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High Stress May Damage Memory According to a report issued in May 1998, elderly people who consistently high blood levels of the stress hormone. Whats more ,high levels of cortisol are also associated with shrinking of the hippocampus, a region of the brain that plays a key role in learning and memory. The findings suggest that even cortisol levels in the normal, healthy range can actually accelerate brain aging. The study results now provide substantial evidence that long-term exposure to adrenal stress hormones may promote hippocampal aging in normal elderly humans, write Nada porter and Phillip Landfield. Cortisol is a hormone releases in response to stress by the adrenal glands, which sit on top of the kidneys . Over a 5-to 6-year period, dr. Sonia lupine and his colleagues measures 24-hour cortisol levels in 51 healthy volunteers, most whom were in their 70s. The researchers tested the volunteers memory on six people in the increasing/high category and five people in the decreasing/moderate group. The groups did not differ in tests of immediate memory, but the increasing/high cortisol group had other memory problems compared with those in the decreasing/moderate group. The researchers also found that the total volume of the hippocampus in those in the increasing/high group was 14% lower than those in the decreasing/moderate group, although there were no differences in other brain regions. | 
