Reduce Stress to Boost Memory and Mental Sharpness
Nearly half of US adults report having high levels of stress. Work and family responsibilities, financial and health problems, disturbing news, and the relentless demands of daily life have a detrimental effect on our physical and mental health.
Or do they? Stress isn’t caused by our spouses, bosses, bank accounts, or bad news. It is the body’s internal reaction to external situations and circumstances that produces the state of mental and emotional tension we call stress.
You need to understand that stress isn’t intrinsically bad. It motivates us to act, deal with challenges, and hone our skills and performance. But when stressors are overwhelming and enduring and stress becomes chronic, it turns from friend to foe.
Chronic stress causes a myriad of problems—physical, emotional, and mental. And in today’s fast-paced, high-pressure world, stress-related symptoms like forgetfulness, brain fog, focus and concentration difficulties, and memory loss are particularly troublesome.
If you want to maintain and sharpen your memory and mental edge, you must develop strategies for coping with stressful situations and minimizing the adverse effects of stress on your brain. Adaptogens and other brain-boosting nutrients can help.
What Is the Stress Response?
The stress response is a survival mechanism that primes our bodies and brains to deal with threats and dangers. Any perceived challenge or threat sets the stress response into motion. The brain signals the adrenal glands to pump out epinephrine (adrenaline) and cortisol (the “stress hormone”) to prepare us for action.
Epinephrine increases heart and respiration rate, raises blood pressure, and directs more blood and oxygen to the heart, muscles, and brain. Cortisol mobilizes blood sugar for an extra boost of energy. These hormones increase focus, quicken your reflexes, and sharpen your vision and hearing, enabling you to think and react more quickly.
Once the coast is clear, epinephrine and cortisol levels return to baseline. But if you are under a lot of pressure and overwhelmed by perceived threats—physical or emotional, real or unreal—stress hormone production gets “stuck” in high gear, and the dark side of stress emerges.
High Cortisol Negatively Affects the Brain
When stress becomes chronic and cortisol levels remain high, your brain and cognitive function take a hit. The areas that are especially vulnerable include the hippocampus, which plays a central role in memory, learning, and emotions; and the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in planning, decision making, problem solving, and other high-level cognitive functions.
Although the cortisol surge of acute stress facilitates memory consolidation—which is why we often have strong memories of exciting, scary, or painful experiences—chronically high levels interfere with memory formation.
Prolonged exposure to excessive stress hormones also “desensitizes” the brain to cortisol, disrupting the normal stress response and worsening the effects of stress on memory and cognitive function. In other words, it makes it harder to cope with stressors in the future.
Chronic Stress Impacts Memory and Cognitive Function
If you’ve ever been unable to find your keys when you’re running late, or your mind has gone blank when giving a presentation, you know that even run-of-the-mill stress can impact your memory.
Chronic stress takes it to the next level. You may constantly feel scatterbrained and forgetful and find it hard to focus, concentrate, and perform at your best. Studies have linked high cortisol levels with poorer performance on tests of memory and cognitive function. Ruminating thoughts and worries, irritability, frustration, mental exhaustion, and burnout are other common symptoms of chronic stress.
How to Handle Stress Naturally
You can’t avoid stress. But you can learn strategies that help you cope with and bounce back from the tough times and situations that are an inevitable part of life. Developing stress resilience will not only improve your memory, mental clarity, and peace of mind but all aspects of your health.
You already know that regular exercise, restorative sleep, and a good diet are requisites for a healthy brain. You also know that yoga, tai chi, qi gong, meditation, deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and additional mind-body practices are great stress busters.
So, we are going to focus on adaptogens and other nutritional supplements that help modulate the stress response and support brain health—and discuss why they should be an integral part of your daily stress-management routine.
Ashwagandha Helps You Adapt to Stress
Adaptogens are botanicals that help you adapt to the physical and mental effects of stress. And for cushioning the mental effects of stress, supporting brain health, and improving cognitive function, ashwagandha deserves top billing.
Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is a mainstay of ayurveda, the traditional medical system of India. In addition to its 3,000-year-old history of use, ashwagandha has been studied in dozens of clinical trials. Benefits of ashwagandha for those experiencing stress include:
- Modulating stress hormones and decreasing elevated levels of cortisol
- Improving focus and concentration
- Reducing occasional anxiousness
- Boosting mood
- Reducing fatigue and irritability
- Enhancing sleep
- Lowering levels of CRP, a marker of inflammation
In short, ashwagandha helps your body and brain adapt to stress. It blunts the adverse effects of excess cortisol and reduces stress-related symptoms like brain fog, fatigue, forgetfulness, anxiousness, and low mood so you feel more focused and in control.
Mindful Advantage contains Sensoril, a patented ashwagandha extract standardized with 10% withanolides (the active component). The daily dose is 125 mg. If you suffer with sleeplessness, taking it at bedtime can be a great help.
5-HTP Boosts Levels of Serotonin
5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) is an amino acid naturally produced in the body that can be converted to serotonin. Serotonin, which is often referred to as the “feel-good” neurotransmitter, is a chemical messenger that positively influences mood. When serotonin levels are optimal, you feel calmer and more relaxed.
Supplemental 5-HTP, derived from the seeds of a plant native to Africa called Griffonia simplicifolia, helps with chronic stress. Rather than targeting cortisol and the stress response directly, 5-HTP addresses the problems that develop as a result of chronic stress.
Studies have found that supplemental 5-HTP is especially effective for improving mood especially when impacted by stress. 5-HTP has also been shown to increase levels of BDNF, a growth factor that protects neurons and is essential for learning and memory.
The recommended dose of 5-HTP is 30 mg per day, which is exactly what we’ve included in Mindful Advantage.
Berries Improve Memory and Mental Performance
Blueberries, red grapes, Aronia melanocarpa, and other red and purple berries are some of the world’s richest source of anthocyanins, which have potent antioxidant properties that are especially beneficial for the brain.
Studies of extracts of red grapes and Aronia melanocarpa have demonstrated improvements in cognitive function.
An easy way to get robust levels of protective anthocyanins is concentrated berry extracts. In Mindful Advantage, we use extracts that are backed by scientific research including CogniGrape® (red grapes) and Brainberry® (Aronia melanocarpa).
Nutritional Deficiencies Can Impair Your Health
Essential vitamins and minerals are required for normal function, and if you don’t get enough of them, your health will suffer. Unfortunately, most people have a deficiency or insufficiency in one or more vital nutrients.
Vitamin B12 is of particular concern because a minimum of 1 in 5 people over age 60 are deficient in this essential vitamin. Low levels of vitamin B12 can cause various health issues. The good news is that B12 deficiencies can be corrected.
Mindful Advantage contains the ideal methylcobalamin form of vitamin B12, along with vitamin B6.
To Keep Your Mind Sharp, Get Stress Under Control
Stress doesn’t affect everyone the same way. Genetics, personality traits, and past and current experiences have a tremendous influence on how you respond to stressors and how this affects your mental and physical health. If you are especially vulnerable to the ill effects of stress, or if adverse events or situations are unrelenting and stress is chronic, you need to get a handle on it.
Get serious about adopting stress-management strategies. Work on addressing the situations and issues that provoke the stress response. And get started with Mindful Advantage, with the combination of ashwagandha, 5-HTP, vitamin B12, and other botanical compounds that help mitigate the effects of stress on memory, cognitive function, and brain health.
Consistency is key. As your resilience and ability to adapt to stress increases, you can expect improvements in mental sharpness and clarity, memory and cognitive performance, and sense of well-being.