Ongoing sleep deprivation or poor sleep quality can disrupt the brain's ability to consolidate memories, process information, and maintain optimal focus. If you’re a parent, you’ll know all about this!

What to do: Make a plan to turn off devices a couple of hours before bedtime, wind down with warm camomile or other calming herbal tea, and if you can, dim your lights or turn off bright lights and have softly lit lamps instead. Aim to get into bed at a time that gives you 8 hours of restful sleep before you need to wake up. Try to get to bed at the same time each night, so your body begins to naturally get sleepy at that time.

It is estimated that up to 30% of those who have had Covid-19 will experience Long Covid with symptoms like fatigue, muscle weakness, chest discomfort or problems breathing, and, you guessed it, brain fog. It’s not only Covid that can lead to brain fog, with post-viral fatigue and brain fog common with influenza as well.

What you can do: Allow yourself time to rest, as much as possible and recover. Restorative herbs and nutrients can help by supporting your body to recover, and this doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Make sure you’re eating lots of foods that are high in fibre (fruits, vegetables, legumes) and probiotics (fermented foods, yoghurts, or a supplement) to support a healthy gut microbiome which in turn helps improve your brain health. Don’t forget to eat foods that are rich in antioxidants and polyphenols (fruit, vegetables – basically try to eat all the colours of the rainbow), and this helps reduce inflammation, and improve blood flow to the brain. We also have some fantastic herbs that we also recommend to support recovery from Long Covid, in the form of tonics, powders or tablets.

Chronic stress and anxiety can overwhelm the brain, triggering a release of stress hormones, in particular cortisol, that interfere with the brain and thought processes. This can then result in difficulty concentrating, memory lapses, and a feeling of mental fog.

You can try: Making sure you get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day, to burn off some of that extra cortisol, get your blood pumping and oxygen flowing - you guess it - to the brain. Meditation or mindfulness, quieting down the constant stressful thinking and automatic negative thoughts, is also highly beneficial. If you’ve been operating on high levels of stress for a while now (and if you’ve got brain fog then that’s an indicator that you have) then you may benefit from additional nutritional or herbal support - herbs like lions mane, bacopa, withania, vervain can support the nervous system, and allow you to more easily adapt to stress.

Stress and illness can deplete nutrients in your system, so even if you’re eating well, you may benefit from supplementation from time to time.

Make sure you’re getting these in your diet: Vitamins B12 and D, omega-3 fatty acids, and iron are all critical for brain health. If you think you may be low on these or having trouble absorbing enough from your diet, we can arrange for tests to confirm any deficiencies and address these with supplementation.

Particularly during puberty, pregnancy and postpartum and menopause, changing hormones impact not only our moods, but memory, focus, and mental clarity too.

There are things you can do: Sugar and alcohol can really impact hormones, and even moreso during these life changing times. Try to limit these, while keeping up with exercise, looking at your sleep habits, and eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables. For women, there are some herbs that are particularly helpful for balancing hormones, depending on the symptoms they’re treating, including chasteberry, shisandra and Shatavari.

Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pain and autoimmune disorders have all been associated with brain fog, with underlying inflammation being one of the factors contributing to the impact.

There’s no easy fix: These conditions are often complex and people who are diagnosed with these conditions have often tried a whole range of medications and conventional treatments. FSM is one non-invasive treatment that works well for conditions causing neurological problems or nerve pain (you can read more about FSM here). I find for many complex cases, working with the gut microbiome as a foundation for health has provided many long term improvements and can even lead to recovery from auto-immune symptoms.

Some medications, including certain antidepressants, antihistamines, and sedatives, can cause side effects that resemble brain fog. Additionally, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and other medical treatments may also temporarily impact cognitive function.

Check with your doctor about potential side effects of any medication you’re taking, and if you’re interested in a more natural approach, we can work with you to reduce side effects and symptoms while ensuring any herbal or nutritional supplements are not contraindicated for the medication (meaning they shouldn't be mixed).

With so many potential causes, and often more than one, each individual will have a combination of different underlying causes. By identifying these factors with you during a consult, we can more effectively formulate a treatment plan to reduce brain fog and improve your mental clarity.