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Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

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Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#71

Post by tbalsam »

ourcat wrote: post #67
tbalsam wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've heard of Ketamine as another non-opioid approach to pain, I don't know how effective it is quite for pain or dental issues.

Dental pain is awful. I'm so sorry. I had a hospital-and-hydrocodone-worthy case of oral thrush a few years back and beyond losing the ability to speak...well, at all, for a time, I found myself slamming the counters with my fist so the new pain in my bruised arms took away from the roaring, unending pain in my mouth.

I can't imagine having that kind of pain for more than a day or two before being in a dangerous mental state with respect to my own personal safety.

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#72

Post by the_only_law »

treeman79 wrote: post #52
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.

All are good. Sometimes brain fog is a medical condition. I had it bad for years before finding out I had an autoimmune condition.

How do you even go about figuring this out. Do you just go to a primary practitioner and say “hey XYZ” and ask for a test/recommendation to a specialist? I haven’t been to the doctor in years outside emergencies and have suspected some issues but I’m not sure if I’m particularly interested in the cost / time involvement of any treatments for anything.

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#74

Post by ourcat »

tbalsam wrote: post #71
ourcat wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've heard of Ketamine as another non-opioid approach to pain, I don't know how effective it is quite for pain or dental issues. Dental pain is awful. I'm so sorry. I had a hospital-and-hydrocodone-worthy case of oral thrush a few years back and beyond losing the ability to speak...well, at all, for a time, I found myself slamming the counters with my fist so the new pain in my bruised arms took away from the roaring…

I wouldn't touch Ketamine. Too many bad side-effects.

I've always had a high pain-threshold, but recently I've been 'beside myself' with pain (and a ringing in the ears, driving me mad at night, at times). Cannabinoids have been hugely helpful.

Thankfully, I have managed to get an appointment with the dentist next week. But I've had to wait longer than I wanted for it.

Years ago, I snapped my leg in half. Tibia and Fibula cleanly snapped. Had Titanium plates put in. That was easier to deal with than dental pain. ;)

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#75

Post by karmakaze »

I didn't find anything here that wasn't already common, TL;DR

  Give up the clutter
  Multi-tasking doesn’t work
  Give up the urgent distraction
  Stop feeding your comfort
  Don’t sit still
  Stop consuming media and start creating instead
"Stop feeding your comfort" isn't immediately clear from title alone:

  Comfort provides a state of mental security.
  [...]
  But in the long-term, comfort is bad for your brain.

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#77

Post by chiefalchemist »

wpietri wrote: post #61
chiefalchemist wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Fair enough. Then how would you suggest we raise awareness otherwise? In a celebrity obcessed culture, how do you get "old school" types to appreciate and embrace newer ideas about employees, health, mental health, and so on?

I'm not being combative. I'm sincerely looking for a conversation on such things. To me it's all very obvious. But even a pandemic hasn't seemed to change necessary behaviours (e.g., diet).

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#78

Post by treeman79 »

the_only_law wrote: post #72
treeman79 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All are good. Sometimes brain fog is a medical condition. I had it bad for years before finding out I had an autoimmune condition.

How do you even go about figuring this out. Do you just go to a primary practitioner and say “hey XYZ” and ask for a test/recommendation to a specialist? I haven’t been to the doctor in years outside emergencies and have suspected some issues but I’m not sure if I’m particularly interested in the cost / time involvement of any treatments for anything.

Suspected for 20 years, since I was a teenager. Would ask doctors and they always dismissed as I looked heathy.

Eventually health completely collapsed. But blood work was fine, I looked fine.

Saw 30+ doctors in the span of 2 years. I had a 4 pages of list symptoms and issues. I carried around. I saw a neuro-ophthalmologist he read the list, started asking specific questions about symptoms I didn’t list, but did have. He declared I had Sjogrens. I had never heard of it.

A year later I had an official diagnosis from a rheumatologist. Even that I had to fight hard to get tests run.

Treatment started making a big difference.

I would never have gotten heathy via regular doctors.

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#79

Post by yowlingcat »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #77
wpietri wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Fair enough. Then how would you suggest we raise awareness otherwise? In a celebrity obcessed culture, how do you get "old school" types to appreciate and embrace newer ideas about employees, health, mental health, and so on? I'm not being combative. I'm sincerely looking for a conversation on such things. To me it's all very obvious. But even a pandemic hasn't seemed to change necessary behaviours (e.g., diet).

Well, raising awareness and persuasion are two different things. For old school types, one of my favorite techniques is incepting a very low stakes experiment into their head and making them believe it was their idea/having them take the credit for it.

To do this properly, you can't proselytize, which is generally what I see "raising awareness" to be -- you need to translate beyond the interpersonal gap and figure out how to say things in someone else's language building on their values. To your point, if that means sending a cookie-cutter Thrive Global clickbait article, well, maybe that's exactly what the product is designed for.

Funny, by writing this all out, I seem to understand that old canard about management consultants being primarily paid to help executive fight internal battles a lot better...

Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking

#80

Post by amelius »

underwater wrote: post #63
awiesenhofer wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Paracetamol certainly can have mental side-effects, which may be beneficial. Perhaps this could explain part of it.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/apr/14/paracetamol-...

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/1440/20130418/tyleno...

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