Why You Always Feel Like You’ve Got Brain Fog - Dr. K Healthy Gamer

Duration: 8:47 1689 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

Dr. K addresses the pervasive issue of brain fog, a condition frequently reported by individuals who experience muddled thoughts throughout the day and often struggle with poor sleep habits or excessive late-night phone usage. Drawing on his background in evidence-based complementary alternative medicine rather than just technology, he posits that the brain cannot be viewed in isolation but exists within a larger physiological system connected to the body via mechanisms like the gut microbiome. He notes that this holistic perspective has been central to Eastern medicine for centuries and suggests that modern instances of brain fog are often symptoms of long-term conditions such as Long COVID, which demonstrates how immune-based inflammation can manifest cognitively. Consequently, he argues against relying solely on psychological interventions or psychotherapy, emphasizing instead that the root causes are typically physiologic rather than emotional in nature. The primary driver identified for this cognitive dullness is low-level systemic and neuro-inflammation, which results in slower thought processes, reduced clarity, and a lack of precision. Dr. K explains that while specific psychological issues often affect focal areas of the brain, brain fog presents as a global effect impacting small to medium sections or even severe amounts of neural tissue simultaneously. This widespread disruption is likely caused by factors such as ongoing immune reactions, hormonal imbalances, or dietary choices rather than structural damage like strokes, although he acknowledges that clotting events can occur with Long COVID but are distinct from the inflammatory fog described here. To combat this, he advocates for anti-inflammatory measures, including specific diets and supplements like turmeric, alongside addressing sleep quality issues caused by substances such as marijuana edibles or CBD which may disrupt REM cycles and sleep architecture. A significant portion of the discussion focuses on how diet directly influences brain function through its impact on blood glucose levels and gut bacteria. Dr. K illustrates this with an example from a friend using continuous glucose monitoring, who discovered that consuming high-sugar muffins caused immediate spikes in blood sugar without allowing for exercise or other metabolic interventions to clear it. This experience highlighted the physical sensation of systemic inflammation, such as throbbing joints and body pain, associated with excessive sugar intake like eating 100 grams at once. Furthermore, he explains that our gut microbiome is shaped by what we feed it; consuming processed foods selects for non-symbiotic bacteria that trigger immune responses, whereas ancient strains evolved to digest complex carbohydrates from root vegetables without causing inflammation. In conclusion, Dr. K suggests that managing brain fog requires a shift away from treating the mind in isolation toward addressing underlying physiological drivers like chronic low-grade inflammation and poor gut health. He shares his personal experience of recovering from severe post-COVID brain fog through an Ayurvedic regimen focused on these inflammatory markers, reinforcing the idea that diet is a critical management tool for cognitive clarity. By understanding how specific foods fertilize harmful bacteria versus beneficial ones, individuals can better regulate their immune response and reduce the global inflammation that clouds thinking. Ultimately, he encourages patients to view mental health as inextricably linked to physical well-being, urging them to adopt anti-inflammatory lifestyles that support both gut flora diversity and stable glucose metabolism to restore cognitive sharpness.

Read the full video transcript

what about if people are constantly dealing with brain fog this is something that a bunch of people that I've worked with over the years have complained about that throughout the day their thoughts always feel a little bit muddled I get the sense that this will probably correlate with people who are also sleeping quite poorly they're also probably using phones late at night but what is brain fog have you ever looked at this clinically oh yeah a ton so so uh we had a YouTube video about this that that went really well so I I think the the tricky thing about brain fog is as a clinician like we see it Frontline and people don't really know what to do so this is where so it's interesting I'm I mean I guess at this point I'm an expert in technology usage but my actual like historic expertise is an evidence-based complementary alternative medicine and and so what we're really seeing in brain fog first of all I think we've got to understand that your brain exists within a body so and we're seeing this more with like gut microbiome research and things like that but for the longest time at least in eastern medicine they didn't separate out mental health from other forms of things like it's all one thing right because the brain is connected to the body so I think what we we're also seeing a lot of brain fog is a symptom of long covid so that further um demonstrates the kind of like immune autoimmune inflammation based results of brain fog so I I think that brain fog in my opinion is really probably some kind of low level inflammation that is going on so usually when I'm trying to help people with brain fog it's kind of weird but it's not much psychological stuff like I don't think it's like problems with your emotions or Psychotherapy it's usually more physiologic stuff so anti-inflammatory diet even when it comes to stuff like sleep I think a lot of people don't realize that you know especially if you use like marijuana or like Edibles or CBD to help you sleep it affects your REM Cycles it affects your you know sleep stage architecture and things like that so a lot of times people will use things to fall asleep but don't really recognize or acknowledge that the quality of sleep that they're getting is pretty low I have a kind of a personal Theory which I've implemented with a couple of patients which you know none of this is medical advice but uh you know I've tried using and when you talk to patients you have to consent them appropriately and stuff right so I'll teach them which is a headstand which seems to help with everything else so even in potentially increasing blood flow to the brain could help but but I think really sort of focusing on anti-inflammatory measures turmeric things like that can can really help people with brain fog do you know what's happening with brain fog what what is it like what what's going on inside of the brain so my guess is that there's just low levels of inflammation and or and that sort of correlates with immune activation within the brain and it could be coming from other places too and the felt sense of that is slower thoughts yeah infusion less Clarity less Precision Etc right so if you look at it the first thing that we sort of know if we review our you know neuroanatomy and stroke architecture is that we know that certain psychological and physiologic problems are focal so that's one part of the brain but with brain fog everything is messed up a small to medium to even severe amount so it's a global effect so what kind of if we're talking about global effects the sources are probably going to be stuff like inflammation or hormones or things like that stuff that affects all of your brain and so I think a lot of that stuff also with the covid it sort of suggests that there's some kind of ongoing immune reaction or even hopefully not damaged which I don't think we really see with covid in the brain you can you can get strokes and stuff but that's more clotting stuff but you know so I I think it's probably low level of inflammation is my best guess one of my friends has just started working with a new glucose monitor company and when you get your always on glucose monitor and you put it on the back of your arm it comes with uh I think full muffins so you get it delivered you get glucose monitoring with your glucose monitor are four huge super sugary high calorie muffins and on one of the days that you don't have anything to do in the morning you have to wake up and immediately upon waking you eat two of these muffins and you track what's happening are you watching your your glucose shoot up through the ceiling but you're not allowed to train you're not allowed to eat anything else you can't exercise you can't do stuff to to try and get that off and the lesson to learn apparently from this apart from the fact it's how does your body respond to glucose how quickly is it able to clear it whilst it's not training whilst it doesn't have other things etc etc is also the felt sense of this is what tons of sugar in your bloodstream feels like and then for lunch you have another muffin so you've had two for breakfast and then you have another one for lunch and um again it's just one of the most interesting things Beyond this is how my body is able to metabolize glucose and get it out of a bloodstream and all this stuff that he learned one of the other things was he had a number that he was able to now attach to his felt sense of what high blood sugar felt like and everybody knows if you've had a huge binge one evening you end up having a ton of cookies or something else and I can sometimes feel it in my joints I can sometimes feel it it's like throbbing my entire body is throbbing because I'm just so [ __ ] inflamed and I wouldn't say that I'm hypersensitive to this but you know everyone can push it if you get a bag of Haribo tankfastics in front of you or something and you go I've just eaten 100 grams of sugar there that's an awful lot yeah I think something that people don't really appreciate is that we have symbiotic bacteria and the bacteria that grow in our gut so a lot of people will like eat will take probiotics every day whereas like I think it's science without understanding so if we think about okay what determines the bacteria in your gut it's what you feed it so some bacteria are able to digest complex carbohydrates some bacteria are able to digest simple carbohydrates the ones that we've sort of learned are friendly which trigger less of an immune response or the bacteria that have been in our guts for thousands tens of thousands millions of years and those are the ones that eat like root vegetables they help us digest those things and now what started to happen is we see all this how does food cause inflammation like we know that fast food causes inflammation sugar causes inflammation it's because when we when we eat these kinds of foods it selects for we're fertilizing another kind of bacteria that normally doesn't belong there because like Twinkie eating bacteria did not were not symbiotic so now our immune system is like hey this guy this bacteria doesn't belong here but those are the ones that we keep feeding and so a lot of this inflammation that we're kind of seeing I've seen a lot of stuff around gluten recently where there's a guy in Austin actually who uses the strain of gluten that's like 800 years old doesn't trigger Celiac problems for people and things like that no way yeah and that's cool it's really interesting right so there's no scientific studies on it yet but I think we're really starting to see that a lot of this stuff like diet and things like that which is usually how we manage brain fog I myself had really bad brain fog after covid and went through this whole ayurvedic regimen and was back to normal and so it was it was you know I think that we really inflammation oriented we'll get back to talking to Dr Kane one minute but first I need to tell you about manscaped if you're a gentleman who needs to trim his sensitive areas and you are still using an old face shaver from five Christmases ago what are you doing join us here in the modern world there are purpose-built tools for the job and the manscape lawnmower 4.0 is the greatest ball and body hair trimmer ever created it features a Cutting Edge ceramic blade to reduce grooming accidents a 90 minute battery which allows you to take a longer shave or if you're just a particularly hairy gentleman waterproof technology which allows you to groom in the shower and an LED light which illuminates grooming areas for a closer and more precise trim or if you just want to do it at night perhaps it's also got a wireless charging system to help the battery last even longer but best of all you can get 20 off everything site-wide from manscaped and free shipping if you go to manscaped.com Modern wisdom and use the code modern wisdom at checkout that's manscaped.com modern wisdom and modern wisdom a checkout what's happening people if you enjoyed that then press here for the full unedited episode and don't forget to subscribe face