Admit it. Some of your activities and habits, though you enjoy them, causes more damage than good to your health. You know this, yet you still do it. Whether you play ignorant or you simply just don’t know is not an excuse for it will collect the dues later on in your adult life. Notice how Alzheimer’s disease is getting a higher percentage occurrence? It is because we continually do what we do eventhough we are made aware of its consequences. The key to a more satisfying and quality old age life is prevention and being ready. Here are some of our habits and how we can do away with their end-results.
Does skipping breakfast harm your brain?
In the morning, we usually wake up until the alarm clock signals its last programmed attempt to wake us up. As a result, we hurry to do our thing in the bathroom. We don’t forget to iron our clothes and put on our best office attire, but though reminded, we forsake breakfast. When we do this, we ran outside with a lower blood sugar level leading to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain thereby causing brain degeneration. Notice how after long periods of work that we did not have our breakfast, when suddenly we stand up, the room seems to spin? Our brain cells are hungry and we have just spent the remaining stores of energy it has in our desire to start and finish our work.
To prevent this, you can store some soda crackers in your office drawer and do not forget to munch on them. A pack of M&M’s sometimes do the trick. As long as its sugar, it helps the brain to at least wait til your lunch break.
The boss just called you and in celebration ordered fat-laden, MSG decorated fast food. You’re so delighted that you forget you’re in your mid 30′s or going to forties. Simply put, you are at risk for developing cholesterol plaques within the blood vessel walls. This later on causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power due to the decreased blood supply. Coupled with smoking, nicotine further constricts the blood vessels adding up to the already decreased blood supply to the brain additionally causing the brain to shrink bit by bit leading to Alzheimer’s disease. Prevention? I cannot tell you not to celebrate or dine with the boss. But the axiom, “everything in moderation” should be your guiding light. As to smoking, the right attitude in wanting to quit will help you win the battle against smoking. As the old saying goes, “if there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Though sugar helps combat the nagging headache or the groaning of your stomach, high sugar intake may later on pose as a problem. When the pancreas cannot synthesize your sugar intake with insulin production, the brain signals the islets of langerhans located in this organ to produce more insulin because the sugar that should be converted for the brain’s utilization is wasted into the urine. When the pancreas continually produces insulin but ineffectively process the sugar, the brain does not respond to your intake and this causes more damage to the pancreas. Brain does not develop optimally, especially in children with this condition. Further causing interruption in protein and nutrient absorption.
Coupled with smoking, nicotine further constricts the blood vessels adding up to the already decreased blood supply to the brain additionally causing the brain to shrink bit by bit leading to Alzheimer’s disease.
Since the brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body, we inhale readily from the environment. But due to the increasing developments in technology, our environment has also been filled with all kinds of pollutants, making the oxygen in the air much more contaminated. Ever notice that when you pick your nose, it is always darker than your skin? It is never lighter in color unless you have a cold. Continously inhaling the contaminants in the environment, especially carbon monoxide emitted by the car turbines limits the development of the brain. What you can do is cover your nose as you travel with such environments or better yet, be in your own car with a better conditioning system at that.
We cannot help but spend much more time when we need to study for an examination tomorrow or prepare the presentation for our investors the next day. But this should not be your agenda as when you lack sleep, the brain also lacks rest. The next day, you will again be submitting the brain cells to stress thereby contributing to some of the brain cells’ death. Lest this sleep deprivation is long term, you just accelerated the death of your brain cells. Need I say more? Go and sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzz…..
Photo by Tom Purves
