What Causes Brain Fog?
What is Brain Fog?
Brain fog is not a diagnosis or recognised medical condition. It is common among children as well as adults to contribute to low self-esteem due to the inability to properly function at school or work.
The most common symptoms include the perception and experience of fogginess in thought processes, such as mental fatigue, forgetfulness, mental confusion or lack of mental clarity, along with difficulties to multitask, concentrate and maintain focus. [1,2]
Brain fog is a common characteristic in many conditions, such as autism spectrum disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, celiac disease, fibromyalgia, mastocytosis, postural tachycardia syndrome, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and other neuropsychiatric disorders. [1,2]
What Causes Brain Fog?
Brain fog may be due to inflammation of the brain. Evidence suggests that brain fog develops slowly or perhaps following a stress event, such as an infection, illness, or after a toxic exposure. [2]
In my experience, the primary cause of brain fog is the body’s inability to detoxify the excessive accumulation of environmental toxins.
Brain fog is a complex issue involving many factors, the most common secondary causes include:
Stress
Poor sleep quality
Viral infections
Nutrient deficiencies
Bowel toxicity
Electromagnetic toxicity
Adrenal burnout or exhaustion
Hypoglycaemia
Multiple foods and chemical sensitivities or allergies
Gluten intolerance
Pharmaceutical medications, alcohol, cigarette smoking and recreational drugs
How Many Toxins Are In The Human Body?
Studies have shown that most of us have accumulated between 400 and 800 chemicals within our fat and nerve cells. [3]
How Many Chemicals Are We Exposed To Daily?
According to the World Health Organization, some 80,000 human-made chemicals have been contaminating our environment since the beginning of the industrial revolution. [3]
This would suggest that we are exposed to hundreds if not thousands of toxic chemicals on a daily basis through products like pharmaceuticals, pesticides, packaged foods, household products, and environmental pollution.
What Toxins Are In Plastics?
Persistent organic pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, phthalates, Bisphenol A (BPA) and Bisphenol S (BPS) have been linked to the increased risk of ischemic heart disease and/or cardiovascular disease mortality rate. [4]
BPA and BPS in plastic products imitate the role of oestrogen have also been linked to male and female neuroendocrine problems while disrupting embryological foetal development, and reproductive function in infants and children. [4]
Can Toxins Cause Nerve Damage?
The term neurotoxicity refers to damage to the brain and nervous system caused by exposure to toxic substances.
Studies have linked environmental toxins to neurodevelopmental disorders that are disorganising the next generation of children around the world. [5]
What Happens When Toxins Build Up In The Body?
Toxins have a cumulative effect and overload your organs of elimination, which include your skin, lungs, kidneys, liver and large intestine.
Toxins can also damage vital structures within your cells, like chromosomes that contain vital genetic information, and as a result cause cellular damage, mutation and chronic disease.
Toxic metals and persistent organic pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, phthalates, Bisphenol A (BPA) and Bisphenol S (BPS) have been linked to the increased risk of ischemic heart disease and/or cardiovascular disease mortality rate. [4]
ARSENIC - Fatigue, headaches, dermatitis, increased salivation, muscular weakness, loss of hair and nails, pigmentation of the skin, anaemia, and skin rashes.
CADMIUM - Loss of sense of smell, anaemia, dry scaly skin, hair loss, cancer, hypertension, kidney problems.
COPPER - Excessive copper is associated with feelings of confusion, disorientation, racing thoughts, mood swings and confusion.
MERCURY - A meta-analysis (14 studies reporting results collected from more than 34,000 participants in 17 countries): chronic exposure to mercury (Hg) was associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality and fatal/nonfatal ischemic heart disease. [6]
Excessive mercury exposure has been associated with a reduced sense of taste, touch, vision and hearing, metallic taste with increased salivation, fatigue, anorexia, irritability and excitability, psychoses, mania, anaemia, paraesthesia (numbness or tingling of peripheral nerves - hands/feet) tremors, lack of coordination, cardiovascular disease, hypertension with renal dysfunction.
LEAD - A study consisting of 14,289 adults showed that low-level environmental lead (Pb) exposure is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease mortality in the US population. [7]
In children lead has been shown to cause delays in mental development, hyperactivity, delayed learning, and behavioural problems. [7]
In children and adults lead has been shown to cause fatigue, anaemia, metallic taste, loss of appetite, weight loss and headaches, insomnia, nervousness, decreased nerve conduction, and possibly motor-neuron disorders. [7]
MEDICATIONS - Like chemotherapy drugs and antidepressants cause side effects in memory, attention, processing speed, and executive function with persistent cognitive dysfunction. [8]
Where Do Toxins Get Stored In The Body?
Chemicals and toxic metals accumulate in different organs and cells in your body, this is where a personalised targeted treatment approach is necessary to improve your body’s function and eliminate harmful toxins.
The lymphatic system is a vital part of the immune system supporting the elimination of waste and toxins from cells throughout the body. It includes nodes, vessels, ducts and organs such as the thymus, bone marrow, spleen, tonsils, appendix and Peyer’s patches in the small intestine that produce and process specialised white blood cells to fight infection and cancer.
When the lymphatic system becomes congested lymph nodes swell, and lymphatic drainage becomes sluggish, which greatly impacts immune system surveillance and the removal of waste products from body tissues and the circulation.
Treatments For Brain Fog
Depending on your symptoms there are several tests that can be employed to help provide a diagnosis. With the enormous amount of toxins in our environment, hair analysis is a low cost, non-invasive method of determining levels of toxic exposure, and can play a valuable role in helping to resolve chronic illness. View Hair Analysis Sample Report
Great Plains Laboratory has created GPL-TOX, a toxic non-metal chemical profile that screens for the presence of 172 different toxic chemicals. View GPL-Tox Sample Report
This test screens for organophosphate pesticides, phthalates, benzene, xylene, vinyl chloride, pyrethroid insecticides, acrylamide, perchlorate, diphenyl phosphate, ethylene oxide, acrylonitrile, and more.
This profile also includes Tiglylglycine (TG), a marker for mitochondrial disorders resulting from mutations of mitochondrial DNA. These mutations can be caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, infections, inflammation, and nutritional deficiencies.
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DR ALAIN FRABOTTA is a highly qualified and experienced integrative chiropractor and functional medicine naturopathic doctor in Sydney since 1995.
With a specific interest in the treatment, prevention, and management of complex chronic diseases, such as neurodegenerative conditions.
Alain provides a holistic, person-centred, multidisciplinary, solution-focused, results-driven approach.
He integrates chiropractic, naturopathic and functional medicine, nutrition, counselling, and coaching to help you bridge the gap between your physical, mental, and spiritual health.
Alain is the leading integrative chiropractic and functional medicine naturopathic doctor in Sydney who wants to help you achieve your health and well-being goals as well as reach your full potential in life.
He is also dedicated to providing you with a personalised, targeted treatment approach that employs functional and genomic assessments to diagnose and optimise your health, well-being, and performance.
Learn more about DR ALAIN FRABOTTA
What Next?
Start by washing fruits and vegetables thoroughly and transition to organic foods where possible.
A high-quality water filtration system can be a worthwhile health investment.
Minimise toxic exposure by changing the products you use on a daily basis – from food and beverage containers to beauty and cleaning products.
Instead of using plastic water bottles and food containers, switch to glass or stainless steel, and never eat or drink from plastic containers or Styrofoam cups.
Make sure your shampoo, soaps, lotions, and other beauty products are free of phthalates and try using cleaning products made from natural ingredients.
The use of infrared saunas can be used to help excrete chemicals through the process of sweating. Infrared saunas are superior to conventional saunas because it reaches deeper into the body, to help increase circulation and release many of the chemicals stored in fat cells.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or feedback
+ REFERENCES
[1] Theoharides, Theoharis C, et al. “Brain ‘Fog," Inflammation and Obesity: Key Aspects of Neuropsychiatric Disorders Improved by Luteolin.” Frontiers in Neuroscience, vol. 9, 2015, p. 225.
[2] Ocon AJ. Caught in the thickness of brain fog: exploring the cognitive symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Front Physiol. 2013;4:63.
[3] WHO. State of the science of endocrine disruption disrupting chemicals.
[4] Gao X, Wang HS. Impact of bisphenol a on the cardiovascular system - epidemiological and experimental evidence and molecular mechanisms. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2014;11(8):8399-8413. Published 2014 Aug 15. doi:10.3390/ijerph110808399.
[5] Tran NQV, Miyake K. Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Environmental Toxicants: Epigenetics as an Underlying Mechanism. Int J Genomics. 2017;2017:7526592. doi:10.1155/2017/7526592.
[6] Hu XF, Lowe M, Chan HM. Mercury exposure, cardiovascular disease, and mortality: A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Environ Res. 2020;193:110538. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.110538. PMID: 33285155.
[7] Lanphear BP, Rauch S, Auinger P et al. Low-level lead exposure and mortality in US adults: a population-based cohort study. Lancet Public Health. 2018; 3(4): e177-e184. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(18)30025-2. PMID: 295448786.
[8] Kovalchuk A, Kolb B. Chemo brain: From discerning mechanisms to lifting the brain fog-An aging connection. Cell Cycle. 2017;16(14):1345–9. DOI: 10.1080/15384101.2017.1334022