welcome to mindvalley university
it's it's such a pleasure so
those of you for those of you who don't
know dr amen let me just tell you about
this this amazing man
so so doctor so so dr eamon we we like
to be really informal here at mine
valley university many of the people in
the audience
we've met each other at countless events
so i i like to be really real about this
so i was interviewing dr daniel amen for
the mindvalley podcast
this was about two months ago quarantine
had just started
and i asked him in the podcast to share
some of his advice on two things that
were deeply concerning me
one is i had a relative who was aging
and was starting to experience
neurological disorder
and i wanted to get his advice and so he
shared
his tips a concept called bright minds
from the mindvalley podcast
that is mind-blowing folks and i want
everyone to listen to it
we won't cover that here because the
recording is on the mindvalley podcast
go listen to that on spotify
but the second thing that dr amon spoke
about was really
revealing it was on how do we boost our
immunity
and right now with covet 19 surging
across the united states it
is important that we boost our immunity
by some estimates
and i'm not saying this to to instill
fear or anything i'm just saying what
scientists are recognizing right now
i have friends who have been infected by
colbit 19
and we know that if you are
immunocompromised the effects can be far
worse but if you keep your immunity high
it is it is a never before has it been
important to keep our immunity high
and i wanted to bring dr daniel ayman
here to speak to us
about what can we do to be performing at
our best health
to have the best practices in place what
supplements
what exercises what food basically
all the wisdom you can dish out dr ayman
because never before has it been
this important to stay healthy so we're
ready to begin
well thank you so much
when the pandemic hit i
wrote the night that it hit for me which
was march 10th
was mental hygiene is just as important
as washing
your hands that we need to
disinfect our thoughts and i call them
ants automatic negative thoughts because
every time you have a thought your brain
releases chemicals
every single time and fearful thoughts
anxious thoughts negative thoughts
hateful
thoughts release chemicals that make
your whole body feel
bad and hurt your
immune system and so
it's critical to develop mental
discipline to because it actually helps
your body and your brain
so where you direct your thoughts
matters and whenever we evaluate someone
at
our eight soon to be nine amen clinics
around the united
states we always evaluate them in four
big circles so we talk about their
biology
and there's some very specific
biological things you can do
to enhance your immune system your best
defense against covid19
is not going to be a vaccine now vaccine
may be helpful
um but it's not your best defense your
best defense is
your immune system and
how do you get that healthy from a
biological
standpoint is you make sure your vitamin
d
level is middle range to high
range normal
people who have low vitamin d levels
have
higher mortality higher death rates
from covid19 so is that is that the
number one is that the top tip dr eamon
vitamin d well it's one of the top tips
you know i have one for each of these
four circles
but um it's
it's on the top of my lift every day i
take 7 000 international units of
vitamin d
now for everybody it's different
depending on the amount of sunshine you
get
depending on how dark your skin is
people with
darker skin actually need more sunlight
to get a healthy vitamin d
level so for me i need seven thousand
units a day
so so a question here dr element so in
our past conversation you mentioned
vitamin d
and vitamin d3 is there a difference
yes only take vitamin d3 because that's
the
active form and and i recommend
everybody if they can
get your level tested uh normal is
between 30 and 100
i like my patients between 50
and 100 and i keep mine about 80.
and it's just a simple thing to do that
reminds
you to do the other things vitamin c
and and just on that you said we should
have our vitamin d levels tested
and uh it should be between 30 and 100
but what
measurement is that so it's just
a vitamin d level it's called 25
hydroxy vitamin d your doctor
can order it and we should be getting
between 30 and 100. now i
read somewhere that darkest darker
skinned
people um who have moved to northern
climates where there is
where there is less levels of sunlight
are more likely to be susceptible to
covet 19
because their skin is producing less
vitamin d3
right and and i read and i read
somewhere i'm curious to know your
thoughts on this
uh that this is one of the reasons why
if you're african-american
in north america the death rate from
cobit 19
is about three times as high and it's
also higher if you're indian like me
or any type of brown or dark skin
do you think that's correct okay so
there's actually a study
from uh
a black population in the caribbean that
immigrates to england has a higher
level of psychotic disorders so
not only does it affect your immune
system it also
affects your brain and
that's really important
and it's just basically know your
vitamin d
and either get more sun or take a
supplement to get your level not crazy
high
but high normal so normal is 30 to 100
i want my patients 50 to 100.
i see now now if you are darker skinned
does that mean you need to take more
vitamin d supplements you said you're
taking 17
7 000 iu a day if let's say
we're indian or black do we need to take
more
depends on your level and how your body
processes it that's why i'm just a big
fan of get it tested
and then optimize it and and it's so
important there's one study that said
people who are
over 40 vitamin d level
had half the risk of cancer
of those who were under 20.
and when i first tested mine and i live
in southern california where the sun is
out all the time
my level was 17. and so for a long time
i took
10 000 units a day but i think
you test it you take a certain level of
vitamin d and then you
test it again because you
can't change what you don't measure it's
why we do imaging at aemon clinics
because if you don't measure it how do
you know
so from a biological standpoint vitamin
d
vitamin c zinc but another really
important thing
60 of your immunity is in your
gut and so making sure
your intestinal health
call it the microbiome those hundred
trillion
bugs that are in your gut are healthy
so it means what you eat really
matters and you also don't want to be
overweight
i just got a new study accepted for
publication
that showed as your weight goes up
the function of your brain goes down
but the fat on your belly which is more
common
with the chronic stress we've been
experiencing for the last four and a
half months
belly fat it's putting more fat on our
belly
which increases inflammation and
decreases
our immunity so diet is
really important wow
okay so that's really interesting i've
read studies that suggested it but now
it is a confirmed fact that if
that if we put on weight it's
also going to lead to a decrease in
brain functioning
yes and it's this is my third study i
published it and this is on 35
000 scans and there's literally
the the graphs will horrify you every
area of the brain
there's a linear correlation as your
weight goes up
blood flow and function of your brain
goes
down and it's why initially about 10
years ago i dropped 25 pounds
because i don't want a smaller brain and
and what's happening right now is as a
result of the pandemic in a study by
webmd
47 of women report gaining weight 22
percent of men report gaining weight so
when we're quarantined and we don't have
access to a gym
a lot of that is happening as well so
let's let's go back
to um to the next tip you meant you
mentioned probiotics and gut health you
mentioned that we need to be conscious
about weight which is perfect
uh for those of you who who do want to
lose weight
while fit is by far the best program i
found and you just heard eric edmund
speak
so i strongly recommend wildfit dr dr
eamon
what else would you recommend for gut
health what are things we can look at or
practice as we can adopt
so you want to love it
and then take care of these hundred
trillion bugs you almost think of them
um as we talk with
our eight-year-old daughter about but
think of them like pets you have to take
care of them
in order for them to give you the love
you
want which means feeding
them prebiotic foods so think of
foods with fiber avoid
foods raised with pesticides because
what do pesticides
kill bugs can often kill the bugs
in your gut so eating organic
many colorful fruits
and vegetables a day
along with probiotic
foods think of kimchi and
sauerkraut which is my favorite
can be helpful
avoid antibiotics if they're not
absolutely
essential because they can do
damage in your microbiome
[Music]
and what about in our last conversation
doctor you mentioned garlic onion and
mushrooms
they help to boost immunity and they're
part of
really excellent prebiotic
foods so prebiotics are basically foods
that
feed the probiotics i see i see so take
care of your probiotics eat
kimchi eat sauerkraut but also pay
attention to prebiotics
and in your case you mentioned in our
earlier conversation garlic onion
mushrooms
make these a part of your diet correct
and mushrooms there are a number of
different kinds of mushrooms that help
boost immunity okay
are those three is there something
special about those three because you're
really specific on garlic onion
mushrooms
just the research with them found
because they help to boost
immunity and and i just want to say this
this is one thing i really appreciate
about dr daniel ayman
it's all everything he talks about is
science based for those of you
who don't know him google him firstly dr
daniel ayman has
10 new york times bestsellers his
research on brain imaging was ranked
number 19
out of the top 100 stories in science
in 2015 by discover magazine his health
clinics
across the country see 4 000 patient
visits
each month um i have committed to
making a visit to an amen clinic when i
am able to visit the united states again
and i because i think this is so
important and again i just want to
mention before we continue i just want
to mention
check out dr daniel aymond's new book
the end of mental
illness how neuroscience is transforming
psychiatry
and helping prevent or reverse mood and
anxiety disorder
adhd addictions ptsd psychosis
personality disorder and more okay so he
draws on the latest signings of latest
findings of neurosite
to challenge outdated psychiatric
paradigms and help
people like you guys take control and
improve the health of your own
brain and remember your brain is so
important most of us forget about brain
health because we can't see our brain
so we focus on our muscles we focus on
our abs but we forget that brain health
is supremely important
dr dr ayman so back
to there was a commercial break to
mention dr aymond's book because i
really want to make sure that
you guys are aware of this brilliant
man's work
let's go back to prebiotics so we were
talking about garlic onion mushroom
what else do should we pay attention to
well for prebiotics just think of foods
that have
fiber and artichokes
for example a really good
uh jicama is another really great
prebiotic apples are excellent
um root vegetables like sweet potatoes
and carrots what about
what about bananas um you have to be
careful with bananas because they're
higher in the glycemic index
and the glycemic index is how quickly
does a food
turn to sugar and the faster it turns
to sugar you know we had talked about
the african-american community have a
higher incidence of death
part of it is because there's a higher
incidence of obesity
and diabetes thing of diabetes
and if you want to maintain your weight
if you struggle with your weight you
want to eat
mostly low glycemic fruit
i think blueberries strawberries
raspberries
apples peaches rather than high glycemic
fruit dates are the worst
pineapple uh and bananas if you're gonna
have a banana and bananas are loaded
with good things
um a little bit on the green side rather
than
on the brown side because
you want the fiber but not the
richness of sugar that's amazing all
right now
you also speak about zinc and vitamin c
let's talk about those
so zinc is absolutely critical and
there's
a large deficit in zinc in the
population
and so 20 milligrams a day
during this time i think is
essential it really helps your immune
system
fight off viruses vitamin c
is so important
we often have a deficiency of it and it
just doesn't cause
scurvy which is a pretty severe
disorder that is actually making a
comeback
that british sailors would get very sick
and they realized if they put
limes on board uh oranges lemons
that their health would be much better
but
because of the lack of fruits and
vegetables people eat a day
ninety percent of the population does
not have five servings of fruits and
vegetables
i see the minimum required to get the
nutrition
you need that vitamin c especially
liposomal vitamin c because it is better
absorbed if you're going to take a
supplement
and how do we get liposomal vitamin c
so you can get it as a supplement
there's a number of companies
that make it and
i recommend during this time 2
000 milligrams a day
of vitamin c because it'll really
strengthen your immune system you really
can't take
too much you'll just get rid of
what you don't use but i take 2 000
units a day now now for those of you
listening i want you to pay 1000
milligrams sorry
what what i'm actually giving you is a
shopping list
a shopping list so that you can be at
your peak state
given we're in the midst of a pandemic
so i went i went to a pharmacy here in
estonia because i'd heard about vitamin
d
but i wasn't aware of the nuance i
wasn't aware that it was d3
i wasn't aware that i should be taking 7
000
i wasn't aware that my normal should be
between 30 and 100
so what you're learning here is with
accurate precision from one of the top
medical minds in the united states
exactly what supplements you should be
taking
exactly what you should be adding to
your diet let's do a quick recap
in terms of supplements you want to get
zinc 20 milligrams a day
vitamin c preferably liposomal vitamin c
2 000 milligrams per day you want to get
vitamin
d3 7000 iu of vitamin d3 daily is what
dr daniel ayman recommends
but you want to go higher if you are
dark skinned like myself
in a northern climate and you want to
make sure that you
take care of your gut health probiotics
means eating kimchi
sorry probiotic care means taking care
of your gut health
pay attention to kimchi sauerkraut and
pay attention to prebiotics garlic onion
mushrooms
think of foods that have fiber focused
on low glycemic foods like blueberries
raspberries strawberries and
and apples did i get everything right am
i a good student
you're a great student just one
correction i take that 7 000 units a day
because i know my level
and that gives me an optimal level right
that's not for everybody
some people if they take 2 000 it's fine
some people
may need more it's just important
know your level so if you don't have a
level i think taking 5 000 units a day
is fine i have never not once
in 40 years seen that ever cause a
problem
for anybody but you want to know
your level i'm just watching the chat as
we go along and
just wanting to make sure people yeah
and that's amazing 600 people tuned in
live
uh so i hope you guys are getting uh
getting a good deal out of this now if
you have read
any of dr amon's work if you've been to
the aemon clinic
please share please share your your
messages of support
so other people might consider picking
up
dr amon's book or visiting the clinic
now the next thing
dr ehman that you spoke about is the
importance of sleep
let's talk about sleep well if you want
a healthy immune system
it's critical to have healthy sleep
when you sleep seven eight hours
a night it turns
on 700 health promoting
genes when you don't sleep
you have lower blood flow to your brain
which
ultimately will mean more bad
decisions and ultimately it's the
quality of your
decisions that determine the health
and success of your life
and so when i don't sleep so i have to
take an early
morning flight um i'm very careful not
to make any big decisions
that day right and and i believe
tom wrath in the book eat move sleep
said that
science has shown that if you deprive
yourself of as much as
90 minutes of sleep just 90 minutes of
sleep
your brain functioning is down by third
that's one
third your brain that isn't functioning
properly in terms of
decision making so get this statistic
soldiers who got seven hours of sleep
were 98
accurate on the range those who got only
six hours of sleep were only 50
accurate on the range those that got
five hours of sleep were 35
accurate on the range and those only got
four hours of sleep
and i worry about this because i consult
with police departments and
the military those are that four hours
of sleep
not uncommon we're only 15
accurate on the range so when it comes
to decision making
and turning your immunity on
making sleep a priority is critical
so so what are some of the tips that you
can give us to boost our sleep
i've heard of magnesium cbd oil what
would you recommend
yeah i'm not so much a fan this will get
me haters of cbd oil
yet it's been unleashed onto the world
as safe and i'm not a hundred con
percent convinced you know cocaine was
unleashed under the wheels you used to
be in coca-cola
and we went okay no that's not a good
thing
so magnesium i'm a huge
fan magnesium melatonin 5-htp
gaba theanine really great
research behind those supplements
that sleep but ultimately sleep like
brain health is three things
you have to care about it avoid anything
that hurts it
and then do things that help it so don't
exercise
at night kill the caffeine and your diet
at least after 12 o'clock
a light room disrupts sleep a noisy room
disrupts sleep a warm room
disrupts slaves so dark
quiet cooler and then i'm a
huge fan of hypnosis
for sleep when i was an intern at the
walter reed army medical center i'd
already taken a month elective as a
medical student in hypnosis
all of my other interns would just pass
out sleeping pills like candy and i
would
use hypnosis and it was
so powerful my first published papers
are parkinsonian tremor went away in a
hypnotic trance
that's amazing heart rhythm normalized
and hypnotic trans
um that's amazing just directing your
mind
in a healthy way can can be
high so so just a just a quick tip on
that for those of you who are members of
mindvalley all access
check out everyday blitz by the british
hypnotherapist paul mckenna
there is a trans audio in there called
it's literally just called hypnotic
trance it's in the warm-up i believe
it's day three of the warm-up
i've i've done that meditation several
of my team members have done the
meditation
several people have said that this is
one of the most powerful meditations
they've ever done
in terms of just deeply relaxing your
body it's a 3d meditation so there are
different sounds
being played in in your ears at
different times it's very mysterious
but try it out it's part of your all
access it's an
everyday bliss by paul mccann okay if
you have tried that
just share your comments there dr daniel
layman so let's talk about magnesium
melatonin and gaba 5 http because i want
to make sure people walk out of this
with an accurate list of what they need
to get from their pharmacy right
but also if people are on a budget
um of of these four magnesium melatonin
and gaba five hdp what would you
recommend
if you could choose two is there signs
on that
would i would choose
magnesium because so many people are low
in it
and i would start with 200 milligrams
and then i would raise it over time
200 milligrams a night until you got the
best effect
or diarrhea when you have too much
magnesium your body
will tell you sort of like if you have
too much vitamin c
your body will tell you melatonin
actually surprised us more
with 200 milligrams of magnesium and
raise it to one
and then i'd go up by 200 milligrams
a night until i either
had the best response i slept well or
i ended up with a side effect like
diarrhea and the kind matters
magnesium oxide is not good
cheap not good citrate
or glycinate are the two
that we use in the clinic
and um
are are the best absorbed um there's
also one called magnesium three
but it's the most it's called magnesium
what magnesium glycate you said
glycinate gl y
c i n a t e glycinate
or citrate c-i-t-r-a-t-e
okay great awesome now the next one
is so now we have three more options
melatonin gaba 5-htp what would you say
is the second most important
melatonin but not in small doses
not high doses so a lot of people will
get five milligrams and it's generally
too much
for most people what is more
physiological is 0.3 milligrams
to 1 milligram and if it's going to work
it's
generally going to be at a smaller
dose now what you also want to do is
turn off your
gadgets because blue light
decreases the production of melatonin
so when the sun goes down you should put
blue
light blockers on all
of your gadgets whether it's your laptop
or your phone
um your ipad because
otherwise you're just creating your own
problem
i see i see now what about gaba and
5-htp
so i'm a fan of both of them and some
people go
gaba doesn't cross the blood-brain
barrier
but it works in your gut on your vagal
tone on your vagus nerve
to send signals to your brain to calm
down so i'm a huge fan of gaba and
generally i use
750 milligrams of gaba
and 5-htp
helps those of you who are worriers who
have
trouble letting go of negative thoughts
or negative behaviors and 50
to 200 milligrams is generally the dose
from 5 htp turns into serotonin which
turns into melatonin
so 5-htp is often very effective
especially if you tend to be sad
and worry at night and a lot of people
are worrying
at night amazing
amazing this is so so so useful now i've
heard that melatonin
if you take it too much you become
dependent on it
have you heard anything of that salt and
it can actually uh have the opposite
effect
not at low doses but at high doses it
can it can actually begin to turn off
uh the production of it but i think
physiological doses now
with all of these things the first thing
to do is not take medication
or supplement the first thing to do is
get your habits right
so love your sleep avoid anything as we
talked about
alcohol is another one alcohol
and marijuana both can interfere with
sleep and yes it may help you go to
sleep but
both of them decrease rem sleep
rapid eye movement sleep which is
healing
sleep and ultimately you end up tired
and then you end up dependent
on alcohol or marijuana or cbd
and honestly i'm a fan of that i want
you to get your habits right so
you're never going to become addicted to
hypnosis
for example or meditation or sleep
enhancing
music or learning how to settle yourself
down
at night that that's amazing now and for
those of you who are on mindvalley all
access don't forget you have access to
michael dr michael bruce's mastery of
sleep program
it's a three-week program and it teaches
you everything about sleep optimization
and it teaches you how to truly
master your sleep now the final thing dr
daniel lehman that you spoke about in
terms of boosting our immunity
is um it's kind of unusual you spoke
about
watching comedy movies let's speak about
that before we wrap up
say your mind really does matter and
the quality of your thoughts
enhance your immunity or damage
your immunity and so lots of
stress is going to cause a surge of
cortisol production which will put fat
around your belly
negative thoughts do that as well
and so programming your brain with
happy thoughts hopeful thoughts funny
thoughts there's actually research out
of the university of california
irvine that watching comedies can
enhance your immune system markers and
one of my favorite books of all time
is called the anatomy of an illness by
norman
cousins who is a very famous magazine
editor
and he had an autoimmune disorder called
ankylosing spondylitis
where his immune system was attacking
his spine
and all the medications didn't work he
locked himself in a room for 500 hours
with comedies
and found at the end of that time his
autoimmune disorder was dramatically
better and over the next year it went
away
so what goes on in your mind
matters to how your body functions
especially your immunity
so watching the news and all the hateful
stuff
the news isn't the news people don't
understand that the news is not the news
the news is there
to drive clicks to make these companies
money right so they're going to make you
sad mad fearful
and so you have to basically find a
source
you trust for 15 minutes a day
and then leave it alone otherwise it
will
steal your brain
[Music]
you