Pain isn’t just in your body, it’s in your brain. In this groundbreaking episode, Host Dave Asprey sits down with Dr. Daniel Amen to reveal how emotional and physical pain share the same neural circuits and how you can rewire them for relief, resilience, and longevity. You’ll learn practical tools to break the “doom loop” of pain, restore neuroplasticity, and retrain your brain for calm, healing, and high performance. This is essential listening for anyone ready to stop managing pain and start hacking it.
Listen to the FULL-LENGTH version of this episode on your favorite audio platform:
-Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-human-upgrade-biohacking-for-longevity-performance/id451295014
-Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2mkB9OoukPVKCTKSuAIgCq
The Washington Post called Dr. Daniel Amen the most popular psychiatrist in America. He is a former infantry medic and board certified child and adult psychiatrist who trained at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. He is the CEO and founder of Amen Clinics, with 11 locations nationwide and home to the world’s largest brain imaging database for psychiatry with nearly 300,000 SPECT scans on patients from 155 countries. Dr. Amen is a 12 time New York Times bestselling author, including the books Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Healing ADD, Memory Rescue, Raising Mentally Strong Kids, and The End of Mental Illness. His newest book Change Your Brain, Change Your Pain explores the neuroscience of pain and how to heal it through brain optimization and functional medicine.
Host Dave Asprey and Dr. Amen uncover how suppressed emotions, inflammation, gut health, and mitochondrial function all influence pain and what you can do to reverse it using biohacking, functional medicine, and supplements. They explore how chronic pain rewires neural pathways, how to activate your brain’s natural calming switch, and why techniques like hypnosis, red light therapy, rage journaling, and havening can restore balance to your nervous system. You’ll also learn the surprising links between aspartame, Tylenol, and generational anxiety, and how to protect your mitochondria to optimize energy, metabolism, and emotional resilience.
You’ll Learn:
• How emotional pain and physical pain run on the same brain circuits
• Why suppressed rage can trigger chronic pain and how to release it
• The link between inflammation, gut health, and brain suffering pathways
• How supplements like saffron, curcumin, and omega 3s support pain relief and mood
• Why red light therapy, hypnosis, and havening boost neuroplasticity and calm the nervous system
• How environmental toxins, aspartame, and Tylenol disrupt mitochondria and increase pain
Dave Asprey is a four-time New York Times bestselling author, founder of Bulletproof Coffee, and the father of biohacking. With over 1,000 interviews and 1 million monthly listeners, The Human Upgrade brings you the knowledge to take control of your biology, extend your longevity, and optimize every system in your body and mind. Each episode delivers cutting-edge insights in health, performance, neuroscience, supplements, nutrition, biohacking, emotional intelligence, and conscious living.
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Timestamps:
00:00 — Trailer
01:25 — Dr. Amen’s Brain Scan Research
02:11 — Physical vs Emotional Pain
05:15 — Childhood Trauma and Pain
08:10 — The Doom Loop Explained
14:01 — Havening Technique
18:27 — Training Positivity and Hope
22:11 — Rage Therapy and Journaling
26:44 — COVID and Brain Inflammation
29:41 — Mitochondria and Energy
36:14 — Pain Relief Protocol
39:32 — Saffron for Pain
43:28 — Aspartame and Anxiety
47:30 — Pain Switches in the Brain
50:50 — Red Light Therapy
52:39 — Fear and Pain Loops
56:36 — Environmental Toxins
58:21 — Breaking Triggers
1:00:34 — Final Thoughts
Connect with Dave Asprey!
Website: https://daveasprey.com
Danger Coffee: https://dangercoffee.com/DAVE15
Dave Asprey’s BEYOND Conference: https://beyondconference.com/
Dave Asprey’s New Book – Heavily Meditated: https://daveasprey.com/heavily-meditated/
Dave’s favorite supplements: https://www.shopsuppgradelabs.com/discount/DAVE15
Upgrade Collective: https://www.ourupgradecollective.com
Upgrade Labs: https://upgradelabs.com
40 Years of Zen: https://40yearsofzen.com
