The Ugly Truth About Alcohol’s Effect On Your Brain. | Dr Daniel Amen

I stopped drinking alcohol for this very reason people don't know this but I I mean I've probably mentioned it twice now on air but I quit drinking alcohol about a month and a half ago I think and part of the reason is when I wore my whoop and then I had I don't know one glass of wine or two glasses or three glasses of wine the the day before when I woke up the next day my heart rate variability was like flashing red it was 30 40 typically on a great day my heart rate variability is 150 140 which is strong real I know this because I compete with my friends but on a day where I had a glass of alcohol it'd be flashing red and it would be 40 also if I was sick it would be 40 also if I had a really stressful unslept day the day before it would also be 40 and the fact that alcohol was causing my heart to respond the same as a awfully stressful unslept day or coid I thought that and I've so that's part of the reason I quit drinking alcohol and now that you have brain Envy yeah you're going to have a healthier brain if you keep it away because alcohol lies to us alcohol lies to us alcohol causes damage in the brain really even a little bit of alcohol causes damage in the brain it disrupts something called white matter so gray matter nerve cell bodies white matter nerve cell tracks so white matter is the highways in your brain that trans information and impulses and even a little bit of alcohol has been shown to disrupt the white matter in your brain I don't want anything messing with the highways in my brain but I love that you measured it you made the connection and then you stopped it it's a sign of intelligent life because you love yourself alcohol because there's a lot of people that are sat on the fence right now with alcohol they probably don't have a really bad relationship with it they're probably not alcoholics but they kind of just they have it because society's constructed in such a way that on a Friday evening when the waiter comes over and puts down the wine list you just go okay whatever that's who I was I was just on the fence my friend one of my best friends was an alcoholic so I understand why he quit because he had this really dysfunctional relationship with it that would ruin his life I'm the type of person that would have one drink two drinks and then I'd maybe stop I didn't feel they need to have 3 4 s n he was different and also because of that there was no adverse consequences in my life so when I went away with him recently he's writing a book on um alcohol and alcoholism he was telling me about the book and I was going I personally wouldn't read that book because I don't feel like I have a problem with alcohol this was before I quit so I was like what I would love from a book this is just me personally is a book that made the case to people who are kind of sat on the fence that a drink or a beer or a glass of wine just cuz I don't know Society is constructed in such a way where it's hard to avoid um but they could go for a mocktail if someone gave them some performance-based evidence that alcohol just even a little bit the the casual drinking actually matters so this is where you come in doctor one of my biggest uh Instagram posts was I told you so um the American Cancer Society came out and said any alcohol increases your risk of seven different types of cancer and I've been talking about this for 30 years because I have scans and people who drink any alcohol have lower activity than people who don't drink at all and obviously alcoholics they have terrible looking brains um don't do that but you got to ask yourself why and remember we talked about the one one page Miracle what do you want relationships work money physical emotional spiritual health so where does alcohol come in to that oh well it helps me relaxed well the 15-second breath will help you relax but there are no side effects to it that will increase your heart rate variability alcohol will decrease heart rate variability and brain function and if it decreases brain function it decreases decision making as this psychiat 30% 40% of the people I see they initially come to my office because it's somehow alcohol related bite with their spouse problems with their kids whatever I'm so impressed you notice the difference with heart rate variability and then you stopped yeah because I I'm I'm off I was offensive with alcohol and it's crazy and I Now understand how difficult it is to stop in our society I was telling my team I quit and I went for dinner with a guy called SRX everyone no scrx he's a DJ sunny and this was a week after I'd quit sat in the restaurant the waiter comes over bless him and he goes here's the wine list I go I don't drink alcohol he goes he goes and gets a bottle of wine and he puts it next to me and goes this is not alcohol this is Art I'm going to leave it next to you just in case you get tempted and Sunny's Sunny to his credit is telling this waiter no he doesn't drink this waiter is having none of it and in that moment I understood how difficult it is to quit in the society that we've built where every social interaction apparently needs to be fueled by alcohol and if you say no you're either weird or someone will try and change your mind or persuade you otherwise it's just the culture we have the evil ruler Society I talk that's an evil ruler strategy the food pushers the drug pushers the alcohol pushers um for me I just I look at people like that and it's like so why do you want me to drink when I don't want to what's it what's going on with you yeah and I usually shut some down um but why interesting question when you go to a restaurant the first thing they do is put bread on the table and ask if you want alcohol because both of them drop your frontal loes both of them make it more likely you're going to order more and spend more money at the restaurant so the bread is an investment on their part because bread gives you a sugar spike a blood sugar Spike which then pushes serotonin in your brain and makes you happy but serotonin drops frontal lobe function one thing they never tell you when they give you an SSRI for depression is oh you're going to become a little bit more impulsive because it's going to drop your frontal loes and then alcohol which also drops your frontal loes so you'll drop more cash in the restaurant question then on this point of alcohol if I took two people off the street let's say they do everything in their lives the same other than what I'm about to say I gave one of them a casual drink for the next decade just maybe two drinks a week three drinks a week for the next decade and the other person was completely sober for the next decade when you looked at their brain at 10 years time if they were doing everything the same would you see a difference yes the person who is drinking two or three times a week will have less blood flow in their brain and will that have changed the shape of their brain yes it'll be a little bit more shrivel and then that means their behavior is going to change as well they'll have a little bit less impulse control and when you look at the brain of an a little bit less impulse control when you're doing hard things like marriage it's not a good thing or raising children or managing a business it's like you don't want a little bit worse decision if you love the dver CEO brand and you watch this Channel please do me a huge favor become part of the 15% of the viewers on this channel that have hit the Subscribe button it helps us tremendously and the bigger the channel gets the bigger the guests

Channel: The Diary Of A CEO Clips

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Keywords: the diary of a ceo, podcast, the diary of a ceo podcast, life lessons, ceo, Steven Bartlett, Steve Bartlett, life advice, doac, diary of a ceo, diary of a ceo clips, Steve Bartlett Podcast

Id: eDOmD_03fO4

Length: 8min 31sec (511 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 30 2023