An often overlooked fact about personal products (makeup, hair & skin care, etc.) is that what you put on your skin goes into your body and affects it. Therefore, you could be poisoning yourself every day and not even know it. In the first episode of a series on toxic products, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen describe how easy it is to be tricked by product marketing, as well as the simple way to see exactly how healthy the products you use are to you, so you can throw them out!
Dr. Daniel Amen: Welcome to the Brain Warrior's Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen.
Tana Amen: 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.
Dr. Daniel Amen: 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: 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.
Welcome back. This week we're going to talk about toxic products that you use on yourself and in your house. I wanted to do this this week because I saw my brain scan after going through surgery, and I've actually had 10 surgeries, and anesthesia affects your brain. And I've spent, what, a decade, my 40s, late 30s and 40s doing food. And so I want to do everything I can to make my brain better. I didn't like what I saw on my scan and wanted to make my brain better, and so the next thing is products. And when I really realized how bad some of the products were that I was putting on my body-
Dr. Daniel Amen: Why did you get scanned?
Tana Amen: I wasn't feeling right after surgery-
Dr. Daniel Amen: You had a hysterectomy, and you just didn't-
Tana Amen: I had a hysterectomy and I just didn't feel right. I kept saying I felt like I was walking through mud and I would go back to the doctor and she's like, "Well, you're fine now. You're recovered." And I recovered fine. I mean, the recovery process was fine. I was exercising again or trying to. I didn't have the same energy and I just didn't feel quite right. I couldn't articulate why. I just didn't feel quite right. I even went and checked to see if I was going through menopause and everyone kept saying I was not. My hormones were all normal, but I didn't feel normal. So when I got scanned, my-
Dr. Daniel Amen: I would actually never call you normal. That wouldn't be in the top 10. Amazing, awesome, passionate.
Tana Amen: Okay. But this is not really about me except that I want to get to products.
So when I saw my scan, it looked a little sleepy. And so I'm like, "You know, I want to focus on getting as healthy as I can." And so I'm already doing food. I'm like, "I went after food." But I have to say I was not as motivated for awhile, so my food even got a little bit sloppy. I got really motivated to get my food back on track, but I really wanted to focus on products.
And so I started using the app, Think Dirty, and all my quote-unquote healthy products that I was using were not that healthy. So just like with health food, when things say "Healthy" or "Health food," you have to be really suspicious and read labels.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Or they put it in green packaging so that you assume it may be. Now before we talk about it, let's talk about a review, and then let's remind you, if there's one thing you learn from this podcast, please post it on any of your social media channels and #BrainWarriorsWay podcast. And if you leave a review on brainwarriorswaypodcast.com or on Apple podcasts or wherever podcasts are, we will enter you into a drawing for a free Brain Warrior's Way cookbook.
Ah, this one made me cry. This is from Katherine Willet: "I have followed Dr. Amen since he was first on PBS," which is now goodness, 11, 12 years ago, "and I've since found him and Tana on YouTube. Thank God I did because it may save my 33-year-old son's life. I am in the middle of trying to fight for his life as I did for my own, but have to get the pieces of the puzzle together. In the meantime, until I can gather my thoughts, thank you for your comments on meningitis and mold. I think this is key."
Tana Amen: Oh, that's really sweet. Well, good.
Let's talk about products. The thing I want to start with is that my very expensive, the most expensive products I had from the department store that say phytonutrient-based, on Think Dirty, rated an eight or a nine. Now, zero is the cleanest, it's the most green. 10 is the worst, the most toxic. They were rating an eight or a nine and they were the most expensive products I had. So-
Dr. Daniel Amen: Think Dirty is free. You can download it on the app store and it basically tells you on a scale of zero to 10 how quickly these products are killing you.
Tana Amen: Right. So, most of my products are really awful. Sunscreen, hairspray, a lot of that kind of stuff is the worst, right? Deodorant, those are the worst, most of them are the worst, but there's a lot of really great products out there that are really clean. And so I found a couple of brands that I just love. And I was surprised because I tried to do this in the past and the makeup that was natural, not all of it was great. Deodorant wasn't really great in the past. But now they've gotten really on board and some of these brands are making really great products. They not only smell great, they feel great and they work.
So I'm really excited about it and I went and bought a bunch of stuff that was, and so I'm testing some of this stuff and sharing with people what's working and I'm asking my community to do the same, So please, if you guys have products, share with the community. Here's the only thing that I ask. It has to be under a three, three or lower. Anything above a three is not considered green. Use Think Dirty. Let us know if it's a three or less and share it with us. You can share it here. You can tag us on Instagram.
The ones I have found so far that I love, and I'm going to continue doing this, for personal products, 100% PURE is amazing, just amazing. For hair products, Inner Essence is really great. 100% PURE is great, Inner Essence. Those are a couple of them. There's a couple others. Pacifica makes a couple of products that are really great. Their eye shadows are really nice and they're green. The makeup from 100% PURE is just awesome. That was really, really, really nice. I haven't found a product of theirs there I don't like yet.
Dr. Daniel Amen: And you are not a spokesman for that ... person, just so people-
Tana Amen: I'm not. No, I'm not getting sponsored.
Dr. Daniel Amen: But let's take a step back and go, "Why do people ... Why should you really care?" And most people don't know that whatever goes on your skin goes into your body. Your skin is the largest organ in your body and it absorbs things.
Tana Amen: Well, if that wasn't true, then Johnson & Johnson wouldn't have just lost two major lawsuits, so-
Dr. Daniel Amen: With baby powder,
Tana Amen: Right.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Right. So this is really important. Whatever goes on your skin goes in your body, affects your body, and becomes part of your body. Before I wrote Memory Rescue, I never really read ingredient labels on the deodorant, shampoo, bath soap, hair ... I mean, I have no hair now, so it doesn't matter, but sunscreen and so on. But things like parabens and phthalates, fragrances, PEGs, they're toxic for your body-
Tana Amen: Talc.
Dr. Daniel Amen: ... that many of those are called hormone disruptors. And as you age, you mentioned menopause, and people know I turned 65 this year, as you age, your hormones go low and low, but they don't have to. It's often an accumulation of the toxins that we put on our bodies. And in the next podcast we'll actually go through ... I'm going to ask you questions about toxins to know your toxic load. But I'm so proud of you for really getting your scan, becoming even more passionate about how do I make this better?
Tana Amen: Yup. Two of the household products that we found that we really like, ECOS obviously is a really good one. Seventh Generation makes some really nice ones. But here's what I noticed. As as I was doing this, my skin started to feel so much nicer, and my hair ... I'm using less hairspray, trying to go more natural. Today's one of the first days that I used any of my old products at all. I'm only using about a third of them because I have to do a bunch of filming and I don't have everything I need that's natural for filming to make your skin look smooth for camera. And it feels icky.
And then starting to realize that I actually prefer going without, with just less in general, almost no makeup. I'm starting to get used to it because your skin starts to glow more and feel nicer. Now that I have the old powder and stuff on, it doesn't feel good. You start to realize how dull your skin looks. Your hair starts to look shinier, and you mentioned it because you don't use the hairspray and stuff like that, you start to realize-
Dr. Daniel Amen: Her hair's softer-
Tana Amen: ... it's softer and shinier.
Dr. Daniel Amen: ... and it's prettier.
Tana Amen: Yeah. So you just start to realize it-
Dr. Daniel Amen: Because it's more natural for you. So when we come back, I'm going to give you a questionnaire on how do you know about the toxic load in your body if you can't get scanned. And so is there one thing you learned today that you can post-
Tana Amen: Or do you-
Dr. Daniel Amen: ... like, "Whatever goes on your body goes in your body"?
Tana Amen: Or do you have a product that you love that's below a three on Think Dirty, share it with us that you just ... something you want everyone to know about.
Dr. Daniel Amen: And if you post it or leave a review, we'll put you in a raffle for the Brain Warrior's Way cookbook, signed-
Tana Amen: Oh, we have a bunch of those. We have to share.
Dr. Daniel Amen: ... by my beautiful wife, Tana.
Tana Amen: Yes. We'll share with you who our winners were too.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Oh yeah. We have books today to give away. Stay with us.
Tana Amen: 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.
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.
