Dr Daniel and Tana Amen talk about the latest statistics of brain health concerning millennials and the continued mental effects of Covid-19.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Welcome to The Brain Warrior’s Way podcast. I’m Dr. Daniel Amen.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
And I’m Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body.
Daniel Amen, MD:
The Brain Warrior’s Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years, using tools like brain SPECT imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
The Brain Warrior’s Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Welcome back, we’re in happiness challenge week. Happy brain challenge week, cause ultimately we’re going to help you get your brain, your mind, your relationships, and your deepest sense of meaning and purpose right. Right for happiness. Happiness is a moral obligation. Seeking happiness is not the same as selfish.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), no.
Daniel Amen, MD:
In fact, it’s often when you give, that you receive happiness…
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Right.
Daniel Amen, MD:
in the prayer of St. Francis, where it is better to give than receive and giving connects us…
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Mhm.
Daniel Amen, MD:
to other people and people who are connected are happier. So you have a…
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
So I have a review. Family Therapist Unplugged by Quincy rose. This podcast is transformed, not only me personally, but also my outlook on my mental health and physical disability, which has therefore revolutionized my practice as a family therapist. I realized that I can help my people review their insecurities as a strength if I can actually be my own most crippling insecurity as a strength. I’ve had three traumatic brain injuries before the age of 19, which has led to focus impairments as well as challenges walking. The Amen’s approach to understanding the function of every change or difference in our brain and body is what started the process of viewing myself and the world differently. Wow.
Daniel Amen, MD:
I love that.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
That’s awesome. Alright.
Daniel Amen, MD:
So today we’re doing brain in the news. And there is a new study on obstructive sleep apnea and people who snore loudly stop breathing at night, are chronically tired during the day…
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Right.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Are actually getting an oxygen debt state in their brain. And your brain is the most oxygen hungry organ in the body.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Right.
Daniel Amen, MD:
It’s 2% of your body’s weight, but it uses 20% of the blood flow and 20% of the oxygen. And in this study, they actually did SPECT scans at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Do you remember when I gave the society of nuclear medicine lecture.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah.
Daniel Amen, MD:
in Canada?
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Well, one of the guys, the guy that was actually the most irritating.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah.
Daniel Amen, MD:
in the office in the audience,
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah.
Daniel Amen, MD:
you remember, I gave the lecture and he just went on and on about how I don’t know, he didn’t agree with it. Well, it’s actually from him.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Oh that’s so funny.
Daniel Amen, MD:
They use SPECT scans to look at people with sleep apnea who were treated versus people with sleep apnea, who wouldn’t take the treatment. And guys out there, if you’ve been diagnosed with sleep apnea, or your wife said,
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah, you need to get treated.
Daniel Amen, MD:
You need to get treated because in the controls, the people who were treated with a C-PAP had better blood flow,
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah.
Daniel Amen, MD:
especially in the hippocampus.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Which is the memory cognitive center.
Daniel Amen, MD:
A major memory and mood center.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah.
Daniel Amen, MD:
in the brain. And it’s just really critically important.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Which by the way, that gets damaged in chronic trauma when you’re a child too.
Daniel Amen, MD:
There’s another study, a second study out. It said 72% of Brits feel more confident as they finally stop worrying about whether, what other people think of them
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Love that.
Daniel Amen, MD:
in their 40’s.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah that’s when it hit me, forty.
Daniel Amen, MD:
And do you remember the eighteen-forty-sixty rule?
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Daniel Amen, MD:
Which I teach all of my patients that says when you’re eighteen, you worry about what everyone’s thinking of you. When you’re forty, you don’t give a damn.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yup.
Daniel Amen, MD:
what anybody thinks about you. And when you’re sixty, you realize no one has been thinking about you at all. People spend their days worrying and thinking about themselves. Not you.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yup.
Daniel Amen, MD:
And I just love that. I think it is just so important. And then there was another new study on people who have COVID-19, have a 20% increase risk. So very significant increased risk of being diagnosed with mental health disorder.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah. I’ve seen that.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Within the next six months.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah. And even now we’re seeing so many young people who are struggling with energy and brain fog and it’s, it’s, I’m really hoping we come up with ways to reverse some of that because it’s starting to get a little scary. I mean, I know people say, oh, it’s fine. I didn’t get that sick. But then they’re having these lingering effects. So, you know.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Well and then one more study that for Brain in the news that just horrified me this week. It actually is going to make all of my lectures. Millennials.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
I know.
Daniel Amen, MD:
So I guess early thirties to forty.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Daniel Amen, MD:
44% of millennials have a chronic health condition.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
So, why?
Daniel Amen, MD:
And that were and my daughters.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Right.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Are both millennials and one of my daughters has a chronic health condition.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
So, but why, why that age group specifically? It’s so interesting.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Well I think as a society, we are becoming more and more unhealthy. Right? When in 1982, when I graduated from medical school, there were overweight people, but not many of them.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
But then my question is.
Daniel Amen, MD:
It was like 20%. Now it’s 72%.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Right, but is the younger generation, after the millennials, are they becoming more conscious of it? That’s my question.
Daniel Amen, MD:
No.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Oh.
Daniel Amen, MD:
And so of all the groups, cause there were massive weight changes during the pandemic, the young group, the younger group, I guess what? Generation Y. Their weight gain was like insane, like forty pounds.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Wow.
Daniel Amen, MD:
It was really crazy because the insecurity,
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Well, yeah, the depression.
Daniel Amen, MD:
The anxiety, things being canceled.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Right.
Daniel Amen, MD:
and we are not teaching people to manage their minds.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
No.
Daniel Amen, MD:
We’re just not. And we need to do a better job of teaching you to manage your mind, which we’re going to do on the thirty day happiness challenge. You can go to 30dayhappinesschallenge.com.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Sign up, be with us. We’re going to be with you every day for a month. Now, you’re going to be happier in a month if you do what we say, but the idea is, it’s not just for a month,
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Right.
Daniel Amen, MD:
These are habits we want you to put in your life for the rest of
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
I actually think happiness, just like forgiveness, just like love is a habit. I actually think it’s a habit as much as it is anything else. Yes, there’s the brain component to it. Yes, there’s all of those things, but it’s something you have to practice. So forgiveness people are like, well, I don’t feel like I don’t feel forgiving. I, they don’t deserve it. Okay. You’ve got to practice a daily. There are many people I don’t feel like forgiving, but I have to practice it on a daily basis. Right? And sometimes I wake up and I don’t feel it, but you do it anyways because it’s good for you.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Well, sometimes I wake up and I don’t feel like going to the gym or sometimes
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
But you do it anyways.
Daniel Amen, MD:
And I go.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
because you know it’s the right thing to do and it makes you healthier.
Daniel Amen, MD:
And then I feel better afterwards.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
And besides.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Like you had a bad night of sleep this week. You blamed me, of course and I blame the sheets.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
You blame the sheets and I blame you.
Daniel Amen, MD:
And your [inaudible [00:08:56] and then you went cause that’s your.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
I didn’t want to go, right.
Daniel Amen, MD:
And afterwards you go, oh, I felt so much better.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Right? And so when I wake up and I don’t feel like forgiving someone, I’m angry at them, I stop myself now. I didn’t use to, I stopped myself now. And I say, you know what? This isn’t good for me. This isn’t good for me. And so I do the practice of forgiveness. When I don’t feel loving, so what? You act loving because it’s good for your relationship. When you don’t feel happy, guess what? When you behave that way, it’s not good for your physical health. It’s a practice as much as it is anything.
Daniel Amen, MD:
So love is a practice.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Forgiveness is a practice. Happiness is a practice.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Happiness is a practice. And you know, I’ve been thinking about how pleasure is the enemy of happiness because
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah, you get caught up.
Daniel Amen, MD:
You engage too much in it. You develop this thing, we’ll talk about.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Become envious.
Daniel Amen, MD:
and Hedonic adaptation,
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Where you actually wear out the pleasure centers in your brain.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
And that’s one thing we’ve, we’ve stopped ourselves and become fairly good at is, is stepping back and going. You know, we find ourselves, if that happens, we step back and we go, do we really need this? Like, do we really need this? And you have to stop yourself and go, how important is this? How necessary is this? Cause you have to do that. Like, am I, why am I doing this?
Daniel Amen, MD:
When we come back, we’re going to answer your questions. So what did you learn about sleep apnea or millennials or when you’re forty, you don’t have to worry about what everybody’s thinking of you. Write it down, post it on any of your social media sites, hashtag Brain Warrior’s Way podcast. Go to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. Leave us a comment, question or review, and we’ll enter you into a drawing to win one of our books. Stay with us.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
If you’re enjoying the Brain Warrior’s Way podcast, please don’t forget to subscribe so you’ll always know when there’s a new episode and while you’re at it, feel free to give us a review or five-star rating as that helps others find the podcast.
Daniel Amen, MD:
If you’re interested in coming to Amen Clinics, use the code podcast10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com. For more information, give us a call at (855)978-1363.
