Mental and emotional wellness depends on brain health. To feel happy, think positively.
Brain fog has several forms. Cotton candy replaces rich cerebral neuronal tissue in your mind. The lights are on, but nobody’s home.
You may struggle to focus on work, discussions, or even this sentence. You may have trouble making judgments, tiny things seem large, and you need extra coffee, food, and drink at night to clear your head. Headaches, visual issues, and nausea may occur in severe instances.
Brain Fog Causes: Knowing Your Influence
Brain fog—why? Brain fog can be caused by vitamin insufficiency, sleep difficulty, sugar overconsumption, bacterial overgrowth, depression, or thyroid disease. Inactivity, persistent stress, poor food, and overeating can all induce brain fog. South Valley Neurology sees these brain fog reasons most often.
Hormones And Mental Fog
Pregnancy, postpartum, menopause, and unexpected lifestyle changes all cause hormonal shifts. 60% of women report trouble concentrating during menopause. Your foggy brain may be caused by shifting mood or sleeping patterns or hormone levels as your body seeks to regulate.
Insomnia
Poor sleep hygiene, such as inconsistent sleep and waking times, fewer than seven to eight hours of sleep, or blue light exposure before bed, affects your circadian rhythm, or internal body clock. Several ways this causes brain fog. The blue light around bedtime reduces melatonin, which is needed for deep REM sleep. REM and non-REM sleep are needed to process daytime memories. Between 10 pm and 2 am, your body and brain detoxify the most, thus staying active at this time might cause fogginess.
Untimely waking times might impede cognitive performance and make you sleepy and foggy during the day. Sleep Cycle uses your movement throughout the night to track your sleep cycle and set an alarm to go off at the conclusion, so you won’t be woken up mid-deep sleep like a normal alarm clock. After your alarm goes off, pushing the snooze button won’t help you feel more rested; it will only make you fall asleep and be interrupted again.
Deficiencies And Allergies
Vitamin B12 helps your central nervous system and red blood cells. B12 deficiency causes weariness and energy loss. Low vitamin D levels can also cause brain fog. Undiagnosed dietary intolerances can also cause brain fog. Inflammation from gluten intolerance can cause cognitive impairment. Advanced blood work that examines nutritional levels, an elimination diet, or food allergy or sensitivity testing can identify if any of these are causing brain fog.
Stress
Chronic stress can damage your health, despite its commonness. The SNS, or fight-or-flight response, is activated by stress. This response releases adrenaline and norepinephrine, diverting energy from your body’s normal processes to the stressor. This can impair concentration, thinking, and brainpower. Meditation, exercise, and diet adjustments can help clear your mind.
Medication
Prescription and OTC drugs can produce brain fog. Though medication-induced brain fog may appear typical, it’s not. Before medicine, South Valley Neurology recommends lifestyle strategies to address your underlying concerns. If the medicine is required, your doctor can help you evaluate if it’s harming your brain and find a brain fog treatment, whether that’s switching meds or reducing your dosage.
Depression, Anxiety
Depression and anxiety impair executive, attention, and memory. Research reveals that mental health issues may cause a lack of energy and motivation or brain physiological impacts that make it hard to operate. Discuss depression and anxiety treatment with your doctor.
Hypothyroidism
Thyroid disorders can cause fatigue, mental fog, and mood swings. This butterfly-shaped gland at the front of your neck produces and releases hormones that regulate metabolism, heart rate, respiration, menstruation, and brain fog. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune illness, assaults your thyroid, preventing it from making adequate thyroid hormones and causing inflammation. Hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism might cause brain fog. Thyroid disorders can also cause weight gain, weariness, muscular weakness, and digestive difficulties.
Metal Poisoning
Food, cosmetics, and dental fillings contain heavy metals. Arsenic, mercury, aluminum, lead, thallium, and cesium are the most frequent heavy metals. Heavy metal buildup can induce immunological malfunction, hormone imbalance, weariness, mental fog, and high blood pressure. Testing your blood for heavy metals is an excellent method to make sure your body is toxin-free, and detoxing with heart-rate-raising exercise or weekly sauna sessions is a smart strategy to lower your levels and reduce symptoms.