INTRODUCTION The Brain Warrior''s Way A warrior is someone who is committed to master oneself at all levels, who develops the courage to do the right thing for yourself, others, and community. -- THE WAY OF THE SEAL BY MARK DIVINE The war for your health is won or lost between your ears, in the moment-by-moment decisions your brain makes every day. When your brain works right your decisions are much more likely to be effective and add laserlike focus, energy, and health to your life. When your brain is troubled, for whatever reason, you are much more likely to make bad decisions that steal your energy, focus, moods, memory, and health and lead to your early destruction and trouble in future generations. Bushido (Japanese: "way of the warrior") is the code of ethics for the samurai. It is a way of living that is required to be a warrior. Samurais ascribe to a culture focused on constant, never-ending self-improvement in an effort to protect themselves and those they love. The Brain Warrior''s Way is also a way of living, a clear path we have developed over three decades of helping tens of thousands of patients at Amen Clinics have better brains and better lives.

In addition, we have used this path to help people in the military, businesses, churches, schools, and drug rehabilitation centers. Living the Brain Warrior''s Way will improve your decision-making ability and sense of personal power and help your â–  Energy â–  Focus â–  Moods â–  Memory â–  Weight â–  Relationships â–  Work â–  Overall health The Brain Warrior''s Way is a unique and powerful program and the only one of its kind to improve the health of your brain and body. It is grounded in scientific research and designed to help you live with vitality, a clear mind and excellent health--even if you are struggling or are in pain right now--even if you''ve made unhealthy choices for many years. This program will help you turn your health around. Don''t you want to wake up feeling good inside and out every day? By following the Brain Warrior''s Way, you will transform the health of not just your brain and body, but the brains and bodies of those you love and care for. The new science of epigenetics has taught us that your habits turn on or off certain genes that make illnesses and early death more or less likely in you, and also in your children and grandchildren. The war for the health of your brain and body is not just about you. It is about generations of you.

Step by step, this book will show you how to develop a Brain Warrior''s MASTERY over your physical and mental health. It will teach you: M ind-set of a Brain Warrior--knowing your motivation to be healthy and focusing on abundance, never deprivation A ssessment of a Brain Warrior--having a clear strategy, brain health assessment, knowing and optimizing your important numbers, fighting the war on multiple fronts, and always being on the lookout to prevent future trouble S ustenance of a Brain Warrior--knowing the food and supplements that fuel success and give you a competitive edge T raining of a Brain Warrior--engaging in the daily habits and routines that protect your health E ssence of a Brain Warrior--transforming your pain into passion and knowing why the world is a better place because you are here R esponsibilities of a Brain Warrior--taking the critical step of sharing information and creating your own tribe of Brain Warriors Y earlong Basic Training of a Brain Warrior--making lasting changes with tools that will last a lifetime RULES OF ENGAGEMENT: BRAIN WARRIORS ARE â–  Serious â–  Purposeful â–  Informed â–  Aware â–  Prepared â–  Nourished â–  Highly trained â–  Deeply honest â–  Passionate â–  Protective â–  Relentless Along the way you will meet dozens of triumphant Brain Warriors who were once prisoners of the war for their health. Their stories will inspire and encourage you into a new way of living. BRAIN WARRIOR BILL Here is a note from the leader of an East Coast Young Presidents'' Organization (YPO) Pod whose group spent three days with us at Amen Clinics learning the principles of the Brain Warrior''s Way. "The program dramatically changed my life, allowing me to lose weight, and to focus unlike I could ever remember. My depression faded away and my focus and productivity improved. As a group, we universally agreed that the visit to Amen Clinics had the greatest impact on our lives in over a decade of being together." Most people don''t want to think about wars and warriors, and we would prefer not to either, but if you open your eyes and tell yourself the truth about what is happening in our society it is painfully obvious: we are in a war for the health of our brains and bodies.

Americans die younger and experience more illness than people in other wealthy nations, despite spending nearly twice as much on health care per person.1 Close to 75 percent of our health-care dollars are spent on chronic preventable illnesses, including Alzheimer''s disease, depression, ADD/ADHD, diabetes and prediabetes, and obesity. WHY WE ARE IN A WAR FOR OUR HEALTH And this is not just an adult war. Huge corporations are targeting your children and grandchildren. When a clown or a king with a billion-dollar bankroll can come into your living room and bribe your children with toys to get them to eat low-quality, nonnutritious foods that promote illness and early death it''s time to fight back. According to a recent study, the toys fast-food companies use to entice children are highly effective weapons in hooking their developing brains to want more of what will hurt their health.2 In addition, well-meaning organizations, such as the Girl Scouts, enlist young girls to sell unhealthful cookies as a way to fund their activities, and few people think twice about the sugar, vegetable oil, partially hydrogenated fats, and artificial preservatives that promote disease. You are in a war for your health.

Nearly everywhere you go (schools, work, shopping malls, movie theaters, airports, ball parks, and so on), someone is trying to sell you food that will kill you early. The standard American diet (SAD) is filled with pro-inflammatory foods that increase your risk for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, ADHD, depression, and dementia. It is also associated with a smaller hippocampus, one of the major memory structures in the brain. The real weapons of mass destruction in our society are foods that are â–  Highly processed â–  Pesticide sprayed â–  Artificially colored and sweetened â–  High glycemic â–  Low fiber â–  Foodlike substances â–  Laden with hormones â–  Tainted with antibiotics Plus the companies that produce these unhealthful foods not only use toys to hook tiny human brains but also use neuroscience tricks to hijack adult brains. They purposefully associate gorgeous, scantily clad women with poor-quality food to hook your pleasure centers, somehow getting you to make the illogical connection that if you eat those foods, either these women will want you or you will look like them. You must know there''s no way these beautiful women would look the way they do if their diet regularly consisted of cheeseburgers that dripped mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup down their blouses. In addition, many corporations brag about the addictive nature of their foods, "Bet you can''t eat just one." They hire food scientists to combine fat, sugar, and salt with the perfect texture, crunchiness, meltiness, and aroma to overwhelm the brain with flavor to trigger the "bliss point" in your brain, which is akin to taking a hit of cocaine, making you literally fall in love with low-quality foods.

This is one of the reasons people say they love candy, doughnuts, pastries, french fries, and bread and can''t ever conceive of giving them up. They are not eating to live; they are eating to feed addictions that were artificially created for a profit motive. We had one woman tell us she would rather get cancer than give up sugar. We wondered aloud if she dated the bad boys in high school. Being in love with something that hurts you is a position that needs some serious reexamination. No food of any kind belongs in the same emotional place in your brain as the love you have for your spouse, children, or grandchildren. Many ancient warriors considered dependence on anything, especially food, a weakness, and totally unacceptable. They ate to win; their survival depended on it.

We want you to do the same thing if you truly love yourself, your health, your loved ones, and future generations. The war for your health is not just about our modern-day adulterated food. News outlets repeatedly pour toxic thoughts into our brains, making us see terror or disaster around every corner to boost their ratings. The constant frightening images activate our brains'' primitive fear circuits (amygdala) that once ensured our survival but are now obsolete. The news always highlights the sensational, evil, and most awful stories to keep you hooked to their channels or websites. Unless you purposefully monitor your news intake, these companies succeed in raising your stress hormones, which over time shrink the major memory centers in your brain and put excessive fat around your waist--and belly fat is particularly toxic, because it converts healthy testosterone into unhealthy, cancer-promoting forms of estrogen. Do you reach for your phone first.