When it comes to the topic of the stress subject matter, it is one thing that every human being cannot escape. Our body response to the stress we experience in the workplace, the stress we experience when with our spouses or the stress we experience about finances or illness is highly specific. We generally experience stress daily.
What people have heard about response is that response is linked to a high amount of chemicals known as stress hormones and unless the hormones move out of the body within a short duration, then the hormones can lead to severe brain damage. Well that is true to an extent.
Your brain sends the term danger or pressure which is transmitted to adrenal glands which are located directly above your kidneys. These glands will further secrete two fundamental hormones of stress which is called the cortisol and adrenaline (also known as epinephrine).
Adrenaline in its own case works very fast. It gives your heart a kick, your blood a push and gives your body an energy shot. Cortisol on the contrary is slower and it remains in your system a lot longer. A combination of these hormones brings about the so-called fight-or-flight reaction that scientists refer to as survival mechanisms of your body.
I usually explain to people that it is not a bad reply as such. Cortisol will make you alert, pain reliever and quick to respond to tough situations in temporary bursts. We need both of these hormones to function in our body.
The problem begins poorly with the fact when the stress will not be reducing. The brain begins to permanently suffer the moment we continue to exist in the state of stress weeks, months, or even years.
The identification of the plasticity of the brain is one of the most important accomplishments that have been made within the past twenty years in neuroscience. It builds around our experience of the so-called neuroplasticity. The unfortunate thing is that chronic stress is likely to abuse this quality.
Articles in the journal nature neuroscience that I read have also shown that long term cortisol exposure will shrink the hippocampus. The hippocampus is part of the brain that deals with memory and learning.
The reason is that, recurring cortisol flooding of this area is lethal to neurons, in addition to the fact that it atrophies, replaces the growth of new ones, or neurogenesis.
This is why the people who are exposed to a long stress scenario are likely to report bad memory, inability to focus, slowing down of the mind etc. It is not just tiredness. What I would like to express is that the brain that they are experiencing is in forceful change in its structure.
Chronic stress also influences the pre frontal cortex, which is the decision making, emotional controller and rational part of the brain, or the top of the hippocampus. An increase in cortisol levels over a long term period has been observed to decrease the thickness of prefrontal cortex grey matter in the studies carried out in Stanford University and Harvard Medical School.
It simplifies the concept of a person being able to think in a simple way, as well as become in charge of their feelings, and choose wisely. It means a lot to me in particular because by the majority of the situations that I accuse myself to have made poor decisions, I am incredibly stressed in my life and even worse is that I do not feel that my brain chemistry was actually working against me. Stress have sometimes lead me to make wrong decisions.
The result of stress will be the contraction in size of the parts of the brain which we need to think straight, but the size of the amygdala or the fear and emotional alarm centre of our brain which is, in fact, swelling in size.
In an experiment arranged by the Dr. Rajita Sinha of Yale University discovered that during the case of chronic stress in people amygdala gets increasingly vulnerable. That is why individuals who have undergone some degree of stress over a long duration of time feel more anxious, easier to react and develop a threat, which really does not exist. The brain somehow is rewired in order to be able to keep surviving.
This, as I believe was one of the eye-opener discoveries of the contemporary brain research. It also describes why individuals, who were traumatized or burned out, who have long since passed, would not overcome any anxiety disorders, mood swings and in some cases, depression in spite of the stressful encounter that was eradicated.
The causation which has been known between cortisol and mental illness has been familiarized with science. The observation made by different scholars has been that the cortisol patterns in depressed individuals with major depression disorders, as well as those who have post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) have been distorted.
A seminal study that was published on Psychoneuroendocrinology revealed that cortisol rhythms of patients with PTSD were frequently elevated or lowered proving the fact that the stress hormone system has lost its welcome once it is exposed to a vigorous demand during a long period of time.
The results of the emerging stress hormone as a chronic one are also gaining ground, associated with the premature cognitive failure. An alternative study also confirmed that cortisol is having a negative implication on memory and thinking tests in the middle age (2018, Neurology).
This, in my view, is an eminent warning that stress hormones might as well prove to be a leading initiator of dementia and other forms of Alzheimer diseases at later age - a factor, which we cannot afford to neglect.
Exercise, sleep, meditation using mindfulness practice and a social relationship have been found to lower the concentration of cortisol as well as increase the brain, especially hippocampal cells.
Scholars at the University of California prove that even after eight weeks of mindfulness training, they discovered that there weren't a significant difference (quantitatively) between the size of amygdala, and the enhancement of the prefrontal cortex activity.
It is not a luxury that I cannot emphasize on the fact that stress management is. It is a medical necessity. The rationale is understandable: everything we permit to stress us and will have direct influence on the state and form of our brains. It is the initial move that the knowledge would be employed in safeguarding one of the best organs that we possess.
Thank You So Much For Reading Through My Post
My Reference Cites
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00049/full
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306453014003369
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-effects-of-stress-on-your-body