I just looked up Dr. Daniel Amen. Is anyone as mad as I am? He’s exploiting people’s hope! How does he get away with it? Why isn’t medical certification contingent on scientifically sound medical practice?
Posted Apr 30, 2020, 5:33 AM UTC
How is he exploiting peoples hope? Im not sure that I stumbled on anything like that, but I watched an interview by him and he seemed quite genuine
The real reason for posting this is that I want to give people a chance to defend him so I appreciate you backing him! This is one article I read. There’s more. I also read reviews and watched his videos. It seemed like complete pseudoscience to me. Can anyone explain how it isn’t? observer
A process that’s scientific doesn’t mean its effective, and a pseudoscientific doesnt mean its not effective. Ofcourse the inverse is also completely true.(I dont mean stuff like mother extracts or whatnot, I mean, believable things somewhat supported by science, but not rigorously tested like common drugs or practices)
The big thing about his “teachings” is blood flow. And while im not too educated on bloodflow specifically, they as a whole have scanned thousands upon thousands of brains. Assuming all of their information is true, then the people they “cured” came back with much better blood flow in the brain. Now blood flow is quite important, but it is not everything when it comes to brain health. It seems to me that he uses blood flow as a diagnostic tool, not normal amounts of blood flow means that something is wrong.
Inflammation is a huge issue when it goes unchecked. Inflammation can come from diet, which Dr amen teaches to correct. He tells people to start an elimination diet to make sure that the food they are eating is not hurting them. He also talks about sugar quite extensively, and how it is bad for the brain. Sugar in itself is pro inflammatory, which means high , unnatural amounts would raise inflammation.
I honestly cant remember the other things he talks about, but I support him not because I think he is a great guy, I support him because I agree with the things he says. For example, Inflammation.
I understand that he may not follow the ways of modern medicine, but why should he? Many of the things he says could be found scientifically proven with studies and investigation. But the big issue is with generic hospitals. Most doctors are not taught the specifics of nutrition, and emerging diets such as keto go completely against america’s proposed food pyramid, and yet keto works amazingly well. For example, depression can have many causes, but a decent chunk stems from nutritional and vitamin deficiencies. Look at vitamin D for exampe, SAD affects people, and the cure to that is Vit D not ssris. Ssris do have their place, ofcourse they do help, they lower brain inflammation and boost BDNF, and possibly act through 5ht1a, to name a few mechanisms. But ofcourse they come with horrendous side effects. Now why would you not try to eliminate everything nutritional first? If you have low vitamin D, ssris aren’t going to raise it, and using them would be pretty silly.
ADHD can be improved with exercise, diet, and some supplements too. So can schizophrenia, and bipolar. (For example, saffron was shown to be as effective as ritalin, lithium lowers symptoms of bipolar, and sarcosine seems like it helps some schizophrenics.) But again, it may or may not cure, but good diet is always safer than antidepressants. Its always good to go with the least damaging route possible, first. And that is what I see Dr daniel doing. Now im talking about what I know. Honestly, I don’t remember half of what he teaches, but as long as his views align with mine, then I will support him.
I hope this made sense. Its always nice debating people who are willing to see and be open to the other side, thank you for that fellow redditor! Phew haha
I forgot to respond, whoops! It bothers me that he charges a lot of money for a test, uses the tests to validate whatever symptoms you orally prescribed, and diagnoses pretty much the same solution for everyone. Why bother with the test?
There isn’t enough evidence because none was found in other studies as far as I know and he refused to provide any of his own although he claimed he could.
Also, what’s unsafe with medicine?
If the problem isn’t a nutritional deficiency- supplements won’t help!
If his point is to look for the true cause and not just prescribe medicine on autopilot, I think that’s noble, but I think he fails. He prescribes his own nutritional/ alternative solutions on autopilot. It isn’t holistic unless it’s truly holistic.
No problems, im busy myself.
Because they need to survive, they are a business after all. This is from their website:
Reimbursement by insurance companies varies according to your plan. Amen Clinics, Inc. does not bill insurance. At the end of the evaluation, patients are given a “walk-out statement” containing applicable diagnosis and billing codes, which can then be submitted to insurance companies for possible out-of-network reimbursement.
So while reimbursement is possible, its not guaranteed, meaning they need to charge alot more to each patient.
Evidence for what exactly? We cant talk about it if I dont know what IT is.
I meant big pharma, not the medicine field per se. If you think that SSRI’s are perfectly safe, then you havent exposed yourself enough to people taking them, however thats not to say that other methods are perfectly safe either. Either way though, I think “safe” is a secondary concern, and “effective” is more important. I don’t remember the numbers, but traditional antidepressants were not totally amazing.
Yes, you are totally right on that! However, he/me thinks that most people do have a generic vitamin/ nutrient deficiency, and nothing is terribly wrong with their brain. Magnesium and Vitamin D deficiencies are estimated to be very high in america, for example.
While SSRIs are very potent drugs, there are other supplements/nootropics that can mimic their mechanisms. For example, folic acid +zinc has been shown to be as effective as Paxil, in rats upregulating TrkB and NMDA. Upregulated Nmda and TrkB would both contribute to neurogenesis. Also noots like noopept/lions maine also boost bdnf. However due to high inflammation, it would be difficult to regrow your brain, even with those supps. Edit: forgot to mention, SSRIs also drive down neural inflammation, and boost neurogenesis. While thats great, they dont get rid of the root cause.
I agree with your last statement though, maybe he has seen too much of a particular issue, so now he sees it in all his patients. Who knows?
Since Ive gone there my memory has done nothing but get worse. Talk about a magic eraser.