Spring Arbor Living Blog

Mental health and memory are closely tied to physical health. Physical and emotional vitality are important to maintaining mental health. As you or your loved one gets older, and become less able to do some activities, replacing lost activities can help keep a positive attitude and sense of well-being over time.  If you can no longer run, try walking for example. But just as physical health needs upkeep, so does memory and mental health.

Protect or improve your memory and mental sharpness by:

• Challenging your brain daily. Read, learn a new musical instrument or language, do crossword puzzles, or play games of strategy with others. Just like an active body, an active brain continues to develop and thrive, while an inactive brain loses its power over time.
• Help your memory. Write down dates, names, and other important information that you easily forget. Use routine and repetition. For example, keep daily items such as keys and eyeglasses in a specific place. No matter what your age, having too much on your mind can keep you from remembering new information. And as you age, it is normal to take longer to retrieve new information from your memory bank.
• Preventing depression, which is a common yet treatable cause of cognitive decline in older people. In addition to getting regular physical activity and social contact, avoid the depressant effect of alcohol and sedative use, eat healthy meals and snacks, and include meaningful activity in your daily life.
• Not smoking. Cigarette smoking may speed mental decline. This connection was identified in a large study comparing smokers and nonsmokers age 65 and over.

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Americans spend over $25 billion each year on dietary supplements that promise everything from slender waistlines to better sex lives. A large and growing portion of this market is devoted to products that claim to improve memory or prevent the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

But as researchers investigate dietary supplements to see if there is merit to the claims, they are coming up empty-handed. Ginkgo biloba, perhaps the most well known of the “memory enhancers,” has been declared ineffective by medical experts based on recent, high-profile studies.

Other dietary supplements are marketed for their alleged ability to boost memory or cognitive functioning, including phosphatidylserine (PS), choline, bacopa, vinpocetine, piracetam, lemon balm and coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10).

However, the reality is that these dietary supplements either have not been studied extensively or have shown little potential. Part of the problem is that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t require dietary supplements to be tested to the same degree as prescription drugs.

Remember that there is no “silver bullet” that will undo bad habits, so continue to follow the fundamentals of good health: Exercise, eat a well-balanced, nutritious diet and do not smoke.

And if you do decide to take any kind of dietary supplement, always remember to use caution and inform your doctor. Dietary supplements can worsen certain health problems and interact with prescription drugs to cause severe side effects or render your medication less effective.

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