7 Steps to Healthy Brain with Dr. Daniel Amen Part 2

KNOW ABOUT YOUR BRAIN HEALTH

• Friend Andy McGill completed turned his brain health around after a brain scan, an assessment of his bad habits, and brain envy.
• Happy-go-lucky people die earlier through accidents and preventable illnesses.
• People who are concerned about their health live longer than everyone else.
• Now is the time to start! Remembering that Alzheimer’s symptoms start 30 years before it manifests.
• Bio-psycho-social-spiritual assessment.
• Bio: diet, exercise.
• Psychological: important developmental events, ANTS (automatic negative thoughts).
• Social: how are you connected? How are your important relationships? The more connected you are, the healthier you are, provided you’re connected to healthy people.
• Spiritual: what does your life mean? What is your relationship with the planet, with god?

MODERN PSYCHIATRY

• As part of Amen Clinic practice, brain imaging is included.
• Medications are prescribed without the brain being looked at, meaning people are being treated in the same way Lincoln was treated.
• Psychiatry outcomes haven’t improved in 50 years.
• Dr. Amen was treating NFL players with brain injuries and concussions, and brain scans showed blue areas with significantly decreased activity.
• Added a second arm to the study: took these athletes with 20k-30k hits to the head, who were depressed—and simply taught them to avoid bad things and do good things, and take a vitamin, fish oil and brain booster.
• Study results showed their memory, attention, mood, motivation, sleep got better.
• This study isn’t just about football players: it’s applicable to the wider community and can help soldiers coming back from war with brain injuries.
• Simple education can vastly improve brain health, as can scans! If you never look you never know and it’s easy to call someone a bad person.

BRAIN IMAGING

• Our brain continues to develop throughout your life but develops most radically until the age of 25 for girls, and 28 for boys—letting a child slam their skulls in high-contact sports during this period, not a good idea.
• Things to take seriously: the risk of Alzheimer’s, your weight, sleep apnoea.
• Time to stop thinking of depression as one thing: a large NIMH study in which depressed people were given antidepressants showed that only 31% got better after 12 weeks—the placebo effect is 30%.
• Antidepressants don’t work because we think of depression as a single illness, and not acknowledging other contributing factors.
• Remember that memory trouble at any age is not normal, it’s a sign your brain is suffering.
• Before accepting a diagnosis given without much thought, ensure you get a brain scan to check whether there are other factors at play.