Having a hard time focusing or does your brain feel foggy? Well, there are things you can do to improve your mental clarity.
First of all, the obvious is to get good sleep. We are all busy, but when we don’t sleep enough hours, or not enough quality, we can’t think as clearly, and therefore, waste more time trying to get our brain to work. Unfortunately, when you take sleep meds, it doesn’t seem to help mental clarity, so it is important that you dig deeper into the underlying mechanism for your insomnia and take care of it. That is a topic all of its own and addressed in articles and classes we’ve made available.
Nutrition is key as well. It stands to reason, that if you are not supplying enough quality vitamins, minerals, fats and proteins for your brain to function well, well, it won’t! Your body has a priority system, and keeping you alive comes before keeping your brain clear. If you aren’t supplying enough for the crucial organs, your brain gets just the left-overs.
Drinking sufficient water is key for many as well. According to many sources, your brain contains 75% water. If you’re not supplying it, you can’t expect the brain to function clearly.
Acupuncture can be remarkable in its effects on the brain. According to a study in 2003, quoted in the October 2008 issue of Neuroscience Letters, “acupuncture can significantly improve learning, and memory capacity that has been impaired by hyperglycemia and cerebral ischemia.” That may not sound like brain clarity, but that’s what it was. It was studied on those two conditions because they are known for lack of brain clarity. According to a November 2002 article in Modern Acupuncture.com entitled Can Modern Acupuncture Help Power Up the Mind and Create Mental Clarity it says “Acupuncture has the intrinsic power to repair the physical and mental damage of stress and poor lifestyle choices and to balance the nervous system. An acupuncture session has the potential to fortify weaknesses in the nervous system and can therefore be used to specifically strengthen mental functions and give an extra boost of brain power both short term and long term.” We see this often in our clinic.
Another way to improve mental clarity is by avoiding processed foods that clog the system, and by doing safe detox programs that clear the body of toxins that have built up over time. Our body was designed to detoxify normal metabolic wastes. It wasn’t designed to have to deal with the daily barrage of toxins that are too much a part of daily life today. It is important to work with a professional when doing a detox program. You can help your mental clarity. To learn more on this topic, check out episode 58 of the VitalHealth4You podcast.
©2023 Holly A. Carling, O.M.D., L.Ac., Ph.D.
