Remember those days as a child when you could remember all your friends’ telephone numbers? Today I have no idea what anyone’s phone number is. Usually, I speed dial or resort to e-mail, in which case it’s all auto-fill. All my passwords are stored in my computer. There’s way too much information to process, and frankly, I have too little brain space left to memorize much more.
Despite our tech-laden society, I still want to keep my brain sharp to ward off any hint of dementia. Any self-respecting professional hypochondriac should, too.
Dr. Cynthia Green, memory expert at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York offers some tips for keeping your brain sharp and functioning at its best level possible.
TPH: Are there any special concerns for women as we edge closer to menopause?
As we approach middle age, we’re more aware of and vulnerable to changes in our intellectual functioning that are seen with aging. Studies have shown that we can have trouble sustaining focus, thinking quickly and multi-tasking. All these changes affect ability to learn and remember new things such as names, since learning relies on attention, processing speed and flexibility. Also, women in middle age can experience the hormonal shifts of menopause, which affect learning ability (although it’s unclear how estrogen modifies learning, it does seem to have some relationship). Finally, the role shifts and demands for middle aged women — continued child care, more senior roles with greater responsibility in the workplace, and caring for aging parents — place additional demands on our daily memory and intellectual performance.
TPH: What can women do to keep their minds and memories sharp?
First, we can all leading a memory healthy lifestyle, including getting regular aerobic exercise, eating well — including balancing our intake of alcohol and caffeine — staying emotionally balanced, and dealing with stress effectively. Second, women can better maintain the intellectual skills that get more challenged as we age by exercising those skills, which include attention, processing speed, flexibility and memory. We can best work out those skills by playing games against the clock, since these activities force us to stay focused, think quickly and think flexibly. Finally, we can use strategies to help us keep track of information that we shouldn’t bother to memorize but need to know (like appointments, errands, etc.) and to help us memorize things we must commit to memory, such as names or numbers.
Here are five fun and easy exercises taken from the Good Thinking Kit from Marbles, developed in collaboration with Dr. Green. The kit offers 52 cards with hundreds of neurobic exercises.
1. Write a list of 10 words and put them away for 10 minutes, doing other things. When the time is up, see how many words you can remember.
2. Take a word, such as “love,” and see how many songs you can think of that use the word in lyrics. Suggestions: Love, Rain, Angel, Girl, Bird, Sun.
3. Name all your teachers from elementary school, beginning with kindergarten. Want more? Move on to middle school, then try high school. How about your health teacher?
4. Name a place, such as a country, state or city. The next person takes the last letter of that place’s name and has to come up with another place on the map.
5. Flex your verbal skills and your creative juices by writing your autobiography in 10 words. Try writing others: your parents, friends or famous people.
Dr. Green is a recognized expert in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and is an assistant clinical professor in the department of psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. She is president of Memory Arts, LLC, in Upper Montclair, N.J.
Visit her website at www.totalbrainhealth.com.
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