Hello steemians, let's talk about a very vital yet ignored part of our body; the brain. Yes, I say ignored because most of us engage in a lot of things that have negative effects on the brain without even knowing we are damaging our most valuable organ.
The brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrates animals. The brain is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. The brain is the most complex in the body.
The human brain begins development as soon as conception and continues to grow until it reaches its peak at the early 20s after which an almost immediate steady decline until death. In a human, the cerebral cortex contains approximately 15–33 billion neurons, each connected by synapses to several thousand other neurons. Brain activity is made possible by the interconnections of these neurons that are linked together to reach their targets.
After it reaches peak efficiency and growth the brain becomes susceptible to neurodegeneration (progressive loss of structure or function of neurons including death of neurons) and these billions of neurons begin to get damaged or die thus making the brain weaker. At this point we become prone to diseases such as ALS, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, clinical depression and a whole lot more. For some they come early, for others very late and for some they don't come atall. These variances are all dependent on how much we take care of our brain. Unfortunately there is no known medical procedure to halt the decline of the efficiency of the human brain, not cool right? I know, but there are ways to make sure the process is slowed down as much as possible.
Everything we do influences our body in different ways, whether bad or good is upto us. Here are a few things that can actually hurt your brain;
- Not sleeping enough: The body regenerates new cells during sleep. Sleeping is also when the brain forms new neuronal connections to process left over information during the day.
- Alcohol and smoking: both have been known to reduce brain matter and amount of oxygen the brain gets.
- Missing breakfast and low water intake: It's not called the most important meal of the day for no reason because skipping breakfast causes a slow start to the brain and reduced glucose for neuronal activities. The brain is also 80% water which means more water equals healthy brain.
- Lack of mental exercises: the brain takes "bored to death" quite literally as reduced mental stimulation can cause brain cells to die faster.
- Overeating: Yes, this harms your brain too, ever had too much to eat and you felt dizzy? Or had a headache? That's your brain telling you it's had enough.
- Elevated coffee consumption
- Excess sugar consumption
- Stress
On the other hand here are a few things that can boost your brain power and maintain good mental health
- Meditation
- Reading a book
- Get some sleep
- Eat lots of vegetables and fruits
- Ditch the sugar
- Get some sunlight
- Listen to music
FINAL THOUGHTS
Our brain is of utmost importance to us, it determines everything. For this reason it's greatly important to make sure it's properly taken care of. Brain wellness goes a long in determining success and productivity and next time you wanna do something ask yourself "is this gonna hurt or help my brain?"