Improve Your Memory

Memory loss affects everyone at one time or another. We forget where we left the car keys, if we locked the front door or what we meant to buy at the grocery store. Most people, at least occasionally, experience the embarrassment of forgetting someone's name. While these lapses of memory are unavoidable at times, there are a number of ways you can improve your memory and combat the memory loss that comes with age.

Aging and Short Term Memory Loss

Short term memory loss is a natural part of the aging process. While short term memory loss becomes more common with age, long term memory and implicit memory (memory related to motor skills, such as driving or reading) do not diminish.

If short term memory loss becomes chronic with age, or if long-term and implicit memory loss occurs, the individual may be suffering from the after effects of a stoke, Alzheimer's disease or some other form of dementia. Neurological damage, post-traumatic stress disorder and the side effects of some medications can also cause memory loss.

Memory Improvement Skills

Both long-term and short term memory loss can be improved by learning some simple memory improvement skills. While improving your memory sometimes requires rote memorization of facts, other times, it may involve coming up with a mnemonic device, a catchy phrase or letter association to help you remember a series of items.

Did you know that the human brain can only hold seven separate pieces of information in short term memory (give or take one or two items)? One strategy used to remember lists takes advantage of short term memory's "seven items" limit by grouping multiple items in clusters. Because the brain perceives each cluster as a separate item, you can remember more items.

Here's how it works. Take the following ten-item list:

• airplane
• onions
• flowers
• gasoline
• jeans
• kitten
• newspaper
• romance novel
• sunscreen
• water pistol

In just a few minutes, you can memorize this list, using association and imagery to aid in memory recall. You can also create a story that links each of the items to help you remember them. Like the following:

Visualize an onion. Onions make you cry. So do some romance novels. So imagine an onion crying as it reads a romance novel. The heroine of this novel owns a small gasoline store, but she has a problem. Instead of gas, flowers flow out of the pump, burying the handsome, jean-clad hero. In his jean's pocket the hero carries a kitten, which is playing with a giant tube of sunscreen.

The kitten sprays sunscreen all over a newspaper that's been folded into a paper airplane. The newspaper's front-page story explains that giant water pistols are not longer allowed on airplanes.

The odd little story above links each item to the next item in the list, using funny imagery to aid in memory retention. When you want to remember the list, start with your crying onion and, rather like a mental avalanche, the story provides you with the rest of the list, in order.

Improving Your Memory's Skills and Senses

Because we live in a world of senses, our brains are programmed to associate colors, smells and other stimuli with specific memories. When trying to improve your memory, you can take advantage of this. As you try to remember something, associate it with as many senses as possible. The senses, along with emotions, are known as mnemonics, a type of memory trigger. Possible mnemonics include:

• body position
• colors
• emotions
• images
• language
• smells
• sounds
• structures (buildings, natural formations, etc).
• tastes
• touch

Of the mnemonics, smell is the most evocative of memory aids, able to conjure up long-forgotten memories and even the emotions that accompanied the original memory. Working smell into memory associations is one of the most effective memory improvement skills you can develop.

When developing an image to associate with a memory, go wild: No one needs to know how far fetched your associations are. The only thing that matters here is that the image you associate with the item or information you are trying to remember works for you.

Often times, exaggerated images work best. If you need to remember to pick up eggs on the way home, imagine your car filled with giant eggs, all talking and trying to drive at the same time. By using exaggeration and humor, you give your brain more to associate with what you want to remember.

Other Memory Improvement Skills

Here are some other tricks to help you improve your memory:

• Acronyms: Acronyms are words or phrases composed of the first letters of the items you are trying to remember. One acronym to help children learn and remember the order of the planets is "My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets," representing the order: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (although Pluto isn't considered to be a planet anymore).
  
  By remembering this cute little phrase, a person can effectively recall the planets in their order of distance from the sun (starting with the closest).
  
  
• Rhyming: If you can associate something with a rhyme, you're more likely to remember it. Just think of how advertising jingles and song snippets can hang around in your head. Next time you are trying to remember a list or series of items or ideas, try fitting them in a catchy rhyme.

Reviewing to Improve Memory

Short term memory is temporary memory that you often forget once you have used it. To really remember something, it needs to be stored in long term memory. Associations, acronyms, rhymes and memory clusters help keep information in long term memory and prevent memory loss.

The brain filters and forgets information quickly if it isn't reinforced. After reading something you want to remember, go back and review the material several times over the next few days, using associations and concentrating on practicing memory improvement skills. Above all, be positive! If you assume you'll forget information, your brain believes that memory loss is inevitable. Remind yourself you're going to remember!

Vitamins and Antioxidants for Memory Improvement:

Our brain generates large number of free radicals per gram of tissue, more than any other organ in the body damaging the cells. Antioxidants protect neurons in our brain by keeping blood vessels supple and open, ensuring the flow of nutrients to the brain. Antioxidants like vitamins C and E protect cells from damage by disarming free radicals.

Fruits and Vegetables to Improve Memory:

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported in 1996 the results of a study on 260 people aged 65 to 90 with a series of mental exercises including memorizing words and mental arithmetic. The top performers were those who consumed the most fruits and vegetables and ate the least saturated fat.

Brahmi:

Bacopa(Brahmi herb), an antioxidant slows brain aging, reports a research finding reported in Indian Journal of Expt. Biol, June 34, 523-526 1996. Brahmi has been traditionally used as an anti-anxiety, anti-fatigue and memory strengthening herb. We need good blood flow to and from our brain to remove wastes and bring nutrients. Due to aging process, lipid peroxidation of fatty substances occurs, including those in brain cells. Brahmi has been found to reduce this damaging lipid.

Blueberries, Strawberries, Jambu Fruit (Jamun) and Spinach for Memory Improvement:

Brain boosters such as these are rich in anthocyanins, formidable antioxidants in deep red and purple pigments. They protect brain cells and the neuron's ability to respond to chemical messengers and discourage the formation of blood clotting. Spinach is an antioxidant powerhouse, bursting with betacarotene, vitamin C and folic acid. These contain betacarotene, vitamin C and folic acid and other compounds that keep blood vessels supple and help transport nerve impulses more efficiently.