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The brain-body connection is real and more apparent than you might think. While some disease is hereditary, bad health is often born out of unhealthy choice and behaviors. When your brain suffers, so does your body, but it’s never too late to change your brain, and your life. Alzheimer’s disease is expected to triple by 2050, and there is no cure on the horizon. Alzheimer’s disease affects 50 percent of people age eighty-five and older. If you are fortunate to live until you are eighty-five or beyond you have a one-in-two chance of losing your mind along the way. To make matters worse, recent brain-imaging research has demonstrated that Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia actually start in the brain decades before you have any symptoms. Depression is one of the greatest killers of our time. It affects 50 million Americans at some point in their lives and has increased 400 percent since 1987. Depression is associated with suicide, divorce, job failure, heart disease, obesity, and dementia. Depression doubles the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in women and quadruples it in men. Attention deficit disorder (ADD), also called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), is now being diagnosed more frequently than ever. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that nearly one in five high-school-age boys and 11 percent of school-age children overall have received a diagnosis of ADD, including an estimated 6.4 million children between the ages of six and seventeen. Many people underestimate the devastating consequences of ADD. Yet, when left untreated, it is associated with school underachievement and failure (35 percent never finish high school), drug and alcohol abuse, job failure, divorce, incarceration, obesity, depression, and dementia. Obesity is a serious national crisis with two-thirds of Americans over- weight and one-third obese. Obesity increases inflammation, which is a low-level fire in the body that destroys our organs and is a risk factor for more than thirty medical illnesses, including cancer, diabetes, depression, and dementia. There are many published studies, including two by the research team at Amen Clinics, that report as your weight goes up, the size and function of your brain go down. If you are not a warrior for the health of your brain and the brains of those who depend on you, ADD, depression, dementia, premature aging, diabetes, obesity, and premature death are the consequences for your loved ones and yourself. Do not be a victim; if you are ready to start fighting for yourself and your loved ones we can help you! Call Amen Clinics at 888-288-9834 or visit us at online. If you want to keep your brain and body healthy for as long as possible you must answer this question. It’s actually the most important question I ask my patients: Why? Furthermore, why do you want to be healthy? Why do you want a stronger mind and a more powerful brain? If you don’t know the answer to this question, no amount of great information will keep you on the right track, especially with constant exposure to unhealthy choices.

Determine Your Brain Health Now

The single most important factor in determining your health is the quality of the decisions that you make every day. You can take the time to start the necessary steps to improve your health today by beginning with the following: • Know about the health of your brain – get a base line brain health assessment. • Know your health numbers – you need to optimize your important health numbers, not just normalize them. • Avoid anything that hurts your brain and may cause brain injuries – engage in regular brain healthy habits. It is important to remember that Alzheimer’s disease starts decades before you have any symptoms and untreated Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and addictions all increase your risk for it. One of the most important ways to decrease your risk for Alzheimer’s disease is to decrease all of the risk factors for it.

The Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s disease

The risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease include: • Diabetes • Hypertension • Obesity • Heart Disease • Smoking • Alcohol Abuse • Low Thyroid and Testosterone Levels • Sleep Apnea • Insomnia • Chronic Stress • Untreated ADD or Depression • Lack of Exercise • No New Learning • Intestinal Inflammation You can do something about it, but you literally have no time to waste if you want to keep your brain healthy for the rest of your life. The older you get, the harder you have to work at staying healthy. As we age we have less room for error. We have to be constantly vigilant in our health. When you take the steps to learn about the condition of your brain, then you can begin to maximize its potential and avoid the cognitive decline that comes in our later years. If you or a loved one could benefit from a brain health assessment, please contact Amen Clinics to schedule a visit, or call our Call Center today at (888) 288-9834. The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life by Pastor Rick Warren, Dr. Daniel Amen and Dr. Mark Hyman maps an innovative approach to achieving a healthy lifestyle where you get better together by optimizing your health within five key life areas:

FAITH  ✚  FOOD  ✚  FITNESS  ✚  FOCUS  ✚  FRIENDS

Each element was designed to support and influence the others, providing an achievable healthy focus for anyone. One of the reasons Pastor Warren asked me to help create The Daniel Plan was because he heard me talk about something I call the “dinosaur syndrome.”  There are 140 studies that report as your weight goes up the actual physical size and function of your brain goes down.  Big body, little brain, you are going to become a dinosaur if you don’t get serious about your health.  That should scare the fat off anyone! With 70% of Americans overweight, we are experiencing the biggest BRAIN DRAIN in the history of our country. The program was developed and originated at Saddleback Church in 2011, and within the first year, more than 15,000 church members lost a collective of more than 250,000 pounds!  The collective weight loss was met with dramatic decreases in health issues and stress and increases in spiritual growth and energy. The Daniel Plan is intended to hold up one’s life, enliven one’s body, enrich one’s mind and fill one’s heart: We purposefully designed The Daniel Plan to decrease your risk for Alzheimer’s disease, depression and obesity. Discover a multitude of resources: “The thing that I love about the Daniel Plan is that we get better together — when we do this as a group, it is so powerful and so exciting — as you get well, you are helping other people to get well too.” Dr. Daniel Amen Perhaps the most important step in The Daniel Plan is to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Where you bring your attention determines how you feel. If you FOCUS on how hard this plan will be, it WILL BE hard, but if you FOCUS on the BENEFITS … like great energy … you will be AMAZED (like so many others) at how EASY it is.  But be clear,if you do not stay focused you will be depriving yourself of one of God’s greatest gifts … your health. You are encouraged to do The Daniel Plan with another person or a group to accelerate your results and enjoy a built-in support system.  This book provides you with cutting-edge, real-world applications that are easy to implement and will help you create lasting results that you can see and feel.