Change Your Brain Every Day - Tana’s Advice on How to Prepare for a Medical Procedure

Episode Date: May 18, 2018

Having a major medical procedure is never fun. But going in prepared mentally and physically can make a world of difference. As Tana prepares to go in for a major surgery, she outline some of the preparations she has made to make recovery much easier.

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. We are going to talk about one of my favorite topics today, which is women. I have five sisters, three daughters, 14 nieces. I wrote a book called Unleash the Power of the Female Brain because I've been a huge fan.

Are you sure that number hasn't changed, the 14 nieces? It's probably more. And the granddaughters, I'm sure it's about to change. Oh, I'm going to have two granddaughters. Right. So I'm a huge fan. But you have something important coming up. I do.

I'm not going to be with you for a few episodes because, yeah. So one thing, I have this little bit of a pet peeve when, it's not a pet peeve. It's just a concern that I have. So we talk so much about eating healthy and living the right lifestyle to prevent illness. But there are times in your life, it's almost like society now has gone to this extreme where if you get sick or if you need surgery

or if something happens to you, people almost look at you like, well, you weren't taking care of yourself. Like I see this on my Facebook page sometimes. Well, that's because you did something that you were weren't taking care of yourself. Like I see this on my Facebook page sometimes. Well, that's because you did something that you were responsible for this happening to yourself. And the truth is you should never feel that way. You need to take care of yourself

and not feel bad about it because- So we are not opposed to good medicine. No, no. And there are times where you can do everything you can and you can prevent it most of the time, or you can maybe make it less invasive when you have to have something done but there's always gonna be times in your life where you've got to take care of your health so i'm gonna be gone um for a few episodes i am

saying i am divorcing some of my female parts while we are still on semi-amicable terms so it's genetic in my family all of the women have had to have hysterectomies. I am the oldest one. I made it the longest. It's been pretty severe for all of the women in my family. So for me, it's been bad, not nearly as bad as for some of the women, but lately it's gotten really bad. So a lot of people who have to have general surgery or general anesthesia, you know, we've seen on our imaging work that it's really not very good for your brain. Well, I've had nine.

I've been under anesthesia nine times for health issues. And so if that's you, no, you just should be doing everything else right. I mean, if you've had to have chemotherapy, I mean, please have chemotherapy so the cancer doesn't kill you. If you need surgery, otherwise you're going to bleed to death, please have chemotherapy so the cancer doesn't kill you. If you need surgery, otherwise you're going to bleed to death, please have the surgery. But what that means is

you should also be on a rehabilitation program the whole time so that if the anesthesia sort of gives a negative hit to your brain, you are repairing it. You're repairing it. And I believe we should always be on a detox program. I'm not a fan of two-week detoxes. Right. Just how you live. I think you should be living a detox program.

Right. Because we live in a toxic world, so with pollution and stuff like that. So, what are the things you want our listeners to know about when they face a big health? Well, I think if we're going to talk about women's health, let's talk about women's health first. Because it's such a common thing. Most of my listeners, at least on my page, are women. We have a lot of women that listen and pass it on. And if guys are listening, they're often connected.

They're often married or they have daughters. Right. So it's a really important topic because when when a woman's health begins to change and even if even if you're not facing you know what i'm facing a hysterectomy at this age our our hormones change so i've got a daughter daughter at puberty age and and i'm you know i was hoping to get to menopause you think that's one of god's little tricks you know it might be give you it might be. Give you teenage children during menopause. I think it was more my lack of planning than it was God's choice.

But, you know, the thing is that fortunately for me, because of what we do, I know so much about this. So I'm able to sort of circumvent. I know I would be on the evening news if I didn't know this information. I know that it would not be good. So there's a reason I'm not in jail or on the evening news if I didn't know this information. I know that you would not be good. So there's a reason I'm not in jail or on the evening news or, and it's because I have learned, I've taken the time to learn this. I don't want to be divorced.

And that's the reality is, is that this is the age when a lot of women file for divorce. Not men, it's mostly women. 75% of people who file for divorce are women. At this age. So I don't want that to happen. So I've taken this time to learn, well, what is it?

Why are the reasons? How do I stop it? I have never been happier in my life and I'm at that age. So we're okay. Is there something you need to tell me? Cause I just said I've never been happier. Okay.

Just checking. So we just want you to sort of know that, you know, it's an age that women's bodies begin to change pretty radically. And one of the big issues is this issue with not only menopause, but our uteruses. They just decide to go rogue. Yeah, they just go rogue. And I've got this fibroid tumor that's the size of a large orange or a small grapefruit or something like that. And it's pretty miserable.

So apparently I'm like the equivalent of four, four and a half months pregnant, something like that. It's pretty crazy. Yeah. But all the time. All right. So what practical things can women do when they're faced with health challenges? Well, get it checked. So I avoided it. I really didn't. I mean,

I get it. I'm not one to avoid getting checked. I avoided trying to do this. I've tried everything else. So, but, but really if it's going to affect your family, your quality of life, it began to affect the quality of life. Like I was really trying to avoid this and try to like get to menopause first. And I'm really like, I know you married me for this never ending source of material. And I don't know why I'm sharing so much right now, but, but really, if it starts to affect. This was not my idea, by the way. Well, I'm going to be gone. And I figure, you know. You want to let everyone know why you're going to be gone. And, and I just know a lot of women face this. So it just seems like more and more women I know are facing this for whatever reason, things like PCOS, women going into menopause earlier, polycystic ovarian syndrome,

going into menopause earlier, it's an issue now. Or having problems with fibroids, it's an issue now. It seems to be happening more and more. So I actually just had somebody write to me on my page about it. And a lot of people think that fibroids are a sign of cancer coming and they're not usually. So that's one thing to know is fibroid tumors are not normally, in fact, very, very rarely related to cancer. So, but they're very uncomfortable. They're very painful. So in a lot of cases. So it's one thing to really take into account, get them checked. You don't always have to have a hysterectomy. There are many other options. In my case, there's a lot of other reasons why I'm doing it. It was multifactorial.

So anyone who's facing surgery or has faced surgery, what are some practical tips to help them heal faster? Well, I think we've talked about it in our earlier episodes, and that is make sure that you're going in with reserve. So just like brain reserve, you want reason. So I was a nurse in an intensive care unit, and this is an extreme example, but it's a good example. The patients who did the best in an intensive care situation, whether it was a trauma or a burn or whatever, or the ones who came in with the most reserve. It means the ones who lived the healthiest lifestyle

going in, the ones who had the most muscle on their body, the ones who had the best blood sugar, right? The most stable blood sugar. They're the ones who were the most likely to live through a trauma or a severe burn situation and come out and a year later have them be back to the most normal lifestyle. Now that's an extreme situation, but in any situation,

you're more likely to have a more satisfactory recovery and heal more normally if your blood sugar is stable, if you have more muscle on your body, because you're gonna be down, you're not gonna be able to exercise, right? So you wanna be going in as healthy as possible. So mentally, like I know I meditate, I pray every day. Those things help me psychologically

because I don't like being down. I really don't like being down and not doing stuff. So there's actually a study, I talk about it in the new book I'm working on, "'Feel Better Fast and Make It Last." One hypnosis session decreased depression in patients who had open heart surgery. So just one. Yeah, I believe it.

And so getting your mind right is really important because the chronic stress of the chronic flood of stress hormones actually diminish your immune system and Make healing harder. Yeah, so so for those of you on brain fit life We have a number of hypnosis audios one for anxiety one for sleep one for pain So you made the peak performance one for me initially, yes, I did. You did for my black belt test. Because I love you. Yes, it was awesome. So I'm like addicted to meditation and prayer.

Because my joy, my level of joy and happiness and coping and stress are just so much. I'm just so much happier as a person when I do that. And knowing that I'm going to be down. That I'm not going to be able to move as much for those few weeks. So getting your food right. Getting your sleep right, getting your level of stress right, getting your mind right. Even imagine, I had this thought yesterday. I had an appointment with my dad at his orthopedic and his orthopedic doctor was so traditional.

And it just, I remember how much it irritated me. And when I was interviewing, when I, to go to medical school, I was really excited about visual imagery and how imagery could boost your immune system. And so I talked about it in one of my medical school interviews, and I didn't get into that medical school because I was talking to an orthopedic doctor who was just looking at me like I had crystals or some woo-woo, no science nonsense. But we know that is in fact not true, that mindset is absolutely critical when you have a major health challenge.

Well, there's a reason that the Olympic teams have coaches that do nothing but visualization. They work on visualization, like meditation and visualization for Olympic athletes, which are highly important to their teams, right? They're investing a lot in these athletes because when athletes visualize the outcome, they're more likely to achieve it. So even with your body, when you visualize it, you're more likely to, it's more likely to turn out better. So we know, I mean, we know that. They've actually done studies on it.

All right, so if you are facing a health challenge like Tana, you want to be a brain warrior, which means you want to be arm prepared and aware and do the right thing so you can heal better, faster. I mean, no one's figured out how to not die, right? And so all of us will face medical issues at some point. Don't feel bad. Don't feel guilty. Just take care of it in the smartest way you can. And through the process, make sure you take care of yourself. 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.