Bad Habits = Bad Memory

Studies are constantly appearing which have us worried about the habits we form in our daily lives. With Stay-at-Home guidelines, many women are slipping into habits that are not beneficial to their overall health. It may have to do with drinking too much, smoking, not getting enough sleep or too much stress. There’s always something that we should change to become healthier.

Those bad habits may also be instrumental in hindering your brain health – memory, in particular. Alzheimer’s disease is a constant concern among the aging baby boomer population and it’s now sixth in the cause of American deaths.

Although Alzheimer’s disease is mostly considered a disease of the elderly, bad habits that you develop early on can begin a domino effect which can harm your brain and make it easier to become affected by memory diseases. There are things you can do today to change these behavioral patterns.

Here are some habits which can greatly affect your memory and the health of your brain:

• Poor diet – A poor diet can take a toll on your brain as well as your body. You may not be able to see the effects on the brain as you can with the body, but the harm is happening in subtle ways such as difficulty in focusing, bad memory recall and cognitive functioning.
• Smoking – Everyone should know of the harm that smoking can cause to the brain, but smoking can also be a factor in the decline of memory between the ages of 40 and 50 years old.
• Lack of sleep – When you don’t get enough sleep at night, you may feel as if you’re in a fog during the day. If this condition becomes chronic, you run the risk of damaging the neural pathways of the brain which may affect memory recall.
• Lack of exercise – Your brain can mimic the body when you don’t exercise enough. The hippocampus portion of the brain which is responsible for memory storage may become sluggish and your cognitive and recall brain functions may be impaired without the proper amount of exercise.
• Alcohol and drug use – Some people may have conditions that require prescription drugs for treatment, but overuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs can greatly impair your ability to remember things. Alcohol consumption may also destroy cells of the brain and make it more difficult to build them back up.

Other reasons to change bad habits are the effects they may have on your body. Heart disease, high cholesterol, cancer, and diabetes may also occur if your bad habits aren’t under control.

At this time, we are aware of the underlying health issues faced by ourselves, family, and friends. We know the difficulties as we’ve hunkered down to avoid the spread of this COVID-19 pandemic, and we know the importance of maintaining good health. Use some of this time to evaluate some of your own habits...what do you want to improve?

Live an Intentional Life.

Until next time...

Lisa

P.S. Are you interested in connecting? Because of the overwhelm, frustration, and anxiety women are experiencing during this pandemic, I’ve opened a limited number of additional coaching slots in my private 1:1 coaching programs. If you’d like more information, message or email me at [email protected]