Mind360 Blog

Building Memory: A Pro-Active Task

The best thing that can be done to offset the cognitive effects of aging is to pro-actively take steps to improve one’s memory. Exercises are presented herein as techniques for sharpening memory.

Life Begins Anew

Techniques for improving memory are particularly relevant to the many baby boomers currently reaching what used to be retirement age. Today, retirement means new beginnings. Developing one’s memory strength can yield a new level of cognition that enhances the lifestyle not only of baby boomers entering retirement but anyone else at any age.

Techniques

The following is a short list of practical ways to improve memory.

1) Grouping

Rearrangement of large numbers of items into smaller units of logical or artificial (organized) groups.

For example:
332245638 becomes 332-245-638

OR

Items can be rearranged according to organized categories or types: for example, a movie list can be divided into comedies, dramas, and romances, etc.

OR

Spelling is another good variation on grouping, such as taking the first letters or syllables of things one must remember to form new words that spell out the information.

For example:

H.O.M.E.S.: (The 5 Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.)
PEWSAGL.: The 7 deadly sins: pride, envy, sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust.
ROY G. BIV: The 7 colors of the visual spectrum:
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet

2) Attention

Drive out all distractions, especially in the first eleven seconds of learning something new. Minimize environmental interference from music or televison. Block it all out, and create the environment most conducive to paying attention. Your DVD player and stereo will be waiting for you when you are done.

3) Interest

When you learn something new or important, ask questions to stimulate interest. Take part or sides in problems, issues and subjects you are learning about. Form an opinion, find a personal connection, become as impassioned as possible to help remember new facts.

4) Believe in Yourself

In the age of computers, cell phones, and PDA’s, many in our society have become accustomed to assuming that they can no longer remember anything. Well, this is not true. Trust and believe in your ability to remember. The more confident you are in your memory, the better you will remember.

5) Start Right

When you first learn something, concentrate on managing input to ensure accurate retention. Speed of memorization is not as important as accuracy.

6) Effective Selection

When learning something new, concentrate on the most significant elements. If there is a lot of information, instructions, or data being presented, just focus on the information that seems the most important.

If you only feel you can only remember part of what you are learning, focus on the data or details that seem hardest to remember.

7) Background

Questions also serve to build background. The best way to remember something is to find out more about it. Look for associations in the form of common patterns or relationships between the old and the new.

Hold the Course

It may not be easy to apply these techniques, but an honest effort will rapidly turn seemingly undetectable progress into visible results.

Many of you have probably heard that the French propensity for drinking wine has been scientifically proven to reduce heart disease. Well first of all, it’s true. Second of all, that cup of red wine can also help keep Alzheimer’s away, as well as tumors.

A team of researchers at UCLA recently set to work to find out how this could be possible. This is what they discovered: naturally occurring compounds in red wine called polyphenols were clearly observed under microscope blocking the proteins that give rise to toxic plaques that destroy braincells.

For those with existing plaques (sorry, could be anyone, comes with age), polyphenols reduce the toxicity of those plaques, thus reducing the amount of cognitive deterioration that the plaques can otherwise cause.

For those of you who actually don’t like a nice glass of red wine, there are still more options: large quantities of many polyphenols show up in high concentration in tea, nuts, berries and some plants.

Anybody who wants to know more, don’t worry! That same team of doctors is beginning human trials to observe the effects of various forms and quantities of the over 8000 types of polyphenols. The goal is to determine what substances are best for people to consume to battle, prevent, or offset Alzheimer’s. And as soon as they know, you’ll know, because we are going to post immediately. So check back and stay tuned!

The Doctor and Frau
Everyone has heard of Alzheimer’s but how many of you know where it is from? Well, as you have undoubtedly guessed, it started with a guy named Alzheimer. A doctor actually, a German physician named Alois Alzheimer, who first described the condition all the way back in 1906.

The Case
At a scientific meeting in November of that year, Dr. Alzheimer presented the case of “Frau Auguste D.,” a 51-year-old woman brought in by her family to see the doctor.

The Symptoms
Upon examining Frau D, Dr. Alzheimer found that Auguste exhibited symptoms in a unique set of problem areas: she had problems with memory, she displayed acute paranoia in her suspicions that her husband was unfaithful, and she experienced difficulty in both speaking and understanding what was said to her.

The Outcome
Her symptoms worsened steadily, and within a few years she was bedridden. In the Spring of 1906, Frau died. The official cause of death was “overwhelming infection from bedsores and pneumonia.”

The Study
Struck by this unseen combination of symptoms, Dr. Alzheimer obtained the family’s permission to perform an autopsy.

The Findings
What he saw in Frau’s brain amazed him: there was visible, dramatic physical shrinkage, particularly of the cortex, which we now know is the outer layer of our brain that supports memory, thinking, judgment and speech.

Under the Microscope
Upon further examination of Frau’s brain under a microscope, Alzheimer discovered a proliferation of fatty deposits in the small blood vessels of the brain, in between dead and dying brain cells, and surrounded by unrecognizable and clearly abnormal deposits running throughout the interior and exterior of the brain cells.

The Publishing and the Naming
Dr. Alzheimer published his findings the following year in 1907. Three years later, in 1910, psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, a noted researcher whose work was rooted in naming and classification of brain disorders, proposed that the disease be named after his esteemed colleague Dr. Alzheimer. And so did society’s most well-known aging disease first enter the literature of medical history