Stress & Your Brain

The Brain is the most nutrient dependent, energy dependent and toxin and stress vulnerable organ.

As some of you know, I recently left a job of extreme stress to pursue what I’m passionate about—nutrition and fitness. After college I thought I wanted to get a job in corporate America, climb the ladder, get promoted and make a lot of money. However, I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into.

While I was in college I was very acquainted with the feeling of stress. I obtained my four year degree in 3 years—taking 18 credits a semester, worked around 25-30 hours a week, did an internship, along with volunteering for campus ministries and at my church. There was very little margin in my life. However, after six months in my corporate job, I hit a wall. I was continually sleep deprived—working 12 hour days and getting up at 4:30am to get to the gym. I found over time my ability to remember and focus disappeared. I found myself crying a lot (something that rarely happens), I was unable to sleep due to anxiety, and I had constant neck and back pain from stress.

I came to the point where I knew my health was too important to continue doing what I had been. I was surprised that it took months for me to recover and feel normal again. Stress is very powerful and takes a huge toll on our bodies.

There is a lot of documentation concluding that stress is a biologically noteworthy and a prevalent environmental factor. It has been associated with changes in your nervous system (your bodies electrical control panel) and has been shown to produce alternations in your brain-memory systems. Stress impairs memory, high level thinking, emotions and decision making. (Ref 1)

“Lethal stress will immediately reduce your judgment and performance at least 50%.” –Dr. Sensei Grant Kruhly

“Exposure to even mild uncontrollable stress impairs the cognitive functioning of the prefrontal cortex, a brain region critical for insight, judgment, and the inhibition of inappropriate behaviors.”–Acad (Ref 2)

Our brain is one of our most powerful tools as well as our most vulnerable one. To protect this gift we’ve been given we not only need to give it the nutrients it needs, but also protect it from other environment factors such as stress.

Take some time to look at your life and figure out where your main areas of stress are and how you can go about eliminating them. Create margin in your life! Tomorrow I will be writing about healthy ways to deal with stress. Stay tuned!

References:

(1)    http://precedings.nature.com/documents/2923/version/1/files/npre20092923-1.pdf

(2)    Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2004 Jun;1021:143-7. PMID: 15251883 Below

Hope

xoxo