Neuroinflammation: The Silent Driver of Brain Decline | Dr. Eboni Cornish, MD

What’s really behind brain fog, anxiety and focus issues?

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Eboni Cornish, MD to explore neuroinflammation, the gut-brain connection and practical steps to improve brain health.

🧠 In This Episode, We Cover:

• What neuroinflammation actually is (and why it matters)
• The real causes behind brain fog and focus issues
• Why ADHD may be overdiagnosed or misunderstood
• The gut-brain connection and “leaky brain”
• How toxins and infections impact cognition
• The role of dopamine, overstimulation and modern lifestyle
• A simple framework to start improving brain health today

🔗 Dr. Alex Carrasco, MD

https://nourishmedicine.com/

https://www.instagram.com/dralexcarrasco/

🔗 Dr. Eboni Cornish, MD

https://www.drebonicornish.com/

https://www.instagram.com/dr.ebonicornish/

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Transcript

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everyone's so much more informed. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So it doesn't seem to me. Yeah. People insulted us over the edge, but we. Right. We live breathe. Can't avoid it. And so I think when those exposures are. Yeah. Right. And do the best that you can. That's right. Optimize your body to the best that you can be. And you're right. Yes. And not pressure it. Because that can be very stressful and detrimental. You're great at that. Yeah. Fight or flight. Yeah. It's counterintuitive. Yeah. Welcome back to the Vibrant Wellness Podcast, where we dive deep into the root causes of chronic illness and empower you with science backed tools to reclaim your health. Today's episode is an exciting one as we have Doctor Emily Cornish with us. She's an integrative and functional medicine physician and the president elect of Islands in the Washington, D.C. area. She specializes in complex chronic conditions, including autoimmune disease, Lyme disease, environmental toxicity, gut imbalances, and neuro inflammatory disorders. Doctor Cornish, it is a pleasure to have you back. I love speaking with you, and I'm so glad that you're back on the show. Thank you. Yes. Okay, so I think we should just dive into the big topic of neuroinflammation, because I know that's your expertise. And also, I think that our listeners, you know, are interested in brain health. But I think we talk about brain fog and maybe like, people feel tired and people are starting to forget some words. But I don't know if like clinically, we're thinking, you know, generally or within like, you know, physician populations. This patient has neuroinflammation because that sounds scary and that sounds kind of extreme. So yeah you want to break that down for us. Yeah. You know, that's why I kind of phrase it mirror alone can be like, how do I get my brain better? Yeah. For the rest of my life. Right. By understanding what is going on with it now. Yeah. I don't think, you know, a lot of times I will go places and they'll tie in neuro inflammation only to see. Oh, I'm not worried about that. I don't have dementia. Right. That's an that's down the road. Right. But it really is understanding how your brain is working. Okay. Proactive is key. Everything we say is longevity. Removing the toxins. Right. Good. Getting your sleep, changing your diet. Right. Has to do with brain optimization because that's a cornerstone of health. So when we talk about the inflammatory piece, we're thinking about what it is we can be exposed to. Right. And it's everything. It's everything. Yeah. Right. The brain is the key to everything, right? So I think people need to start being more proactive because yes, it can be something as simple. Oh I'm tired. Right. I lost my keys. But more importantly is what is the brain that you want for the rest of your life? Yeah, I think that's, you know, and I think that that's empowering, you know, rather than, like you said, super frightening, like, oh, it's too late, but the brain is plastic and there's so much we can do. So I guess walk me through, you know, why you think brain health is maybe at this tipping point right now? And why is the conversation shifting? Is it because we're all interested in longevity now? Is it because really people are developing more symptoms than, you know, before? Or are we just aware? I think that one thing is how toxic we are. And the things that we're exposed to. Yeah. Yeah. And how that's impacting our brain. And I think also we have more awareness. Of the impact that of hormones. Right. Mental health. Right. And we also see this mental health crises. Right. And throughout the world. And this is the root cause to these problems. So I think there's more awareness. But I think it's more awareness because there are more causes out there. Yeah. More susceptible. Right. To those sources. Whereas before you, when we were in this toxic environment and our brains were often okay. But now it's kind of like a tipping point. Yeah. Well, good. We are attacking the brain cells. Yeah. Understand the root cause. Why? Yeah. Make sure that we don't succumb to those neuro planetary symptoms. Right. In some cases, could be in some cases, just simple. Mild. Yeah. Yeah, I think that, probably, like you said, maybe in generations past we had some toxin exposures, but the balance was more balanced, I guess. And now it seems like you said there's been this tipping point. And, you know, I would say, what would you say? Like the big toxic exposures are just for our our audience. Yeah. And so we can do a lot of toxic zoomers in most of my patients. My panel of patients are those who are already suffering from complex chronic illnesses. Yeah. I'll see the toxins more. Yeah. And a lot of other environmental toxins. But also underlying chronic infection. So when I'm treating things like Lyme disease. Testing patients who come cognitively. Yeah. And they have these funny and doing their work. And that also is causing new information. And I think that we have these exposures but then we get a big one and that's it. Yeah. Because it regulates, you know, our brain, our inflammation, our brain. I would call it a leaky brain. Yeah. To go to it. And damage it can cause inflammation. So, you know, that's what I'm looking at. I'm looking at the environment. Looking at the infectious burden. And I'm looking at this regulation of your immune system. Because we do have immune cells in our brain. Right. And do you think that like our constant time on screens and you know in cars and in buildings, do you feel like that is also playing a role? So one thing I do when I'm looking at, specs. You know, is a 3D image of your brain. You know neuroanatomy. I see a lot of patients who have problems in their frontal lobe. Okay. Frontal cortex. And that's very stimulating. Right. And that's you know I don't. Yeah. And we're seeing more and more involvement with decreased activity in that area. Is that how it shows up as decreased? Okay. Levels. And I think some of it may have to do with the society. Yeah. With the higher rates of Aids. Yeah. Which is impairing us in our functional life which is impairing us. Right, right. Especially our brain. Right. At the same time we're getting more information in general to our brain. You know, we have that frontal lobe, which is really neat. Up we work. Right? Right. To execute. Yeah. And everything. And then it's been impaired by this lack of attention span that we have now. And so people are getting misdiagnosed a lot with some of these ADHD. Yes. Yeah. But I think a lot of it is that sort of teaches me the, the dopamine, addiction that we have now. Yeah. That's interesting. Do you think that all of the kind of I mean, I'm social right now, everyone is like, I'm 45 and I have ADHD. Do you think that's true? Do you think that we've, you know, missed it all these years? Or do you think it's more like that? We're all scrolling and life is very stressful. And then of course we have these toxic loads. Inflammatory loads. What do you think? There are different types of ADHD. Yeah. A lot you know, and doctor aim books. But I also think the prevalence is multiple different things. The higher rate. Now one thing I'll do I'll look at. Yeah. So the person who's losing their focus and when I'm doing those deeper dives I'm finding out that we do like not have on this vaccine in the traditional pattern that has been identified in isolation. Yeah. You may have neuroinflammation or changes in workflow or a traumatic brain injury that's causing damage to that prefrontal cortex. Interesting inflammatory word. And so yes, there are a lot of people who are losing focus. At this time, especially even with the kids. So hard it is problem with that. But I think it also has a lot to do with the prefrontal cortex. That's going on there as well. Yeah. Do you think that for that, for when, when you have, you know dopamine issues. What's the solution. So I, I like to use supplementation. Okay. You know so I use things like high risk. I'm not a big fan of stimulants. Yeah. Right. What I find is sometimes patients will get stimulants and then their brain is to act right. And it just makes things worse. Yeah. Help with focus as well. Yeah. Right. So yeah. So there's supplements that can help. But also I found that vagal nerve. You know I love it. Yeah. What's your favorite way to do that. I like me too. Oh my gosh. Do you use one. I use mine every night. Oh no I use all the time. Yeah. I need help. Yeah I could use. Yeah. But also I seriously have a family history of dementia. Yeah. My mom and my grandmother. Yeah. And you know I think a lot of it has to do with our, the environment and hormonal imbalances. Right. Those are things that I worry about in life. Right. Right. I stimulate my. Right. Right. Yes. Yes, I love that. Yeah. I love my pulseaudio. It has been a game changer in my patients. Love theirs like they I mean, I have so many patients that have said I can sleep through the night again or my family said, my anxiety's down. It's really interesting for kids because, you know, I feel like they're getting shocked, I know. Yeah, some great advice. Yeah. ADHD and then Apollo Neuro. Oh, yes. Yes. Love. That was. And it just calms down. So you think it's so? Yeah. And you can put your friend, you know, programs in it and make you. That's really cool. Vagus nerve. And kids love it. That's nice one. Yeah. We got the sensate and use that on my son. But but you can't you don't can't really wear it. So it's a little bit harder. But that one is nice too. It's very I love that just the vibration. Yeah. Easy tricks. Yeah. Easy tricks. Okay, so you mentioned leaky brain. So tell me about the connection between leaky brain and leaky gut. Is the pathway to healing the same? Is it different? Do they impact each other? How does that all work? So it does a gut in the brain are connected right through the vagus nerve. The longest nerve in our body the. And what we talked about back. Yeah. And so you can't talk about gut health without talking about. I look at it as a telephone. I love that. Love your guts. You got love your brain. Right. Vice versa. And if you don't will happen to identify as a lot of my patients who present with brain other you know mental health issues or even compromise. I'm doing their gut work ups. They haven't damaged that. Yeah. Just from toxicity. Too much bad microbes. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever it is is called they're going to be inflammatory. Right. And the gut is important. You know when we have that leaky gut barrier that things are right. A dysfunctional immune system going to have toxins. Yeah. And over time they can cross into that blood brain barrier. Yeah. Because the blood brain barrier you have the microbiome. Right. And they it happens all. And that process is essential that we work on that. The gut. Yeah. The gut border which with the inflammation in the brain simultaneously. Yeah. Because what I'm saying you know it's gut. Right. You can't look at these organs. Yeah. So if you got LPs or endotoxin that's going to affect the brain and it's going to create microglial activation. Yeah. Brain inflammation. It totally will. Yeah. However, if you do the things you need to treat your gut. Right. You're treating your brain better at the same time. Yeah. And I love the brain I have. Thank you. Yes. For sure. Yeah. Make sure I'm doing the things I need from a gut standpoint for that to happen. Yeah. So when you do kind of repair leaky gut. What are your favorite ways to do that. Are you on the peptide train like so many people are these days? Or are you doing combos of stuff, or are you going old school and just kind of doing fiber and butyrate and trying to just create, you know, the first thing I'm doing is I'm simple. I tell them, look, we're going to have a barter system. You're going to remove one toxic food out of your lifestyle in your diet. And one supplements that you're going to have to purchase to get your gut. Oh I like that. If not you're going to be taking 10 to 12 things to supplement, right. And at the same time, those agents may not necessarily be helping you because you're excreting them out to a gut. Right? Right. Right. I always said that foundation and take those baby steps. Fired from a lifestyle standpoint. Yeah. The supplements can't do it alone. Right. When it gets in the way of providing that additional support. And people do want to know. Right. On vitamins all the peptides all the money. But I said the foundation I love BPC. Yes. Yes I am a thoracic type. You know glutamine. And people have to be cheerful with probiotics. Yes. Sometimes if your gut is too appeared or you had too much overgrowth a bad bacteria that cause a problem. Yes. I'm on a probiotic and I feel terrible. Yeah. Because your gut. Right. It's a living organism, right? Your immune system's going to fight it. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't think you know, when you're talking about gut health, you've got to talk about lifestyle as a basis, but make sure it's realistic expectations at your place and then build from there. Yeah. I love that. And then what do you do for diet. Like if a patient was like, well, what should I eat to kind of create a healthy gut. Is it different for everyone or do you feel like there's principles that kind of everyone can follow? Yeah. And you know, as functional medicine providers, we know the basics. Anti-inflammatory. Gluten free. Dairy free. Yeah. Toxin free. No dyes. But then you have to apply to the person individually. Yeah. Okay. Because I have patients from all different walks of life. All different cultural from all different levels of energy. Yeah. So I am very happy that I make a individually tailor approach. Yeah. These patients like I said earlier the bar system. Who comes in who has autism and can't eat food. Right. I'm young sugar free. Right. And I try to introduce healthy things one at a time. Right. They have some. Right. Or that lady who comes in with masks. She's reactive you know, from all these different groups. Well then I have to figure out what the root cause of her. Yeah. And Mr.. Yeah. Yeah. And try to modify it. Right. Then you have the person who comes in the door and they're eating fast food. Yeah. Right. I've had a patient I'll never forget. She's one of my favorites now. But her first seeing me for intensive treatment, she came in with with us and didn't care. Yeah. Like, well, going back to the healing process, right? You talking about your body and your healing? How well do you want to be? Right. So when you're doing dietary recommendations you have to base it on the culture. Based on that price point. Yeah. And you have to base it on the patient in their motivation. Yeah. Sometimes they just won't win. You won't win that battle. If you give a general recommendation for everyone. Yeah. You have to remember the foundation. You know the foundation of what it is that can be toxic. So, of course, I'm not telling someone what I'm drinking. Yeah. You know. Eating crazy. Yeah. It's like I have no right to do the things that we know of us, and we all understand that. Yeah. But it is taking those steps and then forgiving yourself if you fail. Yeah. And walking right to meet your needs and be honest with them. If it's not going to work with with. Right. Because if you, you know, if you cancel someone and you say okay here's all the things you can do, but it feels overwhelming and they won't even do you know three of those things then what's the point. It doesn't meet their needs. So, you know, I do think you have to be creative as a as a clinician. And you have to be able to iterate with your patients and then also not hold them to, to feel judged if they fall short. And you know what? I started to look at, nutritional recommendations that way. As you'll see. Is because I see so many patients who are in like what I call a. Oh yeah. Let's talk about that. They're anxious, they're feeling is going to be induced by their. Well that same thing I'm doing by recommending that they're very strict with their diet is adding more. That's a stressor is additional stressor is preventing their healing. Yeah. We need to take individual. We really need to take an individualized approach with those patients. Yeah. Because you know what. Add more fuel to the fire. Right. Right. You know, what are some things that people can do if they want to just focus on the like you brain aspect beyond like tyrosine and taurine. What do you what do you love? Okay. There's that. Like your number one. Yeah. That's my number one. Make it three. Vitamin D. Yeah. But omega three is essential. You can. Even if you're vegetarian, you need to be in. Or you can do it for a while. Is that just from. Yeah. I also use you know SPF. Oh yeah. There is high clamato derived from omegas right. Yeah. Derived from Asia. Yeah. Yeah. Omega I love that for patients. Also just exercise. You're awesome. I love that. Oh, you need a sauna? Yeah. It's not. Yes. Yeah. Detoxing. That's going to help heal that leaky brain water. Yeah. Yeah. And let me favorite let's talk about. That is amazing. So fast. Right. It helps to support cell wall. Okay. So when your cells are damaged your cell wall. Helps you support. Which is dynamic. Right. I use a lot for my patients who have. Yeah. I use an IV. Oh cool. Yeah. For certain canes work I do that. Okay. I do oral glass and polling as well. Do you like, like alpha GPC or do you like Buddy Bio or who's your favorite? I do body. Yeah. Great one as well you know. Yeah. A lot of energy. Okay. Energy. Yeah. Those are all things that I did published. Yeah. That it supports brain health and those are things you can do long term. Yeah. And I think there's they're critical. You need that extra boost. Before we get back to the conversation, I want to take a moment to talk about when a vibrant wellness is most powerful tools for evaluating brain health. The neural zoomer neuroinflammation in immune reactivity in the brain are often hidden drivers behind symptoms like brain fog, fatigue, mood changes, neuropathy, and cognitive decline. The challenge is that many of these mechanisms are difficult to detect with conventional testing. The neural zoomer from Vibrant Wellness is designed to help practitioners uncover these hidden patterns by assessing antibodies to a wide range of neurological tissues and proteins associated with neuroinflammation, demyelination and blood brain barrier integrity. Using vibrance advanced microarray technology, the Neural Zoomer provides a comprehensive look at immune responses that may be affecting the brain and nervous system, giving clinicians deeper insight into complex neurological cases and helping guide more personalized treatment strategies. If you're a healthcare practitioner interested in learning more about the Neural Zoomer or adding it to your clinical toolkit, visit Vibrant wellness.com slash. Sign up to become part of our provider network and order today. Now let's get back to the episode do you check nutritional mix for your patients as well. Or are you looking for Comt mutations. And then you're like oh you definitely need, you know, more magnesium or you look for PMT and then you're like you need way more choline. Do you, do you check that. NIH on the genome. Right. So I was right there when we first started learning how. That's exciting. I know and then when we started doing more about it. And that whole biochemical pathway. Yeah. Yeah. That we talk about. Yes. I started to ask myself okay genetics, we have those genes that were more way that is. That's right. That pulls the trigger. Genetics pulls the trigger. And that's kind of what I focus on more than just the genetic mutation. Because I use that as a screening tool. Yeah. But I'm really really honing in on that. Yeah. Hey how many genetic mutations in your exactly something. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Genetic risk factor that causes. Yeah. I think I really like looking at genetics and then understanding. Like the road map. That could be. And then saying, okay, well, we know that this could be a potential, but we can work on it, you know, and I do a lot of it. Yes. Yes. Personal risk. Didn't have it. I've seen patients and they think it's devastating. Right. They get in too far. They just think the light's that right that they can detox it. Oh like let let's be proactive. Right. You are not necessarily your genes. Right. Support these pathways. It's like if you're driving down the highway you might have one burden. No. In that. Yeah. So the highways clogged? Right. Right. You have to utilize whatever tools you need. Supplemental. I have to open up that one lane. Right. However, you have double mutation. It's like you gotta find a detour. Right. You know, that's when you have to be a little more aggressive as supporting those polymorphisms. Yeah. The results in those negative outcomes that can occur because of those genetic. Yes. So I think it's a combination of understanding epigenetics and looking at the markers. But also it's right to the patient. Look you're not doomed. Right. You know this is yeah. Yeah. We're born with the right symptoms since your birth. Right. So we can help optimize it with longevity and bring longevity. we might be able to treat and make sure we mitigate any problems that might be caused. Yeah. By activation of this polymorphism. But it doesn't. You. Yeah. Right. Detox problems automatically because of that you. I think that's a really hopeful way and empowering way to look at it, because I think it can be really scary when you come, you know, you get tests, especially functional tests. And there's so many findings, you know, I think that can feel overwhelming. But also I think some patients feel relieved because there's things you can work on. You know, that's what I tell my patients. And that's why I love looking at brain imaging. Because you got it's high in the biomarkers. Yeah. And you got a target in you know a target in the brain. Right. And I also targeted in the gut. Yeah. It's like you can visually see it and you can see especially with an increase in imaging you can visually see the problems to determine right. Correlate to the biomarkers. Right. Right. Because your biomarkers could be terrible. But you're bringing me that back right. Or vice versa. Yeah. I've seen people come to my office. They have hundreds of pages because I usually see doctors or I usually see patients who've seen numerous. Yeah. Right. They have these workouts. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. But then when I'm looking at their brain scans, I see, okay, is this really inflammation or for this person still be struggling with decreased blood flow. Right. Cerebellum or a traumatic brain. Yeah. Yeah. Complicating things or even sleep. Yeah. So it's. Yeah that patients understand especially being proactive. You're getting these inflammatory markers. Yeah. Diagnoses it all can impact right. It's important and helpful to look at. That is a lot of times. Yes. Don't pick up on change until it's too late. Well can you explain a little bit more about what the Spect test. What exactly it can show it is it shows function. How how are you able to see what's firing, what's not firing, you know, how does it show up? So what happens, like I said earlier in is a 3D image of your brain. So it's going to determine what it's going to show you. All right. What areas have the most activity. Yeah. And you're going to look at the re uptake of the material. Got it. Got it. So when you look you're going to look at two different types of skin. You look at the surface which is the outside part of the brain. Surface area. And that way we can determine things like oh this person might have had a traumatic brain injury. Okay. Decreased oxygenation or deficits. And you know the front end right in is the tracer part of what shows that. Or is that's just. Yeah. Okay. So material uptake is what shows it. But when you look at the image you'll see what you call deficits. People always say, oh my God is holes in your brain. Is is a decrease of uptake of that material. And you look at certain areas. Okay. You'll also see things like we talked about earlier that ADHD. But more importantly as far as my analysis. I can see what you call scalping which is like what looks like grooves because it dances in the top of your brain. Oh interesting. Right. Yeah. This is one. Where you can see that's kind of like my clue like when I'm looking at that surface area. Like wow this person I have an inflammatory pattern. Interesting. And then you look at the active. That's where you look at the deeper structures. Okay. That's what we're looking at. The was the cerebellum. That should be the most active area of your brain. Because when we were at school had the cerebellum this little brain. Yeah. Right. Now we know how many years it is kind of the boss. Yeah. Is executive functioning. I would argue the cerebellum is this yellow because this it's signals everywhere. Right. And when it has deficits or decreased activity of blood flow. In effect everything interesting. Yeah. Your mood your memory inflammatory. Changes as well. And then I'm looking at what is all the firings. Patterns of PTSD. Oh I see patterns. Limbic lock where I say your brain is in this fire. Yeah. Yeah. And I've started to think about things like PSP or my or other inflammatory. And then I'm sorry my patients aren't healing right. They have this limbic system that is looking at my face and say I feel that way. Yeah. Fight or flight. Yeah. I can see that further. And I know that's a person that. Imaging or other methods. Yeah. Do you feel like limbic system retraining does work. I do. Yeah. I do I think that a lot of patients you have chronic illness of any sort. Yeah. They have that fight or flight. It's going to be very challenging for you to treat some of those underlying conditions because they feel on edge. Do you feel like is that it's not a mental health anxiety. It's more of a physiological. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like oh yeah. I was this feels like you're being chased by a bear. Right. And if you're being chased by very frightened, are you going to be thinking about. Oh, right. Oh, yeah. Let me get some water. No. You're running. Yeah. Nonstop. And so you start seeing patients who have high blood pressure. But more importantly your treatments are failing. Yeah. Because your brain is stuck in this fight or flight response. So calming that and things like mimic retrain. Deep breathing. And you mentioned earlier. Yeah. So essential to stimulating the vagus nerve and even supplements. Yeah. Yeah. tell me about the relationship between Gaba and glutamate and how that plays a role with like overstimulation or, you know, anxiety. And do you think that that is an important component? Oh, God. Of course. So glutamate. All right. Like what we can get from. Information brain more excited to work. Right. Some of my friends you know are free. Yeah. I'm ready for you. I'm excited. Yes. Anything else to do? Right. It's the. There's no stimulates. The tasty salt. That's so bad for your brain. For your brain? Yeah. And so then you see, that causes more excitatory. Okay. But then Gaba slows things out. All right. So what you want to do is making sure you're optimizing your Gaba and also making sure you have Gaba receptors. See other problems especially autoimmune disease. Neurological. Neuro psychiatric patients. They can have gabble mutations like on that. Yeah. Yeah. Listen for it. Right. And then just making sure you were avoiding some of those little excited through those things. Yeah. And excite those brain cells. Yeah. Yeah. It's great of harming the brain health. It's one of my favorite as well. Larry and Ruth. Those are supplements. Yeah. Help stimulate. I mean, those are some of the second really calm. Yeah. That's the first. Yeah. I love that I feel like that is a special sauce that maybe gets overlooked in a lot of like. And just general practice. Yeah. Okay. So I wanted to ask you have a couple more questions that I, that I definitely want to touch on. So when people have like would you say it's low blood perfusion in the brain or, or oxygenation. How do you you know whatever you've defined on the spec scan then what do you do. What pathway do you go down. Yeah. So let's first talk about it. So if I have a patient so it depends on their clinical symptoms. So for example if I look at a patient and they have low pressure. Yeah. If you see especially to the cerebellum. But also on their surface and as well you just see deficits. Yeah. Then you ask the patient okay what else is going on. Because there's usually a trigger. A lot of times it can be an inflammatory trigger like an underlying infection or toxin. I had a couple patients under when I was first starting reading. In my line patients. Like whoa. You know lights out. Yeah. Flow is a lot lower. To optimize. And so what I would do in some of those cases I might treat the underlying cause I'll give them systemic enzymes like you know communicating. Yup. Fibrin. I also I use hyper And help optimize it. And also infrared sauna. Making sure they have the right you know omega. But more importantly understanding the root cause. Yeah. A lot of times in this longevity world that we live in we focus on trying to fix the problem. Yeah. But it's really understanding why the problem exists. Yeah. So if I have a person who has low blood flow due to underlying toxins or infections versus someone who might have hypo perfusion because they have sleep apnea. Right. They didn't know they had some optimal weight. They don't snore. My little other for sleep here. There. I can see those patterns on the skin. I need to prove that. Yeah. Someone had hit their head. Right. So many times you just come to my office on slabs. I don't know what's wrong. They can't fix me. And then I look at your brain scan in, like my contacts. Like. Oh, yeah, I can show you. I can see that. Yeah. Damaged brain is more susceptible. Right. Right. Yeah. And you have to understand that in TBI or old TBI. Do you typically recommend like another multifactorial kind of support for that patient. Or do you think things like, you know, biofeedback or neurofeedback help a lot or, you know, kind of what's the strategy for those patients with TBI ones and spikes in them that we're talking just about? That's not usually that's the only thing I'll see. Yeah. Because I'll usually see TBI and I'll see probably some or other. Yeah. Right. Right. If they have a TBI and I also see that limbic system activation simultaneously. That is someone that I might send for biofeedback. Back TMS. Yeah. Those brainwave patterns okay. Well that's a lot with TBI. And they also have an underlying infectious burden. You know that goes back to I definitely have to restore the brain. Right. They have their own. Right. Make sure they understand. Yes. The brain. Yeah. That you know lose function of these areas. Right. But at the same time, we got to take some impressive measures. Yeah. I can advocate for hyperbaric oxygen. Enough for TBI. Yeah. Yeah. So many studies on veterans. Yes. And even when we had no Amy clinic, we did a research study on L.A. firefighters. Yes. And then you think about trauma in the form of PTSD. And that's another thing you can see. Yeah. Right. PTSD post-traumatic stress. Yeah. So trauma. Trauma to the brain. Multifactorial. Yeah. But it is important that you support it. And more importantly, other things we do is do the things they optimize framework for that. Yeah. Do you ever see just low perfusion in people with like variations of like 20. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like do you think that that could just be like an easy root cause for people or. Not really. I mean it depends. The blood, the blood flow in the, you know iron studies. Don't always correlate. Okay. So I've seen low blood flow in people who have lived as healthy as they could with perfect biomarker. Negative for testing. Negative. Yeah. Yeah. And then they have low perfusion. And some of these patients may have even though we know that Covid. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I mean things like that. Post Covid increase. Yeah. Yeah. But there can be many changes that affect cerebral perfusion. Yeah. So you just gotta be proactive and try to identify trying to figure it out. And tell me about plasma allergens to use as in your practice. What do you think about them. I think they're awesome. Restoring health. I don't use them at my practice yet. But I have seen a lot of benefits, especially in my patients who might have neurodegenerative diseases. Yeah. Or autoimmune infections. Yeah. I've seen some great great treatments there. Yeah. Yeah I think they're definitely up and coming. And they're so cool. Yeah. One area of interest of mine. That I'll probably start expanding through the years. We just don't have it now. But I do collaborate. Yeah. That's really cool. So okay. If our audience is just thinking about, you know, wanting to take care of their patients brain health, and it feels very overwhelming because, you know, it's like you've amassed so much knowledge over the years. I mean, it's taken years of study and training and just, you know, application in order for you to probably get to where you're at. What do you tell people? I mean, you, you lecture to doctors all the time, like, what do you say? And I call it your list. Right. You know you first have to start with the basics. Yeah. If you're out there and there's some like listening to this like I can't do this. Yeah. No I think it's you know it's not. Yeah. I don't have a way of doing that anatomy because. Yeah. Coming back when normal MRI. Yeah. It's all about asking the right question. Right. Just stabilizing their hormones. Yeah. Making sure your patient is sleeping. Making sure you're optimizing the gut and taking those steps. Yeah. Because that's critical for brain health is as simple as that. Yeah. Is your patient sleeping. Have a sleep question. Yeah. That's free. Right. Can you test their hormones? That's easy. Yeah. That's the right. More comprehensive. Right. And at the same time, are they optimizing and doing things to love their mind with exercise? Nutrition is so important. Yeah. And then when you take it a step up, that's when you start doing the digging into the into the room. And do that in my patient population. Yeah. Foundation is always the most important. Like what's the point otherwise. And then I look at the underlying infections and toxins because they do affect the right that people don't know. No I've never had. No I've never had infections. Do the testing. And then you're like whoa. Exactly. Yeah. If you're looking through let's say you want to start doing it. You can do inflammatory markers with lab. Yes. That will give you a sense if you're inflamed in your body. I don't know if you're going to have a brain. That's right. Right. Separate. Yeah. Try to do that digging and then being a detective. Right. Right. When it comes to looking at the chronic bugs, like I look at the live parasites the most. But you have to ask those questions. You can't just jump to one test and test for infections. If you have a person and you might. Well some of you might not rule out some of the basics. You have to do it here. Yeah I remember maybe ten, 15 years ago I was listening to Doctor Horowitz speak on line, and he was like, you got to start the foundation because the, like, patients with Lyme won't stabilize until you make sure that all of the kind of basic, more functional medicine or he, I don't know, good medicine. Things are taking care of like the gut micronutrient levels, you know, all of these things that aren't, as I guess, shiny and exciting is, you know, deeper dives or other tools, but it's like the base. Yeah. And, that's absolutely right. And I would even break it down even simpler than that. I have a patient who comes to my office who's suffering, even if they want to get treated intensively. Intensive program. And they have whatever condition. I show them a chart. I tell them it's like a train. Gone on to train. Your goal is healthy. Yeah. The first step is brain hormones. Yeah. Your hormones were stop. Yeah. Yeah. Then we have to optimize your gut. Because how many people are taking out the supplements in their closet and they're just not working, right? Yeah. Then the third step is when you start looking at the toxins. Yeah. And you can look at the snips and making sure you know we don't have to because you want to know what makes that person special right. Why isn't that person better. And next we talk about eliminating the cause. Yeah. For diseases. Yeah. Viruses, the parasites, whatever it is. Because you have to ask yourself. What? We're full of numerous infections. Right. What makes one person even to deal with it versus someone else is just that is on their foundation. Yeah. And it's also immune this regularity. And it's also about brain inflammation as well. So you gotta figure out what makes that person special and not necessarily walk in a room. You have the right. And then you can just go to class because that's what we do in Big Pharma. Yeah. We're so quick to say, hey with this, take this bed. Yep. Take this drug. Yes. That's not longevity. Longevity is understanding the root cause and making it in. Yeah. To each person. Yeah. Yeah. I think that the benefit of longevity medicine, functional medicine, is that we're using, you know, precision, testing that, then we can personalize to the patient rather than saying, okay, you have X diagnosis. Here's the pathway that's standardized. And we will not veer off this pathway. Yes. And I think when you add the anatomy in that's amazing right. That's kind of what I guess that's the yeah that imaging feature like oh look you know now I can show you. It's just so cool. How many tests are going to be abnormal. Yeah. Yeah. Left and right. And then I have patients who get better and they still have those abnormal. I just going to treat the lab or am I going to treat the person. Right. Even helpful when I have the brain as well. Because I can afford like your perfume thing. Yeah. Yeah. And decrease. Yeah. Yeah. That's really as much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's so cool. Right. That inflammatory burden. So I think looking at all of those things together is really. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Well thank you. Thank you for having me. Likewise. If you're a practitioner interested in exploring advanced biomarkers for neurological health, you can learn more about testing options like the Neural Zoomer and other precision diagnostics at Vibrant wellness.com. And if you've enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, share it with a colleague, and follow us on Instagram at Vibrant Wellness. To stay tuned for more conversations on the future of functional and precision medicine. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.