July 15, 2024

Ten Potential Threats to Brain Health

There are multiple factors that impact brain health, such as your family history, lifestyle, and sleep quality, to name a few. Understanding what can positively and negatively impact your brain’s health is essential for knowing exactly what you need to do – and avoid – for the healthiest brain possible.

Consider these ten common threats to good brain health and how they may be playing negatively into your own life:

Eating poorly.

Consuming a diet high in processed foods, saturated fats, sugar, and refined carbohydrates can contribute to inflammation, oxidative stress, and impaired brain function. A poor diet often lacks the necessary vitamins and nutrients the brain – as well as the rest of the body – needs to function at its very best. Eating a poor diet for a prolonged period of time can create permanent negative effects within the whole body, including the brain.

Not getting enough exercise.

Sedentary lifestyles can lead to reduced blood flow to the brain, decreased neurogenesis (or the formation of new neurons), and increased risk of cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases.

Physical exercise helps build a strong heart and circulatory system, which is necessary for moving blood to all the body’s organs, including the brain. Without plenty of regular physical activity, the heart can weaken, which negatively impacts blood flow throughout the entire body leading to a lowered quality and quantity of life.

Experiencing chronic stress.

Prolonged exposure to stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline can negatively impact brain structure and function, impairing memory, learning, and emotional regulation.

Stress hormones like cortisol are helpful in occasional situations. For example, if you are riding in your car and feel like you’re about to collide with another car in front of you, cortisol and adrenaline will suddenly release in your body, causing you to act quickly to slam on the brakes or swerve to avoid an accident.

However, if you experience a constant feeling of anxiety or stress, your cortisol and adrenaline hormones release more frequently and you may notice some cognitive issues, such as difficulty regulating your emotions and remembering information. Experiencing this wash of stress hormones routinely can create these negative and long lasting effects on the brain.

Being sleep deprived.

The human body needs good, quality sleep on a regular basis in order to restore and repair itself and work at its very best. This is especially true for good brain health.

Inadequate sleep can impair cognitive function in a number of ways, including emotional regulation. Chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to an increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.

The National Institute of Health explains that a lack of sleep can cause a buildup of a metabolic waste called beta-amyloid between brain cells, and this buildup has been directly linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

Being socially isolated.

Lack of social connection and meaningful relationships can increase the risk of depression, anxiety, and cognitive decline. This is because having conversations and building relationships is an excellent way to develop attention, memory, and problem-solving skills. Social interaction is essential for maintaining brain health and emotional well-being. It is also important to remember that human beings are social creatures who like being around others, particularly close members of their “herd” or “inner circles.”

Abusing substances.

Alcohol, drugs, and tobacco can have incredibly detrimental effects on brain health, leading to impaired cognitive function, memory loss, and increased risk of mental health disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

These risks to brain health increase exponentially as people use substances like these over extended periods of time. It is essential to remember that choosing to stop alcohol, drug, or tobacco use is always a good decision – you can stop or slow down the negative impacts to brain health by cessation.

Experiencing head trauma.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) caused by falls, accidents, abuse, or sports-related incidents can result in long-term cognitive impairments, mood disturbances, and increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases like chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Any time a person experiences an event that could cause a TBI, they should seek medical attention immediately – even if they feel OK after the event. Brain injuries can be “sneaky” and are not always obvious right away. After any injury to the head, visiting the doctor is a good precautionary measure to take to ensure no actual TBIs or long lasting effects occur.

Exposure to environmental toxins.

Exposure to environmental toxins such as heavy metals, pesticides, and air pollution can contribute to neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and damage to brain cells, increasing the risk of cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases over time.

An example of this phenomenon in history includes lead paint exposure. For hundreds of years, lead was used in paint manufacturing, but the negative effects of it weren’t fully understood until many years later.

Many homes and buildings were painted with lead-based paints, and as these paints eventually wore down over time, they disintegrated into tiny particles which were then inadvertently ingested or inhaled into the body. Over time, the lead in these tiny particles resulted in lead poisoning, which is directly related to cognitive decline.

Having an untreated mental health disorder.

Mental health disorders like depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia can negatively impact brain structure and function if they are left untreated for long periods of time. Proper diagnosis and treatment are essential for maintaining good brain health and overall well-being for folks dealing with these conditions.

The longer a person endures the negative impacts of an untreated mental health disorder, the more at-risk they become with respect to sustaining permanent negative brain health impacts.

Having specific genetic factors run in your family.

Genetic predispositions and family history can influence susceptibility to brain-related disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease. It is common to see conditions like these run in families, with the conditions popping up in different branches of family trees.

However, lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, and social engagement can help mitigate genetic risks and promote brain health. For example, a person with a family history of Alzheimer’s disease may be predisposed to the condition, but by taking proactive steps to take good care of their brain health, they can slow (or even stop) the disease from forming within themselves.

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If you enjoyed this content, check out my Substack Newsletter about Your Brain On Stress at: https://theunreliablemind.substack.com/p/your-brain-on-stress