Latest US Study Finds Brain Training Linked to Decreased Risk of Alzheimer’s.

It’s a huge, 800 page study prepared for an NIH State-of-the-Science Conference “Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease and Cognitive Decline:, but its findings are music to the ears of everyone over 50 who wants to keep a sharp, alert brain for the rest of their life. And who doesn’t!

Scientists, as you know, are very cautious about making promises but this is what they said:

“Of all the factors reviewed, including diet and dietary supplements, physical exercise, social engagement, and other leisure activities, only cognitive training was found to have a high level of evidence for being associated with a decreased risk of cognitive decline.”

This is fantastic news for Baby Boomers!

It means you don’t have to accept memory loss as a part of getting older.

You can do something about it!

‘Cognitive’ means brain and memory activities.

So, what the scientists are saying is this.

Although eating brain food, physical fitness and social activity are all really important,

‘only cognitive training was said to have a “high degree of evidence” in this report’.

These new scientific findings are of critical importance.

At 50+, you are confidently expecting to live a full and positive life, with plenty of time to enjoy the leisure activities you’ve promised yourself and your family during your busy earning years. You are entitled to those years – but more and more of us are being robbed of them through memory loss and Alzheimer’s.

But you can do something about that. Start today.

Sign up now for our FREE six-day Brain Tune course.

It will set you on the right path to brain fitness.

For further information, read lots of articles on this site, including  Nine Secrets of a Sharp Brain After 55 and Keep that Boomer Brain Growing

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Please feel free to reproduce this article on your website. See our article reproduction policy for details. In brief, all you need to do is reproduce the article above and add the following credit footer including the links unaltered and then email us at articles@brainandmemoryfoundation.org to let us know where you’re reproducing it because we’ll be excited to see it on your site! Please let us know if we can help in any other way. We want to get the word out.

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This article was reproduced with permission of its author Gillian Eadie, founder of the Brain and Memory Foundation. Gillian is an award-winning educator with more than 20 years as a principal at several prestigious private schools and is a Churchill Fellow. For more free help and personal advice on Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and improving your memory, please visit the Brain and Memory Foundation.

Is this forgetfulness normal?

Many people over the age of 50 (and maybe even younger) experience mild forgetfulness.
Although these are a wake-up call to pay attention to your brain and memory, if the forgetfulness includes:
• Forgetting parts of an experience
• Forgetting where you park the car
• Forgetting events from the distant past
• Forgetting a person’s name, but remembering it later
Then, your memory loss is mild and would be regarded in the ‘normal’ range. It’s worrying though and, in the view of Dr. Allison Lamont, the Memory Doctor, “it’s time to take stock of your lifestyle and memory habits. Memory can be enhanced at this stage.”

When Should I Be Worried?

When you should be worried though, is when your memory loss is affecting your daily living. Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive condition that damages areas of the brain involved in memory, intelligence, judgment, language, and behavior. MRi scans are now able to determine what is happening in an Alzheimer’s but, prior to this, doctors have ways of identifying when the memory loss has become more serious.

When Should I Check With My Doctor?

It’s time to check with your doctor, if you, or someone close to you, is:

• Forgetting something you have just done, or an event you have just attended
• Forgetting how to do things that you’ve done many times before, like driving a car or telling the time
• Repeating phrases or stories in the same conversation
• Forgetting ever having known a particular person
• Frequently becoming confused, or seeming ‘far away’
• Having trouble making choices or handling money
• Noticing that forgetting like this has become more frequent over the past six months.

Never accept memory loss as normal – in mild cases, you can do something about it today – check out Seven Second Memory for a memory program that works.
In serious cases, then the sooner you have an accurate diagnosis, the sooner you can take the necessary steps.

For further information, read Nine Secrets of a Sharp Brain After 55 and Keep that Boomer Brain Growing

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Please feel free to reproduce this article on your website. See our article reproduction policy for details. In brief, all you need to do is reproduce the article above and add the following credit footer including the links unaltered and then email us at brainandmemoryfoundation@gmail.com to let us know where you’re reproducing it because we’ll be excited to see it on your site! Please let us know if we can help in any other way. We want to get the word out.

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This article was reproduced with permission of its author Gillian Eadie, founder of the Brain and Memory Foundation. Gillian is an award-winning educator with more than 20 years as a principal at several prestigious private schools and is a Churchill Fellow. For more free help and personal advice on Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and improving your memory, please visit the Brain and Memory Foundation.

Never forget again!

Most people want to know how to improve their brain. Trouble is, most want improvement without actually having to do anything! And they want it NOW.

Well, there are some quick fixes that you can do today – and there are hints about some ways of doing things that will give you longer term improvement. No-one has to accept forgetfulness as a way of life, particularly if you are entering your 50’s and 60’s.

Scientists have now shown that building up a `cognitive reserve’ will give you a buffer against memory loss of the minor kind and may even delay the onset of actual memory diseases like Alzheiner’s and other forms of dementia.

So, here’s the plan:

1. Believe that you have a good memory that can and will improve. Too many people let themselves off the hook by saying things like, ‘I’m no good with names’, “I’m having a senior moment’. And they leave it at that. Don’t let that be you. Persist until you remember whatever it was. Be determined and positive and be pleased with yourself when you succeed. Keep motivated and don’t say negative things about your memory.

2. Keep challenging your brain. Like any muscle in the body, regularly “exercising” the brain keeps it growing. New nerve connections develop and they improve your chance of remembering. Complex tasks such as learning a newcomputer program, language or musical instrument—keep your brain active and improve its physiological functioning. Your brain can regrow!

3. Regular aerobic exercise of at least 20 minutes a day improves your circulation throughout the body, including in the brain, and can help ward off the memory loss that comes with aging. Exercise also makes you more alert and relaxed, so your mental processing will be more effective.

4. Reducing any serious stress you are experiencing will improve your memory. I know it is easier said than done but stretching, relaxation exercises and any form of meditation will allow for more effective thinking processes. While chronic stress does not physically damage the brain, it can make focus, observation and remembering much more difficult.

5. A healthy diet will support your healthy brain, and a well-nourished brain functions much more efficiently. Include in your diet, foods containing antioxidants, like broccoli, blueberries, green tea, spinach, and red berries as well as Omega-3 fatty acids. Your brain also needs Thiamine, Vitamin E, Niacin and Vitamin B-6. Grazing, eating 5 or 6 small meals throughout the day instead of 3 large meals, also seems to improve mental functioning (including memory) by counteracting dips in blood sugar, which may negatively affect the brain. Supplements often purport to improve memory but only ginkgo biloba and phosphatidylserine have shown improvements in clinical trials.

6. Consciously practice your skills of observation. Notice details. Ask questions. Express an interest and actively attempt to learn something new. I have been the world’s worst at noticing details but I am making a conscious effort to overcome this tendency because I have found the more precise attention I pay, the better I remember.

7. Give yourself at least seven seconds of processing to form a memory. Memories are very transitory in the short-term, and distractions can make you quickly forget something as simple as a phone number. Focus on what you want to remember without distractions, all the while noticing details, repeating or connecting the new information.

8. Use all of your senses when forming these connections. Create for yourself vivid, memorable images because you remember information more easily if you can visualize it. Some people imagine quite bizarre happenings to connect ideas – it is up to you!

9. Repetition is memory’s friend. The more times you hear, see, or think about something, the more likely you are to remember it. When you want to remember a phone number, url or your colleague’s birthday, repeat it, either out loud or silently. Try writing it down; recite it again in ten minutes and half an hour later.

10. Categorizing individual things, often called chunking, will help you remember seemingly random items on a list. Practice with your shopping list.

11. Get organized. Have a designated place for items that you frequently need, such as keys and wallet. Use an electronic organizer or daily planner to keep track of appointments, due dates for bills, and other tasks. Improved organization reduces distraction and improves concentration.

12. Getting a good night’s sleep – a minimum of seven hours a night – may improve your short-term memory and long-term relational memory, according to recent studies conducted at the Harvard Medical School.

14. Find out about different skills and techniques for remembering. Mnemonics, memory structures and graphic organizers will visibly improve your memory. Seven Second Memory Plus Six Other Powerful Memory Techniques: Rewire your brain for a youthful mind. will start you on your improving your brain. Try it now.

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Please feel free to reproduce this article on your website. See our article reproduction policy for details. In brief, all you need to do is reproduce the article above and add the following credit footer including the links unaltered and then email us at brainandmemoryfoundation@gmail.com to let us know where you’re reproducing it because we’ll be excited to see it on your site! Please let us know if we can help in any other way. We want to get the word out.

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This article was reproduced with permission of its author Gillian Eadie, founder of the Brain and Memory Foundation. Gillian is an award-winning educator with more than 20 years as a principal at several prestigious private schools and is a Churchill Fellow. For more free help and personal advice on forgetfulness, your brain, and the influence of sleep, diet and exercise, please visit the Brain and Memory Foundation.

Shocking headline UK, 2008

I don’t know about you but I had not given a nanosecond’s thought to dementia – in fact, I wasn’t even certain what dementia was, exactly. Something to do with being demented or crazy, maybe …..

So I wasn’t exactly ready for being told that some of the odd things my Mom was doing were actually the first signs of Alzheimer’s disease, a kind of dementia. Like she was thinking it was night time and putting herself to bed in the afternoon. Or forgetting that she had just had lunch and wondering when lunch would be ready …. that sort of thing. What’s really scary, though, is that I’ve caught myself out being a bit forgetful as well and I’m just a baby-boomer. So, being anxious to make sure that I wasn’t on a fast-track to dementia, myself, I’ve done some research.

I was very relieved to find a report In ‘Critical Care Nurse”, 2004:24, which told me about four main ways you can delay, or even better, avoid dementia altogether. These were written up for critical care nurses – but I reckon they are pretty important for you to know, too.

All of the following were seen to be of of vital importance to avoid or delay dementia:

1. Establishing and maintaining a BMI within the healthy range (19 to 25) – this is Body Mass Index and you can calculate it. A weight loss program was recommended for anyone with BMIs at both the obese (>30) and overweight (>25) levels.
2. Reducing elevated cholesterol and blood pressure levels to normal ranges
3. Regular and frequent eating of green, leafy and cruciferous vegetables known to be associated with decreased incidence of dementia
4. Regular and frequent participation in activities that are socially, intellectually, and physically engaging

So, all you Fellow Boomers:
* when it comes to eating vegetables, green it;
* when it comes to participating in activities, move it; and
* when it comes to carrying excess body weight, lose it.

For further information, read Nine Secrets of a Sharp Brain After 55 and Keep that Boomer Brain Growing

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Please feel free to reproduce this article on your website. See our article reproduction policy for details. In brief, all you need to do is reproduce the article above and add the following credit footer including the links unaltered and then email us at brainandmemoryfoundation@gmail.com to let us know where you’re reproducing it because we’ll be excited to see it on your site! Please let us know if we can help in any other way. We want to get the word out.

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This article was reproduced with permission of its author Gillian Eadie, founder of the Brain and Memory Foundation. Gillian is an award-winning educator with more than 20 years as a principal at several prestigious private schools and is a Churchill Fellow. For more free help and personal advice on Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and improving your memory, please visit the Brain and Memory Foundation.

Or forgotten an important birthdays? Been out and worried about whether you’d taken your medication, turned out the light, turned off the oven?

So, what’s happening?

Are you losing your edge? Or getting Alzheimer’s?
No!

It’s NOT a ‘senior moment’
It’s NOT the catastrophic loss of brain cells
It’s NOT your brain shutting down

Your memory is still all there! But you do need to learn the ways to find it.

The Memory Doctor, Dr. Allison Lamont, PhD, says,

“Yes, if you do nothing at all to help your brain, you will lose some of your brain power after 55. But the good news is, you can re-grow your brain capacity, just as you can improve your fitness”.

Research has shown that the best results come from planned, systematic brain improvement. Even little changes in the way you act each day can bring positive results. Science hasn’t yet found a cure for Alzheimer’s, but most over-55 brains will definitely show improvement, and be able to push back brain decay.

Learn these NINE easy secrets for a youthful brain.
Start today.

1. Can You Hear Me?

31 million Americans have hearing problems. Is one of them you? Did you know that, if you are struggling to hear, it is more than likely that you are not creating a strong memory connection for the information you were trying to hear?. You can’t process and understand what you didn’t hear properly – so you will forget.
Have your hearing tested every 3 years after age 50.
Keep the volume down on your TV, Ipod or MP3. The last thing you want is more hearing loss. Protect your hearing and improve your memory.

2. Do I Look Fat In This?

The old adage, “fat and happy” just isn’t true any more. Obesity, or near obesity, is the enemy of a sharp and alert mind and obese people are usually very unhappy. While there is a lot of hype around about BMI (body mass index), there are indications that people with a healthy BMI (around 20) score much better on memory tests than those with BMI’s of 30 or more. I know there are exceptions to this general principle, but your all round health will benefit by thinking lean and trim when it comes to diet.

Reducing your calorie intake by 250 a day – either by saying No to that muffin, or burning off 250 calories with a brisk walk, will work wonders for your alertness and sharper memory. Aim to keep your BMI below 25.
Easting 4 or 5 small, balanced meals a day keeps your metabolism even and reduces the risks associated with high blood sugar levels.

Don’t know what your BMI is? Go to: www.prevention.com/bmicalculator to work it out.

3. Hello Doctor!

Miia Kivipelto and colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, reported that obesity, hypertension, or high blood cholesterol in middle-age (approximately 50 years old) each significantly raised the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia, in later life. Each of these risk factors roughly doubled the risk so that those in their 50s with all 3 conditions ran a risk of developing dementia that was 6 times higher than for folks with none of them.
Get checked out for blood pressure, cholesterol levels.

4. Pass the Salad, Please.

You’ve always known that vegetables are supposed to be good for you, right? Well, here’s the proof!

Jae Hee Kang reports that research, conducted over 10 years at Harvard Medical School , found that middle-aged women who consistently ate generous portions of leafy or cruciferous green vegetables were better able to preserve their cognitive abilities into advanced age than those who did not. Women who ate 8 or more servings (1 serving = 1/2 cup) of green, leafy vegetables (such as spinach or romaine lettuce) a week demonstrated the cognitive function of someone 1.7 years younger than those who ate 3 or fewer servings per week.

Green leafy vegetables seemed to preserve cognitive function best, perhaps because of their high vitamin B and antioxidant content, (e.g. vitamin C and folate) which may prevent the deleterious effects of aging on the brain caused by free radicals
So eat up that salad and eat more greens.

5. “Stop the noise! I can’t think!”

Have you ever felt like this? Well, actually, it’s probably true. If there are lots of distractions around you, then it is much more likely that you won’t remember, unless you have paid particular attention. When you want to remember, reduce the background noise.

6. Practice the Seven Second Rule!

It takes 7 seconds of concentration or processing ot commit information to memory. You’ll find full details of this amazing fact in the Lamont and Eadie book: Seven Second Memory plus six other powerful memory techniques. Rewire your brain for a youthful mind.

For now, though, think of paying attention as shining a flashlight on what you want to remember – and do this for seven seconds, focusing on the details and creating as many clues as you can for your memory.

7. Not just a Fishy Tale!

It’s now well-known that the Omega-3 fatty acids found in most types of fish (but particularly cold water fish) are brain-friendly. People who eat any type of fish at least once a week do appreciably better on mental tests than those who avoid seafood.
Try to eat at least two fish dishes weekly; if fish is not for you then, at the very least, consider taking Omega-3 dietary supplements.

8. Move it, Baby, Move it!

You already know that exercise is good for you. Being fit gives you a great feeling of well-being. But did you know that exercise is great for your brain also?
Even a 20 minute walk a day will help activate circulation that is so vital for brain growth. 40 minutes to an hour is even better.

9. Your Brain, Your Friend, Your Future.

Do you believe you have a sharp brain? Maybe not, since you are reading this, but I want you to change that.
Dr. Lamont says that having a positive attitude and strong self-belief in the power of your brain are very important in achieving brain growth.
You can do it!

Take these nine actions today and you are on your way to a better performing brain. Not only that, you are building up a buffer against brain decay in later life.
People who are purposeful, conscientious, sociable and self-motivated show less cognitive decline and fewer Alzheimer’s disease symptoms.

Make a conscious effort to stay on task, take an interest in new activities and engage in life around you.

Your brain will love you for it.

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Please feel free to reproduce this article on your website. See our article reproduction policy for details. In brief, all you need to do is reproduce the article above and add the following credit footer including the links unaltered and then email us at brainandmemoryfoundation@gmail.com to let us know where you’re reproducing it because we’ll be excited to see it on your site! Please let us know if we can help in any other way. We want to get the word out.

——————————————————

This article was reproduced with permission of its author Gillian Eadie, founder of the Brain and Memory Foundation. Gillian is an award-winning educator with more than 20 years as a principal at several prestigious private schools and is a Churchill Fellow. For more free help and personal advice on diet, exercise, brain food and improving your memory, please visit the Brain and Memory Foundation.