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- [00:02]
A
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. So I am one of seven children. I was third. So completely irrelevant growing up. 1972, we were at war and I became an infantry medic, where my love of medicine was born. But about a year into it, I realized I didn't like being shot at. So I got retrained as an X ray technician, developed a passion for imaging. As our professors used to say, how do you know unless you look?
- [00:46]
B
How do you know unless you look?
- [00:48]
A
And then I went to medical school, actually at Oral Roberts University. When I was a second year medical student, someone I loved tried to kill herself. Took her to see a wonderful psychiatrist and came to realize if he helped her, it wouldn't just help her, it would help her children, her grandchildren, as they would be shaped by someone who was more stable. And so I fell in love with psychiatry, which is now, 46 years ago, the only medical specialty that never looks at the organ it treats. And I knew it was wrong and I knew it would change. I just didn't know I'd be part of it. But that's what we're doing. We're creating a revolution in brain health.
- [01:34]
B
Okay, so think about this. If you break a bone, they do an X ray. If you have cancer, they do X ray. They look at the tumors in your lungs. You can do an mri. There's always imaging. You can image your whole body. But when you have a brain problem, for whatever it is, nobody looks at your brain. They just give you medicine that doesn't make any sense. So he looks at people's brains. He looked at my brain. He scanned my brain, which we may look at here in a minute. It's not going to make sense to you, but it's just going to look so beautiful that you'll just think, I must be healthy. Doctor. Amen. I've known him since 2009. I've only called him by his first name one time because I can't call him by his first name. I have the respect for him. He says, call me Daniel. So I say, okay, D. So I'm going to call you Daniel for the second time. But this is Dr. Amen. The reason we're having this conversation is because there is a lot of division in our country. And the division in our country is spiritual, but it's also manipulated. Social media has manipulated us, and we are manipulated mentally, physically, emotionally, relationally. A lot of illness in the country. We're being manipulated. And so we want to address the whole person. When you come to church, you read your Bible and then you go out and live your life and you don't connect the two. I want to read something to you from Second Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 4. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments. And a stronghold is an incorrect thinking pattern. And every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Obeying the Bible relates to every part of your body, every part of your life. And so as we talk about the brain, as we talk about emotions and thoughts, understand that is just as spiritual as anything else in your life. So let's start with the problem.
- [03:38]
A
So we're in a crisis. I think everybody would agree. I actually call it a whole four crisis. Physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual. So we just start with physically. 50% of the population 5, 0 has diabetes or pre diabetes. And that is a disaster for brain function. 75% of us are overweight or obese. And I published three studies that showed as your weight goes up, the actual physical size and function of your brain goes down, which should scare the fat off anyone. And I first figured that out, the first paper was from the University of Pittsburgh in 2009. They did MRI studies and they just showed there was a direct correlation between the size of your brain and your weight. And then so I looked at my studies. Look at our NFL guys. Healthy weight, overweight people who are overweight had less function, especially in the front part of the brain. That's the most human, thoughtful part of your brain called the pre function prefrontal cortex. And I come from a family of fat people. My dad hates when I say that, but they're fat. And so I have a genetic predisposition. But when I figured that out, I'm like, I lost 20 pounds. There's like no way I'm going to purposefully, once I know that connection, stay overweight. And so we're in this physical health crisis, but we're also in a mental health crisis. Depression is the number one cause of disability worldwide. It's the most expensive illness worldwide. And 57% now of teenage girls report being persistently sad. 32% have thought of killing themselves. Like, what is that? About 24% have planned and 13% have tried suicide in young people has skyrocketed over 700% since the year 2000. It's like, well, what happened since the year 2000? Cell phones, social media, Cell phones, social media. And Covid, as we'll talk about. COVID can cause inflammation in your brain and, and make you more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, OCD and so on. And relationally, we're mess even though we're more connected. 58% of people report being persistently lonely and belief in God and church attendance is down. So biological problems, psychological problems, social and spiritual.
- [06:43]
B
So obviously that was a truckload of information. Here's what's going to happen. All of y'. All. I would encourage you to pick out something that applies to you. You may not be overweight, so that doesn't apply to you. If you're overweight, your brain is smaller than it would be. If you're not, it's just a fact. Don't take it personally. But take it personally. Say, I got to do something about it. Okay, if you have diabetes, do do something about it. You can. And by the way, do something about it as natural as you can, because there are medicines out there that are going to addict you to another medicine. So make sure you do it the right way. We're going to talk about parents and cell phones for your kids. Listen very carefully. At the end, we're going to give you four things to do. We're going to land this plane to give you four things to do. Amen. Amen. Okay, let's do Romans 12, if we can do that as your.
- [07:29]
A
Well, this is so important. In fact, the new program I'm working on, which we're hoping the rock is going to do 12 weeks, a 6 week starter program, and then a 12 week mastery program. It's based on Romans 12:2. Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Getting healthy in the whole four is worship. And then, you know, if you go to First Corinthians 6:19, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit that was given to you by God, that was bought for you at a price of the blood of Jesus Christ. Your body is sacred, and so we need to think of it as sacred. And then Romans 12:2, and everybody knows the beginning of it, but it's the end that really is important. Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So this is the part I want you to focus on. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is. God's good Perfect and pleasing will. So whenever you have a bad thought, we talk about ants. Automatic negative thoughts, the thoughts that come into your mind automatically ruin you. Whenever you get a thought, just go, does this thought or does this action fit God's good, perfect and pleasing will? For me, just ask that question. And so many of your thoughts will just go away because they don't belong in your brain. And just because you have a thought has nothing to do with whether or not it's true, whether or not it's helpful, whether or not it's useful. You. You don't have to believe every stupid thing you think.
- [09:25]
B
How many? Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. Is this how many? Your brain is constantly, constantly thinking, constantly putting stuff in your head. And what he said is very important. You don't have to buy into it. You don't have to believe it. Just even it's talking to you. And so even when you see somebody and a thought comes to your mind. I was on a plane the other day and I. Whenever I see people out in public and if I make eye contact with somebody, I try not to look away quick because it may be someone from church. And I don't want to be rude, I don't mind it, but it is a mind game. I'm like, okay, let me make sure, okay? And I don't want to stay too long because if I don't know them, then they think I'm trying to, you know, get the phone number, something like that. So I'm on the plane the other day, sitting in the aisle, and these people walking by, and I'm looking, you know, making sure he's going to say hi. And this woman's walking towards me, and I thought she was looking at me. So I looked and I'm like, okay, you going to say hi? You're going to say hi? Well, I didn't know her. And her boyfriend behind her saw me looking at her, and he said something as he went by, right? But in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, she's thinking this, but she wasn't thinking that. My point is this. You're going to look at people and look at situations. Your brain is going to say something, grab it, make it obedient. Okay? Is that true? Because you're gonna hear a lot of lies in your head about yourself, about other people. Amen.
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A
Amen.
- [10:49]
B
So for whole four health crisis.
- [10:52]
A
So then we have to ask ourselves, so why are we in this crisis? And so if you think of physically, we never look at the brain, right? I mean, that's as soon as I looked at my brain. So I was 37. I'm a double board certified psychiatrist already. I was the top student in medical school in neuroscience, and I didn't care about my own brain. And then I saw it, and it wasn't great because I was overweight and I had meningitis when I was a young soldier. And I played football in high school. Bad, bad, bad.
- [11:27]
B
You played football in high school? I did what was wrong.
- [11:31]
A
You can still see the damage in my brain. Yeah, it's not good for you. We talked about this, right? Let's show Miles. Can you show Miles, Stan? So at Amen clinics, we do a study called spect. And SPECT looks at blood flow and activity, looks at how your brain works. And it basically shows us three things. Good activity, too little or too much. And I did the big NFL study at a time when the NFL wasn't being forthright about traumatic brain injury in football players. And I've scanned and treated 400 NFL players how Miles and I met. The image on the left is a healthy scan. Just look at the top left image. We're looking underneath the brain. Full, even, symmetrical activity. Color doesn't matter. It's the shape. Now, if we look at Miles brain, you see these two big holes. And what that means he doesn't have holes in his brain, but what it means, significantly lower, significantly blood flow in the front part of his brain. So focus forethought. When he made the comment about my book Healing add, that's where it hangs out when you get hit in the head, or in Miles case, when you hit other people repeatedly with your head. How many concussions did you have?
- [12:56]
B
Hundreds. Oh, my. Can you tell them that really, I did have hundreds. Because people think if you have a concussion, I get knocked out. No, tell them I really had.
- [13:06]
A
You see stars if you get stunned. Joe Lewis, the famous boxer, said, it's not the big hits that cause dementia. It's the thousands of little hits. And your brain floats in water in your skull. It's not anchored. So every time they go helmet to helmet or helmet to knee or helmet to ground inside your skull, your brain shakes. And they're sharp bony ridges. God and I have actually had this discussion. It's like, why didn't you put bumper guards? And he said, who knew they'd play football?
- [13:43]
B
You're killing me, Smalls.
- [13:46]
A
But the exciting news is 80% of our players got better when we put them on a rehabilitation program. So one of the big lessons from today is even if you've been bad to your brain. You can make it better and I can prove it. You heard about the kid who went to New York recently because he thought he had CTE and he murdered those four people. And he's like, it's their fault. I have ce. No, but the messaging is wrong. The messaging around CTE is hopeless. When in fact what we've seen is you can take damaged brains and make them better. But what you have to do is put it in a healing environment, which is. Here's the short. Healing environment. Love your brain. Avoid things that hurt it. You just have to know the list. Alcohol is not a health food. And marijuana is not innocuous. And you heard me say you shouldn't be overweight. Right? Avoid things that hurt it. And then do things that we'll talk about in this whole 4 model. Do things that help it. Yeah.
- [14:56]
B
So my brain is completely healthy right now.
- [14:58]
A
I bet it's better.
- [15:01]
B
That's a nice way of saying it ain't better, it ain't healthy. Okay, so we're, we're talking about.
- [15:07]
A
So why, why? So we're not looking at the brain, obviously. It's the ultra processed foods that increase inflammation. It's the toxins in our food and in our water. People always go on these. Detox two weeks. I'm like, your life should be a detox, right? It's like, don't do it for two weeks. And simple. Write this down. Just support the organs in your body of detoxification. Drink more water, sweat with exercise or saunas. People take the most saunas, have the lowest incidence of Alzheimer's disease. Eat more fiber, which means more plants, and kill the alcohol because it damages your liver, which is the major detox organ in your body. So physically. So why are we in this mental mess? Because there's nowhere in school we teach people not to believe every stupid thing we think. So I call the man. So automatic negative thoughts. Whenever you feel sad or mad or nervous or out of control, write it down. And then just ask yourself, is it true? And then remember the rule of 12. Psychological flexibility is a sign of psychological health. Don't be upset until the 12th thing that day has gone wrong. So many people, something goes wrong and they just like lose it. It's like, no, that's not healthy. So I count. It's like, okay, that's one, two. You just don't get upset because you realize you're competent, you're capable, and with God's help, you can solve any problem. The rule of 12, miraculous
- [17:10]
B
Dr. Amen can you also just give a minute? We didn't talk about this last time. Give a minute on the toxins because people don't realize that lotions, shampoo, the type of toothpaste, all these things, everything that has chemicals in it, sunscreen,
- [17:32]
A
you know, smart people read food labels and they don't put toxic chemicals in their body. Smarter people also read product labels and things like parabens and phthalates, fragrance. Whatever goes on your body goes in your body and affects your body. There's an app, it's called Think Dirty. It's not what you think. It is Thinking Dirty right now. It lets you scan all your personal products and it'll tell you on a scale of 1 to 10, how quickly they're killing you. So, like forever. I shaved with Barbasol. And on a scale of zero, live a long time. Ten is die early. It's a nine. And I'm like, oh, no, I like myself way more than that. So now I shave with something called Kiss My Face. I get no money from them.
- [18:32]
B
There's a thing called Kiss My Face.
- [18:34]
A
It's a two. So what am I going to choose? And Kiss My Face is actually cheaper than Barbasol because it lasts forever. I just want you thinking, whatever goes in your body affects your body. Whatever goes on your body affects your body. Whatever you allow in negative news, the news is no longer the news. I mean, let's just be honest with ourselves. It's CNN or Fox or msnbc. They're biased and they want you to take their bias and they keep your attention, right? Breaking news, breaking news. Breaking news, not breaking news, they keep it because what they're selling, they're not selling to you, they're selling to their advertisers your attention. And then social media, if a product is free, you're the product I want you to think about. Then again, if something is free, they are trying to influence you. And social media companies build their business model on your attention and they grab your attention if they make you sad, if they make you mad, if they make you nervous. And so the more time on social media, the more depressed people get. Now, for people who are over 25 in 2007, well, their brains were fairly developed. But for young people, cell phones and social media are devastating for them. That's why Australia bans social media for children under the age of 16. And I'm a huge fan of that. And please don't give children smartphones. They're not smart, they're dumb phones. Don't give them Smartphones early because children who get them early have a higher risk of suicide. So when we look at this whole 4 crisis, it's the food, it's the lack of disciplined mind education, it's the cell phones, it's social media. And we can fight back with faith, with neuroscience and smart public policy. Actually here in the state of California, you cannot start high school, public high school before 8:30 in the morning. Why? Because kids who get less sleep have a higher incidence of anxiety, depression and suicide. So good neuroscience into public policy, I like that. But really the public policy needs to happen for our families. And I believe churches need to be places of whole for healing.
- [21:45]
B
Yep. Two things I want to emphasize. One, the one of them is the kids with the cell phones. Don't let me forget. But the first thing is that your cell phone knows you and it programs information to you individually to tell you what you want to hear to make you more radicalized. Whether you're radical left, politically radical right. It just wants to radicalize you so you can be that much more different and divided with the other side. That's all they care about. And then they can, then they can sell you your name and likeness or your information to make money. So understand that. And so you are being radicalized. That's why people are so fanatic about their political views against the other person. We're being programmed for that. Here's the problem. The only thing we should be that radical about is Jesus. But some of us are more radical about our politics than Jesus. So just know you are being played for money. For money. So whatever you hear about anybody online, just don't even believe it. Don't even believe it. It's only part of the story. The other thing is, if you can elaborate on the kids 5 years old who get a cell phone or under 16, 746% and 50%. I'd rather them hear from you than from me.
- [23:02]
A
Oh, it's just so crazy. And parents think they're doing something good by giving kids these smartphones. If you got it as early as 5, when you're 20, you have a 50%. So that's 5, 0, a 1 in 2 chance of struggling with suicidal behavior. Nuts. But so clear. These are dangerous devices because what they do is they dump dopamine. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that helps you feel happy, focused, motivated. But if you're constantly on one of these devices and they're addictive, make no mistake about it, and they were created to be addictive, we didn't talk about this, but do you know executives in the Silicon Valley, they have nanny contracts where their children cannot get anywhere near a device because they know how toxic these devices are for them. So raise device free children as much as you can. And that goes with suicide in young people. Has gone up 746% since the year 2000. And so you think what's happened since then, Social media, cell phones, violent video games, all of these things, Our brains were not made for them.
- [24:30]
B
5 years old and your child gets a cell phone, by the time they're 20, they have a 1 or 2 chance to try to be suicidal. That's crazy. That's crazy. So the people, the puppet master, they don't care about your kids, they don't care about us. They just care about money.
- [24:46]
A
They just care about money.
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B
They just care about money. Solution. We got four or five minutes left. Tell us the solution.
- [24:53]
A
So I'm developing this program for churches called the Amen. Whole four. And I'm so excited about it because if it's a whole four problem, then we have to have a whole four solution. We need to get our brains and our bodies healthy. And how do you do it? Well, ultimately it comes down to asking yourself one question every day. Is what I'm doing today good for my brain or bad for it? And does it honor my creator? Just answer that question. Question. And all you have to do is know the list. Good for my brain. Church. Good for my brain. Exercise, water, not believing every stupid thing. I think, good for my, bad for my brain. We've been lied to. Alcohol is not a health food. It's a neurotoxin. Marijuana is not innocuous. It's a neurotoxin. I published a study on a thousand marijuana users. Every area of the brain is lower in activity. A lot of what you think of as health food, just read the label. Because I saw one health food bar recently that had 14 different names for sugar in it. Right? You have to be educated. So is this good for my brain or bad for it? And does it honor my creator? From a psychological standpoint, always remember the rule of 12. But whenever you feel sad, mad, nervous or out of control, write down what you're thinking. And then just ask yourself whether or not it's true. And does this thought fit God's good, perfect and pleasing will for me, which is goodness, that is God's good, perfect and pleasing will. The thief, John 10:10 comes to steal and kill and destroy. But Jesus came to give us abundant life. So important, manage your mind. Don't let your mind manage you. If you watch the news in the morning you're 27% less happy in the afternoon. Turn it off. And then for the social circle. So important. And we're near SeaWorld and I love SeaWorld and how do they train the animals there? They don't complain at them. They don't nag them. They notice what they do right over and over and over. You want to have good relationships with the people in your family. Focus on what they do right instead of what they do wrong. And then always live with a sense of meaning and purpose. You were designed by your creator to make a difference in the lives of other people. And so it's good for my brain or bad for it? Is it true? Notice what you like more than what you don't. Living with a sense of meaning and purpose in a community of believers. And that's why church is so important.
- [28:33]
B
Amen. Amen. Amen.