Improve and Maintain Your Memory

27 tricks to keep your brain in shape

Goodbye "Senior Moments"

Five things you need to buy at the grocery store -- forgotten! The name of your neighbor's son -- lost! The reason you needed to go to Wal-Mart -- gone! The magazine you wanted to show a coworker -- left at home!

Relax. These little memory meltdowns are an inevitable part of life. In most cases, they have nothing to do with Alzheimer's, nothing to do with disease or injury, and everything to do with stress, too much work, and our daily craziness.

The good news is that the imminent aging of the baby boomers has spurred massive research into the origins and maintenance of memory. If you think you have a serious memory decline, seek medical attention, of course. It is possible it could be related to heart disease or the onset of Alzheimer's. But if you are just trying to have fewer "senior moments" than your bridge opponents, we're here to help with the following 27 tips. And remember: Aging alone doesn't cause a decline in brain function -- live well, and you can keep learning and thinking clearly until your ripest old age.

1. Use it or lose it: The golden rule of brainpower. The brain functions like a muscle in that the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Watching lots of unstimulating TV; having a job routine; cooking, cleaning, and shopping the same way over and over -- all contribute to a brainpower loss. Learning new things, varying your routines, having provocative discussions, going on adventurous vacations, and playing a musical instrument all cause your brain to make new connections and function better.

2. Take a B-complex vitamin pill. As you age, your body becomes less efficient at absorbing certain B vitamins from food. Yet the B's are critical for maintaining a sharp memory. A study of 260 healthy men and women over age 60 found that those with low blood levels of vitamins C or B₁₂ scored the worst on memory and cognitive functioning tests. Those with low levels of the B vitamins riboflavin or folic acid scored worst on a test of abstract thinking. Another study found that giving women a B-complex supplement improved their performance on memory tests. B vitamins also help lower levels of artery-clogging homocysteine, linked to memory loss. Two other supplements to take along with your B's are vitamins E and C. Studies find taking the two together can protect against Alzheimer's. But taking the supplements separately (for example, one in the morning and one at night) had no effect.

3. Add whole grain bread back into your diet. If you've been following a high-protein, low-carb diet and simultaneously finding your memory going, it's probably not a coincidence. More than any other organ, the brain relies on glucose for fuel. And glucose comes from carbs. One study of 22 older people from the University of Toronto found that those whose diets contained the greatest percentage of calories as carbohydrates performed best on memory and task tests. Make sure you're getting your carbs from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, not ice cream, candy, and cake.

4. Make up a batch of tuna salad on Sunday nights and make sure it's gone by Friday. Tuna, even the canned kind, is high in omega-3 fatty acids, important for maintaining memory. Try it stuffed into a tomato, added to a regular green salad, or on toast for breakfast.

5. Eat a vegetarian dinner at least once a week. Low in saturated fat and high in fiber, it will boost your efforts to maintain healthy cholesterol levels. That's important when we're talking about memory, because high cholesterol levels eventually damage blood vessels, affecting long-term memory and speeding the progression of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

6. Eat cereal mixed with one cup of blueberries for breakfast several days a week. Not only do studies find that eating cereal in the morning can help your performance on certain cognitive tests, but a study in rats who got blueberries every day for two months found the fruit boosted levels of enzymes that help brain cells communicate with each other. Although the study was done in rats, the lead researcher says the results were so compelling that he now eats a cup or two of blueberries every day -- just in case.

7. Skip dessert tonight. And tomorrow night as well. It might just help you drop a few pounds -- a good thing when it comes to memory. That's because Swedish researchers found that older women diagnosed with memory problems tended to be an average of 11-17 pounds overweight compared to women who had fewer memory lapses. Other studies find overweight women and men have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

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