Change Your Brain Every Day

Over half of all homes have water damage of some form or another. It's therefore crucial to test for the presence of mold, the "mitochondrial kryptonite" that may very well be secretly wearing down your health, subjecting you to such dysfunctions as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lyme Disease, and Fibromyalgia.

In this episode of The Brain Warrior's Way Podcast, Dave Asprey discusses the mitochondria with Dr. Amen and Tana. Learn how you can help the "power cells" in your body in order to be less stressed, less inflamed, and even nicer to be around.

Dave Asprey is a Silicon Valley investor and technology entrepreneur, the creator of Bulletproof Coffee, a New York Times bestselling author, and host of the top rated health podcast, Bulletproof Radio. In this episode of the Brain Warrior's Way Podcast, Dave talks with Daniel and Tana about how fixing a "hardware problem" led to finishing business school and setting out on a new path to success.

Sending your child off to college doesn't necessarily mean your parenting duties are over. Today we learn about ways you can help your child transition into a self-sufficient adult.

Problematic teens are normal. At least, that's what many parents think. But today, we're going to find out if there's any basis to say if it is indeed a normal, helpless case or if there's anything we can do to resolve this.

It's always a question of when or how should I get started. So today, we'll have Dr. Jim Fay guide us on how to get things started and moving forward when implementing the principles of Love and Logic

He's become one of America's most sought after presenters in the fields of parenting, positive discipline, and classroom management. Along with Foster Cline, MD, he's the co-founder of The Love and Logic Institute and co-author of the bestseller, Parenting with Love and Logic. Jim Fay has over 30 years of experience in education, serving in public, private and parochial schools in a variety of roles including elementary education, art and music teacher, school principal and administrator. He's been consulting and speaking about parenting and education for more than 30 years founding the school, Consultant Services, which is the sister company to the Cline Fay Institute in 1977.

Cholesterol it seems has been demonized and most of the times painted like a monster, but the truth is, it's not as bad as you think it is. Today, we're going to find out exactly when it's good and when it's bad for you.

We hope you're enjoying your weekend. Today's episode is the third installment in our four part The Amen Solution Q&A session. Enjoy your weekend treat.

Statistics show that 30% of America has high blood pressure and another 30% are pre-hypertensive. This is a huge number and it's terribly dangerous. However, there's something you can do about it to turn things around to reduce if not eliminate your possibility of getting hypertensive. Be sure to listen to the full episode to learn the top three things you need to take care of for better blood pressure.

One interesting statistic, most people, men and women, 68% in fact, have their first heart attack at having had no previous symptoms. Today, we're going to talk about inflammation and how devastating this can be to your heart and brain if left unchecked.

Today's podcast is the first of our four-part series with Dr. Mark Houston. Dr. Houston is selected as one of the top physicians in hypertension in the United States; selected as one of the most influential doctors in the U.S. in both hypertension and lipidemia and the author of over 250 medical articles, scientific abstracts, and seven best-selling books, including one of my favorite books. It's What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Heart Disease. He is an internist, a cardiologist, he's an associate clinical professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University.

As your kids start to make their own choices, it is important that in the early stage, they are educated and trained to make the RIGHT choices. And the truth is, realistically, that is not what's happening in many homes. So today, we're going to share with you some actionable steps that you can do to give your children a better health by helping them make the right food choices.

ADD is predominantly inherited and genetically passed from one to another. Today, we're going to find out if brain trauma related ADD can be inherited as well.

This weekend, we're bringing you the second part of our Q&A sessions for The Amen Solution. Be sure to head back to Episode 99 if you haven't listened to it. We hope you enjoy.

This episode is a continuation of our four part Healing ADD coaching call where we've answered a wide variety of questions on ADD.

Today's episode is part of an ADD coaching call that was recorded. My experience with ADD over decades now is many people with ADD use negative thinking, use fear as a way to stimulate their brains. So today, we're going to discuss this issue and answer a couple other questions about ADD. Watch out for part two of this coaching call.

We have a very special guest today, Dr David DeRose, who wrote a book called 30 Days to Natural Blood Pressure Control. Dr DeRose is a board certified specialist in internal medicine and preventive medicine, he also holds a master in Public Health with an emphasis in health promotion and health education, that's what you and I do all the time. He currently serves as president of Compass Health Consulting where he helps develop media resources and services that enable individuals and groups to better harness lifestyle and other natural therapies.

In this episode, we're going to discuss the characteristics of an "ideal" parent. I know it can be challenging, but it's doable. Be sure to listen and chime in on your thoughts by visiting brainwarriorswaypodcast.com.

Today's episode is a milestone for us here at Brain Warrior's Way Podcast. We have officially reached our 100th episode and we are just thrilled with this new achievement. So before anything else, we just want to say thank you for all your support. What we're going to talk about today has something to do with our children, our teenage children to be exact and the reason why we're doing this is simple, we love them and they are the hope of this nation, they are the future generation.

To be a parent of someone who has ADD or ADHD is not easy. It's really important to be educated. So today, we're answering some common questions on how you should manage your kids who have ADD or ADHD but still maintaining your supportive role as a parent and ensuring that you don't lose your temper. We'll also tackle other questions including pot use, resource recommendations for someone dairy allergic.

Today's episode is from our coaching calls where we've taken questions and here we'll have them answered for you.

If you're having a hard time sleeping, have sleep apnea or snore, then this episode is for you. Today, we're going to talk about how you can enhance your sleep to get you back on track to a better health.

Technology and gadgets are good, that's without a question, but one area that's making them a curse is the fact that gadgets and technology can rob much of your time to sleep. Today, we're going to talk about that and a couple more topics about how we are getting rob of the sleep that we need.

We've heard not once or twice but a gazillion times why sleep is important. But today, we're echoing that again and this time we'll have an expert in this area. Today's guest is Shawn Stevenson. Shawn is the best selling author of Sleep Smarter and the creator of the Model Health show featured as the number one heath podcast on iTunes with millions of listener downloads each year. A graduate of the University of Missouri St Louis, Shawn studied Business, Biology and Kinesiology and went on to be the founder of Advanced Integrative Health Alliance. A company that provides wellness services for individuals and organizations world wide.

NOTE: If you have not yet listened to the first three episodes of this five part series, we highly recommend that you get back to The Toxin Solution Parts 1,2,&3. Now that you know how horrifying these toxins, today we're going to learn some tips on how you detoxify your body effectively.

NOTE: If you have not yet listened to the first two episodes of this five part series, we highly recommend that you get back to The Toxin Solution, Parts 1&2. There are various ways toxins are introduced into our system and one inevitable factor is the environment that we live in. Listen to this episode as we discuss the toxic role of molds.

NOTE: If you have not yet listened to the first episode of this five part series, we highly recommend that you get back to The Toxin Solution Part 1. In this episode, we'll be talking about the importance of being aware of the things/products that we are using or consuming and ensure that we don't expose ourselves to unnecessary toxics.

Today's episode is first in five parts of our interview with Dr. Joseph Pizzorno. Dr Pizzorno is the founder of Bastyr University and best selling author. He wrote the book , The Toxin Solution, which will be the center of this five part series.

Whether it's in business or personal communication, your voice matters. But there's really something more you can do to get the best voice you can possibly have and it all starts with being mindful of simple things such as your breathing. In today's podcast, you'll learn some of the techniques to get that voice you probably never thought you could have.

Can your brain be affected by your voice? Listen to this episode and learn what Roger Love thinks about your voice in relation to your brain.

Did you ever think about your voice as an asset? Well, you might not be a singing sensation or a diva, but today we'll talk about why your voice matters. In this episode, we'll be joined by renowned voice coach who've handled celebrities like Reese Witherspoon, Joaquin Phoenix, and many other Grammy winning artist, Roger Love. Roger Love is also the author of the book Set Your Voice Free.

Wondering what the new trends are in dealing with ADHD? Listen to this episode and get to know what Neurofeedback is and why it's gaining popularity.

Do you ever find yourself asking if you should take medication for an ailment or just leave it because of your perceived side effects? That's what we're going to discuss today. In particular, ADD and ADHD and we'll weigh the pros and cons of taking Ritalin.

There are many things that can dilute the intimacy between couples. In this episode we'll talk about how sleep apnea and snoring can be detrimental to your intimate relationships and your brain's role in it.

Today's episode we're going to talk about love and sex and how the brain is affected by these two charged emotional events in our lives. We've talked a lot about sex in this podcast and if you haven't heard our previous episodes, check out episodes 16 and 61.

Losing someone is hard, emotionally, but does it have any impact on your brain? That's what we're going to find out in today's episode.

Since we are on the love month and only a day away from Valentines, we're starting a series called The Brain in Love. So today, we're going to talk about, what if you can choose the one you love?

Today's episode is the episode for every female who just wants to make something different in her life and in her health. We'll be discussing about some interesting topics on genes, diets, and how you can turn things around with your old school health plan to something that's workable, possible, and believable health and wellness strategy.

There are people who suffer from chronic illnesses who take a handful of medicine every day. It's like a common scenario that we've learned to accept as the norm. However, as people become more aware of using food as a medicine and not just as a way to nourish their body, diet as treatment has gained popularity. The question now is, can diet help treat chronic illnesses? Listen to this episode and know the answer.

Hormones are what makes our body's processes work like a well oiled machine. When one of the many hormones suddenly gets disrupted whether it shoots up or goes down, we'll see and feel the effects of it. Similarly, the lifestyle that we have can either make things better or it can also make things worst. In today's episode, we'll talk exactly about how these two factors play an important role in our brain health.

There are a number of ailments and injuries that can greatly affect our brain functions, and probably the two most common which we're going to talk about today is head trauma and cardiac arrest. If you want to know how these two can affect your brain functions, be sure to listen to this short podcast.

Today's episode, we're going to answer another set of questions that I think is essential for our understanding of our brain health. Please be sure that you subscribe so you don't miss out any of the new episodes we release everyday, except Sunday.

We are on our third episode for this series of questions and answers and in each episode, we hope that you're learning new things to help you be more aware and conscious about your brain health. In today's discussion, we're going to answer a couple of questions on who and when should you get yourself a brain scan and why you need it specially during the advance years starting at 40. Enjoy!

In this second part of our Q&A, you'll learn why contact sports should be shunned by your kids and what alternative sports you should choose. We've also answered the question on what is the role of inflammation in Alzheimers.

Dr. Daniel Emina is a child/adolescent and adult psychiatrist who earned his medical degree from the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine, and completed his general residency in psychiatry and child/adolescent fellowship at the University of Hawaii Department of Psychiatry. His training was modeled on a bio/psych/social/spiritual/cultural understanding of an individual and featured a diverse patient population. In this brief interview, we'll get to know Dr. Emina's three most important lessons he has learned while working at the Amen Clinic. FULL TRANSCRIPT Dr. Amen: Hey everybody. Dr. Daniel Amen. I'm here with Dr. Daniel Emina. Dr. Emina: Two Daniels. Dr. Amen: We are here in our Northern California Clinic in Walnut Creek. We are going to talk about the three biggest lessons that Daniel who has worked with us for the last two and a half years has learned working at Amen Clinics. Daniel is double board certified psychiatrist. He trained at UCLA and at the University of Hawaii. You know I did my child psychiatry training at Tripler along with University of Hawaii. In both of our psychiatric training they never taught us to look at the brain. Isn't that nuts? When you think about it, it's nuts. When you think after being here two and half years, what are some of the big lessons you've learned? What comes to mind? Dr. Emina: First thing is, I think I'm extremely spoiled being here. It's drastically changed the way I understand mental health. I don't even think of it as mental health anymore, I think of it as brain health. I think that almost everyone should come in and start to think of how can I make my brain better? No matter what diagnosis you may have had before, I usually start to think well, don't think of it like that, just think of it as how can I optimize my brain? You could come in and be a CEO of a company doing extremely well technically in life but there's things you can always do to optimize your brain. Lesson one for me is it's not really mental health anymore. I'm not necessarily a mental health doctor now, I'm a brain health doctor now. Dr. Amen: So whether it's ADD, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and addictions, schizophrenia, or you're fighting with your wife or you're irritable with your kids- Dr. Emina: Or don't sleep as well or you just want to be even better at the tasks you do everyday, whatever that may be at home, at work, whatever it may be because ultimately it's your brain that controls everything you do. Dr. Amen: Okay so you see mental health as brain health. I think that's like a huge 'aha' for me. I've learned nobody really wants to see a psychiatrist. Nobody wants to be labeled as defective or abnormal but everybody wants a better brain. Nobody would argue with you, "No I don't want a better brain." They do. It decreases the stigma which is one of the things that hooked me early on with scans is patient stops thinking of it as a moral problem, as a problem of not trying hard enough, but as a medical problem. Dr. Emina: Yes. I should add that as being my second biggest thing in some ways. I've been so spoiled to have this tool. I'm trying to imagine not having this tool, practicing without this tool. It completely changes the way I see clients as they come in with whatever concern they may have. Even concerns related to people who have been labeled as personality disorders and things like that. Now you get to see what they were trying to deal with all this time. A lot of our coping mechanisms whether good or maladaptive, a bad coping strategy, are based on how we try to manage that brain we have. Lesson number two for me, the biggest was, you have to look at the organ you're treating. I'm trying to imagine if, you definitely talked about this, if I'm a cardiologist I have to kind of imagine, well based on what you're telling me potentially this is what's going on with your heart. This has completely changed the way I understand clients. Dr. Amen: Not acceptable. It's just not acceptable. I remember working on a new book and writing about chronic fatigue syndrome and back in the early '90s when I started doing scans the idea of chronic fatigue, oh you're a psychiatric patient, you're histrionic or there's secondary gain. There's a gain from being sick and then when you saw their scans, they were just devastated like the infectious scans you see. And all of the sudden it just completely changes everything on how you deal with this person. Of course they're hysterical. Their brain is not working right and they can't think. That'll make you terrible, act that way. Dr. Emina: In some ways that actually connects into my last big lesson is that because now that I can look at scans you tend to see that the other things that contribute to whatever someone is coming in complaining about. All of the sudden if you see a brain that looks extremely unhealthy, you probably have to think that this person isn't just depressed. Maybe there's something else that's happe

If you love the first part of this FB Live on Daniel's Plan Q&A session, you'll sure love this part two where we answered some great questions on motication, emotional eating and more. FULL TRANSCRIPT Daniel Amen: This next question is really good. What do you recommend to help me maintain my motivation? I'm good for a week, and then motivation goes out the window. What do you think? Tana Amen: I would say that this is where knowing your why and having it firmly planted in your head, and not making it about something temporary ... Daniel Amen: Put it up where you can see it every day. Tana Amen: Absolutely. Daniel Amen: The Daniel Plan book actually have an exercise we call the one page miracle. On one piece of paper, write down what you want, and then ask yourself every day, "Does my behavior get me what I want?" Tana Amen: That's what I was going to say, and it's really what you need to do. When I was training for my black belt test ... Daniel Amen: Did you say that I was brilliant? Tana Amen: Brilliant. You're brilliant. I love you. Daniel Amen: Could we say it one more time? Tana Amen: You are brilliant, my love. Daniel Amen: Thank you. Tana Amen: When I was training for my black belt test, you know that was six years of hard work, and there were times where I'm like, "Okay. I'm just done. I'm tired. It's hard. This is hard. I'm tired of getting bruises and whatever," but what I did was keep ... Stop looking at me like that. He thinks I'm crazy. I kept these signs, and motivational quotes, and things like that around the room where I trained, and that really helped me. I kept pictures of amazing people that inspire me, and the end result, and I kept what my goal was at the end firmly planted, so that I didn't lose sight of it just because I was tired. Daniel Amen: Motivation and why go hand in hand. You have to know your why, and it has to be so important you just stick with it. I wanted to go to medical school. It was a big endeavor, but I wanted to do that, so everything else became around that goal. You just want to know why you want to be healthy. I find I'm my own worst enemy. How can I change this about myself? It's true for everybody who is not healthy that you're your own worst enemy, because you're not focused on being well. That's why Tana and I wrote a book called The Brain Warriors Way, because it's a war. If you're not armed, prepared and aware, then our society is not set up for your health. Our society is set up for your illness. Tana Amen: One thing I would probably say about that, because I think we all have, at some time in our lives, done this sabotage thing. Most of us have done a self-sabotage thing at some point in our lives, and if you look at why you do that and you really figure it out ... What I like to do is have people think about the times, because probably most likely, at some point in your lives, you've, also, really succeeded. You've done something really well. Even if it was when you were in seventh grade and you made the cheerleading team, or the basketball team, or whatever it was, think about that time, what you did, what went into that, and really break it down step by step. Did you go to sleep earlier? Did you practice? Were you just really focused on it and really serious about it? Break it down step by step. Chances are, there's a formula there, and if you apply that same formula and you look at what you're doing now that is sabotaging you, I bet you you can see that there's a big gap in what you're doing now and what you did then to be very successful. Daniel Amen: I'm going to bunch these two questions. How do I overcome emotional eating? I find that food is the first place to go when I'm sad, stressed, or bored. I'm going to combine that with what do you recommend to help with cravings and sugar? I want sugar all day long. Ultimately, sugar and foods that quickly turn to sugar, bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, sugar, cause an insulin response in your body. What that means, your body sees sugar. Your pancreas produces a lot of insulin in that way to drive the sugar into your cells. One of the other things it, also, does is it works on an amino acid called tryptophan and drives tryptophan into your brain. Why do you care about that? Tryptophan is the amino acid building block for serotonin. It makes you happy, so, yes, brownies, cupcakes, rocky road ice cream, they all make you happy short term. They give you inflammation, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, depression and Alzheimer's Disease long term. You want to go short term benefit, long term problem. There are other ways to increase serotonin. Exercise is one. I think you actually use exercise as an anti-depressant. Tana Amen: Yes. Daniel Amen: When you're having a craving, go for a walk, and then there's supplements like 5HTP and saffron that can help naturally boost serotonin in the brain. Tana Amen: I want to touch on something, too. That's absolutely true, and here's the really, really simple thing you can do

The Daniel Plan is a groundbreaking program that will equip you with practical tools and resources to help you get into the best shape of your health. In this episode, we've answered some questions from our audience which we hope can also help you understand better what is in store for you if you get yourself into this program. If you haven't seen this, check out the Daniel Plan website. FULL TRANSCRIPT Tana: Hi everyone. We are so excited to be here today answering questions about the detox, the talk we did last weekend, right? Dr. Amen: For the Daniel Plan. Tana: Right. Dr. Amen: Which is a book, program that Mark Hyman, Rick Warren, and I wrote. Tanner was one of the coaches on that. It goes perfectly with the philosophy of what we have been teaching for a long time. Tana: We're not schitzophrenic, we're looking at three different cameras. Just so you know, okay? We are trying to include. Dr. Amen: Is that definition of not being schitzophrenic? Tana: Right. We are trying include all of you. We're being inclusive. Dr. Amen: So, we're gonna answer questions. We got a lot of 'em and actually one of my favorite ones is "I hate cooking, any tips for the non-cooker?" Tana: You're gonna give me away aren't you? He's gonna throw me under bus right now. Dr. Amen: When I met her, she couldn't cook if fact I prayed. Tana: Yes. Dr. Amen: Fervently, that she wouldn't cook. Tana: It's true. Dr. Amen: Because it was like a bomb would go off in the kitchen. Tana: I did not learn how to cook until actually, probably when we got together, and Daniel says I went from disaster to master. There's a reason for that. It was because I actually, here's the secret even though I've written eight cook books, I don't love to cook, okay? I love to serve my family so I think part of the secret is that you focus on what's important to you. If it's, cooking, you know some people love to cook but if you don't love cooking, focus on the reason you're doing it. I did it because I wanted to be healthy and I couldn't go out at the time, to just all these great, healthy restaurants. There are still not that many of them but also because I wanted to serve my family. I didn't want my daughter growing up in the same sort of food chaos that I grew up in and so I learned how to do it. One of my biggest tips, the thing I would give to you is find ten things that you love that are super easy. Like the chicken wings that I make for my family, super easy recipe, I know I can do it in fifteen minutes and the preparation's just incredibly simple. I have 10 or 15 recipes that my family loves that I know are easy and from there, you'll start to branch out. Dr. Amen: "I am new to the Daniel Plan. I read the book and watched the videos. Where is the best place to start?" What would you say? Tana: I think that this might be different for everybody because I think that, like you talk about a lot, is tiny habits. I think that probably the thing that's easiest for you to master might be the thing to do. If drinking water sounds easy to you, start with drinking water. If cleaning out your pantry, we'd probably recommend that for all of you but master one thing. Clean out your pantry. Fill your pantry with good things. Drink water. Take small habits though and start to them expand them and whatever one feels the easiest to master, that's where I would start. What would you say? Dr. Amen: The Daniel Plan is based on five pillars, faith, why do you care? Ask yourself and answer that question. Now, I never want to be a burden to my family. I want to live with great energy. I'm completely vain and I want to be in the same size pants I was in when I was 18. What's your motivation? Why do you care? Food, is this good for me or bad for me? It's really about a relationship with food but just start asking yourself this question. Will this serve my health or with this hurt my health? Fitness, brand new study I told you about this, if you're 80 years old and you walk at a three mile an hour pace, you have a 90% chance to live until you're ninety. If you can only walk at a one mile an hour pace, you have a 90% chance you will not live until you're 90 so start walking faster. I always tell everybody walk like you're late. Faith, food, fitness, focus, stop believing every stupid thought you have. Whenever you're sad, mad, nervous or out of control. Start journaling just start writing down what you're thinking and friends. People get better together or they get sick together. The thing I say over and over again that I just believe, the fastest way to get healthy is to find the healthiest people you can stand and then spend as much time around him or her as possible. Get the Daniel Plan. Do it with a friend. Tana: Couldn't agree more. Dr. Amen: If you could buy a copy for yourself and buy one for someone else and you do it as a group, you just get better faster. Just pick something really simple from each of those five pillars and go I'm doing that today. Tana: Yeah, so I like

Join us in another lively discussion as Dr Daniel Amen and Tana Amen, answer some of the most interesting questions surrounding ADD, ADHD, brain health, nutrition, sex, and more.

Whether it's in the family, in governments, or businesses, all these instutitions are in dire need of great leaders. In this episode of Brain Warrior's Podcast, we'll talk to Dr. John Townsend about the secret sauce of raising great leaders. Dr. Townsend works with leaders and organizations by providing team and executive coaching, corporate consulting, and by giving conference presentations. He coaches families and family businesses. John conducts the Townsend Leadership Program, developing leaders at sites nationwide. He also formed the Townsend Leadership Coach Group, which trains leaders to run their own training teams.