brain fog

Most people have, in the past, associated this with pregnancy or a hangover.  Or lack of sleep or medications.  But now it is a recognised condition of long Covid so that the term has moved from being a jokey colloquialism to an item of medical jargon.

Up to a third of COVID patients can suffer from brain fog even though other symptoms have disappeared.  No one knows what causes it — yet.  Sometimes it goes away by itself but sometimes it lingers on, severely limiting the cognitive function of the sufferers. There is lots of good advice on what might help — a Mediterranean diet, no alcohol (why is it that that is always one of the answers, that just when you need a stiff drink you can’t have it).  But there is no definitive answer.

Recent research suggests that the cause of this condition may be proteins clumping in the brain which is similar to the amyloid clumping that occurs in Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.  This is not to say that brain fog will develop into these serious diseases but it does mean that some of the medications developed for neurodegenerative diseases may be helpful.