Had the pleasure of meeting with Donna Lalwani today at the Amen Clinics located in NYC. I was learning so much, we spent over three hours together. If you don’t know Dr. Amen, google him – you’ll recognize him as one of the few who does infomercials (not pushing a product nor promoting buy now discounts), but rather educating the masses on proper brain health.
Social media is an interesting platform to ask a question Donna & I discussed today: Why do we fall in love with areas of our bodies we can see – hair, eyes, shoulders, butt…while at the same time we don’t love our own brains? Think of the care we put to those other areas of our bodies, over the care of our brains.
Amen Clinics get “it.” And their approach & technology is so logical, yet so advanced vs. going to your doc & getting a pill without a full examination.
Over 23 years they’ve built the world’s largest database of brain scans – showing differences in how our emotions, learning capabilities & behaviors manifest based on various factors they measure. Most often they perform SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) imaging on the brain. This isn’t a new technology, as it’s used to study other vital organs in the body.
These scans in the brain measure cerebral blood flow. Because blood flow shows patterns of activity, the doctors at their clinics can observe three things: areas of the brain that are working well, areas working too hard, & those not working hard enough.
I was psyched when Donna told me that Dr. Amen often asks: “Really what is normal? Everyone has a different concept of normal because everyone faces different things – genetically, environmentally, physically, & observationally.” Said in some laymen’s terms – we are in fact all a little “crazy.”
Excited abt talking with this group further about how we involve them in The Alliance – doctors, the clinic itself, etc. It’s worth checking out for sure. I’m going to go for an eval myself.
“Disorder” or not, our brains & our MH affect our lives tremendously, so let’s start loving & caring for our brains the same way we do the parts of our bodies we can see!
