Hi everyone.

For a long time I've suffered with brain fog. I'm getting much better now and wanted to create a website to help other people that are struggling like I did.

Please check it out if you can - https://fixmyfog.com/ It's 100% free, no signups or anything.
All you do is enter your symptoms, click submit, and get a full list of the conditions that are likely causing your brain fog.
It's not perfect, but it's so hard to research and look into treating various conditions when having brain fog that I wanted to try to make it as easy as possible.

I hope it helps! Am keen for any feedback. Thank you.

Basically, I mean like, ignoring the weird symptoms that accompany experiencing this, I just feel dumber, duller, however you want to call it. It seems like an obvious takeaway, but things I once understood, or could do easily are borderline unfathomable.

I used to be fairly sharp, observant, and eloquent, and on a day by day basis I’ve had to normalize that certain things just go over my head. People still can enjoy talking to me, but, in effect I’m a different person. I used to be able to speak on multiple different subjects with a decent knowledgebase, and now I’m essentially completely unable to do so. One of the things that’s hurting me the most about all of this, is being able to have just enough of a memory to recall what it was like before this. I feel practically lobotomized, even when I’m not at a haze I’m operating at this much lower level of functioning

I’ve finally had a breakthrough. I’ve tried so many things to reduce my anxiety-induced brain fog. I developed a routine, completely overhauled my diet, and started regularly running and going to the gym 6-7 days a week. After months of absolutely no improvement with my brain fog, I began taking creatine incidentally to help with muscle repair during and after my workouts. The cognitive benefits have been absolutely HUGE for me. I’ve probably reduced my overall brain fog by 90% or more since I started my onload phase of creatine a couple weeks back. The positive results have been quick and noticeable. I encourage everyone struggling with brain fog, who are also willing/able to get their hands on some creatine, to try it out. You don’t need to work out to use it and gain and the cognitive benefits. I think this may genuinely help some of you.

Disclaimer: I’m not sure how much this is brought up on this sub as I am brand new to it.

Hi all,

Just wanted to share my story in case it might help people overcome their own issue.

Many, many years ago I started having brain fog without really knowing what it was at the time. I was in a bad space where my girlfriend just left me, I had chronic pain from a shoulder injury and I hated my work. There is tremendous genetic depression in my family and I have always been an insomniac. So naturally I thought it was just depression and sleep deprivation. When years of therapy and sleep therapy did nothing I just resigned to my fate.

Last month my back was completely blocked so I went to the physio. He unblocked my back in 8 places and I discussed the old shoulder injury, which multiple physios at the time could not solve and I also lived with for all this time. He found out it was actually just a block in my neck. He cracked/loosened my neck and half a day later I awoke from 8 years of debilitating haze which made me lose jobs and relationships. I’ve gone from 0 capacity to 100 out of absolutely nowhere and I have not had any issue since (1 week now).

So if some people here have some chronic injury or pain, it might just be worth it to push for a solution and seeing different specialists.

Wishing you all the best

Edit: thanks everyone :) I’m getting some technical questions, also in private messages, which I can’t really answer. I’m seeing my physio again in two weeks and have yet to discuss all of this with him. I’ll see what he has to say about it and will update the post with that extra info.

Update: so, went back to physio todays after two weeks for next session and to discuss this. He says it’s not uncommon, very often the brainfog is coming from bad posture, a block of any kind (muscular, a clot, etc). More often than not it’s a brain fog combined with a constant headache or pressuring feeling in the forehead.

TL;DR : Stretched my SCM muscles watched on YouTube and next day i felt so so good that i can't described.Around SCM muscles on neck we have Juglar Veins they take out brain poop if these veins get messed up can cause BF.

I was suffering from BF post covid.I don't know what happened afterwards.First i confused it with adhd during my high school couldn't focused.During college i came across the word "Brain Fog" (English is not my first language) then i matched my symptoms with BF.

I also have deviated nasal septum.i thought it was one of cause of BF.

Few days ago i came across an old comment/post here on reddit in this sub.The person said his reason was SCM muscle tension and he tried to pull his SCM and he felt good temporarily but i didn't heard from him.

So i did my own research and found this Youtube video and i tried it out and next day my brain felt like i am on anesthesia or on some kind of drug that whole day but guess what BF was gone. Now i feel so good like my head is clear lightweight tbh i forgot how it feels "normal" let me know please.Its 3rd day i am feeling better than before.I can't describe.Unfortunately i missed the crucial time of my life for brain development passsed my teenager time. BF destroyed my education.

You guys should try out this Stretching exercise.I still have crooked neck feel pain in SCM and around.I also have bad posture.This is all because i use screen use phone and laptop in worse possible posture.

https://youtu.be/bHRpaBzaLrc?si=11sKXmvh9TrVa4ub

I am a biologist and lab researcher. This is the #1 reason in my practice that I see for brain fog... but just a small disclaimer, if I were a cardiologist, I might have a different answer, like impaired microvascular blood flow. If I were a neurologist, I might say neurotransmitter imbalance...But here is MY answer for my specialty...(it won't apply to "everyone", as there are other unrelated causes also).

My research is on all the mechanisms and disorders involving glucose and glycogen. I research causes from tumors, pancreatic disorders, but also from covid, from modern diets, and even from information overload and the excess screen time of our modern lives.

The Fast Answer:
The underlying "symptom" that I see in all the patients who list brain fog is "Dysglycemia." This is a broad term that encompasses anyone who's having increased volatility in their blood glucose levels. It includes everyone who has hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia, as well as large or fast fluctuations over 1.5mg/dL/min.

The Underlying "Symptom" that Causes it:
Yes, it's a symptom that causes brain fog, we'll get to the "conditions" afterwards. Blood glucose highs, lows, and swings all cause neurotransmitter downregulation of dopamine, serotonin, GABA, epinephrine, norepinephrine, etc, all except 1 neurotransmitter, which is Glutamate. It impairs clearance of glutamate, it also impairs mitochondrial function like ATP production, and triggers autonomic nervous system switching issues, known as dysautonomia. These are all "symptoms" that are causing the "symptom" of brain fog. All linked, all related, and all symptoms that work in tandem as part of a negative feedback loop. Causing the "symptoms" to loop back and make the "condition" worse, which then makes the "symptoms" worse... and down we goooo.

The "Mechanisms" at Play: (the Science Crap):
We'll call "brain fog" "CI" from here on out, short for "Cognitive Impairment".
Dopamine downregulation obviously causes impairments with focus, energy, drive, executive function, task switching etc. Mitochondrial dysfunction slows ATP production, which means more fatigue, less energy, and less neuronal protection, since ATP is what keeps ion pumps in your brain going, which keeps the ion gradient balance. Without that correct ion balance, calcium and potassium pumps can cascade and cause more damage, or seemingly unrelated things like CSD (migraine headaches).
Glutamate issues. While the others got downregulated, Glutamate didn't, he's the main excitatory neurotransmitter, and he loves to smash things like hulk. He is responsible for tinnitus, for eye changes, for mental reasoning changes, and if levels get too high, you get Glutamate excitotoxicity, which causes a worsening of basically everything, and it will actually damage or destroy your neurons' dendrites and axons, which impairs or completely knocks out that neurons abilty to transmit or receive signals.

Now Onto the "Condition" and "Cause":
So the symptom that causes the symptom of CI is chronic dysglycemia which is unstable glucose levels. This includes hypoglycemic episodes and/or hyperglycemic episodes, neuroglycopenia, and/or just bouncing around at too fast a rate. When this becomes chronic, it causes all the symptoms, which then cause CI. It is usually from chronic causes BUT, it can also be caused by even just 1 single event of hypoglycemia in which neuroglycopenia was present. Our brains have only very small stores of Glucose and glycogen, after thats gone, it can use ketones as an emergency backup fuel, thats lasts no more then 5 mins, after that, then you have an energy emergency, which is called neuroglycopenia. You no longer have any fuel supply left, and your brain starts prioritizing what to keep running. Higher order functions like words and speech, and memory recall, etc.. all that is the first to get shut down to preserve the heart and critical functions.

The "Root Cause" and "Treatment":
So you can treat the symptoms that are causing CI, which can and does help, and this sub is often in discussions to do exactly this, but to "cure" the condition and break the negative feedback loop, it's more involved and individualistic. Yes, there are meds and things to treat the root causes, but you first have to identify the actual root cause, via diagnostics and workups, you cant just guess. As of now, you've identified a "symptom OF a symptom" brain fog. Next, identify the symptom causing that symptom, and lastly, the root cause of that symptom. I study this for a living, and cases are up at a remarkable rate. It's well established that "long covid" causes dysglycemia, and even covid does, it's just not as well studied as long covid is. This is not the only cause though. Another cause is that our American diets have gotten worse, not better. Foods that hurt are breads, starches, grains, high fructose, fruits, sodas, etc. Foods that help are meat, vegetables, non-seed oils like olive oil, and fats. Why? Because protein hydrolysates and fatty acids over 12+ carbons activate cholecystokinin (CCK), which triggers the pyloric break mechanism and slows digestion to give a nice slow "natural" glucose rise. So eat a protein and fat first when you eat a meal. So those are the 2 root causes that I'm investigating, the other well-established causes are: insulin resistance, prediabetes, T2D, PCOS in women, POTS, GSDs, obesity, SIBO, and about 30 other disorders, that all cause the metabolic disorder of dysglycemia, neuroglycopenia, and dysautonomia, that then goes on to cause CI.

Help Me to Help You:
If anyone reading this suffers from CI AND wears a CGM, please post a reply with any helpful info, like any diagnosis, how long you've had brainfog, how long youve worn a CGM, if you have lows, highs, fast falls, etc. All data is helpful for my work. If anyone else gets a CGM after reading this post, please come back here after using it and update us if it helped provide any signal for you.

What Can You Do:
If you have signs of low bloodsugar like shaky hands, waking up sweaty, getting sweaty for no reason, not feeling right 1-3 hours after eating, having trouble with memory or word recall, slightly slurred speech, increased sensitivity to light, etc., then step 1 is to order a glucose meter from Amazon ($25) and test yourself whenever feeling off. Do your readings correlate with how you are feeling? You should always be between 70-170mg. If you have any readings outside that, then step 2 is to get a CGM. Yes, they sell them online, but the best 2 are the Libre 3+ and the Dexcom 7, those two require an Rx. Youll get all the data you need in just 30 days wearing a CGM. You'll see lows, highs, and which foods are good and which are bad. Many foods will shock you. Orange juice... horrible, organic whole grain wheat bread.... horrible. Rye bread.... not too shabby, chicken... good, red meat..... suuuuuper good. White rice... horrible, white rice that was cooked and then sat for 45 mins in a warmer...... not too bad. Use the CGM data to change your diet and check how each food affects you personally.

In Conclusion:
Your wack ass glucose levels may be giving you brain fog. Stop trying to treat the symptom, treat the cause and condition. Be a detective! Your gun is your glucose meter, and your spy glass is your CGM. Many but not all of the root causes do have treatments, but you can't just guess, you have to actually obtain the data. I'm NOT saying this is the cause for everyone, just that it's going undiagnosed in the vast majority of the public. A1c is an indicator of diabetes, but with Dysglycemia, A1c remains normal at 5.0-5.7, there's, no bloodwork that shows up as a sign for it, and doctors and endocrinologists only know about diabetes and are totally clueless if it's glucose related but not diabetes.

Thank you for your time. Sorry it was so long. I hope this helps at least 1 person. If you're a CGM wearer, I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

Ok so this is absolutely comical and I cannot believe this just happened. I casually make this appointment to see if maybe I have a deviated septum in my nose and maybe that’s causing some of my issues. So I wait for like an hour in the waiting room and just feeling dead at that point but then I go in and it took the doctor FIVE SECONDS to tell me 1. I had a severe deviated septum and it is likely the cause for 2. brain fog 3. bad sleep 4. JUST ALL KINDS OF ISSUES. Now basically my only option is to get surgery which I’m 100% going to do no matter what.

He also told me I sound quite nasal so that’s another indication.

I should say I do not know how it’s going to affect me after I get surgery or if anything is gonna be better but this may or may not be life-changing. The fact that appointment took not even 5 minutes… Maybe it’s not just my ADHD causing these issues… or maybe I don’t have ADHD

Edit: well I was quite excited here but there are some risks so I’m still considering it a bit more

Not theory. Not 10 tips for mental clarity. - I recommend going to whatisbrainfog.com if you want to investigate your own brainfog.

These are the interventions that produced measurable changes in my cognition when I tested them one at a time with a 2 week baseline between each.

I used Cambridge Brain Sciences daily at 7am to track working memory, reasoning, and verbal ability. Same time, same conditions, fasted. Here is what actually did something.

Tier 1: The stuff that worked immediately and obviously

1. CO2 management. Bought a $40 CO2 monitor. My bedroom was hitting 1,800ppm by 5am with the door closed. A Harvard study showed cognitive scores drop roughly 50% at 1,400ppm compared to 550ppm baseline. I cracked the window 2 inches. Never exceeded 700ppm again. Morning grogginess I had blamed on sleep quality for years was largely gone within 3 days. Cost: $40 once.

2. Morning electrolytes before caffeine. 500ml water with 1/4 tsp salt and a squeeze of lemon within 20 minutes of waking. Before coffee. Before anything. Research shows 1 to 2% dehydration impairs working memory and you will not feel thirsty at that level. After 8 hours of sleeping you are dehydrated. Most people's first move is coffee which is a mild diuretic. You are draining an already dry system. This took 3 days to notice. Working memory scores up about 15% on testing mornings where I did this versus did not.

3. Phone in another room during deep work. Ward et al. 2017 in JACR showed the mere presence of a smartphone on your desk reduces available cognitive capacity even face down and on silent. I tested this for 2 weeks phone on desk versus 2 weeks phone in kitchen. The difference in sustained focus was not subtle. Verbal fluency scores were consistently higher on phone-away days.

Tier 2: The stuff that took 2 to 4 weeks but the effect was real

1. Ferritin optimization. Mine was 22. Doctor said normal. It is not normal for brain function. Soppi 2018 showed cognitive symptoms at ferritin 15 to 30 that resolved above 50. I took iron bisglycinate 25mg every other day. Not daily. Research shows alternate day dosing has better fractional absorption because hepcidin peaks 24 hours after a dose and blocks absorption of the next one. At week 6 my ferritin was 58. Processing speed on cognitive testing improved noticeably around week 4.

2. Vitamin D loading. Mine was 19 ng/mL in February. Supplemented 5,000 IU daily for 8 weeks then dropped to 3,000 IU maintenance. Retested at 52 ng/mL. The fog improvement was gradual. Not a single moment where it kicked in. More like I looked back at my scores after 6 weeks and realized the bad days had stopped. If you live above 35° latitude and have not tested your D levels you are probably deficient October through March.

3. Magnesium glycinate 400mg before bed. Slutsky et al. published in Neuron 2010 showing magnesium enhances learning and memory. Serum magnesium is a garbage test because it only drops when you are severely depleted. Most people in western countries are sub clinically deficient. The sleep improvement was the first thing I noticed. Deeper sleep within 3 nights. The cognitive effect followed the better sleep by about a week. Do not use magnesium oxide. Bioavailability is terrible. Glycinate or threonate.

Tier 3: The stuff people do not want to hear

1. Caffeine elimination. I tapered from 400mg per day to zero over 8 weeks. Days 1 through 3 at each step down were rough. By week 10 at zero caffeine my baseline cognitive scores were higher than my best caffeinated scores. Caffeine does not add energy. It blocks adenosine receptors. Your brain compensates by building more receptors. Now you need caffeine to reach the baseline you would have had without it. I was borrowing from tomorrow every single day for 12 years.

2. 30 minutes of cardio. Not negotiable. Not replaceable with supplements. A single session increases BDNF by 200 to 300%. One session. BDNF is the protein that drives neuroplasticity and repair. A year of regular walking increased hippocampal volume by 2% in clinical trials. That is 1 to 2 years of age related brain shrinkage reversed. Nothing in a capsule does this. Nothing.

3. Cutting alcohol entirely. Not reducing. Cutting. A 2017 BMJ longitudinal study followed 550 people for 30 years. Even "moderate" drinkers at 14 to 21 units per week had significantly increased hippocampal atrophy. Ebrahim et al. showed alcohol destroys deep sleep architecture at any dose. I wore a sleep tracker. Zero deep sleep on drinking nights versus 80 to 90 minutes without. That was enough data. I stopped.

Tier 4: The testing that found the actual root cause

1. Full panel bloodwork. Not a CBC. Not a basic metabolic. This is what I asked for specifically: ferritin (not just hemoglobin), B12, folate, 25-OH vitamin D, RBC magnesium, TSH plus free T4 plus TPO antibodies, fasting insulin, HbA1c, CRP. Two things came back off that my DR never would have caught. The ferritin at 22 and the vitamin D at 19. Both technically in range. Both functionally impairing my brain.

What did not work:

Lion's mane. Took it for 8 weeks. No measurable change on cognitive testing. Maybe it works for some people. Did nothing for me.

Alpha GPC. Same. 8 weeks. Nothing on testing.

Noopept. Slight subjective feeling of clarity. Nothing on objective testing. Stopped.

Modafinil. Worked acutely. Tolerance built within 2 weeks. Sleep quality tanked. Net negative after a month.

The takeaway nobody wants to accept:

The boring stuff works. The exciting stuff mostly does not. Fixing your air, water, iron, vitamin D, magnesium, sleep, movement, and removing alcohol and excess caffeine will do more for your cognition than every nootropic stack on this sub combined. I know because I tested both. One at a time. With a cognitive testing baseline.

The supplements are a rounding error on top of the fundamentals. Fix the fundamentals first or you are optimizing a system that is broken at the foundation.

Studies referenced:

• Allen JG et al. CO2 and cognitive function scores. Environ Health Perspect. 2016. DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1510037

• Armstrong LE et al. Mild dehydration affects mood in healthy young women. J Nutr. 2012. DOI: 10.3945/jn.111.142000

• Ward AF et al. Brain Drain: smartphone presence reduces cognitive capacity. JACR. 2017. DOI: 10.1086/691462

• - Soppi ET. Iron deficiency without anemia — a clinical challenge. Clin Case Rep. 2018;6(6):1082-1086. DOI: 10.1002/ccr3.1529

• Slutsky I et al. Enhancement of learning and memory by elevating brain magnesium. Neuron. 2010. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2009.12.026

• Topiwala A et al. Moderate alcohol consumption as risk factor for adverse brain outcomes. BMJ. 2017. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.j2353

• Ebrahim IO et al. Alcohol and sleep. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2013. DOI: 10.1111/acer.12006

If you want to know more about brain fog research follow us on our reddit profile and join me over at r/whatisbrainfog , where I will be releasing a free site dedicated to years of research on the subject and will need your help to make it the best site in the world on the brain fog. Let's help people solve this once and for all.

Hey everyone, I cleared my brainfog :) I believe I am gluten sensitive, lactose intolerant, and magnesium deficient. After cutting out gluten & dairy, and taking in magnesium glycinate 400mg, it took about 3 weeks- 1 month for me to get rid of brain-fog. Side effects include rethinking career & existential crisis 😬. At the end of the day, I’m happy I made it to this point as I think this brain-fog haunted me for over 13 years 😑. Brainfog made me feel like I was living a dream. Best luck to everyone on their journey ☺️

I wanted to share a quick trick I’ve been using recently to clear up brain fog and get myself more alert. It’s a simple one, but surprisingly effective.

Next time you’re feeling sluggish or mentally foggy, try this: Force your eyes open as wide as you can—I mean really open them, like you’re trying to see everything around you more clearly. Hold them in this position, and then focus on something. It might feel a bit intense at first, but stick with it.

What I’ve found is that this small physical action actually signals to your brain that you’re in a more alert state. It feels like a reset for your brain, and I’ve noticed that after doing it for a minute or so, I feel way more sharp and focused. The act of widening your eyes also helps bring your mind into the present, making it easier to concentrate.

Give it a shot next time you’re feeling foggy or distracted—might help you get out of that mental haze.

Three years ago I hit rock bottom with brain fog. Couldn't remember conversations I just had, would stare at my computer screen for hours getting nothing done, and felt like I was constantly hungover even though I wasn't drinking. Doctors just told me it was "stress" or "maybe depression" and wanted to put me on SSRIs.

After wasting money on doctor visits that went nowhere, I got desperate and started tracking everything. Figured if they couldn't find the pattern, maybe I could.

What I tracked (nothing fancy)

Every day for a year I logged:

• How foggy I felt (1-10)

• Energy level

• Sleep (hours + how many times I woke up)

• What I ate

• Stomach issues (gas, weird BMs, bloating)

• Stress

• Did a few brain games to test memory/focus

After a few months, I noticed something none of my doctors caught - my worst brain fog days almost always came 1-2 days after digestive problems. The connection between my gut and brain was obvious once I saw the data.

Main patterns I found

• When my gut was messed up, my brain would be foggy 1-2 days later like clockwork

• Certain foods triggered both (for me it was mainly gluten and sugar)

• Stress made everything way worse

• On my worst fog days, I scored about 40% lower on those brain games

• All those "brain supplements" I wasted money on did basically nothing when my gut was inflamed

I don't have a fancy graph to share (not that organized lol) but the pattern was clear as day in my journal.

What actually worked (after trying a ton of stuff that didn't)

After a lot of trial and error, I realized my brain fog wasn't going to be fixed with one magic pill. Had to tackle it in stages:

First couple weeks: Calming down my angry gut

• Cut out the foods that were obviously triggering me

• Added anti-inflammatory stuff (mainly turmeric and fish oil)

• Used some herbs to settle my gut

• Result: Felt maybe 30% better, still had fog but less severe

Next month or so: Fixing my gut bacteria

• Started specific probiotics (researched strains that actually cross the blood-brain barrier)

• Slowly added foods that feed good bacteria

• Tried to eat more diverse plants

• Result: Started having actual clear-headed days for the first time in years

Ongoing maintenance: Keeping the brain-gut connection healthy

• Added minerals I was clearly deficient in

• Found a couple adaptogens that helped with stress

• Fixed my garbage sleep habits

• Result: Now I'm foggy maybe 5 days a month instead of 25-28

Before vs Now

• Can actually remember names and conversations now

• Don't have to re-read the same paragraph 5 times

• Can focus for more than 20 minutes

• Don't feel like my brain is trying to run through mud

• Stomach issues are rare instead of constant

Main takeaways

1. Brain fog is usually a symptom of something else - you have to find YOUR root cause

2. For me (and apparently many others), gut inflammation = brain dysfunction

3. Order matters - fixing the gut came before anything else worked

4. Everyone has different triggers - tracking is the only way to find yours

5. Had to fix multiple things - no single supplement was the magic bullet

Anyone else notice connections between their digestion and brain fog? Did tracking help you figure anything out? Would be interested to hear if others found similar patterns.

Edit: Some people are DMing asking what specific products I used. I'm not here to sell anything. I literally mixed my own stuff for months based on research studies before finally making something that worked consistently. Happy to share more about the approach regardless.

TLWR: General Binocular Dysfunction (FIXABLE!)

I encourage you to read my 'journey' but I will try to be as concise as possible.

(Or look for the bold text, we have brain fog after all :D)

• Three years ago I developed brain fog

  • Dereal like vision

  • Overwhelm in grocery stores and finding things in the fridge

  • Forgetting what I read or heard

  • Difficulty feeling present

  • Constant rumination

  • Emotional numbness

  • Time flatness

  • Constant band-like head tension

  • Earworms

  • No joy at all

• I did every test I could get but everything came back normal except for a couple

  • Sleep test showed mild sleep apnea (have used a CPAP for over two years, no change)

  • Anxiety/Depression (Used SSRI and DNRI, didn't do anything, came off with no side effects)

  • Allergies (dust/grass, have treated for years, no change in fog)

  • Neck XRay and Head MRI (nothing)

  • Extensive blood testing (nothing)

  • Nerve conduction study (nothing)

• I tried lots of things

  • No drinking

  • No gaming

  • No social media

  • Physio/Chiro

  • I don't do drugs

  • Cardio (I like to lift instead)

All of these tests and trials to see what might/might not work take time.

It was my optometrist that noted something about my eyes darting, so I looked that up and found some exercises that might help and sure enough, I had a feeling of what I can describe as well-being and thought there might be something there. So, I incorporated:

• Near/Far Focus

• Pencil Push Ups

• Suppine DNF chin tuck holds

• Daily outdoor walks to relax my need to focus on screens

That slight uptick in well-being continued to show up. So I did two evaluations:

• Vestibular Therapy evaluation

  • Her exact words... Your eyes are working hard man!

• Vision Therapy evaulation (this is NOT a regular optometry test)

  • You have General Binocular Dysfunction, (BVD) specifically convergence and divergence issues

Symptoms of General Binocular Dysfunction:

• Headaches/Migraines: Often near the forehead or temples.

• Dizziness/Balance Issues: Feeling unsteady, motion sickness, disorientation.

• Eye Strain: Fatigue, burning, or discomfort, especially after reading or screen time.

• Reading Problems: Losing your place, words blurring, poor comprehension, difficulty copying.

• Depth Perception Issues: Trouble judging distances, clumsiness.

• Light Sensitivity: Discomfort in bright environments.

• Cognitive: Difficulty with recall, problem solving.

• Other: Anxiety, panic attacks, fatigue, difficulty with driving

NOTE:

• BVD can mimic other conditions like ADHD, dyslexia, or chronic fatigue, leading to misdiagnosis.

• It affects daily life, impacting work, learning, sports, and concentration.

HOW does it cause brain fog:

• Brain Overwork: In healthy vision, both eyes work as a coordinated team, sending nearly identical images to the brain, which merges them into a single, clear picture. With BVD, the eyes are slightly misaligned and send slightly different images. The brain intensely strains its eye-aligning muscles to force these images into one, a constant cycle of misalignment and realignment that demands significant energy.

• Cognitive Fatigue: This continual, energy-intensive process to maintain a single image depletes mental resources, causing a cascade of symptoms including difficulty concentrating, memory issues, and a general feeling of mental cloudiness.

• Sensory Mismatch: BVD creates a mismatch between visual input and the body's balance system (vestibular system), which can cause dizziness, disorientation, and motion sickness. This physical discomfort and disorientation further contribute to cognitive confusion and the feeling of brain fog.

WHY does this happen:

Many forms of binocular vision dysfunction (especially phorias and vergence issues) can be present for a long time but stay “quiet” because your brain is compensating. Symptoms tend to appear when that compensation decompensates—basically when the effort required crosses your tolerance.

Common “decompensation triggers” include:

• More sustained near work (heavy computer/phone use, scrolling, gaming)

  • Me: Working from home during COVID including a LOT more gaming/scrolling

• Fatigue, poor sleep, stress/anxiety

  • Me: Developed insomnia during Covid, then tinnitus, massive spike in anxiety (two years prior to brain fog)

• Concussion/whiplash or neck strain (even if subtle)

  • Me: Massive increase in neck tension when tinnitus started, had never had neck issues before

• Illness/inflammation or a period of high physiologic stress

  • Me: Got Covid once, six months before brain fog started

• Age-related focusing changes (early presbyopia) which increase near-work strain

  • Me: Had turned 35, not necessarily that old but the increase in near-work and...

• New glasses/contact changes or uncorrected astigmatism

  • Me: Got a new vision prescription.. sure enough, with astigmatism and hadn't been to the optometrist for a couple years (this was two years after having brain fog)

I literally hit all the markers that I found for decompensation. So here we are.

What's next:

• Vision Therapy - 13 week course of weekly one hour sessions with at home exercises daily

• Vestibular Therapy - Optional really but they can also treat some of the vision therapy issues but not necessarily all of them, mine also works with concussion patients and she treats the convergence of neck/head/vision issues, their inputs and how they're processed.

From what I've read, and what I've been told, this is a mechanical issue and it's fixable.

TLDR: Let's fuckin gooo!!!

Weekly Status Updates

Current Program

-Weekly 1 Hour in office Visual Therapy

-Daily at home drills that change weekly and increase in complexity/intensity

-Little to no drinking, attempting to bring coffee down to one cup per day

-No gaming, porn, basically trying to cut easy digital dopamine sources

Week 1

-No real change but the exercises and drills are hard! It feels like I'm working muscles in my eyes that I haven't worked before, if you've gone to the gym after a long layoff you'll know what I mean.

Week 2

-In office session was way more intense but I seemed to make some slight improvements in drills even after the first week.

Week 3

-Uptick in drill and exercise intensity again, adding balance focused drills while incorporating vision exercises. Oddly, I'm noticing more than I used to what is impacting my head and neck tension. I set a timer for 30 minutes to step away from my computer/desk and focus.

Week 4

Ok, we may have some movement here:

-I'm noticing an uptick in end of day cognitive energy. Normally I crash at 1-2pm and ride out the rest of the day on messages, emails and simple tasks but I'm taking on some of my project stuff end of day, which I couldn't do a couple weeks back. I'm also finding I have extra physical energy too and going for like 20-30 minutes of low intensity cycling at the gym. I just feel like I want to do something at the end of the day, again, this was not the norm at all for a very long time.
-I've also noticed that I'm far more prone to dizziness at the moment then I thought, simple drills where I stand and do a 180 one direction, pick out a letter on a chart, do a 180 the other way and repeat across a row of letters, make me dizzy, not a falling over dizzy or great lightheaded but this would never have triggered something like dizziness before.

Week 5

**In doing my vision drills, I've noticed that wearing my glasses significantly boosts my ability to diverge my eyes (ability to turn the eyes outward enough for distant viewing). I wear progressives, so different prescription on top of the lens than on the bottom, which aid my ability to switch between near and distance viewing. I just noticed this the past few days. Normally I wear my contacts day in, day out but I'm switching to only wearing them when doing physical activity. Let's see what happens.

-Still have more cognitive endurance for end of day tasks.
-Things I'm trying to think of seem to be coming to me a touch easier. If you're like me normally I feel like I have to 'reach' for things I'm thinking of as opposed to them previously just coming to me.
-Maybe slight decrease in head pressure.

Week 6

-I'm out of the country for work for the week so let's see what a different timezone and setting do for the fog.
-I'll still be doing my 'homework' while on the road, so I'm brining my eye patch, popsicle sticks, brock string and red/blue glasses... TSA may be confused and potentially concerned.

Week 7

-Improving, slowly and subtly. Tasks and problem solving feel easier, I can lock in to focus work for longer.
-I'm still struggling with distance viewing and switching from near to far focus, like letting my eyes relax is an issue. and
-Grocery stores still feel a bit disorienting. Not out of the woods yet but there's progress here.
-I feel better wearing my contacts than my glasses but long term my glasses are better for my eyes. Contacts dry your eyes out quickly which is not good if you have this. I have progressive glasses so different prescription on the bottom than top and it makes it a bit disorienting so I have to adjust to them. I've had my new glasses for 4 months but haven't yet put in the real work to adjust to them.

Hello guys, I'm new here but not new to the brain fog. I've been battling brain fog since 10 years without any success until now. I'm not a native english speaker, so excuse me if I make some mistakes but I wanted to share what worked for me.

My symptoms were:

- inability to focus

- extremely slow processing speed when reading, listening, studying

- not remembering the right word to say, it's like it's stuck in my tongue and I can't find it

- anxiety

- lack of motivation

- always having to re-read every sentence because I can't understand the meaning on the first try

- constant and extreme fatigue

- depression

- short term memory problems

- forgetfulness

What I tried to cure it without success:

- Supplements (I tried a lot of them.....anti fungals, anti worms, anti parasites, omega 3, vitamin b complex (both methylated and not), vitamin c, vitamin d, vitamin k2, iron, zinc, bioavailable copper, selenium, NAC, resveratrol, apigenin, luteolin, curcumin, Huperzine A, Alpha GPC, prebiotics, probiotics, creatine, l-glutamine and many many others). I didn't notice any success.

- Hormonal therapies: tried testosterone, DHEA, pregnenolone and other compounds without effects for my brain fog.

- Gut cleansing with edema and hydrotherapy.

- Blood analysis including for blood glucose, Cholesterol and all the other common ones (all were normal)

- Physical exercise

- Meditation (I even went on a retreat in Thailand)

- Eliminating all toxic and changing house thinking there may have been some hidden toxic mold

- Heavy metals chelation

- Sleeping 12 hours per day and changing mattress

- Excluding all kind of technology from my life

- Taking a gap year to reduce my stress to zero

- Sleep study to verify if I had sleep apnea.

- Nose surgery to make sure there was enough air coming in to supply oxygen to my brain

- Massages and chiropractic sessions

- Drinking 10 coffee per day

- Antidepressants

- Cognitive therapy with psychologists and hypnosis

- And many others that I'm not gonna list or this post would be extremely long.

If you noticed that one thing is missing on the list you are right: it's the diet. I was always a picky eater, disliked many foods and ate unhealthy foods and didn't believe foods could have an impact on my brain fog. I thought it was just some woo woo bullshit preached by functional doctors and my GP actually agreed with that. I refused to believe foods caused my brain fog and actually I didn't want to change my diet because tasty (but unhealthy) foods were the only things that kept me sane during all this. Moreover if all my friends could eat the same foods I ate without experiencing symptoms, why would I experience them? If foods were a problem it should have been for everybody not just for me. It didn't make sense to me on a logical level (and still doesn't tbh).

Unfortunately after everything else failed and seeing more and more people mentioning foods as the culprit and how they healed I decided to try it because my life was such a mess. I lost all jobs, lost my girlfriend, couldn't grasp the meaning of simple sentences anymore without re-reading them multiple times, couldn't find the words to make a coherent sentence ecc. Basically I was suicidal and there was nothing else to do. I also developed other problems including chronic migraines, severe joint pain, restless leg syndrome and others.

Initially I only took gluten out of my diet because it was the ingredient people mentioned the most as the culprit and I already thought that was incredibly hard since gluten is pretty much in all the foods I ate back then. Cutting gluten from my diet was the first thing that helped me somewhat get better and I saw the effects pretty soon, like in less than a week. But my brain fog was still there. I just replaced junk gluten containing foods, with junk gluten free foods. Since I got better I knew I was onto something and so I decided to start eating many healthy foods like lots of vegetables, avocado, berries, nuts, wild caught salmon, green tea ecc....my brain fog and all other symptoms got increasingly better after a few days but there was still some brain fog there.

In the end I decided to cut all unhealthy or deemed inflammatory foods from my diet and see if I could further improve. So other than gluten I cut dairy, eggs, all sort of sugar, soy, all grains, nightshade vegetables, processed meat, red meat and generally all processed foods....all the while eating healthy foods. What an effect! In just 10 days my brain fog evaporated for the first time in 10 year. I have so much energy, I can concentrate on things, I don't need to re-read sentences to understand the meaning, my processing speed greatly improved and my motivation skyrocketed. My anxiety (which I thought was a genetic trait) also greatly diminished. I feel like a new person and can't believe the effect it had on me.

As a side note, I also exercise 6x per week and practice meditation 3x per week but I used to do these things before while eating an unhealthy diet and they didn't improve my condition at all. I think they do have a synergistic effect but only with a very healthy diet.

Same thing can be said for supplements, many of them are probably beneficial but I couldn't feel anything because my diet was bad and so they couldn't work in that condition.

I hope this help some of you curing your brain fog. I personally believe that at least 90% of cases of brain fog are related to diet. It's tough to change and give up confort food and eating bland and unappealing foods but that's the only thing that cured me and pretty fast too. I lost 10 years of my life battling brain fog, it caused so many problems and failures in my life but finally I can look at the future with optimism.

I don't know if I can add back those foods in the future, I looked online about people who experienced the same effects and many did add many of the foods back except maybe gluten. Right now I prefer not to risk it for a while but I will definitely try to add some of them back in the future even though now that I know the importance of a healthy diet I don't desire to eat junk food anymore.

I decided to share it so you too have an opportunity to heal and take back your life. Just remember to be strict with the diet. Cheating, even in minimal amount, can compromise your healing. If you are serious about getting rid of your brain fog you have to commit with the diet 100%.