Stress affects the brain in multiple ways. It reduces the ability to remember and perceptual learning, as well as damaging brain structure.
Stress: The Greatest Health Hazard of Our Time
With today’s busy lifestyles, stress can attack us from all sides. Financial worries, pressure at work, health problems, family problems, strained relationships and simply being too busy can place a heavy burden on our shoulders. The experience of stress is not only unpleasant, but also has many negative effects. Stress releases the hormone cortisol, which helps you perform well in a life-or-death situation, but only causes more problems if the situation causing the stress is not that serious. High cortisol levels associated with chronic stress, in addition to its many negative physiological effects, are known to increase the risk of various mental and physical illnesses. These include:
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Anxiety
- Asthma
- Depression
- Diabetes
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Headache
- Heart disease
- Obesity
Although some of these health problems are quite obvious, stress also affects the brain in more subtle ways than most people realize.
Stress Affects Memory
One positive aspect of the hormone cortisol is that it can increase the brain’s ability to create new memories. Unfortunately, when it comes to recalling those same memories, cortisol hampers the ability to remember. A study involving more than 1,200 volunteers found that people whose cortisol levels rise the most when they try to recall something have a harder time remembering than people whose cortisol levels don’t rise as much.
It is not only the ability to remember facts that is compromised in the face of stress, but also the ability to remember how to do things, as shown by a study that found that being subjected to a stressful situation beforehand significantly reduced participants’ ability to find objects in a maze.
The memory-reducing effects of cortisol are thought to be due to the way the hormone binds to receptors in the hippocampus and amygdala, two of the most important brain regions when it comes to memory. The longer chronic stress is experienced, the more memory is affected. Stress may increase the risk of age-related memory loss. Keep your mind sharp by reducing and relieving stress in your life.
Stress Reduces the Ability to Perceive
There are several types of memory and learning. One type is perceptual learning, which is essentially the ability to learn to perceive things more accurately. Yes, this is another of the brain’s abilities that are compromised by chronic stress.
In one study, researchers had participants undergo simple tactile perception training that would give them a better sense of touch. However, the researchers also had some of the participants receive a dose of cortisol, while the rest received a placebo drug. The results of the study determined that cortisol reduced the volunteers’ ability to train their senses.
Training the senses has many practical applications. For example, you could not become a master painter or musician without perceptual learning ability. Reducing stress can facilitate learning new perceptual skills.
Stress Affects the Structure of the Brain
Chronic stress will literally reshape the brain. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have found that chronic stress affects the way brain stem cells differentiate. When too much stress is experienced, the proportion of new cells born in the brain that mature into neurons is reduced. In addition, the proportion of myelin-producing cells (a fatty insulating layer that surrounds nerve cells) increases.
When there is too much myelin and not enough neurons, communication within the brain is less agile and effective. In addition, excess myelin in the brain strengthens the connection between the amygdala and the hippocampus. This increased connection has the unfortunate effect of putting the brain into perpetual fight or flight mode. This helps explain why chronic stress can increase the risk of anxiety and other conditions.
The physical way stress affects the brain also causes a reduction in brain plasticity, which is essentially the brain’s ability to recover and learn.
Relieving Stress
Keep your body and brain as healthy as possible by coping with stress in a healthy way. Of course, the first step is to try to eliminate all sources of stress from your life. However, there are some things we can’t change so easily. There are some sources of stress that we simply have to deal with. You can relieve stress and prevent all of these negative ways that stress affects the brain with the following lifestyle measures:
- Staying socially connected. Cultivate close friendships.
- Get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week.
- Get at least seven hours of sleep each night.
- Adopt mindful meditation as a daily routine to relieve stress.
- Avoid caffeine intake, which increases cortisol levels.
- Take a supplement containing adaptogenic herbs, which improve the body’s resistance to stress. Examples include Panax ginseng, eleuthero, maca root and passionflower.
- Maintain a good sense of humor about life. Laugh often.
We may not be able to eliminate stress completely, but with a few simple lifestyle changes, it is possible to lessen the burden stress places on our brain and body, facilitating better health.