What Is Brain Fog And What Does Brain Fog Feel Like
Brain fog is not a medical condition, disease or disorder. It is a set of symptoms that include a general feeling of fatigue and cognitive inefficiencies, such as reduced concentration and difficulty with memory, said Cynthia Funes, PhD, a clinical neuropsychologist at Banner University Medicine Neurosurgery Clinic in Phoenix, AZ. Patients often describe the experience of having a cloud inside their head that makes it difficult for them to focus on daily tasks.
Youve probably heard brain fog more these days especially as it relates to those recovering from COVID-19 or at the very least, experienced the symptoms on your own. Typical symptoms of brain fog include poor concentration, an extra effort to focus on a task, trouble multitasking or managing too many tasks at once, trouble tracking what you are doing and trouble retrieving a memory or information.
To better understand the causes and when you should be concerned, heres a breakdown of potential causes for brain fog.
Give Your Digestive System A Rest
Intermittent fasting is all the rage in the nutrition and weight loss world. But its not just beneficial for dropping pounds, calorie restriction and longer periods between meals can also promote neurological health and . To treat your brain fog and gain back some mental clarity, start with trying to extend the time between the last meal of the day and the first meal of the next day. Shoot for 12 hours. This promotes a process called ketogenesis, which can stimulate brain regeneration. But ketogenesis can be tricky and should be practiced under the guidance of someone who knows what theyre doing. Work with a Parsley Health doctor and coach to leverage both the timing and contents of your meals for better mental focus.
The Stigma Of Brain Fog
One challenge in treating brain fog is that patients can appear healthy, but feel terrible, said Robert Wilson, a neurologist with Cleveland Clinics Neurological Institute. If they dont find the right medical team to understand them, they will pull away from health care and access health care less, so there are less opportunities for them, he said.
A barrier to effectively care for patients with brain fogis the stigma attached to it, said Jacqueline Becker, a neuropsychologist at Mount Sinai who has studied cognitive impairment after covid.
The stigma prevents people from getting adequate care where physicians tend to write them off and say, No, youre young. Dont worry about it. Youll get better. Or, Look, your brain scan came back as normal. Theres nothing wrong with you, she said. And on the other side of that, you have a patient who is really struggling to function.
Rachael Grossman, a 22-year-old from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, said she started developing symptoms of brain fog after a bout of whooping cough when she was 17. I was bounced back and forth to so many different physicians, told it was in my head, told it was anxiety, she said.
Two years later, in 2019, she was diagnosed with POTS. Grossman is now a neuroscience major at Baldwin Wallace University and works part time as a medical scribe. She said she has to find ways to try to overcome her haze.
It will continue to affect me, sadly, but its just figuring out ways to get around it, she said.
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The Experience Of Brain Fog In Cfs As A Collection Of Physiological Cognitive And Perceptual Factors
Over the past 20 years, research has answered many questions regarding cognitive symptoms in CFS. The experience of brain fog in those with CFS appears to be the conscious perception of cognitive impairment and is related to mental fatigue. Individuals with CFS do not exhibit complete cognitive disability or dementia. However, they may experience deficits in working memory, information processing, and attention, which then may translate into a longer reaction time during tasks. It is logical that the perception of such deficits would be described as mental cloudiness and difficulty thinking.
To date, treatment of CFS has been focused on improving the physical fatigued state rather than the cognitive impairment. Meta-analyses demonstrate that cognitive behavioral therapy and graded exercise therapy effectively treat CFS in many individuals . It would not be surprising if mental fatigue also is improved with such therapies, but future studies are necessary to formally determine this.
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Brain Fog After Covid
Edwin Hall, a 65-year-old Navy veteran from Fulton, Mo., spent 12 days during summer 2021 in a medically induced coma because of covid, breathing with help from a ventilator. Doctors also discovered signs of a probable stroke, though they did not know its timing, he said.
Even now, he said, he wrestles with brain fog. He searched for words to describe it.
Lost, he said.
He recalled an incident during a Walmart trip not long after his hospitalization that he attributes to brain fog. He and his wife went down separate aisles, and once she was out of sight, he could not remember whether she told him where she was going or think about how to handle it.
I went into a major panic attack then and there, he said, adding that he clung to a pillar and waited for his wife to find him.
Earlier this year, he said, his symptoms forced him to retire as the application systems manager for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Another long-covid patient, Dave Nothstein, 52, of Colorado Springs, said he is still able to work remotely for an automobile dealership but only enough hours per week to pay for his insurance.
His greatest challenges are with word recall and short-term memory.
He is working with a cognitive therapist, which isnt covered by insurance, to try to deal with his impairment.
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Increase In Intracranial Presssure
A more recent finding is an increase in intracranial presssure based on neuroradiological signs in an MRI study. Signs of intracranial hypertension can be shown in 83% of the patients with ME/CFS . A further argument for a raised intracranial pressure is a higher prevalence of perineural or Tarlov cysts in the spinal cord in ME/CFS patients compared with healthy people . These cysts are nerve root dilations resulting from pathologically increased cerebrospinal fluid pressure. They initially affect sensory neurons and axons in dorsal root ganglia and produce sensory symptoms consistent with paresthesias and radicular pain as does the increased cerebrospinal pressure itself. IH can also be a cause of headache . A rise in intracranial pressure is at the expense of cerebral perfusion pressure which may have the strongest effect at the level of capillary blood flow. Possibly for this reason, IH is also associated with cognitive impairment .
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Natural Remedies That Work
We all feel tired, even exhausted, some of the time. But for some people, the exhaustion never lets up, and it comes along with physical discomfort, sleep issues, and trouble with memory and concentration. Anywhere from about 800,000 to 2.5 million Americans may have myalgic encephalomyelitis more commonly called chronic fatigue syndrome .
Medical experts once told people these symptoms were all in their head” but they have come to accept that the suffering is real.
As one patient put it, having ME/CFS feels like permanently having the flu, a hangover, and jet lag while being continually electrocuted” ME/CFS results in nerve pain as much as it does fatigue.
Though little understood and currently without a known cure, certain natural remedies may provide some relief from the discomfort and constant fatigue.
What Is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?
Chronic fatigue syndrome, also called systemic exertion intolerance disease as well as ME/CFS is a serious, complex disorder of the central nervous system that affects the entire body. People with this illness feel constant, overwhelming tiredness along with other disabling symptoms that are not due to any other diagnosable medical condition.
Did you know that anywhere from 800,000 to 2.5 million Americans may have CFS?
Many people with chronic fatigue syndrome find it difficult to complete daily activities they once took for granted. It is chronic , but symptoms may come and go and vary in severity.
ME/CFS Symptoms
Pace Yourself
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Demographic And Clinical Data
The demographic and clinical data are shown in Table . No significant differences were found in age. There were statistically significant differences in education level with the post-covid group having more years of formal education. Statistically significant differences were also found in the proportion of women between groups , 92.9% of ME/CFS and 69.9% of post-COVID-19 patients were women. Most of the patients were Caucasian, being only one patient in the post-COVID-19 group an another in ME/CFS who did not identify with any of the U.S. Office of Management and Budgets race categories. These differences are not expected to have an impact on the results, as these were corrected for age, education and sex.
Table 1 Demographic and clinical features and neuropsychological assessment
Post-COVID-19 condition patients education explained the highest percentage of variance in the cognitive performance . Physical problems explained 28.5% and 16.2% of the variance in attention and 20.9% of visual processing speed . Pain was the variable that most explained the variance of sustained attention , also explaining 5.8% of impulsivity .
On the other hand, visual cognitive tests’ performance was explained mainly by the limitation due to emotional problems , which explained 12.2% of the variance of visual recognition , and fatigue , which explained 10.9% of visual memory , 9.2% of phonological verbal fluency , and 7.2% of visuoconstructive capacity .
What Else Could It Be
The symptoms of ME/CFS are similar to those of other conditions.
If you think you may have ME/CFS it’s important to see a GP to make sure you get a correct diagnosis. A GP should also be able to refer you to a ME/CFS specialist if they think it would help you.
Page last reviewed: 29 October 2021 Next review due: 29 October 2024
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What Leads To Brain Fog
Brain fog is caused by a combination of unhealthy events, that can lead to brain fatigue. Steven Roberts, the author of EvidenceLive.org, described the common brain fog causes which are as follow:
- Stress. It leads to overworking of the brain. After some time of overworking you become exhausted and disorganized. Stress also brings insomnia, inflammation, and other features which contribute to brain fog.
- Less sleep. Sleep is one of the times our brain recovers from the multiple stress we put on it. If this crucial event is omitted, the brain works on a marathon and would eventually get fatigued .
- Hormonal imbalance. Large amounts of some hormones can lead to brain dysfunction or brain difficulty. This can be a major contributor to brain fog. It is most common during pregnancy and menopause.
- Improper dieting. Food allergies, alcohol, drugs, nutritional deficiencies cause brain fog. A low amount of vitamin B12 and iron levels will lead to overstressing of the brain.
- Health complications and some medications. Health complications like high blood pressure, depression, and any other disease that can lead to brain exhaustion and mental stress, are agents of brain fog. Some drugs and treatment processes can also hasten this process.
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Detoxification Problems And The Brain
The Detoxification Circuit is made up of the immune system, the liver, and the extracellular matrix . These three components work together to rid the body of reactive metabolites. These are natural compounds that are created when your body breaks down food, chemicals, or its own tissue. When youre healthy, your Detoxification Circuit renders these metabolites inert and harmless and expels them from the body without your awareness. But when you have detoxification problems, these metabolites start to build up in your body.
As metabolites build up, the liver starts to struggle to keep up with its tasks of deactivating and expelling the metabolites. It becomes clogged with metabolites, which can be released back into the body still active. In this state, they can damage the body.
This damage and the toxic build-up causes the activation of the immune system, which produces inflammation to try and rid your body of the invaders. This causes the creation of even more metabolites, which compounds the problem and can lead to chronic inflammation, as the immune system attacks invaders it can’t expel.
The metabolite build-up also causes congestion in the ECM, where chemical messages are passed between cells.
All this can lead to toxins that your body can’t flush out making their way into the brain, where they cause further inflammation, impede cell communication, and create brain fog.
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Home Remedies For Brain Fog
Some of the best remedies for brain fog listed in reputable websites are:
1 Get some good sleep
Hormones in your brain stay at the right levels when you get a good nights sleep. Remember that you cannot replace your night sleep if you choose to work during that part of the day. As an adult, you should sleep for at least seven hours per day.
2 Include some exercise in your daily schedule
Brain fog comes as a consequence of body fatigue. That is why engaging in a mild exercise could significantly improve your health, make your thyroid gland work better, and give you less stress and anxiety.
3 Take care of your diet
You are the sole responsible for your diet. Eating more healthy fats and proteins give you the amino acids needed for the right brain function. A good diet can fight against your depression, especially when you choose healthy foods.
4 Reduce stress
Adopt a lifestyle that promotes peacefulness to your relations with other people. Anxiety and stress can increase cortisol levels in your blood and worsen the cognitive fatigue symptoms and the memory loss you experience with brain fog.
Low Levels Of Vitamin B12
You need a range of nutrients to stay healthy. Vitamin B12 is especially important for maintaining healthy nerves and blood. When you dont get enough of it, you may find it hard to focus. Some people dont eat enough B12-rich foods like meat, eggs, and dairy products. Others may not absorb it properly. This can simply happen to some people. Or, it can be the result of weight-loss surgery.
Besides the loss of focus, other signs of low B12 include:
- Difficulty walking
- Feeling very tired or weak
Your body has a harder time absorbing B12 as you get older. If you think youre low on B12, talk to your doctor. Your body needs this vitamin in order to function. Depending on your level, you may need B12 shots or pills or a daily multivitamin.
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How Can Parents Help
To help your child cope with the emotional symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome:
- Encourage your child to keep a daily diary to identify times when they have the most energy and help plan activities for these times.
- Help your child to recognize and express feelings, such as sadness, anger, and frustration. It’s OK to grieve the loss of energy.
- Get support from family and friends because emotional health is important when coping with a chronic health problem.
- Allow more time for your child to do things, or break down activities into smaller steps, especially activities that take concentration or physical effort.
- Work with your childs teachers and school administrators to adjust their workload so that it fits within the limits of what your child can tolerate.
Cognitive Neuropsychiatric And Olfactory Impairment
Both conditions presented slow processing speed, deficient sustained attention and verbal memory impairment . Statistically significant differences were found in attention and visual perception, with the ME/CFS group presenting the largest impairment. Therefore, we can understand that the brain fog could have similar cognitive deficits in both groups, being it mainly a reduction in the attentional capacity and a lower processing speed. This mental fatigue or brain fog seems to be closely related to physical fatigue.
Sleep quality also correlated the performance in cognitive flexibility the post-COVID-19 condition group while in the ME/CSF group, it related to the semantic verbal fluency. All these tests require the involvement of the prefrontal lobe for its adequate performance, so that the quality of sleep could be closely related to the prefrontal activity. Previous studies have already shown the implication of sleep quality in adults without cognitive problems . In the group of patients with ME/CFS, poorer sleep quality was related to worse performance on executive function tasks, although it was not related to working memory. Previous studies had already revealed the relationship between poorer sleep quality and performance in this type of task .
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What Are The Symptoms Of Brain Fog
If you are suffering with numerous other chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms, brain fog can add further frustrating symptoms into the mix.
Particularly when you are fatigued and struggling to find enough energy to get through each day, it can already be difficult to concentrate on tasks. Add brain fog to the list of your many baffling symptoms and it becomes almost impossible to focus.
Of course, this can affect your work life and daily life depending on just how bad your brain fog symptoms are.
Simply put, brain fog is a number of thinking-related issues such as confusion, short term memory problems and difficulty with focus and concentration.
- Difficulty with finding a word or words known words become difficult to recall.
- Issues with short-term memory.
- Disorientation Episodes Lasting only a few seconds you may not know where you are, or might not recognize people you know.
- Trouble Concentrating Difficulty learning new information and you become easily distracted.
- Forgetfulness Inability to remember what youve heard or read.
- Attention Difficulty Multitasking is difficult, you cannot pay attention to more than one thing at a time.
