Four of my patients have a billion

followers. Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus,

and Bella Hadid. And we looked at their

brains. And what we found is Thank you

so much, Dr. Amen. Dr. Daniel Amen. He's

a clinical neuroscientist, New York

Times best-selling author, and one of

America's leading psychiatrists and

brain health experts. Why do you do what

you do? I have to do what I do. Someone

I love tried to kill herself. And she

would have died. I think I would have

always been left with a hole in my soul.

Most psychiatric illnesses are not

mental illnesses. They're brain health

issues. When you reimagine mental health

as brain health, changes everything. So,

you want to damage your brain? Do not

engage in new learning. Don't ever eat

fish, never floss, play football,

marijuana, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine.

Coke. It's a drug. You want to keep your

brain healthy? Takes 3 seconds. So,

Do you know about the ACE quiz? It's 10

of the most common childhood traumas. If

you have four or more, you have an

increased risk of seven of the top 10

leading causes of death. If you have six

or more, you die 20 years earlier. Is

there something that can be done to

change it?

Absolutely. If you came to see me, I

would have you

Before this episode starts, I have a

small favor to ask from you. 2 months

ago, 74% of people that watched this

channel didn't subscribe. We're now down

to 69%.

My goal is 50%. So, if you've ever liked

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favor and hit the subscribe button? It

helps this channel more than you know,

and the bigger the channel gets, as

you've seen, the bigger the guests get.

Thank you, and enjoy this episode.

Dr. Amen.

Why do you do what you do?

It's uh

part of my soul.

I have to do what I do.

Um

The short story is how I got to do what

I do is when I was 18,

Vietnam was still going on, and I had a

low draft number, and I became an

infantry medic where my love of medicine

was born.

But about a year into it, I realized I

didn't like being shot at.

It was irritating. It was horrifying.

And I got myself retrained as an X-ray

technician.

And just developed a passion for medical

imaging. As our professors used to say,

"How do you know unless you look?"

And

that became a theme for my life. And

then I got out of the army in 1975,

and

finished college. And when I was a

second-year medical student, someone I

loved tried to kill herself.

And I was horrified. I had no idea what

to do. And I took her to see the chief

of the Department of Psychiatry where I

went to medical school.

And I realized if he helped her,

it wouldn't just help her,

that ultimately it would help her

children and even her grandchildren,

as they would be shaped by someone who

was happier and more stable.

I fell in love with psychiatry, 1979.

So, 44 years ago, and I've loved it

every day since.

But I fell in love with the only medical

specialty that never looks at the organ

it treats.

And even back then, I'm like, "Why

aren't we looking at the brain?" I mean,

obviously, the brain is the organ of

depression. The brain is the organ of

bipolar disorder. The brain is the organ

of anxiety. Why aren't we looking at it?

And they said, "That's the future. We

will, but not yet."

And growing up, my dad

thought I was sort of a pain in the ass.

He called me a maverick because I didn't

just accept what he said. And it turns

out he's shrewd, and I'm pushing

we should be looking at the brain.

In 1991, so I've been a psychiatrist

almost a decade,

I went to my first lecture on brain

SPECT imaging. SPECT is a nuclear

medicine study that looks at blood flow

and activity. It looks at how your brain

works.

And it basically

shows us three things.

Good activity, too little, or too much.

And then,

it rocked my world. I mean, explosion in

my world. It's like, I have to look.

How do I know unless I look? And the

lessons

just kept coming.

That

the first lesson, most psychiatric

illnesses are not mental illnesses.

They're brain health issues. If I get

your brain healthy,

well, your mind tends to follow because

your brain, the physical

moment-by-moment functioning of your

brain, creates your mind. And if your

brain isn't healthy, your mind isn't

healthy. So, that was the first lesson,

and I'm like,

these these are not mental illnesses.

And when you reimagine

mental health as brain health, it

changes everything.

It changed everything I do as a

psychiatrist. Most psychiatrists, you

come you go to them and you go, "I'm

depressed." And then they'll give you a

diagnosis with the same name of what you

just told them. They go, "You're

depressed." And then put you on an

antidepressant, which in large-scale

studies were no better than placebo.

And I'm like, so next lesson,

is depression is like chest pain.

It doesn't tell you what causes it and

it doesn't tell you what to do for it.

But we have whole industries built on

money for medicine for mental health

conditions.

And I think it's complete crap because

they're not looking at the organ. They

don't know, is it from head trauma? Is

it from an infection? Is it from a lousy

diet? Is it from being sedentary? Is it

because you don't know how to manage

your mind. And

I then learned

that mild traumatic brain injury is a

major cause of psychiatric problems. And

nobody knows about it because they don't

look

at the brain.

And I was just like a little kid, so

excited. I still have 32 years later,

we've done 225,000

scans.

And it's it's it's so fun

to be in the future

helping people get well. So, I have to

do it. I know that's a long answer.

I like long answers. You'll come to

learn that. Um

you've written so many books and you

seem to have the same energy you've

always had about this subject matter.

When you sort of if you were to

encapsulate or to summarize

the mission that you're on,

which is the source of all that energy,

what is that mission that you're on?

The mission is to end the concept of

mental illness

by creating

a revolution

in brain health.

And

that mission

just evolved. You know, my mission when

I graduated from medical school

was to be a really good psychiatrist cuz

it's personal to me.

And to be a writer. I wrote my first

book the year I graduated from medical

school.

And I found I love the process.

That writing brings me

joy.

That when I can take complex concepts

and make them really easy to understand

and that's helpful to someone.

I love that. That's joyful

to me.

And that skill

has served my career so well because

my books bring a lot of people to We

have 11

clinics around the US.

And they often come because they've read

one of my books. So they serve the

purpose of educating

and then allowing us to do the work we

love doing.

If someone's listening to this and

they've never really taken the time to

learn about the brain before because

they don't necessarily think it's so

important. They, you know, they

understand things about dieting or

whatever else, but the brain they kind

of just assume it's there, right? Like a

lot of people do.

What case would you make to them about

the importance of

positive

healthy

cognitive functions

and brain health? What is the case? Why

does it matter to the ordinary person?

Say if they don't have a the

you know,

predicament. They don't have a mental

health disorder. Why does the brain

matter to them? Cuz your brain's

involved in everything you do.

How you think, how you feel, how you

act, how you get along with other

people. Your brain is the organ of

intelligence, character,

and every single decision

that you make.

And when your brain works right, you

work right.

And when your brain is troubled for

whatever reason, mold,

COVID, head trauma,

um

not sleeping, chronic stress.

When your brain's not right, you're

sadder, sicker, poorer,

less successful.

I got to scan

Tony Robbins, you know, the famous

success guru. And I love him, and I love

his work, and I think he's so smart. And

he said publicly had mercury poisoning.

He decided he loved swordfish,

but it didn't love him back cuz it's

loaded with mercury.

And when we did a Facebook live, I'm

like, you are the software

of success.

But if the hardware's not working, it's

going to be really hard to implement the

wonderful strategies

that you teach. And I always think of

people in four big circles.

Uh first week of medical school, Sid

Garrett, our um dean, he said, "Never

think of patients

as by their diagnosis. Always think of

them in these four big circles." He went

to the board, and he drew the first

circle, which was biology.

And for me, it's like the physical

functioning of your brain and body. And

that's why the scans are so important.

But then the second circle he drew was

psychology.

How's their mind working? How are their

thoughts? Are they loaded with a term I

later coined called ANTs, automatic

negative thoughts. The thoughts that

come into your mind automatically and

ruin you.

And also in this circle is development.

It's really the quality of your mind.

And then the third circle, so if you

think of the brain is the hardware of

your soul,

the mind is the software

that needs to be programmed. So you got

to get your brain healthy, program your

mind, and then work on the social

circle,

which is So what's going on in your

life?

Think pandemic. That was a social

disruptor.

But also, how are your relationships?

How's your job? How's your money?

And then the last circle that most

psychiatrists would never touch

is the spiritual circle. It's like, why

the heck do you care? What is your

deepest sense

of meaning and purpose?

And so I think assessing

those four circles and working always to

optimize them at the same time

is critical for you being a whole

healthy person.

But if your brain's not healthy because

you played soccer

and you had four concussions,

doing all the therapy

is not nearly as effective

as getting your brain right and then

doing the therapy. I mean, cuz I'm like

a huge fan of therapy and I have my

therapy patients that I

love.

But it's hardware, software, network

connections, always understanding

someone's sense of purpose.

Let's go into those four um

areas then. Just to pause on that

though, you mentioned Tony Robbins

there. When I was reading through your

story, it became apparent that you're

quite the celebrity psychiatrist.

Because a lot of celebrities have come

out and said that they work with you.

Give me a Give me a taste. Do some name

dropping. Give me a couple of examples.

Um

It's public knowledge Bella Hadid came

out and said she stopped drinking

because of me. And then the newspaper

tried to take my head off for that.

Controversial psychiatrist gets Bella to

stop drinking.

Um

Dealing with haters is something I've

become quite skilled at.

Uh it's public knowledge my I've been

Miley Cyrus's doctor for 11 years. I'm

really proud of her. She had the number

one song in the world right now,

Flowers, and it's about self-love, which

makes me so happy. I'm in Justin

Bieber's docu-series Seasons because

I've been his doctor.

Um

I love helping them. You know, I often

say four of my patients have a billion

followers.

So,

it's about influence because if the

mission is to end mental illness by

creating a revolution in brain health,

well, you got to have an army.

And so you might as well have an army

with a lot of soldiers. Mhm. And so um

it's it's a very disruptive

concept because when when you really

understand it,

you realize we're living in a war.

And I'm serious about this.

Everywhere you go, someone's trying to

give you bad food that will kill you

early.

Everywhere you go, you hear negative

news that's driving depression. It's not

the news. It scares you so they can sell

you stuff. Um everywhere you go,

someone's trying to put a gadget in your

hand or your pocket that will steal your

dopamine and give them the mind share

you should have.

And the incidents of

diabetes, 50% of the population is

diabetic or pre-diabetic, obesity, 72%

are overweight or obese. I published

three studies that show as your weight

goes up, the size and function of your

brain goes down and people go, "Oh, you

can't talk about that." It's like, "No,

you can't not talk about that."

Um

Alzheimer's is expected to triple and

depression has gone up 400% since Prozac

came on the market. So obviously, that

didn't fix it. And so it's what my wife

and I often refer to is the Brain

Warriors Way.

You want to be armed and prepared

to win the fight of your life.

That's so true.

I'm I'm currently doing this glucose

test as part of this company called Zoe.

I had Tim Spector on the podcast. She's

one of the co-founders. They do

personalized nutrition. It's this

incredible company based out in the UK.

And so because I can see my glucose

right now on my phone,

when I went into a gas station the other

day or a petrol station as we say say in

the UK, I looked around at my options

and every single thing was bad for me.

Every single thing in that gas station

was

sugar or processed carbohydrates. The

only thing I could get in that gas

station was water and I said to my

partner at the time, "So if you're

hungry and it's always if you're

stressed or tired,

you are going to eat

this this this junk. But anyway, going

back to Unless you plan.

Unless you put stuff

in your car

or in your computer bag.

And when you really love yourself, you

take time.

And like you know, for example, the

plastic water bottles

are toxic.

That you just like turn them over. And

does it say a two or four or five on the

recycle? And like those are pretty good.

They don't leach toxins nearly as bad as

one, three, six, and seven.

And just knowing that. See, I always say

God gave us a big brain for reason.

It's like when you get motivated,

this isn't hard. Brain health isn't

hard. Being sick is hard. Brain health

is not expensive. Being sick is

expensive. Um you just plan a little

bit. That In terms of the hardware then,

which was the first circle of your four

circles, what can I do to make sure the

hardware of my brain, what are the most

important things to be cognizant of to

make sure my hardware is in good shape

so that I have a chance of my psychology

and my my connections and my spiritual

circle being

um successful also.

So, I I like looking. Um it's like

the brain is one of the only organs that

doctors virtually never screen. You've

looked at a lot of brains, right? I've

looked at 230,000 brains. And

I mean, I'm obsessed

with if you came to see me and you go,

you know, I'm pretty good.

But I want to be great. How's my brain?

And we would look at it

and is it younger than you are?

Cuz you have good habits, is it older

than you are because your habits aren't

so good or or let's just say it has

nothing to do with you. Your mom smoked

when she was pregnant with you or she

smoked when you were a baby and you're

inhaling the second hand smoke, which is

stealing a concept I call brain reserve.

So, your brain health may have something

to do with your habits or may have to do

with the habits of other

people. So, I think the first thing it's

a concept

called brain envy.

I often say Freud was wrong. Penis envy

is not the cause of anybody's problem.

I've actually not seen it once in 40

years. He was focused on the wrong

organ. It's the brain. And Freud

actually in 1895 said the brain science

of my time is not up to the task of

explaining patient symptoms.

Which was true in 1895. So, he went off

and developed psychoanalysis and

had a lot of really nutty ideas, but

some really great ideas.

But the brain science now can explain a

lot of your symptoms. So, the first

thing is to assess it.

And

it's 1991. I ordered my first scan. I

started scanning everybody I know. I

scanned my aunt who had a panic

disorder. I scanned my mother who had a

gorgeous brain, which fit her life. And

then I scanned myself and it wasn't

awesome. And cuz I played football in

high school.

Had meningitis when I was a young

soldier. And I had bad habits. Um I

wasn't sleeping. I ate a lot of bad

food. And

I was the top neuroscience student in

medical school.

But I didn't care about my own brain.

And when I saw it, that's when I fell in

love with it, wanted my mother's brain,

the idea of brain envy,

and I've been in love with it ever

since. And one of my patients said when

he saw his scan for the first time,

it was like seeing one of his children,

and he knew he'd never hurt it again.

And so, that's step number one. You want

a healthy brain? You got to care about

it.

Step two, you have to avoid things that

hurt it. And you just have to sort of

know the list.

And step three,

is engage in regular brain-healthy

habits. Again, you just have to know the

list.

And the simplest way, and I love this,

and I I noticed throughout my books,

throughout the arc of the evolution of

my books, the prescriptions get easier

and easier, cuz I'm always thinking, how

do I plant it so it takes root and grow?

And I work with BJ Fogg. I don't know if

you know Dr. Fogg from Stanford. He's in

charge of the persuasive tech lab. It's

basically, how do people change? And he

said, either they have an epiphany, so

when I saw my first scan, it was an

epiphany.

I didn't want an unhealthy brain, cuz I

I understand what that means for my

life.

Um, but he said, most people, it's not

the epiphany, it's the tiny habits. It's

like, what's the smallest thing you can

do today that will make the biggest

difference. And it comes down to the

mother tiny habit.

It's whenever you come to a decision

point in your day, like you're at the

gas station,

is this you ask yourself this question.

Takes 3 seconds. Is this good for my

brain

or bad for it? And if you can answer

that with information

and love, and this is very important,

love of yourself, love of your mission,

love of your work, you just start making

better decisions.

And it whenever I say, "Well, you

shouldn't do this and you shouldn't do

that." Just never works.

You got to tie into

I want something special for my life,

and this is going to get it for me.

And so if if I'm at the gas station, I'm

looking at the waters and I'm like,

"Okay, what's got a non-toxic bottle

attached to it?" And I'm going for the

nuts because,

you know, people who have a fat-based

diet, nuts and seeds, green leafy

vegetables,

healthy fish, healthy oils,

have 42% less risk of getting

Alzheimer's disease.

People have a simple carbohydrate-based

diet. So, most of the stuff in the gas

station,

bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, fruit

juice,

and sugar,

the standard American diet, have a 400%

increased risk of getting Alzheimer's

disease. This study from the Mayo

Clinic. And I I love that you're

monitoring your blood sugar. I just love

that so much because

Alzheimer's disease, people refer to it

often as type 3

diabetes. And one of the best things you

can do for your health is make sure your

fasting blood sugar's under 90.

And if it tends to run high,

you can go, "Oh, I take Metformin for

that."

Or you can get rid of the simple

carbohydrates in your diet.

So, there's two things I was really

compelled by as you were speaking in two

directions I wanted to go in. The first

is I want to know the list

when we talk about the things that are

good and bad for for the brain.

But just before we get on to that, you

said about how

you have to pause during your day when

you're making decisions and ask

yourself, "Is this good for my brain?"

Now, I I often wonder why people know

information but don't change. You talked

about the persuasive tech lab. I've

always wondered what the connection

between someone's self-worth and their

ability to do the right thing when

they're in that moment of making a

decision for or against them cuz it's

been my observation, which is completely

unproven, that people who have I

wondered if you've seen this in your

practice, but people that have a

maybe a more stressed life, a lower sort

of self-worth, lower sort of self-image

of themselves, tend to

make short-term decisions that are less

um constructive or um

positive for the brain. But just

generally in life anyway, and I wondered

if there's a link there. I often I'm

asking this question cuz I often wonder

with some people that are close to me,

with some of my friends, why they

continue to make

decisions that they objectively know

aren't healthy.

They're not good for their, you know,

their life, their long-term prospects of

relationships, their health, whatever it

might be. And I just I It's a bit of a

left-field question, but is there a

correlation in your view between one's

self-esteem, their self-worth, their

self-image, and their ability to sort of

delay gratification and make the right

health decisions? So, it's actually

connected.

The Do you know about the marshmallow

test? I do, yes. I read about it when I

was So,

uh

Walter Mischel from Stanford

would give children, small children,

three four-year-old children

an opportunity to either have a

marshmallow now

or two

a bit later.

And the children who delayed

gratification

their self-esteem was better. Their

success virtually in every area of their

life was better. Now, he later

discovered you can actually train the

ability to delay gratification. There's

another study at Stanford. I love this

study so much. Um

They looked at 1,500

and 41 10-year-old children in 1921.

It's the longest longevity study ever

done. And Lewis Terman, psychologist at

Stanford um evaluated them and then he

and others followed them for 90 years

looking at what goes with health

success

and longevity.

And what he found was a bit shocking.

That

the don't worry, be happy people

died the earliest from accidents and

preventable illnesses. And I always

wanted to be that cuz I've never been

the don't worry, be happy person. I like

show up on time. I'm driven. I'm

motivated. Of all my books, they all

they get turned in a week or two early.

I'm like, "No."

Conscientious.

And what they found

was people who are conscientious lived

the longest. What's a don't worry, be

happy person?

How do you define that?

Well, it's my brother.

And I love my brother. But he's 150 lb

overweight.

And he leaves work at 3:00, plays golf,

he just like doesn't care. And for years

I tried to help him get healthy. And I

even set him up with the cutest

nutritionist who I trusted. And he

didn't show up. And then I realized I

was caring more about this than he was.

And it sort of broke my heart. But it's

that nonchalant

attitude that's not taking things

seriously. And it'll kill him early. And

that breaks my heart.

Can you tell me about the journey of

trying to help your brother because I

think a lot of people listening to this

have their own experience with trying to

help someone that they love. And it's a

often resentful, bitter, failing battle.

I've been there myself. So, let me

switch it to my dad Okay.

because that has a better ending at

least now. Um I did not have a good

relationship with my father.

When I told my dad I wanted to be a

psychiatrist,

he asked me why I didn't want to be a

real doctor,

why I wanted to be a nut doctor and hang

out with nuts all day long.

And that's just hurtful.

But I'd already not cared what he

thought.

1972, I turn 18, I get to vote.

George McGovern is who's very liberal is

running against Richard Nixon. And I'm

like, maybe I'll vote for McGovern.

And my dad said if I did, the country

would go to hell.

Well, I did and the country went to

hell, but it had nothing to do with

McGovern, it had to do with Nixon and

Watergate and all that

craziness. So, we were like butting

heads.

When I started looking at the brain, I'm

like, come on, Dad, I want Let me scan

your brain.

And he said no until years later.

And I'm like, Dad, what I'm learning is

the brain is an organ like your heart is

an organ.

We got to get you healthy."

And he's like, "Oh, great.

My nut doctor son is now a health nut."

He's like, "What's with you and the

nuts?"

And so for 25

years,

I nudged him

to get healthy. And he belittled me, he

made fun of me, he would do it publicly,

and it was

hurtful.

But his opinion of me, even though it

hurt, it didn't matter. I kept doing

what I do.

And when he was 85,

they had mold in their house.

And he developed a chronic cough.

And then a heart arrhythmia.

And then heart failure.

And I went over his house,

and I saw he was depressed.

And my dad didn't get depressed. My dad

gave depression, but he didn't get

depression.

And he looked at me,

and he said, "Danny,

I'm sick of being sick.

What do you want me to do?"

And he's so stubborn, he did everything

I asked him to do.

He texts me a picture of the food. He's

like, "Can I eat this?"

And I'm like, "Send me the ingredient

list." And then I would circle it, and

I'm like, "In what universe is this good

for you?" And I'm one of seven children.

Um

now he starts talking about me

to all of them. And they would text me

and like, "Tell him to like

not be so enthusiastic."

And we started working out together.

He's a beast. He could do a 6-minute

plank cuz he's so stubborn. And over 6

months, he lost 40 lb. His energy came

back. His heart was better. He starts

driving again. And lived the next 5

years in love

with his brain, in love with his body.

And um

if he

would have died

before those 5 years,

I think I would have always been left

with a hole

in my soul.

That helped

repair it.

And the only reason he did it is cuz I

did it.

The only reason he

got healthy is because I modeled

the message.

And ultimately, that's what I tell my

patients. You never know when they're

going to turn. Like I still never know

if my brother will turn. I love him. I

model. I'm always there with

a suggestion,

right? But I'm not caring more than he

cares.

What would that hole have been?

I think

it's one of the big gifts

that I was given

that he looked at me and said, "What do

you want me to do?"

Is that

I'm assuming from hearing that it's

because that was the moment where he

kind of accepted you and your worth and

your job and your

Yes.

And he told everybody

besides me that how proud he was of me.

Yeah.

And the first time he told me he loved

me was when I was 50.

Which is just nuts when you think about

it. I mean, he's from a different

generation and

um

but I I just can't even imagine it.

When we have someone in our lives that

um

maybe wasn't fair to us in some way,

whether it's a parent or an ex-partner

or whatever,

how do we how do we not let the

resentment or the negative emotions or

the negative experiences, all that

feeling of injusticeness, that like we

like this situation wasn't fair?

How do we

get to a place of empathy with those

people so that we can live,

you know, without the burden of that

like resentment or you know, regret or

whatever it might be?

Well, I have a perfect example. So, I

started imaging in 1991. I am

a distinguished fellow of the American

Psychiatric Association.

I won a research award. I am respected

by my colleagues.

But I start imaging and initially there

was acceptance and then because the

imaging doesn't really go with the

diagnostic orthodoxy, they're like,

"Shouldn't do that."

And now I'm caught in a bind. I love

being connected to my colleagues,

but there's no way I'm not looking at

your brain if I can. And so, there's

this

tension and for three or four years, I

feel challenged, I feel belittled, I

feel

anxious and I'm starting to become

ostracized from my group.

So, I'm anxious and I'm furious. Um

and then in 1995,

my 9-year-old nephew Andrew attacks a

little girl on the baseball field for no

reason. So, my brother's youngest son.

And my sister-in-law calls me up and

she's crying and she said she went into

his room that day and found two pictures

he'd drawn.

One of them he's hanging from a tree in

a suicide attempt, 9 years old. The

other one, he's shooting other children.

So, he's like Columbine

or Parkland, Florida or Sandy Hook.

I mean, we're into that kind of

darkness.

And 999

child psychiatrists out of a thousand

would have put him on medicine

and put him in therapy.

But because now 4 years I've been

looking at the brain, we'd already

correlated violence to the left temporal

lobe. Left temporal lobe dysfunction

often went with violence.

I'm like, I want to see him.

And so they drove 8 hours and I'm

sitting with my nephew who I'm also his

godfather. And

I'm like, "Buddy, what's going on?" He

said, "Uncle Danny, I don't know. I'm

mad all the time."

I said, "Is anybody hurting you?" He

said, "No." I said, "Is anybody teasing

you?" He said, "No." I said, "Is anybody

touching you in places they shouldn't be

touching you?"

He said, "No."

And when I held his hand while we

scanned him,

when the scan came up on the computer

screen, he had a cyst the size of a golf

ball occupying the space of his left

temporal lobe. It's the first time I've

seen it. I seen it a hundred times

since.

And when the neurosurgeon drained it,

his behavior completely went back to

normal.

It was that

moment the war began for me.

It's like, if you don't look, you don't

know. Stop lying about it. And I became

a warrior to change

psychiatry.

But there's a lot of negativity with

being a warrior. I I was also in the

army. I was an army psychiatrist.

And what I came to realize, there's a

wonderful psychologist at Virginia

Commonwealth

University, Worthington, who came up

with a method for forgiveness.

Because when you're holding on to that

toxicity,

it's sort of like drinking poison and

expecting the other person to die.

And

he did this method and someone murdered

his mother. And he said it even worked

for him when he was dealing with the

grief of losing his mother to a horrible

crime.

And so I can recall the hate that I've

experienced.

So that's the R. So recall it in detail.

The E is

empathize.

It's like so what are the haters

feeling?

You're doing something they don't know.

You're doing something that's different

than them. You're doing something

that threatens

them.

See, if I'm right, and I'm right, I mean

everything in my

body knows I'm right. 230,000 scans

later, this isn't fake. This is real.

And if you don't look, you miss all

sorts of important things.

But they don't know that.

And

if they don't know it and they're

threatened, well, of course they're

angry.

I mean, I believe I

still hold on to they should at least

come visit. Right? I mean, my work is so

public.

The A is altruistically

give them the gift of forgiveness.

Cuz

and I actually don't really pay

attention

to them.

Because, you know, I do what I can. We

publish studies, but

I I don't need the negativity.

So, you altruistically give them the

gift of forgiveness.

Commit to it.

And hold on to it.

And if you can do that for that

relationship,

you have more control over your

happiness.

Plus,

if you're me, you're like, I wonder what

their brain is like.

And so, one of the first things the

scans did for me

is they increased forgiveness.

So, I asked my dad to get scanned, 1991.

My mom came cuz she's like, what can I

do to support you?

I don't want to do that. My dad. 12

years in a row. No, I don't want to do

that. Why do you want me to do that? No,

I don't want to do that. And then he

came.

And I'd never seen this in a 72-year-old

person.

His anterior cingulate. So, we should

talk a little bit about different parts

of the brain and how they influence

work.

The his anterior cingulate, it's the

brain's gear shifter. It allows you to

go from thought to thought, move from

idea to idea, be flexible, go with the

flow.

And when it's busy, and he had the

busiest anterior cingulate of any older

person I'd ever seen,

worry, hold grudges. My dad was

masterful

at holding grudges.

Um,

argumentative, oppositional. I used to

joke that I'm like, Dad, why is it every

time I ask you for something,

you say no?

He goes, I don't do that. I'm like, no,

you do it. Why? He's like, I don't know.

It's just easier.

And

Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of the

United Kingdom, said, the first hallmark

of a leader is his ability to say no.

Well, my dad was just masterful at it.

But I have to tell you seeing that part

of his brain so busy

was helpful for me to forgive him that

it was a brain

misfire

rather than it was a soul

misfire.

You talk a lot in your book about how we

can reverse a lot of these things and we

can change our brain, which I guess is

the

is the hopeful optimistic side of all of

this. So in the case of your father,

you see that in his brain.

Is there something that can be done to

change it? Absolutely.

I mean, that's sort of the big exciting

message of my life. Is you're not stuck

with the brain you have. You can make it

better and I can prove it.

I did the big NFL study when the NFL was

lying that it had a problem about

traumatic brain injury in football. Scan

350 NFL players.

And high levels of damage, stop lying

about it. But 80% of my players get

better when we put them on a

rehabilitation program.

And there's a story in the book um about

a mixed martial artist who

I was giving a lecture at the clinic and

he raised his hand

and he said

I just really love your work. But you're

not going to like what I do. I'm like,

what's that?

He said, I'm a mixed martial artist. And

I'm like, well, I can like you, but

yeah, you're right. I'm not a fan of

people bashing your head in. And I said

let's look at your scan and it was

troubled. Um

I said, you know, I know these

supplements work cuz they were the my

NFL formula.

But I don't know how fast they work.

Will you come tomorrow at 8:00? I'm

going to give you the supplements I give

my NFL players.

And then I'm going to scan you 2 and 1/2

hours later.

His brain was remarkably better 2 and

1/2 hours later. Now, it didn't mean it

would stay that way, right? He had to

stay on the program and stop doing the

things that hurt his brain.

But how exciting is that? To know even a

couple of hours from now

if I do the right things,

my brain can be better.

And going back to my dad,

what we found is low levels of serotonin

go with high activity

in the anterior cingulate. So, if he

would have chosen, I could have calmed

it down and helped him be more flexible.

Now, he chose not to do that.

But I just remember my grandmother,

my mom's mom, when she was 92, she went

in the hospital diverticulitis. And my

mom's mom had always been

mean. She's not kind. When she met my

wife for the first time, she goes, "Oh,

you're Danny's next victim."

Grandma,

I said, "I'm going to talk bad about you

after you're dead."

She had that same brain.

And when I put her on medicine to

increase serotonin, she became sweet.

Which just goes

to makes you wonder

how many people end up divorced

because of a brain dysfunction that

could be fixed.

Um it it's just given me great empathy.

It's easy easy easy to call someone bad.

It's harder to ask why. In in the case

of your father or your

your grandmother, is their brain and the

the mood kind of disorder that you've

observed in it, is that a consequence of

chronic bad habits in terms of brain

health?

In your view? It's always both.

That whenever you give in to saying no,

you make saying no more likely. Right.

You develop these ruts in your brain,

which is why behavior change is hard.

Because you have these ruts in your

brain where

it's after dinner I smoke or it's after

dinner I have ice cream or it's first

thing in the morning I have sugar

cereal. Um And these become like

pathways

They become

ruts, like deep pathways in the brain.

And and I've had them for years. I mean,

for a long time before I

got healthy. You know, I'd go buy Jack

in the Box and get a diet Coke and

get a chicken fajita pita and it was

habit. And so

sometimes I'll see a Jack in the Box and

I'm like, oh. And then of course my

supervisor comes in and like, really?

And I think of it Your supervisor is in

your your your

your better

better sense.

Well, I think of it like children.

Um that too many people are run

by the four-year-olds

in their head.

Like I have five grandchildren and Haven

is four.

And Haven

is funny and smart and sweet, but she

doesn't get her way, she totally can

have a fit.

And the rule in my house is if you have

a tantrum to get your way,

the answer's no. It's always going to be

no. Go for it.

And so I didn't have tantrums with the

kids growing up. But too many people,

the four-year-old in their head is

running the show. It's like, "No, I go

by Jack in the Box. I get curly fries

and a Coke. I want it. I want it. I want

it. I want it." And their parent self

doesn't go, "Doesn't fit your goals. You

don't want it." Right? You crave it.

And there's a difference between craving

and wanting. And it's like inhibit

behavior. And that's where we haven't

talked about this yet, and I knew I I

knew we would on this podcast, the CEO

in the brain. Right? So, the front third

of your brain is called the prefrontal

cortex. It's called the executive part

of the brain. And so, you talked about

some of your friends who don't make good

decisions, who don't wait or delay their

impulses. Their frontal lobes are

probably sleepy

or smaller.

And that'll give them huge problems in

their lives. In my work, I uh I've seen

tens of thousands of people have ADD of

one form or another, and it often goes

with decreased activity in their frontal

lobes. Is that Is that nature or

nurture?

Nature

with input

from nurture.

Because

they did this great study in Holland

where they took 300 ADD kids, put them

on an elimination diet. So, they

basically eliminated all the crap in

their diet. And 3 months later, 72% of

the children did not have ADD anymore.

So,

um but when I diagnose someone with ADD,

I generally see it,

you know, coming down their mom's side

or their dad's side. It generally

doesn't occur in isolation. It is that

strongly

heritable. Um in fact

if I have a kid who's really ADD and I

can't find a mom or dad, I look at the

kid to see if he looks like

mom or dad wondering if they got

switched at birth. Just my experience.

Really?

And Really? No, not kidding. And

So say that again. So if if the child's

brain doesn't resemble the mother or the

father, you suspect that So I wonder if

if it's if the child is not related

switched at Because you're that

confident Because I'm that confident

about the heritability of this. Now,

there are other causes of ADD-like

behavior like traumatic brain injury. If

the child fell down a flight of stairs

and was unconscious even for just like

15 minutes, that can damage their

frontal lobes. If the child was a head

banger, that can damage their frontal

lobes. And so Psychological trauma. I

sat here with Gabor Maté.

Ah, interesting. We're just doing a

study

on ACE scores. Do you know about the ACE

quiz?

Stands for adverse childhood

experiences. And it was first done in

combination with the CDC and Kaiser.

They looked at 17,000

people. And they just gave

people this simple questionnaire. Um and

it's 10 of the most common childhood

traumas. So physical, emotional, sexual

abuse,

having a parent with mental illness,

with an addiction, incarceration,

and you get scored zero

to 10.

So I have a one.

Um my dad could really be nasty

to me.

So there's some of that sort of

psychological abuse. But, I didn't get

beaten, no one sexually molested me,

and so on. My wife,

and she wrote a book about this called

The Relentless Courage of a Scared

Child,

has eight

out of 10.

My two nieces, who Tana and I adopted,

are both nines. And they found if you

have four or more,

you have an increased risk of seven of

the top 10 leading causes of death.

If you have six or more, you die 20

years earlier. Now, it's not a death

sentence if you know it and you work on

it, like Tana has,

um,

you know, you have normal lifespan.

But, how wild is that? And so, when I

learned about it, I started giving it to

all of our patients. And I now have

10,000

ACE scores on my patients. And we looked

at their brains. And what we found is it

tends to activate the me- medial frontal

lobe, and they become

hyper-alert.

They begin to watch

what bad thing

is going to happen. And I love a

therapy. Have you ever heard of EMDR?

Yes, I've heard of it. It's a

psychological treatment for trauma.

Stands for eye movement desensitization

and reprocess. My favorite

psychotherapy. I love doing it with

patients.

And when I met my wife, she's beautiful,

she's smart. I mean, I like fell for

her.

And then I'm learning about this. So,

one of my first gifts to her was 10

sessions of EMDR, which I know is pretty

weird.

But she went for 2 years and and I think

it changed the trajectory of her life

because she doesn't live

with the past still present.

How did How did it help her? And what

What exactly does the therapy involve?

So,

trust, a good history,

and then

So, for example, if you came to see me,

I would have you write down We do a

timeline of your life. I just want to

know for each 5-year period, what were

the great things that happened to you

and what were the horrible things that

happened to you. And I do that

purposefully so you'll have a balanced

view. If you just talk about the crap in

your life, you feel like crap.

And then I'd have you write down the top

10 traumas.

And then it's it's a structured process,

but I'd have you bring up the worst one.

We always go for the worst first. And

while you bring it up, I'll get your

eyes to go back and forth and we'll let

your brain direct

where you need to go. And so initially,

you could feel relive

the trauma,

but then it tends to dissipate. As

opposed to just talking about the

trauma, generally, you relive it and

feel like crap. The bilateral hemisphere

stimulation

helps it

sort of

just sucks the life out of it. You still

remember it, but it's not haunting

you anymore. You can go, "Yeah, that

happened." But you're not sweating or

you're not having nightmares. And it

just takes therapy to

a whole different level. Um it's sort of

like doing mushrooms without side

effects.

If I wanted to, you know, earlier on you

said you said

you gave like three points and the

second point was you just got to know

the list. So you said if you want to

damage your brain, if you want to hurt

your brain, you've got to know the list.

If you want to help your brain and have

a healthy brain, you've got to know the

list. Going to the the damaging my brain

part, if I was intent on damaging my own

brain,

what would you advise me to do?

So,

in the book, I talk about a mnemonic

called bright minds. You want to keep

your brain healthy or rescue it, you

have to prevent or treat the 11 major

risk factors that steal your mind. So,

if you want to damage your brain,

bright minds. The B is for blood flow.

Low blood flow is the number one brain

imaging predictor

of Alzheimer's disease.

I can

How do you get low blood flow? Caffeine.

Oh, [ __ ] Nicotine,

marijuana,

alcohol,

um having a sedentary lifestyle,

being overweight.

The R is retirement and aging.

Can we pause on this low blood flow?

You are the first person I've ever

spoken to who has a comprehensive

and

very believable

hypothesis that caffeine has a side

effect. I've asked my guests over and

over again because I

I think people refer to caffeine often

as like this miracle drug that comes

with no cost.

But you're the first one through my

research that seems to be very clear

that caffeine is

does have a significant cost.

drug.

It's It's the most common drug. It's

addictive. I mean, a little bit's fine,

but more than a little bit is not fine.

It increases cortisol. You don't want to

increase cortisol. Puts fat around your

belly. It shrinks your hippocampus. But

you know, the reason

I started really paying attention to it

is on SPECT, the study I do, which is a

blood flow study,

it constricts blood flow 30%. I have all

my patients hold caffeine the morning of

their scans

um because I don't want it to

artificially

uh

show me they have less blood flow than

they really do.

Um

it

it fakes you out to think you have

energy. What it does is it blocks

adenosine, the chemical that tells you

to go to sleep. And so, often people

rely on caffeine because they're sleep

deprived, but it's just this bad cycle.

And so many of my patients stop and

uniformly they tell me they feel better.

They said their energy's better. You

talk about one particular patient in the

book who was struggling with um a

variety of

difficulties. I think you it was like

brain brain fog and um memory issues and

so on. And one of the things you advised

him to do was to

cut coffee.

Jeff, yeah. Jeff, I remember Jeff. He's

a pilot and I live on caffeine and I'm

like, you got to get rid of it cuz his

brain looked terrible. His brain looked

terrible.

looked terrible. And he's like, "No, no,

no."

And he's like, "All right, I'm going to

do it."

And so, he didn't get headaches. We cut

it down by 5% a day. So, 3 weeks it was

gone. He didn't have any withdrawal,

didn't have any headaches.

And he's like texting me,

"Unbelievable energy.

Unbelievable clarity."

And

it's a drug.

And why, you know, I want to teach my

pill my patients skills. I don't want

them to just take pills. And caffeine's

a drug.

Do you drink caffeine?

Little bit, not much.

How much was Jeff having?

Um Jeff was having about 600 mg a day.

Jesus.

Which is two

Venti Starbucks.

One Venti Starbucks is 330

mg of caffeine.

And you know, we've supersized

everything in this country. I don't know

if they do that in the UK, but we

certainly do it here.

And it's it's not a a good strategy. And

so long time restriction of blood flow

to the brain through these things you've

described, caffeine, marijuana, all of

these things has a detrimental impact on

the development of the brain. Pretty

straightforward. I I get that. So that's

the B.

R is retirement and aging. You want to

prematurely age

your brain?

Drop out of school.

Do not engage in new learning.

I mean, you're doing this podcast.

You're always learning new things, which

is great for you.

But the lack of When you learn something

new, your brain makes a new connection.

When you stop learning or you start

doing the same thing over and over

again, your brain starts to disconnect

itself.

Being in a job that does not require new

learning

is a risk factor for dementia.

Being lonely

is a risk factor

for dementia.

So be an ass

and

you're more likely to hurt your brain.

At my workplace, we have the no [ __ ]

rule.

So there's a book by a Stanford

professor called The No [ __ ] Rule.

Love that book. And the no [ __ ] rule

as a CEO starts with me. So, I don't get

to be one, but I'm not tolerating

anybody who has [ __ ] behavior

at work.

And

if you're not an [ __ ] you're less

likely to be lonely.

And loneliness is terrible

for brain function.

If you want to prematurely age your

brain,

eat a lot of red meat

as if your iron and ferritin levels are

high

because ferritin

uh

which is stored iron,

tends to age the brain.

Um

the eyes inflammation. If you want to

increase inflammation, which is a root

cause of so many medical and mental

health issues, never floss.

Don't really care about your teeth. So,

you want to love your brain, you have to

love your mouth. It's absolutely

critical for you not to have gum disease

because if you have gingivitis,

off odds are you're at increased risk

for heart disease and depression and

dementia. It's fascinating. Like I

didn't learn about this and I didn't

really care about my teeth until I

started seeing the links between gum

disease and heart disease, gum disease

and brain disease. And now I'm a

flossing fool.

But if you want to damage your brain,

don't care about your mouth and your

about your teeth.

Don't ever eat fish. People who have

grilled or baked fish once a week have

more gray matter

in their brain.

Um people have low levels of omega-3

fatty acids

have smaller brains. Um and if you want

to damage your brain, eat the standard

American diet.

So, processed food, like eat most of

your calories from the gas station

and from the fast food restaurants

near nearby. And they spend billions on

getting those foods to the perfect

crunchiness, the perfect meltiness, the

perfect aroma, because they hire

neuroscientists to addict your brain.

Be suspicious.

Um

the G is genetics. You want to damage

your brain? Blame everything on your

genes. Like I have obesity and heart

disease my family, but I'm not

overweight and I don't have heart

disease. Why? I'm on an obesity heart

disease prevention program

every day of my life.

Because genes load the gun, it's what

happens to us and what we choose to do

that pulls

the trigger.

So, I adopted my nieces because their

parents couldn't stop using drugs and

I'm like adamant.

If you want my help, you have to

cooperate. There's no vaping, there's no

drug use, there's no alcohol

and

it's working.

I taught them a new word last week,

squamiting. Have you heard of

squamiting? I haven't. It's a

combination of screaming

and vomiting.

And because of the legalization of

marijuana and the increased use,

teenagers are getting this and in record

numbers they're in emergency rooms

screaming and vomiting.

Called squamiting.

So.

Genes load the gun

but know your risk

and be on that prevention program. I

mean, that's just a sign of intelligent

life. The H is head trauma.

You want to damage your brain? Play

football, play soccer, play rugby,

and box.

It's and and text

while you're walking in LA.

I mean, you're just more likely to have

a brain injury. Um

Because you fall over just because in

case that wasn't clear.

People are going to think texting is bad

for their brain.

The T is toxins.

So, see alcohol is a health food?

It's total crap. Uh see marijuana is

innocuous? It's total crap. I mean, I'm

happy they legalized it. Please don't

put people who use marijuana in jail.

It's a really bad use of resources,

really stupid. But let's not say it's

good for us

because teenagers who use

have an increased risk of anxiety,

depression, suicide, and psychosis. That

that's not okay.

The brain undergoes wild development.

And people sort of don't get this. They

think little kids their brain is

undergoing wild development. But from

the time you're 15 to 25, it's gone

through wild construction. In fact,

that's when the highways are being

myelinated. If you've ever heard of

myelin, myelin is a white fatty

substance that gets wrapped on your

neurons. And when a neuron or brain cell

becomes myelinated, becomes 10 to 100

times faster. It's more efficient. And

when a baby's born, there's very little

myelin in the cortex laid down. When

they're about 2 months old, their

occipital lobes, their visual cortex

becomes myelinated. And when you smile

at them, they smile back because they

can really see you. Well, slowly

myelination goes from the back all the

way to the front, but it doesn't get to

the front until you're about 25. So,

this masterpiece

building, if you will, is under

construction

until you're 25. So many teenagers, it's

the crappy food. It's just like throwing

poison into the construction zone.

Marijuana, it's innocuous. We're going

to the parties and getting drunk.

And they're damaging the building.

And yes, there are ways to repair it.

But what idiot would damage the most

beautiful building in the neighborhood?

And I often say to my teenage patients,

I said, "Hey, if you had a

million-dollar racehorse,

would you ever feed it junk food? Would

you ever get it stoned? Would you ever

get it drunk?" And the smart ones would

go,

"Only if you were an idiot." But aren't

you worth so much more?

And we have a high school course called

Brain Thrive by 25. We studied it in 16

schools, decreases drug, alcohol, and

tobacco use, decreases depression, and

improves self-esteem.

And one of the weeks is things to avoid

to have healthy brain. And at the end of

the lecture, it's a boy, never a girl,

that's really irritating, raises his

hand and goes, "How can you have any

fun?"

And we play a game with them called who

has more fun?

The person with the good brain or the

person with the bad brain? Who gets the

girl and gets to keep her because he's

not an ass? The person with the good

brain or the person with the bad brain?

Who gets into the college they want to

get into? Who

has the best life? And ultimately, it's

the person with the good

brain.

So, we're at tea and

you want to damage your brain, undergo

general anesthesia

for

plastic surgery over and over again.

General anesthesia is bad for the brain.

Um

never read the ingredients

on your personal product labels.

Because you know there's an epidemic of

low testosterone in young males. It's

crazy. I was reading the stats the other

day. What is it?

It's because we're poisoning them. Is

that why? That's why.

What is the What is the headline stat

there regarding testosterone in men?

It's decreasing, isn't it, year over

year?

Year over year, and more than half

have either low normal or low levels.

I've never seen anything like it. I've

been measuring testosterone levels in my

patients forever.

And we're poisoning them.

There's an app I like called Think

Dirty. It's not what you think it is. It

allows you to scan your personal

products, and it tells you on a scale of

1 to 10 how quickly they're killing you.

So, for example, I have shaved with

Barbasol

for 50 years. And when I learned this

decade ago,

um

I like scanned it.

One is good, 10 is kill you early. It

was a nine. And I was horrified.

Because the parabens and phthalates are

known hormone disruptors. So, now I

shave with something called Kiss My

Face. It's a two.

Last longer than Barbasol.

And I do that because I love myself. I

mean, why would I poison myself unless I

was not that smart?

And so, just start reading

the labels of your toothpaste, of your

deodorant, of your shampoo, of your body

wash, of

your makeup. And what am I looking for?

Cuz if I read the labels of my

toothpaste,

I mean, I wouldn't know if it was good

or bad. So, you can scan it.

Scan it with the app. Or EWG, the

Environmental Working Group, has an app

similar to that. You just educate

yourself because it's not just about

you.

It's about generations

of you because the health of your body

matters when it comes to what babies you

may make.

Okay.

M is mental health.

Um believe every stupid thing you think.

Be masterful. You want to damage your

brain? Be masterful at predicting the

worst and then making it worse.

Um How does that have a bad impact in

the brain?

Negativity increases stress. Plus,

negativity drops activity in your

cerebellum. So, we talked a little bit

about the CEO, the prefrontal cortex.

Well, it's intimately connected to the

processing part of your brain, your

cerebellum. It's about 10% of the

brain's volume, but has half the brain's

neurons.

And negativity tends to deactivate it.

So, it actually makes you more confused.

So, if you think of an athletic slump,

they're focused on I'm going to miss,

I'm going to miss, and of course they

miss.

Um

the second I is immunity and infections.

Um so much to talk about with the

pandemic,

but people who have low vitamin D levels

are much more likely to die from COVID.

They're actually much more likely to die

from virtually anything. Low vitamin D,

which occurs in about 60% of the

population,

is associated virtually with every bad

thing, including a smaller brain. So, if

you want to have a smaller brain, never

go in the sun, never test your vitamin D

level, and never take a supplement.

Brand new study out just last week,

people who take a vitamin D supplement

have 40% decreased risk of getting

Alzheimer's disease.

How How do they

How simple is that? How do they

establish like causation in these

studies where you one would also assume

that people that take vitamin D

supplements have like, you know, a

general

So, this was a prospective study

where they gave half the group vitamin D

and then they followed them. It's a

fascinating study.

But, there are tens of thousands of

study on vitamin D and its impact. And

the darker your skin, the more sun you

need. So,

an interesting study from the Bahamas,

they looked at people who were raised in

the Bahamas who then migrated to the

United Kingdom. So, healthy vitamin D to

no vitamin D because of the weather.

Botswana to UK.

So, from Botswana, and the incidence of

psychosis went up. Interesting. So, and

how simple is it? It's a blood test. Get

your vitamin D measured. Everybody

listening to this, you should know it

like you know your BMI, like you know

your blood pressure, and optimize it.

Either get in the sun more if you can,

or take vitamin D3 with vitamin K2. I

mean, it's super simple. And I mean,

it's like

that's easy. That's something you can do

right away. Um

If I wanted to mess up my immunity,

I would

encourage myself to have leaky gut. So,

I'd encourage myself to damage the

lining of my gut with antibiotics and

alcohol and pesticide-laden

foods

um and I wouldn't eat any fiber. So, I

would really lean into the standard

American

diet.

Going back to your point about

environmental toxins, I've always

wondered if it was like pseudo-science

that cosmetic products we have in our

house are having an impact on our

hormone levels. You were talking about

hormone levels there. My my partner has

always said to me things like be careful

with what's in that toothpaste, Steve,

or she'll look at products that I have

and go, "Nope." Or, "Yes." I'm like,

"Where's the science?" We talked about

testosterone and

The science is huge.

There's a wonderful book. So, if you

ever If If you want to get rid of the

doubt,

it's called The Toxin Solution by Joe

Pizzorno, who started Bastyr University.

He's one of the most

well-respected naturopaths in the world.

Now, if you want a shortened version,

read my book, The End of Mental Illness,

cuz there's a whole section on toxins

with about 100 scientific

references. So, you don't want toxins.

And And you don't want to think it's

pseudo-science unless you've actually

gone to pubmed.gov

and studied it. So many people called my

work pseudo-science, and I'm like, "Go

to pubmed.gov today. You'll see I've

published 80 studies. And oh, by the

way, there 15,000 studies on SPECT." So,

The Oh, I don't know.

a fan of your sweetheart. Yeah. She I

She always seems to be right about

everything. I seem to I

I'm pessimistic on my way in.

And then God, this doesn't sound so

great, but what she says registers and

then I speak to an expert and they go,

"Your girlfriend is right." That is the

story of my life.

So, she's just a little bit And I'll say

to her I'll I'll leave this podcast now

and I'll

I spoke to him and he said the stuff you

said about all the cosmetic products I

use is right." And she'll she'll she

won't care. She'll go, "Yeah, I know."

That happens literally every week, like

three or four times a week. One of the

things I read in terms of

cuz the impact of cosmetics on our

hormone levels was that over the last 20

years our testosterone levels have

declined by about 50% on average, which

is absolutely terrifying. Terrifying. I

have a lot of friends who are

in I have a staggering amount of friends

and people that I know that are in

sexless relationships and are struggling

with

sex and other hormone-related issues.

I've got a friend that is um

had a a a challenge with

It's PCOS?

PCOS.

PCOS. Polycystic ovarian syndrome.

And I just

have a suspicion

that it's not nature

that's causing some of these issues. So,

when I hear about how the cosmetic

products we have in our life are

influencing our hormone levels,

I go, "Maybe this is the

maybe this is the guy that's

stitching us up."

It's worth making sure someone does an

ultrasound on her ovaries to see if

that's in fact the case,

but uh I have a funny story on PCOS.

When I first met my wife, um

she wouldn't attach.

Um it was more like she was the guy and

we'd make love and I want to cuddle and

she's like, "Okay, done."

And I could

I'm like I loved her and she'd come and

she'd go and she's like just make me

crazy. And then um

I took her

to

our our first fight

was on the dog we were going to get.

So,

I wanted like a King Charles Cavalier. I

wanted like a lap dog, something cute,

something I could just have fun with.

And she wanted a mastiff.

Or she want she wanted some killer dog.

And I'm no, it's just not me. And so we

got into a fight about that. Anyways, I

get her to see a hormone specialist

and she diagnoses her with PCOS. And it

just made such sense. And what she did

is an ultrasound of our ovaries. They

were like loaded with these little

cysts.

And she treated the PCOS. And so PCOS

women's testosterone levels tend to be

higher.

And their blood sugar tends to be

higher. And they have more problems

committing.

So, she fixes it. And then Tana becomes

like committed. I love this. But then

she calls me at work one day and she

said,

"I found this pocket poodle in Northern

California

that's like 2 lb and I'm like, who are