01 smoking
When it comes to the harm of smoking, people will think of serious diseases such as lung cancer and heart disease. In fact, smoking is also very harmful to the brain. The brain needs a lot of oxygen, and the oxygen inhaled when smoking is reduced, which itself is not good for the brain, and at the same time, the large amount of toxic substances inhaled into the body will further poison the brain.
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In addition, smoking can make people feel delusional. Some people think that smoking can refresh the mind. This is because nicotine in tobacco is a stimulant, which will make people feel excited. After a long time, it will also make people feel happy and form a cigarette addiction. . The price a smoker pays for this little pleasure is enormous.
Previously, the magnetic resonance imaging team of the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a study on smokers with a “smoking age” of more than 25 years [1]. The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging technology to scan the brains of these “old smokers” and found that after so many years of tobacco influence, the brains of these “old smokers” have long been abnormal, and the parts connecting the left and right hemispheres have different degrees. structural changes.
At the same time, the global efficiency of the neural network in the brain decreases, and the local efficiency increases. What does it mean? Different regions of the brains of non-smokers are richly connected, forming an efficient network. However, if you smoke for a long time, this kind of network connection is reduced and the efficiency is also reduced, and only a few areas of the connection do not drop but rise. And this is an abnormal phenomenon. These are the effects of long-term smoking on brain structure and function.
Brain neural network comparison, the blue part is the area where non-smokers are better than heavy smokers, and the red part is the area where heavy smokers are better than non-smokers. It can be seen that in addition to the visual area, the neural network efficiency of the non-smokers is better than that of the heavy smokers. Image source: Reference [1].
Scientists also found that brain damage is related to smoking age, and the longer you smoke, the more serious the damage. As for quitting smoking, it is never too late. If you have the habit of smoking, it is better to let this habit end today.
02 drinking
The second bad habit that damages the brain is drinking alcohol. Alcohol not only damages internal organs such as the liver, but also affects the brain, causing memory loss and unresponsiveness [2].
Some people think that drinking a little wine will not harm the body, and some people say that scientists have also said that a glass of wine a day is good for the body. Sadly, the latest research refutes these claims.
Scientists in the UK have just published a preprint of a paper [3] that found that the volume of gray matter in the brains of people who drink alcohol shrank. The gray matter is the area of the brain where neuronal cell bodies are concentrated, and the shrinkage of this area indicates that the brain has been injured.
Changes in brain regions in drinkers. Image source: Reference [3].
Scientists not only scanned the brains of drinkers, but also investigated their drinking habits, and found that the state of the brains of those who drank heavily over a long period of time, or those who drank only a little, compared with those who never drank. are worse.
Moreover, the state of brain damage has nothing to do with what kind of alcohol you usually drink. Whether it is beer, wine or spirits, it will damage the brain. That is to say, for drinking, there is no safe dose, let alone any healthy wine.
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Also, people who drink alcohol are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s.
Although scientists have not yet figured out the cause of Alzheimer’s disease, studies have found that people who drink for a long time are more likely to develop the disease. Alzheimer’s often develops later in life, which means that drinking too much when you’re young may only show the problem when you’re older.
To protect the brain, let’s stay away from alcohol.
03 lack of sleep
The third bad habit is lack of sleep. Today, staying up late to work overtime is the norm for many professionals. Students often have to stay up late to study, and many people like to watch short videos at night, and they also want to have as little relaxing time as possible.
Some people think that as long as the grades are good, staying up late before the exam is nothing. I also feel that as long as I can catch up on rest days, it is not a big problem to stay up all night occasionally. However, scientists have found that the habit of staying up late is really worth the loss.
Many people have the experience of driving at night to review before exams, and this approach is likely to be of little benefit to study.
Scientists conducted a controlled experiment [4]: let one group study hard, while the other group sleeps for a while between studies. It turned out that the group who took a nap between studies learned more than those who didn’t sleep.
This is because sleep is particularly important for consolidating people’s memories. It is during sleep that memories of various facts can be formed and consolidated. It can be said that if you learn to drive at night, if you don’t get it right, you will be driving backwards. You must allocate your time to your usual time, and don’t “cramp on your feet” temporarily.
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Scientists from Boston University published a paper in the journal Science [5]. They found that during sleep, the brain has to do an important job, which is to “clean up itself”.
We use the brain to produce various chemicals every day, and the accumulation in the brain will affect brain function, and when we sleep, the brain will activate a complex cleaning mechanism to prepare for the next day’s life and study. Staying up late and lack of sleep not only make you feel tired, but also interrupt the brain’s self-cleaning.
Maintain regular, adequate sleep, in order to protect the brain.
04 pressure
The life of modern people is full of various pressures, and it is also common to feel “high pressure” because of work and family.
Too much stress, or living in a stressful state for a long time, can also damage the brain. Many people know that when you study under too much pressure, you will not perform well in exams. Scientists have found that stress not only affects mood, hinders people’s normal cognitive ability, but also damages the brain.
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Scientists can’t directly stress ordinary people, so they used mice to observe the brain under stress.
Scientists at The Ohio State University conducted an experiment [6] in which they trained two groups of mice to walk a maze. One group was housed normally, while the other group was housed near aggressive rats. It is conceivable that although the mice in the second group were not really injured, they always lived under pressure.
After a while, the mice were tested again, and it turned out that the stressed mice couldn’t remember the maze moves. It can be seen that stress can affect memory formation in mice.
The scientists didn’t just look at the mice, they also examined the brains of the mice and found that the mice in the stressed group showed signs of inflammation. That’s because stress activates the animal’s immune system, and the hyperactive immune system begins to attack the brain, causing brain damage in the mice.
Even when the stressed mice were moved, the source of the stress was removed, and their brain damage did not go away immediately. Scientists point out that stress such as speaking on stage is short-term and may not cause brain damage. However, chronic stress can cause brain damage.
Smoking, drinking and going to bed late are bad habits that can be avoided by changing yourself, but it is not so easy to avoid chronic stress. Psychologists suggest that paying attention to rest, having one or two hobbies, facing up to your source of stress, and seeking help from people around you and psychologists when necessary can help relieve chronic stress.
In a word, to protect the brain, no special supplements are needed. Good living habits and a healthy psychological state are the panacea to protect the brain.
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