How Stress Affects Your Brain

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How Stress Affects Your Brain

Have you ever gotten goosebumps and your heart started sinking in before going to the stage to give a speech in front of many people?

Have you found yourself blank and stuck at a word right at the exam night?

Have you felt a sudden onset of pain in your chest getting an interview call from the office?

Have you got a severe headache after getting into a fight with the person you love the most?

Have you ever been in the denial phase after the demise of your loved one that you start forgetting everything that has happened lately?

Is your answer ‘yes?’

The words you are reading right now are for you.

Remember that stress is not always bad. It has many different forms. Sometimes, the stressful situation lasts for some minutes only. But sometimes, it lasts for many hours, or many days, or even many months. 

The longer the stress stays with you, the deeper the bad effects it produces. However, the pressure to not complete a certain task or the tension before the guests arrive is normal. And it comes under routine stress. It does not affect the brain’s functioning up to a serious extent. 

But, the chronic stress that has been there for a long can have a lethal effect on your brain. Keep reading to know how prolonged stress is bad for the wellness of your brain.

Your Brain Cells are often Murdered by Stress

Your brain has a part called the ‘Hippocampus,’ which is linked to memories, emotions, and learning. Moreover, in this part, the formation of new brain cells occurs. 

What happens to the hippocampus during prolonged stress is dangerous because the increase in cortisol (the stress hormone) decreases the production of brain cells. 

As a result, the ability of the brain to form new healthy cells reduces, and, ultimately, the normal functioning of the brain to memorize, feel, and learn deteriorates.

The Size of Your Brain or Stress; Which One is Bigger to Win?

The shrinkage in the size of your brain does not mean your brain will start looking smaller in size. No, that’s not how it happens. Some parts of your brain shrink. One of the parts is the hippocampus. So, the reduced size results in the brain’s impaired functioning.

Again, routine stress does not have this severe effect on your brain. But the intense triggers, such as the state after losing someone, is a serious one that is also not easy to get rid of.

Moreover, the accumulation of routine stress can also be harmful if it stays a stimulus for a longer period. It can put the process of neurons formation in danger resulting in different neural disorders.

Your Short Term Memory Fails in Stress

The stressful triggers can easily make you lose your memory if you don’t work on them to eradicate the root cause. They can kill your memory.

The long term memory does not often get affected by stress. Cortisol hormone affects the normal functioning of recalling things, resulting in memory loss (dementia). 

Connection of Brain to Stress; Physical Health Outcomes

Stress has the power to make one feel physically sick. Indeed, stress is not a physical illness. But it can make one feel sick to the core. The symptoms of intense stress include headache (can be migraine), chest sinking, fatigue, low blood pressure, low glucose level, and feeling blank.

The brain’s connection to stress is as crucial as the Brain-Body Connection Through Movement. When stressful trigger attack, the physical health shows up with different reactions. Thus, the ultimate sickness arrives.

Stress-Brain Affects and Mood Swings

Stress hormone (cortisol) influences your emotions. So, it is directly linked with your mood. With the shift of cortisol, your mood also shifts. And the outcome can be severe sometimes. 

Some people cry hard when they are on the verge of breaking emotionally. And some people get into the denial phase when they find no way to come out. 

What’s the Heck? The Science!

The science behind the effect of stress on the brain is the Cortisol hormone. The imbalance in the cortisol hormone and corticotropin-releasing factor collectively results in drastic changes. The most affected part of the brain by stress is the hippocampus. It also is due to high and prolonged levels of cortisol hormone. The murder of brain cells and the overall reduction in the size of certain parts of the brain is responsible for physical health drawbacks, including:

  • Chronic inflammation
  • High blood pressure
  • Menstrual irregularity
  • High blood sugar
  • Heart disease

The blood-brain barrier in the brain gets affected by prolonged stress. It becomes leaky when stress stays for long. And the inflammatory proteins cross the barrier to reach the brain causing many different health issues.

Now, when you have come this far! Let me tell you how to cope with the effects of stress on the brain.

Chronic stress needs to be tackled. Yes, it needs attention. So, what can you do to help your brain stay unaffected by the stress you are in?

  • Exercising can help your body deal with stress without affecting your brain by producing an anti-inflammatory response. It also helps in brain cells formation and stimulates the process of neurogenesis (synthesis of neurons).
  • Staying busy with what you love to do can be so helpful. Meeting new people and interacting with family and friends is also a wonderful way to treat stress.
  • If no lifestyle change sounds possible enough, going for medical treatment as early as possible is a wise choice. 

There is a treasure of knowledge about the effects of stress on the brain. It is impossible to put all the thoughts together in a single article. 

So, winding up the article, I would like to say that if you ever find yourself in a stressful situation and find no way to get out of the situation, take yourself to seek medical treatment as soon as possible. 

Become a leading authority on brain optimization through proper training, sleep, nutrition, neuro-conditioning, and flow state. You know how important things like mindset, focus, clarity, determination, distraction control, and flow are to success: mental, physical, or financial. A well-functioning brain creates more opportunities for success in each aspect of life.

Getting Started

You can now dramatically expand your knowledge of brain optimization through proper training, sleep, nutrition, neuro-conditioning and flow state. Start your career a Certified Brain Fitness Coach..

Learn more about becoming a Certified Brain Fitness Coach

Our stress management coaching program is designed for life coaches, as well as fitness and wellness professionals who want to expand his or her knowledge in the lucrative and expanding field.

Our programs are open to anyone with a desire to learn and help others. There are no prerequisites.

That’s it for now.

Take action!

NESTA | Spencer Institute

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