Suzy Sells Sea Shells & Stress Kills Brain Cells

When I asked Suzy how her short-term memory was she said,
“I have CRS?” Ever the sucker, I plunged right in, “Um, What’s That?”
“Can’t remember shit”, Suzy said with a grin.

CRS is as good an abbreviation as any. It’s descriptive, humorous and ironically lends itself to being remembered. Short term memory impairment is fairly common and its incidence increases with age. Their are number of different causes of CRS and as per usual, chronic stress is implicated.

Stress On Steroids

Ask anybody and they know what stress is. It’s the traffic, your boss, spouse or kid. There’s a hundred everyday emotional stresses that our brain and body process. But not all stress is alike. Some stressors are super-sized: divorce, bankruptcy, and severe illness to name just a few. These types of stresses don’t readily go away, they stay present and become a habit, chronic, and unrelenting.

Chronic stressors can cause an abnormally high release of the stress hormone, cortisol. Cortisol is toxic to the brain; it kills brain cells. The area most affected is the hippocampus and that’s where short term memory is processed.

When your brains on cortisol you C.R.S.