Dr. Mike Dow - Heal Your Drained Brain: Naturally Relieve Anxiety, Combat Insomnia, and Balance Your Brain in Just 14 Days

Praise for Heal Your Drained Brain

A smart, science-based way to heal anxiety and insomnia.

Daniel Amen, M.D., New York Times best-selling author of The Brain Warriors Way

Wow, so many easy ways to heal our brains. What I love about this book is that I can start with just a couple of these tips and they will still make a big difference.

Amy Newmark, Editor-in-Chief of Chicken Soup for the Soul

Dr. Mike does a terrific job in helping people to understand ways they can use tools like mindfulness and breath work to feel better, eat better, sleep better, and live with a sense of peace.

Dr. Susan Albers, New York Times best-selling author of 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food, Eating Mindfully, and Eat Q

Mike does an incredible job in helping readers understand how the foods we eat are linked to conditions like excess stress, fatigue, and insomnia.

Tana Amen, B.S.N., R.N., New York Times best-selling author of The Omni Diet

Our brain is the conductor of the symphony of our body. Unwanted weight gain, insomnia, IBS, and even premature aging are profoundly influenced by our mental processes. This book is a powerful guide for anyone who wants to balance, heal, and optimize their life by using the power of the brain.

Anthony Youn, M.D., Americas Holistic Plastic Surgeon and best-selling author of The Age Fix

Spiking your blood sugar with processed foods doesnt just affect your waistline. In Heal Your Drained Brain, Mike will help you understand how they lead to conditions like fatigue, insomnia, and anxiety.

JJ Virgin, New York Times best-selling author of The Virgin Diet and JJ Virgins Sugar Impact Diet

Chronic stress and anxiety affect us in profound and complex ways. Heal Your Drained Brain illuminates how these conditions link to digestive woes, high blood pressure, and even cancer. If you feel frazzled and fatigued, you need Mikes solutions ASAP! He reveals the pathway to a balanced brain and body, so that you can reclaim the energetic, joyful life we all crave.

Kristi Funk, M.D., founder of Pink Lotus Breast Center

ALSO BY DR. MIKE DOW

The Brain Fog Fix: Reclaim Your Focus, Memory, and Joy in Just 3 Weeks*

Diet Rehab: 28 Days to Finally Stop Craving the Foods That Make You Fat

Healing the Broken Brain: Leading Experts Answer 100 Questions about Stroke Recovery,* with David Dow and Megan Sutton, CCC-SLP

*Available from Hay House
Please visit:

Hay House USA: www.hayhouse.com
Hay House Australia: www.hayhouse.com.au
Hay House UK: www.hayhouse.co.uk
Hay House India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Copyright 2018 by Mike Dow

Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast Books: www.raincoast.com Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Cover design: Jason Gabbert
Interior design: Riann Bender
Indexer: Joan D. Shapiro

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Hypnosis on pages 177179 adapted from S. W. Chiasson, A syllabus on hypnosis. American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, Education, and Research Foundation (1973).

Recipes on pages 264309 used with permission by Liana Werner-Gray and Donna Schwenk.

Images courtesy of Dr. Mike Dow.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Dow, Mike, author.

Title: Heal your drained brain : naturally relieve anxiety, combat insomnia, and balance your brain in just 14 days / Dr. Mike Dow.

Description: 1st edition. | Carlsbad, California : Hay House, Inc., 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017040960 | ISBN 9781401952105 (hardcover : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Brain--Psychology--Popular works. | Mental health--Popular works. | Self-care, Health--Popular works.

Classification: LCC QP376 .D6935 2018 | DDC 612.8/2--dc23 LC record available at

https://lccn.loc.gov/2017040960

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4019-5210-5

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1st edition, February 2018

Printed in the United States of America

For Chris and our happy family.

Contents

It seems like everyone I know these days is way too stressed out. Whether theyre patients, friends, or colleagues, I hear the same complaints from all of them: Theyre tired. Theyre anxious. Theyre working too much on not enough sleep. They have too many responsibilities but not enough energy. Its the same thing over and over and over again. Everyone is completely drained.

Adding insult to injury, the drain theyre experiencing also manifests as symptoms in their bodies. Theres weight gain. Irritable bowel syndrome. Ulcers. You name it. Stress leads to illness and disease.

The worst part is that the true solutions to these problems are both elusive and confusing. Turn to prescription antianxiety or sleeping pills, and theres a risk of dependence or making the problem worse in the long run. Many people are interested in natural remedies, but its hard to know which ones actually work and which ones are just hype. Thats why Ive written this bookto separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. I created this comprehensive guide to healing drained brains because people need answers. All the depleted and downtrodden people out there are in desperate need of a solution.

The natural and clinically proven strategies in this book have helped me successfully treat even the most extreme and shocking cases of drained brains. Ive had so many patients who have come to me as a last resort after going to countless doctors who havent been able to help them.

Case in point: I recently treated two women with drained brains that included potentially life-threatening symptoms. Both were at the end of their proverbial ropes after no specialist could help. One had so much tension in her mind and body that she was unable to eat solid food. Her body would involuntarily regurgitate anything she ate, so she had been fed exclusively through a feeding tube for years. The other had a paralyzing phobia of needles, which was so intense she hadnt been to a doctor for years and had paid to be put under general anesthesia for simple blood work. I treated both women after they reached out for help to the show I was working on, and their journeys were shown on national television. As these women told me their stories, I realized that theylike so many people these dayswere in dire need of hope. When none of the long line of doctors theyd visited provided treatment that worked, it compounded the problems and drained them even more. This led to a downward spiral that I knew could lead to serious illness or even death. My initial goal was to give both women a sense of hope. In my first session with the woman who couldnt eat solid food, I taught her a tool youll learn in this book: diaphragmatic breathing. It worked so well that at the end of the session, she reported feeling hopeful for the first time in years. With the woman who had a paralyzing phobia of needles, I helped her reprocess the traumatic event that had led to her phobia while using cognitive behavioral therapya form of which youll learn in this book as well. And so began their journeys to recovery. The moral of the story: If the antidotes in this book worked for their extremely drained brains, I know they will work for you.