The foods you eat – and don't eat – play a crucial role
in your memory. Fresh vegetables are essential, as are healthy fats and avoiding sugar
and grain carbohydrates. You can find detailed information about nine
foods for brainpower here.
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 centerone 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.
3. Stop Multitasking
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)