It all usually starts with a feeling of numbness and confusion that you can’t shake. However, you think it’s nothing; after all, it happens to all of us, it’s just a mental glitch. Until you realize you’ve spent much of the week wrapped in that mental fog, unable to make important decisions because you feel like your mind is hiding behind a smokescreen.
What is brain fog?
Brain fog, also known as fibrofog, is an inability to grasp reality. It’s a vague feeling in which you struggle to recall something and concentrate, but can’t. In fact, the effort to think can be as exhausting as an intense session of physical activity. You may also feel confused and have trouble expressing yourself clearly because you can’t grasp ideas. These feelings can persist for a full day, a week, or even a month, which can be quite frustrating and distressing, and can significantly affect daily functioning.
In fact, neuroscientists claim that these sensations are very similar to those experienced by people with dementia. The signs that accompany brain fog include:
– Short-term memory problems , such as the inability to recall what you just read or heard.
– Difficulty remembering familiar words, slowness in recalling names, and misusing some words.
– Disorientation and difficulty remembering where you left things.
– Problems processing information because you have difficulty concentrating.
– Inability to perform even simple mathematical operations and problems remembering sequences or numbers.
Causes of brain fog
If you experience prolonged periods of brain fog, it’s a good idea to pay attention to this symptom and try to uncover its cause.
1. You are experiencing hormonal changes
A series of days immersed in that mental fog may be the first sign that menopause is approaching. In fact, a study conducted by the Universities of Rochester and Illinois showed that women between the ages of 40 and 60 have trouble staying focused on difficult tasks and struggle with their working memory, which helps us keep important information in mind while solving problems.
There’s no doubt that hormones have a huge impact on the brain, so fluctuating estrogen levels can cause changes in cognition. In fact, some pregnant women have also been found to have memory problems and experience the same brain fog. This is due to the impact of hormones on the hippocampus, the area linked to memory, especially learning new knowledge and spatial memory.
2. You are experiencing mood swings
Recent research conducted at the University of Michigan found that brain fog is more common in people suffering from depression or bipolar disorder, and it can be seen on brain scans. The study found that women suffering from brain fog struggled more when completing cognitive tests. In fact, they showed abnormal activity in areas of the brain linked to the control of cognitive functions such as attention and working memory. Although these areas remained active in all 612 participants, the women suffering from brain fog showed either more intense or much weaker activity than expected.
This means that our brain functions differently on a neurobiological level when mood swings as drastic as those that occur during depression or bipolar disorder occur. Therefore, if you’ve been experiencing this mental fog for a while, it may be time to review your emotions.
3. You are under a lot of stress
Stress is a state that causes changes in the body, especially at the hormonal level. In fact, during stress, your body increases its production of cortisol, a hormone that stimulates brain cells. When stress persists for a long time, those cells become flooded with calcium and die. Basically, they die from overstimulation.
Therefore, cortisol has negative effects on the brain, especially on cognitive functions, and can obviously be one of the causes of the brain fog you’re experiencing. In that case, you need to identify the patterns underlying your episodes of brain fog so you can understand what’s stressing you out.
4. You are not feeding your brain well
You are what you eat. Your eating habits, day after day, ultimately impact your metabolism. Therefore, one of the causes of brain fog is that you’re not taking care of your diet. In fact, did you know that obesity increases the risk of cognitive decline? Binge eating and processed foods, rich in fats, refined carbohydrates, and sugars, negatively affect brain function.
On the contrary, foods like fatty fish, green leafy vegetables, and dark chocolate are excellent for the brain. You should also make sure you’re consuming adequate amounts of iron, as it’s an essential nutrient for memory and attention. In fact, a study conducted at Pennsylvania State University found that simply maintaining a protein-rich diet for four months not only increased blood iron levels but also improved cognitive function.
5. You’ve taken multitasking to the next level
These days, people want to do more in less time, unaware that we have certain limits, imposed by our brains and the speed at which they can function optimally. Therefore, this brain fog can come from having a dozen browser tabs open, from the habit of being in a meeting and checking text messages under the table, or from not knowing how to delegate and overloading yourself with tasks.
In general, multitasking isn’t good for your memory, much less for your attention span. So it’s no surprise that when you try to do several things at once or continually expose yourself to an overstimulating environment, your nervous system becomes overwhelmed and decides to “shut down” for a while. In fact, one of the causes of brain fog is being overly active, beyond the limits that can be considered “healthy.”
6. You suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome
A wide range of illnesses can hide behind brain fog, especially when this feeling lasts for weeks and doesn’t dissipate. Chronic fatigue syndrome is one of the conditions that causes brain fog. It’s certainly difficult to stay alert and remember things when you feel tired and fatigued.
A study conducted at Columbia University found differences in the cerebrospinal fluid of people with chronic fatigue syndrome, a detail that may help explain this mental fogginess. In fact, the individuals tested showed very low levels of immune system proteins called cytokines, as if their immune systems had literally run out of steam. Furthermore, it has been observed that cytokines, especially interleukin-6, play an important role in the formation of new memories.
7. You eat too much gluten
There’s much more to gluten than celiac disease. In fact, people with this autoimmune disease who eat too much gluten can not only cause lasting damage to their intestines but also suffer from severe brain fog.
The good news for people diagnosed with celiac disease is that they can eliminate this brain fog by eliminating gluten from their diet. In fact, a study conducted at Monash University found that in people with celiac disease who followed a gluten-free diet, the brain fog disappeared. Before adopting the new diet, these individuals performed poorly on certain cognitive tests, as if they were drunk. A year later, things were back to normal, showing significant improvement in verbal fluency, attention, and motor function.
References:
Ryan, K. A. et. Al. (2015) Shared dimensions of performance and activation dysfunction in cognitive control in females with mood disorders. Brain 1424-1434.
Horning, M. et. Al. (2015) Cytokine network analysis of cerebrospinal fluid in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. Molecular Psychiatry .
Lichtwark, IT et. Al. (2014) Cognitive impairment in coeliac disease improves on a gluten-free diet and correlates with histological and serological indices of disease severity. Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics ; 40(2): 160-170.
Weber, M.T. et. Al. (2013) Cognition in perimenopause: The effect of transition stage. Menopause Journal ; 20(5): 511-517.
Murray, LE & Beard, JL (2007) Iron treatment normalizes cognitive functioning in young women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition ; 85(3):778-787.
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