10 Things That Have a Damaging Effect on
the Brain
1. Not getting enough sleep
This
phenomenon, familiar to anyone, is becoming a global problem. According to the
WHO, over the past 100 years, people began to sleep an average of 20% less.
Severe lack of sleep creates the risk that different parts of the brain move
into a phase of slow wave sleep in the state of wakefulness. As
a result, a person can’t concentrate and his fine motor skills deteriorate. The
regular lack of sleep leads to brain cell death.
2. Lack of breakfast
Skipping
the morning meal affects the performance and energy of the person during the
day. It seems obvious, but the point here is not so much the consumption of
energy necessary for the body, but the fact that lack of breakfast lowers the level
of sugar in the blood.
This in turn reduces and hinders the flow of nutrients to the brain.
3. Sugar
The
preceding paragraph explains why it is recommended to eat
sweets, especially dark chocolate, to have a good brain performance.
However, excessive amounts of sugar cause problems with the assimilation of
protein and nutrients. It leads to the same result as the low level of blood
sugar: the brain does not receive enough nutrients.
4. Stress
Severe emotional stress weakens the
connections between neurons and thus complicates the understanding
of cause-effect relationships and sequence of events. Strong nervous
excitement, poor memory and the feeling that everything goes wrong are also
linked to stress.
5. Tranquilizers and sleeping pills
The
use of sleeping pills and popular tranquilizers such as Xanax can impair memory
up to amnesia, cause dementia and obsessive suicidal thoughts.
6. Smoking
Speaking
about the negative effects of smoking on the body, the image of black lung and
damaged teeth first comes to mind. At the same time, it is not said much about
how cigarettes affect the brain: nicotine narrows its vessels.
Besides the problems associated with lack of nutrients in the brain, this
greatly increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
7. Lack of sun
Lack
of sufficient sunlight directly affects cognitive abilities. First, ultraviolet
light produced from sunlight regulates blood circulation, that
is, the flow of oxygen and nutrients. Second, sunlight helps produce serotonin –
the hormone that affects a person’s mood.
8. Lack of water
Lack
of water causes a decrease in brain volume,
which considerably reduces its efficiency and leads to almost zero ability
to memorize information.
It is recommended to drink an average of 1,5-2 liters of water per day.
9. Too much information
Year
after year, the amount of information to digest increases enormously. This
would seem quite useful for the brain exercise and the maintenance of its
performance. However, brain responds to such an information excess with
resistance. It is expressed in the fact that at a certain moment the
information is no longer absorbed causing up to memory lapses.
10. Multitasking
Another
anomaly of the information world: people simultaneously process
multiple streams of information. As a consequence, none of them is
absorbed properly, and the mind gets used to this way of working. Information
is perceived superficially, while being focused and doing only one
thing without frequent change of activity is becoming more difficult.
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