Religion Causes Brain Damage

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Religious factors, including religious group membership and life-changing religious experiences, but not frequency of public and private religious practices, were longitudinally associated with hippocampal atrophy. Atrophy in this region has important clinical implications, having been identified as a marker of late life mental health problems such as depression [38], [39], [40], [41], [42], [43] and dementia [44], [45], [46], [47], [48], [49]. These results may reflect an impact of cumulative stress on hippocampal volume.

Great study. Looks like religion bites you in the ass when you get older.