Is stress good or bad for the brain?

Stress can be viewed in two ways, and we now know that there is such as thing as good stress or healthy stress. But is there any kind of stress that is actually good for the brain, or does all stress bring with it a deterioration of our brain cells?

Your adrenal glands may be the deciding factor in how stress treats your brain. If you are a coffee drinker, you experience this first-hand every day, whether you know it or not. Coffee stimulates your adrenal glands to release their hormones. If you have ever felt like you have a little too much coffee in your veins, then you really know what adrenaline feels like.

What happens when adrenaline (the hormone your adrenal glands secrete) is released into your bloodstream is profound. The fight-or-flight response is induced. Your sight and hearing comes into focus, and information begins to feed to your thinking and feeling areas of the brain.

If you already have stressful things to think about, your brain will begin to register fear. This may be when you start having streams of thoughts about arguments, difficult situations you may encounter today, or yesterday's unfortunate outcomes. These things become exaggerated in the presence of adrenaline, and it can be hard to tune them out. This is what adrenaline is for: to help the body respond to challenges. It doesn't know the difference between the tiger and the parking ticket. Now that blood sugar is pouring out of your liver, your body is becoming energized to either fight that tiger or run from it.

Nowadays, most threats are not on the tiger level. Sure, there's the stock market, gridlock, and that cop again in your rear-view mirror. But these are not really life-threatening. What is life-threatening, though, is what is happening to your brain during this adrenaline overload.

Chronic stress kills heart and brain. It has to be dealt with. There are many ways to approach the problem, and one of them is to remove the stressors. Also, if you feel nervous, pace the floor-it is what your body wants to do, and it's a healthy release. Breathe slowly while you do it and you can start to lower the adrenaline response dramatically. Another simple thing to do is make sure you are getting enough acetylcholine. It is the primary ingredient of lecithin, a supplement which is inexpensive, easy to obtain, and has no known side effects. There are also many nutrients which contain acetylcholine. Known as the memory neurotransmitter, you can get acetylcholine in soybeans, egg yolks, peanuts and peanut butter, liver, ham, and whole wheat. If you feel you need a serious boost of lecithin, (have you been really stressed out for a long time?) supplements are really helpful. 2500 to 3000 milligrams four times a day has been recommended by experts in the brain health field. A chlorophyll-based drink, the green stuff, is also an abundant source. Vitamin C is important to transform lecithin into acetylcholine.

You know you're stressed when you suddenly have trouble remembering things. Making a few adjustments can get you out of the adrenaline response and back to enjoying your life.