Can’t Remember? Forget About it
Strictly speaking, there is no “present.” The words you have just read are now part of your past. The words you’re about to read are part of your future. Our lives are largely made up of memories (our past) and hopes (our future), with “now” a grammatical convenience.
No wonder we treasure our memories!
Powered by baby boomers aware that they may have more past than future, a brand new industry is arising – the “memory industry” – spawning torrents of self-help books and training courses, plus exotic elixirs, powders, blossoms, berries, roots and teas. (A “brain gum,” enabling you to chew your way to “a sharper memory,” even has its own website.)
Because some people assume that as you age, you become stupid, “ageism” further fuels the memory industry, making millions panic if they misplace their keys or forget an acquaintance’s name.
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Any memory lapse, however trivial, scares us because we’re all spooked by the spectre of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) – a diagnosis, according to prominent physician Isadore Rosenfeld, which is made “far too often.” (AD seems to be an epidemic only because so many of us are living so much longer.)
People who worry that they’ve developed AD generally have not. Explains Dr. Barry Gordon, of the Johns Hopkins memory clinic in Baltimore, Maryland: “It’s others who notice the symptoms when it’s really AD.”
In real AD (as opposed to normal, age-related memory lapses), family, friends and the physician may notice: disorientation as to locale and/or time; difficulty in performing once-easy routine tasks (e.g. dressing or cooking); loss of initiative; and personality change.
What is memory, anyway?
Memory is the function by which stored information is recalled, say psychiatrists. Memory is a dance of chemicals and electricity in the brain, say neurobiologists.
Must memory-power fade? The unsettling truth is, in some ways, the human brain is old at 24. Brains start to shrink in size before we reach 30 and by age 80 you may have 10-20 per cent less grey matter than you did as a teen.
Nevertheless, when they refer to this normal process, memory experts are reassuring. Dr. Leonard Hayflick, of the University of California Medical School, writes, “To this day, a connection between decreased mental function and brain cell loss has not been proven.”
For reasons not yet understood, there’s one type of memory impairment that’s common after 40. We can’t absorb – and quickly recall – a flood of brand new information as easily as we could when young. Taking longer to memorize new data is a normal part of growing up to – and through – maturity.
Also, tip-of-the-tongue lapses (when a common word suddenly escapes you) occur more often after age 64. (Solution: don’t dwell on those lapses. It won’t help.)
Those are the two main minuses. But the pluses of an older, more experienced brain may include a richer vocabulary, an eye for detail and above all an improved capacity to generate genuinely original ideas. Also, by midlife, you’ve probably cultivated the discipline essential to learning and forging new memories.
Your countless – and versatile – neurons
(or why you can walk and chew gum at the same time)
Luckily, Nature wasn’t stingy when it came to doling out neurons (brain cells). You have 100 billion neurons sprouting trillions of microscopically tiny fingers, enabling those cells to connect with one another, in the still mysterious electrochemical dance we call “remembering.”
Remembering probably involves the entire brain – trillions of circuits ready to flash messages at any given moment – memories of a melody, a sunset, a face. Even one neuron may store fragments of many memories, ready to be called up if a particular network of connections is activated.
One scientist likens the remembering process to a switchboard of flashing, blinking signals sending and receiving messages. Another expert likens it to a pinball machine ringing with lights and bells as fragments of memories bounce off various areas of the brain and trigger chain reactions.
The more scientists study the brain, the more its capacity for change amazes them. In many cases, no one cell (or cluster of cells) seems absolutely vital to a given task. Other cells may pitch in and compensate. Some parts of your brain can – and do – grow new cells, or branches of cells, as the direct result of stimuli. What a brain can do depends at least in part on what it does.
In monkeys taught to use just one digit to obtain food, that zone of their brain expanded. Rats raised in a rat “Disneyland” (with toys, treadmills and other rats to play with) learned faster than rats in empty cages.
On examination, the brains of the mentally-stimulated rats weighed more – were actually larger – than the brains of the rat “loners.” In humans, one well-known study showed that (on autopsy) the brains of mentally-active college graduates had up to 40 per cent more connections than the brains of high school dropouts. Other studies have yielded similar results.
Is there a message here for older folk concerned about losing brainpower? You bet. By staying interested in the world around them – reading, socializing, learning new skills – they’re more likely to keep their brain “fit.”
As one researcher put it: Brains seem to be the ultimate use-it-or-lose-it machine.
Reading the mind
Over the past 30 years, researchers have learned more about the brain and memory than in all of previous history. High-tech imaging techniques now enable neuroscientists to “map” the brain; researchers can peer through the skulls of healthy people and actually watch thoughts at work. The new insights thus gained should lead to an explosion of new discoveries.
During the early years after 2000, progress will accelerate as drug companies and “biotech” firms pour billions of dollars into probing brain dysfunction. Already, animal tests suggest that the drug donepezil (Aricept) may combat minor memory impairment. Other newer drugs to enhance memory are on the horizon.
For now, memory researcher Bruce McEwen of Rockefeller University advises: “The most important thing is to realize that the brain is growing and changing all the time. It feeds on stimulation and it is never too late to feed it.”
Supplementary, my dear Watson
Can memory be improved by some kind of herbal supplement? In 1997, North Americans spent over $240 million US on the herbal tonic ginkgo biloba. In France and Germany, one million doses of ginkgo are taken each month.
Ginkgo trees have flourished on Earth for 300 million years – longer than humans have. But can ginkgo really improve memory in older people? The U.S. National Institute of Health is spending $15 million to find out.
Ginkgo proponents assert that the herb (from the leaves of the tree) relaxes and dilates the blood vessels in and around the brain, improving the flow of oxygen. Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld (in his book Guide to Alternative Medicine), asserts this greater blood flow has “actually been measured to be as much as 70 per cent.” According to Rosenfeld, just one dose of ginkgo has been shown to improve short-term memory for hours.
In his book, Brain Fitness, Dr. Robert Goldman is enthusiastic: “In repeated controlled studies, this herb has sharpened people’s fuzzy memory, concentration and thinking.”
The downside of ginkgo is that it may thin the blood too much if you’re taking another anticoagulant such as ASA or warfarin. Consult your own physician before taking ginkgo in any form.
For women only: The hormone question
Sex hormones profoundly affect how the brain works, and for years the sex hormone estrogen in particular has attracted the attention of brain researchers. Dr. Barbara Sherwin of McGill University reports there is “reason to believe that this sex steroid might enhance memory.”
Referring to one small study, Dr. Sherwin found that her ERT subjects (women receiving estrogen replacement therapy) probably recalled phone numbers, instructions and directions more easily than women not receiving ERT.
A University of Western Ontario study discovered that women performed better on verbal fluency tests during the high-estrogen phase of their cycle than during the low-estrogen phase. In a California study, which measured the memory of 144 women aged 55 to 93, ERT was shown to definitely aid memory for names and faces. Other studies confirm the California findings.
ERT doesn’t suit every woman, however. If you feel estrogen may help you, consult your physician.
Reprinted with permission from 50Plus magazine - June 2000.
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