In this episode, host James Maskell sits down with Dr. Helen Lavretsky — integrative and geriatric psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and professor of psychiatry at UCLA, where she directs clinical research on integrated mental health and serves as research director for UCLA's Integrative Medicine Collaborative.
Her path into the field began through Kundalini Yoga, sparking 20 years of studying mind-body practices with rigorous neuroscience. Despite initial pushback in academic psychiatry, her evidence ultimately gained widespread acceptance.
She details her clinical model: a partnership where patients choose self-regulation tools based on joy, avoiding rigid regimens. She also shares her landmark Kirtan Kriya research, showing that just 12 minutes of daily chanting meditation over 8 weeks rewired the brain, improved cognition, and reversed aging markers in dementia caregivers.
Discussing her new book, Living from the Soul: The Neuroscience of Spiritual Awakening, she addresses patients experiencing "spiritual emergence"—symptoms like insomnia and body pain often misdiagnosed as psychiatric illness. She links these rising rates to global instability and generational shifts in resilience.
They also explore brain health policy and the "Brain Capital" movement—from UCLA summits and UN testimonies to Texas's $3 billion Brain Health Institute. Finally, they examine environmental risk factors, genetic predispositions like APOE4, and offer a candid critique of long-term SSRI use in older adults.
The episode closes on the future of precision medicine and data-driven Alzheimer's care.
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About the Guest:
Dr. Helen Lavretsky is an integrative and geriatric psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and professor of psychiatry at UCLA. She directs clinical research programs on integrated mental health and serves as director of research for the UCLA Integrative Medicine Collaborative. She is a past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry and the author of several books, including her latest, Living from the Soul: The Neuroscience of Spiritual Awakening.
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