8 Things That Are Causing Damage To Your Brain

Brain is a major organ of our body that regulates our nervous system and also controls various important functions of the body, one of them being secretion of hormones. It ensures effective functioning of major organs in the body. Most of us take efforts in keeping our physical health in great condition, but instead of endeavouring to augment our brain’s health, we have unintentionally developed such habits that has been deteriorating our brain’s mechanism.

Humans have been gifted with great intellectual power and cognitive skills that distinguish us from other creations of God. Over the time, as we are advancing, we have become less inclined towards maintaining overall health. As we are getting busier than ever, we have ignored caring for improving the efficiency and strength of our brain, which in turn, is adversely impacting other processes within our body.

Did you know that covering your head with scarf or winter caps while sleeping can affect the blood flow and eventually supply of oxygen to the brain! In fact, medical studies have also proven that it can even shoot up the carbon dioxide levels that cause serious damage to brain in the long run.

While following your routine, there are these 8 things that are causing damage to your brain of which you are not much aware about:

1. Excessive Consumption Of Sugar

Most people have a sweet tooth and as per medical studies, as we consume sugar, our body asks more of it. As we take the first bite or sip of anything that comprises sugar, our brain gets stimulated to demand more of it. Many times, we tend to consume more of sugary stuff by convincing ourselves that we deserve such treats occasionally. But such high amounts of sugar can be disastrous for our brain’s health and we become highly susceptible to suffer from cognitive ailments, memory loss, depression, low attentiveness, etc.

2. Skipping Breakfast

The hectic schedule and waking up late in the morning leaves less scope for having breakfast peacefully. Many people in fact, perceive that breakfast is an unnecessary meal. But the truth is that, breakfast is the most important meal of the day as we feed our body with essential nutrients such as fibre, protein and carbohydrates after a gap of around 10 long hours. Our brain needs these energy boosting nutrients in the morning to regain its wellness and to work with efficacy for entire day. By skipping this power-packed meal, we however, tend to eat a lofty lunch by incorporating more calories to compensate for the forgone meal.

3. Smoking

Smoking is not only injurious to our heart and lungs, but has several retrogressive effects on our brain. The nicotine content in cigarettes releases dopamine hormone, which is a feel-good hormone that gives the brain a kick of energy. This also causes thinning of cortex, which can lead to ailments like anxiety, depression, memory impairment while increasing chances of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and Schizophrenia.

4. Working During Illness

This is what most of us do. Instead of giving rest to a body that is tired of fighting disease, we utilise the decreased amount of energy in forcing the body and brain to work. Even when we are unwell, our brain is working hard to eliminate the sickness causing bacteria out of the body by making use of the less energy that our body has. Brain helps in regulating our immune system and by indulging in extra work, we are actually slowing down the process of healing, thereby reducing the efficiency level of our brain, making it weak and exhausted.

5. Sleep Insufficiently

Sleep is brain’s only source of revitalising and repairing itself. Medical experts recommend 8 to 10 hours of sound sleep each night for a complete brain and body rejuvenation. It is sleep during which our brain initiates the process of removal of toxins from the body. If you become sleep deprived, then this can affect the cellular regeneration and can even kill brain cells causing critical cognitive functioning issues and even neuro-degeneration in some people.

Recommended: Diseases You Can Avoid By Sleeping More

6. Overeating

People who are big foodies and cannot resist their temptation when they see their favourite but high calorie and unhealthy delicacies in front of them, are at a higher risk of suffering from heart ailments, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, mood swings, metabolism disorder, etc. Similar to high sugar consumption, overeating too has grave impacts on brain’s effective functioning. Eating more than required releases dopamine hormone. But this alters the biochemical constitution of the brain and develops the food craving habit, which can deteriorate the body’s and brain’s health badly.

7. Indulging Less In Activities That Improve Brain’s Health

Like our body needs to be active in order to be healthy, even our brain needs some stress busting exercises to keep it in great health. To improve our brain’s health, we must perform more activities like thinking, reading, writing and talking. These activities train our brain to effectively store information while reducing the stress levels.

8. Inhaling Polluted Air

We breathe air that has mixed portions of various gases with oxygen being a meagre part of it. Oxygen is not only essential for our effectively carrying out our body’s internal processes, but also is a fuel for our brain. When we inhale polluted air, our brain becomes deprived of oxygen and this leads to perennial damages too. However, protecting yourself from polluted air in this era is hardly possible.