Lyme Disease & Brain Fog: The Missing Link with Dr Eboni Cornish

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Doctor Ebony Cornish. She is the associate medical director at Almond Clinics and president elect of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society. With research roots at the nih, she's nationally recognized for her work in neuroinflammation, chronic infections, hormone imbalance and the gut brain connection. At Almond Clinics, she combines advanced biomarker testing with spec brain imaging to uncover the root causes behind mood issues, cognitive decline and treatment resistance. Dr. Cornish also developed the clinic's two week neuroinsensitive program, a personalized approach to helping patients restore brain and body health. Welcome to the show, Dr. Cornish. Look forward to this conversation. Well, I'm Dr. Ebony Cornish today and it's. I had a fascinating discussion with her at a recent meeting at a lunch break, actually. And I take care of patients with breast implant illness. She's the expert on Lyme disease. And I went to her kind of, you know, groveling, if you want said, please explain Lyme to me so I can understand it better as a plastic surgeon and somebody who takes care of women with breast implants who have chronic inflammation and are dealing with all of these other possible CO infections. So I am going to let her educate us about how that happens today. So welcome to the show.

Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much for the invitation. So when we think of Lyme disease, right, we traditionally think of joint pain, muscle pain after a tick bite and a rash. Okay. But what we know is that it's bigger than Lyme disease. We call it more complex chronic illness because you're thinking about multiple different infections. The primary vector that we know is a tick bite. Okay. But we are finding out that cats are also a vector of one of the CO infections, bartonella. All right. And then you also have babesiosis. We have borrelia, which is what we traditionally learned about in school, and other CO infections as well. All right. But most commonly in my practice, I call it the three Bs. So that's Borrelia, burdorferi, bartonella and babesiosis. Now, the good thing about these organisms is that they cause different kind of physical symptoms as well as systemic symptoms. So sometimes patients who have chronic tick borne diseases, they might present with pain, but they also might just present with nebulous fatigue. Or by the time they've come to my office, man, they've been seen by so many other doctors misdiagnosed as anxiety. Sometimes I'll see them misdiagnosed even with autoimmune disease because these organisms target the immune system and make them compromise. I'll also see kind of this overall inflammatory burden because as you're introduced to these organisms, one of which is a tick borne parasite, which is babesiosis, it causes a huge inflammatory burden systemically for most patients, which then makes them more susceptible to other illnesses. Right. So if you have an overall inflamed burden, you're going to be more likely to be more susceptible to severe symptoms from other things.

Yeah, let's pause there because that, you know, is definitely how patients enter our ecosystem. So they have chronic inflammation. They've seen a lot of providers, the providers. And I always say this, you know, Dr. Cornish, it's, I don't really envy anybody trying to see one of the patients you or I see and help sort this out. It's not easy. And I feel like, and my patient population knows this and I explain it this way, so if everybody showed up with a red swollen breast, there'd be no confusion about the problem, Right. That would be considered an infection. There's a foreign body, an implant, and we just get it sorted out. But that's not how patients enter my ecosystem. They enter just like you're describing. Somebody's got a problem with fatigue that hasn't been diagnosed. Somebody's got a problem with anxiety that they've been offered an antidepressant for. Somebody's got cognitive decline in their 30s and people are like, whoa, this is not good. You know, they're not processing information, they're not, you know, able to remember their children's name. These are all very, you know, if I was in my 30s and couldn't remember my kid's name, I would be going to see you at the Almond Clinic and trying to figure out what's wrong with my brain.

Correct. Because what we know is that these infections do cross the blood brain barrier. And that's what's so fascinating. I look at, you know, brain inflammation associated with chronic infections, toxins and inflammation of the body. And that's usually a lot of times that missing link. So when I'm doing my digging, right, Even in patients, because they can be misdiagnosed due to Lyme causing autoimmune disease with things like even a serious multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, hormone suppression, that all is contributed to by these organisms. I'm like, wait, let me look at their brain. And I see this inflammatory pattern. So across the board, you know, and I call it the missing link as well as the great imitator. Because what I find are these tick borne diseases mimic other things. Right? So when I'm Trying to get through the root cause. I find that when I treat these underlying infections, because most people get misdiagnosed because their test might be falsely negative, or they might get just that standard one day or one week of doxycycline. But as president elect of ilads, which is International Lyme Associated Disease Society, we have research that shows that this is a clinical diagnosis, just like what you do. You have to listen to your patient, do your due diligence, and say, hey, no matter where you live, we need to put these underlying diseases on your differential diagnosis because the symptoms can be so vast. Right. And you just won't understand it. And then you treat the infectious process, and then those symptoms of fatigue, of anxiety, depression, joint pain, cognitive impairment, even dementia presentations get better. But you definitely won't know until you look. And with the controversy behind the testing, it's pretty hard to do that.

Right. And before we move on from that. So I think it took a long period of time for me to embrace how complicated mold is as a picture, because I had patient. I had this patient come to me, and every time they saw me, it's like groundhog day. And, yes, I kept talking to them, and they're like, yes, yes, yes. And the spouse was there. And every time I saw them on successive weeks, it was the exact same conversation.

Yeah.

And I, for the life of me, I was getting frustrated, and I was like, I have no idea what is going on here. And at that point, it was pre pandemic, and I had a lot of help from tremendous integrative providers and nutritionists and, you know, acupuncture. Everybody was super helpful that I engaged with. And of course, after the pandemic, like, everybody just closed up shop and you couldn't find anybody. So ultimately, that patient had mold.

Yeah.

And I was like, oh, okay, now I have to pay attention and kind of understand this and test for this. And then I had patients start coming who knew they had Lyme disease by various, you know, testing and interaction with providers like yourself. And I knew the traditional things we're taught in medical school about infectious Lyme disease, but, like, these presentations are just out. They're just way out there sometimes, you know, for me. So, like, I don't ever discount anything anymore. I just feel like everybody's been exposed to whether it's parasite Lyme mold, and. And those are the things that seemingly are the. The mysteries that give you some of these presentations that are so confusing. Confusing to, you know, practitioners that then ultimately patients, you know, to do their research and Find us.

Yeah, and that's absolutely right. Because whenever I see a patient who's being treated for tick borne diseases, like I said, they've seen four or five other doctors, but I also treat, you know, I tell them, look, I'm a generalist because I'm going to look at the full picture because typically when you're starting to transition to that more chronic presentation, there's other things going on. So I say, what makes this person so special? A lot of times it could be complications due to environmental toxin. I treat a lot of patients who have mycotoxin illness, which makes it even more difficult to recover from Lyme. I have patients who have compromised immune system, so I might have to do immune boosting agents, ivig, certain medications just to get their immune system more robust. And not to mention, like I said, that autoimmune driver, that exists as well. So it's kind of taking a step back. And that's why, like when it comes to neurological inflammation, like that patient you said when it's Groundhog day, I see Groundhog Day almost all day, right. And then I look and I'm like, okay. Lyme disease co infections and toxins can affect different areas of your brain. All right? Not only the body, but the brain specifically. And one area is the temporal lobe that's responsible for memory, and the parietal lobe was responsible for mood and the frontal lobe responsible for focus. So before I see a patient, I've already done that type of analysis, I have their labs, but you treat the person, not the Latin instead of the labs. And Lyme disease can make other things flare up in patients. So like in your population you deal with breast implant illness? Well, I see that same patient as well. And when they're suffering from something like tick borne diseases, it makes their recovery slower, it makes their presentation more severe because you're dealing with more things that are causing compromise of that overall immune system. And that's what it is. Lyme disease is more of an immune disease and also a brain disease and just systemic overall. So when you think of it that way, you know, you treat it differently and you evaluate and you think about other factors.

I'm glad you put it that way because I've, you know, we were in school and the genome project was not done yet. And I just remember all of this, this kind of labor going into that project and computers had to catch up and, and now fast forward like, I mean you can get whole genome sequencing and it's very more cost effective now, more accessible now. And there's more data about it. There's the Eric Topol published the Welderly study and then the UK Biobank has all these different studies about genome related, whether it's, you know, exercise tolerance or whatever. My point is like, I always look at folks for, you know, what are their genetics like? And, and I constantly say I don't listen to people anymore to make a quote unquote diagnosis. I'm actually more, you know, interested in trying to understand, you know, before I have your analysis because I don't get folks with genetic analysis normally. How do you, you know, methylate? How do you, you know, what's your antioxidant pathway? Like, you know, what's your, you know, glucuronidation pathway? Like, are you super sensitive to perfumes and chemical smells and all these things? And it just tips you off that they have really Poor GSST or GSTP1 pathway, you know, mutations or whatever. And then I start asking them the questions like, where did you travel to? Where have you lived? Where'd you grow up? What, what work do you do? And invariably I'm sure, as you know, that's going to lead you to some kind of environmental toxin picture in your head right away. You know, all my patients in that come from Florida or that come from California, they're going to have ag problems in certain areas and then herbicide, pesticide problems in certain areas. And I kind of assume at this point pretty much everybody coming to me has got a mycotoxin burden that's not off the charts but can be really difficult based on like what you're describing. So my patient shows up, they've reached their capacity to detoxify, their exposures keep going up and now the immune system is literally on. Most of my patients describe like they're on fire all the time.

Oh, agreed. And you know, I actually worked at NIH on the genome project in the 90s as a Howard View fellow. So I look at it like this, you know, because we have been able to understand how the genomic system works. Genetics is the gun, but epigenetics pulls a trigger. So what that means is you are born this way, but you're not born sick. And it's. So you have to look at environmental imbalances and toxic imbalances that make those genetic mutations more active and go the wrong way. Right? Because we're all predisposed to something. And you're absolutely right. When you're looking at methylation, we're looking at, you know, detox pathways, we're looking Also at, for Lyme disease and mycotoxins specifically, I tend to prefer looking at HLA Dr. Pathway. So there are certain species where you can tell if a person is gonna have difficulty being able to clear out mold toxins or difficulty being able to clear out Lyme toxins or both. Right. Um, and that gives me a little bit more cause I'm like, okay, this person might have a more challenging course because not only do they have methylation problems or glutathione problems, or vitamin, vitamin D receptor problem, but hey, they also have problems with just clearing out tick borne diseases. So I do a lot of genetic work in my practice as well. And going back to what you said about just, you know, trying to figure out the mold piece, look, I treat patients from everywhere and I tell them, Florida, South Carolina, you know, Texas, all those places where there could be, you know, history of hurricanes or history of floodings. Louisiana, those are mold pits. Mold central. And the thing with mold is when you're doing these and I use, I usually look at chronic inflammatory response syndrome or SIRS markers, blood work that tell me, okay, yeah, we're all exposed to mold. We're not talking about the mold you're getting when you go outside. We're talking about what impact these water damage toxic modes have. And then we have your genetics to tell you if you're going to be more susceptible to keep that in your body or not. Because one person in the family might be completely fine being in that mold pit, whereas the other person can be very toxic and have such a hard and just debilitating course because they can't clear it out. And the first step is always moving and then you have to think about those other layers because mold does cause this inflammatory response problem in the body. So now your immune system is compromised and other things are flaring up. So that's where I see mold making my patients who might have long Covid, who might have Lyme, who might have parasites, whatever other acute insult they've had on their body, you layer on top of that mold and now the recovery process is three to four times as long and debilitating for that patient.

Yeah, I'm glad you put it that way because we were doing a series of papers, reviewing a series of papers and doing a show about what we discussed previously, where the implant is quote unquote, being rejected. So I, I've explained to the listeners over and over again, you know, transplantation started by a plastic surgeon, Joseph Murray, in 1954. Basically he took an identical twins kidney and Put it in the other identical twin so they have the exact same genome. There is no rejection and everything after that requires immunosuppression because the HLA is different. And that's where all the, well outside of the blood match. So if you had a correct blood match, the next thing is the HLA match which you're describing. And the polymorphism or differences or variability in HLA are responsible for how much we respond to antigens. And I think they're going to find shortly, like we discussed is the capsule around the implants is ramping up the immune response, not just the T cell response, but the B cell response and making antibody and then you know, what comes after that with all that in your system on top of what you're describing with a difference in hla. So I think it's, we're getting there, you know, slowly, but we are getting there and having a better understanding. So it makes a lot of sense. When I see our patients who've had problems with Lyme and mold and the parasite thing, I have to say, Dr. Cornish, that is like baffling to me like travelers, that the number of people that report to us that they have had travelers diarrhea with no treatment or that live on a lake or have, you know, done these things and they have chronic diarrhea and they all these strange things that just seem very like straightforward. And I don't know if you're experiencing this in your practice or seeing, you know, this or hearing these stories, but I find them kind of odd.

Yeah. And the way I always like to make things very easy for patients to understand and when you're thinking about things like fungi and mold and parasites, they have their own nucleus, they have their own genetics and they can live outside the human host. Right. And then you have things like tick borne diseases and viruses which need our cells to replicate. Well, what's going to be the most damaging that that can live outside of you break into your body and wreak or though the thing that might just depend on you. I would say that outside, you know, terrorism is the way I look at it. Because once you get those things in your system, and especially when it comes to parasites, you know, that's causing an immune disease, you know, not just an infectious disease, but an immune disease. And one of the most common parasites that I treat is Toxoplasmosis gondii. And that's because I once again specialize in neuroinflammation. So these are patients are coming with psychosis and sometimes just depression and Anxiety. They might have cats, they might eat a lot of pork. And that's the most commonly misdiagnosed systemic parasites, according to the cdc, and the most common parasite in our country. And that is definitely a neurological parasite. And so when you're thinking about these parasites, you have to understand that they can cause not only an autoimmune disease in your body, but an autoimmune disease in your brain. And that's when we start thinking about autoimmune encephalitis, where now these bugs have crossed the blood brain barrier. Now you're starting to get antibodies like anti dopamine, GAD, you know, it's S11, S100B, the list goes on and on. All these brain autoantibodies that are being triggered by the sequela that happens when you're exposed to some of these parasites, the bacteria, viruses, and even mycotoxins. The literature is starting to come out to show that mycotoxins also have the ability to cause this autoimmune process as well. And I also treat strep. So there's a lot we can talk about today. We probably have 30 hours of talking to do about how some of these toxins can make this autoimmune process in the brain worse and also in the system. And that's where it becomes really challenging, because you have to look both places. And especially with parasites, I always say they don't cause problems by themselves. We have over 300 trillion or more organisms inside our gut, good and bad, right? Most disease, like hypocrisy, said Hippocrates said, stems from your gut, okay? But at the same time, if your gut is leaky or inflamed, then those organisms are going to penetrate outside of your gut microbiome and wreak havoc everywhere and especially in your immune system. So I cannot treat any of the illnesses I do without starting with gut stability, because that is immune stability. And parasites are no different. They come with other friends. Because you have parasites right now, and so do I. But they may not be pathogenic, they may not be bothering us, is when you get too little of the good bacteria, your immune system becomes compromised. Then those pathogens wreak havoc, and you have to look for parasites because they, even though we don't have the best test for culturing parasites, it's very challenging. They come along in these biofilm niche with other bugs. So whenever there's parasites, I think of yeast. When I see parasites, I think of biofilm, where I know I'm looking for other organisms simultaneously. But you gotta look for the parasites. And you think about some of these anti parasitic medications that we're using for other illnesses. Like a good example is ivermectin we're using. A lot of people are using that with long Covid. Well, I argue that a lot of my patients, I've seen systemic parasites and I've seen long Covid as well. So then it's like, what happened? Did this other infection, this virus make those other pathogenic organisms in their gut worse? Right. So you know, parasites don't need to be missed and they need to be tested for. And even if you can't get them and you can't culture them, you got to look for a lab that you get at LabCorp IGE because so many patients probably listening of, oh, I've been tested for parasite. My primary took me for standard testing and nothing showed up. Well, you can look for eosinophils, which is something everyone gets when they get their CBC or ige. And those give you clues, right, that you're on that right path.

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that because I had a patient just this week from out of state, but we interviewed them and they've had all this difficulty and I said, do you, do you have blood work? And they had submitted it, so I was able to see it. And they had a absolute increase in their eosinophils. And I was like, well, you know, based on your history and this lab finding, it's very consistent with a parasitic. Whether it's like you said, imbalance, overgrowth, infection, whatever we're going to describe it as, it's very consistent. Like I, I don't, I don't think you need. And they had, had a stool test and I'm sure we can. You know, the stool testing is. They're all like little Kodak moments in time and they're not easy. Maybe you can go into that because obviously that's more of your purview. Like, you know, we do many of the tests that look for immenses in the gut microbiome, but maybe just explain to the audience like this is not like the end all be all. Like it's a, it's a moment in time and you're looking at it and sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.

Yeah, and that's absolutely correct. And there are multiple ways you can look at the gut microbiome. Like I said, we're not going to catch them all out of this 300 trillion of good and bad bacteria. Right. But you know, sometimes I'll do genetic tests in your gut. You know, I'll also do culture. So there's so many companies that I use based on the patient I've used over the last 15 years. But what I find that's consistent is when I'm looking for things like a leaky gut. And the way I explain that to patients is, look, if your gut barrier is impaired and your zonulin is imbalanced and you have this clinical picture showing you're not having maximum absorption, then you're taking all these things, you're taking all these supplements and meds, you're telling me they're not working optimally. Well, guess what? Your border is impaired and those things are leaking out into the toilet. You know, you're not getting the maximum absorption. That's why I work so hard on gut stabilization. I mean, that's one of the pillars in my practice. And another thing that we're finding, and this is research that's been published, a lot of people are looking at Bifidobacterium, that's just one subspecies of good bacteria in the gut that they're finding is helpful in all autism, but more importantly helpful in optimizing as it relates to immune system, you know, so I look for that as well, look for those imbalances. Gut tests also tell me how inflamed a person is. They'll come to me and say, well, I don't have celiac, so I don't need to remove gluten. But then I'm like, look, some, the gluten, some of the gluten we have in our society right now is pretty toxic. And it may make this leaky gut worse and it may make this inflammation worse. But that is the key because we know the gut and the brain are connected by the longest nerve in your body. So if you're having brain issues, if you're having fog or fatigue, and we haven't addressed your gut, then we're doing you a disservice. Just like with your immune system, a lot of your immune cells are stem from your gut. So if you're not treating leaky gut, if you're not loving your brain by loving the foods that you eat and your body, then we're going to have a hard time recovering from whatever it is, maybe from breastplant illness, mast cell activation, tick bor diseases, hormone problems, because we haven't stabilized that foundation. And then when you transition into your mood, because how many of our patients are still suffering from neuropsychiatric manifestations of Disease. Well, guess what? Those mood receptors, that serotonin. Those receptors, it's just general biology. A lot of them are found in your gut. So there is a gut mood association. So you cannot, and that's my belief, treat these complex illnesses that we c. Without stabilizing your gut microbiome. And not only that, having optimal nutrition and healing that gut lining. So what I try doing with my patients now, and I do invite a lot of practitioners to do that, because we have to understand, these patients are suffering. They have multiple disorders. Some of them can even be very sensitive to foods. They're taking multiple things to get better. There's a trauma involved. So not only do I encourage lifestyle, because I never think of diet gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, that would be great for everyone. But I have to meet the patient where they are. Right. If you're suffering from Lyme disease or breastplate and you can't cook, well, we got to figure out what you can eat. And I think a lot of doctors don't focus on creating plans on what you should eat to optimize you versus just restrictions. And I, and I find myself. It was so funny because for years I was just like, you know, the function method, gluten free, diet free, all these things free. And then I would have patients come back like, look, I'm more stressed out about food than I am from these diseases that are harming me, so how can I heal? If I'm in a fight or flight based on what you're telling me not to eat and my limbic system is active, how am I going to heal? Dr. Cornish? So then I start to transition, and you have to be sensitive to cultures. Right. I can't tell someone from a, you know, Latino coverage always to be gluten free, you know, corn free, dairy free. I can't tell someone from African American culture. Right. To do those things right away because I have to be sensitive to what they incorporate in their diets and find healthier alternatives that will be good for their gut and introduce other things that will help, like fermented foods and whole foods and, you know, just finding that balance with patients.

Yeah, you have to pace it because people come in so ramped up and if you say, you know, what, what traditionally we would say, and I put people, actually, I try to reframe it and put them in the mindset that they need to get more protein in their diet. And I, I just. That to me, and, and everybody who went through surgical training, you know, prior to 2002, that's when the 80 hour workweek was introduced. So he's like, I have to draw a line in the sand there. It's very different after that. Before that, you know, there was a lot of emphasis placed on certainly by my mentors about metabolism, you know, and basically we took care of, you know, transplant patients and cancer patients and burn patients and like, you had to know the caloric requirement, the protein requirement, the fluid resuscitation needed for any of those patients and be able to manage this them. And it all boiled down to not how many carbs they got, just how much protein you gave them and in what format you gave them so they could utilize it. And it was always better through the gut than through an iv. So that's been documented forever. And it avoids things like, you know, what translocation, which is obviously from a, a leaky gut. But your point, like trying to get people to understand and meet them where they are. You know how a mom, like five kids come in and she was like frazzled. But, and I obviously, I'll preface it this way, she described what they were eating and the kids had a lot of attention problems. They were some behavior issues. And I said, well, you know, I mean, do they, what are their snacks? Or what do they, you know, what are they, what do they go for? She's like, well, they really like, you know, chips and I cameras, the M M's or something. And I don't want to say this incorrectly, but she said they, they were having energy drinks. I'm not going to describe a brand. And I said, how old's the youngest? And she said, seven. I was like, they can't have that. Some of Those have like 200 milligrams of caffeine in them. So I did what you're describing and I gave them some options and I said, okay, instead of this brand of chips, you can have this one, Siete or Masa. I don't have any financial relationship with either of those companies. And you can't give them a monster drink. But there are some better ones now that just have a little bit of stevia or something in them that are not packed with sugar and caffeine. And then I said, if they like chocolate, there are some options where the ingredients are better. And you know, she took that to, to heart and went home or on the, on the way home, stopped the grocery store and got this stuff. Because I told her, you can't be my patient. I can't operate on you if you're eating that way because you just won't heal. So I'm not doing you a favor by doing a surgery and I don't need to operate on anybody. That's, that's not how it works. It's more about getting people, you know, prepared and meet them where they are and then help them make some better choices because they weren't taught those specific, you know, things I just said. And that's, you know, a downfall. Right? We, we don't really tell or teach or like model some of the things. It, by the time they get to us, they've been doing this for decades sometimes, and it's created a even more complex problem than it has to be.

Yeah, and I, and I totally agree with that. And the way I also describe it is like, if you love your brain, you have to love your gut. And I think that's excellent giving. I do that with all my patients. I ask them, what's the worst thing you're eating that, you know, harms your brain? And let's find a gluten free or sugar free alternative that will help that. And then you have to understand that those bad foods are going to damage your microbiome, which is going to damage your brain. But if we can start making baby steps or even those people who are 100% committed, I am all for it. You know, I can tell that patient, that motivated patient who walks through my door, and I can also tell the truck driver who eats fast food on the road, and it might not be easier for them or the person who, you know, doesn't have the means to shop at a Whole Foods and might have to help strategize to even getting the frozen vegetables or the farmer's market. So I try to tailor it to what my patients can do and afford. But more importantly, you got to feed those bacteria the food that you need them to do. And another thing I'll do, which I invite, you know, parent patients and doctors to think about it. We're treating complex chronic illnesses no matter what it is. And typically that requires multiple forms of treatment. May that be herbals, may that be, you know, pharmaceuticals. We try to do take a functional approach. But how many of your patients have several different bottles of X in their home? And I tell them, look, if you want to take a supplement off your list. List, you want to take a medication off your list, then you're gonna have to take off a toxic food. It's a barter system. If you want to stop spending so much money going to see doctors and take supplements, well, stop spending that money on the Toxic foods. That's making your healing process even longer. You'll save a lot of time, you'll save a lot of resources and you don't have to break the bank to eat healthy. And that's what I hear a lot too. Oh, you know, you have to have all this money and shop at all these fancy stores, eat healthy. No, you don't get frozen. Go to Asian markets, go to farmers markets, budget and see if there are things especially for the picky kids that you can slowly introduce in their diets. Because I just got an email from one patient, her kid is now rebelling. You know, they did the dairy, she went hard, you know, the dairy free, gluten free, sugar free. And he was doing so well. And then he's over it, you know, six months into it. So now we have to go back and try to find a way to introduce boost healthy alternatives and build it back up slowly, day by day. And that's what you got to think about. You got to be reality. You have reality when it comes to some patients.

Yeah, that's why that mom, I was, I was very concerned with her because she wasn't taught that way and I, you know, I tried to help her. And near me we have a wonderful restaurant called the well. And it's gluten free, dairy free and doesn't use seed oils. So I actually use them as a tool to help patients understand this is actually functional. You, you can actually do this. You don't have to. And it's, it's just very basic and like everything is great there. Like you go, I send my patients there because that's an anti inflammatory diet. They just don't think it's a one that's achievable. Or you can execute those at home and you can, it's, it's really not that complex. Like, and you know, for instance, you brought up kimchi. Kimchi is like five bucks for this, you know, you know, you know, canister, that canister bottle and you don't need like to eat the whole bottle. You just have a little bite of it every day and that's a start. Like, yeah, get start. And you don't, you know, there are options to drinking soda. It's, it's called water, obviously, you know, filtered water. We prefer over anything because tap can be very bad depending on where you live. I'm not, I'm not telling you to go drink out the tap. In fact, I'm telling you probably not to do that. Yes, it's very problematic depending on where you live. So don't, don't, you know, do that. And then your air quality is very important as well. So I always emphasize, you know, sleep, air, food quality, fluid quality and you know, limiting your exposures to these things that we're describing and using healthier versions or options. I think, you know, they get a little confused. There's so many things to choose from and you try to, you know, make it simpler. And you know, once again, I don't get paid by any company at all for, you know, saying their name or I'm just giving people like what I consider to be something is healthier than what they're doing.

Like yeah. And because a lot of patients, the most common thing I see in my practice when patients complex chronic illness and especially tick borne diseases and other infectious sugar cravings, right? Because a lot of times those infections and toxins, they become a breeding ground for yeast overgrowth. All right? And yeast is a beast. So you're walking around with bloating and constipation and sugar cravings. And I'm like, hey, you know, we can introduce things because the majority of patients in the US are fiber deficient, deficient and protein deficient. So introducing things like fiber and prebiotic rich foods can also hamper and lower those sugar cravings. Because you're giving that good bacteria in your microbiome the food that it needs. But you don't want to sabotage things, right? I tell patients, even get some sauerkraut, you know, that's my morning routine. I get a tablespoon of sauerkraut. Sounds gross, but it works, it's firm. It's giving my gut the food that it needs to start creating more good bacteria. Because it's a warm between the good organisms and the bad. The bad organisms are going to send bad signals to the body. It's going to compromise your immune system, make your mood worse, make it challenging for you to recover from illnesses. Whereas the good bacteria is what's going to feed the brain, what's going to feed the immune system, so, and decrease inflammation. Because that's what we're talking about here. Inflammatory burden. No matter what the disease is that cause it or the toxin, if we don't have a stable foundation, we're in a little, a lot of trouble, right? Because that's why you have to take those baby steps. And if you think about that, one of my kids, because I treat a lot of kids on the autism spectrum, they're picky eaters, right? And so I'm not going to tell them off the bat, your child or even a woman I might see with an eating disorder. Right. Or a comfort food. You know, I have to be cautious in what I do because neuropsychiatric manifestations occur due to the things that I treat. So I have to take those baby steps. And like, for example, example, I never get my most successful patient on the spectrum. The kid only ate chicken nuggets. That was it, chicken nuggets. And he might throw some fries in there. Did not like fruit at all. So what I had mom do, I said, look, let's do this. Let's. What's his favorite cartoon? You know, let's create some Mickey Mouse looking things out of fruit. You know, get a little mold, make it fun and start introducing things that way. Let's maybe create our own juice. Put it in an ice, you know, ice cube bucket, put it in the freezer, put some sticks in there, make him think he has a popsicle. You know, there are ways to try to slowly introduce things. And now he eats a high range of, you know, fruits and vegetables now because we learn how to slowly make those changes. And even for chicken nuggets, we have to practice. You know, we looked online, got some homemade alternatives to, you know, you can search for that. Alternatives to chicken nuggets at McDonald's or Chick Fil a that you can try to make at home. It's trial and error. Right. But it's just maybe having the bad foods and introducing one thing at a time until the child, the adult, can transition to a more healthier lifestyle. And once you do that, you'll start feeling better and you'll want to crave more good things. But that's what I mean about having those creative strategies to introduce a healthier lifestyle and a healthier diet.

Yeah, you're not going to get a kid right off the bat eating kimchi. But the, you know, the goals are to modify what you can modify and help the parents. I really, I was touched by that mom I told you about because she just didn't know like these were even potentially options. And then once you gave her options, like opened up a whole different, you know, set of things. And she sent us a really nice note that her kids wore actually doing better. And the behavior was better, of course, because like those loads of sugar and or caffeine in younger, I mean, you can't do that to a young person. It's just way too much. Yeah. If they have a bad pump tea or some other, you know, enzymatic problem, you're just going to make that, give them acute neural inflammation from all the sugar and, or the problem with caffeine. My, my kids don't metabolize caffeine while all like yeah, I can drink caffeine all day and have no problem going to sleep. But you give them a little bit of caffeine and they're like, they acutely, it's like a neurotoxin for them.

Yeah. And I'm the same way. I'm very sensitive to caffeine. But what I think, especially in how we're using and incorporating AI into medicine, the one thing I invite people to do, I'll say even as simple, I'll write into chat GPT patient who is non compliant, who loves X, Y and Z, needs healthy alternatives and I'll put all the things that I think, think, you know, once I make baby steps, give a shopping list, food list, restaurant list and they'll come up with all of that. The patients love it because you know, it gives them alternatives on how to. And it's, it's not something that I need. It's something you get in two seconds. Right. And people at home can do it and put in whatever it is they're craving, get an alternative for it, whatever kind of meals they want to start, you know, preparing. That maybe means five seconds. Like I'm sure your mom, you know, because I'm a mom of triple, I don't have time to make, you know, hour long meals as a working mom. So I can simply go and say hey, let me find some quick meal alternatives that are easy and will be pleasing to kids and adults and then there you have it. So it's not as hard as we think, but it's as necessary, especially in this toxic society now with the seed oils and the dyes and the gluten toxicity and the pesticides than ever before are that we are aggressive at living a healthier lifestyle if we want to get better from these chronic complex illnesses. It's mandatory.

Well, I think that is the place to end this discussion on because it is mandatory. I really appreciate you coming on and highlighting Lyme and the gut brain axis and the mood disturbances caused by some of these problems that are really complex. So thank you again for coming on the show.

Thank you for the invitation. Like I said, I could have had to catch myself because I can go on for a long time. But I hope people have learned some really easy strategies and know that doctors like, you know, us are here to help if you have Lyme disease. You know, organizations like ilads.org if you have brain issues. A mcclinics.com we're looking at root causes of infections, but there are tons of doctors out here who are doing this exact same thing and can help you through this journey.

Thank you, Dr. Cornish.