These cognitive difficulties - called fibro fog - are common: Research suggests more than half of people with fibromyalgia show a decline in memory and clear thinking.

It can also lead to problems with memory or thinking clearly. What Exactly Is Fibro Fog?įibromyalgia causes aches and pains all over the body, as well as fatigue, sleep, and mood issues.

Patients will say they seem more forgetful or feel like they’re walking around in a daze all the time. “Fibro fog is something we hear about quite a bit,” says Christopher Morris, MD, a rheumatologist with Arthritis Associates of Kingsport, in Tennessee. But it is one that can be just as problematic as the pain that’s characteristic of the condition. Another describes it as being under water - where your senses are dulled and movement is slow and clumsy.įibro fog, or brain fog, is symptom of fibromyalgia that you may not expect. That’s what fibro fog feels like to CreakyJoints member Kathy M. You feel hungover, and typically hurt everywhere. Then it all trickles back to reality slowly. And then falling asleep and waking up with no idea where you are, who you are, and what somebody just said - you see mouths moving, but it’s gibberish. “In terms of helping people recover, we have highlighted that fatigue is mostly associated with patients’ inability to do day-to-day tasks, and is a key area in which to focus treatments,” he concluded.It’s like wearing one ear plug, floppy shoes, and a parka while swimming through a muddy ditch. “I hope we have highlighted how unwell these patients are so that clinicians and the general public can better understand how much they are suffering,” Dr. Goodfellow said he hopes the study helps raise awareness of the difficulties faced by individuals with severe long COVID. “The only evidence-based treatments are cognitive behavioral therapy and rehabilitation, which usually refers to a package of behavioral and support interventions including graded exercise,” Dr. The results were recently published in BMJ Open.Ĭurrent research indicates that long COVID eventually passes on its own slowly over the course of up to two years, with just a small percentage of people still grappling with its symptoms beyond that.įor people currently experiencing extreme fatigue, the options are few. Still, the research provides striking support for people with a condition that remains somewhat undefined and may be dismissed by physicians. Thus, it primarily reflects the experiences of individuals whose symptoms were severe enough that they sought medical care for the condition.

The cases included in the study’s analysis documented the health and self-reported functional impairment and quality of life of individuals who attended National Health Service long COVID clinics in the United Kingdom. The findings suggest that fatigue-driven functional impairment experienced by people with severe long COVID can be worse than what is experienced by people who have had a stroke and is roughly the same as for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD).īut not everyone with long COVID experiences such extreme symptoms. They also had a lower health-related quality of life than reported by people with stage 4 lung cancer Study participants reported having worse fatigue than reported by people with stroke, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), end-stage renal disease, or cancer with anemia. A new study from the University College of London and the University of Exeter finds that among severe cases of long COVID, fatigue may be more debilitating than it is for some people with other life-altering diseases.

Overcoming covid brain fog