Kathmandu:

Remember those horror stories about students going blank while writing exams. It is primarily stress that can lead to forgetfulness. The intense physical and mental activity that we go through while preparing for and writing exams call for a high level of fitness.

Low nutrient intake, day to day stress, overwork and junk food affect our mental functions. Even those who normally handle stressful situations with ease begin to over-react to a similar situation at times. Such over reaction becomes a part of a vicious cycle.

You may feel that such a reaction is a part of your personality, whereas actually, it may be due to lack of nutrients that throws you into a stress response that further damages the health of your brain.

Brain is the largest consumer of energy that our body produces. To process information efficiently, access important data, and store necessary information, it needs oxygen, glucose and other nutrients. Lack of these leads to short-term memory loss and mental fatigue. Sometimes it can have serious repercussion in the form of mental diseases that involve wide scale permanent memory loss like Alzheimer’s or senile dementia.

Nutrition can affect a brain’s function. The kind of food you eat and the kind of health drink you take can aggravate your mental inefficiency. Experts recommend high fibro diet and fortified beverages in the form of health drinks. Thus, it is very important to maintain a healthy food diet including all the nutrient fortified beverage supplementation also helps in giving extra edge to students while preparing for exams.

Not only food, but drinks also play a vital role during exams, for example, one should avoid drinks like tea and coffee that contain caffeine as they may weaken one’s grasping ability. So it is advisable to drink juices, health drinks and shakes.

(Dr Dongol is a Medical Officer at Kanti Children’s Hospital)