Brain Fog? 5 Simple Ways to Optimize Your Brain Health
Always forgetting where you put your keys? Why you entered a room? Or even the names of your neighbors?
You might think the culprit is aging.
But you might be surprised to learn that this brain fog may indicate that your brain is starving for energy to help it function at its best.
You see, the brain is the most energy-intensive organ in the human body.
While it makes up only 2% of the body’s weight, it consumes 20% of its metabolic load or energy.
It burns a good number of calories even when you’re not doing anything, and even when you’re asleep.
However, it burns a huge amount when you are active – for example when you’re working out, running errands, working, or preparing kids for school.
So how can you provide your brain with sufficient amounts of energy so that it stays healthy and sharp?
One way is to keep the mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, in tip-top shape.
The human body depends on the mitochondria to convert glucose from the food we eat into metabolic energy.
This energy is then distributed to various parts of the body, including brain cells.
However, our lifestyle and age can make or break how mitochondria function.
Not to mention that the brain also gets tired and needs rest and replenishment so that it doesn’t experience mishaps or memory problems.
To support your brain health and stay sharp as a tack as you age, here are five simple habits you can do on a daily basis.
Optimize Your Memory With Sleep
If you want to keep your brain healthy and functioning normally, be sure to get enough sleep.
The neurons in the brain work hard every day to help us process various types of thinking and cognitive tasks.
When you don’t sleep well, they become overworked and cannot function as needed.
As a result, you may find it difficult to concentrate or could experience memory issues. This can lead to a bad mood and decreased performance.
Not only that, but getting the right amount of sleep can also help improve your memory.
In fact, according to the National Institutes of Health, sleeping before learning prepares the brain for new information and memory retention.
Similarly, sleeping after learning helps retain new ideas and information so that you’re less likely to forget it.
On the other hand, if you don’t get enough sleep, research shows that your ability to learn new things and remember them can drop by up to 40%.
This is the reason why you can’t pull an all-nighter and still remember what you just studied or learned.
Therefore, aim to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep to support a sharp memory and clear thinking.
You can practice sleep hygiene to help optimize your bedroom environment and routine.
Set a sleeping schedule and make sure there are no gadgets around, and no drinking alcohol or coffee starting from 6 hours before bedtime.
The blue light from your phone or other device can suppress your body’s release of melatonin, a hormone that helps you achieve increased sleep duration and quality.
Meanwhile, caffeine blocks the adenosine receptor to keep you from feeling sleepy. It even can delay sleep entirely and reduce sleep intensity.
Fuel Your Memory
Just like a car needs fuel to run smoothly, your brain also requires energy to carry out its daily cognitive and decision-making functions.
This fuel comes from high-quality foods that contain minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants to nourish your brain, improve your mood, and protect your brain from the damage caused by oxidative stress.
That’s why it’s highly recommended to feed your brain with a plate full of fruits, greens, leafy vegetables, fatty fish, berries, whole grains, and protein.
Vegetables such as kale, broccoli, and spinach are rich in brain health nutrients such as lutein, vitamin K, folate, and beta carotene to help slow cognitive decline.
Dark, leafy greens are also rich in antioxidants to reduce age-related memory loss.
Fish are rich in omega-3 fatty acids to help protect your brain from the production of beta-amyloid, the protein that damages the brain and causes Alzheimer’s disease.
Moreover, fruits such as berries and strawberries are rich in flavonoids, which help improve memory.
In fact, in a study by Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, women who ate two or more servings of blueberries a week delayed their memory decline by 2.5 years.
Therefore, if you want to keep your brain healthy and your memory clear, fuel your body with memory-boosting foods and nutrients.
Fitness for the Mind
Working out and moving your body has been shown to help optimize the brain in two ways.
First, it helps in the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, a molecule that helps protect the neurons and is important in learning and memory.
In a study with 12 young healthy adults, those who did cycling showed an increase in BDNF levels and had stronger neural connections, as reported in The Journal of Physiology.
Second, working out can also boost blood flow to the brain.
The more blood we pump to the brain, the more energy and oxygen it gets, helping it function better.
The best workout? The one that you can do.
Choose the exercise that best fits your body and schedule.
It doesn’t matter if you prefer brisk walking or weightlifting – as long as you are consistent, your brain will definitely thank you for it.
Hydrate to Clear Brain Fog
The brain itself is made up of 75% water.
This water provides the brain with energy so that it can carry out important processes such as hormone and neurotransmitter production.
With these processes and perspiration, the brain constantly loses water, which can impact brain health and memory.
You see, just 1% of dehydration can lead to a 5% decrease in cognitive function.
A 2% decrease in brain hydration can already result in memory problems.
Worse, prolonged dehydration can lead to brain shrinkage, a process that typically begins in people in their 40s.
You don’t want the memory of a leaky bucket, where important details constantly slip through the cracks.
Keeping your brain hydrated ensures that it will stay sharp and ready to retain information.
Therefore, make sure to hydrate and meet the 8-ounce (237-mL) requirement of water per day to keep your brain hydrated so that it stays sharp and your memory clear.
Take Brain-Supporting Supplements
Mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, is what provides the brain energy to operate.
However, age and other lifestyle factors can take a toll on its performance.
Researchers have discovered a specific enzyme that supports mitochondrial function, helping to keep our mitochondria in top shape by aiding in the production of ATP, which is a cell’s main source of energy.
I’m talking about NAD+ or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide.
NAD+ is an organic coenzyme that can support your brain health through the restoration, protection, and improvement of neurological function.
However, as we age, the body produces less NAD, and the mitochondria are then unable to convert glucose into energy, starving the brain cells of energy.
Since the brain consumes over one-third of energy more than any other organ in the body, cells that are deprived of energy start malfunctioning.
Thus, you may experience brain fog, difficulty concentrating, mood swings, problems processing information, and sleeping issues, to name only a few things.
Fortunately, you can help maintain a healthy amount of NAD in your body so that the mitochondria can operate at optimum levels, which in turn can help improve your brain health.
Check out Vitality Boost.
Vitality Boost contains a patent-pending NAD formulation guaranteed to optimize NAD and help boost energy to your brain, improving its performance.
Creatine monohydrate serves as a battery for ATP.
Along with NAD, creatine monohydrate helps increase adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production, which is necessary for brain function.
D-ribose, a key component of NAD, further enhances the efficiency of the salvage pathway to make NAD. Plus, it helps improve cellular processes in cases of mitochondrial dysfunction.
Moreover, nicotinamide protects the brain from cognitive deficits, brain cell death, and reduced production of pathological proteins.
All three work synergistically to help boost mitochondrial performance and raise NAD levels more efficiently than any other NAD product.
If you want to keep your memory sharp as you age, try our patent-pending Vitality Boost.
Better yet, pick up a mini starter kit, which gives you one NAD test and one Vitality Boost so you know exactly where your NAD levels are before you start taking the boost.
The NAD Starter Kit gives you a powerful before and after measurement that will help you see how your body is responding.
We want all our customers to get back to optimal NAD levels because frankly, it feels pretty amazing to have clear memory and youthful brain health even when you’re in your 30s and beyond.
