We all know that stress can cause physical ailments like headaches, ulcers, chest pain and decreased appetite, to name a few. But too much stress can also potentially lead to changes in the brain.
Yonghua “Michael” Zhang, MD, is a double board-certified neurologist with Endeavor Health Neurosciences Institute specializing in headache medicine. He has offices in Naperville and Plainfield.
Dr. Zhang said he chose to specialize in headache medicine because migraines run in his family. “I was always fascinated by the brain,” he said.
While we all know stress hurts the body. It can hurt the brain, too.
“It’s going to cause more anxiety. When you have stress, it does cause a higher risk for mood disorders such as anxiety, depression and other mental disorders,” he said.
“Besides that, it could affect your performance. When you experience stress, you’re not always organized. You tend to be forgetful. Not only does stress increase the risk of mental conditions, but also it affects your overall daily performance.
“More interestingly, there is evidence that shows that prolonged stress can cause brain structure changes,” Dr. Zhang said. “It could affect the structure called the hippocampus. It is a structure in the brain that’s important for our memory processing. There is also evidence showing that it may affect the prefrontal cortex, which is important for our executive function. That explains why people in stress cannot perform well, they cannot remember well.”
The good news is that not all stress is bad, Dr. Zhang said. Sometimes a little stress actually makes you perform better, he said.
“Some stress is actually good for you because it puts you in fight-or-flight mode and you might perform better.” But constant, chronic stress isn’t good for your body or brain and it’s important to recognize the difference so you can prepare yourself and cope with it, he said.
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