Major brain fog

[Itzel]

Hello lovely community!

I did my Whole30, followed the rules to the letter, from January 30th to March 1st.  I was feeling the Dragon Blood by day 15 and was very excited about it.  But then my family all fell ill with the flu.  I didn't catch it, but I could feel my body was fighting it.  After day 30, I decided not to do reintroductions, as I wanted to get back to the Tiger Blood, the extra energy I had felt during the third week on the program, before reintroducing anything.  So here I am, almost one month later.  My energy is at an all-time low.  I have major brain fog; you know when someone drifts off and starts daydreaming and you go "woohoo!  Anybody home?", well that's me almost all day long.  I sleep 8 hours + every night, but it's still hard for me to wake up.  I don't feel like doing anything all day.  I'm a mom of four, so I do my chores because I have to, but that's it.  I feel sad without any reason.  I've also had an eye twitch on and off since January.  I tried supplementing with magnesium, but my skin was breaking out from it and I don't think it was really helping with the twitching, so I stopped taking it.

So what's going on?  I thought for sure the Whole30 would be great for me!  I was looking to help reduce my rosacea (it's kind of better, but nothing major) and help with my energy and mental clarity and here I am, two months later, feeling worse than when I started.  

Here are my theories.  Maybe some of you could tell me what you think?

1) I have a thyroid problem: I have an appointment to get bloodwork done to see if my levels are normal, but this is Quebec, so it's going to take a while before I get those results.

2) I have micro nutrient deficiency: again, the blood work should give me indications of iron or vitamin B deficiency, etc.

3) I have SIBO, leaky gut or something wrong in my gut.

4) The brain fog is due to my many concussions (4 between the ages of 7 and 14).

5) The low energy is simply a mild case of depression, which I've had before.  It could just be the weather, lack of vitamin D…  Again, I'm in Quebec, so it's about time we had warm and sunny weather!

I'm looking forward to reading your comments!

[ShannonM816]

What do your meals look like? Are you eating enough in general, enough fat, at least a serving of starchy vegetable each day? Salting your food? 

None of us can really diagnose any medical stuff. If it's going to take a while to get blood tests/get results from them, it probably wouldn't hurt to go ahead and schedule it in case nothing else you try turns things around -- better than trying stuff, finding out it doesn't work, and then having to wait even longer to get in for tests.

If you do suspect a magnesium deficiency either now or in the future, there are different forms of magnesium -- it may be that there's some other kind that would work better for you.  Google types of magnesium supplement for more explanation of that. There are several forms that can be taken orally, plus there's things like epsom salts you can put in your bath or in a foot soak, or magnesium oil which is really not an oil, but magnesium dissolved in water that you can spray on your skin to absorb it transdermally. 

 

[Itzel]

Dear Shannon,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to me.  I think I eat enough in quantity and I'm loving my fat sources: home-made garlic mayo, avocado, olives…  Since reading your post, I realized I hadn't been eating  my starchy sweet potatoes and yellow potatoes as much, so I added them back and I believe they have helped.  Sweet potato toast is such a great breakfast!  Yes, I do need the salt, as my blood pressure tends to be low and I get very dizzy if I neglect my intake. 

I totally understand that it's impossible to get a diagnose just from my posts and I do have an appointment in April to get the blood work done.

Thank you for suggesting the different magnesiums.  I'm going to finish this bottle of Magnesium oxide I currently have (it's 1:1 with Calcium citrate and also has Vit D) even though I suspect it's making my skin break out.  Then, I will try Magnesium Bisglycinate and if that still doesn't work, then Magnesium citrate.  Epson salts sound wonderful!  I can't believe I still haven't tried those… 

I do feel slightly better than two days ago.  Maybe it was just a phase and I'm slowly but surely coming back.

Again, thank you for your help!  I truly appreciate it!