What is brain fog?

The first thing to understand about brain fog is that brain fog is not one thing, it is many things combined that have created or resulted in an autoimmune disease that damages the brain cells.  The condition of brain fog can happen to anybody, at any age, at any time and some people are more susceptible to the problem genetically than other people.

Brain fog is the feeling of having a foggy brain, fogginess of the brain what does this mean?  Imagine having fatigue, a condition where your body is fatigued, run-down, slow, tired, inflamed, and unable to function properly, now apply those same problems to being in the brain.  Here is how that might look:

• Lack of mental clarity
• Mental fatigue (including feeling physically tired)
• Mental stress
• Inability to focus and or concentrate
• Confusion and or disorientation
• Forgetfulness
• Memory problems
• Lack of attention
• Slowing mental response
• Feeling that your brain is failing
• Difficulty in problem-solving
• Trouble finding the right words
• Depression
• Anxiety
• OCD thoughts (obsessive-compulsive disorder)
• Feeling mentally lost
• Feeling mentally vague

As you can see, brain fog means having less function in your brain, which can make life very difficult.  Worse still, it is the progression of a much bigger problem.  Many people now, especially over the last couple of years, have made brain fog their number one complaint in our practice, so if you are reading this you are far from alone.

Brain fog is not one thing, it is the end result of many combined problems working together.  This is why is has been so hard to properly diagnose and or treat, unless you understand the mechanisms that come together to cause brain fog.

Typically to “create” a brain fog problem, you have to factor in some or even all of the following physical and mental problems:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Blood-brain barrier issues
• Histamine problems
• Leaky gut
• SIBO
• GI Inflammation
• Gene mutations
• Chronic inflammation
• Chronic viral infections
• Stress reaction
• Immune problems
• Mast cell degranulation
• Neurogenic inflammation
• Cytokine production
• Mitochondrial DNA’s
• Microbiome dysbiosis
• Diminished Vagus nerve production
• Reduced gastrointestinal mobility
• Reduced Th1 cells
• Increased Th2 cells
• Methylation disruption and all of the symptoms that come with it

As you can see, there are many underlying and complex causal factors that result in brain fog, which can be treated and even reversed when you know what to do about it.