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Are You Suddenly Suffering From Brain Fog? Here’s Why and What You Can Do to Fight it

Agora Media

Have you noticed any new moments recently that feel like your brain has gone fuzzy? According to neuropsychologist and the director of the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement Prevention Center at Cleveland Clinic, Jessica Caldwell, Ph.D., “It’s tempting to think that brain fog won’t happen until you’re much older, but I see it in so many patients at every age – and stress is a known trigger.”

Stress is a catalyst for a number of different health issues, and having a fuzzy brain is one of them. Chief director of the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas, Sandra Bond Chapman, Ph.D. explains that toxins can actually build up in the brain, making people feel frazzled and impacting their ability to concentrate, focus and make it harder to remember things.

“We all do things that wear out the brain, and then we wonder why we’re not as clearheaded as we used to be. When our bodies are fatigued, we recognize that we need to rest. But when our brains are tired, we tend to slog through,” she explains.

The problem with this is the more you ignore brain fog, it tends to become an even bigger issue which eventually leads to a number of unproductive days where you cannot seem to get a grasp on anything.

Thankfully, there are ways to make things a lot less foggy in order to help get your thoughts back on track. Dr. Chapman also shares, “Science has revealed the surprising truth that you can actually do more to make your brain healthy than any other part of your body.”

 

So What Exactly is Brain Fog?

While brain fog isn’t exactly considered a technical diagnosis, it is a term that fits someone that’s been feeling not so sharp, absentminded, or possibly lacks the ability or has difficulty focusing. These symptoms can also be accompanied by others like being forgetful, feeling sluggish or the failure to recall things.

Despite not being an actual diagnosis, attending physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and clinical professor of neurology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Gayatri Devi, M.D. shares that there are trillions of neurons in the brain but only 10,000 to 20,000 of them secrete a neuropeptide called orexin which is in charge of keeping people alert and awake.

Dr. Devi explains, “It’s astounding that our wakefulness and arousal is controlled by such a small number of nerve cells – and easy to see how this part of the brain system might be easily impacted. Thankfully, the human brain is built to be alert, which is why people can react to stimuli and their environment so quickly. But this is also why brain fog can be so troublesome at the same time since it affects the brain’s clarity as well leaving people stressed and disoriented.

Lila Jones (not her real name) – who happens to be a wellness coordinator for a nonprofit –shares that she has been dealing with brain fog for years, and explains the debilitating effects that she goes through. She iterates, “When my brain fog is bad, I feel totally overwhelmed way sooner than I otherwise would. Everything just gets harder – driving is more stressful, multitasking at work is nearly impossible, and I’m not as with it in conversation. It just feels like my brain is in molasses, which is no fun.”

 

What Are the Causes of Brain Fog?

There are a number of factors that contribute to brain fog. And while most people have ideas in their heads about what the root cause could be, more often than not, brain fog tends to be caused by things people are dealing with in the immediate, or will deal with at some point in their lives.

Here are five main contributors for brain fog:

1. Stress

Just like with many other health issues, stress is a large contributor to brain fog. While stress is only supposed to occur during difficult situations, often times it ends up being prolonged way more than it should, exhausting the brain in the process. Dr. Caldwell explains, “That’s why there’s a feedback loop built into the system., where your brain eventually gets a message that says, ‘Let’s shut this stress hormone release down – there’s no acute threat anymore.’”

Medscape

But along with the shutdown of the stress hormone is the shutting off of the hippocampus, the portion of the brain that’s meant to take in new information as well as turn it into long-term memory storage. But when stress becomes long-term or chronic, the brain ends up going into ‘protection mode’ and ends up losing the message to turn off the stress hormone. As a result, the hippocampus gets so tired that eventually the cells begin to die, making this incredibly important portion of the brain shrink, which in turn, creates brain fog.

2. Lack of Sleep

Most people don’t realize just how important getting enough sleep is for the brain. For those that lack sleep, they end up missing out on the brain reset that happens while asleep, which then causes brain fog explains Dr. Caldwell.

According to research from the journal Science, ‘the ebb and flow of blood and electricity activity that takes place during sleep actually triggers cleansing waves of blood and cerebrospinal fluid,’ which has made scientists refer to sleep as the brain’s “rinse cycle.” Dr. Caldwell goes on to say, “Sleep is when your brain reviews new information to consolidate it, helping you form more stable, long-term memory. It’s a time when unneeded stuff is cleared from the brain.”

3. Menopause

Probably one of the most dreaded cycles for an aging woman is going into menopause. While night sweats and mood swings tend to occur during perimenopause, Dr. Devi also explains that another major symptom is brain fog, which normally gets overlooked. She explains, “I’ve actually had patients misdiagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease when really it was menopause-related brain fog.”

Before menopause truly hits, the hormone estrogen is very essential to female brains for a number of reasons. Once again, the hippocampus plays a large role since it has a bunch of estrogen receptors. Dr. Devi cites, “Think of those receptors as being like little docking sites for estrogen that are spread out across the hippocampus.” So when a woman falls into perimenopause and their estrogen levels get lower, they no longer have the same amount of estrogen, which means that the brain now scrambles to adjust. This can then cause what feels like brain fog, which Caldwell explains with “It’s your brain figuring out how to work without as much estrogen as it’s used to.”

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4. Side Effects from Medication

Unfortunately, side effects from one too many medications is usually brain fog. A number of migraine and antiseizure prescriptions and even particular over-the-counter drugs that treat allergies and sleep all cause fuzziness in the brain. And when some women mix alcohol with their meds – even a simple glass of wine – it can make things even more unclear, adds Dr. Caldwell.

5. Medical Conditions

There are particular medical conditions that can cause brain fog like thyroid problems, head injuries and even early stages of multiple sclerosis. Although these types of cases aren’t as common as the others, they should not be ignored since they can be early signs to something much more serious.

 

What Are Some Ways to Prevent Brain Fog?

Dr. Chapman stresses just how important it is to not ignore the early signs of brain fog. She says, “It’s really important not to just say, ‘Oh, well, I’m a little foggy today – tomorrow will be better.’ The brain is an amazing machine that will rebound, but the question is, will it return to the same level? It’s important to do something proactively to help.”

What Are the Steps You Can Take to Lessen the Chances of Brain Fog?

1. Take Control of Your Stress Reaction

Dr. Caldwell reiterates, “It’s easy to get into a mindset in which everything is negative and it feels like there’s nothing you can do about stress. But if you really look at what’s making you feel the most anxious, you may see things you can take off your plate or different ways to cope.” She shares that doing something as simple as acknowledging what could be stressing you out in the first place can be detrimental to handling it.

2. Have a Sleep Routine

Dr. Devi cites, “Too many of us think of our brain like a motor that can be switched on and off, but the brain is more like a plant that’s growing and changing all the time. And nothing is more elegant than or as powerful as sleep to feed that plant and keep it healthy.” Even though a few nights of bad sleep won’t make too much of a difference, consistent nights of bad sleep will. Dr. Devi says, “There are many proven ways to treat insomnia these days. You can train yourself back into a good sleep routine.”

3. Exercise

You’ve probably heard this before but ‘what’s good for your heart is good for your brain.’ This is due to the fact that upward of 40% of blood from the heart circulates up into the brain. “It’s proof of how much energy your brain requires, and how much it relies on your heart to get that energy,” add Dr. Devi.

So what does this mean exactly? If your heart isn’t working enough to pump blood properly, your brain won’t be getting the oxygen-rich blood that it requires in order to be alert and aid in memory function, as well as improving your mood and reducing stress. Dr. Caldwell shares, “If you can do one thing to get multiple benefits when it comes to preventing or treating brain fog, exercise is a great choice.”

4. Reset Your Brain

Dr. Chapman always tells her patients to do the “five by five” exercise. She tells them to set their alarms to go off at least five times throughout the day in order to spend five minutes stopping all brain activity and just being in the moment. She suggests closing your eyes, going outside to sit and possibly look at trees, or even going for walk while zoning out. She adds, “Just five minutes with no major input is the best way to reset your brain.”

5. Stop Multi-tasking

While most people look at multi-tasking as being incredibly productive, it actually doesn’t do your brain any favors. In fact, it actually forces it to slow down. Rather than trying to do a number of things at once, Dr. Chapman suggests focusing on just one goal and getting it done in a shorter amount of time before moving on to the next task.

6. Push Your Brain to Think Deeply Daily

Dr. Chapman shares, “Thinking deeply is like push-ups for your brain.” She explains that her research has shown that engaging in deep thinking ‘increases the speed of connectivity across the brain’s central executive network,’ which is in charge of planning, decision-making, clear thinking and goal-setting. She adds, “That’s like regaining almost two decades of neural function.”

7. Excite Your Brain

While the brain is used to thinking one way all the time, you need to motivate it by giving it “excitement” to make it work better. According to Dr. Chapman, “This prompts the brain to produce norepinephrine, a brain chemical that makes us excited to learn.” This can be done by attempting to do things differently than what you’d normally do, as simply as listening to different music, taking another route than your normal one, or trying out something new.

The most important thing to remember is that although brain fog occurs more often than most people like, they also need to be aware of how serious it can be. If it feels like it’s causing major issues or disturbances to your normal everyday life, be sure to consult with a medical professional about the chance that you are dealing with something more serious.