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The Human Brain
The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It produces our every thought, action, memory, feeling and experience of the world. This jelly-like mass of tissue, weighing inat around 1.4 kilograms, contains a staggering one hundred billion nerve cells, or neurons.
The complexity of the connectivity between these cells is mind-boggling. Each neuron can make contact withthousands or even tens of thousands of others, via tiny structures called synapses. Our brains form a million new connections for every second of our lives. The pattern and strength of theconnections is constantly changing and no two brains are alike.
It is in these changing connections that memories are stored, habits learned and personalities shaped, by reinforcing certain patterns of brainactivity, and losing others.

Stress on the Brain
Those aggravating things that go wrong in the day and those irritating things that go bump in the night – disrupting routines and interrupting sleep– all have a cumulative effect on your brain, especially its ability to remember and learn.
As science gains greater insight into the consequences of stress on the brain, the picture that emerges isnot a pretty one. A chronic overreaction to stress overloads the brain with powerful hormones that are intended only for short-term duty in emergency situations. Their cumulative effect damages andkills brain cells.
Stress is Not All Bad
Bear in mind that an appropriate stress response is a healthy and necessary part of life. One of the things it does is to release norepinephrine, one of theprincipal excitatory neurotransmitters. Norepinephrine is needed to create new memories. It improves mood. Problems feel more like challenges, which encourages creative thinking that stimulates yourbrain to grow new connections within itself.

Stress Activates Immune System-Study |
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Some kinds of acute stress are beneficial. For example, Ohio State University researchers found...