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Improve and Maintain Your Memory: Goodbye Senior Moments

zongxujian 于2007-06-11发布 l 已有人浏览
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Goodbye "Senior Moments"

Five things you need to buy at the grocery store -- forgotten! The name of your neighbor's son -- lost! The reason you needed to go to Wal-Mart -- gone! The magazine you wanted to show a coworker -- left at home!

Relax. These little memory meltdowns are an inevitable part of life. In most cases, they have nothing to do with Alzheimer's, nothing to do with disease or injury, and everything to do with stress, too much work, and our daily craziness.

The good news is that the imminent aging of the baby boomers has spurred massive research into the origins and maintenance of memory. If you think you have a serious memory decline, seek medical attention, of course. It is possible it could be related to heart disease or the onset of Alzheimer's. But if you are just trying to have fewer "senior moments" than your bridge opponents, we're here to help with the following 27 tips. And remember: Aging alone doesn't cause a decline in brain function -- live well, and you can keep learning and thinking clearly until your ripest old age.

1. Use it or lose it: The golden rule of brainpower. The brain functions like a muscle in that the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Watching lots of unstimulating TV; having a job routine; cooking, cleaning, and shopping the same way over and over -- all contribute to a brainpower loss. Learning new things, varying your routines, having provocative discussions, going on adventurous vacations, and playing a musical instrument all cause your brain to make new connections and function better.

2. Take a B-complex vitamin pill. As you age, your body becomes less efficient at absorbing certain B vitamins from food. Yet the B's are critical for maintaining a sharp memory. A study of 260 healthy men and women over age 60 found that those with low blood levels of vitamins C or B12 scored the worst on memory and cognitive functioning tests. Those with low levels of the B vitamins riboflavin or folic acid scored worst on a test of abstract thinking. Another study found that giving women a B-complex supplement improved their performance on memory tests. B vitamins also help lower levels of artery-clogging homocysteine, linked to memory loss. Two other supplements to take along with your B's are vitamins E and C. Studies find taking the two together can protect against Alzheimer's. But taking the supplements separately (for example, one in the morning and one at night) had no effect.

3. Add whole grain bread back into your diet. If you've been following a high-protein, low-carb diet and simultaneously finding your memory going, it's probably not a coincidence. More than any other organ, the brain relies on glucose for fuel. And glucose comes from carbs. One study of 22 older people from the University of Toronto found that those whose diets contained the greatest percentage of calories as carbohydrates performed best on memory and task tests. Make sure you're getting your carbs from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, not ice cream, candy, and cake.

4. Make up a batch of tuna salad on Sunday nights and make sure it's gone by Friday. Tuna, even the canned kind, is high in omega-3 fatty acids, important for maintaining memory. Try it stuffed into a tomato, added to a regular green salad, or on toast for breakfast.

5. Eat a vegetarian dinner at least once a week. Low in saturated fat and high in fiber, it will boost your efforts to maintain healthy cholesterol levels. That's important when we're talking about memory, because high cholesterol levels eventually damage blood vessels, affecting long-term memory and speeding the progression of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

6. Eat cereal mixed with one cup of blueberries for breakfast several days a week. Not only do studies find that eating cereal in the morning can help your performance on certain cognitive tests, but a study in rats who got blueberries every day for two months found the fruit boosted levels of enzymes that help brain cells communicate with each other. Although the study was done in rats, the lead researcher says the results were so compelling that he now eats a cup or two of blueberries every day -- just in case.

7. Skip dessert tonight. And tomorrow night as well. It might just help you drop a few pounds -- a good thing when it comes to memory. That's because Swedish researchers found that older women diagnosed with memory problems tended to be an average of 11-17 pounds overweight compared to women who had fewer memory lapses. Other studies find overweight women and men have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Stimulate Your Mind

8. Get a book on tape (or CD) and listen to it while you walk briskly, three times a week. A University of Illinois study found that older adults who walked that often had higher scores on memory tests than adults who just did stretching and toning exercises. Listening to the book while you're walking also exercises your brain while you're exercising your body.

9. Go to bed early the night after learning something important. So if you're learning a new computer program at work, make sure you get a good night's sleep after your training. A Harvard study found that a good night's sleep improves your ability to remember something you learned during the day.

10. Stuff a chicken with sage and lemons and roast in a 350°F oven until done (about 2 hours). A couple of small studies suggest that the anti-inflammatory effects of sage may boost memory for several hours after eating the herb. Plus, lemons are chock-full of antioxidants important for maintaining healthy cell function. Other sage options: Try a tea made with a teaspoon of the dried herb, use in salad dressing and rice dishes, or add to flavor pork or fish. Try growing some in your garden. Sage is a perennial that overwinters well in most climates.

11. Switch the television station to PBS. The higher-level programming on public television will do more to engage your brain than any reality show or sitcom ever could. As we said, the more engaged your brain, the healthier your brain functions, including memory.

12. Snack on grapes instead of cookies. Researchers find that people with a high intake of trans fats -- found in baked goods like cookies -- are more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease as those who eat the least. Grapes, on the other hand, have phytochemicals and antioxidants that help lead to improved blood flow and overall health.

13. Have a glass of wine with dinner. A study of 746 men and women found that those who drank one to six alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, or liquor) a week were 54 percent less likely than abstainers to develop dementia (including Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia) over six years. Stop with one, though; the same study found that 14 or more drinks weekly increased the risk of dementia by 22 percent.

14. Whip up a batch of curried chicken tonight. An Italian study found that this common spice blend appears to enhance an enzyme that protects the brain against oxidative conditions that could lead to memory loss and Alzheimer's.

15. Cut some tofu cubes into your soup. Soy products like tofu have isoflavones that also appear to help preserve memory and hinder protein changes that contribute to Alzheimer's.

16. Read for an hour every day. But forget Jackie Collins novels. Pick a topic about which you know very little and read five books on that topic. Then move on to the next topic. Your brain will soak up the knowledge like a parched rosebush, sending out blooms in the form of neurons that help maintain a healthy memory.

17. Take up oil painting. Or fishing, or needlepoint, or ballroom dancing, or piano. The idea here is to continue stretching your mind around new things and new experiences, which studies find can help stave off dementia and improve memory.

Brain Aerobics

18. Memorize a poem every day. Sure, it reminds you of your days in elementary school ("I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree ... "), but it's also a great exercise for those memory muscles, a.k.a. the brain. Not into poetry? How about memorizing the phone numbers of all your friends, or the addresses of all your family members?

19. Do one thing every day that will force you out of your comfort zone. It might be taking a different route to work, writing or using the mouse with your nondominant hand, or approaching a total stranger and striking up a conversation (in a safe place, mind you). This kind of challenge is the perfect "weightlifting" exercise for those brain cells.

20. Listen to music while you are exercising. A study of 33 adults undergoing cardiac rehabilitation found that those who listened to music while they worked out improved their scores on a verbal fluency test -- a test that measures overall brainpower.

21. Spend a day exploring in an unfamiliar town. The challenge that comes from following a map, coupled with the novelty that new sights, sounds, and smells bring, serves as a healthy wake-up call for your brain.

22. Get a course book from your local college and pick one class to take next semester. A study from Chicago's Rush Alzheimer's Disease Centerfound that people who had higher levels of education exhibited fewer signs of Alzheimer's disease even when autopsies revealed they had the disease.

23. Do one thing at a time. If you're trying to have a phone conversation while checking e-mail, chances are good you won't remember a word you talked about. A growing body of research finds our increasing tendency to multitask actually harms our brains.

24. Have a bag of toasted pumpkin seeds for a brain-boosting snack. They're high in iron, shown to improve test scores in college students.

25. Pay better attention next time someone tells you his name, or when you throw your keys into the basket on the counter, or when you park your car. Often the reason we can't remember things is that we're on autopilot when we do them (or hear them). But if you stop for a second when someone introduces himself and repeat the name out loud, or stop when you get out of your car at the mall and look -- really look -- at the spot in which you're parked, you'll remember those things better.

26. Study, read, and work in a quiet room. Studies find that noise exposure can slow your ability to rehearse things in your mind, a way of building memory links.

27. Talk with your hands. No, we're not talking about sign language, but about using your hands to emphasize what you're saying. Turns out it's easier for us to speak when we're gesturing, leaving more mental resources available for transferring information into memory.

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