What Is Mental Fog And How Can We Dispel It?

Do you have concentration problems? Do you feel your memory is failing? Do you feel confused and overwhelmed? You’re tired? When you talk to someone you don’t seem to understand what the person is saying? When you read or watch a television show, do you feel like you don’t understand what’s going on? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, it’s important to know what mental fog is.

Concentration and memory difficulties can be a big problem, not only for work or studies, but also in everyday life. Furthermore, the consequences can go much further, as they can affect self-esteem, personal relationships, and even emotional stability.

And since it’s not a reason to be scared or panicked, let’s give it a name. Because it’s one thing to have a bad day and quite another to feel a constant inability to focus or maintain your attention.  What is mental fog? It is precisely this inability that includes confusion and forgetfulness, as well as lack of concentration and mental clarity.

What is mental fog?

Brain fog is an anomaly that is not recognized as a disease, but corresponds to an internationally accepted mental condition. Unfortunately, brain fog is quite common, although that doesn’t make it “normal”.

The mental fog refers to a problem that goes beyond concentration difficulties. When she appears, you feel out of focus, confused, and having trouble thinking. With brain fog, your brain is sending out an important signal that there is an imbalance in your life that needs to be addressed.

In fact, what may appear to be a mental or psychological problem may be something else. In fact, brain fog can arise because of lifestyle (in which very different factors come into play than we might at first think, such as diet) and it can also be the side effect of a medical condition or even a specific medication.

For exactly these reasons, brain fog is preventable and treatable when we identify the factor that keeps it going, which doesn’t necessarily have to be the same one that caused it. Sometimes it’s as simple as leading a healthier lifestyle.

Why does the mental fog appear?

Now that we know what mental fog is, it’s important to talk about its main causes.

There are many cases where brain fog is due to conditions directly related to health. In fact, many medications that treat some illnesses or food supplements that we consume to supposedly improve our quality of life can cause or contribute to the appearance of brain fog.

But brain fog can also appear due to an unhealthy lifestyle, especially due to poor diet. As we will see below, the issue of food is very serious and goes beyond taking care of our physical health, as it is crucial to our mental and emotional health. Next, we’ll look at how to dispel mental fog and how to improve concentration.

unhealthy food

When you eat poorly, the chances of brain fog appearing increase. But what is eating badly and what is eating well? The answer is simple, but quite difficult to assimilate and, in fact, a lot of people don’t like to hear it.

To begin with, it is necessary to clarify that one thing is to eat and another thing is to consume edible products. The difference is that foods provide necessary and beneficial nutrients, while edibles quench hunger or thirst, but ultimately they don’t provide what your body really needs.

That’s why when you eat well, you need to eat little, and when your diet is not based on nutrient-rich foods, you need to eat more food and more often, as your body asks for the nutrients it didn’t get. This is the reason why you should reduce as much as possible in your diet a number of edible products and replace them with real food.

nutritional deficiencies

It can happen that concentration problems and mental fog are caused by a nutritional deficiency. In fact, even when eating healthy, these deficiencies can appear, perhaps because consumption is not enough or because the body’s assimilation is not adequate.

The main nutritional deficiencies that can cause brain fog are as follows:

• Vitamin B12 Deficiency: Vitamin B12 deficiency should not be ignored as it can lead to a wide spectrum of mental and neurological disorders. Digestive disorders and the use of medications that suppress stomach acids (antacids) increase the risk of this deficiency.
• Vitamin D Deficiency: Vitamin D helps improve mood, clears brain fog and depression, improves memory, and increases problem-solving ability.
• Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acid Deficiency: Omega-3 essential fatty acids exist in large concentrations in the brain. They are essential for memory, health and overall brain function. Of all the omega-3s, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is the most beneficial for the brain as it is an important structural component of brain cells, especially cerebral cortex cells, which is the area of ​​the brain associated with memory, to language, abstraction, creativity, judgment, emotion and attention.

Some food supplements can help clear the brain fog. However, be careful with these supplements as they are not always as helpful as they seem. That’s the case with nootropics, substances that can make you more focused, motivated, positive, and productive, but which, when it comes down to it, aren’t as helpful as they seem or as harmless as they may seem.

sleep problems

Mental fog can be caused by a lack of quality sleep.  After all, sleep is fundamental to the functioning of the brain, both in the short and long term. When sleeping, a kind of brainwashing occurs, a cleansing that allows the memories to consolidate. Also, during sleep, the brain creates new brain cells that somehow make up for all the ones lost during the day.

Just one bad night can affect memory, concentration, coordination, mood, judgment, and the ability to handle stress the next day. What’s more, some experts say that losing a night’s sleep affects mental performance as much as being drunk.

chronic stress

Stress is one of the symbols of our times and chronic stress is its main standard bearer. Being stressed out mistakenly equates to being productive, popular, and successful. However, stress increases the risk of suffering serious illnesses, including cancer and the dreaded brain diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Chronic stress causes anxiety, depression, bad decision making, insomnia and memory loss. Too much cortisol, the stress hormone, causes an excess of free radicals that damage the brain’s cell membranes, causing loss of normal functioning and death. Furthermore, cortisol interferes with the formation of new brain cells.

Medicines

Medicines have some risks. Brain fog is one of the most commonly reported side effects with both over-the-counter and over-the-counter medications.

For example, cholesterol-lowering drugs and prescription sleeping pills are known to cause memory loss. In addition, drugs known as anticholinergics work by blocking the action of acetylcholine, the brain’s memory and learning substance. Typical side effects of these drugs include mental fog, forgetfulness, and an inability to concentrate.

In addition, many over-the-counter drugs also work by blocking acetylcholine, like some medications for allergies, acid reflux, pain, and insomnia. Hence the importance of carefully reviewing the package insert and evaluating whether the side effects outweigh the benefit that can derive from the treatment itself.

Health problems

Some health conditions can produce brain fog problems. In some cases, it is the treatment for this disease that can cause these problems. This is the case of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

A common side effect of chemotherapy is a specific type of mental fog associated with this treatment. The official position of the American Cancer Society is that this brain fog caused by chemotherapy is caused by a combination of illness, treatments, sleep problems, hormonal changes, depression and stress.

When researchers looked at patients’ brain activity before and after chemotherapy treatments, they found that chemotherapy caused observable changes in brain function. This indicates that chemotherapy itself plays at least some role in diminishing mental clarity.

In turn, some health conditions that have associated mental fog symptoms are, among others:

• Fibromyalgia.
• Chronic fatigue syndrome.
• Anxiety.
• Depression.
• Brain injuries.
• Candidiasis (candida albicans).
• Diabetes.
• Heavy metal toxicity.
• Hepatitis C.
• Hormonal imbalances.
• Hypoglycemia.
• Irritable bowel syndrome.
• Lyme disease.
• Menopause.
• Multiple sclerosis.
• Neurodegenerative disorders.
• Rheumatoid arthritis.
• Seasonal allergies.
• Substance abuse.

Solutions to Dispel the Mental Fog

Once you know what mental fog is and what its main causes are, the next step is to know how to fight it.

There is no single solution to clearing brain fog and improving concentration. Each person needs to look for their own personal solution, identifying first the factor or factors that give density to the fog. Most people will have to start correcting their eating habits, as well as looking for ways to manage stress and improve their sleep habits. It will also be necessary to review the health conditions of each one to find solutions. In fact, mental fog can be a symptom of an undiagnosed health problem.

The main guidelines that we can give you so that you can dissipate brain fog and improve concentration are as follows:

• Eat properly and in a balanced way, avoiding refined sugars, refined flours, saturated fats and caffeine, and consuming healthy fats and quality carbohydrates.
• Keep yourself well hydrated, as the slightest dehydration can cause problems at the brain level. Drink water and/or consume foods rich in water, but avoid sugary drinks (or with artificial sweeteners) as well as drinks with caffeine.
• Acquire healthy habits to get a good sleep, both in quality and quantity.
• Practice meditation and relaxation techniques and exercise – especially outdoor exercises. This helps to regulate and prevent stress effectively. On the other hand, learning to manage stress is a great way to improve sleep quality.

• Review the medication you take to see how much you can replace or adapt, if possible, to avoid brain fog.
• Take a health check to see if you have any illnesses or nutritional deficiencies that may be the cause of your concentration and memory problems.
• Unload your brain. Experts recommend breaking up the day into 90-minute phases to maintain the brain’s natural energy levels and preserve clarity of thought. This discharge consists of gathering all the thoughts that fly through the mind for 30 seconds or whenever we feel distracted.
• Turn off any type of device that might be a distraction during your tasks, especially notifications. The mere fact of knowing that some notification might arrive prevents maximum concentration.

Now that you know what mental fog is and how you can fight it, be proactive in adopting a healthy lifestyle for both your body and mind. Don’t make excuses, don’t look for the guilty. No one will care about your brain as much as you do, and no one will enjoy it more than you.