Can Brain Fog be Caused by Hormones? A Video by Dr Vikki Petersen

Video: Can Brain Fog be Caused by Hormones?

Dr. Vikki Petersen from Root Cause Medical Clinic explains how brain fog can be caused by hormonal imbalances. Both men and women need adequate sex hormones for cognitive function. Environmental endocrine disruptors, like chemicals and plastics, can mimic estrogen and disrupt hormone levels, leading to brain fog and other symptoms. Stress can also affect hormone balance by increasing stress-related hormones over sex hormones. Addressing these issues through lifestyle and dietary changes can improve brain function and clarity.

Transcript of the video

Link between brain fog and hormonal imbalances

Hello, Dr. Vikki Petersen here from Root Cause Medical Clinic, and I want to talk to you today about a reason behind your brain fog. If you suffer from brain fog, we’re going to discuss one of the major reasons why you might experience it, whether you’re a man or a woman. Often, brain fog or moodiness is associated with women because of their menstrual cycle.

While that’s true, every cell in your brain has binding sites for sex hormones. Without sufficient sex hormones, you will feel it mentally and cognitively. Whether it’s memory issues or that feeling of brain fog, patients describe it in various ways, but it comes down to your brain not functioning the way you want it to. You lack clarity and the speed of function you prefer.

Both men and women need adequate sex hormones throughout life to maintain cognitive function and avoid brain fog. That’s the first point. I also want to talk about how these hormones get compromised, regardless of age. Nowadays, our environment has endocrine disruptors, which include chemicals, pesticides, preservatives, and plastics. These disruptors affect your endocrine system, which includes your reproductive system, thyroid, and adrenals, causing symptoms you shouldn’t have.

Environmental disruptors effects on hormones

Endocrine disruptors often mimic estrogen. For women, estrogen is one of the major hormones. Men have some estrogen but mostly testosterone, while women have both in different ratios. These disruptors mimic estrogen in women, displacing normal estrogen and tricking the body into producing less. We’re seeing young women in their 20s and 30s with hormonal levels that appear almost menopausal. Blood tests show very low levels of reproductive hormones at times when they should be high.

When this issue first became noticeable about a decade ago, I discussed it with other clinicians, and it became clear that this wasn’t a lab error but a real issue. The solution involves examining your environment to avoid endocrine disruptors where possible. While some things, like pollution, are unavoidable, you can make dietary changes, avoid GMOs and highly processed foods, and not microwave plastic. These lifestyle adjustments can significantly reduce your body burden of these chemicals.

Role of stress & toxins on hormones

It is also important to focus on the ability of your body to excrete toxins. A certain level of toxins is inevitable, but as long as your body can effectively eliminate them, there’s no issue. This involves looking at your digestive system and liver. We see this imbalance in women of all ages, from menopausal women to young women experiencing symptoms like infertility and brain fog. Adequate hormones are essential for the brain to function properly, and we must address endocrine disruptors and your body’s detoxification abilities.
Synthetic hormones, such as those in birth control pills, can also disrupt hormonal levels. There are other methods of birth control that don’t involve synthetic hormones, and these should be considered. 

The last area I want to look at is stress. Stress levels trigger the production of stress hormones to deal with incoming stress, which then imbalances your sex hormones. The body essentially thinks, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of stress, so I’m going to stop making sex hormones and make more stress-related hormones to handle this stress load.’ What’s interesting about stress is that it can be environmental, like what’s happening in your life, but it can also come from within due to a toxic load and certain other imbalances.

We need to determine why your body is doing this and identify the stressors. When we say stressors, we don’t just mean mental and emotional stress but also physical stress. So, we need to discern where these stressors are coming from and then get you into better balance. It’s all about balance. The human body can handle a lot as long as it’s empowered to do so, and that’s what we focus on. It’s exciting because there are no drugs involved. If you’re suffering from brain fog, there’s so much that can be done with diet and lifestyle changes, and we can hold your hand through that.

Additional resources

What is the main cause of brain fog
Connection Between Brain Fog and Hormone Imbalance