Dr Daniel Amen and Tana Amen chat with Filmmaker Jerri Sher about where the characters of her latest movie “Quiet Explosions: Healing The Brain” are now and how they are giving back to the community.
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:
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Welcome back. We are still here with our friend, Jerri Sher, and we’re talking about Quiet Explosions. We’re going to talk about hope in this episode. I think that’s the big message. That’s what my takeaway was from this movie. It was so great to see these people on their journey of feeling so terrible and then just in the end, having so much hope and seeing the turnaround. And I just really appreciate that, Jerri, that you really, that was the message of the movie, was hope.
Jerri Sher:
Thank you so much, Tana. We want people to realize that there is always a way to get better and to feel better and to improve your life. If we gave the message of hope, that’s exactly what I was hoping to do, because all of these people went through such an arc. I mean, in the beginning, middle and end of the movie, but at the end they really are different people. We just want people to show, at the end of the film, that you can go through transformation. It doesn’t always have to be a life of hell. We can change and improve and there is hope, especially in the world of brain health. No one [inaudible [00:02:02] it out better than Dr. Amen and the Amen Clinics, that there is a way to improve your life through nutrition, through [inaudible [00:02:10], a million different ways. And we’ve gone through some of them.
We are extremely grateful to you, Dr. Amen, for being on some of our Q&A’s with me and some of the other cast of the film for our virtual screenings for groups. And there are many ways that people can see the film now through groups. I mean, the Brain Health Magazine did an entire day helping hundreds of people. I think we had over 800 people on that Q&A that we did for them. And they were particularly excited to see the cast and crew and our doctors and experts. So I’m very grateful for that. It’s all on our website for people who want to do such a thing.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
That’s amazing.
Daniel Amen, MD:
So the big message is you’re not stuck with the brain you have. You can make it better. We can show that over and over and over again. And yet I think, Jerri, many people don’t care about their brains. They let their children hit soccer balls with their head or engage in dangerous behavior.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
They don’t know. I think it’s important to get the message out there. They don’t really under.
Daniel Amen, MD:
And sometimes even when they do. One of our daughter’s friends wants to get a motorcycle. And I’m just shaking my head like, “Have you not been paying attention to what’s going on in the world?” The whole issue of traumatic brain injury, when I first met Anthony Davis, so Anthony’s one of the stars of the movie, it was 2007. He’s the Hall of Fame running back from USC. He’s called the Notre Dame Killer, because in 1972 he scored six touchdowns against the University of Notre Dame. And in 1974, he scored four more touchdowns. No one’s ever done that, in history. But he was confused and had a bad memory and was irritable and was driving on the 405, one of the freeways here in southern California and he pulled off to the side, because he had no idea where he was going. He got very upset and called one of his friends at USC. And he said, “You should go see Dr. Amen.” When I met him, his brain was terrible. But he was such a sweet guy.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Yeah, he’s really sweet.
Daniel Amen, MD:
And he’s like, “Doc, tell me what to do.” And he just did it. Through the things we talked about, especially the supplements, within just a couple of months he’s dramatically better. Then he starts sending me all of his friends. And it was because of Anthony, he had me lecture at the NFL Players Association’s meeting in Los Angeles, where I had met many of the Los Angeles Rams I’d idolized when I was a child, because I loved football growing up. It’s because of Anthony we started our NFL study. And didn’t you just love interviewing him?
Jerri Sher:
Anthony was such a gem. And honestly, I’m so grateful that I got to know him, because look it, this guy’s so famous. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated Magazine twice. And when I mention the name, Anthony Davis, to some people in my generation, they go crazy like, “Oh my God, the Notre Dame Killer, are you kidding me?” People watch the movie just because they want to see Anthony Davis. He told me, he spoke from the heart, which I was very grateful for. He said, “Look, Jerri, after five years in the NFL, I knew I had to get out. I knew I was messing up my brain so much that if I didn’t leave then, I would have been mush. My head would have been gone.” So he was smart enough to know that he shouldn’t stay in longer than the five years.
When we show his brain, before and after, on the screen, most people who commented about the movie, commented about that. They say, “When we saw Anthony Davis’ brain 10 years before, 10 years after, that was so telling. We got it. We understood.” So I’m very grateful for the scans and everything that I saw. I’m very grateful that I had my brain scanned, because when you told me that my brain was like your mom’s brain, from the book I read about your mother, I was so flattered. That meant the most to me. It’s just amazing what the SPECT scans can show. That’s what [Annie [00:07:12] said to me. She said, “Jerri, when I saw the SPECT scan and see what’s happening in my brain and I discuss it with my other doctors now, they understand. And they know how to treat me.” So I think you’ve done just such a magnanimous job about helping the universe. We just have to get the word out there to everybody.
Daniel Amen, MD:
I know, it’s amazing. I still have my haters. Yesterday, within a matter of 20 minutes I had two haters surface. I just shake head.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
But they’re the old guard.
Daniel Amen, MD:
After all this time, why wouldn’t people want more information? And then I realized that I go after them a lot.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Nice. You can’t go after them and think they’re not going to come after you.
Daniel Amen, MD:
It’s like you can’t go to war and shoot people without them shooting back.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Wait, wasn’t it Anthony Davis who said, “Doc, they only go after the guy with the ball”?
Daniel Amen, MD:
Right. They only try to tackle people with the ball.
Jerri Sher:
It’s just because of jealousy, I think, because I’ve tried to analyze this through the journey of… Because don’t forget, your name came up a lot in my two years and before I even called. It wasn’t until Dr. Emmett Miller, who I trust completely, and he’s in my 12-part series, told me, “You know what? Daniel Amen’s good. He’s okay. He’s real. He’s the real thing.” When he told me that, then I knew I could call you. But I had heard so much riff raff. Honestly, it’s jealousy. I really believe that.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
Well, because it means they have to change the paradigm and that’s not something that the old guard wants to do easily.
Daniel Amen, MD:
I forgot that connection with Emmett Miller. What docu-series is he in with you?
Jerri Sher:
I did a 12-part series called Live Life: Awaken Your Inner Power, which is a story of people who have healed through alternative medicine. Each one is a different healing story. Emmett Miller and Dr. Bruce Lipton and Dr. Candace Pert and Master John Douglas are the four main healers in that series.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Emmett and I used to work together. He used to work in my clinic in northern California. I loved him. He was the good older brother in my life.
Jerri Sher:
He’s a genius. He invented mind-body science in the ’70s. He believes in the whole body, not just your elbow or your ear or your eye. He cares about the whole being. That’s how he developed guided imagery. He saved a little boy with a brain tumor, who the doctor said would be dead in two years.
Daniel Amen, MD:
It’s amazing. Well, we adore you. We are so grateful to know you.
Jerri Sher:
It’s a great movie.
Daniel Amen, MD:
We just want everyone to watch Quiet Explosions. You can go to quietexplosions.com and learn about it. You can stream it on Amazon Prime. Does Vimeo have a streaming service? I didn’t [crosstalk [00:10:24]-
Jerri Sher:
Yes, Amazon and Vimeo. And next week it’s on all of the platforms like Apple TV, iTunes, Vudu and so on and so forth. And that’ll also be on the website. Or you can go to the Quiet Explosions Facebook page to find out more also. But it’s on Amazon and Vimeo.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
What I would suggest is if you are struggling, if you’re listening to this and you’ve been struggling with any of the symptoms we’ve talked about, brain fog, depression, crying for unexplained reasons, just no energy, things that you don’t know why, watch the movie and see if any of that resonates with you and get checked. But also anyone you love, I mean, send it to people you love.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Have them come to Amen Clinics, because that’s what we do. We help people not only see it, but then fix it.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
But send this to someone, like have people you love watch this, because it’s a message of hope. It’s amazing how many people I run into that have these issues.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Right. Thank you, Jerri.
Jerri Sher:
Thank you.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
We’re so grateful for you.
Daniel Amen, MD:
Stay with us.
Tana Amen, BSN RN:
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Daniel Amen, MD:
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