7 Brain-Damaging Habits To Stop Immediately

It goes without saying that the brain is a very important organ in our body, if not the most important one. It’s one of our largest organs and it’s where all the action happens, it controls our every unconscious and conscious function, from breathing to walking and everything in between.

Aside from the vital bodily functions, the brain helps us achieve professional and private success, enables us to communicate, make connections with other people, tell a joke or engage in a relationship, it all happens thanks to our gray matter. But unfortunately, we don’t all do our best to keep our brain in mint condition, and there are some habits that damage its health beyond repair.

Below you’ll find 7 of the most brain-damaging habits we need to stop immediately if we want to protect our brain and help it operate optimally.

Sugar

Excessive amounts of sugar in our diet can have a detrimental effect on our overall health and lead to a number of health issues. But how can we help it when there’s sugar in every little thing we ingest, as much as we try to avoid it, it sneaks its way up to our belly unnoticed.

The brain feels these harmful effects the most and we suffer the consequences. It’s been scientifically proven that sugar binds to the opioid and dopamine receptors in our brain and creates an addiction much like heroin. Moreover, it has a potent inflammatory effect on our most important organ and wreaks havoc up there. Which is why you need to avoid sugar at all costs.


Sleep deprivation

Sleep is very important for our overall health but we still somehow neglect this important factor and tend to deprive ourselves of what we need the most. Getting the necessary amount of sleep will improve the hormonal balance in our body, speed up healing, strengthen your immunity and make us feel more energized overall. While a lack of sleep will bring about the opposite effect.

There have been numerous studies on the topic sleep deprivation and its effect on brain health and all the results point to the fact that it has a devastating effect on our mental health.  People who deprive themselves of sleep have a declined cognitive performance, reduced alertness, weaker memory and are more susceptible to anxiety and depression.

Working while under the weather

How often has it happened to go to work despite the fact that you’re feeling under the weather? Well, this habit is detrimental to our brain health and will only prolong your recovery time. When we’re sick we need to take a time out and allow our body and brain to rest, take it easy, nurture ourselves and simple relax, let our body heal from the illness. Going back to work will only make matters worse and you’ll even risk infecting your coworkers.

Smoking

Smoking is not just bad for your physical health, it’s quite detrimental for your brain health as well. The average smoker is unaware of the negative effects of smoking with regards to our brain but studies have shown that it not only affects prenatal brain development negatively but it creates a brain-controlled hormone imbalance. Some studies have shown that it even causes brain shrinkage in certain areas.

Skipping breakfast

Skipping breakfast may very well be one of the worst habits for your overall health and it has a very bad effect on our brain as well. When we wake up in the morning our sugar levels are low and when we skip breakfast they go even lower, which in turn starves your brain of all the vital nutrients it so desperately craves for and pushes it to emergency mode. This results in poor memory, impaired concentration and imbalanced emotions.

Sleeping on the stomach

It may be surprising to learn that sleeping on your stomach is actually health detrimental. Why? Well similarly to sleeping with your head stuffed under the pillow, when you sleep on your stomach you risk depleting your body of oxygen, which is quite detrimental for your brain and can have quite the negative effects on the long run. If your favorite sleeping pose is on the stomach, we believe it’s about time you switch things up.

Overeating

We’re all guilty of this one I believe, especially during the holiday season, when everything is simply delicious and at the reach of our hands, how can we resist? Well, if we want to protect our brain health we need to quit this bad habit ASAP. Eating too much causes the brain arteries to harden which reduces our mental capacity and impairs our mental abilities. Always eat in moderation and your brain should operate at optimal level.