The Dan Buettner Podcast

Episode: Hack Your Brain for a Longer Life

Guest: Dr. Daniel Amen

Air date: September 4, 2025
Host: Dan Buettner

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In this insightful episode, Dan Buettner sits down with renowned psychiatrist and brain health expert Dr. Daniel Amen to explore the science and habits behind maintaining lifelong brain health. Drawing on Dr. Amen's decades of clinical experience and research—including groundbreaking brain imaging studies—the conversation provides actionable strategies, uncovers pervasive misconceptions, and underscores the profound link between daily habits, environment, and cognitive longevity. The episode takes listeners through Dr. Amen's personal and professional journey, delivers memorable insights on avoiding brain pitfalls, and finishes with a rallying call for a national brain health revolution.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Brain Health Matters Most

• Dan Buettner opens with the assertion that brain health is central to quality of life. If your brain isn’t sharp, nothing else—microbiome, heart, etc.—matters as much.

  "If your brain isn't sharp or if your brain isn't working for some reason, nothing else matters much, does it?" (02:07)

• Dr. Daniel Amen emphasizes that the brain is integrally involved in everything we do and is tied directly to personality and identity:

  "It's the organ of who you are. You can transplant your heart, your liver, your kidney, but if you transplanted the brain, you wouldn't be you." (02:29)

2. Naming Your Brain: Gaining Psychological Distance

• Dr. Amen shares his practice of encouraging patients to name their brain to create distance from intrusive thoughts:

  "Give your mind a name. That way you can gain psychological distance from the noise in your head." (02:54)

  • His personal metaphor: his mind is like his mischievous childhood pet raccoon, "Hermey."

  "That's my mind. It just like stirs up trouble. And so metaphorically, if I notice I'm getting a storm of bad thoughts, I put her in the cage." (03:27)

3. The #1 Mistake in Brain Health

• Most people simply don't think about their brain health, missing out on the most important relationship one can nurture:

  "They never really develop a relationship with it. And it's arguably the most important relationship you will ever have." (04:27)

• Dr. Amen recounts his epiphany after seeing his own unhealthy brain scan, despite medical expertise and good intentions:

  "I was only getting four hours of sleep at night. I was overweight. And I had just never really thought about the physical health of my brain." (05:04)

4. Practical Do’s and Don’ts for Better Brain Health

Three Core Principles:

• Love your brain: Develop "brain envy."
• Avoid things that hurt it: Know which habits and exposures are most damaging.
• Do things that help it: Adopt brain-supportive behaviors.

Key Risks to Brain Health ("BRIGHT MINDS" acronym):

• Sedentarism: Not moving or learning new things.
• Pro-inflammatory diet: Sugar and processed foods.
• Genetics: Not knowing or managing your personal risks.
• Head trauma: Mild traumatic brain injury, often overlooked.
• Toxic exposures: Pollution, chemicals, drugs, excessive alcohol.
• Vitamin D deficiency: Low sunlight; the importance of moderate sun exposure.
• Hormonal imbalance: Especially low testosterone in men.
• Being overweight/obese: 75% of Americans fall here, increasing dementia risks.
• Poor sleep: Sleep apnea triples Alzheimer's risk.

"If you're overweight, you have 10 of the 11 risk factors for dementia and aging." (12:17)

Brain-Boosting Habits:

• Regular exercise
• New learning and mental challenges
• Omega-3 fatty acids (fish, supplements)
• Avoid texting while driving (head trauma risk)
• Sauna use (detoxification and brain health)
• Healthy, social support systems

5. The Role of Environment and Community

• Dan underscores the importance of shaping one’s environment over attempting willpower challenges, echoing Blue Zones findings:

  "It's about setting up the right environment and having your unconscious choices be slightly better over time." (14:20)

• The power of community and accountability:

  "You become like the people you spend time with." (31:47)

  • Dr. Amen shares that when people did the Daniel Plan together, they doubled their success.

6. Insights on Sugar and Processed Foods

• Sugar is directly linked to worsened cognitive outcomes and increased risk of diabesity and dementia.
• Dr. Amen references a study in rats showing that dietary sugar after a head injury impaired memory.

  "One of the things that hurts your brain is sugar. Isn't that interesting?" (22:06)

• Memorable quote:

  "Eating crappy food isn't a reward, it's a punishment." — Drew Carey quoted by Dr. Amen (28:35)

7. Habits, Accountability, and Social Structures

• Dan describes "self-weighing Moai" groups—small social groups that text daily weight for accountability and support.

  "When you step on the scale and your weight is trending in the right direction, you feel a little reward, little dopamine." (30:41)

• The importance of daily action:

  "You have to do the right thing almost every day of your life. For most of your life." (31:28)

8. The Daniel Plan and Faith-Based Approaches

• Dr. Amen describes creating the Daniel Plan with Rick Warren—integrating faith, food, fitness, focus (brain health), and friends (community)—which led to substantial weight loss and improved health in church congregations.

  "The first year, they lost a quarter of a million pounds." (35:04)

• Notable story: Dr. Amen’s “revelation” about donuts at church catalyzing his advocacy for healthier faith communities.

  "Go to church, get donuts, hot dogs, bacon, sausage, ice cream. They have no idea they are sending people to heaven early. Save them, then kill them. This is not the plan." (34:04)

9. Alcohol and Marijuana—Hard Truths

• Dr. Amen is unequivocal:

  "There is not a week that goes by where alcohol hasn't messed up someone's life and alcohol prematurely ages the brain." (38:50)

• Any alcohol increases the risk of cancer; alcohol and marijuana both decrease brain blood flow; marijuana in youth increases risk for depression, suicide, psychosis.
• The conversation on legal intoxicants:

  "We haven't taught them how to manage their minds, haven't taught them how to use simple rituals to calm themselves." (44:32)

• Dr. Amen references empirical data on alcohol and marijuana’s negative brain impacts, especially in youth.

10. Reversibility and Hope: "You Are Not Stuck"

• Powerful message: Even after brain injuries or poor choices, the brain can recover with the right interventions.

  "You are not stuck with the brain you have. You can make it better and I can prove it." (54:44)

• He explains rehabilitative protocols (diagnostics, supplements, cognitive engagement, community), and recounts cases where clients improved brain health outcomes with diligence.

11. Personal Challenges and Resilience

• Dr. Amen candidly shares challenges, professional ostracism, and pushback he faced as an early advocate for brain imaging and preventive psychiatry.
• Anecdote: When accused of being a "charlatan," he simply replied,

  "That's so interesting. Last week, they told me I should win a Nobel Prize. This week, you're telling me I should be arrested. It sort of keeps me balanced." (56:10)

12. Inspiration and Call to Action

• Dr. Amen expresses his personal mission:

  "I believe it's why I'm on the planet, that I'm on a planet to get people to love and care for their brains." (54:17)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Give your mind a name. That way you can gain psychological distance from the noise in your head." — Dr. Amen (02:54)
• "You just have to know the one thing. When you do the right thing, really praise yourself, feel good about that, and kick your ass when you do the wrong thing." — Dr. Amen (29:28)
• "Eating crappy food isn't a reward, it's a punishment." — Drew Carey, quoted by Dr. Amen (28:35)
• "Most people think of alcohol as a health food, which is complete crap. It's not a health food. But the wine industry or the alcohol industry, masterful at marketing." — Dr. Amen (50:39)
• "You become like the people you spend time with." — Dr. Amen (31:47)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------| | 02:07 | The primacy of brain health in living well | | 02:54 | Naming your brain for psychological distance | | 04:27 | The most common mistake: not thinking about your brain health | | 08:51 | The three big rules for protecting brain health | | 09:27 | The critical “do nots” for brain preservation | | 12:17 | The link between overweight status and risk for dementia | | 14:20 | How environment trumps willpower for health, Blue Zones insights | | 21:41 | Recognizing head trauma and the protocol for improvement | | 22:06 | Sugar's impact on brain healing, UCLA rat study | | 24:00 | Omega-3s, brain-supportive supplements, and the NFL study | | 29:28 | "The one thing" for change: self-affirmation and accountability | | 30:41 | The value of group self-weighing for motivation | | 34:04 | Dr. Amen's revelation about junk food in churches and launching The Daniel Plan | | 38:50 | The effects of alcohol and why no amount is safe | | 41:31 | The dangers of marijuana for young and developing brains | | 54:17 | Dr. Amen’s personal mission statement | | 56:10 | Maintaining perspective amongst criticism; resilience story |

Conclusion

This episode provides a comprehensive, practical, and hopeful look at how anyone can "hack their brain for a longer life." Dr. Amen and Dan Buettner blend personal stories, clinical expertise, and global research to demonstrate that cognitive health isn't just about genetics or fate—it's about daily choices, environmental engineering, and the support systems we build around us. The call is clear: love and care for your brain, and you can dramatically improve your odds of a long, vibrant life.