Best Meds For Brain Fog?

[Leigh8]

I have very bad lightheadedness and brain fog comes along with it. I cannot concentrate, I get lost very easily, and I feel like I'm just in another world. The only med I've tried, and currently take, is florinef, but this doesn't help the brain fog. What kind of meds would help with this??

[SeattleRain]

A supplement that most don't know about is Piracetam.

• It has been found to increase blood flow and oxygen consumption in parts of the brain but this may be a side effect of increased brain activity rather than a primary effect or mechanism of action for the drug.
  
• Some sources suggest that Piracetam's overall effect on lowering depression and anxiety is higher than improving memory.
  
• Numerous positive individual studies supported the use of piracetam in people suffering from a wide range of cognitive disorders
  
• A 2002 meta-analysis by UCB, S.A. concluded that piracetam had a therapeutic effect in older patients with cognitive impairment
  
• There is very little data on piracetam's effect on healthy people, with most studies focusing on people with seizures, dementia, concussions, or other neurological problems
  

I took Piracetam several years ago for a short duration of time for other purposes and it worked out great. I don't know why I stopped and now that this has been brought up I should consider taking it again.

I took 1600mg twice a day but Wikipedia cites: "Many people take a dosage of 800 mg twice per day to improve cognition." I also took mine with Choline Bitartrate (Maybe citrate, can't remember) to reduce any negative effect it may have caused:

Headache from large doses of piracetam may be alleviated by coadministration of an acetylcholine biosynthetic precursor, or a drug with cholinergic effects, such as choline bitartrate, choline citrate, choline alfoscerate, lecithin, cyprodenate or centrophenoxine.^[54][55]

- if you take a lower dose you probably wouldn't need to do this.

If you end up taking it, please let us know how it works out for you - I'd be very interested in seeing how it may have helped...

[HyperPOTS8]

Leigh8, since you have lightheadedness with the brainfog, I wonder whether your blood volume is adequately repleted. In order for florinef to work optimally, you have to take lots of salt and fluids,,eg Dr Levine's protocol advises 8-10 gms of salt daily. If you are hypovolemic, then you won't be getting enough blood flow to your brain and will feel light headed and have brainfog. Of course there are other mechanisms by which this may occur as well.

[E Soskis]

I was on low-dose methylphenidate for years - worked great - until a few months ago when it became one of the hundreds of drugs that is now in short supply in the US - my pharmacy searched and searched but, was unable to locate any supplies so....I was abruptly pulled off - went through horrible withdrawl and now, 3 months later, it is back on the market - so...no thanks - no more methylphenidate for me - I am not willing to go through withdrawl again when the companies decide they want to lessen the supply in order to drive up prices. My insurance company denied new-generation alertness drug prescription- no wonder - methylphenidate was costing me about 10 dollars a month and the new prescription was close to 500 dollars a month - hummmm...drug company conspiracy?????

Any other suggestions for medication that keeps us alert and functional? - must be very careful with herbals - they interact with many prescriptions and cause liver damage.......

[Leigh8]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

HyperPOTS - how did you know that you were hypovolemic? Is there some sort of test for that?

[foggy_brain]

I was given twenty-odd different drugs for brain fog and light headaches by doctors. Many of them made me more sleepy, not less. None of them worked. Then, accidentally I discovered a poor man's stimulant called pseudoephedrine, which is somewhat similar to methylphenidate that E Soskis mentioned. (It's a precursor of amphetamine.) I found pseudoephedrine quite helpful.

You can get it OTC in the US but you can go to jail for buying too much of it (it's by law irrelevant what the reason is, mothers have gone to jail for buying it for their kids' colds). So check the rules. I used 12h or 24h formulations. It elevates blood pressure by peripheral vasoconstriction and by elevating heart rate. It may make people jumpy, but that's exactly the kind of effect I was looking for. I believe pseudoephedrine is among the drugs the Johns Hopkins POTS docs have recommended for POTS, but it's probably a good idea to talk to your own doctor first especially if you have anxiety or heart issues.

[Alex's mumma]

The one drug that has helped my daughter more than any other drug for ANY of her POTS symptoms has been Adderall XR 30mg every morning. Has helped immensely with chronic fatigue and brain fog! She tried Concerta first and it made her super dizzy. Not 1 bad side effect with the Adderall XR. Non extended release Adderall gave her too much of a crash when it would wear off.

[HyperPOTS8]

Leigh8,

Ii knew i was hypovolemic because I was diuresing what looked like water and my weight would drop 5-7 pounds in a matter of a few days, after these episodes, I would then become very sick.

My suspicion was confirmed by blood volume testing at the Mayo Clinic (this is a nuclear medicine test). This is not a test that is done just anywhere, however.

[badhbt]

Any other suggestions out there?

[peregrine]

For me, although methylphenidate (Ritalin) was helpful, the big shift into being able to do cognitive-heavy work was taking clonidine. I'm not entirely sure why - my best guess is that with my body not reacting to everything with adrenaline rushes, I was less tired and more able to focus instead of always fighting down the fight-or-flight response. I still get spaciness - another brain fog type thing - but I can sit down and read an academic paper, which is really important for me work-wise and is a big win. Of note, I don't think this means most folks can or should take clonidine - it's not really a brain fog medicine per se and whether it works probably depends very strongly on why you have brain fog in the first place. These days I mostly just take the Ritalin to counteract the sleep attacks from the clonidine.

[ramakentesh]

Leigh8,

Ii knew i was hypovolemic because I was diuresing what looked like water and my weight would drop 5-7 pounds in a matter of a few days, after these episodes, I would then become very sick.

My suspicion was confirmed by blood volume testing at the Mayo Clinic (this is a nuclear medicine test). This is not a test that is done just anywhere, however.

Something similar happens to me as well.

[ramakentesh]

A doctor in australia thought this was from cerebral vasoconstriction. Julian Stewart's idea was that there isnt proper vasomotor function and vasodilation to cerebral stimuli. There was some reports that low dose calcium channel blockers helped but I havent tried this. best thing for me is licorice or caffeine at the time, but I crash often after caffeine.

[peregrine]

Hunh - do you have links for those? Would love to read them! I always appreciate the info.

Personally, caffeine has no effect (I apparently get no effect from stimulants below methylphenidate (Ritalin) in potency, which is interesting given my very strong response to sedatives) - my ANS neurologist suggested trying it just in case, but no effect.

I did take low-dose diltiazem (a calcium channel blocker) for about 2.5 months when things started, but I didn't notice anything other than worsening non-tachy POTS symptoms and decreased tachycardia.

[Tobiano]

Midodrine ,a vasoconstrictor, seems to have helped me somewhat with brain fog. The less blood pooling in my extremities, the happier my brain is! I definitely still have brain fog though. I’m also on other meds so it is difficult to decipher the effects of each one.

[richard]

brain fog and other issues due to tau protein buildup in frontal lobe [cte] . any input would be appreciated !  R