Arnie's drinking-damaged brain
Lucy, a well respected scientist and entrepreneur in her early fifties from Boston came to see me after selling her company. Even though she was financially set for life, there was so much stress associated with the sale that she had trouble sleeping, was wracked with anxiety and had obsessive tendencies that she thought she had left behind in her 20s. As part of our evaluation we performed a set of brain SPECT scans. Her husband, Arnie, came along and got scanned, in his mind, just to support his wife. He was just curious. I looked at her brain and saw the trouble I had expected and recommended a course of treatment. When I looked at Arnie’s 56-year-old brain it brain looked like he was 80. I asked him what he was doing to hurt his brain.
“Nothing, Dr. Amen,” he said with a look of disbelief.
“Really?” I said, feeling a little confused as to why his brain looked so bad. “How much do you drink?”
“Oh, not very much,” he replied.
“What’s not very much,” I asked. Through the years I have learned to always ask this follow up, clarifying question.
“Oh maybe I have 3-4 drinks a day.”
“Every day?” I said.
“Yeah, every day. But its never a problem. I never get drunk. I have never gotten into trouble with it,” Arnie said with anxiety.
“Why do you drink everyday?” I asked.
“Since my daughter went off to college I have this empty nest thing going on. The time I used to spend with her, I now spend at a local pub, seeing my friends. It’s a social time, kind of like the show Cheers.
“Well, you are poisoning yourself,” I said. “You’re 56 and you’re brain looks like its 80. If you keep this up, pretty soon your brain is going to look a lot worse, and with comes trouble with everything in your life.”
Arnie was shocked that his brain looked as bad as it did. As we talked, I could see he was beginning to develop “brain envy.” After learning about his brain it was clear he wanted his to function better. I gave him a very specific brain healthy plan that included abstinence from alcohol, regular exercise, mental exercise, vitamins, supplements and fish oil. Four months later he wrote me saying that he mentally felt like he was 20 years old. His energy and memory were better, he felt smarter, more articulate. His work as a business consultant had also improved, and he started writing a book about his work, something he had wanted to do five years earlier, but could never find the time or motivation.