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Making a Good Brain Great: The Amen Clinic Program for Achieving and Sustaining Optimal Mental Performance
Daniel Amen, M.D., one of the world’s foremost authorities on the brain, has news for your brain is involved in everything you do—learn to care for it properly, and you will be smarter, healthier, and happier in as little as 15 days!
You probably run, lift weights, or do yoga to keep your body in great shape; you put on sunscreen and lotions to protect your skin; but chances are you simply ignore your brain and trust it to do its job. People unknowingly endanger or injure their brains, stress them by working at a frenzied pace and not getting enough sleep, pollute them with caffeine, alcohol, and drugs, and deprive them of proper nutrients. Brain dysfunction is the number one reason people fail at school, work, and relationships. The brain is the organ of learning, working, and loving—the supercomputer that runs our lives. It’s very when our brains work right, we work right—and when our brains have trouble, we have trouble in our lives.
Luckily, it’s never too the brain is capable of change, and when you care for it, the results are amazing. Making a Good Brain Great gives you the tools you need to optimize your brain power and enrich your health and your life in the process. The principles and exercises in this book, based on years of cutting-edge neuroscience research and the experiences of thousands of people, provide a wealth of practical information to teach you how to achieve the best brain possible. You will
•how to eat right to think right
•how to protect your brain from injuries and toxic substances
•how to nourish your brain with vitamins and do mental workouts to keep it strong
•the critical component of physical exercise, and which kinds work best
•how to rid your brain of negative thoughts, counteract stress, and much more
Full of encouraging anecdotes from Dr. Amen’s many years of experience, Making a Good Brain Great is a positive and practical road map for enriching and improving your own greatest asset—your brain.
You probably run, lift weights, or do yoga to keep your body in great shape; you put on sunscreen and lotions to protect your skin; but chances are you simply ignore your brain and trust it to do its job. People unknowingly endanger or injure their brains, stress them by working at a frenzied pace and not getting enough sleep, pollute them with caffeine, alcohol, and drugs, and deprive them of proper nutrients. Brain dysfunction is the number one reason people fail at school, work, and relationships. The brain is the organ of learning, working, and loving—the supercomputer that runs our lives. It’s very when our brains work right, we work right—and when our brains have trouble, we have trouble in our lives.
Luckily, it’s never too the brain is capable of change, and when you care for it, the results are amazing. Making a Good Brain Great gives you the tools you need to optimize your brain power and enrich your health and your life in the process. The principles and exercises in this book, based on years of cutting-edge neuroscience research and the experiences of thousands of people, provide a wealth of practical information to teach you how to achieve the best brain possible. You will
•how to eat right to think right
•how to protect your brain from injuries and toxic substances
•how to nourish your brain with vitamins and do mental workouts to keep it strong
•the critical component of physical exercise, and which kinds work best
•how to rid your brain of negative thoughts, counteract stress, and much more
Full of encouraging anecdotes from Dr. Amen’s many years of experience, Making a Good Brain Great is a positive and practical road map for enriching and improving your own greatest asset—your brain.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
249 people are currently reading
2155 people want to read
About the author
Daniel G. Amen
194 books1,468 followersThe Washington Post called Dr. Daniel Amen the most popular psychiatrist in America and Sharecare.com named him the web's most influential expert and advocate on mental health.
Daniel Amen is a life-long Christian and graduate of Oral Roberts University School of Medicine. He is a double board-certified psychiatrist and multiple NY Times bestselling author, with such blockbuster books as Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Healing ADD, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, and The Daniel Plan, co-authored by Pastor Rick Warren and Dr. Mark Hyman. In November 2016, he and his wife Tana published The Brain Warrior's Way.
Dr. Amen is the founder of Amen Clinics, which has 6 locations across the United States. Amen Clinics has the world's largest database of brain scans related to behavior, totaling more than 125,000 SPECT scans on patients from 111 countries.
Dr. Amen's research team has published more than 70 scientific articles on a wide variety of topics related to brain health. He is the lead researcher on the largest brain imaging study on active and retired NFL players and was a consultant on the movie Concussion starring Will Smith. In 2016, Discover Magazine named his brain imaging work for psychiatric diagnoses as one of the top 100 stories in all of science.
Dr. Amen has also hosted 11 national public television shows about the brain, which have aired more than 80,000 times across North America and raised more than 75 million dollars for stations.
You can connect with Dr. Amen on Facebook and Twitter
Daniel Amen is a life-long Christian and graduate of Oral Roberts University School of Medicine. He is a double board-certified psychiatrist and multiple NY Times bestselling author, with such blockbuster books as Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Healing ADD, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, and The Daniel Plan, co-authored by Pastor Rick Warren and Dr. Mark Hyman. In November 2016, he and his wife Tana published The Brain Warrior's Way.
Dr. Amen is the founder of Amen Clinics, which has 6 locations across the United States. Amen Clinics has the world's largest database of brain scans related to behavior, totaling more than 125,000 SPECT scans on patients from 111 countries.
Dr. Amen's research team has published more than 70 scientific articles on a wide variety of topics related to brain health. He is the lead researcher on the largest brain imaging study on active and retired NFL players and was a consultant on the movie Concussion starring Will Smith. In 2016, Discover Magazine named his brain imaging work for psychiatric diagnoses as one of the top 100 stories in all of science.
Dr. Amen has also hosted 11 national public television shows about the brain, which have aired more than 80,000 times across North America and raised more than 75 million dollars for stations.
You can connect with Dr. Amen on Facebook and Twitter
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews
July 12, 2007
I think this book needs to be renamed "Making Idiots Poor". It basically consists of a "doctor", Daniel Amen, pretending to know something about the brain and telling people how to keep it healthy. What results is a 336-page mess with advice so banal that it makes me wonder if the author knows anything about the brain. The brain is a remarkably complex and mysterious organ, and to say that centuries-old adages about living morally is somehow exactly what the brain needs to function optimally seems to indicate a deeper understanding of politically correct morality than any understanding of the body's most complex organ. If you want to read a book about the brain, please read "In Search of Memory" by Eric Kandel, who actually uses data and experiments to support claims about the brain's structure. If you somehow happen to get "Making a Good Brain Great", however, please burn it, or better yet, sell it to an idiot who has no use of a brain.
P.S.
If I could give this book negative or zero stars, I would.
P.S.
If I could give this book negative or zero stars, I would.
September 5, 2014
Informative read on good brain health and what individuals can to do improve. Dr. Amen specifically recommends exercise (no contact sports, good sleep habits, good nutrition, supplements and neurofeedback. He offers a simplified description of several brain systems and informs the reader as to how the over or under activation of these systems lead to dysfunction. Excellent!
August 28, 2013
Any informative information is something you could get from your regular family doctor...Dr. Amen uses anecdotal evidence and bad science. It's all about the money. I'm sure people are helped through the placebo effect but they could save a lot of money and use another cheaper form of placebo.
His studies have never lasted scientific-scrutiny. If they had then it wouldn't just be the Amen clinic using SPECT scans; the medical community would be using them.
For shame, he's preying on people and taking their money.
For information on what the scientific community has said about Dr. Amen and his practices go here: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/s....
His studies have never lasted scientific-scrutiny. If they had then it wouldn't just be the Amen clinic using SPECT scans; the medical community would be using them.
For shame, he's preying on people and taking their money.
For information on what the scientific community has said about Dr. Amen and his practices go here: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/s....
July 17, 2022
An interesting slant on the creating a better brain thing...lol...eating is always an important part of helping your body to heal and be better. It is as equally important for the functionality of your brain. This included the increasing of oxygenated blood to all the parts and organs of your body. Well worth the read for some helpful and healthy tips to increase your brain power, along with the other parts of your body!
August 27, 2013
Dr. Amen is a neuroscientist who has been practicing for a long time. I trust in his ability to read SPECT scans with incredible accuracy and that he has no doubt helped many, many people.
He's also making a lot of money off of this book and his clinic. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something to take into account when someone is offering you a diagnosis and a remedy. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the book and have learned a great deal more about my brain and possible causes for some of my inadequacies.
Dr. Amen shows us scans of "healthy" brains and "unhealthy" brains. He then gives us lots of anecdotal evidence and stories to help us relate to the kinds of disorders he's discussing. He shows and discusses which areas of the brain are associated with certain disorders such as ADD, depression, OCD, etc. After that, he begins to tell us what kinds of treatments will help including activities you can do and supplements you can take. He does cite studies and mentions that not all treatments will work the same for everyone.
He has some good advice and offers some good information for those seeking answers. I wouldn't say everything he says is golden, but he seems to offer some interesting insight into the world of psychology and I absolutely agree that our traditional approaches to mental healing would be benefitted by the ability to track physical progress in the brain as well. Interesting book overall and I will definitely be looking more into some of the information he discusses.
Update: After reading more into the efficacy of SPECT imaging, I am no longer certain that it is as foolproof as Dr. Amen is claiming it to be. Granted, it could definitely be promising - if it really does what he claims it does. It also has the potential to be unnecessary and harmful since it uses a radioactive tracer to detect blood flow and chemical reactions. Time and more studies will tell if this is an effectual procedure or not.
He's also making a lot of money off of this book and his clinic. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something to take into account when someone is offering you a diagnosis and a remedy. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the book and have learned a great deal more about my brain and possible causes for some of my inadequacies.
Dr. Amen shows us scans of "healthy" brains and "unhealthy" brains. He then gives us lots of anecdotal evidence and stories to help us relate to the kinds of disorders he's discussing. He shows and discusses which areas of the brain are associated with certain disorders such as ADD, depression, OCD, etc. After that, he begins to tell us what kinds of treatments will help including activities you can do and supplements you can take. He does cite studies and mentions that not all treatments will work the same for everyone.
He has some good advice and offers some good information for those seeking answers. I wouldn't say everything he says is golden, but he seems to offer some interesting insight into the world of psychology and I absolutely agree that our traditional approaches to mental healing would be benefitted by the ability to track physical progress in the brain as well. Interesting book overall and I will definitely be looking more into some of the information he discusses.
Update: After reading more into the efficacy of SPECT imaging, I am no longer certain that it is as foolproof as Dr. Amen is claiming it to be. Granted, it could definitely be promising - if it really does what he claims it does. It also has the potential to be unnecessary and harmful since it uses a radioactive tracer to detect blood flow and chemical reactions. Time and more studies will tell if this is an effectual procedure or not.
February 5, 2011
I picked this book up because recently a friend of mine was struck by a car and has spent the last month in the ICU with brain swelling. I wanted to know more about brain injuries. The book didn't give much information on what to do with brain injuries, this was more a preventive guide.
There are two parts. The first is more of a text book explanation of what the brain is and how it works. It was pretty dry.
The second part is about what you can be doing to help improve your brain. Most readers that are interested in health already know much of this. Such as get plenty of exercise, read, do puzzles, eat right and even play table tennis. Amen does give some great tips on multi vitamins and different supplements we can take to help improve brain function. And at the end he gives us a 15 day game plan to get started.
Overall it was a good book with a lot of good reinforcements on why and how we can improve our thinkers.
There are two parts. The first is more of a text book explanation of what the brain is and how it works. It was pretty dry.
The second part is about what you can be doing to help improve your brain. Most readers that are interested in health already know much of this. Such as get plenty of exercise, read, do puzzles, eat right and even play table tennis. Amen does give some great tips on multi vitamins and different supplements we can take to help improve brain function. And at the end he gives us a 15 day game plan to get started.
Overall it was a good book with a lot of good reinforcements on why and how we can improve our thinkers.
June 3, 2011
A must read for anyone with a brain. While it may seem obvious, many people (Dr's included) fail to address the health of the brain when trying to treat emotional/mental problems. Its easy to forget that the brain controls EVERYTHING. So instead of just medicating the effects (ie: depression, ADD) a person is experiencing, Dr Amen advises that we must look at the actual cause these disorders, which is brain function! After reading this book I've started some supplements and even asked my Dr to let me try some medication that Dr Amen has suggested for my type of issues. Even after just a few weeks I have had amazing results. I'm soooo much less irritable, my skin has cleared up and I've even lost over 10lbs. Brain health will be a top priority for me!
April 23, 2008
This is a fascinating book and a must read, especially if you are concerned for your health in later years. The book gives insights into the inner workings of the brain and how our brain influences our emotions and vise versa. I gained greater understanding of my own emotional state and how I could improve. The book does fall into some tedium as the author describes different conditions and remedies, but overall the book is worth reading.
June 15, 2009
This books shows SPECT brain imaging and is all about how to keep our brains functioning optimally. I am a total brain whore, so this was like porn for me. It's intelligent, but dumbed down enough that you don't have to be a brain surgeon to get it. It has tips on eating and physical and mental exercise for your 3lb head muscle and includes a 15 day workout plan for your noodle. It made me love my brain so much I would totally make out with it if I could.
October 31, 2015
This book illuminates the many ways diet, exercise, meditation, music and learning can heal and/or keep a brain healthy. Medication and various therapies are also sometimes called for but they aren't the only route to a healthy brain.
September 6, 2017
Good practical guide for beginners to start their journey learning about proper brain care. This is definitely worth the ~220 pages to take your time and read. I found the first half of the book to be very informative as the author leaned heavily on his own expertise and studies into the brain. The second half of the book to me seemed more anecdotal and less analytical. Many of the lessons given from the studies referenced in the second half appears to be more correlation than causal. I'm not an expert and feeling lazy so I won't go into the details. Bottom line is take care of the one organ which has the most impact on making your life better. There are many ways we damage our brains on a daily basis and knowing more about this can only help.
One of many great quotes from the book:
As our brain functions, so do we perceive. Therefore, in reality, we should seek to change not only the outside world but our own brains and attitudes. It is how your brain perceives situations, rather than the actual situations themselves, that causes you to react. I often write this equation for my patients:
A + B = C
A is the actual event,
B is how we interpret or perceive the event, and
C is how we react to the event.
Most people think the A things in life, what happens to us, determine our behavior. In large part, it is actually the B stuff. Other people or events (A) cannot make us do anything. It is our brain’s interpretation or perception (B) that causes our behavior (C). Here are two examples.
Balancing your brain through diet, exercise, music, stress reduction, and supplements will help your perceptions. At the same time, balancing and improving your perceptions can help balance the brain. Psychotherapy—or therapy for your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors—has been found to actually enhance brain function. How your brain works is certainly involved in how you think, feel, and act, but how you think, feel, and act can also influence brain function. The brain and behavior help or hurt each other.
One of many great quotes from the book:
As our brain functions, so do we perceive. Therefore, in reality, we should seek to change not only the outside world but our own brains and attitudes. It is how your brain perceives situations, rather than the actual situations themselves, that causes you to react. I often write this equation for my patients:
A + B = C
A is the actual event,
B is how we interpret or perceive the event, and
C is how we react to the event.
Most people think the A things in life, what happens to us, determine our behavior. In large part, it is actually the B stuff. Other people or events (A) cannot make us do anything. It is our brain’s interpretation or perception (B) that causes our behavior (C). Here are two examples.
Balancing your brain through diet, exercise, music, stress reduction, and supplements will help your perceptions. At the same time, balancing and improving your perceptions can help balance the brain. Psychotherapy—or therapy for your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors—has been found to actually enhance brain function. How your brain works is certainly involved in how you think, feel, and act, but how you think, feel, and act can also influence brain function. The brain and behavior help or hurt each other.
Read
August 17, 2024What we see or diagnose as "brain disease" eg depression is perhaps symptom rather than final statement or root diagnosis. With brain scanning - this books gives anecdotes of SPECT- one can go beyond symptoms and see what is actually wrong or damaged or dysfunctional in this mighty organ.
Some facts are clear eg alcohol and trauma and traumatic experiences damage the brain and alter behaviour .
Some claims should be fact checked eg mercury in vaccines is bending the reason why we get more kids with autism ... ( though the author encourages high fish protein in diet as brain food - but fish contains mercury too).
Overal - this book tells us to love and protect our brain more eg by going to bed early.
Some facts are clear eg alcohol and trauma and traumatic experiences damage the brain and alter behaviour .
Some claims should be fact checked eg mercury in vaccines is bending the reason why we get more kids with autism ... ( though the author encourages high fish protein in diet as brain food - but fish contains mercury too).
Overal - this book tells us to love and protect our brain more eg by going to bed early.
November 7, 2018
Well written, but also full of lists of things that I really didn’t need compiled in one place (it sort of read like the Internet doesn’t exist ). Don’t listen to it as an audiobook book- that was very annoying.
It had lots of good information, but his talk of a vaccine-autism link (completely debunked at this point by many scientific studies- I can’t recall when this occurred, so maybe it post-dates the book? This is the only reason I didn’t just stop reading there and then) makes me quite skeptical of his claims. I’m glad I read it, but I’ll be fact-checking any tidbits I plan to take with me.
It had lots of good information, but his talk of a vaccine-autism link (completely debunked at this point by many scientific studies- I can’t recall when this occurred, so maybe it post-dates the book? This is the only reason I didn’t just stop reading there and then) makes me quite skeptical of his claims. I’m glad I read it, but I’ll be fact-checking any tidbits I plan to take with me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 21, 2019
It's nonsense to think we only use 10% of our brain, concussions are a bigger deal that we assume (so don't head a soccer ball and stay off motorcycles), take fish oil and multivitamins with daily exercise and fruits/veggies (and practice minor calorie restriction), and break the routine of your life to stimulate new parts of the brain. These were some of the many points made by the author. None of it was particularly new to me, although gave me a heightened appreciation for preventing brain injury.
August 26, 2022
Very succinct book with updated information. One major irritation with the paperback version: Almost every time there was a brain scan mentioned as an example, with scan pictures and/or comparisons, the images were inconveniently on the next page so you have to flip back and forth. It would only have taken a bit of attention in the editing/layout and you'd get the points the author is trying to make. Not a deal-breaker, but it's lazy. Dr. Amen is a miracle worker, I know for a fact, so I appreciated this refresher on his findings.
August 29, 2019
I found this very readable and quite interesting. It has a lot of ideas for protecting our brain and making it less likely that we will suffer trauma or debilitating disease impacting our brain (such as Alzheimers). A lot of the ideas are common sense...eat healthy, exercise, learn new skills. But I found the chapter on vitamins really interesting. And I need to cut down on sugar. I've made a few changes already to protect my brain.
December 2, 2024
As another reviewer said a book review, Dr. Amen’s brain scanning theory with the 6 types of ADHD sounds interesting and reliable; however, sadly it is pseudoscientific and does NOT have credible scientific evidence. There are other ADHD researchers out there who have done credible, rigorous, high-quality neuroscience research and research on ADHD and ADHD-related treatments for decades like Russell Barkley, Mary Solanto, etc.
June 18, 2018
Includes a lot of irresponsible science: claims that are unsubstantiated, based on anectodes, small research groups, and pseudo-science. Some dangerously vague statements as well. I respect that he's probably a fantastic psychiatrist, but that doesn't automatically qualify him to write about neuroscience.
September 29, 2025
This book provides steps that can be taken daily and occasionally to improve brain function. In additional, it provides the knowledge to better understand others struggles and how rare a normal brain really is! I enjoyed the read and the challenges to follow the steps and reflect on how to apply the knowledge to my own life.
June 26, 2017
Lots of great ideas in this book to make the brain healthier, especially with eating and supplements. I am concerned that the book (2005) is a bit outdated by now (2017). I want to read more about the subject.
October 1, 2017
This book has all the necesary ingredients for a better filestyle. All the advices are easy accomplish and most of the resolts can be seen withim weeks.
Thank you Amen Clinic for shareing this with us!
Thank you Amen Clinic for shareing this with us!
September 6, 2019
I love this book. It's just gave me a visual reason to take care of my brain and now I can't stop thinking about blue berries and table tennis. My brain habits are getting better. This book is literally life changing.
November 10, 2018
Such an amazing book with all the info I always wanted to know about the brain and nutrition and health in general. Fantastic!!!
August 20, 2019
read a long time ago.know i liked it enough to read again
May 7, 2020
The anatomy and physiology review was very interesting but the rest of the book just seemed like an infomercial for Amen Clinics.
June 10, 2020
Pushes a lot of non facts as facts
overall was a decent read
overall was a decent read
January 14, 2022
Lots of helpful information for anyone who cares about their own or their loved ones’ brains. I appreciate the specific examples. I’ll refer back to it for specific recommendations in the future.
March 20, 2023
motivating and easy to read content, bit repetitive at times, but an interesting guide on promoting better brain health presented in a functional way
December 22, 2024
A really good introduction to make our lives better. Book contain some great programs about food, diet, training, meditation.
February 20, 2017
I've read some of his newer stuff, and I felt that some things in this book were outdated, as it was published in 2005.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews