Cortisol

On World Health Day 2020, let’s discuss the stress response and the General Adaptation Syndrome (2/3)

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The hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis acts to release cor­ti­sol into the blood stream, as cor­ti­sol calls the body into action to com­bat stress. When high amounts of cor­ti­sol inter­act with the hypo­thal­a­mus, the HPA axis will slow down its activ­i­ty. The amyg­dala detects stress, while the pre­frontal cor­tex reg­u­lates our reac­tions to stress. Source: Bezdek K and Telz­er E (2017) Have No Fear, the Brain is Here! How Your Brain Responds to Stress. Front. Young Minds. 5:71. doi: 10.3389/frym.2017.00071

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[Editor’s note: Con­tin­ued from yes­ter­day’s Explor­ing the human brain and how it responds to stress (1/3)]

Stress was put on the map, so to speak, by a Hun­gar­i­an — born Cana­di­an endocri­nol­o­gist named Hans Hugo Bruno Selye (ZEL — yeh) in 1950, when he pre­sent­ed his research on rats at the annu­al con­ven­tion of the Amer­i­can Psy­cho­log­i­cal Asso­ci­a­tion. To explain the impact of stress, Selye pro­posed some­thing he called the Gen­er­al Adap­ta­tion Syn­drome (GAS), which he said had three com­po­nents. Accord­ing to Selye, when an organ­ism expe­ri­ences some nov­el or threat­en­ing stim­u­lus it responds with [Read more…] about On World Health Day 2020, let’s dis­cuss the stress response and the Gen­er­al Adap­ta­tion Syn­drome (2/3)

Study finds a key ingredient in mindfulness training: Acceptance (not acquiescence)

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Life can be stress­ful. Whether it’s the stress that comes with hav­ing too much work to do in too lit­tle time, ful­fill­ing care­giv­ing oblig­a­tions, or deal­ing with a major ill­ness or set­back, some­times it can be hard to cope.

In response to stress, many peo­ple today are turn­ing to med­i­ta­tion or mind­ful­ness apps (myself includ­ed). But not all mind­ful­ness prac­tice is equal­ly effec­tive for com­bat­ing stress [Read more…] about Study finds a key ingre­di­ent in mind­ful­ness train­ing: Accep­tance (not acquiescence)

Studies suggest we better train the mind as we train the body: with cross-training and in good company

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Dif­fer­ent med­i­ta­tion types train dis­tinct parts of your brain (New Scientist):

“We are used to hear­ing that med­i­ta­tion is good for the brain, but now it seems that not just any kind of med­i­ta­tion will do. Just like phys­i­cal exer­cise, the kind of improve­ments you get depends on exact­ly how you train – and most of us are doing it all wrong [Read more…] about Stud­ies sug­gest we bet­ter train the mind as we train the body: with cross-train­ing and in good company

What Everyone Should Know About Stress, Brain Health, and Dance

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-- Dancing to the clapping of bands. Egyptian, from the tomb of Ur-ari-en-Ptah, about 3300 B.C. (British Museum.)
– Danc­ing to the clap­ping of bands. Egypt­ian, from the tomb of Ur-ari-en-Ptah, 6th Dynasty, about 3300 B.C. (British Museum)

Every­one expe­ri­ences stress at some point in our lives. It is impor­tant to know that stress can harm the brain, and also that dance can be a great avenue for a per­son resist, reduce, or escape it.

Stress can change the phys­i­cal struc­ture and func­tion of the brain, affect­ing wiring and thus per­for­mance of one’s activ­i­ties. [Read more…] about What Every­one Should Know About Stress, Brain Health, and Dance

Towards a new brain fitness culture: The mainstreaming of mindfulness meditation

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mindfulnessThe main­stream­ing of mind­ful­ness med­i­ta­tion (The Week):

“Sci­en­tif­ic research has shown that mind­ful­ness appears to make peo­ple both hap­pi­er and health­i­er. Reg­u­lar med­i­ta­tion can low­er a per­son­’s blood pres­sure and [Read more…] about Towards a new brain fit­ness cul­ture: The main­stream­ing of mind­ful­ness meditation

Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress

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These days, we all live under con­sid­er­able stress — eco­nom­ic chal­lenges, job demands, fam­i­ly ten­sions, always-on tech­nol­o­gy and the 24-hour news cycle all con­tribute to cease­less wor­ry. While many have learned to sim­ply “live with it,” this ongo­ing stress can, unless prop­er­ly man­aged, have a [Read more…] about Six tips to build resilience and pre­vent brain-dam­ag­ing stress