I have more than 25 years’ experience with healthy lifestyle practices endorsed by clinicians focused on functional medicine and lifestyle medicine. I have witnessed through personal experience and observation the way healthy eating habits, stress reduction, spiritual health and more lead to a better energy and a better life. Two events in my adult life led to my desire to collaborate with clients and their licensed clinicians to help people reclaim their cognitive health.

When I was 21 years old, I sustained a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) when ejected from a moving vehicle. I had to re-learn to walk, brush my teeth and comprehend simple sentences after being a 4.0 student most of my life. Physical, occupational and speech therapists worked to help me reconnect and build new neural pathways, and ultimately to rewire my brain. As I began to recall my lifelong interest in health and wellness, I resumed my paleo-like eating preferences from my earlier years when I was a distance runner. I feel like diet and exercise played an important role in my recovery.

After a couple years of rest and rehabilitation, I began to feel more like my old self. I became successfully employed at an academic cancer center. I took night classes and got my MBA. I concurrently held leadership roles for several social and professional organizations. Thanks to my healthy lifestyle and neuroplasticity, all cylinders were firing and cognitive deficits from the TBI were not permanent. As an adult with prior knowledge, I can look back and observe the process of recovery as I regained complex thinking abilities.

A few years later, a perfect storm of events along with remarkable stress, little sleep, an unhealthy diet with too much sugar and unnatural ingredients, and more tore up my gut and dysregulated my biological systems. I began to suffer chronic fatigue, migraines, brain fog, seasonal allergies, food intolerances, tinnitus, some aches and pains, and a whole lot more. I was confused. My TBI recovery had gone so well and I was a well-educated, successful professional. Why was my brain acting weird again?

I got scared, and I was relieved to find functional medicine and learn that most people face some degree of cognitive impairment now and then. Our lives feel very stressful as we juggle school, children, finances and trying to get that promotion. Conveniences of the 21^st century result in our sedentary lifestyles and we often rely on food that is quick but non-nutritious, filled with unnatural ingredients that our bodies cannot metabolize. This can be a dangerous combination that leads to all kinds of chronic inflammatory conditions. Thanks to functional medicine, these conditions don’t have to be permanent.

Following my research of credible sources and evidence-based solutions, I made some lifestyle changes. I returned to more ancestral eating habits with real food, spent more time outdoors, purposefully practiced prayer and mindfulness, and engaged in many different thought-provoking activities. I started a garden, experimented in the kitchen, worked puzzles, played games and rekindled some old friendships. Once again, I saw my physical health rebound and my cognitive health restored, so much so that I trained to become a functional medicine health coach.

I have deep experience and reason to be passionate about brain health. On more than one occasion, I personally witnessed how cognitive health is dependent on a combination of factors that include diet, stress reduction, adequate sleep, exercise, spiritual health and brain stimulation. Not too many years ago, theory held that the brain is a physiologically static organ; that we are born with a fixed intelligence and injury to the brain permanently damages cognitive abilities. We know today that is just not the case.

Neuroplasticity is a complex concept that explores how everyone’s brain changes throughout life. Everything we read or watch on the big screen and social media channels, all of the substances we put in our bodies like food or toxic chemicals, along with every moment of peace and quiet, has the potential to alter our neural pathways for better or for worse. Much like we go to the gym for strength training or we train for a long-distance run, brain training in some fashion can be part of the solution to create or restore cognitive health. Healthy lifestyle practices accelerate the strengthening of our cognitive health through growth of new neurons and neural pathways.

Don’t give up on your desire for cognitive health and mental clarity. Living life more fully does take an investment of time and a commitment to change, but your brain and cognitive health are worth it! As a certified health coach, I can help you sort through and take action on lifestyle recommendations that you discover and are approved by your doctor. Creative solutions unique to your desires and abilities make the process of change easier and less stressful. Together, we will create a plan that works for you.