Brain Expert: Stop Ignoring This Hidden Cause of Depression, Pain & Burnout | Daniel Amen

1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:00

   If someone was listening and they go, "Yeah, I mean, Daniel, uh, Dr. Amen, what is that really gonna do? If I start each day saying today is going to be a great day," for, for, for a skeptic who doesn't believe that's gonna make much of a difference, what would you say to them?

2. DADaniel Amen0:17

   Well, I have really significant research that negativity is bad for your brain. Now, I'm not a fan of unbridled positivity. The don't worry, be happy people die early from accidents and preventable illnesses. So if you came to me and you said, "Daniel, I don't wanna be anxious anymore." I'm like, "Bad goal." I said, "But let's take your anxiety from 80, you know, 0 to 100, and let's bring it down to 50, because you wanna have enough that you do the right thing, right?" If you don't have enough anxiety, that third beer or the third brownie, um, it doesn't bother you, and I want you to be bothered by it. Um, so appropriate anxiety is essential. But if you're always looking at what's wrong, it's always going to be wrong, and it's bad for the judgment and decision-making part of your brain. And if you're always looking at what's wrong, you're gonna have more pain.

3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:36

   Yeah.

4. DADaniel Amen1:36

   I have a new book coming out in December called Change Your Brain, Change Your Pain, and it's on the intersection of physical and emotional pain.

5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:48

   Mm.

6. DADaniel Amen1:49

   It's, it's like why is the supplement SAMe, S-adenosyl methionine, have research showing that it helps depression, but it also helps arthritis? It's because pain and depression run on the same circuitry in the brain, and negativity fuels it to become more active. Positivity settles it down. Now, but you wanna do it in a rational way, right? Some anxiety is good, so I didn't end up late for the recording. It's like, "Oh, gotta get home. Wanna be on a few minutes early just so I'm respectful," right? So that's healthy anxiety. Um, but I don't wanna have too much where, like, I showed up two hours early.

7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:45

   Yeah. Okay, let's get into some of the things... I mean, we've covered a lot already, but some of these positive things that we can actually proactively do to improve the health of our brains. Again, with this core idea that it's never too late, it doesn't matter what's happened so far. You've given a few examples. You preach this message over and over again that you can always change your brain any time you like once you start paying attention to the things that you need to do. You mentioned your BRIGHT MINDS mnemonic. Some of them we've covered, but let me just quickly summarize them all, and let's go through some that we haven't covered, okay? So B is for blood flow, R for retirement and aging, I for inflammation, G, genetics, H, head trauma, T, toxins. Uh, that's the BRIGHT, of course. Then MINDS, M for mental health, I for immunity and infections, N for neurohormone changes, D for diabetes, S for sleep issues. Let's go to the first one, blood flow, um, 'cause I really like that one. Now, when I think of blood flow, I think when people think of blood flow, they may think of blood flow to their heart and not necessarily blood flow, uh, to their brain. But there's another saying you had, "What happens in the heart happens in the brain and happens in the genitals." What did you mean by that?

8. DADaniel Amen4:11

   40% of 40-year-olds here in America have erectile dysfunction. 70% of 70-year-olds have erectile dysfunction. What that means is 40% of 40-year-olds have brain dysfunction, and 70% of 70-year-olds have brain dysfunction. Because if you have blood flow problems anywhere, they are everywhere. And one of the most fun advantages for me of getting patients on a brain health program is their erections are better for guys, and their orgasms are better for girls. And I love that because it's just part of the joy of being human. Um-

9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee5:01

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10. DADaniel Amen5:58

    And, you know, if we just... If I give you one strategyFor each of these 11, it's walk like you're late for 45 minutes four times a week. It increases blood flow, it increases erectile function, um, you're cuter, and it has the same efficacy of sertraline for depression

11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:25

    You're also a huge fan of racket sports. Um, which one of the BRIGHT MINDS, uh, letters do, does racket sports apply to? And also, why are racket sports so good for our brain?

12. DADaniel Amen6:39

    So it would be under B for blood flow, and, um, coordination exercises activate the sleeper part of the brain. Um, so I don't know if you remember Rodney Dangerfield, but he was a very famous comic, and he used to always say, "I get no respect." And the cerebellum gets no respect, even though it's 10% of the brain's volume but has half the brain's neurons. It's very important, and it's the coordination center of the brain. And when you activate it, everything else turns on in the brain. And people who play racket sports live longer than everybody else, and I think it's actually two studies from the United Kingdom looked at people who played soccer and, um, football, who swam, who ran. They looked at people and all of their sport activities. Uh, people who played soccer and football lived the least long of the whole group. People who played tennis, table tennis, um, probably now would be pickleball, uh, lived longer than everybody else. And I think it's because when you activate the cerebellum with coordination, it turns on your frontal lobes, and you make better decisions because I think longevity and decision-making are tied. They're like married to each other.

13. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee8:17

    Yeah, super interesting. I mean, obviously... Well, I say obviously, you won't know this, but as a, a lifelong racket sport player, I, I love hearing research like that.

14. DADaniel Amen8:27

    [laughs]

15. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee8:28

    Um, but it's really interesting. I've been thinking a lot about this, um, because we, we, we know, you mentioned already that walk like you are late four, for 45 minutes at least four times a week. You mentioned how that increases blood flow. Okay. When we think about exercise, we think about, oh, the cardiovascular benefits, right? But with racket sports, you're, you're sort of combining physical activity with coordination, balance, hand-eye coordination. So is it, is it all of these factors together that are giving the brain different inputs? So, you know, walking is fantastic for health for sure, but e-, uh, do you think there are enhanced benefits because of all these components that come in when we're playing racket sports?

16. DADaniel Amen9:16

    Yes, and if you think of table tennis, you have to... And racket ball too, you have to get your eyes, hands, and feet all working together while you're thinking about the spin on the ball in table tennis and the angles in racket-

17. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee9:36

    Hmm

18. DADaniel Amen9:37

    ... ball. And so it's sort of like aerobic chess, and I'm not talking about beer pong. [laughs] I'm talking about, like, get a coach. Learn how to play at a high level. It's something you can do for the rest of your life.

19. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee9:58

    Okay, great. So if we go back to BRIGHT MINDS, uh, this wonderful mnemonic, one of the most important pillars for our health is, of course, nutrition. But I think because of our busy, stressed out lives, so many people are struggling despite their best intentions. So many patients over the years have told me that they know what they should be doing, but they're struggling to actually do it, and that's why I'm a fan of AG1. AG1 is a daily health drink that contains over 70 vitamins, minerals, and other ingredients that are designed to make nutrition really easy. It's been in my own life for over six years now. It's simple, it's tasty, it's convenient, and it forms a part of my morning routine. People will routinely tell me that taking AG1 regularly has improved their focus, their cognition, their energy. Some people even tell me that they drink less coffee when they're taking AG1. And there's research out there showing us that taking AG1 regularly can improve specific markers of your gut health, which is really good for your immune health. So if you're looking to upgrade your own nutrition in a simple, tasty, and convenient way, try AG1. To get a free bottle of vitamin D and five free travel packs, go to drinkag1.com/livemore. I wonder if it would be helpful just to quickly go through each one and give one simple daily habit that people can do for each one. You've mentioned for blood flow, this 45-minute walk. Um, what would you recommend for the second one, retirement and aging?

20. DADaniel Amen11:41

    Learn something new. I think this is so important, something you're not used to doing, something that's foreign to just begin working out your brain. I have a patient actually from Oxford, England, that read Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. She's like, "There's 300 things for me to do. I can only do one thing at a time." And she started taking French and learned to play the guitar [laughs] afterwards. Um, so-15 minutes a day, learn something new. Um, under I for inflammation, floss. Become a flossing fool. Gum disease is associated with inflammation and brain disease. Um, genetics, know your risk factor. Um, so I have obesity and heart disease as risk factors for me. Um, every day I'm on a heart disease obesity prevention program. Um, so just know what your vulnerabilities are. Um, H is head trauma. Stop reading your phone while you're driving [laughs] or walking-

21. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee12:58

    [laughs]

22. DADaniel Amen12:58

    ... 'cause you're just much more likely to get a head injury.

23. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee13:02

    Can I just ask about what you said earlier on about, um, concussion and traumatic brain injury and head contact? If someone has a child who plays these contact sports at school, right? Because there's an interesting point here, isn't there? Where we, we can have a concussion, we can, um, clash heads, and then we're like, "Oh, yeah, I feel better. Let, let me crack on with life," right? What would you say, is there something that people should think about when they've ... They hear about this in their child, or they, you know, they themselves, I don't know, they go snowboarding and they bump their head against the slope and maybe they're not wearing a helmet. You know, yes, they recover, they get on with their life. But is there something they can do to kind of figure out, has there been any sort of damage there that, that is not immediately obvious with my symptoms?

24. DADaniel Amen13:58

    You know, Rangan, if you ask me the single most important lesson I've learned from all the scans I've done is mild traumatic brain injury is a major cause-

25. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:09

    Mm-hmm

26. DADaniel Amen14:10

    ... of psychiatric disability, and nobody knows it.

27. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:14

    Yeah.

28. DADaniel Amen14:14

    Because most psychiatrists, psychologists never look at the brain. Um, undiagnosed brain injury is a major cause of homelessness, addiction, suicide, depression. Um, we have to be way more thoughtful to protect-

29. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:35

    Yeah

30. DADaniel Amen14:35

    ... developing brains. And I just got this flashback, and it made me so sad. I, I knew this within two years of scanning people, and I used to write a column in the local newspaper where I lived.

Episode duration: 23:36