There are plenty of recommended habits we have to intentionally work at to increase brain function, but there is one major natural habit that very quickly and powerfully decreases cognitive abilities. Everyone experiences stress, and while some stressors can be a “good” form of stress (because they act as motivators), harmful stress can cause a chain reaction of terrifying damage to the brain.
When we overload our capacity (otherwise known as burnout), or even come close, our adrenal glands suffer. The adrenal glands are responsible for releasing hormones that help us respond to stress. Our “fight or flight” instinct and our abilities to assess problematic situations come from these hormones. In other words, having acute stressful moments is something we can handle “just fine” because the adrenal glands are there to help us, but constantly facing stress means the adrenal glands are also ceaselessly engaged with no opportunity for relief.
One of the most famous of these adrenal gland hormones is cortisol, the so-called “stress hormone” that can wreak havoc on our bodies. Cortisol is what’s responsible for the ring of fat around the belly (the stressed body thinks it needs to preserve fat cells, in case there is a disaster and the body has to go without food for an unknown period of time). Cortisol also turns the brain into a toxic wastedump, severely impairing brain function. The more we let stress rule our lives, the more we’re killing our brains and setting ourselves up for dementia.