10 Steps To Keep Your Memory Sharp

Just as physical activity keeps your body strong, mental activity keeps your mind sharp and agile. It is important to experience new frontiers. Excitement is an important part of learning.

If you continue to learn and challenge yourself, your brain continues to grow, literally. Regardless of age, an active brain produces new dendrites — connections between nerve cells that allow cells to communicate with one another. This helps the brain store and retrieve information more easily, no matter what your age.

How can you challenge yourself? Try:

• Learning to play a musical instrument.

• Playing Scrabble or doing crossword puzzles.

• Interacting with people.

• Switching careers or starting a new one.

• Starting a new hobby, such as crafts, painting, biking or bird-watching.

• Learning a foreign language.

• Volunteering.

• Staying informed about what's going on in the world.

• Reading.

[top]

Daily physical activity can help improve blood flow. Some people find it's easier to get motivated when they exercise with a friend. Some choose a favorite pet to accompany them on walks. However you choose to get moving, include these three activities — as important fitness components — in your routine:

• Aerobic activity. Activities such as brisk walking, bicycling or swimming slow the age-related loss of aerobic capacity — the ability of your heart, lungs and blood vessels to deliver adequate oxygen to your muscles during physical activity. The net result of aerobic activity is increased stamina and endurance. It also can decrease high blood pressure, which may reduce your risk of stroke, heart disease, kidney disease and other related conditions.

• Strength training. Increasing your strength by using weights or elastic resistance bands can slow or even reverse the loss of muscle mass associated with aging. Strength training also can slow bone loss, cut your risk of injury and make you feel more energetic.

• Stretching. Stretching increases the range in which you can bend and stretch joints, muscles and ligaments, helping to decrease stiffness and prevent injury.

[top]

Eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. These contain antioxidants — substances that protect and nourish brain cells. As an added bonus, these foods may reduce your risk of cancer, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, diabetes and osteoporosis.

And — you've heard it before — drink water. Water is essential to the human body. Water practically is the human body — making up about 70 percent of your body weight. Lack of water leads to dehydration, which can leave you feeling tired, making it hard to concentrate. So drink up. Here are some tips:

• Take a sip at every drinking fountain you see.

• Fill up a water bottle and keep it close at hand.

• Have a glass of water at lunch instead of soft drinks, coffee or other beverages that may dehydrate you. It's cheaper on the pocketbook and better for your body.

[top]

Information comes at you from all directions all the time. Sometimes it's necessary to take extra steps to remind yourself of what's important. Work through the information overload with these memory triggers:

• Write it down. Keep a diary, use calendars and make lists.

• Establish a routine. Store easy-to-lose items in the same place. Complete tasks in the same order. Change is difficult and takes extra effort.

• Set up cues. For instance, put your keys on the ironing board. That way you're more likely to remember to turn off the iron before walking out the door.

• Practice repetition. "To help remember a person's name, I'll work it into the conversation several times after being introduced," says Dr. Takahashi. "Repetition ingrains the information in your mind. It's a great habit to get into because it works."

[top]

Normal aging changes the brain, which makes your mind slightly less efficient in processing new information.

But Dr. Takahashi emphasizes that wisdom can compensate for physical changes. "It's true that we lose some capacity for new memory," says Dr. Takahashi. However, experience compensates for this loss. "Older adults can still operate at an extremely high functional level despite physiologic changes."

Forgetfulness may indicate nothing more than having too much on your mind. Slow down and pay full attention to the task at hand, whatever it may be.

[top]

Do you sit at the table with your shoulders hunched? Do you catch yourself clenching your teeth? Do you tap your foot or your finger while you're idle? If you find yourself fidgeting or feeling tight, even when you're sitting still, chances are you're not relaxing.

Stress and anxiety can interfere with concentration, so it's important to take time to relax — really relax.

One technique involves taking a mental break from the world:

• Lie down or sit in a comfortable position with your eyes closed.

• Check in with your body mentally. Is it tense? Sore? Imagine the discomfort melting away.

• Take a relaxation tour of your body. Start with your toes and work your way up. Tighten every muscle group you come across for a few seconds before relaxing and moving on to the next section: toes to feet, ankles to knees, thighs to buttocks, back to shoulders, arms to fingertips, neck to head, and finally all the muscles in your face.

• Breathe slowly, regularly and deeply.

• Once relaxed, imagine you're in a favorite place or in a spot of beauty and stillness.

• After five or 10 minutes, rouse yourself from the state gradually.

[top]

"Happiness plays an enormous role in your outlook on life," says Dr. Takahashi. "Happiness makes you more alert — and when you're alert, your senses are more open to receiving information."

And there's research to back it up. Studies show that optimists tend to live longer. According to a study published in the August 2002 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, people who scored high on optimism had a 50-percent-lower risk of premature death than did those who scored more pessimistic.

[top]

Many factors unrelated to aging or genetics can contribute to memory problems. These include the use of certain medications, poor vision and hearing, vitamin deficiencies, fatigue, depression, stress and illnesses unrelated to Alzheimer's disease.

Depression in particular can cause problems with memory and concentration and often is mistaken for Alzheimer's disease in older adults. Depression can be treated, improving memory and concentration.

If you or your family worry about your memory, get evaluated. Your doctor may be able to determine whether the cause is treatable.

[top]

Know your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Also make sure your thyroid gland is functioning normally. These tests are relatively easy to take and are good indicators of what's going on inside your body. Older adults who keep their blood pressure in check — and who don't smoke — reduce their risk of stroke.

Healthy blood pressure

An optimal blood pressure level is 120 or less systolic (top number) and 80 or less diastolic (bottom number). Be alert to sustained elevations in either systolic or diastolic pressure.

Healthy cholesterol

Have your cholesterol checked by your doctor every five years — more often if you have a problem with your cholesterol level.

[top]

You're not the only one who's placed a coffee cup on the roof of your car and then driven away. You're not the first person to dial a number only to forget whom you're calling. It happens. Take note of it, but unless you feel it's unusually frequent, don't be concerned.

"We all lose a little bit of memory over time," says Dr. Takahashi. "But years of experience often make up for the little bit of mental sharpness we've lost."

Everyone has difficulty remembering things at times. So don't lose sight of how much you do remember. Wisdom is built from a lifetime of memories.

[top]

* Text Resources: The Mayo Clinic Staff