Could Your Anxiety Be Lyme in the Brain?
Dr. Eboni Cornish, MD, of Amen Clinics and ILADS, returns for a third conversation, live in Nashville. She and Dr. Chris Motley talk about Lyme and other tick-borne infections in the brain: anxiety and depression, kids labeled ADHD, puberty flares, mold and memory, and why she calms the brain before treating anything. Plus her best question: when did your symptoms start, and where were you? Sources in the show notes. Educational only, not medical advice.
00:00 Depression, anxiety, and a Lyme test
00:39 Welcome: Dr. Eboni Cornish, live in Nashville
02:20 From bored family doctor to Lyme practice
04:13 How Lyme gets into the brain
06:12 What a Lyme brain looks like on a SPECT scan
08:02 The limbic loop: calm the brain
10:21 Is neurology catching up?
12:30 Floaters, light sensitivity, and trouble reading
14:05 Tinnitus and sound sensitivity
15:08 Can kids have Lyme? Pregnancy and newborns
17:48 Why puberty can trigger a flare
20:12 ADHD, PANS, and a gentler approach for kids
23:32 Food, kids, and the one-food trade
25:56 Sudden anger in children
27:23 Joint pain and injuries that won't heal
28:57 Teeth, gums, and cavitations
31:09 Babesia and your red blood cells
32:34 MTHFR, explained
35:11 Swollen lymph nodes and lymphatic drainage
36:47 Memory loss, mold, and dementia risk
39:42 Where were you when your symptoms started?
41:31 Gratitude and the brain
43:59 How your gut shapes your mood
46:09 Her morning routine
48:19 Saunas, baths, and cold water
50:38 Belly breathing for kids
51:11 Her fall speaking tour
54:14 Where to find Dr. Cornish
55:34 Wrap-up
57:01 Disclaimer
Key Takeaways:
Tick-borne illness can show up in the brain. Lyme can reach the nervous system. If you have neurological symptoms and you are not getting better, Dr. Cornish says to put tick-borne disease on the list (5:16).
Calm the brain before you push treatment. Her patients who react to everything are often stuck in fight or flight, a "limbic loop" (9:37). She starts by calming the nervous system.
Kids get labeled. Many of her pediatric patients arrive diagnosed with ADHD or "being bad" (20:50). A sudden change in a child, over days rather than months, is worth asking your pediatrician about by name: PANS.
Trade one food, not the whole diet. She asks a reluctant kid for one food that "doesn't love your brain," and trades a supplement off the list in return (25:04). Then she asks AI for realistic swaps a family will actually eat.
Babesia lives in red blood cells. If you have tested positive, don't donate blood. Federal blood-safety rules agree.
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