Six Tips for Keeping Your Brain – and Memory – Youthful

Last month, we wrote about memory as we age. Although the brain’s ability to remember declines as we get older, there are ways to slow that decline.

This month, we offer a few strategies on how to keep that memory agile. These tips are also taken from a presentation given to the advisory board of the Bellows Falls Senior Center last February by Sue Ann Forcier, elder care outreach coordinator for Senior Solutions.

It’s important to stay mentally active: learn a new pastime, play cards or games, memorize anything new— a line from a song, a rhyme or prayer. Challenge yourself with learning a new route while driving; pay attention to the details and write them down when you get home. It’s just as important to stay mentally active. That helps stimulate executive functioning as you follow the flow of conversation, reading and interpreting the others’ responses. It also helps reduce isolation, one of the factors contributing to dementia.

1. The task: Go on a guided tour of a museum or another site of interest. Pay careful attention to what the guide says. When you get home, try to reconstruct the tour by writing an outline that includes everything you remember.
   Why: Research into brain plasticity (the ability of the brain to change at any age) indicates that memory activities that engage all levels of brain operation—receiving, remembering and thinking—help to improve the function and hinder the rate of decline of the brain.
2. The task: Choose a song with lyrics you enjoy but don't have memorized. Listen to the song as many times as necessary to write down all the lyrics. Then learn to sing along. Once you've mastered one song, move on to another.
   Why: Developing better habits of careful listening will help you in your understanding, thinking and remembering. Reconstructing the song requires close attention and an active memory. When you focus, you release the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, a brain chemical that enables plasticity and vivifies memory.
3. The task: If you've ever thought about learning to play an instrument or take up an old one.
   Why: Playing an instrument helps you exercise many interrelated dimensions of brain function, including listening, control of refined movements and translation of written notes (sight) to music (movement and sound).
4. The task: Do a jigsaw puzzle that will be challenging for you—no fewer than 500 pieces.
   Why: Mundane as they may seem, jigsaw puzzles can provide real help for your brain. Completing one requires fine visual judgments about where pieces belong. It entails mentally rotating the pieces, manipulating them in your hands, and shifting your attention from the small piece to the big picture. To top it off, it's rewarding to find the right pieces.
5. The Task: Increase your physical activities, no matter how small.
   Why: New research indicates that exercise has positive benefits for the hippocampus, a brain structure that is important for learning and memory. It can even help your brain create new cells.
6. The Task: Get a good night’s sleep.
   Why: Scientists believe that our brains consolidate learning and memories during sleep. Studies have shown that people who don't sleep enough have more trouble learning new information, while sleeping well after learning something new helps the brain effectively put that information into long term memory.

Westminster Cares offers many opportunities to volunteer. You can deliver Meals on Wheels, take an elderly neighbor to the doctor or shopping, visit someone who lives alone, take a walk with a neighbor or serve on one of our committees. To find out how you can volunteer, call Westminster Cares at 722-3607 or email wecares@sover.net