Dr. Robert Lustig

Well, so Daniel, I think it's pretty self-evident that the entire world is experiencing a systemic health crisis, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, also experiencing a mental health crisis, depression, PTSD, addiction.

And we're also experiencing a societal health crisis, cyberbullying, othering, war.

The question is, are these related or just coincidental?

And if they're related, if they're related through what mechanism?

That's the question.

Because we can spend our money on trying to treat the systemic health crisis.

We have done a really lousy job of spending that money and we've gotten nowhere and it's only getting worse.

We can spend money on the mental health crisis and it's only gotten worse.

And we can spend money on the societal health crisis and it's only gotten worse.

And the bottom line is, it seems like everything's going to hell in a handbasket all around the world, all at the same time.

And I would argue that the reason that this has occurred is because we actually haven't even remotely addressed the real problem.

And the question is, what ties all of these three things together?

And the answer is one area of the brain.

One area of the brain.

A dysfunction of the fear center of the brain known as the amygdala.

Now, once upon a time, Daniel, when you were three years old, you put your hand on a hot stove and you went, well, I'm never doing that again.

And you remember that?

Everybody remembers that, right?

Well, what that was, was that was a noxious stimulus that went to your amygdala, ended up generating what we call negative reinforcement.

You then learned never to do that again.