It’s no secret that many of us are always on the move, busy, and often sacrificing sleep and relaxation for more busy work during our days, and after a while this has a negative effect on not just our bodies, but also our brains. However, did you know one of the amazing benefits of turmeric is its ability to help clear away brain fog and have you thinking much more clearly?
Brain fog is a real and very significant problem that many people attempt to overcome with a morning cup of coffee and ignoring the problem, but that doesn’t change the fact they’re not running at 100%.
What Is Brain Fog?
Not a lot of people are aware of what brain fog feels like.
There’s no doubting that almost all of us have experienced it, however.
Many people would describe symptoms just like the name suggests – a mental fog that sets in, separating you from concise decisions and fast, accurate problem solving abilities.
This mental fog and fatigue can be caused by a variety of things, from your brain not getting enough nutrition through a poor diet, to simple lack of sleep.
In fact, some drugs and medications even cause brain fog to set in until the substance is out of your system, which is problematic for many people who take prescriptions for their health conditions. This kind of reaction is most common in medications or drugs that directly affect the brain or immune system.
The root cause for many, however, is something we’ve talked about in previous articles – oxidative stress.
Oxidative stress is where your body’s cells oxidize and mutate, or in more common terms, age. This cell aging or mutation is natural as we ourselves age because our bodies can’t keep the production of antioxidants up. These oxidative cells are thought to be one of the main causes of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, as well as wrinkles, sunspots, and typical signs of aging – and even premature aging.
How Does Turmeric Help?
Turmeric extract (curcuminoids) helps relieve symptoms of brain fog by combating oxidative stress and providing cleaner connections for brain cells. Turmeric helps fuel your brain – to put it simply, turmeric extract is excellent brain food.
This is because curcuminoids increase the bioavailability of DHA, which is an omega-3 fatty acid.
This fatty acid is essential to maintaining your brain’s regular health and provides energy 
for problem solving neural connections. Some studies have even shown that turmeric doesn’t just increase the bioavailability of DHA, but even boosts the levels of the fatty acid in your brain, helping neural connections thrive. Healthy neurons and neural connections help you act quickly and on the spot, ready to problem solve, remember fine details, and learn new things. Healthy neural connections also helps in reducing anxiety, mental fatigue and energy loss.
turmeric extract even increases neuroplasticity, which increases your brain’s ability to grow and learn new things throughout life. Many adults today don’t think they can learn new things like a child can, and while they’re right about one part of that – children’s brains have higher levels of plasticity than adults – this doesn’t mean that it’s gone forever. Neuroplasticity can be trained back in through learning new things – like juggling, knitting, or other crafts – as well as reducing inflammation and increasing the level of plasticity through supplements like turmeric curcumin.
This is excellent news for people who have chronic stress, as well, as chronic stress can highly damage the brains neuroplasticity over time. This stress can be present in a variety of ways from high cortisol and adrenal hormones to bodily stressors like lack of proper exercise, lack of sleep, or lack of proper nutrition.
Turmeric also helps reduce any inflammation present in the brain. Inflammation, especially consistent inflammation over time, can shut down energy production of your brain cells and cause mental fatigue, slowing down the rate your neurons fire and causing the infamous feeling of brain fog.
In fact, some studies have even suggested that neural inflammation and chronic stress is one of the leading causes of death in the United States – not beyond cancer or heart disease – but being one of the major contributing factors to these diseases.
“Inflammation is involved in 8 of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States today,” writes Dr. Slavich, who is a professor and research scientist of UCLA.
Many of Turmeric's benefits come from its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties and ability to increase neuroplasticity – but turmeric extract also has a unique ability to cross the blood-brain barrier much easier than many other natural remedies and medications.
Possible Turmeric Side Effects?
In many cases, Turmeric is safe for any individual to take, but even natural remedies can have side effects or interactions with certain medical conditions or medications. It’s important to be aware of what medications you’re taking that may interact when taken concurrently.
Always consult your doctor first before taking any turmeric extract whether it’s a remedy for brain fog or for your general health and well-being. Your doctor has been trained to understand how different compounds and medications react to each other and may give you more insight into which medications may interact with others, or how your results may differ if you have certain health conditions.
How Long Until I Notice Turmeric Benefits?
Many people see benefits from their turmeric extract in a very short time period if they take the recommended amount and extract dosage. Many people claim that turmeric helps relieve their symptoms of brain fog as quickly as the first day or two, while other people may say it takes one to three weeks when taken consistently. Turmeric is digested and processed by everyone’s body differently, and depending on how well your body absorbs the turmeric extract, your results may differ than someone else who began taking the supplement at the same time as you.
Always be aware of how your body is reacting to the turmeric extract and always try to take your supplements around the same time of day consistently to achieve the best results. By doing this with the recommended extract ratio of 95% curcumoids to 5% Piperine (or Bioperine), you’re far more likely to achieve relief for your brain fog in under a few days.