Does Stress Really Cause a Brain Aneurysm?

There are moments in your life when your brain feels like it has to do a lot. 🧠💥Planning a wedding. Sorting out retirement. Even deciding what’s for dinner can feel overwhelming. 

You might feel like your head is going to explode.  💣 Not literally. But the stress feels real, and it sets off a chain of chemical reactions that leave an impression on your brain.

This idea made recent headlines when entrepreneur and social media personality Kim Kardashian claimed stress caused her to develop a brain aneurysm–a bulge or ballooning of a brain blood vessel, according to Mayo Clinic.

Doctors say stress alone doesn’t create aneurysms. But she’s not entirely wrong. Stress can influence brain health and longevity, sometimes in ways you don’t notice.

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🩸 Aneurysms form when our blood vessels weaken, like frayed cloth. One in 50 people may have an unruptured aneurysm, and most aneurysms will never rupture. Most surprising? Most people won’t ever know they have an aneurysm either.

Despite misconceptions, stress alone doesn’t directly cause aneurysms. It can strain your blood vessels, though.

So a bit of biology. Stress is not just a feeling. It’s an ancient survival mechanism that kicks your whole body into action:

Short bursts of stress are fine and helpful in the face of danger. But years of chronic stress keep these symptoms alive and keep your brain stuck in overdrive. This can wear down blood vessel walls over time. 🚗💨

Women have a 60% higher risk of developing a brain aneurysm than men because women lose estrogen during menopause, a hormone that protects blood vessels, according to Adam Taylor, Professor of Anatomy, Lancaster University, in The Conversation.

There are other risk factors too, which include family history, smoking, high cholesterol, and persistent high blood pressure.

The constant stress fundamentally changes your brain chemistry, wiring, and biology.

🧪 Chemicals: Stress raises the hormone cortisol, which in turn shrinks the volume of the hippocampus (memory bank). Cortisol also affects the prefrontal cortex, which handles decision-making. 🔻Low estrogen adds inflammation that damages the protective cell walls in our brains. Over time, these factors can increase forgetfulness, indecision, and Alzheimer’s risk. 

⚙️ Energy shifts: Stress pushes the brain into survival mode, prioritizing energy for the amygdala (survival instincts) and fear response “shunting its resources" to the parts of the brain responsible for planning and problem-solving, says Dr. Kerry Ressler, chief scientific officer at McLean Hospital and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, in an interview with Harvard Health. 

🌙 Sleep disruption: Stress can significantly disrupt sleep, a critical process that allows our brain to clear waste, stabilize our moods, and consolidate memories. Not getting enough quality sleep is linked to depression, irritability, and inflammation, which just feeds the stress cycle.

🔥 Inflammation: Chronic inflammation weakens the blood-brain barrier, allowing toxins to enter the brain. Over the years, these low-grade attacks can increase the risk of developing earlier onset neurological conditions, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Inflammation can literally shrink the hippocampus.

Kim Kardashian discovered her aneurysm through a full-body MRI scan (Prenuvo scan) 🔍, which has become popular among longevity enthusiasts. 

The scan can detect aneurysms, early-stage tumors, and other hidden conditions, and in some cases has helped people catch disease early. But if you’re prone to health anxiety, they can do more harm than good. 🤯 

Up to 30% of scans show ‘incidentals,’ or harmless biological abnormalities, says radiologist Matthew Davenport of the University of Michigan in Michigan Medicine. The problem is that incidentals can feel more dangerous than they actually are. Attempting to treat them can, at times, come at the expense of your physical and emotional health, causing unnecessary worry and leading to over-treatment.

That might be why no major medical organizations recommend getting a full-body scan in healthy adults (yet). Unless you have specific risk factors, the safer path for your brain is to choose peace over a scan.

Who should think twice about scanning:

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You can’t hide from stress, but you can train your brain to handle it. Because “how we react makes all the difference,” says neurosurgeon Dr. Francis Kralick of Shore Physicians Group in a 2019 interview. 

Stress is not inherently ‘bad,’ but it is more than a feeling. Kim Kardashian’s story highlights this, plus opens a discussion about the delicate balance between stress and knowledge.🧠

When life makes your brain feel like it’s ready to ‘explode,’ maybe it’s a sign to slow down and prioritize small, manageable changes. Simple things can help you blunt the effects of stress on long-term brain health.

Discussion Prompt: When did your brain feel overloaded? What helped?

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