People who are suffering from chronic illness or pain may find their cognitive abilities declining. This is often known as “brain fog”. It is defined as a lack of mental clarity because of less capacity to concentrate or recall things.
If you are facing trouble doing tour tasks with one hand, ask a doctor. Lack of concentration could be prominent if you are finding yourself roaming in the same paragraph while reading an article for a long time. If this repeatedly keeps on happening visit a family medicine clinic.
It could be also mentioned as fibro fog. This is a common term used by people suffering from fibromyalgia to describe the difficulties with the cognitive abilities they get every day. The common problems fibro fog experiences are lack of concentration, forgetfulness, problems finding wording, and carrying a conversation. This mental cloudiness can also occur due to chronic pain syndromes. The syndromes are migraine, painful nerve problems, back pain, and more.
Chronic pain when intense can interrupt several cognitive functions like the inability to detect the most recognizable memory. Chronic pain is often associated with great recall problems in finding words and data. The more severe the pain is, the bigger the memory problem turns. Pain also interferes with our ability to concentrate on tasks and performance, and thoughts to organize things. Pain also affects the brain’s capacity to adapt to changes while performing any task.
Other factors other than pain to contribute to brain fog are depression as well as anxiety. Insomnia is also often associated with chronic pain and it reduces mental sharpness as well as cognitive performance.
Causes of Chronic Pain
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Most people think arthritis only causes severe joint pain. What mostly we are unaware of is the brain fog induced by chronic rheumatoid arthritis. It causes chronic inflammation in the body and causes intense pain leading to brain fog. Oftentimes, medications suggested by the specialists at a family medicine clinic help to reduce the severity of arthritis so as brain fog.
Lupus
Lupus can cause memory problems in people including problems with thinking and expression. They may start feeling foggy as well as confused. One theory states that the disease affects the blood flow to the brain leading to cognitive problems. Like RTA, it also can be associated with inflammation and can be aided by medications.
Fibromyalgia
The most common fibromyalgia symptom is widespread chronic pain. People who get it often complain about forgetfulness, conversation problems, and memory loss for a short time. This is yet not clear why people suffer from brain fog due to fibromyalgia. There is possibly a link between chronic and brain functionality.
See us at Oklahoma Spine & Pain Management in OKC for the above health problem. See us for hormone therapy, spine issues, low back and neck problems, neuropathy treatment and more.
**Disclaimer: This content should not be considered medical advice and does not imply a doctor-patient relationship.
