The brain to our body is what the Sun is to the solar system. Not only does it control and maintain important activities of our body but also ensures effective functioning of them. However, as creatures of bad habits, we tamper with our brain’s mechanism and build a rod for our own back.
Sleeping with a head cover
Sleeping with your head covered can also damage brain! Covering your head with a scarf or winter cap while sleeping deprives your brain of the requisite oxygen content as well as spikes the carbon dioxide levels, which is detrimental to the brain.
It goes without saying how cardinal your brain is to you and your body. It is what that separates us from animals and makes us ‘superior’ of all, only if we knew how we, through some of our activities and habits, are tarnishing it. As creatures of some of not-so-healthy and wise habits, we sabotage the efficacy and strength of our brain, which then reverberate on the overall processes of our body. The following mentioned are everyday habits that we engage in that can harm our brain.
Forgoing breakfast
Many of us don’t know the significance of breakfast. Not only does breakfast make an important meal of the day, it also has a significant impact on the activities that you undertake in a day. After hours of sleep, our brain is in need of essential nutrients to kick start its functioning. However, by skipping breakfast, we don’t just deny our brain of its essential fix of energy but also compel it to seek for high calorie and unhealthy food options.
Excess consumption of sugar
Our body takes liking to sugar like a duck to water. From its first taste, sugar hooks into our brain and makes it want to consume it in unduly amounts as it activates its reward centers. In addition to creating excessive addiction cycles, high sugar consumption is responsible for cognitive ailments, depression, memory impairment, etc.
Overeating
Those who hog out on unhealthy food expose themselves to the risk of heart failure, obesity, metabolism malfunctioning, mood swings, diabetes, and a host of other grave problems. Overeating, too has a similar effect on the brain as that of high sugar consumption. It releases dopamine, a feel-good hormone that gives a high to the brain. Overeating alters the biochemical constitution of the brain as well as creates craving cycles that wreak havoc on the brain and thus our body.
Smoking
The deleterious effects of smoking don’t just manifest on our lungs and heart but also our brain. Nicotine, in addition to causing the release of dopamine, also causes the cortex to thin. Thinning of the cortex is associated with memory impairment, anxiety, depression, and also increases the risk of Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia.
Working despite not feeling well
What most of us don’t realize when we work despite feeling unwell is that we are encumbering our already feeble brain. Even during sickness, our brain is actually working to throw the bacteria out of our body and regulating our immune system. So, by saddling it with extra work, not only are you damaging its efficiency but also changing its focus from restoring your health.
Depriving yourself of sleep
Sleep is cardinal to the functioning of our brain. It is during our deep sleep cycles that our brain initiates processes that help our body to purge toxins. Sleep deprivation also disrupts cellular regeneration as well as kills the brain cells, which can cause severe cognitive impairment as well as neurode generation in those who already suffer from disorders.
Not engaging in brain-stimulating activities
Our brain needs to be engaged in stimulating activities like thinking, writing, and talking, because that’s what it is MEANT FOR! Those of us who are not training their brains enough, it might just shrink, and that’s definitely what you would not want to happen to you.
Air pollution
The air we breathe is a toxic amalgam of gases and has little oxygen in it. However, oxygen is like a life-saving drug for our brain and so when we inhale the vitiated air, not only does it robs it from its imperative supply of oxygen but also damages it.