This is Your Brain on Cortisol

Welcome back to cortisol week! Here’s yet another reason to keep your stress level in check: chronically elevated cortisol can mess with your head. Specifically, it can mess with your memory. This paper from McGill found that seniors with higher cortisol levels had weaker memories. Luckily for most, the memory-impairing effects of the hormone are reversible… but to inspire you to chill out sooner than later, consider this: high cortisol for long enough can result in an atrophied hippocampus… and there’s no coming back from that.

It’s not just for senior citizens: High daily levels of stress can screw with your memory even in your prime.