While the link between stress and physical condition has long been discussed, a recent study has shown that it not only affects memory negatively, but also results in shrinking of brain, subtle though. A fresh study published in Journal of Neurology, and carried out by researchers at Harvard Medical School; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; Boston University School of Medicine; University of California, Davis, at Sacramento; and UT Health San Antonio has linked stress to changes in brain.
The researchers measured Cortisol levels in a group of participants, average age 48, and healthy. The researchers measured their Cortisol levels and co-related these MRI scans of their brains and performance on memory and cognition tests. Cortisol is a hormone released at the time of stress and plays an important role in response to stressor.
The findings of the study were astonishing. People who had higher Cortisol levels were found to have reduced volume of occipital and frontal lobes of brain. They also had the kind of changes to brain that pointed towards poor connectivity. Not just the physical changes in brain, but the study also found that people with such changes fared poorly on memory tests. “They had difficulty copying a pattern or recalling a story,” the study found.
Moreover, these difficulties were more accentuated in women, compared to men. “In our quest to understand cognitive aging, one of the factors attracting significant interest and concern is the increasing stress of modern life,” the official statement about the study said.
“The faster pace of life today probably means more stress, and when we are stressed, Cortisol levels increase because that is our fight-or-flight response,” the statement said. It advocated being mindful of reducing stress to counter the effects.
Source: greaterkashmir.com
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