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What We Are Going To Cover!
- Why adrenal fatigue is often the root cause behind brain fog, focus and concentration decline, forgetfulness, not being quick on the ball, and no longer being your sharp, quick thinking self.
- The 10 brain assessment sections and 10 brain functional assessment sections that MUST be identified and addressed that KEEP poking holes in your brain declining bucket.
- The 3 most important tests that detail the specific areas of your brain decline, the contributing adrenal fatigue breakdown, and your epigenetic, “inherited” DNA that must be addressed.
- The recovery protocol you’ve probably NEVER taken, that your Doctors probably haven’t recommended, that can change your “adrenal fatigue and brain fog” situation right now
First off, when it comes to brain fog, let’s separate hard lesions from soft lesions.
Hard Brain Lesion vs. Soft Brain Lesion
Hard Lesions
- Positive imaging
- Obvious exam findings
- Medical neurologists
Soft Lesions
- No positive imaging
- Subtle exam findings
- Functional problems
- Functional neurologist
Symptoms of Functional “Soft” Brain Lesions/brain fog symptoms:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Insomnia
- Fatigue
- Memory loss
- brain fog
- Chronic pain/headaches
- Attention deficit
- Cant focus
- Not enjoying life
- Not social
- Emotional
- Impulsive
- Lack of enjoyment/fulfillment
- Vertigo, blurred vision, spatial disorientation, balance problems
- Weakness, numbness, tingling
- Spontaneous movement/movement disorders
- Can’t follow directions
- Digestive problems
- High blood pressure
- OCD
- Mood swings
- Lack of motivation
How Prevalent are Soft Brain Lesions Today?
- 1/8 of seniors develop Alzheimer’s
- 1/8 of children develop spectrum disorders
- Dementia: 24 million in the world to double by 2040
- Use of antidepressants/anti-anxiety meds
- Number 1 cause of accidental death? – FALLS
What does a healthy brain need to avoid brain fog?
- Proper glucose supply (energy)
- Proper oxygen supply
- Proper neurotransmitters
- Proper activation
- Inflammation free environment
If you don’t have these basics, medications will not work long term. Adrenals impacts each and every one of the above
Different areas of the brain are responsible for different functions
- Frontal Lobes: Largest lobe so it needs lots of energy
- Defines our personality
- Executive decisions
- Social behavior
- Impulse control
- Allows for focus
- Governs our planning and motivation
- Voluntary muscle movement (gross and fine motor)
- Depression=frontal lobe fatigue
Temporal lobe is responsible for:
- Hearing
- Speech
- Memory
- Emotional response
- Smell
- Interpreting sounds
- Tinnitus
- Cant hear due to background noise
Hippocampus
- Language
- Memory
- Hormones
- Sense of direction
- Sleep/awake cycles
- Alzheimer’s is a degeneration of hippocampus
Parietal lobe is responsible for:
- Process all touch sensations, hot/cold, pain
- Interprets sensations
- Texture, weight, size, shape
- Interprets input from skin, muscles, joints, vision so that the body knows where it is at in it’s environment
Occipital lobe is responsible for:
- Processing visual information
- Degeneration of the Occipital lobe
- Difficulty processing visual information like shapes, colors, movement
- Hallucinations
- Visual floaters
- Visual persistence or reoccurrence after image is gone
Cerebellum (little brain)
- Calibrates muscle coordination
- Calibrates input from inner ear for balance and eye movements
- Calibrates information from muscles & joints and filters it before sending it to the brain
- Brainstem
Autonomic Nervous System = Controls Things Automatically (organs, blood vessels, glands)
Autonomic nervous system
- Parasympathetics (rest/digest)
- Lower brain stem
Sympathetics
- (fight/flight)
- Upper brain stem
These 2 divisions cannot simultaneously dominate; when one fires the other is quiet. Guess which system fires when we are stressed…?
Sympathetics!!
Stress
Not just emotional stress but metabolic & chemical stress. 90% of the neo cortex job is to stimulate the lower brain stem’s parasympathetic activity. When we have degeneration of the neo cortex we lose parasympathetic activity and the fight or flight nervous system takes over. Symptoms of high sympathetic activity:
- High blood pressure
- Dry eyes/dry mouth/loss of taste/smell
- Poor digestion/constipation
- Headaches
- Chronic pain
- Insomnia
- Fatigue
- Hormone imbalances
- Sensitivity to light/sound
- Cold hands/feet
- Frequent urination/incontinence
- Erectile dysfunction
- Low libido
What causes the brain to degenerate
- Blood sugar imbalances
- Stress
- Poor circulation & oxygen
- Food sensitivities
- Poor gut function
- Inflammation
- Poor neurotransmitters
- Hormone imbalances
- Poor essential fatty acids
- Toxins
- Lack of activity
- Stress and the brain
Atrophies the brain promotes brain inflammation and breaks down the blood-brain barrier. Biggest stress is not emotional!
- Poor diet (high carbs, fat)
- Alcohol, smoking, caffeine
- Food sensitivities
- Anemias
- Gut infections
- Autoimmune disorders
- Adrenal fatigue and Musculo-skeletal pain
- Poor digestion- low GABA production
- Stress hormone: cortisol
- Degeneration of the Hippocampus
- Memory loss/Dementia
- Shuts down pituitary gland
- Poor thyroid function
- Weight gain
Brain inflammation
Body or gut inflammation can lead to brain inflammation. Brain inflammation can lead to body or gut inflammation
Causes of brain inflammation
- Diabetes
- High carb diets
- Poor circulation
- Food sensitivities
- Any gut inflammation
- Leaky Gut Syndrome- Leaky blood-brain barrier (GABA challenge)
- High Cortisol
- High Homocysteine
- Alcohol
Toxins and your brain
Toxins lead to brain degeneration…
Questions:
- Are there are more toxins in our environment- food/water supply vs. years ago
- Are we taking more prescription/non-prescription drugs
- Are we getting more vaccines
What do our bodies need to handle these toxins…
- Proper functioning immune system
- Proper functioning liver
- Proper testing and functional medicine
2/3 of toxins can be avoided just by eating organically grown foods!
So What does a healthy brain need to thrive?
- Proper glucose supply (energy)
- Proper oxygen supply
- Proper neurotransmitters
- Proper activation
- Inflammation free environment
The 3 most important tests that detail the specific areas of your brain fog, the contributing adrenal fatigue breakdown, and your epigenetic, “inherited” DNA that must be addressed
- 23andme test
- Dried Urinary Total Cortisol Hormone
- Organic Acid Test
- The recovery protocol you’ve probably NEVER taken, that your Doctors probably haven’t recommended, that can change your “adrenal fatigue and brain fog” situation right now
Connecting the dots between adrenal health and brain health. Identify both the epigenetic factors and genetic factors:
- Neuroendocrine, GI, Liver protocols
- Lifestyle support
- Dietary maintenance
If you would like to work with me to help you recover from your brain fog and adrenal fatigue, click here.