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BRAIN FOG: What has helped?

physicsstudent13

Senior Member
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611
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US
my neurologist was saying that brain fog can be caused by signal speed being too slow or too fast, mine are too slow I think after low oxygen sleep apnea, hypoxia. on DTI MRI the brain gets white tangles from sleep apnea

I still have short term memory and learning problems. would it be good to first try magnesium or citicoline before Neurontin/Gabapentin? Glutamine might increase glutamate which may cause brain fog though maybe it can help the gut lining.
http://www.magneceutical.com/

does the methyl b12 protocol really help more than plain b complex?
 

dannybex

Senior Member
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3,561
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Seattle
Just my two cents, but I highly doubt any drugs (especially Neurontin or Gabapentin) would do anything to help brain fog. I was prescribed gabapentin 10 years ago, and it just turned me into a zombie. I'd look at deficiencies/imbalances first, and research what can increase oxygenation and/or lower free glutamate levels.

Everyone's different however, so what helps one person may make another a lot worse and vice versa. Good luck!
 

physicsstudent13

Senior Member
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611
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US
thanks! is it better to take nootropic precursors or cofactors? is there a good neurology text to read?
phenobarbital also wasn't good and caused fog for me. there are some people on here taking citicoline which I haven't tried. I was taking choline, NAC, amino acids for a brain fog cleanser. Coq10 increases oxygen to mitochondria. I've also been trying acetyl carnitine which is a cofactor and alpha gpc

It really bothers me, did your neurologist cure your brain fog immediately? I've been going to neurologists for years and they haven't done anything for me. and I really miss being able to write and talk normally and do math
 

dannybex

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I haven't seen a neurologist in 25 years...got sick 15 years ago. Everything depends on your own circumstances. If you have heavy metal issues (like mercury) then NAC might not be a good idea. Also, could be due to infections, or high ammonia levels, on and on...sorry, I don't have the answers. Just throwing out possibilities...
 

physicsstudent13

Senior Member
Messages
611
Location
US
alpha lipoic acid and acetyl l carnitine seem to help a lot but I'm not sure about their function. I keep getting symptoms of GI infection, IBS and have NAFLD or NASH and had terrible liver damage after surgery. it seems I have some resistant prostate and intestinal infections. I've been on antibiotics for months and am on beberine Bactrim and doxycycline. I tested positive for chryseonomas and staphylococcus and they may be resistant to Bactrim. not sure if this is MRSA infection
 

dannybex

Senior Member
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3,561
Location
Seattle
My only concern with ALA is it may be a problem if one has mercury amalgam fillings, or other heavy metal toxicity. Google "ALA" and "Andy Cutler" or "Andrew Hall Cutler". He contends that ALA should never be taken except in tiny low frequent doses if one has heavy metal issues...but others disagree.

Perhaps some of the brain fog is coming from the killing of infections. Or your liver issues. If possible, it might be good to get some second and or third opinions from different types of doctors...?
 

physicsstudent13

Senior Member
Messages
611
Location
US
thanks! the brain fog finally lifted after my surgery and taking 72g of NAC and liverrite tablets, choline from riteaid. the liver creates neurotransmitters and sam-E may produce myelin, melatonin and neurotransmitters there are many terrible demyelination diseases.
I'm interested in trying citicoline and there are these expensive multi mind supplements
how does one lower glutamate and increase oxygen and what does that do? I don't really take l glutamine anymore for that reason
 

Thinktank

Senior Member
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1,640
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Europe
physicsstudent13, look at my thread about lowering glutamate. I had the same question and someone replied that combining L-glutamine + L-glycine and NAC turns it into glutatathione and less into glutamate.
L-theanine also supposedly addresses glutamate excitotoxicity.
 

physicsstudent13

Senior Member
Messages
611
Location
US
my neurologist said that fog is caused by signals being too fast or too slow, I think mine are too slow.
I have some GNC theanine and tried 400mg just now- I feel really foggy today after not using the asv enough. sleep apnea causes brain fog maybe from excess glutamate or neurotransmitter deficiencies from hypoxia

if whey protein damages the kidneys then all of these supplements may not be safe long term either. I wouldn't take the high dose vitamin D long term, the lower doses like 1k a day may be better. there is a warning on high doses of vitamin b6 causing brain damage
Adverse effects have only been documented from vitamin B6 supplements and never from food sources. This article only discusses the safety of the common supplemental form of vitamin B6, pyridoxine (for a full discussion please see pyridoxine). Toxicologic animal studies identify specific destruction of the dorsal root ganglia[20] which is documented in human cases of overdosage of pyridoxine.[21] Although it is a water-soluble vitamin and is excreted in the urine, doses of pyridoxine in excess of the RDI over long periods of time result in painful and ultimately irreversible neurological problems.
 

physicsstudent13

Senior Member
Messages
611
Location
US
klutzko have you looked at coq 10 and ubiquinol? I'm having similar energy problems and brain fog, I've started a heart disease supplement thread
 

Grigor

Senior Member
Messages
462
Location
Amsterdam
Hey, everyone. Just wanted to say that while my brain fog has come & gone for many years, it was never all that "bad" until my crash last spring. At that point, it was debilitating, almost worse than the fatigue. I was quickly put on homeopathic drops for brain fog & after 6 weeks, it has not reappeared the way that it was. Best to all,

Hi Margib, What have you been on that helped ??
 

Freddd

Senior Member
Messages
5,184
Location
Salt Lake City
I had brain fog for 17 years. My CNS "on the edge symptoms" are problems word finding and name finding. They rapidly get worse, along with pain and loss of sensation in feet and hands, legs and arms along certain dermatomes, whenever I don't have enough 5 star MeCbl and l-methylfolate and slowly improve and go away when I have enough. I had all sorts of memory, cognitive, learning problems, emotional and personality problems during the brainfog years with some events, trips and people disappearing entirely from memory. The only thing I have found get rid of them are CNS penetrating doses of 5 star MeCbl, AdoCbl, enough l-methylfolate to get out paradoxical folate deficiency and l-carnitine fumarate. I pretty much have everything back except some feeling in my feet and fine motor control in my fingers. I am quite well healed of CFS, FMS and congestive heart failure.
 

physicsstudent13

Senior Member
Messages
611
Location
US
I started to take m-b12 and mfolate and don't know if it works. I'm getting worse brain fog and still exhausted from sleep apnea. maybe the 1800mg of NAC/day really helps? it's terrible I go to one class and collapse on my ventilator after
 

Freddd

Senior Member
Messages
5,184
Location
Salt Lake City
I started to take m-b12 and mfolate and don't know if it works. I'm getting worse brain fog and still exhausted from sleep apnea. maybe the 1800mg of NAC/day really helps? it's terrible I go to one class and collapse on my ventilator after

NAC likely prevents the MeCbl and mfolate from working at all and making everything worse. If you were to ask me how to maybe get things to work the first thing is to get rid of NAC and/or glutathione and/or Whey. The next thing is to get a 5 star brand of MeCbl, a 5 star brand of AdoCbl, (and take them in the most efficacious way) L-methylfolate and all the basics and the best form of carnitine for my body, l-carnitine fumarate for about 90% and ALCAR for about 10%.
 

physicsstudent13

Senior Member
Messages
611
Location
US
I haven't had dramatic improvement after starting m b-12 mfolate but everyone probably responds differently. I have this terrible 75% oxygen in my sleep and apneas every night. so it seems anything that could increase my oxygen or help respiration might work for me
 

Freddd

Senior Member
Messages
5,184
Location
Salt Lake City
I haven't had dramatic improvement after starting m b-12 mfolate but everyone probably responds differently. I have this terrible 75% oxygen in my sleep and apneas every night. so it seems anything that could increase my oxygen or help respiration might work for me

I would expect that the NAC totally blocks MeCbl, methylfolate effectiveness for an unknown percentage of people. I would say "Of course not. You are taking NAC" The only way that you are likely to know is to first try it precisely in a way likely to work if it is going to work. I have spent 11 years raising MeCbl from something with under 5% likelihood of working to a high probability of being effective. I have cured myself of FMS, CFS and congestive heart failure. There are many ways for it to not work, very few ways for it to work. It's not as easy as pi.
 
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Freddd

Senior Member
Messages
5,184
Location
Salt Lake City
thanks! is it better to take nootropic precursors or cofactors? is there a good neurology text to read?
phenobarbital also wasn't good and caused fog for me. there are some people on here taking citicoline which I haven't tried. I was taking choline, NAC, amino acids for a brain fog cleanser. Coq10 increases oxygen to mitochondria. I've also been trying acetyl carnitine which is a cofactor and alpha gpc

It really bothers me, did your neurologist cure your brain fog immediately? I've been going to neurologists for years and they haven't done anything for me. and I really miss being able to write and talk normally and do math

Hi Physicsstudent,

ALCAR is the wrong kind for about 90% of the people with CFS/FMS and doesn't work. It's the opposite for the other 10%, l-carnitine fumarate . For LCF to be useful one needs enough AdoCbl. For that to be effective one needs enough MeCbl and l-methylfolate. There is a 4 way deadlock and other 30 or so items that are the deadlocking factor for about 5% of people, just to get started. Then if these items are not being taken healing stops before it gets going well time after time as one runs into induced deficiency after induced deficiency. There is the layer of basics, about 30 items, then there is the layer of the deadlock quartet, then there are perhaps 6 or so critical cofactors to get it going, then there are the things that modify and control methylation rate, mostly basics but that need adjustment of optimization and so on and then there are the things that control ATP, then there is mineral balancing. Then there are the things needed for ones own specific biochemistry that are not already accounted for in the previous layers.

It's likely not as difficult as unifying relativity with quantum mechanics for instance.

Also, the deadlock quartet is essential for good immune functioning. I found 16 grams a day of vitamin C very good for controlling bacterial infections along with olive leaf extract.

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...y-deadlock-quartet-and-other-nutrients.27482/

You might find the above link helpful.
 
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Living Dead

Senior Member
Messages
199
Just my two cents, but I highly doubt any drugs (especially Neurontin or Gabapentin) would do anything to help brain fog. I was prescribed gabapentin 10 years ago, and it just turned me into a zombie. I'd look at deficiencies/imbalances first, and research what can increase oxygenation and/or lower free glutamate levels.
As far as I know the supposed mechanism of Neurontin (and Lamotrigine) is to lower glutamate activity. So you are contradicting yourself a little bit.