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Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer! (Psalm 4:1, ESV)
Many have heard that the brain cannot generate new neurons. However, scientists are now saying there is something called …
Neurogenesis!
After even more extensive research, they say that the brain’s hippocampus can generate 700 new brain cells each day. That’s right – 700 each day!
I know that there are billions of brain cells, and 700 doesn’t seem like that much, but it is enough to completely rejuvenate the hippocampus (a small part of the brain) several times over a lifetime.
Yes, I can get a new brain – at least part of it. You can too.
Why is this important? The hippocampus helps with memory, especially short-term memory, moods, and emotions. Keeping a healthy “hippo” helps short-term memory, as in, “Honey, where are my car keys?” and emotional health, “I feel better today than yesterday.”
If you lose your 700 cells a day without replacing them, your brain loses function.
Let’s take a test. What activities help keep your 700 brain cells alive and reproducing? Let’s go with “thumbs up” for good and “thumbs down” for bad.
Learning new skills and reading books?
Drinking Diet Coke?
Stress and anger?
Hamburgers and French fries?
Meditating on Scripture?
I think that you get the idea. If you failed this test, you may have already lost your 700 brain cells for today. But let’s review.
Thumbs up on the right behavior, and we get all 700 brain cells; thumbs down with our habits, and we get only 100 brain cells (or less). I think we easily understand what happens to our brain with road rage, bitterness, anxiety, and worrying about finances.
Our brains shrink and lose function.
As we age, our hippocampus does slow down brain cell production. But the brain still produces new cells! And if we have kept a healthy brain throughout our lives – meditation, exercise, nutritious food, and learning to cast anxieties upon the Lord …
We take more brain cells with us into old age!
Let’s calculate.
At age 30, let’s say that we have 10,000 hippocampus brain cells, and we lose all 700 cells a day because of a couch-potato lifestyle and being Michigan football fans. That means at age 60 (700 a day times 30 years), we would be minus 7,665,000 brain cells.
Don’t we all know people who act like they are half-brained?!
But if we keep all 700 each day, then we would still have the 10,000 hippocampus brain cells plus maybe a few million more. (Please note that numbers and math are not an Interruptions strength and that these numbers are for illustrative purposes only.)
Do we understand? Having a life-long plan for walking with Jesus gives us the brain and emotions to serve Him for a lifetime – and also to be happy.
I need those 700 new brain cells each day, and believe me when I say that you do too!