How Brain Health Leads to a Disciplined Mind ft. Dr. Daniel Amen // Michael Porter Jr

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC]

00:00:09.020 | >> Here with another episode of Curious Mike,

00:00:10.860 | I'm sitting here with Dr. Amen.

00:00:12.340 | Appreciate you being on the podcast my bro.

00:00:14.380 | >> Thank you so much.

00:00:15.760 | >> Yeah. So we just got done,

00:00:17.520 | I just got done with my brain scan.

00:00:19.940 | I've been wanting to do something like this for a while,

00:00:22.760 | but you actually, you worked in the army for 10 years,

00:00:26.320 | and then you were helping on the medic side.

00:00:28.480 | So you've always wanted to help get people better.

00:00:31.380 | How did you get into the more this side of it,

00:00:34.000 | looking at people's brains and helping

00:00:35.320 | people get better from that standpoint?

00:00:37.320 | >> So when I was an infantry medic,

00:00:39.960 | about a year into doing that,

00:00:41.880 | I realized I didn't like being shot at,

00:00:44.440 | that it wasn't for me.

00:00:46.480 | Some people like it,

00:00:48.000 | and I got retrained as an x-ray technician,

00:00:50.840 | and developed a passion for medical imaging.

00:00:53.840 | As our professors used to say,

00:00:55.320 | how do you know unless you look?

00:00:57.280 | And then I got out of the army,

00:00:59.440 | went to medical school,

00:01:00.760 | and when I was a second year medical student,

00:01:02.640 | someone I loved tried to kill herself.

00:01:05.320 | And I took her to see a wonderful psychiatrist,

00:01:07.400 | and I came to realize if he helped her,

00:01:09.440 | it wouldn't just help her.

00:01:10.840 | That ultimately it would help her children,

00:01:12.840 | and her grandchildren.

00:01:14.200 | So I fell in love with psychiatry,

00:01:16.040 | because I realized it can change generations of people.

00:01:20.200 | But I fell in love with the only medical specialty

00:01:22.080 | that never looks at the organ it treats.

00:01:24.680 | Most people go, I'm depressed,

00:01:26.080 | and they get medicine,

00:01:27.440 | with nobody looking at their brain.

00:01:30.040 | And I'm like, that's insane.

00:01:31.840 | So we started looking at the brain about 30 years ago,

00:01:35.860 | and it's been so exciting.

00:01:38.200 | Because what I learned is depression's not one thing.

00:01:41.920 | Or having ADD, it's not one thing.

00:01:43.960 | Or people who are anxious,

00:01:45.520 | sometimes it's from a head injury,

00:01:47.360 | or sometimes it's from toxic exposure,

00:01:49.600 | or sometimes it's because no one knows

00:01:51.800 | how to manage their mind.

00:01:53.560 | But if you don't look, you don't know.

00:01:57.080 | - Right.

00:01:57.920 | - And so I have, and then I realized,

00:02:00.360 | well, your brain's an organ like your heart's an organ,

00:02:03.240 | so you gotta keep that healthy,

00:02:05.200 | or you're more vulnerable to not being your best.

00:02:08.800 | - Right, and we went through kind of my stuff.

00:02:12.560 | Self-control was an area I wanted to get better at.

00:02:15.100 | But like a lot of people, like you said,

00:02:16.720 | deal with depression, anxiety,

00:02:19.000 | making poor decisions, whatever it is.

00:02:20.800 | And you get judged for what you do,

00:02:23.760 | and a lot of people just will tell you,

00:02:25.240 | especially, you know, we're both men of faith.

00:02:28.280 | Like the church a lot of times will judge people,

00:02:30.960 | or say, you know, just don't do this.

00:02:32.520 | But you're saying there's a deeper issue,

00:02:34.920 | and it can stem from a head injury,

00:02:37.160 | it can stem from toxins in your body,

00:02:39.660 | all this stuff that could be affecting your brain.

00:02:41.480 | So you're looking at it

00:02:42.400 | from a completely different standpoint,

00:02:44.560 | and saying no, like, when your brain gets more healthy,

00:02:47.600 | you'll be able to go out and live better,

00:02:49.520 | and do the things you wanna do more effectively.

00:02:52.720 | - And what roadblocks do you think you have?

00:02:57.120 | What do you think could be better?

00:03:00.560 | - I think, I was just talking to them about this,

00:03:04.080 | but I think I'm very disciplined in some areas,

00:03:07.780 | but then in other areas,

00:03:08.920 | like when it comes to my workouts, and my health,

00:03:11.200 | and all this different stuff, I'm very disciplined.

00:03:13.520 | But then other areas, I'm sometimes not consistent,

00:03:16.600 | and then that plays a toll on my mental,

00:03:19.040 | because I feel like a lot of it is your systems,

00:03:23.160 | like getting on a schedule, and then maintaining it,

00:03:26.720 | and consistently making the right choices.

00:03:30.000 | And then, obviously, you're more mentally there.

00:03:34.680 | When you're making mistakes, or things you don't wanna do,

00:03:37.640 | then it can take a toll on your mental, I feel like.

00:03:40.240 | So I feel like some of those things, for me,

00:03:43.440 | that's something I wanna improve on,

00:03:45.760 | like consistency off the court.

00:03:48.840 | - Consistency as far as the decisions you make?

00:03:51.560 | - Decisions.

00:03:52.380 | - What you eat, or what you drink, or?

00:03:54.980 | - Nothing, nothing at all with health,

00:03:57.120 | or what I put in my body, or things like that,

00:04:01.280 | but more like, you know, consistency,

00:04:05.320 | practicing my faith, like getting into my Bible every day,

00:04:08.440 | or consistency, you know, hanging around the right girls,

00:04:12.240 | things like that, for me, are kinda like a hindrance at times.

00:04:17.640 | Like, I don't feel like I have an addictive personality

00:04:20.240 | as far as, you know, drugs, or alcohol,

00:04:23.360 | but some of the other stuff, like,

00:04:26.360 | I just have a certain pull towards it

00:04:28.480 | that I wish wasn't there, you know what I mean?

00:04:30.840 | - And so, if you had a bit better self-control,

00:04:36.920 | that would help.

00:04:37.760 | - Yeah, that'd definitely help.

00:04:39.800 | - Ever have a concussion, or a head injury?

00:04:43.440 | - I didn't have a concussion.

00:04:46.920 | Never had a concussion, I don't think,

00:04:48.480 | but I hit a car with my head.

00:04:50.740 | I don't know if you can see that scar right there,

00:04:53.000 | the little scar right there.

00:04:54.760 | Yeah, this was when I was young, young,

00:04:57.680 | probably 12 or 13-ish.

00:04:59.720 | 10, nine, 10, probably nine or 10,

00:05:04.560 | and I'm riding with my friend on a bike,

00:05:06.960 | and I'm looking back at him, and his mom was with us,

00:05:09.780 | and his mom was like, "Michael, look,"

00:05:11.200 | so I turn, and a parked car is right there,

00:05:14.740 | and I hit it with my head right here,

00:05:17.240 | and I flip over the car.

00:05:19.080 | Ended up going to the-- - Oh, that's a big deal.

00:05:20.600 | - Yeah, ended up going to the emergency room and everything.

00:05:23.680 | Just had stitches.

00:05:24.540 | I don't know how severe it was,

00:05:26.960 | but I definitely hit my head.

00:05:28.040 | That's the only major head trauma that I've had, though.

00:05:32.280 | - You have a scar here.

00:05:34.520 | What's that from, the other side?

00:05:35.960 | - Right here?

00:05:36.800 | - No, in your eyebrow.

00:05:38.080 | - Oh, right here?

00:05:38.920 | That's just swag.

00:05:40.020 | - Oh, that's purposeful.

00:05:42.480 | - That's swag, yeah.

00:05:44.580 | That's just swag.

00:05:45.900 | - Your brain controls everything you do,

00:05:50.580 | how you think, how you feel, how you act,

00:05:53.040 | how you get along with other people.

00:05:55.420 | It's the organ of intelligence, character,

00:06:00.260 | and every decision you make,

00:06:03.260 | and when your brain works right, you work right,

00:06:06.460 | and when your brain is troubled for whatever reason,

00:06:10.020 | you have more trouble in your life,

00:06:12.420 | and it's easy to judge people.

00:06:15.220 | It's harder to go, "Why?"

00:06:18.680 | - No doubt.

00:06:20.140 | And I know, even for me,

00:06:21.980 | doing this whole session right now was so,

00:06:24.220 | it almost lifts a weight off your shoulders,

00:06:27.180 | 'cause you realize, no, not everything is your fault.

00:06:29.700 | You could've gone through some trauma

00:06:31.580 | or something that caused you to be the way you are,

00:06:35.100 | but like you showed me,

00:06:37.540 | there's a way to reverse some of this stuff,

00:06:39.100 | and there's a way to heal, and things like that.

00:06:42.220 | So for me, looking at my brain and everything,

00:06:45.940 | what did you see was my kind of issues

00:06:50.020 | and how I can get better?

00:06:52.100 | - Okay, moment of truth.

00:06:53.460 | - Let's do it.

00:06:56.060 | - So we did a study called SPECT,

00:06:59.740 | and SPECT looks at blood flow and activity.

00:07:03.140 | It looks at how your brain works,

00:07:05.660 | and it basically shows us three things.

00:07:08.300 | Good activity, you have a lot.

00:07:11.580 | Too little activity, there's something going on

00:07:14.300 | we have to talk about.

00:07:15.660 | And too much, and that's not the issue.

00:07:18.540 | So here's an example of a healthy scan.

00:07:21.900 | We're gonna look at it in two ways.

00:07:25.260 | This looks at the outside surface,

00:07:27.580 | and it should be full, even, and symmetrical.

00:07:31.780 | So this view, we're looking underneath the brain.

00:07:36.220 | Top is the front part of the brain, bottom is the back.

00:07:39.780 | This is your cerebellum, which I would expect

00:07:42.260 | in an NBA player to just be great.

00:07:44.720 | Here, blue is average activity.

00:07:48.860 | Red and white are the most active parts of the brain,

00:07:51.900 | which should be back here.

00:07:53.820 | This is the cerebellum, and then the visual cortex here.

00:07:58.820 | When we look at your scan, I don't like it so much.

00:08:05.140 | It's low in activity.

00:08:09.540 | And is that from trauma?

00:08:11.580 | I think part of it, 'cause I can actually see

00:08:13.620 | here in the back, your head got whacked.

00:08:16.900 | And as you described it, you're going on a bike

00:08:20.380 | and you're turned this way, and someone says,

00:08:22.500 | "Hey, Michael," and you go here, boom, and then you flip.

00:08:27.340 | That's a lot of force.

00:08:29.220 | Your brain is the consistency of soft butter, tofu, custard,

00:08:34.220 | somewhere between egg whites and jello.

00:08:36.780 | And if you look inside a skull, it has sharp, bony ridges.

00:08:41.780 | So I've asked God many times,

00:08:44.040 | "Why haven't you put bumper guards?"

00:08:46.500 | He goes, "Who knew they would play football?"

00:08:48.740 | But it got whacked at some point.

00:08:54.340 | So if I can make this better,

00:08:56.620 | and I'm gonna show you how to do that,

00:08:59.300 | you're gonna have more mental horsepower.

00:09:01.720 | And when you go, "I want to make this decision,"

00:09:05.860 | you'll be more likely to follow through.

00:09:07.900 | But we need to fix this, 'cause five years from now,

00:09:13.040 | let's say you didn't care about your health,

00:09:15.940 | and you went out drinking and not sleeping,

00:09:19.300 | and some of the things you see other NBA players do,

00:09:23.040 | you won't make good decisions,

00:09:26.740 | which means you won't last as long, right?

00:09:31.460 | Now, here, blue is average activity.

00:09:35.320 | Your cerebellum is awesome, it's healthy.

00:09:39.460 | I like that.

00:09:40.860 | Emotional brain's up a little bit.

00:09:43.180 | I'm not concerned about this.

00:09:44.580 | If I fix this, you will love me forever.

00:09:47.240 | - So there's supposed to be no holes?

00:09:50.220 | - Supposed to be no holes.

00:09:51.680 | With the holes, and you don't have holes in your brain.

00:09:54.980 | How I make these pictures is I tell the computer

00:09:57.540 | I want to see a certain level of activity.

00:10:00.500 | Anything below it shows up as a hole or a dent.

00:10:05.500 | But what it means is your brain isn't healthy,

00:10:09.380 | and we need to fix it.

00:10:10.800 | If I get you a healthy brain,

00:10:11.920 | you'll have the best season you've ever had.

00:10:14.680 | 'Cause it's about consistency, and decision-making,

00:10:17.640 | and mental energy, right?

00:10:20.440 | And with blood flow, caffeine decreases blood flow,

00:10:27.480 | so I'd limit it.

00:10:29.600 | - Everybody wanna say caffeine's good for 'em.

00:10:31.780 | - Yeah, it's not.

00:10:32.660 | - I knew it.

00:10:34.460 | - Nicotine, not good.

00:10:37.700 | Do you vape?

00:10:38.540 | - I don't.

00:10:40.300 | - Good, don't.

00:10:41.620 | So, for probably a couple of different reasons,

00:10:46.460 | when you were eight or nine,

00:10:48.700 | your head hit another car, right, in a bike accident.

00:10:52.540 | That mattered, I mean, I can still see evidence of that.

00:10:56.100 | You've had heavy metals in your body,

00:10:59.600 | and you had general anesthesia.

00:11:02.020 | All of that led to lower blood flow.

00:11:05.240 | And the cool thing is we're gonna reverse that,

00:11:08.560 | but it'll make you struggle more.

00:11:11.320 | And you don't want to, right?

00:11:15.040 | 'Cause you and I both never wanna be normal.

00:11:18.640 | We wanna be optimal.

00:11:20.320 | And in order to be optimal,

00:11:22.360 | the computer has to work right, right?

00:11:24.920 | So, I almost think of it like hardware and software.

00:11:27.800 | If we get the physical function of your brain

00:11:30.860 | as healthy as it can be,

00:11:32.600 | you can then be the best you can be.

00:11:35.020 | - Gotcha.

00:11:36.140 | So, like I've heard it all the time,

00:11:39.000 | like around 25, your brain stops.

00:11:42.080 | Like you're fully developed.

00:11:43.480 | But you show me some brain scans of people who are 55,

00:11:46.880 | and then you scan 'em again at 65,

00:11:48.500 | and their brain is more healthy.

00:11:50.440 | So, where does that come from?

00:11:51.680 | And what stops happening at 25?

00:11:54.240 | And then like, what is there you can do after that?

00:11:58.320 | - So, for girls, their brains

00:12:02.480 | are pretty much fully developed at 25.

00:12:05.240 | For boys, we're always behind.

00:12:06.920 | It's more like 27 or 28.

00:12:09.040 | So, there's this process in the brain called myelinization,

00:12:13.720 | where nerve cells get wrapped

00:12:17.040 | with a white fatty substance called myelin.

00:12:20.640 | And when they get wrapped, they become more efficient.

00:12:24.240 | They work like 100 times faster.

00:12:27.400 | And myelin starts to be deposited in little kids

00:12:30.680 | at two months in their visual cortex in the back,

00:12:34.120 | and then slowly, about 25,

00:12:36.840 | finishes myelinating their frontal lobes.

00:12:41.040 | And that's why early drug abuse is a disaster,

00:12:44.840 | because it stops that beautiful developmental process

00:12:49.240 | that's what maturity is about, right?

00:12:50.880 | Maturity is you just don't make the same stupid mistakes

00:12:53.640 | you made before, right?

00:12:54.920 | You're learning.

00:12:56.400 | But if the organ of decision-making isn't healthy,

00:13:01.100 | it's not properly developed, that's a problem for you.

00:13:06.100 | Now, we have a lot of experience

00:13:08.460 | of taking brains that are troubled and making them better.

00:13:12.720 | And so, every day, your brain is becoming better or worse

00:13:19.080 | depending on how you slept, what you ate,

00:13:23.160 | the nutrients you took, the amount of stress you're under.

00:13:26.880 | I was on TV yesterday, it was just terrible.

00:13:29.960 | A new study came out.

00:13:31.040 | Depression in children doubled during the pandemic

00:13:35.680 | because of the isolation, the fear, the social unrest,

00:13:39.880 | the political divide.

00:13:41.600 | And it's just horrifying.

00:13:43.760 | We need to teach children to love their brains,

00:13:46.920 | take care of it, and then discipline their minds, right?

00:13:51.040 | People think of physical discipline.

00:13:52.760 | You're a professional athlete.

00:13:54.520 | It's not something you do once.

00:13:56.160 | It's something you do over and over and over again

00:13:59.320 | so you can maintain a high level of performance.

00:14:01.640 | Well, mental discipline's the same way.

00:14:03.920 | We have to do that over and over and over

00:14:06.060 | so we can maintain a high level of mental performance.

00:14:10.400 | - That makes sense.

00:14:11.700 | And you just, I actually was gonna get into this,

00:14:13.560 | but you're saying, you said before COVID and after COVID,

00:14:16.520 | you've seen a big difference in,

00:14:19.160 | especially young people's brain, but general population,

00:14:22.920 | it's a big difference that you've seen?

00:14:24.720 | - Big difference, in part because of the stress.

00:14:28.880 | And we also talked about COVID.

00:14:31.080 | And COVID can activate the emotional centers of the brain

00:14:35.600 | and put people at higher risk for emotional issues.

00:14:39.440 | - That makes sense.

00:14:40.560 | So obviously not everybody has the money or the time

00:14:43.160 | to come scan their brain, although everyone should.

00:14:46.040 | So what's like, for the majority of brains you saw,

00:14:48.980 | especially for young people, then we'll go to old people,

00:14:52.480 | what are some practical things everyone can do

00:14:55.120 | to keep their brain as healthy as possible

00:14:58.640 | without even scanning it?

00:14:59.840 | Like what's some day-to-day things?

00:15:01.160 | - Well, I mean, the first thing is to love your brain.

00:15:04.720 | And nobody loves their brain.

00:15:06.780 | Why?

00:15:07.620 | Because you can't see it.

00:15:08.960 | You can see the wrinkles in your skin

00:15:11.520 | or the fat around your belly,

00:15:13.200 | and you can do something when you're unhappy with it.

00:15:16.160 | But because most people never look, they don't care.

00:15:20.000 | When I looked at my brain first time in 1991,

00:15:24.260 | I was the top neuroscience student in medical school.

00:15:28.620 | I'm a double board certified psychiatrist,

00:15:31.400 | and I didn't care at all about my brain.

00:15:33.640 | And then when I saw it and it wasn't healthy,

00:15:36.440 | 'cause I played football in high school, I had bad habits,

00:15:41.280 | I'm like, "No, I have to care about this."

00:15:43.480 | And then I've spent the last 30 years making it better.

00:15:46.640 | So one, you have to care about it.

00:15:50.480 | That's the first thing.

00:15:52.080 | And then avoid things that hurt it.

00:15:54.000 | You just have to know the list.

00:15:55.880 | I went to my daughter's second grade class

00:15:57.800 | and I put 20 things on the board.

00:15:59.760 | And I go, "Okay, you tell me,

00:16:01.240 | "good for your brain or bad for it?"

00:16:03.440 | Football, everybody put bad for it.

00:16:05.920 | Hitting soccer balls with their head, bad.

00:16:08.800 | Smoking, bad.

00:16:10.120 | Marijuana, bad.

00:16:11.160 | Even the second graders know it, right?

00:16:13.120 | I mean, there's this whole discussion in society,

00:16:15.320 | but second graders know it's not good for your brain.

00:16:18.160 | Alcohol, bad.

00:16:20.420 | Ice cream, they love it, but bad.

00:16:23.820 | The only thing they missed was orange juice,

00:16:28.880 | which they put in the good category,

00:16:31.520 | but it's way too much sugar.

00:16:33.220 | Whenever, eating the sugar from six oranges,

00:16:36.800 | how does that make any sense?

00:16:38.520 | Eat the orange, don't drink the juice.

00:16:41.880 | - Eat the orange, don't drink the juice.

00:16:43.240 | I actually, that's surprising to me

00:16:45.200 | 'cause I'm someone that eats a lot of fruits and vegetables

00:16:47.800 | and I was always told the sugar between the two

00:16:50.480 | are a lot different, so I thought that oranges

00:16:54.480 | would actually be good for your brain, like oranges.

00:16:56.520 | - Oranges are good for your brain, not the juice.

00:16:59.640 | So whenever you unwrap sugar from its fiber source,

00:17:07.280 | it turns toxic in your body.

00:17:09.600 | So fructose can actually give you fatty liver.

00:17:14.360 | It's really interesting.

00:17:15.800 | There's a wonderful YouTube video called

00:17:17.920 | Sugar, The Bitter Truth by Robert Lustig.

00:17:21.680 | If you watch that, you'll never drink fruit juice again.

00:17:24.920 | - That's crazy.

00:17:25.760 | Yeah, I came in here knowing that some things

00:17:29.120 | were toxic for your brain, obviously like alcohol

00:17:31.620 | or getting hit in the head that's bad for you

00:17:34.480 | or going to McDonald's every day.

00:17:36.520 | Certain foods are bad for you.

00:17:38.480 | But there's like a big debate going on,

00:17:40.240 | especially now, like all these places

00:17:42.640 | have legalized marijuana and are saying,

00:17:44.480 | all these studies are coming out saying

00:17:47.160 | it could be beneficial for you 'cause of this or that.

00:17:49.720 | But you look at the brains, like all these people

00:17:51.680 | that are making these assumptions about what it does,

00:17:53.920 | they're not looking at what it does to your brain

00:17:56.480 | and you've done extensive research

00:17:58.640 | and you're saying like no, marijuana's definitely

00:18:01.440 | a negative for your brain.

00:18:03.160 | - So, when I first started scanning people,

00:18:07.600 | I would see people who were using marijuana,

00:18:10.040 | their brain looked toxic.

00:18:11.720 | It looked older than they were.

00:18:14.940 | And now, is it bad in every situation all the time?

00:18:18.860 | No.

00:18:19.700 | For my father-in-law who had cancer,

00:18:22.740 | and it was terminal, it helped him eat.

00:18:28.120 | That was good.

00:18:29.120 | Some people with resistant seizures

00:18:31.920 | seems to be helpful.

00:18:34.360 | But to just say it's innocuous is a lie.

00:18:38.480 | I published a study on 62,000 scans

00:18:41.480 | on how the brain ages.

00:18:42.960 | It's the largest imaging study ever.

00:18:45.720 | And then we looked at, well, what accelerates aging?

00:18:50.400 | And having schizophrenia was the worst.

00:18:53.080 | Your brain looked 10 years older.

00:18:55.280 | Marijuana was the second worst.

00:18:58.360 | It surprised me.

00:19:00.680 | It ages the brain.

00:19:03.040 | And I don't know about you, but I want a young brain.

00:19:05.840 | I don't want an older brain.

00:19:07.760 | And Miley Cyrus is one of my patients.

00:19:12.160 | And that came out public last year.

00:19:14.080 | And I love her.

00:19:16.020 | But I couldn't get her to stop smoking pot

00:19:17.760 | for the longest time.

00:19:19.320 | It's not good for you.

00:19:21.000 | And then I figured out the secret.

00:19:24.680 | There's a part of your brain called the hippocampus.

00:19:29.480 | It's on the inside of your temporal lobes.

00:19:31.880 | And the hippocampus is Greek for seahorse.

00:19:35.320 | And every day, it's one of the few areas of your brain

00:19:40.000 | that produces stem cells.

00:19:41.360 | So it actually makes new cells every day,

00:19:45.180 | like 700 new cells every day.

00:19:49.600 | And I was telling her, it's like your brain

00:19:52.760 | is making 700 new baby seahorses.

00:19:56.640 | And her eyes got big 'cause she knew what I was doing.

00:19:59.720 | And she's an animal lover.

00:20:00.840 | She said, "Dr. Raymond, it's so unfair."

00:20:03.040 | I said, "You're murdering the seahorses."

00:20:07.360 | Right?

00:20:08.200 | If you wanna grow your brain, you can grow your brain.

00:20:12.480 | You have to put it in a healing environment.

00:20:15.840 | And the problem with marijuana, it's fat-soluble.

00:20:19.080 | What that means is if you smoke today

00:20:23.280 | or you do an edible today, we can measure it for 30 days.

00:20:28.280 | So it's like you make this one decision today,

00:20:31.360 | you're sort of making this decision for a month.

00:20:33.840 | - That's a good point.

00:20:34.720 | I asked you this earlier, but I was like, okay.

00:20:38.080 | So say you're not an alcoholic or you don't drink a ton,

00:20:41.600 | but you do certain things and you say,

00:20:44.680 | oh, it's just a balance.

00:20:45.680 | Like I'm gonna be good most of the time,

00:20:48.000 | but then I'm gonna make certain decisions

00:20:49.400 | like once in a while.

00:20:50.720 | Or I'm gonna eat bad once in a while.

00:20:52.940 | Like, or smoke once in a while.

00:20:55.000 | But some of these things like they,

00:20:56.240 | even though you do them once in a while or as a balance,

00:20:59.800 | they have like lasting impacts on your brain.

00:21:02.120 | And we talked earlier about, you know,

00:21:05.040 | is it helping heal my brain or take away from it?

00:21:09.480 | Or like, what's the consequences of doing these things?

00:21:13.880 | And I thought that that was pretty interesting

00:21:15.520 | 'cause I know a lot of people, especially young people,

00:21:18.120 | like they'll justify making certain decisions

00:21:21.920 | 'cause they've been doing good for a while.

00:21:23.620 | Now they just wanna wild out for a night, whatever it is.

00:21:26.300 | But it has lasting impacts for your brain.

00:21:28.680 | - Well, and there's the little lies that,

00:21:31.580 | I would call them the little lies

00:21:32.920 | that make people fat, depressed, and feeble-minded.

00:21:35.980 | And one of the little lies is everything in moderation.

00:21:39.440 | Everything in moderation is the gateway thought to hell.

00:21:43.020 | Because it's like, well, I'll cheat this,

00:21:46.380 | and then I'll do that.

00:21:47.660 | And then I'll, and I'm like, it's my brain.

00:21:50.860 | I don't wanna be in moderation.

00:21:53.100 | I want to love my brain.

00:21:55.620 | And actually doing the right thing

00:21:57.920 | is never about deprivation.

00:21:59.980 | So Drew Carey, the famous comedian,

00:22:02.420 | he lost a lot of weight and he kept it off.

00:22:05.060 | And there's this quote that I knew he would keep it off.

00:22:09.340 | He said, "Eating crappy food isn't a reward.

00:22:14.340 | "It's a punishment."

00:22:16.020 | Because he knew what it did to his body.

00:22:19.280 | And so when you go, I wanna reward myself,

00:22:23.220 | it's like, well, it's something that you love

00:22:25.860 | that loves you back.

00:22:28.700 | That if I ever open up a restaurant,

00:22:30.260 | I wanna call it Loves You Back

00:22:32.220 | because I love the shake I have in the morning.

00:22:36.540 | I generally love a big salad with protein on it,

00:22:40.620 | with veggies, and I love that stuff.

00:22:43.500 | I pick things I love.

00:22:45.940 | Like I make a brain-healthy hot chocolate every night,

00:22:49.060 | raw cacao, unsweetened organic,

00:22:53.180 | vanilla almond milk, a little chocolate stevia in it.

00:22:58.180 | It tastes great.

00:22:59.740 | I love it.

00:23:01.100 | And cacao's a superfood.

00:23:04.180 | I love it back.

00:23:05.620 | It loves me back.

00:23:06.980 | - There's plenty of good things you can find,

00:23:09.380 | especially nowadays.

00:23:10.300 | People are becoming more health conscious

00:23:12.140 | than they used to be.

00:23:13.140 | There's so many good restaurants that have healthy food.

00:23:17.780 | My next question is, you see,

00:23:19.920 | like what are the biggest outwardly things

00:23:23.140 | that people struggle with or that they do

00:23:25.580 | in a bad brain that you see versus like a very healthy brain?

00:23:28.420 | What is the outward difference in how they live,

00:23:31.540 | their mood, like all those things?

00:23:33.300 | What's the biggest few outwardly things?

00:23:36.560 | - Well, with a healthy brain, you're a better friend.

00:23:39.920 | You don't interrupt as much.

00:23:43.020 | You listen.

00:23:44.220 | You care about what's going on with the other person.

00:23:47.900 | You're better at managing your money.

00:23:50.380 | You're more thoughtful.

00:23:54.020 | People sort of like you more because you're consistent,

00:23:59.900 | reliable, reasonably on time.

00:24:03.260 | The things that sort of make life work

00:24:05.820 | come with a healthier brain.

00:24:11.260 | A lot of people these days,

00:24:12.820 | they try to separate like science and faith.

00:24:18.540 | And one thing we talked about earlier

00:24:20.140 | was how you take mind, body, spirit,

00:24:23.980 | all these different things and you put them all into one.

00:24:26.780 | How do you kind of do that?

00:24:29.500 | Like how do they all come together?

00:24:31.340 | And you were saying earlier like your brain helps you

00:24:34.900 | even with your relationship with God

00:24:36.260 | or how you hear him or how you can be effective for him

00:24:41.100 | in your purpose, how do you put all those things together?

00:24:44.260 | 'Cause a lot of people will try to put one.

00:24:46.220 | If they're struggling in life, they'll be like,

00:24:47.700 | oh, let me just get in the gym, work on my body,

00:24:49.900 | then I'll be happy after that.

00:24:51.940 | And then they find, no, I got super fit

00:24:54.020 | and I'm still not all the way happy.

00:24:55.820 | Or they'll try to fix just their diet

00:24:59.020 | and then they like, but like how do you,

00:25:00.860 | what do you need to put all of them together?

00:25:03.020 | - So when I was a young medical student,

00:25:06.900 | our dean drew four big circles on the board

00:25:10.660 | and he's like, never think of people as their diagnosis.

00:25:13.260 | Always think of them in four big circles.

00:25:15.460 | And this actually prevents burnout.

00:25:17.940 | It's what's the biology?

00:25:19.860 | So that person that's unhappy that's going to the gym,

00:25:22.820 | that's a good thing, but it's only a piece of it.

00:25:26.700 | It's they're getting physically healthy.

00:25:29.300 | So there's a biological circle.

00:25:32.220 | There's also a psychological circle,

00:25:34.980 | which is how do you think?

00:25:36.940 | And what was your development like?

00:25:40.980 | People who grew up with a lot of trauma,

00:25:43.860 | it's hard for them to be happy

00:25:45.700 | because they're always watching

00:25:47.060 | for some bad thing to happen

00:25:49.340 | because a lot of bad things happen.

00:25:51.820 | So I call them ants, automatic negative thoughts

00:25:56.300 | that just come into your mind automatically

00:25:58.340 | and ruin your day.

00:26:00.780 | I'll never be my best or whatever the negative thought is.

00:26:05.780 | So learning how to kill the ants is what I talk about.

00:26:08.980 | There's a social circle, which is how do we get along

00:26:12.220 | and what's going on in our society and our level of stress.

00:26:15.540 | So being effective at living is really helpful.

00:26:20.420 | Being effective in relationships and just one tip

00:26:23.380 | is if you notice what you like five times more

00:26:28.100 | than you notice what's wrong,

00:26:29.620 | your relationships are going to be better.

00:26:31.940 | So you notice in my office I have penguins.

00:26:34.580 | There's a whole story around that.

00:26:37.020 | And then there's the spiritual circle,

00:26:38.740 | which is why do you care?

00:26:39.780 | What is your sense of meaning and purpose?

00:26:41.820 | Purposeful people live longer.

00:26:45.300 | They're healthier.

00:26:47.180 | They have a reason to do the right thing.

00:26:49.760 | So for my patients, I'm like,

00:26:51.300 | so why do you want to be better?

00:26:53.180 | How's your life going to be better if your brain is better?

00:26:56.660 | - And as you go on this journey,

00:26:59.500 | like you just gave me a lot of things

00:27:00.840 | that I could do to get better,

00:27:02.660 | but everyone has bad days and like you showed me the graph

00:27:07.660 | of there's this program that you put people on,

00:27:10.980 | but they have dips.

00:27:12.260 | But if they stick with the program, they'll see change.

00:27:14.740 | And if you scan your brain later, it'll be better.

00:27:17.220 | But another part you brought up

00:27:19.540 | was how you deal with the bad days.

00:27:21.460 | Like gives you data and you don't look at bad days

00:27:23.820 | as like, oh, I just have a bad day.

00:27:26.900 | And I know a lot of people, me included,

00:27:29.860 | like I'll look at a bad day and then get guilty.

00:27:32.060 | But those bad days can turn into multiple bad days.

00:27:35.180 | But you were saying earlier how you turn it into data.

00:27:37.900 | Okay, why was this a bad day?

00:27:39.700 | Like why did I make this choice that I didn't want to make?

00:27:42.580 | So talk a little bit about that,

00:27:44.780 | 'cause I think especially people that watch this

00:27:47.460 | and okay, I want to make a change.

00:27:49.360 | And then they try it for a while

00:27:50.580 | and then they have a few bad days.

00:27:52.060 | It might turn into like a bad month or a bad year.

00:27:54.700 | How do you--

00:27:55.540 | - And then they'll go to the doctor

00:27:56.820 | and end up with Lexapro or Adderall or sleeping pills.

00:28:02.660 | Right, because they didn't learn.

00:28:06.900 | So there's a phrase I love.

00:28:09.140 | Be curious, not furious.

00:28:12.800 | So, so many people that make a bad decision

00:28:14.960 | and then they'll hate themselves

00:28:16.660 | and then they'll continue to make the bad decisions.

00:28:19.340 | So I have a patient, a good example is,

00:28:20.940 | I have a patient that has an eating disorder.

00:28:22.740 | She has bulimia.

00:28:23.680 | And she's doing really well.

00:28:26.620 | And then she came in and she was ashamed of herself

00:28:29.440 | because she relapsed.

00:28:31.220 | And I'm like, curious, not furious.

00:28:35.460 | Walk me through the day.

00:28:37.540 | And she hadn't eaten anything.

00:28:40.140 | And went out with her friends and had a drink

00:28:44.300 | and then a plate of nachos.

00:28:46.540 | So she came into that vulnerable time,

00:28:51.380 | more vulnerable 'cause she had a super low blood sugar,

00:28:54.340 | 'cause she hadn't eaten.

00:28:55.620 | And then the alcohol lowered it further

00:28:58.540 | and then the nachos, she hated herself,

00:29:00.740 | made herself throw up.

00:29:02.020 | I'm like, so yes, you can shame yourself if you want to,

00:29:05.780 | it's just not helpful.

00:29:07.620 | What happened?

00:29:08.860 | So what we need to do is eat during the day

00:29:12.340 | so that you have a healthy blood sugar

00:29:14.500 | so when they offer you the alcohol you can go, not for me.

00:29:17.740 | And we just learn.

00:29:21.180 | And it's like someone struggling with an addiction.

00:29:24.300 | You don't shame them with a relapse,

00:29:26.060 | is you go, what happened?

00:29:28.060 | What's the goal?

00:29:29.100 | And what can we learn from it?

00:29:32.020 | So that you can be what you want.

00:29:34.980 | And that's what I want.

00:29:35.860 | I want people to be clear with what they want

00:29:39.740 | and then just go, is my behavior getting me what I want?

00:29:42.940 | - But you gotta be open too.

00:29:44.340 | You can't just relapse and then feel ashamed

00:29:46.260 | and keep it all inside.

00:29:47.100 | You gotta have people in your life

00:29:49.260 | that you can tell, be all the way open.

00:29:52.700 | No, I relapsed today.

00:29:54.020 | Even if I relapsed seven days in a row,

00:29:56.820 | you gotta have people in your circle

00:29:59.100 | that you can talk to.

00:30:01.060 | How important is--

00:30:01.900 | - And nobody's perfect,

00:30:02.900 | which is why Jesus died on the cross.

00:30:04.980 | (laughing)

00:30:06.540 | - Exactly.

00:30:07.380 | How important is having people to be all the way healthy,

00:30:11.980 | having people you can talk to

00:30:13.580 | about when you're having those bad days?

00:30:15.500 | - Yeah, people are contagious.

00:30:17.220 | So you have to be careful who you surround yourself with.

00:30:21.420 | So choose wisely.

00:30:23.780 | They're as contagious as COVID.

00:30:26.580 | But you wanna nurture your circle.

00:30:31.460 | So be careful with who you pick.

00:30:34.060 | But then you wanna nurture it.

00:30:37.180 | So important.

00:30:38.500 | 'Cause we're connected as a species, right?

00:30:41.020 | Polar bears, they're good at being by themselves, right?

00:30:45.420 | Unless they're making a baby polar bear,

00:30:47.100 | they don't need anybody

00:30:48.500 | because that's not how they were made.

00:30:51.220 | We were made in connection.

00:30:54.740 | And it's essential.

00:30:56.900 | - I just got a couple more questions for you, my guy.

00:30:59.140 | So if you had three things to avoid

00:31:04.140 | and three things to do for everyone,

00:31:07.660 | what would be the top three things

00:31:11.340 | that you would pick for both?

00:31:13.420 | - Three things to avoid.

00:31:15.860 | I have a new book called "Your Brain is Always Listening."

00:31:18.820 | And I would avoid the oblivious bad habit dragon.

00:31:23.740 | It's the first thing I'd do.

00:31:25.100 | I mean, I get conscious about loving my brain.

00:31:29.780 | Too many people are just, they're just oblivious

00:31:33.380 | that whether it's the air they breathe

00:31:36.020 | or the water they drink or the food they eat

00:31:38.700 | or the thoughts they think,

00:31:40.300 | there's just, they have no control.

00:31:44.700 | And so I'd get rid of being oblivious.

00:31:49.060 | And then I'd be intentional about food

00:31:52.980 | 'cause food is so important.

00:31:55.460 | I think 30% of the mental health problems in America

00:32:00.460 | are due to the standard American diet,

00:32:03.300 | which spells sad, standard American diet.

00:32:06.360 | It's pro-inflammatory.

00:32:08.420 | Happy meals are not happy.

00:32:10.100 | They're sad meals.

00:32:11.660 | When you think about it, it's like, no.

00:32:14.660 | And I'd turn off the gadgets and move.

00:32:18.060 | The gadgets are causing us to be more sedentary,

00:32:22.140 | more overweight.

00:32:23.420 | - Totally agree.

00:32:24.700 | - So for do, it's purposeful, love your brain

00:32:29.700 | and move and eat.

00:32:32.500 | - Gotcha.

00:32:34.300 | Is that three dos or is that three don'ts?

00:32:38.060 | - Well, love your brain, move, eat, right.

00:32:42.860 | And avoid the oblivious bad habit dragon

00:32:48.140 | and watch the digital addiction

00:32:51.860 | and the standard American diet.

00:32:54.140 | - Gotcha.

00:32:55.460 | Last question.

00:32:56.300 | - But it comes down to this one question.

00:32:58.380 | I worked with B.J. Fogg at Stanford for six months.

00:33:02.300 | He created something called tiny habits.

00:33:04.780 | What's the smallest thing I can do today

00:33:07.780 | that'll make the biggest difference?

00:33:09.820 | And we have 50 tiny habits.

00:33:11.940 | But the mother tiny habit is just ask yourself

00:33:16.140 | as you go through your day.

00:33:17.980 | Is this good for my brain or bad for it?

00:33:21.340 | And if you can answer that with information and love,

00:33:26.180 | love of yourself, love of your mission,

00:33:29.260 | why you're on the planet, love of your family and friends,

00:33:32.780 | begin making better decisions.

00:33:35.420 | - Right, no doubt.

00:33:38.180 | My last question for you is obviously

00:33:40.020 | you've already made such a huge difference in the world.

00:33:42.780 | A lot of celebrities who have been addicted,

00:33:45.860 | all this stuff, you've helped heal them.

00:33:47.660 | What is your overall goal and what you wanna do

00:33:52.180 | and where do you see the world?

00:33:54.300 | What's your main goal for the world?

00:33:57.580 | - So, it's gonna sound crazy,

00:34:00.140 | but I wanna stand mental illness.

00:34:04.100 | I hate the term mental illness.

00:34:07.100 | It shames people, it's stigmatizing, and it's wrong.

00:34:11.060 | These are brain health issues.

00:34:13.380 | Call someone mental, you shame them.

00:34:15.780 | Call someone brain, you elevate them.

00:34:18.460 | So, I wanna end mental illness

00:34:20.500 | by creating a revolution in brain health.

00:34:25.500 | And what I wanna do with my influencers

00:34:30.580 | is I want you to help me figure out

00:34:33.220 | how to make brain health cool.

00:34:36.620 | - No doubt.

00:34:37.460 | - And so, for me to take an NBA player

00:34:41.100 | that is masterful at his craft and go,

00:34:44.100 | yeah, let's make brain health cool.

00:34:46.140 | A lot of people pay attention to that.

00:34:48.300 | - No doubt.

00:34:50.140 | Well, I think you can do it because I know,

00:34:52.260 | I mean, the world's already moving

00:34:53.420 | in more of a health conscious state.

00:34:56.140 | The brain is a little ignored,

00:34:57.660 | but I think, you know, you got it going on

00:35:00.660 | and I see it firsthand, the benefits.

00:35:04.060 | You know, I thought everything was cool in my brain.

00:35:06.300 | I did a brain scan and then I kinda told you

00:35:08.180 | about my issues beforehand.

00:35:09.940 | And my brain showed the things that I was,

00:35:12.260 | and it's just, it's cool to look at it from that angle.

00:35:14.060 | And I think it's super important.

00:35:15.580 | So, I think you can do it.

00:35:16.940 | - Well, let's make your brain the best it can be.

00:35:20.300 | - Let's do it.

00:35:21.500 | That's a wrap though.

00:35:22.700 | Another episode of Kids, Mike.

00:35:24.020 | Appreciate it.

00:35:24.860 | (upbeat music)

00:35:27.440 | you

How Brain Health Leads to a Disciplined Mind ft. Dr. Daniel Amen // Michael Porter Jr

Chapters