What Is Brain Fog and How Can We Help It: Effective Strategies and Tips
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What Causes Brain Fog
Brain fog usually doesn’t have a single cause. Instead, many factors can contribute to it. These include lifestyle, medical conditions, medications, and hormonal shifts.
Lifestyle plays a major role in how well the brain functions. Sleep, stress levels, added sugar intake, and overall nutrition all influence how you feel day to day.
Not getting enough quality sleep has been linked to brain fog, confusion, and reduced cognitive performance regardless of age. During sleep, the brain works on processes that support memory, focus, and mental clarity. When sleep is inadequate, that work doesn’t happen as well as it should, which can leave the brain feeling slow or foggy the next day.
Along with sleep, good nutrition is associated with brain health. Diets high in added sugars may contribute to brain fog. When blood sugar rises and falls quickly, the brain may struggle to work its best.
In addition to minimizing intake of excessive sugar, adding a serving of fruits and vegetables at every meal may help clear the fog. Fruits and vegetables provide antioxidants, flavonoids, and other nutrients that protect the brain from inflammation. The importance of reducing inflammation is discussed further below.
Another way to protect brain health is to reduce intake of highly processed foods. While they are quick, easy, and inexpensive, they aren’t the best choice for reducing brain fog. These foods often contain high amounts of added sugars, salt, and fats. These ingredients make the foods taste better, but they may worsen brain fog.
Lifestyle factors aren’t the only contributors to brain fog. Some diseases may increase symptoms. These include chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, and menopause.
Menopause causes many women to experience brain fog due to changing hormones. This is particularly frustrating because it seems to come out of nowhere. You may feel like one day you can remember everything, and the next you’re forgetting why you walked into a room. Brain fog is now being recognized as a common menopause symptom.
Toxins have been identified as another potential trigger for brain fog. This includes toxins from cigarette and cannabis smoke, air pollution, and pesticides. Some toxins can cross the blood-brain barrier and directly impact brain function. Others can increase inflammation in the body.
The gut microbiome, a community of beneficial bacteria and microbes, has also been linked to brain fog. An imbalance of “good” to “bad” bacteria in the microbiome may increase inflammation and reduce nutrient absorption. ROOT Brands Clean Slate may help remove toxins and restore the gut microbiome, which can play a significant role in reducing brain fog symptoms.
Inflammation has been talked about several times above. Inflammation releases chemicals that slow neural signalling, leading to slower thinking, faltering memory, reduced focus, and increased feelings of mental fatigue. This is why brain fog rarely has only one cause.
Reducing Brain Fog Symptoms
Because the causes of brain fog are varied, a holistic approach can help reduce or resolve symptoms.
Improving lifestyle factors is a good place to begin making changes to improve your symptoms. Prioritizing enough high-quality sleep is a great start. Experts recommend 7 to 9 hours a night. Start by looking at how much sleep you’re getting now, and take small steps to improve it. For example, you could move your bedtime up five to fifteen minutes a night. A good night's sleep may make all the difference.
Tracking symptoms with a journal is another way to figure out what may be causing them. A journal can be simple and only track date, time, and symptoms. Or it can include other items such as sleep duration, sleep quality, foods eaten, and stress levels. Using this information, triggers of symptoms can be identified and adjusted.
How to Manage Stress
Managing stress, along with improving sleep, is critical for reducing brain fog and improving cognitive function. When someone is stressed, the body releases cortisol, the primary stress hormone, which keeps the body in fight-or-flight mode. If cortisol levels are high for the long term, inflammation in the body can also increase.
Reducing stress levels helps the body get out of fight-or-flight and relax. This, in turn, helps improve brain fog. As a bonus, it can also improve sleep.
Some stress-reducing techniques include:
- Deep breathing exercises with a longer exhale: Breathe in for two to four seconds, hold for a second or two, then breathe out for six seconds. This kind of breathing helps the vagus nerve and the whole body relax.
- Meditation: Sitting quietly and focusing on your breath for just five minutes helps reduce stress. As you get more comfortable meditating, sessions can be extended to 10 or 15 minutes.
- Yoga: Gentle yoga helps both the body and mind relax. Some yoga classes include meditation at the end. If you don’t want to take a yoga class, try doing a downward dog and holding it for 30 seconds to start.
Other ways to reduce stress include taking regular breaks to move, getting outside, and socializing with others.
How Nutrition Helps Remove Symptoms of Brain Fog
A healthy diet can contribute to the brain feeling sharp or foggy. Choosing lean proteins, vegetables, and fruits provides the body with the building blocks it needs to stay healthy. They also provide fiber that helps build and maintain a healthy microbiome and moves toxins out of the body.
Including fermented foods like traditional sauerkraut, kefir, and kombucha helps populate the microbiome with beneficial bacteria. However, if you don’t like fermented foods, Clean Slate by ROOT Brands helps remove toxins and build a healthy microbiome.
Berries and leafy greens are full of antioxidants that help the body naturally reduce inflammation, which, in turn, can improve cognitive function.
Foods high in added sugar, saturated fats, and salt can all increase inflammation, which may reduce cognitive function. Processed foods are often high in sugar and salt. Minimizing all of these foods may reduce brain fog.
Seeking Professional Help
If you’ve taken steps to improve your sleep, stress, and diet and are still experiencing brain fog, then seeing a healthcare provider may be in order, especially if you have a medical condition like chronic fatigue syndrome that directly impacts brain fog.
Your doctor may be able to help identify other underlying causes of brain fog. They can then work with you to develop a plan to improve the brain fog and brain health. The American Medical Association recommends seeing a healthcare provider if these symptoms are impacting your daily life.