Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, episode #82 on “How Looking at Your Brain Can Change Your Life” with a case study from one of my friends, business growth expert,  Doug Sutton, who had a SPECT brain imaging scan a few years ago through Dr. Daniel Amen’s Clinics, when he was noticing some mental fog and lower energy levels. I remember seeing the testimonial from Amen clinics come through social media and the headline I read was powerful! It said, “When Doug made the decision to look at his brain, it changed his life.”[i]  You can watch the interview on YouTube here.

I know that this episode will help all of us, including myself, to really think about the fact that “if our brain is working right, we will work right.” (Dr. Daniel Amen, from Amen Clinics).

For those who are new here, my name is Andrea Samadi,  I’m a former educator who created this podcast to bring awareness, ideas and strategies to our most pressing issues facing educators in the workplace, or parents working from home or in the corporate space, to keep us all working at our highest levels of productivity. The goal is to bring the most current brain research and practical neuroscience, connected to our social and emotional skills, to take our results to the next level.

After quoting Dr. Daniel Amen, (one of the most well-known psychiatrists and brain disorder specialists) from Amen Clinics, for most of the episodes I have done on this podcast, and after interviewing Dr. Shane Creado, episode #72 on “Peak Sleep Performance for Athletes”[ii] one of the sleep doctors who works out of his Chicago clinic, and his daughter, Chloe Amen on episode #11 on the book that she helped Daniel to revise called “Change Your Brain, Change Your Grades.”[iii] I wondered what I would learn about my current and future health, by doing a brain imaging scan from Daniel’s  Clinics. I took the online course Dr. Amen and Tana (his wife) did this Spring called “The End of Mental Illness”[iv] to continue learning more about brain health, and the prize they were offering was a FREE brain scan. This was the first time I even thought about getting my own brain scanned, so I took the class, completed all of the work required for the contest, but didn’t win. I forgot about it until I interviewed Dr. Shane Creado, on episode #72 and I started to see how important sleep was for our brain health. It was Dr. Creado who suggested I contact Amen Clinics and set up a SPECT scan to take a look and see what is going on and he could offer more targeted tips for me based on what he sees.

Dr. Amen always says, “How do you know, if you don’t look?” So of course, I’m schedule to get a SPECT image scan of my brain next week, and my husband is coming along with me so we can both learn ways that we can look at the current state of our brain health, with the goal of optimizing our brain and future. I’m not sure what we will learn, but I thought a good first step would be to speak with Doug Sutton and learn first-hand from his brain scan experience what he learned, and how it not only impacted, but changed his life. Sit back, take some notes, and if you have ever thought about getting a brain scan, I’m sure you will be convinced after this episode.

Welcome Doug! Thank you so much for writing back so quickly about this. I know it’s been quite some time since we hung out through the seminars, but thank goodness for social media, we can reach out and connect as if no time has passed. Before we get into the questions, I’d love to know how everything is going for you these days. When we were speaking, you told me that you had a client that would be a great match for this podcast [v] and they were. I am definitely going to reach out to them for an interview. What work do you do?

Q1: Doug, can you share what brought you to even consider going to get a brain scan? I know that you mention in your testimonial video that you were experiencing brain fog, and lower energy levels, but how did “contact Amen clinics for a SPECT scan” even enter your mind?

Q2: I know that you had symptoms that led you to wanting to “look at your brain” but many people can use this opportunity to optimize their health since I know there is so much they can see about a person just from looking at their brain. I know Dr. Amen scanned Tana Amen’s brain when they were in the early stages of dating and he could see that a car accident she walked away from had an impact on her brain. Were you afraid of what they would find?

Q3: What was the most noticeable thing they found out about your brain?

Q4: What did you do differently AFTER you saw your results?

Q5: What brain health habits did you keep after this experience and was there anything you stopped doing that you think you should go back to doing now we are talking about it?

Q6: Is there anything important that you want to add that you think we might have missed?

Thank you so much Doug, for sharing your SPECT imaging story. I know that there are many people out there who are thinking about doing this, but don’t know where to begin, whether they are like you are have symptoms, or like me, and just want to take their health to another level.  I’m excited to learn more ways to optimize my brain, but also nervous about what they will find. If anyone wants to learn more about a brain scan at Amen Clinics, they can go to https://www.amenclinics.com/

If anyone wants to learn more about you, and the work you are doing, they can go to www.consciousgrowth.com Thanks Doug.

RESOURCES:

Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof Radio Podcast https://blog.daveasprey.com/category/podcasts/

Amen Clinics Locations https://www.amenclinics.com/locations/

REFERENCES:

[i] Doug Sutton Testimonial from Amen Clinics 

[ii] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast Episode #72 with Dr. Shane Creado on “Sleep Peak Performance for Athletes.” https://www.achieveit360.com/dr-shane-creado-on-sleep-strategies-that-will-guarantee-a-competitive-advantage/

[iii] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast Episode #11 with Chloe Amen on “

[iv] Dr. Daniel and Tana Amen’s End of Mental Illness 6 Week Brain Challenge Class https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-8CiGDWYXQ

[v][v] www.fuelingbrains.com