? No. They would actually... Through the nose or the... No, through the eyes. Through the upper wall...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. ...of your orbits... They would go up through the eye, yeah. ...above your eye. So they'd take an ice pick... Right through. Yeah. And so make a little hole, put an ice pick up there, wiggle it around, sever many of

the tracks between your frontal lobes and your emotional brain. And for some people, it was actually helpful. The guy that discovered it won the Nobel Prize. Now, what they found out later is it just flattened people's personalities so you were no longer yourself anymore and that we have a whole bunch better ways to deal with people who get out of control um i mean isn't that kind of making a zombie like creating a zombie but you know better for than someone who so maybe the zombie apocalypse is not really what we think of it we're going to do a

bunch of lobotomies like on people back on track your brain is soft your brain creates who you are it's housed in a really hard skull that has many sharp bony ridges all of that to say your brain is easily damaged and many people are walking around with the chronic effects of traumatic brain injury. I was on the radio this morning and a professional football player actually called in and said, my memory's problematic. What should I do? And here at Amen Clinics, we did the world's largest study on active and retired NFL players. And what you just,

okay, so here's the plan. You have to prevent it to start, right? It's like the same with toxins. The first thing to do is decrease exposure. The first thing with head injuries is limit them. Stop doing what you're doing. Which means do not let children hit soccer balls with their head. Do not let them play tackle football. We hired a new employee and her son's playing tackle football. And she goes, but I wouldn't want to tell him no. I don't understand that. To decide that on his own.

And I looked at her. In my head, I'm sort of screaming at her. But I'm not screaming at her, obviously, because I have good frontal lobe function that prevents me from acting inappropriately. Most of the time, right? Let's clarify. And so I'm screaming at her inside my head. But I just looked at her and I said, because he's 15, I said, well, what if he came home and said, hey, mom, I want to do cocaine. Will you get me a drug dealer?

Would you get me a drug dealer? And she'd go, no, that would not be OK. I would tell him no. OK, so I've done over a thousand scans on cocaine addicts. I've done over a thousand scans on people who've played football at some level. And the level of damage is about the same. It's not a good thing. And in the United States, 2 million people every year have a reported new brain injury. And so there's so many that never get reported. But that means if you just believe that number over the last 40 years, there are 80 million people walking around. So a quarter of the population with the chronic effects of traumatic

brain injury. You know, what you talked about, though, is a big issue because a quarter of the population with the chronic effects of traumatic brain injury. You know, what you talked about, though, is a big issue because a lot of this happens at that age because parents start to step back. And, you know, we have the there's got to be a better way for parents to sort of get involved at this level. We have this philosophy that you give kids the most control over their lives that is safe and age appropriate. Let me repeat that. That is safe and age appropriate for the stage that they're at, right?

So you want them to make as many decisions as possible for what is safe and age appropriate. And you set boundaries. And there are some things, so for example, so for my daughter, it's like, give her all of the leeway and room that we can to make these decisions until she comes up against something where it's not okay.

She wants to go somewhere at night, walk down a street, whatever. It's like, not gonna happen. And so when I say it's not gonna happen, she knows it's not gonna happen because I do give her a lot of control. When I put my foot down, it's a no, and that's it. And there is no arguing about it.

But you give them as much room as you can that is safe and age-appropriate. And you have to get clear in your head that it's not safe. If you don't actually believe that, then you're not going to do that. It's not safe. So what part of that do we not understand? But the dad often will jump in and say, well, I played football and I'm fine. But they didn't have the information. And the mother is often rolling her eyes going, no, you're not fine.

You could be better. Your brain dead. Your brain dead. Your brain injured. But, you know, hey. All right. So what do you do? So if traumatic brain injury is a significant contributor to Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, what do you do? Okay. So you decrease exposure. You say no to texting and

driving. You say no to skiing without a helmet and people go, oh, I'm not going to be a nerd. It's like, you know, I'm here to tell you even the helmet on is going to damage your brain if you have a bad fall. But at least you'll survive. And you won't crack your skull. You're less likely to crack your skull. So even texting and walking because people are just getting into more accidents than ever before. Aslan, who you've heard us talk about on the show, is our white shepherd who's gorgeous. But he doesn't get it.

He's like a two-year-old. That if he leaves his toys out, that I could trip. And, you know, if something bad happens to me, something bad's going to happen to him. I don't think he really cares because he doesn't understand. He doesn't care. So that means I have to be thoughtful and turn on the light when I, you know, walk into a room rather than think I know where everything is just because I think I can remember it. So being careful to prevent head injuries. And then put the brain in a healing environment much like i talk about in memory rescue and that's what i told the football player on the phone it's like

in our nfl study we taught people to love their brains what are the things to avoid marijuana is not going green alcohol is not a health food avoid other other head injuries. Avoid a pro-inflammatory diet. Probably one of the most important things. Get the Brain Warriors Way cookbook because you can eat great, but the food will love you back. It's good for you and it tastes great. So love your brain, avoid things that hurt it, and then do things that help it. In our NFL study, high dose fish oil, great multiple vitamin, a brain boost that works in multiple mechanisms. So we're really nourishing,

putting the brain in a healing environment. For some of our players, we put them in a hyperbaric chamber, some had neurofeedback, but 80% of our players showed improvement. Awesome. Traumatic brain injury, a major cause of dementia. Prevent it, but if you've had one, get really serious about rehabilitation.

After we record our podcast today, I'm actually going to see somebody well-known who's in his 70s who had really bad traumatic brain injury. You can so see it. But the exciting news, if I can get him to be super serious about his health, there are improvements to be made. So we don't want you to, if you've had a traumatic injury, we want you to be anxious about it. We want you to care about it. We want you to be serious about it, but we want you to have hope that it can be better if you do the right things.

And if you have any questions about it. Well, apparently I've had one. Go to amenclinics.com, call the clinics. We would love to help you. So when we first met, like, have you ever had a brain injury? Because I saw your scan and I could actually see on the left side that it looked like you had. Yeah, but I'm a neurosurgical ICU nurse.

When you see brain injuries in the hospital, they're like serious brain injuries. We remove people's skull, part of their skull. We put drains in their brain. All right. So tell me about the little tiny brain injury you had after I asked you 10 times. The one that I didn't lose consciousness with? Right.

What happened? I didn't lose consciousness. I walked away. What happened? I was in a car accident. My sister fell asleep. So you remember, brain is soft, skull is hard. Yes, I know.

Skull has sharp bony ridges. I know the anatomy. How old were you? 25. Okay. You're in a car. Your sister's driving. 75 miles an hour.

Your sister who had 19 accidents because she has the Erlen syndrome. We should talk about the Erlen syndrome with you. She falls asleep, swerves, swerves, overcorrects, flips the car two and a half times, lands on its hood. But I got out and walked away by some miracle. Smashed the roof. Right. And if you weren't laid back in your seat, you would have been dead instantly. And then I wouldn't be tortured by you.

I'm so sorry about that, not. I would be very unhappy. Yes. But you asked me like repeatedly. Okay, but let's just get the physics down of this. Your brain is going 70 miles an hour, right? Because as the car is going 70 miles, you're in it. Your brain is going 70 miles an hour.

And then all of a sudden it flips two and a half times and stops. Yeah. So 70 miles an hour, your soft jello like custard like brain is going down the highway. All of a sudden it stops inside your skull. It is slamming up against the front, up against the back, up against the front because it's in a closed space. Like shaken baby. It's shaken baby. It's 70 miles an hour.

And because you don't lose consciousness, you think it's not a big deal. And oh, FYI, no one bothered checking for a concussion. No one bothered because I walked away. And your depression, I know, happened with thyroid. Was before that or after that? It was before that. Well, that didn't help. Didn't help it.

For sure. Yeah. But yet, you remain awesome. But it's amazing how much you learn. It's amazing how much you learn. But I learn, and here I'm part of the medical community, head injuries are not necessarily something that happens when you have neurosurgery in part of your skull removed. That's not necessarily how it goes. They can can be much more you know um mild is not the word um but you know what i'm trying to say they can happen without all of you know without being

so obvious and you don't have to lose consciousness to have a bad brain injury consciousness is a brainstem phenomenon the big biggest case you, my most famous case in neurosurgical literature is Phineas Gage, who, you know, got an iron rod stuck through his frontal lobe, blasted through his frontal lobe, and he didn't lose consciousness. Right. But it changed the rest of his life. Right. Yeah.

Your brain can be better, even if you've been bad to it. 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.