Chronic Stress Can Destroy Your Brain

We’ve long known that chronic stress undermines our health. According to a new scientific review in Current Opinions in Psychiatry, chronic stress and anxiety increase your risk for developing depression and dementia. Yoga, long known for its stress reducing effects, may help to stop the cycle and its deleterious effects on the brain.

Scientists at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Health Sciences wanted to know whether anxiety damages the brain, and the potential mechanisms for stress- and anxiety-related brain change. To that end they reviewed current research on stress and fear conditioning in animals, and neuroimaging studies of anxiety and stress in healthy and clinical populations.

The review focused specifically on the neurocircuitry and brain structures most impacted by exposure to chronic stress. These include the amygdala, which plays a key role in emotional processing, the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which is associated with cognitive appraisal and emotion regulation, and the hippocampus, which governs long-term memory and spatial navigation.

They found consistent evidence of increased amygdalar activation and reduced PFC function in those experiencing chronically high levels of stress and anxiety. This pattern reflects a tendency toward greater anxiety and negative affect due to a reduced capacity to regulate mood. Such stress-induced structural changes in the brain may also increase the risk for the development of psychological disorders and dementia.

Although stress and anxiety are both normative responses to life challenges, chronic stress is not. It can undermine functioning across a variety of domains including work and relationships. This is due, in part, to persistent sympathetic nervous system (SNS) functioning, which undermines cardiovascular, immune and metabolic systems and contributes to the atrophy of the hippocampus.

Although this picture may seem bleak, the authors concluded that anti-depressant treatments, psychotherapy and exercise may stimulate the growth of new hippocampal cells, suggesting that, under the right conditions, the brain may be able to repair itself.

In an interview with ScienceDaily, the study’s first author, Dr. Mah, stated that it is important to examine whether interventions including mindfulness training, exercise and cognitive-behavioral therapy can both reduce stress and decrease the risk for developing neuropsychiatric disorders.

Yoga & Mindfulness Can Reduce Stress and Improve Mood

Indeed, a new systematic review of random controlled trials on the effects of yoga on stress and mood suggests just that. The review, published in Journal of Psychiatric Research, examined 25 randomized controlled trials in which the effects of yoga on sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and hypothalamic pituitary access (HPA) parameters including heart rate, blood pressure, cortisol, in addition to structural and functional assessment of brain regions associated with self-regulation were investigated.

On the whole, these studies provide preliminary evidence that regular yoga practices is associated with better SNS and HPA regulation in addition to lessening symptoms of depression and anxiety.

These findings suggest that yoga may be an effective antidote to chronic stress, and potentially one avenue leading to neurogenesis of hippocampal cells and attenuated cognitive decline or possibly even modest recovery. This is encouraging news for the chronically stressed among us.

Dr. B Grace Bullock is a psychologist, research scientist, author of The 7 Essential Skills: Powerful, Practical Tools to Transform Your Relationships, and yoga and mindfulness expert. Her mission is to reduce stress, increase health and wellbeing and improve the quality of relationships. She offers coaching, workshops and courses as well as writing and research using the latest findings from applied neuroscience, psychophysiology, psychology and contemplative science. Through understanding how our minds, brains and bodies process stress and using simple and effective mindfulness tools, she works with clients to diffuse stress and increase awareness, attention, compassion, effective communication and loving kindness and improve their relationships and their world. For more information see www.bgracebullock.com.