My new book Magnificent Mind At Any Age is coming out 12/2/09. You can pre-order it on the website here. Starting 11/29 my new PBS special on this book will start airing across North America (November 7th in San Francisco on KQED).
Here is Part Four of Six of what you can expect in the book.
Increase Your Brain’s Reserve
Have you ever wondered why certain stresses or injuries affect some people and not others? I have. I have wondered why some people get depressed after losing a parent while others, although sad, keep going; why some people, after a minor head injury, seem to really be affected, while others don’t; or why some people can work many hours straight, while others are completely spent after a short period of time. Several years ago, after looking at many thousands of brain scans, I started to think about the concept of “brain reserve.” Brain reserve is the cushion, margin or extra neurons that we have to deal with unexpected events or insults. The more reserve we have, the more stresses or injuries we can handle. The less reserve, the more vulnerable we are.
When we are conceived, let’s say, we all start with the same reserve. Many things can erode it, many things can boost it. For example, if your mother smoked, drank much alcohol or was under constant stress when she was pregnant with you, she decreased your brain’s reserve. If she took fish oil, listened to classical music and mediated every day, likely she increased your reserve. If you fell down a flight of stairs at age three, were exposed to chronic stress from an alcoholic mother or father during childhood, were sexually molested as a child or teenager, drank too much alcohol or used drugs you decreased or limited your brain’s reserve. On the other hand, if you were fed a healthy diet, took fish oil, were raised by loving, consistent parents and were exposed to many different kinds of learning your brain’s reserve was likely increased.
Anything that harms brain function, starts to erode your brain’s reserve. Here are some factors known to decrease brain reserve.
Prenatal or birth injuries
Brain injuries
Excessive alcohol
Drug abuse
Negative thinking
Poor diet
Environmental toxins
Chronic stress
Lack of sleep/sleep apnea
Smoking
Excessive caffeine
Too much television or violent video games
Lack of exercise
Likewise, maintaining a brain healthy life will increase your reserve or hardiness to deal with pending stresses or trouble. I always want to be increasing my brain reserve, to deal with the crises that inevitably will come my way. Here are a number of ways to do it.
Positive social connections
New learning
Healthy diet
A daily multiple vitamin
Fish oil
Learning music
Regular exercise
Dancing (of course, without drinking)
Positive thinking
Gratitude
Meditation
If you wish to stay healthy during stressful times, you need adequate brain reserve. Start working today to add more neurons to your life.
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Hi there! I am so grateful to one of my friends who gave me your website – I have learned that the problems myself and my family struggle with are not all our fault!
I do not know where to find help here in Toronto area – I took my son through his growing up yrs. to a Kid’s Clinic for ADHD but the medications did not help. As for myself, I feel as though I am in a constant ‘fog’ mentally, poor memory, short fuse, etc. Is there anyone doing this work in Ontario, or in Canada as yet?
Thank-you for your newletter series, this information is invaluable, and I have passed it along to everyone I know.
Sincerely,
Audrey Wealthall
Hey, way to go Dr. Amen. I have been an avid follower of your work for a number of years. Many thanks for what you do.
A colleague in neuropsychiatry and forensic psychiatry, Dr. Benson
Thank You Dr. Amen~
I am a visual arts educator, and have been working in the public schools mostly, as well as parochial, private and community centers for over 25 years and I noticed with a resounding “YESâ€, how many ARTS found their way onto your list of possible brain activities! I have been on the front line of ARTS EDUCATION for many years and I know first hand how powerful the creative process is to the health of a brain. My youngest students know intuitively how important the arts are and engage with great enthusiasm. It saddens me that our consumerism society has taken this valuable life sustaining process and thrown it out the window in order to replace it with dis-engagement and dis-ease. Our “yet-to-get†society is driving us all madd.
I listen & read as much as I can on the brain research frontier and am so hopeful, that the arts are being validated by science! Spend time today, creating something with a child-you will learn something!!!!
Thank you to Dr. Amen for all his good advice and motivation in helping people feel their best. The one thing I have learned is how unique we all are, and how many factors in our biology play a role as well as our nurture. I was born with an emotionally sensitive but highly excitable brain, so I am always looking at medical news for relationships. I have read recently about glutamate excess, and Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) as well as many other chemical messengers and hormones, and find it all so interesting. I know that understanding our gland balance and nervous system is pretty basic in all of this. We just are blessed with these genetic quirks, and many times bad nurture by people who have not meant to be, but have been, ignorant. We’re all just figuring out this stuff now. Eventually we will have it down to a science. Peace!
Excellent work, Dr. Amen. Your mission is so enthusiastic to our lifestyles and higher goals.
I find your articles very interesting and of help as I am an Educational Kinesiologist, I live in South Africa and I wonder if there is anyone in this country who can do a Spect scan. Looking forward to your new book.
Last week, I got rescanned at Dr. Amen’s clinic and I saw the most beautiful evidence that maintaining a brain healthy life will increase your reserve or hardiness to deal with pending stresses or trouble. I recently had an important seizure and my brain reserves saved my brain. After a year taking supplements like Brain Vitale and Brain Memory, among other things, like exercise, I saw a remarkable improvement in my brain scan. One of the things that I admire the most is Dr. Amen’s way of sharing his knowledge for our own benefit. I encourage everybody to read “A Magnificent Mind at any Age”. Excellent work, Dr. Amen!!! I confirm that your work dignifies humanity. Gracias.
Your book “Change your Brain Change your Life” openned my eyes to truths I did not realise about myself. Your discussion on ADD was like looking in a mirror. Having both a familly proclivity of poor attention and brain injuries from a climbing mishap and recently a head-on collision, my ability to stay on track seems impossible. I look forward to going to one of your clinics and clarifing a path to find the best solutions for me. I dearly miss being effective and productive. Thank you from all that I am for helping me see a path of hope. You have the true gift of inspiration. I am happily indebted to you.
Dear Dr. Amen,
I have read your books and watched numerous videos, including your classes and listened to your CD’s. I teach people how to use the processes of thinking. It has been most helpful to me to look at the negative and postive affects in each of the areas you tald about because through your classes I have found where each thinking ability, in a granular sense are located. I am also able to now show how negative thinking causes upsets in the various functions of the brain such as BG, CG, DL etc. You mentioned that you are creating curriculum for children. Perhaps we should meet. In any case, thanks.
Charlotte Mackley
Springville, UT
Dear Dr. Amen: I agree that all of the things you listed as promoting neuronal reserve help reduce stress and increase our health and happiness. I was always under the belief they did this by quieting the HPA axis and promoting secretion of dopamine and endorphins (except for the fish oil which builds healthier cell walls and myelin). Have you done any bran scan studies correlating higher neuronal reserve with the list of factors you give for higher neuronal reserve? That would be great.
I am a psychotherapist and have a client I am very worried about. She worries and obsesses, especially about her relationship. It doesn’t seem to matter if her partner tells her she loves her, she can imagine 100 different scenarios. She was on Zooloft for two years and found that she acted out on her gambling addiction. She has been in recovery for 20 years with drugs and alcohol. She does some compulsive things such as check e ching each day which give some predictions about the day for her. She has begun shaking and trembling when she gets excessively upset. She appears to be a passive woman but she argues constantly with herself or me; always looking at different scenarios. She is doing accupuncture every other week. I can’t convince her to try medications again. Help!
Your book said you maintain a list of people I have trained and we are collegial with on your website. I could not find such a list on your website. I did find a list of your clinics but this is not what your books says. I am confused.
Carole, I’m not a doctor, but I wonder how many of the 11 things mentioned above by Dr. Amen your client has actually committed to and realizes/does on a daily basis. There’s no one big answer! Small persistent changes in the right direction, daily, daily.
Carole, I’m not a doctor, but I wonder how many of the 11 things mentioned above by Dr. Amen your client has actually committed to and realizes/does on a daily basis. There’s no one big answer! Small persistent changes in the right direction, daily, moment by moment.
I notice Change Your Brain, Change Your Life included a list of physicians who use SPECT scans for diagnosis as Dr. Amen does. Is there a similar list of Canadian physicians, specifically in the province of Alberta?