Which Animal-Based Food Products Cause Inflammation?

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.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Welcome back. This is one of our favorite segments where we answer your questions, and we have some great questions. But first, do you have a review?
Tana Amen: I do, yes. "I cannot thank you enough for your podcast. In January, my husband was airlifted to Loma Linda." Ooh, that was my unit. 8100. "Was air lifted to Loma Linda with a cavernoma located at the top of his brainstem. The surgery was 15 hours. It was a pituitary tumor on the brain stem, and Scott had a stroke in the basal ganglia." Ouch. "I was told my husband might never wake up. At day seven, they encouraged me to turn off the vent. Since that time, he has slowly improved. We were told that my husband would be in a head support wheelchair the rest of his life. A friend shared your podcast with me and I started listening in May. When I bought your book, I realized I could get liquid flaxseed oil and started him on a tablespoon.
"It didn't happen right away, but we could see changes. I have kept him off sugar as much as I can and I'm very careful with his diet. The exercise, no sugar, omegas, and ants have helped so much. I have a friend that is now listening to you too. At first, my family wasn't supportive, but watching your PBS and your YouTube has helped them understand that sugar is the enemy. Scott can now walk without a walker," holy cow, "and is slowly regaining his memory, all because of you and Tana. I know this is a marathon, not a sprint. Keep up the good work, Daniel and Tana. You have given me a roadmap to follow and I so appreciate and love you. From Marie." Wow. That was my unit. That's a hard unit.
Dr. Daniel Amen: I know. I'm just sitting here crying like a baby. That's why we do what we do. For the rest of their lives, they're going to be brain warriors. They have to be brain warriors. And so many of you listening, if you have a neurological issue, that's a brain issue. You need to be a warrior, whether it's Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's or a seizure disorder, migraine headaches. It's not just anxiety, depression, ADHD, and addictions. It's all of these things that when you do the habits we talk about, it literally can save, extend, and optimize your life. I'm just so grateful. I'm going to post that on my wall. That just makes me so happy.
All right, so we have questions. I'll take the first one. "Do you have any research on brainwaves, brain activity, and brain development while in a state of fear?" I do. When you think negatively, when you think about what you're afraid of, it actually drops function in your frontal lobe-
Tana Amen: Oh, that's interesting.
Dr. Daniel Amen: ... drops function in your temporal lobes, and it drops function in your cerebellum. So you're not coordinated, you make bad decisions, and you're more irritable.
Tana Amen: For sure more irritable. For sure.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Learning how to modulate that is important. Now, let's just get it out of the way first. Some fear is good for you. You need some fear.
Tana Amen: So my question is would they be talking about chronic fear or that like when something scares you, threatens you? That moment, that acute type of fear.
Dr. Daniel Amen: I don't know. She didn't say.
Tana Amen: So that's the question, because that would be... My question is, is it that constantly I'm afraid of things in life? Or is it like when we were scared about the pitbulls type of thing?
Dr. Daniel Amen: Well, you told me to turn around, and I'm like, no, let's walk to the end. And I didn't see the pitbulls and they came and attacked us. So your intuition, and your mother has this crazy-
Tana Amen: Well, I actually see it as, because when you grow up in chronic chaos and trauma, you have a heightened awareness of your surroundings. So you can call it whatever you want, intuition, whatever. I actually just call it heightened awareness. You don't even can't always pinpoint what it is that's bothering you at the moment, but you learn to listen to it.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Interesting. Here, why don't you read this one?
Tana Amen: "My husband and I are seeking to adopt an infant domestically and are presently receiving emails daily about prospective birth mother adoption situations. In each case, we receive information about the birth parents' bio-social medical history. Of course, we see a variety of things like bipolar, schizophrenia, substance abuse, homelessness, criminal activity, lack of parental care, et cetera, listed with each case. My husband and I are experiencing difficulty identifying what we are willing to say yes and no to. What advice do you have for us as we decide what issues we are willing and not willing to take on? What advice do you have for adopting parents in general? Thank you. I love your podcast so much that I have had my brain scanned at your clinics. Life changing and worth every penny. God bless you both and your work. From Ashley." Wow, that's a hard one.
Dr. Daniel Amen: But it's important. I've seen thousands of adopted kids over the years. I adopted my oldest, and family history matters. But if you read my new book, The End of Mental Illness, coming out in March, and I hope all of you pre-order it, I'd just be so grateful. I dedicated the book to our nieces, Amelie and Alesay, who genetically-
Tana Amen: They're loaded.
Dr. Daniel Amen: ... schizophrenia, bipolar disorders-
Tana Amen: Suicide, drugs.
Dr. Daniel Amen: ... suicide, depression, anxiety, PTSD, borderline personalities.
Tana Amen: Drugs and alcohol.
Dr. Daniel Amen: They had the whole thing, and they were raised in chaos. So genes only load the gun, it's what happens to you that pulls the trigger. Yet despite that-
Tana Amen: They're amazing.
Dr. Daniel Amen: We love them dearly.
Tana Amen: But they're amazing.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Alesay's in a college prep school with straight As. And so for adoptive parents, pay attention to the family history because it increases their risk, which means if that's the child you choose, you need increase the brain warrior mindset to help mitigate that risk.
Tana Amen: Yeah, this is really important, because genetics are obviously a huge part of this. When I think of our nieces and other people, a lot of other kids we know... Now, we took in another kid who was high risk, and the results weren't quite as good. I have no doubt in my mind had we been able to keep her longer, we would've had a different outcome. Because the environment really matters, but so does resilience. I think that there's something to do with resilience, and our nieces are resilient. And so there's something about that that makes a difference. I've got certain family members who have those same genes and they're not as resilient, so that makes a difference. The other young girl we helped that we moved into our house was beginning to do really well. It was a battle. It was just a constant battle. But as soon as she moved out and was not in that environment any longer, she immediately went downhill. So that's challenging. That's a really hard one. But it's not a death sentence.
Dr. Daniel Amen: So I would always balance it. The better care that the mother took care of herself during the pregnancy, the higher the chance of success. But all of these children need love and families. And so you just have to see what you feel comfortable with.
Tana Amen: Right. Let's see what we have next. "I just watched a documentary on Netflix called The Game Changer, which said that all animal products including eggs, fish, and chicken cause inflammation in the body. Is that true? Because it doesn't sound right to me." Okay. So it always depends on the source you're listening to. It just does. They will find some evidence and a way to spin things depending on what source you're listening to. If you go to... When I go to my courses, they have both vegan and caveman doctors lecturing on the benefits of both sides. Depending on which lecturer you listen to, you'll be convinced of their position. Now, if you are looking at these foods and you're talking about fast food and you're talking about genetically modified, you're talking about not pasture raised, pesticides, of course.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Raised with hormones and antibiotics. I eat eggs, fish, and chicken a lot, and my inflammatory markers are very low-
Tana Amen: Likewise when I was vegan-
Dr. Daniel Amen: ... because I also eat a lot of plants.
Tana Amen: Likewise when I was vegan, my numbers were never worse. Now, I don't think it's the same for everybody. I just don't believe one diet fits every person. So we actually believe you should get your numbers checked. But you can find evidence to this on both sides of the fence. So our friend-
Dr. Daniel Amen: But everybody agrees to get rid of sugar and foods that turn to sugar. Processed foods, adulterated foods, foods... We can come to an agreement on the foods to lose. And then really, the more plants the better. We think some protein-
Tana Amen: High quality protein.
Dr. Daniel Amen: ... animal protein, high quality protein.
Tana Amen: But even the caveman tend to think that a highly plant based diet with a little bit of high quality protein is good. They just don't believe in getting rid of all of the protein, because actually you can also find a number of studies showing that their incidents of depression and anxiety has gone up as people have stopped eating meat. So it depends on who you're looking at. Here's my, our response to that. Get your numbers checked. If you're going to be vegan, make sure you're supplementing.
Dr. Daniel Amen: So interesting. What did you learn today? Post it on any of your social media sites and hashtag brainwarriorswaypodcast. Leave us a comment, question, or review on brainwarriorswaypodcast.com, and we'll enter you into a raffle to get one of Tana's cookbooks. We'll enter you into a raffle to get Tana's cookbook, The Brain Warrior's Way Cookbook, which I ate the chili out of last night.
Tana Amen: You can also tag us on Instagram. I have a big following that I answer questions for there as well and do little videos to answer. So yeah, make sure you're reaching out.
Dr. Daniel Amen: 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 podcast10 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.