More Imaging Changes Everything Feat. Dr. Daniel Amen

You literally can change your brain, and when you do, you change your life. Imaging changed everything for my children because, in fact, if you dated one of my daughters for more than four months, you had to come to the clinic and get a scan. It's actually meet the parents. But worse, imaging changed my love life. After being in a long marriage that I wasn't very happy with, I was determined the next woman I would give my heart to, I would first see her brain. And so I got very attached to Tana. And two weeks later, she's in the clinic, she's getting scanned. Her brain is beautiful. Now she gets to stay.

So the exercise that everyone just did, there's one common theme and one thing that all of you required, all of you utilize in the process of doing that, could anyone think what that may be? Your brain. Exactly, your brain. So how well your brain is functioning has a lot to do with, you know, everything, problems you solve, your thought process. Not only is your brain your greatest asset, it could be your very worst enemy. And as seen recently with Robin Williams, you can see what can happen when an incredible genius level brain goes in the wrong direction. And our next presenter can speak to that in a much more qualified manner than probably anyone I know. So let me introduce him. So listen up, get your brains in gear, because my friend Daniel, Amen, he's going to be our next presenter. He's going to focus on that three and a third pound organ between your ears. Now, granted, maybe some of you have a lighter weight or heavier weight, but I think it's around three and a half pounds. It's your brain. And as a physician and a psychiatrist, Daniel's clinics have scanned over 90,000 brains from 111 countries. I've had a SPECT scan with Daniel and I went there with Dan Sullivan and Babs. The first time I actually had Daniel scan my brain. I recommend all of you do it. It's fascinating. His topic for us is how imaging changes everything. Everyone has a copy of Daniel's book, which is Healing add, the breakthrough program that allows you to see and heal the seven types of ADD. So give it up for Dr. Daniel. Amen.

Thank you. I am so excited to be here because what I get to do is talk about my obsession, which has been the brain. But I want to start with this slide.

I saw this recently.

If you knew a train was going to hit you, would you get out of the way? So that's going to become very important. It's 1991. I'm a psychiatrist, been a psychiatrist for about 10 years. And I order my first brain spec study. Spec looks at blood flow and activity. It looks at how your brain works. It's different than a CAT scan or an mri. Those are anatomy studies. So we're looking at function. So I'm the director of a dual diagnosis unit, a psychiatric hospital unit that takes care of drug addicts. So this is a healthy brain. This is an addicted brain. And right away, you realize why you shouldn't do drugs. It's because they damage your brain. I got so excited about this technology that I scanned everybody I knew, including myself. And when I scanned myself, this is my first scan. I was horrified. I'm like, why is it so bumpy? A health brain is fat and beautiful and smooth and even. And I was horrified because I don't drink. I've never used drugs. But I had meningitis when I was in the army when I was 18. And I had a lot of bad brain habits. And what I'm excited about, what our work is all about, 20 years later, my brain is younger. And it doesn't usually work that way. You literally can change your brain, and when you do, you change your life. Imaging changed everything for my children because, in fact, if you dated one of my daughters for more than four months, you had to come to the clinic and get a scan. It's actually meet the parents. But worse, imaging changed my love life. After being in a long marriage that I wasn't very happy with, I was determined the next woman I would give my heart to, I would first see her brain. And so I got very attached to Tana. And two weeks later, she's in the clinic, she's getting scanned. Her brain is beautiful. Now she gets to stay. Imaging literally changed absolutely everything I do with my own patients. So the current psychiatric model is you tell the doctor your symptoms, he gives you a diagnosis that actually is just a regurgitation of your symptoms, and then he gives you a medicine to attack the symptoms. So if you're depressed, you get a depression diagnosis, and you get an antidepressant. If you're anxious, you'll get an anxiety disorder diagnosis and medicine for that. My favorite to explain this is if you explode intermittently. If you have temper problems, they'll actually give you a diagnosis called intermittent explosive disorder. So think about that ied and then they don't know what to do. And did you know outcomes in psychiatry happen to be no better than they were in the 1950s? So it's psychiatry's dirty little secret. So when I started looking at people's brains. I'm like, oh, my goodness. Scans taught me that depression wasn't one thing. In fact, it's a symptom that there were many different causes. In fact, giving someone the diagnosis of depression was exactly like giving them the diagnosis of chest pain. And doctors don't give people the diagnosis of chest pain because it doesn't tell you what causes it or what to do for it. And so I've written a number of books. One, my latest one, Healing add, where I talk about seven different types of add. Don't put everybody on a stimulant because you can make some people much better and a whole bunch of other people dramatically worse. Imaging helped me see the underlying biology behind the symptoms. So was your brain overactive? Was it underactive? Was it toxic, either from substance abuse or alcoholism or an environmental toxin like mold? Or did you have a traumatic brain injury? Traumatic brain injuries are one of the major causes of psychiatric illness. But of course, nobody knows that because nobody's looking at the brains of their patients on a regular basis. Imaging. And this was the beautiful part. This is the heart part of imaging. It decreased stigma.

Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video. And I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out, and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description. Or you can wait till the end of this video, or you can Simply go to joe'sfreebook.com and you can get a copy there.

I love that because people saw their problems as medical and not moral. It decreased shame, decreased guilt. And the other part I truly loved is the families then got on board because it increased forgiveness and compassion. We have nothing else in psychiatry that's that powerful or that immediate. Imaging actually completely changes the discussion around mental health. Nobody wants to see a psychiatrist. I mean, how weird is that? I decided I want to be a psychiatrist, and now nobody wants to talk to me. You're not going to shrink me. No one wants to be labeled as abnormal or defective, but all of us want better brains. So what if mental health was really all about brain health? Imaging changed everything about my health. Oh, my goodness. There are 200 studies now that say as your weight goes up, the actual physical size and function of your brain goes down. Oh, my God. That should scare the fat off anyone. This is the biggest brain drain in the history of the United States. Two thirds of us are overweight. Can you imagine the neurons and the IQ points we're losing? In fact, a couple of Years ago, I coined this term called the dinosaur syndrome. Big body, little tiny brain, you're going to become extinct. Now I know that's rude, but it's true. And when I read the first study, I lost 30 pounds because I don't want to be a dinosaur. Imaging can change the Alzheimer's epidemic. Did you know Alzheimer's disease is expected to triple in the next 25 years? There's no cure for it on the horizon. If you're fortunate enough to live until you're 85, you have a 50% risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. And the little scary nugget we've learned in the last 10 years, Alzheimer's disease starts in your brain 30 to 50 years before you have any symptoms. So if you knew a train was going to hit you, would you get out of the way? This 59 year old woman was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. It's a scan on the right, you can see the whole back half of her brain is deteriorating. Likely she had brain changes in her 20s. I think all of us should be scanned by 50 because treatment works when early or late? Early. And how would you ever know if you were vulnerable unless you looked? Imaging changed everything for the NFL. And my problem with the NFL is if you don't admit you have a problem, you can't do anything to solve it. And imaging really broke the NFL's denial. We did the first and largest study on active and retired NFL players and it just changed everything. So our first study on 100 players, the Blue equals damage across their whole brain. And you know, I think most 9 year olds would figure out it's a brain damaging sport. That's not hard. What was really exciting about our work with the NFL was we showed that 80% of our players could rehabilitate their brains on a smart program. Now how exciting is that? You're not stuck with the brain you have, you can make it better. Now I hate this graph because I just turned 60 a couple of weeks ago, but it's really clear based on a study we did with 8,000 people, your brain gets less and less active as you age. So sort of like as your skin falls off your face as you age, the same process is happening in the brain, but it doesn't have to. That's really the exciting. So a typical 82 year old scan on the left, my friend Doris Rapskan on the right. Fat, full, beautiful for 82. You know, if something happens to Tana, I'm asking her out. So the most exciting thing I'm going to tell you is you can literally change your brain and change your life. But how would you know unless you looked? So my favorite story to illustrate this is my oldest daughter, Brianne. Always easy, always sweet. But the sad truth is I never thought she was very smart. Had to get her tutors, had to work hard, had her tested, and in 10th grade, she fell apart. She got depressed. She came to me one night in tears and she said, dad, I just don't think I can be as smart as my friends. And it broke my heart. Next day, scanned her at the clinic, and I'm like, oh, my God. I cried when I saw this because what it indicates she had really low energy blood flow in her brain. I knew how to fix it. I mean, that's really what made me so sad, because I had been fixing people's brains for years. The next day, on just a little tiny bit of targeted medication for her, was much better. Three months later. This is a girl who never got one A in her life. The next three months later, straight A's. The next ten years, straight as. So the ultimate question is, which brain do you want? Which brain do you have of these? And how would you ever know unless you looked? Thank you.

Awesome.

Awesome. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, I hope you found that video awesome and useful. So if you want to get a free copy of my book, I want you to click here. And if you want to watch some more videos that will be useful and awesome, click here. Go ahead. They're over here.

Do it now.

Come on. Thank you. Watch them.