After 2 long years of avoiding it, the COVID bug finally bit me. I am lucky (and tripled vaxxed), so my case was relatively mild. Sure, I had a horrible cough and congestion, but that was the extent of it….at least when it came to my body. Now, when it came to my brain, that’s another story…Let me tell you what my experience was with “COVID brain” and what I did to improve these symptoms as quickly as possible (and why it may relate to you even without having COVID!).
COVID-Brain
A few days before I tested positive, I was sitting down to work on a client program, and I had HORRIBLE brain fog. I just wasn’t making the connections I usually make. It was hard to focus. I would reach for my phone every time I felt “stuck,” which of course further exacerbated the problem. I couldn’t remember what I had worked on with that client the week before, something I never have trouble with under normal circumstances. I was getting extremely frustrated with myself, starting to spiral downward into negative self-talk and doubting my abilities as a coach. That’s when I should have known then something was up!
That being my only “symptom,” I didn’t think anything of it. It had been a particularly stressful week, and my sleep had been off. I attributed my symptoms to being overly tired and run down.
A few days later I was on a call with a client, and my ability to be present was obsolete. I’d ask a question, she’d answer, and I would have no idea what was just said. It made our meeting next to pointless for us both. I got off the call and tried to type up our meeting notes, and drew a blank. It was almost like I hadn’t even been on the call. I felt like my brain was in the clouds, and again went down a spiral of self-doubt, beating myself up for how I “showed up” during that meeting.
I figured something had to have been up. As everyone does, I experience these mental performance symptoms from time to time, but never to this extent.
Sure enough, I tested positive for COVID. The day I had been dreading for 2 years was here. Not being able to go to work, the gym, grocery store, or even feel comfortable walking around without putting others at risk was hard enough, but the burden it had on my mental performance was devastating to my ability to get anything done that week. Here are some of the challenges I experienced:
- Brain Fog: as I mentioned above, my head felt like it was in the clouds. I had trouble thinking through things clearly, and felt like I couldn’t be present in my meetings. I felt like I wasn’t able to “connect the dots” with my thoughts. This prevented me from tapping into my creativity, which made it so hard to work on projects, work with clients, and develop my programs. I had to cancel several meetings because I had no cognitive flexibility, and I felt embarrassed trying to have productive sessions with my clients.
- Trouble Focusing: every time I felt “stuck” I would reach for my phone or other distractions and allow myself to be distracted for a while. This is something I’m typically really good at avoiding. I have built the skill of mindfulness which allows me to bring myself back on task whenever I get off track. Whenever I got even the slightest bit distracted, I found myself getting up, cleaning the apartment, looking up new products online. By the end of my work day, I’d realize I had spent 10+ hours “working” but had very little to show from it.
- Moodiness: not only was it much easier for me to fall into a trap of negativity and doubt with myself, but my fuse was much shorter with everyone and everything else. The littlest thing would set me off. I was rude to most people that tried to talk to me, was extremely impatient with any task, and the tiniest inconvenience would stress me out. I would say I’m normally a pleasant person to be around (just ask my mom!) but this week, it was better off to avoid me.
- My Memory was Shot: to-do lists are always my best friend when times are normal. But even they weren’t helping me this week. In my distracted thoughts, I would remember small tasks I needed to get done. By the time I went to write them down on my to-do list, or find the nearest sticky note, the thought was gone. I struggled to remember details from the meetings I did have with clients and colleagues, to the point where I couldn’t even write complete notes after our sessions.
- Low Energy: obviously a side effect of being sick, but my energy was extinct. It felt like I had to physically hold my head up in order to stay alert enough to get anything done. I had to take breaks regularly after finishing the smallest tasks to regain any sort of energy to continue being productive. Normally, I can power through my entire to-do list without feeling drained, but this week felt like running a marathon!
Protecting My Brain
Having heard horror stories from friends and others about so-called “long COVID,” I was terrified that these symptoms were going to last for a few weeks and potentially even months. I knew I couldn’t expect to be productive and run a business if my brain was experiencing these symptoms any longer than I had been, so I did everything I could to make sure I healed my brain properly.
As with any virus, COVID brings with it plenty of inflammation. Inflammation is the body’s way to fight foreign invaders like viruses, pathogens, or toxins that enter the body. It is our immune system’s way of keeping us healthy. Definitely a process I appreciate when my body needs it! But, inflammation is also related to mental performance challenges. Inflammation has been associated with impairments in alertness (i.e., the experience of brain fog), memory, attention, mood, global cognition, learning, and executive functioning (Leigh & Morris, 2020, Marsland et al., 2015, & Balter et al., 2019). In other words, all of the performance challenges I was experiencing as a result of COVID were due to the inflammation it was causing in my body and brain. So, what did I do? Everything I could to tame the inflammation.
I started by making sure I was extra protective of my gut health. One of the many roles of the little bacteria living in our gut is to modulate our immune system (Kau et al., 2011). When the health of our gut is off, and we are in a state of dysbiosis, it can create an inflammatory response in the body. However, when our gut is healthy, it can help to regulate the inflammatory response, ensuring it stays “acute” (lasting only a few days or weeks) rather than becoming chronic. My gut was my first defense in the fight against this inflammatory response that was interrupting my brain.
Next, I doubled down on my anti-inflammatory diet. Although I follow this type of diet pretty regularly, I was extra strict this week. Knowing what I do about how easily certain foods can cause and exacerbate inflammatory responses in the body, I knew I had no room for error if I wanted to get better quickly. This was especially hard, because when I’m sick I crave comfort food (who doesn’t). And fun side note, this craving (and consumption) of comfort food can also be attributed to inflammation, as inflammation in the hippocampus is associated with impaired abilities to make healthy dietary decisions (Leigh & Morris, 2020). Putting forth all of my willpower, I said no to the foods that are commonly shown to increase inflammation in the body, and added several extra servings of anti-inflammatory foods.
Finally, I made sure I was getting enough of the right type of nutrients that my body needed to cool off inflammation and repair any damage that it had done. COVID-19 is shown to increase levels of oxidative stress in the body and brain. Oxidative stress can cause permanent damage to tissues and neurons, creating a chronic inflammatory response in the body and further exacerbating the mental performance challenges I was experiencing. I made sure to help my body fight the free radicals that were being produced by consuming plenty of antioxidant rich foods.
Luckily, within a week I was feeling back to normal brain-wise. I had sharper focus, clearer thinking, improved memory, and got my creativity back! All of the measures I put in place had helped my body to fight the inflammation it was experiencing that was causing my mental performance challenges,which also kept me from being at risk for this inflammatory response becoming chronic.
Looking Beyond COVID
As I mentioned before, inflammation is the body’s way of keeping us healthy. However, in today’s society many of us are at risk for experiencing chronic inflammation which can lead to an array of health conditions, and also mental performance challenges.
The symptoms I was experiencing during my bout with COVID are the exact same symptoms that my clients are experiencing when they join my MINDPEAK program. And in many cases we find that chronic inflammation may be the culprit (even without COVID!). The measures I took to help myself fight this inflammation and improve my performance are some of the exact same protocols I use with my clients so they can experience the same benefits.
If you feel like you’ve experienced similar mental performance challenges, it may be due to an underlying inflammatory response in your body. In my MINDPEAK program, I help my clients to reduce their chronic inflammation so they can think and feel better. If you want to see what you can do to heal your body to optimize your mind, sign up for a FREE 30 minute coaching session here. In this session, we’ll discuss the symptoms you may be experiencing, work together to determine the root cause, and see if you would be a good fit for my MINDPEAK program.
COVID induced or not, chronic inflammation can be extremely detrimental to your mental performance and overall health. You can heal your body to optimize your mind so that you can have sharp focus, clear thinking, and improved productivity. Sign up for a FREE 30 minute coaching session here to find out how.
References
Balter, L. J., Bosch, J. A., Aldred, S., Drayson, M. T., Veldhuijzen Van Zanten, J. J., Higgs, S., Raymond, J. E., & Mazaheri, A. (2019). Selective effects of acute low-grade inflammation on human visual attention. NeuroImage, 202, 116098. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116098
Kau AL, Ahern PP, Griffin nw, Goodman AL, Gordon Ji. Human nutrition, the gut microbiome, and immune system: envisioning the future. nature. 2011;474(7351):327–36
Leigh, S. J., & Morris, M. J. (2020). Diet, inflammation and the gut microbiome: Mechanisms for obesity-associated cognitive impairment. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – Molecular Basis of Disease, 1866(6), 165767. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbadis.2020.165767
Marsland, A. L., Gianaros, P. J., Kuan, D. C. H., Sheu, L. K., Krajina, K., & Manuck, S. B. (2015). Brain morphology links systemic inflammation to cognitive function in midlife adults. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 48, 195–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2015.03.015