The Best Memory Boosters

A little memory loss is perfectly normal once you hit middle age, says Martha Weinman Lear, author of a book on memory Loss. She said however that you don’t have to put up with it. She suggested 10 memory-boosting tricks that will have you remembering things in no time.
1) Play a mind game. When you plan your day, tie everything together through creative visualization, sort of like telling yourself a story that draws from your appointments and errands. It makes you remember them better and with less effort.
2) Stop and smell scent. In a recent German study, some students who sniffed a rose scent as they matched pairs of cards and then were exposed to the scent again as they slept were better at recalling the cards they had matched compared to other students didn’t get to sniff anything. To sharpen your own wits, try spraying a favorite fragrance on your sheets the night before you give that big presentation.
3) Exercise your eyes. If you want to recall more names in a party, try moving your eyes back and forth horizontally for 30 seconds. According to British researchers, exercise can help you retain words (including names) you’re about to hear. The horizontal movement makes the brain’s hemispheres interact, and that’s important in memory retrieval, the experts say.
4) Breathe deeply. Keep your mind focused during meetings by meditating beforehand for at least 10 minutes daily. Studies show that meditation is a great way to boost your attention span—and “attention is the main door to memory,” says Sonia Lupien, PhD, director of the Center for Studies on Human Stress at the Douglas Institute in Montreal.
5) Learn a new language. It stretches your mind, and can create new pathways in the brain,” according to a psychology professor. The new pathways can help you boost your memory. One way to stretch: Dip into a foreign language or a new hobby like cooking or dancing.
6) Get a good night’s sleep, because according to Research from Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls speed and accuracy, is especially active after a restful night.
7) Take a good look. You won’t forget where you parked if you look back at your ride as you walk away, an expert suggests.
8) Vary your routine. Shake up your routines, an expert says. Like brushing your teeth with the other hand, or taking a new route to work. This stimulates nerve cell growth in the brain, something your brain probably needs.
9) Get moving. A new study from Columbia University shows that exercise encourages neuron growth in a region of the brain that’s associated with normal, age-related memory loss. Researchers believe that any aerobic workout or an intensive strength-training regimen will get oxygen flowing to the brain, expert says. For starters, she recommends walking briskly for 30 minutes at least three times a week.
10) Play mah-jong. If you want to remember things more quickly, grab a few friends and start a mah-jong night. It’s a pretty complicated game of skill in which players visually match tiles as quickly as possible. Mastering the game may help you rapidly commit locations to memory. You can play solo, too.
The take home message is a better memory is a product of healthy living: Eat healthy, exercise, rest and take nutritional supplements with nutrients like the B vitamin group, vitamins E and K and the antioxidant coenzyme Q10 which are capable of brain cell regeneration.