Last year I posted about the powerfully negative effects chronic stress has on your memory and brain. Now, a new study [Reference below] published in the June 12, 2007 journal of Neurology provides further evidence this is true by showing:

People who are chronically distressed are 40 percent more likely to develop Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) - a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia syndromes.

These findings are consistent with dozens of earlier studies showing stress damages the hippocampus- the memory engine of the brain.

A related post relates how stress is sticky, and where in the brain it settles.

[Reference]: Chronic distress and incidence of mild cognitive impairment. R. S. Wilson, J. A. Schneider, P. A. Boyle, S. E. Arnold, Y. Tang, and D. A. Bennett. Neurology 2007 68: 2085-2092

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[click on image above to jump to journal article detailing brain-heart interactions]

According to a just released report in Japan by the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Labor, nearly 150 people lost their lives in 2006 to Karoshi.

Karoshi is a Japanese term for "death from overwork".

Back in the 1980s, when several high-ranking business executives who were still in their prime years suddenly died without any previous sign of illness, the media began picking up on what appeared to be a new phenomenon. This new phenomenon was quickly labeled kar?shi. [Wikipedia]

According to this article:

Because of peer pressure to keep up with co-workers, out-do competing groups and increase market-share at the expense of competitors, hundreds of thousand of Japanese managers are caught up in a vortex of psychological pressure that forces them to work at a frenzied pace.

Is this possible? Can you suddenly die from overworking? Absolutely. Severe stress can in fact trigger cardiac arrhythmias, heart attacks, and strokes. Over the years, many of the younger stroke patients I’ve consulted on in the hospital give a history of severe stress in the days leading up the stroke.

In the last decade we’ve learned that strong emotions and stress activate specific brain regions which in turn directly influence cardiac rate and rhythm via the autonomic nervous system. A very nice review of this topic (full text & free PDF) can be found here. It’s entitled: Brain-Heart Interactions. The neurocardiology of arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. A diagram from the article illustrating the anatomic brain-heart connections is shown above.

We therefore have a mechanism by which ethereal emotions can have a concrete, injurious effect on heart tissue.

Unfortunately, as this world gets increasingly competitive, more and more people are getting desperate and having to work harder and harder to achieve success. Thus we have up to 25% of college students using stimulants, and are starting to see the 70-hour work week become the new standard.

Reference for above Brain-Heart article: Tex Heart Inst J. 1993; 20(3): 158–169.

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A study conducted by researchers out of Stanford University Medical Center in California indicates that children who are exposed to severe stress (i.e., physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, witnessing violence or experiencing lasting separation and loss) are more likely to have a shrunken hippocampus.

As pointed out in previous posts, the hippocampus is the “memory engine” of the brain. A weak hippocampus means poor memory ability.

Study author Victor Carrion, MD notes: “Although everyday levels of stress are necessary to stimulate normal brain development, excess levels can be harmful”.

As far as the underlying pathophysiology, the authors further discuss how severe stress increases blood cortisol levels. Cortisol is a glucocorticoid type hormone, and many studies in the past have shown how cortisol is neurotoxic to hippocampal brain cells.

An earlier post also details how Perception of Control determines the extent to which stress is toxic to your brain and body. Children, unfortunately, are much less likely to feel they’re in control of situations. Joe Herbet, professor of neuroscience at Cambridge University notes:

There is increasing evidence that adversity in early life can have long-lasting results on subsequent mental and physical health

Although I probably wouldn’t recommend this for your kids, if you have a few minutes to spare, the Interactive Buddy is a great stress reducer.

[Reference for Stanford research on stress and the pediatric brain: PEDIATRICS Vol. 119 No. 3 March 2007, pp. 509-516]

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