You have questions? Dr. Daniel and Tana Amen have answers! In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Pocast, the Amens answer some of the questions that have recently come in from our listeners. This episodes features tips and information on such topics as nighttime eating, the meaning behind overactive brains, and dealing with personal relationships when an infidelity is involved.
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:
Welcome back. In this episode, we’re going to answer questions that you submitted.
Tana Amen:
We love that.
Daniel Amen:
We are grateful for you. But you have another winner.
Tana Amen:
I do. This one is from [Shucky Hickmap [00:01:03], and it says, “I love this podcast.” This is from the United States. “I love this podcast. I can’t believe it’s been going on for as long as it has, but I’m glad I know now about it because I have so many episodes to listen to. Why do I love it? Dr. Amen and Tana Amen cover very well the various aspects of how we can be taking care of our brains and bodies to live healthier, smarter, and up to our potential. I quit drinking in part because of hearing Dr. Amen and Tana on Jim Quick’s podcast. I highly recommend this podcast for anyone. My second favorite part about it is that these episodes are so short and yet still full of knowledge, which is my favorite part.”
That’s fantastic. Thank you so much. If you left these reviews on iTunes, please make sure you go to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com if we read yours and leave us a message in the comment section on how to get ahold of you, because we don’t have a way to reach you if you’re on iTunes.
We are grateful for your reviews. If you do submit a review on either iTunes or Brain Warrior’s Way podcast, or any of the formats where you can do that or platforms, it’ll submit you into a drawing to win one of our books, either your book, End of Mental Illness, my cookbook, The Brain Warrior’s Way Cookbook, or my new book, which is The Relentless Courage of a Scared Child. And we will sign those.
Daniel Amen:
All right, we have questions. I want you to answer the first one. “How do you get past infidelity, when the person it was with is still in your life?”
Tana Amen:
Get the person out of your life. I’m not making light of this. Infidelity is so tricky. I think it’s so hard for people to heal from. It occurs for so many different reasons. But I think having that person in your life, it sounds like it’s triggering you. I guess I would ask why is that person still in life? Is there just no way to get that person out of your life?
Daniel Amen:
What if it’s your sister-in-law or your mother-in-law, or something?
Tana Amen:
Well, it wouldn’t be anyone, for me.
Daniel Amen:
I know. That’s why I wanted you to answer the question.
Tana Amen:
For me, we’re clear.
Daniel Amen:
I think you’re right. It’s really tricky and forgiveness is so important.
Tana Amen:
For you.
Daniel Amen:
We’ve had a number of episodes on forgiveness.
Tana Amen:
Highly recommend.
Daniel Amen:
But problem with having the person in your life is you’re constantly being triggered.
Tana Amen:
And reliving it.
Daniel Amen:
That’s where something like EMDR or Havening can be so helpful to help deal with the trauma. But whenever there’s infidelity it’s easy to blame the person as bad. It’s often you want to take a deeper look into why that happened and what you can do to prevent it in the future. Sometimes you butt up against sex addiction or people have really low self esteem or people who’ve had brain trauma that they have judgment and impulse control issues.
Tana Amen:
Well, or sometimes it’s because of issues you’ve had in your relationship. It’s not like someone woke up one day and went, I think I’m going to go mess up my life today. It’s because there was a lack of intimacy already. Be honest with yourself, if that’s true. The forgiveness piece, which I love that you brought up, so many people have a hard time with that because they’re like, they don’t deserve it. But do you deserve it? It’s not for them. It’s for you. When you forgive people, you release all that negativity. It’s hating people is like, I love the saying, it’s like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. When you forgive them, you stop drinking the poison.
One thing I love, I love Byron Katie’s expression, which helped me so much at a hard time in my life, it’s like this person did this to you once or that you found out about it once, but you’ve been replaying it in your mind probably 1000 times. Who was less kind to you? Who was meaner to you? You or the person who did it? I’m not making light of it. I’m saying when you allow your thoughts to continually torture you, it’s not a good thing.
Daniel Amen:
I love that. I think that’s so important. I’m going to be on Dr. Phil coming up, filmed just last week from when this episode is being released. I told the story of 10 years ago, I was on Dr. Phil for compulsive cheaters. I evaluated Jose, who had cheated on his wife eight times in four years.
Tana Amen:
She had to hide her gun.
Daniel Amen:
She had gun. She was about ready to use it. That’s how they ended up on Dr. Phil. His brain was troubled, but he just did everything I asked him to do and within seven months or so you could just tell he was just making much better decisions.
Tana Amen:
More thoughtful.
Daniel Amen:
His brain was significantly better. He ended on finishing college, going to nursing school, and just graduated with a nurse anesthetist degree.
Tana Amen:
That’s fantastic.
Daniel Amen:
He’s still married to the same woman and has not been shot. [Crosstalk [00:06:34]
Tana Amen:
They’re married, yeah. That’s a good thing.
Daniel Amen:
Another question was, “I just got a SPECT scan at one of your clinics. Can you talk about what an overactive brain means?” SPECT basically tells us three things, good activity, too little or too much, and then our job is to balance it.
When the brain works too hard, it depends on where it works too hard, but it’s often associated with anxiety and worry. I often describe it as you have a little mouse in your head and the mouse is unhappy and the mouse is on an exercise wheel and it can’t get off. You just see the anxiety and the problems go over and over and over and over.
When we see the brain works too hard, we’ll use strategies to calm it down, such as happy saffron, or GABA calming, or serotonin mood support, everyday stress relief. [crosstalk [00:07:39] is a way to balance your brain. When your brain is overactive, you tend to spend on [crosstalk [00:00:07]:50].
Tana Amen:
That happened to me during all the social stuff that was going on. I couldn’t sleep, so I started taking GABA. I can’t take it during the day, it makes me a little slow. For some people it does that and for other it doesn’t. But when I take it at night, it’s just amazing. I have to admit, I did notice that I say no much less often.
Daniel Amen:
Which is a really good thing for me.
Tana Amen:
The word no does not [crosstalk [00:08:15].
Daniel Amen:
Yes, I’m doing it for her. Sort of. With a better brain, comes a better relationship. All right, we only have time for one more question. “How to stop night munching.”
Tana Amen:
Yes, I love this one. The first thing is, what are you eating during the day? That’s the first place I’m going to go with it. What are you eating during the day? If you are eating simple carbs, you are going to crave simple carbs. The more carbs you eat, the more carbs you crave. If you cut that cycle and you manage to just… You might have to white knuckle it the first day, but I actually have a ton of strategies in Brain Warrior’s Way and The Brain Warrior’s Way Cookbook to help you with this.
The first few days when I’m helping someone break this addiction to their nighttime munching and it makes you really hungry when you eat carbs, is that when you switch to no simple carbs, be really strict for the first three days, and when you get hungry, switch over to things like cut veggies.
I’m not talking about all carbs. I’m talking about simple carbs. Switch over to things like cucumbers and celery and stuff like that, just to munch on something, and then you can even have some guacamole with it. Have fat and protein. Healthy fat and healthy protein together throughout the day in small amounts, not only does it balance the hormones of metabolism, but it balances your blood sugar so you don’t feel that need to constantly eat, but it also sends the signal to your brain, so the hormones and metabolism, meaning it sends a signal to your brain saying that you’re full. That you’re satisfied. When you eat carbs, it thwarts that signal. So make sure you’re doing that.
After the first couple days, you’re going to start to notice that those cravings go away. Then it’s not that you can’t munch on something, but make it something like veggies, make it something healthier, and it will start to go away
Daniel Amen:
Another strategy that really helps I start doing intermittent fasting. Go 12 to 16 hours between your last meal and your first one of the next day, and that-
Tana Amen:
But to get to that point if they’re craving.
Daniel Amen:
Well, but if you know that’s what you’re doing, then you really do stop eating at [7:00] at night or [6:00] at night because you have a strategy that will help you so much. Serotonin mood support has been found to be really helpful.
Tana Amen:
And GABA.
Daniel Amen:
It’s actually got something in it called [satareal [00:10:37] that has been shown to decrease cravings. Brain MD also makes craving control, and it was not just for food. It was also helping with cravings for drugs and alcohol, sex addiction, and so on.
All right, well we’re out of time. We’re just so grateful that you’re part of our Brain Warrior community. We want to create a revolution in brain health, and that is going to require brain warriors. That’s why it’s called the Brain Warrior’s Way podcast.
If you learn something great, write it down, post it on any of your social media sites, #brainwarriorswaypodcast. Then leave us a comment, question, or review.
Tana Amen:
And share it please.
Daniel Amen:
Share it. But leave it on Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, or you can leave it on Apple Podcast with your contact information in the comments [inaudible [00:11:45]. Thanks so much.
Tana Amen:
If you’re enjoying the Brain Warrior’s Way podcast, please don’t forget to subscribe so you’ll always when there’s a new episode. While you’re at it, feel free to give us a review or five star rating, as that helps others find the podcast.
Dr. Daniel Amen:
If you’re considering coming to Amen Clinics or trying some of the brain healthy supplements from BrainMD, you can use the code podcast 10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or a 10% discount on all supplements at brainmdhealth.com. For more information, give us a call at 855-978-1363.
