Earlier quoted context omitted.
It could be due to inflammation
You should take Ibuprofen for inflammation. Paracetamol is 'just' an analgesic.
Indeed, however most people do not know this :)
Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking
81–90 of 98 posts
Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 chang…
eTRF - I didn't know that name.
I listened to a Joe Rogan episode where he interviewed Dr Rhonda Patrick. She said if you ate strictly within 12 (or 10) hours you would have better muscle mass among other things. I see now she calls it time restricted eating.
I tried it a few days but it was really hard, I felt cranky. But it seems like it works for you. Maybe I'll try again - there may be a hump to get over.
When I first tried limiting carbs I would start roaming around the kitchen looking for something to munch on, but after a week or two that calmed down.
Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking
#83I found a conceptual way to do manage my mental workflow that really does seem to help. I don't really know how to phrase the details, but I started thinking of my brain as an information processing system - in the absence of bugs, throughput depends on managing caches, threads/concurrency, and queues. if you think about your brain that way, you can kind of sense where there are issues with these three things as you think through problems.
Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking
#84"Check that you aren't dehydrated" ought to be on any such list.
Fiber too. Nothing quite clears the mind like going for a walk and emptying the tanks.
Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking
#85Mental 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.
Mental fog, for me, is a physical symptom of stress and exhaustion. It has nothing to do with having a clean workspace. The first sentence of the article is "mess creates stress". I don't see a contradiction. It could be that article is wrong, but I have heard many people express that sentiment. If you have evidence that it's not true, I would like to see it.
Sure, tidying your workspace might help. But how much? How could I take a methodical approach to tackling this problem? I'd like to actually see some data, or at least a dive into the underlying causes of brain fog. This is Hacker News after all.
Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking
#86exercise, sleep, eat consistently and drink alot of water
Also go outside.
More indoor lighting can make a big difference, especially for folks with Seasonal Affective Dissorder.
CO2 can also cause brainfog, so measuring CO2 content and cracking open a window can really make working indoors less constricting.
Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mental fog, for me, is a physical symptom of stress and exhaustion. It has nothing to do with having a clean workspace. The first sentence of the article is "mess creates stress". I don't see a contradiction. It could be that article is wrong, but I have heard many people express that sentiment. If you have evidence that it's not true, I would like to see it.
Sure, tidying your workspace might help. But how much? How could I take a methodical approach to tackling this problem? I'd like to actually see some data, or at least a dive into the underlying causes of brain fog. This is Hacker News after all.
To some extent so that is worth making it a habit, makes everything easier on yourself and saves a lot of mental energy that in a stressful situation a surplus extra energy could help. I think that tiding one’s workspace also abstractly hints toward tiding one’s life which you probably agree is a good thing.
Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking
#88The ultimate "tool" for elevated focus for me is napping. A quick 20 min nap completely resets my mind so I don't have whatever random thoughts floating around. If you are more disciplined than me, meditation in place of napping could work. But napping is easier and more enjoyable to me. As for brain fog itself, I think proper nutrition is very important. Our body needs many different micronutrients to operate at opt…
When do you nap? I'm thinking an hour and a half after finishing lunch would be good since it coincides with the afternoon slump
Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.…
This is a strange feeling we get from doctors if we fall into a gray zone/edge case and if they cannot find anything to diagnose they might think we are hypochondriacs or suggest seeing a shrink. I think proble will
be solved by and with technology. I imagine one day we’ll step into a box which would scan everything in slices and dices and would point to the problem. Even more interesting it will be when it actually applies all that knowlege on us somehow helping our bodies would fix themselves, something like the startek tricorder..
Re: Strategies to Reduce Brain Fog and Improve Clear Thinking
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 chang…
eTRF - I didn't know that name. I listened to a Joe Rogan episode where he interviewed Dr Rhonda Patrick. She said if you ate strictly within 12 (or 10) hours you would have better muscle mass among other things. I see now she calls it time restricted eating. I tried it a few days but it was really hard, I felt cranky. But it seems like it works for you. Maybe I'll try again - there may be a hump to get over. When I…
I tried restricting to later hours, basically just lunch and dinner, but that made me super cranky by 11. But now I stop eating by 3 or so (and sometimes earlier) and it's fine. I did ease into it, with my last food 30-60 minutes earlier than the day before.