Brain fog impacts your ability to think and focus. Memory may be dull, concentration may be poor, and a person may lack mental clarity. Brain fog can interfere with the ability to function at work or school. Diagnosing the cause of brain fog can sometimes be very challenging because there are many reasons why a person could be experiencing brain fog, including medications, health conditions, and lifestyle choices. Here, we look into some natural remedies for brain fog.
Your diet affects all aspects of your health, including brain health. One of the vitamins needed for a healthy brain is vitamin B12. Those who have celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, and HIV, along with the elderly, pregnant women, and alcoholics, are at an increased risk of vitamin B12 deficiency. Food allergies and food intolerances can also cause brain fog. Numerous trigger foods could be causing symptoms, including dairy products, gluten, aspartame, MSG, peanuts, and a host of other foods. Keeping a food and symptom journal can help determine trigger foods, and once removed from the diet, it can improve your symptoms.
Consuming a diet filled with nutritious foods is recommended to ensure the brain gets the nutrients needed for optimal health. Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids like fatty fish, vitamin B12-rich foods like red meat, and probiotics found in sauerkraut and yogurt improve brain health. Furthermore, daily vitamins and mineral supplements can help enhance mental clarity.
Hormonal Changes
Hormonal fluctuations can trigger brain fog. Estrogen loss during perimenopause clouds thinking, affects concentration, and causes forgetfulness. Along with estrogen loss, menopause causes sleep disturbances and mood swings, which can impact concentration, focus, and memory. Hormone levels can also change during pregnancy—estrogen and progesterone levels increase, which can lead to memory issues and short-term cognitive impairment. In addition, most pregnant women are more focused on their baby and preparing for its arrival, which can result in foggy thinking.
Not getting at least seven to nine hours of sleep each night can interfere with brain function and result in cloudy thinking and concentration difficulties. Poor sleep hygiene, blue light exposure, irregular sleep patterns, and an uninterrupted whole night’s sleep can cause brain fog. While sleeping, the body makes cellular repairs and consolidates memories. In addition, the brain and body detoxify. Without a whole night’s sleep, it is common for a person to experience brain fog. Practicing good sleep hygiene, which includes going to bed at the same time each night, turning off all electronics an hour before bedtime, lowering the bedroom temperature by a couple of degrees, and limiting caffeine consumption, can ensure a full night’s sleep and, in turn, help lift brain fog.
Medical Problems
Medical problems associated with changes in glucose levels, energy levels, or inflammation can cause brain fog, problems with cognitive thinking patterns, and forgetfulness. Alzheimer’s disease, anemia, autoimmune diseases (multiple sclerosis, arthritis, lupus, etc.), dehydration, depression, diabetes, hypothyroidism, migraines, and Sjogren syndrome are health conditions that can lead to brain fog.
If you are experiencing brain fog, it is advisable to talk with your integrative specialist and evaluate if you have an undiagnosed medical condition. Suppose your doctor determines that you have systemic inflammation, depleted energy levels, or an undiagnosed medical issue. In that case, many treatment options can help counteract a medical problem’s effects on your thinking and memory.
Medications
Certain medications can impact your thought processes and cause brain fog. Brain fog can be a known side effect of a medication or can be caused by taking too large a dose. In addition, cancer treatments can cause a type of brain fog often referred to as chemo brain.
If you are experiencing brain fog from medications, talk with your doctor to see if lowering your dose or switching to another medication can help improve your brain fog. If cancer treatments cause your brain fog, try increasing the amount of water you drink to help detoxify and rehydrate the body.
Stress
Chronic stress can wreak havoc on physical and mental health. When stressed, your HPA axis activates, increasing the stress hormones in the body. When this occurs, your body prepares for flight or fight. The fight-or-flight response increases heart rate and respiration and prepares the body for action. In the beginning, our focus will increase; however, when stress levels continue, a person begins to experience mental fatigue, leading to brain fog.
Stress relief techniques can help decrease stress’s effects on the body. Meditation, deep breathing exercises, journaling, yoga, and progressive muscle relaxation are designed to help eliminate stress and its effects on the body, mind, and spirit.
Improve Brain Health and Rejuvenate Your Life
Brain fog can be frustrating, overwhelming, and even scary. You can improve brain health by adjusting diet and lifestyle choices, practicing stress relief techniques, balancing your hormones, getting a full night’s sleep, and exercising daily. Our functional medicine doctors work with you to create personalized treatment plans to rejuvenate your overall health, including brain health.
Rose Wellness offers Holistic, Integrative and Functional Medicine services for treating chronic issues as well as for preventive care. Join us and take control of your health, your most important asset.
Holistic Approach To Wellness
Looking for root cause analysis of your symptoms and a personalized treatment plan?
Schedule a free 15 minute call with our wellness coordinator to see how we can help.
Irritable bowel syndrome affects your large intestine. When you suffer from IBS, you can experience abdominal cramping, bloating, constipation, diarrhea,...
