Neurological and Mental Health
Here’s How I Defeated Brain Fog with Six Lifestyle Habits Decades Ago.
What is a cognitive dysfunction, and how can we address it with lifestyle choices?
Purpose of the Article
This article defines brain fog as a type of cognitive dysfunction and provides a holistic approach to addressing its symptoms and root causes with healthy lifestyle habits. This article does not provide health advice. It offers perspectives from my experience, observations, and reviews.
What is Brain Fog?
Brain fog is not a scientific term. Besides, it is not in the DSM-5 or ICD-11. The closest medical terms are mental fatigue and cognitive dysfunction in the literature.
In addition, from my observations, family doctors usually don’t take brain fog too seriously unless the condition relates to severe neurological and psychiatric disorders. Instead, physicians typically focus on protocols related to stress management, as mentioned by people in my circles.
However, millions of people experience brain fog at different frequencies and intensities. Brain fog became more common during the pandemic as it is considered to be one of the side effects of the covid virus.
I documented my review of the neurological effects of Covid as it also affected my wife’s neurological health. She experienced severe brain fog during the first two weeks.
The concept has been widespread in recent years. For example, if we search Google using the keyword “Brain Fog,” we might get over 64 million indexed web pages. It is real and well-documented in the literature and press.
As neuroscientist Dr. Sabina Brennan mentions in her book Beating Brain Fog, six hundred million people worldwide suffer from cognitive dysfunction, which is publicly known as brain fog.
Definition, Including Common Symptoms and Causes
As brain fog might mean different things to different people, I’d like to define it so that readers understand what my article tries to address. I have been researching cognitive dysfunction as part of my cognitive science studies since the mid-1980s.
Brain fog indicates a lack of mental clarity, manifesting as difficulty in focusing and paying attention and a problem with short-term, long-term, and working memory.
The most noticeable symptom is difficulty with clear thinking. Therefore, the fog metaphor is used to reflect its true meaning. Other symptoms include fatigue, headache, pain, inability to exercise, and difficulty sleeping.
The executive part of the brain is sensitive and fragile. As a result, it shuts down quickly when it lacks a few critical requirements from the body. In addition, numerous health conditions can cause brain fog.
Apart from mental health disorders and neurodegenerative issues, there are other causes and risk factors of brain fog, such as anemia, hypothyroidism, diabetes, high/low blood pressure, autoimmune conditions, infectious diseases, chronic fatigue, and dehydration.
My Brief Background of Brain Fog
Interestingly my brain fog started when I experienced metabolic syndrome and autoimmune conditions in my mid-twenties.
I didn’t know metabolic and immune health was related to mental health in those days. Physical issues turned out to be psychological ones.
The primary causes were restricted diets (e.g., low-fat), excessive sugar, wrong workouts, toxins from plants (e.g., lectins), workaholism, perfectionism, and sleep deprivation, causing chronic stress, anxiety, and chronic inflammation.
Fixing my metabolic disorders, such as pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and leptin resistance, via healthy lifestyle choices became a catalyst for solving my brain fog.
Therefore, I firmly believe in psychosomatic health, meaning body-mind connection for holistic health.
A Six-Pronged Approach to Defeat Brain Fog
In this section, using myself as a case study as I experienced in my younger years, I cover issues causing brain fog under six main headings in a customizable model.
As each title is comprehensive, I only focus on critical items and link relevant articles for those interested in details.
1 — Fixed the Fundamentals
The fundamentals included sleep, nutrition, and exercise I summarize my protocol and approaches.
A — Improved Restorative Sleep
The most significant impact on my mental health was addressing sleep deprivation, particularly insomnia in my younger years.
In addition to sleep hygiene, reducing stress, improving nutrition, and regular exercise significantly contributed to restorative sleep. I documented my experience with improving sleep quality in the following articles.
Fix Hormonal Sleep Issues and Improve Sleep Quality in 3 Easy Steps
B — Fixed Nutritional Deficiencies
Nutritional deficiencies can affect the brain depending on the type of nutrition. My critical deficiencies were Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, choline, magnesium, and omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for neural activities.
Even though supplementation initially helped, I redesigned my diet to ensure these vitamins, minerals, and essential fats are included in my food.
The best contributor from a nutritional aspect was a customized diet matching my genetic make-up, lifestyle, and health goals. I moved from plant-based diets to animal-based diets, increasing bioavailable proteins and healthy fats, which worked for me.
As there is no one fit all size diet, customizing our eating regimen is necessary to prevent brain fog or other health conditions.
C— Personalized Regular Exercise
I have always enjoyed exercising. However, the wrong workouts increased my chronic stress and chronic inflammation affecting my neurological and mental health.
My focus was on cardio. For example, I used to perform long-distance running. I documented my experience with replacing long-distance running with HIIT and calisthenics, reducing my stress and inflammation.
Nowadays, one of my favorite workouts is hopping on the trampoline. It reduces my stress and balances my hormones. In addition, it reduces inflammation by activating the lymphatic system to remove inflammatory toxins from the body.
2 — Reduced Chronic Stress
Chronic stress is a substantial threat to the brain and mental health. When the amygdala and limbic system sense threats, the body produces stress hormones to deal with them.
If the stress is too intense and prolonged, it can adversely impact the cognitive brain. We need to take specific actions to reduce stress and balance cortisol. We can use its cognitive power, such as meditation, to protect the neocortex.
In addition, we can use the body’s power to reduce stress. The most effective way of creating control signals is breathing. Using an effective breathing method, we can reduce the stress signals significantly. Besides, movement can lower stress by cleaning toxins.
In addition, I used meditation, positive self-talk, and expressive writing. During meditation, self-conversation, writing, and exercise, we use our thinking brain with functions such as memory, attention, concentration, problem-solving, and task switching. These functions can send control signals to the primitive brain.
When the primitive parts of the brain sense that we are under control, it stops producing stress hormones. So, elevated cortisol is the indicator of chronic stress.
Sleep deprivation was the main reason for my chronic stress, proved by elevated cortisol. When my cortisol levels were high, I couldn’t lose any visceral fat, which caused more inflammation.
Sleep deprivation contributes to insulin resistance and leptin resistance, making the body more stressed and inflamed. Improving sleep quality and getting regular rest reduced chronic stress and contributed to defeating chronic inflammation and addressing brain fog.
3 -Lowered Chronic Inflammation
Chronic inflammation impacts both the body and brain adversely. Accumulated and prolonged inflammation is one of the root causes of neurological and mental health conditions such as brain fog.
As this is a broad topic, I documented my experience in an article titled Here Is How I Defeated Chronic Inflammation via Nine Lifestyle Habits.
Here is a summary of the key points to defeating chronic stress.
1 — Replaced carbs with healthy fats.
2 — Fixed nutritional deficiencies.
3 — Reduced frequent eating by fasting.
4 — Improved sleep and rest.
5 — Re-adjusted workouts.
6 — Learned to slow down.
7 — Used the power of thermogenesis.
8 — Maintained ketosis.
9 — Initiated autophagy
Combining these nine items made a ripple effect to combat chronic inflammation sustainably.
4 — Balanced Hormones and Neurotransmitters
From a hormonal perspective, the critical factor for me was the master hormone insulin. From a neurotransmitters angle, the critical factor was balancing dopamine.
Hormonal balance is critical for metabolic and mental health. Our metabolism affects the brain as it does all other organs.
As it is a broad topic, I documented my experience and perspectives on the importance of hormonal balance for interested readers in an article titled Hormonal Intelligence: Sharpen It to Achieve Optimal Health.
Hormonal balance revolves around six lifestyle habits that I explained in the previous articles.
As dopamine plays a critical role in cognitive health, I documented my perspectives in an article titled What DeltaFosB Is and Why It Matters in Solving Addiction Problems.
Balancing dopamine can also help balance other neurotransmitters like serotonin, acetylcholine, glutamate, histamine, norepinephrine, and GABA.
5 — Created Alternative Energy for the Brain
Even though the primary energy source for the brain is glucose, the brain can also use ketones happily for energy.
Interestingly BHP (β-hydroxybutyrate) is even cleaner energy for the brain and other organs, causing less metabolic garbage than glucose in the cells.
In addition, ketosis increased BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor), a signaling molecule in the brain, putting it in a neurologically advantaged position. Here is an article titled Increase BDNF with Five Lifestyle Habits.
Therefore, ketosis became the best contributor to fixing my brain fog. As soon as I entered ketosis, brain fog, anxiety, chronic stress, and depressive thoughts disappeared. Ketosis also helped me defeat chronic inflammation.
Therefore, I always stay in ketosis and pass my tacit knowledge and experience to others. I explain the reasons for entering ketosis in an article titled Here’s Why I Choose Ketosis as a Lifestyle Habit.
I also provided practical tips for entering ketosis in an article titled Why and How to Enter Ketosis via Lifestyle Choices.
6 — Activated the Self-Healing for Cellular Health
I left this item to the end as the items in previous sections contributed to cellular health. The critical point for the health of our cells and mitochondria is the ability to initiate autophagy.
As autophagy is a broad topic, I documented my experience in another article titled Here Is What Happened When I Experimentally Initiated Autophagy Decades Ago. Autophagy removes harmful pathogens and toxins, causing stress and inflammation in the brain.
I also provided practical guidance to improve mitochondrial health in an article titled 12 Tips to Get Denser Mitochondria for Joyful Energy. As the brain is energy-hungry, it requires dense mitochondria to perform better.
To improve my cellular health, I also used the power of thermogenesis (cold and heat exposure), as documented in an article titled Here’s What Happened When I Experimented with Thermogenesis for Decades.
When we initiate thermogenesis, the body can produce healing properties activating longevity genes such as SIRT2. Both cold and heat therapies can reduce stress and inflammation in various ways.
Conclusions and Takeaways
Even though brain fog is not considered a medical condition and healthcare professionals usually address stress and inflammation, several other lifestyle factors can contribute to defeating this situation.
There might be severe neurological or mental health disorders causing brain fog. I exclude them in my article.
However, it is critical to obtain timely support from qualified healthcare professionals, especially neurologists and psychiatrists, with referrals from family doctors.
In addition, we need to be careful with the addictive substances causing anxiety, depression, and neurological disorders leading to brain fog, as I explained in my recent article titled What DeltaFosB Is and Why It Matters in Solving Addiction Problems.
I want to conclude this article by providing practical takeaway points that readers can customize.
1 — Improve sleep quality.
2 — Address nutritional deficiencies.
3 — Perform regular exercise, especially aerobics like dancing, swimming, or jumping on a trampoline.
4 — Avoid toxins from the environment, cigarettes, and excess alcohol.
5 — Stay hydrated consuming adequate electrolytes.
6 — Regulate emotions to improve cognitive flexibility.
7 — Consider meditating and performing other mindfulness activities.
8 — Improve social connections and enrich relationships.
I introduced six health-related approaches to defeat brain fog. However, social, emotional, and spiritual aspects are also crucial for cognitive health.
For example, by regulating our emotions, we improve our cognitive flexibility. By connecting with others meaningfully, we can improve our relationships. Better relationships and connections with others can reduce our stress and anxiety, contributing to cognitive health.
Some people in my circles also used various supplements to address their brain fog. I also tried some. Therefore, I documented valuable nutrients for metabolic and mental health, reflecting on my experience and perspectives.
Here are the links:
Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and other nutrients that might help to improve metabolism and mental health.
I also documented the experience of a friend who defeated brain fog with a holistic approach by investing significant money in her retirement.
I documented the experience of a friend with clinical depression.
Here’s How Georgia Defeated Clinical Depression in 10 Steps
Reversing chronic conditions always inspires me. Here are two examples.
Here’s How a Mature-Age Couple Reversed Diabetes and Trimmed Their Bodies with Lifestyle Habits.
After Defeating Arthritis Pain, Shane Lost Visceral Fat and Gained Lean Muscles in Five Steps
Uncouple Mitochondria and Increase the Chance of Living Longer via 6 Lifestyle Choices
I firmly believe that a leaky gut contributes to brain fog. I documented my perspectives on the leaky gut in the attached story.
Six Tips to Heal a Leaky Gut via Lifestyle Choices and Support from Professionals.
Here’s How I Eliminated Depressive/Suicidal Feelings in 7 Steps in My Younger Years
I documented many more as compiled in this collection for easy access.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
Petechiae, ALS, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Thyroid Disorders, Anemia, Dysautonomia, cardiac output, and urinary track disorders.
I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients.
Disclaimer: My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.
As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
Sample Humorous Stories
Finally, After Burning Her House, Georgia Found Enlightenment
Hilarious Tips to Prevent Brain Atrophy and Keep the Gray Matter Giggling
8 Psychological Points I Had to Unlearn and Relearn the Opposite
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