Reduced mental clarity can have various causes, ranging in severity from 'minor' to 'very serious'. Finding the true cause means ruling out or confirming each possibility – in other words, diagnosis.
Diagnosis is usually a complex process due to the sheer number of possible causes and related symptoms. In order to diagnose reduced mental clarity, we could:
Cause | Probability | Status |
---|---|---|
Poor Cerebral Circulation | 99% | Confirm |
Stress | 28% | Unlikely |
Calming / Stretching Exercise Need | 21% | Unlikely |
Epstein-Barr Virus | 0% | Ruled out |
Vitamin B12 Need | 0% | Ruled out |
Magnesium Need | 0% | Ruled out |
Fluorosis | 0% | Ruled out |
West Nile Virus | 0% | Ruled out |
How 'clear' is your mind / thinking? A 'clear' mind comes quickly and accurately to conclusions; a 'foggy' mind has trouble doing calculations or making decisions that should normally be simple.
Possible responses:
→ My mind is always/almost always 'foggy'→ My mind is often 'foggy' → Average / don't know → My mind is usually 'clear' → My mind is always/almost always 'clear' |
Mental health and physical energy are difficult to quantify, but everyone who participates in yoga over a period of time reports a positive effect on outlook and energy level. A British study of 71 healthy volunteers aged 21-76 found that a 30 minute program of yogic stretching and breathing exercises was simple to learn and resulted in a "markedly invigorating" effect on perceptions of both mental and physical energy and improved mood.
The study compared relaxation, visualization and yoga. It found that the yoga group had a significantly greater increase in perceptions of mental and physical energy and feelings of alertness and enthusiasm than the other groups. Relaxation was found to make people more sleepy and sluggish after a session, and visualization made them more sluggish and less content than those in the yoga group.
Experts have voiced a longstanding concern that ketosis might fog up people's thinking, but it took until 1995 to be formally tested. As reported in the International Journal of Obesity article "Cognitive Effects of Ketogenic Weight-Reducing Diets," researchers randomized people to either a ketogenic or a nonketogenic weight loss diet. Although both groups lost the same amount of weight, those on the ketogenic diet suffered a significant drop in cognitive performance. After one week in ketosis, higher order mental processing and mental flexibility significantly worsened into what the researcher called a "modest neuropsychological impairment." [International Journal of Obesity 19 (1995): p.811]
Impaired reasoning is said to be a symptom of EBV.
Symptoms of fluid overload include a gradual mental dulling, drowsiness, weakness, confusion, coma, convulsions (and even death!)