Brain
Fog
by Vasudeva Iyer, MD
Watching the glorious sunrise has been one of my compulsive morning habits since early childhood. However, the rigors of medical training and practice requiring early morning rounds effectively curtailed that pleasure. I looked forward to an occasional weekend that allowed me the pursuit of“ heliophilia,” which not only fine-tuned my biological clock, but also, I believe, caused abundant dopamine release. Last December, on a weekend, my hope of seeing the sunrise was shattered by the arrival of a dense fog. I was still hopeful of getting a glimpse of the sun breaking through the fog. While anticipating that exhilarating sight, my thoughts wandered into the domain of the“ fog vs. medicine.”
In the post-COVID era, the mention of fog instantly draws attention to the popular term“ brain fog.” Many problems ranging from forgetting names to serious cognitive dysfunction have been attributed to brain fog and the list keeps expanding. It has also become common practice to conveniently attribute one’ s day-to-day pitfalls to brain fog. A related issue is the tendency for friends and relatives to call me for help to“ cure” their brain fog. They seem to harbor the erroneous notion that a neurologist should be able to“ blow away” the fog quite easily with medications.
Let me share with you a recent incident involving someone who
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