Meet Wendy Pietri, BSN RN: Brain Health Coach

Wendy is a dedicated Brain Health Coach who combines her nursing background with a passion for cognitive well-being. Her journey into brain health was profoundly influenced by personal family experiences, particularly witnessing her mother's struggle with Alzheimer's disease. These experiences ignited her commitment to helping others achieve optimal brain health and sparked a career dedicated to making a positive impact on individuals and their families.

Wendy's professional journey began with her training as a Registered Nurse, where she earned bachelor's degrees in both Biology and Nursing from the University of Tennessee. She has pursued advanced certifications in brain health and wellness coaching. Her nursing background and personal experience with dementia equips her with a unique perspective, allowing her to integrate medical insights with holistic, personalized coaching strategies.

In her personal life, Wendy is a wife and proud mom to three grown children. She enjoys playing pickleball, weightlifting, sauna, nutrition, walking, and travel.

Wendy's Top Recommendations

Strength training for women: "What I see time and time again is how many women do not realize how important strength training is for both longevity and brain health. Women in their 30s can lose 2 to 3% muscle mass each decade, and during perimenopause and menopause, they can lose as much as 10% muscle mass every decade. If we are not actively growing and building muscles, we will not be doing any of the activities in our later decades that we can do now. People in that last decade of their life, if they experience an injury or a fall, approximately 50% do not recover.

Muscle strength is intricately tied to brain health. People in the top 20% of strength versus the bottom 20% see approximately a 5x difference in Alzheimer's risk.Muscles are glucose metabolizers, helping our bodies better regulate blood sugar, and blood sugar regulation is critical to long-term brain health. For all of these reasons, we should all be training our bodies for the life we want to live in the future."

Optimizing bloodwork: "One of the biggest payoffs for my clients has been optimizing nutrient and vitamin deficiencies, especially homocysteine. We know we should try to get most nutrients from food (vitamin D, iron, vitamin B12, folate), but sometimes that just isn't possible. Homocysteine is an amino acid that when elevated in the bloodstream can cause cardiovascular constriction and damage. A homocysteine level consistently above 13 doubles your rate of brain atrophy. By knowing your levels and optimizing your B vitamins, we can decrease the damage that an elevated level could be causing. This is a biomarker that is not typically tested, and we at BetterBrain feel it is an incredibly important one not to miss."

Sauna: "The most effective tool (outside of exercise) that I use at least 4 times a week is sauna. If you have access to a sauna whether at home or the gym, there is just no reason to not get in it. Sauna bathing has so many amazing benefits for the body and the brain. It is an excellent detoxification tool, a mild cardiovascular workout (your blood vessels are dilated, your heart rate is elevated), and it is also a fantastic brain healthy tool. Sauna heat stress increases BDNF ("miracle grow" for your brain), releases heat shock proteins (the clean-up crew), and improves oxygen and nutrient delivery to the brain. Sauna is also a wonderful stress reducer as it helps to lower cortisol and increases endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin. For me, sauna has also helped improve my sleep. For all of these reasons, this is one activity that I just cannot live without."

Sardines: "Call me crazy, but one of the foods I have recently started to incorporate in my weekly routine are sardines. I buy them packed in good extra virgin olive oil and eat them with Wasa crackers and Cholula hot sauce. Sardines pack a punch when it comes to protein (22 grams) and omega-3s (1600 mg). They are also loaded with vitamin D (200-400 IUs), calcium (15-20% of daily value), B12 (over 100% of daily value), and selenium (60-70% of daily value). I eat them for lunch at least 3 times a week, and it is one of the easiest lunches to put together. Try them! They are not as bad as you may think!"

Content Corner

Tim Ferriss: 4 Science-Backed Tools That Rewired Decades of Childhood Trauma & Depression

One of Wendy's favorite podcasts of 2025 was Tim Ferriss' appearance on The Diary of a CEO podcast with Steven Bartlett, titled "4 Science-Backed Tools That Rewired Decades of Childhood Trauma and Depression."

The episode: Tim Ferriss shares his personal journey through childhood trauma and depression, revealing four science-backed tools that helped him manage anxiety and rewire his nervous system: vagus nerve stimulation, HRV tracking, accelerated TMS brain stimulation, and metabolic psychiatry approaches.

1. Vagus nerve stimulation: Tim explains why stimulating the vagus nerve may hold the key to anxiety relief. The vagus nerve is a major component of your parasympathetic nervous system, which controls your body's rest and digest response.

2. Heart Rate Variability (HRV): HRV has become the number one biomarker Tim tracks. Higher HRV indicates better stress resilience and nervous system flexibility. He shares how to improve it through breath work, cold exposure, and other evidence-based interventions.

3. Accelerated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS): This was particularly striking. Tim describes how accelerated TMS (10 sessions per day for 5 days) gave him 4 to 5 months of relief from anxiety, comparable to having meditated twice a day for a year. The before and after effects, he says, equal or surpass the amplitude and durability of psychedelic-assisted therapies.

4. Metabolic psychiatry: Tim explores emerging research on how ketogenic diets and metabolic approaches can benefit conditions like schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, connecting mental health treatment to metabolic health.

Why this matters for brain health:

Tim's conversation reinforces what we've talked about before: your mental health is not separate from your brain health. Chronic stress, anxiety, and depression create neuro-inflammation, elevate cortisol (which is neurotoxic at high levels), and can lead to measurable brain atrophy over time.

The tools Tim discusses, particularly around nervous system regulation and HRV, are accessible interventions that can reduce the chronic stress load on your brain. When we help clients optimize their mental health through stress management, we're not just improving their mood. We're protecting their brain structure and function for long term health.

If you're interested in learning more about the connection between stress, mental health, and cognitive function, we highly recommend giving this episode a listen. Tim's vulnerability and his commitment to finding evidence-based solutions make this an incredibly valuable conversation.