As we age, our brain gets smaller. From the age of 60, it loses 0.5 percent of its mass every year. What does the loss of brain substance mean for us? Our cognitive performance deteriorates. In other words, we become more forgetful and have trouble concentrating. It’s not just the obviously unhealthy things like alcohol and drug use that damage or kill our brain cells. Even supposedly “everyday” and underestimated habits can shrink our brain and accordingly increase the risk of dementia.
Which shrinks your brain
1. Stress
Prolonged stress can have a negative impact on your brain performance. Why? The neural network gets out of balance and can cause changes in the brain structure. The consequences? The hippocampus, our brain’s memory center, and the prefrontal cortex, our information center, can shrink. As a result, over the long term, we can become more forgetful and have trouble learning new things.
2. Too little exercise
Regular physical activity is unhealthy – also for our brain. The hippocampus in particular suffers when we don’t exercise. A lack of exercise also contributes to the fact that the blood flow to the brain deteriorates, which can lead to reduced performance. The good news: It’s never too late to exercise. Our cerebral cortex, which requires a relatively large amount of oxygen, also benefits in old age. Movement also creates new connections in the brain.
3. Junk food
French fries, pizza and the like not only make you fat, they also impair our brain. How researcher from New York found that the reward and appetite centers in the brain of obese people who eat unhealthy food are smaller. In addition, the inflammation levels in the nervous system are increased, which also damages our thinking center. And: The contained trans fats, which are found in abundance in junk food, increase your cholesterol level and thus the risk of a stroke.
4. Regular smoking
Anyone who smokes cigarettes regularly risks a variety of health problems such as cancer or cardiovascular diseases. Smoking also changes the brain and it can lose volume. As a previous study by researchers at the Berlin Charité, a certain region of the cerebral cortex is thinner in smokers than in non-smokers. This region is responsible for reward, impulse control, and decision making.