The Mel Robbins Podcast - Hacking Dopamine & Simple Ways to Improve Your Brain Health

Episode Date: December 15, 2022

I’ve lived with ADHD, dyslexia, and anxiety for most of my life. And I’ve spent the last decade immersed in research around how to improve my mental health, but only recently did I realize there was a big missing piece to the puzzle when it came to being happier, more confident, and more present. That’s taking care of the brain. Your brain is your problem-solver.It’s your memory keeper.It’s a supercomputer. If the physical health of your brain sucks, it’s like having a beer belly with IBS for a brain. If you’re really committed to being a happier and healthier person, it's common sense to keep your brain happy and healthy. But… The science can be complicated and boring. More serotonin and dopamine would be great… but I zone out when I am looking at all the research. That’s why I asked one of the leading experts on brain health to be here today. Dr. Daniel Amen has 40 years of experience as a psychiatrist, 12 New York Times bestselling books, and he’s conducted over 200,000 brain scans, all of which back up the simple tactics he’s about to share with you. Today’s episode is jam-packed with practical information, so you may even want to listen twice. You can make your brain stronger and more resilient. There are specific changes you can make today, including supplements to take, a change to your walking style, a specific breathing technique to reduce anxiety, and more. Dr. Amen will also share the one powerful question he’s been asking himself every single day that keeps his brain strong. He also shares a recipe for a delicious mug of “brain healthy hot chocolate.” I’ll drink to that and a little Brain Health 101. Xo Mel  You will learn: 1:34: The results of my brain scan – and a huge finding that was discovered in my husband’s brain scan9:37: A simple 101 on the brain13:14: The 3 most important habits that have the biggest impact on brain health15:41: The exact thing to say to yourself first thing in the morning to improve your brain16:57: The specific two vitamins that are most important for the health of your brain19:38: The difference between serotonin and dopamine and how to achieve balance between the two25:08: How to tell if you have low dopamine & how to increase it28:55: Why strength training is so important for your overall health30:21: What cortisol is, why it matters, and how to reduce it32:03: The one specific breathing exercise that Dr. Amen recommends for an anxious mind36:06: How to calm a busy brain39:22: The 3 most important words for mental training41:27: What to do if you feel chronically tired43:30: The 5 most important foods for brain health44:21: How to make brain-healthy hot chocolate47:06: What a psychiatrist of 40 years would never do because it’s bad for your brain

Hey, it's your friend Mel and welcome to a mind altering episode of the Mel Robbins podcast. Today, I'm going to introduce you to someone who has had a profound impact on my life, on my husband's life. Who am I talking about? His name is Dr. Daniel Aiman. He is one of the world's leading experts on the brain. He is a psychiatrist and brain disorder specialist and his 10 brain clinics around the world treat over 4,000 patients a month, including treating more than 100 former NFL players

with concussion trauma. And I not only love this guy because of the difference he's made in my life. I love him because he is so focused on teaching us all how to improve the physical health of our brains through very simple, accessible, often free, little changes that you can do that based on his research can change and

improve the health of your physical brain. And what I learned from Dr. Aiman is that when you start to improve the physical health and the structure of your brain, when you learn how to increase blood flow and take better care of your brain. It improves your mental health, it impacts your happiness, your energy, your vitality, all of it. And so I'm gonna tell you the difference that he made in my life.

I first met Dr. Amin because he has these clinics all over the world, and I went to one, and I got a brain scan and it really revealed on a physical level. All kinds of things about the type of ADHD that I struggle with. And when I went over the brain scans with Dr. Aiman, he explained to me that one of the reasons why I respond so profoundly to medication is because the medication,

when working correctly for somebody like me, it shows in the brain scan how certain parts of my brain light up, how blood flow increases. I learned so much about my old coping behaviors. It was like, it was almost like somebody had pulled back the curtain and explained so much, simply based on the physical structure of my brain. He was even able to show me a part of the brain where I have damage from a car accident that I experienced when I was little.

And he told me simple things that I could do to even start to heal that part of my brain. And so you're going to learn today, even if you don't get a brain scan, I'm going to give you all kinds of tools and tactics. You're going to learn simple things you can do in order to improve the health and structure of your brain to actually heal it. And what happened next is he said, you know, I would love to scan your husband's brain. And at this point in time, it had become very clear that my husband, Chris, who's very stoic,

he's very centered, mindful guy, but he was really struggling. He just seemed down and sad. And so we go and we see Dr. Aiman, and they scan Chris's brain. And when we went over the results of Chris's scan, it was one of those medical conversations that is very sobering. Because Dr. Aiman looked at the two of us over a Zoom call and said, normally when I see a brain that physically looks

like this, it's on an autopsy. And he not only pointed out that Chris had had lots of concussion damage due to being a ski racer growing up, but he also pointed out that Chris was clearly struggling with dystymia, which I had never heard of that term, but it's a term that they use to describe long-term treatment-resistant depression. He also pointed out that there was damage based on addiction, and it was Dr. Amin's diagnosis that made Chris truly accept the fact that he wasn't just sad, he wasn't weak, he was dealing with depression. It's what led him to go see a psychiatrist, it would lead him to lose the shame and the stigma associated with seeking treatment and

to take an antidepressant and using simple protocol from Dr. Aiman over the course of a year, Chris has not only improved the structure of his brain and the simple habits that you're going to learn today are the simple things that Chris did and you can do them too. After a year of taking medication, Chris is now no longer on an antidepressant. He doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke weed daily, his physical brain has changed. I feel like I have the guy that I met 27 years ago back. Like, this is really big stuff, you guys. And I think a lot when it comes to mental health, we think about your thoughts and we think

about your nervous system. But Dr. Aiman is the first person that made me really stop and think, oh, I've never really thought about the physical health of my brain. Never really thought about the fact that if I increase blood flow up there, it's going to make a big difference. I never really thought about the fact that you could heal your brain. And that's what Dr. Amin's mission is to teach all of us how to take better care of our brains, to teach all of us simple daily habits that you can use to heal smarter about your health overall by focusing on that, I don't

even know what it is, what is it, it's like I always think about the brain like a giant bowl of macaroni because that's what it looks like, but to get serious about it and you don't need to go to his clinic, you don't need to spend a lot of money because he is going to give you things you can do today, things that I do, things that Christ does, and things that people around the world are doing to heal their brains and to become happier human beings. And so I am so excited for you to hear Dr. Aiman today. I mean, this dude is a double board certified psychiatrist. I don't even know what a double board certified psychiatrist is, but it sounds like he's got

a lot of degrees and a lot of education more importantly. He is on a mission. He's on a mission to help end mental illness by creating a revolution in brain health that is accessible to you and me. He is the author of 12. Did you have that 12 New York Times bestselling books, including a new book called Change Your Brain Everyday that's gonna be released in 2023.

He has clinics around the world that see over 4,000 patients a month, and he is constantly sharing video content for free all over social media. I mean, this guy is 68 years old. He's bald. He wears a lab coat and he is going viral almost every single week on TikTok because of the video content that he shares online about ADHD, depression, brain health. This guy is a genius. And today he's your doctor. He is joining us to help you learn simple ways to improve the health of your brain. That yes, you can boost your mood. You can increase dopamine

and serotonin. You can lower cortisol levels, all of which make you happier and healthier human being. And so without further ado, please meet my friend and a complete brainiac, Dr. Daniel Aiman. Thank you so much for being with us. Well, I love being with you, so thank you for having me. Oh, you're the best. You know, one of the reasons why I love you is you have been an expert on the brain and a psychiatrist for 40 years and you do not focus on what's wrong with us.

You literally teach us how to bring out more awesomeness through brain health. You call it elite brain training. What is that? Well, a long time ago, I realized I hated the term mental illness. It changed people, it's stigmatizing, and it's wrong. Their brain health issues. And if I can teach you to get your brain healthy, well, your mind is better. People often don't understand that. Your brain, physical functioning of your brain, creates your mind. Everybody wants to be better. Nobody wants to be told they're mental. And so the mission I have on the planet is to in the whole concept of mental illness and create this revolution in brain

health, just why I'm so grateful to hang out with you today. Oh, I wasn't planning on asking you this, but I just was struck by the fact that you distinguished between the brain and the mind. What's the difference between your brain and the mind. What's the difference between your brain and your mind? Well, your brain, the physical functioning of your brain creates your mind and people get this mixed up all the time, but you just have to think of someone who has Alzheimer's disease.

And if you saw the scans of people with Alzheimer's disease, you see that they're wildly damaged. And then that person is no longer fully that person because their brain has been damaged. People really need to know if you want a healthy mind, the first thing to have is a healthy brain. And so, are you saying that absolutely anybody can improve the physical health of their brain, and that will have an impact on your happiness, your performance, and your mental health? Everything. And it happens quickly.

So, for example, if you get better sleep tonight, you're mind can be better tomorrow. If you get drunk tonight, your mind's going to be worse tomorrow. And because those both have a direct impact on the physical functioning of your brain. Wow, like, you know, it's interesting, because you're right, there is so much information

and so many conversations out there about mental health, but you have this revolutionary approach of teaching all of us how to take better care of our brain and how to improve our brain itself and how that has a direct impact. So I wanna start at the very beginning because you know, you've been doing this for 40 years. You are, in my opinion, the world's leading expert

on the brain. And can you give us just a 101 on the brain and what you want anybody and everybody to know about the brain? And I want you to speak directly, Dr. Aiman, to somebody who may be listening, who's never thought about this topic before. So your brain is involved in everything you do, how you think, how you feel, how you act, how you get along with other people. It's the organ of intelligence, character, and every single decision you make.

And when your brain works right, you work right. And when your brain is troubled for whatever reason, your sadder, sicker, poor, because your decisions aren't as good. Today I'm in Miami, but I usually live in Newport Beach where I have more plastic surgeons than almost anywhere in the world, because people care more about their faces, their breasts, their bellies, and their butts, then they do their brain. And that's its saying, because it's your brain that makes you attractive. It's your brain that makes you happy, it's your brain that keeps you purposeful or it's your brain that is the organ of rage and so getting your brain right is critical and it's these three steps Brain and big gotta care

Avoid anything that hurts it Know the list and quite frankly most second graders would get a 90% if you gave them 100 things that hurt their brain. And then the third thing is regularly do things that help it. And I worked with BJ Fog for six months. He runs a persuasive tech lab at Stanford on how people change. And we develop tiny habits. You know what's the smallest thing you can do today that will make the biggest difference. And the mother tiny habit is whenever you go to do something today, ask yourself, take

three seconds. Ask yourself, is this good for my brain or bad for it? And if you can answer that with information and love, love of yourself, love of your family, love of your mission, you're going to just start making better decisions because you care about the organ that makes you you. Wow. All right, let me unpack this. So number one, brain envy is this idea of actually caring about the health of your brain. And so do you recommend that you have somebody in mind

that you envy, like clearly I envy you because you take incredible care of your brain, but is it just this concept that you envy, like clearly I envy you, because you take incredible care of your brain, but is it just this concept that you just actually have to wake up and realize that what's in between your ears is the most important aspect of your health and wellness period? Is that what you're saying? Yes.

And number two, you then said that there are these microhabits that you have developed, what are three microhabits that have the biggest impact on the health of your brain other than asking yourself, is this good or bad for my brain? So I start every day with today is going to be a great day because once you get the physical functioning of your brain healthy, you then have to program.

So I start every day. So why is today going to be a great day for you, directing your mind, it puts your brain in a positive state. And then my favorite of all the habits I do is when I go to bed at night, I say a prayer, and then I go, what went well today? And I go on a treasure hunt. And I actually start from the very moment I woke up looking for what was right about the day. And I've done this now seven or eight years and even the night my dad died about two and a half years ago and it was an awful, awful day. I did it because it was my habit, right? The brain is lazy, it does what you nudge it to do.

And so it really helped me even in a really hard time. But it's almost my favorite time of the day because like you, I'm busy and great things will happen and I'll just not really focus on it. Let's take a short pause to hear from our sponsors and we'll be right back with Dr. Aiman. Okay, so Dr. Aiman, is there one supplement that you believe everybody should take for better brain health. Well, a couple of multiple vitamins, a really high-quality multiple vitamin I make one called neurovite plus brand new study showed people with memory problems who were headed to darkness when they took a high quality multiple

vitamin within a matter of months their memory was better. What? Wait a minute, hold on a second. So you're saying that a high quality multivitamin can not only improve your memory, but if you are sliding on a slippery slope toward memory loss, research shows that it can actually bring memory back. Yes, brand new research just came out. They're actually comparing it to placebo and cocoa extract chocolate. And they were hoping the chocolate would do it. It wasn't the chocolate.

It was the multiple vitamin. Now, I never make a disease claim with supplements. But if this level of B6 B12 and fully did that, Wow, I'm gonna start popping it like candy is what I'm gonna do. That's incredible. So a multivitamin has a huge impact. I hear a lot about fish oil too.

Omega-3 fatty acids have been found to be good for your heart, good for your brain, good for your hair, good for your skin, good for your eyes. Why is it good for the brain? 25% of the nerve cell membranes in your brain are made up of omega-3 fatty acid. So if your deficient, your brain is not going to work as fast and efficiently as it could. And low levels have been associated with all sorts of bad things from depression to dementia to ADHD. I'm gonna sprint out of this interview.

Go get these supplements. I mean, I've been really, I'm sort of embarrassed because we've got a brain that I clearly envy here in Dr. Aiman and I feel like I am really dropping the ball here on my own brain. And so I'm going to report back the next time we have you on about how I feel really religiously taking a multivitamin and my fish oil. I promise Dr. Aiman. I want to go into some of the other, I guess, chemicals that you hear associated with the

brain. And have you explained to us what they are and why they're important for happiness, for brain health? Let's talk about serotonin. What is it and why is it important? Serotonin is hugely important for many different functions in the brain, but for happiness, for flexibility and respect, and respects ones that fools people. But when you are a social fight or you feel diminished in some way, your serotonin levels drop. And when serotonin levels go low, people tend to worry, they get stuck on negative thoughts, negative behaviors, they tend to be argumentative and oppositional, and if things don't go their way, they get upset, which on this surface can appear selfish,

but it's really not selfish, it's rigid, and boosting serotonin with bright light therapy, which is why it's so important to get sunshine and while as we go into the holidays, time change happens. It's just a wrong time. Right? As we get less sunlight and it gets colder outside,

we just, you know, then got a bomb dropped on us, like all of a sudden you lose an hour or day of, like, and like it's so important. Let me back us up a second. So does your brain create serotonin? Is that like, what is the function of serotonin in the brain? So your gut makes about 90% of the serotonin in your body, but it doesn't go directly into your brain.

Your brain creates serotonin from the amino acid precursor called trip to fam. And that's why often eating trip to fam rich foods like turkey. Can be helpful. You have to trip to fam rich foods with a carbohydrate because you need an insulin response to drive trip to fam into the brand. So turkey and sweet potatoes together is a great combination to boost your mood. So when you have high levels of serotonin, how does that impact you? We tend to be happy. You're a little bit less motivated. You sort of don't care that much. I remember when Crozac first came on to the market and you know, I

would give it to some of my depressed patients and they would say they would be less depressed but also less motivated because this trip to fan goes up dopamine. Another chemical we should talk about goes down. They have this sort of counterbalancing effect. So a lot of people who take SSRIs, they go, I'm happier, but I don't really care that much. So is there a tonin, sort of the happiness? One, and dopamine is the motivation and drive one? Is that the relationship? Dopamine is the molecule of more. It's when you get dopamine, you go, oh, I like that.

And the problem is the more you get, the more you want. And then it turns into trouble. We are wearing our dopamine centers in the brain and our society with our phones and social media and the non-stop video games and text thing. We're being thrilled to death, which ultimately wears out the pleasure centers in the brain. So you have to be very careful. I often talk to people about drip dopamine, don't dump it. What does that mean?

Drip dopamine, don't dump it. So you want a little tiny piece, you know, a little tiny burst of dopamine, not a big splash. So for example, cocaine, big splash of dopamine and you go whoa But the problem is you have none left and then you get depressed which you then start using Outlaws the same way alcohol dumps dopamine nicotine vaping

dumps dopamine scary movies dump dopamine falling in, dumps, dopamine, scary movies, dump dopamine, falling in love, dumps, dopamine. You want to drip it. So would an example of dripping dopamine include the two microhabits you talked about, one being waking up in the morning and saying, I'm going to make it a great day, how am I going to do that? And also at the end of the day, going on that treasure hunt for what went right? Yes.

Excellent. How can you tell if you have low dopamine? If you're tired, if you're sad, and you just don't have the motivation to get done what you want to get done, but the good news is even if you've been bowed to your brain by doing the right things your brain, you know, we call it neuroplastic is it can be better even in a matter of months. Wow. We've talked about supplements. we've talked about some microhabits. What are simple ways to increase dopamine?

Cold showers will do it. So I just took a shower before I did it, and I always finish with like two minutes, I turn it all the way cold. Because cold therapy has been shown to increase both Nora and Efron, another neurotransmitter and dopamine. Any like certain times of day where your dopamine is higher or lower just naturally? In the morning. And is the same true as serotonin? In the evening. Okay, so to explain that to us and then how we can use something natural to boost it. that to us and then how we can use something natural to boost it. Everybody's circadian rhythm or the rhythm of their energy is different.

There are morning, lunch and night owls and you sort of have to know what you are, a lot of my ADD patience or night owls and society is sort of biased against them. Because school starts early, work starts early for a lot of people. But you just have to know your rhythm and if your dopamine is high in the morning, that's when you wanna focus and get work done if it tends to be higher later in the day,

know your rhythm. I'm like slightly overwhelmed. I don't even know where to start in terms of like, how to boost my serotonin naturally, how to boost my dopamine naturally. So are there certain things you should do first thing in the morning to keep your dopamine levels high, to stay focused, to promote your brain health?

So, one thing I really like is morning bright light. Okay. Morning bright light therapy, and you can actually get these therapy lamps, 10,000 locks, so it's bright. Okay. Put it, don't look at it. Put it, like, an arm's length away from you for 20 to 30 minutes in the morning. Super simple can significantly improve dopamine, your energy, mood, and cognitive function.

Exercise. Whether you want to increase serotonin or endopaminate, it does both walk like you're light for 45 minutes, four or five times a week, super simple, bright light exercise. It just incredibly helpful. I just turned 68 this year, and it's very clear to me that the stronger you are as you age, the less likely you're to get Alzheimer's disease. But it's really for older people, it's frayalty that kills them almost more than anything else. So, life, exercise, simple supplements, and now you can eat in certain ways to boost the neurotransmitters in your brain. So when you say frailty and strength, are you also recommending, in addition to the 30

to 40 minutes of walking as if you're late three or four times a week that you also add in strength training You bet I think it's absolutely critical for men and for women Your muscles are your protein Reserve you probably you know seeing you know one person gets into a car accident and they come out of it just fine. Another one's permanently damaged. Same accident. Why?

Because it's the level of brain health or brain reserve they brought into the accident that often determines the outcome. So every single day of your life, from my perspective, every single day of your life from my perspective, every single day of your life, you should be boosted your brain reserve. Well, that's what I find to be so inspiring and empowering about your work, your research, your message, Dr. Aiman, and all the content that goes crazy viral on TikTok, you are very clear that there are simple things that we can do to train our brains, to make our brains healthier,

and that has an enormous impact on the quality of our lives. And so it's not too late for anybody listening to improve their brain health doing these simple things. Can we talk quickly about cortisol, like what it is, why it matters to kind of understand what it is when it comes to your brain health? So cortisol is critical, it's made by your adrenal glands, and it helps us manage stress and deal with inflammation. and deal with inflammation. When it's high because of chronic stress,

chronic negativity that it actually puts fat on your belly and shrinks your hippocampus, the major memory center in your brain. Dr. Raymond, hold that thought. We're going to take a short break. And when we come back, we're going to take a short break and when we come back we're going to dig right back into it. Okay, so Dr. Raymond, what are three things you can do to start to bring down those cortisol levels? do to start to bring down those cortisol levels. Meditation incredibly helpful, prayer for people

who do that, hypnosis, some huge fan I've done it with my patients for the last 40 years, having a regular relaxation process. And then ask yourself, is this worth killing brain cells for me? You know, whenever I listen to people arguing or really focused on, you know, whatever the latest conspiracy theory is, I'm like, is this worth killing brain cells for me? No, it's not. I know you have a specific breathing pattern that is associated with a calmer mind. Can you teach it to us? I love it so much. It's the 15 second breath. So if you're having a panic attack, this is going to fix it in two minutes or less. And what researchers discovered is you take twice as long to breathe out.

As you breathe in, it produces an automatic relaxation response in your body. So the pattern is that's in, it's four seconds in. Okay. Hold it for a second and a half. Eight seconds out. Hold it for a second and a half. Will you walk us through it? So four seconds in.

Hold it. Eight seconds out. Hold it out. And then repeat. So let the energy of breathing go lower in your body. And if you just practice this on a regular basis, cortisol will go down. And you're just going to get flooded with a feeling of calmness and relaxation. Now you got to practice. You have to create a pathway in your brain of relaxation. Why does this 15-second breath work?

Because it stimulates, encourages your brain to go into a parasympathetic state. So there's a difference between stress, what science has called sympathetic state has nothing to do with sympathy. It's a bad word. But a sympathetic state is where I was on the beach of Crona Del Marm walking my dog and I saw two pit bulls running toward me. Oh my god. Oh my God, right? So my heart went fast. I mean, it was panic and ended up turning out okay. But what happened?

Now I'm on the edge of my seat. Did you pick up your dog? Did they just jump up on me? I know he was a big white shepherd. Oh, and I got bit. He ended up in the ocean. Yeah, it was sort of a disaster. I still get triggered sometimes.

It was critical to eliminate trauma because I love walking on that beach so much. So I actually did a session of EMDR. I don't know if you've I talked about EMDR. It's specific psychological treatment for trauma. It's actually really cool. You're right, it is really cool. So I have been doing EMDR for the past two years

as part of my work with my therapist on a whole host of issues. And in particular EMDR, you guys, it is super helpful, at least it has been, for addressing childhood drama. And so what it is, because it's a big long name that I can't even remember what EMDR stands for, but here's what you basically do. You're with a therapist, and you revisit something from your past, it's super triggering. And as you do that, you then stare at this ball moving back and forth on the computer screen.

And I have no clue why this actually works. But I do know it has helped me a lot. And it's so powerful and super cool that I want you to know more about it. And so we're just going to do another episode on it. That's what we're going to do. But in the meantime, Dr. Aiman, I have another question, and it's this, how do you come a really busy brain?

So the first simple thing to do is the diaphragmatic breathing, the breathing pattern that we just talked about. The second thing that we haven't talked about, but it's so important important is to direct your thoughts. I was 28 years old before I'd learned. I didn't have to believe every stupid thing I thought. And I'm in class when I was the psychiatric resident at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and I heard my professor say that, and I'm like, no way. Because my mind would torture me. You know, I'm one of seven children, I was pretty much irrelevant. I have five sisters, there's a lot of chaos

in my family. And my money would torture me. And if you start writing down your negative thoughts, and just ask yourself whether or not they're true, and there's a whole process I teach my patients, I need to be the director of my mind, rather than my ancestors directed, or the voices of my parents directed, or the news, or the gossip at work, I need to be the director. I want to be happy, connected, purposeful.

connected, purposeful. I often go, well, this is fuck shit. Maybe, happy, connected, and purposeful. And, you know, Mel, just because you have a thought has nothing to do with whether or not it's true, or whether or not it's helpful. Or, you know, everybody has crazy thoughts. Jerry Sinefeld once said, the brand is a sneaky organ.

All of us have weird, crazy, stupid, sexual, violent thoughts that nobody should ever hear. And just because you have a thought, it doesn't say one thing about it. It's just sort of like the weather. It's not the thought you have that makes you suffer. It's the thought you attach to that makes you suffer. I want to ask you a question, because I want you to talk to the person that has never considered that they could direct their thoughts

that has never considered that they could direct their thoughts, or that the things that they think aren't necessarily true. If there's a person hearing this, just like you were 28 years old, sitting in a class when it first entered your mind, other than taking out a notebook and just start to write down the things that are popping in your mind, is there some other way to help someone kick the door open? Because this is a revolutionary and life-changing concept when somebody first entertains the notion, Dr. Aiman, that you can direct what you're thinking about

and you can dismiss some of the crap that you torture yourself with as untrue. How do you begin this mental training and reprogramming? So I don't have any tattoos, but if I got one, one of the first tattoos I would get is it true. It's just start carrying that question around in your head. And so when you get a thought, my wife never listens to me. I've had that thought.

If you have that question, then you don't automatically have to attach to it. You can talk back to it. You don't have to believe the nonsense that's going on in our head to sort of begin to think about it like the weather and then go, does this thought serve me? Does it help me? Is it even true? And it's so often the lies we tell ourselves that keep us overweight, depressed, and people minded. Yeah, I can give everybody an example for my own life when I was super sick.

I started to tell myself this story that my husband, Chris, was mad at me, that he was annoyed, that he was taking care of me. I was telling myself this story that people were mad, that I had to cancel things. And all of those thoughts made me feel terrible. And none of them were true. And so you're right. I didn't interrupt them last week. I just sort of marinated in them. But I'm realizing sitting here listening to you that I allowed those negative thoughts that were not even true to make me feel bad.

What advice do you have for people who are chronically tired, Dr. Aiman? Well, the first thing is get your thyroid checked. Get your thyroid checked, okay? Chronic tiredness can go with low thyroid. It can go with you being an aemone, can go with you having low iron. So you know, I always think of people in four big circles, biological, psychological,

social, and spiritual. And so I'm always going to, so what's the biology of tiredness? Okay. You know, you had an infection. How's your gut health? What's going on in your hormones? You can also be chronically tired because you're filled with automatic negative thoughts, so that negativity can drive higher cortisol production than you just feel wiped out.

You also might not be sleeping well and getting checked for sleep apnea is critical because that goes with chronic tiredness. So if you start loudly, if you stop breathing at night, if you're chronically tired during the day, you should get sleep apnea checked. If you're in a conflict you're in a conflict with a loved one that so drains your energy or if you're holding on to hurt some huge fan and forgiveness. Not holding on to hurts where you're drinking the poison and hoping someone else is going to die. And then tiredness and spirituality, I think of purpose. The more purposeful someone is, the more open they have.

And so really focusing in on, you know, why you're on the planet, I think is a critical piece of energy as well. I want to come back to some tips and some tools that people can use to start boosting brain health. What are the five best foods that you can eat for brain health? Salmon, especially wild salmon for the omega-3 body acids, berries, blueberries, often called them brain berries, so people take blueberry extract, access to shown to improve memory. Nuts and seeds,

people who eat nuts and seeds on a regular basis have a lower incidence of depression and dementia. Leafy greens for the fiber and the magnesium. But my favorite one is raw cacao, or the manning breathing in chocolate. Wow. I want you to try this. I make brain healthy hot chocolate virtually every day. How do you make it?

And so I get raw cacao. So for each serving, you know, say the serving is like 12 ounces. Heeping teaspoon of raw cacao, unsweetened organic almond milk. And you could do it with other nut milks. But I organic almond milk. And you could do it with other nut milks, but I like almond milk. And there's a company called Sweetleth that makes liquid chocolate stevia. And so I heat up the milk,

I mix in the raw cacao, I put a couple of dropper, falls of chocolate stevia and put it in a blender to taste amazing. See, I love that there was an ambulance driving by in the background as you as my and our brain doctor were telling us to make hot chocolate. That that was just a beautiful thing. I think that was the universe telling us all we We need to have our brain healthy, cacao with the stevia chocolate sweetener. I'm actually gonna make one when we are done with this.

What can I do to it? What can we do to improve our memory, Dr. Aiman? Think about this, Mel. 50% of people 85 and older will be diagnosed with dementia. Like those rods, I am not okay with. And if you want to keep your brain healthy or rescue it, you have to prevent or treat the 11 major respectors that steal your mind.

And they don't have time to go in it. But the namanika have his bright mind. So for example, maybe the most important thing, B is for blood flow. Whatever you do to increase blood flow to your brain, you're gonna be happier, your memory is gonna be better, and you're gonna be more sexual. So is that the brisk walking?

So you wanna avoid things that steal blood flow caffeine nicotine being sedentary having any form of heart disease and then you want to do things that enhance blood flow. So walking Broca cal beats the supplement ginkgo These things all increase blood flow, cinnamon, or regano. Cinnamon, oregano. Wow, this is starting to sound like a cooking show,

but don't worry everybody. We're gonna put Dr. Amin's information, including the information on bright minds in the show notes because there are 11 of them. And I don't know about you, but I definitely cannot keep track of 11 things right now. So Dr. Aiman, you've been a psychiatrist for 40 years.

What are five things that you would never do because it's bad for your mental health and your brain health? I would never say everything I think. Some people come to me and say, oh, Dr. Aiman, I'm brutally honest. And I'm like, well, that's usually not helpful. I would never purposefully stay up late and scrub my sleep.

I would never eat everything I want. And I would never take medicine just based on symptom clusters. I always want to look at the brain and then target whatever treatment I need to cause somebody's brain to move. Yeah, the one thing I forgot to ask you, this time of year, when it gets darker earlier and it's colder, I notice my mood drops and I feel sad. What do you do whether it's because of the time of year or because of chronic stress?

You feel this sort of languishing or heaviness set in. What are three things that you would recommend that somebody do to boost their mood. So, morning bright light, exercise, don't overdue that caffeine. And it's real important, I haven't talked about this yet. Turn off blue light when the sun goes down. So we're constantly flooded with blue light. And in the morning, it's fine, but after dark and stock,

because it decreases the production of melatonin. So you get it from your laptop and get it from your phone, or you get it from whatever gadgets. You might be looking at. And so after dark, either put blue light bloopers on your gadgets or just turn them off and don't read a book. If you could leave everyone with just one thing to start doing today, to create better

brain health, what would it be? Whenever you come to a decision point in your day to fast yourself and what I'm doing good for my brain or bad for it and if you can answer that within firmation and love, I'm serious about this love of yourself, love of your family, love the reason you're on earth. You're going to start making good decisions for your brain and then everything in your life will be gutter. Dr. Raymond, you're so

awesome. Thank you for giving us very tactical and doable strategies based on research that help us improve not only the physical and functioning aspect of our brains, but also tools and strategies to help us to start to reprogram the brain and the thinking patterns in it. Dr. Aiman, you are a gift. We so appreciate you. I love you. Thank you for spending the time with us. Thanks, Dr. Aiman. Thank you, my friend. What a joy. What a joy is right. And there is so much to Dr. Aiman through us today in terms of resources and things to

do. And there's a particular resource that he has for free that I want to make sure you know about. He has a website called brainhealthassessment.com. I want you to check it out and here's why. There are 16 different brain types and based on 200,000 brain scans, Dr. Raymond has a free assessment that you can take online that based on these 200,000 brain scans that measure blood flow and activity in the brain, he literally can help predict what your brain might look like if it was scanned in one of his clinics

based on the most common symptoms that you experience. So unless then five minutes, you can discover a comprehensive approach to optimal brain health based on your brain. You can know your brain's risk factors, why? So that you can actually address it starting today. And so I want you to go to brainhealthassessment.com if you want to learn more, if you want to know what specifically you should do for free. And you will get a personalized email report. And I believe so much in this

obviously because Dr. Amin's work has helped my husband. It has helped me and I know it will help you. We'll put this all in the show notes. You can peruse it at your, you know, leisure, your desire whenever the heck you want, but it's there for you because as you know, the Mel Robbins podcast, we're not just here to listen, we're here to do something about it. And one final thing, in case nobody else tells you, I want to be the one to tell you that I love you, I believe in you, I believe in your ability to create a better life. And what we both learn today is it does begin with you starting to take better

care of your brain. That bowl of macaroni that's between your two ears, you and I, we need to start to really pay attention to it. And I hope that you now feel better equipped. I know I do, to be able to do that. All right, I'll see you in a few days. Stitcher you