A new study has found that living a stressful life may lead to shrinking in important parts of the brain.
Researchers at Yale University saw reductions in the amount of gray matter in parts of the brain that control physiological and emotional functioning in those who endured significant amounts of stress.
According to a press release on Yale’s website, the study observed over 100 healthy participants by conducting magnetic resonance imaging scans while they answered questions about potentially traumatic life events, including the losing of a loved one, job or home.
“They found that even the brains of subjects who had only recently experienced a stressful life event showed markedly lower gray matter in portions of the … area of the brain that regulates not only emotions and self-control, but physiological functions such as blood pressure and glucose levels,” the release stated.
Read more here.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
If this is true, what are we doing to our children? Yeshiva students suffer from multiple sources of stress. Some go off the derech, but most stick it out. But at what cost? Is night seder at younger and younger ages worth the struggle – and if this article is right, the physical and intellectual cost – just so that a yeshiva can claim that it’s at a “higher level” than the other ones?
Maybe our children also need protecting from us.
Perhaps the article refers to goyishe heads? With all the stress they went through in the past generations, seems to me my grandparents were quite sharp.
PS Waiting for the next taxpayer’s courtesy income, oops, scientific research article, which will say the exact opposite.