chiasm@mastodon.online's status on Saturday, 22-Jan-2022 12:21:58 UTC

@tagomago @markusl I'm no expert on cortisol, and cortisol does important things, but it also serves as a marker of too much stress, and elevated cortisol correlates with reduced hippocampal volume (do you know what the hippocampus is?). Long-term meditators seem to avoid hippocampal volume loss and frontal cortex volume loss, in some studies. The hippocampus also responds well to exercise, but badly to being overweight and smoking, iIrc. It's a sensitive part of the brain! /fin