Chronic Fatigue Syndrome affects over 1 million Americans. Frequent symptoms include trouble concentrating, poor memory, and of course lack of energy.

The largest study to date on the syndrome was recently released, and interestingly reveals that people who suffer from it tend to have very high levels of physical and/or psychological stress in their lives (April 2006 Pharmacogenomics).

So excessive stress basically sucks your mental energy away, and impairs your memory and ability to concentrate.

By what mechanism does this happen?

Stress causes the hormone cortisol to flood into your body. Cortisol has potent effects on almost every organ system, and when present in excess, disrupts your immune system, cardiovascular system, digestive system, as well as your brain. Earlier we discussed what stress does to the hippocampus- just one, specific, but very important area of the brain. But there are other areas that also get injured.

Here’s a nice overview on how stress biochemically injures your organs (Mayo Clinic webpage).

A significant amount of research over the past several years indicates that stress also plays a major role in:

• Diabetes
• Atherosclerosis (which leads to heart attacks and strokes)
• Cancer

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