Change Your Brain Every Day - You Lied to Me: The Hidden Truth About Cannabis and its Effects on Your Brain and Mood

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

Cannabis is often hailed as a natural remedy for stress, anxiety, depression, sleep issues, and chronic pain. But is it the miracle cure it’s made out to be? In this eye-opening episode, Dr. Amen and Tana Amen reveal the darker side of marijuana no one’s talking about. Discover what SPECT scans show about its effects on brain health, mental well-being, and mood regulation—and learn why it’s important to know the full story before you decide if it’s right for you. 00:00 Intro 00:48 Cannabis 02:03 Why Do People Use? 10:41 Sponsor 12:00 The Trouble with Marijuana 18:48 The Psychological Consequences 22:53 The Risk Factors Associated with Cannabis 24:42 Taking Action 25:16 Dr. Amen’s 12 Steps 28:11 Your Why 29:31 Supplements 31:20 Habit Replacement 36:30 Wrap Up

One thing I learned from you was the increased risk of psychosis in some people, especially now, I guess. People who are genetically vulnerable, there's a 450% increased risk of having a psychotic illness. Think about that. And people go, oh, it's innocuous. Except teenagers who smoke in their 20s have a higher incidence of anxiety, depression, suicide, and psychosis. Wow. This is not innocuous. The message to all these teenagers is it's no big deal,

but it is a big deal. Every day you are making your brain better or you are making it worse. Stay with us to learn how you can change your brain for the better every day. So we're on episode two of our You Lied to Me series, and today we're going to be talking about cannabis. This is always a fun one. And the idea behind You Lied to Me is that society, your friends, the media, what you see in movies or television series,

that something is innocuous when it's not. Or at least you need to go into its use with your eyes wide open. And as we talked about last time, we're not going to tell you not to do something because that won't work. As soon as we say don't do this, you want to do it because the four and at least to see it through our eyes. And we have no dog in the fight that what we want for you is to have the best brain possible because with a better brain always comes a better life. So why do people use? And with each of these series,

the drugs in these series, we're going to talk about what are the benefits, right? I mean, there's a why behind this from a biological standpoint, a psychological standpoint, a social standpoint, and a spiritual standpoint. So why don't I talk about the biological and you talk about the psychological. Okay. Okay? So people use because they believe it's innocuous. It's legal in many states. They use for pain relief.

They use to feel more relaxed. They use it for nausea control. They use it as an appetite stimulator. They use it for seizures and glaucoma, and it has appropriate uses there. And they use it to prevent withdrawal. Now, I know when your mom had cancer that you went and got her some. Oh, yeah. No, I was like, I'm getting you high. So there are times where I think it's completely appropriate.

But she didn't use it very much. No, she only used it at the very end. She didn't want it because she wanted to be clear. She wanted to be with us. But when her pain got to be too much, I wanted her to be comfortable. Absolutely. And we were sort of hoping it would that would help her eat when the cancer was really decreasing her appetite. Marijuana works by boosting your endocannabinoids, especially EC1, and it also boosts dopamine, which is why it is reinforcing. So how about from a psychological standpoint? I think there's a lot of overlap to the reasons why people drink alcohol and smoke marijuana.

It's stress relief. I think there's a social component to it. There's this social norm to it, but I think there's also a big stress relief component to it. It lowers anxiety, takes the edge off. Um, it's interesting cause they have, they're very different alcohol and marijuana. I mean, most people I know, there are a lot of people who like them both, but a lot of people really don't like one, but like the other one cause they feel very feel very different. But they both have the same

use. People like them for the same reason. For many of the same reasons. Right, for coping. But you didn't like it when you tried it. Despise it. Like I've been high twice in my life and I absolutely hated it. Did not like it at all. Why? It made me feel out of control. Um, I, it made me eat. I felt completely numb and like I couldn't move and anything that makes me eat. Why am I, what? No, no, it was just, um, but I, I just, it, it felt like, um, it felt like once, once I started smoking a joint, I didn't know how much you could or like how much to do before you lost control. Like you're in it once you, what you're committed. And I didn't like it, but I didn't like the feeling. I was like spinning. And I just didn't like that feeling at all. I just didn't like it. And of course your friends pipe in and they're like, well, it's just because that one time either some of them said it's because it's your first time. Then the other ones were like, no, it's because of the marijuana you got and you've got to try

it again. And, and so I think I waited like, you know, months and I was like, all right, fine. I'll try it one more time. And I hated it even more. I just, I just hated it. So I just felt completely out of control and I don't like feeling out of control. Well, and today the THC content is so much higher than it was. I was in 10th grade the first time my supposed best friend said, Hey, we should try just no way I wanted to give control to a substance. That's it. And, and because I came from a family with so much substance abuse, you know, of course everybody was like, marijuana is not addictive, like heroin, that's not going to happen. Um, and, and I kind of knew that, but at the same time it was too scary for me. So that just, it just wasn't an option for me.

Well, and they also use it because it's a habit. Yeah. You know, I use it to go to bed. I have a lot of patients who do that. For sleep. Yeah. I remember one of our Scan My Brain patients, she basically said, we're not going to talk about marijuana.

Yeah. Because it was off limits. It's off limits. Talk about it. Right. And then she saw her brain. Yeah. We're going to talk about it. And then she couldn't not talk about it. And then she stopped and she's, I can't believe how much clearer I am. So I think one of the big things is with alcohol and with marijuana is boredom. And I think we've mentioned that before. But I think boredom is a big reason why people use these substances. Is they just don't know what else to do with themselves, quite frankly.

And it's a habit. And from a social standpoint, it's peer pressure. It's what your friends are doing. Especially now. The advertising, marketing with it. I mean, everywhere you go here in Southern California, there's a store. Well, and now that it's legal, kids now think that it's fine because it's legal. Even though kids aren't supposed to be doing it, they think it's fine because it's a legal thing.

And they've made it so much easier for kids to get away with it. So during COVID, lots of kids were actually doing it right in their own homes with their parents not knowing it because they were using the wax pens. And so that's just changed the game completely. Right. So it's been a problem. They use it to socialize and prevent loneliness, right? If your group is doing it and you decide not to and you don't have another group, you're lonely.

It lowers inhibitions. It eases social discomfort for many. And people tell me it just makes other people more interesting. How about from a spiritual standpoint? I suppose a lot of people think it's some form of transcendence. I mean, I didn't like the way it felt, but I suppose a lot of people do like it. Or an altered state of consciousness, like they do with any other reason that they would do that for a spiritual reason um i don't know but maybe there's a sacred ritual in some in some circles with it or mystical experience i don't know maybe you know more about that

yes it's used and in some spiritual practices. People like the mystical experience, the existential reflection. I mean, is it like peyote? I don't know. It's similar to that. And the ego dissolution, they just feel like the part of themselves they hate just begins to go away. Interesting. Because the critic, there's actually an interesting part of your brain called the default mode network. So it's an area called the posterior cingulate, part of your parietal lobes,

anterior cingulate, that when that's really busy, it's the chatter that's in your brain. It's sort of the critic. And you know what that's like to live with a critic. And I know what that's like. And it just sort of goes away and stops bothering you for a period of time. The problem is when you stop, it comes back and often bothering you for a period of time. The problem is when you stop, it comes back and often bothers you more. And I like this strategy of give your mind a name so you can begin to just gain psychological distance from the noise in your head.

Hi, I'm Dr. Daniel Ehman. I've experienced firsthand the powerful impact that proper supplementation can have on your brain, your body, and your mind. That's why I founded BrainMD. Our formulas are scientifically created from decades of clinical research designed to help you think clearer,

feel better, and improve every aspect of your health. Whether it's Brain and Body Power Max, the same formula I used in the world's largest study of NFL players to optimize brain performance, to happy saffron, to boost mood and memory, and ProBrainBiotics Max to improve the gut-brain connection. BrainMD delivers the highest quality science-backed solutions to help you think and feel better. Tana and I take many of our products every day. And as a special offer, just for our listeners, you can save 20% on your next order.

Visit brainmd.com and use the code podcast20. With a better brain, always comes a better life. You began to talk about some of the trouble with marijuana, that it was increased his appetite. And when he first came to see me, he didn't want anything to do with me except a marijuana card. So at the time you couldn't just like go to the dispensary like you can now and buy it. You need medical marijuana. And that was his first question to me. He's like, will you write me a marijuana card?

And I'm like, absolutely not. That's not what I do. And he's like, well, then I have no use for you. And I said, I understand. I said, do you want to see your brain? And he had the most active anterior cingulate gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus. So he had the most active default mode network I had ever seen. And I'm like, wow. I said, I know why you smoke pot. Because you have this little mouse in your head and the mouse hates you. And the mouse is screaming and yelling at you.

You are an awful piece of shit over and over and over again. And you use marijuana to shut the mouse up so you can go to sleep. And all of a sudden he starts weeping. And he's like, how'd you know that? And I said, I have better things. And I actually put him on 5-HTP. Yeah, you got me high with 5-HTP. That's a different podcast.

Okay. I'm just saying. And he stopped marijuana. His appetite normalized and ended up losing 120 pounds. Wow. And I still didn't write him the prescription for his marijuana card. Right. But you begin to understand, right, whenever I deal with someone who's struggling with substance abuse, my first comment is not stop it. It's why. It's why. Because if you don't understand why, you can't help them. Right. You just come off as this sort of judgy person. And I know a lot of people on social media see me as that judgy person, but ultimately you want to understand why are you using and is there a healthier way for you? Because marijuana is associated with bad stuff like cognitive impairment. And like I said,

I have no dog in the fight, except when I was a young psychiatrist and I'd get this 16 year old patient and parents go, he has ADD. And I'm like, okay, did he have ADD when he was eight? No. Did he have ADD when he was 10? No. Did he have ADD when he was 12? No. But he has ADD now. I want you to pee in this cup. I'm like, the most common reason someone who doesn't have ADD when they're little and now

they have ADD as a teenager is they're using marijuana. It goes with cognitive impairment, respiratory issues. It's actually more harmful than nicotine, than smoking. Really? The research is clear that if you smoke, bad for your lungs. If you're smoking marijuana, it's actually significantly worse for your lungs. It causes hormonal changes, decreases testosterone, appetite dysregulation, as we talked about, chronic fatigue. And I published two studies, two like huge studies,

on 1,000 marijuana users. Compared to healthy, every area of your brain is lower in blood flow. And like, no, that's not true. I have no dog in this fight. I'm just telling you what I see on scans. And then I publish the world's largest imaging study on 62,454 scans on how the brain ages. And so our youngest patient is nine months. Our oldest patient is 105. And so we map the trajectory of aging. Little kids have really busy brains. Old people have sleepy brains. And it's just fascinating. And then we go, what accelerated

aging? And having schizophrenia is the worst. It accelerates aging. Your brain looks 10 years older than other people. If you have schizophrenia, the second worst, and it surprised me, was marijuana. Your brain looks significantly older than other people your age who were not using marijuana. And so we'll talk about the bright mind's risk factors in a bit. It decreases brain function. It impairs coordination. And people build up a tolerance. Well, and now you've got people literally driving down the street smoking weed. I'm like, how does that work?

And they've just recently legalized it in the NBA. How does that work? How are you going to be a great athlete? I don't understand. I literally couldn't get off of a chair and stop eating. I don't understand. I literally couldn't get off of a chair and stop eating. I don't understand. And I was just like stunned. And it's like, okay, you know, like,

please don't put people who use marijuana in jail. That's just a bad use of resources. But let's not say it's good for you. And I have a friend who's in the nba and he says he totally can tell the people who are using versus those who aren't because the people who are using become forgetful yeah i think they'd be a bit more sluggish too wouldn't you think you need your brain and body working at an incredibly high level. So what about some of the psychological consequences? Well, clearly, if you've seen someone high, their personality changes.

I mean, you know, that's why they're doing it. So just like when people drink, your personality changes. Um, and I think the big surprise we touched on this in our last podcast is that people smoke weeds because they think it decreases their anxiety. And in the moment it does, but it makes it worse. And that was something that I actually found really interesting, but I saw it firsthand in a couple of my friends and their, or, and, or their children. We just saw this with one of our dear friends, children, the, who we helped, um, their child, um, was smoking a lot of weed because they had trauma and their anxiety got worse and worse and worse and started self-medicating with other drugs

because of it. But when we finally got him to stop smoking weed, the anxiety started to resolve, and we got him doing other healthier things. People don't realize how bad the anxiety actually can get when they're smoking weed. Depression. I mean, it's a depressant, right? And emotional numbing. So that's one of the big reasons. And one of the big things that happens is the emotional numbing, um, lower motivation. I think that is what we see so much is the motivation. And it's really hard because so many people smoke weed now. And we've heard, we've got three girls that are dating age and well, the little one,

not so much, but the two, the two that are in college, she's starting, right. But the two in college are so frustrated because they're like, what is up with these guys? Like what is up? They're just so not motivated. And it's very frustrating to them because they're both very driven. And, um, one thing I learned from you was the increased risk of psychosis in some people, especially now, I guess. People who are genetically vulnerable. Right. There's a 450% increased risk of having a psychotic illness. Think about that. And people go, oh, it's innocuous. Except teenagers who smoke in their 20s have a higher incidence of anxiety, depression, suicide, and psychosis. This is not innocuous.

And so the message to all these teenagers is it's no big deal, but it is a big deal. And we have to be so careful. Yeah. And increases addictive thoughts. How do I get it? Yeah. How do I get it? And they get stuck on that. So it's almost like a compulsion.

And emotional dependence. So it becomes very habit forming. From a social standpoint, they often become more isolated. There's conflict in their families. There's a stigma still that's associated with it. They get dependent on the peers who give it to them, which might not be their best strategy, and dramatically increases family tension. I have seen this over and over that when people start to use, their personalities change, like you said, and that causes conflict in their family. How about from a spiritual standpoint? Well, it touches on the social

that you just talked about, the disconnection. If you start to become disconnected, you have a loss of connection spiritually as well. Loss of clarity and ego inflation sometimes happens, which is interesting because you talked about they sometimes smoke weed to decrease the ego, but sometimes the opposite can happen. So you lose your connection with God or your higher purpose. So let's, again, talk about bright minds. You want to keep your brain healthy or rescue it. You have to prevent or treat the 11 major risk factors. So those of you that listen to the podcast,

you listen to it over and over again. We're going to talk about this over and over and over again, because this is our Alzheimer's prevention program, but it's also our depression prevention program. It's our optimization program. You want to keep your brain healthy or rescue it. You have to prevent or treat the 11 major risk factors. Bright minds is the acronym. B is for blood flow. Marijuana lowers blood flow. I published that on a thousand people. It prematurely ages the brain, which is what first sort of tipped me off. This is not good. Your brain looks older than you are. It actually can decrease brain inflammation. It does alter gene expression. It increases the risk of head injuries because it can decrease your coordination when driving. It's toxic. It gives a toxic appearance on scans. It increases anxiety, depression,

suicide, and psychosis from a mental health standpoint. Immunity, it alters immune function, increases the risk of certain cancers, especially testicular cancer. It alters reproductive hormones uh from d-diabesity it's an appetite stimulant and it decreases the quality of sleep which is interesting because that's why many people use it right but yet it decreases so you wake up sleepy still of sleep so we've talked a lot in the last episode and this episode on alcohol and marijuana about why you should stop and what the problems are. But people don't just usually stop doing something, right? You have to give them a replacement behavior for people to be successful with it. They have to know their why. They have to know why they want to stop.

If you don't know your why, you'll never do your what. And you have to know what you actually want. And then you need to have a better alternative to doing that behavior. So we should talk a little bit about if people want to stop, what are some alternatives that they can do? So what do I do with my patients? I mean, one, you have to see it as a problem to solve. And ultimately, it has to be your idea, not my idea.

So in looking at the evidence, is it something that helps you meet your goals or not? And so the first step is, what do I really want in my life? What do I want in my relationships, in my work, in my money, in my physical, emotional, spiritual health? That's always, to me, step one. When you go to the 12-step program, step one is my life is out of control. And I think now that's step two. In my book, Your Brain Is Always Listening, I rewrote the 12 steps from a neuroscientist's perspective. And step one is, well, what do you really want? And does this get you what you want?

Now, the oppositional people will go, yes, this gets me what I want. But when you look at relationships, work, money, physical, emotional, spiritual health, it doesn't get them. I've rarely had people go, oh, yes, gets me what I want. So know what you want. Step two in my new 12-step program is your behavior getting you what you want. So step one is know what you want. Step two is my behavior getting me what I want? And if it's not, then you've got to go to step three, which is get your brain healthy, right?

When you look at the 12 steps that were actually written 85 years ago, there's no neuroscience in there. And it's like, okay, now let's work to get your brain healthy, which I think is so critical. Step four is know your brain type. So everybody's different in why they use it. Some people use because they're anxious. So we have strategies to help calm your anxiety. Some people use because they're depressed. There's strategies to help with your anxiety. Some people use because they're depressed. There's strategies to help with their depression. Some people use because they're impulsive. They don't really think about it, but anytime it's available to them, they use. Some people use because they're compulsive. They always think about it. And so we have strategies for each of the different brain types. So one of the things for me, whenever I've wanted to change something in my life and make lasting change, and this goes along with your know what you want, it's the why.

And it's if I don't know, this goes with that first step. If for me, if I don't have a very clear and big enough, why then it doesn't seem to stick for me. But if I've got a very strong, why like a very strong motivation and understanding of why the rest of it will, I can, you know, we'll figure out if it works with that. What, but you got to have a really strong motivation and a really strong why, because that's almost leveraged making it all work. The brain is lazy. The brain does what you allow it to do. But once you do it, like a glass of wine with dinner, once you do it for a couple of weeks, you'll always do it because you've created a habit trail, which is, no, I don't do this. I do something else.

One thing to make it really much easier is this simple supplement that has been shown to decrease cravings for marijuana, alcohol, compulsive gambling, and trichotillomania, which is compulsive hair pulling, called N-acetylcysteine, 1,200 milligrams twice a day. It's also in a brand new study shown to be very helpful for depression. And I use it a lot in my practice to help people just decrease the cravings so they feel like they have more control over the habits they don't really like. So one of the strategies is the is the supplements, um, have the right supplements and have the right routine. Know your, know your why, go through the steps you just talked about, um, create a strong, a strong reason why you want to do it. Um, and then have the supplements. I like, um, another thing I like is to have a list of alternatives like teas that are calming, um, that help to decrease your anxiety, whether it's chamomile or peppermint

or, but some herbal teas that are really great or have a list, right? Lavender tea. I love lavender tea. Have a list of, um, simple to make mocktails that are not loaded with sugar. Um, that's another alternative. Um, we, every night for me, it's a habit that we make our hot chocolate our brain healthy hot chocolate and that's one of the habits for me that is comforting so yeah so replace them with things that you really do like like you love cold plunge right that's a morning thing so so what are the times of day that you feel this stress when you need to do those things and you need a habit to replace that time? Like, when is it that you go for the wine? When is it that you go for the joint?

Right. So at those times, what is it you can do in place of that? Let's do it from the biopsychosocial spiritual standpoint. A sugar stable dramatically decreases relapse because you're much more likely to use when your blood sugar drops. And we're going to do a whole podcast on continuous glucose monitoring, but periodically during the day, your phone will start ringing or in the middle of the night, the alarm will come off that your blood sugar dropped. And it said that point you're more likely to relapse or the ants are more likely to attack. Well, and you used to say I was hangry a lot and I would like, no, I'm not. And now I can't argue with you anymore.

From a light psychological standpoint, it's just so important to learn to kill the ants, to learn to manage your mind and not believe every stupid thing you think. That's one of the most common reasons people drink alcohol or use marijuana or need psilocybin. It's because they can't manage their own mind. Lack of discipline. And I think whenever you feel sad, mad, nervous, or like you want to get stoned, write down what you're thinking and just ask yourself whether or not it's true,

whether or not it's helpful. And other common, simple, super simple things to calm yourself down. Diaphragmatic breathing. So powerful. So I, this one was interesting. So I heard you tell me that you told a patient this. So we normally are not big fans of, you know, video games and playing on your phone too much and whatever. But I heard you saying Tetris to someone actually can calm you down when you are having cravings. It decreases cravings. 15 minutes of Tetris. And I thought about it and I'm like, oh, it's something to do when you're anxious.

And so maybe as long as you don't get addicted to like playing games um that is an interesting thing well and it tends to build some of the important centers in your brain especially your parietal lobes right just part of the default mode network and it activates your frontal lobes as you decide where to put the blocks. So calling a friend to prevent the loneliness, probably not someone who's going to drink with you. And then prayer and meditation. For sure. Forgiveness, especially if you're harboring past hurts.

There's a method of forgiveness that we teach a lot called reach. Remember what happened, empathize with the other person altruistically, give them the gift of forgiveness, commit to it, hold on to it. So there are other things. And for those of you that want to learn about my new 12-step program, you can read that in my book, Your Brain is Always Listening. And for those of you, I know one thing that I did, for those of you who you just like need a drink in your hand type thing. When I was trying to change my diet many years ago, I went on sort of a crusade, like, right? And I didn't know how to cook, but I started rehabbing recipes. So I'm like, what are my favorite recipes that I just feel like,

what are the foods I just feel like I can't give up. Right. And I took those foods and I figured out how to rehab them and make them healthy. So that's, there's so many cool recipes now for mocktails and you can do that. You could like go on this little, like make it fun, go on this little crusade to rehab recipes for drinks, make mocktails and make them healthy. Like don't fill them full of sugar, but they actually make a stevia simple syrup. Um, and you can start to make some fun mocktails and just start to like make it a game almost. Right. And if you're impulsive, we have focus and energy. If you're compulsive, serotonin mood support. If you're sad, happy saffron, my favorite so many ways. If you're anxious, GABA calming or Calm My Brain or theanine gummies.

And we also have a craving control formula that has N-acetylcysteine, but it also has chromium to help sort of balance blood sugar so your blood sugar doesn't go too high or too low. And phenylalanineine which actually helps to support endorphin production in the brain so there are lots of strategies but the whole point behind you lied to me is society is telling you these things are good for you when they're really not great for your brain.