GREAT READS

Unleash the Power of the Female Brain

Daniel G. Amen, MD

Dr. Daniel G. Amen has many years' experience as one of America's top psychiatrists and has written several books on brain health. As part of his medical practice he has personally viewed thousands of SPECT brain scans. You may have seen Dr. Amen on public television sharing his wisdom about how we can take better care of our brains. His latest book is "Unleash the Power of the Female Brain: Supercharging Yours for Better Health, Energy, Mood, Focus, and Sex." I opted to listen to this book on CD while driving to and from work each day and it made it easier for me to grasp the material that Dr. Amen covers.

His key premise is that females and males really do have different brains in many key areas. Women tend to have much busier brains and tend to worry a lot more about everything, yet they tend to live longer than men. How can this be? He points out that the primary reason women live longer is that they reach out for help when they need it for medical and social support. Otherwise there is bad and good news. The bad news is women have many challenges because of our fluctuating hormones and body image issues throughout our lifetimes. The good news is we can all (men, women, and children) take steps starting now to optimize our brains, which will in turn have a positive impact on our whole lives. Most steps are simple like walk for 45 minutes 4 times per week and drink half our body weight in ounces of water per day. Other steps were more complex. Had I been able to, I would have taken notes on some of his suggestions such as blood work to complete, supplements to take, and steps to rid myself of ANTs (automatic negative thoughts). Luckily, CCPL also has this in hardcover book format so I should be able to easily find the information in print format. I would highly recommend this or any of the other books written by Dr. Amen.

Recommended by Cheryl Finnan