Brain Fog
Filed under: Case of the month, Spinewave Bulletin, Symptoms, Testimonials
“I had not been sleeping well, suffered from headaches, and generally felt drained with a constant sense of doom and what I call ‘fogginess’ most of the time. I never thought for one moment that chiropractic work could be of help.”
Brain fog is an unofficial diagnosis for poor concentration, lack of mental clarity, inability to focus, indecision or forgetfulness. The term I like to use more is a sense of disconnectedness.
Disconnectedness implies a cognitive dissonance between thought and behaviour; and a dissonance between perception and reality. When perception of body or emotion is distorted, you may feel something, but that’s not what’s really going on.
There could be a hundred-and-one physiologic reasons for brain fog ranging from toxic, to neurologic, vascular, hormonal, infectious, traumatic or elemental deficiency. However, in context of “fogging of the brain” in relatively normal people – giving the definition of “normal people” a wide berth itself – all roads lead to brain. So we can look at the brain becoming fogged because of its inability to maintain normal cortical function.
The cortex is the outer layer of the brain that requires constant stimulation to keep us engaged in life. It’s where our higher “human” functions come from. The cerebral cortex is also the area that becomes damaged, shrinks and dies in the process of Alzheimer’s Disease, which would obviously be an extreme case of brain fog.
For optimal performance on a day to day basis, the cortex requires the appropriate amount of “arousal” to keep it stimulated in a positive fashion. This can also be called eustress: the right amount of stress which is healthy and promotes learning and growth. When the cortex becomes overstimulated, or over-stressed, this is called distress and has a negative impact on its function and performance. Finding balance is the key.
Arousal is a term that can be used to describe a level of physiological activity in the body leading to activation of the cortex, because all roads lead to brain. The inverted-U theory states that as arousal increases, so too does performance, up to a point where further increases in arousal cause performance to decrease (see graph).
The challenge with modern day society is that we’re over-stimulated, most of the time, beyond the point of optimum performance for the brain. Especially when we’re setting big challenges for ourselves with high expectations, or simply trying make ends meet. Either end of that challenge spectrum eventually ends in burn out unless managed properly. As the curve begins to dip over the other side, signs and symptoms of stress start to manifest in the form of pain, skin or gut problems, fatigue, moodiness or brain fog. And then if cortex is pushed too far, anxiety and panic set in.
The trouble with an “unofficial diagnosis” like brain fog is that it presents with “unofficial symptoms”, from “unofficial causes” like an over-stimulated cortex, which obviously won’t be detected in a blood test. So how do we figure it all out and correct the problem? As the Germans would say: We have ways and means. Read more
A dog’s one-sided world
Hemispatial neglect is a strange condition in which brain damage, despite normal vision, results in complete neglect of the left side of one’s world.
The following could happen in a person suffering from hemispatial neglect:
- He or she will walk over to the right of another person and proceed to enjoy a perfectly normal interaction, because otherwise on the left, they don’t exist.
- A man may only shave the right half of his face and a woman may only apply make-up to the right hand side.
- Someone asked to draw a clock may only write the numbers 12 through 6, or if asked to draw a star, will only put points on the right side.
- He or she will often run into walls or door frames on their left as its existence was not processed by the brain.
Hemispatial neglect most commonly occurs after injury, such as stroke, to the right parietal lobe (green) – like in Barley the dog’s case (below).
It’s not as common with left parietal lobe damage because it’s thought that the right hemisphere of the brain is generally more specialized for spatial memory, while the left side is better tuned for language.
Damage to the right side of the brain reduces the amount of neural activity that crosses over to the left via the large fibre tract in the middle, called the corpus collosum, connecting the two halves.
Read more HERE on another concept in chiropractic neurology called hemisphericity.
How I Got My Wiggle Back
Anthony Field met a chiropractor who “saved his life”.
“In How I Got My Wiggle Back, Anthony, the “blue Wiggle,” reveals for the first time that as he and his group soared to fame and fortune, he was locked in a downward spiral that nearly ended his career. Anthony tells the story of the years he spent suffering from joint pain, multiple allergies, chronic headaches, and clinical depression. In this book, he also talks about his remarkable recovery and the simple techniques that can help anyone suffering with similar problems to regain their health.” Amazon.com