Getting Rid of Brain Fog

You know the feeling: You walk into a room and just stare around, wondering what it was that you came in to do? That happens all the time to me. It is sort of a family joke. Or it was, before mom came. Since she does it a LOT, we have stopped teasing me about it. It lost its appeal when we saw how upset that mom/grandma gets about doing it.

I was reading an article in Consumer Reports, On Health newsletter, which mom gets every month. The topic was restoring mental clarity. Here are a few things that they recommend we all do to help us remember things better.

1. Check for medical reasons – I am paraphrasing here, but have you or your parent had a recent checkup? Your medications can induce some cloudy thinking. So can some health issues like blood sugar or an infection.
2. Getting enough sleep – Is the person suffering from brain fog getting enough sleep? Our brains need that sleeping time to refresh and reboot itself. If we do too much at once(of which I am supremely guilty) we actually stress our brain more, and it causes it to work less effectively.
3. Review your medications – Some drugs that are important for other symptoms, can cloud our thinking. If your parent seems to have this trouble, it wouldn’t hurt to give a list of all meds to their health care provider. Have him or her look them over for side effects or interaction problems.
4. Exercise your brain – Physical activity actual improves brain function in the same regions that are affected by too little sleep and too high stress.  It increases blood flow to the brain and enhances nerve activity. Both increase clarity.

In real life terms, be sure you all get enough sleep, get at least a little exercise every day and try to give your brain a mental workout daily.