cover image Magnificent Mind at Any Age: Natural Ways to Unleash Your Brain's Maximum Potential

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

Daniel G. Amen. Harmony, $24.95 (340pp) ISBN 978-0-307-33909-6

“A magnificent mind starts with a healthy brain,” claims psychiatrist Amen (Change Your Brain, Change Your Mind ). His program begins with a nuclear medicine diagnostic—S(ingle) P(hoton) E(mission) C(omputed) T(omography)—of the brain for anyone presenting symptoms of emotional distress or lack of success in personal or professional life. After observing patients' SPECT images for two decades, Amen is certain that problems such as ADD, dementia, alcohol/drug abuse, lack of impulse control, PMS, anxiety/depression, insomnia, memory problems, OCD, stroke, seizures and other disorders are due to damage in one (or more) of the brain's six functional sections from past undiagnosed trauma or short circuits. Amen outlines protocols that include a different combination of dietary change, exercise, natural supplements, prescription medication, talk therapy and positive reinforcement to rebalance and repair each affected part of the brain and its symptoms. His superficial but decent explanation of basic neurological physiology helps readers understand why they act as they do and how they can recover, and develop motivation, creativity, and good social skills to boot. Full of bulleted lists, rules, point-by-point lists of factual information, reproduced SPECT images, worksheets, self-tests, FAQs and individual patients' stories to resonate with readers, this is a useful volume, despite its simplistic writing. (Jan.)