Change Your Brain Every Day - When Your Weight Goes Up, Your Brain Does This

Episode Date: July 8, 2020

One of the biggest risk factors for brain illness is a phenomenon called diabesity, which is when your weight and blood sugar levels get out of control. So what exactly does diabesity do to an otherwise healthy brain? In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen tackle this and another major contributor to brain health issues, neurohormone deficiencies. This episode features content from The End of Mental Illness live class event from earlier this year. To take The End of Mental Illness Brain Health Revolution 6 Week Class and Challenge, visit https://endofmentalillness.com/brainhealthchallenge/

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. Hi, this is Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. We're so excited you're with us for this week's series. What we're doing is we're playing the live class from the end

of mental illness. We wanted you to join us on this journey because we had such a good time in our class. And the people who joined us had just saw such incredible transformation that we wanted to share the challenge with our tribe. So we wanted to share this with you. And we hope that you will join us in the challenge. The N in Bright Minds is neurohormone deficiencies. When your hormones are low, you don't feel right. So is that a mental illness or a brain health issue? When your thyroid, so you had thyroid cancer when you were 23. Then 24, then 29. You had it recurrently. And the first treatment was basically to kill your thyroid gland.

Was to take it out, yeah. Was to take it out to give you radioactive iodine because your thyroid cancer spread outside of your thyroid. And they didn't replace your thyroid for a while. Well, back then they didn't do that. Yeah. Now it's different. And so how did that make you feel? Like I wanted to die. Like I kept looking at the semi next to me and going, what would it be like to just not be here? Seriously. And it didn't start off that way, but just over time, and I didn't put it together that it was because of the thyroid.

So, it was terrible. And when they replaced your thyroid, did it help? Yeah. No, I eventually felt normal again. But unfortunately, because no one explained that to me and he told me to see a psychiatrist, like it was my fault somehow. Well, seeing a psychiatrist is not a punishment. It is the way that when they tell you, no, no, no. The way that they said, like, it was like, it was like being depressed was rather than

telling me it was, I should expect this. This is part of what's going on with your health. It was almost like, you're not handling this well. That's, that's more or less what, what the message, how it was relayed to me. You're not handling the situation well. You should go talk to someone. That wasn't the case. Now, maybe I wasn't handling it well, but I was also thyroid deficient. And that's what upset me was when I really understood it later. And when I really got my life back, I'm like, he should have, like someone should have walked me through this process a little bit better. A little bit better. So.

No question. Hormones are so important. And I've never seen it like I'm seeing now, this epidemic of testosterone deficiency in teenage boys and men and in women. And think of hormones as miracle grow for your brain. Testosterone's involved in mood, motivation, libido, strength, thyroid energy and mental clarity. DHEA helps to fight aging, estrogen and progesterone, boosts blood flow. I just can't tell you that when you optimize your hormones, you feel so much

better. And one of the things people don't know is that progesterone in women drops 10 years before they go into menopause. Yeah, I'm technically still not. And in my 30s, I really noticed it, and I would be on the six o'clock news without it. I'm convinced. Do you want to share more about that? Oh, I'm telling you. Progesterone is the best thing ever, ever. And so when progesterone goes low, women become anxious. They become irritable. Don't sleep. They can't sleep.

And so what happens typically is they go to their primary care doctor or to their OBGYN and they put them on Ambien to help them sleep. They give them Xanax to decrease their anxiety and they may give them Lexapro to help their mood. And that's sort of insane when what they should have done is measure their progesterone level and supplemented it like 100 milligrams at night. And I've just seen it take care of all of it. But left untreated, left unoptimized, women start either taking medication or they start drinking more. That's what you hear a lot of people say, especially PMS. And yeah, it makes

you because you just get so agitated. Yeah. And then your husband's going to get the bottle of wine just so that he's not being harassed when he gets home. Or chocolate. That's the other one. Women are very drawn to chocolate because of that. Because it like settles you down.

It increases serotonin, settles you down. Yeah. So you either get fat or drunk. Yeah. Or both. It's not good. A little progesterone.

So Tana doesn't end up on the six o'clock news. Yeah, for me, I'mana doesn't end up on the six o'clock news. Yeah, for me, I'm just going to end up on the six o'clock news. So for hormones, we want you to test them regularly, like at least every year, after the age of 40, and then avoid hormone disruptors like sugar, pesticides, BPAs found in plastics, phthalates and parabens found in cosmetics, and a lot of personal products that we talked about under toxins. So Carrie from Dayton said, I had radiation. My thyroid about nine years ago was under control until the last six months with all my gut issues. I have to see a functional medicine doc says that it can grow back. Oh,

a functional medicine doctor will tell you it can grow back. Oh, a functional medicine doctor will tell you it can grow back. And then D is diabesity. And I've been showing you the graphs this week that I've been working on. Diabesity. And it's like, this is the end of mental illness. Why are we talking about weight? Because they're connected. Why are we talking about weight? Because they're connected. Why are we talking about diabetes? Because they're connected. So, diabesity is a term that means your blood sugar is going up and your weight is going up too. Either one of them independently is a risk factor for brain health issues. As blood sugar goes up, brain atrophies. Why? Because high blood sugar causes blood vessels to erode and become brittle and break,

which means you're not getting healthy blood flow to your brain. And as your weight goes up, the actual physical size and function of the brain goes down. And so this week on my computer, I have our database and I have like almost 100,000 scans on the computer. And I asked it this question. We look at 127 regions of the brain. And so I looked at underweight, healthy weight, overweight, obese, morbidly obese for each of these areas of the brain. And then I graphed it. And what horrified me, what shocked me was as your weight went up in every area of the brain, the blood flow and activity went down. Frontal lobes, temporal lobes, hippocampus, amygdala, everything. And it went down in a linear way, which means the bigger you were, the less activity and

blood flow. I'm horrified by that because that means it's damaging your brain. The fat on your body is not innocuous. It disrupts your hormones. It stores toxins. And this isn't about body shaming. It's just really about educating you about what's best for your body, your health, and your brain. Well, and know the truth. If you're overweight or obese, we're talking about the 11 major risk factors that steal your mind. Well, so that's one. It decreases blood flow to the brain. Clearly showed that in my studies on 20,000 patients. It increases inflammation

because fat cells actually produce something called adipokines, which are inflammatory hormones or inhibitory chemicals, it stores toxins and disrupts your hormones. So like you have five. If you just have that one, it means you have nearly half of the risk factors. And so it's the work you do on helping people get to a healthy weight is just so important. One of my favorite stories of Mark and Debbie who had type 1 diabetes. And he and I were at a conference six years ago. And I watched him inject himself with insulin at the table and then ordered chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, cornbread, and a souffle for dessert.

And I love Mark. And so if I don't really like you, I'm not going to say anything. But if I love you, I'm going to say something. And I was cursing at him in my head, but I didn't say anything because I have good frontal lobes. I just went, how tall are you? And he said, six feet. And I said, how much do you weigh? And he gave me that look like, why do you want to know?

And then he said, 244 pounds. And underneath the table on my phone, I calculated his BMI, his body mass index. And so normal is 18.5 to 25. 25 to 30 is overweight. 30 to 40 is obese. Over 40 is morbidly obese. He's 33. And I looked at him and I'm like, dude, you're obese.

And he looked at me and he said, Daniel, you're so cold. And I said, not as cold as you're going to be when you're six feet under. What's the matter with you? Why aren't you taking your health more seriously? And when the food came, he didn't eat anything. I felt terrible. No, you didn didn't eat anything. I felt terrible. No, you didn't. Sort of.

I know you. But a month later, he told me he'd lost 10 pounds. And two years later, we met at the same conference. He was down 53 pounds. He had cut his insulin dosage in half. I asked him if it was hard. He said, being sick is hard. Thank you for caring enough about me to have that hard conversation. And then he's sitting there with his wife, and they're telling me how great their sex life is. And that's what we see. Get healthy.

Your blood vessels get healthy. Your love life gets better. Being sick is hard. So talk a little bit about an overview. We're going to do a whole night on food and supplements. But what are things people should know? So, number one, there's no suffering required. And it really, you just have to know some of the basic rules. So, think eat from the rainbow. I mean, that's one. You want to eat from the

rainbow. So, fruits and vegetables, many colors. So, think of protein like medicine. So small doses throughout the day, not too much at one time. So and when I tell people that it's like shake hands with protein several times a day. What do I mean by that? Like the size of the palm of your hand is what you want for protein. So that that's an easy way to remember about how much to have several times a day. Why? Because protein helps to balance the hormones of metabolism. It balances your blood sugar. It helps to satisfy you. So you're not so hungry throughout the day. Whereas sugar, if you're eating carbs and sugar all day, simple carbs, they're going to spike your blood sugar, make you hungry. As soon as you, the more carbs you eat, the hungrier you're going

to be through the day. So when you eat carbs, we, it's not that we don't want you eating carbs. We want you eating the right carbs, smart carbs. Smart carbs are high fiber, low glycemic. So that's one of the rules is high fiber, low glycemic carbs, which are things like we just said the rainbow, right? So fruits and vegetables, but fruits have to be low glycemic things like berries, and then lots of grains. So that's going to be your high, your high fiber type of rainbow foods. Cook with lots of herbs. So that's going to be your high fiber type of rainbow foods. Cook with lots of herbs and spices. Those should be kept in your medicine cabinet, not your kitchen cabinet. They're just so powerful. And they're a great way to, herbs and spices are the way that when you're eating really healthy, this is how you make

everything fun and tasty and zesty is your herbs and spices. At the same time, they're just boosting your antioxidant level like crazy. So that's one of the things you're going to do. And don't forget the fat. So we are not interested in low fat programs, but we want you eating healthy fat. So cut the trans fat, cut the fried fat, focus on really healthy fats like avocados, nuts, seeds, olive oil. Don't cook with olive oil at high temperatures, but you want to add it to salads, things like that. So healthy fats, healthy protein. When we talk about protein, make it grass fed, hormone free, antibiotic free. Even if you're a vegan, you want to make sure you're getting the right amount of protein. Don't just cut protein from your diet. So make sure you're getting some organic tofu. We don't want you getting too

much estrogen, but we do want you getting enough protein. So organic, I'm sorry, high quality protein powders are a good way to supplement. So just make sure you're getting that throughout the day. And then make sure you watch the amounts. So the quality of your calories matters so much more than the quantity, but it doesn't mean that the quality or the quantity doesn't matter at all, right? So quality over quantity, but doesn't mean quantity doesn't matter. So what do I mean by that? So if you're eating 800 calories of Oreos and Twinkies versus 1600 calories of a really high quality diet, I mean like salmon, nuts, berries, avocados, you know,

lots of fruits and vegetables. The 800 calorie diet is not going to serve you well, right? You're not going to get the nutrition out of it. And guess what? A lot of people are like, yeah, but you'll lose weight. You will only lose weight for a while. And here's why. You're going to lose weight because of the calorie restriction. And then all of a sudden your inflammation is going to go up because as your inflammation goes up and your blood sugar stays sustained at a high level, you're releasing insulin. And when you release a lot of insulin, you are now insulin is that is like this. It's this hormone that tells your body, put fat on, put fat on, put fat on.

Right. So that's why for a while you're going to drop because of the calories. And then pretty soon it's going to start to do this. And you're going to tank your metabolism. So the higher calorie, higher quality diet is much better. Now, you can't go crazy. You can't eat 4,000 calories like that. But you get to eat more when you eat healthy. So we don't want you doing crazy, fad, crash, you know, calorie diets.

We want you to go healthy. A lot of people ask questions about cleanses and detox fine. And I think our position is basically you want to get rid of the toxic food all the time if you like yourself. Right. Now that said, can you do a 24 hour fast? Of course you can do a 24 hour fast. That's okay. We don't really like, we're not fans of like two week fasts where you're not eating because it's not good for your brain. You'll start to lose focus and you can't exercise to autophagize which is eat itself so short-term fasting yes long-term fasting not so much just eat super clean so do a short-term fast then eat super clean and intermittent fasting right intermittent fasting is great of which is going

12 to 16 hours 12 12 hours I tend to go 12 hours anyways. Intermittent fasting has actually been shown to help mimic the effects of calorie restriction. And it's not hard. If you have dinner at six o'clock at night, don't eat again until 10 o'clock the next morning. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe

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