corticalmetrics insights

Mushrooms, Alzheimer’s and Improving Brain Health Through Diet

April 18, 2019

As we’ve noted in previous posts, maintaining or returning to a healthy cognitive state takes a system-level approach and cannot be boiled down to a single silver bullet. However, there are several individual pieces that can have significant effects.

According to a recently published article in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, it appears that adding mushrooms to your diet can have a significant effect on maintaining a healthy brain into old age. A Singapore-based research team investigated this topic in 663 adults above the age of 60 living

Measuring and Managing Stress and Anxiety

April 01, 2019

Everyone has some experience with stress. It could be acute stress from cramming for a test (or two) in high school, getting the jitters before a big race or game, or experiencing a traumatic event; or it could be a chronic dose of stress from your job, from the lack of having a job, taking care of a sick loved one, or being chronically sick yourself. Stress can come in all shapes and sizes, but do all of these scenarios affect our brains the same way? What exactly is going

Weeding Through the Latest in Cannabinoid Research

March 26, 2019

"Marijuana", "pot", and "weed" are among a few of the street names used to refer to cannabis, a popular pyschoactive drug that is starting to become legalized for recreational use around the nation. While your parents might have warned you back in the day that "Sitting around smoking pot will turn your brain into mush!", there has never been any scientific data to prove any harmful or lasting neurological impact from cannabis use.

In fact, today, you might encounter someone who argues

The Brain Gauge is a Functional Measure

March 21, 2019

A functional measure simply tells you how well something works. In the physical world, there are lots of functional measures. How fast can you run a mile? How much weight can you lift? How fast can you swim across the pool? Can you run up 2 flights of stairs without getting out of breath? These measures tell you something about performance and how well your body functions when it tries to do something - when it is stressed or pushing the envelope.

Why are functional measures important? After all, I

Impact of Concussions on Your Psyche

March 08, 2019

The following content has been written by Guest Contributor Carmela Wainwright.

Learning difficulties and long-term mental health issues are just some of the possible and glaring outcomes related to concussions. In fact, even mild head trauma can lead to the aforementioned issues. "Contrary to common assumptions, mild head injuries can cause long-term effects. These findings suggest that follow-up care after head injury, even for mild cases, is crucial, especially for patients showing risk factors for PTSD or depression," explains Dr. Murray B. Stein of The University of California

Sometimes our Stomach Seems to have a Mind of its Own

February 28, 2019

The enteric nervous system (ENS), the nervous system that innervates our gut, is fairly extensive and plays an important role in both our physical and brain health.

If you’ve read many of our other posts, you know that we like to take a systems-level (or "holistic") approach when talking about brain health. In contrast to reductionist science which looks at a small portion of a larger system in isolation from all other parts of the system (which, to be fair, does have its place sometimes), we recognize

Sun Exposure and Brain Health

February 22, 2019

Sun exposure is linked to positive effects on brain function, but in order to quantify these benefits, you will just have to measure it for yourself.

Surely you are familiar with the warnings surrounding over-exposure to the sun and the potential danger of it's powerful UV rays. While we are constantly reminded by advertisements, doctors and worry-some parents to protect ourselves by wearing sunscreen, hats and clothing, we also know that sun exposure is essential to our well-being. Sunlight is required for us to produce Vitamin D, and low levels

Valentine's Day: The Health Benefits of Love

February 14, 2019

Here at Cortical Metrics, we are constantly looking for ways to improve health and brain function. With the Brain Gauge, we are able to measure how small changes in our lives impact our health - having the numbers to prove that the supplement you started taking last month is actually working makes it even more rewarding. This Valentines Day, you might find yourself indulging in chocolates, blushing at a bouquet of surprise flowers, or spending extra time with someone special. We discussed the benefits of chocolate in a previous post

What You Can Do to Stop Back Pain From Leaving You Sleepless

February 08, 2019

Pain and poor sleep will impact brain function.
Back pain can impact every facet of our lives. It makes the days seem longer and can leave little escape at night. However, if your back pain keeps you awake, there is some good news. There are steps we can take to alleviate our pain and get a good night of rest.

Change How You Sleep
The way you sleep, and what you sleep on, may directly influence pain levels. The more pain you have, the more often you'll wake up at

Losing Your Mind Without Sleep

January 21, 2019

The question of “why do we sleep?” has long been asked and has never been well understood. Despite it being a subject of study as early as the 1700’s (although probably earlier), there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding our need to spend up to a third of our lives in an unconscious state. As suggested by Jessen et al. (2015), the 25% reduction in brain energy metabolism isn’t really enough to suggest that sleep is a means of energy conservation. When thinking on an evolutionary scale,