Customer Reviews

Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The book is not bad. There are very interesting information on brain types.

The big problem with the book is frankly a lack of focus. You may very well come away with an OMG-now-what feeling. That's because the author attempt to cover many possibilities that contribute to the same problem. Let's say you suffer from anxiety, by the end of the book, you will have been given 50 different things that could have contributed to you experiencing anxiety - and when you try to summarize all those "solutions" it tends to lead you to basic good commons sense: eat well, exercise, don't stress. Great! Now I know how to live.

That is not to say that book doesn't give good advice or that it doesn't have added information. But for 80% of the book, you would have already known the common sense information if you paid any remote attention to the usual batch of health and fitness related articles and magazines.

The big draw for me to purchase this book is to learn about the different types of brains that Dr. Amen has identified. And how each can be best managed via supplements? I focused in on supplements because I already have fairly good regime when it comes to food and exercise. He does provide the info I seek, but I had to shuffle through different parts of the book to piece the information together. The author did not make that easy. At the end of it, I came up with a one-page of summary from all those scattered writings. I'm OK with it but it is clearly not the best. It also indicate the value of your money, assuming you had some common sense about diets already.

The point is, if you don't know a lot of basic information to begin with regarding good eating and brain habits, then this book will be very valuable. If you know the basics already, you will find information that you've not seen before but it takes some work to extract out the info and it puts to question the real value you are getting.

If you are looking for something new or scientific, skip this one. The book is short on actual science, uses simplistic anecdotes, but more importantly is nothing more than a written infomercial for Dr. Amens to try to sell you his vitamins and supplements. Once you identify the "type" of overeater you are, the book recommends supplements to help you "change your brain" all of which are available on the Amens web site for outrageous prices. The book is one long, giant infomercial. You can get all of the same informaiton for free on the website, and get instantaneous "personalized" results from the "test" there, along with recommendations of which overpriced supplements you should buy from the web site. Nothing new in this book, so save your money. Just go get the pitch from the free web site, and decide whether to fork out hundreds of dollars for supplements there. You won't need this book to make that decision. Just Google "Amen clinics".

Dr Amen is a board certified psychiatrist and is well-informed. He knows what he is talking about. He has read the journals and mastered the textbooks. He has published work in peer-reviewed journals cited in PubMed. The treatments he suggests in this book are only mildly unorthodox and some of them, such as hypnosis, meditation, relaxation and eye movement desensitization have been shown to be effective and are overly neglected by mainstream medicine. Some of them, such as samE, St John's wort, glycine and omega-3 fatty acids are on the cusp of scientific respectability. "Dr.Amen's Brain and Memory Recovery Solution" and "Dr. Amen's Craving Solution" are perhaps less likely to receive FDA approval, but maybe his application is pending.
His diet suggestions are for complex carbohydrates and frequent meals. He is against the Atkins diet. He recommends exercise but avoidance of cycling and skate boarding (because you might bang your head).
I think his appeal is not so much because of the treatments he offers but because of the explanations he offers. It can be frustrating for sufferers from severe anxiety or depression to learn that all their blood chemistry and X-rays are perfectly normal. Amen gives the public an organic reason for why they feel mentally bad. Not all of his reasons are totally spurious. Variations in cortisol really can affect feelings of well being. Epinephrine really can produce feelings of anxiety. Thyroid abnormalities really can cause mental symptoms.
There is more of a problem with his use of SPECT, which involves injecting a radioactive substance. The SPECT scan has a scientific basis and some valid medical uses. The two major imaging methods for looking at the brain in clinical use are the CAT scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. These can show tumors, or bleeding, or parts of the brain that have become softened or liquefied.
Positron emitting tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (f MRI), regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), and the kind of rCBF called single photon emitting computerized tomography (SPECT) can show up localizations of disordered brain function that were not apparent from CAT or MRI. For example, decreased metabolism has been found in frontal areas with schizophrenia, and in parietal brain areas with dementia. Dr. Abel claims to be able to use SPECT scan to diagnose a variety of emotional conditions. However the Brain Imaging Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine has offered Dr. Amen an opportunity to test some of his claims and he has refused, according to a report in the American Journal of Psychiatry (May, 2010, volume 167, page 598).

Dr. Amen's new book, "Change Your Brain Change Your Body", is a great book to have as a reference on hand to anyone who has struggled to lose weight in the past. It presents scientific reasoning behind why individuals have such a difficult time when trying the latest and most popular diets but it is written so that you do not have to be a medical doctor to understand it! Once you read this book, you will be able to understand how your particular brain functioning will help you to lose the weight and gain a more healthy lifestyle.

As a Neuropsychologist, I have found it very valuable to help many of my patients deal not only with weight issues, but also hormonal imbalances, anxiety and depression. Understanding your brain type and how is can affect so many different aspects of your life is critical to the first steps in recovery. The chapters on the skin, hormone and skin solution are fabulous! A lot of my patients suffer with sleep issues, are stressed out and think in a very negative way. This book is fabulous in that it explains why these issues are key factors not only in the way you feel emotionally and cognitively but why they affect your weight as well!

I would definitely recommend that every therapist have this book in their bookcase and every patient have one at home!

(See my other review under CHANGE YOUR BRAIN, CHANGE YOUR LIFE). I wanted to believe in Dr. Amen. He was smart, he was funny, and everything he said seemed to make sense. Moreover, his lecture was being broadcast on PBS, so he had to be legitimate, right? I was disillusioned when I went to his website and took a "free" online test that diagnosed me with every mental problem but bipolar syndrome, and proceeded to recommend products that would have cost me more than $200 a month, all this without knowing anything more about me than what I put on the questionnaire. Some of the information was contradictory, because it said that I should not take products with fish oil or gingko, but many of the recommended products included one or the other.

I'm no medical expert, but I cannot find any information other than that given by Dr. Amen or his supporters that SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) is a legitimate diagnostic tool the way he claims it is. Even Wikipedia says the evidence is "anecdotal" and an article on SALON points out the problems in more learned language. As far as the "prescriptions", they all come with a disclaimer that they are not FDA approved.

I have also written to PBS asking them to vet their programming more carefully. I recommend getting this book out of the library and talking with your physician before rushing to try any of his products.

In "Change Your Brain, Change Your Body" Dr. Amen explains how he has used SPECT imaging to study the blood flow and activity patterns in the brain. SPECT is an acronym for single photon emission computed tomography.

He offers many examples of how he has used SPECT to obtain critical information about the brain function of his patients, and determine the best treatment to help those individuals to overcome a wide variety of problems, from depression to obesity to colds and headaches. The book makes use of illustrations of brain scans taken before and after treatment at Amen's clinics. He clearly explains how he interprets these scans, and how he determines the appropriate treatment for an individual.

Dr. Amen presents 15 solutions to assist you in boosting your brain to enable you to attain and maintain the kind of body and sense of well-being you have always wanted. Among the many benefits that can be derived by learning to love your brain and apply the easy-to-follow solutions are increased energy, sharper memory function, and relief from unwanted stress.

Sounds to good to be true? Not really. I can attest to many of the strategies and techniques this book offers because I have used them and taught them with amazing results for four decades. What's really new and different about Dr.Amen's approach is that he is employing some recently discovered scientific diagnostic equipment such as SPECT along with his unique treatments.

Back in the 1980's, I presented health conferences at the University of Minnesota and other colleges featuring "pioneers" in using the brain/mind for healing, and maintaining good health. Participants in those conferences included Norman Cousins, O.Carl Simonton, Bernie Siegel, Deloris Krieger, Norman Shealy, Raymond Moody, Gerald Jampolsky Karl Menninger, etal. Dr. Amen is to be congratulated for building on their work and currently being on the cutting edge of discoveries and treatment in this field. The world could use more like him.

This is a valuable, well-written book, and deserves five stars.

I have been struggling with weight-loss for the past 8 years. I have tried everything from diet pills to hypnosis. I am a veteran so you would think I already had the background to exercise properly and eat right, but this simply is not true. After I had my children, something in me changed. I no longer wanted to deal with life, and it was almost as if I was stuck in a depression state without any exits. I purchased the audio-book version of Magnificent Mind at Any Age: Natural Ways to Unleash Your Brain's Maximum Potential by Dr. Amen, and was impressed from the start. My husband and children noticed the difference in me after I started taking the St. Wort and L-Tyrosine supplements. I was on GABA already for a different reason, but the combination of these three items helped regulate my mood.

Then this wonderful book came out. I was eager to read it since I already had success with a previous book by Dr. Amen. I immediately put a lot of ideas into action. For instance, I maintained my intake of the supplements, plus I found a way to get back into exercising. I love to do research on my computer, so my husband brought me a special stand for it. This way I can exercise on my stationary bike while working on my computer at the same time. This motivated me to continue on with other positive things for my body, like eating more fruits and vegetables too. This book will go into detail about how to improve your attitude (brain) in order to affect a positive change in your life. Just to let you know, I went from 251 @ 5'8" to 228 in eight weeks. I achieved this by riding my bike slowly while reading this book, and/or working on my computer. Order your copy today, because I have read this book four times already and I learn something new every time.

I was very disappointed in this book. I will give it one star because it might be motivational for some people, but it basically boils down to common sense tips (eat less calories than you burn to lose weight!), theories about the human brain (via SPECT imaging) and unproven nutrition tips. I was shocked by how often the author made statements like "some studies suggest..." rather than finding real, scientific proof. Many of the studies he uses to make claims are anecdotal at best and have been subjected to no scientific rigor at all. One of the worst examples is where he hypothesizes that Lamar Odom is an inconsistent basketball player because he eats too much candy. He might be right, but he offers no evidence to back it up. It would be equally valid (or equally invalid) to say that his inconsistency was a result of not eating enough candy. Without evidence it is all pure conjecture. The only anecdotal evidence presented is a quote from Odom saying that he had his best games in the playoffs after eating candy for breakfast. This actually disproves the authors claim, so he dismisses it.
I was also turned off by the numerous links to the website where he sells his products. His "research" is really just a vehicle to sell his products and probably explains why he doesn't subject his theories to real scientific method where doubleblind testing with placebos might show different results.
This is very unfortunate because I think a lot of his ideas/theories might in fact stand up to testing.

I never realized how much my brain chemistry has to do with my body, especially in dealing with food addiction and weight loss. I have learned that I cannot live my life switching from diet to diet but that I must make a complete lifestyle change that will support the brain/body connection. In this book Dr. Amen taught me how our society lies to us about food consumption! Is risking our health by supersizing or eating at buffets really worth the few dollars that we save? To me, No! Since finishing this book, I have begun making permanent changes in my life and am already noticing a dramatic difference! My moods have improved and I've already noticed an increase in my energy level. The concepts in this book are simple, yet so practical and effective! This is a must read!

I always read customer reviews before purchasing a book, and when I ordered this one the reviews were all 5 star. I thought this book was going to change my life! I was very disappointed....

First, as with many "self-help" books, the author takes about 10 pages to say what could have been said in 1 page. After all, self-help "magazines" don't sell and make money--you have to stretch your material out into book format. I found myself reading the same information over, and over, and over again.

Second, I found some of the advice to be a little impractical. I purchased this book because I'm having a difficult time getting motivated to lose weight. I know I need to eat right and exercise, but I'm just so tired and feel so blah that I just haven't been able to do it. So Dr. Amen's premise appealed to me--it's not my lack of willpower, it's a problem in my brain. If I just follow his advice, my brain will be "fixed" and I'll be eating all the right foods, in the right amounts, and working out like crazy. Well, a large part of his advice is to eat right and exercise. Not how to get there, just to do it and my brain will start getting "fixed." Hmmmm.....

Third, Dr. Amen suggests a number of supplements that will help brain function. Upon researching some of these supplements, I find that many have not been approved by the FDA. Some have been linked to rather serious side effects, and other medical experts caution that they should not be taken without further research. Personally, I don't want to be a guinea pig. Unless there is overwhelming support from the medical community that indicates a supplement is safe to ingest, I'm not going to put it into my body.

I feel this book was a complete waste of my time and money because I didn't learn a thing. If you don't already know that lack of exercise, poor diet, and negative thinking has a negative effect on your brain, then you could probably benefit from this book. But if you know those things, just not how to implement them, you may want to look elsewhere.