All this week, a pair of eminent neurologists
specialising in Alzheimer’s are sharing cutting-edge research with Mail readers
and revealing how lifestyle tweaks can help fend off the disease. Today, they
show how avoiding stress and learning to meditate could boost your brain . . .
There's no doubt that many of us are more stressed than ever
before. Thanks to the rise of smartphones, we’re never far from our emails —
meaning too many of us take work home with us.
Then there are all the other stresses of modern
life: never getting to the end of your to-do list, worrying about family,
money, friends, work and so on.
It can be easy to shrug off that missed appointment
or lost wallet as the inevitable consequence of having too much to do and never
enough time.
But those mental blanks and foggy-headed moments
could be an early warning sign that stress is damaging your brain.
Mental blanks and foggy-headed moments could be an
early warning sign that stress is damaging your brain.
In fact, stress management is a critical and often
misunderstood aspect of a brain-healthy lifestyle. Regardless of your degree of
risk of developing dementia, stress reduction is crucial to overall health and
happiness.
Together, as a neurologist husband-and-wife team,
we run the prestigious Memory and Aging Center at Loma Linda University in
California.
We have dedicated our careers to finding a cure for
Alzheimer’s and after decades of research and clinical experience we believe we
have found a scientifically-backed way to reduce your risk — and keep your
brain sharper for longer.
All this week in the Mail we have been serialising
this personalised lifestyle plan, based on our book, The Alzheimer’s Solution,
which focuses on five key areas that can really make a difference: diet,
exercise, sleep, stress and brain training.
Today, the focus is on stress, and specifically on
finding ways to unwind.
Some forms of stress are, in fact, good for your
brain — if the stress helps you pursue some kind of long-term goal (such as
studying for a degree).
This kind of purposeful action actually bolsters
brain reserves, making you stronger and more resilient. But many of us now live
our lives in a state of unrelenting, uncontrolled stress.
THE DAMAGE CAN START
IN CHILDHOOD
It is possible that much of the microscopic damage
to the brain which can culminate in Alzheimer’s actually starts in early
childhood.
Stress, poor nutrition and lack of exercise could
start damaging the arteries that supply oxygen to the body and brain from a
young age. Studies show that children who have a tough time early in their
lives do tend to be at greater risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and high
cholesterol later in life, all of which, as we have shown, increase the risk
later in life for developing Alzheimer’s.
Neglect and emotional abuse sustained at a young
age have been associated with memory deficits in adulthood.
Sports-related head trauma (even repeatedly
‘heading’ a football) is another risk factor that studies show could predispose
children to developing cognitive problems in adulthood.
A process called ‘myelination’ by which the
neuron’s connections are coated with a protective fatty membrane called myelin
(to ensure effective communication) starts before the age of five and continues
into your early 20s. This is one of the natural processes which helps the brain
develop resilience in the face of later traumas — so children really do need a
good, strong lifestyle foundation to ensure this process happens efficiently.
Stress has been shown to significantly affect
growth in developing brains, and lower cognitive resilience in childhood (i.e.
myelination was inefficient or incomplete), which could leave you with a higher
risk of developing dementia once you reach your 60s and 70s.
This is the worst possible kind — if you don’t own
it and you didn’t choose it and you feel there’s no end to it in sight. Stress
like this puts the body in overdrive and subsequently increases the level of
stress hormones (such as cortisol). These affect blood sugar levels and cause
damaging long-term problems such as anxiety, depression, disrupted sleep and
depressed immune function, which then makes us more vulnerable to infections —
and all of which increase our risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
Stress affects each of us differently, but our
brains are particularly vulnerable. Studies show chronic stress decreases
levels of the crucial protein responsible for the production of new brain
cells.
It puts the brain in a state of high inflammation,
causing structural damage and impairing its ability to clear harmful waste
products. Uncontrolled stress initiates a hormonal cascade that taxes the brain
on many levels. It even changes the structure of the brain, destroying cells
and effectively shrinking it.
If you were to look at the brains of people with
Alzheimer’s, even early on in the disease process, you’d see evidence of
chronic inflammation in the form of special proteins (called cytokines and
chemokines) that rush to the site to support the immune system by attacking
foreign substances. You’ll also see small cells (called microglia) that rush
there to help with the clearing of waste and damaged brain cells.
The problem is, under stressful conditions, these
microglia can become so responsive in clearing waste that they start to harm
neurons (the cells of the nervous system) and their supporting structures,
resulting in both cell death and structural damage.
This is why stress, and the chronic inflammation
that it induces, is widely considered to be a main factor in the development of
Alzheimer’s.
Studies have also shown that chronic stress can
quite literally shrink your brain.
A single stressful event is enough to destroy brain
cells — very often in an area called the hippocampus, which controls memory.
When the hippocampus is damaged by cortisol, the region struggles to regulate
the body’s stress system.
This results in the secretion of even more
cortisol, a vicious cycle that in turn damages more cells.
Everyone, whatever the state of their brain health,
will benefit from unwinding and de-stressing. This factor alone could be enough
to significantly reduce your risk of getting Alzheimer’s, and if you already
have a dementia diagnosis, should ease your symptoms and improve your focus and
memory.
To work best and have the greatest impact, the
process of unwinding or de-stressing, just like the other four lifestyle
factors in this series, should be personalised to you.
Continued tomorrow
SOURCE:MailOnline, Dr Dean Sherzai, DrAyesha
Sherzai
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