Simple Home Remedies to Beat Brain Fog
Simple Tips to Clear Burnout-Induced Brain Fog
If you’ve ever lived inside the cloud of brain fog, you know how devastating that can be for work, your relationships, even your safety (for example, driving while feeling tired and “out of it” is really dangerous).
There are some simple ways to help clear up brain fog, and not one of them includes coffee, pills or a quick sugar fix!
The three major naturopathic medicine tenets in clearing up brain fog are:
Decrease inflammation
Our brain is an organ that is incredibly susceptible to the damaging functional and structural effects of chronic inflammation. A quick way to clear inflammation out of our system is to eat an anti-inflammatory diet that avoids major food allergens and sugar.
Increase oxygenation of blood
Our brain has a TON of mitochondria, which are the tiny pieces of our cells that set our metabolic rate and make energy. Mitochondria need oxygen to make the most energy possible. Focusing on optimizing our oxygenation level has profound effects in our brain’s ability to focus.
Increase blood flow throughout your body
Blood brings nutrients and oxygen to our brains, both of which our brains need for optimal function, focus, and concentration. Nutrients like adequate iron, CoQ10, B vitamins, magnesium are all important to fuel our mitochondria, which literally power our brains.
These three simple rules can profoundly help you focus better and finally feel like you’re back in your life again.
To decrease inflammation, the best place to start is with food. Here are some quick tricks to decrease inflammation through diet:
Avoid Food Allergens
If you’re not sure what you’re allergic or sensitive to, it’s easiest to avoid common food allergens: dairy, gluten, corn, soy, and eggs are all common food allergens. You can also do a food allergy test if you’d like more information.
Avoid Sugar
Sugar is highly inflammatory. Minimize your intake; when you do enjoy sweets, go for fruits that also have fiber to slow the absorption of sugar + have tons of amazing vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
Avoid Processed Foods
Processed foods are foods that come in a package, and have ingredients listed that you can’t recognize, and/or that sound like chemicals. If you can’t pronounce it, it doesn’t belong in your mouth.
Eat Anti-Inflammatory Foods
These are veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, plants! Also go for healthy fats like olive oil, avocado, walnuts, coconut oil, and others. Many traditional diets are anti-inflammatory, and possibly the best known traditional anti-inflammatory diet is the Mediterranean diet. If you’re at all curious about the Mediterranean diet or other cultural diets with major health benefits, tap or click here to learn more!
To Increase Oxygen Levels to the Brain:
Take a Walk
Even a quick ten to twenty minute walk can do wonders for improving brain function. Walking gets our blood pumping and increases our respiratory rate which results in more oxygen in our blood. The more oxygen that there is in the blood, the more oxygen that gets to our brain. And our brain thrives on a healthy amount of oxygen.
To Increase Blood Flow Throughout the Body:
Again, Walk
It’s so good for you, and gentle on your joints.
Eat Pungent Foods
Some foods are known to boost circulation throughout the body, which ultimately sends more blood up to the brain. Check out my list of Brain-Oxygenating Superfoods below for specifics:
Brain-Oxygenating Superfoods:
Ginger: promotes blood flow up to your brain
Rosemary: promotes blood flow up to your brain, opens up blood vessels in the brain to increase blood and oxygen delivery
Cayenne pepper: a major blood mover and blood purifier
Garlic: another blood mover and blood purifier
Iron-Rich Foods (meat if you are a carnivore; vegetarian and vegan sources of iron include dark leafy greens, navy beans, lentils, cashews, chia seeds, raisins, pumpkin seeds, figs, and others)
Dark leafy greens: greens are rich in chlorophyll, which has a similar chemical structure to hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the iron-containing compound in our blood that carries oxygen to our tissues, including our brain. More chlorophyll means well-oxygenated blood.