لهذا السبب تصاب أدمغتنا بالعطل - الدكتور أمين | طبيب أعصاب أمريكي

Your brain is the most expensive real estate in your body. Your brain is the most complicated organ in the universe. There is nothing as complex as the human brain.

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What we've discovered at the Amen Clinics is you can accelerate the aging process with your behavior, or you can decelerate it. Innovation is a brain function; it is dependent on the physical health of your brain.

So, did you know, obviously, your brain's involved in everything you do? How you think, how you feel, how you act, how you get along with other people. When your brain works right, you work right. And when your brain is troubled, you are much more likely to have trouble in your life.

What you see on the screen are two brain SPECT scans. It's a very sophisticated brain imaging study that looks at blood flow and activity patterns. It shows us how your brain works and basically shows us three things: areas of the brain that work well, areas of the brain that are low in activity, and areas of the brain that are high in activity.

The image on your left is a healthy scan; it shows full, even, symmetrical activity. The color doesn't mean anything; it's the shape. The image on the right is an alcoholic scan. Alcohol is directly toxic to brain function.

I know many of you believe you have to have your two glasses of red wine a day. It's not good for your brain. With a healthy brain, it's very clear to me you're happier, healthier, wealthier, wiser, more creative, and more innovative.

When your brain is not healthy, for whatever reason—whether you had a brain injury, you have a terrible diet, you live in a toxic environment—you’re sadder, sicker, not as smart, more rigid, and inflexible, which is the opposite of innovation.

Your brain is the most complicated organ in the universe. There is nothing as complex as the human brain. Nothing. It's estimated we have a hundred billion nerve cells, and each nerve cell is connected to other nerve cells—not in a one-to-one connection, but up to 10,000 individual connections between cells.

Information in your brain travels at about 268 miles an hour, unless, of course, you're drunk. Even though your brain is only two percent of your body's weight, it uses 20 to 30 percent of the calories that you consume. So, of the breakfast you had this morning or the lunch you had this afternoon, almost a third of it goes to feed two percent of your body's weight.

Your brain is the most expensive real estate in your body. On average, you lose 85,000 brain cells a day. What we've discovered at the Amen Clinics is you can accelerate the aging process with your behavior, or you can decelerate it. The health of your brain also decelerates innovation or accelerates it.

So, what are the things that hurt your brain? Brain injury should be obvious. I just finished the largest NFL study, a brain imaging study on retired NFL players. The NFL is no longer lying about brain injuries; they're taking it much more seriously.

Do not let your kids play tackle football or hit soccer balls with their head. Come on, the brain is very soft, about the consistency of soft butter, and your skull is really hard with many sharp bony ridges. You have to protect it.

Drugs and alcohol should be obvious, but what our country has no clue yet but is learning is that obesity damages brain function. There are now ten studies; we just published a study in the Nature Journal of Obesity that says as your weight goes up, the actual physical size and function of your brain goes down.

Smoking constricts blood flow to the brain, like it prematurely ages your skin; it prematurely ages the brain. High blood pressure— as your blood pressure goes up, the blood flow to your brain goes down. So, you need to know your blood pressure on a regular basis, and if it's high, take it seriously.

Diabetes, the standard American diet, environmental toxins, lack of exercise, and something I call ANTs—automatic negative thoughts—the thoughts that come into your mind automatically and ruin your day. They are the seeds of anxiety disorders and depression.

One of the things you can do to help your brain is positive social connections. Unbelievable! The people you spend time with determine your longevity. You are consuming the nutrients that are helping you or the toxins that hurt you. Food is medicine, or it is poison.

Sleep, again, is absolutely essential because, you know, in 1900, we got an average of nine hours of sleep at night. In 2011, we get six hours of sleep at night. Less than seven hours of sleep means you get lower overall blood flow to the brain.

Your brain cannot go through that kind of transition in such a short period of human history without there being very serious consequences. As sleep goes down, weight goes up because your cravings get out of control.

You want the best antidepressant? It's not Prozac; it's gratitude. You write down three things you're grateful for every day, and within three weeks, you'll notice a significant difference in your level of happiness.

And "ANT killing" means don't believe every stupid thought you have. That's the cool thing about the brain. You've probably heard about brain plasticity, but if you make good decisions today—where we found this out with our NFL study—you can start to improve your brain within two months.

It's like, how exciting is that? And with a better brain, everything in your life is better—from your body to your money to your relationships to the level of innovation.

You know, it also needs to happen from the school. The food they serve your children is a scandal, and research suggests that it actually increases attentional and behavior problems.

There are three studies now in the Journal Lancet that said put kids on an elimination diet, which basically means eliminate all the crap in their diet, and within three months, 73 percent of them show greater than a 50 percent reduction in their symptoms.

This isn't harm; we need to change our society, though, from businesses up, from hospitals up. I went and visited my aunt in the hospital, and I said, "I have to get you out of here; the food is going to kill you."

Brain health and innovation are intimately connected.

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Thank you.

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