Have you ever felt zoned out during a meeting/conversation or find it hard to concentrate on your current task. You know when you have fuzzy thinking, trouble concentrating, a sense of grasping for the right word, feeling like your brain has slowed down or just decided to have a nap.
What Is Brain Fog?
Brain fog is described as a type of mental fatigue characterized by mental confusion, lack of focus, and an inability to memorize information. Brain fog is not a a medical condition but instead a symptom of other medical conditions.
Symptoms of Brain Fog
Dampened mental clarity
Problem recalling things
Mental fatigue
Lack of focus
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Hard time concentrating
How to get rid of brain fog
Changing your habits in just four areas of your life can boost brain health and help eliminate brain fog.
These 4 areas are sleep, stress, nutrition/diet and exercise, including mental fitness.
Number 1: Sleep
Sleep is extremely important for brain function!
6-8 hours of sleep is required for your brain to function properly for most people. The reason why is the Circadian rhythm.
The Circadian rhythm is a series of changes that occurs within a span of 24 hours. By sleeping on time and incorporating optimum sleep hours into your routine, the Circadian rhythm will enable you to tackle brain fog.
These steps are proven to promote better sleep:
Stick to a Sleep Schedule . Never hit the snooze button – get up as soon as you wake up.
Get natural daylight as soon as possible after you wake and throughout the day.
Exercise first thing in the morning.
Start to dim artificial light from about 8pm.
Keep your evenings calm, as you approach bedtime in particular.
Take Ashwagandha KSM66 and Saffron Extract supplements- both ingredients been clinically proven to improve quality of sleep
Sleep in the dark and beware of blue light; leave any devices on charge outside of your bedroom.
Number 2: Stress
According to many studies stress can increase blood pressure, weaken the immune system, and trigger depression. When your brain is exhausted, it becomes harder to think, reason, and focus. Therefore It is important to keep cortisol levels at bay - Increased cortisol levels is often the main reason for brain fog.
Modern research has found Ashwagandha an excellent remedy for stress and it has been used in Ayurveda medicine for centuries. Ashwagandha acts as an adaptogen (a combination of amino acids and vitamins) that helps the body adapt to stress and boosts energy.
A recent study on patients of stress showed that Ashwagandha root extract capsules for 60 days brought down the cortisol levels of the test subjects by 28%!
Another powerful herb is saffron extract, the most expensive spice in the world has many beneficial health benefits including fighting stress. There are multiple clinical studies have shown saffron’s effectiveness in improving mood, tension, sadness, nervousness, and fatigue in adults and adolescents.
A recent study evaluated the impact of 28mg of affron®* in adults. The results showed that affron® helped adults maintain a positive mood and alleviate occasional stress, frustration and tension.
*Affron® is the only saffron extract standardized to 3.5% Lepticrosalides®
Number 4: Nutrition/ Diet
Food plays an important role in your cognitive functioning, and there are certain foods can either make your brain fog worse or help clear it. The more you eat the good food, the better you'll feel mentally- therefore it is essential to make positive changes. Here are some simple ways to improve your diet;
Focus on Healthy Fats and Protein
Aim for High Quality Foods
Limit Consumption of Artificial Ingredients
Avoid Excessive Alcohol Consumption
Herbs to boost Brain Power
There are certain herbs that you may employ in order to have your brain power boosted. Our favourite is Curcumin the active compound found in turmeric.
Curcumin nourishes and protects the brain in a variety of ways. It’s a potent antioxidant which helps protect brain cells against free radical damage.
Curcumin can also improve memory and concentration by increasing blood flow to the brain. Studies have found that taking curcumin supplements improved blood flow as well as physical exercise in postmenstrual women. Another study evaluated that one dose of curcumin significantly improved attention and working memory in healthy seniors in just ONE HOUR!
Number 4: Exercise
Exercise helps promote your heart and lungs to pump more oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood to your brain. Regular physical activity protects cognitive function and aerobic exercise such as running, swimming, and even weight training, can restore lost executive function and improve sleep, mood, depression and anxiety, all of which aggravate brain fog. Exercise also ramps up the production of new brain cells or neurons (brain gains).
Mental exercise such as crosswords, journaling, brain games can also help. Challenging your brain with such activities improves focus, mental processing speed!
A study conducted by Dr. Ipsit Vahia, who likened keeping the brain active to being physically active, saying: “When you exercise, you engage your muscles to help improve overall health and the same concept applies to the brain. You need to exercise it with new challenges to keep it healthy.”
Fighting Brain Fog doesn’t have to be difficult. With just a few small changes to your lifestyle you can not only fight brain fog but also dramatically slow cognitive decline. By focusing your attention on healthy foods, give sleep the attention it needs, learning and development, and by adding a brain power ingredients such as Curcumin, Ashwagandha and saffron to your wellbeing routine, you can give a much-needed boost to both your memory and your mind.
