Brain Fog Roadmap: Uncovering the root cause to getting your brain back online.
- Amy Simpson
- Jul 22
- 2 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
You walk into a room, pause, and wonder what you came for. You start a sentence and lose your words halfway through. It’s not laziness or “mum brain”, it’s your body’s way of saying something’s out of balance.
Brain fog doesn’t arrive out of nowhere. It’s the final whisper of deeper processes, hormonal shifts, stress, poor sleep, gut inflammation, or blood sugar swings. And no supplement will fix it if the foundations of health aren’t honoured.
As a naturopath, my job is to help you trace those whispers back to their source and rebuild your focus from the inside out. Let’s look at what might be clouding your mental clarity, and how to get your brain firing again.
The biology of brain fog:
Is it motherhood? Synaptic pruning occurs during pregnancy that impacts areas of social cognition, not to mention nutrient depletion and chronic sleep loss.
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Is it perimenopause? Loss of oestrogen disrupts multiple brain systems including sleep regulation and sensory processing.
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Is it burnout? Chronic stress dysregulates the HPA axis, leading to cortisol imbalances that impair hippocampal function, working memory, and attention.
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Is it iron deficiency? Low iron reduces oxygen delivery to the brain and impairs dopamine synthesis, two key contributors to cognitive fatigue and poor concentration.
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Is it another nutrient deficiency? Deficiencies in B12, folate, or the essential (but often forgotten) nutrient choline impair neurotransmitter synthesis that are critical for clear thinking and stable mood.
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Is it insomnia? Sleep loss decreases prefrontal cortex activity and increases neuroinflammation which undermines memory, attention, and emotional regulation.
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Is it heavy periods? Chronic blood loss can deplete iron stores and reduce haemoglobin, leading to cerebral hypoxia and mental fog.
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Is it depression or anxiety? Altered monoamine signalling and increased neuroinflammation disrupt executive function and slow cognitive processing.
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Is it adult ADHD? Dysregulated dopamine and norepinephrine in the prefrontal cortex impact attention, impulse control, and working memory.
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Is it PMDD? Women with PMDD show measurable shifts in attention and impulse control across their whole cycle with extreme exacerbations during the luteal phase (and sometimes at ovulation).
Brain fog isn't all in your head, it's in your hormones, your nutrients, your sleep, and your stress load.
While it can feel overwhelming, identifying the root cause is the first step toward clarity. You don’t need to guess, self-diagnose, or rely on marketing that targets our insecurities. A personalised, whole-body approach can help uncover what’s really going on and guide you toward the support your brain needs to function at its best. If you're ready to stop fumbling for words and start feeling like yourself again, let's find the cause.
