How To Future-Proof Your Brain: Simple Daily Practices to Improve Focus, Energy, Memory, Mood & Emotional Wellbeing with Dr Daniel Amen #555

What if the health of your brain determined the health of every other part of your life – your body, your relationships, even your sense of purpose? Today’s guest firmly believes that it does. Dr Daniel Amen is a child and adult psychiatrist, who is on a mission to end mental illness by creating a revolution in brain health. He is also the founder of Amen Clinics, home to the world’s largest database of brain scans for psychiatry and the author of multiple best-selling books including his very latest, Change Your Brain Every Day: Simple Daily Practices to Strengthen Your Mind, Memory, Mood, Focus, Energy, Habits, and Relationships. In this conversation, Daniel shares insights from over 250,000 brain scans and decades of clinical practice and we talk about: Why mental health is really brain health – and why stigma and shame often stand in the way of proper care The surprising link between brain function and behaviour – from impulsivity and focus to joy and connection How brain imaging is transforming psychiatry – and why Daniel believes we should “image, not guess” when treating emotional or cognitive issues The “BRIGHT MINDS” framework – that covers the key risk factors you can address to protect your brain immediately The simple daily habits that can literally shape the structure and function of your brain Daniel’s approach is both science-backed and deeply compassionate. He reminds us that we are not stuck with the brain we have – we can make it better, at any age, through lifestyle, mindset and targeted care. Whether you're struggling with your mood, memory, focus or simply want to feel sharper and more vibrant, this conversation will leave you feeling hopeful and empowered to take control of your brain - and your life. Support the podcast and enjoy Ad-Free episodes. Try FREE for 7 days on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/feelbetterlivemore. For other podcast platforms go to https://fblm.supercast.com. Thanks to our sponsors: https://join.whoop.com/livemore https://boncharge.com/livemore https://drinkag1.com/livemore https://airbnb.co.uk/host Show notes https://drchatterjee.com/555 DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or qualified healthcare provider. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  If you want to have the best life possible, love your brain. Your brain is involved in everything you do, how you think, how you feel, how you act, and every decision you make. And when your brain works right, it works right.

• 0:23Rangan Chatterjee?

  Hey guys, how are you doing? I hope you're having a good week so far. My name is Dr. Rangan Chatterjee and this is my podcast, Feel Better Live More. Could it be that the health of your brain determines the health of every other part of your life? Your body, your relationships, and even your sense of purpose? Well, today's guest firmly believes that it does. Dr. Daniel Amen is a child and adult psychiatrist who's on a mission to end mental illness by creating a revolution in brain health. He's also the founder of Amen Clinics, home to the world's largest database of brain scans for psychiatry,

• 1:08Rangan Chatterjee?

  and the author of multiple bestselling books, including his very latest, Change Your Brain Every Day: Simple Daily Practices to Strengthen Your Mind, Memory, Mood, Focus, Energy, Habits, and Relationships. In our conversation, Daniel shares insights from over 250,000 brain scans and decades of clinical practice. And we talk about why mental health is really brain health and why stigma and shame often stand in the way of proper care; the surprising link between brain function and behaviour from impulsivity and focus to joy and connection;

• 1:52Rangan Chatterjee?

  how brain imaging is transforming psychiatry; and why Daniel believes we should image, not guess, when treating emotional or cognitive issues; the Bright Minds framework that covers the 11 key risk factors that you can address to protect your brain immediately; why knowing your brain type is just as important as knowing your blood type when it comes to making the right choices for your health; and the simple daily habits that can literally change the structure and function of your brain. Daniel's approach is both science-backed and deeply compassionate. He reminds us that we are not stuck with the brain that we have.

• 2:36Rangan Chatterjee?

  We can make it better at any age through lifestyle, mindset and targeted care. Whether you're struggling with your mood, memory, focus, or simply want to feel sharper and more vibrant, this conversation will leave you feeling hopeful and empowered to take control of your brain and your life.

• 3:03Rangan Chatterjee?

  Dr. Amen, at this point in your career, you have scanned over 250,000 brains. From what you've seen, what would you say are some of the common daily habits that people engage with that are damaging their brain and potentially affecting things like their energy, joy and motivation?

• 3:27Speaker 00

  They've buttoned into why that alcohol is a health food, or that marijuana is innocuous, or the food they eat doesn't really impact how they think, how they feel, how they act, that they scroll mindlessly and stay up later than is good for them. And it's so clear on my heart rate variability. If I don't get good sleep, my heart rate variability is less the next day. And that's a bad thing for people. I've been studying negativity. And whenever someone comes to Amen Clinics,

• 4:10Speaker 00

  we image them, that's what we're sort of famous for. But we also do a test on them that looks at 17 areas of cognitive and emotional functioning. And my favorite is conscious negativity bias. And so we looked at 2,000 patients. And people who are high in negativity, that you know, whatever situation, they focus on what's wrong about that situation, they actually have less function in their frontal lobes. It's really a significant, powerful finding. So if you are biased toward negativity, it's a bad brain habit.

• 4:57Rangan Chatterjee?

  Okay, there are six things there that I want to go through in detail because I think they're six very common things. But you mentioned your scan there and of course you and your clinic is very famous for this scan. I'm really interested in what that scan actually measures because we often order scans when something is wrong, right? Someone comes in and if we think, oh, there might be a lesion on their liver, we order a scan to look at it. But it sounds like you are approaching scanning and have approached scanning in quite a different way with these brain scans. So could you elaborate as to what the scan is and what the findings actually tell us?

• 5:39Speaker 00

  So we do a study at Amen Clinic called BrainSpect Imaging, S-P-E-C-T. It stands for Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography. It's a nuclear medicine study that looks at blood flow, mitochondrial activity, 49% of the traces taken up in the mitochondria, and activity. And it basically tells us three things. For each area of the brain, good activity, too little, or too much. And then our job is to balance it. And like you, when something's wrong, when someone's anxious, when someone's depressed, when someone's angry,

• 6:19Speaker 00

  when someone is failing, when someone, their behaviour is so bad to end up in jail, we want to look at their brain and ask, well, why? You know psychiatry is the only medical specialty that virtually never looks at the organ it treats. And that's as arrogant as it gets, that you think you know what's going on in someone's brain. They haven't told you, and now you're going to start monkeying around changing their brain.

• 6:56Speaker 00

  And when I started looking at the brain, it literally changed everything. Most psychiatric illnesses are not mental health problems. They are brain health problems. If I get your brain healthy, you are less likely to be depressed. You're more likely to be a kind, thoughtful person and your marriage is more likely to last. You're less likely to get Alzheimer's disease. And so just for me personally, it changed absolutely everything in my life. I was overweight when I first started scanning people.

• 7:40Speaker 00

  And then I realized as your weight goes up, the size and function of your brain goes down. And that was the one thing that motivated me to get to a healthy weight. So literally from what I eat to how I think, to how much I sleep. It's all because I looked at the brain and I'm like, oh, this is an organ, just like your heart is an organ. If my brain's not right, I'm not right.

• 8:09Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah, it's so fascinating. So, so many things coming up for me, Dr. Amen. It's interesting that in the medical field, we typically only image the brain. If, I don't know, someone's had a fall and we think there might be a clot, right? Or someone might have fractured their skull or we think there's a neurodegenerative condition that requires us to look at the brain, right? But we're not doing it, I don't think, anywhere near the, the rates in which you're doing it to look at, I guess, what, what people are calling mental health problems, right? So you mentioned depression, anxiety, these kind of things.

• 8:50Rangan Chatterjee?

  Most doctors are not referring their patients for a scan at that point. As I sort of immerse myself in your work, you're making a strong case that that's important to do so. And I'd love to use to explain why it's so important for all of these cases. But also then help me understand the, the exact utilization for a scan, such as the one that your clinic offers.

• 9:15Speaker 00

  So I did the big NFL study, the National Football League, on, you know, professional American footballers. And it was at a time when the NFL was sort of lying. They had a problem with traumatic brain injury in football. And I've scanned 400 NFL players, high levels of damage. So stop lying about it. Playing football is a brain damaging sport. And soccer is not much different.

• 9:46Speaker 00

  80% of my players get better, meaning they're clinically better, but their brains are better. And I published that study. And what we did was a multiple vitamin with high doses of B6, B12, and folate, high dose of omega-3 fatty acids, and a brain boost that works in six different ways. And I'm like a little kid, so excited. Because I hadn't known for 34 years, that's how long we've been doing the imaging, that I can change your brain. And when I do, I change your life. But to be able to prove it in brain damaged people,

• 10:32Speaker 00

  how exciting is that? You've heard of CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the dementia. Football and soccer players and boxers get. I don't think we think about it right. I mean, because CTE is an autopsy diagnosis, you know, that's, you gotta be dead in order to get that diagnosis. I can completely tell and have published research on it that brain spectroimaging, what we do, is one of the best studies in the world to look at concussions and the functional effects of traumatic brain injury.

• 11:16Speaker 00

  But then, to be able to demonstrate you're not stuck.

• 11:21Speaker 00

  With the damage you have, you can make it better. It's it's so exciting.

• 11:27Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah.

• 11:28Speaker 00

  Uh, to me, and literally every day you are making your brain better by what you do. Or you're making it worse. And, you know, one question for a stump hack. Uh, I worked with BJ Fogg, who's a professor at Stanford on how people change. And I worked with him for six months developing tiny habits, you know? What's the smallest thing I can do today that will make the biggest difference? And it's this one question. Whenever I go to do something today, and now with the negativity bias paper,

• 12:06Speaker 00

  whenever I go to think something today, just ask yourself, is this good for my brain? Or bad for it? And if it's bad for it and you love yourself, stop doing it. Um, choose good. And then, of course, it always comes up. Um, we have a high school course called Brain Thrive by 25, where we teach kids to love and care for their brain. And the week we talk about things to a boy, you know, we've talked about some of them. Alcohol, bad food, marijuana, not sleeping, scrolling. You know, invariably, a 14 year old boy raises his hand and goes, how can you have any fun? And we play a game with the kids called who has more fun?

• 12:51Speaker 00

  The kid with the good brain or the kid with the bad brain? I turned 70 this year and it's like, hey, Daniel, what do you really want? Energy, memory, focus, passion, purpose? That's what I really want. So when I look at these other things, how can you have any fun? It's like, I'm gonna have a heck of a lot more fun if my brain is healthy than if I become a burden to my family.

• 13:22Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah, very, very powerful. Um, you mentioned American football. You also mentioned, well, what we call football here in the UK, but you guys refer to as soccer. And I'm really interested.

• 13:37Rangan Chatterjee?

  As the research mounts up that, you know, having a trauma to your head, having, you know, your head bump into things has long-term consequences. We understand with American football, it's a vigorous, aggressive game. In football or soccer, it is still common for people to head the ball, okay? So my question is, what is the implication of that? And do you think, in, I don't know, in 10 years' time, football or soccer will have changed its rules whereby heading is no longer a feature of the game?

• 14:20Speaker 00

  You know, American football has already changed so much.

• 14:23Rangan Chatterjee?

  In what way has it changed?

• 14:25Speaker 00

  They're really working hard to take the head out of the game. So where 20 years ago, if someone tackled another person by using their head to hit them in the head and take them down, now they'll be thrown out of the game. Now they'll be penalized severely. American football used to have the kickoff where people would be 50 yards apart and then run and, you know, and now they don't do that anymore. They basically completely changed the kickoff. And when it comes to soccer, the American youth soccer organization banned heading for kids 10 and under.

• 15:10Speaker 00

  Now, when I saw that, I'm like, well, don't you like 11-year-old children? Or don't you like 12-year-old children? Because, you know, until you're 25, the brain undergoes wild development and it's never a good thing. Your brain is soft, so think with me. Your brain is soft, about the consistency of soft butter. Your skull is really hard and has sharp, bony ridges. It's never a good idea to hit the soccer ball with your head. But that's not the only traumatic brain injury in soccer.

• 15:51Speaker 00

  It's hitting it with your head, heads hitting heads, heads hitting knees, heads hitting elbows, heads hitting the ground. There is a lot of physical contact in soccer at the higher levels of play. And there are a number of studies on soccer players showing lower IQs, more impulsivity, and an increased incidence of chronic traumatic and self-hilopathy.

• 16:22Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah, I mean, it's clearly a good thing that there is now, you know, a regulation that under tens don't head the ball. Okay, that's better than what it was. But of course, as you're saying, it needs to be expanded out. And I've also looked at this research and it kind of, I haven't seen the scans like you have, but from what I can tell, it seems inconceivable to me that at some point in the future, five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, we might look back and go, oh, wow, do you remember in soccer where they, when they used to head the ball, right? Because we don't do it anymore. I mean, I do believe that that may well come at some point. I, again, I don't know what these organizations are thinking.

• 17:05Rangan Chatterjee?

  Have you seen the brains of many rugby players in your clinics?

• 17:11Speaker 00

  I have. I actually have Danny Cipriani's brain, who is a famous rugby player. He did my show, I do a show on Instagram. It's part of our podcast, Change Your Brain Every Day. And he's so much better. After we scanned him, saw the trouble, gave him a program. And yeah, I think he loves me. Because, you know, when you have a better brain, everything in your life is better. And rugby, of course, is not good for your brain. But even to think of how American football has evolved, you know, they used to not really have any helmets. And then they had leather helmets and now they have these.

• 17:58Speaker 00

  You know, huge, heavy helmets that are protecting. And I love the idea of neuroscience leading to public policy. So, for example, social media is bad for kids. The research, there's no good research on social media improves mental health development. And so Australia banned social media for children under the age of 16. We know if children don't sleep, they have a higher incidence of anxiety, depression, and suicide.

• 18:39Speaker 00

  California banned public schools from starting before 8 o'clock in the morning. I was just involved in a bill in Arizona where they're banning ultra-processed foods to be sold on school campuses. And I love being part of the transformation because my sneaky goal, the big goal I have in life, is actually to create a brain health revolution, which is why I do your show, because your show has a lot of reach. And I'm like, okay, gotta create revolutionaries who want to have better brains.

• 19:22Speaker 00

  Because how we change society is we change individual people. And because if you change, then your spouse is more likely to change, then your children are more likely to change, then when you go out and everybody's drinking at the pub, you're like, give me a sparkling water. And your friends will give you grief, but because you love your brain, you love your brain more than you love pleasing your friends. Yeah. And I love that so much. Yeah. And so my wife and I wrote a book called The Brain Warrior's Way, just because I believe we are in a war for the health of our brains.

• 20:01Speaker 00

  And you see it in the statistics on anxiety, depression, dementia, school failure, and so on. And the UK is really no different than the United States, except smarter in like, no, we're not gonna buy... Food that has hormones and antibiotics in it. We ban a lot of chemicals that may not be helpful for people. That I'm a huge fan of.

• 20:31Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah, it's clear you're very passionate about this. I've I've watched many of your interviews on other podcasts and you you clearly aren't driven by this real passion to help people reclaim the health of their brains. And what you just mentioned there about rugby and some of the rugby players you've worked with is really quite inspiring. It reminds me of how you started your your recent book, Change Your Brain Every Day. Right at the start of that book, you wrote, you are not stuck with the brain that you have. You can make it better, even if you have been bad to it, and I can prove it. You can literally change your brain. And when you do, you change your life. So those are very powerful words. I know that's something you strongly believe.

• 21:16Rangan Chatterjee?

  So why don't we just go through those six things that you outlined right at the start? Let's understand, let's help people understand why they're so damaging for their brains. And then let's go to the kind of proactive things that we can all do. Because you also say in that same book that brain health is a daily practice. And I really love that sentiment. Okay, so if we just go to that list at the start, you know, you you outlined alcohol.

• 21:42Rangan Chatterjee?

  You know, what's the deal with alcohol and the health of our brains? Can you see it in people's scans? What do you see? And is there a recommended amount that you say, well, this is okay. But beyond that, it starts to become a problem.

• 21:58Speaker 00

  So the American Cancer Society, four years ago, recommended zero alcohol. Why? Any alcohol is associated with an increased risk of seven different cancers. The American Surgeon General, just a couple of months ago, said people shouldn't drink. Now.

• 22:20Speaker 00

  I don't know if people will do that or not. If you love your brain less is clearly better. Alcohol prematurely ages the brain. Plus, alcohol is a disinfectant, right? My wife's a nurse. If she gives you a shot, the first thing she does is put alcohol on your skin to disinfect the area. Well, there's this thing called the microbiome, which I know you know about, but you have 100 trillion bugs in your gut. And they make neurotransmitters and they digest your food and they detoxify your body and they support your immune system. Why are you drinking a disinfectant?

• 23:04Speaker 00

  Like, how does that really make sense? Not to mention, there has not been a week that has gone by in my 45 years of being a psychiatrist, where alcohol hasn't devastated someone in my family, someone of my patients' families, either one of my best friends had her daughter killed by a drunk driver. Alcohol disinhibits people and they say things they shouldn't say, or they do things they shouldn't do. My daughter said, when you say something when you're drunk, well, those are really sober thoughts. And, well, just because you have a thought

• 23:48Speaker 00

  doesn't mean you believe it. And it absolutely doesn't mean you should say it. And so it just gets people into too much trouble. Plus, I mean, it's got all the health problems associated with it. And it's like, oh, well, can't I have just one? And it's like, sure, if you're gonna do something bad, you just wanna make sure you're doing a whole bunch of other things that are great, like some of my NFL players. You know, one player signed a $120 million contract. So he's still gonna play. But if you're gonna do something bad, you wanna do everything else right.

• 24:33Speaker 00

  And I published a huge study on 64,000 scans.

• 24:40Speaker 00

  And alcohol was one of the things that prematurely aged the brain. But what was worse was marijuana. And that surprised me. But I published another study on a thousand marijuana users. Every area of their brain compared to healthy is lower in activity and blood flow. And here in the US, I don't know how it is in the UK. But in the US, it's basically legal most places to just, you know, buy it, use it however you want. So the idea that this is innocuous pervades our society, but it's clearly a lie.

• 25:22Speaker 00

  Teenagers who use have a higher incidence of anxiety, depression, suicide and psychosis. And so I'm not a huge fan of anything that lowers blood flow to the brain.

• 25:37Rangan Chatterjee?

  Is it, is it more problematic if we're talking about alcohol or marijuana? If you're doing this, you know, at the age of 16 compared to when your brain is more formed? Let's say at 40, 45, is there a difference, do you think, in the long-term implications?

• 25:55Speaker 00

  Yes, I think it's much more damaging if you poison a developing brain that is. And people don't really get this. Your brain undergoes wild development all the way up until the age of 25. And so the idea that an 18-year-old is an adult, not really. In my household, because I have six kids, youngest is 15. You know, the 20 and 21-year-old are sort of baby adults that they still need us and.

• 26:37Speaker 00

  You know, I want to be involved in supervising, not at a crazy level, but I really want to have a close relationship with them so that I can guide them. I have a new book out called Raising Mentally Strong Kids, and there's a whole section on brain development and how important it is to protect teenage brains. And a lot of parents think they can't influence their kids, and so they begin to advocate it when they're 13, 14. And I think that's a big mistake. And I think we need in schools to teach kids to love and care for their brain.

• 27:17Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah. Dr. Amen, I'm just trying to think through this for my audience. There's not that many 16-year-olds, I don't think, who listen to the show. There are some who contact me and let me know, but I guess the typical demographic who listen to my podcast around the world is a little bit older than that. But I wonder if you could do me a favor, okay? Because a lot of them who are listening now will be perhaps worried about their children or their teenage boy or their teenage daughter, who maybe has started to drink alcohol with their friends at the age of 15 on a Saturday evening to bond and socialize or to smoke marijuana with the belief that it's okay, that it's innocuous.

• 28:00Rangan Chatterjee?

  So I wonder if I could ask you to do something that I don't think I've ever asked anyone to do in the history of this show, which has been going for over seven years now. Could you speak to me as if I was a 16-year-old and explain to me why I should think again before I consume alcohol or smoke marijuana?

• 28:28Rangan Chatterjee?

  Today's episode is sponsored by the daily health drink AG1. The clocks are about to change, the mornings are darker. Everyone around you seems to be coming down with something, and suddenly that well-being you felt in the summer seems a long time ago. I certainly know that feeling, and that's why at this time of year, I remind Remind myself to lean into the fundamentals. And one of those fundamentals is AG1. AG1 is a daily health drink that has been in my own life for over eight years. And one of the many things I like about it is the fact that many of the nutrients it contains, for example, vitamin C, vitamin A, zinc and selenium, supports a healthy immune system. Some of the other things I really like about AG1 is that they are committed to continuous improvement

• 29:12Rangan Chatterjee?

  and updating their formula as a scientific research involves. And each batch is independently tested for quality and safety markers, including heavy metals, allergens and banned substances. This is how they can guarantee what's in your scoop and what's not. Right now, AG1 is offering a free AG1 flavour sampler and AGZ sampler to try all the flavours, plus free vitamin D3 and K2 and AG1 welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription order. That's $87 in free gifts for first time subscribers. All you have to do is head to drinkag1.com forward slash live more to claim this offer before it ends.

• 29:58Rangan Chatterjee?

  Today's episode is sponsored by the daily health drink AG1. The clocks are about to change, the mornings are darker, everyone around you seems to be coming down with something and suddenly that wellbeing you felt in the summer seems a long time ago. I certainly know that feeling and that's why at this time of year, I remind myself to lean into the fundamentals. And one of those fundamentals is AG1. AG1 is a daily health drink that has been in my own life for over eight years. And one of the many things I like about it is the fact that many of the nutrients it contains, for example, vitamin C, vitamin A, zinc and selenium, supports a healthy immune system. Some of the other things I really like about AG1 is that they are committed to continuous improvement

• 30:42Rangan Chatterjee?

  and updating their formula as a scientific research involves. And each batch is independently tested for quality and safety markers, including heavy metals, allergens and banned substances. This is how they can guarantee. What's in your scoop and what's not? Right now, AG1 is offering a free AG1 flavour sampler and AGZ sampler to try all the flavours, plus free vitamin D3 and K2 and AG1 welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription order. That's $87 in free gifts for first time subscribers. All you have to do is head to drinkag1.com/livemore to claim this offer before it ends.

• 31:33Speaker 00

  So I have thought about this a lot. And what I realised is if I'm going to make a difference in your life, and I want to, I have to first start by getting you to care about your brain. And so I have a poster that hangs in over 100,000 schools, prisons, churches called Which Brain Do You Want?, which is healthy scans surrounded by drug affected scans. But you can't start with that. You have to start with your brain is involved in everything you do, how you think, how

• 32:15Speaker 00

  you feel, how you act, how you get along with other people. Your brain is the organ of intelligence, character, and every decision you make. And when your brain works right, it works right. And when your brain is troubled, for whatever reason, you have trouble in your life. And what I've seen over 45 years and now almost 300,000 scans that I've looked at, brain scans.

• 32:52Speaker 00

  Is that when your brain is healthy, you're happier, you're healthier, you're wealthier because you make better decisions. And you're more successful in everything you do. When your brain is not healthy because of alcohol or marijuana or traumatic brain injury or eating lousy food, you're sadder, sicker, poorer because your decisions are not as good. And if you want to have the best life possible, love your brain.

• 33:32Speaker 00

  And two analogies I'd love to give kids is if you tell me the car you like the best. Uh, is it a Lamborghini? Is it a Mercedes? Is it a BMW? What, what car do you love? And they'll tell me. And I'm like, would you ever put salt in the gas tank? And they would go, no. I'm like, but why? It's like, well, it wouldn't work right. Or what if you had a $10 million racehorse? So I've scanned, uh, some of the world's best jockeys. You know, jockeys that have won the Kentucky Derby.

• 34:15Speaker 00

  I said, get a $10 million racehorse. Would you ever get it drunk? Would you ever get it high? Would you ever feed it junk food? And they look at you, right? If they're smart, they look at you like you're an idiot. It's like, well, of course I wouldn't do that. Well, why wouldn't you do that? Well, the horse, my investment in the horse wouldn't pay off because this incredible animal wouldn't perform right.

• 34:47Speaker 00

  But aren't you worth so much more? And with a better brain, you actually get what you want in life.

• 34:54Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah, I love that. I absolutely love that. And the way you finished off there, it reminded me of what we started off this conversation talking about, these scans, right? And whilst everyone in the world doesn't have access to these scans, I think what's really interesting to me is that it's obvious to a kid, isn't it? That if they dream about having a Porsche or a BMW one day, that they never put, you know, diet coke in, or salt, or acid, or whatever it might be, right? Or the racehorse analogy. But we don't think as a society about our brains in the same way. And there's many reasons for that, but one of the reasons is because we can't see it, right?

• 35:39Rangan Chatterjee?

  So when a child is or an adult is deciding, I'm gonna have this dessert. I'm gonna have loads of sugar today because it's a cheat day, or whatever, whatever reason they may have in their heads. They're not directly seeing the impact that is having on their brain. Now, if we draw an analogy, one of the reasons why I think CGMs, continuous glucose monitors, for some people now and again can be so beneficial is because instead of hearing generic advice about what you should eat or what you shouldn't eat, you're actually seeing for yourself, when I eat this food, my blood sugar is going into the diabetic range. That is so powerful because it's not someone else's body, it's your body.

• 36:24Rangan Chatterjee?

  And I think for many people, it's one of the most powerful tools for change that I've ever seen. I imagine people seeing their own brain scans that you offer might also give people that kind of buy-in as well. Is that what you've experienced?

• 36:41Speaker 00

  Absolutely. And I'm also a huge fan of continuous glucose monitors, especially people who are vulnerable.

• 36:49Rangan Chatterjee?

  But do you think, do you think the analogy works? Is that one of the things your brain scan gives people is it takes this hidden organ and makes it visible?

• 37:00Speaker 00

  I think it's perfect. And I often say, you know, why don't people care about their brains? Because you can't see it. You can see the wrinkles in your skin, or the fat around your belly, and you can do something when you're unhappy with it. But because we don't look at the brain, we don't care, and we don't know. And that's a bad combination. You know, here in the US, we spend more money on plastic surgeons than we do on loving and caring for our brain. And, you know, how your face looks is important, but how your brain looks is way more important to your happiness, health, and success.

• 37:44Rangan Chatterjee?

  But isn't it true, okay, that the other way around it works, in the sense that if an individual did all the things that you recommend in your books and in your podcast about looking after our brain, you know, our diet, moving our body regularly, lowering stress, not exposing ourselves to toxins, et cetera, et cetera, not only would your brain get better, but it's likely your skin would actually get better anyway?

• 38:14Speaker 00

  Whatever's good for your skin is good for your brain. Whatever's good for your muscles is good for your brain. And, you know, when you think of the brain is an organ, just like your heart is an organ, what that means is you actually have to get your heart right to have a good brain. You have to get your liver right to have a good brain. I have an acronym I like a lot that frames things to do and things not to do called Bright Minds. You want to keep your brain healthy. Or rescue it, you have to prevent or treat the 11 major risk factors that steal

• 38:58Speaker 00

  your mind. And it's actually my Alzheimer's prevention program. But what I also realized, it's also my depression prevention program. And right minds like B is for blood flow, R is retirement and aging, I is inflammation, D is diabetes, S is sleep. So in it, it really tells you what to avoid and what to do. So we've been talking about T toxins, alcohol, marijuana. I'm very concerned about psilocybin. Not that I don't think it might have therapeutic

• 39:39Speaker 00

  benefit, but because the word is out, oh, this might be helpful. We have teenagers doing mushroom parties and the incidence of psilocybin psychosis has dramatically skyrocketed. And it's the same thing that alcohol's a health food. Alcohol goes up. Marijuana is innocuous. Now, so many people are high and getting high with their children. I think this is going to happen with psilocybin, and I'm very worried about that. But there are other toxins like mold or mercury, or the products

• 40:19Speaker 00

  you put on your body that we have to be really thoughtful about. So just, you know, unpacking T for toxins is critical.

• 40:30Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah. In your book, in your latest book, you also mentioned under toxins, I think, makeup. And you're talking about some of the makeup products contain ingredients that are toxic for our brains. Are you able to expand on that? What are some of these ingredients? Are there things that people can look out for when they're choosing these products?

• 40:51Speaker 00

  Things like parabens, berry, common in makeup products, phthalates, they're hormone disruptors. And I don't know if you've seen it in the UK, I've certainly seen it in the US, young people with low testosterone levels. It's actually quite frightening. And I think it's the toxic products that we put on their body. So there's an app here in the US I like, and probably it's in the UK called Think Dirty. It allows you to scan your personal products and it'll tell you on a scale of zero to 10, how quickly they're killing

• 41:31Speaker 00

  you. And so for 50 years, I shaved with barbasol. And on a scale of zero is live long and 10 is die early, it's a nine. And I'm like, oh, no. And so now I shave with something. I'll kiss my face and it's a two. And it's actually not even more expensive. But even if it was, well, I'm perfect. I love myself. I am not putting toxic things on my body or the bodies of my children. And so, you know, most people know I should read food labels. You also should read product labels. And if you don't understand it, just put it into ChatGPT and go, which of these are good for me, or innocuous and which of

• 42:15Speaker 00

  these are bad for me, right? With the internet and especially now with AI, that information is readily available.

• 42:23Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah, we'll come back to Bright Minds in a minute. I think it's a brilliant acronym. In terms of the common daily habits that people are engaging with that are damaging their brain, you mentioned alcohol, marijuana. You've also just mentioned some of your concerns over mushrooms and the widespread use in teenagers now, which I guess also speaks to what you said before about that age group and the developing brain and how sensitive it is. You also mentioned food right at the start of this conversation. Okay, I'd love you to Expand upon what are the key things we need to know about the things to avoid when it comes to eating things that damage our brain? And I particularly liked something you wrote in Change Your Brain Every Day.

• 43:06Rangan Chatterjee?

  On day 12, I really like the structure of that book. On day 12, you wrote this. "The real weapons of mass destruction are highly processed, pesticide-sprayed, high-glycemic, low-fiber, food-like substances stored in plastic containers." Please explain.

• 43:32Speaker 00

  So, your brain is about 2% of your body's weight, about three pounds. But it uses 20 to 30% of the calories you consume. So if you have a fast food diet, a low-nutrient diet, you're likely to have a fast food mind and not be able to think deeply. And this is very important. And so, the nutrition we give our body basically goes to feed our brain.

• 44:11Speaker 00

  And so, fast food, low-quality food, is rampant here in the United States, as is obesity, right? 75% of the population is overweight or obese. And so, really thinking about, all right, what do I put in my body? And the first thing is water, because 80% of the brain is water, right? 70% of your body is water, 80% of your brain is water. So, drink about half your weight in ounces a day.

• 44:53Speaker 00

  And so I'm about 150 pounds, but I think it's about 66 kilograms. And so I want to have half of that in ounces of water a day. So I think that's the first thing. And then colorful fruits and vegetables because they have phytonutrients and antioxidants. But it doesn't mean Skittles. Skittles was actually recently voted one of the worst foods in the world because of the artificial dyes and the sugar associated with it. High quality protein.

• 45:38Speaker 00

  Protein is critical to building brain cells. Did you know that your hippocampus, little side note, it's the major memory center in the brain on the inside of your temporal lobe. So behind your eyes, underneath your temples, make 700 new stem cells every day. And hippocampus is Greek for seahorse. So I always teach my patients, it's like every day you're making 700 new baby seahorses. And are you going to nourish them and feed them so they grow?

• 46:23Speaker 00

  Or are you going to give them junk food and basically shrivel them? And I love that analogy so much. But protein, healthy fat. When America went on a low-fat kick, obesity and depression skyrocketed. There's this great study from the Mayo Clinic. People who had a fat-based diet. So think fish, avocados, healthy oils, nuts and seeds.

• 46:57Speaker 00

  Forty-two percent less risk of getting Alzheimer's disease. People who are on a protein-based diet, so I suppose you could think of the K- diet, twenty-one percent less risk. But people who are on the standard American diet, bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, fruit juice, sugar, have a four-hundred percent increased risk of getting Alzheimer's disease. It's the food. And it's so important, you know, as many vegetables as you can sort of stand, along

• 47:40Speaker 00

  with healthy protein and healthy fat.

• 47:43Rangan Chatterjee?

  What's the impact of sugar on our brain? Or excess sugar, I should say.

• 47:48Speaker 00

  You know, it makes me think of this study from UCLA where they took mice and gave them a head injury. And, I mean, it's not nice, but that's what they did, whacked them in the head. And then, one group, they gave them their regular healthy diet, and three weeks later they could run the maze they had already known how to run. The other group, they added sugar to their regular healthy diet, and three weeks later the mice were still confused and couldn't run the maze. And you think on the sidelines, and it's maybe probably true in soccer, but clearly

• 48:29Speaker 00

  here in football, is they have Gatorade, which is basically sugar water with artificial dyes. And it doesn't allow us to learn. It doesn't allow us to heal. Sugar is pro-inflammatory, which we think is the basis of many psychiatric illnesses. It's for sure the basis of many physical illnesses, and inflammatory, addictive, and has no nutritional value. Less is clearly better.

• 49:06Rangan Chatterjee?

  Can I ask, you know, because I'm not familiar with the scans that your clinics offer. What is it you actually see? Can an individual come and get a scan with you, make some changes and then re-scan and see differences? That's the first question. But the second question relating to that is, if someone is having a highly processed, high-sugar, low-fiber diet, like the standard American diet, the standard Western diet, compared to someone who transforms that and is most eating whole foods, low-glycemic, high-fiber, what can you actually see in the brain that's different?

• 49:45Speaker 00

  To your first question, yes. Many of our patients do. And I'm just thinking of Jonathan Kane, who is the keyboardist for the band Journey. And Jonathan wrote many of their iconic songs, like Don't Stop Believin'. Jonathan was drinking two bottles of wine a day and eating poorly. His brain looked terrible. And I made him a poster. It's, here's your brain today. If you do what I say, here's your brain six months from now. And if you don't do what I say, here's your brain five years from now, which basically looked like an Alzheimer's brain.

• 50:28Speaker 00

  And I'm like, okay, which brain do you want? He immediately stopped alcohol that day, improved his diet, and his brain dramatically stopped. Well, how exciting is that? So I use it as a motivational tool, but I also use to go, well, how are we doing? Are we doing the right things? Or are we not doing the right things?

• 50:57Rangan Chatterjee?

  And in terms of food, are there specific differences you see in the brain? Or is it more general?

• 51:03Speaker 00

  I think it's healthier overall. There's a study from Australia showing that there is a linear correlation between the number of fruits and vegetables you eat a day and your level of happiness. So two is better than none, four is better than two, six is better than four, so on. You know, I have two minds of the ketogenic diet that for some people it's miraculous. It's an anti-seizure diet and it also is a mood stabilizing diet

• 51:39Speaker 00

  for some people. But I worry about it because there's not enough good fiber and good nutrients with it. And so people on the ketogenic diet have to take a lot of nutritional supplements. But that's a clear example that food is healing or it's damaging.

• 52:06Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah. You also mentioned in terms of these negative daily habits, screen use and social media. Now, I'd love you to explain, is it screens in general? Is it social media? Is it both? And how would you help people think about their use of screens in relation to the health of their brain?

• 52:30Speaker 00

  Well, increased screen time goes with obesity and depression. Social media, especially for developing brains, goes with depression and anxiety disorders because you're constantly comparing yourself to someone else who is, you know, that's their public persona and you have no idea what they're like personally. But you often feel less than other people. And screens and social media were created in part to be addictive. And so I like to

• 53:09Speaker 00

  talk about dopamine and how dopamine is a critical neurotransmitter involved in motivation, pleasure, and focus.

• 53:21Speaker 00

  The devices we have, the notifications we get, the emails we get or the texts, they produce a little bit of dopamine in our brain, which goes with a little bit of expectation. Or in some people cortisol, a little bit of fear, oh, what do they want now? But the more we're on them, the more we get this dopamine dumping. And when you don't have it, you actually get depressed. So think of dopamine and cocaine. So it's these little micro dopamine bursts

• 54:05Speaker 00

  that over time begin to wear out the pleasure centers in your brain. So there's an area deep in the brain, big term, just in pleasure center. It's called the nucleus oculumens. And it specifically responds to dopamine. But the more you hit that, the more it wants more. And then it wants more and more to feel anything at all. And that's where addictions happen. In people who are obese, it's less reactive, which means they actually get less pleasure from the food they eat.

• 54:49Speaker 00

  And they have to eat more and more to feel anything at all. And so I like to think of drip dopamine, don't dump it. And obviously alcohol dumps it, marijuana dumps it, psilocybin dumps it, cocaine, methamphetamine, they all dump dopamine. And that's where addictions start, nicotine as well.

• 55:13Rangan Chatterjee?

  What does that mean, dumping dopamine instead of dripping it?

• 55:16Speaker 00

  So dumping it is things that powerfully release it like scrolling on TikTok for an hour. You've just dumped a lot of dopamine into your system. So if if you release a lot of dopamine, then you won't have enough store afterwards. And after you spend three hours on TikTok, you you just feel flat, you feel unmotivated, unfocused. So if you're going to spend time on it, do it after the work you've done, you need to get done for the day, and then limit it to no more than a half an hour a day.

• 56:02Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah, okay, great. You also mentioned, I think the other two were sleep deprivation and these negative thoughts. If you could just cover in a bit more detail, what is the impact of sleep deprivation on our brain?

• 56:16Speaker 00

  So when you sleep, your brain cleans and washes itself. And it's very clear now, if you're not getting six and a half, seven hours of sleep, it's sort of like trash builds up and you're less healthy the next day. When we sleep, our body turns on 700 health promoting genes. If we don't get good sleep, those do not get turned on and we're just more likely to be sick. So sleep deprivation basically goes with all of the bright minds risk factors.

• 56:56Speaker 00

  You have lower blood flow in your brain, your brain looks older, you have more inflammation in your body.

• 57:04Speaker 00

  We just talked about genetics. If you have sleep deprivation, you're much more likely to get a head injury. The H in bright minds is head trauma. I mean, we talked about you have this lymphatic drainage that sort of cleans your brain at night. And if you don't get good sleep, you're more toxic. Build up, you're more likely to be anxious or depressed and your immunity goes down, which is the second I. And it's just bad for all of the bright minds risk factors.

• 57:31Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah. And in terms of these negative thoughts, you mentioned some of this new research that you're involved with. A lot of people may be thinking, well, what can I do if I have negative thoughts? So what is your advice? I mean, just maybe recap what are negative thoughts? Well, number one, what are they? Number two, what are they doing to our brain? And I guess number three is what can people start to do about them?

• 58:03Rangan Chatterjee?

  Today's episode is sponsored by the daily health drink AG1. The clocks are about to change, the mornings are darker, everyone around you seems to be coming down with something, and suddenly that wellbeing you felt in the summer seems a long time ago. I certainly know that feeling, and that's why at this time of year, I remind myself to lean into the fundamentals. And one of those fundamentals is AG1. AG1 is a daily health drink that has been in my own life for over eight years. And one of the many things I like about it is the fact that many of the nutrients it contains, for example, vitamin C, vitamin A, zinc and selenium, supports a healthy immune system. Some of the other things I really like about AG1 is that they are committed to continuous improvement

• 58:47Rangan Chatterjee?

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• 59:33Rangan Chatterjee?

  Today's episode is sponsored by the daily health drink AG1. The clocks are about to change, the mornings are darker, everyone around you seems to be coming down with something and suddenly that wellbeing you felt in the summer seems a long time ago. I certainly know that feeling and that's why at this time of year, I remind myself to lean into the fundamentals and one of those fundamentals is AG1. AG1 is a daily health drink that has been in my own life for over eight years and one of the many things I like about it is the fact that many of the nutrients it contains, for example, vitamin C, vitamin A, zinc and selenium, supports a healthy immune system. Some of the other things I really like about AG1 is that they are committed to continuous

• 1:00:16Rangan Chatterjee?

  improvement and updating their formula as a scientific research involves. And each batch is independently tested for quality and safety markers, including heavy metals, allergens and banned substances. This is how they can guarantee what's in your scoop and what's not. Right now, AG1 is offering a free AG1 flavour sampler and AGZ sampler to try all the flavours, plus free vitamin D3 and K2 and AG1 welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription order. That's $87 in free gifts for first time subscribers.

• 1:00:55Rangan Chatterjee?

  All you have to do is head to drinkag1.com/livemore to claim this offer before it ends.

• 1:01:08Speaker 00

  So many years ago, I coined the term ANS, automatic negative thoughts, the thoughts that come into your mind automatically and ruin your day. So I had a really hard day at work, I saw four suicidal patients.

• 1:01:27Speaker 00

  Two teenagers who ran away from home and two couples who hated each other. And I'm home and nobody's home when I got home. And I go in the kitchen, turn on the light and we have an ant infestation in the kitchen. And I'm just like, and as I'm wiping up what felt like thousands of ants. And you remember in medical school, we're always making acronyms, mnemonics to remember stuff. Um, as I'm wiping them up, I'm thinking ants, ants, automatic negative thoughts. My patients are infested. And so the next day at work, I brought a can of ant spray.

• 1:02:08Speaker 00

  And I'm like, I'm gonna teach you how to get rid of these bad thoughts. And then I realized ant spray is pretty toxic. So I bought an ant puppet and an anteater puppet. And so here's the exercise. Whenever you feel sad, mad, nervous, or out of control, write down what you're thinking.

• 1:02:32Speaker 00

  And then ask yourself whether or not that's true, whether or not it's absolutely true. And then later on, I met Byron Katie, who I love. She wrote this great book called Loving What Is. And she has this five question process that I teach virtually all of my patients and I live with daily. And so say you have a negative thought, my wife never listens to me. Well, write that down. My wife never listens to me. And in my work, and I have in the book, Change Your Brain Every Day, all the different types of ants. And like mind reading or fortune telling or all or nothing thinking or guilt beating.

• 1:03:15Speaker 00

  Um, and so, well, what kind of ant is that? My wife never listens to me. Well, it's an all or nothing ant. Whenever you think in words like always, never, everyone, every time, they're over generalizations. And almost always wrong. Um, so I write the thought down. My wife never listens to me. Is that true? No. I've written eighteen national public television specials, and she's listened to the script for every one of them. So I was like, not true. Just because you have a thought has nothing to do with whether or not it's true, whether or not it's helpful, and whether or not you should keep it. The second question, is it absolutely true?

• 1:04:00Speaker 00

  Absolutely not. The third question, how's that thought make you feel? Awful, angry, separated, lonely? How would I feel without the thought? Fine. And then you take the original thought, and you turn it to its opposite. My wife does listen to me, and I can give you five of the radiated examples of it. And then, I'm fine. But if you never question your thoughts, you just believe them, and they torture you. So, if you tend to get negative, if you tend to get depressed, just start writing down what you're thinking.

• 1:04:44Speaker 00

  And start with question one. Is it true? And I love teaching my patients positivity bias. It's one of the reasons I studied negativity, because, you know, I just saw low positivity, high negativity goes with depression. In fact, our patients, we ask them 300 questions about a variety of mental health issues when they come see us. If your negativity bias is high, you answer yes to 67% of the questions. And so, how can you train your brain to be more positive? Turn off the news, at least in the morning,

• 1:05:29Speaker 00

  and don't listen to more than 10 minutes a day. The news is meant to make you angry. The news, they sell more products if you're angry because you watch more TV. So, turn off the news. Start every day with, "Today is going to be a great day." Say it, say it out loud, say it to someone else. "Today is going to be a great day." But my favorite strategy that is so effective, it's so effective, it is found by researchers to increase happiness in just three weeks, is when you go to bed at night.

• 1:06:09Speaker 00

  I say a prayer and then I go, what went well today? And I do it in a very structured way. I start at the beginning of my day, go hour by hour, looking for what I liked about the day. Now, the bad stuff shows up, but I just imagine a big broom and sweep it away. I'm like, not now, not now. Now, I'm going to focus on what I loved about the day. And even during the worst day of my adult life, when my father died, I did that. And I went to sleep and it didn't mean I didn't grieve. It was a horrible day.

• 1:06:52Speaker 00

  But it's the practice, you know, the brain is lazy. What you allow it to do is what it's going to do over and over and over and over. And you can choose to do good things and helpful things like, is it true? Today's going to be a great day. Well, went well today. Or you can focus on why your life isn't going in the direction you want it to.

• 1:07:14Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah, no, I think some really fantastic advice there. I don't think I've watched the news in over five years now, not at least not something regular that I do. I only notice it when I go to actually people's houses or I go and see my mom or my, um, my in-laws, for example. Then you, you can sometimes catch the news on. And it's quite abrasive when you're not used to it anymore. It's really interesting when you step away and I think, you know, you, I wrote down from, from your last book, you know, that this, this idea that you start each day saying, today is going to be a great day. And it kind of makes a lot more sense, having just heard what you have said about, you know, the brain, I guess, the brain is lazy.

• 1:07:58Rangan Chatterjee?

  We get good at what we practice and we need to fight that negativity bias to start training ourselves to see the positive everywhere. If, if someone was listening and they go, yeah, I mean, Daniel, Dr. Raymond, what is that really going to do? If I start each day saying, today is going to be a great day. For, for, for a skeptic who doesn't believe that's going to make much of a difference, what would you say to them?

• 1:08:23Speaker 00

  Well, I have really significant research. The negativity is bad for your brain. Now, I'm not a fan of unbridled positivity. The don't worry, be happy people die early from accidents and preventable illnesses. So if you came to me and you said, Daniel, I don't want to be anxious anymore. I'm like, bad goal. I said, but let's take your anxiety from eighty, you know, zero to a hundred. And let's bring it down to fifty. Because you want to have enough that you do the right thing. Right?

• 1:09:03Speaker 00

  If you don't have enough anxiety, that third beer or the third brownie, it doesn't bother you. And I want you to be bothered by it. So appropriate anxiety is essential. But if you're always looking at what's wrong, it's always going to be wrong. And it's bad for the judgment and decision making part of your brain. And if you're always looking at what's wrong, you're going to have more pain.

• 1:09:43Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:43Speaker 00

  I have a new book coming out in December called Change Your Brain, Change Your Pain. And it's on the intersection of physical and emotional pain. It's like, why is the supplement, SAMY, acetaminophen? Have research showing that it helps depression, but it also helps arthritis? It's because pain and depression run on the same circuitry in the brain. And negativity fuels it to become more active.

• 1:10:23Speaker 00

  Positivity settles the debt. Now, but you want to do it in a rational way, right? Some anxiety is good. So I didn't end up late for the recording. It's like, oh, got to get home, want to be on a few minutes early, just so I'm respectful. Right? So that's healthy anxiety. But I don't want to have too much where like I showed up two hours early.

• 1:10:52Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah. Okay, let's get into some of the things. I mean, we've covered a lot already, but some of these positive things that we can actually proactively do to improve the health of our brains. Again, with this core idea that it's never too late. It doesn't matter what's happened so far. You've given a few examples. You preach this message over and over again, that you can always change your brain anytime you like, once you start paying attention to the things that you need to do. You mentioned your bright minds mnemonic. Some of them we've covered, but let me just quickly summarize them all and let's go through some that we haven't covered. Okay, so B is for blood flow, R for retirement and aging, I for inflammation, G genetics,

• 1:11:35Rangan Chatterjee?

  H head trauma, T toxins. That's the bright, of course, then minds, M for mental health, I for immunity and infections, N for neuro hormone changes, D for diabetes, S for sleep issues. Let's go to the first one, blood flow, because I really like that one. Now, when I think of blood flow, I think when people think of blood flow, they may think of blood flow to their heart and not necessarily blood flow to their brain. But there's another saying you have, what happens in the heart, happens in the brain and happens in the genitals. What did you mean by that?

• 1:12:17Speaker 00

  Forty percent of forty year olds here in America have erectile dysfunction. Seventy percent of seventy year olds have erectile dysfunction. What that means is forty percent of forty year olds have brain dysfunction. And seventy percent of seventy year olds have brain dysfunction. Because if you have blood flow problems, anywhere, they are everywhere. And one of the most fun advantages for me of getting patients on a brain health program is their erections are better for guys, and their orgasms are better for girls.

• 1:12:59Speaker 00

  And I love that because it's just part of the joy of being human. And, you know, if we just, if I give you one strategy for each of these eleven, it's walk like you're late for forty-five minutes, four times a week. It increases blood flow, it increases erectile function, you're cuter, and it has the same efficacy of sertraline for depression.

• 1:13:34Rangan Chatterjee?

  You're also a huge fan of racket sports. Which one of the Bright Minds letters do, does racket sports apply to? And also, why are racket sports so good for our brain?

• 1:13:48Speaker 00

  So, it would be under B for blood flow. And coordination exercises activate the sleeper part of the brain. So, I don't know if you remember Rodney Dangerfield, but he was a very famous comic. And he used to always say, "I get no respect." And the cerebellum gets no respect, even though it's ten percent of the brain's volume, but has half the brain's neurons. It's very important, and it's the coordination cell of the brain. And when you activate it, everything else turns on.

• 1:14:32Speaker 00

  In the brain. And people who play racket sports live longer than everybody else. And I think it's actually two studies from the United Kingdom looked at people who played soccer and football, swam, ran. They looked at people and all of their sport activities. People who played soccer and football live the least long of the whole globe. People who played tennis, table tennis, probably now would be pickleball, live longer than everybody else. And I think it's because when you activate the cerebellum

• 1:15:13Speaker 00

  with coordination, it turns on your frontal lobes and you make better decisions. Because I think longevity and decision making are tied. They're like married to each other.

• 1:15:26Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah, super interesting. I mean, obviously, well, I say obviously, you won't know this, but as a lifelong racket sport player, I love hearing research like that. But it's really interesting. I've been thinking a lot about this because we know, you mentioned already that walk like you are late for 45 minutes, at least four times a week. You mentioned how that increases blood flow. Okay. When we think about exercise, we think about, oh, the cardiovascular benefits, right? But with racket sports, you're sort of combining physical activity with coordination, balance, hand-eye coordination. So is it, is it all of these factors together

• 1:16:11Rangan Chatterjee?

  that are giving the brain different inputs? So, you know, walking is fantastic for health for sure, but do you think there are enhanced benefits because of all these components that come in when we're playing racket sports?

• 1:16:25Speaker 00

  Yes. And if you think of table tennis, you got to, and racquetball too. You have to get your eyes, hands and feet all working together while you're thinking about.

• 1:16:39Speaker 00

  The spin on the ball in table tennis and the angles in racket ball. And so it's sort of like aerobic chess. And I'm not talking about beer pong. I'm talking about like, get a coach, learn how to play at a high level. It's something you can do for the rest of your life.

• 1:17:08Rangan Chatterjee?

  Okay, great. So if we go back to Bright Minds, this wonderful mnemonic, I wonder if it would be helpful just to quickly go through each one and give one simple daily habit that people can do for each one. You mentioned for blood flow, this 45 minute walk. What would you recommend for the second one, retirement and aging?

• 1:17:32Speaker 00

  Learn something new. I think this is so important, something you're not used to doing, something that's foreign, to just begin working out your brain. I have a patient actually from Oxford, England, that read Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. She's like, there's 300 things for me to do. I can only do one thing at a time. And she started taking French and learned to play the guitar afterwards. So 15 minutes a day, learn something new. Under eye for inflammation, floss, become a flossing fool.

• 1:18:13Speaker 00

  Dumb disease is associated with inflammation and brain disease. Genetics, know your risk factor. So I have obesity and heart disease as risk factors for me. Every day, I'm on a heart disease, obesity prevention program.

• 1:18:37Speaker 00

  So just know what your vulnerabilities are.

• 1:18:43Speaker 00

  Age is head trauma. Stop reading your phone while you're driving or walking because you're just much more likely to get a head injury.

• 1:18:53Rangan Chatterjee?

  Can I just ask about what you said earlier on about concussion and traumatic brain injury and head contact?

• 1:19:02Rangan Chatterjee?

  If someone has a child who plays these contact sports at school, right? Because there's an interesting point here, isn't there, where we can have a concussion, we can clash heads and then we're like, oh yeah, I feel better. Let me crack on with life, right? What would you say? Is there something that people should think about when they've, they hear about this in their child or they, you know, they themselves, I don't know, they go snowboarding and they bump their head against the slope and maybe they're not wearing a helmet. You know, yes, they recover, they get on with their life, but is there something they can do to kind of figure out, has there been any sort of damage there that is not immediately obvious with my symptoms?

• 1:19:47Speaker 00

  You know, Rangan, if you ask me, the single most important lesson I've learned from all the scans I've done is mild traumatic brain injury is a major cause of psychiatric disability and nobody knows it because most psychiatrists, psychologists never look at the brain. Undiagnosed brain injuries, a major cause of homelessness, addiction, suicide, depression. We have to be way more thoughtful to protect developing brains. And I just got this flashback and it made me so sad.

• 1:20:32Speaker 00

  I knew this within two years of scanning people and I used to write a column in the local newspaper where I live and I wrote one on suicide and head trauma. And it was six o'clock at night, I was in my office still, the phone rang and all my staff had gone, so I picked it up and it was this mother who was crying. And so I actually waited for her to come to see me and her son had a bad bike accident. The front tire hit the curb and he fell over, hit his head on the sidewalk and she said he was never the same. And four months ago, he killed himself and reading.

• 1:21:21Speaker 00

  Your column just gave me peace that it wasn't because I was a bad mom. Because before the injury, he was a great kid. And, you know, I've seen that story play out over and over, over the last three decades. We have to do a better job of protecting kids.

• 1:21:46Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:47Speaker 00

  It's like, if you don't wear your helmet, you're not going to ride, you're riding for a month. I mean, we have to be serious in protecting their brains. And, you know, knowing what I know, it's like, no, you can't play tackle football. It's like, no, that requires parental consent. And I don't consent to something where there is an average of a concussion every year.

• 1:22:12Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:13Speaker 00

  So it's like, no, but I'll play golf with you, or we can go play tennis, or, you know, there's lots of things to do.

• 1:22:23Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:24Speaker 00

  But we have to be smarter.

• 1:22:26Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah, and of course, you've said there are things you can do. And on a personal level, I had a concussion a few years ago skiing. And not everyone is a fan of, you know, these kind of disciplines. But I go regularly and see this phenomenal chiropractor who has worked for years in functional neurology and is so skilled. And after that, there was all kinds of things she did with me. We measured, you know, cerebellus speed, eye movements, everything. And we did exercises regularly to improve them because I also know the benefit, you know, the problems that these things can cause. I do plenty of other things for my health and my brain as well, but I'm very proactive.

• 1:23:08Rangan Chatterjee?

  If I've had a head trauma like that, I'm getting on top of it with someone who knows what they're doing to help me get things going. Do you know what I mean? But I don't think you could go and see your doctor and we don't really know about this stuff. It's not what we're taught about. There's not this widespread knowledge within the profession that these things need to be taken seriously.

• 1:23:30Speaker 00

  Well, and they may even order an MRI or a CT scan, but unless you've had a bleed, they're always normal. And they go, you're fine when the spec scan shows functional damage.

• 1:23:43Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:43Speaker 00

  And I'm a huge fan of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I published a study on soldiers who are involved in blast injuries. So I like that a lot as a treatment.

• 1:23:56Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:57Speaker 00

  But knowing it's there, you get even more serious about taking care of it.

• 1:24:03Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah. Okay, back to your bright minds. We've got it to T toxins. So what was your one tip for toxins?

• 1:24:11Speaker 00

  Drink more water because that helps to detoxify your body. Eat more fiber because that'll also help detoxify your body. But the one thing that I've loved so much are saunas. People who have the most saunas have the lowest incidence of dementia. And I think it's because it's just helping get rid of the toxins in their body.

• 1:24:39Rangan Chatterjee?

  Okay. And for mental health?

• 1:24:42Speaker 00

  Don't believe every stupid thing you think and end every day with what went well today. It'll so help you.

• 1:24:50Rangan Chatterjee?

  High immunity infections?

• 1:24:52Speaker 00

  No, your vitamin D level, work to optimize it. Low vitamin D is associated with low brain map in your brain. So the part of your brain that actually is processing things. So know and optimize your vitamin D level.

• 1:25:13Rangan Chatterjee?

  And for neuro hormone changes, what does that mean? And what could we do about it?

• 1:25:18Speaker 00

  Well, hormones are so important. They're like miracle grow for your brain. And so I think once a year, you should just have your thyroid, your insulin, cortisol, testosterone, estrogen, progesterone for women measured.

• 1:25:36Speaker 00

  And if they're not in a healthy range, work with your doctor to optimize them and kill the sugar. Because people who get a sugar burst have an immediate drop of testosterone by 25%. So if you share the cheesecake with your partner at the restaurant, no one gets dessert when you get home.

• 1:26:06Rangan Chatterjee?

  D for diabetes, I guess that is a brain healthy diet like you explained earlier on?

• 1:26:13Speaker 00

  Yeah, so diabetes is two things. It's a combination of your blood sugars high and you're overweight. So either of those drops brain function. And so the one habit, I think you'll like this a lot. I don't know if you've ever been in a bad relationship in the past, but I have. And I'm not doing it anymore. I married my best friend. And I'm damn sure not doing it with food. So the one tiny habit, whenever I go to eat something, do I love it? And does it love me back?

• 1:26:55Speaker 00

  So it's only eating things you love that love you back.

• 1:27:02Rangan Chatterjee?

  And the final one, S for sleep issues, any sort of top tips about sleep, around sleep?

• 1:27:10Speaker 00

  Go to bed a half an hour early tonight and your memory will be better tomorrow.

• 1:27:17Speaker 00

  And, you know, the big tip is put yourself to sleep ritualistically with what went well today. It is just so powerful.

• 1:27:28Rangan Chatterjee?

  And, you know, in all these brain scans that you've done, are there any key differences between men and women in terms of how their brains look?

• 1:27:40Speaker 00

  I published the world's largest gender study on forty six thousand scans, looking at, okay, what's the difference between male brains and female brains? And it's stunning, shocking. Females have better frontal lobe function, like, not by a little bit, by a lot. Focus, thought, judgment, impulse control, organization, planning, empathy, learning from the mistakes you make. And the one statistic, at least here in the US, that just nails it is who goes to jail? Males, fourteen times more than females.

• 1:28:20Speaker 00

  Men have greater cerebellar function, so you think of coordination. Women have a larger limbic system, which is involved in bonding, that also will disorder, so they have twice the amount of depression as men do, but there's not one society on the face of the earth where men are primary caretakers for women. And what's interesting is, in another study, women have fifty-two percent less serotonin than men, which highlights their vulnerability to depression. But serotonin is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, it settles things down, one of the reasons

• 1:29:03Speaker 00

  why their frontal lobes are as busy as they are.

• 1:29:06Rangan Chatterjee?

  Yeah, thank you. Well, Dr. Raymond, it has been so fascinating talking to you. I don't think we've even scratched the surface of all the various topics that you can talk about, and maybe we can park some of them for a part two at some point in the future. To finish off this conversation, though, you mentioned lots of practical tips throughout our chat today. For that one person, Dr. Raymond, who's listening and has been inspired by some of the things that you've said and who's thinking, you know what, I've really not taken my brain health seriously, I need to get going, I want to get going, what final piece of advice do you have for that individual?

• 1:29:49Speaker 00

  Every day, ask yourself, is this good for my brain or bad for it? And if you can answer that one question with information and love, love of yourself, love of your family, love of the reason you were put on earth, you just start making better decisions. And then, as you get going, teach somebody what you learned. Give them a copy of Change Your Brain Every Day. Read it together. I mean, it was really meant to be a daily reader to get these habits in your life over time.

• 1:30:29Speaker 00

  And I often say, get it, get the information, give it away, because it is in the act of giving that you create your own support group, making you more likely to love your brain forever.

• 1:30:43Rangan Chatterjee?

  Dr. Raymond, thank you for making time to come on my podcast. Thank you for all the incredible work that you do and that you share with so many people all over the world. And I look forward to meeting you in person at some point in the future. Really hope you enjoyed that conversation. Do think about one thing that you can take away and apply into your own life. And also have a think about one thing from this conversation that you can teach to somebody else. Remember, when you teach someone, it not only helps them, it also helps you learn and retain the information. Now, before you go, just wanted to let you know about Friday Five.

• 1:31:26Rangan Chatterjee?

  It's my free weekly email containing five simple ideas to improve your health and happiness. In that email, I share exclusive insights that I do not share anywhere else, including health advice, how to manage your time better, interesting articles or videos that I've been consuming, and quotes that have caused me to stop and reflect. And I have to say, in a world of endless emails, it really is delightful that many of you tell me it is one of the only weekly emails that you actively look forward to receiving. So if that's... That sounds like something you would like to receive each and every Friday. You can sign up for free at drchatge.com/Friday5.

• 1:32:09Rangan Chatterjee?

  Now, if you are new to my podcast, you may be interested to know that I have written five books that have been bestsellers all over the world, covering all kinds of different topics, happiness, food, stress, sleep, behaviour change and movement, weight loss and so much more. So please do take a moment to check them out. They are all available as paperbacks, ebooks and as audiobooks, which I am narrating. If you enjoyed today's episode, it is always appreciated if you can take a moment to share the podcast with your friends and family or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful week and please note that if you want to

• 1:32:49Rangan Chatterjee?

  listen to this show without any adverts at all, that option is now available for a small monthly fee on Apple and on Android. All you have to do is click the link in the episode notes in your podcast app. And always remember, you are the architect of your own health. Making lifestyle change is always worth it because when you feel better, you live more.