Magnificent Mind at Any Age: Natural Ways to Unleash Your Brain's Maximum Potential [Hardcover]

Daniel G. Amen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 2008

It all starts with your brain: how you think, how you feel, how you interact with others, and how well you succeed in realizing your goals and dreams. When your brain works right, so do you. When it’s out of balance, you feel frustrated, or worse. Yet amid all the advice that bombards us daily about how to keep the rest of our body strong and healthy, we hear very little about how to keep the most complex and magnificent organ of all—the human brain—in top working order.

Based on the most up-to-date research, as well as on Dr. Daniel Amen’s more than twenty years of treating patients at the Amen Clinics, where he and his associates pioneered the use of brain imaging in clinical practice, Magnificent Mind at Any Age does exactly that. Dr. Amen shows how many of the traditional approaches to overcoming the mind-centered challenges that hold us back—try harder, work longer, find the sheer willpower—either do not work or may make our problems worse. The true key to satisfaction and success at any age is a healthy brain. By optimizing our brain function we can all develop these qualities of a magnificent mind enjoyed by the world’s most successful and happiest people:

• Increased memory and concentration
• The ability to maintain warm and satisfying relationships
• Undiminished sexual desire and performance
• Goal-oriented perseverance
• Better impulse control and mastery over potential addictions
• Free-flowing creativity and the ability to relax and enjoy life’s pleasures

To achieve this, as Dr. Amen explains here in clearly accessible language, we have a range of options available, including proper diet, natural supplements and vitamins, exercise, positive thinking habits, and, if needed, medication. In addition to revealing how we can all take advantage of such strategies to enjoy the benefits of a balanced and healthy brain at every stage of our lives, Dr. Amen also pinpoints specific ways to tailor behavior, nutrition, and lifestyle to deal effectively with common mental challenges such as memory problems, anxiety and depression, attention deficit disorder, and insomnia.

Whether you’re in the midst of a demanding career or are looking forward to an active and richly rewarding retirement, Magnificent Mind at Any Age can give you the edge you need to live every day to your fullest potential.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Learn the secrets of a balanced brain from a physician who has experience examining 50,000 scans of patients. Compare a failing mind to a brilliant brain and learn how to move in the direction you desire.”
—Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., bestselling coauthor of You: The Owner’s Manual

“A must-read . . . Magnificent Mind at Any Age blends scientific innovation with a clear and powerful writing style. Dr. Amen’s SPECT scans are fascinating, his conclusions are life-changing, and he provides practical health strategies you can utilize immediately.”
—Michael Gurian, author of What Could He Be Thinking? and Leadership and the Sexes

“I consider Daniel Amen to be the most innovative psychiatrist in America. His premise is simple: you can’t have a healthy life without a healthy brain. His dietary and lifestyle strategies for maintaining brain health are based on the world’s most comprehensive library of brain imaging technology. If you want a better and more fulfilled life, this book is a must-read.”
—Barry Sears, Ph.D., bestelling author of The Zone

“Dr. Amen is without a doubt our nation’s leader as a top clinician/researcher who has the gift of making the complexities of reaching brain health and potential understandable by everyone. . . . Magnificent Mind at Any Age is a gift for the baby boomer who is now facing how to live the rest of his or her life and for young parents who want to make sure that they are providing the best they can for their children and teens. Everyone will find Magnificent Mind at Any Age a great resource.”
—Earl R. Henslin, Psy.D., author of This Is Your Brain on Joy

“Providing brain basics from cradle to grave, Dr. Amen has written an indispensable handbook for handling emotions, cognition, relationships, and even our spiritual lives. It is comprehensive, inspiring, and user-friendly, explaining the most complex material in a way that’s easy to understand and, better yet, to put into practice.”
—Hyla Cass, M.D., coauthor of Natural Highs

“A user’s manual to care for our precious brain. If you have a brain, buy this book!”
—Mark Hyman, M.D., bestselling author of UltraMetabolism

About the Author

DANIEL G. AMEN, M.D., is a clinical neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and brain imaging expert who heads the world-renowned Amen Clinics. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and has won several writing and research awards. He is a regular contributor to Men's Health and has published nineteen books, numerous professional and popular articles, and a number of audio and video programs. His books include Preventing Alzheimer's, Healing Anxiety and Depression, Healing the Hardware of the Soul, Healing ADD, Making a Good Brain Great, The Brain in Love, and the New York Times bestseller Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. He is an internationally recognized keynote speaker and the star of the very popular public television special Change Your Brain, Change Your Life.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Crown Archetype; 1 edition (December 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307339092
• ISBN-13: 978-0307339096
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Amen is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost experts on applying brain imaging science to clinical psychiatric practice. He is a board certified child and adult psychiatrist and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is the medical director of Amen Clinics, Inc. in Newport Beach and Fairfield, California, Bellevue, Washington, and Reston, Virginia. Amen Clinics have the world's largest database of functional brain scans relating, totaling more than 60,000 scans. The clinics have seen patients from 90 countries.

Dr. Amen is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. He has presented his work around the world. He is widely regarded as a gifted teacher, taking complex concepts in neuropsychiatry and imaging and making them easily accessible to other professionals.

Dr. Amen is the lead researcher on the world's largest brain imaging/brain rehabilitation study on professional football players, which not only demonstrated significant brain damage in a high percentage of retired players, but also the possibility for rehabilitation in many with the principles that underlie his work.

Dr. Amen is the author of 40 professional articles, the co-author of the Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry's chapter on Functional Imaging in Clinical Practice, 28 books, including three New York Times bestsellers: Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Magnificent Mind At Any Age, and Change Your Brain, Change Your Body. He is also the author of Healing ADD, Making A Good Brain Great, Healing the Hardware of the Soul, and co-author of Unchain Your Brain, Healing Anxiety and Depression and Preventing Alzheimer's.

In 2011, Random House will release his latest book, The Amen Solution: Brain Healthy Ways to Lose Weight and Keep It Off. In late 2011, Random House will also release Dr. Amen's Upcoming book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Age (tentative title).

Dr. Amen is the producer and star of 5 highly popular shows about the brain, which have raised more than 32 million dollars for public television.

A small sample of the organizations Dr. Amen has spoken for include: the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), Harvard's Learning and the Brain Conference, The Million Dollar Roundtable, Retired NFL Players Summit, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the Supreme Courts of Delaware, Ohio and Wyoming. Dr. Amen's work has been featured in Newsweek, Parade Magazine, New York Times Magazine, Men's Health, and Cosmopolitan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adding SPECT Scans as a Diagnostic Tool for Psychiatry and Brain Function Enhancement, February 17, 2009

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Magnificent Mind at Any Age: Natural Ways to Unleash Your Brain's Maximum Potential (Hardcover)

Today, much psychiatry involves deciding which pill to prescribe. Patients with the same symptoms may respond quite differently to the same medications. Most psychiatrists will candidly tell you that prescribing is mostly a matter of trial and error, with the patient often suffering during the process.

Dr. Daniel G. Amen has a different idea. Conduct SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) scans to identify brain deficiencies in conjunction with standard psychiatric diagnostic tools. In this book, he shares examples of how various brain dysfunctions can be identified by such scans. After trying a treatment, he can then test the adequacy of the approach by asking the patient about his or her life and by looking at an updated scan. In these before and after images, the results are remarkably different.

As a substitute for such scans, Dr. Amen invites readers to respond to a series of questions that he often finds are indicative of brain dysfunctions. From there, he describes the various alternative (non-medicinal) treatments as well as the indicated meds. In many cases, patients will be helped by an improved diet, exercise, avoiding sources of brain trauma, improving hydration, reducing excess stress, learning how to stop focusing on negative thoughts, getting more sleep, reducing caffeine and alcohol consumption, avoiding aspartame and MSG, eliminating environmental toxins, and reducing television watching, video game playing, computer use, and cell phone calls and texting.

After you identify what you or a loved one might be suffering from, he also describes the treatments that usually help. In the course of this, he describes the latest research that describes why these treatments help.

As someone who isn't a physician, I was struck by the potential of imaging to improve diagnosis. I know what imaging has done for helping identify cancers, cardio-vascular diseases, and glandular dysfunctions. Obviously, I'm not in a position to judge the quality of Dr. Amen's work, but the theory makes sense to me as someone who often designs new measurements to diagnose the causes and sources of problems.

I found that the book's main weakness is that it wasn't always clear to me what Dr. Amen meant by his various screening questions. After I got into the sections that talked about the dysfunctions in more detail, I often found that I had misunderstood the purpose of his questions.

I liked the sections of the book that talk about how to improve your brain, even if you don't have a major dysfunction. I think that anyone will be intrigued by what Dr. Amen reports.

110 of 118 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a gem!, December 13, 2008

By 

Melissa Martínez de Arana, Ph.D. (San Juan, PR, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Magnificent Mind at Any Age: Natural Ways to Unleash Your Brain's Maximum Potential (Hardcover)

This book is a jewel because of its beauty, which is rare and powerful. For this, I have to write that reading this book gave me a beautiful shock. Let me explain my reaction in two thoughts:

The first is suggested in the title of Chapter 5: IF YOU WERE MY FAMILY, HOW WOULD I TREAT YOU? Few medical doctors share, with modesty, their personal experiences and the tools they use to make their diagnoses and treatments. I was surprised to see how Dr.Amen, candidly shares the four circles of health and healing and why one should consider natural treatments. This concept is not new to the sciences of human behavior. However, to consider the transcendent or spiritual dimension of the person as an equally important dimension as the biological, social and psychological is little regarded by men and women in charge of today's health sciences.

The second concept that has caught my attention is how freely Dr. Amen writes about the power of lies in our lives. In chapter 12: EMBRACE THE TRUTH, Dr.Amen helps us to discover how automatic negative thoughts (ANT's) poisons our brains and pollute our reading of reality as well as the reading of the historical events of our lives. In every chapter, the author transmits his wisdom and generously shares the exercises that many of his patients have found to be beneficial to improve their brain and their life.

I think that this book is a gift of hope for those who are still seeking answers to the questions that nobody has been able to answer them. In my experience as a psychologist, I may say without exaggeration that this book is a gem. I am grateful for it.

Melissa Martínez de Arana, Ph.D.
Psychologist & "Brain Coach"

247 of 272 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some Palatable Bits; Needs More Salt, March 11, 2009

By 

Word Lover (On Location) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Magnificent Mind at Any Age: Natural Ways to Unleash Your Brain's Maximum Potential (Hardcover)

I have been reading so many brain, depression, happiness books over the past several years that I decided to finally post some of my views. One important observation is to really check out what the author's agenda MIGHT be. As more than a few of the previous reviewers have pointed out, Dr. Amen's books are good advertisements for his clinics. There is some good information to be found here, but most people only read one or two books on a particular subject and then move on to another subject. It would be unfortunate if Dr. Amen's books were a primary source for one's information.
I am recommending just a few of the excellent authors in the brain-stress-happiness area: Daniel Gilbert, Richard O'Connor, Daniel Goleman, Deborah Tannen, Martin Seligman, Jon Kabat-Zinn