Here is ques­tion 16 of 25 from Brain Fit­ness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Ques­tions.

Ques­tion:
Are yoga and med­i­ta­tion good for my brain?

Key Points:

• Yoga, med­i­ta­tion, and visu­al­iza­tion are all excel­lent ways to learn to man­age your stress levels.
• Reduc­ing stress, and the stress hor­mones, in your sys­tem is crit­i­cal to your brain and over­all fitness.

Answer:
Yes. It’s clear that our soci­ety has changed faster than our genes. Instead of being faced with phys­i­cal, imme­di­ately life-threatening crises that demand instant action, these days we deal with events and ill­nesses that gnaw away at us slowly, with­out any stress release.

Dr. Robert Sapol­sky, in an inter­view about his book Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, points out that humans uniquely “can get stressed sim­ply with thought, turn­ing on the same stress response as does the zebra.” But, the zebra releases the stress hor­mones through life-preserving action, while we usu­ally just keep mud­dling along, get­ting more anx­ious by the moment.

Pro­longed expo­sure to the adrenal steroid hor­mones like cor­ti­sol, released dur­ing the stress response, can dam­age the brain and block the for­ma­tion of new neu­rons in the hip­pocam­pus, which is the key player in encod­ing new mem­o­ries in your brain. Recent stud­ies have shown these neu­rons can be regen­er­ated with learn­ing and envi­ron­men­tal stim­u­la­tion, but while short-term stress may improve atten­tion and mem­ory, chronic stress leads indi­rectly to cell death and ham­pers our abil­ity to make changes and be cre­ative enough to even think of pos­si­ble changes to reduce the stress.

What are the best defenses against chronic stress?

1. Exer­cise strength­ens the body and can reduce the expe­ri­ence of stress, depres­sion, and anxiety.
2. Relax­ation through med­i­ta­tion, tai chi, yoga, or other tech­niques to lower blood pres­sure, slow res­pi­ra­tion, slow metab­o­lism, and release mus­cle tension.
3. Biofeed­back pro­grams that pro­vide real-time infor­ma­tion, allow­ing you to learn effec­tive tech­niques for reduc­ing stress levels.
4. Empow­er­ment, because atti­tudes of per­sonal con­fi­dence and con­trol of your envi­ron­ment resolve the stress response.
5. Social net­work of friends, fam­ily, and even pets help fos­ter trust, sup­port, and relaxation.

Fur­ther Reading

• Bedard M, Fel­teau M, Maz­man­ian D, Fedyk K, Klein R, Richard­son J, Parkin­son W, Minthorn-Biggs MB. Pilot eval­u­a­tion of a mindfulness-based inter­ven­tion to improve qual­ity of life among indi­vid­u­als who sus­tained trau­matic brain injuries. Dis­abil Reha­bil. 2003;25:722–31.
• Brem­ner JD. Trau­matic stress: effects on the brain. Dia­logues Clin Neu­rosci. 2006;8:445–61.
• Czeh B, Muller-Keuker JI, Rygula R, Abu­maria N, Hiemke C, Domenici E, Fuchs E. Chronic Social Stress Inhibits Cell Pro­lif­er­a­tion in the Adult Medial Pre­frontal Cor­tex: Hemi­spheric Asym­me­try and Rever­sal by Flu­ox­e­tine Treat­ment. Neu­ropsy­chophar­ma­col­ogy. 2006 Dec 13; [Epub ahead of print].
• Warner-Schmidt JL, Duman RS. Hip­pocam­pal neu­ro­ge­n­e­sis: oppos­ing effects of stress and anti­de­pres­sant treat­ment. Hip­pocam­pus. 2006;16:239–49.
• Sapol­sky, RM. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers (Owl Books; 2004). ISBN: 0805073698
• Pub­li­ca­tions by Robert Sapolsky
• The Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Stress
• Is there such thing as GOOD stress?

Be Socia­ble, Share!

•