Brain fog? 24/7 for 8 months.

Hello,

I was diagnosed with lyme in September. All of my symptoms (except numbness in my hands at night and occasional gastrointestinal pain), came on in less than 24 hours.

On August 26 (yes, I remember the day), I had been jogging on a treadmill at the gym, and I started to feel funky on my way home…spacey, like you might feel after a night of heavy drinking. I did some yoga and went to bed early. In the middle of the night all my other symptoms started, and I have had "brain fog" 24/7 ever since.

I have to concentrate so hard to not see double all the time and I feel like my default setting is in a daydream/spaced out mode. Is this what brain fog feels like for other people? It literally feels like something is in my head.

I'm starting to do crazy things, too - like put food in silverware drawers, etc. and now I'm losing my memory. I keep thinking I'm 24 (although I'm 26) and I keep writing the wrong dates on things. I also forget to do things at work seconds after I am asked to do something - people think I'm crazy. I think I'm crazy…why is the lyme taking residence in my brain, how did it get there, why isn't treatment working for this?

Thanks for the link! I am going to check it out.

I actually had my thyroid levels checked out by my naturopath and it came back low. My LLMD wants me to have my free t3 and t4 levels checked but oops, I forgot to go on my way home from work- again. Maybe I'll remember tomorrow...I was on the lower end of the spectrum at the start of treatment, but now it's definitely low according to the regular thyroid test. Interesting that you bring that up. Does Lyme cause thyroid problems or do you think I have two things going on at once?

What I also find interesting is that the hypothalamus controls thyroid- and my gynecologist told me it also controls hormones and menstrual cucle which I haven't had in four months.

I'll let you know once I read the link!

Traveler - I know I don't detox enough…I'm definitely going to try harder and see if it helps at all. The salt baths are such a pain - what are some easier methods if I don't have time for a bath? I drink a detox tea every night with dandelion and other herbs.

cd3764 - I visited the link and there was soo much information, it's so overwhelming! I have every single symptom listed below- particularly when he starts talking about how brain fog effects hypothalamus functioning.

-Fatigue in the day. The hypothalamus controls wakefulness with orexin. Inflammation (TNF) suppresses orexin neurons.
-Anxiety. Inflammation can activate your stress response and lower neurotransmitters.
-Low motivation. Orexin is a significant factor in motivation and it’s suppressed by inflammation.
-GI problems. The hypothalamus controls vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and CRH, which influence gut function as well.
-Cold hands and feet. The hypothalamus controls temperature regulation. Low orexin causes lower body temperature (R) and therefore you’ll feel cold.
-Decreased/increased appetite. Low hypothalamic serotonin leads to increased carb cravings. The hypothalamus is also the the base of Orexin, T3, insulin, ghrelin, MCH, FGF21 and NPY, all of which increase apetite, while leptin, insulin, norepinephrine, serotonin, GLP-1 and FGF19 are appetite suppressants.
-Decreased sex drive from low hypothalamic dopamine.
-Increased thirst from low ADH, which is secreted by the hypothalamus.
-Increased urination (Low ADH)
-Low blood pressure (Low ADH)
-Insomnia from stress response activation, which can come from inflammation.
-Hormonal issues. The hypothalamus is the center for hormonal control…It controls male and female hormonal production, the thyroid, pituitary and adrenal glands.
-Blood sugar swings and hypoglycemia. The hypothalamus controls glucose homeostasis (R)
-Attention problems – through orexin and melanin-concentrating hormone (R), low levels of dopamine (R) and acetylcholine (R). Orexin increases acetylcholine (R) and so inflammation will lead to lower levels of this neurotransmitter.
-Visual problems. The hypothalamus is connected to your visual system (R). For example, when you get tired you notice an effect on your eyes – they get heavy.

The only symptoms I don't have from the list above is insomnia and thirst. My lyme test came back positive, but what if lyme isn't the cause of the brain fog? I guess it's likely that lyme would be the cause…but he listed so many other things. Candida, mold, metals, food, hormones etc. My brain fog is chronic - it never lets up. Is this common with lyme patients, or is it usually more on and off? I've been on antibiotic treatment for 8 months and my wbc count is higher than it was at the beginning, and my thyroid is low. Am I getting worse? Is this typical of lyme? Shouldn't these things have improved?

I know my hormones are way out of whack - they have been for a long time. But could the hormones cause the fog, or is the fog causing the hormonal imbalance? He mentioned that the fog causes the thyroid imbalance, which makes sense because it was normal before treatment.

I just feel so lost, and now I'm worried that I'm treating the wrong thing...

Proper treatment will clear the fog - no worries.

As I mentioned, Lyme is famous for causing thyroid problems (actually problems with the endocrine system in general)

If you know your hormones are out-of-whack, what are you doing to address that? Healthy hormone levels are vital for healing.

You are not treating the wrong thing.....but it's clear you have more than one thing that needs to be addressed (as most of us do).

If you need hormone supplementation to optimize your hormone levels, I hope you consider it. Again, I will gladly help you interpret your thyroid labs.

If your brain fog is being caused by an out-of-whack thyroid, correcting the imbalance is the only way to clear the fog.

Kudzu tincture helped me a lot with Lyme-induced brain fog but, as I mentioned, it does nothing for the brain fog that can develop if my thyroid goes wonky (I'm a long-time thyroid patient...long before I got bit by the tick...and I had to educate myself to get the proper care)

In regards to detoxing....

I call myself the Tubless Lazy Detoxer. The stuff I do for detoxing takes minutes each day yet I use over 20 different detoxing methods daily

Here's a link to a recent thread in which many members share what they do for detoxing:

www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3602759

If you believe you will heal (and you can!!!) and make logical treatment choices, everything will fall into place.

Step by step we climb the mountain.

I had massive brain fog and more, and it all improved after I concentrated on detoxing heavily. This is most usually attributed to ammonia in the brain - one of the toxins that can accumulate from Lyme. I've been fortunate in that my thyroid has never caused such brain fog.

The full body detox baths move too many toxins at once for me, so I use daily foot soaks (with the same ratio of Epsom salts and peroxide) to help remove many toxins, but at a slightly slower rate. I am also currently using Alpha lipoic acid, high dose vitamin C, apple cider vinegar, dry skin brushing, drinking at least 64 ounces of lemon water daily, oil pulling, and Yogi brand detox tea. CD posted a really great resource for detoxing routines that you can get some more idea from.

Dry skin brushing can be done any time (as long as the skin isn't wet! LOL!) - it's just that many people find it easier to remember if they do it just before they shower.

Be sure to let us know how it goes or if you have any questions!!

Traveler - I took a tablespoon of Apple cider vinegar last night, and I immediately got a headache. It hit minutes after taking it. It felt like a mild herx! Is this normal? I then did some other detox methods and it subsided…I had to detox form the detox. Should I dilute it in water? Why did this happen?

I would certainly recommend charcoal as a binder for helping with detoxing - you have to take it 3 hours away from abx, herbs, food etc, for it to be effective, which can be a bother...but it helps.

I didn't get rid of my brain fog until I had addressed my detoxing problems (thank you, gene mutations ;) but once I was able to detox efficiently it has all but dissappeared :) and I was a walking fog, LOL!! I honestly believe that not being able to clear my body of the ammonia was my biggest brain fog issue.

Thank you CD - you explained it well!!

I know I sure herxed (although not severely) when I started using ACV too! It was a bit startling, as I wasn't aware that it would work that well (LOL!), but also quite excited to know that it was working that well that I could actually feel a herx when starting it!

Yes, like cd says, you have to take it away from everything, including food and ceratinly probiotics.I too set my alarm for the middle of the night....it's a pain in the butt but it works for me!

For me my cognitive issues -not feeling like 'myself', the brain fog-have been by far the hardest thing to adjust to as a symptom. But after 3 months of it a reached a point of acceptance and now I can tolerate it. I just think of it like I'm on some kind of recreational drug. Of course that doesn't make me feel good, I still deep down want to get rid of it more than anything in the world but it makes it tolerable because I stopped fighting it. I stopped trying to hold on to how I felt before and just let it take over. It calmed me down a lot which allowed me to step back and approach my healing from more of an intellectual(whats left of it) instead of emotional place and I'm a lot more patient about the process. I don't want to jinx anything but I'm fairly sure i'm on a direct road to recovery now, just a matter of time. I've been on Buhner's bartonella protocol(not yet full dosages) for two weeks. Plus I'm on day 5/5 of an intensive liver/parasite cleanse. I just bought a year's worth of herbs for candida/parasite cleansing which I will take as a slower but more sustainable follow-up treatment to the intensity of this initial 5 day cleanse.

I have been herxing for two weeks straight so I can't really say my brain fog is much improved but everytime I back off on an antibacterial herb enough to break a herx I feel suddenly clearer mentally and so full of energy which means to me it is working!

I still don't feel anywhere near what I want to feel like yet but there has been improvement for the first time since i got this thing and I have hope!

For detoxing I do:

Red root tincture
Exercise (90 minutes walking a day)
Chlorella(as a toxin binder)
Dr Schulze's intestinal formula 1
a liver flush drink consisting of ginger, lemon, lime, garlic and olive oil.
as much water as i can drink with lemon
a clean diet(only meat and vegetables because I can't tolerate ANY sugar it puts me straight into psychosis)
AND..I'm still working adding effective detox methods.
The epsom salt bath didn't work for me and my tub leaks so I'm going to do the foot baths.

Anyway I know how you feel and I go to this website daily for inspiration: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjVg-r1t_zLAhUF7SYKHXiVAxgQFggdMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Frealfoodrebel.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNHYxfSdOJfRTgaLjmvsMCWiZ9hxsw&sig2=gAF0xzZ6M2JR9xDRnH6QAA

Good luck