How to Treat Menopause Brain Fog?

What Causes Brain Fog During Menopause?

We can find several causes which can contribute to brain fog during menopause. Understanding the underlying causes can help you choose appropriate treatment plans to overcome brain fog. The following are the major culprits of brain fog.

Hormonal Changes: Changes in brain function are ultimately the result of several changes in your hormone levels or their secretion in the body that affects the brain. Oestrogen in your body plays a major role in how the brain functions. Low oestrogen levels in the body can be directly linked to lower brain performance or brain activity, leading to forgetfulness.

Sleep Disruption: Due to the declined secretion of oestrogen during menopause, you may experience nighttime hot flashes, disrupting your sleep. This will make you tired and emotionally weak. A stormy night's sleep can lead to foggy thinking during the day.

Stress and Anxiety: You will experience occasional brain fog and anxiety, especially during high stress and anxiety. Increased stress and emotional imbalances are mainly due to the imbalance and interference of hormones that sometimes accompany this stage of life, where you may also feel frazzled and terrified. These factors can interfere with concentration and memory.

Nutritional Deficiencies: A nutritional and highly balanced diet is essential for balancing the mood swings and emotional imbalances you experience during menopause. If you're eating a restricted diet, not consuming adequate vitamins and minerals may result in some brain fog.

Read more about Essential Things to Know About Menopause.

Symptoms of Brain Fog

Brain fog is an umbrella term used to describe a set of cognitive symptoms. Brain fog generally indicates difficulty in thinking with clarity. You may have these symptoms if you are suffering from brain fog -

Forgetfulness or memory lapses: If you experience forgetfulness and memory lapses during menopause, that indicates brain fog. This is mainly because of the low secretion of oestrogen during menopause, which can impact overall brain functioning.

Trouble focusing or multitasking: Falling oestrogen levels in your body can directly impact your brain functions, so you may find that your cognitive performance decreases. You find difficulty in focusing your work, which can also interfere with multitasking. You can experience forgetting things and struggling to remember the names or roles you are supposed to play. You might find it very difficult to concentrate, or you can't do everything you used to do before.

Difficulty finding the right words: You will experience the worst memory problems happening during the early stages of menopause. So, when oestrogen levels drop in your body when you go through menopause, it leads you to lower thinking and memory, which affects your speech and memory.

Mental fatigue or sluggishness: During menopause, you will have low secretion or a decline in hormones, physical discomforts like vaginal dryness, hot flashes, and night sweats that lead you to be mentally and physically drained. All this mental stress leads you to get mental fatigue or sluggishness. Mental fatigue can make you complex in thinking, concentrating, focusing, remembering, decision-making, and multitasking.

Read more about Ayurvedic Tips for Maintaining Cognitive Health During Menopause

Natural Remedies for Menopause Brain Fog

Adopting a healthy dietary habit, natural lifestyle, and other remedies can significantly help you overcome brain fog. A comprehensive approach that includes a healthy diet, exercise, good sleep and quitting smoking will help you attain a brain fog-free life. Here are some tips to achieve this -

Balanced Diet: You should know the foods to improve memory during menopause. Improving dietary habits can improve your brain health, focus, and energy levels. Similarly, eating a balanced and healthy diet can improve your overall health. 

Exercise: Physical exercise helps improve memory, concentration and overall brain function. Any form of exercise is good, but try to exercise at least twice a week.

Meditation and Mindfulness: Practising at least 15 minutes of meditation and mindfulness can effectively alleviate the symptoms of brain fog by reducing stress and improving sleep quality.

Avoiding smoking: People who smoke experience a more significant than normal decline in brain function as they age. But two years after you quit smoking, your brain performance can return to normal levels.

Limit sugar and refined carbs: If you experience symptoms of brain fog a few hours after eating, it could be because of your food. Processed foods and foods high in sugar or refined carbohydrates cause your blood sugar levels to spike and then drop. This change in blood sugar levels an hour or two after you eat can lead to low energy, irritability, and trouble concentrating. 

Foods high in phytoestrogens: Phytoestrogens have a similar effect to estrogen in your body. There is some evidence that some of these phytoestrogens may help with menopausal brain fog.

Improve your sleep quality: Sleep problems are common during menopause, which can contribute to brain fog, including difficulty staying focused. To improve your sleep, follow a regular sleep schedule, avoid caffeine, stop using your phone at least one hour before you sleep, keep your room quiet and dark and maintain a comfortable temperature.

Vitamin supplements: B vitamins such as B12 and folic acid may help with cognitive problems, but little evidence supports this claim.

Medical Treatments for Menopause Brain Fog

Do you know how to manage brain fog during menopause? For some of you, menopausal brain fog may be mild and improve over time. For others, more severe memory problems may cause them to neglect personal hygiene, forget the names of familiar objects, or have trouble following directions. But suppose your cognitive problems are starting to negatively impact your daily life. In that case, you may need to start taking medicines with the proper guidance of a doctor.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT):

Hormone therapy for cognitive decline during menopause has a greater role in managing brain fog. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can help relieve brain fog and other menopausal symptoms. It reduces symptoms by replacing the low levels of hormones during menopause. Like other medical treatments, HRT can cause some side effects. So, talking to your healthcare provider before taking HRT is essential.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT):

Cognitive behavioural therapy is a brief, non-drug treatment that can help relieve various psychological symptoms of menopause. CBT increases mental clarity by reducing anxiety, stress, and depression. Thus, it can help reduce symptoms of brain fog.

Medications for Sleep or Mood:

Your doctor will prescribe specific sleep medications for your sleep complaints. Medicines such as Melatonin and Gabapentin may help improve your sleep. Antidepressant medications will help improve your mood, and they are also beneficial in improving your sleep. Antidepressant medications will improve your mood by reducing anxiety and depression.

Brain Exercises to Combat Brain Fog:

Brain exercises like puzzles, Sudoku, or strategy games can help keep your mind sharp and resilient. Such activities can improve memory, problem-solving, and cognitive abilities. They can contribute to structural changes in the brain by building neural reserves. Also, developing new hobbies, learning new languages or musical instruments, and playing memory games will help you enhance your brain functioning, preventing brain fog.

Healing Brain Fog with Ayurveda

Ayurveda can definitely help you to get rid of your brain fog symptoms. Ayurvedic herbs, lifestyle changes, Panchakarma treatments and natural remedies for menopause symptoms can help you improve your condition.

According to Ayurveda, when your Sattva Guna (mental clarity) decreases, mental disorders start bothering you. With the decrease in Sattva Guna, your Tamo Guna (mental dullness) starts increasing, and this Tamo Guna is the brain fog that bothers you.

The brain fog during menopause is caused by hormonal imbalance. However, according to Ayurveda, your diet and lifestyle can increase Tamo Guna, so your brain fog symptoms also depend on your diet and lifestyle. Now, let us see which Ayurvedic herbs can help you reduce your brain fog symptoms.

• Brahmi (Bacopa monnieriIndian - Pennywort) - This well-known herb is popular for its intelligence-enhancing effect. It is beneficial for lack of memory and loss of concentration.
• Shankhapushpi (Convolvulus microphyllus - English speed wheel) - Shankhapushpi is a famous Ayurvedic herb that improves memory and intelligence.
• Mandukaparni (Centella asiatica - Gotu kola) - Gotu Kola is a medicinal herb, but it is also used for culinary purposes. It promotes intelligence.
• Shatavari (Asparagus recemosus - Wild asparagus) induces sleep and calms the mind. It is also mentioned for anti-ageing purposes in Ayurveda.
• Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) - This herb is indicated in the treatment of anxiety, depression and insomnia. It is a natural anti-oxidant widely used to improve body strength and immunity and relieve stress.
• Amalaki (Emblica officinalis - Indian Gooseberry) - Amalaki or Amla is a powerful rejuvenating herb. It can help balance your hormone levels and enhance your mental well-being.

Apart from using these herbs, you can also benefit from Panchakarma detoxification therapies. Some therapies like Shirodhara (Streaming of medicated oil on the forehead for a certain period of time), Shiro abhyanga (Special Ayurvedic head massage), and Thalapothichil (Applying the medicated paste on the scalp) will help you overcome the difficulty of brain fog.

When to See a Doctor?

If your brain fog symptoms are severely affecting your daily life, if you are experiencing severe mood swings, if you are experiencing sudden or rapid cognitive decline, and if you are unable to find relief on your own with the help of lifestyle changes, yoga, meditation, etc., then it is time to see your doctor. Similarly, if at any time you feel that your menopausal symptoms are going out of control, do not hesitate to see your doctor.

Wrapping Up

If you've already reached menopause and feel like your thinking is slowing down or your memory isn't as good as it used to be, understand that you're not alone. Most women experience symptoms of brain fog during the transition to menopause and even during menopause. But there's no apparent reason why women develop brain fog during menopause.

Maintaining healthy habits like getting enough good-quality sleep, being physically active, and eating a healthy diet can help reduce the risk of worsening brain fog symptoms. You can contact Nirvav for answers to any questions you may have and for quality treatment plans.