9 ways the Omni Diet can save your mind

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Amen Clinics

The Omni Diet38-year-old Sarah was losing hope that she could ever feel better. Her Asperger’s Syndrome, depression and anxiety have been compounded by the grief she has been feeling over the death of her brother. When Sarah recently came to Amen Clinics for help, an essential part of her personalized treatment plan included a consultation with Nutrition Director for Amen Clinics, Erica Kasuli, MS, RD, CDN. Erica focuses her time counseling patients in groups and individually on the healing properties of food and the ability to achieve optimal brain function.

Erica immediately started Sarah on the Omni Diet, which is a 70% plant based, 30% high quality protein diet, which allows her to eat a wide range of incredibly tasty and nutritious foods, but also eliminates gluten, dairy, sugar, coffee and soda. Gluten and casein (found in dairy) are commonly aggravating to the digestive systems of those who suffer from autism spectrum disorders such as Asperger’s Syndrome. After only 2.5 weeks on the Omni Diet, Sarah’s life has transformed dramatically in 9 important ways:

 

  1. Anxiety and depression lessened overall.
  2. Improved social skills. Sarah is getting out of the house and going to new grocery stores – something that previously stressed her out; and she has had the energy to join a running group and a pilates group.
  3. Reduction in irritability. Sarah has been able to attend more family functions… although at one party she decided to eat some fried cheese, and on the way home she “blew up” at her husband. “I could see how the foods played a role in reacting emotionally,” she says.
  4. Improved focus and attention span. Sarah cites simple tasks as improved, such as making grocery lists.
  5. Improved communication. Sarah has encouraged her mother and husband to follow the Omni Diet with her… and they’re doing it!
  6. Lost weight and inches. Sarah has already lost pounds; she feels thinner, sees her waist size decreasing and notices changes in her body.
  7. Less sugar cravings. “I don’t miss the foods,” Sarah says.
  8. Improved gastrointestinal function.
  9. Improved ability to cope with grieving. Sarah expresses less emotional attachment to the ice cream and pancakes that she has memories enjoying with her brother. “Now that I know these foods make me sick when I eat them, it is easier for me to let them go and give them up.” Sarah is able to enjoy the memory with her brother without needing to eat those foods. “It has nothing to do with craving the food; it is the emotional attachment to them.” Sarah makes sweet potato pancakes as a way to feel the memory but not compromise her health.

Sarah is a wonderful example of how dietary changes like those laid out in the Omni Diet can make a powerful, immediate impact on life. “I thought it was going to be hard but it turned out not to be difficult at all,” she says. “ And it is simple. It has made so many differences… even spending more time with my husband cooking and shopping.”

Have you implemented diet changes according to the Omni Diet? What have you noticed? Tell us about it in the comments.

Posted in Blog, Brain Health and Wellness, Nutrition | 3 Comments

Is your ADHD treatment making you worse?

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Daniel G. Amen, M.D.

Is your ADHD treatment making you worse?If you are being treated or are going to be treated for ADHD, it is important to look at a study released last week by the journal PLOS One. For many patients, the popular ADHD medication methylphenidate (Ritalin) has been shown to have both positive and negative effects. This study shows that treatment with methylphenidate increased the amount of dopamine transporters in the brain by 24% over the course of just one year of use. Likely, this is not a good thing.

Dopamine is the brain chemical largely thought to be responsible for reward-motivated behavior, and ADHD is often associated with low dopamine activity. In your brain, synapses are the places where neurotransmitters like dopamine stimulate action. Dopamine transporters are responsible for clearing dopamine from the synapse into surrounding cells once the dopamine has “fired” its signal. The more quickly dopamine gets cleared from the synapse, the less dopamine is available to do its work. Methylphenidate gets results by blocking dopamine transporters, giving your brain more opportunity to get the benefit of the dopamine.

You don’t want excessive amounts of dopamine transporters hanging out in your brain, or whatever dopamine you do have gets cleared quickly.

This study, done by noted neuroscientists Gene-Jack Wang and the National Institutes of Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow and others, dealt with adult sufferers of ADHD who had never before been treated with medication.

They took 18 never medicated ADHD adults and did PET scans on them before and one year later. They compared the ADHD adults to 12 normal control subjects, also scanned at baseline and then a year later. The ADHD subjects treated with the drug showed a 24% average increase in dopamine transporters, while the control subjects showed no increase in transporters.

It appears that while methylphenidate is blocking the transporters, it’s also somehow inspiring the multiplication of them. Imagine, then, what happens to the person with ADHD who wants to stop taking medication. He or she may be even more vulnerable than before taking medication.

There is a lot to learn, and clearly ADHD medications have long term benefit for many. However, it brings into sharp relief the reality that we ought to be cautious in the prescription and use of pharmaceuticals in the treatment of any condition of the brain, including ADHD.

The reality is that ADHD is for the most part being treated with too much medication and not enough case-by-case understanding.

Shortly after I began brain SPECT imaging work over thirty years ago, I realized that ADHD is not a single or simple disorder. There isn’t just one brain SPECT pattern for sufferers of ADHD. It took me several years and thousands of scans to identify at least six unique SPECT patterns in ADHD patients, each of which ought to be treated differently.

If you had chest pain, your doctor would go through a series of diagnostics to discover the exact nature of it before prescribing you any medication or suggesting any procedure. In my experience, ADHD should be approached with the same attitude of caution, discovery, thoroughness and sensitivity. One treatment does not fit every ADHD patient!

Have you ever discontinued use of Ritalin or other stimulants for the treatment of ADHD, only to find symptoms return? Tell me about it in the comments.

Posted in ADD, Blog, Brain Health and Wellness, Brain Health Problems | 4 Comments

Will your teen report symptoms of concussion?

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Daniel G. Amen, M.D.

Will your teen report symptoms of concussion? In a study performed at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and published earlier this month, over 90% of teenagers studied showed that they understood the symptoms of a concussion, but only 54% of them indicated they would “always or sometimes report symptoms of a concussion to their coach.”

It is a finding that should stop every parent in his or her tracks.

I cannot overemphasize the importance of physical exercise in brain health; it is an incredibly powerful brain booster. Exercise is especially important for children and young people, who are forming health habits – for better or for worse – that will have lifelong implications. In our society sports are the go-to avenue for getting our children moving. If you’re a parent, the decisions you make about what sports your child will play can be influenced by many factors, like the sports you played while growing up or the team that your community loves. But your child’s brain should be the first and foremost consideration, hands down.

When it comes to brain safety, not all sports are made equal – a reality to which I can attest firsthand. After spending years immersed in the study of brain SPECT scans and real-life experiences of 150 active and retired NFL players, I can categorically suggest that any sport with high risk of head trauma is not a source of brain-healthy exercise.

Combine high risk of head trauma and the reluctance a teenager might feel to be seen as weak, and you have a losing combination. If the teenager doesn’t report his or her symptoms and continues playing, there is an increased risk of a second trauma occurring before the first trauma heals. This is an especially dangerous scenario often referred to as second impact syndrome, which can lead to permanent disability and even death.

The story of Zackery Lystedt has brought national attention to the issue of concussions in youth sports. As an eighth grader in 2006, Zackery suffered a head injury during a football game, but was returned to the field to complete the game. Before the game was over, Zackery had collapsed. It took emergency brain surgeries to save his life and months of rehabilitation before he even spoke again. Today he is still working on walking and so many other simple functions that we take for granted. Efforts by Zackery’s family have seen laws passed in nearly all 50 states, which require teams to educate players and parents on concussion symptoms, remove a player from play at the time of head trauma and require the player to get approval from a licensed medical professional before he or she can return to play.

I applaud lawmakers for taking action on this issue; I applaud Zackery’s parents for looking out for the safety and wellbeing of other children; and I applaud Zackery for his unrelenting determination to recover. As I learned in my study of the brains of NFL players, reversal of brain damage is possible in considerable measure, but far better is to avoid this kind of trauma in the first place… so teenagers don’t have to choose between saving face and saving their brains.

Parents, be encouraged! There are many sports that are great for the brain, including rowing, track and field, golf, tennis and (my personal favorite for brain health) table tennis, to name a few.

Posted in Blog, Brain Health and Wellness, Brain Health Problems, Brain Injuries, Children and Teens | Leave a comment

When it comes to negative thoughts, it’s time to simply go ballistic

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Daniel G. Amen, M.D.

No Negative ThinkingYou’ve heard the word “placebo,” but have you heard the term “nocebo?” Think of nocebo as the inverse of placebo. If you’re taking a placebo and you expect to get positive results from it, and you get positive results, that’s the placebo effect; when you take a placebo and you expect to get negative results from it, and you get negative results, that’s the nocebo effect. It’s when negative expectations influence our physical experience.

As you take action to increase the health and boost the power of your brain, one of the first steps you can take is to recognize that thoughts are real, and they have real consequences in the real world.

Years ago I began referring to negative thoughts as Automatic Negative Thoughts, or ANTs. ANTs are cynical, gloomy, and complaining thoughts that just seem to keep coming all by themselves. Killing ANTs is a foundational treatment recommendation I make to all patients. It always helps to kill an ANT.

A study performed late last year made me smile, not only because the findings were consistent with my own observations and approach to dealing with negative thoughts, but also because it goes to show that just because something is simple and straightforward doesn’t mean it is not effective. In fact, just the opposite; when something is simple, it’s easy to implement; when it’s easy to implement, it’s more likely to be implemented and therefore more likely to make an impact.

This study involved Spanish high school and college aged students who literally threw their negative thoughts in the trash. The students were asked to write down their thoughts about their body – either negative or positive – and then either throw those papers in the trash, keep them on their desk, or hide them away in their pocket or purse. Just a few minutes later the participants were asked to rate their attitudes about their own bodies on three 9-point scales (bad-good, unattractive-attractive, like-dislike).

In three variations of the study with different participants, the results were consistent. Those who kept the pieces of paper with thoughts written on them were influenced by those thoughts; those who had written positive thoughts about their bodies and kept the pieces of paper were more likely to rate their bodies positively, while those who had written negative thoughts about their bodies and kept the pieces of paper were more likely to rate their bodies negatively. The students who literally threw their thoughts away were less likely to be influenced by those thoughts, whether they were negative or positive.

Years ago I developed a simple (read: effective) game to deal with ANTs. I call it “Kill the ANTs”… because if ever there was a time to go ballistic, it’s on those Automatic Negative Thoughts. The principle is basically the same as the cited study – you can neutralize the power of your negative thoughts by eliminating material representations of those thoughts in a physical way.

I wonder what kind of pain and depression could be avoided if doctors across the nation encouraged their patients to do this one simple thing every day? It would probably astonish us.

(If you’re interested, you can check out “Kill the ANTs” in The Amen Solution, the online brain gym and community we built as a way to transform your life and boost your brain by implementing brain-healthy habits in your day-to-day life.)

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Toxic Mold Syndrome: “It was like I lost my personality”

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Amen Clinics

Kimberlyn, a 46-year-old married mother living in Arizona is not your average patient. She is highly detailed, analytical, logical, and carries with her a master’s degree in pattern analysis. When Kimberlyn got sick, she applied as much as she could from her work life to try to uncover what was adversely affecting her. Even so, coming to the right diagnoses took a lot of work and required outside help.

Out of nowhere, and for no apparent reason, Kimberlyn suddenly went from a highly-effective, busy, working mother, to a disorganized, uninvolved, confused individual who couldn’t focus long enough to put together cohesive, coherent thoughts. She was no longer able to make decisions for herself and struggled to even get dressed in the morning. Insomnia, anxiety, and a loss of appetite accompanied the confusion. “It was like I lost my personality,” says Kimberlyn.

That was the first episode, lasting for three months starting in November of 2010. In that time she lost twenty-five founds, was forced to abandon her practice, and withdrew from activities outside the home. Her doctor, family, and friends told her that they thought she had depression or even bipolar disorder. She resisted, even in her confused and debilitated state, and insisted on further testing, believing that something was terribly wrong.

After a series of blood tests, her general practitioner diagnosed Kimberlyn with heavy metal poisoning and recommended she undergo chelation therapy. After undergoing this treatment, she did feel better. However, within five months the illness returned.

During her second cycle of illness, Kimberlyn sought out another doctor who performed a series of tests and suggested that maybe Kimberlyn was suffering from mold illness, also known as toxic mold syndrome. This was the first time mold had been suggested as a possible cause for Kimberlyn’s symptoms, and was unexpected due to the arid climate of Arizona. Yet after having her home tested, three different types of toxic mold were found, including Stachybotrys, also known as black mold.

Primarily, mold illness is associated with allergic reactions that mimic seasonal allergies. Respiratory symptoms such as wheezing, coughing, watery eyes, and skin irritation are the predominant symptoms. Mold is also known to cause asthma and life-threatening primary and secondary infections in immune-compromised patients that have been exposed.

Toxic mold exposure has also been linked to more serious, long-term effects like memory loss, insomnia, anxiety, depression, confusion, trouble concentrating, and confusion. In a 2003 study by the Environmental Health Center-Dallas, 100 participants were examined in an effort to uncover how toxic mold exposure can affect the brain and lead to cognitive and emotional impairments. After the mold exposure, nervous system challenges were observed in all 100 patients tested. Brain SPECT scans also identified abnormalities in a significant portion of the patients studied.2

After Kimberlyn was diagnosed with mold illness by her doctor in Arizona, she took steps to remove mold from her home and began treatment protocols to help reduce her symptoms, but she still felt it wasn’t enough. She continued to research mold illness and finally found the blog of a patient who was treated at Amen Clinics. “ It was the first time I had read anyone’s experience that matched my own,” said Kimberlyn. “I read and read and read and made an appointment that day.”

Kimberlyn had booked a Full Evaluation, which took two days to complete. She filled out multiple questionnaires and history forms, talked to specialized counselors, and finally had a set of SPECT images taken of her brain. “Just to really see exactly what was happening to my brain in the SPECT scans and that I do have a toxic injury due to mold was amazing,” said Kimberlyn. “They did such a good job with all of the evaluations, and they were so thorough. By the end of the second day, Dr. Darmal had a whole binder of material that discussed the results of the testing I had done while I was there.”

Dr. Darmal and the staff at the Amen Clinics Newport Beach discovered that in addition, Kimberlyn also had ADHD and a previous traumatic brain injury that was increasing the effects of the mold injury. “When my brain swelled from the mold exposure, I was getting almost no blood flow to my prefrontal cortex,” explained Kimberlyn.

Co-occurring conditions that can increase the effects of an injury or illness on the brain are common, yet can be easily overlooked. For Kimberlyn, she was shocked to hear that the brain injury she had suffered in high school was impacting her life today and even more surprised that she had ADHD. “The medication for ADHD has made a huge difference in my productivity and ability to focus. That was like the bonus prize that I wasn’t even expecting,” said Kimberlyn.

Kimberlyn is already seeing positive results from implementing the treatment protocol prescribed for her by Dr. Darmal. In addition to the medication prescribed for ADHD, Kimberlyn has also completely changed her diet and started a supplement regimen. She will be undergoing hyperbaric oxygen treatments this summer as well. She looks forward to restarting her professional practice and enjoying continuing progress.

“To see the scans and to know that you are not bipolar, you are not depressed…to see what I knew in my own gut backed up on the scans…it’s so validating and powerful,” said Kimberlyn. “The idea that there is a way to address what’s happening and that you can get better, it’s just so wonderful.”

To read more success stories and find out how Amen Clinics can help you or a loved one, visit us online at http://www.amenclinics.com or make an appointment today!

There is hope. Amen Clinics can help. Call Today! 1-888-564-2700

REFERENCES

1- Edmondson DA, Nordness ME, Zacharisen MC, Kurup VP, Fink JN. Allergy and “toxic mold syndrome”. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2005 Feb;94(2):234-9.

2 – Rea WJ, Didriksen N, Simon TR, Pan Y, Fenyves EJ, Griffiths B. Effects of toxic exposure to molds and mycotoxins in building-related illnesses. Arch Environ Health. 2003 Jul;58(7):399-405.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments