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My guest in this episode 90 of Totally Well Podcast is Austin Perlmutter, MD, author of Brain Wash, co-authored with his father, David Perlmutter, MD.
Brain Wash is on the New York Times Bestseller List!
Austin Perlmutter, M.D., is a board-certified internal medicine physician. He received his medical degree from the University of Miami and completed his internal medicine residency at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland Oregon. His academic focus is in understanding the decision-making process, how it is influenced by internal and external factors, and how it changes our health and illness outcomes. He is also interested in methods of improving burnout and poor mental health in the medical field. He writes for Psychology Today on his blog, The Modern Brain.
Reach out to Dr. Perlmutter at www.BrainWashBook.com and on IG @austinperlmutter.
The problem we discuss in Brain Wash
- Our modern world gives us unlimited access to things like food, entertainment and social media connection, in theory providing us with everything we should need for health and happiness. Despite this, rates of and morbidity from preventable chronic disease, depression, anxiety, loneliness are either not improving or worsening
The central idea
- At this point, many of us know what we “should” be doing to sustain healthy lifestyles (eating healthier, exercising, not spending so much time online), and yet we struggle to maintain health and happiness
- We believe that a key to solving this puzzle is to understand what the modern world is doing to our brains, and how this is changing our choices, our emotional states, and our overall quality of life
- By understanding how our brains are being manipulated by aspects of our modern world, we can start to remove toxic influences on our thinking, our neurochemistry, and the actual structure of our brains
- We can then replace these influences with positive interventions that can help improve our thinking and our brain structure and connectivity patterns through neuroplasticity. In doing so, we help regain balance, health and sustainable mental wellness.
- We explain how the following core topics influence our brains by physically changing their function for both the better and the worse
Core topics in Brain Wash
- Key brain anatomy
- The prefrontal cortex and its role in making well thought out and thoughtful decisions
- The limbic system, specifically the amygdala and its role in instinctual/reactive choices, but how it can be overactivated in conditions like PTSD, social phobia, anxiety, and through stress and lead us to poor decisions
- The reward system, specifically the nucleus accumbens, and its role in directing our behavior, but how this can be overactivated to the point that we are constantly chasing our cravings
The most prominent negative changes to our bodies and brains in the modern world
- Pro-inflammatory dietary patterns
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Mindless and instant-gratification based media instead of in-person connection
- Preponderance of time spent indoors
- Constant chronic stress
- Chronic inflammation (from diet, sedentary lifestyle, stress)
- Ready access to and reinforcement from narcissism-boosting media
- Insufficient sleep
The most prominent positive interventions for our brains and bodies
- An anti-inflammatory diet
- Exercise
- Mindful activity (meditation and mindfulness)
- Stress-lowering behavior (meditation, nature exposure)
- Nature exposure in general
- Empathy-boosting behaviors
- Adequate sleep
- Interpersonal connection
