Brain Expert: These Common Habits SHRINK Your Brain – Alzheimer’s, Fatigue & Lost Joy | Daniel Amen

1. 0:00 – 2:35

   Six everyday habits that silently damage brain health

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:00

      Dr. Amen, at this point in your career, you have scanned over two hundred and fifty thousand brains. From what you've seen, what would you say are some of the common daily habits that people engage with that are damaging their brain and potentially affecting things like their energy, joy, and motivation?

   2. DADr. Daniel Amen0:23

      They've boughten into the lie that alcohol is a health food, or that marijuana is innocuous, or the food they eat doesn't really impact how they think, how they feel, how they act. That they scroll mindlessly and stay up later than is good for them. Uh, and I- it's so clear on my heart rate variability. If I don't get good sleep, my heart rate variability's less the next day, and that's a bad thing for people. Uh, I've been studying negativity, and whenever someone comes to Amen Clinics, we image them. That's what we're sort of famous for. But we also do a test on them that looks at 17 areas of cognitive and emotional functioning, and my favorite is conscious negativity bias. And so we looked at two thousand patients, and people who are high in negativity that, you know, whatever situation, they focus on what's wrong about that situation, they actually had less function in their frontal lobes. It's really a significant, powerful finding. So if you are biased toward negativity, it's a bad brain habit.

   3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:53

      Okay, there are six things there that I wanna go through in detail because I think they're six very common things. But you mentioned your scan there, and of course, you and your clinic is very famous for this scan. I'm really interested in what that scan actually measures because we often order scans when something is wrong, right? Someone comes in, and we think, "Oh, there might be a lesion on their liver." We order a scan to look at it. But it sounds like you are approaching scanning and have approached scanning in quite a different way with these brain scans. So could you elaborate as to what the scan is and what the findings actually tell us?

2. 2:35 – 6:11

   What Amen Clinics’ SPECT scans measure—and why looking matters

   1. DADr. Daniel Amen2:35

      So we do a study at Amen Clinics called brain SPECT imaging, S-P-E-C-T. It stands for single photon emission computed tomography. It's a nuclear medicine study that looks at blood flow, mitochondrial activity, forty-nine percent of the tracer is taken up in the mitochondria, and activity. And it basically tells us three things. For each area of the brain, good activity, too little, or too much, and then our job is to balance it. And like you, when something's wrong, when someone's anxious, when someone's depressed, when someone's angry, when someone is failing, when s- someone, their behavior is so bad they end up in jail, we wanna look at their brain and ask, "Well, why?" Um, you know, psychiatry is the only medical specialty that virtually never looks at the organ it treats, and that's as arrogant as it gets, that you think you know what's going on in someone's brain, they haven't told you, and now you're gonna start monkeying around changing their brain. And when I started looking at the brain, it literally changed everything. Most psychiatric illnesses are not mental health problems. They are brain health problems. If I get your brain healthy, you are less likely to be depressed. You're more likely to be a kind, thoughtful person, and your marriage is more likely to last. You're less likely to get Alzheimer's disease. And so just for me personally, it, it changed absolutely everything in my life. I was overweight when I first started scanning people, and then I realized as your weight goes up, the size and function of your brain goes down, and that was the one thing that motivated me to get to a healthy weight. So literally, from what I eat to how I think to how much I sleep, it's all because I looked at the brain, and I'm like, "Oh, this is an organ just like your heart is an organ. If my brain's not right, I'm not right."

   2. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee5:05

      Yeah, it's so fascinating. So m- so many things coming up for me, uh, Dr. Amen. It's interesting that in the medical field, we typically only image the brain if, I don't know, someone's had a fall and we think there might be a clot, right? Or someone might have fractured their skull, or we think there's a, a neurodegenerative condition that requires us to look at the brain, right? But we're not doing it, I don't think, anywhere near the, the rate in which you're doing it to look at, I guess, what, what people are calling mental health problems, right? So you mentioned depression, anxiety, these kind of things. Most doctors are not referring their patients for a scan at that point. As I sort of immerse myself in your work, you're making a strong case that that's important to do so, and I'd love you to explain why it's so important for all of these cases. But also then help me understand the, the exact utilization for a scan such as the one that your clinic offers.

3. 6:11 – 8:24

   Traumatic brain injury, pro sports, and proof the brain can improve

   1. DADr. Daniel Amen6:11

      So I did the big NFL study, the National Football League, on, you know, professional American footballers. And it was at a time when the NFL was sort of lying. They had a problem with traumatic brain injury in football. And I'd scanned 400 NFL players, high levels of damage. So stop lying about it. Playing football's a brain-damaging sport. And soccer's not much different. Uh, 80% of my players get better, meaning they're clinically better, but their brains are better. And I published that study. And what we did was a multiple vitamin with high doses of B6, B12, and folate. Um, high dose of omega-3 fatty acids and a brain boost that works in six different ways. And I'm like a little kid, so excited 'cause I've known for 34 years, that's how long we've been doing the imaging, that I can change your brain. And when I do, I change your life. But to be able to prove it in brain-damaged people, how exciting-

   2. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:29

      Mm-hmm

   3. DADr. Daniel Amen7:29

      ... is that? And you've heard of CTE-

   4. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:33

      Yeah

   5. DADr. Daniel Amen7:33

      ... chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the dementia football and soccer players and boxers get. Um, I don't think we think about it right. I mean, 'cause CTE's an autopsy diagnosis. You know, that's, you gotta be dead in order to get that diagnosis. I can completely tell, and have published research on it, that brain SPECT imaging, what we do, is one of the best studies in the world to look at concussions and the functional effects of traumatic brain injury. But then to be able to demonstrate you're not stuck with the damage you have, you can make it better, it's, it's so exciting-

   6. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee8:23

      Yeah

4. 8:24 – 10:18

   The “Is this good or bad for my brain?” decision filter—and teaching kids brain care

   1. DADr. Daniel Amen8:24

      ... uh, to me. And l- literally every day, you are making your brain better by what you do, or you're making it worse. And, you know, one question for a STEM hack, uh, I worked with BJ Fogg, who's a professor at Stanford, on how people change, and I worked with him for six months developing tiny habits. You know, what's the smallest thing I can do today that will make the biggest difference? And it's this one question. Whenever I go to do something today, and now with the negativity bias paper, whenever I go to think something today, just ask yourself, "Is this good for my brain or bad for it?" And if it's bad for it and you love yourself, stop doing it. Um, choose good. And then, of course, it always comes up, um, we have a high school course called Brain Thrive by 25, where we teach kids to love and care for their brain, and the week we talk about things to avoid, you know, and we've talked about some of them, alcohol, bad food, marijuana, not sleeping, scrolling. You know, invariably, a 14-year-old boy raises his hand and goes, "How can you have any fun?" And we play a game with the kids called Who Has More Fun, the kid with the good brain or the kid with the bad brain? I turned 70 this year, and it's like, "Hey, Daniel, what do you really want? Energy, memory, focus, passion, purpose." That's what I really want. So when I look at these other things, how can you have any fun, it's like, I'm gonna have a heck of a lot more fun if my brain is healthy than if I become a burden to my family.

5. 10:18 – 14:57

   Heading in soccer, rugby scans, and how sports rules are shifting

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee10:18

      Yeah. Very, very powerful. Um, you mentioned American football. You also mentioned, well, what we call football here in the UK, but you guys refer to as soccer. And I'm really interested, as the research mounts up that, you know, having a trauma to your head, having, you know, your head bump into things, has long-term consequences, we understand with American football it's a, it's a vigorous, aggressive game. In football or soccer, um, it is still common for people to head the ball, okay? So my question is, what is the implication of that, and do you think in, I don't know, in 10 years' time, f- football or, or soccer will have changed its rules whereby heading is no longer a feature of the game?

   2. DADr. Daniel Amen11:16

      You know, American football has already changed so much.

   3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee11:19

      In what way has it changed?

   4. DADr. Daniel Amen11:22

      They're really working hard to take the head out of the game. So where 20 years ago, if someone tackled s- another person by using their head to hit them in the head and take them down, n- now they'll be thrown out of the game. Now they'll be penalized severely. American football used to have the kickoff where people would be 50 yards apart and then run and... You know, and now they don't do that anymore. They basically completely changed the kickoff. And when it comes to soccer, um, the American Youth Soccer Organization banned heading for kids 10 and under. Now, when I saw that, I'm like, "Well, don't you like 11-year-old children? Or don't you like 12-year-old children?" Because, you know, until you're 25-The brain undergoes wild development, and, um, it's never a good thing.

   5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee12:25

      Mm.

   6. DADr. Daniel Amen12:25

      Your brain is soft. So think with me. Your brain is soft, about the consistency of soft butter. Your skull is really hard and has sharp, bony ridges. It's never a good idea to hit the soccer ball with your head. But that's not the only traumatic brain injury in soccer.

   7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee12:48

      Yeah.

   8. DADr. Daniel Amen12:48

      It's hitting it with your head, heads hitting heads, heads hitting knees, heads hitting elbows, heads hitting the ground. There is a lot of physical contact in soccer at the higher levels of play. And, um, there are a number of studies, uh, on soccer players showing lower IQs, more impulsivity, and an increased incidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

   9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee13:19

      Yeah. I mean, it's, it's clearly a good thing that there is now, you know, a regulation that under 10s don't head the ball. Okay, that's better than what it was, but of course, as you're saying, it needs to be expanded out. And I've also looked at this research, and it kind of... I haven't seen the scans like you have, but from what I can tell, it seems inconceivable to me [laughs] that at some point in the future, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, we might look back and go, "Oh, wow, do you remember in soccer where they used, when they used to head the ball?" Right? Because we don't do it anymore. I mean, I do believe that that may well come at some point. I, again, I don't know what these organizations are thinking. Have you seen the brains of many rugby players in your clinics?

   10. DADr. Daniel Amen14:07

       I have. Uh, I actually have Danny Cipriani's brain, who is a famous-

   11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:13

       Yeah

   12. DADr. Daniel Amen14:13

       ... rugby player. He did my show. I do a show on Instagram. It's part of our podcast, Change Your Brain Every Day. And, uh, he's so much better after we scanned him, saw the trouble, gave him a program. And, uh, yeah, I think he loves me. [laughs] Because, you know, when you have a better brain, everything in your life is better. And rugby, of course, is not good for your brain. But if you even think of how American football has evolved, you know, they used to not really have any helmets.

   13. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:49

       Mm.

   14. DADr. Daniel Amen14:49

       And then they had leather helmets, and now they have these, you know, huge-

   15. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:56

       Yeah

6. 14:57 – 18:54

   Brain health as public policy: social media, school start times, ultra-processed food

   1. DADr. Daniel Amen14:57

      ... heavy helmets, uh, that are protecting. And I love the idea of neuroscience leading to public policy. So for example, um, social media is bad for kids. The research-- There's no good research on social media improves mental health development.

   2. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee15:20

      Mm.

   3. DADr. Daniel Amen15:20

      And so Australia banned social media for children under the age of 16. Um, we know if children don't sleep, they have a higher incidence of anxiety, depression, and suicide. California banned public schools from starting before eight o'clock in the morning. Um, I was just involved in, uh, a bill in Arizona where they're banning ultra-processed foods to be sold on school campuses. And, and I, I love being part of the transformation.

   4. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee16:00

      Mm.

   5. DADr. Daniel Amen16:00

      Because my sneaky goal, the big goal I have in life, is actually to create a brain health revolution. Um, which is why I do your show, 'cause your show has a lot of reach. And I'm like, okay, gotta create revolutionaries who want-

   6. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee16:17

      Yeah

   7. DADr. Daniel Amen16:17

      ... to have better brains. Because how we change society is we change individual people. And because if you change, then your spouse is more likely to change, then your children are more likely to change. Then when you go out and everybody's drinking at the pub, and you're like, "Get me a sparkling water." And your friends will give you grief, but because you love your brain, you love your brain more than you love pleasing your friends.

   8. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee16:44

      Yeah.

   9. DADr. Daniel Amen16:44

      And I, I love that so much.

   10. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee16:47

       Yeah.

   11. DADr. Daniel Amen16:47

       And so my wife and I wrote a book called The Brain Warrior's Way, just because I believe we are in a war for the health of our brains. And you see it in the statistics on anxiety, depression, dementia, um, school failure, and so on. And the, the UK is really no different than the United States, um, except smarter in, like, "No, we're not gonna buy food that has hormones and antibiotics in it." We ban a lot of chemicals that may not be helpful for people. That I'm a huge fan of.

   12. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee17:27

       Yeah. It's clear you're very passionate about this. I've, I've watched many of your interviews on other podcasts, and you, you clearly are driven by this real passion to help people reclaim the health of their brains. And what you just mentioned there about rugby and some of the rugby players you've worked with is really quite inspiring. And it reminds me of how you started, um, your, your recent book, Change Your Brain Every Day. Right at the start of that book, you wrote, "You are not stuck with the brain that you have. You can make it better, even if you have been bad to it, and I can prove it. You can literally change your brain, and when you do, you change your life." So those are very powerful words. I know that's something you strongly believe. So why don't we just go through those six things that you outlined right at the start. Let's understand, let's help people understand why they're so damaging for their brains, and then let's go to the kind of proactive things that we can all do. Because you also say in that same book that brain health is a daily practice, and I really love that sentiment, okay? So if we just go to that list at the start, you s- you know, you, you outlined alcohol.You know, what's the deal with alcohol and the health of our brains? Can you see it in people's scans? What do you see? And is there a recommended amount that you say, "Well, this is okay, but beyond that it starts to become a problem"?

7. 18:54 – 25:20

   Alcohol vs marijuana: what the scans show and why “less is better”

   1. DADr. Daniel Amen18:54

      So the American Cancer Society four years ago recommended zero alcohol. Why? Any alcohol is associated with an increased risk of seven different cancers. The American Surgeon General just a couple of months ago said people shouldn't drink. Now, um, I don't know if people will do that or not. If you love your brain, less is clearly better. Uh, alcohol prematurely ages the brain. Plus, alcohol is a disinfectant, right? My wife's a nurse. If she gives you a shot, the first thing she does is put alcohol on your skin to disinfect the area. Well, there's this thing called the microbiome, which I know you know about, but you have 100 trillion bugs in your gut, and they make neurotransmitters, and they digest your food, and they detoxify your body, and they support your immune system. Why are you drinking a disinfectant? Like, how does that really make sense? Um, not to mention, there has not been a week that has gone by in my 45 years of being a psychiatrist where alcohol hasn't devastated someone in my family, someone of my patients' families, either one of my best friends had her daughter killed by a drunk driver. Um, alcohol disinhibits people, and they say things they shouldn't say, or they do things they shouldn't do. My daughter said, "When you say something when you're drunk, well, those are really sober thoughts." And, well, just because you have a thought doesn't mean you believe it, and it absolutely doesn't mean you should say it. [laughs] And so, um, it just gets people into too much trouble. Plus, I mean, it's got all the health problems associated with it, and it's like, "Oh, well, can't I have just one?" And it's like, sure, if you're gonna do something bad, you just wanna make sure you're doing a whole bunch of other things that are great, like some of my NFL players. You know, I had one player sign $120 million contract, so he's still gonna play, but if you're gonna do something bad, you wanna do everything else right. Um, and I published a huge study on 64,000 scans, and alcohol was one of the things that prematurely aged the brain. But what was worse was marijuana, and, um, that surprised me. Um, but I published another study on 1,000 marijuana users. Every area of their brain compared to healthy is lower in activity and blood flow. And here in the US, I don't know how it is in the UK, but in the US it's basically legal most places to just, you know, buy it, use it however you want. So the idea that this is innocuous pervades our society, but it's clearly a lie. Um, teenagers who use have a higher incidence of anxiety, depression, uh, suicide, and psychosis. And so I'm, I'm not a huge fan of anything that lowers blood flow to the brain.

   2. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee22:33

      Is it, is it more problematic if we're talking about alcohol or marijuana, if you're doing this, you know, at the age of 16 compared to when your brain is more formed, let's say at 40, 45? Is, is there a difference, do you think, in the long-term implications?

   3. DADr. Daniel Amen22:51

      Yes. I think it's much more damaging if you poison a developing brain that is... And, and people don't really get this. Um, your brain undergoes wild development, um, all the way up until the age of 25. And so the idea that an 18-year-old is an adult, not really. Um, in my household, 'cause I have six kids, youngest is 15, you know, the 20 and 21-year-old are sort of baby adults that they still need us, and, um, you know, I wanna be involved in supervising, not at a crazy level, but I, I really wanna have a close relationship with them so that I can guide them. Um, I have a new book out called Raising Mentally Strong Kids, and there's a whole section on brain development and how important it is to protect teenage brains. And a lot of parents think they can't influence their kids, and so they begin to abdicate it when they're 13, 14, and I think that's a big mistake. And I think we, we need in schools to teach kids to love and care for their brain.

   4. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee24:14

      Yeah. Dr. Amen, um, I'm just trying to think through this for my audience. There's not that many 16-year-olds, I don't think, who listen to the show. There are some who contact me and let me know, but I guess the typical demographic who listen to my podcast around the world is a little bit older than that. But I wonder if you could do me a favor, okay? 'Cause a lot of them who are listening now will be perhaps worried about their children, or their teenage boy, or their teenage daughter who maybe has started to drink alcohol with their friends-At the age of 15 on a Saturday evening to bond and socialize or to smoke marijuana with the belief that it's okay, that it's innocuous. So I wonder if I could ask you to do something that I don't think I've ever asked anyone to do in the history of this show, which has been going [laughs] for over seven years now. Could you speak to me as if I was a 16-year-old and explain to me why I should think again before I consume alcohol or smoke marijuana?

8. 25:20 – 31:12

   Protecting the developing brain: talking to a 16-year-old about choices

   1. DADr. Daniel Amen25:20

      So I have thought about this a lot, and what I realized is if I'm gonna make a difference in your life, and I want to, um, I have to first start by getting you to care about your brain. And so I have a poster that hangs in over 100,000 schools, prisons, churches, called Which Brain Do You Want, which is healthy scans surrounded by drug-affected scans. But you can't start with that. You have to start with your brain is involved in everything you do, how you think, how you feel, how you act, how you get along with other people. Your brain is the organ of intelligence, character, and every decision you make. And when your brain works right, you work right, and when your brain is troubled for whatever reason, um, you have trouble in your life. And what I've seen over 45 years, and now almost 300,000 scans that I've looked at, brain scans, um, is that when your brain is healthy, you're happier, you're healthier, you're wealthier because you make better decisions, and you're more successful in everything you do. When your brain is not healthy because of alcohol or marijuana or traumatic brain injury or eating lousy food, you're sadder, sicker, poorer because your decisions are not as good. And if you want to have the best life possible, love your brain. And two analogies I love to give kids is if you... Tell me the car you like the best. Uh, is it a Lamborghini? Is it a Mercedes? Is it a BMW? What, what car do you love? And they'll tell me. And I'm like, "Would you ever put salt in the gas tank?" And they would go, "No." I'm like, "But why?" It's like, "Well, it wouldn't work right." Or what if you had a $10 million racehorse? So I've scanned, uh, some of the world's best jockeys, you know, jockeys that have won the Kentucky Derby. Um, I said, "If you had a $10 million racehorse, would you ever get it drunk? Would you ever get it high? Would you ever feed it junk food?" [laughs] And they look at you, right, if they're smart, they look at you like you're an idiot. It's like, "Well, of course I wouldn't do that." Well, why wouldn't you do that? Well, the horse, my investment in the horse wouldn't pay off because this incredible animal wouldn't perform right. But aren't you worth so much more? And with a better brain, you actually get what you want in life.

   2. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee28:41

      Yeah, I love that. I, I obviously love that. And it, and it, and the, and the way you finished off there, it reminded me of what we started off this conversation talking about, the, these scans, right? And whilst everyone in the world doesn't have access to these scans, I think what's really interesting to me is that it's obvious to a kid, isn't it, that if they dream about having a Porsche or a BMW one day, that they never put, you know, Diet Coke in or salt or acid or whatever it might be, right? Or the racehorse analogy. But we don't think as a society about our brains in the same way, and there's many reasons for that. But one of the reasons is because we can't see it, right? So when a child is, or an adult is deciding, oh, I'm gonna have this dessert, I'm gonna have loads of sugar today because it's a cheat day or whatever, whatever reason they may have in their heads, they're not directly seeing the impact that is having on their brain. Now, if we draw an analogy, one of the reasons why I think CGMs, continuous glucose monitors, for some people now and again can be so beneficial is because instead of hearing generic advice about what you should eat or what you shouldn't eat, you're actually seeing for yourself, when I eat this food, my blood sugar is going into the diabetic range. That is so powerful because it's not someone else's body, it's your body. And I think for many people, it's one of the most powerful tools for change that I've ever seen. Do you sometimes find it difficult to find time to fit wellness into your life? I know many of us do. We feel our lives are too busy. Bon Charge are a wellness brand who have a fantastic range of products to help you feel better, sleep better and live better. And I've been using many of their products for well over five years now. And what I love the mostSo they don't require me to find extra time in my life. I think their blue light blocking glasses are some of the highest quality out there. I've been wearing them for years in the evening, also when I go traveling. I also love their infrared sauna blanket, which is much cheaper and more accessible than having a sauna in your own house. It's really easy to set up, and you can have a quick 30-minute session whilst relaxing, reading, or watching television, and this sauna blanket is gonna help you with recovery, relaxation, and

9. 31:12 – 33:47

   Making the invisible visible: scans, CGMs, and why we don’t prioritize brains

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee31:12

      sleep. Bon Charge are giving my audience an incredible 20% off everything on their website. All you have to do is go to boncharge.com/livemore and use the coupon code LIVEMORE to get your 20% off, or just click on the link in the description box below. I imagine people seeing their own brain scans that you offer might also give people that kind of buy-in as well. Is that what you've experienced?

   2. DADr. Daniel Amen31:43

      Absolutely. And I'm also a huge fan of continuous glucose monitors, especially people who are vulnerable to dia-

   3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee31:51

      But do you think, do, do, do you think the analogy works? Uh, d- is that one of the things your brain scan gives people is it takes this hidden organ and makes it visible?

   4. DADr. Daniel Amen32:02

      I think it's perfect, and I often say, you know, "Why don't people care about their brains?" Because you can't see it. You can see the wrinkles in your skin-

   5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee32:12

      Yeah

   6. DADr. Daniel Amen32:12

      ... or the fat around your belly, and you can do something when you're unhappy with it bec- but because we don't look at the brain, we don't care, and we don't know, and that's a bad combination. You know, here in the US, we spend more money, uh, on plastic surgeons than we do on loving and caring for our brain. And, you know, how your face looks is important, but how your brain looks is way more important to your happiness, health, and success.

   7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee32:46

      But isn't it true, okay, that the other way around it works in the sense that if an individual, uh, did all the things that you recommend in your books and in your podcast about looking after our brain, you know, our diet, moving our body regularly, lowering stress, not exposing ourselves to toxins, et cetera, et cetera, not only would your brain get better, but it's likely your skin would actually get better anyway?

   8. DADr. Daniel Amen33:16

      Whatever is good for your skin is good for your brain. Whatever's good for your muscles is good for your brain. And, you know, when you think of the brain as an organ just like your heart is an organ, what that means is you actually have to get your heart right to have a good brain. You have to get your liver right to have a good brain. I have an acronym I, I like a lot, um, that frames

10. 33:47 – 37:25

    BRIGHT MINDS framework: toxins, psychedelics concerns, and product label hygiene

    1. DADr. Daniel Amen33:47

       things to do and things not to do called BRIGHT MINDS.

    2. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee33:51

       Hmm.

    3. DADr. Daniel Amen33:51

       You wanna keep your brain healthy or rescue it, you have to prevent or treat the 11 major risk factors that steal your mind, and it's actually my Alzheimer's prevention program. But what I also realized, it's also my depression prevention program. Um, and BRIGHT MINDS, like B is for blood flow, R is retirement and aging, I is inflammation, D is diabesity, S is sleep. So in it, it really tells you what to avoid and what to do. So we've been talking about T, toxins, alcohol, marijuana. Um, I'm very concerned about psilocybin, not that I don't think it might have therapeutic benefit, but because the word is out, "Oh, this might be helpful," we have teenagers doing mushroom parties, and the incidence of psilocybin psychosis has dramatically skyrocketed. And it's the same thing that alcohol is a health food. Alcohol goes up. Marijuana's innocuous now. So many people are high and getting high with their children. I think this is gonna happen with psilocybin, and I'm very worried about that. Um, but there are other toxins like mold or mercury, um, or the products you put on your body that we have to be really thoughtful about. So just, you know, unpacking T for toxins is critical.

    4. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee35:32

       Yeah. Um, in your book, in your latest book, you also mentioned under toxins, I think, makeup, and you're talking about some of the makeup products contain ingredients that are toxic for our brains. Are you able to expand on that? What are some of these ingredients? Are, are there things that people can look out for when they're choosing these products?

    5. DADr. Daniel Amen35:53

       Things like parabens, um, very common in makeup products, phthalates. Um, they're hormone disruptors. And I don't know if you've seen it in the UK, I've certainly seen it in the US, uh, young people with low testosterone levels. It's actually quite frightening, and I think it's the toxic products that we put on their body. So there's an app here in the US I like, and probably it's in the UK, called Think Dirty. It allows you to scan your personal products, and it'll tell you on a scale of zero to 10 how quickly they're killing you. [laughs] And so for 50 years, I shaved with Barbasol, and on a scale of zero is live long and 10 is die early, it's a nine. And I'm like, "Oh, no." And so now I shave with something-I'll kiss my face, and it's a two. And it's actually not even more expensive. But even if it was, well, I'm worth it. I love myself. I am not putting toxic things on my body or the bodies of my children. And so, you know, most people know I should read food labels. You also should read product labels. And if you don't understand it, just put it into ChatGPT and go, "Which of these are good for me or innocuous, and which of these are bad for me?" Right? With the internet, and especially now with AI, that information is readily available.

11. 37:25 – 42:45

    Food as brain fuel: ultra-processed diets, hippocampal neurogenesis, and Alzheimer’s risk

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee37:25

       Yeah. We'll come back to BRIGHT MINDS in a minute. I think it's a brilliant acronym. Uh, in terms of the common daily habits that people are engaging with that are damaging their brain, you mentioned alcohol, marijuana. You've also just mentioned some of your concerns over mushrooms and the widespread use in teenagers now, which I guess also speaks to what you said before about that age group and the developing brain and how sensitive it is. You also mentioned food right at the start of this conversation, okay. I'd love you to expand upon what are the key things we need to know about the things to avoid when it comes to eating things that damage our brain. And I particularly liked something you wrote in, uh, Change Your Brain Every Day. On day 12... I, I really like the structure of that book. On day 12, you wrote this, "The real weapons of mass destruction are highly processed, pesticide sprayed, high glycemic, low fiber, food-like substances stored in plastic containers." Please explain.

    2. DADr. Daniel Amen38:34

       So your brain is about 2% of your body's weight, about three pounds, but it uses 20 to 30% of the calories you consume. So if you have a fast food diet, a low nutrient diet, you're likely to have a fast food mind and not be able to think deeply, and this is very important. And so the nutrition we give our body basically goes to feed our brain. And so fast food, low quality food is rampant here in the United States, as is obesity, right? Seventy-five percent of the population is overweight or obese. And so really thinking about, all right, what do I put in my body? And the, the first thing is water, because 80% of the brain is water, right? Seventy percent of your body is water. Eighty percent of your brain is water. So, um, drink about half your weight in ounces a day. Um, and so I'm about 150 pounds, but I think it's about 66 kilograms, and so I wanna have half of that in ounces of water a day. Uh, so I think that's the first thing. And then, um, colorful fruits and vegetables because they have phytonutrients and antioxidants, but it doesn't mean Skittles. Skittles was actually recently voted one of the worst foods in the world [chuckles] because of the artificial dyes and the sugar associated with it. Um, high quality protein. Protein is critical to building brain cells. And did you know that your hippocampus, um, a little side note, it's the major memory center in the brain, uh, on the inside of your temporal lobe, so behind your eyes, underneath your temples, um, makes 700 new stem cells every day. And hippocampus is Greek for seahorse. So I always teach my patients, it's like every day you're making 700 new baby seahorses, and are you gonna nourish them and feed them so they grow, or are you gonna give them junk food and basically shrivel them? And I love that analogy so much. But protein, healthy fat. When America went on a low fat kick, obesity and depression skyrocketed. There's this great study from the Mayo Clinic. People who had a fat-based diet, so think fish, avocados, healthy oils, nuts and seeds, 42% less risk of getting Alzheimer's disease. People who are on a protein-based diet, so I suppose you could think of the caveman diet, 21% less risk. But people who are on the standard American diet, bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, fruit juice, sugar, had a 400% increased risk of getting Alzheimer's disease. It's the food, and it's so important. Um, you know, as many vegetables as you can sort of stand [chuckles] along with healthy protein and healthy fat.

12. 42:45 – 47:08

    Sugar, inflammation, and what changes may look like on scans

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee42:45

       What's the impacts of sugar on our brain? Or excess sugar, I should say.

    2. DADr. Daniel Amen42:50

       You know, it makes me think of this study from UCLA where they took mice and, um, gave them a head injury. And, I mean, it's not nice, but that's what they did, whacked them in the head. And then one group, they gave them their regular healthy diet, uh, and three weeks later, they could run the maze. They had already known how to run. The other group, they added sugar to their regular healthy diet, and three weeks later, the mice were still confused and couldn't run the maze. And you think on the sidelines, and it's maybe probably true in soccer, but it's clearly here in football, is they have Gatorade, which is basically sugar water with artificial dyes. And it doesn't allow us to learn. It doesn't allow us to heal. Sugar is pro-inflammatory, which we think is the basis of many psychiatric illnesses. It's for sure the basis of many physical illnesses and inflammatory, addictive, and has no nutritional value. Less is clearly better.

    3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee44:08

       Can I ask, you know, because I'm not familiar with the scans that your clinics offer, what is it you actually see? Can an individual come and get a scan with you, make some changes, and then rescan and see differences? That, that's the first question. But the second question relating to that is, if someone is having a highly processed, high sugar, low fiber diet, like the standard American diet, the standard Western diets, compared to someone who transforms that and is mostly eating whole foods, low glycemic, high fiber, what can you actually see in the brain that's different?

    4. DADr. Daniel Amen44:47

       To your first question, yes. M-many of our patients do. And, um, I'm just thinking of Jonathan Cain, uh, who is the keyboardist for the band Journey, and Jonathan wrote many of their iconic-

    5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee45:04

       Yeah

    6. DADr. Daniel Amen45:04

       ... songs like Don't Stop Believin'. Jonathan was drinking two bottles of wine a day and eating poorly. Um, his brain looked terrible. And I made him a poster. Um, it's, "Here's your brain today. If you do what I say, here's your brain six months from now. And if you don't do what I say, here's your brain five years from now," which basically looked like an Alzheimer's brain. And I'm like, "Okay, which brain do you want?" He immediately stopped alcohol that day, improved his diet, and his brain dramatically better. Well, how exciting-

    7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee45:45

       Yeah

    8. DADr. Daniel Amen45:45

       ... is that? So I use it as a motivational tool, but I also use to go, "Well, how are we doing? Are we doing the right things, or are we not doing the right things?"

    9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee45:59

       And in terms of food, are there specific differences you see in the brain, or is it more general?

    10. DADr. Daniel Amen46:05

        I think it's healthier overall. There's a study from Australia showing that there is a linear correlation between the number of fruits and vegetables you eat a day and your level of happiness. So two is better than none, four is better than two, six is better than four, and so on. You know, I have two minds of the ketogenic diet that for some people it's miraculous. It's an anti-seizure diet, and it also is a mood stabilizing diet for some people. But I worry about it because there's not enough good fiber and good nutrients with it. And so people on the ketogenic diet have to take a lot of nutritional supplements. Um, but that's a clear example that food is healing or it's damaging.

13. 47:08 – 51:04

    Screens, social media, and ‘dopamine dumping’ that flattens motivation

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee47:08

       Yeah. You also mentioned in terms of these negative daily habits, screen use and social media. Now, I'd love you to explain, um, is it screens in general? Is it social media? Is it both? And how would you help people think about their use of screens in relation to the health of their brain?

    2. DADr. Daniel Amen47:32

       Well, increased screen time goes with obesity and depression. Social media, especially for developing brains, goes with depression and anxiety disorders because you're constantly comparing yourself to someone else who is, you know, that's their public persona, and you have no idea what they're like personally. Uh, but you often feel less than other people. And screens and social media were created in part to be addictive. And so I, I like to talk about dopamine and how dopamine is a critical neurotransmitter involved in motivation, pleasure, and focus. And the devices we have, the notifications we get, the emails we get, or the text, they produce a little bit of dopamine, uh, in our brain, which goes with a little bit of expectation. Um, or in some people, cortisol, a little bit of fear. "Oh, what do they want now?" Um, but the more we're on them, the more we get this dopamine dumping.And when you don't have it, you actually get depressed. So think of dopamine and cocaine. So it's these little micro, uh, dopamine bursts that over time begin to wear out the pleasure centers in your brain. So there's an area deep in the brain, big term, just saying, pleasure center. It's called the nucleus accumbens, and it specifically responds to dopamine. But the more you hit that, um, the more it wants more, and then it wants more and more to feel anything at all, and that's where addictions happen. In people who are obese, it's less reactive, which means they actually get less pleasure from the food they eat, and they have to eat more and more to feel anything at all. And so I like to think of drip dopamine, don't dump it.

    3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee50:01

       Hmm.

    4. DADr. Daniel Amen50:01

       And obviously alcohol dumps it, marijuana dumps it, psilocybin dumps it, cocaine, methamphetamine, they all dump dopamine. Um, and that's where addictions start. Nicotine as well.

    5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee50:15

       What does that mean, dumping dopamine instead of dripping it?

    6. DADr. Daniel Amen50:19

       So dumping it is things that powerfully release it, like scrolling on TikTok for an hour. You just dumped a lot of dopamine into your system. So d- if, if you release a lot of dopamine, uh, then you won't have enough store afterwards, and after you spend three hours on TikTok, you, you just feel flat.

    7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee50:48

       Hmm.

    8. DADr. Daniel Amen50:48

       You feel unmotivated, unfocused. So if you're gonna spend time on it, do it after the work you've done, you need to get done for the day, and then limit it to no more than a half an hour a day.

14. 51:04 – 1:04:07

    Sleep deprivation and negative thinking: cleaning the brain and clearing ANTs

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee51:04

       Yeah. Okay, great. You also mentioned, I think the other two were sleep deprivation and these negative thoughts. If you could just cover in a bit more detail, what is the impact of sleep deprivation on our brain?

    2. DADr. Daniel Amen51:18

       So when you sleep, your brain cleans and washes itself, and it's very clear now, if you're not getting six and a half, seven hours of sleep, sort of like trash builds up, and you're less healthy the next day. When we sleep, our body turns on 700 health-promoting genes. If we don't get good sleep, those do not get turned on, and we're just more likely to be sick. So sleep deprivation basically goes with all of the BRIGHT MINDS risk factors. You have lower blood flow in your brain. Your brain looks older. You have more inflammation in your body. Um, we just talked about genetics.

    3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee52:07

       Yeah.

    4. DADr. Daniel Amen52:08

       If you have sleep deprivation, you're much more likely to get a head injury. The H in BRIGHT MINDS is head trauma. I mean, we talked about you have this lymphatic drainage that sort of cleans your brain at night, and if you don't get good sleep, you have more toxic buildup. You're more likely to be anxious or depressed, and your immunity goes down, which is the second I, and it's just bad for all of the BRIGHT MINDS risk factors.

    5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee52:34

       Yeah. I've been wearing this Whoop band for about a year now, and it's had a transformative effect on my health and wellbeing. I've gained so many insights how different types of exercise and life stress affect my recovery, how different evening routines affect my sleep quality, and I would say that wearing this Whoop band has helped me understand my body much better. Whoop is the only wearable that turns your health and fitness data into personalized guidance, and I'm pleased to announce that the all-new Whoop is now available, 7% smaller and with 14 plus days battery life. Now, I've been a doctor for over 20 years, and I honestly don't think that health wearables are for everyone. Some people get overly obsessed with the data, and they can of course exacerbate health anxiety. But for some people, like me, they can be absolutely game changing. The all-new Whoop now includes Heart Screener with on-demand ECG readings that you can share with your doctor, and Healthspan, a new feature that shows you how your daily habits impact your pace of aging. So if you want to improve your performance, longevity, and overall health, get the all-new Whoop at join.whoop.com/livemore or click on the link in the description box below. And in terms of these negative thoughts, uh, you mentioned some of this new research that you're involved with. A lot of people may be thinking, "Well, what can I do if I have negative thoughts?" So what is your advice? I mean, just maybe recap what are negative thoughts... Well, number one, what are they? Uh, number two, what are they doing to our brain? And I guess number three is, what can people start to do about them?

    6. DADr. Daniel Amen54:24

       So many years ago, I coined the term ANTs, automatic negative thoughts, the thoughts that come into your mind automatically and ruin your day. So I had a really hard day at work. I saw four suicidal patients, um, two teenagers who ran away from home, and two couples who hated each other. [laughs] And I, I'm home, and nobody's home when I got home, and I go in the kitchen, turn on the light, and we have an ant infestation in the kitchen, and I'm just like... And as I'm-Wiping up what felt like thousands of ants. And you remember in medical school, we're always making acronyms, mnemonics to remember stuff. Um, as I'm wiping them up, I'm thinking, "Ants, ants, automatic negative thoughts. My patients are infested." And so the next day at work, I brought a can of ant spray. And I'm like, "I'm gonna teach you how to get rid of these bad thoughts." And then I realized ant spray is pretty toxic, so I bought an ant puppet and an anteater puppet. And so here's the exercise. Whenever you feel sad, mad, nervous, or out of control, write down what you're thinking. And then ask yourself whether or not that's true, whether or not it's absolutely true. And then later on, I met Byron Katie, who I love. She wrote this great book called Loving What Is, and she has this five-question process that I teach virtually all of my patients and I lived with daily. And so say you have a negative thought, "My wife never listens to me." Well, write that down, "My wife never listens to me." And in my work, and I have in the book, Change Your Brain Every Day, all the different types of ants, and, like, mind reading or fortune telling or all-or-nothing thinking or guilt beating. Um, and so, well, what kind of ant is that? "My wife never listens to me." Well, it's an all-or-nothing ant. Whenever you think in words like always, never, everyone, every time, they're overgeneralizations and almost always wrong. Um, so I write the thought down, "My wife never listens to me." Is that true? No. I've written 18 national public television specials, and she's listened to the script for every one of them. [laughs] So that one's, like, not true. Um, just because you have a thought has nothing to do with whether or not it's true, whether or not it's helpful, and whether or not you should keep it. The second question, is it absolutely true? Well, absolutely not. Um, the third question is, how does that thought make you feel? Awful, angry, um, separated, lonely. Um, how would I feel without the thought? Fine. And then you take the original thought and you turn it to its opposite, "My wife does listen to me," and I can give you five immediate examples of it. And then I'm fine. But if you never question your thoughts, you just believe them, and they torture you. So if you tend to get negative, if you tend to get depressed, just start writing down what you're thinking and start with question one, is it true? And I love teaching my patients positivity bias. It's one of the reasons I studied negativity because, you know, I just saw low positivity, high negativity goes with depression. In fact, our patients, we ask them three hundred questions about a variety of mental health issues when they come see us. If your negativity bias is high, you answer yes to sixty-seven percent of the questions. And so how can you train your brain to be more positive? Turn off the news, at least in the morning, and don't listen to more than ten minutes a day. The news is meant to make you angry. The news, they sell more products if you're angry because you watch more TV. So turn off the news. Start every day with, "Today is going to be a great day." Say it. Say it out loud. Say it to someone else, "Today is going to be a great day." But my favorite strategy that is so effective, it's so effective, it is found by researchers to increase happiness in just three weeks, is when you go to bed at night, I say a prayer, and then I go, "What went well today?" And I do it in a very structured way. I start at the beginning of my day, go hour by hour looking for what I liked about the day. Now, the bad stuff shows up, but I just imagine a big broom and sweep it away. I'm like, "Not now. Not now." Now I'm gonna focus on what I loved about the day. And even during the worst day of my adult life when my father died, I did that, and I went to sleep. And it didn't mean I didn't grieve. It was a horrible day. But it's the practice. You know, the brain is lazy. What you allow it to do is what it's gonna do over and over and over and over. And you can choose to do good things and helpful things like, "Is it true? Today's gonna be a great day. What went well today?" Or you can focus on why your life isn't going in the direction you want it to.

    7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:00:29

       Yeah. No, I think some really fantastic advice there. I don't think I've watched the news in over five years now, not, at least not something regular that I do. I only notice it when I go to actually people's houses or I go and see my mom or my, um, my in-laws, for example. Then y- you can sometimes catch the news on, and it's quite abrasive when you're not used to it anymore. It's really interesting when you step away. And I think, you know, you... I, I wrote down from, from your last book, you know, that this, this idea that you start each day saying, "Today is going to be a great day."And it kind of makes a lot more sense having just heard what you have said about, you know, the brain, I guess, the brain is lazy. We get good at what we practice, and we need to fight that negativity bias to start training ourselves to see the positive everywhere. If, 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?

    8. DADr. Daniel Amen1:01:39

       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, zero 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.

    9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:02:58

       Yeah. Mm-hmm.

    10. DADr. Daniel Amen1:02:58

        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.

    11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:03:10

        Mm.

    12. DADr. Daniel Amen1:03:11

        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.

15. 1:04:07 – 1:25:00

    Action plan via BRIGHT MINDS: one daily habit per risk factor + key differences by sex

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:04:07

       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, uh, 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?

    2. DADr. Daniel Amen1:05:33

       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, and you know, if we just... If I give you one strategy for 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.

    3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:06:49

       To make sure you're taking action after watching this video, I've created a free Breathing Guide that's gonna help you reduce stress, calm your mind, and boost your energy. In this guide, I share with you six really simple breathing practices that work immediately. Even just one minute a day will start to make a big difference. To receive your free guide, all you have to do is click on the link in the description box belowYou'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?

    4. DADr. Daniel Amen1:07:31

       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. 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.

    5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:09:09

       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.

    6. DADr. Daniel Amen1:09:20

       [laughs]

    7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:09:20

       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've 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 y- uh, do you think there are enhanced benefits because of all these components that come in when we're playing racket sports?

    8. DADr. Daniel Amen1:10:08

       Yes, and if you think of table tennis, you have to... In 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-

    9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:10:28

       Hmm

    10. DADr. Daniel Amen1:10:29

        ... 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.

    11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:10:51

        Okay, great. So if we go back to BRIGHT MINDS, uh, this wonderful mnemonic, 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?

    12. DADr. Daniel Amen1:11:14

        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 or walking-

    13. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:12:32

        [laughs]

    14. DADr. Daniel Amen1:12:32

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

    15. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:12:35

        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?

    16. DADr. Daniel Amen1:13:31

        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-

    17. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:13:43

        Mm

    18. DADr. Daniel Amen1:13:44

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

    19. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:13:48

        Yeah.

    20. DADr. Daniel Amen1:13:48

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

    21. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:14:08

        Yeah

    22. DADr. Daniel Amen1:14:08

        ... 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.

    23. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:14:23

        Mm.

    24. DADr. Daniel Amen1:14:23

        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-

    25. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:14:50

        Mm

    26. DADr. Daniel Amen1:14:50

        ... 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."

    27. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:15:16

        Yeah.

    28. DADr. Daniel Amen1:15:16

        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.

    29. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:15:29

        Yeah.

    30. DADr. Daniel Amen1:15:29

        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's an average of a concussion every year."

Episode duration: 1:25:01