Brain Boost

I love listening to Dr. Daniel Amen! He knows so much about our brains! Here are some notes I took the last time I listened to one of his talks.. (pardon any partial sentences - I type like I talk!)

Your brain is the organ of judgment, personality, character, intelligence, and every single decision you make. When your brain works right, you work right. When you have trouble with your brain, you’re much more likely to have trouble in your life.

People are happier – cuz they’re healthier

People are wealthier – cuz they make better decisions.

Alzheimer’s actually starts in brain 30-50 years before you have symptoms.

Telltale signs that your brain’s in trouble:

~ Your memory’s worse than it was 10 years ago

~ Your energy’s not good

~ Your mood’s not good (23% of women ages 40-60 are taking antidepressants) Depression doubles Alzheimers risk in women and quadruples it in men!

~ If you’re not sleeping at least 7 hours a night; Sleep apnea – doubles your risk of Alzheimer’s

2/3 of us are overweight. 1/3 are obese.

As your weight goes up, the actual physical size of your brain goes down!

Fat stores toxins and takes things like healthy testosterone and turns them into unhealthy forms of estrogen. So your daily habits make a huge impact on function of your brain.

Brain reserver = extra tissue you have to deal with what’s coming your way. Every day you either boost or decrease your reserve through your habits.

If you’re under chronic stress, drink alcohol every day, eat fast food, if you're not being thoughtful about your life….cognitive problems are heading your way earlier than others.

You have the ability to make better decisions! There are products that make us fat, sick and depressed but we still choose them! ???

Brain rehabilitation took only 2 months for NFL players that Dr. Amen worked with!

Strategies are not hard - just takes focus…

1. Have to start with brain-envy! =0) Love your brain, care for it.

2. Avoid anything that hurts your brain ... drugs, alcohol, brain injuries (no contact sports), being overweight, not sleeping, having high blood sugar, hypertension, processed foods, sugar and things that turn into sugar quickly…. All are associated with brain atrophy!

When you do the right thing (i.e. eat whole foods), stop feeling deprived!!!

It’s when you do the wrong thing that you should feel deprived!!!

There’s nothing more important than your health.

When you do the right thing, it is always about abundance!

You can make really healthy food taste awesome!

So many people feel horrible but they keep making horrible decisions and can’t figure out why they feel so bad.

It’s our birthright to feel good!! Energy, Clarity, Passion, Purpose, Focus – our brain’s are machines that work better when it feels these things. You live longer if you have a deep purpose/meaning, but you can’t do anything if you don’t have energy or focus.

Play the game: “is this good for my brain or not?”

Avocado? “God’s butter”

Blueberries? “Only organic – God’s candy”

Football? No. Football’s hard and your brain is soft.

To regenerate your brain: (what TO do)

1. stop poisoning yourself

2. sleep! – it turns off 700 health-promoting genes when you don’t! Teenagers who get just 1 hour less than their peers have a greater risk of depression & suicide.

3. food is medicine or poison – should eat 70% plants + 30% high quality protein mixed with a lot of healthy fat. Fish, baked or grilled – once a week (fried doesn’t count). Should be sustainable/wild from clean oceans. Omega 3 fatty acids make up a lot of the nerve cell lining.

4. Supplements: Fish oil is good. Get a high quality one. Shown to support heart and brain health. Multi-vitamin, especially Vitamin D – know your level and get it to high normal. “normal” = 30-100, B6/B12/Folic Acid

Supplements he gave to NFL players:

Nervite Plus – multi

Omega 3 Power – 5.6 g of fish oil

Brain Boost

Marijuana is not good medicine. It decreases blood flow to the brain.

1. New learning is awesome! Whenever you learn something new your brain makes a new connection. When you stop learning your brain starts to disconnect itself.

2. Exercise

3. Gratitude and appreciation … write down 3 things you’re grateful for every day. And reach out and tell 3 people a day that you appreciate them and why. … this helps healing! We don’t really do well in isolation.

4. Meditate

Four circles people get sick or well in: psychological, socially, spiritually, and biological

When someone’s brain got better, they became more loving and thoughtful and purpose-driven as opposed to more selfish.

10% less volume was found in the prefrontal cortex of antisocial people in a study they did.

The dinosaur syndrome: big body, little brain; you’re gonna become extinct! We are de-optimalizing brain health as a society. (U.S. is 28th in health around the world)

Good book: Willpower

You have to eat to lose weight!

Your health is dependent on the health of those people around you! (every drug addict knows that if they go back to hanging out with addicts, they’ll be back into it too). Find the healthiest person you can stand and spend as much time around them as possible!!

Congregation at Saddleback Church lost over ¼ million pounds (doing it together)

Ask yourself: “What do I want?” answer: The most meaningful and long energetic life which means I need to be making decisions right when I’m 30, 40, 50, 60 etc. There’s no time when it’s OK to be making bad decisions.

Meditation is powerful for the brain. They have done 3 studies on meditation at Amen Clinic. There are natural ways to heal the brain that aren’t as toxic as medication! Meditation is one of them! Kundalini Yoga form of meditation - Chanting meditation: say “Saw Tah Nah Mah” as you touch 1st finger to your thumb, 2nd finger to your thumb, then 3rd finger to your thumb, then 4th etc. … found that it activated the frontal lobes! Just do that for 8 weeks, your resting frontal lobe will be stronger!

Best way to jump into meditation without it being weird…Herb Benson’s relaxation response from Harvard. 10-20 minutes. Slow down your breathing – can be powerful!

I hope something in these notes resonated with you and made you curious about how well you take care of your brain. Curiosity ~ another good thnig for your brain! =0)

You can find out more about Dr. Amen @ Amenclinics.com.