Life After Impact Podcast
Weekly episodes on concussion recovery, functional neurology, and rebuilding your life after brain injury. Hosted by Dr. Ayla Wolf.
Episodes
15 episodes tagged "Cognitive Function"
Can We Measure Concussion Recovery? Brain Vital Signs, NeuroCatch & Neuroplasticity with Dr. Ryan D'Arcy | E76
What if we could objectively measure how the brain is functioning after a concussion—in just six minutes? Concussion and post-concussion syndrome can affect attention, cognitive processing, reaction time, and brain function even when conventional imaging does not provide the answers patients are looking for. In this episode of Life After Impact: The Concussion Recovery Podcast, Dr. Ayla Wolf talks
DTI: A New Era in Concussion Diagnostics with Dr. Rebecca Romero | E73
Can diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) detect brain changes after a concussion when a standard MRI or CT scan is normal? In this episode of Life After Impact, I sit down with board-certified neurologist Dr. Rebecca Romero to explore how DTI is moving from the world of concussion and traumatic brain injury research into clinical practice. Dr. Romero explains how DTI brain imaging can evaluate microscop
Concussion and Loss of Smell: Why This Sense Matters More Than You Think | E71
Loss of smell after concussion may be more important than most people realize. Changes in smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch can occur after concussion and traumatic brain injury (TBI), yet sensory loss—especially olfactory dysfunction—is often overlooked during concussion evaluation and recovery. In this episode of Life After Impact, Dr. Ayla Wolf sits down with neuroscientist Dr. Michael L
Calm Your Brain After Concussion with Dr. Sanjay Manchanda | E68
Brain fog. Poor concentration. Anxiety. Memory problems. Why do some people recover quickly after a concussion while others continue to struggle with persistent symptoms months—or even years—after a traumatic brain injury (TBI)? In this episode of Life After Impact, Dr. Ayla Wolf sits down with neuroscientist, psychotherapist, meditation teacher, and NeuroMatrix founder Dr. Sanjay Manchanda to exp
Brain Fog, Poor Sleep & Fight-or-Flight After Concussion: Can BrainTap Help? | E67
How do you calm a brain that feels stuck in survival mode? For many people recovering from a concussion, the injury isn't just about headaches or dizziness. It's the feeling that your nervous system is constantly "on"—poor sleep, brain fog, anxiety, sensory overload, and the inability to truly relax. In this episode of Life After Impact, Dr. Ayla Wolf sits down with Dr. Patrick Porter, founder of
Clear Mind After Concussion: Recovery, Neuroplasticity, and the Search for What Works with Jordan Jay Adams (Part 2) | E63
In Part 2 of my conversation with Jordan J. Adams, founder of the United Fight Alliance and longtime combat sports commentator, we move beyond the problem of concussion and into the search for solutions. After experiencing multiple concussions, a family history of Alzheimer's disease, and growing concerns about his own cognitive health, Jordan began what he describes as a mission to "save his brai
Fighters Are Still Falling Through the Cracks After Concussion - With Jordan Jay Adams (Part 1) | E62
Combat sports make brain injury impossible to ignore, but the most dangerous part might be what happens after everyone goes home. We’re joined by Jordan J. Adams, founder and CEO of United Fight Alliance and an Emmy Award-winning combat sports commentator, to talk about concussions, post-concussion syndrome and the real gaps he still sees in concussion protocols across athletics. We dig into the
The Right Kind of Fuel for Daytime Energy and Masterful Sleep with Dr. Ashkan Jalili | E59
Brain fog, mood swings, dizziness, sleep problems, carb cravings, that awful midday crash. If you’ve lived through concussion recovery or post-concussion syndrome, you know how quickly symptoms can become a full-time job. We sit down with Dr. Ashkan Jalili to make a different kind of case: many stubborn concussion symptoms track back to a metabolic dysfunction, especially dysregulated glucose deli
Hearing Loss, Tinnitus, & Hyperacusis: Treat Your Hearing, Protect Your Brain with Dr. Keith Darrow | E55
A “mild” hearing loss sounds harmless until you hear the data: it can raise the risk of cognitive decline and dementia by 200%. I sit down with Dr. Keith Darrow PhD, CCC-A, neuroscientist and clinical audiologist, to connect the dots between hearing loss and brain health and to explain why treating hearing loss shows up again and again as a top modifiable dementia risk factor in major research rev
The Hidden Habits That Can Speed Up — or Sabotage — Brain Recovery with Alex Lombardi | E51
Your brain doesn’t heal on your appointment schedule. It heals in the messy middle of real life, the mornings where you can’t think straight, the afternoons where your energy falls off a cliff, and the nights when you wonder if you’ll ever feel like yourself again. I sit down with Alex Lombardi, founder of The Brain Edit, to talk about lifestyle-based concussion recovery and post-concussion syndr
The Path Back To Work After a Concussion with Nate Pope (Part 2) | E47
This is Part 2 of my conversation with Nate Pope from NCX Brain Recovery. Recovery stalls when life gets smaller. We’ve all seen it: light hurts, noise overwhelms, screens drain, so routines narrow and the brain doubles down on workarounds. We open up a different route—structured, supportive challenges that reengage vision, balance, attention, and memory together. Instead of chasing one symptom at
The Path Back To Work After a Concussion with Nate Pope (Part 1) | E46
Your brain isn’t broken; it’s rerouting. We sit down with neuro‑occupational therapist Nate Pope to unpack why so many people with post‑concussion syndrome get stuck despite doing “all the right therapies.” Nate explains how functional MRI reveals a network problem—under-fueled pathways and overworked compensations—and why isolated sessions can accidentally train the detours instead of restoring e
Advanced TMS for Concussion and Brain Dysfunction with Dr. Glen Zielinski | E29
Dr. Glen Zielinski from Northwest Functional Neurology in Lake Oswego, OR, joins us to talk about how he’s using cutting-edge, image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) technology to treat more than just depression. With neuro-navigated TMS, he's able to target specific brain regions with millimeter precision—and he's not stopping there. Dr. Zielinski walks us through how he customizes
Resetting Your Brain: How Cereset Combats Post-Concussion Fatigue with Dr. Ala Lysyk | E26
Dr. Ayla Wolf interviews Dr. Ala Lysyk about Cereset technology, an innovative approach using acoustic feedback to help the brain reset itself after concussion or trauma. They discuss how this engineering-based technology creates a real-time acoustic mirror therapy that allows the brain to recognize and correct harmful patterns causing persistent fatigue and other symptoms. • Dr. Ala's journey fr
Brain Fog and Memory Problems After Concussion: What Brain Mapping Reveals — Dr. Bagnell | E13
Dr. Bagnell shares his 30-year journey as a "health detective" in functional neurology, revealing how he helps patients with persistent cognitive symptoms after brain injury through careful investigation and targeted interventions. • Brain fog often stems from disrupted neurovascular coupling, where blood flow fails to properly supply active brain regions • Dysautonomia (autonomic nervous system