Change Your Brain Every Day - Q&A: The Truth About Coffee and Your Health

Episode Date: October 17, 2019

In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen are here to answer your questions. This week’s installment includes information on the ApoE4 gene and Alzheimer’s risk, combining supplements and medication, and the health ramifications of coffee. If you’d like your question answered on the Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, you can submit your questions at brainwarriorswaypodcast.com.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your 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 nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com. Welcome back. We've been talking about hyperbaric oxygen this week, and now we're going to read your questions. We love when you leave questions and also reviews.

So speaking of reviews, I'm going to read one right now from Belina K. If only the brain scan was a requirement for everyone, like the flu shot or multiple vitamin, oh, how happy this world would be. Thank you so much. I'm actually not a fan of flu shots. I'm not either, but multiple vitamins we're good with. Yeah, I want you to keep your immune system

as healthy as it can be. Now we'll probably get hate mail. I know, but let me take that back. If you are someone like your mother who can't afford to get sick, is very fragile, then I would probably consider it, but not for the average person. So we're doing questions today. And if there's one thing you learn, write it down, post it. We want to get the Brain Warriors way to as many people as we can. It's been growing, which makes us thrilled. Here's a question from Sheila V.

I have two APOE4s. So the apolipoprotein E gene, there are a couple of different types of it there's the e2 e3 and e4 e4 if you have one of them increases your risk of late onset alzheimer's disease um by about five percent Two copies actually increase it about 25%. Ouch. But isn't it still affected more by the choices you make? Well, let's read the question. I'm 62 years old. Is it too late to change my chances of Alzheimer's?

I've already went gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free. Awesome. I eat more primal except no dairy and honey. Awesome. I lean toward a keto diet. I exercise at least three to four times a week. I do weights, biking, and yoga. I feel I found out too late.

Thank you. Sheila V. I love what she's doing. And I absolutely don't believe it's too late. Thank you. Sheila V. Well, I love what she's doing. And I absolutely don't believe it's too late. I think as soon as you know that you want to become a brain warrior, you want to be armed, prepared, and aware because you are clearly in the fight of your life. So having double E4s, the apolipoprotein, and you can get it, you know, your doctor can order it. 23andMe, I think, will tell you about it. But isn't it also, what I would want to know is, like, what are your symptoms?

Like, if you don't have any symptoms yet, like, can't you can't you halt the progression from where she's at by her lifestyle and people who have two of the four genes um they have a 25 chance of getting it right but that means they have a 75 chance they'll not get it and so if i was sheila if i was you i would get scanned see where your brain is at uh lisa gibbons who's a friend of mine her mother and her grandmother died with alzheimer's disease and when she came to see me when she was 51 as she was going through a divorce her brain was clearly not healthy. I mean, it was headed

to the dark place, but she just did everything I asked her to do. Many of the things, Sheila, you're already doing. And 11 years later, her brain was better. So if I was you, I'd look, I'd come to one of our clinics or somewhere where they do spec scans or PET scans, I'd look at the blood flow and activity in your brain. If it's really low, I just ramp it up and be even more serious with the supplements, hyperbaric oxygen, all the things we talk about. You certainly should get my book, Memory Rescue. You should know, okay, what are my risk factors?

We talk about the bright minds risk factors a lot on the podcast. And you say you have the G, which is G is for genetics, but you want to know all the other risk factors you have and be serious as soon as possible. You're already serious. We're very proud of you. And I believe for you, especially, it is not too late to really push this thing off for as long as possible. So the next one. Did I hear you say some people with a sleepy brain should not drink coffee? Heather L. So let's talk about coffee.

We have this discussion. We have this discussion. So when I met you, I was drinking two pots a day. But I love coffee. I love the taste about coffee. We have this discussion. We have this discussion. So when I met you, I was drinking two pots a day, but I love coffee. I love the taste of coffee. I love the idea of coffee, but I don't want to drink too much caffeine.

But it does not. Right. Love you back. So what we do is we have, we brew it actually less than half calf. It's more like third or quarter calf. And then we use half almond milk so by the time we actually have the coffee it's like less than a quarter cap so it's

like very little very little of it is actually caffeinated coffee um and so that way i get the idea of the coffee it's more of a latte and it's you know and you can even do a decaf um but yeah so i like the idea of it but just try to get less caffeine or no caffeine or vote a green tea. So I have a patient recently who I convinced to go off caffeine. And it was a hard week for her. And I think she swore at me more than normal.

But she's so much better off of it. Everybody I've gotten off caffeine likes me more, not for the first week or two, but later because caffeine, the reason I don't like it is it constricts blood flow to the brain. It's addictive. That's why they have trouble going off of it. It increases your stress hormone. It decreases something called adenosine that tells you to go to sleep. And I'm just not a fan. I think the more you can do it with clean water, not tap water, as we found out, the better for you. So yes, decaf coffee has a lot of antioxidants in it. And so decaf organic coffee may be better.

There's another question. I'm curious what an anemic brain looks like and the problems it causes in a person's thoughts and decision-making. I love that question. Because SPECT is a study of blood flow and activity. So I scanned one of my friends from medical school, and her brain just looked terrible, like she was a drug addict. But I went to Oral Roberts University School of Medicine. We didn't have any drug addicts in our class. And if I didn't really know her, I'd be like sending her to the lab to get a drug test.

It turned out she had pernicious anemia, which is a B12 deficiency. And whenever you're anemic, you are getting less oxygen. So we talked about oxygen this week. You're getting less oxygen to your brain and you don't make good decisions. Your anxiety level goes up. You're tired. You need healthy blood flow in order to think right. Right. So several people I know, including myself, have had ferritin deficiencies. And when they are able to replace it with ferritin, which is a form of iron, it's like Lazarus effect. So everybody who is having cognitive issues or emotional issues should get your iron level checked.

It's one of the things we mention in Brain Warrior's Way and Omni Diet and your books in our assessment. Like all the time. Right, in our assessment. Right, you should get your ferritin, it's a measure of iron storage, checked. And if it's low, you should either eat more foods with iron in them, like spinach.

But if it's high, so yours tends to run low as many women do, especially if they have heavy periods because they lose blood. But if it's high, it promotes heart disease and aging. And mine's always been high. So I generally donate blood every year to keep my iron levels healthy. And here's the tricky part. A lot of women think that when they go through menopause or when they have a hysterectomy, they no longer need to supplement with ferritin. Turns out not to always be true. So you just need to get it checked. You need to check your blood. Don't assume that. One more. I want to make sure that I'm doing the right thing. I'm currently taking all of the type 8 targeted supplements

and brain and body power and the pro-brain biotic. My question is, I went to see a nurse practitioner who put me on Abilify. What I want to know is if brain type 8 would do better with just the supplements with Abilify or the way I've been doing it, which is all supplements, because he said for me to take Abilify at night. So here's my thought on supplements versus medicine. If you can do it with the supplements and you feel awesome, great. But if you really do the supplements in a targeted way and you need more help, then medication becomes an option. Now, seeing a nurse practitioner, here's my thought on Abilify. Abilify, like Risperdal, like Zyprexa, like Seroquel, they're anti-psychotic medications. And they have a boatload of side effects. And if you're psychotic, I'm like a huge fan.

I'll prescribe them for you because being psychotic has all sorts of side effects. But willy-nilly, it's the wrong word, but prescribing antipsychotics to people who are not psychotic just doesn't make sense to me. It is clearly not the first thing I would think is rational. We don't know if this person is psychotic or not. I don't know. She didn't tell us. Brain type 8. So those of you who haven't taken your brain type test, go to brainhealthassessment.com. And it's a self-report test. So take it with a grain of salt and talk to

a medical professional about it. But 8 generally means there's issues with anxiety and sadness and worry and focus problems. And so the supplements we recommend go to support those issues in the brain. We always think you should talk to a healthcare professional, but one who knows about supplements. So it won't just diminish them. That's why at Amen Clinics, we actually have two naturopaths working with us because they know about medicine, but they also know about supplements. And I would hope and sort of assume, and I shouldn't assume,

but hope that the nurse practitioner you're seeing who's putting you on the Abilify is at least a mental health or psychiatric nurse practitioner. All right. So is there something you learned? Please post it on any of your social media sites, hashtag BrainWarriorsWayPodcast. Leave your questions like these, great questions,warriorswaypodcast.com. Also leave us a review. Thanks so much.

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