Having low magnesium levels may negatively affect brain health. Supplementing with magnesium may help reduce certain symptoms of brain fog.
Only magnesium L-threonate has been shown to have a high affinity for the brain and have an effect on memory, learning, and cognitive function.
A deficiency in several nutrients could potentially contribute to brain fog, including vitamin D, vitamin B12, iron, and omega-3 fatty acids. Low levels of magnesium, vitamin C, and choline may also cause brain fog, but more research is needed.
Magnesium's involvement in the mechanics of synaptic transmissions and neuronal plasticity results in its impact on learning and memory. Increased levels of magnesium in the brain have been shown to promote multiple mechanisms of synaptic plasticity that can enhance different forms of learning and memory.
Too much magnesium from foods isn't a concern for healthy adults. However, the same can't be said for supplements. High doses of magnesium from supplements or medications can cause nausea, abdominal cramping and diarrhea.
Getting adequate sleep can go a long way towards curing many cases of brain fog. There are several ways you can improve your sleep: Reduce your caffeine intake. We all seem to run on caffeine, and even though it wakes us up, it could contribute to insomnia, stress, anxiety, and even full-blown panic attacks.
Changes to thinking, memory, and attention can affect your relationships, your everyday tasks, and your return to work or school. These challenges may go away in weeks or last for months.
Brain fog can be a symptom of a nutrient deficiency, sleep disorder, bacterial overgrowth from overconsumption of sugar, depression, or even a thyroid condition. Other common brain fog causes include eating too much and too often, inactivity, not getting enough sleep, chronic stress, and a poor diet.
How can I get rid of brain fog? In general, there aren't any known medications or treatments that correct brain fog directly. To immediately address most chronic stressors, Dr. Krishnan suggests focusing on improving your sleep, getting good nutrition and exercising 30 minutes every day, five days a week.
Vitamin B2 and vitamin B7 help the nervous system, vitamin B3 and vitamin B6 are required to support neurotransmitters and cellular communication, and vitamin B9 eases mental fatigue. Taking a regular B complex supplement that includes all the necessary B vitamins can help to reduce symptoms of brain fog.
Guanfacine and NAC Relieve Long COVID Brain Fog
Since then, Fesharaki-Zadeh has treated 12 patients experiencing post-COVID brain fog with this regimen. He instructed patients to take 1 mg of guanfacine at bedtime, and if well-tolerated, to increase the dosage to 2 mg after one month.
Magnesium begins to take effect after one week of consistent supplementation.
Brain fog in itself is not a mental health issue. However, it is very closely related to mental health as it can be both a symptom of common mental health conditions such as depression or stress, and a cause for others such as anxiety.
Mg is essential in the metabolism of vitamin D, and taking large doses of vitamin D can induce severe depletion of Mg. Adequate magnesium supplementation should be considered as an important aspect of vitamin D therapy.
Magnesium deficiency can cause a wide variety of features including hypocalcaemia, hypokalaemia and cardiac and neurological manifestations. Chronic low magnesium state has been associated with a number of chronic diseases including diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and osteoporosis.
Therefore, magnesium supplements can be taken at any time of the day, as long as you're able to take them consistently. For some, taking supplements first thing in the morning may be easiest, while others may find that taking them with dinner or just before bed works well for them.
One study of older adults with insomnia found that magnesium supplementation at a dose of 500 milligrams daily for eight weeks helped them fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, reduced nighttime awakenings, and increased their levels of naturally circulating melatonin.
The claimed benefits of magnesium supplementation range from boosts in everyday wellness — better sleep, increased energy levels and improved mood — to specific health benefits, such as lower blood pressure, reduced risk of heart disease and improvement in migraines.
While spacing out can simply be a sign that you are sleep deprived, stressed, or distracted, it can also be due to a transient ischemic attack, seizure, hypotension, hypoglycemia, migraine, transient global amnesia, fatigue, narcolepsy, or drug misuse.
While brain fog is pretty common, it's not a condition on its own. But it can be a symptom of several issues — anxiety and stress among them. If your brain is a computer, ongoing anxiety and stress are those programs that run in the background and use up tons of memory and make everything else run slowly.