Okay, it wasn’t bad enough that we are only using a small percentage of our brains. Now a new study shows that stress may actually be shrinking our brains.
Suffering stressful events, such as a divorce or break up, an accident or other stressful life situation will actually shrink the brain. Now this is another good reason to do that yoga.
The study found that being stressed out by these types of stressful events led to less gray matter in a particular part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, and important little piece of your cranium that regulates emotions and self-control. The prefrontal cortex is also linked to blood pressure and blood sugar.
While it is scary enough to think that the part of the brain responsible for emotion and self-control is getting smaller, it is the linkage to blood pressure and blood sugar that is really interesting to scientists right now. If your brain is shrinking in those areas, might it be a red flag that can predict serious and chronic problems in your overall health, such as high blood pressure.
Researchers already know that stress contributes to a rise in chronic disease, but it seems that it plays a far bigger role in illness than we might have even suspected. As for the link to emotions and self-control, an increase in stress may lead to addiction and anxiety disorders.
While we often can control the circumstances around us, we can control, to some degree, how we react to them. Now may be the time to make some changes in your life to eliminate the worst of your stress. It is also important to find coping mechanisms to stress, such as establishing a regular exercise routine, reinforcing close ties to friends and family, and finding activities that make you happy, such as listening to music or going for a walk.
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