• There is nothing we can do about ageing but we may prevent the effects of ageing, and some measures will undoubtedly help keep memory alive longer. A lively mind in a healthy body definitely helps.
• There is a lot of interest at the moment in choline in the diet. Lecithin is a major dietary source of choline and is especially plentiful in egg yolk. Doctors first became interested in choline because it is the precursor of acetylcholine which is essential for the flow of nerve impulses in the body. Studies have found that extra choline in the diet increases levels of acetylcholine in the brain and may help memory. In one study a 10 g dose of choline significantly improved memory and recall in normal, healthy people. Those whose memories were poorest at the start of the experiment were helped most. Lecithin can be bought in health-food shops, as can choline.
A study in Texas gave lecithin to people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (a form of mental deterioration that includes memory loss) and then re-tested their memories. Although their memories did not return to normal there was a definite improvement which lasted for 6-18 months. Choline and lecithin are totally safe to use-in one study there were no side-effects even when the subjects took 20-25 g a day.
• If you have too much to remember you will have to accept the fact that you will need to rely on tricks and devices if you don’t want to forget things. Learn to improve your level of concentration and to make a positive effort to link the new thing to be remembered to something else you already know. Make lists. Write notes for yourself. Use other people to remember things for you and then enlist their help. Use modern technology to store information you don’t have to carry in your head. Research has found that it is easier to remember pictures than words, so it can be helpful to create an image in your mind with which to link the new thought you want to memorize.
For example, if you want to remember to fill up the car with petrol and to buy some eggs think of the eggs floating in petrol. Similarly, when trying to remember names, link the person’s name to what he or she does. So Mrs. Garden who is a nurse would be remembered by a visual image of her with patients in beds in her garden, and so on.
• Cut down on or stop smoking, drinking and taking drugs. A study in Los Angeles divided twenty-three habitual smokers into two groups. One group was asked to smoke a non-nicotine cigarette, while the others smoked normal cigarettes. Both were then tested on their ability to recall a list of seventy-five items. The non-nicotine group recalled an average 24 per cent more words than did the ordinary smokers. In another study smokers and non-smokers were given a dozen colour photographs of people and told their names. After 10 minutes the non-smokers fared better at matching the names and the faces than did the other group.
• A study in Oklahoma tested the memory of young and middle-aged people before and after drinking alcohol. The results showed that even moderate drinking produced memory impairment. Certain medications, even some obtainable without a prescription, cause memory loss.
Some tranquillizers, and tablets for high blood pressure, cause memory problems, so if you think your tablets could be the cause, talk to your doctor. Don’t just stop them to find out.
• Tiredness can seriously affect short-term memory. Most people find that their memory is best early in the day and gets less good as the day wears on. This is only true for short-term memory, though-the reverse is true for long-term memory.
• Getting in the right mood can help memory. It has been found that happy events are better recalled in happy situations and moods, and vice versa. In one study, subjects were asked to remember two lists of words, one while they were happy and one while they were sad. People who were sad during recall remembered about 80 per cent of the word lists they had learned when they were sad, compared with only 45 per cent of the words learned when they were happy. On a practical level it can be very helpful to re-create the mood of the event you are trying to remember.
*195/72/5*
