The Amen Clinic Program for Achieving and Sustaining Optimal Mental Performance

All the reviews here give an opinion on whether it is a good read. No one has commented what impact the 15 day plan has had on them. While I have just finished the book and haven't done the formal program, I can say that I have done parts previous to this and haven't noticed any improvements in mental competency. "How to think like Leonardo DeVinci" seems a better plan in this regard.

In my opinion Daniel Amen is willing to be unscientific and misrepresentative to profit from book sales and patients he draws to his chain of brain-scan clinics.

In this book Amen concludes videogames are bad for people (p.117-118) pulling this idea from two unnamed studies both from the same organization and to his personal experience with an angry child-patient who became calm with care, then regressed when returned to his dad's restriction-free home which happened to include video games. His unscientifically sound concluded it was the video games that made the kid act aggressively.

As a lifetime video game player I reject this conclusion and wish to direct your and Amen's attention to the American Psychological Association's wishy-washy, but more correct & accurate state of videogame violence research: [...]

As a book reader I'd look elsewhere for insight, help, and mastery over your brain. For serious problems see as many psychiatrists as you need to find one you want to employ. For mood problems try Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy http://www.the store.com/dp/0380810336 - it's cheaper than Amen's.

The way that this book is written is quite general and uses laymans terms. It was very easy to understand and read quite smoothly. The chapters thread into one antoher making the educational process that much easier.

I cannot agree more with this excellent book. A healthy brain, running at its full ability is the key to such a better, healthier and more successful life.

When it comes to exercising your mind, I recommend services such as the Health Club for the Mind - Agogus.com. Affordable and easy. For the rest, I am glad I already eat healthy, do physical exercises and play Ping-Pong!

It is interesting that Dr. Amen prescribes table tennis as an activity that will enhance our brains. I have thought the same thing for years and years.

Dr. Amen is certainly on target with this book!!!

Pseudo-science blended with totally obvious observations about healthy living. If there is any science to it, it is well-disguised. It reads more like an extended advertisement for the author's private clinic; mentions the name of the clinic (and the author) every page or two. Utter pabulum. I stopped listening three quarters of the way through it, when he started listing his favorite recipes.

The index gives 2 entries foor ANTS. None of these pages and other pages in these chapters have any mention of what the author means by ANTS.
I looke through the rest of the book and I did not find anything about ANTS.

In one of his recommended food lists he recommends tuna fish. Tuna has the second highest level of murcury of all fish. Mackeral has the highest.

I often wonder about the reviews here and question a 5 star rating. The author's relatives must have reviewed this book. I found this book very repetitive and not enlightening in the least. I gave up after about one third of the book. Don't waste your time.

The book offers very good and helpful information. The problem is that a times, the language gets way too technical for the average non-professional like me. It had a tendency to "bog down" occasionally.