“Finally, we have an expert in the field of neuroscience and neurology, who breaks down the complex concepts and demystifies the workings of the brain, while putting the power back in our hands. Through his thoughts and reflections on neuroplasticity and neuroinfluences, Dr. Philippe Douyon, a physician and neurologist, unlocks the true power of the brain to help us heal and reach our full potential.” Dr. Sidor, Quadruple board-certified Psychiatrist who reviews the book of our next guest, Dr. Philippe Douyon.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/qYUR3CAN1VQ 

On this episode we will learn:

✔  How Dr. Douyon came up with a unique approach to life when it comes to health and chronic disease, or any serious health challenge that might be thrown our way.

✔  What he learned from overcoming kidney failure, Covid, dialysis and from undergoing a successful kidney transplant.

✔  What he noticed was missing from medical school that was important to help patients heal and recover.

✔ Why positive thinking is crucial for overcoming illness and for our overall health and wellbeing.

✔  How he did dialysis "his way."

✔ His thoughts of the impact of alcohol and other unhealthy food/drink on the brain?

✔ His Pyramid of Neurological Health vs Our 5 Health Staples.

✔ How to help people make the decision towards health, one step at a time.

✔ His tips for health and wellness that we can all benefit from.

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we cover the science-based evidence behind social and emotional learning (for schools) and emotional intelligence training (in the workplace) with tools, ideas and strategies that we can all use for immediate results, with our brain in mind.

I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and educator with a passion for learning specifically on the topics of health, wellbeing and productivity, and launched this podcast to share how important an understanding of our brain is to our everyday life and results using the most current brain research.

On today’s episode #241, we will be speaking heart to heart with Dr. Philippe Douyon, a board-certified neurologist who has a unique outlook of approaching life, when it comes to health and overcoming chronic disease, or any serious challenge that might unexpectedly be thrown our way, taking us by surprise.

Not only has Dr. Douyon's philosophy helped countless patients with medical, neurological, and mental health disorders, but it's the same philosophy that he used himself to overcome kidney failure, Covid, dialysis, and undergo a successful kidney transplant. He is the author of the book, Neuroplasticity: Your Brain's Superpower[i], that focuses on how to use our brain's ability to adapt and learn to heal to overcome life’s serious challenges. He also has an online course called Take Charge of Your Brain[ii] that teaches us how our lifestyle choices, directly influence our brain and health. I’m not going to hold back with my questions, as I’m certain that the research is loud and clear, that many neurological disorders (that we’ve been talking about on this podcast), like Alzheimer’s, dementia, stroke, or Parkinson’s disease, can be prevented with lifestyle changes.

What I love about Dr. Douyon’s work, is that everything he shares about health and wellbeing is what I learned years ago in the personal development industry, that he now matches with the most current brain research.  Concepts like:

Our thoughts do matter when it comes our mental and physical health and well-being. How to STOP victim mentality (poor me thinking) especially when it comes to our neurological makeup. How to increase our levels of success, even when we’ve lost hope with our health. As a board-certified neurologist, Dr. Douyon shows us how we can in fact take charge of our health, with our brain in mind.

He believes that success in life and business starts in the brain and is on a mission to spread his empowering message that we CAN rewire our brain to create the life we were meant to live, of health and happiness, regardless of our age, and all without prescribing a single pill. 

Let’s meet Dr. Philippe Douyon, connect our brain, to our health and well-being, and take everything he says seriously, as if our lives and futures really do depend on it.

Welcome Dr. Douyon, it’s wonderful to meet you, especially after listening to some of your recent podcasts, and hearing your story. I’m sure I’m not the only one to tell you that your perspective to health and life is unconventional, especially with someone coming from the medical field, am I right?

Intro Q: Dr. Douyon, your story caught my attention as I spent 6 years working in the motivational speaking industry, with a speaker who helped people around the world to understand how when we change our thinking, it can actually change our results and that this change of thinking can impact EVERYTHING—our health, wealth, mental, and physical well-being. Where did YOU learn this secret to life, with the way we think, connected to our brain health and wellbeing? What’s your story and who did YOU study?

Q1: Your story made me think about when illness hits, many times, we aren’t sitting here waiting for it, prepared for everything we will have to go through. It hits us when we least expect it, and whatever it is, we’ve got to fight to get through to the other side. What did you notice was missing in medical school with this mind-brain connection? How did you know how to prepare your own mind and body to heal when you were caught off guard with your health?

1B: My Mom overcame Uterine Cancer in her late 40s and she used this mental activity where she would imagine each part of her body (from head to toe) like a meditation, and she would imagine an axe chopping up the cancer cells. She did this twice a day. I used to tell this story years ago, and many people would say “that’s crazy—there’s no way your Mom beat uterine cancer this way.” Since very few people did, her surgeon asked if she would come into the hospital and share her strategy, since she was the only one in her group who healed themselves completely and remains cancer free today. As a medical doctor, what can you tell me about the power of positive thinking, and our health? How important is our mindset to our healing when faced with a serious, life-threatening diagnosis?

1C: While reading your book, Neuroplasticity: Your Brain's Superpower, I couldn’t miss what your colleagues in the medical field said. Dr. Sidor, a quadruple board-certified Psychiatrist mentioned that “finally we have an expert in the field of neuroscience and neurology who breaks down complex concepts and demystifies the workings of the brain, while putting the power back in our hands.”  How are you planning to help other people understand about the power of their brain as it relates to health/wellbeing and reaching our highest potential in life?

Q2: When you were faced with dialysis, and decided to go through it “your way,” what did you do that was different from other people around you? What did other people say when they saw how you were spending your time in dialysis?

Q3: There is no sugar-coating with this question. I want to hear what you really think about this. While health is very important to me, at the top of my list, by no means am I perfect. We can all improve in some way. While I’m pretty good about choosing healthy foods, and sharing tips on the podcast for health and wellness, however, I do drink wine in moderation. Well, since writing these questions, I listened to Dr. Andrew Huberman’s most recent podcast on the impacts of alcohol and the brain[iii], and he makes a clear-cut case that even for moderate drinkers, there are very few benefits to drinking alcohol, only risks, making me seriously question why I’m putting a known carcinogen in my body when I won’t take an Advil because I know that will mess up my microbiome.  

What have you seen with people who choose unhealthy foods or drinks over their health? I know your take on soda is like my take on Advil, but what do you think about alcohol and its impact on the brain that we should think about for preventing neurological disorders?

Q4: Dr. Douyon, our podcast took a turn towards health and well-being around September 2020, when we started looking at the Top 5 Health Staples[iv] that I thought could really move the needle for all of us and improve our physical and mental health.  I really got into understanding Alzheimer’s Prevention, and it seems that exercise solves many mental/physical health problems, so we’ve centered many episodes around the impact of exercise on the brain.  When I heard you mention your Pyramid of Neurological Health, I wondered what you think we should all know to prevent neurological disorders?

Q4B: How do the TOP 5 Health Staples that we’ve been focused on the podcast compare to your Pyramid of Neurological Health? If you look at my list, would you change it in any way? Am I missing anything that’s important for our neurological health?

Q4C: What do you say to people who don’t want to let go of their vices?

Q4D: How do you make behavior change stick?

Q5: From listening to your Brain Prophet’s Podcast, I can see that you are on a mission to help people to take control of their brain, when it comes to their overall health, but what have I missed? How do you want your mission to impact the world? What is your vision for the work you are doing?

Q6: Most of our listeners are focused on their health and wellbeing, but like me, could sharpen the saw in some areas. What do you think is the wakeup call that we could all benefit from BEFORE a serious neurological illness hits us? What are one of two things would you suggest we all be doing to move the needle the most towards health and wellness?

For people to learn more about your work, I will put all the links to your website, book and online course in the show notes. I want to thank you very much, Dr. Douyon, for bringing credibility through science and research to the positive thinking movement where many years ago, many doctors would prescribe a pill over many of the strategies you’ve shared today.

Thank you for spearheading the way, and showing us how our health and well-being really can be within our control.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

As we close out this episode, I think it came at the perfect time for me to think back to the beginning of the year, when we looked at how we would achieve NEW results, to make 2022 our best year ever[v], do things in a wildly different way than we have previously, and the importance of learning and applying NEW and specialized knowledge to our lives, in order to move beyond where we’ve ever been before.

This is exactly what Dr. Douyon’s online course, Taking Charge of Your Brain[vi] is all about.  I highly encourage following Dr. Douyon’s work, reading his book, and tuning into his podcast, especially if you have an area of your life that you want to improve in the area of health and wellness.

I’ve already made some notes of where I’ll be making changes, and it’s all focused around the understanding that we have ONE BRAIN, ONE BODY and ONE LIFE…and all the choices I’m making today are either “Rewiring My Brain for Health and Happiness” or they are not.

 I hope you’ll join me in looking for areas of your life that you want to improve.

I’ll see you on Friday.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI: 

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi  

Website https://www.achieveit360.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samadi/ 

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/andreasamadi  

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RESOURCES:

FOLLOW Dr. PHILIPPE DOUYON

Website https://www.inlebrainfitinstitute.com/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/philippe.md/?hl=en

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PhilippeDouyonMD

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-philippe-douyon-85a24449/

The Brain Prophet’s Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-brain-prophets-podcast/id1582747254

RECENT PODCAST APPEARANCES:

Think Unbroken Podcast: Neuroplasticity and the Impact of Positivity with Dr. Philippe Douyon

Rewire the Podcast: Improve Your Health Through Neuroplasticity with Dr. Philippe Douyon, MD

Black to Business Podcast: [BLACK MEN WHO LEAD] How To Take Charge Of Your Brain & Rewire It For Success w/ Dr. Philippe Douyon

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroplasticity: Your Brain's Superpower published by Philippe Douyon, MD April 23, 2019  https://www.amazon.com/Neuroplasticity-Brains-Superpower-Change-Brain/dp/164228100X

[ii]Take Charge of Your Brain online course by Philippe Douyon, MD.  https://www.inlebrainfitinstitute.com/take-charge

[iii] Dr. Andrew Huberman’s Podcast on “What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain and Health” https://hubermanlab.com/what-alcohol-does-to-your-body-brain-health/

NOTES FROM Juan Pablo Aranovich Published August 22, 2022 https://medium.com/@juanpabloaranovich/the-effects-of-alcohol-how-bad-are-they-bfb93c57ff8f

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #87 “Top 5 Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies”  https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/do-you-know-the-top-5-brain-health-and-alzheimers-prevention-strategies-with-andrea-samadi/

[v]Neuroscience Meet Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #193 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-3-using-autosuggestion-and-your-imagination-to-put-your-goals-on-autopilot/

[vi] Take Charge of Your Brain online course by Philippe Douyon, MD.  https://www.inlebrainfitinstitute.com/take-charge