Change Your Brain Every Day - These Jobs are Toxic: The Lessons We Learned from 9/11

Episode Date: September 11, 2019

Our first responders often operate in the most toxic environments, but, until recently, little or no effort has been made to keep those toxins contained. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Dr. Nancy Bohl-Penrod discuss the lessons learned by the first responder community after 9/11 and the steps that are being taken to improve conditions.

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're having this great discussion with Dr. Nancy Bull Penrod, psychologist and expert in serving the first responder community.

And Nancy, one of the reasons I wanted to have you on is I have this huge heart for not only veterans, but first responders. I was a veteran and as an infantry medic, a first responder. And as we've looked at their brains here over the last 30 years, I see three patterns. I see emotional trauma, because almost all of them have it when you talk to them about their histories, if they've been on the job for any length of time. We see their emotional brains stirred up, which may be why they drink more, because they

want to calm it down. I see toxic exposure, not so much in the police officers, but definitely in the firefighters, inhaling carbon monoxide, cyanide from burning furniture. Their brains do not look healthy overall. It looks like they're being poisoned. And then physical trauma to the brain, and that could be the falls that they've had during their career. And so emotional trauma, physical trauma, toxicity, which all by itself is going to give you issues with depression, PTSD, anxiety, panic. And when a masculine driven i don't want to say macho but i sort of do because that's clearly in the veteran uh group that that i served with and that i've treated um is they don't like to say i'm sad sad. And it comes out more of them being, as you said, short-tempered, irritable. And depression in guys is very different than depression in girls, because a girl will say, I'm sad and cry. A boy or a man will often say, I'm not depressed, but they're really irritable and negative.

I agree. Are first responder departments even thinking about toxic exposure? Oh, boy. I think they are more so now than they did before. And I actually, I mean, this is just my take on it. But now when you're talking about toxicity, you're talking about hazmat material, stuff like that? Yes, but even just normal fighting a fire that the carbon monoxide and the poisons released, and yes, they have masks on while they're fighting the fire, but as soon as they're done, they take it off. And the particulate matter in the air is still very high and still very toxic to them. And unfortunately, in New York City, we're seeing the fallout, what were 18 years later of 9-11 and the elevated incidence of mental health challenges and physical challenges is just rampant among first responders?

I think 9-11 has changed some things regarding that. And I do know that I went to 9-11 with six FBI agents and I was in Manhattan, but I didn't go down to the digging site at the building, but I was in Manhattan that had a lot of debris and smoke. They stayed there. I was there for about a week. I had left the Pentagon, came back to California. They stayed there. Well, we now have three that have died from lung disease, one from brain cancer, and they did attribute it to 9-11. Now, one of the things I found out about that was this. They had their cars. So the FBI gave them a a car they stayed in one of them used that car for 10 years and inside the car was everything you're talking about in the seats in the console everything from 9-11 from the air was in the the. And when they started looking and testing what they were expecting the firefighters to still use their equipment, their clothing, all of that, somebody

said, wow, maybe this is what's causing some of the problems is because we're expecting them to be exposed to these chemicals over and over and over again. And we've never looked at how it impacts them. I have a fire department who made a decision that they would not sleep with their turnout gear right next to their bed because they would work a fire, come back, put their turnout gear, work a fire, come back, put their turnout gear. And they realized that's right next to them sleeping the whole time while they were sleeping with that next to them, that it was impacting them. So they now spray their turnout gear and put it away and they don't have it right next to their bed. So I think you're absolutely correct on the new awareness. So I think it's getting better is my thoughts.

Well, and the first way to deal with it is to decrease exposure. So to teach them to keep their equipment on longer so they're not breathing in that particulate matter I love that they don't keep their soiled equipment next to them and and then support the four organs of detoxification so kidneys drink more water God eat more fiber liver kill the alcohol because alcohol decreases your livers ability to do its job of detoxifying the body and then sweat more with exercise and taking saunas and that's it's not hard. You just have to set aside the time to do that on a regular basis. But dealing with the physical toxins, it's just crucial. great story from your practice that you can share of someone who's had a mental health issue and how you've helped them? I mean, I have a lot of them, but probably when you said that,

the one that came to mind the most to me is somebody that wanted to quit the job, wanted to get divorced, was totally overdoing the drinking, and actually didn't want to live any longer. And the reason why I smiled when you said that was because he had given up. And about two weeks ago, he actually reached out to me and said there was a incident that occurred. He was telling me about how he handled it. And he said, and I just want you to know I'm getting ready to retire. And he said that he had spent 31 years and that he was still sober, still with his wife and family. And he wanted me to know because he was

getting ready to retire that he felt I played a part in it. And I mean, I know I played a part in it, but he's the one that had to make all the changes. Right. But it makes us feel good that we matter, right? I mean, that's why they go into their job to be first responders, because they want to matter. And I think those of us that are therapists and physicians and helpers, you know, it serves, we're happy when we are purposeful. And it's not true for everybody, but it's certainly true for the temperaments that serve other people. When we come back, we're going to talk about EMDR and how EMDR can help first responders overcome trauma. Stay with us. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe so you'll always know when there's a new episode.

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