How to Beef Up Your Memory

Can you remember ...

The address of the last place you lived?

Your second-cousin's wife's first name?

What's on your shopping list?

If not, don't worry. As people age, memory lapses are common -- but not inevitable. A healthy lifestyle, including plenty of mental stimulation, will help keep your brain in shape.

Shakespeare called memory "the warden of the brain." It's the keeper of our past, where we store our most precious clues to who we are: our first kiss, the day we graduated, the birth of our children.

Why, then, is it so stubborn when we just need to find our keys?

The mind is a puzzle -- one that scientists are still unraveling -- but the last decade has seen tremendous strides in our understanding of how memory develops.

A growing body of scientific evidence suggests the brain is more pliable than once thought. People's brains don't necessarily have to deteriorate as they get older.

"Our future is not doom and gloom," said Douglas Mason, a neuropsychologist and author of The Memory Doctor (New Harbinger, 2005).

"The brain does regenerate, and that's something we've only known the past few years," Mason said. "Memory is something you can do something about, just like your heart or other parts of your body."

Flex Your Gray Matter
In fact, what's good for your heart is probably good for your brain, too. Clinical studies have demonstrated that a diet rich in antioxidants can stave off memory decline. Getting enough sleep, exercising regularly and avoiding stress can also improve memory.

You also need to exercise your brain. Giving up that stimulating job in favor of vegging out at home really could hasten the brain-to-mush progression. Researchers have found people who retire early have an earlier onset of dementia.

"There are even studies that say that to protect the brain after age 40, we should constantly challenge ourselves to try to learn new things," said Dr. Concetta Forchetti, medical director of the Memory Disorders Center at Alexian Neuroscience Institute in Hoffman Estates.

Forchetti advises learning to speak a new language or to play an instrument. Try a new sport. Even joining a club, volunteering or staying active in social relationships reduces your risk of memory loss.

"Psychologists have begun promoting mind exercises and mental boot camps, but studies haven't shown whether any single technique is superior," said Dr. Steven Lekah, a neurologist at Community Neurologic Center in Geneva. So it might not matter whether you prefer crossword puzzles or improv.

"The important thing is to find a new challenge so you strengthen less-used neural pathways," said Donalee Markus, a neurocognitive therapist in Highland Park, Ill., and founder of Designs for Strong Minds.

"Novelty is the best vitamin for the brain," Markus said. "You have to be taken out of your comfort zone."

Such advice falls into the "use it or lose it" camp of memory preservation. If you think of the brain as a tangle of circuitry, mental stimulation is what prompts the growth of new connections between nerve cells. More connections means stronger memories.

"It's like a highway between two cities," Lekah says. "The more lanes you have on the highway, the better the traffic flows."

Memory Is Fickle
As people age, they don't necessarily forget more, but it takes longer to remember.

A phone number you could recall in three seconds at age 20 might take 10 seconds to bring to mind at age 70. It takes longer to memorize new information, too.

"Our memory becomes a little more sluggish in the sense of pulling information out," Mason said. "But in exchange for that, studies show we become more accurate. We're slower, but smarter."

The reasons behind memory decline can be biological. Vascular disease can reduce blood flow to the brain, suffocating nerve cells. Nutritional deficiencies and many prescription medications can hamper memory. The plaques that characterize Alzheimer's gradually kill nerve cells in the brain, hindering the ability to create new memories.

The change can be gradual, and it's often difficult to pinpoint where normal memory lapses become progressive disease. But the more concerned you are about your memory, the less likely you are to have a disease like Alzheimer's.

"The people with true memory problems don't know what they've forgot," Mason said.

Often the problem isn't retrieving information; it's how you stored it in the first place.

A memory begins when you encode it in your brain. Events with intense emotional impact are easier to remember. So are multisensory experiences. Belting out a new song while washing dishes in the sink records information on multiple levels -- the sound of the music, the feel of your dishpan hands, the view out your kitchen window.

Each sensory experience provides a different route to those lyrics. You can use that to your advantage.

The next time you need to remember something, visualize the task using several senses. If you need to buy paper clips at Office Depot, think about what they taste like. That will make a stronger memory, Mason says.

You can use visualization techniques to remember short lists. Before you head to the store, make up a story about a gallon of milk running down the aisle throwing eggs at the butter. The more ridiculous it is, the likelier it will stick in your memory.

Simply paying better attention to where you put your keys -- saying, out loud, "I'm putting my keys next to the toaster" -- might help you remember that at 6 a.m. tomorrow.

"By taking that extra 10 to 15 seconds, you're making a better quality memory," Mason said. "When it comes time to retrieve that memory, you've got multiple ways to get it."

Relax, Already
When it comes to remembering a key fact, such as the name of your new client, anxiety is your enemy.

Anxiety triggers the fight-or-flight response, and higher-order functions of the brain shut down to reserve cognitive energy for self-preservation.

Worrying about what you're forgetting, then, will only make it worse. Before you try to recall information, release your tensed muscles and take some deep breaths to send oxygen back to your brain.

Blanking on a coworker's name doesn't necessarily mean you're in the early stages of Alzheimer's. But if you are truly concerned about cognitive decline, a neurologist can perform tests to determine whether your memory lapses could be due to disease.

While it can be difficult to pinpoint when normal memory lapses become signs of disease, early detection can help your prognosis. Medications available so far can only delay or slow the progression of Alzheimer's, not reverse its course. If nothing else, an early memory test can provide a baseline for comparison later on.

The best way to postpone memory loss is to lead a healthy lifestyle. Eat a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables, exercise regularly and maintain a healthy weight. Don't use drugs, and drink alcohol in moderation. Don't smoke. Sleep at least seven or eight hours a night.

"It's the same old story," Forchetti said. "People might like it or not, but that's the truth."

And stay positive. Lekah says optimists are less likely to develop dementia.

Source: Daily Herald. Powered by Yellowbrix.