What causes Covid-19 brain fog?

  • COVID has taught us about strains, PCR testing, and mortality. post covid brain fog joins these ranks to describe a now-familiar symptom of COVID and long COVID. But what exactly is brain fog, and is it limited to COVID?

    Brain fog is not a medical diagnosis, but rather a description that patients tend to use for their symptoms. A feeling like being surrounded by a thick fog, not being able to fully understand ideas, feeling confused or disoriented, having difficulty concentrating or recalling memories. Brain fog is what doctors call "cognitive dysfunction." This describes problems with closely related tasks such as attention, information processing, memory, thinking and reasoning, and understanding language.

    Brain fog can make even simple tasks like grocery shopping very difficult. Things like navigating a parking lot, remembering a list of items to buy, switching attention between products and prices, and reading ingredients can be confusing, overwhelming, and exhausting.

    Brain fog can be unpleasant in the short term, but over time it can make working and maintaining social activities difficult. Brain fog can also take a toll on relationships and change the way we see ourselves personally and professionally.

    A recent study asked people with long-term COVID about their experiences with brain fog. They reported feelings of guilt and shame, especially about how brain fog affected their ability to return to work and relationships.

    While the symptoms of brain fog may be similar to those experienced by people with Alzheimer's disease and other age-related conditions, brain fog can affect people of any age. Brain fog doesn't usually get worse over time, and it may not last forever.

    link to COVID

    Brain fog was one of the most common symptoms of the early months of the COVID pandemic. Recent reports suggest that 20-30% of people develop brain fog three months after infection. Up to 85% of brain fog post covid patients also have brain fog. Although we often hear about brain fog associated with COVID, people experience it with many other diseases and disorders.

    Scientists are not sure whether the same biological processes underpin brain fog in different diseases. However, brain fog has been associated with traumatic brain injury, persistent post-concussion symptoms, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, HIV, postural tachycardia syndrome, lupus, post-treatment Lyme disease Syndrome is common in people as well as a side-effect of chemotherapy. People with celiac disease may even experience brain fog after consuming gluten. It has also been reported as a symptom of menopause.

    What Causes Long covid brain fog?

    While COVID may cause certain brain regions to shrink, brain fog itself has not been linked to changes in brain volume on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. A new case report of two people found that while their clinical MRIs were normal, they also had reduced oxygen consumption in specific parts of their brains. This area is located within the limbic system and is thought to be involved in attention and memory.

    There is no single test for brain fog, making it difficult to diagnose. While a combination of tests is available, formal testing may not always be helpful because symptoms look different for everyone and some days may be worse than others.

    How to tell if you have brain fog?

    Some studies have found that people with COVID have more problems with attention and executive function. Cognitive deficits associated with brain fog have been reported to be worse in people with more severe COVID infections. Standard cognitive screening tests do not show good specificity for brain fog (that is, they may fail to detect the presence of the condition and produce false negatives) and may not be able to determine the severity of brain fog.

    Conflicting results in brain fog research may be due to brain function assessed by different tests, a new study suggests. People with mild and severe cases of COVID may experience problems with processing speed, reasoning, language and overall performance, but not memory. So studies using memory tests are unlikely to show the effects of brain fog, regardless of severity.

    A brain fog diagnosis is most likely based on the symptoms and experiences people report. If you think you might be experiencing brain fog, it's worth journaling your symptoms and tracking them over several weeks, along with any changes in stress, diet, or sleep.

    In a paper like How Long Will Symptoms Of Brain Fog Last After Being Infected With Covid-19?, we can also see experts' interpretation of Brain Fog, and you can consult your symptoms online at any time, how to treat them, etc. If you want to know more, you can also check it in detail directly on the longcovidcarecenter.