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

1. 0:00 – 1:36

   Negativity, realistic optimism, and why anxiety isn’t the enemy

   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.

2. 1:36 – 2:45

   Depression and physical pain share brain circuitry

   1. 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.

   2. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:48

      Mm.

   3. 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.

3. 2:45 – 3:48

   BRIGHT MINDS framework: 11 risk factors you can influence

   1. 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,

4. 3:48 – 5:58

   Blood flow: heart, brain, and sexual function are linked

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee3:48

      '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?

   2. 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-

   3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee5:01

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5. 5:58 – 6:25

   Simple blood-flow prescription: “walk like you’re late”

   1. 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

6. 6:25 – 11:30

   Why racket sports may be uniquely brain-protective

   1. 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?

   2. 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.

   3. 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.

   4. DADaniel Amen8:27

      [laughs]

   5. 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?

   6. 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-

   7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee9:36

      Hmm

   8. 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.

   9. 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

7. 11:30 – 13:02

   Daily habits for BRIGHT MINDS (part 1): learning, flossing, knowing your risks

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee11:30

      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?

   2. 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-

   3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee12:58

      [laughs]

   4. DADaniel Amen12:58

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

8. 13:02 – 15:42

   Head trauma: mild TBI as a hidden driver of psychiatric problems

   1. 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?

   2. 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-

   3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:09

      Mm-hmm

   4. DADaniel Amen14:10

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

   5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:14

      Yeah.

   6. 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-

   7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:35

      Yeah

   8. 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.

   9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:49

      Mm-hmm.

   10. DADaniel Amen14:50

       And I wrote one on suicide and head trauma, and it was 6:00 at night. I was in my office still. The phone rang, and all my staff had gone, so I picked it up, and it was this mother who was crying. And so I actually waited for her to come see me. And her son had a bad bike accident. The front tire hit the curb, and he fell over, uh, hit his head on the sidewalk, and she said he was never the same. And four months ago, he killed himself. And, "Reading your column just gave me peace that it wasn't 'cause I was a bad mom because before the injury, he was a great kid."

   11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee15:42

       Yeah.

9. 15:42 – 16:35

   Protecting kids: helmets, safer sports, and informed parental consent

   1. DADaniel Amen15:42

      And, you know, I've seen that story play out over and over, over the last three decades. W- we have to do a better job of protecting kids.

   2. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee15:56

      Yeah.

   3. DADaniel Amen15:56

      It's like, if you don't wear your helmet, you're not gonna ride your bike for a month. I mean, we have to be serious in protecting their brains. And, you know, knowing what I know, it's like, "No, you can't play tackle football." It's like, "No, that requires parental consent, and I don't consent to something where there is an average of a concussion every year."

   4. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee16:21

      Yeah.

   5. DADaniel Amen16:22

      So it's like, "No."

   6. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee16:24

      No.

   7. DADaniel Amen16:24

      "But I'll play golf with you, or we can go play tennis, or ... You know, there's lots of things to do."

   8. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee16:32

      Yeah.

   9. DADaniel Amen16:33

      But we have to be smarter.

10. 16:35 – 18:12

    Why routine scans miss concussions—and what may help recovery

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee16:35

       Yeah. And, and of course you've said there are things you can do. And on a personal level, I had a concussion a few years ago, uh, skiing. Um, and not everyone is a fan of, you know, these kind of disciplines. But I go regularly and see this phenomenal chiropractor who has, uh, worked for years in functional neurology and is so skilled. And after that, there was all kinds of things she did with me. We measured, you know, cerebellar speed, eye movements, everything. And we did exercises regularly to improve them because I, I also know the bene- you know, the problems that these things can cause. I do plenty of other things for my health and my brain as well, but I'm very proactive. If I've had a head trauma like that, I'm getting on top of it with someone who knows what they're doing to help me get things going. Do you know what I mean? But I don't think you could go and see your doctor, and we don't really know about this stuff. It's not what we're taught about. There's not this widespread knowledge within the profession that these things need to be taken seriously.

    2. DADaniel Amen17:39

       Well, and they may even order an MRI or a CT scan, but unless you've had a bleed, they're always normal.

    3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee17:45

       Mm-hmm.

    4. DADaniel Amen17:45

       And they go, "You're fine," when the SPECT scan shows functional damage.

    5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee17:52

       Yeah.

    6. DADaniel Amen17:52

       And I'm a huge fan of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Uh, I published a study on soldiers who were involved in blast injuries, so I, I like that a lot as a treatment. Um-

    7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee18:06

       Yeah

    8. DADaniel Amen18:06

       ... but knowing it's there, you get even more serious about taking care of it.

11. 18:12 – 20:15

    Daily habits for BRIGHT MINDS (part 2): toxins, mindset, vitamin D, hormones

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee18:12

       Yeah. Okay, back to your, uh, BRIGHT MINDS. We'd got up to T, toxins. So what was your one tip for toxins?

    2. DADaniel Amen18:20

       Drink more water because that helps to detoxify your body. Um, eat more fiber 'cause that'll also help detoxify your body. But the one thing that I love so much are saunas. People who have the most saunas have the lowest incidents of dementia, and I think it's because it's just helping get rid of the toxins in their body.

    3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee18:48

       Okay. M for mental health?

    4. DADaniel Amen18:51

       Don't believe every stupid thing you think, and end every day with what went well today. It'll so help you.

    5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee18:59

       I, immunity infections?

    6. DADaniel Amen19:02

       Know your vitamin D level, work to optimize it. Low vitamin D is associated with low gray matter [laughs] in your brain, so the part of your brain that actually is processing, uh, things. So know and optimize your vitamin D level.

    7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee19:22

       And for neurohormone changes, what does that mean and what could we do about it?

    8. DADaniel Amen19:27

       Well, hormones are so important. They're like Miracle-Gro for your brain. And so I think once a year you should just have your thyroid, your insulin, um, cortisol, testosterone, estrogen, progesterone for women measured. And if they're not in the healthy range, work with your doctor to optimize them. And kill the sugar, because people who get a sugar burst have an immediate drop of testosterone by 25%. So if you share the cheesecake with your partner at the restaurant, no one gets dessert when you get home.

12. 20:15 – 21:38

    Diabesity and sleep: food boundaries and earlier bedtime for memory

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee20:15

       D for diabesity. That, I guess that is e- a, a brain-healthy diet, like you explained earlier on?

    2. DADaniel Amen20:22

       Yeah, so diabesity's two things. It's a combination of your blood sugar's high and you're overweight, so either of those drops brain function. And so, th- the one habit, I think you'll like this a lot. I don't know if you've ever been in a bad relationship in the past, but I have, and I'm not doing it anymore. I married my best friend. Um, and I'm damn sure not doing it with food. So the one tiny habit, whenever I go to eat something, do I love it, and does it love me back? So it's only eating things you love, that love you back.

    3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee21:11

       And the final one, S, for sleep issues. Any, any sort of top tips about sleep, around sleep?

    4. DADaniel Amen21:19

       Go to bed a half an hour early tonight and your memory will be better tomorrow. Um, and y- you know, the big tip is put yourself to sleep ritualistically with what went well today. It is just so powerful.

13. 21:38 – 23:22

    Male vs female brain patterns: large scan study findings

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee21:38

       And, you know, in all these brain scans that you've done, are there any key differences between men and women in terms of how their brains look?

    2. DADaniel Amen21:49

       I published the world's largest gender study on 46,000 scans looking at, okay, what's the difference between male brains and female brains? And it's stunning, shocking. Um, females have better frontal lobe function, like, not by a little bit, by a lot. Focus, forethought, judgment, impulse control, organization, planning, empathy, learning from the mistakes you make. And the one statistic, at least here in the US, that just nails it is who's go- who goes to jail? Males, 14 times more than females. Um, men have greater, um, cerebellar function, so if you think of coordination. Um, women have a larger limbic system, which is involved in bonding, but also mood disorder, so they have twice the amount of depression as men do. But there's not one society on the face of the earth where men are primary caretakers for women. Um, and what's interesting is in another study, women have 52% less serotonin than men, which highlights their vulnerability to depression, but serotonin is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. It settles things down, one of the reasons why their frontal lobes are as busy as they are.

    3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee23:15

       [upbeat music] If you enjoyed that short clip, I think you are really going to enjoy the full conversation, which you can check out here.

Episode duration: 23:36