“Amygdala Unchained”:
Ground Zero for the Syndemic and the Meta-Crisis
Robert H. Lustig, MD, MSL
Diabetes. Depression. Death by guns. Three separate scourges. Or are they? The pandemics affecting systemic health, mental health, and societal health (collectively termed “Syndemic”) pose an existential risk to our very survival. Climate change. Inequality. Political instability/war. Another three separate scourges (collectively termed “meta-crisis”) have also overtaken the world. Are the Syndemic and meta-crisis related? Do they have the same origins? If so, do they have the same solutions?
We will analyze the role of amygdala (the “fear center” of the brain) dysfunction, and pose that the Syndemic and meta-crisis are systems-based catastrophes that are natural consequences of a dysfunctional amygdala, which has over the last 50 years been under attack by multiple agents and actors. Dr. Lustig will elaborate on the phenomenon of “metabolic syndrome”, which is really a systemic disorder of mitochondrial dysfunction, driven by the amygdala, seeking to placate itself with palatable food, to placate fear. We will demonstrate that an unfettered amygdala is a primary driver of mental health conditions such as addiction, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and how the rest of the brain is asleep at the switch, letting the amygdala run rampant. We will elaborate the four “brakes” on the amygdala —the hippocampus (memory), the prefrontal cortex (reasoning), the afferent vagus nerve (interoception, or internal sensing of the body), and oxytocin and the oxytocin receptor (safety) that normally allow for rational cognition, emotion, and prediction of the outside world and of things to come, and how all four brakes are failing at once. We will wrap up with personal and societal solutions for repairing the four brakes to re-restrain the amygdala, to improve individual lifespan, health span, and quality of life, and to improve societal and environmental health worldwide.
Robert H. Lustig, M.D., M.S.L. is Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, and Member of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF. Dr. Lustig is a neuroendocrinologist, with expertise in obesity, diabetes, metabolism, and nutrition. He is one of the leaders of the current “anti-sugar” movement that is changing the food industry. He has dedicated his retirement from clinical medicine to help to fix the food supply any way he can, to reduce human suffering and to salvage the environment, by interacting with all stakeholders to bring them together around a common vision of metabolic health: protect the liver, feed the gut, support the brain. Dr. Lustig graduated from MIT in 1976, and received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College in 1980. He also received his Masters of Studies in Law (MSL) degree at University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 2013. He is the author of the popular books Fat Chance (2012), The Hacking of the American Mind (2017), and Metabolical (2021). He is the Chief Science Officer of the non-profit Eat REAL, he is on the Advisory Boards of the UC Davis Innovation Institute for Food and Health, the Center for Humane Technology, Simplex Health, Levels Health, Journeys Metabolic, and Myka Labs. He is also the Chief Medical Officer of BioLumen Technologies, Perfact, and Kalin Health.
