Celiac DiseaseĬeliac Disease sufferers commonly report attention difficulties and unclear thinking. Food sensitivities are very individual, but common offenders include dairy, wheat, nuts and food additives like red food coloring, MSG and aspartame.

If you can’t think clearly after eating certain foods, you may have a food sensitivity. When the Candida infection was cleared out, memory improved. A ground-breaking 2019 study showed that Candida can actually enter the brain and cause neuroinflammation, contributing to brain fog.

Under the right conditions, candida populations can quickly overgrow, displacing good microbes and colonizing the gut, urinary tract, genitals, mouth and skin.īrain fog is a classic sign of Candida overgrowth. Yeast InfectionsĬandida albicans is a yeast naturally present in our bodies, which when unbalanced is the biggest cause of human fungal infections in the world. This works well in a real emergency, but not so well when you need to dig into that work report or solve a complex problem. This means our adrenal glands, designed to pump out stress hormones in short bursts, end up releasing continued high levels of cortisol and adrenaline which can contribute to cloudy thinking.ĭuring the stress response, the part of your brain that thinks deeply and stores memories is put on the back burner while the part that allows you to respond immediately to protect you from danger is prioritized. When faced with chronic stress and anxiety, our fight or flight response gets stuck in overdrive. The good news is that while the results showed that cognitive performance was impaired during the transition to menopause (aka perimenopause), it did go back up to pre-perimenopause levels once menopause had been reached.

The Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) has observed over 3,300 women throughout the menopausal transition, measuring cognitive abilities before, during, and after menopause. Perimenopausal women report that brain fog significantly impacts their quality of life, overall health, and productivity. Why is that? The brain is sensitive to the fluctuations of estrogen and progesterone that occur during both of these life events, contributing to ‘mommy brain’ and the memory issues that are often attributed to menopause. Research into the factors that contribute to brain fog identify the following triggers: Hormone Imbalanceīrain fog is perhaps most commonly reported by women going through hormonal changes, such as in pregnancy and perimenopause. It is particularly prevalent in diseases involving inflammation, fatigue, and blood sugar imbalance such as diabetes, depression, and autoimmune diseases, as well as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS/ME), and Fibromyalgia. It may surprise you to read that brain fog is a well-documented symptom of a number of chronic conditions. Let’s take a look at the various causes of brain fog, and what you can do to clear things up. A sudden onset of poor concentration, mental fatigue, inability to focus, confusion, and memory issues make even the simplest tasks seem overwhelming and can negatively affect all aspects of life.

Brain fog is one of the more common symptoms we see in practice, as well as being one of the most elusive and hard to pin down.

Adrenal fatigue brain fog treatment