How does memory work? | Diseases and conditions.

20 tricks to strengthen memory

You don't know where you left the keys? When is the birthday of your wife? If your brain plays tricks to you, it is time to work your memory so that these continued forgetfulness become a thing of the past.
Memory is the mental ability that allows us, through unconscious associative processes, save and recall what we have been learning in every day, what we have lived, seen, said or heard.
As a computer, the memory of human beings goes through three processes to store that information that we will then use. Thus, you should encode such information, then you must save it to, finally, be able to recover it. Although there are different ways to classify the memory, one of the most typical divisions is establishing that there is a short-term memory (here the steps of saved and recovery disappear) and other long term.

Memory problems

Although there are many who think that memory problems are things of grandparents, the truth is that memory and other cognitive processes begin to deteriorate from age 45, according to a recent study published by the Centre for research in epidemiology and public health of France and the University College London of United Kingdom.
Early symptoms tend to be small mistakes, failures in the words or communication or disorientation, time which is convenient to go to medical specialist to determine if it is a normal cognitive impairment or the prelude to a degenerative disease such as Alzheimer's.
But the ideal to prevent all such problems is to work it on a daily basis using a few simple tricks.

Tips to strengthen memory (1 to 10)

1. read a book. Reading is a pleasure, a nice hobby, but also one of the best ways to boost our memory. And it is that reading helps to expand and handle correctly the vocabulary, improves your understanding of the language and encourages the imagination, all of them related with memory capacities. Occasionally, there are books that require that pay special attention to different names, data or relationships between characters that force to work, even more, the memory.
2. It's storytelling. There are many people who do not enjoy the books or who prefer group activities. No problem. I am sure that will be entertaining to read a story to children in the House or move to a Senior Center and make it for residents. If your imagination allows you, it's great that you can invent stories and, in addition to having a good time with them, you will work your memory to remember your cartoon credible.
3. He returned to study. Do you think now join University distance or a University for the elderly and studying a career? As you want to get into an adventure for several years, but if you can't make a cursillo or, even, help your children, nephews or grandchildren with their homework. This will force you to remember concepts, words or formulas that you thought that you had already forgotten.
4. Join classroom study. Sure we all know some young that you spend many hours in front of the books, but then the notes in their exams do not correspond to so much effort. Now are also many adults who need to be studied (a few oppositions, refresher courses, a master's degree...), by which good study techniques have appreciated. Experts can indicate how to enhance memory in the study with tricks ranging from the Association of ideas, the technical mnemonics, or grouping of information.
5. Listening to music. There are hundreds of studies that support that listening to music, preferably classic, improves and maintains the brain functions in all stages of life. And is that music stimulates the cells of the brain, which helps mental concentration, memory and visual and auditory development.
6. Start playing. Kill boredom and spend a good afternoon with your family or friends with a deck of cards or a board game. Depending on the type of game, different skills, are strengthened, although, in General, working memory, logical reasoning, the handling of language or verbal fluency. You can always choose more educational games than others, but virtually all will help you to start your brain.
7. Get hobbies. They not only serve to fill the leisure time, the hours dead on the subway or in a waiting room, since leisure activities also strengthen memory. In this sense, the crosswords and the letters enabled the handling of language, the popular Sudoku enhance math skills, hieroglyphics stimulate logical thinking and games find differences favor the visual attention.
8. Make crafts. This activity can also help strengthen the memory because creativity, agility in the hands and the coordination with the visual capacity force the brain to put the batteries. If you consider yourself around a "broad", do not despair because we are not talking of doing elaborate things, small tasks such as sewing, pottery, the restoration or even the kitchen may be sufficient.
9. Order your memories. There is much that is worth remembering in our lives and all they also help us to working memory. Ordering your old photo albums and those older images will do that you try to remember where that picture was made, how to call that old friend who many years ago that you don't see, when you went to this place last... It is also a good idea to sort papers or old charts, since, in addition to your shelves and drawers will look better, the effect is similar.
10 usa technology. They say that many of the technological advances have made increasingly have to think less, but fortunately there are many options that help us to improve our health. And it is that they have become fashionable computer programs and video games that help us to get physical, but also mental exercise. Activities of logic, couples games or visual dexterity exercises or needing to memorize data are some of the proposals of these healthy games.

Tips to strengthen memory (10 to 20)

11 eat well. Food also plays an important role in our work to strengthen the memory. It is key to choose foods rich in certain substances that help the brain to work well. So, should we include foods rich in phosphorus (cocoa powder, egg yolk, blue fish, almonds, products dairy...), potassium (avocado, banana, wheat germ, orange...) and magnesium (pipes of sunflower, peanuts, soy, whole grains...). Also we need to make its necessary contribution of glucose, best of slow assimilation to the brain.
12. Bet on supplements. There are certain substances that help improve our memory because of their antioxidant compounds or improve blood circulation. Thus, for example, green tea is one of the best antioxidants, oregano improves the circulation of blood in the brain, as do also the ginseng or biloba gingko.
13. drink in moderation. Alcohol is not a good friend of our brain and is there more to see how tries to speak, think, or recite a person with a few drinks more. These devastating effects are not accompanied with the wine, always in moderation, since it contains resveratrol, a flavonoid that is beneficial to the arteries and, of course, also to get blood to the brain.
14 grown your interest. There is no doubt that much better remembered the things that we are interested in that which does not. For this reason, it is important that we volquemos in the Affairs, and if they seem boring, try to associate them with other more entertaining things for you. If you're able to recite by running the alignment of your favorite football team, you'll also be able to remember other things that you like less, only should strive a little more.
15 practice meditation. According to a study from the Massachusetts Institute of technology, in collaboration with the universities of Harvard and Yale, meditation can help to strengthen areas of the cerebral cortex responsible for attention and processing external sensory stimuli. In addition to fighting the stress and anxiety, it seems that the practice of daily meditation has more benefits.
16. get physical exercise. Mental exercise is important to strengthen memory, but it is also physical. And it is that exercise helps to improve the oxygenation of the brain, which allows this to work best. You know, "mens sana in corpore sano".
17 use your other hand. If you are right-handed, as if you're left-handed, it is important that you don't forget you have another hand. Do small tasks with the hand that we're not used makes our brain to be forced to create new connections. From now on, opens the door with the other hand, draws, please watch the other arm or simply removes the food in the pot: your brain will thank you.
18 grab pencil and paper. It is proved that write help to remember things. It is not that we autocastiguemos copying 500 times something, but do it a few times or read it aloud while we are writing it. Also at this point, it is important to make us an agenda and sign all appointments, obligations and data that we do not want us to go there.
19 calm down. When you can not remember where you have left something, how is called someone or time is a certain quotation, it is more likely that you go getting increasingly nervous and that stress will definitely block memory. It's relax, close your eyes, take a deep breath and returns to think about it a couple of minutes later when you're not so burdened by that initial dismissal. Sure that you just remembering it.
20 rests well. When we are sleeping our brain rests and, for him, it's time to sort all the information that has been absorbing throughout the day. Therefore the pauses in the study are so important and so is sleeping sufficiently.

Published for educational purposes
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