I do get stressed from time to time, thankyou for asking goooosfraba

I think it's obvious that people's brains can function very differently. There are lots of drugs that affect some people one way and other people a very different way. So I think you are very wrong. One instance from personal experience; I took Xanax once, expecting it to relieve anxiety. Instead it completely erased my short term memory for several hours, which was very distressing. I looked online and found this was a relatively uncommon side effect that happened for some people. I could find you many more examples of these kinds of diverse reactions for all kinds of drugs.

Whether you want to classify that as "brain" or "body" differences, the fact is that people have very different mental reactions to all kinds of stimuli. It's very ignorant to assume that what is true for you is true for other people, and I think that attitude does a lot of harm in the world.

Dusty's blog isn't about the link between stress and heart disease. It's a lot more specific than that. He seems to be saying that mass multitabling online rewires your brain in a way that makes it likely you will have a stroke by age 50, which is a very specific, very ridiculous claim for which he provides no support or even mechanism of action.

He compares it to playing in the NFL or working around organic solvents, both of which cause physical damage to the brain. Obviously online poker doesn't physically damage the brain in a similar way, so what does it do?

After skim reading the blog yes there are some statements you can poke giant holes in I think there is a lot there that is food for thought.

I dont think he holds himself out as any expert or anything but is trying to give anecdotal advice about his experience (i.e. a blog)

Personally I have experienced similar if not nearly as bad experiences from sustained multi-tabling poker. It bears keeping in mind but I wouldnt expect too much traction in a poker forum to an idea that says hey this could be ****ing you up in x y z way

It's not too far fetched to say poker-related stress could have things in common with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD... tons of research and studies on that since Vietnam). Stress is stress..

If I understand this correctly, they have found actual physical changes to the brain due to the body's chemical responses to stress over time.

"...In a study by Gurvits et al., combat veterans of the Vietnam War with PTSD showed a 20% reduction in the volume of their hippocampus compared with veterans who suffered no such symptoms..."
Wikipedia link

Following the word hippocampus link... "In Alzheimer's disease, the hippocampus is one of the first regions of the brain to suffer damage..."

That link jumped down to 2.4 Neuroanatomy, but most of the things in the whole page should be understandable to the layman.
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afaik, the brain is still a mystery. Nobody can be certain what's going on. I really doubt any kind of physical scan can detect or identify which changes, although subtle, can be properly labeled as brain damage. People are different. The brain itself is known to repair itself. It can also transfer lost functions to different, undamaged parts of the brain.

^^^ comparing poker related stress to PTSD, you have gone off the deep end here

I will just say i know a little about PTSD and its from experiencing frightnin/life threatening situation where you fear for your life

poker just causes a level of stress and anxiety in people that varys from low to moderate but it isn't life threatening

Paragraphs bro?

cut me some slack.. All I did was illustrate a possible connection between stress and physical changes in the brain.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampus#Stress

Stress
The hippocampus contains high levels of glucocorticoid receptors which make it more vulnerable to long-term stress than most other brain areas.[68] Stress-related steroids affect the hippocampus in at least three ways....

Hippocampal atrophy is also frequently seen in Cushing's syndrome, a disorder caused by high levels of cortisol in the bloodstream.

I think it's more of not going outside for days at a time, not moving from your desk even to pee, eating unhealthy food, and not exercising. Who would have thought this could be bad for you.....

So once I obtain this "loop" I will crush the 15 multi tables?

I don't think anybody is trying to argue that stress doesn't damange your brain. The most recent peer reviewed study I noticed looked at levels of a certain enzyme (a protein kinase iirc) that is known to cause damage to the brain at certain levels. They tested for levels of this enzyme in pre med students before during and after their qualifiying exams and concluded they had physical evidence of brain damage. I didn't have a subscription, so only read the abstract, but they concluded the damage was reversed once the exam period was over (stress levels down) yet if this stress was sustained over long periods of time there would be permanent brain damage.

I guess is just depends on how much poker stresses you out and how often you play. I do believe if you play full time, you get desensitized to most stuff that would make an amateur go ape ****. You play 100k+/month, you've seen the 20-30bi under AIEV many times over. The more hands you put in, the less surprised you get. At this point, bankroll management/lifestyle choices are going to have a bigger impact on your stress levels than the actual day to day grind.

However it's a moot point, because Dusty is not blaming stress in his blog right?

Ya, pretty i'm sure that brain isn't bad for your poker.

The body and brain needs recovery time also, without one is stuck or so, not fresh, out of energy because the body hasn't got enough recovery, like it would not have slept enough. One needs to find one's limits.

I don't play 2h+2h as I am not at my best in the morning, and I have enough improved strength from my practise that I can play four hours straight and I prefer to do it at the best time like between midday and 6 pm, that's generally the best time for any training also, and at least the body is then at its best.

There was some study about watching too much porn making one's memory worse, and I was thinking it might be because of the monitor, that's one problem also with online poker when done too much. Plus both are high actions for the mind and the brain. The memory not working well enough can't but hurt one's game. On the other hand also being too little activated will hurt one's game; that's also one part in playing at the best time of the day.

With training and enough recovery time, one should do better with time, but always monitoring that one gets enough rest also, without one is too loaded all the time, that additionally sooner or later makes poker as anything feel like a hard grind.

it was barely readable

mef of u grammer police ******

actionzip come across stuck up bell end...........

Weak.

Sample size 1 hand not conclusive , study should me made to at least 100 mass multitablers

Small risk to the amount of money he earned imo

Hear attack ? well cant see how is related unless he doesnt work out and eat bad
indians (India ) are in ioga positions for years in a row live until 100 years old
ofc sedentarism is bad but a mass multitabler can work out 1 or 2 hours per day
an eat proper helathy food

I think all is about balance

I dunno much about yoga, but I'd guess one aim is to reduce or eliminate stress. So, maybe that's why they live a long time (if they do).

Seems like eliminating stress would allow better decision making, and poker coaches would teach it if they were able. But it's not very sexy compared to strategies and advanced plays, and students are bound to resist..

From a clinical perspective (and yes I am a doctor), this makes absolutely no sense. There is no physiologic basis for this and to my knowledge no study has shown anything of the sort.

Dusty has a habit of making stuff up. He is almost certainly misinterpreting what his doctors have said. I suspect, but can't prove, a link between online poker and anxiety and depression but stroke is just a huge reach.

The whole heart attack thing is interesting to me. I very much doubt that he had a real heart attack. Maybe he had some heart problems but having an actual heart attack at the age he said he did is just so uncommon. If he wants to show his angiogram or EKG here that would certainly make me a believer.

He has a congenital heart condition and had a heart attack in early 20s before he ever started playing poker

I like how Dusty phones up Jared Tendler to let him know he's "a freakin stud"

I think the biggest problem that comes with mass tabling is that you have to have a grasp on your own emotions and how to balance your life outside of poker.

You'll have multiple situations going against you over and over and it can be mentally defeating destroying confidence, causing stress immediately, and also may contribute to worse decisions as time goes on (most likely causing more stress as it takes a certain person to compartmentalize poker with life.

All in all - poker can be extremely demanding to your body and mind. There's always a new day and go on knowing that you have to deal with what's thrown at you, treat it as an experience and keep moving forward.

The best thing you can do for yourself if your feeling down is take a break from cards, find your happy place, and don't be a hermit (explore).

Dammit my mom messages me today with some must read link about poker and the brain. The link won't work, so she says just go to dr amens site. Ugh

Congenital heart lesions are usually structural heart problems. Bad muscle, bad valve, a hole where there shouldn't be one. These are almost always discovered before the twenties and rarely result in heart attacks. A heart attack is a blockage in a coronary artery leading to cellular death of the cardiac muscle. This is very rare in the 20s simply because they haven't had time for plaque to build up from years of smoking, eating bad, and just being on the planet. When we see actual heart attacks in the 20s there is very often drug abuse involved. Not 100% but just saying that the story is fishy.

obv excessive fist pumping causes brain damage.

yup cortisol definitely has effects on the brain but the most stressed person I`ve ever seen was an office-worker and not a poker player :P Poker actually isn`t that stressful if you accept the variance aspect and more importantly respect it by playing within your bankroll