Brain - stress, cortisol, lead to memory loss
February 11th 2008 05:01
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A decline in brain functioning was thought to be from degenerative changes in the brain called neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques. But an autopsy study in the Journal of Neurophysiology looked at brains of elderly people who were fully functioning until death. Their brains surprisingly had the changes found in Alzhei- mer's victims, with a large number of plaques and tangles. But none of these patients had any symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
Scientists are now investigating other causes for the deterioration of brain function, including the deposition of a protein called amyloid in brain tissue. This process is thought to be accelerated by inflammation in the body.
In addition to inflammation, studies have shown that stress and depression may contribute to decreased cognitive functioning.
Even though there are physical changes in the brain that occur with Alzheimer's disease, there is the unknown factor – some people with these changes will get the disease and some will not. This is powerful information, as we do know that there are things we can do with our lifestyle to ward off cognitive decline.
Eat an anti- inflammatory diet, keep your body and brain active, deal with stress appropriately and don't smoke. Your brain may stay young forever.
It is thought that high levels of cortisol are harmful to the brain and cause a decline in the neurons in the hippocampus, leading to cognitive decline. (cortisol is the stress hormone)
Taken from an article by Dr. Kay and Dr. Max medical directors of Sutter Downtown Integrative Medicine program.
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