Making a Good Brain Great; The Amen Clinic Program for Achieving and Sustaining Optimal Mental Performance

New York: Harmony Books, 2005. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xvi, 313, [7] pages. Illustrations. Appendix. Glossary. References and Further Reading. Index. Daniel Gregory Amen (born July 19, 1954) is an American celebrity doctor who practices as a psychiatrist and brain disorder specialist as director of the Amen Clinics. He is a five-time New York Times best-selling author as of 2012. Amen has built a profitable business around the use of SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomography) imaging for diagnostic purposes. His marketing of SPECT scans and much of what he says about the brain and health in his books, media appearances, and marketing of his clinics have been condemned by scientists and doctors as lacking scientific validity and as being unethical, especially since the way SPECT is used in his clinics exposes people to harmful radiation with no clear benefit. Amen has studied brain injuries affecting professional athletes and has consulted on post-concussion issues for the National Football League. You probably run, lift weights, or do yoga to keep your body in great shape; you put on sunscreen and lotions to protect your skin; but chances are you simply ignore your brain and trust it to do its job. People unknowingly endanger or injure their brains, stress them by working at a frenzied pace and not getting enough sleep, pollute them with caffeine, alcohol, and drugs, and deprive them of proper nutrients. Brain dysfunction is the number one reason people fail at school, work, and relationships. The brain is the organ of learning, working, and loving—the supercomputer that runs our lives. It's very simple: when our brains work right, we work right—and when our brains have trouble, we have trouble in our lives. Luckily, it's never too late: the brain is capable of change, and when you care for it, the results are amazing. Making a Good Brain Great gives you the tools you need to optimize your brain power and enrich your health and your life in the process. The principles and exercises in this book, based on years of cutting-edge neuroscience research and the experiences of thousands of people, provide a wealth of practical information to teach you how to achieve the best brain possible. You will learn: how to eat right to think right; how to protect your brain from injuries and toxic substances; how to nourish your brain with vitamins and do mental workouts to keep it strong; the critical component of physical exercise, and which kinds work best; how to rid your brain of negative thoughts, counteract stress, and much more. Full of encouraging anecdotes from Dr. Amen's many years of experience, Making a Good Brain Great is a positive and practical road map for enriching and improving your own greatest asset—your brain.