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The passage of time is natural and aging brings consequences such as memory loss. However, thanks to the advancement of communication, the best advice from specialists to combat this deficiency is available to anyone. Below are seven ideal exercises to strengthen memory after age 50, according to neuroscientist, Richard Restak.
Richard Restak, a neurologist and clinical professor at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health, said that memory decline is preventable, but it is key “overcome everyday memory problems”.
How is this achieved? By practicing daily exercises to strengthen working memory, which is linked to intelligenceto the concentration and achievement. So, there is a group of exercises that are ideal for reinforcing all of these skills and avoiding long-term problems.
“Lack of attention is the main cause of memory difficulties”the specialist said, adding: “It means that you did not encode the memory correctly.” This means that some memory lapses are actually Attention problemsno memory problems.
So, one exercise might be to pay attention when learning new information, for example, when learning a name, you should visualize the word. “Having an image associated with the word can improve recall”, he indicated. But the important thing is to be attentive when learning new information.
There are many challenges that can be found in everyday life, such as, for example, making a shopping list for the supermarket and then memorizing it. When it comes to shopping, the challenge is not to take out your cell phone or the list to see the missing products.
“Try to see the elements in your mind”, He suggested. You should only refer to the list at the end, if necessary. Another example could be memorizing the steps of a cooking recipe or navigating city streets by heart, without the help of GPS.
“Games like bridge and chess are excellent for memory, but so are the simplest ones.”Restak said. The game he recommends is 20 questions, in which a group (or a single person) thinks about a person, place or object; and the other, the interrogator, asks 20 questions with a “yes” or “no answer.”
The game consists in that in order to succeed, the questioner must have all the previous answers in his memory in order to guess the correct answer. However, nowadays, there are a wide variety of games to test memory, even the simplest ones will succeed in training it.
According to the expert, a early indicator of memory problems is abandoning fiction. People, when they start having memory difficulties, tend to switch to reading nonfiction. But why fiction specifically? It’s because, for years, Restak noticed in his patients that Fiction requires a commitment to the textstarting from the beginning and working to the end.
Technology has made people’s lives so much easier that this can cause several problems. The first, called “technological distortion,” means: Storing everything on the phone means the person “doesn’t know”. So this can erode our own mental abilities. “Why bother focusing, concentrating and straining to visualize something when a cell phone camera can do all the work for you?” he asked.
The second problem is that it distracts the focus from the task at hand. “Nowadays, the greatest impediment to memory is distraction”he said, explaining that many of its applications were created with the aim of causing addiction in people.
Another fundamental factor is the mood in a person and this has a direct impact on memory. For example, a person diagnosed with depression may lose much of their ability to remember certain things.
As he explained, the hippocampus, or memory input center, and the amygdala, the part of the brain that handles emotions and emotional behavior, are linked. So when someone is in a bad mood or depressed, they tend to remember sad things. So treating depression, either chemically or with psychotherapy, usually restores memory.
The neurologist received thousands of patients throughout his career and many consulted for specific situations. However, not everything is measured with the same yardstick. It is not the same to forget where the car was parked in a full parking lot, but forgetting how it got to that place could be reason for consulting a specialist. Forgetting your room number when you arrive at a hotel is not the same as not remembering the number of your house or apartment. “There is no simple solution to know what should be a cause for concern”indicated the specialist, and if you are concerned it is always better to consult with a doctor.
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