Brain Wellness - the Podcast

Brain Wellness - the Podcast Hosted by Mandi, NP with 20+ years in healthcare, talking all things brain health & wellness

11/12/2025

This week on the podcast I’m joined by Jennifer Phoenix, licensed therapist, to discuss an amazing treatment for PTSD - ART. This is not the drawing “art”, it’s Accelerated Resolution Therapy, based on the principles of EMDR but typically with faster results.
She describes how it is helpful, what it looks like for the patient, and gives real world metaphors to help explain how it works.

Tune in Friday to hear the full interview!

11/12/2025

Helmets are recommended or required for many activities, yet no helmet can actually fully PREVENT concussions. So why do we recommend them?

Helmets were created to absorb the impact of hits to the head and prevent more serious injuries like skull fractures, however because concussions occur due to the brain moving inside the skull, no helmet can fully stop that from happening.

The NFL and some high school football teams utilize Guardian Caps for some position during practice and have allowed them to be worn in games. These added cushions have mixed reviews in research - some reports suggest a decrease in concussion rates while others show no difference.

The research HAS identified that helmets with higher ratings do a better job of protecting against concussion. Virginia Tech has a helmet rating program that offers ratings on helmets used in many sports as well as construction. We used their website to find high quality bicycle helmets for our family!

So while we can’t fully prevent concussions with the use of helmets, using high quality equipment can reduce the risk of severe injury.

It’s a great day for a new podcast episode! Episode 159 is now available on your favorite platform!I’m back to the ABCs ...
11/07/2025

It’s a great day for a new podcast episode! Episode 159 is now available on your favorite platform!

I’m back to the ABCs of Concussion this week with the letter M. There are so many good topics to cover each week, of things that people who experience a concussion/TBI live with on a regular basis, unfortunately. Whether that’s you, or you have symptoms that you don’t know what they’re from, or you’re the provider who needs more education on what to watch for with your patients - this is a great series for you to follow!

This week I cover things like migraine, mood, memory, military, and more.

Tune in to hear the full show now!

Find the episode on your favorite platform at https://bio.link/brainwellnessnp

11/05/2025

This week on the podcast, I’m back with another installment of the ABCs of Concussion, with letter M.

This week I talk about things such as migraine, mood, memory, military, and more.

Whether you’re a provider, a survivor, or a caregiver, this series will tackle many of the topics that affect those with concussion/TBI.

Tune in Friday for the full episode!

11/05/2025

Once you’ve seen one person with brain injury, you’ve seen…one person with brain injury.

Yes, there are similarities between patients. There is a very LONG (but not all inclusive) list of symptoms that people can experience. Not everyone will experience all of these symptoms. Head injuries are like snowflakes in the winter: no two are identical.

Even if two people are in the same vehicle in a car accident, they won’t both have the same level of injury and they won’t have identical symptoms. There are many factors at play to determine how you will recover, including pre-existing health conditions, co-occurring injuries, age, and previous number and severity of head injuries, among others.

Even within one person’s head injury stories, it’s likely they didn’t have the same symptoms with each injury. A single person’s brain injury experiences can all be different.

Caring for one person with brain injury does not make you an expert in brain injury care, either. I’ve started to notice trends of symptoms that go together often, but even that isn’t a guarantee.

Brain injury is like the brain - it’s complex, we don’t quite understand all the intricacies yet, and it’s a fun puzzle for some of us to try to figure out!

It’s a great day for a new podcast episode! Episode 158 is now available on your favorite podcasting site!This week I co...
10/31/2025

It’s a great day for a new podcast episode! Episode 158 is now available on your favorite podcasting site!

This week I connected with Dr. Steven Rauchman, ophthalmologist and TBI expert witness. I had questions about the medical/legal world as I have been getting more involved while helping support my own patients, so I knew others would have questions, as well.

As an expert witness, Dr. Rauchman shared insight as to some of the bigger reasons TBI patients seek legal assistance related to visual sequela, as well as discussing how one becomes an expert witness. We also discussed the usual differences between neuro optometry and neuro ophthalmology, and more. It’s a greatly informative conversation!

Tune in to hear the full interview now!

Find the episode on your favorite platform at https://bio.link/brainwellnessnp

10/30/2025

This week on the podcast I’m joined by Dr. Steven Rauchman, an ophthalmologist who developed an interest in visual changes related to TBI. From there he became an expert witness for TBI medical/legal cases. In this clip he shares how he differs from his colleagues in his TBI interest.
We also discussed how one becomes an expert witness, some of the medical/legal ramifications of TBI specific to vision, and how we can better support our patients.

Tune in Friday to hear the full interview!

10/29/2025

Replace the words “any random symptom” with just about any random symptom and I can usually call this a myth…

Examples from recently in clinic:

1. Patient experiencing changes in smell and taste was told it wasn’t related - in fact, the olfactory nerve (the nerve that allows us to smell things appropriately) is close to the skull at the base of the brain and is very easy to damage with a head injury - and since smell and taste are very closely related, both of these can be affected.

2. Patient with new constipation was told it wasn’t related - in reality, changes in nerve function to the bowels, changes in motility, and vagus nerve dysfunction can affect your bowels and lead to constipation, as well as changes in appetite, activity, and hydration that come as a result of brain injury.

3. Patient with increased irritability just hasn’t been told by anyone that it could be related - in reality irritability, mood swings, and feeling more emotional are all quite frequently seen after brain injury but are still unfortunately very much misunderstood and not talked about. I dare say emotional changes are one of the most common things I address.

4. Patient with sensation of liquid trickling in ear and shock-like sensations on skin was told it’s not related - in reality there’s something called ‘dysesthesia’ where the sensory processing area of your brain is damaged and you now experience these strange sensations, which may also include burning or crawling sensations.

Sometimes the things your patient tells you may sound bizarre, but I’ve learned to never rule anything out. Our brains are magnificent puzzles that don’t affect any two people the same when injured. And since our brains control our entire body, it’s hard to try to say that something absolutely can’t be related to a brain injury.

It’s a beautiful day for a new podcast episode! Episode 157 is now available on your favorite podcasting site!This week ...
10/24/2025

It’s a beautiful day for a new podcast episode! Episode 157 is now available on your favorite podcasting site!

This week I phoned a friend to Dr. Brandon Allen, neurological chiropractor and essential part of my referral team. Dr. Brandon and I went back to anatomy & physiology to chat about the brainstem. We discuss the function of the brainstem, what happens & how it presents when it is damaged, how to diagnose this area, and some ways to rehab it.
Maybe this will be the start of a miniseries on the parts of the brain?

Tune in to hear the full interview now!

Find the episode on your favorite platform at https://bio.link/brainwellnessnp


10/22/2025

This week on the podcast, my friend Dr. Brandon Allen and I had a casual conversation about the function of the brain stem, what it might look like if someone’s brain stem has been affected by an injury, ways to treat this area, and much more!

Tune in Friday to hear the full episode!

10/20/2025

This is an important one (not that any of the other myths aren’t)!

Many patients with concussion/head injury will develop symptoms of autonomic nervous system dysfunction. The autonomic nervous system is comprised of two major components: the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous system. We know the sympathetic nervous system as ‘fight or flight’, and this part of the nervous system tends to be on overdrive after head injury.

Some patients who display autonomic nervous system dysfunction will be sent for autonomic testing, which comprises of the tilt table evaluation. During the test, the patient is monitored while they are put into multiple different positions, largely trying to identify positional changes in blood pressure and heart rate. If they have significant changes in blood pressure and heart rate, they are diagnosed as having dysautonomia. If they do not have said significant changes in blood pressure and heart rate, they may be told their test is normal or “not diagnostic“.

This test is only really reliable for diagnosing POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), which only accounts for approximately 10% of all dysautonomias. So that leaves about 90% of patients without a test to clearly identify their dysautonomia. There are some screening tools that can be used to see if patients are at higher risk of having dysautonomia, but I don’t see these being widely used. From my own personal experience and watching all the patients that have come to see me so far, I would say that most of my patients have experienced some form of autonomic dysfunction.

We need to come up with better screening tools, and have better conversations to address this more often.

My family was playing JackBox recently and I took a screenshot of this cute little character. 🧠I've got a break for a co...
10/19/2025

My family was playing JackBox recently and I took a screenshot of this cute little character. 🧠

I've got a break for a couple more weeks until I have another podcast interview booked. In the meantime, I want to hear from you - what do you want me to talk about?

Ask me anything, suggest a topic you'd like me to cover - I'm an open book and I'm excited to share education any day of the week 🤩

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