Change Your Brain Every Day - Violent Video Games: What are the Effects?

Episode Date: November 28, 2019

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen answer some of your questions. This week’s installment covers such topics as video game violence, hypothyroidism, histamine intolerance, and the differences between samE and serotonin mood support. 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. This is the Q&A section of our podcast this week. And we've been talking about the holidays and how to stay healthy, how to eat like a brain warrior and pass on the gift of health. But in this episode, we're going to answer some of your

questions. And one of the reasons we love going to answer some of your questions. And one of the reasons we love to get your questions and your comments is because it enters you in a raffle to get a cookbook. So this is the cookbook that you will get. We've been talking about this, especially for the holidays. It not only makes a great gift, but there's a section in here on how to be healthy for the holidays. So for this week, the winners are Sheila from Grand Junction, Colorado, Randall from Lake Wales, Florida, Valerie from Henderson, Nevada, and Natalia from Point Roberts, Washington. So congratulations. We are so excited.

Thank you so much for sending in your questions and your comments. And to enter the drawing, all you have to do is leave a review on Apple Podcast, preferably a positive one. Go to our website and ask us your questions. Leave us your comments, anything interesting you have. And go to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. Visit the review page for details. It will explain to you what to do.

Well, we're so excited. And there are lots of questions. So the first one, what are your thoughts about the effects of violin video games on the brain? They wear out your pleasure centers. There's actually a great book about this by my friend Archibald Hart called Thrilled to Death. And it's the more you push on the pleasure centers, you know, when you blow up things, that ultimately you get depressed. And it wears them out over time. These games can be addictive.

They also decrease frontal lobe function, which means they're going to decrease your empathy. When you're used to killing, and the brain, I was talking to Chloe about this this week because she did a very intense acting job. For two hours. And I'm like, the brain doesn't know the difference. That she was screaming and crying. Between fantasy and reality.

And I remember last night we were watching Poldark, which is a television show from PBS that we're watching. It's great. And a baby died. And I'm like, I'm not going to cry. I'm not going're watching. It's great. And a baby died. And I'm like, I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry. But I cried. Because the brain has problems separating fantasy from reality.

And so putting a developing brain in the middle of violence, just a bad idea. Well, and there's another book by Colonel David Grossman, and it talks about violent video games and how actually the military developed one of their first simulators based on a Nintendo, one of the violent video games, because what they started to notice, they were actually studying school shooters and not just school shooters, but, but active shooters that would, these kids who had never picked up a weapon before, but suddenly could pick up a weapon, walk into a group of moving people. You know how hard it is to hit a moving target and hit them like in a dead on, like with that perfect

of a shot. And what they noticed was like, they're like, why we have trained people, trained military, trained police officers. And it's not that easy to do. Why are these kids able to do this? And they've never picked up a weapon before because they were spending hours and hours and hours perfecting it. And they were by simulation. And so, and it also desensitized them. So they were being desensitized and perfecting it at the same time. And the military went, bad idea for them, good idea for us. And so they actually developed a simulation program based on it. So that should tell you something. Can you do this one?

Yep. So I'm a 15-year-old female diagnosed with hypothyroid and then- What did I say? 15. Oh, cut. Okay. I'm a 55-year-old female diagnosed with hypothyroid and then later diagnosed with Hashimoto's. I take levothyroxine daily that may be adjusted every six weeks based on the blood test results.

What can I do to cure or relieve this disease and a few symptoms such as feeling cold most of the time and feeling sleepy? I'm in great shape. I am physically active and have recently dropped 15 pounds on the Lendora program, which my endocrinologist told me would be difficult to lose weight. What can a person do to correct the brain to cure the remedy of the disease? Thank you very much from Elisa. Okay. Well, that's something I know a lot about. So hypothyroid, hyperthyroid, I've been at both ends of the spectrum. I totally get this. And it's miserable. I actually had Hashimoto's as well. So I feel your pain. They say that, you know, having thyroid disease won't kill you, but it'll just make you wish you were dead if it's bad enough. So I totally get it. Especially the fatigue. If you're hyperthyroid, you can be wired, tired. But I don't mean like a little wired and tired. I mean like, like just miserable. You

can't sleep at night and then you're miserable during the day. Hypothyroidism can cause depression, severe fatigue, make your muscles ache. It's really bad. Your hair will fall out. So lots of problems with it. And hyperthyroidism will also cause your heart to race. So there's just so many problems that occur when your thyroid is not right. Every cell in your body needs your thyroid to be optimized. Let's it that way so good for you for getting it checked following it and going to a doctor what i will say it's critical i really hope you've researched this doctor and that this doctor's good because i've actually had two doctors that i thought were trying to kill me um so in retrospect yes in retrospect so i, in retrospect. So I was never right. I just, I was so miserable. I

just, I couldn't figure it out. And when I finally found the doctor I have now, I actually fly to San Francisco. Now I only have to fly up there once a year, thank God. But it was worth that just so that I didn't feel like I was dying all the time. So this guy was amazing. He finally got my medication, right? He checks everything and optimizes my T4, my T3, my TSH. I mean, everything, because I've had thyroid cancer multiple times. So really critical you go to the right doctor and that your thyroid levels are not normal. They are optimal. As far as what can you do, that's really a complicated question. So one thing that we actually found with Chloe's teacher is that when she got rid of gluten, it really- Well, especially if it's autoimmune. If it really is Hashimoto's- You've got to ask yourself, why is your immune system attacking- And there are a ton of studies online you can actually read about the effects of autoimmune and gluten. So highly recommended. If your doctor's worth their salt,

they're going to probably tell you that there's, you know, even Western medicine doctors now, there's so many studies on the effects of gluten and autoimmune disorders that you just got to pay attention to it. So try it. Try going gluten-free for a couple of weeks and see what happens. And in the end of mental illness that's coming out in a couple of months, there's a whole section on autoimmunity and the brain and hormones and the brain and how they often will interact together. All right. I have a question. I was wondering if you can do a topic on histamine intolerance and what is the right diet? I don't have it, but a friend of mine was recently diagnosed and was given a food list. I just want to know.

From Rowena, it is a real thing and causes people incredible stress and physical symptoms, coughing, rash, pain, that going on a typically healthy diet is actually not the right thing. Because as we implied earlier, tomatoes can cause excessive histamine release. Avocados, which we talk about all the time, which are really great, brain healthy, but not if you have histamine intolerance. Wine. Wine. Yeah. Certain cheeses. Especially red wine. Certain fermented foods. So there's a lot about it online, but it is clearly a real thing. And we'll think about doing a week on that. And we'd highly recommend you

talking to an actual nutritionist for that because they actually have very specific diets. They can really help you walk you through that. But it can give you migraines. It can give you all sorts of problems. Been enjoying the podcast. I found the nutritional ones informative, especially with Dr. Kidd as he answered many of his questions.

Dr. Kidd said that SAMe was a really good supplement to take for mood. However, you also make serotonin mood support. Why would one take one over the other if SAMe is thought of that way for mood? Great question. From Mindy. Great question. And what I've found is that SAMe is really good to stimulate your brain. More like a dopamine type of reaction, right? If you tend to be sad and tired and have brain fog and you need a stimulant, that SAMe is actually really good. It's also good for pain. And so if you have pain, tiredness, and a low mood, SAMe is good. So if you're one of our type fours,

we recommend SAMe. If, however, you're a type three, which is worried, rigid, inflexible, things don't go your way, you get upset, SAMe can actually make you a little bit more worried and more anxious. Serotonin mood support is to help calm the brain for the sadness that goes with worry and inflexibility. Yeah, I really like this question. Because if you listen to our podcast regularly, you heard the episode where I talked about when I was put on Prozac.

It was not a good combination. And you had mentioned to me when we were dating and I got scanned, you're like, oh, I hope no one ever put you on Prozac when you were depressed. And I'm like, oh, okay. Because what happened was I suddenly became very impulsive and lacked judgment, right?

I mean, it really was a bad, bad choice for me. When I, for some reason, I decided to try serotonin mood support one time when I was under stress, I felt drunk. Like I literally felt drunk. Like I was walking, and then I realized- So you liked that completely on your own

without consulting? I totally did, because I was anxious. And I'm like, oh, maybe this will help. And then I realized, oh, this is doing the same thing to me. I mean, I put it together quickly that this is doing the same thing, that same feeling that I got.

God didn't end up in Costa Rica. So it was making me feel the same way that Prozac made me feel. But when I took SAMe, I felt better. I felt more aware, awake, energized, motivated, didn't feel anxious, felt good. I felt good. No, I took 1,200 milligrams of our Sammy. And I don't really take it for mood because, as you often say, I have Mickey and Minnie dancing in my head. Yeah, no.

But I have arthritis in my knees, and it just helps my knees so that I can walk four or five miles every day. That is the problem. That is why you're the way you are. Now I understand it. It's the Sammy. Dear Lord. We are so grateful for you. As we're coming at the end of Gratitude Week,

write down three things you're grateful for every day. Within three weeks, you'll notice an increased level in your happiness. We are happy you are one of our brain warriors. What did you learn today? Leave a comment, question, or review on brainwarriorswaypodcast.com and post what you learned on any of your social media sites and hashtag brainwarriorswaypodcast. And we will enter you into our raffle to win the cookbook thank you happy holidays 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 and while you're

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