
The Empowering Neurologist Podcast
The Empowering Neurologist is an interview series with some of the most exciting thought leaders in the field of health and wellness.
Latest episodes

Jun 20, 2022 • 41min
The Correlation Between Happiness & Brain Health - with Dr. Amen | The Empowering Neurologist EP153
Who doesn't want to be happier? My good friend Dr. Daniel Amen, in his new book, You Happier, addresses that challenge and gives us meaningful actions to take, right now. Interestingly, Dr. Amen takes a personalized medicine approach to regaining happiness or at least improving happiness as it were, by demonstrating that what can enhance our happiness is, to some degree, patient specific. Sure, there are the general recommendations with respect to our day-to-day lifestyle choices including nutrition, but Dr. Amen draws upon his vast experience over decades of interactions with patients as well as his evaluation of more than 200,000 brain scans to develop recommendations for individuals that can be even more helpful with respect to achieving a higher degree of satisfaction with life and overall happiness.
Again, the new book is, You Happier, and I think you're very much going to enjoy this interview.
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
6:02 Happiness and the Brain
8:09 Silencing the Noise in your Head
12:15 “More” Doesn’t make you Happier
15:20 what makes for a happier brain
26:41 Cultivating a happiness program
32:00 the Cerebellums impact
36:30 Conclusion
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DR. DANIEL AMEN:
Daniel G. Amen, MD, has helped millions of people change their brains and lives. He is the founder of Amen Clinics with nine locations across the United States, a 12-time New York Times bestselling author, and the cohost of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, which he creates with his wife, Tana. He has produced 15 national public television specials about the brain that have aired more than 120,000 times across North America. Dr. Amen believes we can end mental illness by creating a revolution in brain health, and he regularly speaks to businesses, organizations, and churches about how to have a better brain and a better life. He has millions of loyal brain warrior followers on his social media accounts.
SOCIAL
FB: https://www.facebook.com/drdanielamen
IG: https://www.instagram.com/doc_amen/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DocAmen
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AmenClinic
NEW BOOK: You, Happier
https://danielamenmd.com/you-happier/
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Jun 6, 2022 • 56min
From Cancer to Her Healthiest Healthy - with Samantha Harris | The Empowering Neurologist EP. 152
Today we're going to talk about the book, Your Healthiest Healthy, written by Samantha Harris. You can find more information about her down below, but let me tell you about the book and our interview.
Samantha was basically on top of the world, hosting various television programs and had everything going for her when she developed breast cancer. Initially, the book describes her diagnosis and treatment protocol, and interestingly, how the ultimate plan was put into play based upon her deep involvement in the decision-making process. Thereafter, Samantha began to question why - why was this diagnosis something that entered her life, despite not having a specific genetic predisposition for breast cancer.
She then unpacks her entire array of lifestyle choices and realizes that she has to make fairly dramatic changes in things like the food she consumes, her exposure to various toxins in her home and in the various cosmetics that she used on a daily basis, as well as her exercise activity, relationships. She deeply explores the notion of gratitude and giving back, specifically in terms of why it is a health choice.
This is an extremely empowering, user-friendly book, for all of us, regardless of our nature as it relates to our health challenges.
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
4:17 Samantha’s Cancer Diagnosis
18:17 Chemo vs Mastectomy
27:21 Diet’s Impact on Cancer
37:01 Environmental Toxins
49:27 Talking to Kids about Cancer
53:25 Conclusion
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Millions watched Samantha Harris co-host Dancing with the Stars and Entertainment Tonight and then share her story of her breast cancer diagnosis at age forty. After the initial shock and recovery from a double mastectomy, she sought answers to why it could have happened and ways to improve her overall health.
Now the Emmy-winning journalist, nutrition advocate, certified personal trainer, and mother of two offers her real-world strategies for overcoming adversity and systematically improving one’s total well-being. Your Healthiest Healthy combines her humorous, sometimes harrowing, always inspiring journey with research-backed advice, insights from doctors and scientists, and effective tips into an easy-to-follow, eight-step guide. Her practical advice will empower readers to eat better, work out smarter, reduce toxins around them, master medical awareness, handle health crises, strengthen relationships, boost positivity, and build resiliency. With this complete program, readers can maximize health, energy, and happiness for life.
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May 23, 2022 • 50min
Trauma - The Invisible Epidemic - with Dr. Paul Conti | The Empowering Neurologist EP. 151
Trauma in our lives has lasting effects both in terms of our mental and physical wellbeing. Trauma, and its running partner, shame, affect our metabolism, our immune function, and even our gene expression. Further, trauma accelerates multiple markers of aging.
On the podcast today, I have the opportunity to spend time with Paul Conti, MD, author of the new book, Trauma, the Invisible Epidemic, with a foreword by Lady Gaga. It’s a powerful look behind the curtain at the role of trauma in our lives, and fortunately, it provides helpful tools, for all of us, to deal with its lingering effects. The book explores trauma both through the lens of Dr. Conti as a professional as well as what has transpired in his own life that led him to explore the importance of this issue.
I am certain this program will offer benefit and hope to many.
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
3:10 Getting to the Root Causes
15:20 Passing on Trauma to Others
27:30 Empowerment & Agency
32:30 the Limbic System
36:20 Trauma in the World Today
42:09 Urgency to Heal
48:56 Conclusion
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Paul Conti, MD, is a graduate of Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed his
psychiatry training at Stanford and at Harvard, where he was appointed chief resident. He then
served on the medical faculty at Harvard before moving to Portland, Oregon, and founding a
clinic. Dr. Conti serves patients and clients throughout the United States and internationally,
including the executive leadership of large corporations. He is the author of Trauma: The
Invisible Epidemic: How Trauma Works and How We Can Heal From It (Sounds True,
October 5, 2021) and lives in Portland, OR with his wife and two children. For more, see
pacificpremiergroup.com.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-paul-m-conti-845074216/
___________________________
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Website: https://www.drperlmutter.com/
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May 9, 2022 • 43min
5 Diets to Heal Your Hormones - with Dr. Anna Cabeca | The Empowering Neurologist EP. 150
Today on the Empowering Neurologist I am delighted to welcome back Dr. Anna Cabeca. Her new book, Menupause, actually present five different dietary approaches for women approaching or during menopause that is specific in terms of a woman's particular set of goals. Whether it's to improve insulin sensitivity, balance immune function, regain control over body fat, or various other goals, Dr. Cabeca has skillfully created these recipes that are truly outstanding. This is a very interesting interview and I'm certain you'll enjoy it.
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
3:35 The MenuPause
9:54 Body Fat & Hormone Functionality
13:26 Weight Loss & Metabolism
17:32 Keto Green Extreme
21:08 Plant Based
27:34 Carbohydrate Pause
31:34 Keto Green Cleanse
36:05 Carb-Centric Diet
38:46 Empowerment for Women
41:55 Conclusion
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DR. ANNA CABECA:
Dr. Anna Cabeca, DO, OBGYN, FACOG, is triple-board certified and a fellow of gynecology and obstetrics, integrative medicine, and anti-aging and regenerative medicine. She has special certifications in functional medicine, sexual health, and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.
For the past 20 years, she’s served 10,000+ women in her private practice— and millions more through her books, online videos and articles.
When her own health took a troubling turn during menopause, she sought out the wisdom of healers around the world. She learned that modern medicine and time-tested natural remedies are not at odds. Working together, they create indisputable results and true well being. Using delicious, healing foods and simple lifestyle changes, Dr. Anna reclaimed her health and life.
Fueled by her belief that every woman deserves to be empowered and in control of their health and life, she developed the Keto-Green lifestyle, which has helped thousands of women opt out of menopause misery and experience a joyful transition to the next stage of their lives. With her methods, you, too, can breeze through menopause into your “second spring”, feeling the best you ever have.
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Website: https://www.drperlmutter.com/
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Apr 25, 2022 • 56min
Profound New Research on Improving MS with Diet - with Dr. Terry Wahls | EP 149
Multiple sclerosis (MS), is an auto-immune condition affecting more than 1 million Americans. And like other autoimmune conditions, it it's becoming more prevalent. The role of genetics in MS is not significant. Lifestyle choices however may play important roles in regulating the immune system, and therefore should certainly be looked at as it relates to this and other autoimmune conditions.
My guest today, Dr. Terry Wahls, is herself a multiple sclerosis patient. On the podcast she describes how aggressive her multiple sclerosis became, how she herself did not seem to realize any dramatic improvement from pharmaceutical intervention, and how she ultimately discovered the important role of nutrition in terms of regulating her immune system and as such, the disease course of her multiple sclerosis situation.
Dr. Wahls then took these observations and created programs for other MS patients, applying rigorous scientific principles to study the effects of nutritional interventions.
Her latest study compares her nutritional protocol with a long-standing nutritional approach to multiple sclerosis called the Swank diet that actually began being utilized in the late 1940s. I will say that the results she has obtained, which we discussed today, are extremely impressive.
There is certainly good reason to consider the use of pharmaceutical intervention in multiple sclerosis. Nonetheless, that's one intervention that, in my opinion, should certainly be coupled with other proven therapies, like nutrition. Dr. Wahls makes it very clear that there are multiple mechanisms by which this dietary change may prove helpful in the MS patient; by targeting things like inflammation, the functionality of the gut bacteria, and even the function of mitochondria.
I am certain you will enjoy today's interview. I do want to indicate that you can learn more about Dr. Wahls by reading her book, The Wahls Protocol.
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
2:20 Dr. Wahls Struggle with MS
14:46 Her Successful Treatment
27:00 Study of Impact of Diet on MS
47:10 The Wahls Protocol
54:00 Conclusion
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Dr. Terry Wahls is an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner and a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa where she conducts clinical trials. In 2018 she was awarded the Institute for Functional Medicine’s Linus Pauling Award for her contributions in research, clinical care and patient advocacy. She is also a patient with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, which confined her to a tilt-recline wheelchair for four years. Dr. Wahls restored her health using a diet and lifestyle program she designed specifically for her brain and now pedals her bike to work each day. She is the author of The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles, and the cookbook, The Wahls Protocol Cooking for Life. Learn more about her MS clinical trials https://wahls.lab.uiowa.edu/. Pick up a one-page handout for the Wahls™ Diet at https://terrywahls.com/diet/
https://www.facebook.com/TerryWahls/
https://www.instagram.com/drterrywahls/
https://twitter.com/terrywahls
https://youtube.com/c/terrywahlsmd
Wahls Research Lab (to learn about current clinical research studies that Dr. Wahls is conducting)
https://wahls.lab.uiowa.edu/
Defying All Odds Movie (documentary about Dr. Wahls' healing journey and research)
http://defyingalloddsmovie.com/
5 Day Challenge:
Conquer your autoimmune condition
Creating your healing journey
A free five day challenge that is conducted periodically for the public.
https://terrywahls.com/5daychallenge/
___________________________
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidperlmutter/
Website: https://www.drperlmutter.com/
Subscribe to our channel:
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Apr 11, 2022 • 59min
How to Enter Ketosis without Restrictive Diets - with Dr. Steven Gundry | EP 148
We are hearing so much these days about the benefit of a ketogenic diet. But while there may be benefits, it's not necessarily the easiest diet for everyone to engage. Further, staying in ketosis for an extended period of time may actually be associated with some fairly significant threats to our health.
Today I'm speaking with Dr. Steven Gundry about his new book, Unlocking the Keto Code. I have to admit that at first, I thought this was going to be another way of engaging the ketogenic diet. But I soon learned that what this book is actually focused on is first, unraveling why a ketogenic diet is beneficial, and secondly, after the reader understands the importance of the mechanisms underlying the ketogenic diet, it provides them the tools for bringing these mechanisms online without specifically going into ketosis.
That certainly sounds like a home run. The book focuses on the notion of "uncoupling mitochondria." This basically means that fuel is wasted as opposed to being utilized. It's a way of actually reducing the efficiency of mitochondrial function to bring about positive health benefits. I know this sounds challenging, and I agree that it is. Nonetheless, Dr. Gundry has done an exceptional job in terms of making this information clear and understandable.
This is a wonderful new book and I believe it's certainly going to dramatically change the playing field moving forward as it brings to our attention not just the benefits of the ketogenic diet, but the value of things like cold exposure, heat exposure, consuming polyphenols, and a variety of other health supportive modalities
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
4:00 Unlocking the Keto Code
14:40 Achieving Keto without the Keto
27:07 7 Keys to Ketones
55:00 Conclusion
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Dr. Gundry is one of the world’s top cardiothoracic surgeons and a pioneer in nutrition, as well as medical director at The International Heart and Lung Institute Center for Restorative Medicine. He is author of many New York times bestselling books including The Plant Paradox, and The Plant Paradox Cookbook, and The Longevity Paradox: How to Die Young at a Ripe Old Age and The Energy Paradox: What to Do When Your Get-Up-and-Go Has Got Up and Gone. His new book Unlocking the Keto Code was recently published, and offers a new take on the keto diet that debunks common myths and shows readers how to reap the rewards of keto with less restriction.
https://drgundry.com/
___________________________
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Website: https://www.drperlmutter.com/
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Mar 28, 2022 • 1h 1min
What to Eat for Optimal Brain Health - with Max Lugavere | EP 147
One of the most important levers we can pull as it relates to improving our brain function currently as well as paving the way for a healthier brain in the years to come is choose to eat foods that nurture the brain. My guest today on the Empowering Neurologist, Max Lugavere, has been deeply involved in exploring food as brain medicine for many years. Let me tell you a little bit more about him.
Max Lugavere is a filmmaker, health and science journalist and the author of the New York Times best-seller Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life, published in 8 languages around the globe. He is also the host of the #1 iTunes health podcast The Genius Life.
Lugavere appears regularly on nationally syndicated programs Rachael Ray Show, and The Doctors. He has contributed to Medscape, Vice, Fast Company, CNN, and the Daily Beast, has been featured on NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, and in The New York Times and People Magazine. He is an internationally sought-after speaker and has given talks at South by Southwest, TEDx, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Biohacker Summit in Stockholm, Sweden, and many others.
Max is a thought leader and citizen scientist doing a terrific job exploring how lifestyle choices play out in terms of charting the brain’s destiny. And today we discuss his wonderful new book, The Genius Kitchen.
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0:00 Intro
3:50 Max’s Journey to Brain Health
11:10 Foods that Support the Brain
20:30 Foods & Satiation
30:33 Sodium
37:44 Eggs: A Cognitive Multivitamin
43:05 Prescribing Diet & Exercise
59:00 Conclusion
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Max Lugavere is a filmmaker, health and science journalist and the author of the New York Times best-seller Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life, published in 8 languages around the globe. He is also the host of the #1 iTunes health podcast The Genius Life.
Lugavere appears regularly on the Dr. Oz Show, the Rachael Ray Show, and The Doctors. He has contributed to Medscape, Vice, Fast Company, CNN, and the Daily Beast, has been featured on NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, and in The New York Times and People Magazine. He is an internationally sought-after speaker and has given talks at South by Southwest, TEDx, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Biohacker Summit in Stockholm, Sweden, and many others.
https://geniuskitchenbook.com/
___________________________
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidperlmutter/
Website: https://www.drperlmutter.com/
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Mar 21, 2022 • 41min
Predicting & Preventing Long-Haul Covid - with Dr. Heath & Dr. Su | EP 146
As it relates to COVID-19, there seems to be an incredible amount of interest in the death rate which happens to be exceedingly, exceedingly low. Why I find this challenging is because there is another problem associated with this infection that isn't...

Mar 7, 2022 • 51min
How to Enhance Your Memory & Brain Power - with Jim Kwik | EP 145
We spend quite a bit of time talking about what we can do to protect and even enhance our brains. So much of our messaging deals with lifestyle choices like exercise, sleep, and certainly the foods that we eat. Basically, these are interventions that...

Feb 21, 2022 • 37min
Science Behind Improving Mitochondria Function - with Dr. Anurag Singh| EP 144
Urolithin-A. Powerful Mitochondrial Therapy So much of our health is dependent upon the function of our mitochondria, the energy providers found in each of our cells. Keeping our mitochondria functioning well is the reason that we, for example,...