Brain Fog – Exploring the Link Between Aging, Depression

 

Brain Fog — What is it?

Brain fog is a subjective experience. Brain Fog is characterized by difficulty with focus, memory, and clear thinking, making it hard to concentrate or recall information. It’s not a medical diagnosis itself. Brain Fog rather is a symptom that can be associated with various underlying conditions. Common symptoms include feeling mentally exhausted, spaced out, or forgetful.

What are Causes of Brain Fog:

Lifestyle Factors:

Lack of sleep, poor diet, stress, and dehydration can all contribute to brain fog.

Medical Conditions:

Brain fog can be a symptom of various conditions, including hormonal imbalances (like menopause), autoimmune diseases (like lupus), infections (like Long COVID), and nutritional deficiencies.

Medications:

Certain medications, including those for arthritis or cancer, can also cause brain fog.

Mental Health:

Anxiety and depression can lead to brain fog due to the release of stress hormones that affect brain function, according to Psychology Today.

Brain Fog what to do:

Consult a Healthcare Professional especially if brain fog is persistent, recurrent, unexplained, or interferes with your daily life. Brain Fog is real and therefore, important to see a doctor to rule out any underlying medical conditions.

Lifestyle Changes:

Improving stuff: Better sleep hygiene, eating a balanced diet, managing stress, and staying hydrated can help alleviate brain fog, according to WebMD.

Think you have Brain Fog?

Always work with your doctor to figure out how to manage any condition will help resolve the brain fog.

 

Track your Fog:

Journal your Brain Fog pattern: Keep track of when brain fog occurs, along with any other symptoms and potential triggers. Any health journal can help identify personal patterns through life and help you talk to your doctor.

Manage Underlying Conditions:

Clinical depression, especially chronic depression, is a serious psychological condition that can have profound effects on an individual’s mind and body. Depression can strike a person at any age and for a variety of reasons. Regardless of when it takes hold, its effects, especially on our ability to think clearly and remember, can be devastating and long lasting. Doctors, brain scientists, and researchers have long known that depression can have a pronounced effect on the likelihood that an individual develops cognitive issues such as dementia late in their life, but new research is showing that depression has negative effects on overall cognitive abilities and can actually accelerate brain aging in patients.

The Symptoms and Effects of Depression

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, depression is a common and serious mood disorder that can manifest in many ways and develop under a wide variety of circumstances. Its typical symptoms include persistent sadness, feelings of emptiness or hopelessness, irritability, guilt, loss of interest in pleasurable or everyday activities, lack of energy, feelings of restlessness, trouble with concentration and memory, impaired cognitive ability, difficulty sleeping, change in appetite, suicidal ideations, and others. However, depression – even severe cases of chronic depression – can be treated. Often, patients who begin treatment as early as possible have the best treatment outcomes. Unfortunately, many who suffer from depression, even chronic depression, do not seek or follow through with treatment. This can lead them to be at higher risk for the long-term neurological effects of depression.

The Link Between Depression and Loss of Cognitive Function

Here is a link to academic article to help you research further into the greater overall decline in executive function, memory, and processing speed experienced later life.

The Link Between Alcoholism, Depression and Accelerated Brain Aging

Similarly, research conducted recently by psychological researchers at the University of Sussex in the UK suggests that depression is also associated with a general acceleration of the rate that the brain ages later in life. These results were also true for patients who had experienced prolonged anxiety issues earlier in life. The study further found that individuals who had suffered bouts of depression were more likely to experience a greater decline in general cognitive state as they aged, than those who had not experienced depression.

Protecting the Brain Against the Long-Term Effects of Alcoholism and Depression

Given the latest research into the negative long-term effects of depression on both cognitive ability and the general rate a person’s brain ages later in life, treating depression seems more important than ever before. Treatment of depression has not as yet been shown to counteract the effects of depression on the brain, but many researchers are calling for a renewed seriousness in the way governments and other organizations approach allocating funds for the treatment of depression to help safeguard the brain.