BrainThrive Blog

If you've had a concussion, you may feel as if you’ll never be the same again - and you know how impactful a concussion can be on daily life.  The ongoing physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms can make everything about your life harder to manage - from dealing with the crushing headaches and fatigue to being able to do your job the way you did before, to even feeling overwhelmed about meeting friends for dinner.  But there may be something you can do to help… By incorporating brain-healthy nourishment (in the form of brain-healthy lifestyle choices), and learning (and using) specific attention and memory strategies, you can optimize your recovery from concussion and improve your overall performance. You’ll simply learn how to use your brain differently… by compensating or learning to work around your difficulties.  Here’s what we mean: 1. Nourish your brain the right way. Yes, what you eat matters! Omega-3 fatty acids found in fatty fish, flaxseeds...

    Cancer treatments like chemotherapy can be tough on the body and the mind.  One common challenge that some people face during and after chemotherapy is chemo brain .  This condition can make it harder to remember things, stay focused, and think clearly. More specifically, it's described as feeling like a mental fog, clouding thoughts, memories, and clarity, leaving behind mental fatigue . To tackle this issue, it's important to understand the value of brain health and training. This type of education teaches people how to take care of their brains, so they can harness *neuroplasticity, offering renewed hope and recovery for those experiencing the symptoms of chemo brain .   What is Chemo Brain? Chemo brain, or cancer-related cognitive impairment , is when cancer treatment affects your thinking and memory. It can make you forget things, find it tough to concentrate, and slow down your brain. Why Chemo Brain Matters Chemo brain can impact your life...

Recently, I saw an example of the importance of hydration on brain function. This became all too clear to a friend of mine  - and she learned this lesson the hard way .  She became dehydrated while walking outside on a hot day and began to show signs of cognitive decline. Ultimately, she had to be hospitalized after her cognition became so impaired, that it adversely affected her judgment, which led to a serious fall.   The need for hydration is not just a thirst thing... it’s a brain thing.  You probably already know that your kidneys, heart, lungs, and muscles are dependent on water.  But do you know that your brain is about 75% water? That's why getting proper hydration is so important for your brain to function optimally. What happens to your brain if you become dehydrated? You may experience reduced cognition.   These changes may become obvious, even with mild dehydration. The decline can become more obvious as you become more dehydrated....

Have You Ever Walked Into a Room and Forgotten Why? Research done at the University of Notre Dame, published in 2011 in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology showed that memory is often affected when we pass through a doorway. This is known as the Doorway Effect . The author of this original research, Dr. Gabriel Radvansky suggests that our brain manages the continuous flow of information by breaking up experiences into small, more meaningful blocks of information called mental event models . When we move from one situation to another – or even from one room to another – our brain updates to a new network of information, or a new mental event model that does not include information from the previous one. So, as we switch gears, we may forget things from the previous event. This can occur whether we leave or enter a room, switch computer tabs, or work to refocus after an interruption. The good news is that this shows that our brain is working as it should, a...

  If you're sitting at your desk and your mind feels like the ball in a pinball game, you're not alone.   Recent studies have shown that the average attention span decreased from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to 8 seconds in 2021.  What can you accomplish in 8 seconds?  Not much.  In a world where there is so much emphasis on productivity, this decrease in attention is significant. Think about how many shifts your brain experiences in a day if your attention span averages 8 seconds. By the way, a goldfish has a 9-second attention span.  Give that some thought. )  And while you are thinking about the attention span of a goldfish, ask yourself how long you can typically remain focused on something before you check your e-mail or your social media pages. Is it longer than the goldfish?  Why Our Attention Spans Are Deteriorating You guessed it -  the internet has had a large impact on attention .   Prior to search engines, you had t...