HEALTH
The correlation between PMS and brain fog
PMS considers various symptoms that affect women differently. Some women will experience only one while others will encounter a few PMS symptoms such as breast tenderness, fatigue, abdominal pain, food craving, and other physical manifestations. Apart from physical symptoms, there are many mental and mood impacts caused by PMS. In today’s post, abortion clinic Fort Lauderdale will review those psychological symptoms commonly categorized in the epithet of “brain fog” and elaborate on how they affect women’s daily life during a period of PMS.
What is brain fog?
Brain fog refers to the condition when someone feels forgettable, indecisive, apathetic, and struggles to concentrate and think. This condition doesn`t only affect women with PMS but anyone. In people, brain fog can be caused by a consummation of certain medications, sleep disorders, excessive physical activity that causes exhaustion, mental and health conditions, and other factors. In women, because of its timeline and link to PMS brain fog is known as “period brain fog”.
Period brain fog occurs in days right before menstruation and the impact of such a state affects women’s daily activities in terms of performing school and work tasks efficiently, making daily decisions, memorizing, and focusing. However, some studies and experts suggest that there is no connection between PMS and brain fog, while others indicate this occurrence as a part of usual PMS symptoms. Still, as PMS is a condition caused by hormonal changes, it is reasonable to believe that hormones besides their effect on the physical body, equivalently impact the brain. Dismissing period brain fog and referring to it as being a fabricated “women’s problem” in today’s age of modern medicine is rather primitive and ignorant.
Causes of brain period brain fog
Causes that donate to brain fog are various. The combination of numerous factors contributes to the result of such a state. We shell apostrophize some major factors which explain why brain fog occurs in the PMS period.
Hormonal Imbalance
The second half of the menstrual cycle considers elevated levels of progesterone in contrast to the reduced levels of estrogen. As menstruation approaches the levels of both hormones will drop. Conequentionaly, this affects neurotransmitters and secretion of other hormones. Primarily it lowers the levels of serotonin and promotion of cortisol. These hormones donate to the regulation of mood and sense of responsiveness and awareness. Therefore, the disbalance of these hormones will affect women`s psychological state.
Anemia
If a woman suffers from anemia, the lack of red blood cells increases during the period. As blood carries essential nutrients and oxygen through the body, it also delivers requisite substances to the brain. Without necessitate amount of oxygen, the brain will suffer and the feeling of dizziness will occur. These circumstances contribute to brain fog experience.
Poor sleep or sleep disorders
One of the PMS is sleep disturbance caused by hormonal fluctuations. Lack of sleep participates in feelings of fatigue and inability to focus. Additionally, if a woman suffers from physical symptoms of PMS such as cramps and heavy bleeding, sleep deprivation will probably prolong during the menstruation bleeding period, as the inconvenient symptoms can disrupt sleep and cause fragmented sleep.
Anxiety
During this period the amount of hormones that regulate mood drops causes mood swings, anxiety, sadness, apathy, and feeling of numbness. All these symptoms donate to brain fog due to its taking of mental energy causing difficulties to concentrate and think.
Diet
The human brain needs a lot of energy to function properly. If PMS inhibits your food craving and appetite, and you don’t intake enough nutrients for your brain to function, lack of food will contribute to other factors causing brain fog.
Final Thoughts
It ceases when a woman suffers from PMDD (Premenstrual dysphoric disorder) which is a more serious form of PMS, symptoms of brain fog might manifest more severe. Either way, if you find brain fog significantly affects your life we advise you to consult a doctor for proper therapy and ways to manage or relieve these symptoms.
Kenneth is a proud native of sydney, born and raised there. However, he pursued his education abroad and studied in Australia. Kenneth has worked as a journalist for almost a decade, making valuable contributions to prominent publications such as Yahoo News and The Verge. Currently, he serves as a journalist for The Hear Up, where he focuses on covering climate and science news. You can reach Kenneth at [email protected].
