How to reduce brain fog

The Rest Room

Welcome back to Part 2 of our mini series on brain fog and chronic illness.

In our last episode, Neuroscientist Dr. Sabina Brennan explained what brain fog actually is and all the different ways it can impact us.

As someone who has complained about brain fog for years, but has never thought about it beyond my own subjective experience, I found it fascinating, and highly recommend giving it a listen if you haven’t already.

As it turns out, brain fog isn’t a disease, a disorder, or a diagnosis. It’s more a sign “that something is amiss and a signal to take action.”

But what does taking action mean when you have an underlying condition? According to Sabina:

“Even if you identify [that your brain fog is caused by] your autoimmune disease, your inflammatory disease, or your chronic pain…there may be other factors in your lifestyle that are adding to it or actually just create the tipping point. And actually, if you sort those lifestyle factors, the fog that's caused as a consequence of your condition may not be as bad.”

Which is why in today’s episode, we’re exploring the four main factors that contribute to brain fog, and what we can do to help reduce it.

And, because this is The Rest Room, of course we’ll be doing this with an understanding that it’s not easy for people with chronic conditions, and offer tips and tricks for how to slowly, safely and sustainably work towards changes that may help with your brain fog, whilst also working for your body and lifestyle.

It was a wide-ranging conversation, and I hope you’ll it helpful.

To listen, you can just click play at the top of this email, or you can listen on Apple, Spotify, Amazon and Google. If you’d rather read the transcript of the episode, I’ve made that available on my blog.

Please note: if you receive this email within the first few hours of it being sent out, it might take a few hours for the podcast to filter through to some of the podcast platforms like Amazon or Spotify.

I wanted to take a quick moment to thank the sponsor of this episode, Fine & Able, who create beautiful accessible bathrooms in a style you love. To find out more visit their website and Instagram and use code NATASHA200 to book your free design consultation.

Thanks to my brilliant producer Philly Guillou at OG Podcasts, to Lucy Dove for the episode art, and to Amit Rai for my intro music.

Edit 30/4/22 5.06pm - typo in Sabina’s quote “something is missed” corrected to “something is amiss”.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashalipman.substack.com