are you sleeping restlessly, feeling irritable or moody, forgetting little things, and feeling overwhelmed and isolated? don't worry. we've all been there. you're probably just stressed out. stress isn't always a bad thing. it can be handy for a burst of extraenergy and focus, like when you're playing a competitive sport,
or have to speak in public. but when its continuous, the kind most of us face day inand day out, it actually begins to change your brain. chronic stress, like being overworkedor having arguments at home, can affect brain size, its structure, and how it functions,
right down to the level of your genes. stress begins with something called the hypothalamus pituitaryadrenal axis, a series of interactions between endocrine glands in the brainand on the kidney, which controls your body's reaction to stress. when your brain detects a stressful situation, your hpa axis is instantly activated and releases a hormone called cortisol,which primes your body for instant action.
but high levels of cortisol over long periods of time wreak havoc on your brain. for example, chronic stress increasesthe activity level and number of neural connectionsin the amygdala, your brain's fear center. and as levels of cortisol rise, electric signals in your hippocampus, the part of the brain associated withlearning, memories, and stress control, deteriorate.
the hippocampus also inhibitsthe activity of the hpa axis, so when it weakens, so does your ability to control your stress. that's not all, though. cortisol can literally cause your brainto shrink in size. too much of it results in the lossof synaptic connections between neurons and the shrinking of your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain the regulatesbehaviors like concentration, decision-making,
judgement, and social interaction. it also leads to fewer new brain cellsbeing made in the hippocampus. this means chronic stress might make it harder for you to learn and remember things, and also set the stage for more seriousmental problems, like depressionand eventually alzheimer's disease. the effects of stress may filterright down to your brain's dna. an experiment showed
that the amount of nurturing a mother rat provides its newborn baby plays a part in determining how that babyresponds to stress later in life. the pups of nurturing moms turned outless sensitive to stress because their brains developed more cortisol receptors, which stick to cortisoland dampen the stress response. the pups of negligent momshad the opposite outcome, and so became more sensitive to stressthroughout life. these are considered epigenetic changes, meaning that they effect which genes are expressed
without directly changing the genetic code. and these changes can be reversedif the moms are swapped. but there's a surprising result. the epigenetic changes caused byone single mother rat were passed down to many generationsof rats after her. in other words, the results of these actions were inheritable. it's not all bad news, though. there are many ways to reversewhat cortisol does to your stressed brain. the most powerful weapons are exerciseand meditation,
which involves breathing deeply and being aware and focused on your surroundings. both of these activities decrease your stress and increase the size of the hippocampus, thereby improving your memory. so don't feel defeated by the pressures of daily life. get in control of your stressbefore it takes control of you.
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