Brain Fog: What It Is & How To Treat It Naturally
IN BRIEF
The Facts:
Brain fog is an experience that more and more of us are becoming far too familiar with. Unfortunately, western medicine often overlooks energetic imbalances in the body, so we need to turn to eastern medicine to understand and treat this condition.
Reflect On:
How often do you experience brain fog and what tends to trigger it? Rather than turning to stimulant medications, try any of the following eastern treatments first!
Brain fog is a state of mental confusion. Some find it difficult to think, concentrate, or find the right words to say. Some have trouble recalling facts, faces, or events. Brain fog can also make a person feel unmotivated, depressed, anxious and moody as well. Many individuals with brain fog are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).
Unfortunately, western medicine often overlooks energetic imbalances in the body. Our doctors will often put an individual on stimulant medication and send them on their way. With this approach, we are missing key opportunities to heal the body and beat brain fog naturally and effectively without potentially dangerous side-effects.
Eastern Medicine treats the body as a whole. No single organ can be understood except in relational to the whole person. It is the 2,500-year-old belief that the imbalance or blockage of Yin and Yang in the body leads to all disease. To maintain or restore balance – healthy food, acupuncture, moxibustion, homeopathy, Chinese herbal therapy and Reiki, is used to heal a person emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically.
Why Food Matters
For the body to be balanced and for the brain to work optimally, it must be harmonized and nourished. Eastern medicine practitioners understand the importance of nutrition, gut, and digestive health for a healthy mind. Instead of focusing on the quantity of food and counting calories, the east focuses on the quality of the food, the flavour, temperature and how the food benefits the body. Understanding that food can be the most significant form of medicine or the most prominent type of poison, they emphasize the need to eat nutritionally dense food; free of processed salt, sugar, food additives and artificial chemicals. Also, testing for food sensitivities, gut dysbiosis/yeast overgrowth and intestinal inflammation is essential, and they are often a culprit of brain fog and neurological dysfunction.
Acupuncture For Mental Health
To support proper neurological function, Chinese Medicine focuses on energetically balancing the five primary organ systems including the spleen, heart, lungs, liver and stomach to reduce systemic inflammation, help with the assimilation of nutrients, increase blood supply, and oxygenize blood to help the liver to store the blood to help send it into the brain.
Acupuncture has been treating and preventing illness and disease for over 2,000 years. And many scientific studies demonstrate the benefits. A study in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences demonstrated that acupuncture can reduce anxiety and insomnia. And, the Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine reported that acupuncture also improves mental clarity and alertness.
There are no adverse side effects, and the needles are tiny and thin, causing little to no pain.
The basic theory of acupuncture starts with the meridian system and flow of energy (called Qi, pronounced “chee”) between organs and the blood. Acupuncture is used to regulate the functions of organs via the flow of energy and blood through the meridian system. The needles balance the blood flow between the right and left frontal lobes of the brain and help improve neurological functioning.
For mental clarity, memory, concentration, and alertness an acupuncturist may focus on the following points. If an acupuncturist is not around, applying light pressure to these acupressure points can also assist as well:
Middle of a Person – between upper lip and nose
Sea of Tranquility – upper part of the ribcage between the breasts
Three-Point Mile – the outer edge of the leg
Bigger Rushing – on top of the foot
One Hundred Meeting – back of the top of the head
Sun Point – outside of the eyebrows
Gates of Consciousness – the base of the skull
Heavenly Pillar – below the base of the skull
Third Eye Point – between the eyebrows
Acupuncture is also extremely helpful in aiding the body to eliminate toxic burden which can help improve memory, speech, learning and mental clarity. Studies demonstrate that detoxing from systemic yeast, bacterial infections such as Lyme, viral overload, heavy metal, and other environmental toxins can lead to improved mental performance. Acupuncturists often work on the liver and gallbladder meridian points to clear toxins.
Burn Moxa To Enhance Acupuncture Treatments
Commonly known as “mugwort,” Moxa is burned near the body to stimulate acupuncture channels and warm the body to dry dampness which can cause brain fog. In a study of mice featured in the Journal of Evidenced Based Complementary Medicine, moxibustion positively impacted behavior, learning, cognition, memory and focus by changing the oxidant state in the central nervous system. Moxa is also used to boost the immune system, manage inflammation, reduce pain and increase energy.
Homeopathy: Energy Medicine For The Body & Mind
Homeopathy is a system of medicine originated in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann. Native American Indians practiced this form of natural healing before it was coined homeopathy. Homeopathy can treat all your symptoms at all levels of your being – spiritual, emotional, mental and physical. It helps dissipate blockages in an individual’s subtle energy that may be preventing the individual’s body wisdom from healing the chronic or acute illness.
Homeopathy works on the law of nature, that “like cures like.” A patient suffering from symptoms can be treated and cured by minute doses of a substance (mineral, animal or plant) capable of producing similar symptoms in a healthy person very much like an allergy shot aims to do. Except, homeopathy has little-known side-effects and can reach deep inside the body and gently nudge it to trigger the body to heal itself, in a way western medicine cannot. Highly diluted, non-toxic remedies are prepared. They taste a little bit sweet, are odorless and taken orally. According to the World Health Organization, it is the second largest therapeutic system used in the world.
The aim of a study in the European Journal of Pediatrics was to obtain scientific evidence of the effectiveness of homeopathy in ADHD. That randomized, partially blinded trial and a clinical observation study, concluded that homeopathy did in fact have positive effects in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) particularly in the areas of behavioral and cognitive development.
Some homeopathy traditionally used for symptoms of brain fog and mental focus:
Vanilla aromatica
Some homeopathy traditionally used for symptoms of anxiety & hyperactivity that often leads to a lack of mental focus:
Using Chinese Herbal Therapy To Stay Clear Minded
Chinese herbology has been used for over 5,000 years and is the oldest medical system in the world. Like other Chinese medicine modalities, herbal therapy (herbs, minerals, and other extracts) aims to balance and regain homeostasis in the body to strengthen one’s resistance to illness and disease. Chinese herbal medicine also treats emotional and neurological conditions quite successfully.
Some Chinese herbs traditionally used for brain fog, ADHD, anxiety, and focus:
Reishi mushrooms – can bring calm and help maintain focus.
Bacopa – reduces mental fatigue and improves cognition (learn more)
Ginko Biloba – increases blood flow to improve clarity and memory.
Acorus – known as Shi Chang Pu in Chinese herbology this herb transforms damp it works well for people suffering from a cloudy mind.
Chai Hu – reduces stress and depression to increase memory.
Jujubes or Chinese dates – restores balance and replenishes Qi; produces red blood cells to calm the mind
Siberian ginseng – reduces fatigue, supports adrenals and increases clarity (learn more)
Bu Nao Wan – an ancient herbal remedy believed to clear brain fog, increase alertness and focus. It is a combination of many herbs including ginseng, bamboo sap, dragon tooth, dang gui, and others。