BCIA Continuing Education Posts

The idea that willpower is a finite mental fuel, burned up by each act of self-discipline and replenished by rest or sugar, is one of the most widely believed myths in psychology.

Clients should not chase every glucose peak, but rather turn patterns into safe, psychologically informed decisions. Behavioral health clinicians have a particular contribution to make. They can help clients receive sensor data as feedback rather than surveillance, especially when shame, perfectionism, disordered eating, or diabetes distress are already in the room.

Cortisol is rhythmic, context-dependent, and clinically meaningful only when interpreted in light of timing, symptoms, medications, comorbidities, and validated testing. Cortisol supports arousal, blood pressure regulation, glucose availability, immune balance, and survival itself. The risk emerges when secretion is excessive, deficient, poorly timed, pharmacologically altered, or uncoupled from normal feedback.

When the body experiences chronic low-grade inflammation, the effects extend far beyond localized tissues because inflammatory cytokines, meaning immune signaling proteins, instruct the brain and autonomic nervous system to shift their operational states. The result is widespread systemic distress that crosses traditional diagnostic boundaries.

Clearing amyloid from the brain does not produce a clinically meaningful benefit, a finding that directly challenges three decades of drug development guided by the amyloid cascade hypothesis.

The heart-brain axis and the gut-brain axis are not separate systems. They share the same nerve, immune mediators, and stress hormones. Their shared purpose is allostasis, meaning stability through change.