5 Habits That Are Not Healthy For Your Brain

Our daily lifestyle has short and long term effects on our health especially when such lifestyles are unhealthy. The brain is an important organ of the body and unknowingly, some of us engage in habits that may actually be causing damage to the brain.

Eliminating most of these bad habits from our daily routine can help our brain and improve our health status.

Here are five things to avoid to prevent serious brain damage.

1. Cigarettes

Smoking is a bad habit doesn’t only lead to cancer and other health related issues but also affects the brain cells – negatively. Smoking cigarettes, cigars or a pipe robs the body, especially the blood cells of oxygen and essential nutrients the brain needs to thrive.

New research which suggests a direct link between smoking and brain damage was published in the Journal of Neurochemistry. It found that a compound in tobacco provokes white blood cells in the central nervous system to attack healthy cells, leading to severe brain damage.

In addition, in the long run, smoking can shrink the brain tissue leading to senile dementia. It can also cause hardening of the blood vessels connected to the brain.

2. Sleep deprivation

Many people are guilty of this habit – depriving oneself of a good night sleep. Sleeping allows the brain to rest and relieve fatigue. A study published in the Neuroscience journals indicated that short-term sleep restriction prevents the balanced growth and depletion of brain synapses, which are the connections between nerve cells where communication occurs.

3. Skipping breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Skipping the first meal of the day not only means eating more at lunch, but also increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular illness (such as hypertension and heart attack) as well as brain damage according to a study presented at the American Heart Association (AHA)’s annual conference back in 2003.

Without breakfast, there is a lowering of the blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

4. Head covered while sleeping

Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide while decreasing the concentration of oxygen which may lead to brain damaging effect.

The lack of oxygen while asleep may be far more detrimental than when awake, possibly because the normal compensatory mechanisms don’t work quite as well as when you are asleep.

5. Inadequate intake of water

Dehydration can be a negative factor in nearly every disease and condition. Dehydration also kills brain cells. The human brain is mostly made up of water. Without water, brain cells cannot function. They shut down and die (just like depriving a plant of water – it whittles and dies off). So, in preventing loss of brain cells, drink water instead of soft drinks or energy drinks to prevent dehydration.