Questioning the question mark

Every Wednesday morning for the last 4 years I've been logging my husband into ZOOM for his men's Bible study, but I have to write down the password. It's only 6 numbers, but for some reason it just doesn't come to mind. Yet on Wednesday I remembered my locker code for MMHS, Mt. Morris High School, which has been closed for years. The mind is a strange and wonderful thing. I wonder what else will pop up. I also wonder why that last sentence didn't need a question mark, because Facebook corrected it. So, I asked and Copilot told me "I wonder" questions are indirect and don't need a question mark. Did we learn that at MMHS? I've been doing it wrong all these years.

Tips about memory for the elderly, the senior citizens and old farts

I was about 50 when I began to notice it. More and more I was hearing people (my age and older) comment about their memory, recall, and old times. It would bring to mind my grandmother. Here's my advice.

1. If you can't remember a word, face or event, DO NOT SAY to yourself or others some version of "I can't remember." Do not make an angry or silly face or slap your head (it causes wrinkles). You're reinforcing the idea, setting it in cement. Pause, breathe and continue. If it was gossip, it's just as well.

2. DO NOT SAY to yourself or others, "Oh, this is so frustrating!" That will probably signal to your body that it should be alarmed and raise your blood pressure or start a headache.

Instead.

1. If you are writing, just make a small line to be filled in later. When the word or topic comes back (and it usually will), you've provided the context and you can continue.

2. If you are talking, move on to the next word, sentence or topic. The person you're talking to is probably also forgetful or distracted and may not notice unless you make it a big issue. If it was gossip or criticism, it's just as well because no one wants to hear it anyway.

 
Ascension Day is tomorrow or Sunday, June 1, depending on the tradition you follow. Think of that thought or idea as Jesus ascending into the clouds (or if you aren't religious, maybe THE cloud for computer storage), but soon the Helper, the Comforter, the Paraclete or the Caller-to-mind will descend, and you'll be filled with joy and peace.

Anesthesia and memory loss

 I noticed this article in TheScientist Magazine today.  Anesthesia Impairs Memory in Mice | The Scientist Magazine® (the-scientist.com)  It is reporting on the original published work,  Anesthetics fragment hippocampal network activity, alter spine dynamics, and affect memory consolidation (plos.org)  For some time, I've been concerned about memory changes after anesthesia, but haven't been able to find anything about it except discussions of "brain fog" and short term memory loss that clears after a day or so. I recently cancelled an appointment for a colonoscopy, a procedure I consider important, because I was told that after 80 and even deeper sedation is used.  I had requested lighter or minimal because I never seem to fully recover and experience what I would call long term effects--like forever.  This research says the effects it might be otherwise: “The results challenge a very fundamental notion that I think the public—and many investigators even—assume. And that is, once the drugs have been eliminated from the body, the brain goes back to baseline state. And that’s not the case.”

But make it dark chocolate

Dark chocolate helps with weight loss, and has also been shown to improve memory and cognition. Don’t waste the calories.  But buy the best and not white or milk chocolate.  There are some companies that produce a chocolate supplement, but I prefer to make my own.

http://samadimd.com/healthy-food/could-eating-cocoa-improve-brain-health-in-elderly

I think the secret to the positive attitude and energy is theobromine (food of the  gods). I no longer drink regular coffee, only decaf. Generally, caffeine and theobromine have very different effects on different people. Theobromine is relatively mild and helps elevate serotonin levels producing a really nice side effect of feeling good over a longer period of time. Caffeine is a stronger stimulant and acts relatively quickly as a wake-up drug. Compared to the caffeine, the theobromine has about one-quarter the stimulating power.

Other memory helps, including dark chocolate were listed in my Thursday Thirteen in January 2014.

Flavonoids found in many foods

Flavonoids are a group of plant metabolites thought to provide health benefits through cell signaling pathways and antioxidant effects. These molecules are found in a variety of fruits and vegetables. The abundance of flavonoids coupled with their low toxicity relative to other plant compounds means they can be ingested in large quantities by animals, including humans. Examples of foods that are rich in flavonoids include onions, parsley, blueberries, bananas, dark chocolate and red wine.

http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-are-Flavonoids.aspx

Quercetin and epicatechin are examples of flavonoids, essential pigments found in many fruits and vegetables.

Quercetin is the aglycone form of flavonoid glycosides such as rutin and quercitrin which are found in buckwheat, citrus fruit and onions. Quercetin is thought to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects and to protect against some forms of illness such as cancer. However, the clinical evidence to support this claim is not yet available, despite promising initial research findings. Quercetin is found in various types of fruits, vegetables, teas, wine and many other food items.

Catechins are important flavonoids abundant in the leaves of the tea plant.* Examples include epicatechin, epicatechin gallate, and epigallocatechin gallate. When oolong tea or black tea is prepared, the leaves are allowed to oxidize. This causes conversion of some or all of the catechins to larger molecules and reduces the flavonoid content. White tea is tea that has undergone even less processing than green tea and therefore provides the highest catechin content.

http://www.news-medical.net/health/Quercetin-and-Epicatechin.aspx

http://www.ihealthdirectory.com/flavonoids-rich-foods/

*All teas from the Camellia plant are rich in polyphenols, antioxidants that detoxify cell-damaging free radicals in the body. Tea has about eight to 10 times the polyphenols found in fruits and vegetables, and the longer you steep the tea, the more flavonoids you'll get in your brew. Some believe white tea can reduce cholesterol and blood pressure and acts as a blood thinner and contibutes to bone density, all because of the falconoids (there are thousands of falconoids, and it’s a great word for Scrabble).

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/health-benefits-tea
http://www.whiteteaguide.com/whiteteahealthbenefits.htm

DIY decaf white tea (because it can have a lot of caffeine): "Just brew a cup as normal, leaving the leaves in the hot water for about 30 seconds. Then drain the tea leaves and rebrew... The caffeine content is almost completely lost with the first brewing (in fact, just as much caffeine is equal to any commercial decaf!)." From a non-working website.

http://directorsblog.nih.gov/2014/11/04/could-flavanols-reverse-age-related-memory-decline/

Green tea extract and cognitive functions

Today’s topic at Lakeside was memory

Take aways from today's health lecture on memory at Lakeside Chautauqua. Kathryn Kilpatrick, http://memoryfitnessmatters.com. Developing strategies does not reduce your ability to remember; hectic schedules will interfere with your joy; the seduction of "busyness" is the adrenaline rush; set boundaries with people or events that create stress (which interferes with memory); slow down, pause; don't use hurtful self talk if you forget--may impact your health; sharpen your liste...ning skills--reduce environmental distractions; modern technology can put you on overload; repeat, repeat, repeat, visualize, verify; spend some time just thinking about very simple things; learning jokes are good for you--practice the punch line; don't use your prime time for texting and email; multitasking results in poor listening; scatters your attention, impacts sleep and affects relationships.

Thursday Thirteen—13 brain helps and exercises

1.  First the best one—eat more dark chocolate.  “ The cacao bean, from which chocolate is made, is  complex, containing more than 400 chemicals. Many of them can affect human biology and health.” Sorry, your favorite candy bar may not help. The beneficial effects of chocolate are not in milk chocolate or white chocolate.

2.  Visit a museum.  Two years ago at Lakeside we had a program on the incredible museums in Ohio.  I just couldn’t  believe the variety. Most recently we toured the Ohio Historical Society and saw the 1950s exhibit—it’s tough when your halcyon days are now in a museum! When you get home from your (guided) tour,  jot down what you remember. “Research into brain plasticity (the ability of the brain to change at any age) indicates that memory activities that engage all levels of brain operation—receiving, remembering and thinking—help to improve the function (and hinder the rate of decline) of the brain.” Brain fitness tips. 

3.  Memorize a song.  “Developing better habits of careful listening will help you in your understanding, thinking and remembering. Reconstructing the song requires close attentional focus and an active memory. When you focus, you release the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, a brain chemical that enables plasticity and vivifies memory.“  Although it’s not a song, I suppose it would help to sing it—my New Year’s resolution was to memorize the names of the books of the Old Testament by January 31. Today I’m on Amos, Obadiah and Jonah. Brain fitness tips.

4.  Exercise your peripheral vision. I think I remember doing this in elementary school.  Sit outside and stare straight ahead, don’t move your eyes.  Then write down everything you can remember seeing, including the periphery.  This exercise again should help you reinvigorate the controlled release of acetylcholine in your brain.  Brain fitness tips

5.  Learn to play a (new) musical instrument. My husband is trying to teach himself to play the guitar.  I want him to take lessons, so I got him a gift certificate for Christmas.  He had NO musical training as a child—virtually everyone I knew in our little town took piano lessons and later started band instruments.  “Playing an instrument helps you exercise many interrelated dimensions of brain function, including listening, control of refined movements, and translation of written notes (sight) to music (movement and sound).” The photo is our son showing his dad some fingering.

 

6.  Put together a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle.  This involves a lot of brain activity, looking at the piece, rotating it in your mind and hand, and figuring out the big picture.

7. Try using your non-dominate hand for simple tasks, like brushing your teeth or buttoning a shirt.  But be careful—might be tough to get the toothpaste out of your misbuttoned shirt. Keep your brain alive, (Workman, 1999)

8.  Add fish—especially fatty fish like salmon—to your diet. If your diet lacks omega-3 fatty acids, commonly found in fish,  your brain may age faster and lose some of its memory and thinking capabilities according to a recent UCLA study.  It also helps your cardiovascular system. 

9.  Physical exercise is also brain exercise. Exercise has positive benefits for the hippocampus, a brain structure that is important for learning and memory. It can even help your brain create new cells.  They already knew endurance exercises were good for the brain, and here’s the research to confirm it.  Think of those little mice running a treadmill just for your brain! I’m in an exercise class a few times a week, and when the weather is better I’ll also walk outdoors.

10.   Get a good night’s sleep.  Memory tasks are easier if you are well rested because the brain can store those tasks in your long term memory.  There are several theories on why sleep is important for memory.

11. At dinner, rearrange the seating chart. This challenges the associations we have.  I wonder if this applies to the pew in church? Keep your brain alive, (Workman, 1999)

12.  Take an unfamiliar route on your commute or drive someone else’s car (ask first).   Pay attention—you’ll be forced to and won’t be on autopilot. Keep your brain alive, (Workman, 1999)

13.  Shower with your eyes closed—but only if you have good balance. Find the faucets, soap, shampoo, etc. and if you’re in my shower, don’t forget to squeegee the tile and glass doors. Keep your brain alive, (Workman, 1999)

If you’d like to participate in Thursday Thirteen, check here.

Retiring minds

Twice this week I made a mistake with my maturing CD. On Monday I went in to the bank to retrieve it. Wrong day. One day too soon and I hadn't read the small (or even medium) print. So yesterday I parked between Huffman's (grocery) and the bank, intending to shop, then retrieve the CD. Forgot. Here's an item from my 2005 blog about Sally Kriska's teaching at Lakeside.

One of the tips that Sally passed along was the 10-24-7 tip. She said that in order to incorporate something into the long term memory, review it 10 minutes after hearing/reading it, then review in 24 hours, and then a week later. Then it is much more likely to make it to the long term memory, because most things drop out of our memory very quickly."

Today I'm doing Fran's mail run and she'll do mine next week. I tell myself every day, "don't forget the Wednesday mail run." But retiring minds are forgetful. Now, what was I saying?

Just start a blog

Today I received an e-mail from someone (don't remember--they might have scooped my e-mail address from another FWD list) which extolled the wonders and benefits of their workshop--and I'd only have to spend a few hundred dollars and leave the country! I was told I could. . .

+ Believe in your creativity
+ Stimulate your perceptive abilities
+ Find inspiration in the world around you
+ Get over creative blocks and the fear of failure
+ Engage your curiosity
+ Recognize and use your creative instincts
+ Give yourself the time, permission, and nourishment to do creative work
+ Develop a daily practice to accomplish these goals
+ Work collaboratively
+ Use your memories to engage the imagination

I can do all that for free by blogging. I post my memories, my poetry, my paintings; I comment on my volunteer activities and promote programming that I admire; I research the topics pretty carefully--after all that was my profession--information; I pull a lot of material off my own bookshelves or go to the library when I don't trust what I find in pixel dust; I leave a lot of material in "draft" until it has time to settle and percolate a bit.

And still. And yet. There are people--friends, family and total hit-and-run strangers who come in anonymity--who disagree with me. And that's fine. This is my diary (web log), and I'll write from my own perspective. Just like the paid reporters from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal that these same critics are willing to pay for. They will praise me for my memory or humor pieces, and then turn around and chastise me for caring that my country, under a new president who is trashing our former leaders and our history, destroying our economy, and high fiving and bowing to communist and despot leaders abroad, is going to hell in a handbasket of their making.

Hypocrisy and short sightedness are not in short supply. Common sense and knowledge of history are.

Forgetting

There's an old country song that goes something like, I've forgotten more about him than you'll ever know. At my age, forgetting (the past) and forgetfulness (in the present) are problems. The memory tapes are full, and to my knowledge there's no way to jettison the old stuff to make room for the new, and in order to even keep the past, you do need to occasionally revisit it. This morning I was reading something dated November 17. "That's Patrick's birthday," popped into my mind. Then I began to doubt. No, it was November 14; or was it the 18th? Patrick died 44 years ago, but he was my baby--we had such a brief time together, and you'd think I'd never forget his birth date, but apparently I have. It wouldn't be hard to look it up, but messy files isn't my topic today; forgetting is.

The past is forgotten primarily by the passage of time, but happy times also start to replace the unhappy memories like a difficult pregnancy and loss of a child in order to build new memories. Both my adult children have November birthdays so I think Patrick's date would come and go and eventually, I paid no attention to it. Alcohol also destroys the memory, as does dementia--those aren't my problem.

Time doesn't always do it if you refurbish and polish the memory like prayer beads. Years ago we "fixed up" a widower we knew with a delightful, handsome divorcee whom I knew through work. I think she was in her late 50s or early 60s, and he was about 70. Both had been single many years and had grown children--I think his wife had died of cancer about 25 years earlier. During dinner I began to spot the problem--he wouldn't stop talking about his deceased wife. It was embarrassing. I talked to my co-worker the next day and she said it continued even when he took her home and she invited him in. He had allowed neither time nor happy memories to chip away at the painful memories of his wife's death. I also considered the possibility that he used this to assure he'd never need to follow up on a social contact!

Some of the happiest second and third marriages I've known are cases where the two bereaved spouses were friends before their loss--each knew the others joys, sorrows, illnesses, children--they had shared memories. I also know a few where this didn't work out at all--resulting in a quick divorce or annulment. Memories are wonderful props for living, but sometimes you need a brick or two replaced, or some new mortar, or maybe a whole foundation.