About the brain. Интересное видио. (Транскрибировал видео и удалил метками времени.)

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Justin Bieber, Muhammad Ali, Miley Cyrus.And then there’s murderers, rapists,arsonists.
I probably have seen morebrains than anybody in the world.
Andnow your brain.
So this is going to bereally hard for you.
Youhave ADHD.
Really,Doctor Daniel? Amen, The world’s leadingexpert on the brain.
Doctor Amon’smission is to end mental illness bycreating a revolution in brain health.
Buckle up, Doctor Eamon.
Let me know whatyou see.
Brain is involved in everythingyou do, and after today, you will alwayscare about your brain.
What things makethe brain worse? Drugs.
Alcohol.
Notgetting good sleep.
Sugar.
Fruit.
Juice.
Hitting a soccer ball with your head?Caffeine.
Caffeine.
It shrinks it.
What’sbad about sugar? You’re more likely toget obesity and as your weight goes up,the actual physical size and function ofyour brain goes down.
That should scarethe fat off anyone.
And then there’ssocial media.
If you’re on 3 1/2 hoursaday, you begin to wear out.
Those pleasure centers that bring youhappiness and they bring you pleasure andthey bring you drive.
Themto death.
But you’re not stuck with thebrain you have.
You can make it better.
Ican prove it.
So it starts withlet’s look at my brain.
Let’s do this.
Wehave evidence of, and that’s normal inour society.
The problem is two orthree of those can impact the rest ofyour life and nobody knows about it.
Quick one.
This is really, reallyfascinating to me.
On the back end of ourYouTube channel, it says that 69.
9% of you that watch thischannel frequently over the lifetime ofthis channel haven’t yet hit thesubscribe button.
I just wanted to askyou a favour.
It helps this channel somuch if you choose to just subscribe.
Helps us scale the gas, helps us scalethe production and it makes the showbigger.
So if I could ask you for onefavour, if you’ve watched the show beforeand you’ve enjoyed it and you like thisepisode that you’re currently watching,could you please hit the subscribebutton? Thank you so much and I willrepay that gesture by making sure thateverything we do here gets better andbetter and better and better.
That is apromise I’m willing to make you do wehave a deal.
Doctor Eamon.
If someone’s just clickedon this podcast.
And they’re considering sticking around.
Or maybe doing something else with theirtime?Can you explain to me,based on what you know, that we’re goingto be discussing and the subject matterwe’re going to be discussing, and howimportant it is?The benefit totheir life if they stick around.
10 extra years of cognitive performancein their life.
Better love,better money, better health.
Because your brain, we’re going to talkabout is involved in everything you do,how you think, how you feel, how you act,how you get along with other people.
And my goal is to end.
It’s going tosound huge, and it is.
And it’s going to sound impossible, butit’s not.
My goal is to endmental illness.
Bycreating arevolution in brain health.
I hate the term mental illness.
It shamespeople.
It’s stigmatizing, and it’swrong.
These things aren’t mentaldisorders.
They’re brain disorders.
Ifyou get your brain healthywill, your mind tends to follow.
Soyou’re depressed.
An antidepressantis not doing one thing for getting yourbrain healthy.
Nobody’s talking to youabout your diet, your level ofexercise, your sleep, not living in amold filled home, not really allowingyour kids hit soccer balls with theirhead, right? Because that’s not brainhealthy.
And ifwe can create this revolution inbrain health?Theincidence of mental health disorderswill go down by half.
And I guess that’s part of the revealhere is you’ve actually scanned mybrain and you’re going to tell me todaythe results that you have on your laptopover there in the corner of the room.
SoI came to your clinic in Los Angelesand they made me do a teston a computer, like it was almost like aspeed test of sorts.
And then they mademe lie down in a big machine.
For about how long was that? About 3015minutes, 15 minutes.
While this bigmachine rotated around my head and lookedat my brain.
That was my experience ofwhat happened.
And then I filled out somequestionnaires about myself and my brainand my life generally.
And fromthat, all that data feeds into the thingyou’re about to show me now.
Yes.
SoI never will make a diagnosisfrom a scan.
I make a diagnosis fromall the information, which is whywe had you fill out all that information.
And I gave you a test called theConnors continuous performance test,which is a 15 minute test of attention.
And every time you see a letter, you hitthe spacebar, except when yousee the letter X.
When you see the letterX you don’t do anything.
So it measuresimpulse control and inhibitionresponse time.
Andyou actually did fine on thetest.
And butthere’s otherevidence that you might in fact have ADDor ADHD.
Fromgetting bored easily to poor handwriting,being disorganized, and so on.
And obviously you’re very bright butstruggled a bit in school so.
With all of that information.
Firstthing to do is look at a healthy scanso we know what a healthy scanlooks like.
And we’re going toshow it in two different ways.
We’regoing to look at the outside surface ofyour brain.
So a healthy 1 is the imageon the left.
And allwe should see is full, evensymmetrical activity.
So the image on thetop left is looking underneath the brain,so the top is the front part of thebrain.
The bottom is theback.
The top is an area called theprefrontal cortex, hugelyimportant in humans, largest in humansthan any other animal by far.
It’s 30% of the human brain, 11% of the chimpanzee brain, andthen the back is the cerebellum, backbottom part of the brain.
Again, very important, involved inprocessing speed.
The bottom right of theimages on the left is looking down fromthe top.
The other two, looking atthe brain from the side, color doesn’tmatter, it’s the shape.
It should befull even and symmetricalthe images on the right, the colormatters.
So it’s what we call our activeimages.
Blue is average activity,red is the top 15%,white is the top 8%,and you see all the white.
So the whiteis where things are really happening.
It’s really hot.
OK.
And that’shealthy.
That’s normal.
And that’s goingto become very important for you.
So ifwe look at your brain, it’s a littlebumpy.
And so I’ll ask you abouttoxins.
Is there anything toxic inyour life? What are toxins?So think alcohol, marijuana.
Mold.
Heavy metals inyour body infections andso it’s not alcoholor drugs.
Then I begin to go.
Have you ever lived in a mold filledenvironment? Maybe we should test you forthat.
Do you have more mercury in yourbody or lead in your body than youshould? So for example, I had very highmercury levels.
My brain sort of lookedlike that when I first scanned it.
It wastoxic and I had very highmercury levels.
Like I never drank,just don’t like it, never smoked, neverdid drugs, but my brain lookedtoxic and so you then have to go huntdown well, why?And for me it wasMercury.
Decreased activity in yourleft prefrontal cortex.
So when I think ofmaybe ADD like symptoms in yourlife probably coming from thereand decreased activity in yourleft temporal lobe and you right-handed.
Yeah, yeah.
Sothat can go with the irritability.
WhatI’ve seen is that can go withsort of.
Short fuse andyour prefrontal cortex is sort of thebrain’s supervisor.
Itwatches you and yourprefrontal cortex isflat, and I don’t like that.
And then when I heard you played socceror when I read you played soccer is verycommon in my soccer players.
Now, howlong did you play soccer for? Pretty muchall of my childhood.
And anyconcussions playing soccer, I think I hada couple of big head bangs that.
Were significant, but not many,not nothing that took me to hospital, butI had a couple of moments where I waspulled off the pitch because like, therewas a clash of heads.
Soyour brain is soft about theconsistency of soft butter.
Yourskull is really hard and has sharp, Bonyridges.
Two or three of those can impact the restof your life and nobody knows about itbecause nobody looks right ifyou went and saw 1000, psychiatristssay, I want to focus better and.
Have better temper.
You saw 1000, 2 psychiatristsof them would lookat your brain which I think isinsane.
So the colours here that I’mlooking at the what does the the red andthe greens.
So the colour really doesn’tmatter here, doesn’t matter, it’s theshape.
So when I seethis hole, you don’t have holes in yourbrain, but the hole means is lessblood flow than isoptimal.
In fact I’m gonna show you.
If you do what I ask you to do.
An we scan you six months fromnow, that’ll be better.
I have a programthat tells me if you do what I ask you todo, this is what’s generally going tohappen.
And if you don’t do what I askyou to do, well, this is what it’s goingto look like 5 years from now, 10 yearsfrom now.
And you’re youngif you get seriousabout loving and repairing yourbrain.
You are 60s.
Seventies 80s are going to beamazing because you’re going to have ahealthy brain if you go, oh,Eamonn’s a quack and I don’t believe anyof this crap.
It’s going to be reallyhard for you because you’re not going tohave full access to yourbrain.
And that’s scary.
So I know that’s sort of a big deal, butI think this is from.
Traumatic brain injury at some point.
And a bit of a toxin which maybe mold.
And whenI when I say mold, our house was very,very dirty growing up.
Sothat’s what I assume you’re speaking tothere.
And we did have like mold aroundthe window sill sometimes, and we hadmice and rats at some point.
And it was like living in a house that ahoarder hadlived in because some of the rooms werejust stacked to the ceiling with crap.
SoI think maybe if you’re talking aboutmold or a toxic brain, I I I’m guessingthat’s where it’s come from.
But once itgets in your body, unless you dosomething active to get it out,it stays and can continue tocause problems.
And then if wego to the activescan, it’s very differentthan I want it to be and I know I canmake it better, but if we go back to.
What’s healthy?Lots ofactivity in the cerebellum.
Your cerebellum issleepy, despite youprobably being very coordinated.
I need to activate that thing.
Thisreally important to get better activitythere and you have this diamondpattern, so you have ADD andwe’ll talk more about it.
It’s a subtypeI call over focused ADDwhere you can be obsessive whenyou’re really interested in something,but if it doesn’t interest you.
It’s hard for you to focus.
O If you look at this, it looks like adiamond.
And when I see that diamond.
I think of past emotional trauma.
And I published a bigstudy looking at this 20,000 people.
Can Iseparate emotional trauma fromphysical trauma? And I canwith actually high levels of accuracy.
And it looks to me like there’s sort ofbit of both for you.
Do you playrocket sports?No, I don’t.
So that’ll be one of my prescriptionsfor you and actually study from England.
People play rocket.
Sports live longerthan everybody else.
Byfar.
Soccer was on the bottom,like soccer and football were on thebottom.
But tennis, tabletennis, racquetball, nowpickleball, badminton are on the top.
But let’s talk about this diamond for abit when I say emotional trauma.
What comes up for you? So a few things.
The first thing is my parents were alwaysat war growing up as a kid in a householdwhere there was so much.
Screaming and negative energy.
But thengrowing up with shame because we were, Iwas so different from everyone elsearound me, never inviting friends back tomy house in those sixteen years that Ilived there before I left.
So nobodyreally knew where I lived either.
I thinkof all that stuff when I think about,like, emotional trauma.
Well,that’s a lot, yeah.
Imean, if you grow up in astressful environment, move.
In a hostile environment where yourparents are at war, it drains yourbrain, your emotional brain, tobecome hyperactive because youalways have to watch.
For danger.
Andthat gets programmed early.
And even later, when there’s not thedanger, your body still can lookfor.
You’re waiting for thatnext bad thing to happen.
And do you think I have ADHD? I do.
Now the question would be.
Who has it in your family? Because itdoesn’t just show up, but often.
Children who have ADHD haveone or both parents who have it,and you can see those similartraits.
And.
It sounds like one orboth of your parents could have been alittle bit conflict seeking.
My mother.
And ifI was to hazard a guess at which one ofmy parents had ADHD, and this is just meguessing, not trying to diagnose myparents, I would say it would have beenmy mother.
Why she’s theShe’s the most irritable Handwritingisn’t great.
Sheis.
A little bit moresort of like.
Scattered,I should say.
She’s seen a lot moremessy.
My dad is like, very organizedwith everything.
My mom’s very, very,very messy, like me.
The the other thing I would askis.
What didteachers say about you? I went back tospeak at my school.
To the GCSE and A Level students havedone it twice and I remember one of theteachers came up to me.
Bear in mind atthis stage, I’m 2425 years old and shesaid you are a useless student, but youwere nice, you’re a nice person.
I wasnever swearing or throwing chairs, but Iwas useless and I spent most of the timein the exclusion unit, which is where yougo if you don’t do your homework or youdon’t attend.
I just couldn’t sit inclassrooms.
I couldn’t sit in classroomsand stay focused on what they weretelling me, especially when I wasn’tinterested.
That’s been like her definingquality of my life.
I’m exceptionallygood at not doing things I’m notinterested in.
And I’m and I’m good atwhen I’m interested.
But when I’m notinterested, I could see my peers almostlike Will themselves to engage in thingsthat I’m interested in.
I’m I will, Icould never do that.
And I’ve always saidI’m a remarkable quitter.
So you thinkabout stop going to school, then went touniversity for one day and was like, no,never went back after that first day, so.
So it’s it’s a very important piece ofadvice.
For people whohave ADD is pick something youlove, not a job.
That you think you’ll just make moremoney in.
And that’s anothersort of piece of the puzzle thatcompletely fits with havingADD.
And as as weknow, there areproblems with it, butthey’re also huge benefits of it,your prefrontal cortex when itworks too hard.
So Iimagine if I scanned your dad thatit would be busy because he’s veryorganized.
And like collecting.
But there’s less creativity.
That goes with the busy frontal lobes.
When there’s a little bit sleepy,you entertain all sorts of thoughtsand you’re a little less rule bound.
Than people whose prefrontal cortex moreactive They like rules and they likesameness and they like predictability.
And.
Probably like some ofthat because I think you inherited someof your dad.
That’s the top of thediamond.
Butyou’re obviously very creative.
I do.
I do think of myself as being acreative entrepreneur.
I know otherentrepreneurs that are like, really goodat finance and operations andprocesses, whereas my skill andentrepreneurship has always been.
Thecreativity, that’s why I’m a marketer.
That’s where I built my my fortunes per SE was in marketing and creativity.
Soand I’ve always found other people to dothe finance or the process oroperation stuff for me because that’s notwhere I I’m engaged or allwhere I think I’m particularly good.
Sowell and since a lot of CEOs listen tothis podcast, a lot of CEOshave ADD of one form or another.
And they thrive whenthey hire people.
Whoare organized?Soit’s very important because we tend tolike to hire people likeourselves.
And it’svery important to hire peoplewho help us where we’re morevulnerable.
It’s almost like hiringpeople with different brains.
Yes.
Literally yes.
We talked about something a second ago.
You said when you saw your brain for thefirst time, it changed your life.
I dofeel like that now.
I do feel like when.
I almost didn’t realize my brain wasthere, and I think a lot of people we gothrough our lives just kind of because wenever see the thing.
We don’t appreciatethe thing.
So step one is that awarenessand then Step 2 is the realizationthat we can do something about it.
Because I grew up thinking that yourbrain and your body generally is just, itjust is what it is.
Like I can’t doanything about, you know, I tend to thinkI can’t do anything about, I don’t know,my fingernail, probably you know, youcan, but you just see these things asstatic objects that are what they are.
This idea that I can do something aboutit is the most important idea.
It’s theit’s the empowering idea.
Andthat is what you’re telling me.
Ispossible I can change my brain?It’s the most exciting lesson that I’velearned.
You’re not stuck.
I’m not stuck with the brain.

We talked about something a second ago.
You said when you saw your brain for thefirst time, it changed your life.
I dofeel like that now.
I do feel like when.
I almost didn’t realize my brain wasthere, and I think a lot of people we gothrough our lives just kind of because wenever see the thing.
We don’t appreciatethe thing.
So step one is that awarenessand then Step 2 is the realizationthat we can do something about it.
Because I grew up thinking that yourbrain and your body generally is just, itjust is what it is.
Like I can’t doanything about, you know, I tend to thinkI can’t do anything about, I don’t know,my fingernail, probably you know, youcan, but you just see these things asstatic objects that are what they are.
This idea that I can do something aboutit is the most important idea.
It’s theit’s the empowering idea.
Andthat is what you’re telling me.
Ispossible I can change my brain?
It’s the most exciting lesson that I’velearned.
You’re not stuck.
I’m not stuck with the brain Ihad.
You’re not stuck with the brain youhave.
You can make it better.
I canprove it.
In fact, everyday what I’ve come to believe you’remaking your brain better oryou’re making it worse.
Let’s start bywhat you’re doing.
What things make thebrain worse?
What are the common thingsthat most of us do without thinking thatmake the brain worse?
When my daughter Chloe was in secondgrade, I went to her classroom and I wrote 20 things on the board and I wentseparate them for me.
Good for yourbrain, bad for your brain.
7 year olds,they got 19 out of 20, right?
So mostpeople know.
Theonly thing they got wrong was orangejuice.
They put it in the healthycategory.
When in fact,when is it rational to unwrapfruit sugar from its fiber source?
Because it turns toxic in your body.
SoI’m not a fan of fruit juice.
I’m a fanof fruit, not fruit juice.
But so the badcategory?
Hitting a soccer ball with yourhead?
No, don’t do that.
What’s bad about sugar for the brain?
It makes you diabetic, but I mean, as itrelates to the brain, why is like orangejuice or the ice cream bad for my brain?
Because it’s ultimately goingto give you high blood sugar levels whicherode your blood vessels.
And you’re going to have lower blood flowto your brain that that’s a bad thing.
Imean, there’s so many things about it.
Soit’s addictive, it’s proinflammatory, It makes it morelikely going to have diabetes andobesity.
So 72% of Americans areoverweight, 42% are obese.
I’ve published 3 studies on 35,000 people.
As your weight goes up, the actualphysical size and function of your braingoes down.
That should scarethe fat off anyone.
I used to be chubby,but when I figured out that connection,I’m like, Oh no, I’m It wasthat that gave me the motivation todrop about 25 lbs.
And so sugar.
Is the gateway drug todiabetes and obesity, andso not to mention.
Inflammation.
Whichis the cause of depression and dementia.
So I’ve got sugar, I’ve got head injury.
I’m going to avoid both of these things.
What else should I avoid?
And then youhave low blood flow and those two veryimportant areas and so.
How can we increase blood flow?
So you want to avoid things that causelow blood flow?
Caffeine, Nicotine,Caffeine.
Caffeine constricts blood flowto the brain.
And what does that do to mybrain?
Well, it constricts bloodflow, so you’re going to get less bloodflow.
And remember I showed you thatprogression with age.
No, you don’t want that.
You want to dothings that increase blood flow to yourbrain.
So exercise.
Ginkgo.
Is this one of the supplementsI’m going to give you?
Eat foods likebeets?
Oregano.
Rosemary, cinnamon, theyincrease blood flow and doyou think there’s correlation or a linkbetween?
CaffeineConsumption and a Shrinking Brain.
Yes, and a shrinking brain isthat associated with things likedementia.
Idon’t think there’s a connection.
Ihaven’t read any research that saysthere’s a connection betweencaffeine.
Anddementia.
There’s a connection with sleepproblems, and there’s connection withsleep problems and dementia.
I think ifyou have like 100 milligramsa day ofcaffeine, it’s probably fine.
Butone venti Starbuckscoffee has got 330 milligramsof caffeine.
And people just aren’tthinking about the levelof caffeine they’re having in oursociety.
What are the other very obviousthings that are not good for my brain?
Because I really want to make sure that Iavoid those things.
So I’ve got sugar,erectile dysfunction.
I mean, while we’reso B is for blood flow, right?
Whilewe’re on blood flow.
40% of 40 year olds have erectiledysfunction.
70%of 70 year olds have erectiledysfunction.
What that means if you haveblood flow problems anywhere, itmeans they’re everywhere.
And so.
Like,no.
And it means either you’re too sedentary,you’re overweight.
You’re smoking or having too muchcaffeine.
Or usingmarijuana because marijuana lowers bloodflow to the brain.
And so just inthat one of the 11.
It’s exercise,Ginkgo.
And for you, Not foreverybody, but for you, hyperbaricoxygen.
Those three things will make abig difference in blood flow.
Ginkgo.
Ginkgo.
What is that?
It’s a supplement.
What does it do?
Increases blood flow tothe brain.
The prettiest brains I’veever seen.
Take Ginkgo.
There’sactually a spec study.
Theygave people 120 milligramsof Ganko twice aday, significant improvement in bloodflow to the brain.
And so onone of the supplements I’m going to giveyou, we have Ginkgo I I’ve taken itevery day for the last 20 years atleast.
And then this is wherethe US government got an F for thepandemic loneliness.
Accelerates dementia and brainproblems and so when they isolatedus, the whole significantincrease in brain problems so getconnected to other people.
The eye in bright minds is inflammation.
So what increases inflammation?
Low omega-3 fatty acid levels and we aredeficient.
93% of thepopulation is deficient in omega-3 fattyacids, 93%.
So all of us should be either eating morefish or.
Taking an omega-3 supplement like fishoil.
Gum disease.
Like, who knew?
Like, I wasn’treally that good at taking care of mygums until I started reading thestudies.
You have gum disease, You haveinflammation.
You’re more likely to getdepressed and have dementia.
I’m like, Ohmy goodness, so I’m a flossing fool?
H has had trauma.
We talked about that.
Idid the big NFL study when the NFL wasstruggling with the truth on traumaticbrain injury in football.
80% ofour players got better.
Tia’s toxins.
Drugs, alcohol.
But other things like mercuryand obvious toxins becauseanesthesia.
Anesthesia.
I was looking atmy bathroom.
Items and I have like mouthwashand toothpaste and deodorants andaftershaves and I was wondering to myselfwhether those were toxic to some degree.
So there’s an app, There’s a couple ofthem, but the one I like is called ThinkDirty, where you can scanthose products and it’ll tell you on ascale of zero to 10, how bad they are for you.
So zero as you live a long time and 10 is you die early.
Andso when I figured this out and I wasscanning everything, I mean, itcost me hundreds of dollars to replacethings and my wife.
More than that.
With all the makeup andstuff, But I shaved for 50years with Barbasol.
And it’s a nine.
Which is Dieearly and now I shave with somethingcalled Kiss My Face and it’s a 2.
It’s like, you know, weteach people, read the labels on foodstuff, should read the labels onanything that goes on your body or onyour child’s body.
And wehave this epidemic and we’ll get to it,of low testosterone in malesbecause the toxins we put on their bodieswhen they’re young.
What is the Min Brighton?
The quality of your thoughts.
The level of your stress.
And.
The level of trauma you carryin your body and whether or not you haveany of the.
Psychiatric stuff likedepression, for example, double S, therisk of Alzheimer’s disease in womenand quadruples it in men.
Andso the Mis what’s going onin your mind.
And so Iteach people to kill the ants, theautomatic negative thoughts that stealtheir happiness.
Understand andprocess their traumas.
And treatwhatever.
Psychiatric issues may be present, likein your case the add.
And I think we start with the supplement.
Or even consider medication.
Talk about the natural ways to do it, themedicine ways to do it.
And for me,I’m not opposed to medicine.
I’m actuallyreally good at it.
But it’snever the 1st and the only thing I thinkabout.
I’ve really never taken medicationin my life.
Even like if I get a headacheI don’t take medication.
I’m not the typeof person I probably haven’t taken a pillin like really in years.
The only timeI’ve taken medication is if I have asevere infection of sorts.
So like therewas this one time where like my foot wasgoing green and I’d stood on some glass,whatever and it was really getting out ofcontrol.
I’m talking like a 2 inch purplething growing on my throat.
I thought, OKinstead of getting my leg cut off, I’lltake this medication the doctor’s givingme.
Otherwise I just do not take it.
So Iwould rather go through severe pain thantake medication because I believe that mybody can fix things.
Sowhen I think about taking ADD medicationor ADHD medication, I don’t really knowthe difference.
I go well.
If my if I’m messy, or ifI’m my handwriting is bad, or whatever itmight be, then that’s justwho I am.
And that’sOK.
I can get better at it.
I can beless.
I can be more organized.
Butwhy?
Why do I want to take medication?
Well, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna be theone to sell you on medication, but what Iwould say.
Is.
So a lot of times people ask me the sideeffects of medication.
And for stimulants, for ADD, it could beit decreases your appetite or cannegatively affect your sleep.
But youalways have to ask the second question,which is what are the side effects of nottaking the medicine?
What’s the impact onyour life, on your business, on yourmoney, on your relationships, on yourhealth?
Because living withuntreated ADD for many people, andmaybe not you, but for many people itgoes with chronic stress.
Because of.
The negative things that tend to go alongwith it.
And for you.
You’re clearly not broken.
But are you optimized?
Do you have full accessto your own brain?
And Iwould argue no.
And we can do and we can do better.
But we can do it insteps.
And ultimately, Isee my job is giving peopleoptions and then telling them the prosand cons of each option and then lettingthem choose, right?
I mean, that’s whatgood doctors should do.
It’s calledinformed consent.
And you know, I can just tell you.
My experience and I told you the storywith my daughter.
And I’ve seen that play out thousands oftimes.
Thatpeople.
Just become more optimized.
Andit’s not necessarily the medicine, butthat medicine, when it’s for the rightbrain, right the wrong brain, it makespeople worse.
And if you read my bookHealing ADD, I talk about the Ring ofFire ADD.
So ADDand ADHD.
Aredifferent terms for the same thing.
1980, The American PsychiatricAssociation’s DSM Diagnostic andStatistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Ihate that.
Own brain and I wouldargue no.
And we can doand we can do better.
But wecan do it in steps.
And ultimately, I see my job isgiving people options and thentelling them the pros and cons of eachoption and then letting them choose,right?
I mean, that’s what good doctorsshould do.
It’s called informed consent.
And you know, I can just tell you.
My experience.
I told you the story withmy daughter.
AndI’ve seen that play out thousands oftimes.
Thatpeople.
Just become more optimized.
Andit’s not necessarily the medicine, butthat medicine, when it’s for the rightbrain, right the wrong brain, it makespeople worse.
And if you read my bookHealing ADD, I talk about the Ring ofFire ADD.
So ADDand ADHD.
Aredifferent terms for the same thing?
1980, The American PsychiatricAssociation’s DSM Diagnostic andStatistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Ihate that, but it’s what wehave was attention deficit disorder,ADD, with or without hyperactivity.
1987 God knows for what reasonthey changed the name to ADHD, Attentiondeficit hyperactivity disorder, basicallythrowing out half the people who have it.
Because half the people who have ADD orADHD.
Never hyperactive.
And they don’t get diagnosed because theydon’t bring enough negativeattention to themselves for parentsto go.
You have a problemand you’re giving me a problem.
So anyway, different names for the samething.
And ifyou can manage it.
By having extra help for the thingsyou’re not good at with exercise.
With all of the good habits you have,well.
That’s awesomeif you want to be 10%.
Morefocused like I treat this writer.
And she only takes medicine when shehas to get stuff done, but she nevertakes it when she writes because she has 16 plot lines going on at once in herbooks.
And she goes,no, I think it decreases my creativity alittle bit.
Interesting.
Becausethe.
The fact thatwe’re medicatingthe brain like mine.
I I go is that for professionaloptimization Because if you just go backlike I know a couple 100 years, if you goback even further to a time when we canlike read or write, there wasn’tcomputers and all of these things.
Youwould have had no idea that you know ifyou go, if you go back far, you wouldn’thave been able to tell a really an ADHD.
Well, what I’m trying to say but you’d beable to tell their life.
I mean I have apatient from Ethiopia and.
I’m like, so tell me the impact in yourculture.
And he said thepeople with severe ADHD get excludedbecause they can’t be relied on.
And the isolation causesgreat shame andpain.
Andthey have no idea.
It’s a brain thing.
Where does it come from?
ADHDor ADD?
Well, it’s genetic.
It’s clearly genetic, I mean.
I if Idon’t see it in someone’s family, Ithink head trauma and with you I thinkthat’s possible because of soccer.
Except you see it in your family.
Is ita defect or is it a difference?
It’s adifference.
If I if Ichose to take a drug was it like hecalled it Ritalin that you called one ofthe Ritalin would be one of the optionswhatever drug it was what exactly wouldit do under brain scanning to my brain.
So if I scan my brain and took the drugwhat would you see in my brain?
I cantell you that would activate yourcerebellum.
OK.
The bit that was a bitsleepy.
It was a bit sleepy and it wouldactivate your prefrontal cortexand.
It wouldgive your brain.
Better energy.
So my first spec scan 1991.
A woman tried to kill herselfthe night before.
I went to the lectureon brain SPECT imaging and then I walkedout of the lecture and she was my newpatient.
Her name was Sandy.
She tried tokill herself the night before and as I’mgetting to know her, I’m thinking she hasADD.
She’s an 8 year old son who has ADDtalked about the genetic connection.
Shehad an IQ of 144 but neverfinished college.
And I’m like, how didyou study?
She said.
Well, I never reallydid except maybe the night before atest.
I’d put on a pot of coffee, stay upall night cramming, and then I’d take thetest.
That’s classic ADD way ofdoing things.
And I’m like, you know, Ithink maybe you have adult Abd And shegoes, oh, adults don’t have ADD.
AndI’m thinking I’m the doctor, butI’m like, how about if we look at yourbrain?
And and I knewfrom other work I’d done that I should doit twice at rest and concentration.
And when she tried to concentrate, herbrain completely deactivated,turned off.
Like for you willing did itonce, but if I had done it twice,probably your brain would be busy or atrest, and then when you try to do it, itwould drop.
And I put thepictures on.
A couple of days later Iput the picture on the table in front ofher and as I explained it toher.
She started to cryand she said, you mean it’s not my fault?
And I said having ADD is sort of likepeople who need glasses, and I wearglasses to drive and took my glasses out,put them on.
And I said people wearglasses aren’t dumb, crazy or stupid.
Eyeballs are shaped funny and we wearglasses to focus.
So people have ADD aren’t dumb, crazy orstupid.
Some of them are the brightestpeople I know, but their frontal lobesdeactivate.
Taking the medicineis like glasses for your frontal lobeshelp you focus.
And she didit.
She was conflict driven.
She was always poking her husband.
Theygot into a huge fight, which is why shetried to kill herself.
She stopped that.
She’s a better mom.
She went back andfinished college.
I mean her life.
It’s like your brain with glasses.
Wow.
My friends that take medication for ADDsay that to me.
They say it’s like theirlife is before and after that moment.
SoI’ve, you know, I completely believe whatyou’re saying.
Second agoyou said this phrase when we were talkingabout the M, which is your mental healthand the impact that has on thedevelopment of a brain that’s eitherhealthy or unhealthy.
And you said thisthing about you got to make sure you killthe ants, which is killing those negativethoughts.
That’s much easier said thandone.
How does how doessomeone go about killing their negativethoughts?
Is there a process they can gothrough to do that?
Yeah, it’s a habit,right?
And it’s not hard.
Butlike any habit, you have to do itrepeatedly, like over and over and overand over and over and over.
Whenever you ever thought your brainreleases chemicals.
Whenever you have a bad thought, a sadthought, a bad thought, your brainreleases a certain set of chemicals thatmake you feel bad.
Immediately, your hands get cold.
They start to sweat, your muscles gettense, you start to breathe erratically,and it all happens instantaneously.
Whenever you have a positive thought,happy thought, a hopeful thought.
LovingThought like, I’m back because I’d lovethe first time I was on the podcast withyou.
Acompletely different set of chemicalscome out and your hands getwarmer, drier, your breathing slows down,your heart beats in a healthier and ithappens, like, immediately.
People have ADD since we’re talking aboutthat.
They tend to go more towardnegative thoughts because negativethoughts are more stimulating.
And.
Here’s theexercise.
Whenever youfeel sad or mad ornervous or out of control, write downwhat you’re thinking.
And then askyourself, is it true?
Is it absolutely true?
This is a processI learned from my friend Byron Katie.
How do I feel when I have this thought?
How do I act when I have this thought andwhat’s the outcome of thethought?
O is it true?
Is it absolutely true?
How do Ifeel act and the outcome of the thought?
How would I feel?
If I didn’thave the thought, how would I act?
If Ididn’t have the thought, what’s theoutcome of not having that thought then?
My favorite part of it is take theoriginal thought.
Tana never listens tome.
Tana’s my wife.
I’ve had thatthought.
And then turn it to the opposite and itdoes listen to me.
And then just askyourself whether or not that’s true.
Andby directing my thoughts, bymanaging so rather than being a victim,so many of my patients are victims oftheir thoughts until they do the workright.
This is one of the things where dowhat the FI say, write down 100 of yourworst thoughts.
And have the thought what’s the outcomeof not having that thought?
Then myfavorite part of it is take the originalthought.
Tanner never listens to me.
Tennis, my wife.
I’ve had that thought.
And then turn it to the opposite and itdoes listen to me.
And then just askyourself whether or not that’s true.
And by directing my thoughts, bymanaging so rather than being a victim,so many of my patients are victims oftheir thoughts until they do the workright.
This is one of the things where dowhat the FI say, write down 100 ofyourworst thoughts, take them throughthat process, and by the time youget to 30, they’ll stop bothering you.
So if I’m a repetitive negative thinkeror a repetitive positive thinker, doesthat alone change the shape of my brain?
Yes.
And inmy new book, Change Your Brain Every Day,there’s actually pictures of NoelNelson.
She was writing a book called ThePower of Appreciation.
And I had her.
She wanted me to scan her while she wasappreciating her brain and it lookedbeautiful.
And I’m likeas I’m showing it to her.
I’m like, youneed to come back tomorrow and I want youto hate yourself.
And she goes, oh, Idon’t want to do that.
I’m like, come on,you have to suffer for science.
And Isaid why don’t we have positive scan andthen we have negative scan and thenegativity.
Dropped.
Her left temporal lobe, her left frontallobe and her cerebellum.
Sointeresting.
I mean, similar to what yourskin looks like, but hers was wayworse.
I mean, it’s a healthy brain andthen a deactivated brain.
And that explained to meathletic slumps.
It’s like, why do peopleget in athletic slumps?
Becausenegativity turns off their cerebellumand they become just a little lesscoordinated.
And I’m not a fan ofpositive thinking.
I’m afan of accuratethinking with a positive spin.
So positive thinking is I can have thisthird piece of cheesecake and it’s notgoing to negatively impact my body ormy brain.
Like, no,the Don’t worry, be happy, peopledie, the earliestof accidents and preventable illnesses.
So a lot of people come to me for anxietyand I’m like, so on a scale of zeroto 100, howmuch is it like 50?
I said, OK, our goal isnot zero.
Our goals 15 I want you to have enoughanxiety.
You do the rightthings.
Somewhatlinked to that is a word used as well,which is stress.
When we’re talking aboutthe M in bright minds, how to havehealthy brains, what role doesstress play on our brains?
Stress, especially chronic,unremitting stress.
So if we think of thestress you had growing up where there wasa lot of fighting.
Itraises A hormone calledcortisol.
Cortisol beginsto shrink activity in thehippocampus, one of the major memory andlearning centers in the brain.
So one could at leastargue or postulate.
Yourstruggle in school was becauseyour emotional brain was busy, becauseyou were worried about things at home.
It makes it more likely to getinfections.
It makes it.
More likely.
That youhave learning problems and trauma.
Trauma was the other word you used, whichI thought it was worth diving into theimpact that trauma has in our brains.
Anddoes trauma show up when you scan someone’s brain?
Can you see it?
Yeah.
So traumashows up as that diamond pattern, whichis why I asked you about it.
It’s youremotional brain, anterior singular atthe top.
It’s the brain’s gear shifter.
Thalamus, often involved in mood,basal ganglia, amygdala involved inanxiety.
So we often seeworry, anxiety andsadness.
And it shows up as thatdiamond pattern that after people doEMDR, a specificpsychological treatment for trauma calmsit down.
And I say psychologicaltreatment.
I’m like, yeah, but it hasbiological effects.
It’s a very interestingtreatment.
So I get you to like firstthing, write down 10 big traumasin your life and we’ll go after the worstone first.
Andhave you bring it up and there’s a wholeprocess to it, but have your eyes go backand forth while you bring it up.
And it’s so interesting theconnections your brain will make to it,but as you process it, youfind you’re actually less botheredby it.
And it’s masterful forsingle incident traumas like being robbedor being in a car accident.
Forchronic trauma, it takes longer.
But it’s so helpful.
WhenI met my wife.
18 years ago.
Her ACE score Adverse ChildhoodExperiences.
On a scale of zero to 10,How many bad things happened to you was an 8?
Andso taken with this woman.
And one of my first gifts to her was 10sessions of EMDR One.
I wanted tosee if she would like wrestlewith her traumas.
She went for two yearsand I’m absolutely convinced that’s oneof the reasons she and I.
Rarely fuss with each otherbecause we don’t trigger each other.
And when you talk about trauma, it’s not.
These big T traumas that some peoplesometimes talk of, which is, you know,when I was young I was fondled by myuncle, for example.
It can also be anisolated incident that happened when youwere an adult.
Absolutely.
Itcan be anything.
The attacksyour sense of safety,either physical oremotional.
Getting fired is traumatic for a lot ofpeople not performing in a high.
In an important situation can betraumatic and that changes the activitywithin your brain.
Well, it depends onhow strong it is.
If it was reallystrong, if it was really strong, then theactivity centers of your brain wouldwell.
And there’s one thing we haven’ttalked about yet called brain reserve,which is how healthy was thebrain that you brought into traumabecause you can take twosoldiers, put them in the sametank.
And expose them to the sameblast, the same angles.
Thesame one walks awayunharmed, the other one’spermanently disabled.
Why?
It’s the brain theybrought into the trauma.
And so if your mother useddrugs while she was pregnant with you,she decreased your reserve.
If yourmom and dad fought a lot or theyseparated when she was pregnant with you,that decreased your reserve.
If she gaveyou bad food, if sheneglected you, if there was chronicstress, that’s decreasing yourreserve.
So all of us have a certainlevel of reserve when we go into thattrauma and.
Some people getpost traumatic growth.
Thatthey’re actually better after the trauma.
You know, they make the trauma and makesomething meaningful out of it and otherpeople have post traumatic stresswhere it really.
Causes them to suffer.
I love the ideaof brain reserve because I’m, like,always thinking of boosting mine.
Yeah.
Because then also when somethingtraumatic happens, I’m in a better place.
Right?
Right.
Like if you kill the ants,if your Ant population is low, myautomatic negative thoughts, right.
Yeah.
So if you’re masterful, if you have ananteater running around in your headcleaning up the negative thoughts thatall of us have when you go into thattrauma, well, you’re just better able todeal with it.
Then.
If you have an undisciplinedmind, that’s infestedand there’s nowhere in school.
That people teach you to kill the ants.
We have a foundation called the ChangeYour Brain Foundation and I love it somuch.
We’re dedicated toresearch education service.
But last year, we produced this newcourse called Brain Thrive by 5.
So it’s for preschoolers,kindergarten grade one, where weteach kids to love and care for theirbrain.
It’s like 30 modules, or six toseven minutes long.
Andsix of them aren’t learning to kill theants.
Little kids just lovethat you don’t have to believe everystupid thing you think.
And I don’t knowif you know, but Jerry Seinfeld once saidthe brain is a sneaky organ.
We all have weird, crazy,stupid, sexual, violentthoughts that nobody should everhear.
And just because you have badthought doesn’t even mean you believe thethought, right?
It’s not the thoughts youhave that make you suffer, it’s thethoughts you attach to.
That make you suffer?
I get all sorts ofcrazy thoughts and I’m like my brainis so creative but I don’tbelieve most of them.
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Tell meabout the most unhealthy brain you’veever seen.
For a 15year old was Kip Kinkel.
He’s a 15 year old boy in Springfield OR who brought weapons toschool, got arrested.
His parents picked him up from jail.
And sometime between 6:00 that night and 8:00 the next morning, he murdered hismom and dad.
And then he went toSpringfield Thurston High School inSpringfield OR and shot 25people based on my work.
Theyscanned him.
For his trial,his brain was so awful, like I’d neverseen a 15 year old that had a brainso damaged.
And his life reflected it.
What did you see in his brain?
It wasshriveled at 15.
At 15 and it’s like, OK, why?
Well, he murdered his mom and dad, so Icouldn’t get a good history, but heeither had anoxia atbirth, lack of oxygen, a severeinfection, or something waspoisoning his brain.
It could have beenlead.
Could have been an infection.
I mean, wewere talking about M the I is immunityand infections.
It’s a major cause ofpsychiatric problems.
Nobody knows aboutit.
Have you scanned the brains of lotsof psychopaths?
I have.
And what doyou see when you look at psychopaths?
SoI published a study on murderers,and young murderers havereally low frontal lobe function.
Older murderers.
It’s globallow activity.
Now, not all murderersare the same.
I have one murderer’sbrain.
Her brain actually looked prettygood, but she was in the middle of beingabused by her husband and she murderedhim.
And it wasn’t thatirrational, you know, when you reallyknow her story.
But most brainsare troubled.
Do you think you could look at a brainand predict now?
You should ask me,should you scan presidential candidates?
Interesting.
Especially now.
What do you think Donald Trump’s brainlooks like?
Well, I think if wescanned President Biden orformer President Trump, neither one ofthem would be healthy.
I mean, one wetalked about, the older you got, theless healthy they areand.
If someone is going to have nuclearcodes, shouldn’t we knowwhat their brain looks like?
And I wrote an op-ed piece in 2008 whenBarack Obama was runningagainst John McCain, arguing first,don’t you think we should scanpresidential candidates?
Andyeah, I don’t think either one of theirbrains would be healthy.
And thatconcerns me.
Because, I mean,what do we need for our toppoliticians?
Judgment.
Forethought.
Impulse control.
OK, so playing devil’s advocate to that,if we started to do that at the veryhighest office in the land,then that philosophy might creep down tolower offices in the land.
And when yougo and try and get a job at, I don’tknow, a restaurant or a marketing agency.
Because, I mean, what do we need forour top politicians?
Judgment, forethought.
Impulse control.
OK, so playing devil’sadvocate to that, if we started to dothat at the very highest office in theland, then that philosophy might creepdown to lower offices in the land.
Andwhen you go and try and get a job at, Idon’t know, a restaurant or a marketingagency, it might become the norm thatthere’s a almost brain discrimination orbrain prejudice in play where someonelike me, they have their brain scanned,they go, listen, this guy’s.
He’s notgoing to be very good at focusing onthings.
I have to tell you, if youdate one of my children for morethan four months, I’m gonna get youscanned.
I’m gonna figureout how to do that.
It’s the rule in myfamily.
And if you have abad brain, it doesn’t mean you can’t comeback.
But are you smartenough to fix it?
That wouldbe the question.
Have you done that?
Well, my son-in-law, Jesse, who Ilove, his mother, has paranoidschizophrenia.
I’m like.
I want to scan your brain, and I have.
He actually wrote a book called ChangeYour Brain Before 25,and he opens thebook with the story of hisscan and him sitting with me.
He’s 64, I’m 56, and he said he’d never felt sosmall.
And.
Yeah, no, that’s the rule in my family.
Like I said, when I met my wife, I reallyliked her.
And the firstnaked part of her I wanted to see was herbrain.
And so three weeks intoour relationship, I’m like, hey, youhaven’t seen the clinic, Don’t you wantto see the clinic?
She came, I scannedher and.
It passed.
Do you use her brain against her?
I bet you do.
I bet you do.
We spoke to Tanner.
She said you do.
You’re telling me there’s not been onetime where you’ve brought up her brain ina moment of conflict or arguments?
Notonce.
Because I will call Tana.
Idon’t.
Yeah.
No, Because you know what Ido, and this is this is on par withkilling the ants.
I do an exercise withmy patients called the one page Miracle.
On one piece of paper, write down whatyou want.
And in a veryspecific way, what do you want in yourrelationships, Your work,your money, your physical,emotional and spiritual health?
What doyou want?
Andwith her, because she’s on the top ofmy list, I want a kind, caring,loving, supportive, passionaterelationship.
I always wantthat.
I don’t always feel like thatrude thoughts come into my head.
And if I’ve slept and I’ve eaten andnever saved them, why?
Because it doesn’tget me what I want, right?
And that’s notselfish.
People go, oh, but you know,what you want is what I want is notselfish.
It’s good.
Because hedonism is the enemy ofhappiness, but happiness is amoral obligation because of how youimpact other people.
Your brain’s sosmart, but you have to tell it what youwant.
And every major business,including mine, we have a one pagestrategic plan.
We know what we wantand we know what we’re going to do thisquarter and this year.
But people don’t do that in their lives.
And you think they should have like alife plan every?
Personshould What do you want?
Is yourbehavior getting you?
What you want?
Doyou think the brain almost conspires tomake to fit what you wanteither brain.
Once you’re clear on whatyou want, I guess your actions willchange a little bit and then your brainwill change shape to fit what you saidyou wanted.
And the brain islazy.
The brain.
Does what you allow it to do.
And it’s habitual.
It’s talking to one ofmy patients about this yesterday.
Because we were working on his one pagemiracle and he’s like, you know, I couldbe more positive.
And I go It’s a habit to benegative or to be positive.
Whichhighways are you building inyour brain?
Positive highways or negativehighways?
Accurate highways ordistorted highways?
You build that.
And if you watch the news, they’ll becomemore distorted.
‘Causeit’s yeah, in my book, The End of MentalIllness, I I did something.
It was veryfun for me to do.
I imagined if I was anevil ruler and I wanted to createmental illness, what would I do?
And watching the news, I think it wasthere’s 62 evil ruler strategies and Ithink that’s like 12.
Because.
The news is no longer the news.
The news is about eyeballs and sellingthings.
Andnegativity cells.
If I can scare you,that will sell and so.
You have to be very careful with what youallow in your brain.
And yes, you shouldbe informed, but not over and over andover and over again people who start theday with the news.
Or 27% less happy in the afternoon.
Well, I listen to lots of true crime andserial killer things like everyday.
It’s so funny.
I have this show onInstagram called Scan My Brain.
I takeinfluential people and scan them.
And Idid Meghan Trainer.
The musician, I love her musicand she goes, I can’t sleep and everynight before bed she’s listening to truecrime.
And I’m like, stop that.
Do youthink it matters because I listen to truecrime before bed.
I havethis exercise that I recommend allmy patients.
I’ve done it for.
10 years What went well?
When I goto bed, I start at the beginning of theday.
And just go hour by hour looking for whatwent right about my day.
I think thatsets your dreams up to be morepositive.
I think it’sI do both, and then I just see which oneworks better for you every day.
When or learn What is theeye in bright minds?
Immunity andinfection.
So do you know your vitamin Dlevel?
No, But I do take the onlysupplement that I take frequently.
I’d say there’s two is vitamin Dand omega-3.
But I’vebecause I’m black as well, I need morevitamin D so people havedarker skin.
Needand going from Africa,where there’s a lot of sun, to the UK,where there’s no sun,dramatically increase the risk of mentalhealth problems.
Because of vitamin Ddeficiencies, do you know what I thinkthere’s a certain member of my family whoI won’t name who went from Africa,they’re, they’ve got two Nigerian parentswent from Africa to the UK and Isaw their mental health deteriorate quitesignificantly to the point that webelieve this person might have bipolarnow.
And I, I, I part ofme suspects once I learned about vitaminD deficiency and people that have darkerskin, this person has very, very, very,very black skin.
That it might beassociated with that change being in anew country that has no sunlight for 30years when you’re, you know, black, blackand it’s part of.
So if yousee mental health isbrain health, then that becomes acritical intervention.
If you’re notpaying attention to brain health, thenyou’re like well what antipsychoticor what mood stabilizer?
Can I give them and I’m very well may usean antipsychotic or a mood stabilizer.
But if I get your brain healthy, youmight not need it or you’ll need half thedose.
So and and theninfections, I mean, we’re just coming outof a pandemic.
AndCOVID changes your brain in a bad way.
It causes like, ainflammatory bomb to go off in yourbrain.
It was on the Kardashian show lastyear.
Because I scanned Kindle.
Kendallcame to see me.
And obviouslyI was on the show, so it was publicknowledge.
And it was post COVID andher emotional brain just wason fire.
Andthat’s what we saw with COVID and longCOVID.
Emotional brain is hot,but then the cortex begins to.
Get low in activity.
It’s it’s a badcombination.
Why?
What does that mean?
It’s like chronic damage.
And what doesthat mean if the in terms of behaviour?
What’s the implications for behavior sothe hot limbic brain?
Tense.
Anxiety.
That she hadn’t had.
If you startdamaging your cortex and all of a suddenyou’re sad, you’re impulsive,you’re irritable, you canget dark thoughts, sometimes evensuicidal thoughts, and people gotCOVID significantly increase indementia.
Someone who’s listening to this right nowthat is depressed.
Clinicallydepressed or justfeels, you know, depressive symptoms.
Where do you start?
Let’s go to theextreme end, someone that can’t getthemselves out of bed.
I sat here withJada Pinkett and she told me that she wasclinically depressed andshe if she just got to 4:00 PM everyday,to her that was a victory.
There are lotsof people out there that are in thatsituation right now.
Where do you start with those people?
What advice do you give them?
Because I’msure you see a lot of them in yourpractice.
Itstarts with awareness that maybethis is not me, maybe it’s my brain.
And then it starts with loving your brainand then investigating your brainbecause depression is like chest pain.
So if you, if somebody, like, hadchest pain, you’re like, well, wherewould you start?
We start with anevaluation.
You wouldn’t start withdrugs.
I mean, that would be, likeludicrous.
You would like, go, well, whydo you have chest pain?
Why are youdepressed?
You know, how’s your thyroid,right, The person that can’t get off thecouch.
They could behypothyroid or one of myfriends got depressed.
She hadanemia.
She had pernicious anemia becauseit was AB 12 deficiency.
I Iwouldn’t assume, oh, you’re depressed.
Take this medicine.
Depression is what it is.
It’s not why itis.
And if you don’t know why it is,how do you effectively treat somethingLike so many people come to me and theygo have an autoimmune disorder.
It’slike, well, why do you have an autoimmunedisorder?
Why is your body so mad at you?
It’s attacking itself.
And sobecause my body’s broken.
Butwhy is your body broken?
Right.
And Iand I I hate the term broken.
Right.
Theseries like the broken brain and it’slike.
Now it’s notoptimized.
Let’s optimize it.
Inever want my patients to think of themas mental, and I never want themto think of themselves as broken.
You’reawesome, so how can I help you bemaybe 10% more awesome?
People feel like their brain is againstthem.
Is working against them whenthey’re feeling depression or thosechronic cycles of negative thinking?
Whyis my brain attacking me?
Why is itagainst me?
So part of it isit’s not healthy and part of it’sundisciplined.
AndI got to do a lecture last year for thecoaching staff of the Miami Heat.
It wasso much fun for me and I’mreally thinking a lotabout elite performanceand.
And I think it’s just such a bettermodel.
It’s like, let me help you beyour best rather than let mefix you.
And and I think SomeoneLike You, I mean, it’s like you’realready awesome.
How can I make you moreawesome?
How can I give you moreaccess?
To yourown brain.
And it’sjust it’s easier to sell that.
Than you know, let me give you adiagnosis of a mental illness.
And then let me give you a medicine youhave to take for the rest of your life.
This is the wrong model.
That psychiatry is currently operatingwith really good for the Pharmaceuticalindustry, really bad for our society.
25% of the American populationis on psychiatric drugs.
That’sjust horrifying.
Is Ritalin Apsychiatric drug?
It is.
And I’mnot opposed to psychiatric drugs.
To bereally clear, I’m actually really goodwith them.
It’s never the first andonly thing I think about.
What is the end in bright minds?
Neurohormone?
If your hormones that affect yourbrain.
Are not optimal, you’re not optimaland the DNS like if you’re.
You’re called when other people are not.
We should look at your thyroid.
The D isdiabetes, where you’reoverweight and or have high blood sugar.
It’s the most common of the 1172% of people areoverweight and as your weight goes up.
You have seven of the 11 risk factors.
Itlowers blood flow to the brain andprematurely ages the brain increasesinflammation, it stores toxins.
It’sa bad thing.
And then the S is sleep.
I’ve got obsessed with my sleep recently.
I have my WOOP on pretty much all thetime and their sponsor of this podcast Iprobably should say.
But I’m also like aequity shareholder in the company.
Butit’s become One of my biggest obsessionsin my life is waking up in the morningand looking at how I slept, how much deepsleep, restorative sleep I’ve had, myheart rate variability, all that stuff.
I’m obsessed with it.
What does sleep doto my brain?
I guess you said earlierthat it kind of cleans it, cleans it andrefreshes it.
Well, we didn’t even know.
You have seven of the 11 risk factors.
Itlowers blood flow to the brain andprematurely ages the brain increasesinflammation, it stores toxins.
It’sa bad thing.
And then the S is sleep.
I’ve got obsessed with my sleep recently.
I have my WOOP on pretty much all thetime and their sponsor of this podcast Iprobably should say.
But I’m also like aequity shareholder in the company.
Butit’s become one of my biggest obsessionsin my life is waking up in the morningand looking at how I slept, how much deepsleep, restorative sleep I’ve had, myheart rate variability, all that stuff.
I’m obsessed with it.
What does sleep doto my brain?
I guess you said earlierthat it kind of cleans it, cleans it andrefreshes it.
Well, we didn’t even knowthat until it’s just 10 or 12 years agowhere researchers.
Sawthat thefluid system in your brain is called theglymphatic system, doesn’t open upwhen you’re awake, but when you’re asleepit opens up and then sort of cleansthings, washes things.
And sofor those people like me who I thought Iwas special because I could get by on 4hours of sleep at night, I’m sort ofrunning around with a toxic brain or adirty brain.
And So what arethose toxins?
So what?
What is itcleaning?
Have you heard?
Of beta amyloid,which is a cluster ofproteins that increases your risk ofAlzheimer’s disease.
So they buildup during the day, system cleans it, butif you’re not getting good sleep, youhave more of a toxic build up ofthose kinds of clumpingproteins that are problematic foryou.
Interesting.
Interesting.
Is there anything elsepeople need to know about sleep in thebrain?
Because I think everybody knowssleep is important.
A lot of peoplestruggle with sleep.
Sleep apneatriples the risk of Alzheimer’sdisease.
One of the big lessons imaginghas taught me that I can actually seethe pattern for sleep apnea on a scanand it looks like a early Alzheimer’sdisease.
Bilateralparietal top back part of your braindecreases.
What is sleep apnea?
Snore loudly.
Stop breathingat night.
Chronically tired the nextday.
So when yousleep, you’re breathing.
You havemany APNIC episodes where youstop breathing and so.
Andif you’re sleeping alone, you actuallymight not know it because no one’sbeing woken up by your snoring.
And even people who’ve beendiagnosed with it.
Don’t treat it because they don’t want towear the mask at night.
And I’m like, no, you have to treat itotherwise.
The worst thing youcan do for your brain is starve it ofoxygen.
That’s the worst thing you can dofor your brain.
So breath work then, mustbe quite good for the brain.
Breath workis good for the brain.
One ofmy tiny habits, I have many of them forbrain health is the 15 second breath.
8 seconds in?
Hold it for asecond and a half.
Four seconds out.
Holdit for a second and a half.
Do that 4 * 8 times.
It’ll break a panic attack.
Do it on a routine basis.
It’ll increaseyour heart rate variability.
Breath work.
Heart rate variability isthis metric that I think society, much ofsociety has suddenly become quiteobsessed with, including me.
Me and myfriends literally have a heart ratevariability contest every morning wherewe like screenshot our heart ratevariability and drop it into the chat.
And some of my friends are trying toincrease theirs.
One of my friends calledmy friend called Ash.
I mentioned himearlier on.
His has been quite low, sohe’s kind of been trying to get it up.
Iguess we’re going to have to ask twoquestions here, which is what is heartvariability?
And the second question ishow do I improve it in your view?
Soagain, you can’t change what you don’tmeasure and now people who wear AppleWatches or aura rings ordevices that measure it.
Heartrate variability is the beat tobeat variability of yourheart rate and people go, Oh well myheart rate should be the same.
Wellno, actually the more variableit is.
Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum,bum rather than bum, bum, bum,bum, bum, bum.
I first heard about heart ratevariability with babies, that when a babyis being born, they actually put a scalpmonitor on it and they look at the heartrate variability of the babyand if it’s very variable,it’s bouncing all over the place.
Well,it’s a sign of heart health.
When itflattens and becomes evenlike it’s just 70, they go get thebaby.
Because that mean the baby is introuble doesn’t make any sense, does it?
It’s like counterintuitive.
It’s a littlebit counterintuitive, but if yourheart rate variability is low,you have a higher risk ofanxiety, depression and heartdisease dying early.
I mean, there’s thishuge connection between your brainhealth.
And your heart health.
And so meditationincreases heart ratevariability, breath workincreases heart rate variability,exercise can increase heart ratevariability, good sleep, and good sleephygiene.
Can increase itants decrease heart ratevariability.
Istopped drinking alcohol for this veryreason.
People don’t know this, but I Imean, I probably mentioned it twice nowon on air, but I quit drinkingalcohol about a month and a half ago Ithink.
And part of the reason is when Iwore my whoop and then I had, I don’tknow, one glass of wine or two glasses orthree glasses of wine the day before whenI woke up the next day.
My heart ratevariability was like flashing red.
It was 3040.
Typically on a great day.
Myheart rate variability is 150 a 140.
Which is strong really.
I know thisbecause I compete with my friends, but ona day where I had a glass of alcohol,it’d be flashing red and it would be 40.
Also if I was sick, it would be 40.
Also, if I had a really stressful,unslept day the day before, it would alsobe 40.
And the fact that alcohol wascausing my heart to respond the same as aawfully stressful unslept day.
Or COVID.
I thoughtfuck, fuck that.
And I’ve so that’s partof the reason I quit drinking alcohol.
And now that you have brain envy,you’re going to have a healthier brain ifyou keep it away.
Because alcohollies to us.
Alcohol.
Causes damagein the brain.
Really.
Even a little bitof alcohol causes damage in the brain.
It disrupts something called whitematter.
So Gray matter, nerve cellbodies, white matter, nerve cell tracts.
So white matter is the highways in yourbrain that transmit information andimpulses.
And even a little bitof alcohol has been shown todisrupt the white matter in your brain.
Idon’t want anything messing with thehighways in my brain, but Ilove that you measured it.
Youmade the connection and then you stoppedit.
It’s a sign of intelligent lifebecause you love yourself.
Alcohol, Because there’s a lot of peoplethat are sat on the fence right now withalcohol.
They probably don’t have areally bad relationship with it.
They’reprobably not Alcoholics, but they kind ofjust, they have it because society isconstructed in such a way that on aFriday evening, when the waiter comesover and puts down the wine list, youjust go, oh, I’m going whatever, that’swho I was.
I was just on the fence.
Myfriend, one of my best friends, was analcoholic.
So I understand why he quitbecause he had this really dysfunctionalrelationship with it that would ruin hislife.
I’m the type of person that wouldhave one drink, 2 drinks, and then I’dmaybe stop.
I didn’t feel the need tohave three 4/7/19.
He was different.
Andalso because of that, there was noadverse consequences in my life.
So whenI went away with him recently, he’swriting a book on alcohol andalcoholism.
He was telling me about thebook and I was going.
I personallywouldn’t read that book because I don’tfeel like I have a problem withalcohol.
This is before I quit.
So I waslike, what I would love from a book.
Thisis just me personally, is a book thatmade the case to people who are kind ofsat on the fence that drink or a beer ora glass of wine, Just ’cause I don’tknow, society is constructed in such away where it’s hard to avoid, but theycould go for a mocktail if someone gavethem some performance basedevidence that alcohol just even alittle bit the the casual drinking.
Actually matters.
So this is where youcome in, Doctor.
One of my biggest.
Instagram posts was I told you so.
The American Cancer Society came out andsaid any alcohol increasesyour risk of seven different types ofcancer.
And I’ve been talking about thisfor 30 years, ’cause I have scans andpeople who drink any alcoholhave lower activity than people whodon’t drink at all.
And obviouslyAlcoholics, they have terrible lookingbrains.
Don’t dothat.
But you got to askyourself why?
And remember we talked about the one pagemiracle.
What do you want?
Relationships.
Work.
Money.
Physical.
Emotional,Spiritual.
Health?
So where does alcoholcome in to that?
Oh well, it helpsme relaxed.
Well, the 15 second breathwill help you relax, but there are noside effects to it that will increaseyour heart rate variability.
Alcohol willdecrease heart rate variability andbrain function and if it decreases brainfunction and decreases decision makingas the psychiatrist.
30percent, 40% of the people I see theyinitially come to my office because it’ssomehow alcohol related, fight withtheir spouse, problems with their kids,whatever.
I’m so impressed.
You noticedthe difference with heart ratevariability and then you stopped.
Yeah,’cause I I’m, I’m.
I was offensive withalcohol and it’s crazy.
And I nowunderstand how difficult it is to stop inour society.
I was telling my team I quitand I went for dinner with a guy calledSkrillex.
Let everyone know Skrillex is aDJ.
And this was a week after I’dquit.
Sat in the restaurant, the waitercomes over, bless him, and he goes,here’s the one list I go, I didn’t drinkalcohol.
He goes, he goes and gets abottle of wine and he puts it next to meand goes, this is not alcohol, this isart.
I’m going to leave it next to you,just in case you get tempted.
And Sunny’sSunny, to his credit, is telling this wayto know he doesn’t drink this weight ishaving none of it.
And in that moment.
I understood how difficult it is toquit in the society that we’ve built.
Where every social interaction apparentlyneeds to be fuelled by alcohol.
And ifyou say no, you’re either weird orsomeone will try and change your mind orpersuade you otherwise it’s just theculture we have.
That’s anevil ruler strategy.
The food pushers.
The drug pushers.
The alcohol pushers.
For me, I just.
I look at people likethat and it’s like, so why do you want meto drink when I don’t want to?
What’s it?
What’s going on with you?
Yeah, and Iusually shuts them down.
But why?
An interestingquestion.
When you go to a restaurant,the first thing they do is put breadon the table.
And I ask you ifyou want alcohol because both of themdrop your frontal lobes.
Both of them make it more likelyyou’re going to order more and spend moremoney at the restaurant.
So thebread is an investment on their part,because bread gives you a sugarspike, a blood sugar spike, whichthen pushes serotonin in yourbrain and makes you happy.
But serotonin drops frontal lobefunction.
One thing they never tell youwhen they give you an SSRI fordepression is, oh, you’re going to becomea little bit more impulsive because it’sgoing to drop your frontal lobes andthen alcohol, which also drops yourfrontal lobes.
So you’ll drop more cashin the restaurant.
Question then on thispoint of alcohol.
If I took twopeople off the street, let’s say they doeverything in their lives the same otherthan what I’m about to say.
I gave one ofthem a casual drink for the nextdecade, just maybe 2 drinks aweek, 3 drinks a week for the nextdecade, and the other person wascompletely sober for the next decade.
When you looked at their brain in 10years time, if they were doing everythingthe same, would you see a difference?
The person who is drinking two or threetimes a week will have less blood flow intheir brain and will that have changedthe shape of their brain?
Yes, it’ll be alittle bit more shriveled.
And then thatmeans their behaviour is going to changeas well.
They’ll have a little bit lessimpulse control and when you look at thebrain of a little bit less impulsecontrol when you’re doing hard thingslike marriage.
Not a good thing.
Or raising childrenor managing a business.
It’s likeyou don’t want a little bitworse decisions.
Sex, sex and libido.
A lot of people arestruggling with their sex lives.
Gettingan erection, getting aroused.
Men andwomen.
The brain insects.
I imagine you have people come to you andgo.
Listen, me and my wife, me and mypartner, me and my husband, we’ve stoppedhaving sex.
I’ve lost my libido.
When youhear that and you offer people advice onlibido and sex, what is the brain, right?
Your sex life gets better.
Inlarge part, it’s about blood flow.
And if you’re having erectiledysfunction or low libido?
You gotta go.
Well, why is what arethe risk factors with that?
And many ofthem relate to what’s going onin your brain.
And I, Iso often people go I did everything yousaid and my wife’s so much happier withour sex life.
You have to check your hormones.
I thinkthat’s very important.
You have to dealwith whatever sexual trauma might bethere.
The biggest sex organin the body is your brain.
If there’s no forethought, there’s noforeplay.
And so.
It’s about the decisions that you make.
What else do you need to know about sex?
If I’m trying to get my partner in themood and I’m trying to make them aroused,you know, it depends on their brain.
OK,right, so.
Ifyour partner is very busyfrontal loan, that part called theanterior cingulate gyrus.
You can’t go.
Come on, let’shave sex.
Because you’ve met people withthe automatic know that no matterwhat you say, they’re going to say theopposite of it or they’re going to fusswith it.
I mean, it’s like it’s a niceday today.
Oh no, it was nicer yesterday.
I mean, even simple things.
So you’regoing to want to have sex?
No.
I was at this lecture once and.
Gyros.
You can’t go.
Come on, let’s have sex.
Because you’vemet people with the automatic know thatno matter what you say, they’re going tosay the opposite of it or they’re goingto fuss with it.
I mean, it’s like it’s anice day today.
Oh no, it was niceryesterday.
I mean, even simple things.
Soyou’re going to want to have sex?
No.
I was at this lecture once andsomebody came up to me at a break andsaid you’ve helped me so much.
I thought my wife just didn’t love me,and what I realized is that part of herbrain was just working too hard.
Sonow I ask everything inthe opposite.
It’s like, oh.
Like if I wanted to go to the store,she’d never want to go with me and I’dgo.
So now what I do is I go, I’mgoing to go to the store.
You probablydon’t want to come.
What do you mean, Idon’t want to come.
Of course I want tocome.
He said, but doesn’t sound right tosay, well, you probably don’t want tohave sex.
Oh, I go, OK, Iknow her brain do this.
And Igave him natural things to boostserotonin, so I said take her outfor a pasta dinner.
So I’m not a fan ofpasta generally, except for these people.
Take her out for a pasta dinner becausepasta increases serotonin.
Thentake her for a walk aroundthe lake because exercise increasesserotonin.
Then give her apiece of dark chocolate.
Not too many,because if you get her too many, she’llhave no need for you.
But.
Dark chocolate has PEA in it,Venalothalamines, that alerts your brainthat something fun is about to happen.
And then.
Put on a littlebaby powder because baby powder, it’sbeen shown scientifically, is a naturalaphrodisiac for women.
Because what dowomen unconsciously associate tobaby powder?
Babies,and unconsciously they want one.
And then?
Rubber back anddon’t ask for anything directly.
And fromabout day four to about day eighteen ofher menstrual cycle, you’re likely to getlucky.
Why, from day four to day 18?
Because she’s thelast week of a woman’s menstrual cycle.
Especially people who have this braintype tend to be more irritable.
Is that before that period?
That’s beforethe period.
OK, so the week before thatperiod is when she’s going to be.
Twoweeks before their period is generallythe best time.
The men and women havedifferent brains.
Significantly.
So this whole thing about you can’t putyour gender on yourmedical forms is justinsanely stupid.
Because gender matters.
Like estrogen andtestosterone, they matter when it comesto brain function.
I published a study on 46,000.
Scans looking at the differences betweenmale and female brains.
And they’re wild.
Women have much better frontal lobes,function, but much better blood flow tothe front part of their brain, whichmakes them, which makes them goodleaders.
If you think of impulsecontrol and collaborationand communication.
And theone statistic that just hammers this homeis who goes to jail men.
14 times more than women.
Butwomen get depressed twice as much asmen because they’re limbic or emotional.
Brain is much busierthan the male brain.
And that’s why inevery human society, womenare primary caretakers for children.
Women have a bigger nesting instinct.
SoI told you we moved recently.
And moving is much harder onwomen in general than it is in menbecause they feel like they lose theirnest and they have to redo their nest.
And I was an Army psychiatrist for sevenyears, and I used to always tell theguys, I’m like, when you move, you stayhome and help her put the house togetherbecause she’s going to be way happier.
For you.
On that impulse control.
But Iremember reading the statistics that mensuffer with gambling addictions andbetting addictions significantly morethan women.
Drug addictions, alcohol ADDfive times more thanwomen.
Butwomen get help.
Because they’re not afraid to ask forhelp, where for men it’s often amacho thing.
It’s like, there’s nothingthe matter with me.
Which is whywomen attempt suicidethree to four times more thanmales, but males killthemselves three to five, four times morethan women do.
Because men use moreviolent means and men aren’tcommunicating, I’m in trouble.
Saunas sauna’s an exercise on the brain.
Good.
Good for the brain.
So I’m ahuge fan of saunas.
Because the studies, mostlyfrom northern Europe, peopletake the most saunas have the lowestincidence of Alzheimer’s disease.
And I told you about my Mercurydetoxing is really important and you candetox in a lot of different ways, butsauna is one of the most effective ways.
Exercise is You want to stay young.
Walk like you’re late.
If you’re 80and you can walk 3 miles an hour, youhave a 90% chance of living until you’re 90.
If you can only walk a mile an hour,you have a 90% chance You’re not going tolive until you’re 90.
So exercise boosts blood flow.
Itincreases.
Brainderived neurotrophic factor.
It increasesserotonin, increases dopamine.
Another interesting thing is should youdo cold plunges?
Because cold plungeshave been found to fairly dramatically.
Increased dopamine.
So you should do coldplunges.
Not if you have heart problems.
So if you have heart problems, I wouldn’tdo that.
But if you have inflammation, ifyou have pain, if you tend tobe depressed, there’s evidence coldplunges can be helpful.
Whatabout weight in the brain?
When you lookat someone who is clinically obese andyou look at their brain, what do you see?
And if I’m trying to lose weight, what doI need to know about the brain?
You know, I’ve thought a lot about thisbecause I have obesity in my family.
As your weight goes up.
The size and function of your brain goesdown.
And that’shorrifying.
People who are.
And our society isagainst us.
I mean you just, I wrote abook called The Brain Warriors Way and Iargue you’re in a war for the health ofyour brain.
Everywhere you go, someone’strying to shove bad food down your throatthat will kill you.
I can see the emotionin your face when you say this.
Yeah,it’s just horrifying, you know, to thinkof Carl’s junior.
That’ll take these,you know, Charlotte McKinney or CatherineWebb, these beautiful women.
And havethem eat cheeseburgers.
Andit’s unconsciously people are like,if you eat those burgers, these womenwill want you.
Well, these women havespit buckets on those sets where everytime they take a bite, they spit it outbecause they never have those bodies ifthey ate that food.
We arebeing manipulated andit is causing what I thinkis one of the greatest epidemics everof obesity and as you’re overweight.
Lower blood flow.
Aginginflammation stores toxinsmakes you feel awful about yourself.
Takes healthy testosterone.
We talkedabout you know why the low takes healthytestosterone and turns itinto unhealthy, cancer promotingforms of estrogen.
It’s just a disaster what’s happening.
I think you have to startcounting your calories and youknow I run up against all sorts ofscientists.
Go calories, don’t count.
It’s complete crap.
Nowthe quality of your calories.
Is just asimportant.
But don’t eat more than youneed.
And we live in a societywhere we’re eating way too muchand people don’t know.
If you think ofThe Cheesecake Factory and these monsterportions, it’s like, that’sinsane.
And it’s a big thingthat changed.
But the obesity epidemicreally started asthe US government, amongothers, demonizedthat.
Everything became low fat in the 80s, lowfat, low cholesterol.
And they put sugar inthings to replace it.
In fact, it justcame out recently.
It was in the 60s.
That some of the sugar companies paidscientists to say it’s fat, not sugar.
And it damaged millions of people.
Thelast thing I wanted to ask you about is,well, there’s really two outstandingquestions that I have for you, Doctor.
The first one is about screen time.
People want to know, does screen time,this generation that I’ve grown up grownup 11 hours a day on a screen or socialmedia up to 11 hours a day.
According tosome studies, does that have an impact onour brain?
It does.
It shrinks it.
It’ssad.
I mean, what it does is it wearsout your pleasure summers.
So you havethese two areas in yourbrain called the nucleus accumbens,and they respond to dopamineand they bring you happiness and theybring you pleasure and they bring youmotivation and they bring you drive.
And whenyou’re hitting them.
Like every buzz on yourphone, every notification, everytime you scroll and you likesomething, you just got a little hit ofdopamine.
Well, the more you do it,pretty soon you thrillthem to death.
You begin to wearout those pleasure centers.
Andif let’s just take fame, for example,I’ve been blessed to see JustinBieber and Miley Cyrus and a whole bunchof really fascinating, cool people.
Who’ve been really depressed.
It’s like,how can you be depressed?
You’re JustinBieber.
Or how Can you believe you’re notenough?
Right.
Because their pleasurecenters get worn out by being noticedover and over and over again.
Well, when you allow that in your brain,the screen time 3 1/2 .
hoursIfyou’re on for 3 1/2 hoursaday, you have an increased risk ofanxiety, depression, addiction,obesity, ADHD.
And our society is on way more.
Than thatand you go, so why are we having thisepidemic ofteenage suicide and mental healthproblems, especially in teenage girls?
Social media?
It’s one of the bigissues of the day.
And not only are youwearing out your pleasure centers, youhate yourself because you think everybody’s better than you are.
It’s thecomparison dragon thatis damaging you.
My last question is about happiness,which we’re talking about then.
I spoke to I think it was Tally Sharrettthat told me happiness takes onthis kind of interesting arc throughoutour lives.
Where?
At the startof our lives, we’re a little bit happierthan in the middle of our lives.
We’re alittle bit sadder.
And then as we age, wego back into being happy.
Now I wascontrasting that information to what yousaid about how the brain Withers withage.
If the brain is withering with age,then how come a lot of neuroscientiststhink that happiness resembles this kindof U shape in our lives?
We’re in themiddle of our lives.
We’re less happythe start and the end.
We’re more happy.
That’s a great question.
We’re less strivingas we age, right?
Soafter 6570, we’ve sort ofdone much of the hard thingsthat we need to do.
Andso depression also goes upwith age too.
And obviouslydementia goes up with AIDS.
So I think it’s because Idon’t have to accomplish things, whichmakes the middle part so.
Hard.
So we’re more satisfied with thenature of our lives because we’re nottrying to.
Well, if if we areright, if if we’re not, then thatbecomes a problem and increases the riskof depression.
It’s complicated though,isn’t it?
Because you know, you getolder, you probably have less connectionsas well.
So that’s a confounding factor.
And yeah, so I wouldn’t, I meanI I I have seen that research and I wrotea book on happiness.
Because,you know, when I write a book, it’ll takeme 6 to 9 months to write it and I’mlike.
I really want to think about forthis next 6 to 9 monthsand I loved it because.
Like.
Negativethinking is a bad habit ishappiness is also a habit.
And when I goto bed and I go, what went well todayI’m feeding happiness.
Or throughout theday if I look for the micro momentsof happiness, you know, what’s thesmallest thing that’s going to happentoday that’s going to make me happy?
Then I’m just happier.
I I hear all of this and I read all ofthis in your books, and one of the thingsI’ve really taken away personally.
Because I have so much information, whatI need to do is select a couple of thesehabits and basically put them into mycalendar.
Like you talked about thebreath work and you talked about thegratitude exercise at night and thosekinds of things.
What I need to do is geta couple of them and just insert theminto my calendar because, you know, ifthey’re not scheduled, they probablywon’t happen in their life as busy asmine.
So as well as making small sort ofchanges to the, you know, maybe dietarythings or water or whatever it might bedrinking a little bit less caffeine, I’vealready quit alcohol.
Make sure I focuson my sleep.
Some of these I want to makeroutines in my life.
So that’s what I’mgoing to do.
That’s what I’m going totake away from this.
We have a closingtradition on this podcast where the lastguest leaves a question for the nextguest, not knowing who they’re going tobe leaving it for.
And the questionthat’s been left for you is quiteperfect, I think.
What have youchanged your mind about in the lastdecade?
Well, the first thing that comes to mymind is this idea.
That I got from Dennis Prager.
Which is happiness is the moralobligation.
I neverthought of it that way.
I grew upRoman Catholic.
That idea wasnowhere.
And my family,It was nowhere in the Catholicschool I went to and and I’m grateful formy education and I’mgrateful for my faith.
But it was about shouldand shaming.
Rather than.
Elevation and the fact thathappiness is a moral obligation.
There’s this video that Dennis Pragerproduced that I just love called Why BeHappy?
And.
And I never thoughtthat.
How I feel.
Influences everybody around me.
That if I’m unhappy,that’s not just about me, that’sabout everybody I come in contact with,so working on myself.
Is the most loving thing I can do.
For other people.
Daniel G Amen.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for anamazing conversation.
And also thank youfor taking the time to look at my brain.
And you’re totally right.
Now that I havethe awareness that that brain evenexists, having seen it, it’s almost likeI feel like it’s like a Pablo my dog.
Inow feel a responsibility to take care ofit.
And I think that that coupled witheverything that you’ve imparted on meabout the fact that I can do somethingabout it for me, is life changing?
And you know, I I could have sat here allday and read 10s of thousands of commentsthat I saw online.
About the work thatyou’re doing to help people live happier,healthy, healthier lives and the.
Consequence that has for generations, Ithink is maybe the most special thing ofall.
Because if you can tilt someone’sbrain in a better direction, you’re notjust tilting their brain in a betterdirection, you’re tilting generations tocome of brains in a better direction.
And that alone will tell society in abetter direction.
And that’s exactly thework that you’re doing.
So I know wetalked about your father last time round.
You know, oftentimes we don’t get thepraise from our parents that I guesswe.
We always longedfor, but I really hope you understand.
How proud everyone is of you.
All the patients that you’ve.
Investedtime and love and energy and all thepeople that listen to this show that weretilted in a better direction because ofyou and me as well,My life’s been tilted in a betterdirection because of you.
So thank you.
Thank you so much.
What a joy.