Stress is harmful for mental and physical health most of us know this but a fact, hurled by a new study depicts it somewhat more horrifically.
According to researchers, severe stress is enough to kill off new nerve cells in the brain, affecting an important part of the brain called, hippocampus, an area of the brain that processes learning, memory and emotion. Researchers believe that this very condition may increase a person’s vulnerability to depression, which is fast becoming a common problem these days.
To monitor the affect of stress, researchers tracked some mice and found that in young rats, the stress of encountering aggressive, older rats didn’t stop the generation of new nerve cells in the hippocampus but it certainly prevented these new cells from surviving. This shows that how stress affects mental health negatively.
However, the interesting thing of the study is that researchers are very enthusiastic about these findings, since they believe that this finding may help them digging out concrete solutions to fight mental disorders like depression, dementia, etc.
Via: Earth Times
