Steps to Sharpen Your Memory

 1. Drink water. This may sound so simple, but it is so important. Your brain is 80% water, so avoid anything that dehydrates it – such as caffeine or alcohol. Being dehydrated by just 2% impairs performance in tasks that require attention, immediate memory skills, and physical performance.

 2. Get good sleep. Sleep rejuvenates all the cells in your body, gives brain cells a chance to repair themselves, helps wash away neurodegenerative toxins that build up during the day, and activates neuronal connections that might otherwise deteriorate due to inactivity. Research has demonstrated that sleep deprivation can cause dramatic memory deficits. Practice good sleep hygiene to optimize your sleep habits.

 3. Avoid toxins. Smoking and drug and alcohol abuse increase your risk for dementia, so if these are a problem for you, stopping immediately decreases these risk factors. Even a glass of beer or wine per day can be harmful to the brain and can make it look toxic. And recent research demonstrates that marijuana negatively affects the hippocampus, the brain’s major memory center.

 4. Supplement with a multiple mechanism approach. When we get sick or age, it is never just one biological mechanism that fails us; it is generally multiple mechanisms. Therefore, it is important to utilize a multiple mechanism approach to improving brain health. 

 5. Eat a brain-healthy diet. The standard American diet (SAD) is filled with pro-inflammatory foods that increase your risk for a variety of medical conditions. It is also associated with a smaller hippocampus, one of the major memory structures in the brain. Instead, choose lean proteins, healthy fats, and lots of produce, while eliminating refined carbohydrates and sugar. Aim for eating a diet that’s 70 percent plant-based foods and 30 percent high-quality protein, with healthy fat mixed in.

 6. Get moving. Physical exercise is perhaps the single most important thing you can do to keep your brain and body healthy over time. It not only boosts blood flow and other positive nutrients to the brain – it actually stimulates “neurogenesis,” the ability of the brain to generate new brain cells. Additionally, research has shown that exercise can actually increase the size of the hippocampus (the brain’s major memory center).

“Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.” ~Elie Wiesel