7 Bad Life Habits That Can Hurt Your Brain

And how to break them.

In the sea of things we unintentionally do that harm our bodies, there are quite a few that can damage the most powerful (and mysterious) organ we have — our brain.

The brain seems to bear it all with unparalleled poise… until it eventually starts sending warning signals.

Here’s a list of habits that could be damaging your brain health. If you’ve been experiencing headaches, increased forgetfulness, brain fog, or similar symptoms, some of these could be to blame.

Age-related cognitive decline has been shown to be directly dependent on mental stimulation. A study performed by neurobiologists at the University of California — Irvine discovered that any form of learning limits the debilitating effects of aging on our brain.

Learning has been shown to enhance cognitive reserves, making us less susceptible to age-related brain changes (Mintzer et al. 2019).

It’s very important to note that the amount of mental stimulation you get is independent of education levels. If you studied hard at university only to be stuck at a repetitive 9 to 5 job without any other mental challenges, you might as well have dropped out in junior high. You need to train your brain all the time.

Make sure to regularly engage in mental activities — quizzes, puzzles, memory games, and so on. You can also try some fun memory-boosting techniques that will help keep your brain’s plasticity intact.

Whenever you can’t remember something, don’t google it right away but give your best to recall the information.

Eating while driving. Texting while watching a movie. Talking on the phone while making dinner.

We’ve all been there.

But no matter how good at multitasking you think you are, your multitasking is causing great damage to your brain health.

Did you know that our brain never really multitasks but instead, it just paces back and forth at high speed and does all those tasks in sequence? This process consumes a lot of its energy — this is called the switching cost.

Our brain’s architecture is not designed to multitask and the switching cost reduces the brain’s performance. In fact, studies concluded that “multitasking can reduce productivity up to 40% and actually decrease intelligence quotients up to 10 points.” (Schrager & Sadowski, 2016)

Work on your time management and plan your day the night before. Do your best to stick to the schedule. Nothing is so urgent that it can’t wait for an hour or two. Don’t be ashamed to drop some obligations if you always feel like you’re out of time.

In 2012, a team of scientists from the University of Rochester, led by Danish scientist Maiken Nedergaard, made a groundbreaking discovery — our brains flush out toxins during sleep by employing its glymphatic system. This breakthrough was the first to reveal the mechanism which expels damaging molecules associated with neurodegeneration.

That further implied that when the brain is deprived of sleep, it isn’t able to slosh waste molecules out.

In addition to this, sleep promotes the consolidation of experiences and boosts learning, both of which are essential for cognitive health, especially in the later stages of life.

Aim at sleeping between 7–8 hours every night. Preferably go to bed before midnight. If you’re having trouble sleeping, try some of these techniques.

Unfortunately, overeating will not only cause the expansion of your midsection — it will also cause memory loss.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) was shown to double in people who consumed between 2 100 and 6 000 calories per day, especially with people over 70 years of age, says Harvard Health.

Yet another study revealed that overeating impacts the brain’s reward systems — more specifically, overeating was linked to “increased reward thresholds”, leading to a reward-system imbalance in the brain.

Have a regular meal plan and stick to it — do not skip meals. Keeping a food journal may help you with that. Consume food rich in healthy fats (avocados, nuts, seeds) and protein because that will give you a sense of fullness later in the day.

Avoid eating from containers and measure your portions to get a realistic idea of your calorie intake.

Spending time in stuffy rooms is much more dangerous than you imagine and it goes beyond the bad smell.

As a room keeps accumulating carbon dioxide (there is 4 to 5% of carbon dioxide in our exhalation), it impedes on our cognitive abilities by dilating blood vessels in the brain and reducing neuronal activity.

Hypercapnia (too much CO2) was discovered to reduce metabolic activity in the brain and cause a decrease in spontaneous brain connectivity (Xu et al. 2011).

The solution is simple — keep your windows open for as long as possible and spend more time outside. If you’re working from home, consider an open-air hub or (if that’s possible in your area) visit a quiet cafe where you’ll enjoy the fresh air while getting the work done.

About 75% of our brain is made up of water which means that depriving your body of water won’t allow the brain to function properly.

A study detected a 1.63% decrease in brain tissue fluid after fluids restriction (Zhang et al. 2018), while another study found that dehydration had a negative impact on the participants’ attention span, short-term memory, and vigor (Zhang et al.2019).

Sipping water doesn’t have to be a chore or a burden. Make a mental note to have a glass of water every time you get out of the bathroom or before every meal. You can also download an app that will keep sending reminders to have a glass of water throughout the day.

Counting the ways sedentary lifestyle affects our health would take hours but one of the main negative impacts revolves around its adverse consequences on our brain.

Sedentary behavior has been linked with cognitive decline (Wheeler et al. 2017) and the conclusion scientist drew reminds us that “reducing and replacing sedentary behavior with intermittent light-intensity physical activity may protect against cognitive decline by reducing glycemic variability.”

That means that a sedentary lifestyle inevitably leads to an increase in blood sugar levels which, in return, damages the small blood vessels in the brain leading to vascular dementia.

Start a reliable exercise routine today. Go on walks, stretch regularly, etc. This doesn’t have to be a massive, time-consuming obligation, you just need to work out in some way every day.

Additionally, make sure to check for sugar in your canned food and so-called “healthy” snacks. Cut down on sugar-filled beverages and eat more protein and fat. According to Heart.org, men should consume 36 grams (150 calories) of added sugars while women should not go over 25 grams (100 calories).

Keeping your brain in good shape is not too hard. The only thing you need is to kick a few bad habits and focus on simple lifestyle changes:

Doing so will not only protect you from the brain deterioration that comes with stress and aging, it’ll also improve your mood.

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