The Charlie Kirk Show - You Can’t Be Free Without Being Happy with Dr. Daniel Amen

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, happy Sunday.

00:00:02.000 Conversation I had with Dr. Amon from Amon Clinics, author of many books, talk about depression, anxiety, mental health issues.

00:00:09.000 He is the world expert on brain health.

00:00:12.000 We got a great response after this event.

00:00:15.000 I think this conversation will bless you.

00:00:17.000 Listen to the entire episode, and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

00:00:20.000 Freedom at CharlieKirk.com.

00:00:22.000 Get involved with TurningPointUSA at tpusa.com and get your tickets to Turning Point Action Conference.

00:00:29.000 That is tpaction.com.

00:00:31.000 That is tpaction.com.

00:00:34.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:35.000 Here we go.

00:00:36.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:38.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:40.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:44.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:47.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:48.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:49.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.

00:00:57.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:01:06.000 That's why we are here.

00:01:10.000 Hello, everybody.

00:01:11.000 That was really great, Jeff.

00:01:12.000 Good job.

00:01:13.000 That was terrific.

00:01:14.000 You know, Jeff does a lot of performances, and I heard him about a year and a half ago.

00:01:19.000 I said, we got to have you at Freedom Night one night.

00:01:21.000 So super honored, and that was really, really great.

00:01:26.000 So I'm not going to spend too much time here.

00:01:28.000 We have a really special guest here tonight.

00:01:31.000 And, you know, the entire month of May, Dream City was focusing on Mental Health Month.

00:01:38.000 And so it's technically June, so we're just going to make it work.

00:01:42.000 But I was then motivated to invite my friend and someone who I've had on my podcast who's impacted so many lives on this topic.

00:01:50.000 And he has a completely different way of approaching it than most people.

00:01:54.000 He has a different way of thinking about it.

00:01:56.000 In fact, some of you have probably seen his video on YouTube.

00:02:02.000 I see some people nodding.

00:02:03.000 It's been seen 19 million times.

00:02:06.000 And some of you probably recognize him.

00:02:10.000 Now, I don't admit it from watching the Kardashians on Hulu.

00:02:15.000 That's totally where I recognized him, obviously, when I first heard about him when he was brain scanning Chloe Kardashian and Kendall Jenner's brain.

00:02:24.000 And so he's got a very, he's well known in the space and he has a lot to say.

00:02:30.000 And the reason I think it's fitting for us on Freedom Night is that can you be a free citizen if you're living in mental torment?

00:02:38.000 Can you be a free citizen if you are constantly getting advice, medical advice, pharmaceutical advice that is making you less likely to flourish, less alive?

00:02:54.000 You know, somebody that is currently running for the presidency, again, this is not a political thing, but you might be very surprised to him in a say who is saying something very interesting.

00:03:03.000 It's Bobby Kennedy Jr. who is running.

00:03:06.000 And isn't that amazing?

00:03:08.000 You're supposed to hate him.

00:03:08.000 We got applause.

00:03:09.000 I actually kind of like what he has to say because he talks about environmental toxins and he talks about how these companies might actually be trying to harm us and how we as sovereign beings made in the image of God need to be aware that maybe these kids staring at screens all day long not exactly good for them.

00:03:29.000 Maybe the food that we are eating is not what it used to be.

00:03:33.000 And so it is Freedom Night and typically we're always talking about liberty and freedom from tyranny.

00:03:42.000 Boy is that needed now given the news today, which only furthers that.

00:03:49.000 But isn't it equally as important if we want to fight the bad guys and all that sort of stuff and to revitalize the country to be the healthiest we can possibly be?

00:04:00.000 And we are living through an unprecedented, we don't even know the depth of the damage of how many young people are dealing with mental torment.

00:04:10.000 It's the most suicidal, alcohol-addicted, drug-addicted generation in history.

00:04:16.000 And the kind of main line of thinking is let's just throw more drugs at it no matter what.

00:04:21.000 And are we actually getting down to root causes?

00:04:24.000 And in fact, I believe Jesus always seeks to set the captivates free, free from lies, free from tyranny, free from totalitarianism, and also free from any some of the issues.

00:04:39.000 God is the great physician.

00:04:42.000 And in fact, you know, as I visit these college campuses, I have a great deal of sympathy and compassion because I feel a lot of these kind of social contagions that we see manifest, especially in the month of June, are people that are really hurting and people that need help.

00:04:58.000 And so there's a booth out there that you guys can get the book afterwards for, I don't even know, I think most basically for just if you sign up or give a gift an email, but I've read this book twice.

00:05:07.000 It's incredible.

00:05:08.000 We're going to talk about it tonight.

00:05:09.000 It's called Change Your Brain Every Day.

00:05:11.000 And it's changing the perspective of actually how we view this issue.

00:05:17.000 And you think of what would an evil ruler want?

00:05:20.000 What would a tyrant want?

00:05:23.000 If you are the nastiest, most evil person in charge, would you want a country of people that are mentally strong and free, or a country of people that are in torment and people that are not free from that?

00:05:40.000 Jesus says in John 8, I came to set the captives free.

00:05:45.000 And tonight, I have to just reemphasize this.

00:05:48.000 We are super blessed to have one of the most requested and demanded and sought-after speakers in this space on the planet, someone who literally lectures around the world here tonight at Freedom Night.

00:06:01.000 Please join me in welcoming Dr. Daniel Amy.

00:06:06.000 Thank you so much.

00:06:07.000 What a joy to be here.

00:06:11.000 So welcome to Phoenix.

00:06:13.000 And so, Doctor, I thought it would be fitting for you just to introduce yourself.

00:06:17.000 How did you get into this world of looking at people's brains?

00:06:25.000 Give me the brain.

00:06:29.000 So the short story is in 1972, I turned 18, and we were still involved in Vietnam, which meant I had a draft number, and it was 19, which meant by, and I became an infantry medic, where my love of medicine was born.

00:06:52.000 But about a year into it, I realized something very important about myself.

00:06:57.000 I don't like being shot at.

00:07:01.000 There's some people that actually like that.

00:07:04.000 No.

00:07:06.000 No.

00:07:08.000 And I got myself retrained as an x-ray technician and developed a passion for medical imaging.

00:07:16.000 And our professors used to say, how do you know unless you look?

00:07:22.000 And then fast forward a couple of years at Oral Roberts University, that's where I went to medical school, because I wanted to learn medicine in the context of my faith.

00:07:35.000 And I'm a second-year student there, and someone I love tries to kill herself.

00:07:45.000 And I'm horrified, afraid.

00:07:49.000 And I took her to see the chief of psychiatry at ORU.

00:07:53.000 His name was Stanley Wallace.

00:07:55.000 And I came to realize I loved him.

00:07:59.000 He was so helpful for her.

00:08:01.000 And I came to realize if he helped her, which he did, it wouldn't just help her.

00:08:08.000 That ultimately it would help her children and her grandchildren as they would be shaped by someone who is happier and more stable.

00:08:18.000 People who struggle with anxiety, with depression, with OCD, with PTSD, ADHD, addiction.

00:08:27.000 It's not just about them.

00:08:30.000 It's about everybody around them and then generations of them.

00:08:36.000 This is a big deal.

00:08:38.000 So I fell in love with psychiatry 44 years ago, and I've loved it every day since.

00:08:47.000 It is the perfect profession for me.

00:08:52.000 I love it.

00:08:54.000 But I fell in love with the only medical specialty that never looks at the organ it treats.

00:09:02.000 Think about that.

00:09:05.000 We were talking about Abraham Lincoln earlier.

00:09:08.000 I love Lincoln because he failed, he failed, he failed, he failed, and then became a wild success.

00:09:15.000 And Lincoln suffered with depression.

00:09:19.000 He was actually suicidal at two points in his life.

00:09:24.000 And how did Anson Henry, his doctor in Springfield, Illinois, diagnose Lincoln with depression?

00:09:30.000 He talked to him.

00:09:32.000 He looked at him.

00:09:33.000 He looked for symptom clusters, then diagnosed and treated him.

00:09:38.000 That's exactly what's happening in 2023.

00:09:41.000 That's insane.

00:09:44.000 So, in 1991, I just knew it would change.

00:09:47.000 I just had no idea I'd be part of it.

00:09:50.000 I went to my first lecture on brain spect imaging, and this is so cool.

00:09:57.000 And I was like a little kid because I knew imaging was coming.

00:10:01.000 And when I started looking at the brain, it changed everything in my life.

00:10:08.000 I'm not kidding when I say it.

00:10:10.000 It changed everything in my life.

00:10:13.000 And what we've learned, we've done 230,000 scans now on patients from 150 countries.

00:10:20.000 And the big lesson is most psychiatric problems are not mental health issues.

00:10:27.000 They're brain health issues.

00:10:29.000 Get your brain right, and your mind will follow.

00:10:34.000 I hate the term mental illness. 0.62

00:10:37.000 I hate this term.

00:10:38.000 Why?

00:10:39.000 Because it shames people.

00:10:41.000 You call somebody mental, you're demeaning them.

00:10:45.000 You're diminishing them. 0.91

00:10:47.000 You call them a brain, you're elevating them.

00:10:51.000 Nobody wants a mental illness.

00:10:54.000 Everybody wants a better brain.

00:10:57.000 So what if psychiatric problems were brain health problems?

00:11:05.000 Now, if you believe that, and you should, everything in your life changes because you have to start looking at the food you eat.

00:11:18.000 You have to start looking at how much you exercise.

00:11:21.000 You have to begin to put away the alcohol because it's not serving the health of your brain.

00:11:27.000 That marijuana is not a health food.

00:11:30.000 I mean, the insanity in our country.

00:11:34.000 That was a long answer, sorry.

00:11:37.000 You're in the right place, doctor, as you could tell.

00:11:40.000 I want to just add some scripture to what you're saying in the first murder of the Bible, Cain and Abel, when God has the famous dialogue.

00:11:50.000 He says, What happened to your brother?

00:11:51.000 And he says, What am I?

00:11:52.000 My brother's keeper.

00:11:53.000 And then God admonishes him.

00:11:54.000 It's not that you just killed Abel.

00:11:57.000 The ground is crying out because it is the future generations you killed. 1.00

00:12:03.000 So it is the potential that you could have for your kids and your grandkids and through that impact.

00:12:12.000 So let me ask you a question.

00:12:14.000 Right now, approximately anywhere between 50 to 70 million Americans are on some form of dosage of antidepressants or psychiatric medicine, something.

00:12:26.000 Those are just rough estimates as you're looking at.

00:12:29.000 What percentage of doctors that are prescribing them actually look at the brain?

00:12:34.000 None.

00:12:35.000 I mean, when we look at the, I'm in church.

00:12:41.000 Say the right thing.

00:12:42.000 You're in church.

00:12:51.000 The disaster that is happening in our society.

00:12:57.000 25% of women are on antidepressants.

00:13:01.000 Last year, there were 337 million prescriptions written for antidepressants.

00:13:08.000 Think about that.

00:13:10.000 There's 60 million prescriptions written for stimulant medications.

00:13:16.000 And don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to medicine.

00:13:19.000 I'm just opposed to that's the first and only thing you do without anybody ever assessing your brain.

00:13:28.000 And 85% of psychiatric drugs are prescribed by non-psychiatric physicians in 10-minute office visits who do standard of care treatment 12% of the time.

00:13:46.000 This is insane what is happening.

00:13:49.000 They're passing out.

00:13:50.000 And the problem with psychiatric medicine, if it's not done properly, it changes your brain to need it in order for you to feel normal.

00:14:04.000 And I want you to feel better fast, but I want it to last.

00:14:10.000 And too often, people go to the emergency room, they have a panic attack, they complain of chest pain, they figure out it's a panic attack, they put them on Xanax that they're on for the next 40 years because when you try to withdraw from it, you feel awful.

00:14:29.000 And why would we start something that we can't stop?

00:14:35.000 So the pharmaceutical industry is winning, and they're winning, and they're winning.

00:14:43.000 And as a society, we are losing.

00:14:47.000 And we need a different way. 1.00

00:14:49.000 So if you think of it as brain health, before you go on Lexapro, you start exercising and you stop believing every stupid thing you think. 1.00

00:15:00.000 We live in a society of undisciplined thinkers. 0.99

00:15:05.000 And Charlie and I talked on this podcast about the four big circles.

00:15:10.000 So I went to a Christian medical school.

00:15:12.000 It's very important to me.

00:15:14.000 And the first week, Sid Garrett, who is our dean, comes into our classroom and he goes to the board and he says, never think of your patients as their diagnosis.

00:15:27.000 Always think of them in these four circles.

00:15:31.000 And this is how people get sick and it's how they get well.

00:15:36.000 So the first circle he drew, and then he put biology.

00:15:40.000 You have to understand the physical functioning of their brains and their bodies.

00:15:48.000 So this is very important.

00:15:50.000 And then he drew the second circle.

00:15:52.000 He said, and this is the psychology.

00:15:54.000 This is how they think and their traumas, their development.

00:16:00.000 You have to understand that.

00:16:02.000 And he's just not talking about psychiatry.

00:16:04.000 He's talking about all of medicine, whether you have hypertension or diabetes or cancer.

00:16:09.000 And then the third circle was the social circle, which I think church can be so important in, but it's our connections with other people.

00:16:20.000 And then he drew the last circle, which most psychiatrists wouldn't touch, which is the spiritual circle, which is ultimately it's your relationship with God, your relationship with our home, the planet, your relationship with the past.

00:16:37.000 So for me, it's anchored in my grandfather.

00:16:42.000 And the future, anchored in my grandchildren.

00:16:46.000 And so when you know why you're on the planet, you can have a bad brain and you do better.

00:16:56.000 When people, and I've scanned serial killers, I've scanned school shooters.

00:17:03.000 Generally, if you have a troubled brain, but you're connected to a church family, you do way better.

00:17:15.000 One of my school shooters, he had problems in all four circles, a very damaged brain, a damaged mind, no relationships, and he had no connection.

00:17:30.000 His purpose was to hurt people.

00:17:33.000 So getting well, what does that mean?

00:17:36.000 It means you've got to get your brain and body healthy.

00:17:40.000 And we'll talk about that.

00:17:42.000 I published three studies, one on 33,000 people.

00:17:47.000 As your weight goes up, the actual physical size and function of your brain goes down, which should scare the fat off anyone.

00:18:00.000 72% of Americans are overweight.

00:18:02.000 42% are obese.

00:18:05.000 If I was an evil ruler, I'd put fast food restaurants all down Main Street.

00:18:15.000 So got to get your brain and body healthy. 0.98

00:18:18.000 Got to kill the ants, the automatic negative thoughts that steal your happiness.

00:18:24.000 So we'll talk about disciplining your mind. 0.93

00:18:27.000 You need to work on connections.

00:18:29.000 And this is, again, where the church can be so helpful.

00:18:32.000 And you need to ask yourself why you're on the planet.

00:18:35.000 What is your deepest sense of meaning and purpose?

00:18:39.000 And then you get well.

00:18:40.000 I mean, I love what I do because people often get well.

00:18:45.000 And I have to say, we have a brand new clinic in Scottsdale, which I'm really excited about.

00:18:53.000 So, Doctor, let's just focus on, you know, not just America being overweight, but also you mentioned two other things that people can do.

00:19:03.000 And the best you can in a short period of time, bright minds kind of going through those risk factors.

00:19:08.000 But you kind of said two things that most doctors are afraid to say out loud.

00:19:14.000 Earlier, you said alcohol and marijuana.

00:19:18.000 I don't know about you, but I think it's repulsive that we have these marijuana clinics popping up all over Scottsdale.

00:19:25.000 I don't know who these Scottsdale City Council people are.

00:19:29.000 I got enough on my plate.

00:19:30.000 Can somebody run for Scottsdale Mayor and shut down that clinic on Greenway Hayden and Frank Lloyd Wright? 1.00

00:19:36.000 We should have zero marijuana dispensaries, zero in Scottsdale. 0.87

00:19:41.000 In Phoenix, you guys can worry about your own problems.

00:19:44.000 But in Scottsdale, you're going to run for, you're going to run, Angel?

00:19:48.000 Angel for mayor?

00:19:49.000 I think that would be great.

00:19:50.000 Angel for mayor.

00:19:52.000 Angel for mayor. 0.99

00:19:54.000 No more weed. 0.99

00:19:55.000 That would be.

00:19:56.000 Now, doctor, am I overreacting, doctor?

00:19:58.000 Because some parents say, oh, my kid's doing marijuana, not a big deal.

00:20:02.000 My kid is casually drinking, not a big deal.

00:20:04.000 Am I just an old school, stodgy 1950s conservative, or am I onto something?

00:20:11.000 You're onto something.

00:20:13.000 Kids who use marijuana in their 20s.

00:20:18.000 So kids who use it as teenagers in their 20s have a higher incidence of anxiety, depression, and suicide.

00:20:26.000 It is not okay.

00:20:28.000 If you're one of my six kids, I'm like, we're not aligned.

00:20:32.000 I am not going to support you or that behavior in any way.

00:20:38.000 We're just not aligned.

00:20:40.000 I adopted, so I have six kids, three of them I adopted.

00:20:45.000 The 18 and 13-year-old, their parents couldn't stop using drugs.

00:20:55.000 So my wife and I adopted them.

00:20:57.000 And alignment is a term I use a lot.

00:21:03.000 And if we're aligned, I'm going to support your growth.

00:21:07.000 If we're not aligned, I'm not supporting it.

00:21:11.000 It's tricky, but I'm really clear.

00:21:15.000 You need to be, I told them, on a drug abuse prevention program every single day of your life.

00:21:26.000 So talk about that.

00:21:29.000 And oh, by the way, if you do what I say, this is the Alzheimer's Prevention Program.

00:21:34.000 It's a depression prevention program.

00:21:36.000 If you want to keep your brain healthy or rescue it, you have to prevent or treat the 11 major risk factors that steal your mind.

00:21:45.000 So it's all in Change Your Brain Every Day and The End of Mental Illness, the books we brought.

00:21:52.000 But let me just do it quickly and give you one simple tip for each of these risk factors.

00:22:00.000 So the mnemonic is called bright minds.

00:22:03.000 The B is for blood flow.

00:22:05.000 Low blood flow is the number one brain imaging predictor of Alzheimer's disease.

00:22:10.000 It's associated with ADHD, with depression, and schizophrenia.

00:22:15.000 You never want to do anything that decreases blood flow.

00:22:20.000 Much caffeine, caffeine's not your friend.

00:22:23.000 It's a drug.

00:22:25.000 Nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, not exercising.

00:22:30.000 Netflix decreases blood flow to the brain.

00:22:34.000 Just saying.

00:22:37.000 Although if you haven't watched shrinking, watch shrinking.

00:22:40.000 It's hysterical.

00:22:42.000 Anyways, so what's the tiny habit for blood flow?

00:22:46.000 And oh, by the way, I don't know if I can say this in church.

00:22:49.000 No, I can't.

00:22:50.000 If you have blood flow problems anywhere, it means they're everywhere.

00:22:55.000 So if you want your love life to get better, start taking care of your brain.

00:23:04.000 Yeah, you were slow on that one.

00:23:09.000 So it's the tiny habit for blood flow.

00:23:11.000 Walk like you're late.

00:23:13.000 45 minutes, four times a week.

00:23:15.000 Walk like you're late, 45 minutes, four times a week, compared to Zolot in people who had major depression, equally effective.

00:23:28.000 Walk like you're late 45 minutes, four times a week.

00:23:33.000 The R is retirement and aging.

00:23:36.000 And the older you get, the more serious you need to be about brain health.

00:23:40.000 But did you know Alzheimer's disease actually starts in your brain 20 to 30 years before you have your first symptom?

00:23:49.000 So if you're waiting to start losing your mind before you get serious about getting well, that's a bad strategy.

00:23:59.000 And all of you should know some important numbers.

00:24:06.000 Ferritin is one.

00:24:07.000 It's a measure of iron storage in your body.

00:24:10.000 If it's low, you're anemic and you're anxious and you can't sleep.

00:24:14.000 If it's high, it prematurely ages your body and brain.

00:24:18.000 And so measure your ferritin level.

00:24:21.000 And if it's high, donate blood.

00:24:23.000 So donating blood is good for you if your iron level is high and it's good for our society.

00:24:31.000 The I is inflammation.

00:24:33.000 It's a major cause of depression. 0.97

00:24:37.000 And the big causes of inflammation, gum disease, you need to be a flossing fool. 0.91

00:24:44.000 So I'll take that one as our one thing.

00:24:46.000 Low omega-3 fatty acids.

00:24:48.000 All of you should be taking an omega-3 supplement.

00:24:51.000 98% of the population is deficient in omega-3s and processed foods.

00:24:58.000 I know I saw the potato chips upstairs, and I haven't said anything yet.

00:25:03.000 And I'm thinking about maybe do I want to go to church and get my soul fed, and these people are trying to kill me.

00:25:11.000 No.

00:25:13.000 I think it's okay to question as an organization where we spend our money.

00:25:20.000 And just a thought for me.

00:25:23.000 The G is genetics.

00:25:29.000 But we don't think about genetics right.

00:25:31.000 Most people go, oh, I'm fat because my family's fat.

00:25:35.000 I'm like, no, you're fat because you make bad decisions and you have a genetic vulnerability.

00:25:40.000 Or I'm an alcoholic because, you know, we have alcoholics in the family.

00:25:45.000 I'm like, no, you have that predisposition.

00:25:50.000 Genes are not a descent.

00:25:52.000 They increase your vulnerability.

00:25:54.000 Like in my family, I have heart disease and obesity, but I don't have heart disease and I'm not overweight.

00:26:03.000 Why?

00:26:03.000 Because every day of my life, I'm on an obesity heart disease prevention program.

00:26:11.000 Know your risk and then get serious about preventing them.

00:26:19.000 The H is head trauma.

00:26:21.000 If you ask me, hey, Daniel, single most important lesson you've learned from 230,000 scans: mild traumatic brain injury ruins people's lives, and nobody knows about it because they go see psychiatrists, psychologists, marriage and family counselors who never look at the brain.

00:26:39.000 We need to do a better job of protecting the brain.

00:26:45.000 I did the big NFL study at a time when the NFL was lying that they had a problem.

00:26:50.000 Around 2007, 2008, Roger Goodell was in front of Congress going, We don't know.

00:26:59.000 We're studying the issue.

00:27:01.000 They knew.

00:27:04.000 I loved when Maxine Waters, who we often don't agree with, waxed the commissioner.

00:27:12.000 And she said, Commissioner, having you act like you're studying traumatic brain injury in football is like the tobacco companies saying they're studying lung cancer.

00:27:24.000 It's a conflict of interest.

00:27:26.000 That is the smartest thing she ever said.

00:27:29.000 I like her more than I like Roger Goodell, just for the record.

00:27:32.000 So, not a Roger Goodell fan.

00:27:36.000 So, I've scanned and treated 350 NFL players.

00:27:40.000 I mean, like cool players like Rosie Greer and Jack Youngblood and Terry Bradshaw and one of my favorites, Dick Bucus, who calls me his brain savior, which I thought was weird, but cool.

00:27:59.000 80% of so contact sports for children is a bad idea.

00:28:05.000 Why?

00:28:06.000 They have a developing brain.

00:28:08.000 So think of their brain like this magical city under construction that is actually not done until they're 25.

00:28:18.000 Would you really just start getting a wrecking ball and putting it through the buildings that you're building if you were smart? 0.87

00:28:27.000 No, that's something that an insane person would do. 0.98

00:28:32.000 You have to protect their brains. 0.98

00:28:35.000 The tea is toxins.

00:28:36.000 And oh my goodness, we could go on and on with toxins.

00:28:40.000 Marijuana is innocuous.

00:28:42.000 It's a lie.

00:28:43.000 Alcohol is a health food.

00:28:45.000 That's another lie.

00:28:46.000 You know, oh, we should be going on these mushroom trips.

00:28:50.000 That's going to be the next.

00:28:53.000 And we've seen, you know, people go, aren't you excited about psilocybin?

00:28:57.000 I'm like, no, I'm like scared out of my mind because I've seen this play before.

00:29:02.000 I've seen benzos are innocuous.

00:29:05.000 They're mommy's little helper.

00:29:07.000 No, they're addictive.

00:29:08.000 They increase the risk of dementia.

00:29:10.000 Or opiates, you know, pain is the fifth vital sign.

00:29:15.000 If you're in pain, we should give you an opiate.

00:29:17.000 And now we have the opiate crisis or alcohol's health food.

00:29:22.000 It's just a complete lie.

00:29:25.000 But there are other toxins like mold and the products you put on your children's bodies.

00:29:34.000 You need to start reading the labels, things like parabens, phthalates, fragrance, BPAs.

00:29:41.000 They're hormone disruptors.

00:29:43.000 We have this now epidemic of low testosterone in young males.

00:29:50.000 And when testosterone is low, it's not just about libido.

00:29:54.000 It's about motivation.

00:29:57.000 It's about mood.

00:29:58.000 It's about memory and strength.

00:30:02.000 And we have this epidemic in large part, I think, because of the toxins in our food and the toxins we're putting on products on our body.

00:30:14.000 Like there's an app.

00:30:15.000 So here be the tiny habit for toxins: download, think dirty.

00:30:21.000 It's not what you think it is.

00:30:23.000 It's an app that allows you to scan all of your personal products and it'll tell you on a scale of one to 10 how quickly they're killing you.

00:30:32.000 Like, for example, I shaved with barbasol for 50 years.

00:30:37.000 And on a scale of zero to 10, 0, you live a long time.

00:30:40.000 10 is die early.

00:30:42.000 Barbasol is a nine.

00:30:44.000 And I'm like, oh my God, I like myself way too much for that.

00:30:49.000 So now I shave with something called Kiss My Face.

00:30:51.000 It's a two.

00:30:52.000 I like that.

00:30:54.000 It's working for me rather than hurting me.

00:30:59.000 The M in Bright Minds is for mental health.

00:31:02.000 And there you need to learn how to kill the ants, the automatic negative thoughts that steal your happiness.

00:31:10.000 Whenever you feel sad, whenever you feel mad, whenever you feel nervous or out of control, write down what you're thinking.

00:31:19.000 And then just go, is it true?

00:31:22.000 Do I absolutely know that it's true?

00:31:25.000 And then I want you. 1.00

00:31:26.000 Here's this short answer for tonight: flip the thought: my wife will leave me. 0.97

00:31:33.000 Write that down.

00:31:35.000 Is that true?

00:31:37.000 I don't know.

00:31:39.000 My wife won't leave me.

00:31:41.000 Meditate on the opposite, and all of a sudden you feel better.

00:31:45.000 And it's not lying, it's just disciplining your thoughts.

00:31:49.000 John 8:32, know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

00:31:55.000 We live in a society of lies.

00:32:03.000 The second eye is immunity and infections.

00:32:08.000 We're coming out of the pandemic, right?

00:32:11.000 We could go on and on.

00:32:13.000 And all I just say, you mentioned Robert Kennedy Jr., read his book, The Real Anthony Fauci.

00:32:21.000 It will horrify you.

00:32:24.000 And I believe every word he wrote in the book.

00:32:28.000 And of course, they're going to demonize him because the media, it's not really the media anymore.

00:32:37.000 It's controlled by outside forces that just want to make you angry and sad because they'll sell more Xanax and Prozac.

00:32:47.000 I don't know if that's being a conspiracy theory.

00:32:49.000 It's not a conspiracy if it's actually happening.

00:32:52.000 It's actually happening.

00:32:56.000 So COVID is real, but if your vitamin D level is high, you get less sick and you're much less likely to die from it.

00:33:07.000 Now, why didn't Anthony Fauci talk about everybody get their vitamin D level and everybody take 5,000 international units of vitamin D a day?

00:33:18.000 Why didn't we do that?

00:33:19.000 Because he couldn't get the vaccines through.

00:33:23.000 I mean, it's just so painfully clear.

00:33:28.000 You should know your vitamin D level and you should optimize it.

00:33:34.000 Just really important.

00:33:37.000 The N is neurohormone disorders. 0.75

00:33:40.000 You should have your hormones checked every year.

00:33:43.000 Thyroid, testosterone, DHEA, cortisol. 0.94

00:33:49.000 Just critical for women, estrogen, progesterone. 0.84

00:33:54.000 And stay away from hormone disruptors.

00:33:57.000 The D, we could talk about this all day, is diabetes.

00:34:00.000 Blood sugar is high.

00:34:01.000 You're overweight.

00:34:02.000 You're shrinking your brain.

00:34:05.000 And the little tiny habit, when you go to eat something, go, do I love it?

00:34:15.000 And does it love me back?

00:34:17.000 You're in a relationship with food.

00:34:20.000 You only want to eat something that serves your health rather than steals from your health.

00:34:28.000 And the S is sleep.

00:34:31.000 Make it a priority.

00:34:33.000 Turn off your gadgets an hour before you go to bed.

00:34:36.000 Otherwise, you won't produce enough melatonin to actually go to sleep because of all the blue light.

00:34:44.000 And if you're snoring and you stop breathing at night, you need to get checked for sleep apnea because sleep apnea triples the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

00:34:55.000 It's pretty impressive, isn't it?

00:34:59.000 So how many of these are you doing?

00:35:02.000 How many of these are you doing?

00:35:05.000 Of these conversations, we do one a month.

00:35:07.000 No, no.

00:35:08.000 Of the bright minds.

00:35:10.000 Oh, of me.

00:35:11.000 Oh, I think I'm, I got to tell you, this book has really, really helped me.

00:35:16.000 And I got my vitamin D level checked, and it's 85, which is pretty good.

00:35:21.000 Go, which is good, right?

00:35:25.000 Yeah, I lost like 25 pounds ever since I read the book.

00:35:28.000 He scared the crap out of me.

00:35:29.000 And so that was good.

00:35:32.000 And yeah, I only eat like four things now.

00:35:35.000 And so.

00:35:38.000 But they all love you back.

00:35:39.000 They all love me back, yeah.

00:35:40.000 Basically, like meat, lettuce, olive oil, and avocados.

00:35:44.000 So if you want to lose weight, get dairy out of your diet, by the way.

00:35:47.000 I think dairy is awful and terrible for you.

00:35:50.000 I find very little redeem.

00:35:51.000 And our modern dairy, okay?

00:35:52.000 If we had dairy like we did 100 years ago where you had your own cow, maybe, but I think dairy is.

00:35:58.000 So would you agree with me that Charlie is a national treasure?

00:36:03.000 Oh, that's very, that's very kind.

00:36:08.000 And so if we have a national treasure, we have to protect it.

00:36:14.000 And so one of the reasons I came here tonight, because Charlie asked me, I want him to live a long time with the best brain.

00:36:27.000 And I want that for each of you, but you have to love it, avoid things that hurt it.

00:36:34.000 I just went through the list.

00:36:36.000 And you have to do things that help it.

00:36:39.000 And if you do, you are much closer to the ability to do what God puts you on the earth to do, which is to make this place better.

00:36:53.000 And I could tell you that what is so brilliant about this book is that it goes, there's 366 pages in this book.

00:37:02.000 It's one for each day, including a leap here.

00:37:06.000 And so each, you read a page and you apply it to your life.

00:37:09.000 It's incredibly applicable, right?

00:37:10.000 Okay, here's what I see.

00:37:12.000 I want to improve on this.

00:37:13.000 Here's what I see.

00:37:14.000 I want to improve on this.

00:37:15.000 And look, you have the ability to improve your livelihood.

00:37:21.000 And I'll say this: look, you know, we're at a period of time where we're being inundated with nonsense, propaganda.

00:37:28.000 You know, a lot of people here ask me, Charlie, I'm just, you know, I feel negative.

00:37:32.000 I'm cynical about the future.

00:37:35.000 You know, and you have to wonder, and Doctor, I'm sure you could comment on this, how much of that is really what you believe, and is it what you're processing and putting into your mind and into your body?

00:37:47.000 And I'm writing about this actually in my upcoming book.

00:37:50.000 I have a whole chapter on it: that if we want to win against the Marxists, then we have to take our own health and our children's health extremely seriously.

00:38:02.000 We will not, quote unquote, win if we are sloppy and overweight and watching Netflix all day long.

00:38:08.000 We have to be the best possible versions of ourselves, especially if we have the agency to do it.

00:38:15.000 And you make it really easy.

00:38:16.000 And so, doctor, two things in closing, and then I want to get to some questions.

00:38:19.000 We're going to do questions a lot differently this time, though, which is, I'll explain it in a second.

00:38:25.000 So, talk about Romans 12:2 and how that applies.

00:38:29.000 And then just talk more broadly about the mental crisis, mental health crisis.

00:38:36.000 I know you don't like the term mental illness, but mental health crisis, brain health crisis that the younger generation is experiencing.

00:38:43.000 It's unprecedented.

00:38:45.000 It's real.

00:38:46.000 It's almost a national emergency.

00:38:48.000 So, maybe tie Romans 12:2 into that, and then we'll take some questions.

00:38:52.000 So, Romans 12:2, most people know, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

00:38:58.000 But they often don't mention the second part of that, which is be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

00:39:08.000 Then you will test it to know if it fits God's good, perfect, and pleasing well.

00:39:17.000 So when you have a thought, test it to see if it fits God's good, perfect, and pleasing will.

00:39:28.000 And we are in a mental mess that is horrifying.

00:39:32.000 I believe we're on the beginning of a tidal wave of brain health, mental health problems in children and young adults.

00:39:43.000 57% of teenage girls are persistently sad.

00:39:49.000 57%.

00:39:54.000 30% have thought of suicide.

00:39:57.000 24% have planned to kill themselves.

00:40:01.000 A quarter of young girls have planned to kill themselves.

00:40:05.000 13%, one in eight, have tried.

00:40:08.000 This is horrifying.

00:40:11.000 We're seeing similar numbers in boys as far as ADHD, addictions, obesity.

00:40:20.000 We're in trouble.

00:40:22.000 And in large part, it's the pandemic and the reaction of our country, the isolation, the fear, the lockdowns, the death tolls, which then led to bad food, more alcohol, chronically stressed people.

00:40:39.000 We got enough.

00:40:40.000 If we don't pay attention and we allow what happened again, that means we're not learning.

00:40:47.000 And then COVID itself, you get COVID, and almost all of us here have had it, that it increases the risk of a new onset mental illness in the next six months.

00:40:59.000 25% of people who get COVID will get a new onset depression, new onset anxiety disorder.

00:41:05.000 It's what happened to Kendall Jenner. 0.90

00:41:07.000 You should just see her brain. 1.00

00:41:08.000 It was just like a bomb of inflammation went off in her brain. 1.00

00:41:14.000 Mix that with digital addictions.

00:41:20.000 If a product is free, think Facebook or TikTok.

00:41:27.000 If a product is free, you're the product.

00:41:32.000 You're what they're going after.

00:41:35.000 It's that subtle change in your mind, subtle change in your behavior, subtle change in how you spend money.

00:41:43.000 Do you really want to be controlled by people like Mark Zuckerberg?

00:41:49.000 I'm like, no.

00:41:52.000 You need to delay giving your kids gadgets as long as possible.

00:41:56.000 You need to take them from them at night.

00:42:00.000 You need to take them and put them in your room at night.

00:42:05.000 Oh, but they'll have a fit.

00:42:06.000 It's like, well, that's why God gave you parents to supervise them.

00:42:13.000 You have to take them from night and just, you have to supervise it.

00:42:18.000 You do not want these gadgets in their hands and heads without adult supervision.

00:42:25.000 And then if you add the toxic products and the toxic food and the toxic thoughts, there's a way out, but it's through brain health.

00:42:35.000 That's my belief.

00:42:36.000 Through brain health, which no better place to deliver it than the church.

00:42:41.000 No better place.

00:42:43.000 I wrote the Daniel Plan.

00:42:45.000 Some of you may have done it at Saddleback Church, thousands of churches around the world.

00:42:50.000 It's a health program in church.

00:42:53.000 So exciting.

00:42:54.000 So Charlie and I are talking about writing a mental health plan for churches.

00:43:01.000 I think it would be kind of fun to do, don't you?

00:43:03.000 So let's start lining up for questions.

00:43:06.000 But here's going to be different.

00:43:08.000 I don't want to hear about politics tonight, okay?

00:43:10.000 Come next month.

00:43:11.000 You can ask me about CRT or postmodernism or queer theory in July or August.

00:43:11.000 I mean it.

00:43:17.000 We have an expert here on something very particular, okay?

00:43:20.000 Number two, the doctor's not here to diagnose you, okay?

00:43:24.000 So I mean it.

00:43:25.000 If you're going on about your symptoms, I'm going to cut you off as lovingly as possible.

00:43:29.000 You do have team members that can help them, right?

00:43:31.000 But this is not your time.

00:43:33.000 Ask questions about the topics he mentioned, right?

00:43:36.000 And so those two parameters, if you have a question about Charlie, who are you voting for in the primary?

00:43:40.000 Listen to the podcast.

00:43:41.000 All right.

00:43:42.000 I'm going to be as lovingly cruel as I can tonight with this stuff because you have a special expert here here to teach you something.

00:43:49.000 You have me every month that you can come and ask me those questions later.

00:43:52.000 With that, let's get started.

00:43:55.000 Hello, hello.

00:43:56.000 Hi, Doctor.

00:43:57.000 Thank you for coming tonight.

00:43:58.000 We've really enjoyed listening to you tonight.

00:44:00.000 Based on what you've said, I would like to know your thoughts on the correlation between what you do and the current push on transgenderism.

00:44:12.000 Yeah, that's an interesting topic.

00:44:16.000 I think there's hysteria, groupthink, in addition to we're poisoning children's hormones, which is causing them great confusion.

00:44:34.000 And so I think we have to look at the gender issue in all four circles.

00:44:41.000 So what's the biology of it?

00:44:44.000 And along with this, you should also ask yourself: why did the incidence of autism go from one in 10,000 in 1985 when I was a child psychiatry fellow?

00:44:59.000 One in 10,000, rare, to one in 34 now.

00:45:06.000 We're poisoning pregnant women, and it's not just pregnant women. 1.00

00:45:11.000 We want our boys to get healthy before they're making babies.

00:45:16.000 And you really want to get your mind blown.

00:45:20.000 When a little girl is born, she's born with all of the eggs she will ever have in her ovaries.

00:45:28.000 And then what happens to her throughout her life turns on or off certain genes that make illness more or less likely in her, but also in her babies and her grandbabies.

00:45:42.000 So as we started with, this is not just about you.

00:45:45.000 This is about generations of you.

00:45:49.000 And as we've been poisoning our population with parabens and phthalates and bisphenol A, which the CDC said is in 90% of Americans, what we're doing is we're increasing the risk of illness.

00:46:08.000 And now with hormone disruptors, we're increasing the risk of gender confusion.

00:46:17.000 And then there's a psychological part to this.

00:46:21.000 Clearly, people, kids are depressed.

00:46:24.000 They're anxious.

00:46:25.000 They're thinking maybe, you know, if I change my gender, I'll be happier.

00:46:29.000 It's generally a lie.

00:46:31.000 There's clearly a social contagion to it.

00:46:36.000 And there's just a bit of evil with going on with that.

00:46:40.000 And it's a spiritual attack.

00:46:43.000 And so if you understand it from that point, we have to clean up our environment. 0.95

00:46:48.000 I mean, it's so critical to stop poisoning people, get our minds right, so we're not believing every stupid thing we think, get our connections better.

00:47:00.000 And the church has got to be more effective at getting people into church, but not by polarizing people.

00:47:09.000 What the doctor just said is so courageous for him to say, you understand the party line on that is not that.

00:47:17.000 So you deserve to be commended for that.

00:47:18.000 Oh, no, the American Medical Association would throw me out, but I'm not a member, so they can't throw me out.

00:47:28.000 Do you see why they wouldn't want that?

00:47:30.000 Because it's, you know, not, drugs are not the answer to everything, everybody.

00:47:35.000 Okay, over there.

00:47:36.000 Yes, hi.

00:47:37.000 So I have my 10-year-old son with me, and his fourth-grade teacher brought it to our attention that she notices some type of OCD and anxiety.

00:47:52.000 And she said, I can't diagnose as a teacher, so I'd like for you to take him and go get tested.

00:47:58.000 His primary PCP pediatrician said, you know, after doing a bunch of questions, yes, he has something.

00:48:07.000 Let's just give him a low dose of a pill as a second choice.

00:48:12.000 Her first choice is she wanted him to get some counseling and therapy because it's a broken home situation.

00:48:19.000 So fast forward, I was told that brain mapping is a waste of money and that I shouldn't do the brain mapping because it doesn't really work.

00:48:31.000 And then I was also given, call the Gentry Foundation.

00:48:36.000 But you mentioned tonight that you guys have opened up somewhere new in Scottsdale.

00:48:43.000 What should I do for my 10-year-old son when the ex-husband won't allow any type of counseling or any of that?

00:48:56.000 So the first thing is not to put him on medicine.

00:48:59.000 That's not the first thing.

00:49:01.000 It's to really learn about the history and why he's struggling.

00:49:11.000 Looking at his brain.

00:49:13.000 I mean, in my mind, if I saw him, I would want to look at his brain and go, how is it?

00:49:18.000 When you think of things like OCD and anxiety, like, did it happen after he got COVID?

00:49:26.000 There's this other thing we talk about a lot as child psychiatrists called pandas, pediatric, autoimmune, neuropsychiatric disorders associated with SRAP.

00:49:36.000 You know, is it an infection?

00:49:39.000 Is it a family situation?

00:49:43.000 And if you never evaluate them, how do you actually know?

00:49:49.000 The easy answer is, oh, he tends to be obsessive, so give him Lexapro.

00:49:55.000 That's not a good first step.

00:49:58.000 The good first step is, let me really understand him in those four circles, including the biology.

00:50:08.000 And when I think of anxiety, you know, people go to the emergency room, they get benzos.

00:50:13.000 I'm like, no, no, no.

00:50:15.000 Teach them diaphragmat breathing.

00:50:19.000 There's a specific pattern that's masterful.

00:50:24.000 It's for kids, three seconds in, take a big breath, three seconds in, mostly with your belly, and then six seconds out.

00:50:35.000 And do that 10 times.

00:50:38.000 And what you notice is anxiety goes like that.

00:50:41.000 Why wouldn't we teach that the first thing?

00:50:43.000 I also have a book I wrote called Captain Snout and the Superpower Questions. 1.00

00:50:49.000 It's how to teach kids not to believe every stupid thing they think. 1.00

00:50:55.000 It's really important. 1.00

00:50:57.000 Can you imagine?

00:50:59.000 I was 28 years old in my psychiatric residency at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. 1.00

00:51:07.000 And one of the professors came in and he sat down and he looked at us and he said, you have to teach your patients not to believe every stupid thing they think. 0.99

00:51:19.000 And I'm like, I'm 28 years old. 0.99

00:51:22.000 I'm in my residency, which means I've already had 20 years of education. 0.99

00:51:27.000 And I'm thinking to myself, I believe every stupid thing I think. 0.98

00:51:31.000 No one had ever said that to me. 1.00

00:51:35.000 This should be in second grade where we're teaching kids to manage their mind.

00:51:42.000 Now, obviously, I can't diagnose things from the stage, but it would clearly be worth having a conversation with my clinic here.

00:51:51.000 I think they're going to be the lobby afterwards, right?

00:51:53.000 Thank you so much.

00:51:54.000 And they'll be in the lobby afterwards if you want to chat with some of them.

00:51:58.000 We'll make sure it's easy to find them, okay?

00:52:00.000 Great.

00:52:00.000 Thank you.

00:52:02.000 Hi.

00:52:03.000 So first of all, I just want to thank you, Dr. Amon, for helping me by telling my mom 11 years ago, right after I had brain surgery, what supplements I needed to take to help my emotional problems.

00:52:21.000 My question is, as I mentioned, I had brain surgery 11 years ago to remove a tumor that caused some pretty severe disabilities.

00:52:32.000 So I have cranial nerve damage in my third, fourth, and sixth cranial nerves.

00:52:40.000 Recent tests, it was revealed that my superior and inferior collicula aren't functioning properly.

00:52:47.000 And so I suffer from some disabilities, as I said, shrabismus, severe tinnitus.

00:52:53.000 So my question is, do you know anything about neuroplasticity and any therapies I could do to make my situation better?

00:53:03.000 Also, Charlie, I just wanted to let you know that I sent an email to you, freedom at freedom at charliekirk.com, regarding this pride tree that's in my neighborhood.

00:53:14.000 So I just wanted to mention that really quick.

00:53:16.000 Thank you.

00:53:17.000 Are you an Awatuki or something?

00:53:18.000 I think I got an email.

00:53:20.000 I got four emails.

00:53:21.000 I'll check it out.

00:53:22.000 Someone emailed me about that.

00:53:23.000 I'll get back to you.

00:53:24.000 Doctor.

00:53:24.000 So the question of neuroplasticity is very exciting.

00:53:28.000 So I had mentioned my NFL work.

00:53:32.000 So these are people who had very severe long-term brain damage from thousands of hits to their head.

00:53:41.000 80% of my players got better when they followed my plan.

00:53:47.000 And it's generally what I say to my patients, do what I say.

00:53:51.000 If you want to be better, just do what I say because it's going to work.

00:53:56.000 And for them, it was brain envy, got to care about it.

00:54:00.000 Avoid things that hurt it, like we have to stop the things that hurt it that we talked about.

00:54:06.000 Do things that help it, plus a multiple vitamin fish oil, and a brain boost that works in six different ways.

00:54:13.000 80% of them were better.

00:54:16.000 So even if your brain's been hurt, even if you've been bad to it, you can make it better.

00:54:25.000 And I can prove it.

00:54:33.000 Hi, Dr. Amon.

00:54:35.000 Over 20 years ago, I brought my son into your clinic in Bellevue, Washington.

00:54:40.000 He had been in a head-on car accident.

00:54:45.000 And at that time, you had said that insurance wouldn't cover it because there wasn't enough data that they required.

00:54:56.000 Whatever.

00:54:57.000 I don't understand insurance.

00:55:00.000 Me neither.

00:55:01.000 Yeah.

00:55:02.000 Yeah.

00:55:03.000 But with over 200,000 patients that you just said you have seen over the years, what progress have you made in making this affordable?

00:55:14.000 I know because I called your clinic recently that a brain scan in your clinic is over $5,000.

00:55:21.000 So people here who might need your services, how do they afford it?

00:55:28.000 So let's be clear.

00:55:30.000 A whole evaluation, which includes two scans, detailed history, cognitive testing, and the first three follow-up visits is $5,300.

00:55:44.000 So let's just be clear, a brain scan is not $5,000.

00:55:48.000 And it's an investment, like I sent one of my children off to school and spent $60,000 the first year for them to go to school.

00:55:58.000 So I think it's a small investment for a big long-term payoff, that you understand what's going on and then treat it.

00:56:08.000 Because yes, there's a cost, but you also have to think about what's the cost of an ineffectively treated brain.

00:56:18.000 It's incredible.

00:56:21.000 I mean, it's things like divorce, incarceration, school failure, job failure.

00:56:27.000 So the money part's hard for me because I want to scan everybody.

00:56:33.000 I want to help everybody.

00:56:35.000 But the fact is, if there's not a margin, there's no mission, right?

00:56:39.000 Because we don't get money from anybody.

00:56:42.000 The only way we make money is if people see value in what we do.

00:56:51.000 The scans at our clinic are probably half of what they are at any other clinic because the cost of the radiopharmaceutical or the isotope is $1,600.

00:57:06.000 So that's just the medicine to do the procedure.

00:57:12.000 So it's hard.

00:57:14.000 And the only way that cost is going to go down is if SPACT gets adopted on a much wider scale.

00:57:25.000 And so I don't take insurance because, quite frankly, I'm not aligned with the insurance company.

00:57:33.000 My goal is to get people better.

00:57:35.000 Their goal is to save money.

00:57:38.000 And so it's a nonstop fight with them.

00:57:42.000 And I will say that you're seeing a trend that the most effective and emergent innovations in medicine are not covered by insurance right now.

00:57:50.000 And I just hate to say it.

00:57:51.000 The stuff that's really piercing the darkness and improving people quickly, homeopathic solutions, diet changes, all sorts of different types of proven stuff, ozone therapy, vitamin D supplementation.

00:58:05.000 I think we have a sick care industry in America that is afraid to go and cover things with an insurance pool that actually, I mean, I don't think you have to be a conspiracy theorist.

00:58:16.000 I'll just say this, Doctor.

00:58:17.000 If all of a sudden if every American was brain scanned every couple years, all of a sudden there'd be so much information, people would change their diets, all of a sudden they'd ask better questions, and Pfizer, Astrogenica, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson would have to run for the hills.

00:58:30.000 So that's my opinion.

00:58:36.000 Hi, Dr. Eamon.

00:58:37.000 I'm Katica from Gilbert.

00:58:39.000 Thank you for being here.

00:58:40.000 It's an honor to be able to hear you speak.

00:58:43.000 I'd like to know, how does prayer affect the brain?

00:58:48.000 So I have a foundation.

00:58:53.000 It's called the Change Your Brain Foundation, where we raise money for research, for education, and for service for people who can't afford to come to our clinics.

00:59:06.000 Somebody gave us a donation to study prayer.

00:59:10.000 And so we did.

00:59:12.000 We studied conversational prayer, I pray for you.

00:59:18.000 We studied speaking in tongues, which is channeling the Holy Spirit.

00:59:25.000 We studied prophecy and discernment.

00:59:29.000 It was fascinating.

00:59:31.000 And the hypothesis was that speaking in tongues, you would drop your frontal lobes, the executive part of the brain, and activate your emotional brain, where we believe that the Holy Spirit would actually speak through you.

00:59:52.000 That was actually true in 60% of our subjects.

00:59:56.000 But one of our subjects, it looked like he just got a hit of cocaine.

01:00:02.000 I looked at this scan and I'm like, you do this a lot, don't you?

01:00:07.000 Because it was so reinforcing.

01:00:11.000 I'm really good friends with Andrew Newberg, who is the physician at Thomas Jefferson University, who has studied Franciscan nuns praying and Tibetan monks meditating.

01:00:28.000 And what they find with meditation and prayer is just fascinating because it actually helps to balance the brain.

01:00:45.000 And I know when you're a Christian, you often feel like the whole science community is against you.

01:00:52.000 It's absolutely not true.

01:00:55.000 And an imaging finding that believers have greater activity in their right temporal lobe than non-believers.

01:01:05.000 So what does that mean?

01:01:07.000 Well, we actually have healthier brains.

01:01:09.000 Just saying.

01:01:13.000 Thank you.

01:01:15.000 You know, Doctor, about that cocaine thing, explains some Pentecostals I know really well now that you mentioned that.

01:01:22.000 I won't say any San Diego-based churches.

01:01:25.000 I won't mention any of them.

01:01:28.000 I'm not mentioning.

01:01:29.000 It's a different church.

01:01:32.000 Good evening.

01:01:33.000 I have a teenage grandson with ODD, optimal defiant disorder.

01:01:39.000 And I was wondering your thoughts on that.

01:01:42.000 On OCD and what else?

01:01:44.000 ODD, optimal defiant disorder.

01:01:47.000 Oh, oppositional defiance disorder.

01:01:52.000 Oh, I know about it.

01:01:54.000 I studied it.

01:01:55.000 I published on it.

01:01:56.000 I had one at home.

01:02:00.000 So, oppositional defiant disorder.

01:02:03.000 What we usually see is their brains actually look like they have OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder.

01:02:10.000 They just get stuck.

01:02:11.000 So, you know, if you have obsessive-compulsive disorder, you get stuck on I have to clean, I have to wash, bad thought that goes over and over again.

01:02:19.000 With ODD, you get stuck on no, no way, never.

01:02:26.000 You can't make me do it.

01:02:29.000 And sometimes raising serotonin in their brain will calm down.

01:02:34.000 It's called the anterior cingulate gyrus.

01:02:37.000 It's often the brain's gear shifter.

01:02:39.000 It allows you to go from thought to thought, move from idea to idea, be flexible, go with the flow.

01:02:46.000 When it's overactive, people tend to be, They get stuck, which can be on obsessions or compulsions or being argumentative, or no.

01:03:00.000 And so a little bit of serotonin will help.

01:03:05.000 If you really need to talk to them, take them on a walk and don't actually bring up anything sticky for about 15 minutes because exercise naturally boosts serotonin.

01:03:18.000 And I love the parenting program, Parenting with Love and Logic.

01:03:27.000 I love that program for oppositional defiant disorder kids.

01:03:32.000 It is so effective.

01:03:34.000 It's written by Jim and Charles Fay.

01:03:38.000 Go to loveandlogic.com.

01:03:40.000 It's just outstanding.

01:03:47.000 Good evening, Dr. Amon.

01:03:49.000 My name is Jane Al.

01:03:50.000 I'm a recreational therapist working in a psychiatric hospital.

01:03:55.000 And I just want some more information because I first discovered you like two years ago when I was at the VA here in Phoenix.

01:04:05.000 And I was just so intrigued.

01:04:07.000 Like nowhere did I find any of your information about ending mental illness and especially with working with vets and what they experience.

01:04:16.000 And now I'm with like substance abuse and suicidal ideation.

01:04:23.000 And so I'm like just wanting to know how can I better advocate for patients to get the health care that they need because it's just a reciprocal revolving door.

01:04:34.000 I see the same people coming in for the same things over and over again.

01:04:39.000 Beautiful question, isn't it?

01:04:40.000 Yeah.

01:04:41.000 As it will be until we actually start thinking of this as a brain health issue.

01:04:47.000 When we think of it as a mental health issue that I can solve with medication that is not targeted to their brain, but to a cluster of symptoms, we're going to end up with this circular system where things are not better.

01:05:04.000 I mean, I'm listening to a book now called Healing by Tom Insel.

01:05:07.000 Tom Insel was the director of the National Institute of Mental Health.

01:05:12.000 He was responsible for $20 billion in resource money.

01:05:17.000 And he basically said, I failed.

01:05:20.000 And he did, because he didn't shift the profession away from a categorical or a symptom-based diagnosis to brain circuitry.

01:05:35.000 And we need to do that.

01:05:37.000 And I think just you knowing about it, you talking about it, you looking at, you know, how are your habits?

01:05:44.000 Do you love your brain?

01:05:47.000 And as a recreational therapist, you're doing exercise with them, right?

01:05:52.000 And you know, head to head.

01:05:54.000 Exercise has been found to be equally effective as antidepressants.

01:05:59.000 Are we putting an exercise program in your life?

01:06:05.000 So not just while you're here in the program, but how do we figure out how you can do this every day?

01:06:14.000 And if you're drinking, that's not loving your brain.

01:06:17.000 If you're smoking pot, which is largely endorsed by the psychiatric community, it's another bit of insanity.

01:06:24.000 If you're smoking pot, you're probably not going to be feeling better.

01:06:28.000 So if you get them to eat right, they're going to be thinking better.

01:06:34.000 So I know not everybody's going to get a scan, but at least learn from what we've learned from the scans with a better brain always comes a better life.

01:06:45.000 And come by the booth.

01:06:46.000 We'll give you about 10 books to give to some of the people you're helping.

01:06:49.000 I think this book could help them.

01:06:50.000 All right, come by the booth afterwards.

01:06:51.000 All right, thank you.

01:06:52.000 Jared or Will, we'll set that up.

01:06:54.000 All right.

01:06:55.000 About two more.

01:06:56.000 We're good on time.

01:06:57.000 Two more.

01:06:58.000 All right.

01:06:59.000 Hi, Dr. Eamon.

01:07:00.000 I have a question to you.

01:07:02.000 I have a bunch of friends that have been experiencing new treatments in holistic centers.

01:07:08.000 And my question is: what do you feel about the ketamine treatments that are going on right now for brain health?

01:07:17.000 I'm worried about ketamine.

01:07:21.000 I've had patients who they've failed everything, and it's helpful, but it doesn't stick.

01:07:29.000 And why would you do something over and over again if it's not fixing the problem?

01:07:38.000 So I'm very worried about psilocybin, ayahuasca, and ketamine.

01:07:45.000 I mean, if you just think about it, the street drugs of the 60s are making a comeback.

01:07:51.000 I'm not sure that's progress.

01:07:54.000 And shouldn't we at least think about like non-toxic things like hyperbaric oxygen if you had a brain injury or if you have low blood flow to your brain?

01:08:05.000 Have we really worked on what are the right supplements?

01:08:08.000 What's the right diet?

01:08:11.000 From a brain health perspective, I know how they work.

01:08:16.000 And I do a series, you can see it on Instagram called Scan My Brain.

01:08:21.000 We actually released a new episode today with Emma Willis, Bruce Willis's wife, and we talked about the stress she's been under managing someone who has frontal temporal lobe dementia.

01:08:35.000 But I also did one with Annalyn McCourt, who did a whole documentary on plant medicine.

01:08:42.000 That's what they call mushrooms and hallucinogens.

01:08:49.000 And her brain was not healthy.

01:08:52.000 She thought it was helpful to her.

01:08:55.000 My goal is to get you a better brain because I believe with a better brain, you're going to have a better life.

01:09:03.000 Don't do ayahuasca, people.

01:09:05.000 That's my take.

01:09:06.000 It has destroyed young people's lives that I know personally. 0.80

01:09:09.000 I think it's the pharmakea that the New Testament warns us against.

01:09:13.000 All right, thank you.

01:09:14.000 Last question.

01:09:15.000 Hi, Dr. Eamon.

01:09:17.000 I have a son that's 33 years old.

01:09:19.000 He has sustained several traumatic brain injuries.

01:09:23.000 Some are moderate and some are not so, but he just can't get help and he doesn't have the health insurance.

01:09:33.000 They won't even take x-rays.

01:09:36.000 When he was injured, they just stitched up his head and sent him away.

01:09:41.000 What's the best thing for him?

01:09:43.000 Well, I mean, the first thing to do is if you can, you know, scan them and see what's going on.

01:09:54.000 If you can't, in my book, The End of Mental Illness, there's a whole chapter on rehabilitating brain trauma.

01:10:03.000 And, you know, for a long time, I'm like, okay, not everybody's coming to the clinic.

01:10:10.000 You can check my books out at the library for free.

01:10:15.000 And I like lay it out in my books.

01:10:19.000 If you have this, do that.

01:10:21.000 And here's step one, and here's step two, and here's step three.

01:10:25.000 And it's my NFL repair guide in the end of mental illness.

01:10:32.000 And there's also lots of information on end and change your brain every day because, you know, as I said, it's like the most important thing I learned is there's a lot of psychiatric illness as a direct result of traumatic brain injuries.

01:10:48.000 Thank you.

01:10:49.000 Appreciate it.

01:10:49.000 Thanks so much.

01:10:50.000 So a couple thoughts in closing.

01:10:56.000 In July, I will be talking on Sunday, July 2nd, right?

01:11:00.000 Which is the Sunday before July 4th.

01:11:03.000 And it's part of the Jesus Says series.

01:11:07.000 I get that right.

01:11:08.000 Jesus teaches.

01:11:10.000 What did Jesus say?

01:11:12.000 I was in the atmosphere.

01:11:15.000 What did Jesus say about liberty is my topic.

01:11:19.000 We'll be talking at 9 a.m. in Scottsdale and 11.15 here.

01:11:23.000 Did I get that right?

01:11:24.000 11.

01:11:25.000 See, I'm a little bit off tonight.

01:11:27.000 So come there, and then we'll be back in August.

01:11:30.000 And so hope to see many of you also.

01:11:32.000 If you want to take a cross-country flight for our Turning Point Action Event Action Conference in Palm Beach, we just announced Tucker Carlson will be speaking there.

01:11:42.000 We have some really big names.

01:11:44.000 So that will be July 15th and 16th, all the way in Palm Beach.

01:11:48.000 I know it's a ways, but if you guys want to be there, and obviously we'll have America Fest again, which is more local in December.

01:11:53.000 But I want to just reiterate: this conversation was super important.

01:11:57.000 You guys will be able to hear it back on my podcast.

01:11:59.000 Also, check out the information provided with the book in the lobby.

01:12:04.000 But if you want to be a strong citizen, if you care about reclaiming your country and your grandkids' country, then you also need to be aware of all the other threats, not just the educational curriculum and all that stuff we talk about, the toxins, the screen time.

01:12:20.000 And there's no better expert to be able to strengthen your brain health than Dr. Eamon.

01:12:28.000 Any final thoughts?

01:12:30.000 I really love how you framed the idea of freedom.

01:12:36.000 Is can you really be free if your brain is not healthy?

01:12:42.000 And I'm going to turn 69 next month, and I've seen way too many 69-year-old brains to know if I'm not serious, what's headed for me.

01:12:55.000 And I don't know if any of you are worried about, you know, I wrote an op-ed piece on should we scan presidential candidates.

01:13:02.000 And I'm like, I'm just a little bit concerned.

01:13:11.000 But if your brain's deteriorating, you become imprisoned in a mind that is not for you.

01:13:21.000 And so the ultimate freedom is having a brain that works right and then helping the people you love have brains that work right as well.

01:13:32.000 He's obviously talking about Mike Pence, right?

01:13:35.000 So Luke, come on up and say a prayer.

01:13:37.000 And everybody, let's just enthusiastically thank Dr. Eamon.

01:13:41.000 Was that not a great evening?

01:13:47.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

01:13:49.000 Email us your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

01:13:52.000 Thanks so much for listening and God bless.

01:13:56.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk. com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - June 18, 2023

You Can’t Be Free Without Being Happy with Dr. Daniel Amen

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