Unleash the Power of the Female Brain: Supercharging Yours for Better Health, Energy, Mood, Focus, and Sex

by Daniel G. Amen

From one of the world's leading experts on how the brain works, a step-by-step, practical program for women to achieve greater health, energy, and lasting happiness by harnessing the power of the female brain.

For the first time, bestselling author and brain expert Dr. Daniel G. Amen offers insight on the unique characteristics and needs of the female brain and a practical, prescriptive program targeted specifically for women to help them thrive. In this breakthrough guide based on research from his clinical practice, Dr. Amen addresses the issues women ask about the most including fertility, pregnancy, menopause, weight, stress, anxiety, insomnia, and relationships.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Psychology, Self Help, Brain, Personal Development, Science

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

The 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

Reviews

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like reading about the brain. This was a fairly quick read for me because I was able to skim a lot of the labeling and anatomy lessons of the brain in the beginning. Also, it was quick because the author REPEATED EVERYTHING 7 TIMES. I get it-- this is just a cleverly disguised self-help book and people need a lot of repition to stop being stupid/awful/fat/depressed. But it detracted from my enjoyment of the book. By the end I was like "Ok, 7 hours of sleep minimum, no sugar, exercise, balance hormones, positive thinking, community support-- GOT IT".

Initially I was very bothered that the author was a man and my husband had to berate me for being sexist. But sometimes I get very tired of my female experience being dictated by a man. I understand that he's an expert in his field and he is citing scientifically sound studies but sometimes I get irritated by the plethora of male experts on women. Just my own little problem, nothing inherently wrong with the book.
By the end, I found some thing to enjoy in the book and some helpful tidbits on ways to live greener (for the sake of my brain).

Obviously I could skip the chapters on depression, ADD, etc. and be thankful that I am in a small minority of women who are not afflicted with these conditions (which according to the author's stance on women's brains, it's a freakin miracle). In the pregnancy chapter I rolled my eyes a bit- oh you mean I'm not supposed to drink alcohol and smoke while I'm pregnant? It didn't seem that he said anything very helpful or new (if you've ever read a pregnancy book), even with his "brain spin" on things.

My most helpful chapters were on the hormonal imbalances and healthy eating. I did get frustrated with the author's tone many times (and at one point after the 20th time he bemoaned the evils of being fat and how it makes you stupider I yelled "How about you go have a damn baby and see how you feel about gut fat!"- my husband, who was sitting right next to me, was duly surprised). And I'm sure if this author was in the room he would have said "My what an emotional outburst, perhaps you should go get your hormone levels checked- it seems like you brain's not running at optimum capacity. But honestly, if you're going to write a book about women you could at least acknowledge that we're evolutionarily designed to be fatter than men for the benefit of our offspring. The way he went about it, just saying "stop being fat, fatness actually makes your brain dumber" made him sound like a jerk.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Advice for taking care of your brain is good to have, and good to apply.
And there was some good advice too in this book, and some about how the brain works.
But the writing style was occasionally irritating (unless it's just me who finds "you" form patronizing?), and while there were some good resources for finding out more, there were quite a few bits presented in a way that made me want to slam the book away rather than keep reading.
Maybe I should have picked one of his non-genderbased books of the same stuff instead.

While we learn about how to take care of the female brain, Amen keeps first telling how great the female brain is. Some of the problems with female brain are due to - surprise? - female hormones. Now to remediate the problems caused by female hormones by adding more female hormones to the mix makes about as much sense as curing your peanut allergy wit a PBJ sandwich or your milk allergy with a huge cow milk latte.
We also learn that empathy is a female trait, that all women have empathy, and only women have empathy, so empathy must then be related to XX-chromosome combination. Wow.
Some of the most funny (or sad perhaps) parts include how to get best nutrition for your brain. While gorging on wild caught salmon, goji berries and wild spinach is fine, giving advice how to call your friends beforehand of a party to inform them about only what items you can eat (no sugar, no alcohol, no coffee, no wheat...) is, I'm sorry, dickish. If all the female readers are already equipped by that empathy thing he keeps blabbering about, wouldn't they already know how to say "no thank you, I'm on a diet"? If you have to call me before a party to give me a list of what you can and what you can't eat, bring something for yourself, and with all that no coffee and no alcohol you might also not want to come at all.

[Lana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought that this book had potential when I spotted it at my local library... and then I started reading it. It's basically full of "women are more in touch with their emotions" sexist drivel. If you are interested in the topic of women's health, I would recommend reading The Hormone Cure by Sara Gottfried.

[Gabriella O'Toole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting to say the least. I learned quite a few things about what's good and what's bad for your brain. This book wasn't exactly riveting, but it was neat to learn a few things. The only thing I definitely didn't like was that the author would say, for example, "try this test on my website and figure out your brain type!" So I went online to take it, and the webpage brings you to a place where you have to pay and sign up for membership. I just think that if this author was as concerned for our well-being as much as he claimed in the book, his "program" would be free to the public. But overall, I'm glad I read the book, maybe now I might start taking some vitamins or something.

[Kelly Lynn Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was mostly dumb, in my opinion. I guess I was expecting something like, doing things like x and x and x will increase brain power/make you smarter! But it wasn't about that at all, it was about balancing your hormones and getting blood tests and shit, stuff that maybe a rich lady could afford to get tested for but I sure as shit can't. There were a few good nuggets of info in here, specifically in the food and sex chapters (but nothing earth shattering). Totally not worth the read, though.

[Rebekka Steg · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I disagreed with Dr Amen on some of his interpretations of the differences between the male and female mind, this was overall a book well worth reading. Dr Amen goes over the importance of treating your brain with the respect it deserves and keeping it healthy through nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, psychology, etc. and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in keeping their brain healthy into old age.

[Linda Galella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written 2 years after my first book, (“The Amen Solution”), I could have saved my money on “Unleash the Power…”

Daniel G. Amen has written in excess of 20 books. Most of the information in UNLEASH, is a direct drop in from the AMEN SOLUTION. Dr. Amen took the information from the 2011 Solution, removed the masculine references and featured the female facts.

Not only is the information repetitive between his volumes, but Amen repeats himself within the book, 2, 3, even 4 times. If you like to be prompted regularly, his book will make you happy; if not - you’ll likely be annoyed. Amen is big on lists so it’s easy to review information and for me, the organization is simplified and easy to take a picture of for my phone. I especially like the low glycemic index list and lists for vitamins, minerals and supplements for specific situations and conditions. QR readers make access easy.

Good medical information that’s reasonably understandable, UNLEASH THE POWER is a “mind/body” “brain/gut” plan that’s easy to implement and/or add to an existing program - I used elements with my intermittent fasting. After 10+ years, it’s time to update to include new trends: intermittent fasting, keto, whole 30, etc📚

[Farhana Faruq · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much info in here. Nicely laid out and very concise. Occasionally you have to go to their website for something but it's so seldom you hardly notice it. People also seem to have a problem that it's written by a man, I'm not sure why. Things are backed with science, experience and personal accounts.

Really enjoyed reading about the brain - how different the female and male brain is, even physically.

[Maram Alagla · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of all times, it changed the way I look and treat myself and other females around me, I have always believed in the power of females in general, the book confirmed my believe, quite scientific maybe will be little difficult to absorb for casual readers. Re-read it many times, definitely recommended.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title + Bright Pink Color + New Book Shelf = reasons I picked up this book. Why not? I am interested in all sorts of books about the brain, and this one was written by a doctor...that is also an excellent salesman for his business! Some of the other reviews claimed the whole book is advertising his website, and the writing is sexist - I can see their point of view. I guess my point of view would be if this book helps a person to get in better shape based on a brain scan (SPECT = single photon emission computed tomography) that his clinic recommends, regardless if you believe the results/information from the brain scan or if this whole book is one big placebo - does it really matter? The point is the doctor is helping people in the way that they need help and saying it in a way that his patients understand, so they are better off for participating in his medical consultations. And he does make a good point - if the wife/mother/sister/grandmother/female figure in the family, takes better care of herself, the entire family benefits as well as her friend and community network. He recommends the four circle approach - biology (how the physical body functions), psychology (developmental issues and thought patterns), social connections (social support and current life situation), and spiritual health (what life means).


Some quotes:

"Dr. Jill Goldstein of Harvard Medical School used MRI scans to compare female and male brains. She found that compared to men, women have larger volume in the frontal cortices and limbic cortices. Remember, the frontal cortex is involved in many of the higher cognitive functions, including language, judgment, planning, impulse control, and consciousness, while the limbic cortices are concerned with emotional responses. This might explain why women tend to be less impulsive and more concerned with emotions than men, as well as why they have 'busy' brains that won't stop worrying. It might also explain the source of the female brain's key strengths: intuition, collaboration, self-control, empathy, and a little worry. Imaging also consistently shows that the hippocampus, one of the major memory centers in the brain, is larger in women than in men. Men, on the other hand, have bigger amygdalas, the part of the brain that processes fear and anger, which may be why men often jump to those emotions in a crisis. Compared to women, men may have larger parietal lobes, which are concerned with the perception of space. Women use language (and collaboration) to ask for directions; men use their parietal lobes to find their own way. Men also tend to have larger volumes in the hypothalamus, which is concerned with sexual behavior. It's no wonder that men have a greater interest in sex."

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." - Albert Einstein

"Depending on your unique genetic makeup, the resulting chronic inflammation can lead to vascular disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes, arthritis, bowel problems, and cancer."

"Low cholesterol levels have been associated with both homicide and suicide. If I am at a party and someone is bragging to me about their low cholesterol levels, I am always *very* nice to that person."


The Contents:

Introduction: The Female Brain Unleashed
Chapter 1: Fall in Love with Your Female Brain
Chapter 2: Harness the Unique Strengths of the Female Brain
Chapter 3: Adopt Amen Clinics' Method for Optimizing the Female Brain
Chapter 4: Balance your Hormones to Boost the Female Brain
Chapter 5: Feed the Female Brain
Chapter 6: Soothe the Female Brain
Chapter 7: Get Control of the Female Brain
Chapter 8: ADD and the Female Brain
Chapter 9: Be Beautiful Inside and Out
Chapter 10: Sex and the Female Brain
Chapter 11: Get Your Brain ready for Babies and Caring for Their Brains Once They're Here
Chapter 12: Change your Female Brain, Change, the World

[Lecy Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

(Content warning: this book references eating disorders, and domestic abuse, and shames drug use, poor diets, and fat people, essentially. It's very heavy on diet culture, is sexist, ableist, and fat-phobic/pro-low BMI. So, if you're sensitive to these topics, please read with care.) I often gravitate to these types of health books, especially when they relate to the brain, but this one gave me an icky feeling from the get-go. A phrase that this author coins early on is his "brain envy" theory. Basically, this is the desire to better your brain because he's spent the last chapter telling you that yours is mush and it's probably your fault. He continues by making statements like "If you follow my plan, X, Y, and Z will happen for you," "Don't lie to yourself" about your weight, "You have to want a better brain," and "Get your diet under control," none of which will be helpful to someone who is seriously looking for guidance on how to better their life. There isn't a lot of good medical advice provided in this book. The author shares a list of recommended diagnostic tests a patient can have done to determine how healthy their brain might be. Some of them are standard blood tests that are done during a routine physical, but others are ones that most physicians won't order (or insurance won't cover) unless there are medical problems that substantiate those tests. He also recommends services where patients can order their own labwork. Again, this is a very bad idea because most patients won't understand or be able to interpret the results of those tests, taking into account all the factors that make up the big picture, as a physician would. My biggest issue with this book is the weight shaming. There are so many references to body weight, BMI, diets, and the "right" way to eat. He even includes a list of the "good" and "bad" foods/activities for your brain. (And my therapist always tried to get me away from using the good/bad labels for things...) When I started seeing before/after photos of weight loss, I knew I had crossed over into enemy territory. Shaming someone for what their body looks like is not the way to encourage them to take better care of themselves. The same type of tone was used when talking about someone who actually had health problems. While the author doesn't right come out and say it, there's an underlying theme that if you have chronic illness/pain or mental health problems like depression, it's probably because you haven't done your best at staying healthy. According to this book, if you are fat, have a chronic illness, had a traumatic childhood, or don't eat a healthy diet, you're screwed. Ultimately, I got the feeling that the author was just trying to scare people into subscribing to his website and online courses. The book lacks nuance and a good bedside manner and I wouldn't recommend it.

[Jane Dugger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very informative book about the health of the female brain and how different it is from male brains. The lingering take-away is how important brain health is in the overall scheme of health. I feel sometimes it isn't spotlighted very much because brains aren't considered sexy. However, a well functioning brain is sexy (and of course the most important sex organ)! Dr. Amen focused quite a bit on mental health and ADD which was interesting but not very apropos for me at this moment in my life.

I took the Brain Fit Test online. I have a Type 1 Brain which tends to be flexible, focused, good impulse control, balanced emotions, and resilient. I was most pleased with my score of 85/100 points in brain fitness. Three areas of improvement are sleep, memory and flexible thinking. This surprised me as I feel I do get adequate sleep and have an above average memory. Interestingly enough, my other half has begun to comment that my memory is not as it was ... although still better than his. :)

Overall a good read. The only criticism is the narrator of the audio recording. He was not the best choice. For me, he spoke too slow and deliberate. And unfortunately I don't have a speed control on my audiobook app. Nonetheless, I survived.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a crock of hooey! It's s big ass sales pitch for his website. Full of examples if women who were "fixed" at his clinic, but not what fixed them. Oh, you can go to his website to take the test to see what needs to be fixed, for a free two week trial offer. Whatever. His diet section does list brain foods to eat - fruits and veg - duh. And then at the end he mentions a bunch if supplements. Not anti vitamin or supplement, but if your diet is right, you don't need all that, must if which is manufactured and not quite the same as what's in real food. Good thing it was a library book.

[Shayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

I feel like this book should have been 150-200 pages shorter. I definitely could have done without all the pages of hormone stuff. At the beginning of the book I felt so motivated and wanted to change my life, but by the time I got to page 200 that feeling was replaced with boredom and I was sad because of the food stuff since I'm an extremely picky eater and healthy food makes me gag usually. Oh well, others with more patience might like it, but I did not finish.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to make myself finish reading this. It is pretty typical suggestions - lose weight?, exercise, lots of water, cut out sugar and caffeine, organic when possible no plastics with PBa s. could be helpful to anyone really but women have more fluxes to hormones which are negatively impacted by these things.

[Anne Mason · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a lot of good info in this book, but most of it is common sense stuff you've already heard 1000 times. Eat right and exercise? Oh, didn't think of that! Maybe it's me, but I found the author's tone rather patronizing at times. Also, I was a bit annoyed at the constant plugs for the author's website and clinic.

[M. Jane Colette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a really hard time with this book... Yes, it is chokful of science... but it is also full of really awful gender stereotypes. And I found it hard to get past those.

I don't think women and men are biologically the same, obviously... but neither are all women the same--or the way Amen seems to see them.

Also, much of the book is just a plug for Amen services.

[Yalda Shoohanizad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually the book is unbelievably good and taught me lots of lifesaving points. It’s a must-read for every woman and it’s never too late.
Unfortunately like other books by Amen, it repeatedly says the same thing! And can be summarized in an article.
Consequently, I suggest every woman to read it, but don’t spend too much time on his stories of patients.
Good luck!

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

We've all heard these prescriptions before - diet, exercise, good sleep, etc. Nothing new. It was an easy read and it's good to hear again why these prescriptions are worthwhile. I didn't like how cheesy and salesy his writing came off.

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this book was more scientific and technical that I was expecting the information in it is invaluable! So glad I read this (and so glad I read it when I was 24 in order to be proactive). I highly recommend to ANY female looking to generally improve their well-being overall.

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the book did have some useful information, it seemed more like an advertisement in disguise. I skimmed through a good portion of the book because the information was repeated, or even worse, he talked to no end about his clinic. Honestly, it's a shameless promotion of his own business.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

My moons ago, I spent a few years studying in the field of neuroscience.  It truly is fascinating to examine what we know about the brain.  Unleash the Power of the Female Brain by Daniel G. Amen takes that further by exploring specifically the female brain and ways to improve brain health.  I’m so glad I had the opportunity to review the title.

This has proven to be an interesting title to read.  The way it is set up you can jump around different chapters based upon specific topics of interest.  You can feel Dr. Amen’s passion for brain health coming through the pages and it makes you want to jump on the bandwagon with making lifestyle changes that can have a huge impact.

I can not say that everything in this title was ‘new’ to me.  My neuroscience studies had a focus upon the interaction of the brain with all the parts of the body via the nervous system.  It is quite amazing how much effect that one organ can have upon other body systems.  We truly do not live in isolation and decisions that result in poor brain health can lead to other negative effects in our body.

One feature of this title that I enjoyed was the end of chapter ‘exercise’ for readers to do.  These small steps lead to improved health overall and focus upon the targeted area for that particular chapter. I can’t say that I’ve seen amazing results in just a short time, but I can feel a difference and hope to continue seeing improvement in certain areas of my life.

Disclaimer: I was sent an advance reader copy for review. All opinions are my own.

[Grainne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any female wanting some Monday motivation I would highly recommend reading this book.
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Before reading this book I always thought of health in terms of eating good and exercising to get rid of the bloated belly and to get 'skinny'. This book has taught me so much more. Our brain is the main organ in our body and there is so much we can do to look after it which has so many positive results, it basically controls EVERYTHING.
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I honestly believe this book should be made compulsory in schools for all females to read. The information in it is amazing and there are things I have learned from reading this that I wish I knew a long time ago. From diets, hormones, the contraceptive pill, periods, pregnancy, menopause, mind health and so much more. Its literally a Bible for girls.
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The book has 12 chapters and has some suggested exercises at the end of each to put the knowledge of the chapter into action. Thanks @coco_ryry @siobh.ohagan for the recommendation this book was such an eye opener I loved reading it and learning so much more about my brain.

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Positives:
- A lot of scientific information about the brain and hormones
- Several case studies
- Actionable advice presented in a stepwise manner

Negatives:
- The diet advice is nothing new. It is the same in every health blog and book these days - low carb diet, skip dairy and gluten, sugar is poison etc.
- Too many case studies
- The book makes it sound too simplistic to start a new diet: I met this patient, I spoke to them and they miraculously lost 75 pounds and quit smoking. If it were so easy, how many people would succeed in their diets and there would be no new diets.
- The overall tone of the book is - Listen to me and your life will miraculously change which I found a little off putting.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why did I pick up this book? The title made me cringe a bit and even more when he repeated phases multiple times a chapter “unleash the female brain” and “brain envy”. The gender stereotypes were awful. And the book seemed like shameless promotion of his clinic and his website. The only thing I liked was that he talked about treating a person as a whole and not just their symptoms. I learned a bit about hormones and solidified that a healthy lifestyle will help keep a brain healthy. I should have tried his regular book or someone else’s. This one geared towards women did not work for me.

[Tayler Morrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot in this book about how hormones can affect not only our physical health, but mental and cognitive health as well - it was really interesting to even see the obvious difference shown in the brain scans he used. I learned a lot about how to start a better journey for my female body. However, the reason I didn’t give it a higher rating was that I could see a lot diet culture coming through, as well as some Christian viewpoints and I didn’t appreciate that in what was supposedly a medical book.

[Brooklyn Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opens with fascinating insights, based on SPECT scans of real brains, about the differences between how male and female brains are wired. Based on that foundation, Dr. Amen explains how to enhance and utilize our natural strengths, while being aware of some inherent pitfalls of our unique nature. Also includes sections to help people with specific disorders, such as anxiety and ADHD. Definitely worth a read for women who want to understand their own minds and bodies better.

[Karen Potts · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written & detailed report on the importance (often overlooked) of the brain in terms of its need for proper nutrition, exercise, sleep & an appreciation of just how powerful it is over all our functions. Much of the technical detail went past me but the lifestyle guidance & general health information is highly motivating for women (& men, too) to make wise daily choices.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is out of this world amazing! I wish I had had this book when I was a teen. It literally would have changed my life! I think every woman should read this book and then re-read it because there's just so much great stuff in it. I plan on buying several to give to the important women in my life. If you read this book, I have no doubt you'll do the same.

[Zahra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some bits of good advice.

But didn't really enjoy the writing. Just way too much advertising of his clinic and he comes across as a little too full of himself and a bit patronising.

And also, just listing a whole lot of stats doesn't always add much to the value of a statement. It gets a bit irritating.