John B. Arden

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-27-2016

Enhancing your memory begins with simple techniques to remember names and birthdays. Adopting healthy eating habits, staying low-key in a high-tech world, and practicing some techniques for retaining brain power are all ways to improve your memory.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

You don't know less in your old age; you probably know more. During your advanced years, however, your information-processing speed slows down. Don't worry, though — your long-term memory remains intact, and your understanding of what you already know is broader, more thoughtful, and wiser than during your early adulthood. Here's more good news: You were probably taught in school that, at birth, you have all the brain cells you'll ever have, right? From then on (the lesson continued), you lose about 10,000 brain cells every day — and even more if you drink alcohol. Well, it turns out that the old wisdom isn't true. The situation isn't that bleak. You do have an opportunity for dendrite growth. Dendrites are the part of your neurons that branch out to pick up information from other neurons. What you do with your brain determines what happens to it. Now, for the not-so-good news: Your brain loses its vitality and size as you age. The levels of neurotransmitters — including various hormones, such as melatonin, testosterone, and estrogen — decline. Your arteries and capillaries grow less flexible and, in some cases, become clogged, hindering the flow of vital oxygen and nutrients to your brain. Uncontrolled stress makes matters only worse. Reducing stress, keeping the blood flowing If you're like many people, one of your objectives as you age is to retain your power to learn and recall — maybe even get better, if you can. If that's part of your agenda, here are two things to start doing today: Reduce your stress level. Improve your blood circulation. Stress kills memory. Hormones, such as cortisol, are destructive to your brain if you stay stressed. As you age, cortisol (a stress hormone) has a particularly destructive effect on your brain's ability to adjust to new learning and memory. Dendritic branching and axonal sprouting , which support new memories, get retarded when your body has to deal with stress. As you age, the blood flow to your brain reduces. This reduction means that your neurons are provided with less life-sustaining support. Your blood brings not only the glucose, which acts as fuel to your brain, but also the amino acids that are synthesized into neurotransmitters. If your diet is high in saturated fats or if you drink alcohol or smoke, count on your blood flow to be slow. The reduction in blood flow to your brain doesn't necessarily happen at the same pace as your neighbor down the street who's the same age. You have some control over it. One of the better things you can do to keep your blood flowing is to exercise on a regular basis. You'll not only do your heart a big favor, but you'll also help clear out cholesterol from your arteries and increase the longevity of the elasticity of your arteries and capillaries. You may want to consider taking a modest amount of gingko, which dilates blood vessels. Don't take gingko if you're also taking a blood-thinning agent such as aspirin. To minimize stress and keep the blood flowing: Exercise. Take regular walks, swim, bike, or work out in the gym — whatever fits your style. Join a yoga or meditation class. Eat a balanced diet. Keep the saturated-fat level low. Minimize consumption of alcohol. Don't smoke. Consider taking modest doses of gingko (as long as you're not taking a blood thinning agent). Avoid high-stress activities, such as working as a trader at the New York Stock Exchange. Learn relaxation techniques and use them on a regular basis. Free radicals also begin to take their toll as you age, because free radicals break down tissue and kill cells. The main targets of free radicals in your brain are the myelin sheaths. The myelin sheaths consist of the oily substance that covers your axons to improve conduction. Axons are the part of your neurons that send information. They help your neurons fire at maximum velocity. When free radicals eat away the myelin, your axons lose their conductivity. This lack of conductivity means that your brain doesn't process information as quickly. Memories are both harder to form and harder to recall. The other big targets of free radicals are your dendrites. Dendrites are the part of your neurons that receive information from other neurons. Free radicals cause your dendrites to thin out, leaving your brain less able to process information in ways it had before. You find yourself forgetting jokes that you were once able to tell with great punch. One way to combat free radicals is to consume foods that are rich in antioxidants. You can also supplement your diet with antioxidant vitamins, such as C and E. Compensating for your graying senses As you pass your prime physically, you may experience some loss of your senses. Most people do — the eyesight fades, the hearing grows less acute, and muscles lose their flex. Sound familiar? These losses are facts of life for older people, and they're all perfectly normal. Unfortunately, the fading competence of your senses makes it more difficult to pick up the information that warrants attention and remembering. This means you may not get all the information that others get and, therefore, remember less. With all this sensory dulling and dampening of attention, other people may misread your deficits as a decline in your overall intelligence. Make sure that you do everything you can to keep your eyesight strong, your hearing acute, and your muscles in tone — so that people don't get the wrong idea! Maximize your sensory ability by compensating for your deficits. For instance: If your hearing is fading, wear a hearing aid. If your eyesight is on the blink, wear glasses.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Memory mnemonics are simple techniques to help you remember what you want to remember. A mnemonic is as easy as, "One two, buckle my shoe; three four, shut the door; five six, pick up sticks." Many people learned that simple number rhyme before they ever even heard the word mnemonic, yet, it's an example of a mnemonic. To use a mnemonic, all you have to do is Decide what you want to remember Match what you want to remember with an image or word cue Refer to the cue to recall your memory Think of mnemonics as a way for you to organize information so you can later recall it more easily. The word mnemonic actually means, "aiding memory." You can structure or package your memories so they are easily available to you. A mnemonic is like a thread that, when you pull it, has a whole string of memories attached. Not all mnemonic systems work the same for everyone. Just as people are unique, so are their needs and preferences. What you find useful may be useless to your neighbor and vice versa. Choose a mnemonic that works for you Choose the mnemonic that fits best with your personality and familiarity. Doing so can increase your chances of remembering your memory-aid in the future. To use mnemonic aids effectively, consider the following basic principles. Make sure the mnemonic: Gets your attention. Contains an easy association. Is organized in such a way that it's easy for you to remember. Is meaningful to you. Don't rely on a mnemonic technique that you've read about if you already have one that suits you personally. Each person's life experience is different, and people will respond to images in their own way. Mnemonics that grab your attention and make remembering fun are always more effective. If your mnemonic is stale and boring, you'll tend to forget it. Make the mnemonic stand out by making it silly, funny, absurd, or even titillating. Settle on a mnemonic that fits the situation If your mnemonic has little to do with what you're trying to remember, you'll probably forget it. For example, for your biology class, you're trying to remember that the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador have one of the widest ranges of unique animal species, including aquatic dragon lizards. You may think of mnemonics like these: The Ecuadorean flag. A flag image probably won't grab your attention, compared to a more vivid and evocative image. A knight fighting off a dragon just outside a medieval castle. You're trying to associate the dragon lizards on the Galapagos Islands with the image of castles and knights. Remember, you're trying to recall the Galapagos Islands, not the British Isles. A huge number of gallon containers with dragon lizards crawling out. With the word gallon, you have a link to the word Galapagos Islands, and you have added the lizards. You also want to make sure that you organize your imagery in such a way to carry the broader point, namely that not only are there aquatic lizards on the Galapagos Islands, but a wide range of animals. In this case, you may want to envision the gallon containers brimming over with a wide variety of living creatures, in addition to the dragon lizards. Darwin's boat, the Beagle, anchored in the bay, and hundreds of gallons of containers on shore, brimming over with life. You want to make sure that there's personal meaning to the image you're trying to remember, and for me, an actual image from history works: Darwin's boat. The overall concept of the Galapagos Islands should represent a geographical location so remote that living species have evolved differently from others on the mainland. Taking shortcuts: They're okay Although the visual mnemonic route (the Link system) can potentially carry much more than just one image, the lack of time you have could make identifying an image impractical in some situations. Visual mnemonics take much more time for you to develop than do peg, link, story, or phonetic mnemonics. When you don't have a lot of time and need to develop a quick way to remember something important, using a peg may be wiser. For example, if you're listening to a lecture and don't have a notepad, then you'll end up in the dust when the lecturer moves on to another subject while you're trying to conjure up a visual image. One of the advantages the Peg system has over the story, phonetic, or link systems is that you can select individual items from a list. In contrast, the link system relies on a sequence. Like the Loci system, which depends on prememorized location-connected links, the Peg system use prememorized word or number links. With the Peg system, that information connects to nouns. The more complex or abstract the noun, the more vulnerable it may be to association with other words or ideas. The nouns are most useful if they are concrete nouns. Whatever mnemonic system you use, make sure that it's flexible and meets the demands of what you're trying to remember. Practice using mnemonics so that you'll be versatile in their use. Mnemonics have a long history and have been used all over the world. You can make them work for you.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

You may be one of the millions of people juggling several tasks at once. This kind of complicated balancing act has been referred to as multitasking, because you're doing more than one thing at time. Multitasking has become a normal way of functioning in the world. If you find youself doing any of these things, you're a multitasker. Talking on the phone while e-mailing Reading while watching television Writing a memo during a meeting about something completely different Making or taking a cell phone call while driving If you're proud of being able to multitask, you should be concerned about what it's doing to your memory. Recent research has made clear that divided attention dampens memory. Although we may be able to glide through the day, touching bases and dealing with busy work, the depth to which we remember any of it reduces as we engage in activities that require more concentration. Imagine yourself sitting at a meeting at work and feeling pressed for time with too many people wanting your attention. Twice, you get up to answer your pager. After you sit back down in the meeting, you decide that you'd better get that memo to the staff written. From one ear, you hear the director of the company talk about getting more out of the workers. From the other ear, you listen to two of your fellow supervisors gossiping about how the director was dating his assistant, Debbie. You decide that you'd better get this memo written before the end of the meeting because you have a teleconferencing meeting and have to return some e-mails while you return some phone calls. You write the memo on your laptop. After the meeting, you hand the floppy disk to your secretary and ask her to have it printed out and delivered to everyone's mailbox. After you go to the two teleconferences, you get an urgent call from the director. He summons you to his office. You arrive to see him glaring at you. He hands you a copy of your memo. It reads, "Debbie and the Director want you." Having that memo fly back in your face in this way would be enough to make you reconsider whether you'll continue multitasking. However, you shouldn't wait to change your ways until you experience such a dramatic humiliation. Most likely, the memory mistakes you make while multitasking are far more subtle. Perhaps, they're so subtle that you don't even notice because you're so busy multitasking. Multitasking decreases your memory ability. Each task that you're engaged in drains part of your mental energy. This drainage is why multitasking breeds absentmindedness. Your complete mind isn't present when you shift from one task to another and back again. You could say that your mind is absent. The plain truth is that you don't have unlimited ability to pay attention to several things at once. With each new task you toss in to the juggling act, you dilute your investment in each task. Consequently, even if you do complete one of the juggled tasks, you may not remember how you did it. You may ask, "Is the solution to avoid multitasking?" The simple answer to this question is yes. But, at times, you may think that you don't have a choice. However, you may have a bigger choice than you think. True, certain times, you may have to do some juggling — but these times are probably fewer than you think. Your challenge is to know the difference between the times you absolutely do have to multitask and the times that you don't. Even if you're compelled to multitask, you still may be able to retain some memory of what you did on one task before you shift to another. You can make this shift successfully if you shift your pace. Yet, just slowing down isn't enough because you still need to break the pace up with islands of sanity. You need to come up for air periodically. Consider the break in pace to be an opportunity to remember what you just completed. It's a time for you to integrate that task with all the other tasks you completed in the same project. As you fit in the latest tasks with the other ones, you can see how they all relate to the bigger picture.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Your brain is so sensitive that you risk damaging it in ways that are so subtle that you may not have thought it possible. You can avoid many of these damaging effects (or at least minimize them) if you watch your diet, make sure you aren't exposed to toxins, and pay close attention to what medications you do or don't take. Dealing with free radicals One of the subtle destructive effects on the brain occurs through what has been called free-radical damage. Free radicals aren't peace loving, anti-war protesters from the 1960s. They're actually warmongers that attack your brain, and there's nothing peace loving about them. Many fat cells in your brain are support cells, which help neurons do their job, and they are particularly vulnerable to damage. Damage to the mitochondria, the energy-producing factory in your cells, impairs DNA and messenger RNA (a type of nucleic acid that participates in the expression of genes). Your body produces its own antioxidants to battle the free radicals and the damage they produce. Unfortunately, as you age, these free-radical scavengers subside. In addition, if you're doing things that neutralize these naturally produced antioxidants and if you're maintaining a lifestyle that increases free radicals, then your brain is going to more than resent the double-whammy to its cells. Many lifestyle choices increase free-radical activity, such as: Smoking Eating fatty foods Being exposed to environmental toxins You can fight back the free radicals by: Eating a diet rich in antioxidants Taking vitamin supplements, such as vitamins C and E, which help break down the bad oxygen and neutralize free radicals Keeping your detox system A-OK When your body needs detoxifying, it uses a number of mechanisms, one of which is methylation. However, as you age, your body's ability to detoxify breaks down, especially if you have a poor diet. One of the destructive compounds that methylation normally cleans out is called homocystine, which is a regular by-product of amino acid metabolism. When homocystine builds up, however, it slows down your blood circulation by encouraging blood platelets to stick together. As if this effect isn't bad enough, homocystine also contributes to free-radical damage and a number of other major problems including atherosclerosis, cancer, DNA damage, and Alzheimer's disease. A bad diet can cause defects in your methylation system. For example, if your diet is deficient in foods containing vitamin B12 and folic acid, you'll not only have defects in methylation, but also in your memory. Make sure you have a balanced diet by including foods that support methylation: For vitamin B12, eat eggs, liver, and milk. For folic acid, eat carrots, dark leafy vegetables, and whole wheat. Take supplements in both Bringing inflammation under control Inflammation can damage your brain subtly and not so subtly. Inflammation occurs normally when you are injured or when your cells have been under attack by bacteria. The area around your injured cells is put into an alarm state so that repair and healing can happen. Blood vessels dilate to bring in supplies. Swelling often occurs, however, as blood vessels leak fluid. Immune system cells come to the rescue, and blood-clotting agents form. Unfortunately, as you age, the inflammation that's so helpful to healing doesn't bounce back as quickly as when you were younger. This slowdown occurs because your circulatory system can get sluggish as plaque builds up on your artery walls. In addition, your immune system may misidentify your healthy cells for unhealthy ones because the signaling mechanism can break down. If all this happens, you run the risk of chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation occurs with several serious diseases, including cardiovascular disease and arthritis. Recently, it has been found as a major factor in Alzheimer's disease. Because inflammation has been so strongly associated with brain impairment, many doctors recommend a moderate use of anti-inflammatory drugs. Anti-inflammatory drugs come in two classes, steroidal and non-steroidal. Because steroids can also damage your hippocampus, many doctors recommend non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs such as acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) or ibuprofen (Motrin). Minimize inflammation in your brain by Maintaining a diet free of artery-clogging fats. Taking a low dose of a non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug as you get older.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Our brain’s ability to process information slows down as we get older; it’s just a fact of life. Your long-term memory stays intact, though, and your understanding of what you already know is greater. Some things to help retain your power to learn and recall are: Reduce your stress level. Improve your blood circulation — exercise! Correct any reduction in your hearing or eyesight. Push your temporal lobes into more activity. For example, listen to lectures and discuss them afterward. Keep your occipital lobes humming. Attending photo and art shows is one way. Going on sightseeing trips is another. Share jokes with friends. Join in the kinds of activities that your friends say are fun. Change your routines. Try new routes that cause you to think. Turn off the TV. Use the time to start a new hobby. Go back to school. Attend adult-education classes. Spend time with young people. They can inspire you and keep you quick on your feet.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

The chemistry of your brain and sharpness of your memory are directly affected by what you eat and drink. Adopt these healthy habits to improve your brain’s ability to remember: Eat three balanced meals per day, each meal consisting of three parts: Fruit or vegetable Complex carbohydrate, like whole-wheat bread Protein Stay hydrated: Drink water and juices Moderate your caffeine intake Minimize sodas and sugar drinks Take the following supplements: Vitamins, such as C, E, and the Bs Minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, and zinc Herbs, such as Gingko (unless you’re taking blood-thinning medications)

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

You probably don’t forget your own birthday, although sometimes you may want to, but you may forget the birthdays of people who expect you to remember. The Loci technique is a method of associating locations with important information to help you remember an important date, like a birthday. For example, suppose the birthday you want to remember is November 4. Using familiar locations, here are the steps: November: In most temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, deciduous trees lose their leaves by November. Your first loci clue is bare trees on the way to work. Four: You pass four barns during a stretch of your daily commute. So after you notice the leafless trees, the four barns cue you to remember that the birthday is on November 4. Birthday present: The crass commercial billboards along your route remind you to buy a gift. Of course, you may have to change your location cues if you move to the treeless desert or if the four barns are torn down to accommodate 600 new houses.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Most people complain about forgetting names, mostly because they haven’t taken the right steps to remember a name when hearing it for the first time. Follow these steps to improve your memory for names: Pay attention. Make sure that you hear the name clearly. If you don’t, ask him to repeat it. Give the name special meaning. Connect the name with some aspect of his physical appearance or personality by: Exaggerating: Imagining an artist drawing a caricature of the person and highlighting that one physical feature Associating: Linking that one physical feature with some aspect of his personality, such as the way he moves or expresses himself or wears his clothes. Repeat the name. Use it in conversation with him — but don’t overdo it. Repeat the name silently to yourself. Review afterward. Think again about the clever association you’ve made between his name and some aspect of his appearance or personality.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

In today’s society, the use of cellphones, pagers, faxes, teleconferencing, computers and hand-held devices is seriously compromising your memory. Practice these things to keep your memory skills keen during a media and tech blitz: Avoid multitasking, like talking on the phone while e-mailing, or watching TV while reading. Divided attention dampens memory. Be selective. Be exclusive. Finish each project before moving on to the next. If that’s impossible, make a clean break as you move back and forth. For example, stand up and stretch. Keep your cellphone and pager turned off when you don’t absolutely need to be in touch. Check e-mail and phone-mail messages a few times a day, not continuously. Watch TV selectively. Don’t watch just to see “what’s on.”