Inside A SPECT Scan: What Your Brain Reveals And How To Heal It

Ever wonder what your brain actually looks like when it won’t quiet down? I went to Amen Clinics for a SPECT scan to see blood flow and activity in real time—and to find out whether years of anxiety, trauma, and alcohol abuse left lasting marks or whether healing work truly changed my mind. What I saw surprised me: my active and resting scans looked almost identical, a clear picture of an “always-on” brain. Instead of trying to shut it off, I’m learning how to aim it.

We unpack what SPECT imaging reveals that MRIs don’t, from the “scalloping” you might see with toxicity or injury to the vibrant activity of a healthy, focused mind. I walk through the testing process, the difference between active and resting scans, and why blood flow matters for memory, mood, attention, and sleep. You’ll hear how specific regions—the prefrontal cortex and cerebellum—shape planning, impulse control, timing, posture, and even cognitive “clock speed,” plus the daily habits that support them: intense aerobic exercise, coordination drills like dance or table tennis, targeted nutrition with omega-3s and vitamin D3/K2, and structured planning that reduces chaos.

Mindset training ties it all together. I share how I stop ANTs—automatic negative thoughts—by asking what’s true and what I can control, breaking spirals that once fueled anger and panic. Faith has been a cornerstone for me; daily prayer, gratitude, and Scripture lowered my baseline threat and gave me staying power to rebuild. If you’ve battled addiction, trauma, or unrelenting worry, this conversation offers a roadmap: practical tools, spiritual practices, and science-backed strategies to rewire your brain without defaulting straight to medication.

Want to see the images and the tools I’m using now, including the Brain Fit for Life app that swaps scrolling for real brain training? Tune in, then share the one habit you’ll start this week. If this helped, subscribe, leave a review, and send it to a friend who needs hope today.

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Transcript

Why Scan The Brain At All

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Welcome back to the bite size. Oh, not the bite size. Just kidding. Try that again. Welcome back to Armor Up Podcast. I'm your host, Lorraine Michaels. And today I want to talk about your brain and the effects of things on your brain. On my social media last week, week before, I don't remember. Um, it was the 15th, 15th, 16th, 17th. You may have caught it. I was talking about um getting my brain scanned. I was in Atlanta and I went and got my brain scanned. And I really didn't say much about it because I didn't want to cause a ruckus or people to get the wrong idea or not really know. So I kind of unintentionally did a little teaser, um, but I also didn't want to give too much information because I hadn't gotten the results yet. So, anyways, I went to the Eamon Clinics in Atlanta, Georgia, and Dr. Daniel Eamon is um a board-certified doctor, and he does brain scans. It's called a SPECT scan. And what that does is that looks at your brain. It looks at your brain, the damage that is done to your brain, if any. Um, he has scanned thousands of brains, people from athletes who have had concussions, um, veterans who have had PTSD, people that struggle with addiction, um, anxiety, depression, all these things that typically we go to the doctor for and they prescribe medications, right? You go to the doctor, I have anxiety, depression, they give you an SSRI. Um, veterans or people that have PTSD, they get an antipsychotic or some type of relaxant or you know, an anti-anxiety. It's medication. And all these things that affect the brain. Typically, doctors give medication instead of looking at the brain. So Dr. Eamon looks at the brain. The scan is really cool, totally non-invasive. You get an IV. I'm terrified of needles, but the um tech that I had, Elbert, was amazing. Um, got numbing cream, the needle is tiny. Uh, you get an IV for contrast, and you go in this machine, and it's not like an MRI, it's not like a CT, you don't go in a tube, it's not loud, and um, you just go in this machine. Just today, man, getting my trying to get this podcast recorded has been very difficult. Anyways, probably because there's someone out there that needs to hear this, and the enemy is really trying to get me not to talk about this. So, anyways, you go in, just only up to uh your head and neck, so it stops at your shoulders, and it's not even a full enclosure. It's this little mechanism that spins around. So you go in. If you're watching this, my hand is going into my other hand, and one of my hands is making a C, and the other hand is making like a minus sign. And the C part is what goes around your head. And I'll post pictures. So if you follow me or if you don't, find me on Instagram or Facebook, Lorraine Michaels, and I'll post a picture of me getting this scan done and my brain images as well. So I'm going to hold up this picture of a healthy specked brain scan. And this first one that I'm showing is like a rainbow-colored brain. In this portion, this scan, the color means nothing. It's just to show you different parts of your brain. So you have an underside of your brain, the side, one side of your brain, the other side of your brain, and then a top view. And a healthy brain has very uniform shape. It's um a little bit wavy, if you will, because it's not just completely smooth, but it's mostly smooth. It looks, it looks pretty, it looks nice, it looks, you know, uniform. That is a healthy brain. Whereas an unhealthy brain, so someone who has suffered um trauma, addiction, whether it be drug addiction, alcohol addiction, abuse, um, brain damage or concussions, accidents, um, what else, environmental toxicity, so mold, um, toxins in your brain, plastics in your brain, oxygen deprivation, any kind of brain infections, cancer, chemotherapy, anesthesia, or if you've had multiple surgeries, any type of metabolic issues, so thyroid, liver, kidney, all of these things affect your brain. And so what ends up happening is with a toxic brain, or a brain that is damaged, or a brain that, you know, anxiety, depression, all these things that affect the brain, what ends up happening is scalloping happens. So where those little ripples are become deep grooves. And so there's dips in the brain, um, in the formation of the brain. And I'll hold up this one. This one's a uh black and white picture, so you can't see everything, but you can you can kind of see the damage there. So there's holes, there's burrows, it's uneven, there's very um ununiform patterns. It's not it's not uniform at all. It's it looks, it looks like uh there's deterioration. And what that is, is there's no blood that's getting to that part of the brain. And so um it your brain starts to deteriorate. So people with Alzheimer's or you know, that have brain damage, this definitely affects it. And then there's another scan that um shows the blood flow, and I'm gonna show a healthy scan. And again, this is uh a top view. Oh, my light here, let me see. A top view, side view, and a view from underneath. And you see the red, and that's the blood flow that's there. This is the front of the brain, this is the back of the brain, um, back of the brain, back of the brain, and you see the white is very, very active. So that's where all the red and white is is the activity of a brain, right? And this is the blood flow, and where it's white, there's more blood flow there. And so that is an active brain. Um, and I want to also point out this one. So, again, an active brain, meaning um it is you have uh done a test, your brain is active, it's awake. So there's two scans that you do. One is an active scan. And so you go, you get your IEV, you do a test, it's a cognitive test, it's a memory test, it's um an active test. There's letters that flash on the screen. You hit a space bar every time you see a letter, except for a certain letter. And they'll tell you when you see a letter, hit the space bar, unless if it's an X, do not hit the spacebar if it's an X. So that measures your reactionary time. It measures if you get it right, if you get it wrong. And so it's your brain that's active, and what is happening is there's more blood flow to your brain because you're using it. Um, your eyes, your hands, there's different parts of you that is um moving and acting. And so you your brain, when you see something that signals to your brain, and then you have the directions of I need to hit the space bar. So then your brain sends a signal to your hands, right? So everything is active. And then um you also do a test afterwards that's memory, cognition, mood, all these things. And then the next day you do a resting scan. And so that one you go in, you get the IV, and then you go and you sit. No phone, no reading, no nothing. You sit on a big comfy couch with your legs extended. Um, you have to stay awake, and that is what is called your resting scan. And I wish I can show you my scan. Um, but I can tell you based off of the healthy images that I showed you, uh, and I was so pleasantly surprised given the history that I have with alcohol abuse, um, with physical abuse, um, trauma, just uh anxiety, depression, everything that I have been through, and knowing the therapy that I've been through, um, how much work I have done on myself as far as rewiring my brain and the work that I've done on um subconscious thought healing um and just the thought patterns that I had, and I needed to rewire my brain so that I can think better thoughts and the healing, the amount of healing I've done. You know, I was really curious to know, and the reason why I wanted to do this was one, is my brain really damaged? And did I do, you know, some heavy damage in my past? And the work that I've done, has this helped at all? And so back again to this image here. This is the healthy scan, and it's very smooth. Mine was relatively smooth. On this underneath side here, I'm pointing to the under underside image of the brain. This was just a little bit deeper, a little bit bigger. This top view here, there was just a little bit of scalloping over here. And they explained uh the area of the brain on my scan what was going on. Mine was relatively smooth because I have done a lot of work on repairing and a lot I make sure I'm taking, you know, an omega everyday um vitamin D3, K2, I'm taking that. I'm taking these supplements that help the health of my brain. This one, the active one, this one was very interesting to me. So again, this is the image of a healthy brain, not mine. Um, mine is healthy, but uh this is not mine. So if you can see here, and I'll tell you for those of you who are listening and not watching, there's on the active scan, the back view, only the back of the brain is active. And the top view of the brain, you can see the back of the brain is active, and it's a bird's eye view looking down on it. The front lobes are a little bit active there. So it's not white, it's just red. On mine, my whole damn brain was lit. And the interesting thing, and it's funny too, because I told the tech, my brain doesn't shut off. And that is one of the things like I have trouble sleeping, I have trouble falling asleep, I sleep very light. So, and I have said it from day one. Um, my I can't shut my brain off. It's just very active all the time. It's not that I'm worrying. I mean, every once in a while, yeah. So before I would ruminate and worry and panic and all these things, and I have done so much work to where I can stop the thoughts, the ants, the automatic negative thoughts. That's that's a Dr. Eamon term. So I have learned that although I cannot control what comes in, so I cannot control my thought, like getting it, but I can control once I get that thought. So if it is an automatic negative thought that comes in, I stop it. I stop it and I ask myself, okay, is this really true or not? Is this something that I can control or not? And so that has tremendously helped with any anger, any anxiety, because immediately if it's a negative thought that comes in, um, let me give you an example. A negative thought that comes in, uh, my stepson's room is a mess. And if I walk in and I see it, and before my first thought was anger, and I'm so angry at this. Um, he doesn't listen to me, he doesn't respect me, and then here we go. This is the automatic negative thoughts, and everything is just shoom coming out, and it's all negative, and I'm spiraling because I'm thinking of a negative thing and I'm feeding it and feeding it and feeding it, and more negative things are coming. Whereas now I walk in and I'm like, huh. He did not do what I asked him to do. And I turn around and I close the door, and I'm not gonna spiral out of control on it. And I'm I think, well, when he gets home, I will have him do it. First thing. And that's it. Um, what's another one? There's different, different things, and I'm sure you can think of one yourself. But when that negative thought comes in, first ask yourself, is this true? So if it's a negative thought about yourself, is it true? And then ask yourself, is it something that I can control? And this has definitely helped me on the things that I can't control because I had noticed that in my past I was so concerned and wrapped up and consumed with things I couldn't control or things that didn't even happen that weren't gonna happen. I was worried about something that could possibly happen that wouldn't even happen, if that even makes sense. Like saying that out loud, you're like, what? So stopping the automatic negative thoughts, not ruminating on it. Um, and so I you they also give you this handout of your brain. It's called the Amen Clinic's brain system handout, and it goes through all the views. So your top-down view, and it's talking about your prefrontal cortex, your PFC. I kind of talked about this. This, the functions of your prefrontal cortex have to do with attention, planning, following through, um, impulse control, inhibition, judgment, empathy, ethics, morality. And some things that affect your prefrontal cortex are ADHD, brain trauma, schizophrenia, conduct disorders, depression, dementia, um, you know, PTSD. And so the treatment, behavioral treatment for this is coaching, goal setting, intense aerobic exercise, stimulating activities, neurofeedback, organizational help. So if you realize that you're very unorganized and chaotic, then chances are that you are gonna see some um, and in your scan, if you get the scan, you'll see some rippling in your prefrontal cortex or some divots and deep dives, if you will. Or on the blood portion of it, the blood scan that you see, it'll be very active. Um, and so some it tells you some supplements you can take, some meds you can take. And so their thing is natural um supplements, um, natural therapies. They do not push meds at all. That's completely up to you if you want to. Um, and so this pamphlet is amazing because it goes through, I'm not gonna go through every port of it with you, but it goes through your all aspects of your brain. It goes through every portion of it, what it controls, um, and what it'll give you the symptoms if you are experiencing these things, and what supplements you can do to help combat this and help you have a healthier brain. Um, it has been so eye-opening. And one of the things that I do want to touch on um this is, let me find here, it was just so, so fascinating to me. I absolutely loved it. Um, the physical brain trauma patterns. So it shows you the top down um where if you have had brain trauma, um like blunt force trauma, whiplash, any falls, so athletes especially would experience this. So the physical traumas that you have, how it affects your brain. Um, and then it shows you toxicity. So if you've dealt with addiction, um, where you would see the the scalloping, the deepening, the damage, where you would see that done. Um it was just so fascinating to me. And yeah, the cerebellum. So the cerebellum is the lower end in your back of your brain. Um, and that was really, really active on mine. And so the problems, which is very interesting to me because so those that function, motor function, gait, posture, executive function, um, speed of cognitive integration, like clock speed on a computer. Um, and the problems, so coordination problems, walking, your gait, the way you walk, slowed thinking, slowed speech, impulsivity, poor conditioned learning. And the things that affect this are trauma, alcohol abuse, autism, Asperger's, ADHD. And so the treatments, prevention of brain injury. So obviously taking, you know, steps in order to prevent that, stopping alcohol use or other toxic exposures, occupational therapy, maximize brain nutrition, hyperbaric oxygen therapy. That's basically you getting in a tube with uh pressurized oxygen. It's supposed to be really, really good for you. I'll never do it because I'm so claustrophobic. Um, and coordination exercises such as dance or table tennis. So these are things like that part of my brain was super active, like overactive. And the funny thing, funny, not funny, my active brain scan and my resting brain scan looked identical. So it proved that my brain literally doesn't shut off. It is very, very active. And so I wanted to lean into that. So I'm really excited. I'm gonna be starting these supplements that are gonna help my brain, um, that are gonna help with mood enhancement and clarity, mental clarity. And I'm just excited to see where this is gonna go. At first, I was like, man, uh my brain is so active. Uh, how do I quiet it down? But I don't want it to be quiet because I want to lean into that. That is how God made me. And I've done so much work on my mental capacity, mental clarity, mental and emotional um stability. I've just done so much work and also Jesus. Like I, it's not, I have not increased. Granted, I have some peptides that I take that help with cognition, but as far as, you know, like the work that I've taught that I'm talking about that I've done, the biggest part of it is my spiritual work that I have done. I don't go a day without praying, I don't go a day without gratitude. I don't go a day without reading the word and just covering myself in the word. Like when I was at my deepest, darkest place and I was so depressed and so full of anxiety, and I didn't want to leave and or live, and I was just I just didn't want to be here anymore. And it's not that I wanted to kill myself, but I wanted to die. And um, I just didn't want to live anymore. And um I remember vividly just praying and pleading with God. To heal me. Um and I get emotional because I can vividly remember how desperate I was for that healing and how hell bent I was on not taking medication because I know the power of Jesus. And also I wanted to get the help that I needed, whether that was with therapy or finding this brain scan or getting around a right group of people, whatever it is. I was determined to heal. And I was determined to take my thoughts captive. And so, like, I have a bleeding heart for this for people who are just so angry and unhappy or depressed or who have had trauma or sexual abuse or physical abuse or drug abuse. I have such a gaping, bleeding heart for these people because I know how debilitating it can be, and I know how freeing it can be. The power of prayer and the power of Jesus and how he can heal. Um I just I can't boast more about my God. Um, I've come a long way and I know it's possible. I know healing is possible. I know God can take um something that seems broken and tattered and useless and can bring it back to life, whether that be you, whether that be a relationship, a marriage, um, whatever it is. If you're struggling with addiction or alcohol or whatever, I just I want to tell you that you can do it. Um, not everybody needs medicine, like you can do it naturally. And um there is power in Jesus, and there's you can rewire your brain. I am literal proof of it. Um, so that was my experience with Amen Clinics. It was great, they were awesome. Um, I in fact, when I started this recording, uh they called me to follow up and check in. And they also you have access, oh well, because I was in this program, but they have an app. Um, it's called the Brain Fit for Life app. And instead of picking up your phone and scrolling, pick up your phone and do this exercise on your app. Um, it's amazing. There's games, there's brain games, there's check-ins, um, there's lessons. Like, I'll tell you right here this lesson seven neuroscience secrets of happiness. Well, like, yeah, let's do that. Um, exercises, complete happiness questionnaire, complete a daily check-in. Like, so download the app and um get a better brain. Help your brain become a healthier human by rewiring your thoughts. Um, this was amazing. I loved it. I would highly recommend um if you're interested in healing your brain, I would recommend this getting the scans done, or at least starting with um some deep work, some healing, some omegas, some um supplements that help your brain and stop drinking. Okay. Anyways, I hope this episode was informative. And if you have any questions, please reach out and go check out my Instagram. I will post the pictures there. Very, very interesting. As always, guys, you were divinely created for a divine purpose, and there was no mistake in you, and your brain matters.