Will you remember me?

As urbanmoms, we’ve all got coping mechanisms for heading off the more negative signs of aging. We try to keep our bodies healthy and able to do what we want by exercising and eating right. We take care of our skin with creams and lotions to keep wrinkles at bay and age spots to a minimum. How, then, to tackle another of the symptoms of old age…memory loss?

Some of us have resorted to using games to sharpen our brains. At a recent hockey tournament, a group of parents spent hours after curfew playing with one mother’s Nintendo-DS Brain Age game. Others prefer The Office’s Michael Scott version of memory aid (“Tony…Jabba the Hut…Pizza the Hut…Fat guys like pizza…Pepperoni pizza…Pepperoni Tony!!”)

I’ve been seeing big orange billboards around town promoting a new product. Each time I see the ad I’m curious about the product. Unfortunately, for the life of me I couldn’t remember what the product name was (first clue that I need some memory help!). After much googling I found  ViviMind, a natural memory aid. It’s a patented product based on the ingredient homotaurine, which binds to A-beta proteins and reduces the toxic effects of  proteins that can kill the brain cells in the area responsible for memory.

A quick tour around the ViviMind site reassured me that my memory’s actually pretty good for my age. (ViviMind doesn’t have to know that I often can’t remember my childrens’ names or birthdates).

I haven’t tested ViviMind, and it doesn’t come cheap ($90 for a bottle), but here are some other tips on how to keep our brain healthy and our memory good.

•    Substitute fish and fish oil for saturated fats. (Eat salmon, not bacon.)

•    Eat lots of vegetables and fruits. The antioxidants in them protect your brain.

•    Eat high-quality whole grains. Avoid white flour and sugar, but also avoid a low-carb diet. Both can lead to fuzzy thinking and irritability. For a sweet, have dark chocolate, which increases blood flow to the brain.

•    Get enough water. Even slight dehydration can lead to confusion and memory problems.

•    Exercise. It increases blood flow to your brain, and is consistently linked with better brain function.

 
So, it turns out that a lot of what we do to help our bodies and our skin will also help our brains and our memories. And we all want to hold on to good memories!