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What leads to mental health issues? How to get past depression? Does marijuana damage? DNA? What's the single most important thing people can do today to improve their brain? What I'm going to do in this episode I'm going to answer questions that have been submitted. I'll weave in content from my new book as well. In this episode, world renowned psychiatrist and 12 time best selling author Daniel Amen discusses all of the things you can do to change your brain every day. What do you want in your relationships? Your work, your money, your physical, emotional, spiritual health? Question Is whatever you're doing right now good for your brain or bad for it? How can I protect or improve my brain health long term? I love that question so much and it's basically three things every day you are making your brain better or you are making it worse. Stay with us to learn how you can change your brain for the better every day. There are days when I need to be at my best. Whether it's back to back clinic sessions, long writing days, or just keeping up with life. That's when I take peak energy from Brain md. It gives me clean, steady energy without jitters or crashes. And I'm not the only one who loves it. It just won a 2025 Nextie Award, beating over 500 other supplements. If you want real energy that lasts, check it out@brainmd.com and use the code podcast20 for 20% off welcome to change youe Brain Every Day. You just have me today and we're gonna do episode five for the release of my new book Change youe Brain, Change youe Pain. If you pre order it, we have four free gifts for you. Go to change your brainchangeyourpainbook.com what I'm gonna do in this episode Since I'm by myself, I'm going to answer questions that have been submitted. Hopefully you'll find it really helpful. And I'll weave in content from my do new book as well. So the first question is who are people that Dr. Amen looks to for advice when he's going through hard times? So I often go to the Bible. I often go to my friend Byron Katie, who wrote one of my favorite books, books Loving what Is. I love the Power of Now by Eckhart Tole. When I'm going through a hard time, it's either I'm in the past with regret or the future with fear. And I look to the work I've developed over time because the biggest beneficiary of all the books that I've written is me. So that's who I look to. The next question is how to be confident in social drinking decisions. When I've made the decision to stop, making that decision to stop is the biggest sign of love. Love of yourself, love of your family, love of the reason God put you on earth. And when you realize, you know, I love this quote and it relates to food, not alcohol. But I love the quote by Drew Carey who said, eating crappy food isn't a reward, it's a punishment. Drinking isn't a reward, it's a punishment because you're making your brain less healthy over time. And that's just not the smartest thing to do. The next question is, are you a fan of lion's mane mushroom? I'm a huge fan. I actually take it every day. It's part of a product we make called Smart mushrooms. It's also in Neura Greens, our greens product, because it's been shown not only to help boost your immunity, it's been shown to also boost cognitive function, focus, and memory. Is OCD connected to thyroid issues? Not typically that. If your thyroid is low, it's often associated with low energy and depression. And if it's high, you often feel anxious and have trouble sleeping. But I've not seen a close connection with OCD and thyroid issues. What leads to mental health issues? I'm like, oh my goodness, so many things. And here at Amen clinics, we always think of the four circles and I talk about it and change your brain, change your pain. There are biological causes of psychiatric or mental health issues, like high thyroid, like we just talked about, or low thyroid or low testosterone or Lyme's disease. Their psychological causes, like believing every stupid thing you think past. Emotional trauma. Their social causes, going through a breakup, and their spiritual causes, living without a sense of meaning and purpose. The next cause. What's the root cause of ocd? Is it genetic? Well, can be genetic, but it can also be an inflammation or an infection. There is something called Panda syndromes, pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with strep infections. So some infections like strep can actually activate activity in an area of the brain called the basal ganglion. All of a sudden you're checking locks or getting repetitive awful thoughts over and over in your head. Any tips to forget a traumatic event? Read my new book, change your brain, change your pain, especially the parts on EMDR and havening. Havening is probably the fastest way to be able to get over a traumatic event. It's bilateral hemisphere stimulation. So think about it. Go into the trauma event and then either rub your hands like this or stroke down from your shoulders. Go into it for about 30 seconds, then keep havening and think about something else for 90 seconds or two minutes and you'll find that the attachment to the negativity with that often goes down. Next question, how to get past depression and how to heal after a breakup. So really that's two parts, but the answer is one. Love and take care of your brain. When you have a healthy brain, your mood is better. There's actually a study that showed 8 servings of fruits and vegetables went with more happiness. So clean up your diet and know after a breakup it's just going to take some time to heal. But don't do bad things that accelerate the pain. Actually, in my new book, change your brain, change your pain, I actually talk about Tylenol and Advil and how they help after a breakup. That Tylenol was found to be helpful. Now, I'm not a huge fan of Tylenol because it decreases glutathione and is not good for your liver, but it's been shown to help with the emotional pain after a breakup. And Advil or Ibuprofen helped with females, but it actually made males worse. So why is that? I'm not quite sure. The most important thing after a breakup is take really good care of your brain and do not believe every stupid thing you think. Like, oh, I'll never find a person as good as this. I'll always be alone. And I had a period of grief after a breakup and noticed all the negative chatter in my head. And then I met Tana and it was 20 years ago and I'm happier than I've ever been. Next question. What are your thoughts on labeling children with mental health disorders? Not a huge fan of labels. I'm not a huge fan of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders dm, the dsm. I'm a what I often tell my patients is I take awesome people and just help them be more awesome. I don't like the labels. I hate the term mental illness. It shames people, it's stigmatizing and it's wrong. These are brain health issues. Get your brain healthy and your mind will follow. Can you explain ADHD type 2? If you read my work, I talk about 7 different types of ADD or ADHD. Type 2 is inattentive, ADD, short attention span, distractible, disorganized, procrastinates, but not terribly impulsive and generally not hyperactive and restless. It's more common in girls but when left untreated, people just don't live up to their potential. How to prevent relapses. So I assume it's from an addiction or sugar. I like the acronym called halt. Don't get too hungry, too angry, too lonely, or too tired. And it's really about knowing what you want. What do you want in your relationships, your work, your money, your physical, emotional, spiritual health? And then you just ask yourself every day, does my behavior fit? So it's really getting into the center of your purpose, what you want. And then go, does this help me or does this hurt me? Now, some people go, come on, Doctor. Amen. How can you have any fun? And we play a game with our patients like, well, who has more fun, really? The person with the good brain, who? Or the person with the bad brain. What's the best way to help a kid with autism and adhd? Well, I often think, well, we should look at their brain to find what's going on in their brain and then work as hard as we can to get their brains as healthy as they can. Diet. I often find an elimination diet is really helpful for kids who have both autism and adhd. So many mothers have said when they got rid of gluten and dairy, the next week they had 50 words. Next question. Does marijuana damage DNA and how to fix it? And the answer is yes, marijuana can damage DNA and actually can impact the next generation. And how to fix it is you eliminate it. And then you engage in brain healthy habits. And brain health is really three things. Brain envy, got to care about it. Avoid things that hurt it. Know the list, do things that help it. Next question, how to help aggressive. An aggressive teenager with add. Well, the question's got to be, why is he or she aggressive? Is it because they had a head injury at some point that hurt one or both of their temporal loes? I often think of aggression in three ways. Is it impulsive? They just get an aggressive thought and act on it. Is it compulsive? Things don't go their way, they get upset. Very common with autism. Or is it out of the blue, which is often temporal lobe aggression? And so if you know the type, you should read my book, Healing add. If you know the type, you can target the right treatment. What if the key to overcoming your pain isn't just in your body, but in your brain? My new book, Change youe Brain, Change youe Pain, offers strategies I've used with thousands of patients to break free from physical and emotional pain and reclaim focus, energy, and peace. Healing is possible and it starts with your brain. Pre order my new book now and receive special bonus gifts at Change your brain changeyourpainbook.com how can an ADHD person work a job without taking stimulants? Are there any other options? Yes, there are other options. Neurofeedback can be incredibly helpful. Certain supplements like omega 3 fatty acids or paraxanthine or we make something called focus and energy with green tea extract, Rhodiola, ashwagandha. There are other options, but the goal should never be medicine or no medicine. The goal should always be your best function. If you can do it without stimulants, great. But if you're not your best, take the stimulants. What tends to be the root cause of obsessive compulsive thinking? Well, in the brain, what we see is people are hyper frontal. They have too much activity in the front part of their brain, the anterior cingulate basal ganglia. And it can be genetic, it can be from past trauma, it can actually be from an infection. Another question I am breastfeeding. What can I do to help my ADHD? Omega 3 fatty acids. Good for you, good for the baby. Especially higher in EPA as opposed to dha. That can be helpful. Exercise can be helpful, Cleaning up your diet and perhaps even a low dose of a stimulant might be helpful. Because if you're incredibly stressed because your ADHD is untreated, all baby is going to get those stress hormones too. How can I protect or improve my brain health long term? I love that question so much and it's basically three things. Brain envy, Got to care about your brain, avoid things that hurt it. Just know the less drugs, alcohol, not sleeping, too many video games, social media. Bad for your brain, good for your brain. New learning, going to bed earlier, really focusing on a brain, healthy diet and ultimately it comes down to this one question. Is whatever you're doing right now good for your brain or bad for it? And does it honor your creator? What is the best therapy for trauma? I'm a huge fan of emdr, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. I'm also a fan of intensive short term dynamic psychotherapy and havening. But EMDR is my go to therapy for trauma. I find it incredibly helpful. What is Tana's favorite workout? Well Tana loves karate. She also loves Pilates and loves lifting weights and she loves riding the bike. And virtually every day she and I do die. Japanese walking. What is that? It's you walk normal for three minutes and then walk Fast for three minutes and then normal for three minutes and then fast and you repeat. Do five cycles of that takes a half an hour. If we're in a hurry, we'll walk normal for two minutes and then fast for three. All of those things are her favorite and my favorite. Two, what is the difference between normal forgetfulness and. And something I should worry about. So walking into a room and not knowing you are there, if that happens once a month, it's normal. If it happens once a week, it's not normal. And if your memory is worse than it was 10 years ago, there's an 80% chance it's going to continue to get worse. So you want to be on a memory recovery program. I wrote a book called Memory Rescue, but I talk about bright minds in all of my works. If you want to keep your brain healthy or rescue it, you have to prevent or treat the 11 major risk factors. Another question. Do we carry traumas from our parents? Many people do. We actually did a podcast with Mark Wolin on his book. It didn't start with you, and it was about generational trauma. It's fascinating and I think it's really good. If you can know your family history, know about the experiences your parents had as they were growing up, about your grandparents, it might shed light on some of the issues that you struggle with. Is depression curable? Often the question is, why do you have depression? I actually don't really like it as a diagnostic category because it's sort of like chest pain. You know, nobody gets a diagnosis of chest pain because it doesn't tell you what's causing it and it doesn't tell you what to do for why is a diagnosis really a symptom? So if you have depression from low thyroid, absolutely curable. Cure your thyroid. If you have depression from Lyme disease or mold exposure, absolutely curable. If you have depression because you have stinking thinking or we call it an infestation of ants. Automatic negative thoughts killing the answer. Depression is so much more better. I struggle with trichotillomania. What can I do? What's trichotillomania? It's chronic hair pulling where you're pulling at your mustache or your eyebrows or your hair. And for some people, it's so bad they actually have bald spots. That's not how I got this. My grandfather was bald. Trichotillomania. Yes. N acetylcysteine has been found. NAC 1200mg twice a day to be an effective treatment for trichotillomania. Memantine a medicine often used for Alzheimer's disease, has been found to decrease the tics from trichotillomania or the hair pulling. What's your daily routine for keeping your brain healthy? I start every day with, today is going to be a great day. I go for a walk first thing in the morning in the sun, without sunscreen for 20 or 30 minutes. I generally lift weights two or three times a week. I live with the question, whatever I'm doing, is this good for my brain or bad for it? When I go to bed at night, I go, what went well today? And I'm serious about going through my day moment by moment, looking for what I liked about the day. I do a brain healthy Brain MD shake every day with either chocolate or vanilla protein powder. Bright minds, smart mushrooms, smart collagen, smart creatine, neuro greens and peak energy. So, I mean, I load up on supplements. One of the reasons I love Brain md. What's your stance on meditation or prayer for brain health? Both are highly effective to help you have a better brain and a better life. How do relationships and connection influence the brain? They're so important. If your relationships are healthy, your brain is better. People who are lonely, their brain actually doesn't interact with other humans as much, and it's actually not good for the health and connections of your brain. Can forgiveness or compassion truly change brain chemistry? Absolutely can. And I teach forgiveness to all of my patients. I teach them a method by Dr. Everett Worthington. It's called the Reach method. Recall what happened, empathy for the other person. Altruistically, give the gift of forgiveness because when you hold on to hurts, you're like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Commit to it, tell someone about it, then hold on to it. How do you handle stress or burnout personally? So, you know, a lot of psychiatrists develop compassion fatigue because you're listening to hard stuff day in and day out. And I've actually never been burned out. After 45 years of doing this, why is I really try to be authentic and live the message and do the things I ask my patients to do. So I don't believe every stupid thing. I think I live with meaning and purpose. And because of the method and the work we do at Amen clinics, people get better. And I get so excited about that. Does everyone need a brain scan like spacious to understand their mental health? You know, how do you know unless you look? I think if you're not having any problems, you don't really need a scan, although I think they're really good for screening for potential future problems. But if you're really struggling, you know, psychiatrists are the only medical specialists who virtually never look at the organ they treat. And because of that, our outcomes are not better than they were in the 1950s. So I'm obviously a huge fan of imaging. What are the most common brain types you see at Amen clinics and how do they differ? Well, we see brain type 8 most commonly. Those are people who struggle with being impulsive, compulsive, sad and anxious. But we see a ton of people who have add. We see a ton of people who have traumatic brain injury. We see lots of people who are depressed and anxious. And we see a lot of people just want to have a better brain. They want to look and they want it to be better. What's the single most important thing people can do today to improve their brain? Love it. It's. I mean, it's just so important. Most people never think think about their brain. Why? Because you can't see it. You can see the wrinkles in your skin or the fat around your belly. You do something when you're unhappy with it. But because most people look, most people don't care. And I just want you to live with this one question every day. Is what I'm doing now good for my brain or bad for it? Last question. How do toxins, alcohol or marijuana affect brain function long term? It's bad for the brain. Anything that is toxic to brain physiology is going to prematurely age the brain, give you more problems with anxiety, depression, memory, dementia. You just want to live with that question. Is this good for my brain or bad for it? Toxins like mercury, alcohol, marijuana, bad for your brain. And if you love yourself. See, ultimately this is all about love. If you love yourself, you'll pick the good things rather than the bad things. Your brain matters. Amen. Clinics helps people with brain scans and targeted treatment across 11 cities. Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, DC, Miami, New York, Seattle, Scottsdale, Los Angeles, Orange County, California and San Francisco. Learn more at amenclinics.com I hope this was helpful to you. You've been listening to Change youe Brain every day. Brand new book Change youe Brain. Change youe Pain Out. You can still get the preorder gifts if you go to Change youe Brain, Change youe Pain Book 30 day course on the book video course I did on the book along with brain curcumins, some hypnosis, audios, and a wonderful emotional freedom journal.