Simple Tips You Can Use To Help Bring Your Memory Out Of Retirement

Today is the day you can ease your alarm about sudden memory gaps and quiet your fear that you’re on the cusp of dementia. Changes in memory and concentration at midlife are very common, but you don’t have to live with them. You can improve your memory and mental sharpness with simple activities and routines you’ll enjoy. You can also choose foods to support your memory.

Remember that certain age-related memory changes are normal. If you can’t find your keys or glasses, you draw a complete blank on someone’s name, or you wander into a room and then have no idea why you went there or what you were looking for, you don’t need to fret. These memory changes can be irritating, but they don’t signal the onset of progressive, worsening memory loss.

If lapses in memory or cognition begin to interfere with your ability to function, it’s time to see your doctor. Examples of these would include being unable to follow a recipe or balance a checkbook; feeling disoriented about the date, time, or season; or showing impaired judgment by giving money away to someone you don’t know or by appearing in public in your pajamas.

Here are some straightforward tips you can use to help bring your memory out of retirement from that little fishing village.

Rest Your Brain with Adequate Sleep

Improve your sleep and make sure you’re allocating enough time for rest. If you’re trying to do every last thing you can in the evening, that accomplishment may actually shortchange you the next day.


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When you’re sleeping, you’re not merely resting your muscles and bones—your brain keeps sorting and storing information. Inadequate sleep makes it more difficult for you to perform memory-related tasks: everything from recalling words or names to being on top of what goes in that quarterly report you’ve prepared dozens of times before.

Plan to Review Your Medications at Your Next Doctor Visit

Your prescription or over-the-counter medication may play a role in blurring the edges of your memory. If you regularly take an antihistamine to control allergy-related sniffles or an antacid to calm your stomach, be aware that some of these medications interfere with the activity of acetylcholine in your brain. Certain antidepressants and antispasmodic drugs may also disrupt cognitive function.

If you’re among the approximately 20 million Americans who take a cholesterol-lowering statin drug, changes in your memory could be linked to the medication, according to anecdotal evidence. Medication-related changes in memory or cognition are often mild enough that it may not have occurred to you to associate a fuzzy memory with any medication you’re taking.

That’s why it’s a good idea to check in with your doctor to review your medications. You can discuss whether it’s possible to discontinue taking any of your medications or if a change to another medication or dosage will lessen memory-related side effects.

Savor a Bit of Dark Chocolate Every Day

A study published in Physiology and Behavior shows that the flavanols in dark chocolate boost blood flow to the brain, improving recall and visual performance. Have your dose of chocolate memory medicine any way you like it—make cocoa or chocolate milk with dark chocolate, enjoy a scoop of chocolate ice cream, or let a morsel of dark chocolate melt on your tongue. If you prefer savory to sweet, make or buy mole sauce made with dark chocolate and put it on chicken, rice, or vegetables.

If you enjoy about an ounce of dark chocolate daily, you’ll reap the benefits without piling on excess sugar, calories, or fat. If you prefer to stay away from chocolate, cocoa supplements offer the flavanols without the fat or sugar, too, but also without the fun.

Hike to Bolster the Hippocampus

Simple Tips You Can Use To Help Bring Your Memory Out Of RetirementNew research shows that the hippocampus portion of the brain, the memory storehouse, increases in size with regular aerobic exercise, even among people who had been previously sedentary. MRI brain images of study participants showed increased volume in the hippocampus among the aerobic exercise group.

You can meet the twin goals of boosting memory and keeping fit in menopause with thirty minutes of daily walking. Even women who insist they don’t have time to walk can find three ten-minute blocks of time to walk.

You can also make your walk a moving meditation by deciding that you’ll keep a deliberate pace and use the time to think about a simple affirmation or prayer, such as “I feel really good today,” or “Thank you for my health,” or “Everything is getting better.”

Tell yourself, “I’m not going to think about anything negative while I’m walking,” and resist the urge to ruminate about work, family, or finances as you walk. All those things will wait while you spend a few minutes building up your hippocampus, strengthening your bones, and evening out your mood.

Harness Memory Power Using All Five Senses

You can boost the effectiveness of your to-do lists and smartphone reminders by using the full power of all five senses. If you find that you’re lying in bed night after night thinking, I forgot to call so and so, concentrate for a moment on the sound of that person’s voice. That extra sensory detail can keep you from letting that call slip your mind again.

When you need to pick something up from the store—your dark chocolate, perhaps—imagine the taste or smell of whatever it is you need to buy. You can use a visual image of color to help jog your memory, such as envisioning the color of your bank logo to remind you to go online and pay your credit card bill or to mail the check for your godchild’s birthday gift.

If you find you’re losing time and stressing yourself by looking for files, papers, or other objects over and over, engage your sense of touch to help you remember where things are. Along with saying to yourself, “I’m putting this form in the medical insurance file,” or “I’m stashing the scissors in the tool drawer,” take an extra second to run your hand along the file folder or drawer surface, giving your mind an extra imprint of where you are placing the object. This additional sensory experience will help you recall later when you need to find that paper, gadget, pair of glasses, set of keys, jacket, or purse.

Keep Stress in Check to Increase Memory and Concentration

We all know the feeling of being so rattled that we can scarcely recollect our own name, let alone important details we need to be present at work or at home. Stress is a major offender in memory problems.

Don’t let rising panic or frustration take over when you can’t remember something. Step back, step outside if you can, and practice your breathing exercises. Tell yourself, “It will come to me in a minute.”

Picture yourself clearing out your mind, emptying it of the things you don’t need to think about, and making room for what you want to recall. Your ability to relax lets you enjoy a steady and calm mood, and it also sharpens your ability to recollect.

Lessen Overload to Help Your Memory

Some research suggests that the foggy feeling many women experience in menopause isn’t a matter of being unable to remember but instead reflects difficulty learning new information, or encoding it in your brain. Women who lament feeling less sharp or alert when they reach menopause haven’t become less intelligent or less able to learn, but assimilating new information may take a bit longer because it’s simply become harder to keep track of everything.

The glut of memories you have stored begin to interfere with each other. Are you the repository for information about everyone’s deadlines, appointments, health care, meal schedules, transportation, babysitting, clothing, whereabouts, birthdays, anniversaries, and more? Are you juggling the needs of parents, partner, pets, kids, boss, colleagues, and neighbors?

Think about what you can set aside and decide what you no longer need to keep track of at work and at home. Do you call family members to remind them to call other family members on their birthday? You don’t need to take on responsibility for everyone else’s memory bank.

Trust That You’ll Recall What You Need To Remember

Following these hints will help you recall what’s important and will ease your anxiety about those momentary wobbles in your memory. Trust that you’ll recall what you need to remember, even if it takes a few extra seconds. And be aware that when something slips your mind, it might be nature’s gentle hint that you don’t need to be in charge of every detail.

©2013 by Stephanie Bender and Treacy Colbert. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Conari Press,
an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. www.redwheelweiser.com.

Article Source:

End Your Menopause Misery: The 10-Day Self-Care Plan by Stephanie Bender and Treacy Colbert.End Your Menopause Misery: The 10-Day Self-Care Plan
by Stephanie Bender and Treacy Colbert.

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About the Authors

Stephanie Bender, author of: End Your Menopause MiseryStephanie Bender is the founder of Full Circle Women's Health, a women's health clinic in Boulder, CO. She has conducted pioneering research into women's hormonal health, and is a nationally recognized speaker on women's health issues. She is the author of The Power of Perimenopause. (Photo by Green Earth Photography)

Watch a video: Good News About Aging (with Stephanie Bender)

Treacy Colbert, author of: End Your Menopause MiseryTreacy Colbert is a medical writer who has written for Health, Clinical Advisor, Women's Health Access, International Journal of Integrative Medicine, and Nutrition in Complementary Care. She also writes a blog, "The Green Side of the Grass," which deals with all manner of things, including marriage, death, and 3-in-1 Oil.