3. How to Keep Your Brain Healthy

00:00

[Music]

00:03

so over the last goodness thirty years

00:07

I've learned one big lesson and that is

00:11

you are not stuck with the brain you

00:13

have you can make it better and I can

00:17

prove it some of you've seen me on

00:20

television with my beautiful wife Tana

00:22

and when Tana and I first met 12 years

00:26

ago one of the first sort of crises in

00:31

her life was her father was just

00:36

diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and

00:38

David had been a pastor and a seminar

00:41

leader and 10 had actually been

00:43

estranged from him and she and her

00:47

sisters were very anxious they didn't

00:49

know what to do and I knew what to do

00:52

and this is a secret if you want to get

00:56

a beautiful woman to fall in love with

00:58

you do something really nice for someone

01:03

they love and so I'm like you need to

01:08

bring them to the clinic and Costa Mesa

01:11

and so when I scan David so that's what

01:16

we do at Amen Clinics it's different

01:18

than anywhere else in the world I'm like

01:20

you can't diagnose Alzheimer's disease

01:22

unless you get a functional imaging

01:24

study well the image on the left is a

01:27

healthy specs can SPECT as the study we

01:30

do at Amen Clinics the image on the

01:32

right is what a typical Alzheimer's

01:35

patient looks like the back half of the

01:38

brain is dying and the problem with this

01:40

is this pattern actually happens in your

01:45

brain decades before you have any

01:48

symptoms so when you can't find your way

01:51

home

01:52

that's not early in the illness it's

01:55

late and so that's why I advocate people

01:58

get screened if you have Alzheimer's

02:00

disease in your family you should get

02:02

scanned when you're 40 you want to know

02:04

early early not late so when I heard

02:08

what was going on with David he was a

02:10

recluse he wouldn't come out of his ro

02:13

he was on multiple medications my

02:17

thought is I have to see him and so one

02:19

of the first things we do is we scanned

02:20

him and so Alzheimers on the Left David

02:23

is on the right David doesn't have

02:25

Alzheimer's

02:26

David ended up having this very

02:28

interesting disorder called pseudo

02:31

dementia which means you're seriously

02:34

depressed but it shows up like you have

02:38

memory problems isn't that interesting

02:41

and I took him off all of his medication

02:45

and on the treatment plan I'm going to

02:47

share with you within three months he's

02:51

energetic his memories back he's

02:53

beginning to live independently and

02:55

seven months later he taught an all-day

02:58

seminar at Mariners Church in Newport

03:01

Beach I mean it's just a stunning

03:03

reversal and so many people who are

03:08

diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer's

03:11

disease have something that is

03:13

potentially treatable when most of the

03:16

doctors go I'm sorry you should get your

03:19

affairs in order and then they actually

03:22

will put them in a place a long-term

03:23

care facility and let them choose their

03:26

own food which is just the dumbest thing

03:29

because you know a lot of you have

03:31

troubled making the right decisions with

03:34

a reasonably healthy brain take a

03:37

demented person and give them a menu

03:39

that's a really dumb idea because high

03:43

sugar foods and foods that turn to sugar

03:46

accelerate memory loss

03:49

so anyways Tana became a huge fan of our

03:53

work which made me really happy

03:57

here's the secret this is what the

04:00

course is built on memory rescue is

04:03

based on one very simple idea if you

04:06

want to strengthen your memory or get it

04:08

back if you think it's headed to the

04:10

dark place you have to prevent or treat

04:13

the eleven major risk factors that steal

04:16

your mind and in the book I go in o it

04:21

in great detail I'm gonna give you some

04:24

of the highlights

04:25

here and what really excites me about

04:27

this is almost all the risk factors are

04:30

preventable or treatable no matter what

04:34

your age if you four or 14 or 24 or 40

04:40

or 60 you should be on an Alzheimer's

04:43

prevention program do you know why if

04:45

you're fortunate to live until you're 85

04:47

and I'm completely planning on it you

04:50

have a one in two chance of having lost

04:54

your mind

04:55

you have a 50% risk of being diagnosed

04:58

with Alzheimer's disease or another form

05:00

of dementia if you're fortunate enough

05:02

to have lived until you're 85 we have to

05:06

take this bad boy seriously and so in

05:09

the book because it's memory I came up

05:11

with a memory device and mnemonic called

05:15

bright minds and bright minds will help

05:17

you understand the big risk factors to

05:21

steal your mind and so I'm gonna go

05:26

through each of them quickly

05:29

B is for blood flow low blood flow is

05:31

the number one brain imaging predictor

05:35

of Alzheimer's disease anything that

05:38

decreases blood flow to your brain

05:41

prematurely ages your brain and puts you

05:46

at risk for memory problems so what are

05:48

those things

05:49

caffeine constricts blood flow to the

05:51

brain nicotine powerfully constricts

05:54

blood flow to the brain if you have

05:57

hypertension as blood pressure goes up

05:59

blood flow to the brain goes down and

06:02

actually makes your brain smaller it's a

06:05

bad thing

06:05

brain is the only organ where size

06:08

matters right there's no other organ in

06:11

your body where size matters heart

06:18

disease not exercising having erectile

06:22

dysfunction because it's about blood

06:25

flow right if you have blood flow

06:27

problems anywhere it likely means they

06:30

are every where and so you have to treat

06:34

all of the risk factors

06:36

and the simple things

06:39

ginko love the supplement ginkgo why

06:42

because the prettiest brains I ever see

06:44

or people take income increases blood

06:47

flow to the brain and exercise

06:50

especially coordination exercises so at

06:54

low blood flow number one brain imaging

06:57

predictor of Alzheimer's disease you

06:59

don't want that that's why you want to

07:02

park far away whenever you go to the

07:04

store and walk and it's why wear my

07:07

Fitbit because I have an idea I'm

07:10

helping my brain or I'm hurting my brain

07:14

retirement and aging is another major

07:17

risk factor when you stop learning

07:20

that's why this conference is so

07:22

important to you when you stop learning

07:25

your brain starts dying your brain

07:28

actually starts to disconnect itself the

07:32

older you get the more serious you need

07:36

to be about your health

07:38

you just have less margin for error and

07:41

a lot of people go well I'm 14 my

07:44

memories no good that's normal it's like

07:46

no it's because you have bad habits I'm

07:49

50 and my memories no good that's normal

07:52

it's like no you have bad habits or I'm

07:54

70 in my memories no good that's normal

07:58

it's common but it's because you have

08:02

bad habits so the older you get the more

08:05

serious you need to be so here's the

08:10

scan of somebody who's 35 and 55 and

08:15

these are what we would think of typical

08:17

and here's 82 is really awful

08:22

but my grandmother was obsessed with

08:26

crossword puzzles and doing the right

08:30

thing and 92 this is my grandma's

08:36

and so she passed on the obsession about

08:41

doing the right thing and the one little

08:45

secret she had she crocheted I don't

08:49

know if any of you had grandmother's

08:50

that crocheted but she must have made

08:53

hundreds of blankets over the years for

08:57

us but it's that little motor movement

09:00

with knitting in crocheted that works

09:03

your cerebellum at the back bottom part

09:05

of your brain which is like your brains

09:07

processor and that completely flips

09:10

everything else on coordination

09:13

exercises are great for the brain the

09:17

eye and bright minds is for inflammation

09:20

which comes from the Latin word to set a

09:23

fire when you have high levels of

09:25

inflammation in your body

09:27

it's like you have a low level fire

09:31

that's destroying your organs now how do

09:33

you know you have joint pain or you have

09:37

muscle pain or you do these blood tests

09:41

called c-reactive protein it's a measure

09:43

of inflammation or you have a low mega 3

09:47

fatty acid index we did a study on 50

09:51

consecutive patients who came Damon

09:53

Clinics 49 of them had suboptimal levels

09:56

it horrified me and it's because we

10:00

either not eating enough fish or not

10:03

taking omega-3 fatty acid supplements

10:06

and because all the toxins in the fish

10:08

here to see T is for toxins

10:10

I actually recommend people take a high

10:13

quality omega-3 fatty acid fish oil

10:16

supplement every day so for my patients

10:19

you should take a multiple vitamin

10:20

because it helps you mind the gap and a

10:23

high quality omega-3 fatty acid

10:26

supplement every day the other thing

10:28

with inflammation is gut health some of

10:31

you probably heard about leaky gut it is

10:34

one of the major causes of inflammation

10:37

so getting your food right taking a

10:40

probiotic can be incredibly helpful the

10:43

G in bright minds which is really

10:46

interesting is genetics

10:49

and when I was in medical school we had

10:53

this idea well it's your genes that are

10:56

causing diabetes or it's your genes that

10:58

are causing Alzheimer's disease or it's

11:01

your genes that are causing you to need

11:04

glasses and what we learned which is

11:07

really different is it's not just your

11:11

genes

11:11

it's your habits that turn on or off

11:14

certain genes that make illness more or

11:18

less likely in you but also your babies

11:22

and your grandbabies so you are it's not

11:25

just about you right I mean I've lived

11:28

my whole life until I realize that well

11:30

it's about me and it's not about me it's

11:33

about generations of me if teenagers eat

11:38

poorly the boy and girl eat poorly as a

11:40

teenager they just increase their risk

11:42

of illness and their kids that's

11:44

horrifying

11:45

which is why we have a high school

11:46

course that teaches kids how to love and

11:48

care for their brain so a big genetic

11:53

risk factor is if you have Alzheimer's

11:55

disease in your family you need to be

11:57

serious about prevention as soon as

12:01

possible and what we found out so

12:03

there's one gene it's called the Apple

12:04

lipoprotein efore gene if you have one

12:07

of them you have a 250% increase risk of

12:11

Alzheimer's if you have two of them you

12:14

have like a thousand percent increase

12:16

risk but we found that exercise and

12:20

eating the right foods especially the

12:24

spice turmeric helped people with the

12:28

gene way more than it helped people who

12:31

didn't have the gene so it is not a

12:34

death sentence having the genetic risk

12:37

is not a death sentence it should be a

12:40

wake-up call you with me and if you're

12:44

saying I'm fat because I have fat genes

12:47

you're lying to yourself you're fat

12:49

because of what you eat or the toxins

12:52

that are in your body if you say oh well

12:55

I have diabetes because my family does

12:57

and likely it's because you have a group

12:59

of people who are not doing the right

13:02

thing

13:03

I have fat jeans I do I actually did the

13:06

genetic test and it said I had a 67

13:08

percent risk of being obese but I'm not

13:13

because I don't make the decisions that

13:16

make it likely to be so all right so one

13:21

of my favorite people chalene johnson

13:24

Shailene is awesome and i did her

13:26

podcast and as i was doing her podcast

13:28

she goes oh my god I have a VD and so

13:31

she came to see me and what she said is

13:37

my memories not good I get distracted

13:40

really easily I'm so irritable that I

13:45

can't actually work in the beautiful

13:48

office I have at home I have to go in o

13:50

the basement closet lock myself in there

13:54

and there I can get work done so it's

13:56

sort of irritating and she had a family

13:59

history of Alzheimer's disease healthy

14:02

scan on the Left che liens on the right

14:04

she's 46 years old when we scanned her

14:06

her brain looks terrible and the whole

14:10

so this is where the ATD is and this is

14:14

where her vulnerability tells homers is

14:16

and she's a beautiful woman and many

14:21

beautiful women I say they have the

14:23

beautiful woman syndrome they hate any

14:25

flaws you know they see all the flaws

14:27

and so this really upset her

14:30

which thrilled me to death right because

14:33

I wanted her to be upset so she'd do

14:35

something about it and like a lot of

14:38

high performers I see like my football

14:41

players they like being coached and

14:43

she's just did everything I asked her to

14:45

do and two years later this is her scam

14:48

it was remarkably better you are not

14:52

stuck with the brain you have you can

14:55

make it better how exciting is that all

15:00

right so the most important genetic

15:01

strategy you've got to be serious

15:06

H is for head trauma

15:08

your brain is soft about the consistency

15:10

of soft butter your skull is really hard

15:14

and it has sharp

15:15

bony ridges stop letting your children

15:18

play football it's actually neglect if

15:21

you do stop letting them hit soccer

15:23

balls with their head your brain is soft

15:26

your skull is hard your brain controls

15:29

absolutely everything you do you damage

15:32

it you can damage or life so I said I

15:36

did the first study this is our

15:38

published study on football players the

15:40

level of damage was just horrifying

15:44

but what really excited us on this

15:46

program 80 percent showed improvements

15:49

in blood flow and memory attention mood

15:53

and sleep and the player that started it

15:56

all for us is Anthony Davis who's the

15:59

Hall of Fame running back from USC he's

16:01

called the Notre Dame killer because in

16:03

1972 he scored six touchdowns against

16:07

the University of Notre Dame they hated

16:09

him so much on the Notre Dame campus

16:11

that they put his picture on the walkway

16:13

so they could walk on him 1974 he scored

16:18

four more touchdowns against them at 54

16:21

his brain just looked awful but Anthony

16:25

is good at being coached and he just did

16:28

everything I asked him to do changed his

16:31

diet multiple vitamin fish oil a brain

16:34

boost we make something called brain and

16:37

memory power boost that works in many

16:39

ways and we just had the 10th

16:43

anniversary of his scan so this is 10

16:45

years later and 10 years later your

16:48

brain gets worse right sort of like your

16:50

face gets worse 10 years later his brain

16:54

continues to get better as he is getting

16:58

better the tea and bright minds is for

17:00

toxins so much to talk about here but

17:03

it's also the personal products you put

17:06

on your body and the alcohol that you

17:08

think is a health food you need to stop

17:11

that alcohol is directly related to

17:14

seven different kinds of cancer and you

17:17

think chemotherapy is good for your

17:19

brain or bad for your brain bad for your

17:23

brain so I'm just not a fan right if you

17:26

have a glass or two a week it's not a

17:28

big deal

17:29

you're drinking everyday and you're

17:30

making you know the argument it's good

17:33

for you stop it because it's not good

17:36

for you

17:36

it's poison when I first started doing

17:40

imaging these were my drug addicts the

17:44

scans were so powerful I brought them

17:46

home to my four children and effectively

17:48

induced anxiety disorders in all four of

17:50

them when it came to drug abuse

17:53

like seriously are you that dumb come on

17:56

and but what I also found was smoking

18:01

carbon monoxide cancer chemotherapy

18:04

radiation heavy metals and mold all

18:08

damaged your brain in very much the same

18:10

way and you know when they took let out

18:13

of gasoline that was really helpful 23

18:18

years later the murder rate dropped

18:22

dramatically but you know where they

18:25

still left LED lipstick 60 percent of

18:31

the lipstick sold in the United States

18:33

has led in it it's the kiss of death

18:37

before you go and make out with your

18:40

girlfriend or your wife or whoever's

18:42

wearing the lipstick just go can I see

18:47

the packaging I know it's not romantic

18:51

but Alzheimer's is totally not romantic

18:53

either one of my good friends Dave asked

18:57

for the CEO bulletproof coffee when he

19:00

first came to see me his brain just

19:01

looked like total crap and what we

19:05

discovered is he had mold in his home

19:09

from water damage and on a

19:11

rehabilitation program years later his

19:15

brain looks so much better you are not

19:18

stuck with the brain you have em in

19:23

bright minds is for mental health issues

19:26

like a DD anxiety depression

19:28

post-traumatic stress disorder grief all

19:33

increase your risk of serious memory

19:36

problems if you have them don't think

19:39

you're not normal

19:40

51% of the u.s. population at some

19:43

their life will suffer with the mental

19:44

health issue if you have one you're

19:46

actually more normal than people who

19:48

don't have one just be smart and get the

19:51

best help you can and it doesn't mean

19:54

medication for depression head-to-head

19:57

against fish oil they're equally

19:59

effective two antidepressants

20:01

head-to-head against exercise exercise

20:05

is equally effective as anti depressants

20:07

learning how not to believe every stupid

20:10

thought you have has been shown to be

20:12

effective for depression the eye and

20:16

bright minds is for immunity and

20:18

infections their major cause you're

20:22

gonna hear so much more about this in

20:24

the coming decades but a great example

20:27

is Kris Kristofferson who is diagnosed

20:30

with Alzheimer's disease who saw one of

20:34

the doctors who works in my clinic Marc

20:36

phillyd a diagnosed him with Lyme and on

20:41

an antibiotic and hyperbaric oxygen he

20:45

got his memory back now and he went back

20:47

to touring on the road how exciting is

20:50

that you don't know unless you look

20:53

unless you do the appropriate lab

20:56

studies the appropriate brain imaging

20:58

studies how do you know unless you

21:01

actually look easy to say you have

21:03

Alzheimer's disease I'm sorry get your

21:06

affairs in order and accelerate

21:08

someone's death by letting them choose

21:10

bad food right I'm not okay with that

21:13

that just sounds psychotic to me and I'm

21:18

a psychiatrist I get to diagnose

21:20

psychosis right that is a psychotic

21:22

process then in bright minds is no

21:27

hormone deficiencies I can't tell you

21:29

how many people we see suffer with low

21:32

thyroid low testosterone low estrogen or

21:36

progesterone measure Peter Drucker said

21:40

this right sort of a business conference

21:42

you can't change what you don't measure

21:46

and so if you've not had your hormones

21:49

assessed you need to do that and in

21:52

memory rescue I talk all about how to do

21:54

that

21:55

the D in bright minds is diabesity a

21:58

toxic combination of being diabetic

22:02

overweight or both and with 70% of the

22:08

population in the United States

22:09

overweight and nearly 40% of us obese it

22:13

is the biggest brain drain in the

22:15

history of the United States it's a

22:18

scandal

22:19

Putin from Russia said Americans are

22:23

intentionally poisoning their population

22:26

and you know I don't usually listen to

22:29

him but I have to tell you they they're

22:32

no GMOs in Russia and they don't like

22:36

pesticides in Russia there's something

22:39

to this when you really are concerned

22:42

about the quality of your food we are

22:45

poisoning our population and I'm just

22:48

not okay with it because our children

22:50

and our grandchildren are way my last

22:57

work book is called the brain warriors

22:59

way because I see it we are in a war for

23:03

the health of our bread and I published

23:05

two studies that showed as your weight

23:08

goes up the actual physical size and

23:11

function of your brain goes down

23:14

which is why I can be a bummer if you go

23:17

out to dinner with me here's my friend

23:21

Mark Glaser mark and I were speaking at

23:24

a conference together four years ago and

23:28

he has diabetes and he was injecting

23:31

himself with insulin at the table and

23:34

right after he did that he ordered

23:36

chicken-fried steak mashed potatoes and

23:40

gravy corn bread and a souffle and my

23:44

heart started going fast as obvious I

23:47

could have a panic attack right there

23:49

but I was like really cool and I'm like

23:52

mark how tall are you

23:53

he said I'm six feet I said how much do

23:57

you weigh

23:57

he said 244 and on my phone I calculated

24:01

his BMI or body mass index you know

24:04

health is between 18 and 25

24:08

more than 30 is obese and I'm like mark

24:12

you're obese and he looked at me

24:16

there's like eight people around us he

24:21

said Daniel you're so cold I said dude

24:25

not nearly as cold as you're gonna be

24:26

when you're Six Feet Under

24:30

he didn't eat anything on his plate was

24:33

awesome the next month he lost 10 pounds

24:37

we met again this is a conference that

24:40

happens every two years

24:42

he was down 53 pounds he had cut his

24:46

insulin dosage in half now it's hard to

24:50

have a hard conversation right but what

24:52

he said was thank you for loving me

24:56

enough to tell me the truth and I'm a

24:59

huge fan of John 8:32 know the truth and

25:03

the truth will set you free

25:05

we're in a war for the health of our

25:07

brain yes and bright minds is for sleep

25:13

60 million Americans have sleep related

25:16

issues you need to covet seven hours of

25:20

sleep at night less than seven hours is

25:23

associated with low blood flow to your

25:25

brain it turns off 700 health-promoting

25:30

genes so sleep is essential so let me

25:34

show you how all this works we're my

25:36

favorite patients ever is Nancy so ray

25:40

white is one of my football players he

25:42

was a linebacker for the San Diego

25:44

Chargers he joined my study so I would

25:47

see his wife and Nancy has just

25:49

diagnosed with frontal temporal lobe

25:51

dementia which is wicked dementia where

25:54

your front part of your brain

25:55

deteriorates and the doctor had told ray

25:59

to put Nancy in a home because within a

26:03

year she would not know his name he was

26:06

angry he was depressed and he asked me

26:09

if that was true and when I scanned her

26:11

she had frontal temporal lobe dementia

26:14

and you see the whole front part of her

26:15

brain is gone and I said I agree with

26:20

the diagnosis

26:21

and we have no proven treatment for this

26:25

but if she was my wife and I like my

26:30

wife that's important

26:33

my first wife I may not have done the

26:36

same things I'm kidding

26:45

I think all right this is a therapy

26:50

moment she did everything I asked her to

26:53

do mostly because he did everything I

26:56

asked him to do and ten weeks later this

26:59

was her bright you are not stuck with

27:02

the brain you have you can make it

27:04

better and this is Ray ten weeks later

27:08

he lost thirty pounds I'm like wait

27:10

how'd you do that he said I knew if I

27:12

did everything you asked us to do

27:14

she went to I would model a brain

27:18

healthy life

27:19

what are you modeling in your life are

27:23

you modeling health or are you modeling

27:26

illness you want to be successful in

27:29

your life all success starts here

27:33

decisions start here relationships start

27:37

here your brains history is not your

27:41

destiny so you can be like David or

27:44

Shailene or Anthony there Dave Asprey or

27:50

Marc I love all these people or Nancy

27:54

you have a choice you can change your

27:57

brain and change your life