Manic Monday- The Why's of Exhaustion and Brain Damage!

I'm wondering today...can exhaustion build up in your body??

Do we on a daily basis build levee systems to prevent it from seeping out or busting through and then once it does it floods your system?  

Does our own stress hormones that flood our system with fight or flight chemicals stay in our system until our guard has let down?

I have to know the process.  People have told me to reduce stress to help weight loss, increase memory, energy and overall health.  Why?  How does it all connect?  Where's the emergency brake to stop the stress? Here are some of my attempts at understanding what stress does to my brain and my body.  

This is one website that I found. http://www.youramazingbrain.org.uk/brainchanges/stressbrain.htm


Our brain perceives a threat and it sends immediate nerve signals down to the adrenal glands. 

"Once released, adrenaline increases the amount of sugar in your blood, increases your heart rate and raises your blood pressure (and has many other actions)."

Then the hypothalamus tells another part of the brain to release a stress hormone-cortisol.  

"Cortisol is very important in your stress response - keeping your blood sugar and blood pressure up to help you escape from danger."

According to many sources, extended periods of cortisol in babies, children and adults kills brain cells.

"Cortisol has been shown to damage and kill cells in the hippocampus (the brain area responsible for your episodic memory) and there is robust evidence that chronic stress causes premature brain aging."

Basically cortisol excites the brain to death. "The cortisol released in stress travels into the brain and binds to the receptors inside many neurons..."

New brain cells are made at amazing rates during early childhood but the adult does make new ones.  Joe Herbert's lab in Cambridge has showed that cortisol dramatically decreases the rate new brain cells are made.

Some of my research shows that chronic stress leads to depression, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, sleep loss and much more.

In fact the longer that “The longer your stress responses are activated, the harder it is to shut them off,” says Bell, “Chronic stress causes significant disruptions to the normal functioning of the body and mind, and we simply aren’t built to sustain these effects.”

http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=3215

All of these racing hormones wears us out.  Wears out our brain and our bodies.  More importantly it wears down our families.

I guess the point is that we need to have a discussion about the affects of stress on our children, our health, our families and our world.  Please join the discussion and share your thoughts!!!!