REMEMBER ME THIS WAY

REMEMBER ME THIS WAY

Are you having hard time remembering important dates in your life? Did you walk into a room without remembering why you went there? Do you suffer from what is called “senior moment”? Maybe you need to do some actions to fix or repair damaged brain. It’s now time to sharpen your memory. 

Every cell in your body needs a steady supply of oxygen and nutrients in order to stay alive and work properly, including brain cells. Because oxygen and nutrients are carried in the blood stream, anything that impedes blood flow will starve those all-important brain cells. The plain truth is that a healthy heart makes for a healthy brain.

Some foods can help you boost your memory.

©     Some of the best cruciferous vegetables: Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and bok choy.

©     Some of the best leafy green vegetables: spinach, collard and mustard greens, kale and Swiss chard.

©     Some of the best foods for anthocyanin: Berries (all varieties), cherries, black currents, eggplant, red, black, and purple grapes, plums, rhubarb, red onion, red apples, red/purple cabbage, and red beets.

©     Some of the best foods for quercetin: Onions (red, yellow, white), kale, leeks, cherry tomato, broccoli, blueberries, black currants, elderberries, apricots, apple with skin (Red Delicious), and red, purple, and black grapes. 

©     Folic acid can also help your memory. Folic acid (also known as folate) seems to have a direct effect on memory. Some of the best foods for folic acid include fortified whole-grain breakfast cereals, lentils, black-eyed peas, soybeans, spinach, green peas, artichokes, broccoli, wheat germ, beets and oranges.

©     Eating fish seems to help too! A study conducted by researchers at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago followed more than 3,000 men and women for six years to see how diet affected memory. People who ate fish at least once a week had a 10 percent slower decline compared with those who did not eat fish, a difference that gave them the memory and thinking ability of a person three years younger.

Here are some steps you can take to help optimize brain health and sharpen your memory.

©     Focus on the information you are trying to remember. Tune out the T.V., coworkers, spouse and telephone – and line up some brain games for the kids. If you can take a quick minute to shift your attention away from any and all distractions and concentrate solely on your task, you’ll gain an automatic memory boost.

 

©     Use your senses to help your memory store needed information. Note the colors of a picture you want to recall. Is the sky a light blue or deep purple? What does the image smell like? What sounds are being made? The more involved you can be in the information, the easier it is for your brain to store and retrieve it.

©     Keep blood pressure and cholesterol in check. A healthy heart makes for a healthy brain.

©     Get enough sleep. Research shows that sleep deprivation can interfere with memory.

©     Exercise regularly. Regular physical activity has been shown to decrease the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease by about half. Half! Aim for 30 minutes a day.

©     Don’t smoke. Just as smoking increases risk of heart disease, it can also decrease blood flow to the brain and cause serious damage.

©     Give yourself a break. Seek out ways to de-stress your life.