Taking Care Of Your Brain - Part 2

March 10, 2010

Interview with Daniel Amen, M.D., author of the book Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted

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Mike Carruthers:
Have you ever hit your head in a fall or an accident it could actually have subtle effects on your thinking process and your behavior.

Daniel Amen, M.D.:
And a lot of people don’t realize that those minor traumatic injuries can get your fired, can cause you to file bankruptcy, can get you divorced.

Dr. Daniel Amen, author of the book Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted, says the subject of mild head trauma is no small issue.

It’s a huge issue and it’s probably the single most important thing I’ve learned from looking at 55 thousand scans is that mild traumatic brain injury, that quad accident, or the skiing accident, of the fender bender where you’ve had a bad whiplash – all of those things can severely affect your brain.

And as a result it can alter your mood, affect your memory and you can gain weight because people with these injuries often become more impulsive.

When you go up to the drive through window and they say, “Do you want fries with that?” Even though that’s not part of the plan you go, “Oh sure, throw those in.”

There’s another important factor that affects your decision-making in a similar way.

If you don’t get enough sleep the night before you’re more likely to order that extra fry or that extra dessert because you have less blood flow to your brain, less blood flow to your brain goes with poor decision-making.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here