Mood and Cognitive Performance
Lifestyle recommendations
- Practice sleep hygiene: Sleep is foundational to mood and cognitive performance. Make sure you’re going to sleep in a cool, dark room and avoid electronics for at least 30 minutes before bed.
- Increase playful movement: Physical activity helps brain health and can feel quite refreshing. Furthermore, studies show that selecting physical activities that are playful, creative, or your preferred form of exercise tend to restore the mind better than exercises you might “think” you need to do, like jogging on a treadmill (unless that brings you joy!).
- Incorporate meditation: Mindfulness practices, gratitude journals, and silencing the mind through meditation are all ways to support mood and cognition by giving the mind time to relax from the chatter within.
- Play brain games: Games like puzzles, sudoku, brain-yoga, and other thought-provoking pastimes routine stimulate different areas of the brain and overall support healthy cognitive function. When in doubt, try something new!
Dietary recommendations
- Add fish or omega-3s: Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to play a supportive role in brain maintenance and health. Consider replacing a few meals of red meat a week with fish or avocados, nuts, and seeds to help support your body’s overall omega-3 balance.
- Manage caffeine: Many of us enjoy tea or coffee, but try to keep your consumption down to one to two cups per day, preferably in the morning. Too much caffeine taxes the adrenal glands, can cause anxiety, and in excess, can actually hinder our ability to concentrate.
- Stay hydrated: Believe it or not, some concentration and mood issues come strictly from a lack of water in the system. Make sure you are drinking plenty of pure filtered water throughout the day.
- Cut out high sugar drinks: Sugary drinks often come with added caffeine and lead to crashes later in the day. Whenever possible, cut these out to protect yourself from highs and lows.
Optimized supplement plan:
Ashwagandha
2 capsules twice a day or as directed by a healthcare professional
Memoren
1 capsule three times a day or as directed by a healthcare professional
CoCurcumin
1 tablespoon mixed in warm water or a beverage of your choice
Additional enhancing support options:
Sitawari
For post-menopausal specific cognitive and mood support, take 1 capsule per day
Disclaimer
The Fullscript Integrative Medical Advisory team has developed or collected these protocols from practitioners and supplier partners to help health care practitioners make decisions when building treatment plans. By adding this protocol to your Fullscript template library, you understand and accept that the recommendations in the protocol are for initial guidance and may not be appropriate for every patient.
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