14 Ways To Improve Your Memory And Brain Function

We all go through periods where we suffer from lack of focus, creativity, brainpower, or memory issues. And while sometimes there can be a pathological reason, for most of us if we help our brain and nervous system to function better, we can improve all of these areas.

If you or someone you know is suffering from a neuro-degenerative disease such as alzheimer's or parkinson's, then a lot of these recommendations become even more important as supplements to whatever medical treatment they are undergoing.

So here's 14 different things you can do to improve your mental clarity:

1. Vitamin D - This is actually a steroid hormone and not a vitamin, and it has a major effect on the central nervous systems. Some research is even linking low vitamin D levels to lower cognitive function.
2. Vitamin K2 - This vitamin helps protect our nerves in the brain from free radical damage, so there's a reason why one the highest concentrations of this vitamin in our body is contained in the brain!
3. Fatty Acids - The amazing neuroplasticity that our brain exhibits, where it can actually heal and repair from damage, cannot occur without sufficient fatty acids.
4. Phosphatidlyserine - Like fatty acids this is abundant throughout the nerve tissues. It's best to get this from your diet in the form of healthy seafood as it's a very expensive supplement to buy. If you are going to supplement, krill oil is the best way to consume it.
5. MCT Oil - This oil helps your body to move from sugar burning to fat burning. You get a lot of it in coconut oil, but you can get even more when you buy a more concentrated version (like brain octane oil by bulletproof). Pour it on salads or mix it in with your tea or coffee.
6. Caffeine - Obviously this has amazing stimulating effects on the brain, but just be careful to not overdo it!
7. Creatine - Most people know this is important for protein and muscle growth, but it's also being shown to have a protective effect by slowing down nerve cell death. If you're on a plant based diet only, then supplementing with enough fatty acids plus creatine can often stave off the cognitive fuzziness that can come with not enough protein.
8. Alpha-Lipoic Acid - Another fatty acid that can protect neurological decline.
9. Morning sun - A lot of people get drowsy throughout the day due to excess melatonin. So if we can advance the melatonin cycle by avoiding blue light for a couple of hours before bed, and getting as much morning sun exposure as possible, then afternoon drowsiness should't be a big issue.
10. Perform brain aerobics - Doing crosswords, sudoku puzzles, and anything else that challenges you to use and grow your brain capacity.
11. Chewing gum - Most people chew gum to relieve stress (which we could argue improves mental clarity right there) but some researchers are finding that chewing gum might actually improve attention, memory, and other parts of cognitive function, potentially due to increasing blood flow to the brain.
12. Exercise - Movement is one of the major fuel sources for our brains. Have you ever noticed how a lot of the brain degenerative disorders start to kick in or even ramp up as someone loses mobility due to age or injury? If you want your brain to function properly you simply have to move a lot everyday!
13. Music - It has been shown to increase dopamine production. And classical music especially has been shown to improve focus and concentration. Other types of music can be distracting while you're trying to focus, but using it in breaks between work can help with that dopamine release.
14. Get adjusted by your Chiropractor regularly - A very large growing body of evidence is showing that chiropractic adjustments have a direct effect o the pre-frontal cortex in the brain, which then calms down the fight/flight part of our nervous system which for most people is running constantly right now!