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 Book offers tips on improving memory as we age
Posted: Saturday August 14, 2004 5:59 PM EST
 A new book co-authored by a memory researcher at Washington University in St. Louis is one-stop shopping for all the questions we have about memory and how serious our lapses might be as we grow older. Mark A. McDaniel, Ph.D., professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, says his book, Memory Fitness: A Guide for Successful Aging, relies on many rigorous academic studies but is written for the lay person. “Our mission is to give the general public a good idea of what they can reasonably expect from their memory capabilities as they age,” says McDaniel about the book he co-authored with Gilles O. Einstein, Ph.D., professor and chair of the psychology department at Furman University. “It also outlines some reasonable expectations about things people can do to perhaps increase their memory performances.” “As we age,” McDaniel explains, “almost every part of neuron function you can think of starts to deteriorate a bit.” In other words, neurons — the nerve cells that make up our brains — naturally lose some functionality throughout a lifetime. This is partially responsible for the “senior moments” and other lapses that people commonly encounter, which McDaniel stresses are normal — usually. One source for all memory concerns “Older adults who participate in our studies,” says McDaniel, “tell us that the information they want us to convey [about memory] is in different sources — it’s not integrated into one source. What we’ve tried to do with this book is to integrate basic memory processes and how they change with age, cognitive strategies to improve memory, lifestyle changes like diet, nutrition and exercise, and basic information about Alzheimer’s, including ways to recognize and cope with the disease.” The authors offer strategies to stay sharp, despite those normal losses in memory function that come with age. Some of these are surprisingly simple. “Take courses, teach somebody something, discuss movies or books; do anything that makes you struggle and problem-solve through significant cognitive effort,” McDaniel suggests. “There are studies that show an association between challenging daily mental activity and memory maintenance as well as less dramatic loss of memory function.”
It appears that by challenging yourself, you can better preserve your memory capacities.
Source: http://news-info.wustl.edu/
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