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Summary of Do These Daily Practices to Improve Your Brain & Cognitive Performance | Dr. Daniel Amen
00:00:00 - 01:00:00
Dr. Daniel Amen stresses the importance of daily practices for brain health and cognitive performance, emphasizing the negative impact of harmful substances like alcohol, marijuana, and processed foods on the brain. Additionally, Dr. Amen discusses the importance of building brain and cognitive reserve, and highlights ways to improve brain health, such as getting enough sleep, making healthy choices, and avoiding substances that can damage the brain. He also discusses the impact of personal goals on mental health, the role of positive experiences in improving relationships, and the negative effects of contact sports on the brain, advocating for healthy racket sports as an alternative. Dr. Daniel Amen discusses the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, emphasizing how it can improve brain function by increasing blood flow and repairing damaged tissues. He also highlights the importance of mental exercises for keeping the brain active and making new connections, recommending spending 15 minutes daily learning something new. Dr. Amen also suggests stepping out of one's comfort zone and doing something new to develop and stress the brain. Furthermore, he stresses the critical link between gum disease and inflammation in the brain and recommends his book *Bright Minds*, which outlines 11 major risk factors that can impact brain health and how to prevent or treat them through better daily practices.
00:00:00 In this section, Dr. Daniel Amen discusses how quickly we can improve our brain and cognitive health. He talks about his experiences with players from the NFL and a mixed martial artist who showed improvement on their brain scans after taking a combination of brain-enhancing supplements. Dr. Amen emphasizes that the brain can respond almost immediately and that by doing the right things, such as taking supplements and avoiding harmful substances like alcohol and sleep deprivation, we can make our brains better. He also stresses that the brain affects every part of our body and that we can make systemic improvements by taking care of our brain health.
00:05:00 In this section, Dr. Daniel Amen discusses the importance of daily practices for brain and mental health. He highlights the lack of brain health courses in schools and the negative impact of digital gadgets, processed foods, alcohol, and marijuana on our brain health. Dr. Amen's book titled "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life Daily", outlines a year of daily practices to improve brain health. He emphasizes the importance of loving our brains because we can make them better and discusses how many people got seriously well during the pandemic because they had the time to focus on their brain and mental health due to the lack of daily commutes.
00:10:00 didn't care for their own brain health have less brain reserve as well. In the video, Dr. Daniel Amen introduces the concept of brain reserve, which is the extra tissue and function of the brain to deal with stress. Brain reserve starts developing before a person is even born and can be affected by factors such as stress, smoking, and unhealthy diets. By taking care of our brain health through daily practices such as reading and making decisions that are good for our brains, we can improve our brain reserve and be better equipped to handle stress and challenges in life.
00:15:00 In this section, Dr. Daniel Amen emphasizes the importance of building cognitive reserve to avoid cognitive decline. He explains that every day, we are either building cognitive reserve or stealing from it based on our choices. For example, getting sufficient sleep is important because lack of sleep disables 700 health-promoting genes resulting in waste build-up in the brain and a decline in cognitive reserve. Dr. Amen encourages taking responsibility for taking care of brain health, and even if someone had a challenging start in life, they can still improve their cognitive health by building cognitive reserve. One way to do this is by doing the One Page Miracle exercise and writing down what one wants to improve in their relationships, work, money, physical and emotional health.
00:20:00 In this section, Dr. Daniel Amen discusses the importance of identifying personal goals and aligning behavior with those goals. He emphasizes that it's essential to tell your brain what you want, as your brain will make it happen when it sees it. He explains that the brain makes sneaky and crazy thoughts, and that it's normal to have them. When you attach negative thoughts to these ideas, that's when they cause suffering. Dr. Amen emphasizes that exploring the generational histories of patients is crucial because they often hold clues to the person's mental health.
00:25:00 In this section, Dr. Amen discusses epigenetics and the impact of our environment on future generations. He talks about how traumatic events can cause changes in our genes' epigenetics, leading to anxiety and other mental health disorders passed on to future generations. Dr. Amen adds that adopting a healthy lifestyle and staying in enriching environments can break this cycle for future generations. He emphasizes the importance of being aware of our choices and how they impact our children and grandchildren, modeling either good or bad behavior.
00:30:00 In this section, Dr. Daniel Amen discusses the negative effects of marijuana on the brain, particularly on the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for regulating our behavior and emotions. His research shows that marijuana use damages the brain's white fatty substance, myelin, which causes a decrease in connectivity and affects the pruning process that occurs during adolescence and early adulthood. Teenagers who use marijuana are at a higher risk of developing anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts, and have a 450% increased risk of becoming psychotic. Dr. Amen emphasizes the importance of caring for one's brain and avoiding substances that can damage it, especially during its developmental stage.
00:35:00 In this section, Dr. Daniel Amen speaks about the harmful effects of drugs and other psychoactive substances on cognitive performance and the brain. He highlights the advertising techniques used to market such drugs and how these may have contributed to the normalization of their use. Dr. Amen cautions that while these substances may have some beneficial effects, particularly in treating specific conditions, it is important to maintain a sense of awe and reverence towards them to avoid addiction and negative consequences. Instead, he suggests alternatives like exercise, meditation, diaphragmatic breathing, and building skills in order to manage anxiety and improve brain function.
00:40:00 In this section, Dr. Daniel Amen speaks about the importance of directing your life in order to avoid suffering from avoidable ailments such as obesity, diabetes or heart disease. He highlights the need to make tough decisions, such as letting go of the things we love that do not love us back. This requires a lot of growth and it may not necessarily be easy, but it is worth it in the end. He recounts a story of an 80-year-old woman who made the tough decision to change her lifestyle and focus on healthy practices such as drinking more water, taking supplements, playing brain games, changing her diet and learning new skills such as playing musical instruments and languages, all of which helped her combat chronic pain, depression, and obesity.
00:45:00 In this section, Dr. Daniel Amen emphasizes the importance of making small changes to improve brain function, such as simply drinking more water or asking oneself if decisions are good or bad for the brain. He emphasizes the role of love and the need to get one's mind right before making behavioural changes. Dr. Amen also discusses the four major circles of change outlined in his book, with Penguins symbolizing the need to focus on what one likes about other people, rather than what they dislike. He shares a personal anecdote of bonding with his adopted son over a penguin show, highlighting the power of positive experiences in improving relationships.
00:50:00 In this section, Dr. Daniel Amen talks about how to shape the important people in our lives in a positive way. He explains that it's miraculous how noticing what we like more than what we don't like can positively impact our relationships. The research shows that having five times more positive comments than negative ones will help us to be less likely to get divorced and business teams to make more money. He also talks about table tennis being his favourite brain game, which is a whole-brain exercise that works out the cerebellum, parietal lobes, and the frontal lobes, helping to rehabilitate the brain.
00:55:00 prevent or reverse brain damage caused by concussions and head injuries. In the section, Dr. Daniel Amen discusses the importance of healthy racket sports and their impact on cognitive performance. He also highlights the importance of the mantra "win or learn," as it helps individuals take bad days and turn them into good ones. Moreover, he emphasizes that contact sports such as football, MMA fighting, and boxing are not good for the brain, as they can cause sub-concussive blows that can lead to dementia and long-term learning problems. Therefore, he advises against allowing children to play football or any such contact sports that can increase the risk of multiple concussions.
01:00:00 In this section, Dr. Daniel Amen discusses the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy and how it can improve brain function by increasing blood flow and repairing damaged tissues. He mentions that hyperbaric oxygen chambers are now commonplace, especially in cities like LA, where there is a rise in interest towards light therapy beds and hyperbaric oxygen. Additionally, Dr. Amen emphasizes the need to engage in mental exercises, such as learning something new for 15 minutes every day, to keep the brain active and make new connections. According to him, the brain tends to disconnect itself when we stop learning, which is why it's critical to keep engaging in new activities to keep the brain healthy.
01:05:00 In this section, Dr. Daniel Amen talks about how doing something new or getting out of your comfort zone can be a good mental exercise for your brain. Stressing your brain a little is essential sometimes, as that can help you push your brain and prevent it from going on autopilot all the time. Doing things such as brushing your teeth with your opposite hand or playing table tennis with your non-dominant hand are excellent ways to develop your brain. Dr. Amen also warns that gum disease is a major cause of inflammation and underscores its critical link to brain disease. He mentions his book, *Bright Minds*, which provides information about the 11 major risk factors that can impact brain health, including inflammation, and how to prevent or treat them so that people can take a daily dose of better practices for brain and cognitive performance.
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