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Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

thriveglobal.in

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Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#61

Post by wpietri »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #49
pyrophane wrote: post #27

Thrive Global is Ariana Huffington's vehicle to repackage the last several years of self-care fads and sell them to corporations under the guise of improving employee productivity. It doesn't have anything of value to add to the conversation, as this article makes clear.

Yes and no. While it's true there's not much new, for better or worse she has "juice" with her C Level peers. Would I prefer someone else? Probably. But all in all Thrive - for now - is better than nothing at all.

Is it?

As somebody who got involved in the Agile movement before it had that name, I initially thought the productization of the movement was a positive. In retrospect, it was terrible. The packaged version of "Agile" ended up having most of the nutrients and all of the fiber removed. It was empty calories and an organizational sugar high, all the feeling of process improvement with none of the work (and none of the value).

My expectation with packaged, CEO-friendly wellness is more of the same: a way for CEOs to pay lip service to the trend of the moment without ever having to do anything difficult, without solving the systemic and organizational problems that harm the health of their workers.

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#62

Post by tbalsam »

ourcat wrote: post #46
tbalsam wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is literally the purpose of paracetamol. What do you feel it is for, if not as an anti-inflammatory aid? EDIT: Interesting discussion in child comments, certainly news to me!

True. An analgesic drug will help cope with the pain caused by inflammation, but an anti-inflammatory like Ibuprofen will reduce the cause of the pain.

That's fair. I wish we had more properly selective COX-2-only inhibitors, despite the scare about heart issues. I may misunderstand how inhibiting COX 1 would balance that out, but I'd be surprised if it does. Many herbs are selective to COX-2, it's like every polyphenol and its mother seems to inhibit it.

I looked and you are correct, I did not realize that acetaminophen was not considered an anti-inflammatory. It certainly is antipyretic, and it appears to have some selective COX-2 activity and some potentially mysterious endocannabinoid activity, which I'd personally consider to be anti-inflammatory in one way. That's truly puzzling, I felt I knew that space decently well due to looking into the inflammatory pathways due to MCAS, I stand corrected on the generally public perception of acetaminophen.

Hopefully endocannabinoid-class drugs and supplements will enter the mainstream/be developed in a generic, OTC fashion with the easing of perception and laws in cannabinoids. I legitimately wonder how much OTC medication has been held back by analog similarities to the (currently and previously) federally illicit substances in those plants.

All good stuff around, I stand corrected and my apologies for any curtness. Have a good one!

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#63

Post by underwater »

awiesenhofer wrote: post #26
underwater wrote: post #12

Mental fog, for me, is a physical symptom of stress and exhaustion. It has nothing to do with having a clean workspace. This article reads like self-help fluff. The solutions I've found are get to enough sleep, try not to fill my day with mentally taxing work or meeting and, in a pinch, drink coffee or take paracetamol.

Why the paracetamol?

Usually tension headaches and brain fog are intertwined for me. On the occasions that I've taken paracetamol it's seemed to help. Far from as clear cut as I insinuated above, though.

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#64

Post by pyrophane »

vga805 wrote: post #31
pyrophane wrote: post #27

Thrive Global is Ariana Huffington's vehicle to repackage the last several years of self-care fads and sell them to corporations under the guise of improving employee productivity. It doesn't have anything of value to add to the conversation, as this article makes clear.

Would you like to actually engage with the content of the article? Edit: my snark was unwarranted, as commenters helped me realize. Apologies.

Sure:

* Give up clutter. Here they make some vague statements about clutter causing chronic stress and then talk about "Marie Condo" (actually, its Marie Kondo). They don't cite any real research to back up their statements about clutter and stress. Here's an article suggesting a correlation between cluttered workspaces and innovation: https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/a-messy-desk-is-a-sign-of....

That is the only one of these points I really take issue with. Rather, I'm just saying that all these other points are pretty well published on just about every other self-help or productivity blog to have ever existed, and this article is just repackaging them without adding anything, which is what I'm saying is the problem with Thrive Global in general.

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#65

Post by tbalsam »

01100011 wrote: post #59
tbalsam wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do we as a community feel about some of the tinfoil hatting going on in HN lately? I understand this is a watering hole for folks of all ideals and walks of life, but a comment on a fluff piece about physical symptoms being somehow linked to the more conspiratorial edge of the news cycle is much lower than I think we have been as a community. I could be wrong, though, I'm absolutely open to hearing different thou…

As a former Redditor I can't complain too much, but I feel like there was a big wave of reddit-like comments and voting that started around 18 months ago or so. HN used to be a refuge from dumb jokes, dumb comments, personal attacks, and the overall negative tone you find on other discussion forums. HN is still better than reddit, but there are some topics I just avoid now, or make more liberal use of the [-] to coll…

I agree -- even when the threads here were massively pseudointellectual back in the day, it was a welcome tone shift.

Maybe we can hold the line and hope for some change from dang and the crew. Or maybe it'll pass (though I'd rather not hang my hat on that one there). It's a good site, so hopefully we can hold onto the old "90's practitioner's watering hole" in some way or fashion going forward as a community.

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#66

Post by 4eor0 »

goodmachine wrote: post #53
vga805 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you like to actually engage with the content of the article? Edit: my snark was unwarranted, as commenters helped me realize. Apologies.

Would you actually like to engage with the content of the comment? Rated: informative

Right, because social media points can’t be gamed.

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#67

Post by ourcat »

tbalsam wrote: post #62
ourcat wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. An analgesic drug will help cope with the pain caused by inflammation, but an anti-inflammatory like Ibuprofen will reduce the cause of the pain.

That's fair. I wish we had more properly selective COX-2-only inhibitors, despite the scare about heart issues. I may misunderstand how inhibiting COX 1 would balance that out, but I'd be surprised if it does. Many herbs are selective to COX-2, it's like every polyphenol and its mother seems to inhibit it. I looked and you are correct, I did not realize that acetaminophen was not considered an anti-inflammatory. It c…

As someone dealing with some painful dental issues during lockdown over the past few months, I have to say, I approve of the endocannabinoid approach.

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#68

Post by tbalsam »

kimixa wrote: post #51
tbalsam wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is literally the purpose of paracetamol. What do you feel it is for, if not as an anti-inflammatory aid? EDIT: Interesting discussion in child comments, certainly news to me!

Paracetamol doesn't have any significant anti-inflammatory effects. It's just an analgesic (painkiller). There's even some interesting research on exactly /why/ it isn't - but like many drugs there's not really consensus on how exactly it works (a summary is available: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1460-9592.... ) I've seen lots of people confuse paracetamol and ibuprofen - maybe that's what's hap…

I touched on it in my other comment -- I got hung up on its CB1... Agonism, I believe? Which I'd always asserted was strictly inflammatory in addition to maybe any other analgesic side effects.

I'll hold it in some level of mystery until I can figure out what the divide is founded on, it's certainly an unexpected result from my perspective.

Thanks for clarifying, much appreciated! :)

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#70

Post by wpietri »

m463 wrote: post #41
franchommee wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it was gluten. Switched to a gluten-free diet and the mental dog went away

Now it could actually be gluten, but fewer simple processed carbs like bread (and pasta) helps. With the pandemic I've had lots more dietary control and was more likely to notice what caused a certain effect. I've given up sugar and it helps tremendously. It takes a while. Also getting enough good sleep.

This is my experience too. I found that in the stress of the pandemic I was eating more and more comfort food. I did a reset where I cut back slowly to zero refined carbs (e.g., sugar, flour, juice), walked 10k steps per day, and then shifted to eTRF (stopping eating for the day in the early afternoon). My energy levels and mental clarity are hugely better.

One thing I didn't expect is that the nature of hunger changed for me. I experience a lot less hunger now that I'm eating less and for a shorter portion of the day.

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