What Women Need to Know About Their Brains – With Dr. Daniel Amen

Dr. Mindy

Okay, well let me start Dr. Amen, by just welcoming you to the recenter podcast, I have been dying to have this condiment conversation about the female brain with multiple experts, but you are definitely the man to talk to about a woman’s brain. So let me just start off by saying, Welcome, happy you’re here.

DR. AMEN

Thank you so much. I often say I know more about it than I want to. I have five sisters, and five daughters, God is cruel. 14 nieces, and two granddaughters. So I have thought a lot about the female brain. And the female brain has strengths, and especially when it comes to language, and collaboration and intuition. Because they have a bigger highway network between the left and right hemispheres. So they tend to have, you know, better collaboration, more intuition, more impulse control. Not always in my family. You think of who goes to jail, 14 times more, it’s males than females who kills themselves males. Even though females try males are much more successful, like females try three to four times more than men, men are three to four times more successful. So I’ve been very interested in the female brain and gender differences for a long time.

Dr. Mindy

Yeah. And you know, one of the statistics that really hit me that I read recently was that the most common time for a woman to kill herself is from the decade 45 to 55. And I can tell you as a 53 year old woman, that hit me really hard, because these are as your to your point, these are our mothers, these are our sisters, our friends, our community leaders, and it left me asking myself, why why do we struggle? Why does the female brain struggle as we start to hit our mid 40s? And go through those menopausal years?

DR. AMEN

Well, so that’s a huge part of the answer is hormones radically shift. And they do it in a surprising way. I mean, you know, probably more than me. But the one statistic that is always sort of stuck with me, is progesterone levels tend to drop about 10 years before women actually go into menopause. So that means in their late 30s or early 40s, progesterone is going low. And progesterone is like the brain’s natural valium and sort of settles things down. And when it goes low, women become anxious and irritable. Yeah, you don’t sleep well. And so then, in order to medicate that, they start drinking more. And alcohol is just not a health food. I mean, we can talk to people that might not a fan of any alcohol, they start taking benzos as a way to manage their anxiety, they start taking antidepressants, they start taking sleeping pills. And it’s like, well, let’s measure it and replace it. You know, why do your hormones drop with age and it happens for males and females? What’s the planet’s way of getting rid of you? And I’m not okay with that.

Dr. Mindy

Yeah, so I’m not okay with that. Either. Explain that more.

DR. AMEN

It’s like, you know, it’s like, okay, you’re done with childbearing. It’s time for us to lose you. So the planet’s resources can be further Yup. And I’m like, No, I’m not okay with that. And so what can I do to keep my testosterone level healthy? And for women, what can they do to keep their hormones healthy, and we live in a toxic soup society, and because we’re being assaulted with pesticides and thali plates and parabens and endocrine disruptors are are hormones aren’t nearly as healthy as they could be. And if your hormones aren’t healthy, guess what? Your brain is not healthy. If you have low progesterone, your emotional centers are busy. If you have low estrogen, you have lower overall blood flow to the brain if you have low testosterone, your moods not good. And so you begin to see how if your hormones aren’t right, people get more sad. They engage in behaviors that hurt the brain, and they’re more likely to become hopeless.

Dr. Mindy

Yeah. So so I feel like I you just explained every woman I know, by the way, like, you know, as if I go out to ladies night with a bunch of 50 year old women, that’s the conversation is exactly what you just said. So when I dove into the research, I stumbled upon a really interesting article that talked about the intersection of estrogen and progesterone with four neurotransmitters estrogen, serotonin, dopamine, GABA and glutamate. And and it got me thinking that even though we know these hormones are supposed to decline, as we go through menopause, the neurotransmitters don’t have to decline. And is there a way for us to backfill in and I know you, you do this so well in your clinics, and really backfill in and create a nutritional plan that keeps those new? Those neurotransmitters high? What resources do we have for those?

DR. AMEN

Well, so we can use supplements to help. And you know, in my mind, I’m going to always start with supplements. And if I need to put someone on medicine, I will but it’s never the first thing I think about. I’m a huge fan of saffron, because saffron has been shown to increase both dopamine and serotonin. I own brain MD, one of our best selling products ever is GABA, calming to port GABA availability in the brain, and you know, I think it’s eating the right food. It’s so important. We live in a society that is just deemed to poison us. And my new book, Change Your Brain every day. I have. So it’s 366 short essays and the most important things I’ve ever said. There 62 evil ruler strategies in there. If I was an evil ruler, and I wanted to create mental illness, what would I What would I do? And for sure, I’d feed the American population, fast food, junk food, artificial sweeteners and crap. Because what goes into your body becomes your body. People don’t know that like your skin makes itself new every 30 days you want pretty your skin you got to eat the diet that’s healthy. So getting your food right is just absolutely essential. And we now have three generations of working mothers. Hmm. When I started my career, most mothers weren’t working outside the house. I mean, they were working really hard, but not outside the house. And then that changed about three generations ago. And I think 90% of women in California, not only are they raising their children, they’re working. And so what what happens with that is they’re tired. And they’re looking for convenience, which is often fast food, which now we’re we’re into a big mess. The nutrition there. I mean, they actually why is called fast food because they take the fiber out of the food. So you’re in and out of the restaurant quickly. Right? Yeah. So Valerie meal you just ate in like four minutes. So

Dr. Mindy

that on the testosterone thing or on the woman that’s working idea. This was something that actually John Gray brought to my attention. And part of why he wrote his last book is because he said that we have more women in the workplace and they are being they’re using their testosterone at a faster rate, and that when they come home, if their testosterone depleted their goal then becomes that they need to replenish estrogen to help reboot They’re their brains so that they can actually be an active member of the family. So his recommendation is, at the end of the hard day, a woman would come home and do anything that would raise estrogen. And then of course, he goes into the differences of how men and women deal with that end of the day stress differently. But what are your thoughts on that?

DR. AMEN

No, I hadn’t thought about it like that. I think that’s a really interesting perspective. But what it made me think about was this epidemic of low cholesterol? I don’t know if you’re seeing it in your practice. But I yet, especially in younger people, and what is cholesterol help you make all of your hormones? Yeah. And so we live in a society where cholesterol has been demonized. And no wonder we have this epidemic of low testosterone. For people. It’s like, Oh, your cholesterol is to 12. So you have to go on a statin, which is insanity. Yep.

Dr. Mindy

Yeah. And what about just us, you know, if you’re, if a woman’s at work all day long. She’s also a stressful job. She’s raising cortisol? Well, the precursor to both testosterone and cortisol is DHEA. So you end up with this situation where she’s depleting her DHEA stores? What’s your feeling on that?

DR. AMEN

Well, I mean, chronic stress does so many bad things from increasing cortisol putting fat around your belly, shrinking your hippocampus, which means your memory is not going to be good, your moods not going to be good. So having a stress management practice is critical. Yeah, this is absolutely essential. Like I think, for my patients, basic training for my patients is learning how to not believe every stupid thing you think. Learning how to be able to quickly calm anxiety, using diaphragmatic breathing. I just think those two things are so so helpful, so fast, that I just want all all of them to know. And then if they’re sitting on a core of trauma, which so many of our patients are, that they’re they’re not reacting out of the moment. They’re reacting to all of the stressful moments from their past, that doing treatments like EMDR can be so helpful.

Dr. Mindy

Yeah, yeah. 1,000%. So let’s go back to the woman who’s quick to react because I think this is something that I shocked me as I went through menopause. And I hear a lot of women say this. So what I just heard from you, you know, when you take a 48 year old woman who is entering into more of her met, maybe he’s gone three or four months without her cycle. And so we know her estrogen is down, we know her cortisol is up, potentially her testosterone is down, she doesn’t have enough progesterone. So therefore, she’s not getting enough GABA. And then something simple hits her brain. There, the stress reaction is so huge. You know, I would say that I in my late 40s, I felt like I didn’t even recognize myself. So in that moment, diaphragmatic breathing like what are her tools? Because the rage is you know that we talk a lot about the menopausal rages showed up. You’re familiar with that one, you’ve, you’ve been the recipient of that one. But help us understand What tool do we have in that moment? Because I think that’s where the alcohol becomes attractive. That’s where, you know, we start to blame the people around us. But really, we need to take ownership over what’s happening to our brains.

DR. AMEN

But it’s also when divorce goes way up. Yeah, oh, yeah. Your hormones are off and your libido is off, and you’re mad. And and women instigate divorce like 70% of the time. I’ve heard it said, and it sort of makes sense to me that when a woman is young and her hormones are high, she’s really interested in bonding and keeping the family together and becomes other centered and begins to go into perimenopause and then menopause, she’s no longer other centered. She’s more and it’s more about Have her? Yep. And that can be a real problem. It can be very disoriented for her spouse, who is like, well wait a minute you like cared about me. And now you don’t care about me anymore. And it can be very disruptive to a family system. Now I always tell the women I deal with, it’s like, come on, it’s sort of like you’re on a plane. And if the aircraft oxygen pressure goes down, and the masks come down, you have put yours on first. And I want to teach young women, it’s like, come on, you have to take care of yourself. Because if you’re no good, everybody’s going to suffer. Right. But one of the reasons I think for a high level of divorce, and Peri menopausal and menopausal women, is it shifted? That natural tendency to keep things together has shifted, and become problematic. But back to your question, you’re in a rage, what do you do? Yeah. It’s called the 15. Second breath, it’s really good. And it’s very effective. Take a break breath for a second said, I mean, like, take a big breath, and then through your, through your nose, four seconds and hold it for a second and a half. And then take eight seconds to breathe it out through your mouth really slowly. And then hold it out for a second and a half. You do that four times. And while you’re doing it, ask yourself this question. What’s the goal? What do I want? In this situation? Now for all of my patients, I have them do an exercise called the one page miracle. On one piece of paper, write down what you want. relationships, work, money, physical, emotional, spiritual health, what do you want? And so in that moment, when you feel like lashing out when you do the breathing, go, Okay, does it fit? Does my Avior fit the goals I have for my life? I love that. Most people in relationships are sort of like me, like with Tana, I have the same goal. I’ve had the same goal for the 15 years we’ve been married. I want a kind, caring, loving, supportive, passionate relationship. I always want that. I don’t always feel like that I get rude thoughts that come into my head. And I’m just mostly, I think Tanner would say I’m mostly good at inhibiting the student things, I think that’s awesome. But if you’re in a rage, if you can just for bras for 15 second breasts, that’s one minute. If you arm yourself, trigger a parasympathetic response or relaxation response, and then go, what’s the goal? What do I want? What’s the goal? And you know, when you lash out, you then feel guilty? Yeah, often the cycle is this. It’s I have a tantrum. I feel bad. So I let negative behavior go on. Until I can’t stand it. And then I lash out. And then I guilty. And then I lead bad behavior and negative behavior go on, until I can’t stand it and then I lash out. So it becomes this guilt cycle, which is broken so much better is their negative behavior, deal with it, but deal with it in a rational

Dr. Mindy

way. I would think that’s a trained the first time you do it probably is tough. You may still want to lash out, but I would think the more then you now have a state changer that you can use on an ongoing basis. So is that definitely something that gets easier with time?

DR. AMEN

The more you do it, in fact, what I recommend is people do this breathing pattern for two minutes twice a day, and just do it every day, two minutes, twice a day. And if you don’t do it, if you don’t practice it, you won’t be able to use it when you’re triggered. But if you practice it you will have built that track in your brain that will allow you to use it when you’re triggered. Yeah,

Dr. Mindy

perfect. So in you A new book you talk about and you and I chatted about this when we first started about the importance of daily routines for the brain. And when one of the things that has been tugging on my heart is creating some kind of path for women when they hit 40, because like you said, you know, progesterone is the first to decline, progesterone will go start to go down in the in the 30s. But then we hit the 40s. And we get in those early years, the 40s, the mid 40s, and we’re losing estrogen we’re losing progesterone, is what would a daily lifestyle look like? And you’ve talked about not eating the junk? You’ve talked about the brain work? But is there any talk about happy saffron, but is there like a general formula we could follow, that we could bring to every 40 year old woman and say, Hey, here’s what’s coming down the road, here’s what you might want to implement.

DR. AMEN

So I like these habits for everybody. It’s like I start every day with today is going to be a great day. I’m always training my mind to look for what’s right, rather than what’s wrong. Today is going to be a great day. Is this good for my brain or bad for it? It’s that’s the mother tiny habit. And you know, the younger you start, the better it will be for you. But is it good for my brain or bad for it? You just have to know the less and you know, society’s confused people, you know, like gadgets are good. And they’ve been created to be addictive while they’re not. alcohols, health food, right. I mean, we’ve been through that. We’re now with marijuana’s innocuous. It’s complete lie. It’s not innocuous, it’s toxic. Actually study out this week about marijuana increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. My favorite daily habit is when I go to bed at night, I say a prayer, and then I go, what went well, today? And if you do this with your children, like you started breakfast, so why is today going to be a great day for you? Or at dinner? Go, hey, what went well, today? The conversations are so awesome. And but for me, every night, I’ve done it for probably a decade. What went well, it’s a little treasure hunt every day, pushing my brain to look for what’s right. I mean, you know, I’ll deal with what’s wrong, but not right before bed. Yeah, because that’s so important. You want to set your dreams up to be more positive. new study out just today, sort of horrifying, actually, that children and young adults who have nightmares have a higher incidence of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, and why I’m not quite sure. You know, it’s alterations in REM sleep, which are really important. But I think whatever you can do to set your sleep up to be more effective, that will help you so much. But it all comes back to this silly, simple question. Is it good for my brain or bad for it? And I don’t choose it because I should. Because if you choose to do the right thing, because you should, you won’t do it. Right? Because all of us are run by the four year old, the spoiled Oreo rolled in our head that wants what he or she wants, when he or she wants it. It’s I do the right thing, because I love myself. Because you know, think about what do you really want, right? If I look at what I really want french fries, is I don’t really want french fries, or alcohol or soda or ice cream or whatever. What I really want is energy and, and some longevity and meaning and purpose and connection. Those are the things where if you ask me, all right, what do you really want, right? Not in the moment, but in all of the moments. Then you begin to see your bad habits as enemies of what you really want. Yeah, and that’s maturity drew carry that comedian who lost a lot of weight and kept it off. He said something so profound. He said eating crappy food isn’t And a reward? Yeah, it’s a punishment. Yeah. And I’m like, he’s gonna stay healthy. Because that mindset of love of I do the right things. Because I’ve love my life, right? This is a gift. And I’m either on autopilot in service to the food industry, or the alcohol industry or the drug industry. I’m in service to them. Or I’m in service to what I really want.

Dr. Mindy

Yeah, one of my favorite quotes is do something today that your tomorrow self will thank you for. And what I love about that is I actually whenever I’m making any choice around food, or drinks, I’m always thinking about my tomorrow self, what will my tomorrow is my tomorrow self gonna feel guilty? Is my tomorrow self gonna be mad that my today self went down this route, and it tends to steer me in the right direction?

DR. AMEN

Yeah, and people who lived the longest, are conscientious. There’s a study out of Stanford where they looked at 15 140 Children in 1921. And when they were 10 years old, and they started assessing them for what went with health, longevity addictions. And the only thing that was consistent with people live the longest was conscientiousness. The Don’t worry be happy people died the earliest, from accidents and preventable illnesses. And I’ve had so many people, like on social media recently, I took on fruit juice. I’m like, you’re just gonna die early. Because you learn upon fructose. It’s gonna poison you. And it’s like, oh, you need to smoke pot. You don’t need to be so serious. And just, you know, I just smile. It’s like, now I want to be that person. That’s at least doing everything I can.

Dr. Mindy

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Do you think that the brain is Pro is pre predisposed to fixing problems? Because I’ve heard that theory before that the brain is always searching for problems because it wants to fix it. Or is that because you’re maybe dominant in one part of the brain that is wanting to accomplish that?

DR. AMEN

Well, I think that’s more a male thing. Like if you tell us you have a problem, we’re going to fix it. And you don’t really want it fixed. You just want someone to listen and connect with you. I think the brain is a meaning machine. It’s always looking to make meaning out of what is in front of you. Whether they’re meaning they’re not always trying to make up a story about why this is important. Hmm,

Dr. Mindy

I can see that I can totally see that. Where do you speak of connection. And this is another thing I’ve been thinking deeply about. You know, when we came out of the pandemic, there was so much isolation. And you know, then we saw this resurgence of or maybe it was the media’s attention of mental health challenges. But where my heart went, is we just really lacked connection. And I know that I’m in my best self, my brain is working the best when I’m connecting with others and really magnifying oxytocin and really having that deep human interchange with people. What is connection do to our brains?

DR. AMEN

Well, I think it depends on the type of brain you have the pandemic, very hard for extroverts, because crave connection, the pandemic was actually quite soothing for introverts is dramatically less stress because it didn’t have to deal with extroverts.

Dr. Mindy

Well, I’m an extrovert, I’m sorry to all the introverts out.

DR. AMEN

The pandemic was truly awesome for parents who had teenage children and their kids couldn’t just Oh, yeah, so I have. So Chloe, our daughter was 16 when the pandemic started, she just got her license, just got her first job and then everything shut down. She got depressed. But she had to stay home And we had almost every night to our dinners, we make dinner together, we would clean up the kitchen together, we’d have these great conversations. And we had just adopted our two nieces, like January of 2020. Because their parents couldn’t stop being using drugs and being bad parents, and the level of bonding and connection. And like I, we mentioned earlier, three generations of two parent working families, that families were the bond and families had been strained. So for those people that were able to take advantage of the pandemic, and I know so many of my friends and patients, it was a historic, positive time for bonding. Yeah. Now, if you were isolated, during that, it was an awful time that and then you get COVID. Right, almost all of us have gotten Yeah, covered creates this little bomb, inflammatory balm in the brain. And, you know, so it depends really on the kind of brain and the type of situation you had. I loved being at home, and having, you know, having the kids around, where they were captive, that I remember. I think it was like the fall maybe of 2020. I’m like, this is not going to last forever. And I just remember doing the dishes with the kids and getting sad. Because I liked it. So much. Yeah,

Dr. Mindy

yeah, my our son’s Senior High School senior year was was 20. It was during the pandemic. And to your point, we cooked the most elaborate meals, and to this day, he’ll come home and we’ll all cook together. So it created this real anchor that that was a unifier for us good food over good meals long, you know, all at the table talking about really insightful things. I really loved that part of the pandemic, for sure. That was a highlight. To your point. Do you think one other thing that I’ve been really thinking about when I’m interacting, you know, you and I started off, I told you a lot of the people who listen to this podcast, a lot of my following are women over over 40. And what I see is that when we transition, if you’re a woman that was prime, the primary parent giver and taking care of the kids, now the kids grow up, there’s a lack of purpose, there’s a lack of, you know, what do you do next? And it has me thinking about the positive effects of having a purpose in life on the brain. And I would even take it one step further, some of the happiest people I know, are ones that are in service of others. What does that do to the brain can do we need to have a real strong purpose and do we need to be outwardly focused on serving others as an adjunct to brain health?

DR. AMEN

Well, purposeful people live longer, they’re happier, when they get depressed, they get better, faster. They’re cognitively better. So this great study out of Baltimore, the Baltimore longevity study, where they evaluated two groups, so they did MRIs on them, and they’ve looked at hippocampal volume. So the hippocampus is large structures deep in your brain, about the size of the thumb shape, like a seahorse. hippocampus is great for seahorse. One group, they just let them do whatever they wanted to do. The other group, they volunteered. So they had purpose. The group who just continued to do what they normally do, their hippocampus shrank over that year, the group that volunteered their hippocampus grew. How exciting is that? That’s really cool. You want to be in service, if you want a bigger hippocampus, and the hippocampus is involved in mood and memory. Amazing. And so knowing what you want and so as I talked about the one page miracle, what do you want relationships work money, physical, emotional, spiritual health, I think of the spiritual circle. So why do you care? What is your deepest sense of meaning and purpose? Why are you on the planet? What is your relationship with the planet with God with the past with your future and and purposes often other centered, right? If your purpose is I want more money, you’re not going to be happy because money and happiness just don’t go together. Right? I mean, up to about $75,000. Above that they don’t really go together. That what helps people be happy is having connection and purpose.

Dr. Mindy

Yeah. And when I absolutely agree, I will tell you that a tool that I use when my brain clicks into suffering, is I tried to catch myself and realize, Oh, God, I’m thinking about myself again. And sometimes it’s like, I’m thinking about what I’m trying to, to achieve for myself. And the minute I flip that into, how can I show up on this planet, as a person that serves and makes the world a better place? Literally, in a moment, I can switch from depression, to excitement, just by changing my focus on what I’m trying to get as, and turn it into what am I trying to give? That is another tool I’ve used in order to switch my mood if it’s heading in the wrong direction.

DR. AMEN

I love that so much reminds me the story of George Bush, senior that Mrs. Bush became depressed when George Bush was in charge of the CIA, because he couldn’t come home anymore and talk about his work. And she got depressed, and went and saw a psychiatrist and he recommended medicine, she decided to volunteer. And she said that was her antidepressant.

Dr. Mindy

Yeah, crazy, right. To your point and your new book is, I feel like we perhaps have overcomplicated brain health. We’ve been looking for the magic pill like, I’m curious what your thoughts are on that. That research study that came out last year saying SSRIs are not what we thought they will be? What are what we thought they were. And I wonder if in the mental health world, we have been going after the wrong big tool looking at medication as the solution. Whereas what you and I are talking about in your new book is talking about is it’s in these little things that the brain thrives.

DR. AMEN

I think the paradigm for psychiatry is completely broken, that making diagnoses based on symptom clusters with no biological data is insane. And I’m a psychiatrist. I know how to diagnose insanity, that psychiatrists are the only medical doctors who never look at the Oregon they treat. last 30 years I’ve been looking. And what I discovered is that most psychiatric problems, anxiety, depression, psychosis, bipolar disorder, OCD, they’re not mental health issues. They’re brain health issues. You get brain healthy, your mind is so much better. And so what if mental health was really brain health? Yeah. And when you see it that way, everything changes. Stigma goes down, compliance goes up. Everybody wants a better brain in 1979. When I told my dad, I wanted to be psychiatrists, he asked me why I didn’t want to be a real doctor. Why I wanted to be a NOC doctor and hang out with nuts all day long. I mean, I was bad parenting. But But I understand now. It’s it’s like, well, they don’t act like real doctors. And if we looked at the brain as an organ, and what can I do to enhance that organ? Well, then I’m less depressed. Yeah. Yeah. less anxious.

Dr. Mindy

Is there a time and a place for for medications?

DR. AMEN

Of course. I mean, we never say there’s not room for heart medications or there’s not room for, you know, cancer medications. But it’s just never should be the first and the only thing you think about sort of like somebody’s got heart disease. Oh, well, the only thing we’re gonna do is give you drugs. Right. I mean, that’s insane. When you think about

Dr. Mindy

it, yeah. That’s goes on all day, every day in doctors offices.

DR. AMEN

It does because we are in service to insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. And I don’t go to medical school. To be in service to insurance companies or pharmaceutical companies went to medical school to be in service to my patients. And you remember in medical school first do no harm, use the least toxic, most effective treatment, which happens to be teaching people not to believe every stupid thing they think, which happens to be we need to work on your diet. And we need to get you to exercise. But neither you or your I want to be like our colleagues who in large part are burnt out? Yes, because they’re in service to the wrong goal. They’re in service to because their dad is half a million dollars. They have to work in systems that perpetuate the status quo. And the status quo is a shitshow.

Dr. Mindy

Yeah, yeah, I hope everybody hears what you just said, because I feel like there is a separation in healthcare right now. And there is the old paradigm and a new paradigm that’s emerging. And what you’re speaking about today, and your new book is really this new paradigm that’s emerging for mental health. And, and the old paradigm was just tell me the symptoms, I’ll give you a medication come back, if that doesn’t work. And the new paradigm is, hey, it’s our responsibility. It’s time for us to take responsibility for every single thing that shows up in our bodies. And I’d love that is one of the reasons I love your work because you you take it up into the brain, talk a little bit about two really interesting like big things like we’ve talked about foundational ideas, but there’s been two big tools that I’ve seen work incredibly well for the brain, one is hyperbaric oxygen, and the other one is EMDR. To me, both of those are game changers for mental health. Where would somebody bring those tools in? And what exactly are they doing?

DR. AMEN

So, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, is you go inside a chamber under pressure with increased oxygen, it’s been shown to increase blood flow to the brain. I first learned about it about 25 years ago from Mike use slur who was a nuclear medicine doctor at UCLA. And he showed me SPECT scans of people before and after hyperbaric oxygen. And what he showed is it increased blood flow. And their scans are better. And SPECT also measures mitochondrial function. And I’m like, Whoa, you can just see the energy in the brain significantly increased. And then I published a study on soldiers who are involved in blast injuries that I did the scans before and after hyperbaric oxygen, significant improvements. So any low blood flow state, to the brain from autism to toxins, infections, head trauma, hyperbaric oxygen can benefit. I published two big studies showing I could separate PTSD, emotional trauma, from traumatic brain injury, physical trauma with high levels of accuracy using SPECT. And why is that important? Because the treatments are opposite. If you have emotional trauma, we need to calm the brain down. If you have physical trauma, we actually have to pump it up, increase activity and blood flow. EMDR Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a psychological treatment that has biological effects. So I actually published a study on it. On police officers who are involved in shootings, their emotional brain was busy and all of and after an average of eight treatments significantly calmed down. So with EMDR, you bring up trauma, which can be hard for people. And as they do and there’s a method to it. You get their eyes to go back and forth, or you do tapping to alternate hemisphere stimulation. So left, right, left, right, either with eye movements or tapping. And as they bring up the trauma can be very upsetting, but then it tends to dissipate. So as opposed to you and I just talked about the time you were in a car accident or the time you were in a fire or the time you’re raped. I’m just talking about it really traumatized to you. If you do the bilateral hemisphere stimulation, you feel it. But it often then goes away where you still remember it, but it loses its emotional charge. And it’s so powerful. And so many women, perimenopause and menopause. One of the reasons they’re reacting the way they are, is because they’ve had some significant past trauma that they’ve not worked through. They may have talked about it, but they haven’t really worked through it. And so I’m a huge fan of EMDR. Dr. Mindy Yeah, and I think when we go through our those 40 year old years into our 50s, it’s like, we have less, we have less focus on our children. And I feel like all the stuff you didn’t deal with, is going to bubble up to the surface, and it’s there for you to focus on. And my personal experience with EMDR has been nothing will work as quickly as EMDR for getting over some of those traumas that bubbled to the surface. So I would strongly agree with you on that.

DR. AMEN Like mushrooms without side effects. Yeah,

Dr. Mindy

it’s, uh, yeah, for sure. I could totally see that. Because, you know, I’ll use the example. I grew up in LA. And I recently went down there after doing a lot of EMDR. And nothing was triggering me when I had like old, old places I saw I was like, I’m not triggered, I became an triggerable. So I love it. Self love. What do you have a practice of self love that you do every day? And what do you think your superpower is? If you have like one superpower that you are bringing to the world? What would that be?

DR. AMEN

Self love for me is doing the right thing. Is why I do the right thing. It makes me really happy. It’s the one thing, it’s when you do the right thing. Love yourself, root for you. My superpower is looking at the brain. Definitely. Over the last 30 years, I can look at your brain and it really helps me teach people to love and care for their brains. And to target what they mean. Yeah,

Dr. Mindy

I love that. You and you’re so good at it. We’re so grateful for all your work. How do people find your book? Where can they go?

DR. AMEN

Change Your Brain every day out March 21. If people go to Change Your Brain, every day.com We have all sorts of sort of free gifts for them. Including a bottle of calm my brain which is one of my favorite supplements. And they can find me on tick tock doc Amon or on Instagram doc, voc underscore, amen. Amen. clinics.com. I’m so grateful to you. Thank you so much for I’m

Dr. Mindy

so grateful to you and just keep up the amazing work where the world is better with you in it. So thank you so much. Appreciate you.

DR. AMEN

Thank you so much.