How Do Allergies Cause Fatigue
Yes, allergies can make you feel tired. Most people with a stuffy nose and head caused by allergies will have some trouble sleeping. But allergic reactions can also release chemicals that cause you to feel tired. These chemicals help fight your allergies but also cause swelling of your nasal tissues that can make your symptoms worse. A lack of sleep and constant nasal congestion can give you a hazy, tired feeling.
Experts call this fatigue caused by allergies a brain fog. Brain fog can make it difficult to concentrate and carry out school, work, and daily activities.
If youre experiencing the effects of brain fog, there are some things you can do to feel less tired. First, youll need to stop the cycle of allergy symptoms and fatigue. You can try:
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Take Care Of Your Sleep And Circadian Rhythm
The circadian rhythm is deeply connected with inflammation and both can cause the other to get out of balance.
Circadian disruption increases inflammation .
The circadian rhythm is also tied to oxidative stress .
Disrupting your circadian rhythm will result in brain fog, as happens during jet lag. Some people are more sensitive to circadian disruptions. It can come about for a variety of reasons, but the most common are:
- Lack of light during the day
- Too much light at night
- Disrupted sleep patterns
- Chronic inflammation
Disrupting circadian rhythms can also lead to heart diseases, neurodegenerative conditions, and cancer .
People with brain fog are often wired but tired at night, fatigued in the day, and lack a cortisol spike in the AM. They can be hot at night and wake up to pee multiple times.
These are all symptoms of circadian disruption I used to have.
Now I get tired at night and am awake in the day. I feel warmer in the day and cooler at night and dont get hypoglycemic at night. My vasopressin release has normalized so I dont wake up to pee. I wake up refreshed and ready to hit the day when my circadian rhythm is working properly.
What Can I Do
Since chronic microglial cell activation has no automatic off switch to stop brain inflammation, there are things that can be done to dampen it. These include flavonoids such as apigenin, resveratrol, catechins, rutin, and curcumin. The providers at Team Health Care Clinic often recommend supplements that contain these natural compounds to help support the brains fight against inflammation.
Additionally, the same can be said for supporting proper blood sugar levels. Nutrients including chromium, inositol, and L-carnitine have shown to help with stabilizing blood sugar. We often recommend these supplements to a patient who has poor blood sugar levels. Of course, it is imperative to educate our patients on how to maintain proper blood sugar levels through lifestyle modification. This includes eating a breakfast high in quality proteins and fat, having snacks high in protein during the day to prevent hypoglycemic states, avoiding foods high in sugar, especially before bed, and avoiding or limiting caffeine.
Whether you are hypoglycemic, insulin resistant, or a combination of the two, we have the nutrients, knowledge, and education to help you stabilize your blood sugar and dampen or prevent brain inflammation. The health of your brain is as important as any other organ of your body, if not more, so learn to take care of it. Need help in this journey? Contact us today.
Erik Starr, DC
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An Imbalanced Limbic System
Brain fog is essentially caused by an issue in the area of the brain responsible for executive function, general cognitive function, and emotional balance. This area is called the limbic system. Within the limbic system, the hypothalamus also known as the control center is most affected.
The limbic system is responsible for:
- Wakefulness
- Lower libido and sex drive
- Pain
- Visual problems
A Possible Alzheimers Connection
Research does suggest an association between diabetes and Alzheimerâs. People with type 2 diabetes are twice as likely to develop Alzheimerâs as people without diabetes. But researchers are still trying to figure out whether diabetes actually causes Alzheimerâs.
âAlzheimerâs is characterized by local deposits of beta-amyloid, an protein accumulating in the brain,â says Peter Butler, MD, director of the Larry Hillblom Islet Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.
In some people with Alzheimerâs, beta-amyloid forms clumps that interfere with nerve cellsâ ability to communicate with each other.
In the pancreas, where insulin is made, “there are similar proteins that lead to damage and the death of cells,â Butler says.â Itâs likely to be a shared risk for developing either Alzheimerâs or type 2 because the thing that goes wrong is very similar.â
But Butler adds that vascular cognitive impairment is another cause of Alzheimerâs. That makes the matter more confusing. It seems there is a lot more to learn about which happens first, whether one is causing the other, and exactly how they are linked.
âItâs hard to separate out in chronic disease processes where cells donât function as they should anymore,â Butler says. âIt would be naive to say that 100% of one personâs Alzheimerâs is from amyloid plaques while someone elseâs Alzheimerâs is vascular.â
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Foods Causing Your Brain Fog
Brain fog is a funny term for a not-so-funny feeling. It feels like your thoughts are fuzzy and you just cant focus. You forget things and get confused easily. Its not normal and its not pleasant. Its a sign that something is just not right.
If youve had brain fog once, its no big deal. But if youre having it on a regular basis, you need to figure out why and do something about it.
One of the biggest causes of brain fog is the food that youre eating.
Sugar Can Cause Gut Dysbiosis
People who are addicted to sugar are usually also addicted to carbs. People with blood sugar imbalances tend to crave carb-rich foods, which upsets the balance of good bacteria in your gut.
When there is an excess of bad bacteria in your intestines, its called Candida overgrowth or yeast infections. These conditions cause major stomach problems, as you will learn about below.
If someone has a large amount of candida yeast growing inside his or her intestines then they may experience numerous symptoms. A few might be low energy, bloating and gas after too much sugar consumption.
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Sugar Does A Number On Your Liver
Excess sugar can cause major damage to the liver, which is the organ that processes and cleanses the body of harmful substances. Sugar causes an increase in triglycerides, harmful fats found in your blood. This leads to fatty buildup inside the liver cells.
A persons ability to manage stress is also impaired when they are consuming too much sugar.
This can lead to further health problems like anxiety and depression. Sugars encourage bad bacteria growth in your gut which affects how you think and feel, making you more prone to emotional upsets.
Treatment For Brain Fog With Diabetes
To treat brain fog due to diabetes, its important that your blood sugar levels are in target range as much as possible.
The goal is to avoid blood sugar fluctuations. This means keeping your blood sugar within a healthy range not too high and not too low.
If youre prescribed medication to treat diabetes, take your medication as instructed and dont skip doses.
Also, follow any dietary instructions your healthcare provider recommends. If you feel that your brain fog isnt improving, talk to them.
Your healthcare provider may need to adjust your medication. Also, it might help to speak with a registered dietitian for guidance on what foods to eat and what foods to avoid with diabetes.
Managing your diabetes is important because not managing your condition can lead to potentially life threatening complications.
It can cause:
Brain fog should improve as your blood sugar returns to a healthy level.
In the meantime, the following tips can help you cope with cognitive dysfunction.
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Warning Signs Of Low Blood Sugar
Hypoglycemia can cause both short- and long-term complications. Know the signs so that you can treat the condition as soon as you’re aware of it.
As a person living with diabetes, you know how important it is to reduce blood sugar when it is too high, a phenomenon called hyperglycemia. But blood sugar that is too low, or hypoglycemia, is equally critical to avoid.
“Hypoglycemia happens when the amount of blood glucose drops to a level that’s too low to sustain normal functioning,” says Erin Palinski-Wade, RD, CDCES, who is based in Sparta, New Jersey. “In most people, this is defined as a blood sugar level at or below 70 milligrams per deciliter .”
Hypoglycemia is common among people with type 2 diabetes, according to a review published in June 2015 in the journal PLoS One. Individuals with the condition had an average of 19 mild or moderate episodes of hypoglycemia per year and nearly one severe episode per year on average, according to the researchers. Low blood sugar was particularly common among those taking insulin.
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This decrease in blood sugar levels can cause both short-term complications, like confusion and dizziness, as well as more serious issues, including seizures, coma, and, rarely, death, according to the American Diabetes Association .
Hypoglycemia is usually the result of a too-high dose of insulin or a change in diet or exercise habits, according to Harvard Health Publishing.
What Is Brain Fog
What is brain fog? Its a term thats commonly used to describe cloudy mental thinking, difficulty with focus or concentration or sometimes difficulty with memory, or the ability to memorize new information. If youre experiencing brain fog, you may find that youre not able to cut through to that clear incisive thinking you know you used to have.
I want to make something explicitly clear while brain fog may be a natural reaction to specific circumstances, as well discuss below, its never normal to have brain fog certainly not in our 20s but also not even in our 60s, 70s, and beyond. Its a sign that something is affecting your brain. In optimal health, we should be able to age with our cognitive function intact. We should all become wise and sharp old ladies some day and we don’t need to buy into aging myths that tell us otherwise. While our brains do age, if we keep our brains nourished and supple, as Ill talk about in this article, we should not experience brain fog or cognitive decline.
The good news is that all of our symptoms are our bodys way of telling us something needs to shift whether in our diet, lifestyle, self-care, or environment. Making the changes I point to in this article, to turn around your personal root causes, can halt and reverse your current symptoms, and prevent and often reverse the early onset of chronic disease.
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Refined Sugar And Carbohydrates
Turning to sugar and empty carbs might seem like a good idea when youre dealing with brain fog because they can give you a quick boost of energy. Unfortunately, regular intake of refined sugar, corn syrup, and white flour can also lead to dramatic swings in your glucose levels, causing brain fog symptoms.
In addition, these foods can encourage the growth of candida yeast in the body. This yeast overgrowth can cause brain fog and fatigue. In general, the brain responds best to diets that have a balance of healthy fats and lean proteins, with minimal refined carbs and sugar.
Try to limit your intake of grains and get your carbs from fruits and vegetables instead. Avoid refined sugar as much as possible and eat a high protein, high fiber diet to combat sugar cravings and improve brain function.
How Is Hypoglycemia Diagnosed
A doctor who thinks a person might have hypoglycemia will ask about the patient’s medical history and diet, in particular about the timing of the symptoms, whether they tend to happen after eating high-sugar meals, and if the symptoms go away quickly with eating sugar.
The only way to tell for sure whether someone’s symptoms are related to hypoglycemia is to test the blood sugar while the person is having the symptoms. If the test shows that the blood sugar is truly low, the doctor may do other tests to diagnose specific diseases that can cause hypoglycemia.
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Refined Carbs And Sugar
While people may initially fall into eating sugar because it helps to stimulate and wake up the brain, long-term and chronic intakes of refined carbs, white flours, refined sugars, and corn syrup can lead to glucose problems as well as systemic issues with yeast overgrowth, also known as candida albicans. Two of the main issues associated with yeast problems can be fatigue and brain fog, and whether theyre specifically caused by yeast or not, the brain typically responds better to diets with balanced levels of protein and healthy fats, and not those that are dependent on huge amounts of refined and empty carbs.
Eat this instead: Instead of refined sugars, choose sweets that use natural sweeteners instead, like raw honey or coconut sugar, which have less of a glycemic impact than cane sugar. Limiting sugar is also essential, but sugar cravings will diminish or lessen when protein is eaten with every meal. If you must have carbs, choose vegetable, fruit, and nut-based carbs so that youre balancing them with fiber and plenty of other nutrients.
Keep An Eye Out For These Foods/drinks
Sugary drinks. Its much easierand fasterto mindlessly sip calories. Beverages such as coffee with syrup and soda contain a lot of sugar. Drinks that are branded as seemingly healthy, such as smoothies, juices, and sports drinks, are also sky-high in sugar. Although the juices may contain less processed ingredients, no drink can compare to water. If you really need something flavored, opt for sugar-free drinks such as La Croix. If you need a caffeine fix, opt for black coffee with a dash of cream.
Granola bars. Its easy to get caught up in names like Nature Valley, but some granola bars have as much sugar as a candy bar. They are made up of granola and fruits when you break it down, they are made of carbs and sugar. Instead, try a handful of nuts, or make your own trail mix by visiting stores that sell bulk food in bins.
Savory snacks. Dont forget that all types of carbohydrates are broken down into glucose, which is another name for sugar. Eating too many carbs can spike sugar levels especially if they are simple, refined, or processed carbs, like white bread or chips.
Change is hard it can be difficult to unlearn certain habits or behaviors. Take it one day at a time, and try your best. Dont be discouraged if you eat something sugary, or let it derail you. Simply keep on trying. The increased energy and mental clarity youll notice after a few days will be incentive enough!
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Cognitive Effects Of Diabetes
The longer you have diabetes, the more at risk you are of developing diabetes-related dementia. But, the good news is, you can reduce your risk of diabetes related dementia by managing your blood sugars. âDiabetes brain fogâ can develop over the long term or be related to immediate rises and falls in blood sugar levels.
How Sugar Affects The Brain
March 20, 2018 by Kat Livaskani
Its a 12 hour shift, and you have a quick moment to yourself. You need a snack, so you reach for some cookiesor a granola bar, or some juice. Its quick and convenient. Seems innocent enough, right?
Making healthy choices is becoming harder and harder. Sugary foods are in abundance all around us, and they give us the quick energy we crave. However, the sugar we consume on a daily basis takes a toll on our physical and mental health over time. Worse yet, sugar increases sugar cravings, leading to a cycle of poor choices that can be hard to break.
When you take a bite of chocolate cake or sip a caramel mocha, your brain releases dopamine, a feel-good hormone that is highly motivational and reward-driven. A diet high in sugar will over stimulate these reward pathways and lead to a loss of control to sugar, as well as an increased tolerance. Unlike healthy foods, dopamine is released every time you eat sugar, which is why it feels so good every time you eat a candy bar.
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You Constantly Feel Hungry
Constantly feeling like you can eat and are hungry is one of the common signs your blood sugar is out of whack. If you are constantly ingesting energy , but never feel satisfied, it is a good indication the fuel you are ingesting is not actually making it to your cells, and therefore they are leading you to eat more food. It is the resistance of insulin, and a frequent over-intake of carbohydrates, that can lead to this feeling of always being hungry.
Get Sunlight And Fresh Air
Sun is great for decreasing inflammation. Although uncommon, Ive had a few cases of brain fog that were relieved simply by being outside and getting more sun.
Sun is capable of suppressing inflammation and preventing autoimmune disease .
Besides UVB rays directly suppressing autoimmunity, vitamin D also decreases Th1 and Th17 immune responses. The sun makes sulfated vitamin D, which is better than supplemental vitamin D.
Additionally, UVB increases our bodys internal antioxidant defenses .
People think that taking a vitamin D supplement will make up for not getting sun. This is false. In my opinion, most benefits of the sun dont involve vitamin D.
The most beneficial ingredient of the sun is probably not vitamin D, but the infrared that it provides.
I recommend an hour of sun on most of your body .
If you cant get sun, then use an infrared sauna and low-level laser therapy .
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