How Stress Can Shrink Your Brain and 6 Ways to Keep It from Happening

ISLAMABAD, November 24 (Online): Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” goes the phrase. And somehow, we all actually believe it. We humble brag that we’re stressed about work, our families, our finances, and how hard and time-consuming it is to plow through everything on our vast and daily to-do lists. We’re super stressed about politics, natural disasters, climate change — even who will win the Super Bowl. Stress may be an unavoidable part of life, but when you get stressed and stay stressed, it’s no badge of honor. Think of the last prolonged stressful situation you were in. Not something that lasted an hour or two, like a root canal at the dentist’s office, but one that lasted weeks, months, or even years: a high-intensity job with a ruthless boss, for instance, or caring for a sick parent. During that time, did you eventually find it harder to make simple decisions, remember the right word for something, or just keep track of your car keys? At the time, it might have felt like the universe was conspiring against you. But there’s a scientific reason for what was more likely happening: Stress has the ability to physically shrink your brain. When you get stressed, your body releases cortisol, aka the stress hormone. In limited bursts, this isn’t a bad thing. Cortisol has the power to lower your blood pressure, manage your blood sugar, and reduce inflammation within the body. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley even found that when lab rats were exposed to brief stressful events (“brief” being the operative word), stem cells in their brains actually bloomed into new nerve cells. As a result, the rats’ mental performance improved. But chronic stress — that is, repeated and prolonged exposure to something stressful, like the demanding […]

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