Tag Archives: fibro fog

Milking It: Is Vitamin D the Answer to Fibro Fog?

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A recent study suggests that Vitamin D consumption during physical development has an effect on brain power as one ages, leading to speculation that appropriate supplementation in later years can help us retain or even improve mental acuity.

Fibro fog, anyone?

According to several studies (see References section, below, for cites), Vitamin D may, in addition to fighting cancer and keeping our skeletons strong, help improve cognitive abilities. That’s an intriguing finding for those of us fighting fibro fog, the occasional decline in aspects of cognition that can accompany fibromyalgia.

Is it possible to alleviate the memory lapses, the word-searching, and the sudden inability to do simple math with just a daily pill? Well — probably not. But even so, Vitamin D is a necessary substance for good health. It’s unique among vitamins in that our own bodies can manufacture it out of sunlight. Fifteen minutes of sun exposure without sunscreen three times a week — most experts seem to agree that this is sufficient to allow our bodies to do their thing.

However, our ability to make this vitamin decreases as we age, so it’s also important to make sure we eat foods rich in vitamin D. Some good suggestions, in addition to the usual milk and milk products, include salmon, cod, and shrimp. Eggs are also a good choice.

A good multivitamin with vitamin D isn’t a bad idea, but if you want to supplement with 1,000 I.U. or more vitamin D pill, check with your physician first; vitamin D can be toxic in large amounts. 1,000 IU should not produce toxicity by itself, but all sources should be considered.

References

  • “Effects of vitamin D supplementation on symptoms of depression in overweight and obese subjects: randomized double blind trial”; Journal of Internal Medicine; R. Jorde, M. Sneve, Y. Figenschau, J. Svartberg J. and K. Waterloo; December 2008 and “Vitamin D deficiency is associated with low mood and worse cognitive performance in older adults”; American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry; C. H. Wilkins, Y. I. Sheline, C. M. Roe, S. J. Birge and J. C. Morris; December 2006, both quoted in “Mental Health Benefits of Vitamin D” — Michele Turcotte: LiveStrong.com (accessed Nov. 7, 2009)
  • “Vitamin D: Vitamin Dependency, Deficiency and Toxicity” – Merck.com (accessed Nov. 7, 2009)

How to Combat Fibro Fog and Get Your Brain Back in Gear — Phase Three: Coping Mechanisms For Brain Fatigue

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NB: This is the last post in a four-post series about how to combat “fibro fog” and improve cognitive function. Post #1 examines fibro fog in its various manifestations and examines some possible causes. It also provides an overview of a three-phased approach to combating fibro fog that the remaining posts in the series examine in more detail. Post #2 looks at improving sleep; post #3 outlines strategies to keep your brain challenged and healthy; and this post examines various coping mechanisms to deal with the fibro-fog effects that can’t be eliminated by the first two phases.

If you diligently work the first two phases — sleep improvement and brain exercise through chess, music, or number puzzles (or better, all three) — you should see a noticeable improvement in your fibro fog symptoms. However, you may not eliminate all of those symptoms, and so phase three is all about learning tricks and tips to cope with the occasional brain misfires.

Declutter Everything

Clutter around the house equals clutter in the mind. Some may resist this notion, but I’ve found it to be unassailably true in my own life. When my house is a wreck, my confusion increases. When things get relatively straight, my memory improves.

Give it a try and see if it helps you. Don’t attempt to declutter all at once, though. For most of us, this is a long project, that requires planning and the dedication of at least a few weekends.

One method that seems to work well for me, without triggering post-exertional flareups, is to dedicate no more than 20 minutes each day to decluttering, and spending that time on one small area of the house at a time. If the timer goes off before I’m done, I quit anyway, and pick up where I left off the next day. Also, delegate some of the work to other household members! Even small children can help by going through old clothes or sorting things into piles for giveaway, or putting “throw-away” items into a large garbage bag.

Take Note(s)

Notetaking is probably the single most important coping mechanism I’ve found in battling the effects of fibro fog. I always have a notepad with me. I prefer these reporter-style Moleskines (NB: affiliate link) which you can get at Amazon or most bookstores, but simple and cheap versions are available at almost any drugstore or big box retailer like Walmart. Wherever I go, I have one with me, and I keep one in my purse and another in the car at all times, along with pens.

Learn to Love the Sound of Your Voice

Another helpful coping mechanism is to invest in a small digital recorder. Most models are tiny enough to fit into a woman’s purse. Keep yours loaded with a fresh tape. Whenever something hits you that you want to recall later, simply make note of it on the recorder along with the date and time of day. Then, make a habit of reviewing the tapes nightly before bed, jotting down any notes you want to keep track of (perhaps in your reporter notebook, as mentioned above).

Get Things Done

If you haven’t heard of David Allen’s aggressive and highly effective time and task management system outline in his bestselling Getting Things Done book, you might want to check it out. This system won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Some find it intimidating in its insistence on organized, updated lists and structure. But there are several aspects of the system that are particularly useful for fibro fog sufferers:

  • Create agendas for individuals and businesses. Keep a list of items to discuss with particular people. Sort the list by name, if you like, or just keep one master list and jot down each person’s name before the item to be discussed. Then, the next time you see that person, you can simply pull out the list and check off what you discussed, along with any notes that you might need to remember.
  • Strive for an empty “inbox” — whether that’s email or a virtual “tasks” inbox. Aim to sort everything that comes across your desk or your consciousness just once.
  • Learn to love the “two minute” rule. If it takes less than two minutes to do whatever needs doing with any incoming item, then go ahead and do it. Otherwise, put it in an appropriate file or folder, whether that’s a physical file on your desk or a folder on your computer. Organize your folders into large groupings such as “Deferred Items,” “To Delegate,” “Need More Information,” or “To Be Filed/Reference.”
  • Cultivate the helpful habit of a weekly review. Each week, on a particular day (some suggest Fridays or Sundays as particularly good days for this), set aside half an hour or so to go over your notes and files from the prior week. If some appointment or task is suggested by this review, go ahead and schedule it for a specific time and date. If you can file it, do so. If it needs to be researched, then make plans to get the information you need. The idea is to start and end each week with an overview of what’s gone before, and what’s coming up, and hopefully an empty “inbox”!
  • Keep your calendar scrupulously updated . I suggest using two calendars — a physical one and a computer-based one. Whichever is your primary calendar, use that one to update the other. It’s most helpful to use a small pocket-sized or “junior” sized physical calendar, one that can be schlepped around in a purse or briefcase. Then you can add items to your calendar throughout your day, no matter where you are. When you return to the computer, you can update the computer calendar with more information as needed.
  • Investigate a few of the many computer “capture” tools . I particularly like Evernote, as it’s free to use for most of us, and has a handy web clipper button that inserts itself into your browser window, so you can capture notes from web pages, along with the URL of the site. Then you can add tags to your notes, slip them into the appropriate files or folders, and be done with it. Highly efficient!

Diet, Supplements, and Aromatherapy

Even if you’re skeptical of all that “New Age” stuff, you might want to give these options a try. Studies support the use of each to aid memory and brain function:

  • Vitamins . Make sure you take at a minimum a daily multivitamin. You can add extra D and B complex to aid in memory and cognitive function.
  • Gingko biloba and Omega 3 . Each of these is thought to assist in brain function as well.
  • Rosemary — scent . Use either natural rosemary oils in a diffuser or burn a “rosemary stick” if you can find one locally. (These are simply bound-up bundles of dried rosemary that smolder when lit. Be careful to have a large bowl of sand available to extinguish the embers when you’re done, though!)
  • Rosemary — cooking . Add rosemary to dishes to protect your body’s natural supply of acetylcholine, which attacks free radicals in the body that can diminish cognitive functions.
  • Shellfish . Be mindful of the potential for mercury intake, but if you have a safe source, shellfish are thought to boost brain function.
  • Good nutrition overall. Failure to eat sufficient nutrients for basic life functions can have a devastating impact on our overall health, including brain function. Make sure you’re taking in enough calories overall for your size and body weight, and that those calories are provided by natural, whole foods, not highly processed snacks and derivatives.
  • Water. It’s easier than you might think to get dehydrated. Make sure you’re drinking sufficient water to keep yourself hydrated. There’s absolutely no scientific evidence for the old saw about “eight glasses a day”, by the way — four to six is probably sufficient, and don’t forget all water counts, even the water found naturally in food and other drinks.

Meditate, Every Day

Not only useful for stress reduction, which is itself helpful for improving your brain function, meditation also teaches us over time to remain equanimous in the face of anxiety triggers. It also teaches us to be “in the moment”, which helps tremendously to create a state of what’s called “flow” — that easy, natural sensation you sometimes experience when you’re fully engaged in an activity, and things just easily “flow” from one stage to the next.

You need no special equipment or training to meditate. Simply set aside fifteen to thirty minutes every day where you won’t be disturbed. Wear comfortable clothing, and find a seated position that allows you to keep your spine straight. (Beginners should avoid lying down as it’s all too easy to simply all asleep while meditating; while rest is also good, meditation requires a deeply relaxed yet still conscious state of mind.) Then close your eyes and … you have a choice:

  • Bring to mind a mantra or phrase that has meaning for you. “I am well” — “om” — “peace surrounds me” — “God is with me” — all of these will work just fine.
  • Count your breaths. Simply observing and counting your breaths will keep the rest of your mind from interrupting with daily trivia and is a powerful meditation technique.
  • Consider intruding thoughts like butterflies or falling leaves: simply observe them and then make them “fly away” or fall to the ground, giving them no import or emotional significance. Then return your mind to a peaceful, blank-slate state.

There are many methods of meditating. Explore them all until you find one that feels good to you. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t seem to manage more than a few minutes at a time. Every little bit helps, and it takes practice to develop the skill of holding that empty-mind state for a length of time. Whatever you do, don’t use meditation as one more thing to beat yourself up over!

Nootics: The Wave of the Future?

The efficacy of nootics — substances such as nutritional supplements, foods, drugs, and the like that are believed to enhance memory or cognitive skills — have yet to be proven conclusively. However, some fibromites (and others) claim they’ve experienced benefits from their use.

Wikipedia (although not universally helpful) does have some good information on nootics, if you’d like to consider their use. You may also want to review Nootropics.com, although it has a clear agenda. For a scholarly approach, try this abstract of “Memory enhancing drugs and Alzheimer’s Disease: Enhancing the self or preventing the loss of it?”

As with any new treatment, please consult your doctor before adding nootropics to your regimen, to ensure against contraindicated measures.

Bottom Line: Stay Positive and Stay Involved

That’s the end of our three-step “How to Combat Fibro Fog” series! I hope you enjoyed it, and got something out of it that you can try. Did I miss a particularly helpful strategy you’ve tried? Share it in the comment

How to Combat Fibro Fog and Get Your Brain Back in Gear: Keeping Your Brain Engaged

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NB: This is the third in a four-post series about how to combat “fibro fog” and improve cognitive function. Post #1 examines fibro fog in its various manifestations and examines some possible causes. It also provides an overview of a three-phased approach to combating fibro fog that the remaining posts in the series will examine in more detail. Post #2 looks at improving sleep; this post outlines strategies to keep your brain challenged and healthy; and post #4 will examine various coping mechanisms to deal with the fibro-fog effects that can’t be eliminated by the first two phases.

Phase Two: Keep Your Brain Sharp

Making time to engage in activities that keep your brain’s neurons firing in diverse ways is crucial to combating the effects of fibro-fog and to improving your brain health overall, which is important as we age.
The following activities are especially recommended as they call on different areas of intelligence and provide a comprehensive “brain fitness” program which can help beat back fibro fog and general brain dysfunction caused by aging as well.

Chess, Anyone?

I’m personally very excited about this discovery: chess is an amazing all-around brain booster when it comes to fighting fibro-fog! It may seem daunting if you’ve never played before, but my experience might be encouraging to you.

First, a bit of background about my own fibromyalgia history: I was diagnosed in early 2000. Thanks to a supportive doctor and my own willingness to take a fairly scientific yet assertive approach to management, was able to enjoy a fairly high quality of life for several years.

This was due to a complex, comprehensive treatment program I developed over the years that included restorative yoga, a diet rich in lean proteins and complex carbohydrates, several conservative “feel good” measures, and regular, but carefully monitored, doses of tramadol with acetaminophen.

Unfortunately, due to various severe stressors I experienced from 2007 on, my fibro got significantly worse, culminating in the horrifying discovery earlier this year (2009) that I was no longer able to practice my profession (law), primarily because of cognitive problems. That’s a scary feeling for anyone, and I admit I panicked at first.

I wish I could say I’m all better now, but I’m not. However, I have improved my brain function to a noticeable degree and one of the keys to this improvement, I’m convinced, is that I started learning to play chess.

Chess is a complex game of strategy, requiring players to think several moves ahead, and consider various game permutations in order to make the best tactical moves. The rules of chess are fairly simple but the way those rules play out in a real game can be mind-boggling! My theory is that this complex reasoning can be developed as one learns the game, and that this process must somehow “ignite” the faulty neurons that misfire in fibro fog.

I started with a program that came pre-loaded on my latest computer purchase, a Gateway laptop: Chess Titans. By setting the level to “1” (rank beginner), and refreshing my memory about the various rules of piece movement, I was able to engage in a few games and even managed to eke out a few “draws” (but no “wins”!) against the computer, which also played at a beginner level.

I did some research online at free websites (some of these are outlined in the resource list below), and educated myself on various maneuvers and openings. Then I made a cool accidental discovery: by setting Chess Titans to “new game against human being” I could take historic games, such as Game Thirteen of the 1972 Fischer-Spassky World Championship match, and play it out on the virtual board before me. By following the action along with written commentary about the moves — why this move was bold but that one was a blunder — I was able to improve my understanding about the game dramatically.

I’m still a rank beginner — after all, I’ve only been playing a few weeks — but I have noticed significant improvement in my mental capacity, especially in the area of deductive reasoning and, oddly, memory and retention. I play daily now, for a half hour or so. If that’s the price for better control over fibro-fog, it’s one I’m happy to pay — it requires little time, and it’s fun, to boot — especially now that I’m starting to win a few games!

Sudoku: The Numbers Game

Sudoku became something of a craze awhile back, and it’s been highly recommended by neurologists and researchers as an excellent way to maintain brain fitness against the natural decline of the aging process. It’s also a great way to exercise a different area of the brain in the fight against fibro fog.

Playing number games like Sudoku doesn’t just improve your math skills. Interestingly, perhaps because it requires you to reason out ahead of time, much like chess, it can also improve overall cognition, in my experience.

You can find cheap Sudoku puzzle books in any drugstore or big box superstore, such as Walmart. You can also find online puzzle sites that offer free games, either for print or for playing online.

Play That Funky Music

I’m not just suggesting you put on your favorite CD or load up your iPod. I’m saying “play an instrument” — and learn one, if you don’t currently know how to play.

There’s a huge resistance among many of a “certain age” against picking up a new instrument later in life. I understand the anxiety, believe me. When I finally satisfied a life-long itch to learn the violin two years ago, I was surprised by the fact that there weren’t many resources out there for adults learning to play. I ended up with the “baby” Suzuki method books, which worked just fine but it would have been nice to have some more “grown-up” references available!

Anyone can learn to play an instrument with time and practice. Playing music is actually doubly beneficial. The music itself — the process of learning a piece and perfecting it — acts like aerobic exercise for cognition, but also the process of learning the instrument itself is powerfully helpful against fibro fog and general cognition decline.

So, even if it’s been awhile — or if you’ve never picked up a musical instrument in your life — give this some thought. Cheap student violins can be purchased online for as little as $50; you may be able to borrow your church’s piano for practice during times when no one’s using the sanctuary; you can even rent instruments from many music shops, if you want to give it a try but aren’t too sure about making an initial investment.

One thing I recommend from personal experience — i.e., my own mistakes: if you’re going to go to the trouble of learning a new instrument, invest in a few lessons from a qualified teacher who is supportive of older learners. Not every teacher is, so question them on that latter point! I dove into the violin without the aid of one-on-one lessons, using DVDs and online videos, and that was OK, but I think I could have gone much farther more quickly with the aid of a live instructor who could correct my form directly.

If you already know how to play, then purchase some music that’s a little more difficult than your current level of proficiency, and set aside time regularly to work on the piece.

Whichever you are — a total beginner, a returning student, or a lifelong musician — conquering an instrument and playing something you weren’t able to play before not only improves your brain fitness but it’s also a huge boost to your self-confidence!

In the next post, we’ll examine ways to cope with fibro fog’s cognitive malfunctions.

How to Combat Fibro Fog and Get Your Brain Back in Gear: Better Sleep = Functional Brains

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NB: This is the second in a four-post series about how to combat “fibro fog” and improve cognitive function. Post #1 examines fibro fog in its various manifestations and examines some possible causes. It also provides an overview of a three-phased approach to combating fibro fog that the remaining posts in the series will examine in more detail. This post looks at improving sleep; post #3 outlines strategies to keep your brain challenged and healthy; and post #4 examines various coping mechanisms to deal with the fibro-fog effects that can’t be eliminated by the first two phases.

Why We Start With Sleep Problems When We’re Combating Fibro Fog

Most experts agree that sleep is, if not the single cause of fibro fog, one of the largest contributing factors. Although fibromites can have wildly divergent experiences with this condition, one thing that almost all of us share in common is poor sleep and not enough of it.

As most of us who are parents learn when our children are infants, there’s a very good reason that sleep deprivation is used as a torture technique: it works! Inadequate rest can quite literally shut your brain down, increase confusion, deaden your reflexes, and create massive gaps in your memory and recall ability.

So, we start with improving our sleep in Phase One of this three-phrase approach.

Phase One: Address Your Sleep Issues First

Start by attacking the generally-agreed-upon root cause of fibro fog first: poor sleep. Begin by taking a week-long “read” of your current sleep patterns. Ask yourself the following questions:

  1. How long do you sleep at a time?
  2. How often do you reach waking consciousness during the night?
  3. How many times are you aware of moving in bed because of pain?
  4. What is your pain level when you go to bed compared to when you get up in the morning?
  5. What is your current nighttime pre-bed ritual?
  6. What did you have to eat and drink before bed, and how close to bedtime were these taken?

If you can arrange to perform this initial survey during a week when you don’t have to set the alarm to wake up, you’ll get more reliable results. But start with wherever you are and do the best you can.

Analyze Your Results

From your informal survey of your past week’s sleep patterns, you should now have a clearer idea of what your specific sleep issues are, whether that’s waking up too many times during the night, falling to sleep in the beginning, or sleeping long enough overall.

Now you can begin to adjust your sleep-related habits more effectively. I suggest trying each major adjustment one at a time for a week or so, before adding or trying another. This gives your body time to adjust to the new routine but also allows you to see which adjustment “did the trick” if you begin experiencing improved sleep.

Basic Sleep Hygiene

Begin by improving on some general “hygiene” habits that have been shown to improve sleep in terms of both quality and quantity. These suggestions include:

  • Lower the temperature in the room. Studies show we sleep best in cooler temperatures.

  • Experiment with pillows to provide support beneath and between knees, depending on your preferred sleep position, to ease pressure on the back.

  • Move all electronics out of the bedroom, save for an alarm clock if necessary. But turn the alarm clock away from the bed, to remove the temptation of looking at it when you have trouble falling asleep; this will only increase anxiety.

  • Leave at least three hours between your last meal or drink before bedtime. This can reduce the urge to urinate in the middle of the night, which might help your body stay in the sleep pattern, instead of waking to go to the bathroom.

  • Experiment with white noise or nature sounds to prevent waking due to household noises.

  • If you like to read before bed, watch what you read: eschew thrillers and tightly-plotted suspense novels for more literary or spiritually-themed books that you’ll be able to put down more easily. (I can personally recommend Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time!)

  • Try installing a home fragrance diffuser or air freshener with a lavender scent. Better yet, use lavender water to freshen your bed linens. Lavender has been shown in several studies to produce a relaxing, calming atmosphere.

  • Put up blackout curtains underneath your normal bedroom window coverings to block out all ambient outside light from streetlamps, full moons, and the sun in the morning.

  • Eliminate caffeine from your diet after 4 PM, or better yet, eliminate it altogether. Some people appear to be more sensitive to this drug than other people are, and by eliminating it completely, you can tell whether you’re one of those people. If your energy picks up dramatically during the day (an odd but not uncommon side effect for caffeine sensitives) and you fall asleep more easily at night, you’ll know to avoid caffeine in the future.

  • If you like to take a bath before bed, make certain the water is not too hot. Increases in body temperature can make falling asleep more difficult.

Should You Try Medication?

If all else fails, consider speaking to your doctor about medication to help you sleep. For fibromyalgia patients, these drugs can either be pain-relievers (if it’s the pain keeping you from attaining good rest) or sleep aids such as Lunesta and Ambien. Talk to your physician to determine whether one or both of these might be a useful addition to your treatment program.

While some are resistant to prescription drugs for fear of becoming addicted, the truth is that the real rate of addiction in chronic pain patients is pretty low.

The media doesn’t do much to assuage these baseless fears and in fact aids in the perpetuation of the chronic-pain-addict myth by confusing two very different concepts: addiction and dependence. Addiction is a psychological malady that is an unfortunate side effect of using pain medication for the wrong reasons; dependence is a perfectly normal and expected physical state that results from the proper use of such medications.

If you’re concerned about dependence, as opposed to addiction, your doctor should be able to reassure you and give you ways to keep your body from becoming dependent, if you’re steadfast about that. If you have reason to be concerned about addiction, then you should still talk to your physician because there may be non-habit forming alternatives you can try.

The bottom line is that sleep isn’t just a good idea or something you’d like to have more of: it’s absolutely crucial for everyone, but especially so for chronic pain patients, and maybe even more so for fibromyalgia patients. Why? It’s only during restful, deep sleep that our muscles can heal.

So, whether you decide to try medication, or decide against it, that’s an extremely personal choice. But whatever you do, don’t give up on the quest for a good night’s sleep. It’s that important.

In the next post in this series, we’ll examine strategies to keep your brain challenged and healthy.

How To Beat Fibro-Fog and Get Your Brain Back in Gear (Part 1 of 4)

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NB: This is the first in a four-post series about how to combat “fibro fog” and improve cognitive function. This post examines fibro fog in its various manifestations and examines some possible causes. It also provides an overview of a three-phased approach to combating fibro fog that the remaining posts in the series will examine in more detail. Post #2 will look at improving sleep; post #3 outlines strategies to keep your brain challenged and healthy; and post #4 examines various coping mechanisms to deal with the fibro-fog effects that can’t be eliminated by the first two phases.

Fibromyalgia sufferers know all too well the agony the condition can cause — debilitating pain, sleepless nights, irritable bowel syndrome, and more. But of all the myriad, complex symptoms of fibromyalgia, probably the most frightening to many of us is the amusingly-named, but not so funny, “fibro fog.” Fortunately, there are many things we can do to combat fibro fog, if not outright eliminate it from our lives altogether.

What Is Fibro Fog, and What Causes It?

Before we examine the strategies to combat fibro fog, however, let’s take a short look at what it is and what may cause it.

Briefly, fibro fog can be used to describe just about any cognitive impairment that we might experience with fibromyalgia. Some common manifestations of this experience are:

  • Forgetting the right “word”
  • Misnaming common objects
  • Losing track of our thoughts as we’re speaking
  • Forgetting where commonly used items are
  • Struggling with new information
  • Difficulty retaining learned information

There are many variations on fibro fog, of course, because we all experience it in slightly different ways. However, despite the funny name, it’s not at all funny to suddenly forget a child’s name, or struggle with the appropriate word to describe an object we use every day. It’s downright frightening!

Fortunately, we know that this is not a psychological problem, nor is it a symptom (necessarily) of Alzheimers. (However, if you have reason to suspect it may be Alzheimers, it would be worthwhile to see a doctor about diagnostic tests to rule out this more serious condition.)

Most researchers attribute fibro fog to another of the most common fibro symptoms: sleep disturbance. In short, many believer that it’s our lack of high-quality, consistent sleep that leads us to become perpetually sleep—deprived, and it’s that sleep-deprivation in turn that causes the cognitive problems.

An Overview of the Three-Phase Approach to Combating Fibro Fog

Whether it’s lack of sleep alone or in combination with other factors operating in the fibromyalgia patient, there are specific strategies you can undertake today to combat fibro fog and get your brain back in working order. I recommend the following three-phased approach that focuses first on your sleep issues, and then on keeping the brain active and engaged.

In Phase One, we’ll look at what many believe to be the root cause of fibro fog: poor quality of sleep. I’ll suggest some strategies to improve both the quality and length of your nightly rest and suggest other resources you can explore for further assistance.

In Phase Two, I’ll outline several strategies you can adopt to keep your brain challenged and healthy. Exercising the “mental muscle” is crucial to keeping those brain neurons firing on “all four cylinders” so to speak; engaging in challenging mental activities can boost your cognitive function in significant and noticeable ways.

Finally, Phase Three consists of several tricks, tips, and mechanisms that help fibromyalgia patients cope with the effects of fibro fog that can’t be eliminated using the activities in the first two phases.