(This is the fourth article in a series by gastroenterologist Dr Ashwini Setya, in which he unpacks how lifestyle, environment, diet, and hidden exposures affect your gut health. Read the earlier pieces here, here and here.)
How often have you been at a gathering and struggled to put a name to a familiar face, or suddenly blanked on the model of your own car? When you begin forgetting everyday words, it’s easy to wonder if something is wrong with you.
Only recently—especially after the COVID-19 pandemic—has the term brain fog come into common use and entered medical literature, but this kind of syndrome has been recognised for centuries, though it has been known by different names, such as clouding of consciousness.
What exactly is brain fog, and what does your gut have to do with it? Let's break it down.