Dr. A, an integrative medicine physician, recommends eight supplements for brain fog in people with cancer, chronic illness, or post-treatment cognitive issues: electrolytes, choline forms like phosphatidylcholine, magnesium, potassium, trans-resveratrol, vitamin D with K2, omega-3s, and a product called Cover-3.
Today's question is, what are your top supplements for brain fog? Hi, I'm Dr. A. Been working with patients with cancer and chronic illness for decades at this point, and I have been researching and teaching in the integrative medical space for 30 years now. And I use this channel to answer questions people have, et cetera. Now, we've had other videos about brain fog. You can look 'em up on the YouTube channel. We also turn these into a podcast that you can get as well. Go over to dranow.com. See that linked in the description below. If we're thinking about supplements as an intervention to help with brain fog, you have brain fog because you've been chronically ill. You can have it after during chemotherapy, radiation, all sorts of reasons. It's obviously very complex. So to limit it to just a few things, there's a lot of lifestyle things we talk about in other videos. But here, what would be my top thoughts as far as supplementation? Things you take. The first thing, which we talk about in the lifestyle videos and brain fog, is hydration. But In this one focused on supplementation, number one is hydration with electrolytes. And so, you can get electrolyte powders, you can get those little pouches where you open it up and put it in your water, other powders that are bulk, et cetera. There's many, many ways to get electrolytes. Why that and why not just drinking a ton of water? It's because a lot of times, especially when you have a sensitive body, chronically ill body, body that's just had chemo, radiation, or a bunch of antibiotics or some other stress, the water will go in and if there's not enough electrolyte— I'm super simplifying But if there's not enough electrolytes, which are minerals, with it, the water will move through the body's normal systems and most of it's going to pee out, right? So water with electrolytes is more hydrating in general. Number 2 is a form of choline, but for brain health, I don't recommend just plain choline like L-choline or something. We want something in the phospholipid family. So phosphatidylcholine, GPC, glycerophosphocholine, a little more absorbable or super absorbable. Cytokoline, also super expensive sometimes, but something in a fat-solubilized choline supplement—PC, GPC, or cytokoline. Number three is magnesium. Very, very helpful. And you might say, well, is that part of the electrolytes? Well, electrolytes—you're thinking on smaller levels. So with magnesium, we're usually adding magnesium on there because it's a mineral that is helpful. We think of it for muscle pain and stuff. Your brain uses a ton of magnesium for a whole bunch of reasons. Number four is. Potassium, the other inside-the-cell mineral along with magnesium. And potassium, magnesium, normally we supplement this either multimineral or as a potassium magnesium citrate or potassium magnesium aspartate or other potassium magnesium combos. Just can take one pill a day and usually that's plenty. So that's number 4. Number 5 is one that we don't hear about quite as much, but it's called trans-resveratrol. So not just resveratrol, but trans-resveratrol, which you can now find in supplement. A lot of people say, well, don't absorb resveratrol very well. We know that in red wine it absorbs because of the alcohol with red wine, and maybe that's not so good for your brain. Trans-resveratrol actually does absorb better than plain resveratrol, and it has a lot of benefits for your whole body, your blood vessels and stuff, but also for your brain. So trans-resveratrol. We talked about this on another video, but the combo of vitamin D and K2, and generally speaking, you've got 5,000 or 10,000 of D in a capsule and about 100 micrograms of MK-7 K2. There might 1 milligram of MK-4 K2 because they're a little bit different, but DK-2 together. Why? Because they're immunomodulatory. They help with the regulation of the blood-brain barrier. They do a ton of stuff. So that's number 6. Number 7, omega-3 fats. We hear about this a lot for heart health. Well, your brain uses tons and tons of fats. Brain is largely made of fat. So good fats like the phospholipids we talked about and now omega-3, number 7. And number 8 is actually not one supplement, but I bring it up because it actually is a combination of a lot of these things in one package, one supplement that you can get. And I use it a lot with people recovering from head trauma, children with anywhere in the neurodiverse spectrum, adults in the neurodiverse spectrum, people recovering from brain surgery, all sorts of stuff, because they just have to take one thing and it tastes good too. And it's called Cover-3. So Cover-3, I don't have any financial connection to them. I know the doctor who invented it. But they don't pay me anything to say this. It's just my favorite brain supplement because it's got all these goodies in one supplement. Now, does it have the minerals and stuff like that? But it's got all of the expensive stuff. And can you buy them separately? Sure. And it's about the same cost separate or in Cover 3. But is it easier for people just to open up a packet and take one of those every day or take 'em however you decide to take 'em? It is easier. So Cover 3, again, I'm not sponsored by 'em, but I've used so much of this with patients and it's convenient. It's very effective and the dosing is appropriate. All right, those are my top 8 brain fog supplements. Check them out, and I'll see you all on the next video. Thank you for listening.
