How Hormones Affect Your Ability to Concentrate

If your hormones are out of whack you may experience difficulty concentrating, poor memory and brain fog. This can make you feel tired and out of sorts causing a temporary loss of mental clarity.

How does this impact weight loss? If you feel tired and out of sorts, you probably won't feel like working out. You make eat foods high in sugar or caffeine to get a short boost of energy. And if you're not thinking clearly, it's just that much harder to plan healthy meals and schedule workout time.

If you find your memory isn’t what it used to be there are a couple of hormonal conditions that might be the culprit: Perimenopause and Hypothyroidism.

Perimenopause

There are many causes for hormone imbalance and a big one for women approaching a certain age is perimenopause. This is the stage in a woman’s life where her body is beginning to change in many ways gearing up for passing on from childbearing years. There are several types of hormones that are affected when a woman begins the change of life: Estrogen, Progesterone and Testosterone.

Let’s start out by covering some of what these hormones do for our bodies.

Estrogen helps our bodies fulfill many brain functions, a few of which are: promoting networking between brain cells, reducing inflammation and promoting brain cell repair when injuries occur, increasing the level and density of neurotransmitters and blood flow in the brain.

Estrogen and progesterone go hand in hand. Estrogen is the dominant hormone and has some strong effects which can sometimes be hard on the body. Progesterone helps to calm the effects of estrogen and keep our bodies in balance. Progesterone has its highest concentration in the brain. So it stands to reason that if it is low or out of balance, there would be an impact on mental functions.

Testosterone helps keep the blood vessels in the brain strong. Once they begin to weaken blood cannot flow properly. Some areas get soft, increasing the risk of blood clots and other areas harden, which can cause cerebral hemorrhaging.

During this perimenopause phase, hormones in a woman’s body will fluctuate causing many difficult and unwanted symptoms.

Some women find that hormone therapy eases some of these symptoms while others endure the effects it causes hoping to pass into full menopause when some of the symptoms will subside on their own.

Generally once a woman hits menopause the hormones are low but level out and many women find this helps them get back in sync. By not experiencing the hills and valleys of the unpredictable hormones levels caused by perimopause most women become comfortable once again, the brain fog subsides and mental issues can improve as well.

Hypothyroidism

If you suffer from hypothyroidism, which is an underactive thyroid gland that does not produce enough of the thyroid hormone, you may feel the effects of brain fog among other nasty symptoms.

There is a treatment for an underactive thyroid condition which is with lifelong medication. Once diagnosed the patient begins a regimen followed by a period of adjustment where the doctor will monitor the dosage and how it’s working. Once the medication levels have been adjusted appropriately the patient can do very well and the brain fog and other symptoms generally dissipate.

Hormone imbalances can wreak havoc on a person’s ability to think clearly. If you find yourself dealing with any of these symptoms consult with your doctor.