Brain Wash

Introduction

A New Reality

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME you felt truly happy, fulfilled, clear-minded, well rested, and deeply connected not only to yourself but also to the people and world around you? If it’s been a while, this book is for you. You’re far from alone in this feeling. Millions of people are suffering today and either don’t realize it or don’t know what to do about it. Some have given up and are going through the daily motions as best they can. It doesn’t have to be this way.

You can wake up from this state of monotony and start pursuing lasting joy and a deeply meaningful existence—even as you move through struggles, disappointments, and challenges. Those are inevitable. What is not inevitable is feeling chronically untethered, foggy-minded, anxious about an uncertain future, and frustrated—maybe even shattered—by life itself. The thing is, there are very real ways to avoid many of these feelings and, even more important, create ongoing happiness in your life. Some of the strategies shared in the pages ahead will be easier than others, but all will be doable and accessible.

Let us confess from the get-go: we haven’t attained a perfect realization of this goal. We’re on this journey with you. Our belief is that we’ve found a powerful way to reframe and reclaim our potential for exceptional mental and physical health, and we can’t wait for you to implement this in your own life.

Here’s the paradox that persecutes us today: modernity provides us with infinite opportunities. We can eat whatever we want whenever we want. We can completely immerse ourselves in the vast, enticing world of digital media. We can buy goods and services and even find potential mates with the touch of a button or swipe of a finger. We can live around the clock in a virtual world where everything about us is public, from our thoughts and perspectives to our purchases, photos, browsing habits, likes and dislikes, and location. We think this 24-7 “new reality” should make us healthy and happy. But it doesn’t. The systems in place to meet—and exceed in many regards—all our basic needs do not create Utopia. Quite the opposite. We struggle with soaring rates of largely preventable illnesses, and many of us are more lonely, depressed, and anxious than ever before. Genuine joy remains elusive.

The crazy thing is, despite what the incessant news cycle would have us believe, our modern world is relatively peaceful. Yet poll a large, diverse group of people and the vast majority of them will say they think we live in perilous times. They are fearful, uneasy, and nervous. They feel trapped. Life, overall, is just not a pleasant experience. What’s more, distrust in one another has reached a new high. A 2014 survey of ten thousand Americans revealed the biggest division in political ideologies in decades, and since 2004, the percentage of people with negative views of the opposing party has more than doubled.¹ For anyone keeping abreast of the news, this finding is probably not surprising.

We promise to bring you a new framework for living your life. Together we are going to find a way to cultivate and maintain a more fulfilling existence beyond robust health and psychological well-being. It’s time for a brain wash of an entirely different kind.

THE PROMISE… AND THE PROBLEM

Imagine for a moment that you’re not particularly concerned about anything. You feel grounded and energetic, not the least bit worn, weighed down, burned out, or dead inside. You trust your body’s innate physiology to take care of you and heal on its own. You’re not overly stressed because you have confidence that any challenges you have will work themselves out. You’re comfortable not knowing what tomorrow will bring, though you have a sense of positive agency over the possibilities. And you are okay with the past, however traumatic it was. You’re even okay with friends who have completely different viewpoints from yours. Everything feels right. Your private self-talk is hopeful, relaxed, and open. The sound track of your life is a song you want to play over and over again.

It’s hard to consider this level of calmness and contentment when the obligations of the modern world feel more inescapable and crushing with each passing day. But this can be your reality. The secret is knowing what’s going on in your head and then changing the circuitry that leads you down destructive paths. This book builds from a simple premise:

Few people would debate the fact that poor choices in our day-to-day activities influence our health. For example, we know that junk foods are bad for us and, over time, can lead to all manner of diseases. So why is it that we persist in eating these foods? Why do we consistently choose to consume the wrong things? The answer is complicated, but part of the solution is to understand a basic truth: we are being programmed to ingest these poisons.

Our dietary choices are among many lifestyle habits that can lead to either wellness or chronic disease. Chronic disease accounts for 70 percent of American deaths: half of Americans are suffering from at least one chronic illness, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.² And while we continue to argue over how to change our health-care system, we forget that we spend 75 percent of our health-care dollars on preventable diseases.³ The World Health Organization now ranks chronic degenerative diseases such as the illnesses we just mentioned as collectively the number one cause of death on the planet, ahead of famine, infectious diseases, and wars.⁴

That may not be news to you if you are aware of the critical link between poor diet and disease. But what you may not realize is that the food you eat and the beverages you drink change your emotions, your thoughts, and the way you perceive the world. Just as important, your mood and perceptions also directly and powerfully influence your dietary choices. This fact is exploited by the food-production industry and creates a vicious cycle that will destroy your health—and your mind. We will show you how to break it. But this is so much bigger than just our food choices.

Through incessant exposure to advertisements, you are being reminded thousands of times a day that instant gratification is the way to happiness. The message comes in subliminally. Billions of dollars are spent to persuade you to keep pursuing happiness the wrong way, by literally rewiring your brain so that you crave the things that bring you further from your goal. You might think that you are doing everything you are supposed to do in order to succeed at life, but still, things are not wonderful. Social media tells you that everyone else is having a great time. Ads tell you that buying something will change your life or that a diet pill will instantly fix your love handles. Your attempts at eating healthfully are thwarted by a limitless supply of delicious and cheap calories. You feel like being unhealthy is your fault. This depressing scenario is now the norm, fueling a culture of chronic stress. Unfortunately, this type of stress is toxic to the brain, damaging the very parts of it that help you have a sense of agency—to feel in control of your life. And in your attempts to cope, you again turn to instant gratification, making it harder to break the neural circuits that trigger and reinforce this behavior. The escape hatch moves further away. In the chapters ahead, you’ll discover exactly how this happens and what you can do about it. You can be better. Your body and mind want to improve, they just need to know how.

From a biological perspective, many factors lead us into the trap of instant gratification. We’ll explain these factors over the course of the book. For example, you may already know that chronic inflammation is closely linked to many of the diseases that afflict us today. But you may not know that chronic inflammation also influences the brain—leading you to make poor decisions and act impulsively.

In part 1, “Living Under the Influence,” we’ll reveal the mental hijacking that undermines each and every one of us in our search for meaning, joy, and lasting wellness. In part 2, “Breaking the Spell,” we’ll present the tools necessary to think more clearly, strengthen bonds with others, and develop healthful habits. For those of you who need a structural blueprint, we’ve got a practical ten-day program that puts all the strategies together. Indeed, you can begin to change the trajectory of your health and life in ten days.

WHERE WE COME FROM

It’s not every day that you read a book written by a father and son. We joined forces from two completely different generations sharing one question: What makes health and happiness so elusive? Below, we talk about where we’re coming from in our own individual words.

Austin: While completing my residency in internal medicine, I followed the traditional approach to health, which emphasizes the diagnosis and treatment of individual diseases. I did my best to properly identify and manage my patients’ many problems. Yet despite my efforts, most of my patients seemed less than interested in adhering to my carefully crafted plans. Why would they decide against taking life-prolonging medications or eating a diet that would, in theory, protect them from developing heart failure or diabetes?

I mistakenly believed that my interests and those of my patients were the same. This failure of reasoning was resolved when I started asking my patients one question: What do you really care about? I expected my patients to tell me that their health was paramount, but I was shocked by how wrong my assumption turned out to be. Very few people told me that their health was their priority, at least not in the way I expected. Instead, what they valued most were their families, friends, and, surprisingly, even their hobbies. It became clear that these were the things that brought them meaning and joy. What they really cared about was connection. Good health was simply a tool to get them there.

I realized I needed to reframe my perspective on how to help others. If I truly wanted to assist my patients in the best way possible, I needed to start with connection.

This led me to deepen my understanding of how we interact with ourselves, with others, and with our environment. I saw that meaningful connection was not found by buying new things or engaging in quick digital interactions. And yet our culture seems increasingly set on directing us to pursue these endeavors. Worrisome data show that we spend an increasing amount of time each day focused on the short-term fix and miss out on the very moments that consistently improve the quality of our lives. I now understand that the question is not just how to foster connection but also how to identify and remove the aspects of life that keep us from experiencing it. I started by looking at how to improve connection and found that escaping from disconnection may be even more important. The chance to explore this critical topic with my father and to bring these findings to the world has been one of the most gratifying experiences of my life.

David: My mission over the past four decades has been to do my very best to empower through knowledge. The way in which lifestyle—including diet and physical activity—relates to health and longevity has always been a central theme in my books and lectures. I’ve been presenting this information because it might not otherwise be obvious in the face of rampant advertising. It has become clear to me that disconnection is at the core of what’s keeping us from truly embracing health, longevity, happiness, and contentment. These goals are attainable.

This book has been a labor of love. What an honor it is to have been given the opportunity to connect with my son on this project and learn from his perspective as an individual as well as a representative of his generation. This gives me great hope in looking to the future.

UNWIRE AND REWIRE YOUR BRAIN FOR THE BETTER

When we began to research this book, we could not have predicted what we would find. Within the first month, both of us felt at once alarmed and transformed as we embraced the importance of our task. The further we dug into the research, the more we knew we were onto something big—something that had the potential to affect not only individuals (including us) but also the planet and its societies as a whole. This is not a trivial point. The destiny of Earth is at stake here. That may sound like an overstatement, but we will make our case. Happy, connected people make for a happy planet, both in the context of individual health and the environment’s health. When you look around you and consider the state of our planet, you know that things are currently not sustainable. We need you. And we need one another.

We fully appreciate the significant benefits that come from living in the modern world. And we’re not advocating that you remove yourself from it. For example, when it comes to modern technology, we couldn’t have written this book without online research databases and video conference calls. Instead, we are calling for a different approach to our digital world, one in which we are conscious users of our technology—not used by it. Our world provides incredible opportunities to learn from and connect with one another through digital networks, but it’s imperative that we use these opportunities the right way. The world has so much to offer, and the tools to change your life—and health—are right in front of you. We can’t wait to share them.

Despite the scope of this book, our strategy focuses on creating a practical framework that you can implement in your life right away. We live and work in the modern world and understand the limitations of what’s possible and realistic. The good news is that so much of what’s keeping us from achieving lasting health and happiness is within our power to change. We know you can get there—through an overhaul of your mind’s operating system. We don’t have to be victims of poor health, loneliness, and the constant urge to pursue the next short-term fix. This new framework—a reconnecting, life-changing “brain wash”—teaches you how to clean up your mind and activate the brain pathways that bring clear thinking, deep relationships, and mental well-being.

Ready? Let’s get to work.