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Category: Memory
The Diet That Cuts The Risk Of Memory Loss
The supplement that may slow brain aging.
The supplement that may slow brain aging.
A diet sufficient in omega-3 fatty acids helps reduce the risk of memory loss.
People with low levels of fatty acids score worse on tests of memory, attention and problem solving.
People’s brain volume is also affected, said Dr Zaldy S. Tan, the study’s first author:
“People with lower blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids had lower brain volumes that were equivalent to about two years of structural brain aging.”
The most important omega-3 fatty acids are eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, known as EPA and DHA.
Even healthy young people can improve their memory by increasing their omega-3 intake, other research finds.
This study, though, included 1,575 older adults who were all free of dementia.
They were given tests of their memory, attention and problem-solving, as well as levels of DHA and EPA in their bloodstream.
The results showed that those in the bottom 25% for fatty acid levels had lower brain volumes and had poorer scores on cognitive tests.
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The study was published in the journal Neurology (Tan et al., 2012).
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This Beverage Reversed Normal Age-Related Memory Loss In Three Months
Drinking this could reduce your brain age twenty years in just three months.
Drinking this could reduce your brain age twenty years in just three months.
Cocoa flavanoids — like those contained in a cup of cocoa — can reverse age-related memory loss in older adults.
This is the first direct evidence that an important component of memory decline that comes with age can be improved with a simple dietary change.
Typically, normal age-related memory declines are noticeable to people in their fifties and sixties: things like forgetting where the keys are or having trouble recalling a name or word.
These changes are much less severe than those which typically occur as a result of devastating dementias like Alzheimer’s disease.
The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, found a high-flavanol diet could restore aspects of older people’s memory back to that of a typical 30- or 40-year-old (Brickman et al., 2014).
The changes were clearly visible in brain scans, as Dr Adam M. Brickman, the study’s lead author explained:
“When we imaged our research subjects’ brains, we found noticeable improvements in the function of the dentate gyrus in those who consumed the high-cocoa-flavanol drink.”
The image below shows the dentate gyrus in green (this is part of the hippocampus).
Previous research has shown that it is changes in this area of the brain that are associated with normal age-related memory loss.
Image credit: Lab of Scott A. Small, M.D.
Participants in the study were 37 healthy people aged between 50 and 69.
They were randomised into two groups, one of which was given a high-flavanol diet (900mg of flavanols per day) and the other given a low-flavanol diet (10mg per day).
At the end of the three-month period of the study, participants on the high-flavanoid diet showed improvements on memory tests.
Professor Scott A. Small, one of the study’s authors, explained the results:
“If a participant had the memory of a typical 60-year-old at the beginning of the study, after three months that person on average had the memory of a typical 30- or 40-year-old.”
Flavanols are also found in tea leaves, and certain fruits and vegetables, although the exact amounts and forms vary widely.
The researchers cautioned that people should not eat more chocolate as the critical flavanoids are not present at the required levels — the dietary supplement used in the study was specially formulated.
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This Mental Wake-Up Routine Is Damaging Your Memory
Stress you expect — not stress you experience — may be the real enemy to memory.
Stress you expect — not stress you experience — may be the real enemy to memory.
Anticipating stress messes with your memory.
People who wake up feeling the day will be stressful have worse memory later on, even if the stress does not materialise.
Dr Jinshil Hyun, the study’s first author, said:
“Humans can think about and anticipate things before they happen, which can help us prepare for and even prevent certain events.
But this study suggests that this ability can also be harmful to your daily memory function, independent of whether the stressful events actually happen or not.”
Working memory was the type affected by anticipating stress.
Dr Martin Sliwinski, study co-author, explained its function:
“A reduced working memory can make you more likely to make a mistake at work or maybe less able to focus.
Also, looking at this research in the context of healthy aging, there are certain high stakes cognitive errors that older adults can make.
Taking the wrong pill or making a mistake while driving can all have catastrophic impacts.”
Morning worry
For the study, 240 people were followed over two weeks to measure their stress levels and working memory ability.
Dr Hyun said:
“Having the participants log their stress and cognition as they went about their day let us get a snapshot of how these processes work in the context of real, everyday life.
We were able to gather data throughout the day over a longer period of time, instead of just a few points in time in a lab.”
The more people anticipated stress, the worse their memory was.
Dr Sliwinski said:
“When you wake up in the morning with a certain outlook for the day, in some sense the die is already cast.
If you think your day is going to be stressful, you’re going to feel those effects even if nothing stressful ends up happening.
That hadn’t really been shown in the research until now, and it shows the impact of how we think about the world.”
One option would be to fight the damaging effects of anticipating stress, Dr Sliwinski said:
“If you wake up and feel like the day is going to be stressful, maybe your phone can remind you to do some deep breathing relaxation before you start your day.
Or if your cognition is at a place where you might make a mistake, maybe you can get a message that says now might not be the best time to go for a drive.”
The study was published in the The Journals of Gerontology: Series B (Hyun et al., 2018).
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