Never has mental health been as important. Be it mindfulness, meditation, walking…..we’re looking for as much expert information these days on dealing with our mental difficulties of living life in a pandemic.

But what about preventative measures? Just as we eat well and exercise to prevent the body getting unhealthy, can you do the same with the brain?

My guest on this week’s Real Health is Kimberley Wilson, a psychologist who believes that we need to consider the brain in a more physical way just like the heart or liver.

Kimberley is also the author of ‘How to Build a Healthy Brain’ and is the host of the Stronger Mind podcas and, backed up with science and studies, she talks to me about the importance of exercise on our brains and how physical movement can stop our brains shrinking.

She also explains why our IQs are dropping over time due to poor diet and how stress affects our brains and inhibits our actual growth.

“One of the things I really want people to understand,” she says. “Is that stress isn't something that's just 'in your head' because for people it feels like this ethereal, not real thing, ‘I can just push it away and I'll be fine’. But you need to understand that stress turns on your stress hormone and your stress hormones are incredibly powerful. Your stress hormones can turn off your growth hormone, they can stunt the growth of children. We know the same thing can happen when women get very, very stressed that their periods can stop or their cycles can become very long and stress hormones have an effect on the brain.”

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