Although it affects – probably – everyone, brain fog is not a precise medical diagnosis, according to GP and author Dr Mark Rowe on Drivetime. Instead, it's what he calls a "constellation of different symptoms."
"Losing your train of thought, feeling mentally exhausted, losing your focus or concentration and it can impact you in so many ways. It’s incredibly common. They feel about 28% of us experience brain fog in any given year."
Less than a third of us? That seems low, anecdotally. But while a lot of us will experience brain fog, Dr Rowe cautions that if the symptoms persist or get worse, we should look at consulting our GP:
"There’s a whole range of medical conditions, from long Covid, from menopause or hormonal type symptoms, deficiencies of vitamin B12 or vitamin D – there's a whole range of medical things that could be involved."
Cormac wants Dr Rowe to clarify what the difference between brain fog that we should be concerned about and normal, everyday forgetfulness or tiredness that we all have on a regular basis. The answer is – unsurprisingly – more than a little nuanced, but the essential takeaway is that we should be sure that we know ourselves well:
"It’s really about how it’s impacting you and that’s really why knowing yourself and also having a good relationship with your doctor can be so, so important, and having a chat with him or her every so often and he or she can be very skilled and well able to help determine whether it’s something that’s just part of normal life."
The picture is complicated however, by the fact that so many of us are experiencing chronic, low-grade stress in our lives and Dr Rowe uses a very vivid metaphor of a tap dripping to illustrate the effect this is having on us:
"Imagine drops of water dripping constantly. Well, that’s how stress hormones like cortisol are impacting your brain. And of course it burns a hole in your willpower muscle, it depletes your focus and concentration and that can really cause some forgetfulness and cause you to lose your focus."
Wait, the neighbourhood watch WhatsApp group is lighting up – something is going down! Sorry, sorry. Just another vote on best protective coating for wintering your garden furniture. Where were we? Oh, right – brain fog. Another large part of the story that Dr Rowe wants to highlight is what he calls "addiction to distraction." Apparently, there’s research that shows that 35% of people check their phone more than fifty times a day, while upwards of 16% check their phones a hundred times a day. Could such a stat be true? And if it was, would it have any negative impact on our lives? Alas yes:
"What’s really interesting, there was research done a few years ago that showed if you were busy doing something on your computer and you’ve your phone beside you and your phone beeps or makes a noise, even if you don’t answer it, your performance and your ability to focus goes way down."
Which seems unfair but is down to the fact, Dr Rowe says, that our brains can only really focus properly on one thing at a time and distractions will tend to tire us out much quicker than sustained focus:
"What happens is your brain tends to switch task, and this burns energy and really leaves us feeling really tired."
Of course, it’s not just the proliferation of WhatsApp groups that’s straining our brain’s attention, it’s all the varied methods of communication we’ve devised for ourselves in this shiny 21st century of ours: text messages, email, social media, breaking news alerts – the list is long and usually involves some giant corporation taking up your precious, beleagured grey matter with ads for knockoff onesies on a Chinese fast fashion site.
"People can really fell completely overwhelmed and our brains are not really designed for dealing with this level of sensory input."
Given that Dr Rowe stated that one of the triggers for brain fog can be menopause, Claire wants to know if men or women are more likely to be affected by brain fog. Dr Rowe doesn’t have the data in front of him, so he goes with his gut:
"My sense is that it’s more likely to affect women because women are generally, you know – well, firstly, apart from the hormonal challenges and maybe perimenopause, but actually women often have much more of the family responsibilities. They’re juggling so many things – work, family, other commitments."
As for remedies that could help our strained brains, Dr Rowe suggests that some me-time could help to de-stress our lives a little:
"Some micromoments of wellbeing, whether it’s getting out into nature – that can be a tremendous way to give ourselves a brain break and really to disconnect, I suppose, to reconnect with ourselves. Getting off your phone late at night – there's so many things you can do."
So many things we can do to relieve the load on our poor brains – but first, what colour should the background to the GAA goalposts putter-uppers WhatsApp group be...?
You can hear the full chat with Dr Mark Rowe by clicking or tapping above.