September 8th, 2009 → 2:42 am @ andre // No Comments
Imagine a day when you’re under a ton of stress. Kids screaming. Your boss yelling. Projects pile up on your table. Bills stack up in your mailbox. And a million additional little problems bugging for your attention.
Is it probable what your brain will function optimally? Not likely.
According to Sharp Brains, the four pillars of healthy brain functions are nutrition, exercise, brain exercises and stress management. In this blog post, I’m going to concentrate on just one, the one I believe to be one of the biggest culprit of early mental decline: Stress.
A healthy amount of stress is, of course, crucial to a healthy psyche. But when you’re over your healthy limit, your brain releases cortisol, a chemical known as cortisol. Cortisol increases your heart rate and raises blood pressure. You become increasingly alert… at least for the moment.
This is, of course, a crucial system to keep the human race alive. When you’re faced with a saber-tooth tiger, you want yourself to be literally on your toes, ready to fight or run. Cortisol saves lives.
But in the long run, cortisol kills brain cells. It literally excites brain cells to death. Several studies have also shown cortisol to damage the part of your brain called the hippocampus, which is believed to be where short-term memory are converted into long term ones. It can be inferred, therefore, that stress reduces memory – a correlation that has been repeated in several studies.
And it’s not just your memory that suffers. The part of your brain that regulates stress is called the limbic system (the part of the brain that separates us mammals from reptiles). It’s also the part of the brain that controls emotion, bonding (relationships) and cooperation. According to Dr Daniel G. Amen, author of “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life“, over-activity of your limbic system can lead to paranoia and depression… among many other side-effects.
Stress literally kills.
There are many ways to reduce stress. Studies have shown meditation, yoga, deep breathing and even prayer to be excellent alternative. But if you don’t believe in these “new-age” stuff, then listen up: Simply listening music works as well. Caveat: Not all music will work though.
By exposing subjects to loud music such as the various genres of rock, neuroscientists found decreased concentration, memory and even intelligence (I was skeptical of the results at first because I was a rock fan). One of the reasons is perhaps of the irregular rhythm of such music. Neuroscientists theorized that irregular rhythms that do not correlates with the brain’s rhytms is essentially noise of the brain. Background noise (such as those of refrigerator, air-conditioner and even computers), has been shown to have the same effect on the developing minds of toddlers.
Classical symphonies, on the other hand, have the opposite effect. A Standford University study found that subjects exposed to baroque music enhances the ability to anticipate events and sustain attention. MABT conducted a similar study and found that children who are exposed to baroque music did better in standard tests against those who weren’t exposed. Numerous studies have since been done on the effect of classical music on the brain and the conclusion is clear: It’s beneficial for everything from intelligence (also called the Mozart Effect) to ADD (attention deficit disorder) to happiness and of course, stress.
So the next time you feel like you’re going to explode, close your eyes and listen to some Mozart. He is great for your brain fitness.
Tags: brain and music, brain fitness
