Simple Daily Practices to Strengthen Your Mind and Improve Your Life

What if simple habits, practiced for a few minutes each day, could improve your mental health and enhance your life?

Dr. Daniel Amen is back to share with us his approach to brain health and how it can help you improve your overall well-being. He’s a renowned psychiatrist, brain-health expert, and the founder of Amen Clinics, a group of medical clinics that specializes in diagnosing and treating brain-related disorders. He is also a bestselling author of several books on brain health, including his latest release, Change Your Brain Every Day.

Dr. Amen's approach to brain health is based on the principle of personalized medicine. He believes each person's brain is unique and requires a tailored approach to achieve optimal health. His approach involves a comprehensive evaluation of the brain using advanced imaging techniques and other diagnostic tools.

Did you know brain health and mental health are intimately connected (though science has separated them for years)? Many mental health disorders, such as depression and anxiety, are rooted in brain imbalances that can be corrected through targeted interventions.

Tune in to this fascinating discussion to learn about Dr. Amen's unique, comprehensive, and personalized approach to brain health, including the 4 Circles Model that connects the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual spheres and their impact on brain health. Plus, discover simple changes you can make to diet and sleep habits to support your brain and overall well-being!

Freebies From Today’s Episode
Pre-Order Dr. Amen’s new book and receive 4 FREE bonus gifts!

Timestamps:

00:01:10 – Introducing my friend Dr. Daniel Amen
00:05:50 – What led to the writing of his new “greatest hits” book
00:07:25 – Developing daily habits for brain health
00:10:45 – The challenge of going against the grain of mental health
00:13:26 – How brain scans can help us determine brain health
00:17:05 – Diagnosing emotional vs. physical brain trauma
00:20:45 – Habits to make brain health a priority
00:29:05 – How exercise impacts the brain
00:32:25 – The impact of hormones on the brain
00:34:34 – How to get the most out of the book and free gifts

Mentioned in this episode:

Learn more about Dr. Daniel Amen

Listen to my discussion with Dr. Amen on The End Of Mental Illness

I take Omega Plus every day to support my brain health

Sleep Candy™ is my favorite way to get quality sleep to keep my mind sharp

Click Here To Read Transcript


ATHE_Transcript_Ep 543_Dr. Daniel Amen
JJ Virgin: [00:00:00] Hey, I'm JJ Virgin, PhD Dropout. Sorry, mom. Turn four time New York Times bestselling author. Yes. I'm a certified nutrition specialist, fitness Hall of Famer, and I speak at health conferences and trainings around the globe, but I'm driven by my insatiable curiosity and love of science to keep asking.
Digging for answers and sharing the information I uncover with as many people as I can, and that's why I created the Ask the Health Expert Podcast to synthesize and simplify the science of health into actionable strategies to help you thrive. In each episode we'll talk about what's working in the world of wellness, from personalized nutrition and healing your metabolism to healthy aging and prescriptive fitness.
Join me on the journey to better. So you can love how you look and feel right now [00:01:00] and have the energy to play full out at a hundred. So this guest has been on the podcast, I think, more than any other guest. This is a long, long time. Dear, dear, dear friend, and in fact, when I first heard about this, this doctor, I knew that I wanted his help for my son, and so I, we were sharing a client in common, one of his patients, my clients, and I found out that he was gonna be at a, a gala in Beverly Hills.
And so I went to the gala purely to, to hunt him down and meet him. And we got to be really close friends, and he has been such a critical part of helping heal my son, grant Virgin, from his traumatic brain injury. And from helping with the bipolar disorder that he got diagnosed with prior to that. So let me tell you a little bit about Dr.
Daniel Amen and we are gonna be talking today about his new book, change Your Brain Every Day. I'm super excited about this book. [00:02:00] And he's got some great gifts for you too. When you purchase this book, which I'll tell you about in a bit. Let me tell you a little bit about Dr. Daniel Amen; his mission is to end mental illness by creating a revolution in brain health.
I'm gonna link to the episode that we did on how mental illness is really brain illness, which is just fascinating, and how you hurt your brain. He has done so much in the world to get this message out to the world. He's a physician, an adult and child psychiatrist. He's the founder of Amen Clinics.
There's 11 locations around the country for Amen clinics now. I think when I met him, he had. Two. And he has done now more than 200,000 spec scans on patients. And one of the first things he said to me is like, you know, why are we diagnosing something when we're not even looking at it? And so it was kind of a revolutionary idea that he has been out there pushing ever since.
He founded Brain md, which is a science back nutraceutical company, and he's got Amen University where he's trained thousands of medical and [00:03:00] mental health professionals on his methods. He's also doing some amazing fun stuff on social media and out in the world. He's been on public television so many different times.
He's got 12 New York Times bestselling books starting with change of brain. And you're definitely gonna wanna check out his TikTok channel. He's got over 2 million people following him now, and he also has his digital series Scan My Brain, where he features high profile actors, musical artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, and influencers.
It's on YouTube and Instagram. I could go on and on and on with what he's done but I don't want to cut into this interview. Which is fabulous as always. Every time I talk to Dr. Daniel Amen, I learn something new. Now he does have his book coming out. It's Change your Brain every day. Depending on when you're listening to this episode, you either will be able to, to take advantage of some of those pre-order gifts or just some of the long-term gifts that you'll get by ordering the book.
I'm putting all of that information there. At [00:04:00] jjvirgin.com/ChangeBrain. So you'll definitely want to go check that out because he is going to be gifting his 28 day challenge program with the book. And the book is super cool cause it's really about taking the, the change your Brain, change your Life book and putting it into actionable daily steps that you can easily incorporate in.
And I'm all about what can you do easily every day? And one of the things I'll tell you about Brain health is if you do the things to to, to fix your brain fixes everything. You'll lose weight, you'll have more energy, you'll feel great. So it's, it's a win, win, win, win. All right, I'll be right back with Dr.
Daniel Layman. Stay with me.
Dr. Daniel Amen welcome back. Back, back. I think this is what you're my fifth, sixth, seventh time. You're my top interviewee .
Dr. Daniel Amen: I love that. Well, thank you so much for helping me spread the word. [00:05:00] Thank
JJ Virgin: you so much for having such a great word to spread. How's that? And for being such an important part of my family's health healing journey.
And. Is this number 13? How many books is this? I, I know of New York Times bestsellers. But books in general, probably a lot more, right? Yeah.
Dr. Daniel Amen: It's my 40th book.
JJ Virgin: 40th. Okay. 40th
Dr. Daniel Amen: means I'm consistent. ,
JJ Virgin: you're a machine. You know, it's, it's, it's amazing that you just. Keep coming out with new information around the brain.
So this one, what made you decide to write this book in particular? Like the, the change your brain every day. And I, you know, when I think of this, I think of you starting with that Change your brain, change your life. That was like such the massive door opener for all of us into Brain health. But why this book?
Dr. Daniel Amen: You know, what I came to believe is, Like spiritual health, like physical health, brain and [00:06:00] mental health are daily practices. And given that I've written 40 books and I've thought a lot about what I do over the last 40 years, I wanted to write sort of my greatest hits. And so what it is is 366 short essays.
on the most important things I've ever said, and at the end of each essay is just a simple thing to do to plant brain health in your life. And why 366 rather than 365? It is leap year next year. Year. And so I wanted to cover the whole year, and if you just spend. Three to five minutes a day reading an essay and doing what I ask you to do, it will dramatically change your life over the [00:07:00] next year because my ultimate goal is to be the little voice in your head that helps you do the right thing.
Not because you should, but because you love yourself,
JJ Virgin: and three to five minutes. Anyone can do that. It's, it's just more a matter of someone getting into the habit of doing that, making sure that it happens every single day. Right.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Well, and if they skip a day, I mean it's, you know, you just pick it up when you can, but the more you get into it, you realize brain health's not hard.
It's. You know, you and I both worked with BJ Fogg. I worked with him for six months on how people change. He's in charge of the persuasive tech lab at Stanford, and we came up with a series of tiny habits for the brain. What's the smallest thing I can do today that will make the biggest difference?
And it's [00:08:00] ultimately this one question. I mean, it all comes down to the mother tiny. , which is this good for my brain or bad for it. And you know, I'm gonna turn 69 this year and I've seen thousands of 69 year old brains, . And it's bad news, right? I mean, it's just like your skin as you age, your skin falls off your face.
That same process happens in the. But it doesn't have to. And if you can live with this question every day, this is good for my brain or bad for it. And choose good. It's gonna change everything in your life because your brain, you know, controls everything.
JJ Virgin: I think, you know, for me, I've, I've had the opportunity firsthand to see what happens when your brain's not working well with my son with a traumatic brain injury.
And that gives you, I mean, that's, that is as dramatic as [00:09:00] you'll see things, but it really feels like, you know, maybe it was the last couple years people are starting to pay more attention cuz you know, most of us just don't think about it. You don't think about your brain. You don't ask that question. Is this good for my brain?
You might go, Hey, is this good for my body? Am I gonna lose weight? Well, I have more energy, but you know, it seems like that is not a question that gets asked very often. What, how? How do we get this? You've done so much out there to get people to start becoming more aware of it, but you know what? How do we pile on now for people to understand the importance of this?
Dr. Daniel Amen: We just keep after it. We have a new preschool through grade one course. It's like you really wanna prevent Alzheimer's disease. It's gotta start early cuz a lot of the risk factors for Alzheimer's disease actually start in childhood. Things like traumatic brain injury. Obesity adverse childhood experiences, all of those things we can, we can start to have an impact on.
[00:10:00] But it begins with education with love. And completely upending this dumb mental health paradigm that we currently have. You have six out of the these nine depression symptoms. You end up on an antidepressant. It's like, no. It's like if you're depressed, we wanna know what your brain looks like and get your brain healthy.
You'll be less.
JJ Virgin: Has this started to change some, I mean, I still think of when I, the first time, you know, I, I stalked you as you know because I was looking for help with my son and I started looking around and I was like, you are the, you are the man. I was going to go find you so, And I'm so glad that I did.
But I remember you early on saying, you know, we are the only profession where we just don't look. And it was so obvious. It's like, well, how, how, how can we sit there and diagnose and treat when we haven't even looked at this? Has it started to change? [00:11:00] I mean, you've been working on this for so long and taken so much heat, right?
Dr. Daniel Amen: Yeah. It's been a war and. You came to our gala and I talked about the structure of scientific revolution, how they happen, and if I'm right and I am I mean, I just know that with every cell in my body, it means 40,000 psychiatrists are wrong. And all of the primary care doctors, OBGYNs, internists, nurse practitioners that are prescribing psychiatric drugs based on symptom clusters, it means the paradigm is nuts.
And you can't say that. And people say, thank you, . So you have to be ready, you know? insider.com, who I actually never heard of [00:12:00] write a hate piece on me. And because I got Bella Hadid to stop drinking, she stopped drinking when she saw her scan and for some reason, I don't know, they're sponsored by the beer industry.
They like thought that was really bad. It's like, oh, no
JJ Virgin: contact. Shame on you. How
Dr. Daniel Amen: dare you. , right? Your colleagues think you're crazy. But it's, no, I'm not crazy. It. You know, many, many years ago Freud was a neurologist, but neurology and psychiatry broke apart, and neurology got the brain and psychiatry got the mind, and it was sort of like a bad divorce and psychiatrist lost, and it's like, no, no, this is a brain health issue.
And, and nowhere do you see it more than with Grant, right after his traumatic brain injury. You get a big whack. It's [00:13:00] hard to be your best self if your brain's not healthy.
JJ Virgin: So what have you, looking at all of these scans and and we had the very interesting, you know, Good fortune to have scans with grant.
Pre-accident post-accident, post post-accident, then re-injured and you know, so we've been able to really monitor this and, and really see what you've looked now at how many brain scans over the years? About
Dr. Daniel Amen: 230,000.
JJ Virgin: So what has that shown you in terms of brain health? Because you know, it's the bold statement.
What we're doing is treating it all wrong, which makes sense if you think of this as a brain illness and how do you shift things. Rather than this is a symptom and how do I treat that? But what, like, what are the big things that you see by looking at these scans and, and what it's taught you and how [00:14:00] you should be?
We should be treating
Dr. Daniel Amen: this. So many lessons that. Traumatic brain injuries a major cause of psychiatric problems and nobody knows how
JJ Virgin: under, I mean, I know you know, and this makes me want to cry actually even talking about it cuz you know, I live it firsthand. But you know, as I started to dig into.
The brain injury and recovering from the brain injury. And boy, they don't tell you anything. When your son has a traumatic brain injury the there's, they don't give you any information. There's really not much out there on it. And then I start to dig into to the research of how many people have Traumatic brain injuries are suffering with one at, at any given time.
The things between depression and suicide that you just never even hear about. And, and you know, like I think of my other son who did a back flip into the side of the pool and they, you know, we took him to the, to the emergency room and they're like, oh no, he is fine. He'll have a little bump. I'm like, he got knocked out jumping into the side of the, doing a dive into the side of the pool.
You know, [00:15:00] you just think about how many times who, who goes through childhood and doesn't hit their.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Or life. A lot of people hit their head, but it doesn't leave a lasting impression for this people. I see. If you go, Hey, what's the biggest lesson you learned? Is mild traumatic brain injury ruins people's lives and not everybody who has a brain injury.
Does it have a negative impact? It sort of depends on the brain they brought into the accident, but their 3 million new concussions or mild traumatic brain injuries every year in the United States, which means over the last 30 years. There's been 90 million concussions. There's a lot of people walking around with the lasting effects of concussions, but they get [00:16:00] misdiagnosed as anxiety disorders or as a D H D or depression, and if you don't get the right diagnosis, You can't properly treat it because, so say I, I published two huge studies showing I could separate traumatic brain injury from P T S D or post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
So emotional trauma from physical trauma and Discover Magazine listed our research is one of the top 100 stories in science. Holy smokes. Yeah, it was pretty cool. But so why is that important? Well, if you have emotional trauma, you have a busy brain, your emotional circuits start becoming hyperactive because if you've been emotionally traumatized, your brain goes, oh, you have to watch.
Someone's gonna hurt you. But if you have physical, Trauma, you have decreases in those circuits, [00:17:00] and so one is low, one is high. What's really important to know because the treatment for one is calm down the brain. The treatment for the other is stimulate. The brain. And so you can imagine, and actually Tanner writes about this in her book, the Relentless Courage of a Scared Child where she got depressed after she had her thyroid cancer doctor put her on Prozac.
SSRIs like Prozac calmed down brain activity, but her brain was sleeply to start. Oh boy, because she had no thyroid and she'd had a traumatic brain injury from a rollover accident. And so if you don't know, you could hurt people, and that's the point of why you should look. You don't often say a picture's worth a thousand words.
but a map is worth a thousand pictures. A [00:18:00] map tells you where you are, and that's why we did grant a number of times. It's like, okay, where we are on the map, a map tells you where you are and then gives you direction. On how to get to where you want to go. The scans also taught me marijuana is not a health food, and I get so much grief from this, but like you're
JJ Virgin: just not a fun guy, man.
You take away the alcohol, you take away pot. Come on Daniel.
I guess having a great brains more fun than that is the takeaway. Yes.
Dr. Daniel Amen: and I often say, who has more fun? kid with the good brain or the kid with the bad brain. I saw one of my celebrities couple of days ago, and I'm like, so I just stopped using drugs. He's like, it just was too much work, . It just wasn't worth the pain of it.
So why is that? , especially now we know that [00:19:00] smoking marijuana is actually worse than smoking cigarettes and using marijuana increases The risk of cardiovascular disease, not to mention if you do it as a teenager, increases your risk of anxiety, depression, and suicide. So who's really having more fun? The kid with the good brain.
or the kid with the bad brain because you know, as you and I think about it, and I talk about this and change your brain every day, cuz mindset's so important, it's what do you really want? So if I ask you that question, what do you really want in your soul? And I know I want energy and memory. And happiness and connection.
And quite frankly, alcohol doesn't get me any of those. Marijuana doesn't get me any of those. But when I eat right, I have those. And when I think right, [00:20:00] I have what, what I want. So, so many people are run by the four year. Inside their bodies that I want what I want. When I wanted reminds me of the Eagles song.
Do you ever, you remember the Eagle Song? Get over It. I, I love that. Sing it for
JJ Virgin: me. I, I can't quite remember ,
Dr. Daniel Amen: Victim of this, victim of that. And, There's a, a line in there that gets me into trouble whenever I say it, but it's like, I want to find your inner child and kick its little ass . It's, it's hysterical.
I have an Olympic pole vaulter. I, I treat, she uses this as her song because it's like, come on, let's get over it. Let's act like adults. Let's do the things that we know that bring us happiness and joy.
JJ Virgin: Well, one of the challenges of course is you know that when you're eating well and, and [00:21:00] doing the things that help you with, you know, mindfulness and you've got great connection exercise, you know how great it feels. But in the interim, when you're feeling like crap, you know, it's easier to grab the drink or have you.
Have some pot or whatever, right? So that's, so how do we get this, this habit? How do we put at the forefront? Because, you know, most people now are like, okay, I need to, I need to get my exercise in and I need to eat healthy. How do we put this one in? And then I'd love some examples of what does this look like that someone's doing every day being putting their brain central focus.
I am gonna take care of my brain. I'm gonna do something every day for it. What would this look like?
Dr. Daniel Amen: Well, drew Carey, the famous comedian who lost a lot of weight, said it best. He said, eating crappy food isn't a reward. It's a punishment. And, and when I heard him say that, I went, oh, he's gonna stay healthy cuz [00:22:00] he has the right mindset when.
And in the new book I, there's an essay on the one thing, and one thing is when you do the right thing, celebrate when you do the wrong thing, that's when you should be irritated with yourself and. I do not believe in lowering people's anxiety to zero. I think of anxiety from zero to 10, and I wanna keep my patients and myself at about a three.
I want you to know the train is gonna come and hit you, and you need to be vigilant about getting. Of the way 50%, 5-0% of people, if they lived 85, will be diagnosed with dementia. That is just freaking
JJ Virgin: five zero, 50%,
Dr. Daniel Amen: 50%,
JJ Virgin: [00:23:00] and, and if we fixed diet, exercise, brain exercises, how much would it be then?
Dr. Daniel Amen: It would drop down probably below 15%.
JJ Virgin: I know you're just guessing, but like it's guesstimating, but you've got a pretty solid way to guesstimate with all of your experience.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Well, and I don't believe at all that Alzheimer's is only genetic. I think there are many roads to it, and in the book I talk. You wanna keep your brain healthy or rescue it if it's headed for trouble, you have to prevent or treat the 11 major risk factors that steal your mind.
And I have a pneumonic called bright minds. So for example, B is for blood flow, low blood flows, the number one brain imaging predictor of Alzheimer's disease. Well, what do you do that lowers blood? Alcohol, marijuana, nicotine, having a [00:24:00] sedentary lifestyle. What, how do you increase blood flow? Ginco, exercise oregano, cinnamon cayenne pepper, beets.
And so if I know my risk factors, I can counteract. All the time, like I'm gonna be 69 this year. The R is retirement and aging. That means I need to keep being involved. I don't have to work. Right. I have enough money. I don't have to work, but I work cuz purpose and connection. Absolutely critical. Plus, I'd drive my wife crazy follow me around house
But new learning is essential, but also what promotes aging high iron levels. And my iron tends to be high. So like twice a year, go donate. And for me, I don't spend a lot of time eating red meat because [00:25:00] it's really high in iron. Now, that's not true for everybody. I think people who have low iron levels, red meat, healthy red meat is probably fine.
And so there's just so much practical stuff. Ultimately, I start every day, you know, you're asking for, okay, what does this look like? Start every day when my feet hit the floor. Today is going to be a great day. I manage my mind. I direct my mind as I go through the day. Is this good for my brain or bad for it?
Because I love myself. I mean, ultimately it's the ultimate act of love and a lot of people go, oh, come on. Everything in moderation, which I believe is the
JJ Virgin: gateway thought tech, that that statement makes me absolutely crazy. Crazy. Well, what's their
Dr. Daniel Amen: excuse to cheat? I mean, [00:26:00] as soon as they say that, what they mean is, I'm gonna cheat and you are gonna be okay with it.
And I'm like, no. Cocaine moderation. I'm not okay with that. Having an affair in moderation. What do you think Tanner will do with that? will not be good. Yeah. . And then, I most days do intermittent fasting. You know, I have my first meal around 10 or 11 o'clock, and I almost always start with a shake and put MCT oil in it and collagen.
And I make vegan source of protein powder that I love and it's very low no sugar, like two carbs and. Half an avocado, so healthy, fat, moderate protein, and very low carbohydrates because what's killing people today, it's diabetes. I've seen my father-in-law, [00:27:00] diabetes lost his legs, lost his eyesight, had.
A stroke, had a heart attack and had dementia. And he said when he was 55, 5, take insulin, I'm gonna kill myself. And he didn't kill himself, but he did kill himself because he couldn't get the right habits together to get rid of his diabetes. And so food, food is so important. I do almost all of my meetings in the morning.
While I'm walking or riding a bike and so I exercise, I think it's absolutely critical and three times a week I lift weights. Why? The stronger you are as you age, the less likely you are to get Alzheimer's.
JJ Virgin: Yeah, it is. So like the research on. On muscle strength, you know, grip, strength, balance, cardiovascular fitness and all [00:28:00] cause mortality is just insane.
I feel like all of us old exercise physiologists are finally having our day, like it is so clear with that. With, with everything. Cancer especially. But let's talk, talk exercise, because exercise in the brain, it was one of the first things I went back and did with grant that and ping pong, but exercise in the brain.
How does it impact the brain?
Dr. Daniel Amen: Well, we talked about the first. Risk factor for Alzheimer's disease is low blood flow. Exercise increases blood flow. You wanna do everything you can to keep your blood vessels healthy. And I often say whatever's good for your heart is good for your brain. And then in 2007, I wrote the book, the Brain in Love, and I realized, oh, whatever's good for your heart is good for your brain, is good for your genitals, that if you get on this brain healthy program, almost all my guys say their erections are better and [00:29:00] this makes me so happy for them.
JJ Virgin: It was how I used to get get when I was working one-on-one. It was how I got the guys to follow the program.
Dr. Daniel Amen: You know,
JJ Virgin: get him hit 'em where it hurts. But I was like, you know, because it's the same thing. It's gonna prove your insulin sensitivity, it's gonna improve that, it's gonna improve your brain.
Right. So,
Dr. Daniel Amen: And it's about blood flow. So some cardio, lots of weight training. And then the thing a lot of people don't know is coordination exercises are critical because it activates the cerebellum, the back bottom part of your brain that is only 10% of your brain's volume, but has more than half.
Of the brain's neurons and so table tennis pickleball, which is huge. Now, tennis, dancing, all of those are awesome for the brain. But if you [00:30:00] drink when you dance, it sort of ruins them .
JJ Virgin: Okay. So yeah, when I was looking at I've been working on a new fitness program and I think that we tend to forget about agility.
Dr. Daniel Amen: And it's so important. And the thing that kills old people is not obesity because those people have already died. It's frailty. And so being strong is critical. You wanna live to a hundred when you're 80, walk like you're late. So 80 year olds who can walk at three miles an hour have a 90% chance, they're gonna live to 90.
80 year olds who could only walk a mile an hour, have a 90% chance, they're not living until 90. And so I always find myself walking fast.
JJ Virgin: Yeah. You wanna be the person that you're, that people are saying, Hey, wait up. That's it. Right. So it's, [00:31:00] it's. How, how strong are you? I've, I've gotten little. I think the, the great thing is to have a hand dynamometer because you can actually assess it and do some pushups, right?
But I had been literally training for my 60th birthday, Daniel, and I'm like going, I'm back doing, lifting the weights. I was lifting in my twenties. . So I was like, all right, I'm gonna push this way past. In fact, I'm gonna see if I can, I can get stronger than I ever have been in my life. Cuz I feel like we must lay down that foundation so I can be running up the stairs at 90
Dr. Daniel Amen: The h in or the n in bright minds is neuro hormones so important. You know, just reminded me when you're 60, it's, do you know why hormones? As you age.
It's the planet's way of getting rid of you. Mm-hmm. , I was and I'm just not OK with that. And so, measure [00:32:00] your hormones and get them into a healthy range. And I would not be okay with a healthy 70 year old range. Now, I don't want the hormones of someone that's 16. I, I don't, don't need those thoughts. Yeah,
you
JJ Virgin: don't need to go back there,
I don't need those thoughts. Having, having overdosed on testosterone, I know what a 16 year old boy feels like and I Yeah, agreed.
Dr. Daniel Amen: But I want healthy hormones like someone who's 40,
JJ Virgin: and well talk about a brain a male and female brain with, you know, when you don't have the estrogen or the testosterone that you need,
Dr. Daniel Amen: you're depressed.
And you're weak and you're unmotivated. You don't have vitality. That testosterone actually goes with memory and with mood, vitality and strength. So it's not just libido, but libido. [00:33:00] Is important, and when your estrogen and progesterone levels are low for women, you're anxious and sad, and do you have lower blood flow?
To your brain, which is why hormone replacement is really important in this critical time between, you know, like 40 and 60. It's just so critical for women because if your hormones aren't healthy, you're anxious, you're irritable you're sad, and you're more likely to push people away.
JJ Virgin: Hmm. So someone listening to this, Going.
All right, I can start with three to five minutes. Now I'm as, so I'm assuming like this is a pretty simple thing for someone to start. I know you've made it really enticing. Depending on when you're listening to this show, you will always get some [00:34:00] great stuff by buying the book. If you pre-order the book.
So if you're getting this before, when's it March 28th? What day does it come out?
Dr. Daniel Amen: March 21st, but March 21st, at the end of March we have four free gifts for people, four
JJ Virgin: free gifts. Now after that there are still going to be gifts. So and one of the gifts I think that's super cool is the 28 day challenge you put together too.
And you also have your year of your brain fit program. But the program itself that goes with the book is gonna be great. And the book itself, Is so simple to use because again, day by day you have your thing that you start to do. What would someone notice, say in the first couple weeks of starting to do this?
Dr. Daniel Amen: Their energy will be better, their weight will be better, and their decision making. Will be better in the first couple of weeks. They're gonna fall in love with their brain. Now, some people were gonna be uncomfortable because they're [00:35:00] like, oh no, I can't do this. I can't do that. It's the wrong attitude.
The right attitude is, oh, I get to do this, and I get to do that, and I actually go through the stages. of change and how first it feels overwhelming, it feels confusing, but then I tell Nancy's story early in the book, and Nancy was 83 when I met her. She's from Oxford, England. She found, change your brain, change your life.
In a used Bookstore at Oxford for 50 cents. And she read it, said she was riveted. I love that. And she said, okay, too many things to do. She wrote them all down. She goes, I'm just gonna do one thing at a time.
JJ Virgin: And she, so she basically did the book you're doing now, right?
Dr. Daniel Amen: And she started, and when she started she was overweight, depressed, in pain and unmotivated.
And so that's why she's just like, I'm just gonna do one. And she drank more water. Cuz I talk about how [00:36:00] your body's 70% water, but your brain is 80% water and just being dehydrated by 2%, you have trouble thinking. So she started by drinking more water and she noticed she had to get off the couch to go pee.
JJ Virgin: It's a, it's a two for
Dr. Daniel Amen: one , and she's like, oh, I'm off the couch. And then she started taking supplements, multiple vitamin fish oil, vitamin D, brand new study out today, people who take vitamin D, the supplement, 40% less risk of getting dementia and it only smokes war worked better in women than in men.
And so she started taking supplements and she. Her mood was better. And then she started exercising. First she started walking, then playing [00:37:00] tennis, then table tennis, and she's like, whoa, I'm feeling really good. And then she went to new learning and started learning a language. And then guitar , when I met her, she was learning three languages and then she changed her.
And she said, I didn't deprive myself of anything. I just say good things first. So there was no room for bad things. And over a year she lost five stones. And I'm like, what's that? Because I didn't know. It was 70 pounds and she called her family. To do it. And for her 83rd birthday present she came to one of my clinics to get a scan.
And her brain was just stunningly beautiful. And when she saw it, she cried. And she said, a year ago, my brain would not have looked like this. And I, I love that she said, I had no idea [00:38:00] my age. Life could be this good. And before you and I got on today, I was telling you about a patient I work with who's concerned about his age.
And I was so stinking successful and, and I'm like, well, you know, in a basketball game or a football game, it really doesn't get that interesting until the fourth quarter that that's when often the most important things. Happen. So both you and I can look back on our lives and we can go. A lot of cool things have happened, but ultimately it's what's next.
Keeping keeping yourself on that edge of purpose, meaning, and creativity. It keeps you young
JJ Virgin: and keeping your brain young, all the things that keep your brain. And active. Keep your body [00:39:00] young and active. That's the greatest part about this is like if you're looking at what can you do to help your brain, oh, by the way, weight loss is a side effect.
What can you do to help your brain? Oh, by the way, you're gonna be happier and have more energy. So I love, I love the fact that, honestly, that story you just told, really, she was doing to change your brain every day program. That you just created. So there you did. You brought it into bite size, doable action steps that people can put into their life every single day.
Start to feel that transformation quickly. I believe that most people have no idea what feeling good really feels like. So they're sitting there medicating with all the coffee, alcohol, pot, sugar, everything else cuz they don't know. , you know, if they knew better, they'd do better. So here you go. You start to do better.
You'll start to notice the differences and you get all the free stuff too, which I'm putting, I'm putting your bonus gifts so you'll learn more when you buy the book. All the things that you can get, how to get them. I'll put that at [00:40:00] jjvirgin.com/Changebrain and link to our other episodes and all of your social, cuz you're doing some wild stuff over there on TikTok, how many followers do you have on TikTok now?
Dr. Daniel Amen: Almost 2 million.
JJ Virgin: Two. So crazy. So definitely wanna check all out all of your social there too. So I'll put all oDr. Daniel Amen's social onon too, and I will look forward to seeing you in a few weeks for dinner. And Tana excited. Yay. Yay, yay. So thank you so much for being with me, and just thank you for continuing to to just get out there and get this information and out there and make it so user friendly that people can take action on it.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Well, Tana says hi, and you know, I'm just so grateful for all the support you've given to us through the. Well, right
JJ Virgin: back at ya. I've got a, I've got a son who's functioning because of you, so you know, always, always in my heart. Thank you.[00:41:00]
Be sure to join me next time for more tools, tips, and techniques you can incorporate into everyday life to ensure you look and feel great, and more importantly, that. Built to last and check me out on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and my website jjvirgin.com. And make sure to follow my podcast so you don't miss a single episode at subscribetojj.com.
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