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I've been fascinated by the inner workings

1:01

of the brain since childhood. It

1:03

all started when I was pretty young. I

1:05

was worried about my grandfather's dementia. But

1:08

ever since then and throughout my career as

1:11

a brain surgeon, I've always wondered, how

1:13

can we build a stronger brain?

1:16

How do we keep our brain sharp? How

1:18

do we keep it more resilient, less likely

1:20

to develop problems as we age? I

1:23

have dedicated my life to exploring

1:25

these questions and trying to answer them. I've

1:28

written books, I've poured over the latest

1:30

research. So it probably came

1:32

as no surprise to you when I

1:34

decided to dive even deeper into the

1:36

inner workings of the brain for this

1:38

season of the podcast. Think

1:40

of it as a professional privilege, an

1:42

opportunity for me to bring my two

1:45

worlds together. And collectively,

1:47

we explored many things. For example,

1:49

what does it mean to have

1:51

a distracted brain? Can

1:54

anyone maximize their

1:56

attentiveness, their attentive brain? Yes.

2:00

I absolutely think so. A

2:02

caffeinated brain. Why are we

2:05

not satisfied with everyday normal consciousness? And

2:07

we're not the only animal too. I

2:09

mean other animals, you know, like to

2:11

change consciousness too. And

2:13

one of my personal favorites, the frightened

2:15

brain, with the king of horror. None

2:18

other than the best-selling author, Stephen

2:20

King. There are so

2:23

many things in life that are

2:26

really scary. But

2:30

I have to say that one of the

2:32

most gratifying parts of this entire season was

2:34

the incredible response I got from all of

2:36

you. Hey Sanjay. Hi

2:39

Sanjay, Dr. Gupta. Hi Dr.

2:41

Gupta and the CNN team. I thought

2:43

the podcast today with Dr. Reisen

2:46

was absolutely brilliant. It created

2:48

a light bulb moment for me.

2:50

Man, Casey's statement that cores are

2:53

morally neutral just lit

2:56

a light bulb in my head. So this

2:58

really helped me to be

3:01

more intentional about my attention. I'm

3:03

calling to answer your question

3:06

about have I used any of

3:08

the tips you've given in your

3:10

show. And I wanted

3:13

to respond emphatically yes.

3:17

It means a lot to me to know that so many

3:19

of you learn something. Tips that

3:21

you can use to make your life maybe

3:23

just a little bit better. It's why

3:25

I do what I do. It's why we do this

3:27

show in the first place. And I

3:29

love that so many of you continue to call

3:31

in with even more questions based on what you

3:33

learned. Your innate curiosity

3:35

really shining through. So

3:37

on today's episode we're going to do things a

3:39

little bit differently. I'm going to

3:42

tackle your questions about the mysteries of

3:44

the brain directly. We're going to talk

3:46

about ways to measure your brain health. Changes

3:48

that may happen to your brain during

3:50

pregnancy and the science behind

3:53

meditation. So get ready to

3:55

hear some of your own questions answered.

3:58

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta. CNN's chief

4:00

medical correspondent, and this is

4:03

Chasing Life. Our

4:09

first question today comes from a listener

4:12

named Terry who wants to learn more

4:14

about the science behind meditation. Hi,

4:16

Dr. Gupta and the CNN team. I

4:19

love your Chasing Life podcast. I started

4:22

listening last season and I'm really enjoying

4:24

the deep dive on the brain this season. The

4:27

question is about research supporting other ways

4:29

to calm and heal the brain beyond

4:32

sleep and nothing. I did

4:34

hear Dr. Gupta mention meditation in

4:36

passing at the very end of episode two. Since

4:39

my second most cancer diagnosis, I

4:41

use both regularly, my information meditation.

4:44

I realize your podcast isn't about cancer,

4:46

but my thinking is that these interventions

4:49

are helping specifically with depression and anxiety.

4:52

That applies to a pretty large swath of the

4:54

population. Could you please expand

4:56

on some of the topics you've already talked about

4:58

this season by adding in some

5:00

of the evidence and success stories around

5:02

using meditation, mindfulness, maybe

5:05

even religious practices to increase

5:07

focus, to train the brain to interrupt

5:10

the stress response, and really in

5:12

turn change your threshold for how quickly you move

5:14

into fight or flight. I think

5:16

these are really powerful and practical tools that could

5:18

help a lot of people and need a

5:20

little bit of demystifying to the general

5:22

public. I appreciate your time and

5:25

your consideration. Thank you again. First

5:28

of all, Terry, thank you for sharing

5:30

that. I am really glad to hear

5:32

that meditation and mindfulness in general has

5:34

been of help to you along your

5:36

journey with cancer. First

5:39

of all, you're absolutely right. There's a

5:41

lot of emerging research that backs up

5:43

the health benefits behind meditation. We've

5:45

known for some time that it's good for

5:47

you, but now there's actual data to support

5:49

that. In fact, there was

5:51

data from a study in the journal

5:54

JAMA Psychiatry. JAMA is Journal of the

5:56

American Medical Association. They have their own

5:58

psychiatry journal. Last year they

6:01

found meditation could be as

6:03

effective as medication at reducing

6:05

anxiety. Let me repeat that. Meditation

6:08

could be as effective as medication

6:11

at reducing anxiety. Just

6:13

think about how many people take medications

6:15

for anxiety, maybe people you know, and

6:17

how much meditation could potentially help them.

6:20

In this study of about 270

6:23

adults with untreated anxiety disorders, half

6:25

of them were randomly selected to take

6:28

the generic form of Lexapro. That's

6:30

a common medication used to treat anxiety and

6:32

depression. The other half

6:35

were given an eight-week course in

6:37

mindfulness-based stress reduction. Now

6:39

the results were pretty stunning. Both

6:41

groups reported a 20% reduction

6:43

in their anxiety symptoms. And

6:46

what the research also showed was that

6:48

mindfulness is actually influencing two stress pathways

6:50

in the brain and can

6:52

alter the brain structure that regulates

6:55

attention and emotion. It

6:57

can also regulate something known as the

6:59

autonomic nervous system. Now remember

7:01

this, the autonomic nervous system is the

7:04

part that's responsible for regulating involuntary

7:06

functions. Think heart

7:09

rate, blood pressure, breathing, digestion,

7:11

all of those things that are involved in our

7:13

flight or fight response. I

7:15

want to be clear on something that this doesn't

7:18

mean anyone should stop taking their medications.

7:21

You should of course talk to your doctor

7:23

about that. But this is a really promising

7:25

treatment option for folks out there who are

7:27

struggling with anxiety, who are struggling with other

7:29

mental health disorders and want to try meditation.

7:32

The best part is that meditation is

7:35

inexpensive, it's accessible, it's something you can

7:37

do in your own home. There are

7:39

all these apps for guided meditations, there's

7:42

books, there's even online videos. And

7:44

in case you missed it, I wanted to share this with you. Part

7:47

of my conversation with Dr. Gail

7:49

Salts from the New York Presbyterian

7:51

Hospital, Wild Cornell Medical College. Take

7:54

a listen to this. Paste

7:56

deep breathing is really quite simple.

7:59

You would put your your hand on your chest because

8:02

you would like to inhale and

8:04

have your chest, upper chest expand and

8:06

not your belly. So that is

8:08

to help you have a

8:10

deep diaphragmatic breath. And you

8:13

would breathe in through your nose with

8:15

your, hopefully your hand, your chest rising

8:17

to a count of five, a slow

8:20

count of five. And then you

8:22

would breathe out through your mouth

8:24

to a slow count of seven.

8:27

A little longer exhale than

8:30

an inhale. And the reason

8:32

is we know on that

8:34

long extra exhale is what slows your

8:36

heart rate just a little bit. And

8:39

that helps bring the anxiety down. So

8:41

doing that slow deep breathing,

8:43

close your eyes, be in a

8:45

very relaxed position, sitting down, things

8:47

shouldn't be tensed up. And doing

8:49

that for about five

8:52

minutes, 10 minutes should

8:55

leave you afterwards feeling more

8:58

physiologically relaxed. Kids can do breathing,

9:00

even little kids. You

9:02

call it flowers and bubbles. So

9:04

you smell the flowers and

9:07

you blow the bubble. So

9:10

you smell the flower to a count of five,

9:12

you blow the bubble to a count of seven.

9:15

I have been teaching this to

9:17

people whose children are going through

9:19

shooter drills at school and are

9:21

feel panicked during the drill because

9:23

those drills are very anxiety producing

9:25

to children to have something

9:28

that they can do, a place that

9:30

they can go and calm themselves so

9:32

that the drills themselves aren't so traumatic.

9:37

So here's the bottom line. Every

9:40

time you are feeling anxious and

9:42

stressed and look, everyone does sometimes

9:45

consider what we've just talked about. It's

9:47

something that I have personally made part of my

9:49

own fitness regimen. And now I

9:51

consider it just as important as my

9:53

daily physical exercise. I

9:56

try and meditate at least 10 to 15 minutes a

9:58

day. For everybody. bit

10:00

of a different experience. I find a quiet place

10:03

and I actually try and focus on

10:05

something very specific, point meditation,

10:07

analytical meditation. There are different names for

10:09

it, but that's what works for me.

10:12

And I can tell you just

10:14

through the deep breathing and the

10:16

meditation itself, I can feel

10:19

my blood pressure dropping. I can feel

10:21

my heart rate slowing. I can feel

10:23

the muscles in my face starting to

10:25

relax. My wife tells me I even

10:27

look different after I meditate. So

10:30

I can personally say the mind body

10:32

benefits of just sitting quietly, focusing on

10:34

your breath and being very intentional with

10:37

your thoughts, that's real and

10:39

it's something you should try. Next

10:42

up, a listener named Sherry asks

10:44

about our brain's ability to heal.

10:48

I'm calling to answer your question

10:51

about have I used any of

10:53

the tips you've given in your

10:55

show. And I wanted

10:58

to respond emphatically. Yes.

11:01

I do have one other question

11:03

though, knowing several

11:05

people, especially in a post

11:07

pandemic world that

11:09

are trying to recover from

11:11

alcohol use disorder, I

11:14

was curious to know generally

11:17

speaking if a person

11:20

quits chronically drinking

11:24

or there's a full

11:26

cessation of alcohol misuse.

11:30

Does the brain

11:33

heal? Can

11:35

the brain recover from

11:39

long time alcohol abuse? I

11:42

would like to know the answer

11:44

to that question. Thank you so much. Well,

11:47

Sherry, first of all, I think you're

11:49

spot on in that many people may

11:51

be struggling with this right now. We got a lot of

11:53

questions about this. So let me say

11:55

this to start. If you know someone who struggles

11:57

with alcohol or if that person is you, you're

11:59

They're not alone and you should seek help

12:02

for this. It's really important. Here's

12:04

what we do know. At the

12:06

end of the day, drinking alcohol is

12:09

not good for the body or brain. I

12:11

know there's been all sorts of conflicting recommendations on

12:13

this, but the way I think about it is

12:15

that you should not start

12:17

drinking in the pursuit of health and

12:19

you should recognize that alcohol can really

12:22

act as a sledgehammer to the brain.

12:25

Heavy drinking can lead to all sorts of health

12:27

problems like heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver, cancer,

12:30

memory problems, anxiety and depression,

12:33

more than 200 conditions in all if you

12:35

look at the literature, but it's really particularly

12:38

hard on the brain. Now,

12:40

whether you drink or not and how much, that's

12:43

a personal decision. It's going to come down

12:45

to your comfort level and how much of

12:47

a risk you're willing to take. Now, to

12:49

be honest, in terms of treatments for long-term

12:51

alcohol abuse, there's still a lot

12:53

of research that is ongoing, more than needs

12:55

to be done, but there is some promising

12:57

new data here. There was this

12:59

new study out of Stanford, Sherry, that was published

13:01

in October, which used MRIs to look at the

13:04

brains of 68 drinkers who

13:06

were undergoing treatment for alcohol use

13:08

disorder. After about eight months,

13:10

the heavy drinkers who cut back

13:12

or quit entirely had more volume

13:15

in certain parts of the brain

13:17

that were specifically involved in decision-making

13:19

and memory. That was

13:21

compared to those who returned to drinking more

13:23

heavily. For those in recovery

13:25

or even just cutting back, those

13:28

efforts aren't in vain and you can

13:30

even measure the progress. The

13:32

brain is very resilient. It can

13:34

repair itself. It can adapt through

13:36

a process called neuroplasticity, which if

13:38

you listen to the podcast, you

13:40

probably know all about. I

13:42

think that's one of my biggest takeaways after studying

13:45

this part of the body for so long. Yes,

13:47

the brain is very fragile. It's very delicate.

13:50

It can be damaged very easily,

13:52

but it can also heal. That

13:54

should be inspiring to everyone. We're

13:58

going to take a quick break, but first I wanted to... you

14:00

know we've already started to

14:02

work on the next season of the

14:04

podcast. Yay! We get to do another

14:06

podcast and we still want to hear

14:08

from you. What do you want

14:10

us to talk about? What topics do you

14:12

want us to cover? Do you got any

14:14

burning health questions based on what you're reading

14:16

or hearing in the news? I love hearing

14:18

from you. I really do. I think it's

14:20

so important. So leave us a voicemail 470-396-0832.

14:25

You can record a voicemail

14:27

on your phone and email it to

14:29

me at asksandj at cnn.com. We'll

14:32

be back in just a moment. We

14:40

all do things our own way and since

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outside load up on sunscreen and podcasts. Forecast

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more of what you love with the Weather

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Channel app. Hi

15:40

Sanjay, my name is Greer. I'm from

15:42

the Bay Area in California. I have

15:44

a three and a half year old

15:47

and a one and a half year

15:49

old. So I'm really looking forward to

15:51

this next season about the brain and

15:53

I'd love to know about how pregnancy

15:55

and motherhood changes your brain chemistry

15:58

if it does. Thank you so much. Thanks

16:01

for your question Greer and I want you

16:03

to know that this is something that many

16:05

other listeners were curious about as well. Look,

16:08

there's a lot of changes to

16:10

a woman's body during pregnancy, fluctuating

16:12

hormones, different dietary needs, and there's

16:14

also fairly new research that indicates

16:16

changes to the brain do

16:19

happen during pregnancy and those changes

16:21

can last for at least two

16:23

years postpartum. That's something that I

16:25

didn't realize. And the changes don't

16:27

stop there. Women's brains also

16:29

go through this incredible period of neuroplasticity,

16:32

this reorganization of the brain, and this

16:34

process may help moms cope with many

16:36

of the big life changes that are

16:38

coming up for them as well. In

16:40

fact, the rewiring of women's

16:43

brains during pregnancy is

16:45

comparable to what happens during two other

16:47

important phases of life, puberty

16:49

and menopause. Earlier

16:52

this season I spoke to one of

16:54

the leading experts in this field of

16:56

women's brain health, neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Moscone.

16:58

We were talking about menopause, but then she

17:01

mentioned some of the changes that happen in

17:03

women's brains during pregnancy as well. All

17:06

these changes that very see they're not

17:08

too different from what happens during puberty

17:11

shape your brain in such a way that

17:14

the limbic part of your brain,

17:16

the primitive part of your brain comes back

17:18

on the front. Why? Because you

17:20

have to protect your kids. You

17:23

have to turn into the mama

17:25

bear that will spot the little

17:27

toddler in a symbol of

17:29

follow toddlers and come to the

17:31

rescue in a microsecond. You

17:34

have to be able to understand

17:36

nonverbal clues for basically years. You

17:39

have to be able to raise

17:41

this human being based almost entirely

17:43

on instinct. It

17:45

happens every time you go through puberty. Now

17:47

that also means that the same parts of

17:50

your brain that allow you to basically be

17:52

a super hero as a new

17:54

mom are very

17:56

much turned on, which means nude.

18:00

is changing. Memory is

18:03

changing. All the things that

18:05

then we call the mommy brain are

18:08

a side effect, if you will, of

18:10

this brain transformation that will allow you

18:12

to really take care of your child

18:15

and be a successful mother. Now,

18:18

we don't still know exactly what causes

18:20

memory loss and the other aspects of

18:22

so-called mommy brain. It could

18:24

be actual physical changes to the brain, or

18:27

it could just be the stress and lack

18:29

of sleep that often comes with new motherhood.

18:32

I know this well. Seeing my wife

18:34

go through this three times, it's pretty

18:36

stressful. But we do know, though, with

18:39

time, that memory loss typically does improve.

18:42

I also want to add something else. My

18:44

hope is in the future we have

18:46

even more research into women's brain health.

18:48

I did not realize before the

18:51

podcast how historically understudied and underfunded

18:53

this field was. So I

18:55

really do commend researchers like Dr. Moscone

18:57

for doing such important work. Now,

19:00

let's get to our final caller, Tim

19:02

in Illinois, with a question I love.

19:05

As I got in my 50s,

19:07

I tried to figure out what do I

19:09

measure myself by? How do I focus on

19:11

health? And I look at it through what

19:14

is good for my heart and what is

19:16

good for my brain. And that's

19:18

led me to a lot of your podcasts. So thank

19:20

you for all of your work on the brain and

19:22

your passion for that, for brain health. That

19:25

being said, my question for next season

19:28

that you asked for, I'd like to

19:30

know more how do 50-year-olds or anyone

19:32

for that matter measure

19:35

their brain health? How would we know if

19:37

we're doing well with our brain health? Are

19:39

there tests? Are there apps? Are

19:42

there things that we could do to kind

19:44

of see how we measure up so

19:46

we can monitor that over time? I

19:49

hope there's an answer there somewhere.

19:51

And I look forward to next

19:53

season's focus on the brain. Take

19:55

care. Think about this.

19:57

We know how to measure a healthier.

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