Does brain health suffer during stressful economic times? How?
Generally speaking, stress does affect your cognitive capacity and ability. Memory performance decrease, it can become increasingly difficult to difficult to focus, etc.. In fact, when you are stressed out, a number of intrusive thoughts affects your working memory performance, and therefore, your ability to concentrate on even small things. The good news is that unlike the downward trend caused by neurodegenerative diseases, this is reversible as soon as the situation is back to normal. Taking proactive steps to manage areas where you have control is important to managing stress that can effect your brain health.
Will a fit brain guard against all the doom and gloom out there?
Yes. A fit brain will be able to deal easily with the small troubles of daily life, by organizing the activities and planning actions. Being able to rely on one’s brain is one trouble less! It must be remembered that the cognition is linked to the brain’s emotional circuit; therefore it all depends on the way each individual reacts in face of doom and gloom. As Schopenhauer used to say in The World as Will and Representation ; “thus, being able to rely on a perfectly fit brain enables you to come to grips more easily with the various ups and downs that life throws at us.” In other words, even if you cannot change the world, you can change the way you look at it.
Sandrine Belier, Ph. D.