The No.1 Brain Doctor: "This Parenting Mistake Ruins Your Kids Brain!", "Alcohol or Marijuana Will Destroy Your Brain!", "A Stagnant Career Can Increase Your Chance Of Alzheimers!" - Dr Daniel Amen

34:04And that they do what most doctors would consider good medicine, 12 % of the time. So you go to your family doctor, your nurse practitioner, and you go, I'm sad, I'm anxious, I'm not sleeping. You might, and we hear this all the time in England clinics, I have 11 clinics around the United States. We hear it all the time that I went to my doctor and he gave me a prescription for Lexipro, Zanax, and Ambien. And it just blows my mind that they would put you on something that changes your brain to need them in order for you to feel normal. See, people don't understand. And I am not opposed to medication.

34:52I use it when I think I need to. But let's be clear. They do not heal, fix anything. What they do is they suppress symptoms. But then once they've suppressed the symptoms, they've changed your brain. So you need them in order to feel okay. I don't like that. Like what can I do naturally? Head to head against anti -depressant, Safron has been shown to be equally effective. The spice, Safron. Head to head against anti -depressants, walking like you're late, 45 minutes, four times a week. Equally effective. Head to head against anti -depressants taking omega -3 fatty acids. Equally effective in a study from Australia.

35:49Head to head against anti -depressants, learning how to not believe every stupid thing you think has been shown to be equally effective. So why not if you're depressed and you can't get scanned, start walking, take omega -3 fatty acids and Safron, and learn how to kill the ants. Ants dance for automatic negative thoughts. It's a thought succumbed to your mind automatically and ruined your day. And we grow up, I don't know if the same thing is in England. There's no training on how to manage your mind. I was 28 years old in my psychiatric residency when one of my professors said you have to teach your patients not to believe every stupid thing they think.

36:38And I'm 28. And I'm at my residency, which means I finished college, I finished medical school, and I believe every stupid thing I think. That no one had ever taught me how to manage my own thoughts. I can't believe that thing you just said about Safron. I was reading about it here. It says research indicates that Safron may be as effective as SSRIs, Intruding Mold and Moderate Depression, and a metronalysis of eight studies fund no difference between Safron and SSRIs and reducing depressive symptoms. But in fact, the side of fact profile is probably better for Safron. So I got interested in Safron about 25 years ago because I saw a study.

37:18So there now 25 randomized controlled trials showing that Safron is as effective as SSRIs and other anti -depressants. But the thing that caught my interest, as may speak more about me, is they didn't decrease sexual function. In fact, they enhanced it. And so I've been a psychiatrist a long time and SSRIs for the right brain, they work. But they make it harder to have an orgasm. They decrease your libido. And I don't like that. I don't want to separate. If you're depressed, you are already separated from your partner. If you're depressed and you can't have an orgasm, or you're not interested, that's damaging.

38:16Not only to you, but it damages your partner. And so when I thought Safron can enhance sexual function, and I'm like, okay, I'm pan -intentioned. And so I have collected every study ever published on Safron and Brain and Mental Health. There's actually five studies showing an enhanced memory. That it was as good as ERISEPT in people, ERISEPT medicine we use in Alzheimer's disease. And it's as good as ERISEPT, so it helps memory. It helps mood. It helps sexual function. I'm like, mood memory in sex. I'm going to take it. mood memory in sex. So yeah, I love Safron. So why wouldn't we start with that?

39:05And exercise and learn to manage your mind, rather than start with lexapro, or even psilocybin, or ketamine. One of the things when people are talking about psychedelics that they're trying to treat is trauma. Right. Is that something that you can see if you looked at my brain? Could you see trauma on my brain? Yes. And have you... There's a diamond pattern that I've written about. I published in, actually, Discover Magazine in 2016, listed my study. So I published a study on 21 ,000 people showing we could separate post -traumatic stress disorder from traumatic brain injury. With high levels of accuracy.

39:50And then we repeated the study on soldiers and showed the same thing. And this year, I just published the world's largest study on childhood trauma. So do you know the ACE score? Yes, which is a measure of childhood trauma. Childhood trauma. Adverse childhood experiences. So it's on a scale of 0 to 10. How many bad things happen to you as a child? Physical, emotional, sexual abuse, neglect, being raised with a parent that has a mental illness, that's incarcerated, addiction, watching your mother be abused. So domestic violence. So 0 to 10. I'm a one. My wife's in 8. We adopted our two nieces who are both nines.

40:42And so I'm very interested in childhood trauma. So a nine is good or bad? Nine is terrible. Okay, so high the number of diseases. So 0 means you have none of those. Okay. A, you have a lot. And if you have four or more, you have an increased risk of seven of the top 10 leading causes of death. If you have six or more, so my wife's in 8, my nieces are nines. You died 20 years earlier than the general population. And in our study, what we showed, the more ACEs you had, the more activation of your limbic structures, especially a very interesting area. Called the anterior singular gyrus. I think of this as the brain's gear shifter.

41:44Let you go from thought to thought. Move from idea to idea. Be flexible. Go with the flow. And when this is overactive, people worry. They hold on to things. It's like the trauma is always in front of them. And I often do timeline. I ask people, do you see your life going from left to right or from front to back? And I see the past behind me. My wife sees the past in front of her. And that's often what you see with trauma. And their brain becomes overactive in their emotional brain, which makes them at higher risk for pain syndromes. Higher risk for anxiety, higher risk for depression, higher risk for insomnia.

42:43They're sort of always looking for bad things to happen. Is there anything someone can do at home? Because not everybody can afford to go to a therapist. It's hard to get access to these kind of treatments. If I have some kind of trapped trauma or traumatic experience PTSD that I've been through and I don't have any money at all, what would you recommend for me? Well, I mean, the first thing I want everyone to do is love their brain. Right? The healthier your brain. And before we started, we talked about this idea. It's the brain you bring into trauma that often determines how you deal with it.

43:26And to get well, you have to get your brain healthy. That's the first thing. So that means getting with the alcohol, exercise, eat well. Certain simple supplements. Yes. And then multiple vitamins for basic nutrition. Know your vitamin D level and optimize it. And most people need to supplement vitamin D. And if you have darker skin, you need five times the level of sun as someone from northern Europe to get a healthy vitamin D level. So you should know your vitamin D level and optimize it. Like I always say, can't change what you don't measure. And vitamin D is a very important number to know.

44:18So multiple vitamin D, omega three fatty acid. I did a study 50 consecutive patient, Stamen clinics, who are not taking vitamin D. We measured their omega three index 49 or sub optimal. And so I think most people would benefit from it omega three fatty acid supplement. And then it sort of depends if you have issues with your mood. Safran would be great if you tend to be anxious. Don't go for the benzo. Theanine, ashwagandha, magnesium, GABA, diaphragmatic breathing, hypnosis, so many things to help anxiety before you ever go to something that's addictive that makes your brain look older than you are that increases your risk of dementia.

45:15One of the really, really interesting things that you mentioned, which I had never heard of all thought thought of before, is the impact of negative thinking on your brain. We just published this huge study on negativity bias. And it's not good for your frontal lobes. And so I love doing positivity bias training. Like I train all of my patients start every day. Today is going to be a great day. I mean, somebody asked me today if I believe in manifestation. Sort of. I think you have to tell your brain what you want. And then your brain will figure out how to get it. And so if you go today is going to be a great day, your brain starts looking like, well, why is today going to be a great day?

46:08And when you go to bed at night, what went well today? That's so helpful to just start programming your brain to look for what's right, not just for what's wrong. Virtually every depressed patient I said have a high negativity bias. And so training them to be more positive, not irrationally positive. Because you need some anxiety. People have low levels of anxiety die early from accidents and preventable illnesses. People who have low levels of anxiety. So I have an older brother who I love. But he's one of the don't worry, be happy people. And I sort of always wanted to be like him because I'm much more serious, much more driven.

47:03And I'm like, no, I wanted to be like him until I read the research. The people who live the longest. So there's a study from Stanford. They started in 1921. And they looked at 1 ,548 10 year old children. And they were looking for what goes with success, health, and longevity. And what they found was shocking. The don't worry, be happy people died the earliest from accidents and preventable illnesses. The people who lived the longest. The one theme was they were conscientious. If they said they were going to show up. And they showed up reliably, consistently. They live longer than everyone else.

47:59And that just shows they had good frontal function. It's like if I say I'm going to do something and I commit to it, I do it. You live longer. Could that be also linked to like discipline? Those people are more likely to be disciplined with other areas of their life habits, eating, gym. Yes. Which means they had better frontal lobe function. So why would we ever take these guys, frontal lobes, offline? No, love your frontal lobes. This is why when you have children, don't let them hit soccer balls with their forehead. It's just not a smart thing to do. I think that's probably a big thing people are thinking about this time of the year.

48:38So recording now in January 2025. Wow. And everybody's thinking about new year, new me. They're thinking about their new year's resolution by coming a new person. Habits, motivation, discipline. These are like the trifecta of what I see people talking about the most of this time of year. When you, without everything you understand about the brain, how do I become a more disciplined, motivated person who has better habits? So why don't you take care of your brain? And too, you know when relapse happens. Relapse happens when you don't sleep. Okay. When you've gone too long without eating. When blood sugar levels go low, relapse happens.

49:27You start making bad decisions. When, if you're female, when you're in the last week of your cycle, because blood flow to your frontal lobe drops for many women. So I have five sisters and five daughters. I completely believe in PMS. And I've scanned people. That's time of their cycle. Worst time. It's like they're two different people. Sort of like they have multiple personality disorder. Because their brain is just so different. Now, obviously not with all women, but for certain ones, it's a big issue. And if that ants are taken over. So if the automatic negative thoughts, which also tend to go up, if you haven't slept, if you've gone too long without eating, if you're at that time of your cycle, or you're under chronic stress, or you're drinking, or using other drugs.

50:28So you might suppress them, but then they come back, and they attack you. So then you have to suppress them again, and this is how addiction starts. So is it fair to say that if you're trying to change who you are, and you're trying to establish a new habit or crack motivation, then the goal shouldn't be necessarily to get a six pack. It should probably be be something further upstream, like sleep well, or... Better frontal lobes. And so how do I get better frontal lobes? And it's three strategies. Frontal lobe envy, right? Brain envy, gotta care about it. Avoid things that hurt damaging my frontal lobes, and do things that strengthen my frontal lobes.

51:10We talked about two of these points earlier, but we talked about alcohol, but in the context of sleep, I've heard on you, I think it was a new podcast, change your brain. After two drinks, your REM sleep drops to roughly an hour, after four drinks, your REM sleep drops to 30 minutes, and after six drinks, your REM sleep drops to less than two minutes for many people. Obviously these aren't specific numbers because everybody's brain is different, but it just goes to show, I guess, the relative drop in REM sleep, which is your restorative sleep based on alcohol consumption. And so if I drink, I'm not gonna sleep while I'm not gonna get restorative sleep, I wake up the next day, I'm gonna struggle more with motivation and keeping any habit that I have.

51:50And anxiety, and then is there gonna be more ants? And then you're gonna drink more to shut up the ants, and then when they come back, they come back stronger. And by ants, you mean the automatic negative thoughts? Okay. It's the chatter that hurts you. And we talked about how to kill them. So whenever you feel sad or mad or nervous or out of control, what I want you to do is just write it down. And then ask yourself a series of questions. And I have this cute diagram of the different types of ants, and I always ask my patients, so which are your ants? Are they all or nothing ants? Are you thinking words like always never, everyone, every time?

52:45Are they less than ants given to us by social media, where we compare ourselves to others in a negative way, guilt -beating ants, mind -reading ants, fortune -telling ants, blame ants, so identify the type. Do you have an example of a bad thought that just sort of runs around your head? Oh gosh.

53:14I think I live in a permanent state of assuming I'm going to get bad news. And it doesn't haunt me. I think I'm generally quite a calm person and quite focused and peaceful in my brain. But I think because I've ran companies for the last 10 years or longer, you're always just about to get bad news. So I think that can be playing on the radio and the background somewhere. I'm going to open an email and it's going to be bad news. There's so many opportunities for bad news in my world. So yeah. Yeah. So I think you're ready to. This is going to be bad. And then my friend, Byron Katie, has this process that I've refined a bit.

53:54So that's a fortune -telling ant. And so this is going to be bad news. Or I always get bad news, fortune -telling, and all or nothing. And so the first question is, is it true?

54:13The second question is, is it absolutely true? With 100 % certainty. And if one is now, two is automatically now. The third question is, how does that thought make me feel? On edge. How does the thought make me act? So the third question has three parts. How does the thought make me feel? Tense on edge. How does it make me act? Tense on edge. Removed. What's that white? Is it apathetic? Rediscent. Yeah. Yeah. And the third part of that, what's the outcome of believing it's always going to be bad news? I mean, there's no good outcome really. Suffering. Suffering. The fourth question is, how would you feel if you didn't have that thought?

55:05Free. And how would you act? Appia and more present and the outcome of not having that thought. Better relationships? Because you're more present. Yeah. Yeah. And then the fifth question. So the first one is, is it true? The second one is, it's absolutely true. The third one, how would I, how do I feel, act and what's the outcome of having this thought? The fourth question is, how would I feel, act and what's the outcome of not having the thought? The fifth question is my favorite. Take the thought and turn it to the opposite. And then ask yourself, is that true? So it's going to be good news.

56:02Or it's going to be innocuous news. And then go, yeah, 99 times out of 100, that's true. And then I would, because I'm also a CEO, I'm like, well, how many of these things can't I handle? Virtually none of them. I can handle all of them. Right? So I'll be okay. And then I meditate on the opposite of the thought that's bothering me. And so I take these thoughts captive. I like that. And people who are depressed are infested with negativity. But you can train that. Your brain is healthy. It's easier to do. You can train that. But you imagine there's no second grade class in the world. Where teachers teach children not to believe every stupid thing they think.

57:11In fact, I was watching one of the confirmation hearings today. And the senators were filled with ants. They were distorting things. They were angry. They were making things more negative than they needed to be. We are model, bad thinking. And the news does it purposefully because they know if they piss you off, if they scare you, you're going to tune in so they can sell you more copper underwear. So we're in a society that breeds these ant attacks. So you have to be careful. People who watch the news in the morning are 27 % less happy in the afternoon. And so you have to guard what goes in. So every day you're programming happiness or sadness.

58:11And I believe Dennis Prager has this great five minute video called Why Be Happy. And I love it so much. I wrote a book called You Happier. And I start with his idea that happiness is a moral obligation. And I'm like, so I grew up not too far from here. I went to Catholic school. My mom was very serious about being Catholic. And growing up, the idea of happiness is a moral obligation was nowhere in my childhood. And I had a good childhood. Why is it a moral obligation? Because of how you impact other people. If you were raised by an unhappy parent, were married to an unhappy spouse, or raised in an unhappy child, and you asked those people, is happiness an ethical issue?

59:06They would all say yes.

59:13So is it wrong to program your mind, to look for what's right? It's hard for some people. It's just a pattern, right? It's like getting biceps or heart. But it's not, right? It's just repeatedly doing the same thing that gives you the desire you want. Have you seen someone shift from being a stereotypically negative person down and out negative depressed to the opposite? Yes, truly the opposite. A lot. But you got to do the process. You got to do the work. When you love yourself, you do the work. Like, I come from a family of fat people, but I'm not. Why? Because I know it's a risk for me. And so every day of my life, I'm on a obesity prevention plan.

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1:01:27Now for people that don't know who Elizabeth Smart is, who is she? And what did you learn from scanning her brain? So Elizabeth is someone who made really international news. Many years ago, she was kidnapped when she was a teenager and virtually raped every day for nine months. And then she was found that she was actually very smart and she manipulated her kidnappers to bring her back to Utah. It's all like city where the kidnapped her from. And she was found by the police. And one would think she would have severe lasting post -traumatic stress disorder. And she had a lot of stress disorder.

1:02:22And I was very interested to scan her and be helpful to her. She in fact did not have post -traumatic stress disorder. She had post -traumatic growth. She took her trauma and made something special out of it where she actually runs an organization for women who have been abused. And I just remember sitting there, and her brain was actually quite healthy. I think she helped me more than I helped her. Just so fascinated by how she could take something that's truly horrifying and come out of it and be quite okay. And she's how old now? She's in her 30s. And she's in a relationship married, she has children, she's running an organization, she speaks around the country.

1:03:31I mean, when people hear that they might begin to question how they think about trauma, because we think of trauma as a very deterministic thing. If that happens to you, I can predict that you're going to be ex, you're going to be, you know, maybe depressed, you're not going to be socially functioning, you're probably not going to have functional good relationships. That's the kind of thing we think when we hear about such a horrific event, we kind of see it as deterministic of who you then become. But she's proving that that's not the case. Now, in fact, of people who go through something really terrible, about 10 % of people will develop PTSD, and about 10 % of people will develop post -traumatic growth.

1:04:17And most people sort of land in the middle. I wrote an article in 1982 when I was a resident at Walter Reed, called Post -Vietnam Stressed Disorder, a metaphor for current and past life events. And it was when I was resident, I got the idea, it's the brain you bring into Vietnam that often determines the brain that comes out of Vietnam, that if you grew up in an alcoholic home, or you grew up with a lot of stress, you are much more likely to become a heroin addict and much more likely to come home and struggle. Obviously not always. But we should, there's a concept since I started imaging that I just dearly love so much called brain reserve.

1:05:18So brain reserve is the extra tissue you have to deal with whatever stress comes your way. And brain reserve actually starts before you were conceived. So if you get your brain wrapped around that a little bit, this idea of epigenetics, that if your parents grew up in trauma and abuse, it changed their genes to make you more vulnerable. And if so your genetic history matters, the health of your mom, while she's carrying you, your brain starts to develop three weeks after she gets pregnant, three weeks like about day 21. And so her stress level, her infectious disease level, burden, her nutrition, her sleep, all of these things matter.

1:06:32One of my patients, wife is pregnant. I'm like, you need to be nice to her. You need to like lower her stress because your child, this has generational consequences. And then when you're born, how did the birth go? And then as a child, what was your nutrition like? What were your stress levels? Like did you play football? Did you fall off the swing? All of those things are either building your brain reserve or stealing your brain reserve. So when you get kidnapped, or let's just take two soldiers in war, they're in the same tank. They go over an IED. So they're both, the tank is blown up. One walks away unharmed.

1:07:35The other one's permanently disabled. Why? It's their brain reserve. The brain they brought into the explosion often determines how they are. So I argue we should always be building reserve. And I turned 70 this year. And I know 50 % of people 85 and older, how about Alzheimer's disease? One in two, horrifying statistics. And so I know that. So between now and 15 years from now, what are the things I can do to build my reserve so the gravity of age has less impact on me? Because your brain is going to shrink with aging regardless of anything. It's going to show. Although I have a whole group of super brains, people that are 80, 90, 105, like stunningly beautiful brains.

1:08:48But they're people that had stunningly beautiful brain reserve habits. That they didn't smoke, they weren't drinkers, they ate well, they were not overweight. So on this subject of Alzheimer's, it's increasing globally. I was reading something I think from the Alzheimer's association that said, they're predicting by 2050 that there's going to be 150 or 160 million people globally that have Alzheimer's disease. There's still a lot of question marks around what causes it, what increases its probability, etc. But what do you think the cause of Alzheimer's is? I think there are many cars of it. And the going wisdom until recently was excessive beta -amoloid plaque formation caused Alzheimer's.

1:09:36And there's a lot of questions around that theory. I think I have a mnemonic I like called bright minds. You want to keep your brain healthy or rescue it, you have to prevent or treat the 11 major risk factors. So I think there are in fact many roads to Alzheimer's disease. And people go what's the difference between Alzheimer's and dementia. Dementia is the umbrella category. You start losing your faculties. Alzheimer's is one of the types. But the more you get into it, you realize it's a pretty mixed bag. And so bright minds, blood flow, retirement and aging, inflammation, genetics, head trauma, toxins, mental health.

1:10:31You know, if a woman is depressed, it doubles her risk of Alzheimer's disease. If a man is depressed, it quadruples his risk of Alzheimer's. And then the sleeper in all of these is infections, immunity and infections. Many of us think it's a major one of the major causes of Alzheimer's disease. In fact, there's a new study out on COVID, people who had COVID had significantly increased risk of getting Alzheimer's disease. And then neurohormones, and we have this epidemic of low testosterone in young males now, diabesity and sleep. Diabesity is you either have high blood sugar and or you're overweight.

1:11:26And that one risk factor, if you have that one risk factor, now all of a sudden you have 10 of the 11 risk factors. If you have diabetes. If you are overweight or you have high blood sugar, it lowers blood flow to your brain. It prematurely ages your brain. And then it increases inflammation. Fat cells produce something called adipocines, which is inflammatory molecules. It changes your genetics, fat stores, toxins, you're more likely to be depressed. It damages your immunity, takes healthy testosterone, turns it into unhealthy cancer promoting forms of estrogen and impairs your sleep. I'm just, and then people go, oh, but you're fatching.

1:12:19And it's like, now I published a study on 33 ,000 people as your weight goes up. The size and function of the brain goes down. Somebody's got to like say the truth. The truth is being in an unhealthy weight is unhealthy for your brain and body. I was reading some studies earlier on when I spoke to a insulin resistance expert. One of the things he said to me was that they now almost describe Alzheimer's as type 3 diabetes. That's a phrase that's often used. And when they look at brains that are insulin resistant, the person between 40 or 80 % of the time depending on which studies you look at has insulin resistance.

1:13:06I, they've had elevated blood sugar levels, which of course, in insulin resistance or something else, it could be stressed that causes insulin resistance or many other things. But it's interesting to think of, to think of, as you said, that that one thing, which is the high blood sugar levels insulin resistance can have such a profound impact on the brain. And if I've ever heard a case for being a bit more careful about sugar and other things that will spike my blood sugar levels chronically, I think that's probably it. You know, because your brain, as you said at the start of this conversation, drives everything in your life.

1:13:46And to think that sugar, an overconsumption of sugar, should I say, has such a profound impact on the brain, is, is paused for me. Because I don't like sugar that much. You don't like it as much as you like your brain. Yeah, in my life. So there's a study from the Mayo Clinic where they looked at people who had primarily a fat -based diet. So fish, healthy oils, avocados, nuts and seeds, they had 42 % less risk of getting Alzheimer's disease. And then they looked at people who had primarily a protein -based diet. So think of a caveman diet, 21%, less risk of getting Alzheimer's disease. And then they looked at people that had a standard American diet, simple carbohydrate -based diet, red pasta, potatoes, rice, fruit juice, sugar.

1:14:49A 400 % increased risk of getting Alzheimer's disease. It's the sugar and the foods that quickly turn to sugar, which goes with the insulin diabetes type 3. Hypothesis, you have to manage it. And the reason this is so important to me is having high blood sugar makes your blood vessels brittle and more likely to break, which means it takes longer for things to heal. And you're more likely to have a stroke and having a stroke increases your risk of Alzheimer's 10 -fold. So you've a fan of the keto diet? For some people. I find that it doesn't have enough plants in it, which means it's probably not going to be awesome for your microbiome.

1:15:55So I'm more a fan of a paleo diet that has healthy fat, healthy protein and lots of plants. We've covered so much. The one thing we talked we started talking about briefly, I think before we started recording, was the subject of hope and grief. I've never heard someone talk about the impact that grief has on the brain when we lose someone when we're going through prolonged pain because of a loss. I know about this that I want. It activates the limbic or emotional circuits in the brain. And so when you lose someone important to you or even a pet like I had a white shepherd and so beautiful and so sweet.

1:16:55And he got cancer and when he died, he still lives in my head. And I lost someone important to me about 20 years ago. And for like a year, I was just not okay. And so I scan myself and my emotional brain was so busy. And it's like when you have someone, they actually become ingrained in every fun place in your brain. So they get stored in multiple places in your brain. And when they're not there, any more, your brain still looks for them. And figuring out ways to sort of calm down your emotional brain can be so helpful. What part of the brain is that? Is that the amygdala? No, it's more the insular cortex and the thalamus.

1:18:02And that's what we found with depression. I published a study with scientists from USC and Los Angeles Children's Hospital on depression. And what we found, those were the structures that were dramatically overactive compared to people who were not depressed. So in grief, the prefrontal cortex, assuming because that's the more rational part of the brain, that's probably going to be quieter. Right. And so it's the prefrontal cortex you bring in to the loss that often determines how you deal with it. And so your emotional brain fires up if you're drinking and taking the prefrontal cortex offline, it can't manage it.

1:18:56So one thing people don't understand is the fibers from the prefrontal cortex to the rest of the brain are inhibitory, which means they calm things down. So if this isn't working right, the emotional part can sort of override it and it becomes problematic. And so protecting this is so important to managing so much of your life. I mean, it's really the human, most human thoughtful part of us. And what we found within hope was that insular cortex was low. It's really interesting to us. And hope is tomorrow can be better and I have a part in it. When you're hopeless, you don't believe you have agency to make tomorrow better.

1:20:06And so often they're hope training courses that can be good. And I, with all of my patients, I do this exercise called the One -Page Miracle I referred to earlier. It's like right down, what do you want? Relationships, work, money, physical, emotional, spiritual help. All these things write it down. And so we talked earlier about we're recording this in January. I have all my patients do it when I first see them and then every January for sure. And then you just ask yourself, does my behavior get me what I want? But it starts with, what do you want? You have to write it down. Like with my wife, I'm very clear.

1:20:58I want a kind, caring, loving, supported, passionate relationship. Always warm thought. Don't always feel like that. I have these root thoughts that show up or conflicting ideas that will just show up in my head. And I'm like, oh no, don't say that. No, don't do that because it doesn't fit. And it's been the best relationship of my life because both of us have the same goals. And we're pretty good at matching our behavior to the goal. And as a CEO, right, what do you do with companies? You have a business plan. And then you have regular meetings and key performance indicators to like, oh, how are we doing?

1:21:52And if we're not doing great, we change. But it always starts with plan and most individuals never have a plan. So they can't just being dragged around by whatever. And now in social media, it's very dangerous because you might want with the Kardashians. And it's like, wait a minute. Relationships work, money, physical, emotional, spiritual health. And then if I had tattoos, I don't, yeah. My wife got one and freaked me out. It's my daughter's birthday. But the tattoo would be does it fit? Know what you want. And then ask yourself every day, my behavior, get me what I want. And some people go, well, isn't that selfish?

1:22:48It's like, absolutely not. Because if I'm good, I'm good for everyone around me. You'll go could be to be a great father. It absolutely should be a great father. It's to be a loving husband, kind, caring, loving, supportive, passionate. It's, oh, by the way, when people do our program, their erections are better, just saying. Because blood flow is better when brain health is better. Because your brain uses 20 % of the blood flow in your body. And so if you're working to have a healthy brain, everything works better. Jess, why did that come to mind when I asked about your goals? Well, because I went passionate.

1:23:35And I'm like, okay, you have to be clear.

1:23:41Or even think about work. You know, what's the goal with work? It's to do meaningful work. It's to make a difference. I am your father. I'm not a father yet, but I hope to be. I've got three little nieces. My brothers had three, three, two little nieces and one nephew. My brothers a year older than me and he's had three kids already. So I've got some catching up to do. But as I'm progressing towards this season of life, one of the things I think about having met you is how to raise healthy brains. Like what parenting style is going to make sure that my kids have very healthy brains. There's so much conversation about parenting styles.

1:24:20Some people say just let them do whatever they want to do. Some people say be an authoritarian and put rules in place. I'm wondering from the perspective of someone who scanned 260 ,000 brains, how do you raise a perfect brain? Well, one, you get rid of the idea that you're going to raise a perfect brain. Because there's a little OCD in there.

1:24:46The first thing you do is you have goals for yourself. What kind of parent do you want to be? And what kind of child do you want to raise? And for me, I want to be present, kind and effective. And for my kids, I want them to be mentally strong and resilient. And I want them to feel good about themselves. And then you bond with them. You want to be a good dad? Bonding requires two things. Time. Actual physical time. And listening. So time, I have an exercise I love so much called special time. 20 minutes a day. Do something with your child that your child wants to do. And during that time, no commands, no questions, no directions.

1:25:44Just time to bond. The most important thing to children is time. With their parents. And people are busy. Doesn't have to be a lot. But if you do that 20 minutes a day, it's money in the relational bank. So my first literary agent. I think it was 42 when he had his first child. And he's like, my daughter was just too. Laura never wants to be with me. I come home. She completely ignores me. She just wants her mother. She wants nothing to do with me. That's because she's a girl, right? Mike, absolutely not. Carl, you're ignoring her. What do you mean I'm ignoring her? I said, you're ignoring her.

1:26:33Do this. And I told him about special time. And he's like, that won't work. I'm like negativity bars. I'm like, oh, great. You represent an idiot. You represent me. And you're telling me it won't work. I said, do this. It works. And I'm going to call you in three weeks. So I wrote them in my appointment book. We had appointment books on. And three weeks later, I called them. Carl, it's Daniel. Daniel. She won't leave me alone. All she wants to do is be with me. As soon as I get home, she grabs my leg and wants her time. Mike, I told you it works. It works. Time, actual physical time. And then, shut up.

1:27:21Listen. This is so important. Parents are awful at listening. You've heard of active listening. Yeah. It's like so simple. Child says something. Before you give your two cents, just repeat it back. And sort of listen to the feelings behind the words. I want to have blue hair. I know what my dad would have said. I want to have blue hair. No way in hell as long as you live in my house. You can have a blue hair. But what does that do? It just shuts down the conversation. Or starts a fight. I call you when I have blue hair. And then just be quiet. And then the child might say, everyone's doing that.

1:28:10My dad would say, I don't care what anyone else is doing, as long as you live in this house, you're not going to have blue hair. If they're going to jump off a cliff, are you going to go with them? Not helpful. Sounds like you want to be like the other kids. And then he might say, sometimes I feel like I don't fit in. Which is really the conversation you want to have. And my mother would have said, of course you fit in. You're a good boy. You're a good looking boy. And that's not helpful either. It's just helpful to listen. If you have time and you have listening, you bond. And then the kids tend to pick your values because they're bonded.

1:28:53And then when they make a mistake, don't rescue them. Today, parents do way too much for their children. And they steal their self -esteem. I often say, if you do too much for your kids, you build your self -esteem by stealing their hairs.

1:29:16And you're going to be tempted because you're going to have such love for them. You don't want them to hurt. And that's a mistake. Because character is built through struggle. Character and self -esteem are built by feeling competent. You can solve problems. So when a child says, I'm bored. Rather than, well, we could do this. Or we could do that. Or we could do this. Well, I wonder what you're going to do about it. In terms of the diet and lifestyle, am I right in thinking it's pretty obvious here. Sugar, chemicals, toxins, these kinds of things are really, really bad for the child's brain. Is there anything non -obvious that we do to our children's brains?

1:30:22Well, I think the most important thing is you model. Okay. The message. So what you do is. And there's a reason that all of the sugar, poison cereals are on the bottom two aisles. Or the bottom two rows because that's where children can see them. And they're like, mommy, I want this. And I always want you to remember this rule. And I want you to consider sharing it with your children. If you have a tantrum to get your way, the answer is no. It's always going to be no. Go for it. I'm dead serious. We teach people how to treat us by what we tolerate. We train children to be bad by what we pay attention to.

1:31:21So I think that's always been a very effective rule for me. If you have a fit, the answer is no. It's always going to be no. And I'm not going to be phased if you do. But what if they do it in a store? It's like you want long -term pain or short -term pain. Short -term pain is not given into the tantrum. And there probably be a consequence when you come home for acting like that. So are you saying to ignore the tantrum? It's like I'm not giving in. Like have fun with it. I am not giving in. Word, a friend's house. And you have a fit. Well, one, there's going to be a consequence when you come home.

1:32:11I don't know what it is, but I'm going to think about it. It's such a great line that in my book, raising mentally strong kids, we have lots of great lines for parents. And I don't know what the consequence is, but I'm going to think about it just to increase their anxiety about it. Because we want them thinking about their behavior and life, their consequences about behavior. We want them to think about what that might be. Might that stray into neglect when they get, they express their emotions. So for example, if my kid isn't in a supermarket and screaming and crying, that ain't going to give me this.

1:32:58And I just always ignore them. Are they going to be raised to be neglected children or something? Well, if you do it in the context of special time, an active listening, and I think rules are important, like tell the truth, put away things that you take out. We treat each other with respect. Do what I ask the first time. It's one of my favorite rules. It prevents the kids from going on and on about being oppositional. There's no way they're going to feel like you're not listening and you're ignoring them. But if they're acting inappropriately, you want to not give in to it and to have a significant conversation and consequence.

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1:34:58And those of you in the US, you can get it on Amazon. One of the big themes that I wanted to ask you about, so the last thing I really wanted to focus on today is there's been such a huge rise in the conversation on neurodivergence, which we talked about in part last time. You looked at my brain, you looked at my brain and we did some tests and such. And you spoke to some of my colleagues and people that know me. I think they did some surveys about me as well. And you concluded that I had ADHD. So many people are being diagnosed with ADHD, it seems. When we look at some of the numbers around the increase in diagnosis, it's quite alarming.

1:35:31And I wonder why that is. Are people being born with more ADHD or is it an increase in the diagnosis? Is there a pop culture element to it where it's become quite popular to say that you have ADHD if you like forget your keys or something? What is it in your view? So ADHD is real. There's a significant genetic component to it. But we're also living in a society that promotes its expression. So the more sugary cereals with red -dyed number 40, increases hyperactivity. The more gadgets you give them so they can't pay attention. The less they're outside in the sun, the more they're playing video games.

1:36:25All of those things increase the expression of ADHD.

1:36:34Again, something I know more about than I want to. I have a book called Heel in ADD. And I write about my own personal experience being married to someone who has ADHD and having several of my kids who have it. That it's real and left untreated. They're all sorts of consequences. So people always ask you, if you think of medicine like red -laner or an overall, people go, what are the side effects? And it has side effects. Sometimes it can increase ticks. Sometimes it'll cause sleep problems. Sometimes you'll lose some weight or decrease your appetite. But they don't ask me the other question. And I always want to make sure they do.

1:37:20Is what are the side effects of not treating ADHD? And they're things like school failure. Incarceration, bankruptcy, divorce. It's serious. Now, for someone like you who's really driven and very bright, for you, the consequences, and this is going to sound crazy, but it's under achievement. Or it takes more for you to be at your best than if you had it treated. But I have this, an example of a 14 -year -old who was literally failing in school and conflict -driven with everyone around him. So people didn't really want to be near him. And I diagnosed him. I started with natural things, and they helped, but not enough, put him on concerta, a form of methylphenidate, a riddle on.

1:38:42And he went from failing to all these embassies, and he got into the high school he wanted to get into, which was very competitive. And he's easy to be around. That's a win, because it's going to change the trajectory of his life. And I like that. I remember you talking last time about your daughter. We have the clip, don't we, Dr. Armin, talking about a daughter, we can just insert her here. I have a daughter, and the truth is, and this is going to sound awful, I never thought she was very smart. And I'm ashamed of myself for thinking that. And she stayed up every night till one or two o 'clock in the morning to get her homework done.

1:39:34And one night she came just crying to me, and she said, Dad, I don't think I can ever be as smart as my friends. And it just broke my heart. And I scanned her the next day. And I'd actually scanned her originally, but I had no experience in scans. So it was like 1991. I'm like, a child psychiatrist and an expert in ADD, and I didn't see it in my own child. And the next day, I put her on a tiny dose of riddle and scanned her again in her brain, normalized. Normalized. A week later, I had dinner with her, and I'm like, do you notice any difference? And she said, oh my God, she said, a class seemed like it always took eight hours to just do that one class.

1:40:34And I was always lost, and I'm very religious. I was praying to God that the teacher wouldn't call on me because I was lost. She said, now that same class goes by in about 20 minutes. And my hands up because I track what's going on. And that child who had always gotten bees and seas, but with great effort. Her first report card was straight A's. The next 10 years straight A's. She actually got into the University of Edinburgh's veterinarian school, one of the best vet schools in the world, where they cloned the sheep. And if I wouldn't have figured that out, she would have been condemned to a lifetime of mediocrity, hating herself, working so hard to get a mediocre result, optimizing your brain.

1:41:39And medicines never the first thing I think about, but it's one of the things I think about, because I just want to use all the tools of my toolbox to optimize your brain, because if I optimize your brain, I optimize your life. It was really powerful and something that I then spoke to lots of my friends about and such. One of the things I've always struggled with with ADHD in terms of my understanding is some people that I know have ADHD. They're so remarkably different to me. And they're so remarkably different from each other. So if you think about one of my friends that has it, very, very different in terms of productivity, symptomology, versus someone like me, who, for example, in my case, I'm very focused, I think.

1:42:24I can be very focused, not always, but when I'm into something, I can focus on it for a long period of time. In fact, people don't know this, but it's worth me saying. My last book, I went to Bali for, I think it was either 11 or 14 days, and I came out of the jungle with the book. So I went into the jungle with basically 33 sentences, individual sentences, I knew what the chapter titles were. I came out of the jungle and handed my publisher penguin, the manuscript after that, that period in the jungle, which basically meant that for those 11 or 14 days, I can't remember the exact number. I sat there for about 10 hours a day and did, I was obviously getting distracted once in a while, but I wrote the whole book in about 14 days.

1:43:09Decent book, so jealous. But for me, it's an example of that, when I think of ADHD, I think of attention deficit. And again, I don't know much about ADHD, so I'm very naive. I represent most of the population, probably, in that regard. But I don't think I have an attention deficit necessarily. Well, for things that are new, novel, highly interesting, stimulating, or frightening. People with ADD can pay attention just fine. That's why a lot of people who have it go, I don't have it. Like, if I loved my history teacher, I'm like focused. But then, when I go to geometry, I can't do it at all. Yeah.

1:43:56This is story of me in school. It should be, it's like love is a drug. If you love something, you can do it. But the problem is, most of life, you don't love. And so, you end up with this really sort of erratic attention disorder. And they tend to gravitate toward things. I see here the story a lot, unfortunately, is they experiment in college, and they take a little bit of methamphetamine. And it helps them. And they're more focused. And they're focused. And they're focused. But then they don't know how to manage it. And they end up taking more and more. And they end up getting addicted. And it steals their soul.

1:44:55Love. Can you see love on the brain? Helen Fisher, who's a neuroscientist and New Jersey, is actually studied love. And new love shows up as increased activity in the dopamine centers of the brain. And it makes you just a bit obsessive. I think of new love as dopamine, but lasting love more like opiates. So, new love when you break up is sort of like getting off cocaine. Hard, but not that bad. Lasting love, if it goes away and we talked about grief earlier, it's like it's ripping your skin off. It's really hard, sort of like getting off a heroin. Do people come to you that are heartbroken? A lot.

1:46:05What do they say? I can't stop. I think that their brain gets into anxiety, sadness, and that person just lives in every fun place. And their brain and they can't get over it. And it can be quite messy for them. What is the change that you would like to see in the world? Well, I'm actually working on it. I want everybody to just ask this one question.

1:46:47And we mentioned my work with BJ Fogg and how people change. And he talks about tiny habits. What's the smallest thing I can do that will make the biggest difference?

1:47:06And if I could impact the world, it would be through one question. Whatever I'm doing right now is it good for my brain or bad for it. I want to teach people to love their brains and to just make better decisions for the help of their brain. Because then everything follows that. Is it good for my brain or bad for it? I'm 15. I have a developing brain. My brain is myelinating itself, which means it's wrapping all my nerves, all my brain cells, with a white fatty substance called myelon. And my frontal lobes are not done until I'm 25. Oh, I'm going to love my brain. So I'm not pouring crap in my body with what I eat or what I drink because it's bad for my brain.

1:48:07When I'm 60 and I'm stressed because my football teams not winning, I'm not going for an extra beer because I'd blow my brain. And I'm going to get to a healthy way because I love my brain. That's a change. That's why I think God put me on the earth. I wanted to do something. I was just thinking about it as you were speaking then about the one simple thing that I can do to help my brain and to love my brain. When you think about behaviors and habits that are popular and trendy at the moment, are there any that stand out to you as being particularly good for the brain or particularly bad for the brain?

1:48:56Because I had a couple come to mind that I wanted to throw at you. One of them that's exploding in the UK at the moment is paddle, which is kind of I think you call it pickleball here. Good for my brain, bad for my brain. Good for your brain. Really good. Do you know what my brain? When you scan my brain, you told me that you said for the next six months, do you need you to take some omega three, do this, do this, do this, and I'd like you to play more racket sports. I built a paddle court in my garden. So I have a paddle court in my garden in Cape Town. And I love playing it now. And when I play it all the time, I said, Dr.

1:49:30Amin said it's good for my brain. But it's exploding. It's exploding across Europe really, but it really across much of the world now. And here in the US too. Oh, really? And it's so good for your brain. Because it's working your cerebellum. And I told you that because yours was sleepy. And as you activate this and you do that with coordination exercises, it then activates your frontal lobes. Does that mean that people that are uncoordinated have a cerebellum issue? Yes. Oh, really? Okay. And the more you do it, the better coordination you develop. And that's why coordination exercises for kids.

1:50:16So we talked about kids. And the most important thing is that you have to be able to do that with them early. Play sports, but not sports where they're going to get a head injury, right? I mean, we have to be smarter than we are. But when I was young, my mother, who's now 93, was the ping pong champion in the neighborhood. And she was really good. And she never let us beat her until we cut. But she was always encouraging. I've got, I was looking at it as you're speaking about different trends at the moment that are really good, bad for the brain. And one big trend at the moment is neuroplasticity training.

1:51:03Lots of people are doing games and using other things to, like, there's apps you can get that are neuroplasticity training apps. Does any of that stuff work? Some of them. Some of it works. And if you're, so for example, if you're doing memorization games, do them while you're on the bike. Now, not in the street, but if you're on a stationary bike, and you're doing those games, it's been found that exercise increases blood flow to the hippocampus. Meaning you're more likely to remember it and your strengthening your brain in the process. So exercise with new learning. Stunner. So if I want to learn something, I should do it while walking or moving in motion.

1:51:57Right. So if you're listening to a language app, do it while you're walking. Mindfulness and meditation, good or bad for the brain. Great. I published three studies on a Kundalini yoga form of meditation called Kirtin Kriya. It's a 12 -minute meditation. I always say it's a perfect ADD meditation because it's only 12 minutes. And for 12 minutes, you do this. Sa ta na ma. Sa ta na ma. Sa ta na ma. It's two minutes out loud, two minutes whispering, four minutes silently to yourself, two minutes whispering, two minutes out loud, you're done. Sa ta na ma. Birth, life, death, reborn, birth, life, death, reborn.

1:52:42But the one we studied is Sa ta na ma. And so if they look at a Kirtin Kriya, activates your cerebellum, activates your frontal lobes, comes down in your emotional brain. People who did that for 12 minutes or eight weeks, their resting frontal lobe function was stronger. So simple. What the hell is going on there? I think it's the focused attention plus you're doing a coordination meditation, Sa ta na ma.

1:53:28Cold therapy, cold exposure therapy, ice bath, those kinds of things. Good or bad for the brain? I think you have to be careful with it because it can trigger atrial fibrillation. I think taking a cold shower is probably good for your brain because it's going to short term increase dopamine and sort of give you a job. Loving your job? Absolutely. Great for your brain. If you're learning new things, people who are in a job that does not require new learning, have a higher incidence of Alzheimer's disease. So if you're stagnant in your work, you have a higher risk of Alzheimer's. And like, if I just read Brain Scans all day, well, I know how to do it.

1:54:17I'm not learning anything new. So I do that. But I also am writing about something I don't know about. Or I'm learning something new. What if you're working with oscillals? I'm sorry. I love the job, but I'm working with oscillals. Bad for your brain. Chronic stress increases cortisol. And I think everybody should sort of know they're baseline cortisol level. And cortisol shrinks the hippocampus and puts fat on your belly. So that's two very bad things for your brain. Breathwork. That's a big track. Excellent. Excellent. You want to break a panic attack? The 15 second breath. Four seconds in. Hold it for a second and a half.

1:55:11Eight seconds out. Hold it for a second and a half. You just do that four or five times. Your whole nervous system will calm down. And the research shows take twice as long to breathe out. As you breathe in. That's why four seconds in. Eight seconds out. It shifts your nervous system, doesn't it? Yes. And increases something called vagal tone. Okay, some bad things then. Social media usage, chronic social media usage. Good for the brain, bad for the brain. Because you're constantly comparing yourself to people who aren't real. What about workaholism and household culture? So I love my work. Am I addicted to it?

1:56:00I don't know. But I love it.

1:56:05When they say people are workaholics and it's bad for the brain, it's there working with assholes or doing something they don't like. Or doing it for the money but without other purpose. Microplastics. That's a big truffle for the brain. One of the major causes of hormone disruption and cancer. And other environments. Thank you for not giving me a plastic water bottle. That's okay. Imagine if we did that. A lot of time these days talking about the microplastics and other environmental toxins that I think people are becoming more aware of now, which is good. Noise pollution. Bad for the brain. And if it hurts your hearing, hearing loss is actually one of the risk factors for Alzheimer's.

1:57:01Why is that? Because you're not getting input. Right. And if you're not getting appropriate input, your brain starts to atrophy. And if you don't hear what other people are saying and you have a lot of ants, you have a high negativity bias, is you can actually begin to get a bit paranoid and fill in the empty spaces with negativity. I just bought some new Apple AirPods. And when I connected them to my phone, it said, you want to do a hearing test. So I did the hearing test. And then I asked my girlfriend, I said, you should do this hearing test as well, because I needed something to compare it to.

1:57:42And I was a little bit shocked. It said I hadn't lost any hearing yet. But my hearing was significantly not as good as hers. And I remember thinking, gosh. You know, this is, but I didn't have any idea that it was linked to Alzheimer's at all. So now I've turned down the volume for the first time in my life, because I think you're hearing declines regardless, really, of what you do with age anyway. But as you said earlier, like starting from a better baseline when you're talking about the brain reserves is really the game, I think, with aging. My last point is, my last question is a bit of a seems to be uncorrelated, but the world is heading towards a world that's driven by artificial intelligence.

1:58:24It's like all the rage at the moment, if you log on the internet, people talking about they're going to lose their jobs, all of these new tools that allow us to optimize our lives in a variety of different ways. When you think about the world of AI that we're heading into, there's so many ways that I imagine it's going to make your job easier as someone who's doing scans of brains and so on. But do you think artificial intelligence is going to be good or bad for our brains? I think in the short run it's going to be bad, because your brain is going to do less, and that's bad for the brain. I think it's fascinating to watch what's going to happen.

1:59:06And ultimately, in the words of my friend, Byron Katie, argue with reality, welcome to hell. We need to figure out how to use it to enhance our lives, rather than to steal brain development. And so much of technology, you haven't talked about this, has stolen brain development. When video games came into my house, was actually 1987, I remember, my son was 11. He was a straight -A student, and then he wasn't. And then we started fighting about, it's like you can play for a half an hour, and then I took it out of the house, because I saw it as an agent of thrilling his brain to death, deadening the dopamine structures.

2:00:05And then I've watched this whole group of kids grow up with very cool video games that are, I think, damaging their brain. So unleash technology without any neuroscience study on the impact of brain development. It's a bad idea. Our brain's getting bigger or smaller. Does anybody know? I don't know. I was wondering if it's an interesting question. We can ask you that G -P -T. Well, it thinks for you, this is the thing. When caution with G -P -T, it sucks if you ask it for medical advice. It often will make mistakes. And so there are other sites that I trust more. Social connections, obviously, another point on that, because there's now sore articles where men are getting into relationships with an AI character of a woman they like.

2:01:10And, you know, social connection is so good for the brain. So I wonder if artificial social connection is going to, is probably not great for the brain. Because your brain doesn't have to work as hard with an artificial, especially when you created. Right. Your brain is, when you're with like another real person, your brain has to do a lot more calculations to make that work than with someone you can just trash it. Well, your program, if it's open, wouldn't you? If you're making a friend or partner yourself, what's the most important thing we haven't talked about that we should have talked about, Doctor?

2:01:51I think purpose. And what is purpose, Matt? Connection to a higher power. Well, I always think when I assess patients, of them in four big circles, it's like, what's the biology? We talked a lot about the brain. What's the psychology? So we talked about development a little bit, and trauma, and ants. What's the social circle? Like what's going on in your life now, and who we're connected with, and we talked about love. But we didn't really talk about this spiritual circle, which is, so what's the point? Why am I here? Am I here because of random chance, because of an explosion that happened billions of years ago?

2:02:43Or do I believe in creative design, where I'm really created for a purpose that is to make the world a better place? And I find people who live without purpose have a higher incidence of depression, have a higher incidence of loneliness, have a higher incidence of dementia. And so I encourage all of my patients to seek and live with purpose. That's one of the reasons the One Page Maricle is so important to me. What do I want? Relationships, work, money, physical, emotional, spiritual, health, which is really the why question. And a lot of my colleagues go, well, how can you believe in God if you're a scientist?

2:03:44And I'm like, do you know anything about physics? That the second law of physics is entropy. Things go from order to disorder. I'm like, I think there's an order to this and that I'm here talking to you and there's a purpose behind it that's greater than me. Studies suggest that religious belief can be associated with differences in brain structure and function. While there is no single religious brain, certain patterns have been observed in neuroscience research. The prefrontal cortex involved in decision -making, mortality and self -regulation tends to be more active in religious individuals.

2:04:32And their right temporal lobe tends to be bigger. There's another study with that. And if there is a God, and we communicate with God, there's got to be a neuroscience mechanism for that. And Michael Persinger is a researcher at a University of Laurentian University in Canada. He would put helmets on people and give them low -volt electrical activity. And whenever he would stimulate the right temporal lobe, people would get a sensed presence. They would actually feel the presence of God in the room. I think that's so interesting. And does that mean that the brain makes up God or that the brain has pathways to experience God?

2:05:32I think it's an interesting question. I actually did a study on prayer. We have a foundation called the Change Your Brain Foundation. And we raised money for research, education, service. And I did a prayer study of conversational prayer, I pray for you. And speaking in tongues, which is channeling the Holy Spirit in Christian tradition. And it was so interesting. And there's actually been other studies, Andrew Nuburg, who studied channelers in Brazil. They would channel the dead. And the idea is, if you're going to channel an outside spirit, you have to turn down the noise in your brain so that you can sort of hear the other frequencies.

2:06:27And that was our hypothesis. And 60 % of our subjects dropped their brain activity when they were speaking in tongues. It was so interesting. One completely activated the dopamine centers. So I'm looking at them like, I bet you do this a lot. Prayer. Prayer can change the brain. I mean, we talked about meditation changing the brain. And Dr. Nuburg again studied Tibetan monks while they meditated and Franciscan nuns while they prayed and they found very similar changes. Strengthens the prefrontal cortex, reduces stress and anxiety, increases dopamine, changes brain connectivity, thickens the cortex, promotes neuroplasticity, if you pray.

2:07:20Now, what if you're not religious? Because I don't think I believe in any particular god. But I would like some of these benefits. So I guess I could achieve them by meditation and those kinds of things. I could still pray. I've got no issue with praying. I don't know what it would be praying. And you could be curious. Yeah, I've got no issue with praying. I just don't know what it would be praying to. I pray to the universe, I guess. Spirituality is another big trend. I wonder if that's good for the brain. I think it depends. Is it a healthy tradition or is it an unhealthy tradition? And I've seen both.

2:07:59I've seen some religions being very rigid and shaming. I've seen others be more open and seeking. You've scoundra 260 ,000 brains roughly. How has that, if it all changed, your belief in a god?

2:08:28I believed in God since I can remember. And there's not been one thing in my life that's caused me to not believe. So I always thought going back to the second law of physics that if it's random chance, it just doesn't make sense that randomly we would get a brain cell that has DNA and a mitochondria. It's statistically impossible. And I'm just like, we are so beautifully made. I just don't get the whole thing. So one thing we haven't talked about is the LA fires. And the impact of disaster on the brain. And I grew up in Los Angeles. And I'm just horrified by what happened.

2:09:42And we talked, my foundation is actually going to give away a hundred evaluations for firefighters. And I almost feel bad. I decided the big NFL study end was really cool. And it was a lot of fun for me. But NFL players aren't heroes. They're entertainers. Firefighters are heroes. First responders are heroes. And what I've seen with firefighters, this makes me so sad. Because they have damaged brains. Often because of the toxins that they're exposed to. The emotional trauma that goes with that job. And the head trauma that also goes with this, with things falling on them. And they have a higher suicide rate than the general population significantly higher.

2:10:44And it's like 25 % higher. And shouldn't we be teaching them about brain health and go, hey, look, this is a brain damaging job. But we need you to do it. So all the way along, let's see and repair your brain. Let's make sure your reserve is something special. Rather than we had a really bad day at work. Let's go get drunk together. Let's elevate brain health to the people who say those.

2:11:38Why is that emotion so raw for you? Just thinking of what happened. One of my close friends lost his home. And then he went to work and did a consult for me. I'm just blown away by him. But, you know, we're so close to the sadness of what happened. And I have a clinic that we had to evacuate. And I have doctors that they had to evacuate. The group trauma is so high. And yet the people who care for us, we're not doing a good job of caring for them. And I think I have parted the answer.

2:12:34And I just wish I could do more. Incredibly kind of need to offer to Sky 105, right? Yeah. And hopefully is our foundation, you know, can raise money. We can do thousands of them. How does one go about supporting your foundation? Where do we go to support it? So change your brain .org. Change your brain .org. We have a closing tradition, as you know, where the last guest leaves a question for the next. And the question left for you is what advice would you give a couple who want to start a family? I love that question so much. If you want to start a family, you have to get your bodies ready. So she was born with all the eggs she'll ever have.

2:13:33And you want to give them time, like a year or more, of good nutrition. And the child. No, no, the mom. Okay. So my part, I'm someone that wants to start a family. So you want to go what I'm eating, what I'm thinking, the stress I'm under is going to impact the next generation. What are the right brain and body habits that we both can do? To get our bodies in the best shape? Is this good for my brain and body? Or is it bad for it? And really focus on good. You know, a lot of people who are drinking, they actually stop drinking when they find out they're pregnant. Remember, the brain develops at day 21.

2:14:34You may not even know your pregnant at day 21. But that role around your head a little bit. So I love this question is, oh, I can start to get my brain and my ovaries and my sperm ready to connect, to be healthy. So I think that's the advice I would give them. Dr. Daniel Eman, thank you so much once again for your time. And thank you for the wisdom and value you've given to my audience over the years. As I was saying before we started filming, I get stopped all the time everywhere I go. People telling me about you, I told you I was stopped yesterday. Well, I was having a spa treatment. Or it's say what it is because people will roast me.

2:15:16But I was having the first first of a, if it's kind for me, spa treatment. And the lady turned to me 20 minutes in and was like, by the way, thank you so much for having done you, Dr. Daniel Eman on because he helped me understand my ADHD. Etc. Etc. Etc. So when I see that absolute love and admiration for you in the comments section every time where people recount stories from decades ago where their kid came to see you and how you've transformed their life. I actually think the top comment on our last episode was someone who I think they came to see you 15 years ago. And they said that you changed their son's life.

2:15:48And that was just over and over and over and over again in the comments. So the life you've lived is such an important one. And it's added so much value and hope and so many. It's turned on the lights for so many people in so many ways. So on behalf of all those people and on behalf of the tens of millions of people who've tuned into our conversations. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Well, Stephen, thank you. The last time I was on we've got calls from all over the world. I mean, obviously you're doing amazing purposeful work. Thank you. Isn't this cool? Every single conversation I have here on the Darivisio at the very end of it you'll know.

2:16:25I asked the guest to leave a question in the Darivisio. And what we've done is we've turned every single question written in the Darivisio into these conversation cards that you can play at home. So you've got every guest we've ever had their question. And on the back of it, if you scan that QR code, you get to watch the person who answered that question. We're finally revealing all of the questions and the people that answered the question. The brand new version two updated conversation cards are out right now at the conversation cards dot com. They sold out twice instantaneously. So if you are interested in getting hold of some limited edition conversation cards, I really, really recommend acting quickly.

2:17:12This has always blown my mind a little bit. 53 % of you that listen to this show regularly haven't yet subscribed to this show. So could I ask you for a favor before we start? If you like the show and you like what we do here and you want to support us, the free simple way that you can do just that is by hitting the subscribe button. And my commitment to you is if you do that, then I'll do everything in my power, me and my team, to make sure that this show is better for you every single week. We'll listen to your feedback. We'll find the guess that you want me to speak to. And we'll continue to do what we do.

2:17:40Thank you so much.

2:18:04Thank you.