From 2bbf7a514130bb6af74899f72bc459b422f0628e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: conradrolfe772 Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2026 18:39:38 +0800 Subject: [PATCH] Add This is the Brain Fog-Fighting Micronutrient you Need to Know About --- ... Fog-Fighting Micronutrient you Need to Know About.-.md | 7 +++++++ 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+) create mode 100644 This is the Brain Fog-Fighting Micronutrient you Need to Know About.-.md diff --git a/This is the Brain Fog-Fighting Micronutrient you Need to Know About.-.md b/This is the Brain Fog-Fighting Micronutrient you Need to Know About.-.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..38f7afc --- /dev/null +++ b/This is the Brain Fog-Fighting Micronutrient you Need to Know About.-.md @@ -0,0 +1,7 @@ +
It’s no surprise that interest in health and wellbeing has peaked over the last year. Be it supporting our immune system to ward off illness, or harnessing the effect of mood-boosting supplements and vitamin D in the throes of winter, we’ve all looked for new ways to help maintain our mental and physical health in the face of the pandemic. But despite all the vitamins, minerals and probiotics that have made their way into the mainstream, one essential nutrient hasn’t cropped up in the conversation at all: choline. This little-known micronutrient plays a crucial role in brain health, as well as in many other essential processes within the body. "Choline is an essential water soluble micronutrient that’s neither a vitamin or a mineral," explains Dr Tara Swart, [The Genius Switch focus program](http://hksolution.co.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_table=comm2&wr_id=965804) neuroscientist, medical doctor and author of The Source. " Effectively, Dr Swart explains, it’s important for all of our bodily functions, including renewing our DNA and protecting us against the wear and tear of life.
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Many experts extol the benefits of choline with regard to cognitive function - a topic that’s been dominating [The Genius Switch Focus Program](https://rememberingbaltimore.net/index.php/User:BonnySnodgrass) conversation during lockdown - with some research touting it as a "brain food", and other studies likening it to omega 3 fatty acids, as both are important for memory and need to be obtained through diet. "Our body needs choline for various metabolic processes, including the production of acetylcholine - an important neurotransmitter for mood, memory, muscle control and various other brain and nervous system functions," says nutritionist Amelia Freer. Choline is particularly important for pregnant women, explains nutritionist Alice Mackintosh, whose supplement brand Equi offers a Pregnancy Formula that harnesses choline alongside B vitamins and methyl-folate. A nutrient that pregnant women are often deficient in, Mackintosh emphasises that "it’s estimated that only 8 per cent of pregnant women receive enough choline through their diet". She cites a 2011 study on its importance for foetal neural development.
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According to another study, supplementing choline at around twice the recommended amount (930 mg) can even improve infant information processing speed. Can choline affect cognitive function? "Choline can affect our memory, mood and ability to problem solve, think flexibly, regulate emotions and manage stress," says Dr Swart. Of course, as she points out, there are many contributing factors associated with mental acuity to take into consideration too, including a lack of good quality sleep, dehydration, diet, an unhealthy gut microbiome and so on. She also stresses that simply increasing your choline levels through diet or supplementation will not miraculously improve mental clarity or sharpen focus overnight. Mackintosh echoes this sentiment, stating that "although [choline](https://search.un.org/results.php?query=choline) works independently in the body, it’s important to understand that it works best when in synergy with a complex of other vitamins and minerals such as B vitamins and folate. With lack of focus and productivity becoming a major concern for many over lockdown (particularly when working from home), it’s even possible that increased time in front of our screens, or the stress inflicted by the pandemic, could actually be depleting our levels of choline, suggest both Mackintosh and Dr Swart.
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"Anything that uses up our cognitive resources - every decision we make, every memory we recall and all tasks requiring us to think, feel and act - will be using up the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that we ingest or have stored in our bodies," says Dr Swart, who explains that stress and intense, focused work can drain our body of things like magnesium and choline, therefore impacting [The Genius Switch cognitive training](http://www.panwest.co.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_table=free&wr_id=98952) effectiveness with which we carry out daily tasks. Consider then both [The Genius Switch mental clarity](https://kb.smds.us/index.php/The_Genius_Switch:_Does_It_Work%3F) additional stress of navigating new routines, to which our brains have also had to rewire and adapt, combined with a sense of uncertainty and the psychological pressure of being ultra-productive in lockdown - and it’s easy to see why brain fog, or "lockdown brain" or "lockdown fatigue", is a challenge so many of us are facing. Despite our bodies making a small amount of choline in the liver, we aren’t able to synthesise sufficient quantities, and the majority therefore needs to come from our diet.
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