The question then was, "Do you get PTSD because you have a small hippocampus?" Or is a small hippocampus the result of stress?
The debate about which one comes first has been in the scientific community for some time. However, Designer Brain Blog wrote last year that stress can literally shrink and destroy your hippocampus--the brain region associated with memory and a study published in Science Direct supports this as they reported that loss of gray matter, "represents an acquired sign of PTSD consistent with stress-induced loss." The so-called neurotoxicity hypothesis also supports this view when it said that, "stress precedes volume reductions in the hippocampus in PTSD."
Robert Sapolsky at Stanford University suggests that stress may cause the death of neurons, Bruce McEwen at Rockefeller University said that stress can shrink neurons or lose their interconnectivity within the brain's network.
Stress is a normal survival instinct.
Compared to a relaxed state, stress can be good in the sense that it could pump up adrenaline to make you react with more power for a quick burst of energy for survival reasons, it could heighten memory functions, helps in immunity, less sensitivity to pain, etc..
The kind of stress that we should try to avoid is chronic type. Cortisol, the same hormone that is secreted by the adrenal glands to give you that "useful" kind of stress becomes your enemy when it floods your body and brain due to chronic stress.
Among the many negative effects of prolonged high levels of cortisol in the blood stream, About.com places "impaired cognitive performance" first on the list - why, it shrinks your brain.
It becomes very important then that relaxation should be given a higher level of importance and priority in one's day-to-day health practices. Meditation, proper diet, exercise, enough sleep, and many other expert-recommended health and relaxation regimens should be a part of everyone's daily routine.
Among the many measures at fighting stress, meditation may be the one that gives the most immediate and more lasting result. However, self-guided meditation is not as easy as it sounds-it could take years of commitment, discipline and constant practice to truly master the techniques. Fortunately, iMusic Zen Meditate could help with the learning currve. For more info, click here.
