SARASOTA (WSNN) – The pandemic has altered many things in our lives like our jobs, food accessibility, and our routines. But what about the organ that controls our lives, the brain?
Healthcare professionals say isolation can affect your neurological system. Isolation in this pandemic has brought uncertainty to some of our lives.
“Being alone not knowing when the end might show up,” Senior Friendship Center member and Sarasota resident, Irene Herman, said. “You have a lot of time invested in your safe-at-home isolation, and you want to keep doing that until we deem its safe to go out, but you really don’t when that’s going to end. Not knowing, with a target at the end date is stressful.”
And Neurologist at Center for Brain Health, Julio Cantero, M.D. says our brain does not like uncertainty.
“We always want to have a routine,” Dr. Cantero said. “We always want to know what is next, and in this context, we don’t know either one and we are afraid.”
He says socialization is an important part of our lives.
Herman says isolation has been exhausting, but she’s fortunate to have her service dog, Butterfly the Third.
“I talk with her all the time,” Herman said.
Dr. Cantero says, if you don’t socialize, it can negatively impact your brain. He says studies show this to be true. Depression and anxiety can alter the neurotransmitters in the brain, changing your life. It’s a domino affect.
“Let’s say your depressed, so you’re less motivated, meaning you don’t exercise, then you gain weight and you don’t feel like eating, and then you don’t sleep well,” Dr. Cantero said. “So all these things affect your organism, not only the brain, but the rest of your system.”
But, not to worry, there is hope.
“The brain has plasticity,” Dr. Cantero said. “So what that means is, the brain can adapt again. So it can adapt to bad times and to good times. So the same way the brain can be affected, by changing the behavior, the brain can go back to being what it was and even better.”
It’s about changing your habits physically and mentally.
Being a two-time cancer survivor, Herman says she knows what it takes to stay strong in tough times. She says white it’s difficult not to be depressed in these times, she keeps her head up.
“I refuse to give up,” Herman said. “I would say there is hope, we are going to work our though this and come out better people than we were going in.”
Cantero says the brain controls everything in your body, so it’s important to stay balanced: eat healthy, socialize, get active. He says you become what you eat and who you interact with.
