Brain Shrinkage: What are the Causes of Brain Shrinkage?

Shrinkage?  Oh say it ain’t so!

Oh yes it is true! Your brain can actually shrink! Just as much as its functions can be boosted, it can actually shrink. Brain shrinkage is not an uncommon occurrence. It’s like a muscle – with constant exercise it will grow big and strong. Become lazy and the strength will wither away. And just because your brain functions feel normal every waking day does not necessarily mean external factors are not causing it to shrink. If you want to know the causes, read on below for my post Brain Shrinkage: What are the Causes of Brain Shrinkage?

Just let me give you a brainy background first…

Your brain is made up of gray and white matter. The bigger portion is the grey matter. Gray matter is where the bulk of the brain’s neurons are found. It also makes up a hefty percentage of the central nervous system. Although the white matter contains the essentials to boost the speed of the messages all over the brain, the grey matter is the key to processing the info once it’s passed along nerve fibers up until it touches its endpoint.

Ok moving on…

The first thing on the list of causes is habits, habits, habits! 90% of things in life are from habits. And what habits are associated with brain shrinkage? The bad ones of course! On top of the list is cigarette smoking and excessive alcohol drinking. We already know what cigarette smoking does to our lungs (first and foremost), beauty, and general health. But most of us are not aware that it is very much a culprit in brain shrinkage. As for drinking, heavy drinking will reduce your brain size. But an interesting fact I think you would not believe: light to moderate drinkers actually have bigger brain mass than non-drinkers!

The next cause of brain shrinkage is sleep: disruptions, short length, or lack thereof. Children have larger brain mass than adults because they get around 8-9 hours of sleep daily. When adults do not get 6-7 hours consistently, this can increase the size of the blood vessels, making the brain shrink.

Source: drcheimlich

Now comes the big one: Obesity. Yep, the size of your body can affect the size of your brain! Obesity makes you insulin resistant and gives you oxidative stress. Not only that, but the fat deposits caused by obesity yields vast volumes of inflammatory signaling molecules that may well add to brain volume loss and even brain cell death.

Now you have diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure. Similarly, the mechanisms from these diseases that trigger brain shrinkage are similar to that of obesity – especially if these 2 health conditions stem from being overweight.

Walnuts helps prevent Diabetes

Diabetes causes damage to the central nervous system which is mostly located in the gray matter of the brain. High blood pressure causes white matter change because of damage to blood vessels in the brain.

So there you have it! I hope I have enlightened you with my article Brain Shrinkage: What are the Causes of Brain Shrinkage? It helps to be aware of what to watch out for but it’s always better to act on preventing it.

Till next time,

Kellie