Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

LosAngelesBookStore

Returns

FREE 30-day refund/replacement

Payment

Secure transaction

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Daniel G. Amen

Follow

Unleash the Power of the Female Brain: Supercharging Yours for Better Health, Energy, Mood, Focus, and Sex Paperback – December 3, 2013

by Daniel G. Amen M.D. (Author)

See all formats and editions

Purchase options and add-ons

From one of the world's leading experts on how the brain works, a step-by-step, practical program for women to achieve greater health, energy, and lasting happiness by harnessing the power of the female brain.

For the first time, bestselling author and brain expert Dr. Daniel G. Amen offers insight on the unique characteristics and needs of the female brain and a practical, prescriptive program targeted specifically for women to help them thrive. In this breakthrough guide based on research from his clinical practice, Dr. Amen addresses the issues women ask about the most including fertility, pregnancy, menopause, weight, stress, anxiety, insomnia, and relationships.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Daniel Amen is, by almost any measure, the most popular psychiatrist in America." – Washington Post

"If you want to be stronger, smarter and sexier, this is your book!" - Leeza Gibbons, TV Host, Author, Health Advocate

“Unleash the Power of the Female Brain is a thought-provoking, breakthrough, insightful book which will assist millions of women and their partners to find answers for their personal and intimate lives. Carefully researched Dr. Amen's approach to deep-seated problems will not only effect healing, but will also help to prevent furthering existing pain.” - Christa Dowling, former Editor-in-chief of Vogue and author of The Unkept Promise

“Dr. Amen has spent his career exploring and explaining the vast dimensions of the brain. This book is a must read for all women who want to reduce their stress and create a life of health and happiness.” – Dr. Kathleen Hall, CEO, The Stress Institute & The Mindful Living Network

“I like the idea of giving women the information to improve brain function. And that worrying about our health actually results in a longer, healthier life!” - Cynthia Good; Editor & CEO, Little PINK Book

“An intriguing exploration of the biologic, psychological, social and spiritual interrelationships that can enhance female brain health.” - Nanette K. Wenger, MD, Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) Emeritus Emory University School of Medicine

“We've always thought we were more intuitive and empathetic but to see it in a picture makes it absolute and thrilling.” - Carole Hyatt, founder and CEO of the Leadership Forum

"At last, a user-friendly guidebook to the female brain, for women-- and surprisingly, written by a man. Who else but Dr. Daniel Amen could mix it up as he does? You'll find the latest science, fascinating case histories, and effective action steps to lead us on the road to a healthier brain. Clearly, Dr. Amen appreciates women, loves brains and making them shine-- and can tell us how to be our absolute 'brain-best.' -Hyla Cass MD, author of The Addicted Brain and How to Break Free

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 has published 26 books including the New York Times bestsellers Use Your Brain to Change Your Age, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life; Magnificent Mind at Any Age; and Change Your Brain, Change Your Body. He is an internationally recognized keynote speaker and the star of several very popular public-television specials. Dr. Amen spearheads the groundbreaking Amen Clinics' retired NFL player brain imaging study and is intimately involved with The Daniel Challenge, a project of Pastor Rick Warren and Saddleback Church to create brain healthy churches.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1

FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR FEMALE BRAIN

Care About Your Brain More Than Any Other Body Part

Brain envy is the first step to unleashing the power of the female brain.

My best men are women.

—William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army (overheard comment)

Susan was a forty-five-year-old mother of four and the CEO of a nonprofit company that created educational materials for learning-disabled children. She loved her husband and her family, and she had a strong sense of mission for her work. She was active in her local church and was a respected member of her community. Viewed from the outside, Susan seemed to “have it all.”

But when Susan came into my office, she told a very different story. “I’m just not feeling good,” she said. “I’m tired all the time, whether I sleep in on the weekends or not! I can’t remember the simplest things, and it seems like I can’t keep my mind on anything for more than a minute before something distracts me. I am feeling very overwhelmed.” She sighed. “And it’s getting worse. Stuff I used to be able to do easily I now really have to struggle through. I know people say they slow down as they get older, but I never thought it would happen to me at this age! I wonder if I have early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. I picked up one of your books and you had such a positive message, that even when we get older, we don’t have to feel old. That’s what I want! But all sorts of things in my body seem to be breaking down. I’m gaining weight. My skin is breaking out—that never used to happen! And my cycles feel more jagged and intense. But the worst of it is how crabby and short-tempered I am. My husband keeps telling me I’m always snapping at the children, and at him, and sometimes I don’t even realize it!”

The Strengths and Challenges of the Female Brain

Susan is like so many women I see. She thought she ate a healthy diet but started most days with coffee and a bagel and had a terrible sweet tooth throughout the day. She wanted to work out but could not find the time and consistently drank two glasses of wine at night to relax. There was one major part of her body that she never gave any thought to—her brain. This is ironic, because Susan’s brain governs every aspect of her life. Her brain decides what she eats and how much she sleeps. Her brain decides whether to snap at her children or to take a deep breath and try a different approach. And her brain decides whether Susan is going to live a long and vital life looking and feeling her best or whether she is going to age rapidly, look years older than she is, and perhaps even face a serious disorder like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, or Alzheimer’s.

Of course, none of these decisions as necessarily conscious. But they were made by Susan’s brain nonetheless. And if Susan knew how to take care of her brain, how to give it the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual care it required, then she would be more likely to have a healthy, beautiful brain, which, in turn, would help Susan feel terrific and have the energy she needed to enjoy and be effective in her life.

Brain health is crucial for all my patients: men, women, and children alike. But I have noticed, over many years of practice, that my female patients face special challenges. As we will see in chapter 2, women’s brains have five special strengths: empathy, intuition, self-control, collaboration, and a little worry. Empathy allows women to be loving and nurturing. Intuition enables them to quickly grasp information that may not be obvious or easy to justify through logic. Self-control gives them better control over their impulses. Their collaborative gifts help them to work with others. And their tendency to worry, when it’s in the right proportions, keeps them focused on possible problems and alert to potential solutions.

So far, so good. But like all gifts, these have their dark sides. Empathy can morph into an overwhelming sense of the world riding on your shoulders, the feeling that you have to take care of everyone before your own needs ever get met. Intuition can awaken anxiety-provoking fears as you “know” something is not right without making sure to check it out or get more information. The brain frequently can misperceive things. Self-control can turn into trying to overcontrol others. Being collaborative can all too easily turn into the feeling that you aren’t allowed to do anything until you’ve gotten agreement from everyone else, such as your co-workers, family, or spouse. And the worry that is so useful in small doses can stress you to the point where it hurts your brain and your body and won’t allow you to rest.

Susan too struggled with both the strengths and the challenges of the female brain. Like many women, she felt guilty no matter what she did. If she was home, she was thinking about work; if she was at work, she was thinking about home. A deeply empathetic and caring person, Susan took on everybody’s problems as if they were her own. She worried about her personal assistant, who was caring for an elderly mother; her husband, who had come back from the doctor with news of his high blood sugar; and her children, one of whom had just started to date. Susan worried about the learning-disabled students for whom her company produced educational materials. And she worried about her own parents; her mother seemed more forgetful and her father less engaged. Wherever she looked, Susan felt as though there was another demand she should be meeting, another problem she should be solving, another person to whom she could be giving just a little bit more. She just felt as though whatever she did, she could never win. So of course when her husband approached her for sex or even for an affectionate night of cuddling in front of the TV, Susan couldn’t stay in the moment and enjoy their time together. She just couldn’t turn off her busy brain.

“Susan,” I said to her after hearing about her concerns, “it sounds like you are taking care of everyone in your life. But it is time to start taking much better care of yourself. Everyone you care about will be better if you are at your best.”

Susan looked at me and asked, “How do I start?”

Why Your Brain Matters!

Your Brain Is Involved in Everything You Do

It makes the healthy choices or the unhealthy choices that make you feel good or bad.

When Your Brain Works Right, You Work Right

Your reactions and decisions benefit you.

When Your Brain Is Troubled, You Have Trouble in Your Life

Your bad choices complicate everything.

You Can Change Your Brain and Enhance Your Life!

Following brain-healthy guidelines can give you a fresh start.

The Four Circles Approach to Your Female Brain

At the Amen Clinics, we have developed our Four Circles Approach, which is a “brain smart” comprehensive approach to evaluating and treating our patients. You are always more than your symptoms, and to be well it is critical to take into account all aspects of your biology, psychology, social connections, and spiritual health. Our success rates with patients are very high because we take an integrated approach to understanding and healing the brain. If any one of these areas is not optimized, your brain will suffer, and so will your health, well-being, appearance, mood, and relationships.

With Susan, I went to the whiteboard in my office and drew four big circles. In the first circle I wrote Biology and began with a set of questions to look at the biological factors influencing her brain. I discovered that no one in her extended family had a history of Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia-like processes, but there was a family history of depression. Susan wasn’t on any medications. Her diet was not great, which, as we’ll see in chapter 5, is a terrible thing to do to your brain. She also tended to eat a lot on the run, because she was so busy—also not good for the brain.

Another big biological problem in Susan’s profile was the five or fewer hours of sleep she got each night. I understood her dilemma. With four children and a high-powered job, it was hard to get everything done in a day. But not getting enough sleep is one of the worst things you can do for your brain, so this was a big concern.

As you’ll learn in chapter 4, hormones play a huge role in your brain’s health, and Susan’s hormones were not in the best shape. Her lab results showed that her thyroid levels were low, as were the hormones produced by her adrenal glands (cortisol and DHEA, or dehydroepiandrosterone), likely from chronic stress. Susan basically relied on coffee to get herself going during the day. Then she had a couple of glasses of wine each night to help her relax, which didn’t help her hormones, blood sugar, weight, sleep, or brain. Restoring and balancing Susan’s hormones was going to be a key aspect of improving her brain’s biological health. I was eager to look at her brain scans (I’ll tell you more about this soon) to see what was going on.

First, though, I wanted to see what was happening in the other three circles. In the second circle I wrote the word Psychology. Psychologically, Susan was thinking in undisciplined and negative ways; her busy brain kept returning to the same worries, anxieties, and self-criticisms: I should have done that differently. She probably doesn’t like me. I’m not doing enough for him. What is wrong with me, anyway? Like many female brains, Susan’s was prone to a kind of perfectionism in which she magnified her flaws and minimized her good points. In Susan’s mind, the few extra pounds she had put on felt like the ultimate proof that she was old and ugly. Her children’s normal childhood crises were clear evidence of Susan’s not being a good enough mother. And her husband’s frustration with Susan’s short temper seemed like a sign (completely incorrectly, as it turned out) that their marriage was in trouble.

These psychological issues were both the result of Susan’s poor brain health and a contributing factor to it. Thinking in undisciplined, negative ways is just not good for the health of your brain, which is why, in chapter 6, I teach you how not to believe every stupid thought you have. I refer to these “automatic negative thoughts” as ANTs, and I’ll show you several simple, effective ways of ridding yourself of them.

In the third circle I wrote Social Connections. There too Susan’s brain was facing a number of challenges. Susan felt separated from the most important people in her life, distant from her husband and irritable with her kids. At work, she felt overwhelmed. The support she might have gotten from friends or from her community at church seemed out of reach, because Susan felt too exhausted to reach out.

In the last circle I wrote Spiritual Health. As it happened, Susan’s brain was in good shape in this circle. She had a deep sense of meaning and purpose in her life that sustained her, even in this challenging time. She felt her work mattered to others, and she knew that her presence at home was crucial for her husband and children. She had a deep sense of connection to God, the planet, and the future. Susan’s brain definitely benefited from her sense of meaning and purpose.

Having evaluated each of Susan’s four circles, I moved on to look at Susan’s brain SPECT scans. One of the unique aspects of our work that differentiates us from most psychiatrists is our belief that we should actually look at and evaluate the organ we treat. We do a brain imaging study called SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) that evaluates brain blood flow and activity patterns. It looks at how the brain works. At the Amen Clinics we have been performing SPECT scans for twenty-two years and have a database of over 78,000 scans, giving us a significant edge on how to use them. SPECT scans basically show us three things: areas of the brain that work well and display good activity, areas of the brain that are low in activity, and areas of the brain that are high in activity.

Susan’s SPECT scans helped me get an even clearer picture of what was going on with her. I could see that she had low activity in her temporal lobes, the memory areas of her brain, which explained her forgetfulness. She also had low activity in an area of her prefrontal cortex (PFC)—the “executive control” center in the front third of her brain, associated with focus, concentration, and impulse control. The low activity in her temporal lobes and PFC are common in low thyroid states. I suspected that these problems would improve significantly as soon as Susan started taking better care of her brain: balancing her hormones, getting the food, supplements, sleep, exercise, and psychological help she needed, as well as getting more social support from her loved ones and her community.

Susan was also experiencing problems in her limbic system, her “emotional brain.” There was increased activity there, probably from the chronic stress that she felt at work, at home, and every place else. Driving out the ANTs would help calm this part of Susan’s brain, as would meditation, self-hypnosis, and other relaxation techniques. Healthy food, sleep, a multiple vitamin, fish oil, optimizing her vitamin D level, other targeted supplements, and exercise would help too.

I showed Susan her scan and a healthy one for comparison and pointed out each one of the areas that could use help. As soon as Susan saw her scan and understood what it meant, she asked if it could be made better. This is a question I love answering. The last twenty-two years of my life have been focused on changing my patients’ brains and changing their lives. “Yes,” I said. “If you follow the program I give you, your brain can become much healthier and you will feel much better.” That got her excited.

“You’re telling me if I do a better job of taking care of my brain, that this isn’t permanent, right?” she said to me. “If I do the right things, I could have a better brain.”

“That’s right,” I assured her. “You have to start thinking and caring about your brain.”

“Starting now,” she said, “I want a better brain and a better life.” Her face broke out into a smile. “This is just the best news I’ve heard in a long time,” she added. “What do I do? Let’s get started.”

Susan had just developed brain envy.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0307888959
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harmony
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 3, 2013
Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780307888952
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0307888952
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.92 x 7.94 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #838,751 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #20 in Women's Sexual Health
- #407 in General Women's Health
- #2,549 in Stress Management Self-Help

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Daniel G. Amen

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Daniel Amen believes that brain health is central to all health and success. When your brain works right, he says, you work right; and when your brain is troubled you are much more likely to have trouble in your life. His work is dedicated to helping people have better brains and better lives.

His online videos about brain and mental health have been viewed over 200 million times. Sharecare named him the web’s #1 most influential expert and advocate on mental health and the Washington Post called him the most popular psychiatrist in America.

Dr. Amen is a physician, board-certified child and adult psychiatrist, award-winning researcher, and 18-time national bestselling author. He is the Founder and CEO of Amen Clinics in Costa Mesa, Walnut Creek, and Encino, California, Bellevue, Washington, Washington, DC, Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, New York, NY, and Hollywood, FL.

Amen Clinics has the world’s largest database of functional brain scans relating to behavior, with over 225,000 SPECT scans and 10,000 QEEGs on patients from 150 countries.

Dr. Amen is the lead researcher on the world’s largest brain imaging and rehabilitation study on professional football players. His research has not only demonstrated high levels of brain damage in players, but also the possibility of significant recovery for many with the principles that underlie his work.

Together with Pastor Rick Warren and Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Amen is also one of the chief architects of “The Daniel Plan,” a program to get the world healthy through religious organizations that has been done in thousands of churches, mosques and synagogues.

Dr. Amen is the author or co-author of over 80 professional articles, nine book chapters, and over 40 books, including 18 national bestsellers and 12 New York Times bestsellers, including the #1 New York Times bestseller The Daniel Plan and the over one million copy bestseller Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, along with The End of Mental Illness, Healing ADD, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, The Brain Warrior’s Way, Memory Rescue, Your Brain Is Always Listening, and You, Happier. Change Your Brain Every Day will be released on March 21, 2023.

Dr. Amen’s published scientific articles have appeared in the prestigious journals of Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Molecular Psychiatry, PLOS One, Nature’s Translational Psychiatry, Nature’s Obesity, Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, Minerva Psichiatrica, Journal of Neurotrauma, American Journal of Psychiatry, Nuclear Medicine Communication, Neurological Research, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Primary Psychiatry, Military Medicine, and General Hospital Psychiatry.

In January 2016, his team’s research on distinguishing PTSD from TBI on over 21,000 SPECT scans was featured as one of the top 100 stories in science by Discover Magazine. In 2017, his team published a study on over 46,000 scans, showing the difference between male and female brains; and in 2018, his team published a study on how the brain ages on 62,454 SPECT scans.

Dr. Amen has written, produced, and hosted 15 national public television programs about brain health, which have aired more than 125,000 times across North America. In March 2021 his new show, Overcoming Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Grief started airing across North America.

Together with his wife Tana he has hosted The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast since 2015, with over 900 episodes and 12 million downloads. It has been listed as one of the top 20 all-time podcasts in Mental Health on Apple.

Together with Barry Goldstein, Dr. Amen has produced four brain enhancing music albums The Brain Warrior’s Way (2016), BRIGHT MINDS: Memory Rescue Music (2017), and Feel Better Fast and Make It Last (2018). Your Brain Is Always Listening (2021). The first 3 have been on Billboard’s Top Ten New Age Album charts with BRIGHT MINDS spending 45 weeks on the chart and was the #6 New Age Album of 2018. Feel Better Fast and Make It Last has spent 25 weeks on the charts and was the #3 New Age Album of 2019. Dr. Amen was also listed as one of the top 10 New Age Artists of 2018 and 2019.

Dr. Amen has appeared in movies, including Quiet Explosions, After the Last Round, and The Crash Reel and was a consultant for Concussion, starring Will Smith. He appeared in the docuseries, “Justin Bieber: Seasons” and has appeared regularly on Dr. Phil and The Dr. Oz Show. He has been featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, CNN, and The Doctors, and appeared in the Emmy winning show, The Truth About Drinking.

He has also spoken around the world, with prestigious lectures in Canada, Brazil, Israel, and Hong Kong. He has spoken for the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), Harvard’s Learning and the Brain Conference, the Department of the Interior, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Supreme Courts of Ohio, Delaware, and Wyoming, and large corporations, such as Merrill Lynch, Hitachi, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, GNC, and many others. In 2016 Dr. Amen gave one of the prestigious Talks at Google.

Dr. Amen’s work has been featured in New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Washington Post Magazine, MIT Technology, Newsweek, Time, Huffington Post, ABC World News, 20/20, BBC, London Telegraph, Parade Magazine, World Economic Forum, LA Times, Men’s Health, Bottom Line, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, LA Style, NPR, and many others.

Dr. Amen is married to Tana, the father of six children and five grandchildren to Elias, Emmy, Liam, Louie, and Haven. He is an avid table tennis player.

Image Unavailable

Follow the author

Unleash the Power of the Female Brain: Supercharging Yours for Better Health, Energy, Mood, Focus, and Sex Paperback – December 3, 2013

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently purchased items with fast delivery

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Product details

Videos

About the author

Daniel G. Amen