Dr. Eboni Cornish
MD
Biography
Meet The Speaker
Dr. Cornish, a highly regarded physician, provides integrative medicine services to a diverse global patient community. Currently serving as the Functional Medicine Director of the Amen Clinic East Coast Division, she specializes in autoimmune diseases, Lyme disease, environmental toxicity, gut imbalances, neurology and various other chronic conditions. Employing a holistic approach, Dr. Cornish identifies the root causes of health issues within the body’s biological systems, offering comprehensive treatment to adults and children. Her treatment philosophy is integrative and evidence-based.
Within Amen Clinics, Dr. Cornish has been instrumental in developing the Neuroinflammatory Intensive program—a two-week inpatient initiative addressing neurological complications arising from chronic infectious diseases, Lyme disease, mold illness, and other chronic inflammatory conditions including SPECT imaging.
Dr. Cornish’s educational journey includes earning honors at Brown University for her undergraduate studies and obtaining her medical degree (M.D.) from Brown University Medical School. She further refined her skills through a family medicine residency at Georgetown University.
As a Howard Hughes Medical Fellow, Dr. Cornish conducted translational research at the National Human Genome Research Institute NIH, working under Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D. She currently serves as the Treasurer of the board for the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society and a fellow of the Institute of Functional Medicine.
Acknowledged as an authority in her field, Dr. Cornish was honored as Northern Virginia’s Top Doctor for Family Practice in 2021 and 2022. She has also been recognized by Continental Who’s Who as an Exceptional Woman in Healthcare, highlighting her professional excellence at Amen Clinics.
Beyond her clinical practice, Dr. Cornish is passionate about education, regularly conducting webinars to inspire medical professionals to understand functional medicine better.
Session Description
Lyme, Long COVID, and the Limbic Lock
Patients with Lyme disease and Long COVID often present with disabling symptoms such as brain fog, mood changes, sensory sensitivity, dysautonomia, and post-exertional crashes, even when routine laboratory testing and structural imaging appear normal.This session introduces the Limbic Lock, a framework for understanding how the brain’s threat-response network can become stuck in a cycle of neuroimmune activation. The amygdala, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and hypothalamus interact with mast cells, microglia, and the autonomic nervous system through pathways involving corticotropin-releasing hormone, substance P, and changes in blood-brain barrier permeability. Once this cycle is established, symptoms may continue even after the initial infection or inflammatory trigger has improved.Lyme disease and tick-borne coinfections, viral reactivation, post-viral inflammation, and mold or biotoxin exposure may enter through different pathways but ultimately produce overlapping patterns of neuroinflammation and autonomic dysfunction. This helps explain why patients with Lyme disease and Long COVID can look remarkably similar in clinical practice.Brain SPECT imaging will be used to illustrate patterns associated with healthy brain function, infection-related inflammation, and toxic exposure. The session will conclude with a practical, sequenced treatment framework that begins with stabilization of the nervous system, mast cells, autonomic function, and elimination pathways before moving into more aggressive treatment of infections or toxic burden.
