Without going to a "name brand" diet (keto, vegan, or whatever), just pay attention to what you eat and what your brain feels like a few hours afterword. I found some foods (certain chocolates, unfortunately) where, somewhat less than an hour after I ate it, it felt like someone had kicked my brain.

When you notice something like that, stop eating it. You may be able to add it back in small quantities later, but for now, just stop.

When you've identified the major ones and stopped eating them, then take stock of where you are. Is it enough? Or do you want to go further?

We started being very careful what we eat because one of my daughters had extreme food sensitivities. I said "Nah, not me, I'm good". But I felt a lot better/less mentally foggy as well.

Ketogenic (including carnivore) diet will greatly reduce inflammation. You'll also want to do an Igg food sensitivity test to see what specific foods your body is creating inflammatory markers for, and a microbiome test can also let you know if bacterial/yeast infections that could be adding to brain fog.

Fasting is useful for seeing how your mental state is while limiting external food resources (you're using internal fat reserves otherwise), otherwise intermittent fasting is the best option.

It seems that in practice the issue is not keto vs vegan vs omnivore but that all of those proponents of extreme diets like full vegan or full carnivore usually measure their food intake carefully to ensure they get enough of all macros (carbs, fat, protein).

This measuring alone ensures that they get enough fats, which seem to be the main reason for brain fog in most people (combined with too much artifical sweets).

Also because of this extreme diet they completely throw all all processed food & artifical sugar/sweets.

You're close to right. The "vegan honeymoon" - as an example - is an example of why many people will feel better cutting out bad foods, however carbohydrates and sugars are some of the largest inflammatory factors from my understanding, so cutting that out will help. Following vegan or omnivore doesn't mean eating a balanced (carbs, fat, protein) diet nor anti-inflammatory, doesn't mean eating a diet specifically that is healthy for your body either - doesn't remove foods you may individually be sensitive to.

Fasting would just make me irritable and hungry. I don't think I'm the only one that would experience that

You get used to it remarkably quickly. The problem is getting over the hump (and also, knowing there is a hump).

Buddhist monks are not supposed to eat after noon, although some cheat by adding a lot of sugar to their evening tea or coffee. This is supposed to keep their minds sharp and clear and aid in meditation. It appears to be a well-tested rule.

Are animal proteins not a source of inflammation? It's quite well studied.

Nope, not in free living humans.

Seems like IGG doesn’t have the best reputation...

Just like fat didn't have a good reputation for awhile due to X, Y, Z - be weary of your sources.

I use my own experience with Igg food sensitivity testing and removing those foods to see how I felt after. After allowing my system to calm from the foods then reintroducing just one of the foods that I was conditioned to the discomfort of, it let me see how much discomfort/pain different foods that showed up on the Igg test that make me feel horrible.

Correct, these tests are mostly useless.

Obviously this is anecdotal, but I've been fasting for about a month, and I've noticed a significant difference between the days I fast and the days I don't (FRIDAYS!!!). After about 16-18 hours of not eating I feel quite sharp. There seems to be preliminary clinical evidence to support this, but I'll leave the googling to you.

I’ve had the same experience, but feeling sharper doesn’t mean actually being sharper. If you look at traffic accident rates in Muslim majority countries, there’s a sharp rise in incidents during the fasting months of Ramadan.

Ramadan involves a number of societal changes beyond just not eating during daylight hours, from fasting to abstinence to busier public squares and restaurants. I'd want to see something control for the differences in movement patterns, passenger miles driven, meals eaten outside the home vs. at home, and so on. Public squares and restaurants are typically packed during Ramadan at night.

Here's one (theoretically) similar example:

https://www.datagraver.com/case/relation-terrorism-attacks-a...

Fasting during Ramadan is not the same as IF at all. During Ramadan you can't have even a sip of water, whereas in IF you are encouraged to drink water and even add a bit of salt if needed. That alone makes them too different to compare effects.

That’s a very good point and not something I had considered. Still, I am curious as to how the feeling of sharpness translates to actual performance.

The most obvious culprit is the lack of sleep, since feeding can only be done at night.

I've experienced similar effects with intermittent fasting. I started cutting out the breakfast and after a while my mind was super clear in the morning. Eating lunch caused that to flip around drastically, though.

I'm glad you mentioned IF. It's one of the easier ways to get many of the keto benefits without having to do keto.

Unrelated to diet but still could be helpful with brain fog: Have you ever been tested for sleep apnea? I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea over a decade ago and was prescribed a CPAP machine. Although it took some getting used to. Getting effective sleep has helped me.

I use sauna; 10-15 minutes in hot, followed by a short break (1-2 minutes), then up to 2 minutes immersed in cold water. Repeat 5-6x. I feel like a new person afterwards, total mental clarity and many ideas immediately. Also removes stress. It might take you a few months to get adapted to that cycle though (2-minute cold immersion is not trivial at first). If you start feeling bad, abort, you can try next time.

This is no joke. After a shower, I turn off the hot water and just stand there under the cold water for a while. It makes a big difference for me. So does not eating late.

If knowingly taking a placebo can affect a person, I have no doubt that the ritual you described can also have an effect.

Heat shock forces some cells or proteins to rejuvenate themselves. Dr Rhonda Patrick and the anti-aging guy have talked about similar ideas for hours in depth on joe rogan's podcast but I never remember the details in full.

> the anti-aging guy

Aubrey de Grey?

David Sinclair

This came from trial and error from about 6 months of trying different things in sauna. Just heating myself multiple times in hot sauna didn't work that well, but once I started to rigorously follow >1 minute cold water immersions, after 3-4x cycles I almost always ended up in a stress-less state of mental clarity (not when I felt bad/sick or didn't sleep well though). After ~4 cold immersions I also look like my skin was full of veins, connected red patches over white patches everywhere. YMMV

Before trying various changes which takes a long time to se through consider measuring things you can actually test:

1. Sleep study.

2. Vitamin D blood test.

3. Generally a conversation with your doctor who might suggest other tests.

Look into reducing inflammation. There are a number of foods that are supposed to be beneficial. I believe avoiding corporate grain products may also help.

Keto worked for me. The difference is remarkable.

It was another set of symptoms - skin rash like chicken pox - that helped me find my celiac / gluten free diagnosis.

However, the brain fog went away. Brain fog is a common reason people try gluten free or low carb (keto, Meng, etc).

Good luck.

I would try intermittent fasting for a while. If you feel better, it means it could be exacerbated by something you're eating. Then it's a just a process of elimination.

One thing would be to get rid of as many fragranced products as you can. It's amazing how many people live 24/7 without ever truly breathing fresh air. This would be especially had with fragranced dryer sheets, as the residual fragrance will last through many washings. New mattresses are also notoriously toxic.

nobody has mentioned exercise.

I remember the study with the "rats in a sterile environment" vs "rats in a rich environment" where the latter group formed many more brain connections.

In the end, they found it wasn't the rich environment that caused the brain growth, it was the exercise wheel in it.

Be careful with the exercise remedy. It's easy to overdue it and cause more inflammation and stress via elevated cortisols, etc..

talk to a doctor and, if you are lucky, they find something they can cure. If you are unlucky, they find nothing. If you are really unlucky, you find something like an autoimmune disorder - lots of autoimmune disorders get both some inflammation and 'brain fog' or other cognitive issues.

All the diets folks recommend are not really proven to help with things like autoimmune disorders (even though some folks swear by them). If it were that simple, it would be standard treatment and no one would go through the side effects that some of the medicines for autoimmune disorders have. I don't know how effective the diets and supplements are for other things, but I'd not trust it unless it came from the mouth of a medical doctor I trusted.

No. Docs have no clue about these sort of things. They are good for "leg broken, must fix leg". They suck at chronic and ambiguous illnesses. In the US, you can try the Mayo Clinic, they have specialists. Otherwise, help yourself.

Unfortunately, that's really true. I have a doctor friend that looked at me like a deer in headlights when I asked about fatigue, brain fog, inflammation, food sensitivities, etc..

Because.. internists don't exist as primary care doctors? Because the start of getting diagnosed with chronic illnesses doesn't start with a primary care doctor?

OR because insurances and governments aren't interested in not spending thousands of dollars per month per patient on autoimmune medicines when a simple diet change could do the same thing?

There are more players than doctors. Folks go to specialists all the freaking time for their disorders, but not all disorders need that. You'll probably be just fine going to the normal doctor for type II diabetes. You'll probably go to a neurologist for your MS. Not all disorders need something like the Mayo Clinic. When we suck, we simply suck and that includes the Mayo Clinic and similar clinics.

None of this changes the fact that there isn't evidence that diet helps in the long run for a lot of disorders. Staying generally healthy helps, sure, but saying anything else dupes folks into trying a bunch of weird, non-approved things and buying into snake oils.

> Staying generally healthy helps

Its that easy huh. I'm afraid you got it exactly backwards. Snake oil is the last resort of people who are not being helped by the medical system. People don't love going from one doc to another, being told that "its probably psychological". Countless tests are not great even if they don't bankrupt you. I'm not saying its easy! Most doctors aren't even remotely trained for this, and they don't have the time per patient. Its a difficult task.

What we need are special doctors for chronic diseases. There is a department at a German university (Heidelberg I think), which is being subsidised by the other things they do. They have good successes, helping people that could not be helped for years, but the waiting list is very very very long.

Generally healthy: You can have a chronic disease and work on being generally healthy. Eat a varied diet. Exercise as you can. Don't smoke. I should mention at this point that I have a chronic disease - MS. There is no cure. But all that stuff helps people's outcome. The special diets do not.

There are special doctors for some chronic diseases - like MS. Most folks go to a normal neurologist, and a few are lucky enough to have some specialists near them. I have nurses that are specialized that I see more than the neurologist as it helps the neurologist see more folks.

That said, not all chronic diseases and conditions need a specialist. Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition. High blood pressure is a chronic condition (and not always caused by diet/exercise). Depression is chronic. The thing is that some of these are common enough that it is pretty easy for a doctor to know about them. If you are lucky, you see an internist, who specialises in adult general medicine.

Not all chronic diseases and conditions are things that are puzzling either. There is no reason for most folks to see these sorts of specialists, but I wish they were more available for folks that need them. This is a pretty slim portion of patients, though. Some diseases we don't know much about, and we need science to help. I've donated spinal fluid to help things along and I'll donate my body to science after whatever organ donation they'll let me do. I urge others to do similar stuff, and this is why I both want medical records digital and want them to be searchable by researchers. For everyone that doesn't specifically opt out, anyway.

Most of the tests you mention? Yeah, if you are going to see a specialist, they are going to do the tests. Medicine is a profession of puzzles. You take vague symptoms that could have many causes and do tests to rule things out.

I have conclusive evidence (sample size 1)that keto reduces inflammation from my AS. The blood tests don't lie but its far from being a cure.

Curcumin supplements and/or consuming a lot of turmeric with a little pepper can help.

No randomized clinical trials of curcumin have shown benefit. Fixing the source of the inflammation is a better idea than taking anti-inflammatory compounds of dubious benefit.

Not true.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25277322

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S106474811...

High (10g+) doses of omega-3 (mostly as EPA) are extremely effective and clinically proven.

Standard doses are way too small to be effective, and most of the science and anecdotes refer to small (1-3g) doses.

I had vitamin D deficiency that was the cause of my brain fog. I'm not yet back to full power, but the last 3 months of taking it have definitely been better than before.

I've had issues like that:

Buy hydrolyzed collagen supplements (take 30g per day at start for 1 week) and increase fat intake, simplest is beef tallow (ideally grassfed), eat 2x 5 table spoons of it per day for 5 days at start.

And cut all processed sugar and sweets.

Replace table sugar and fructose with glucose.

A whole (organic) chicken in a pot, cooked until the cartilage liquefies, is similar to this suggestion IMO

I stopped eating anything with added sugar and my brain fog lifted after about a week. Now I get headaches if I eat sugar (Berries are good, it’s just stuff with sugar added to it that messes me up).

Have you been tested for celiac disease?