Chronic Stress Changes The Structure Of Your Brain

By Sharon Horesh Bergquist, MD

​Stress can be helpful for small bursts of energy or productivity. However, chronic stress can be damaging to the body and can even change the structure of your brain. Learning how to manage your stress (versus stress controlling your life) is critical for your well-being. Research consistently shows that exercise and meditation are excellent ways on managing and decreasing stress. Additionally, regularly engaging in exercise and meditation have been shown to increase the size of parts of your brain that are responsible for improving memory. Click below for a quick video animation on how stress affects your brain.