Helping Your Older Loved Ones - and Yourself - Stay Sharp

Perhaps your mother complains that she’s losing her memory. Or your grandfather says he can’t learn new things easily. Or maybe you’re the one annoyed that you can’t remember the name of that actress—you know—she was in that movie?  Good news: although our cognitive functions decline as we age, there are many steps we can take to slow the changes and maximize our brain power.  

(If you are interested in helping older loved ones stay sharp, it is recommended that you pick one or two of the ideas discussed in this article to start with. And help your loved ones stay involved with the world. Invite them to a museum or to play cards. Teach them how to surf the web. And if their memory loss seems extreme, ask their doctor to review their medications.)


Alzheimer Warning Signs
People often fear that memory loss means Alzheimer’s disease. Usually it doesn’t. Here, just in case, are some of the warning signs:

  • Forgetting what things are for, as in not knowing how to use keys

  • Forgetting how to do familiar tasks

  • Forgetting simple words

  • Getting lost in familiar places

  • Putting things in strange places

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How to Stay Sharp: Feed Your Brain

  • Challenge yourself. Take a class, meet new people, learn another language, do a puzzle, try out online word or math games (see Resources below).


  • Use your senses. Identify every ingredient in your food. Close your eyes and listen—what is each background noise?


  • Change your habits. Do your daily tasks with your nondominant hand. Read a book in a genre you’ve never tried. Visit a country where you don’t speak the language.


  • Practice paying attention. What is everyone in the room wearing? Are there any changes in your neighborhood? Who stars in your favorite TV show? 


  • Periodically, review what you’ve done and seen. If you’re reading a book, summarize its contents to yourself. Try to reconstruct your morning step by step.


  • Take care of your health. All of the usual guidelines apply: stop smoking, exercise, drink plenty of fluids, and eat six or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day.


  • If you suffer from depression or anxiety, seek treatment.


Ways to Improve Your Memory

There are many ways to improve your memory at any age. Here are some of them:

  • Make a conscious decision to remember what you’re learning. This will help you focus. And write things down.


  • Pay attention. If you are meeting someone for the first time, carefully listen to his or her name. Repeat it immediately (“Pleased to meet you, Ted”). And try to use it a few times while talking to the person.


  • Use acronyms. For instance, the name ROY G. BIV identifies the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). If you can’t spell out a word, use the initials in a sentence. For instance, "Kings Play Cards On Fairly Good Soft Velvet" is the classifications of living things (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, variety). If you want to learn more of these, search for “mnemonics” on the web.


  • Review your new memories. If you’ve just met some new people, for instance, go around the room in your head and name each one to yourself.


  • Utilize associations, rhythm, songs, and catchy phrases. For instance, mark the key for your back door with something blue, so that you can simply remember that Blue = Back door.

Be Kind to Yourself

Don’t keep telling yourself that you have a bad memory—your brain will come to believe you. And don’t get angry if you do forget something—you’re only human, like the rest of us. Instead, use that precious energy to stay focused, to solve a crossword puzzle, to play Scrabble, or to read a book. And have fun!


Resources

© Harris, Rothenberg International, LLC