Lecture Seminar

“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.

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