Does Brain Fog Go Away? How Gut Health Can Help

Author's Bio: Marcie Vaske, MS, LN, CNS

Video Transcript:

Have you ever had that fuzzy feeling where things just aren't really making sense or maybe you find yourself losing concentration even on simple tasks?

Brain fog can be so annoying and even downright really frustrating.

And so many clients that I see struggle with brain fog and oftentimes we find that their gut has gone haywire as well.

My name is Marcie Vaske and I'm a functional medicine nutritionist with Oswald Digestive Clinic. So I see a lot of clients who do struggle with brain fog and their gut health, and if that sounds like you or you have other gut symptoms, I'm going to link our website where you can easily make an initial appointment. In addition to that, I'm going to also link our free guide, which is 5 Ways to Improve Gut Health.

So today we're going to talk about why brain fog happens and that connection to gut health.

The Gut Brain Connection

But before we get into that, it's really important to understand that actually that gut brain connection, and in recent years, I'm sure you've been seeing more and more about that gut brain connection.

And what that is, is that it's a bi-directional communication between our brain and our gut. And if those signals are off or impaired, it can oftentimes lead to mental health issues, one, like brain fog and of course even gut symptoms.

So what is brain fog? Why brain fog happens?

Well, brain fog is a condition that's characterized by difficulties including poor concentration, like a slower memory, or you just can't remember where you put your keys, or even a general feeling of just kind of mental fatigue. As I said, sort of that fuzzy feeling in your brain.

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When we have brain fog, it can oftentimes make, even those simple tasks just kind of feel overwhelming and you're never really getting anything done or finishing projects.

Now, brain fog isn't a medical condition by itself, but what it's telling us is that there's something underlying that, and that's creating the brain fog.

Causes of Brain Fog

Brain fog can actually be caused from several things, one being just stress.

So chronic stress can really make us not think properly.

Also, lack of sleep. If you've ever gone through a period of time in your life where you just have not gotten enough sleep, you're constantly feeling like that fuzzy brain, you just can't complete task, and it's just so hard to think.

Also, hormonal imbalances can contribute to brain fog as well as certain medical conditions.

So getting to that root of what is contributing to your brain fog is going to be really important.

And today we're going to dig into how the gut can be a connection to that.

But first off, I want to just explain gut health and how that plays a role in our brain fog.

The Gut - Brain Connection

Our gut is home to trillions of different microbes in our intestinal tract, and each of 'em help to support our gut health as well as many other systems in our body. Some of the key things that are microbes are important for is going to be obviously digestion.

Another is going to be also our immune system function or regulation of our immune system, as well as making and contributing to our neurotransmitter production and our neurotransmitters are key here.

What neurotransmitters are is they're little chemical messengers that help to signal the brain and influencing the way that our mental state is.

So neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, those are two big ones that we hear of the most, are going to be very important for feeling calm, for also feeling like we have a reward that dopamine kind of makes us feel alive and excited.

So you can see if our gut bacteria is imbalanced or we don't have enough of the good microbes, then that's going to influence our brain, which can also lead to inflammation.

But really what we're talking about today is how the gut can create brain fog for us.

So if this is sort of starting to sound like you with that brain fog, maybe it's just some mental slowness or you just can't think properly, maybe you feel confused or just some confusion on things or words aren't coming to you, then what I want to dig into next is how can you support your gut health to support your brain health?

Cause of Brain Fog - Brain Fog After Eating

So number one on the list is definitely going to be diet.

I am sure that is no surprise to anyone who has been listening to our videos, but diet is going to be key in helping to increase the good flora in our digestive system, which will then reduce the brain fog.

So getting rid of processed packaged foods, eating too many sugary foods, high fructose corn syrup, damaged fats, and replacing those foods with a whole foods rich diet.

So eating a diet that is plentiful in proteins, also in carbohydrates, also in fruits and vegetables, that's going to sustain the diversity in your digestive system to keep that flora from keeping our neurotransmitters flowing properly through our vagus nerve.

And in addition to just changing your diet for the good with whole rich diet, there are some foods that are going to be most beneficial for brain health, and one of 'em is going to be foods that are high in Omega-3, and omega threes are going to be high in fish.

So fatty fish like salmon or macro or sardines.

You're also going to find a higher content in walnuts.

And so keeping those foods in our diet can help to increase those fatty acids that we need for proper brain function.

And we know also that omega threes help to reduce inflammation in the body.

Now, a way to keep your gut microbiome healthy is maybe incorporating more probiotic rich foods, and those can be yogurts or kimchi or sauerkraut or keur.

Those are wonderful to add in. Or you can even take a probiotic In addition to that, maybe adding some turmeric into your diet, either in supplement form or putting it in your foods.

We know turmeric is a wonderful anti-inflammatory supplement, which can then bring down inflammation in the body and setting your brain health up for the better.

And of course, adding, in addition to changing your diet, some lifestyle factors, which I talk about a lot as well.

Cause of Brain Fog - Stress + Sleep

So things like reducing your stress, getting more sleep or adequate sleep, making sure that you're moving and exercising and moving that body, whether it's a formal exercise or just out for a walk.

Now, as I said, we were looking at just how the gut is connected to brain fog, and when I started out the video, I was explaining that of course there's other factors that can contribute to brain fog, like hormonal imbalance.

Brain Fog Thyroid + Hormones

And one thing that often I see is going to be thyroid health.

And so if you've had brain fog and your gut's feeling pretty good, you might want to be looking into just your thyroid health to make sure that it's functioning properly.

And so how does brain fog go away?

And if your brain fog is connected to just some chronic stress or acute stress that you're having, or maybe just lack of sleep, you're going through a period of time like that brain fog, once you start getting more sleep and your stress starts calming down, brain fog will also go away.

But if you're having more chronic brain fog and your gut's a wreck, once you start getting your gut healthy, that will also reduce as well.

And so like I said at the beginning of the video, it's really understanding what your root cause is for your brain fog.

Now sometimes we feel like we have a myriad of things going on and we just have brain fog and we don't know what's causing it, right?

It could be your hormones, it could be your gut.

And so if that sounds like you and you want to have more or some guidance on that, please make an initial appointment at Oswald Digestive Clinic.

We're happy to help you figure out what your root causes are. So I hope this helped explain the connection of how the gut is in works in concert with brain fog, how to get rid of brain fog and just give you some more hope that if you're feeling really scattered and confused, that brain fog can be easily taken care of with just understanding what the root cause is and working toward getting rid of that.

So thanks for watching today.

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If you'd like to explore any of this information further or obtain an individualized nutrition plan, you can schedule an initial appointment at our clinic. We also take insurance and some of our clients get full coverage, which is great.