Change Your Brain Every Day - Which Animal-Based Food Products Cause Inflammation?

Episode Date: December 5, 2019

You have questions? The Amens have answers. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel and Tana Amen answer some of your questions. This episode features information and tips on brain waves during a state of fear, family brain history in the adoption process, and the accuracy of claims made about animal-based food products in the new Netflix documentary, “Game Changer.” If you’d like your question answered by the Amens, visit brainwarriorswaypodcast.com for information on how to submit.

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 one of our favorite segments where we answer your questions and we have some great questions. But first, do you have a review?

I do, yes. I cannot thank you enough for your podcast. January my husband was airlifted to Loma Linda oh that was my unit 8100 was airlifted to Loma Linda with a cavernoma located at the top of his brain stem the surgery was 15 hours it was a pituitary tumor on the brain stem and Scott had a stroke in the basal ganglia ouch I was told my husband might never wake up at day seven they encouraged me to turn off the vent since that time he has slowly improved we were was told my husband might never wake up. At day seven, they encouraged me to turn off the vent. Since that time, he has slowly improved. We were told that my husband would be in a head support wheelchair the rest of his life. A friend shared your podcast with me and I started listening in May. When I bought your book, I realized I could get liquid flaxseed oil and started him on a tablespoon. It didn't happen right away, but we could see changes. I have kept him off sugar as

much as I can, and I'm very careful with his diet. The exercise, no sugar, omegas, and ants have helped so much. I have a friend that is now listening to you too. At first, my family wasn't supportive, but watching your PBS and your YouTube has helped them understand that sugar is the enemy. Scott can now walk without a walker.

Holy cow. And is slowly regaining his memory, all because of you and Tana. I know this. I know this is a marathon, not a sprint. Keep up the good work, Daniel and Tana. You have given me a roadmap to follow and I so appreciate and love you from Marie. Wow. That was my unit. That's a hard unit. I know. I'm just like sitting here crying like a baby. That's why we do what we do. I mean, you know, for the rest of their lives, they're going to be brain warriors. They have to be brain warriors. And so many of you listening, if you have a

neurological issue, that's a brain issue. You need to be a warrior, whether it's Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's or seizure disorder, migraine headaches. It's not just anxiety, depression, ADHD, and addictions. It's all of these things that when you do the habits we talk about, it literally can save, extend, and optimize your life. I'm just so grateful. I'm going to post that on my wall. That just makes me so happy. All right. So we have questions. I'll take the first one. Do you have any research on brain waves, brain activity, and brain development while in a state of fear? I do. And when you think negatively, when you think about what you're afraid of, it actually drops function in your frontal lobes.

Oh, that's interesting. It drops function in your temporal lobes, and it drops function in your cerebellum. So you're not coordinated. You make bad decisions, and you're more irritable. Oh, for sure more irritable. For sure. And learning how to modulate that is important. Now, let's just get it out of the way first.

Some fear is good for you. You need some fear. But are there, so my question is, would they be talking about chronic fear or that like, like when something scares you, like threatens you, like that moment, like that acute type of fear? I don't know. So that's the question because that would be, my question is like, like, is it that, that constantly I'm afraid of things in life or is it the like

something you know like when we were scared by the pitbulls type of thing well you told me to turn around and i'm like no let's walk to the end and i didn't see the pitbulls and they came and attacked us so your intuition and your mother has this like crazy. Well, I actually see it as because when you grow up in chronic, like chaos and trauma, you become your, you have heightened awareness of your surroundings. So you call it whatever you want, intuition, whatever. I actually just call it heightened awareness.

You don't even can't always pinpoint what it is. It's bothering you at the moment, but you learn to listen to it. Interesting. Here, why don't you read this one? My husband and I are seeking to adopt an infant domestically and are presently receiving emails daily about prospective birth mother adoption situations. In each case, we receive information about the birth parents, bio, social, medical history. Of course, we see a variety of things like bipolar, schizophrenia, substance abuse, homelessness, criminal activity, lack of parental care, et cetera, listed with each

case. My husband and I are experiencing difficulty identifying what we are willing to say yes and no to. What advice do you have for us as we decide what issues we are willing and not willing to take on? What advice do you have for adopting parents in general? Thank you. I love your podcast so much that I have had my brain scanned at your clinics. Life-changing and worth every penny. God bless you both and your work from Ashley. Wow. That's a hard one.

But it's important. I mean, I've seen thousands of adopted kids over the years. I adopted my oldest. And family history matters. But if you read my new book, The End of Mental Illness, coming out in March, and I hope all of you pre-order it. I'd just be so grateful. I dedicated the book to our nieces, Amelie and Alizé, who genetically, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, suicide, depression, anxiety, PTSD, borderline personalities. I mean, they had like the whole thing. And they were raised in chaos. So genes only load the gun.

It's what happens to you that pulls the trigger. Yet, despite that- They're amazing. We love them dearly. But they're amazing. In a college prep school with straight A's. And so, you know, for adoptive parents, pay attention to the family history because it increases their risk, which means if that's the child you choose,

you need to increase the brain warrior mindset to help mitigate that risk. Yeah, this is really important because genetics play are obviously a huge part of this. When I think of, you know, our nieces and other people, a lot of other kids we know. Now we took in another kid who was high risk and the results weren't quite as good. I have no doubt in my mind, had we been able to keep her longer, we would have had a different outcome because the environment really matters. But so does resilience. Okay.

I think that there's something to do with resilience and our nieces are resilient. And so there's something about that that makes a difference. I've got certain family members who have those same genes and they're not as resilient. So that makes a difference. And the other young girl we helped that we moved into our house was beginning to do really well. And it was a battle. It was just a constant battle.

But as soon as she moved out and was not in that environment any longer she immediately sort of went downhill so it's that's challenging that's a really hard one but it's not a death sentence so i would always balance it right you know the better care that the mother took care of herself during the pregnancy the higher the chance of success. But all of these children need love and families. And so you just have to see what you feel comfortable with. Right. Let's see what we have next. I just watched a documentary on Netflix called The Game Changer, which said that all animal products, including eggs, fish and chicken, cause inflammation in the body. Is that true? Because it doesn't sound right to me.

OK, so it always depends on the source you're listening to. It just does. You can find they will find some evidence in a way to spin things depending on what source you're listening to. If you go to, when I go to my courses, they have both vegan and caveman, you know, doctors lecturing on the benefits of both sides. And depending on which lecture you listen to, you'll be convinced of their position. Now, if you are looking at these foods and you're talking about fast food and you're talking about genetically modified, you're talking about genetically modified you're talking about not pasture-raised pesticides of course but i eat eggs fish and chicken a lot and my inflammatory markers are very low likewise when i also eat a lot of plants

likewise when i was vegan my numbers were never worse now i don't think it's the same for everybody i just don't believe one diet fits every person um so we actually believed you should get your numbers checked um but you know it you can find evidence to this on both sides of the fence so our friend but everybody agrees to get rid of sugar and foods that turn to sugar, processed foods, adulterated foods, foods. I mean, you know, we can come to an agreement on the foods to lose. And then it really, the more plants, the better. We think some protein, high quality protein. But even the cavemen tend to think that a highly plant-based diet with a little bit of high quality protein is good. They just don't believe in getting rid of all of the protein.

Because actually, you can also find a number of studies showing that their incidence of depression and anxiety has gone up as people have stopped eating meat. So it depends on who you're looking at. And here's my hour response to that. Get your numbers checked. If you're going to be vegan, make sure you're looking at. And here's my hour response to that. Get your numbers checked. If you're going to be vegan, make sure you're supplementing. So interesting. What did you learn today?

Post it on any of your social media sites and hashtag Brain Warriors Way podcast. Leave us a comment, question, or review on brainwarriorswaypodcast.com, and we'll enter you into a raffle to get one of Tana's cookbooks. We'll enter you into a raffle to get Tana's cookbook, The Brain Warrior's Way Cookbook, which I ate the chili out of last night. You can also tag us on Instagram. And I have a big following that I answer questions for there as well and do little videos to answer. So, yeah, make sure you're reaching out. Stay with us.

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