Do any of the following symptoms sound familiar?
Memory problems, poor concentration, lack of mental clarity, clouded thoughts, slow thought processes and poor focus; feeling fatigued, exhausted or sleepy, almost as if your brain is turning off after you do something mentally demanding such as doing work at your job, reading a nonfiction book, studying, or driving a car; poor resilience to stress, fragility, the inability to handle and recover from stress, and even relatively minor psychological stress or physical activity can put you into a state of anxiety or exhaustion; anxiety or depression?
Many people who have energy and fatigue problems, especially in the more severe stages of chronic fatigue, may also start to get lots of other symptoms like:
brain fog
brain-related fatigue
fibromyalgia or migraines
psychological conditions or psychiatric conditions
loss of resilience
depression
anxiety
These can lead to difficulties at work or completing the cognitive or physical demands of your job, difficulty managing social and interpersonal relationships, or reduced independence or quality of life.
All of these brain-related symptoms commonly co-occur in people who have difficulty making the required energy (ATP) at the cellular level, in their mitochondria.
If we want to fix these symptoms and improve our energy levels and brain health, there are two steps:
1. Eliminate the root causes
2. Reverse the cellular dysfunction
When we get down to the root cause level, there are a lot of different potential causal factors
in these brain-related symptoms. To mention a few, poor circadian rhythm habits, toxins, side effects of various prescription and over-the-counter drugs, gut issues, psychological or physical stress, neurotransmitter imbalances, food intolerances, poor sleep, and so on.
Let's look at how to fix this situation by eliminating these different types of brain
dysfunction and getting rid of brain fog, anxiety, depression, brain-related fatigue, and
supercharging your brain energy levels.
1. Optimise your Blood Sugar Levels
Unstable blood sugar levels and high insulin is a common driver of brain fog and anxiety for most people.
High blood sugar in the body equals high blood sugar in the brain
The brain may also have difficulty utilising the energy from glucose (sugar) in an insulin resistant state and may become energy depleted.
Prioritise protein and fats in every meal to stabilise blood sugar levels, reduce starchy carbohydrates and eliminate sugar, grains and processed foods
2. Optimise your Circadian Rhythm / Sleep
Start every day with bright light in first 30 minutes after you wake up for at least 10 days.
Get devices off and out of the bedroom one hour before bed. Blue light from your devices delay sleep onset, disrupts hormonal cascade, decreases sleep efficiency.
Bedrooms should be completely dark while you are sleeping
Optimise your sleep time based on your chronotype. Your natural sleep wake time is naturally earlier than you think it is.
Stop eating 3 hours before you go to bed.
Good quality deep sleep allows for memory consolidation and clearance of metabolic waste and toxins from the brain as well as repair and restoration of mitochondria and neurons.
- Tips: Establish a consistent sleep schedule, create a relaxing bedtime routine
3. Regular Physical Exercise
Aim for at least 30 minutes a day of moderate aerobic activity daily to increase blood flow to the brain, promotes neuroplasticity and increase Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF).
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in neuronal survival and growth, serves as a neurotransmitter modulator, and participates in neuronal plasticity, which is essential for learning and memory.
Any moderate activity that you enjoy will be good to get the benefits of exercise, activities like brisk walking, cycling, swimming, or dancing, resistance training or engaging in a home exercise programme. The key is to keep it fun and mix it up to keep it challenging.
4. Mental Stimulation and Social Interaction
Engage in activities that challenge your cognitive abilities, or join a social group and do an activity with others. Regular mental stimulation builds cognitive reserve and may delay or reverse cognitive decline. Dual-tasking activities, such as walking while having a conversation with a friend,
Benefits: Builds cognitive reserve, may delay onset of cognitive decline
Examples: Puzzles, learning a new language, playing an instrument
5. Stress Management
Practice stress-reduction techniques daily to stimulate the vagus nerve and return our nervous system to rest and digest mode.
Adequate stress management calms the body’s mitochondria and helps them move from being in ‘survival mode’ to being able to thrive.
Stress management techniques reduces cortisol levels, protects brain cells from stress-induced damage and promotes vagal dominance for a calm, joyful and grounded state of being.
Explore mindfulness meditation, deep breathing exercises, yoga, Tai-Chi, intermittent fasting, exercise and hot/cold therapies,
It's never too late to improve your Brain Health!
If you are looking for help to reverse the brain symptoms associated with chronic fatigue, insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome, find a Metabolic Health Coach or contact Jennifer Brueton directly for more information on how to supercharge your brain energy.
Adapted from Ari Whitten, The Energy Blueprint https://theenergyblueprint.com/
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