The Root Causes of Memory Lapses and Fatigue
By Dr. Dennis Maness, HealthWalk MindSoul Division
What causes lapses in memory? What causes mental fatigue? Why do you feel like working, studying and being productive during some days while others you feel mentally fatigued and listless? Throughout each day, we experience many changes in our mind. Our emotions may run the gamut, from feeling productive to fatigued; from happy-go-lucky to feeling being mildly depressed. Mental fatigue can bring about feelings of stress, depression, insomnia and low self-esteem. These negative feelings may develop over a few hours or as quickly as in a few minutes. Resolving the negative feelings for many can take days and sometimes weeks.
Three major root causes of Mental Fatigue and Memory lapses are: Lack of proper Rest, Uncontrolled Stress and Improper Nutrition.
Lack of proper Rest has a negative effect on mood, stress levels, ability to process thoughts and nervous system functions. Lack of proper rest will cause you to feel weak and physically run down, lethargic and often mildly depressed. Brown University researchers discovered that fatigued medical residents, when placed in a driving simulator, performed at least as badly as they did under the influence of alcohol. The results of this study suggest that real-life conditions of sleep deprivation are equivalent or worse than impairments caused by moderate alcohol intoxication. Such fatigue also causes slow cognitive transmission and affects how we process thought, memory and our ability to be productive.
One way to feel better and less fatigued is to balance or adjust the neuro chemicals in your brain and body. This can be done artificially by using over the counter and prescription medications. Most of these products act as switches, turning something off or on inside your brain. You can best understand this by comparing the light switch in your living room which controls a number of outlets and light sources to that of the chemicals reactions caused by the medications. When you turn the switch on or off all the living room lights connected to the switch are affected. The same is true with most medications; they re-arrange the chemicals in the brain thus affecting an entire “living room” of functions. Without continual use of these medications, the problem will once again emerge. Medication is a short-term solution that doesn’t fix the problem but rather temporarily suspends it while creating other health issues as a result.
Uncontrolled Stress: You cannot achieve peak performance when you are affected by inordinate stress levels which affect the processing of information and your moods. Stress will affect your ability to focus, concentrate on projects, on school and can even impair your social life. It will also affect your memory, impede productivity and your physical health.
Nutrition: What you eat affects you. The amount of evidence linking emotional and behavioral problems directly to dietary choices is profound. What we eat becomes a part of our cellular make up. Cells are the basic structures that make up all tissues and organs. Proper fats and amino-acid metabolism are necessary to create the proper materials to make cell membranes. Improper cellular membrane formation will send misinformation along the nerve pathways. This action may result in faulty nerve function and brain information transmission.
Just what can cause such interference with the information transmission?
As little as one bag of French Fries can be a contributor to mental fatigue, brain fog, depressive symptoms as well as hyper activity. How? It takes over three months for one bag of French Fries to be properly processed through the body. If the body cannot adequately process fats, it will jeopardize nerve transmission. Improper nerve function can inflict havoc in brain/body communications.
Sugar depletes the body of essential minerals and B vitamins. All sugar, whether natural or refined, require B-complex vitamins, calcium and magnesium for digestion. Natural sugars from complex carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables and whole unprocessed grains contain enough of these nutrients to assist our bodies in their own digestion. Simple refined sugars (including white bread, pastries, candy, sodas etc) do not contain these digestive nutrients and deplete our body’s B-complex vitamins, calcium and magnesium needed for digestion. Sugar also weakens white blood cells, which are essential to your health and immune system. Did you know one 12-ounce can of soda contains 9 to 12 teaspoons of sugar?
Drinking HealthWalk’s hydromag treated water can support the body’s return to a more alkaline balance which is the optimal functioning environment for the body.
Any of the above three factors can impact the way we live and function. All three can affect our bodies from how our heart functions, to physical and mental fatigue, to our ability to process information and memory.
HealthWalk’s MindSoul Brain Technology maps your brain and allows for analysis to balance the brain frequencies and chemicals to restore a healthy equilibrium to your brain and body. In conjunction with HealthWalk’s other state-of-the-art integrated services and products, we can support your return to a more active and vibrant life by removing the mental fatigue and other stressors that can impede your life.
August Heroes of the month are:
SC was hardly coherent when he came to the office. He complained greatly of memory loss and his lack of balance/equilibrium following chemotherapy and a variety of scans and procedures for brain cancer. When I did his brain map, I found multiple areas in his frontal and temporal lobes that were out of balance and that could be impeding his memory and slowing his cognitive reaction. Now after several MindSoul Brain Technology sessions, SC is doing quite fine. The inflammation in his brain is greatly reduced and his chronic headache is gone. His cognitive function is back to normal and so is his memory. He and his wife are happily sharing stories about his amazing recovery with all their friends and family.
RY, aged thirteen was concerned about being able to focus and retain attention, especially now that school is going to start in only a couple weeks. He had been diagnosed as being mildly dyslexic by medical doctors. When I took a closer look at his brain map, I found that mental fatigue was another contributing factor to his challenges with school. Through brain entrainment exercises, we were able to improve his peripheral vision, comprehension and his cognitive function. RY is now able to bring his focus to attention within eight seconds and maintain focus for up to seven minutes. This is a huge increase from when he first came in when it took him fifteen seconds to focus and could only maintain focus for a few seconds. His mental fatigue is gone. Today he has the tools to take home so that he is able to energize and refresh his brain rapidly whenever he needs to.
MD, age ten was diagnosed with Autism. After several MindSoul Brain Technology Sessions she has started speaking in full sentences. “Her latest sentence was, “I told you mom that I know the words.” When she sees her mom preparing to go to work, she gets her mom’s purse and keys and meets her at the stairs or door to wish her a good day. MD, we are so proud of you!