1. Eat Right
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| Tricks to Improve Your Memory |
For instance, curry, celery, broccoli, cauliflower,
and walnuts contain antioxidants and other compounds that protect your brain
health and may even stimulate the production of new brain cells.
Increasing your animal-based omega-3 fat
intake and reducing consumption of damaged omega-6 fats (think processed
vegetable oils) in order to balance your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, is also
important. I prefer krill oil to fish oil, as krill oil also contains astaxanthin,
which not only protects the omega-3 fats from oxidation but also appears to be
particularly beneficial for brain health.
Coconut oil is another healthful fat for brain
function. According to research
by Dr. Mary Newport, just over two tablespoons of coconut oil (about 35 ml
or 7 level teaspoons) would supply you with the equivalent of 20 grams of
medium-chain triglycerides (MCT), which is indicated as either a preventative
measure against degenerative neurological diseases, or as a treatment for an
already established case.
2. Exercise
Exercise encourages
your brain to work at optimum capacity by stimulating nerve cells to multiply,
strengthening their interconnections and protecting them from damage.
During exercise nerve cells release proteins known
as neurotrophic factors. One in particular, called brain-derived neurotrophic
factor (BDNF), triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health,
and directly benefits cognitive functions, including learning.
A 2010 study on primates published in Neuroscience also
revealed that regular exercise not only improved blood flow to the brain, but
also helped the monkeys learn new tasks twice as quickly as non-exercising
monkeys.
This is a benefit the researchers believe would hold
true for people as well. In a
separate one year-long study, individuals who engaged in exercise were actually
growing and expanding
the brain's memory center one to two percent per year, where typically that
center would have continued to decline in size.
To get the most out of your workouts, I recommend a
comprehensive program that includes high-intensity
interval exercise, strength training, stretching, and core work, along with
regular intermittent
movement.
Used for decades to describe the parallel processing
abilities of computers, multitasking is now shorthand for the human attempt to
do simultaneously as many things as possible, as quickly as possible.
Ultimately, multitasking may actually slow you down, make you prone to errors
as well as make you forgetful.
Research shows you actually need about eight seconds
to commit a piece of information to your memory, so if you're talking on your
phone and carrying in groceries when you put down your car keys, you're
unlikely to remember where you left them.
The opposite of multitasking would be mindfulness,
which helps you achieve undistracted focus. Students who took a mindfulness
class improved reading comprehension test scores and working memory capacity,
as well as experienced fewer distracting thoughts.
If you find yourself trying to complete five tasks
at once, stop yourself and focus your attention back to the task at hand. If
distracting thoughts enter your head, remind yourself that these are only
"projections," not reality, and allow them to pass by without
stressing you out. You can then end your day with a 10- or 15-minute meditation
session to help stop your mind from wandering and relax into a restful sleep.
4. Get a Good Night's Sleep
Research from Harvard indicates that people are 33
percent more likely to infer connections among distantly related ideas after
sleeping, but few
realize that their performance has actually improved. Sleep is also known to
enhance your memories and help you "practice" and improve your
performance of challenging skills. In fact, a single night of sleeping only
four to six hours can impact your ability to think clearly the next day.
The process of brain growth, or neuroplasticity,
is believed to underlie your brain's capacity to control behavior, including
learning and memory. Plasticity occurs when neurons are stimulated by events,
or information, from the environment. However, sleep and sleep loss modify the
expression of several genes and gene products that may be important for
synaptic plasticity.
Furthermore, certain forms of long-term potentiation,
a neural process associated with the laying down of learning and memory, can be
elicited in sleep, suggesting synaptic connections are strengthened while you
slumber.
As you might suspect, this holds true for infants
too, and research shows that naps can give a boost to babies' brainpower.
Specifically, infants who slept in between learning and testing sessions had a
better ability to recognize patterns in new information, which signals an
important change in memory that plays an essential role in cognitive
development.There's
reason to believe this holds true for adults, too, as even among adults, a
mid-day nap was found to dramatically boost and restore brainpower.You can find 33
tips to help you get the shut-eye you need here.
5. Play Brain Games
If you don't sufficiently challenge your brain with
new, surprising information, it eventually begins to deteriorate. What research
into brain plasticity shows us, however, is that by providing your brain with
appropriate stimulus, you can counteract this degeneration.
One way to challenge your brain is via 'brain
games,' which you can play online via Web sites like Lumosity.com. Dr. Michael
Merzenich, professor emeritus at the University of California, who I interviewed
two years ago, has pioneered research in brain plasticity (also called
neuroplasticity) for more than 30 years, has also developed a computer-based
brain-training program that can help you sharpen a range of skills, from
reading and comprehension to improved memorization and more.
The program is called Brain HQ, and the website has
many different exercises designed to improve brain function and it also allows
you to track and monitor your progress over time. While there are many similar
sites on the Web, Brain HQ is one of the oldest and most widely used.
If you decide to try brain games, ideally it would
be wise to invest at least 20 minutes a day, but no more than five to seven
minutes is to be spent on a specific task. When you spend longer amounts of
time on a task, the benefits weaken. According to Dr. Merzenich, the primary
benefits occur in the first five or six minutes of the task. The only downside
to brain games is that it may become just another "task" you need to
fit into an already busy day. If you don't enjoy brain games, you can also try
learning a new skill or hobby (see below).
6. Master a New Skill
Engaging in "purposeful and meaningful
activities" stimulates your neurological system, counters the effects of
stress-related diseases, reduces the risk of dementia and enhances health and
well-being. A key
factor necessary for improving your brain function or reversing functional
decline is the seriousness of purpose with which you engage in
a task. In other words, the task must be important to you, or somehow
meaningful or interesting — it must hold your attention.
For instance, one study revealed that craft
activities such as quilting and knitting were associated with decreased odds of
having mild cognitive impairment. Another
study, published earlier this year, found that taking part in "cognitively
demanding" activities like learning to quilt or take digital photography
enhanced memory function in older adults.The key
is to find an activity that is mentally stimulating for you.
Ideally this should be something that requires your undivided attention and
gives you great satisfaction… it should be an activity that you look
forward to doing, such as playing a musical instrument, gardening,
building model ships, crafting or many others.
7. Try Mnemonic Devices
Mnemonic devices are memory tools to help you
remember words, information or concepts. They help you to organize information
into an easier-to-remember format. Try:
- Acronyms
(such as PUG for "pick up grapes")
- Visualizations
(such as imagining a tooth to remember your dentist's appointment)
- Rhymes
(if you need to remember a name, for instance, think "Shirley's hair
is curly)
- Chunking,
which is breaking up information into smaller "chunks" (such as
organizing numbers into the format of a phone number)
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