How to Improve Brain Function and Memory

Is it possible to improve memory and brain function? There are vital elements to get a good memory working in your favor! Do I forget things? Have I lost my mind? These possibilities have always been a bit of a hot topic in our home. With a family history of dementia and Alzheimers Disease, I’ve realized the burden of care will likely fall on my shoulders. Because of that possibility, studying what can help or hurt our memory is a side interest of mine. For three years, my father-in-law lived with us as we cared for him, and his slowly declining cognitive skills. In some ways, it was like having another child because he needed help with everything. Part of me cherishes those years and the lessons we learned about compassion and kindness as our children helped grandpa with the simplest of tasks. While preventing some forms of this challenging disease are still in the future, there are things we can do today to improve our memory and brain function. Information in your brain is collected, stored, and retrieved by neural pathways. These pathways are responsible for you being able to solve problems, remember familiar faces and tasks, without exerting a ton of effort. Millions of these neural pathways begin developing from the time of infancy. To keep our memory healthy, we need to create new pathways continually. If you don’t use it, you lose it. As we age, our lifestyles often change, keeping those pathways from being developed. Two frequent changes are a decrease in exercise and less attention to our diet. These two combined affect our brain and memory. Sticking with our regular and familiar habits doesn’t challenge our memory. Our brain requires consistent stimulation, regardless of our age, and looking for ways to spur the production […]

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