Anna Tommerdahl - corticalmetrics insights

Eating Your Way out of Cognitive Decline

November 29, 2018

A diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is pretty daunting. Current conventional medicine will tell you that there is no cure. The media is constantly reminding us that the disease is not just devastating to the person with the diagnosis, but to the caretakers as well. Especially in the beginning stages, it can be extremely frustrating for the inflicted person to know that they are losing their cognitive abilities and the capability to care for themselves. It’s no surprise that as people age, minor lapses in memory such as

A Tofurkey Thanksgiving: Friend or Foe?

November 23, 2018

Whether you skipped the turkey and opted for a soy-based protein during yesterday's holiday meal, or if you sat silently judging your millenial niece as she refused a serving of the feature dish, you might be wondering: "what's all the fuss about soy?"

Even if you aren't able to keep up with the latest health food trends, you’ve probably heard about soy and its reported health benefits and concern about its potential dangers. Depending on who you ask, you can hear vastly different opinions about the effects

Lysine, Alzheimer's and the Brain Gauge

November 16, 2018

It’s not unusual to hear of a new study finding a link between the development of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and… well, pretty much anything: drinking too much alcohol, not drinking any alcohol, having a stroke, pre-eclampsia, not exercising enough, head trauma earlier in life, having high blood pressure, taking opioids, taking beta-blockers, eating soy, eating too many carbs and unhealthy fats, having diabetes, having herpes virus…the list goes on. As does the list of things to do to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease: exercise more, stay social, drink

What does a blood pressure cuff have to do with a Brain Gauge?

October 22, 2018

Climate change is not unique in scientific skepticism – there is a long history of early disbelief in new techniques or ideas: germ theory and sterile surgery, the earth not being at the center of the universe (Galileo got in trouble for that one!) and the blood pressure cuff as a relatively easy tool that anyone could use.

The task of measuring one’s blood pressure today is standard and is easily measured in the doctor’s office, a drug store, or even in your own home. The units of measure

Chronic Mold Exposure: Testing for Chronic Inflammatory Response

October 18, 2018

In the previous post, I explained an acute effect of mold on the nervous system, namely that toxins produced by mold act as a GABAA antagonist. But what happens when you have prolonged mold exposure? And what can you do about it? And how do you know if what you’re doing is actually helping?

The name given to mold/biotoxin patients completely explains what goes on when moving from an acute reaction to chronic problems. Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) is a well-documented condition with an impressive amount of

Mold Exposure: A Step-by-Step Guide to Tracking Recovery with a Brain Gauge

October 12, 2018

You may think of mold as a relatively harmless part of cheese that’s been in your fridge a little too long, or maybe as the penicillin that you take when you get an infection. But for some with genetic susceptibility, exposure to mold/mycotoxins and other biotoxins (like Lyme disease) can have extreme negative effects on their health and can cause symptoms as diverse as brain fog, fatigue, chronic pain, and/or debilitating psychiatric disorders. The large range of usually nondescript symptoms can leave those afflicted confused and frustrated

Possible relationship between ADHD and early onset Parkinson’s

September 25, 2018

A car can be a very useful tool to get you from Point A to Point B, but if you don’t know how to drive a car, it doesn’t do you much good. Even the most powerful tool isn’t very useful if you don’t know how to use it. Since there’s not a comparable technology to the Brain Gauge on the market today, we understand when people aren’t sure of the best methods for using a Brain Gauge to track their brain health. That’

Factors that influence concussion recovery and brain health: Is there an epidemic?

September 19, 2018

There are a lot of factors to consider when evaluating population brain health, and there is a relationship between speed of concussion recovery and baseline brain health at the population level.

As noted in several previous posts, exercise and keeping an active lifestyle are an important part of maintaining good brain health. And yet, many sports put you at risk for developing a concussion. We hear about football on the news all the time, but athletes in other sports - like soccer, basketball, volleyball, cycling, and even swimming (apparently quite

Tracking Recovery from Chronic Pain with a Brain Gauge

September 10, 2018

Moving from peripheral to systemic pain
12 years ago, fresh into my first semester of college, I blew out a disc in my lower back. Long story short, I wasn’t one of the lucky >90% of people who feel better on their own within a week or two. My pain continued to progress to the point of turning into Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome / Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, which included systemic symptoms such as headaches/migraines, brain fog, extreme fatigue and anxiety, in addition to the intense pain and

Lycopene

August 06, 2018

Many of the neurological conditions that we study here at Cortical Metrics are a result of a common underlying problem—neuroinflammation. Whether you’re dealing with an acute concussion or a full-blown case of Alzheimer’s Disease, you have neuroinflammation. Specifically with Alzheimer’s Disease, the inflammation is what ultimately leads to the development of the characteristic plaques in the brain, and while drug companies spend years and millions of dollars developing drugs that target the plaques, those drugs are entirely ineffective at decreasing the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease