Sometimes you don’t understand what’s wrong: You feel tired, you can’t concentrate, you start to forget things; however, this occurs only in some cases for some reason. So, what are the habits that damage your brain?
For example, you experience situations like this when you wake up early or don’t eat until noon or when you have too much stress at work. The problem is that you forget to properly care for one of the most important parts of your body, your brain . Everything you do affects your body in some way. What’s more, certain activities prevent the normal functioning of your brain and even damage its structure.
Imagine doing these harmful activities for years every day. Can you guess what will happen? Your personal habits are killing your brain! But don’t worry, it’s not too late yet. Changing your lifestyle can guarantee the health of both your brain and your body. In this article, we’ll provide you with more information about brain-damaging habits.
Me And My Brain
Your brain is a highly complex and sensitive organ. It has a direct and indirect effect on all bodily processes. This organ regulates homeostatic functions such as heartbeat, fluid balance, blood pressure, hormonal balance and body temperature.
The brain is also responsible for movement, comprehension, learning, memory, emotions and thus all health. According to numerous scientific studies, lifestyle can damage brain cells in the short or long term.
Thus, it can lead to the development of degenerative diseases and other conditions. On the other hand, positive habits such as a balanced diet or regular exercise stimulate your brain and restore it to health. Therefore, let’s find out what habits harm the brain, without wasting time.
Habits That Harm the Brain
1. Not Eating Breakfast
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day as it visibly affects your performance, stamina and emotional state . During the first few hours of the day, the brain continues to allocate nutrients to continue to “manage” physiological processes after prolonged fasting .
If you don’t supply energy to the brain, it has to use up the reserves and it has to make an extra effort to do so. Not eating breakfast can generally lead to lack of energy, concentration and memory problems, bad mood, and poor physical and intellectual performance.
2. Smoking
Smoking, which is a terrible habit, is undoubtedly one of the habits that harm the brain. In addition to reducing the brain substance, smoking also reduces the oxygen supplied to the brain.
It has been proven that smoking causes neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, heterocyclic amines released during cigarette smoking affect the correct DNA reproduction and cause the emergence of mutations that form cancer cells.
3.Excessive Sugar Consumption
- The predominance of refined sugar, white flour, fried foods, and packaged foods in a diet, as well as a lack of enough vegetables, fruits and fiber in the diet, causes the accumulation of harmful substances in the body.
- This situation increases the development of tumors, impairs the functioning of the immune system, causes nutritional deficiency and affects neurological development.
4. Continuous Exposure To Polluted Environments
The brain needs a fixed amount of oxygen; however, other toxic substances can affect the transport and processing of oxygen and cause a decrease in the efficiency of the brain.
5. Not Getting Enough Sleep
You need 8 hours of sleep per night for your brain to rest, for metabolic processes to take place properly and to generate the necessary energy, as well as cellular regeneration .
Deprivation of sleep accelerates the death of brain cells in the short term and causes you to be tired and have a bad mood throughout the day.
6. Binge Eating
Consuming foods that the body does not need causes the accumulation of residual substances such as fat and hardening of the brain vessels; this prevents the brain from functioning properly.
7. Alcohol
Alcohol damages most organs, especially the nervous system, liver, and heart. Alcohol affects chemical reactions that take place in the brain. Alcoholism also kills neurons and decreases the conduction rate of nerve impulses.
8.Severe Reactions or Early Stress
Stress causes many reactions in the nervous system. Some of these reactions decrease mental capacity and also increase the risk of a stroke or heart attack.
9. Covering Your Head While Sleeping
Sleeping with your head covered increases the carbon dioxide concentration and reduces the amount of oxygen. This is among the habits that harm the brain.
10. Forcing the Brain During an Illness
Working hard when sick is harmful; because the body’s energy is diverted without healing. Forcing the brain in such situations can reduce the body’s efficiency and also further weaken the immune system . This can lead to many other diseases.
11. Insufficient Mental Stimulation and Exercise
There’s nothing like thinking, having smart conversations, reading a book or solving a puzzle to stimulate your brain. These improve learning capacity and memory and also regulate response times to stimuli.
A few last tips
Look at your brain by adopting a healthy lifestyle:
- Eat appropriately, include delicious fruits and vegetables in your diet that stimulate brain activity. It is also recommended to consume fish rich in omega 3 fatty acids; because these oils support communication between neurons.
- Drink 3 or 4 small cups of tea or coffee a day. This improves short and long term memory and reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.
- Exercise regularly.
- Avoid drugs, tobacco and alcohol.
- Get as much sleep as needed.
- Focus on positive thoughts.
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