BETTER HEALTH TOTAL RECALL BOOST YOUR BRAIN POWER: 4 KEY WAYS Strengthening memory is all about making sure your brain is working at full capacity—and that’s actually pretty simple. “Research shows that little lifestyle habits can make a huge difference in your memory now and keep it from going downhill in the future,” says G a r y S m a l l , M . D. , c o a u t h o r of 2 Weeks to a Younger Brain and director of the UCLA Longevity Center. “You can see improvements pretty quickly—often within a few weeks.” So what are the most important habits? Start with these four: GET YOUR 1 HEART RATE UP. Aerobic exercise stimulates the creation of neurons in the hippocampus, a key area for long-term memory, says Wendy Suzuki, Ph.D., author of Healthy Brain, Happy Life WHAT IF YOU and professor of neural science and psychology at New York You might imagine a world University. A good guideline to follow is the American Heart HAD AN where everyone’s name rolls Association’s exercise recommendation: 150 minutes per INCREDIBLY off your tongue and you we e k of m o d e ra te exe rc i s e ( b ri s k wa l k i n g , j o g g i n g , b i k i n g ) o r never wandered around a 75 minutes of vigorous exercise (running, cycling class). But SHARP parking lot in search of your k n ow t h a t j u st o n e h o u r of c a rd i o i m p rove s yo u r a b i l i t y to car again. But memory focus for up to two hours afterward. If you need some extra MEMORY? affects more than just motivation to pound the pavement, try the Spotify running app, keeping track of facts and experiences. “It also helps make which detects your pace and chooses music to match. everyday actions feel seamless, from organizing your kitchen to typing or creating a spreadsheet,” says Charles HAVE A DRINK A. Weaver III, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department 2 (OF COFFEE, THAT IS). of Psychology and Neuroscience at Baylor University. Give Caffeine goes beyond giving you a wake-up your memory a boost and you’ll also help your everyday call: It can also enable you to store memories better. “Our productivity, focus, and problem-solving. Get ready to take theory is that caffeine blocks a receptor in the brain that a stroll down memory improvement lane. c o u l d i m p a i r m e m o r y, ” s a ys M i c h a e l Ya s s a , P h . D. , a s s o c i a te 132 BHG | September 2016 BY ALICE OGLETHORPE PHOTOS BLAINE MOATS BETTER HEALTH professor of neurobiology and behavior MAKING A 1-MINUTE at University of California, Irvine. The WHAT optimal amount is 200 milligrams MEMORY: CHECK a day—about what you’d get in one to REALLY HAPPENS? Lo o k a t t h i s l i s t fo r two cups of coffee. Just remember to 20 seconds, then have it before 2 p.m.; otherwise you QSTAGE 1: ENCODING A s s o o n a s look away and write run the risk of disrupting sleep, a crucial you learn a piece of information—a date, down as many words component to memory. a name, directions—your brain breaks it as you can remember. up into chunks, and each fragment gets KEEP STRESS IN encoded, which happens by strengthening THREAD 3CHECK. It’s no coincidence connections between neurons. You can that during tense times you feel enhance the encoding process by writing m o re fo rg et f u l . H i g h l eve l s of c o r t i s o l , a down the info, repeating it to yourself PIN h o rm o n e yo u r b o d y p ro d u c e s w h e n i n yo u r m i n d , o r c re a t i n g a n i m a g e you’re stressed, make it tougher to recall a s s o c i a te d w i t h i t (m o re o n t h a t i n “ M i n d things. “Chronic stress shrinks the Tricks” on page 136). SEWING hippocampus, one of the memory centers QSTAGE 2: STORAGE Not everything of the brain,” Small says. But many daily you encode sticks around forever. Your healthy habits—exercise, spending time SHARP brain stabilizes the memory, then moves it with friends—help counteract cortisol’s into long-term storage. Sleep is crucial here negative effects. If you’re looking for a since that’s when you have a long stretch of fun way to relax, DVR your favorite THIMBLE downtime with no new information coming comedy. Just anticipating a future laugh in. Two things that can disrupt the storage: can lower cortisol levels. Drinking too much alcohol (it prevents you HAYSTACK BECOME A from entering the deep sleep stage) and multitasking, which interrupts the process. CHATTERBOX. 4 Q RETRIEVAL To access HURT Social butterflies, pat yourselves STAGE 3: on the back. Research shows that information you’ve encoded and stored, people who are social throughout your brain activates the same patterns that the day tend to have better executive were created during the encoding and INJECTION functioning skills, which includes working storage stages. Your brain pulls the stored memory. Even 10 minutes of stimulating fragments together and fills in any gaps. If EYE conversation with someone in your daily this sounds imperfect, it is. You can life—a coworker, your barista—can help “remember” things that never happened if give your memory a boost. the gaps get filled in incorrectly. PRICKED food for thought Compare your list WhatWhat you eatt matmatters!ttet Consider working these foods into your regular with the one above to rotationrotat to help strengthen your memory. see how you did. “The majority of SALMONSAS LM AND WALNUTS: They’re particularly high in fatty people will only recall acaacids,ids which are central to brain function. “Eating omega-3 about half of the faffattytty aacids will promote healthier brain tissue and strengthen words,” Dr. Weaver aan n d m a i n ta i n yo u r m e m o r y, ” s a ys Presto n E ste p , Ph . D. , a u t h o r says. “And one of the most interesting things ofo TheThe Mindspan Diet and director of gerontology at is that half the people HHarvard Medical School’s Personal Genome Project. will incorrectly needle DARK LEAFY GREENS: “Lettuce, spinach, kale, collards, and remember other dark leafy greens are especially good sources of being on the list, which it isn’t.” vitamin K and other nutrients that have a positive effect on SOURCE: yoyyour brain health,” Estep says. Roediger, H. L. & M c D e r m o t t , K . B . ( 1 9 9 5 ) . BERRIES,BEB RED WINE, AND CHOCOLATE: Your brain requires “Creating False Memories: a hugeg amount of blood flow to operate, and these foods Remembering Words Not Presented in Lists.” ararere all hhigh in polyphenols and other compounds that help Journal of Experimental Psychology: imimprovemprove circulation, Estep says. “That’s why anything good for Learning, Memory, and hehearteart hehealth is also good for your brain.” Cognition, 21, 803–814. POST-IT FLAGS, RIO DE JANEIRO COLLECTION, POST-IT.COM 134 BHG | September 2016 BETTER HEALTH THE TECH CONNECTION Activities that To-do lists, appointment books, tying strings around your PHOTOS work your fingers: These are all little ways Need to remember memory—a to jog your memory, aka retrieval the address of cues. Now those tools are your doctor’s office crossword in one place on your smartphone. or the perfect H e re ’s h ow to m a ke th e gift for your husband puzzle, m ost of yo u r p h o n e. you spied in a store? playing Snap a pic! bridge—won’t hurt, but NOTES The note itself serves there’s no as a reminder, but pausing long enough to good proof enter it also catalogs they help it i nto yo u r b ra i n , REMINDERS Dr. Weaver says. You The sound of an alarm with memory might not even need to jolts you into p u l u p th e n ote l ate r! remembering what skills needed yo u n e e d to d o at th at most in exact moment, but silent reminders that daily life. s h ow u p o n yo u r s cre e n d o th e j o b , to o. — CHAR LES A . WE AVER I I I , PH . D . mind tricks Jotting down information is a great way to help your items you need to buy interacting with your surroundings. brain store it, but creating a quirky visual in your mind can So if you’re sitting in your office and need to buy milk, pasta, b e eve n m o re p owe r f u l . “ Co m i n g u p w i t h u n i q u e i m a g e s and laundry detergent, imagine milk and pasta spilling associated with facts activates both the left and right all over your laptop, and you trying to clean it up with hemispheres of your brain,” says Luis Angel Echeverria, a laundry detergent.