This ONE Habit is Eating Your Brain!
By
Dr. Scott Olson, ND
Posted August 26, 2017
Dear Living Well Daily Reader,
It’s happened to all of us.
You’re under a lot of stress, and suddenly it feels like your brain just QUITS!
You can’t focus… you can’t keep your thoughts straight… and you can’t seem to remember anything.
Just a temporary problem, right? Well, not so fast.
Because a new study from the University of Wisconsin proves that stress can do long-term… and even permanent… damage to your brain.
And getting your stress under control is the secret to making your brain feel (and work) like it did years ago.
Stress destroys your brain now AND it causes problems later down the road.
Think of each stressful event you endure as brain-eating zombie – with each traumatic event you face taking a little bite out of your brain.
In the study, 1,300 people were asked about stress they encountered both as an adult and a child and then had their brain power tested.
The people who had the most stressful events scored lower on immediate memory, verbal learning and memory, visual learning and memory, and story recall.
I’m talking about literally ALL measurements of brain function.
So, death of a parent, abuse, loss of a job, loss of a home… all caused a reduction in memory power. But even poverty, living in a disadvantaged neighborhood, and divorce also destroyed brain function.
It’s clear from this and other studies: stress has a powerful negative effect on our brains.
The researchers suggested that stressful events may be one of the stepping stones towards diseases like Alzheimer’s.
But what is the key link between stress and decline in brain function?
The answer is our old nemesis: inflammation.
Phycological stress increases chronic inflammation in your body, which invites the zombies to dinner to have yet another bite of your brain – which, in turn, leads to the development of dementia later in life.
That’s the bad news.
But you don’t have to (and shouldn’t) take that news lying down.
There is a lot you can do to combat the brain-eating zombies of stress.
Dr. Scott’s Plan for Dealing with Stressful Events:
- Exercise: Almost every exercise helps drop stress hormones. You may not feel like it, but getting out and walking some will help you feel better.
- Reduce Stress: This may sound like stupid obvious advice, but I’ve found that most people KNOW what to do, they just don’t do it. Only you know the best way to help reduce your stress: this may be talking to friends, spending time with a church leader, a psychologist… whatever works for you (just do it!).
- Feed Your Brain: Your brain is starving for nutrients that support function and kill inflammation. Make sure you are getting fish oil (EPA/DHA) every day. I also like curcumin and bacopa because they both support brain health and reduce inflammation throughout the body.
You are never going to be able to control the stressful events in your life. They come on their own schedule.
What you can control, however, is the impact those events have on your life.
Your brain is your most precious organ. It’s what makes us who we are.
Take steps now (and into the future) to keep stress from eating away at it.
Health and Happiness,
Dr. Scott Olson, ND
Ed. Note: Please send your feedback: feedback@livingwelldaily.com – and click here to like us on Facebook.
Written By Dr. Scott Olson, ND
Nearly 25 years ago, failed mainstream medical treatments left Dr. Olson in constant pain – and his health in ruins. And that’s when he did something REVOLUTIONARY. He began his career in medicine – and dedicated his life to uncovering the true, underlying causes of disease.
Through his innovative medical practices in Tennessee and Colorado, Dr. Olson has helped cure countless seniors from across America of arthritis… heart disease… diabetes… and even cancer. All without risky prescription drugs or painful surgeries.
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