Brain Defoggers
LOSING YOUR MENTAL
EDGE? THESE FOUR SIMPLE
STRATEGIES CAN BOOST
YOUR MEMORY
Get Your B’s...
Vitamin B12 is vital to clear thinking, but as you age,
your body has a harder
time extracting it from
foods such as milk, meat,
and fish. Smart move: With
your doc’s okay, take a daily
B-complex supplement
containing 1,000 micrograms (mcg) of B12, advises
Marwan Sabbagh, M.D.,
author of The Alzheimer’s
Answer (John Wiley and
Sons, 2008). Make sure it
has at least 400 mcg of the
B vitamin folate, which can
improve mental speed. Serious B12 deficiency can be corrected with injections.
this process can interfere
with the ability to retain this
information.” Smart move:
Stick to one bedtime and
keep your bedroom quiet,
dark, and cool. Limit caffeine, night-lights, naps, and
nightcaps, all of which can
zap sleep. If that doesn’t do
it, ask your doc for a referral
to an accredited sleep-disorders center. Fixing a
condition such as sleep apnea could clear your mind.
the American Geriatric
Society. Smart move: “If you
exercise even a little, it’s
better than doing nothing,”
says Murphy. “The point
is to do more than you’re
doing now.”
Mind Your Meds
A variety of medications
can cloud your concentration, notes Sabbagh. Tops
on his list: a class of drugs
called anticholinergics,
found in some bladder,
allergy, and sleep remedies.
Drugs such as sedatives
and seizure-control meds
can also produce brain fog.
Smart move: If concentration difficulties coincide
with a new drug you’re
taking, alert the physician
who prescribed it. And any
time you feel your mind or
memory failing you, tote
your pills to your doctor’s
office, Sabbagh says. The
doc can work with specialists to hunt for a better
mix. —Melissa Gotthardt
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The Write Diet
When you want to lose
weight, keeping a journal
could double your success. Dieters who wrote
down what they ate lost
an average of 18 pounds
during a 20-week study
at Kaiser Permanente.
Those who didn’t keep
diaries lost only 9
pounds, on average.
Bedtime Boon
Taking aspirin at night
may help keep blood
pressure in check, report
scientists from the
University of
Vigo in Spain.
Adults who
took aspirin
nightly for
three months
saw a 5.4-point drop in
systolic pressure. Those
who took it every morning saw no change. Don’t
medicate yourself, but if
you’re on a doc-directed
dose, ask if you should
take it at night.
...And Your Z’s
Low-quality (and -quantity)
shuteye can seriously sap
mental clarity, says Cornell
University sleep expert
James Maas, Ph. D. The
brain moves memories into
long-term storage during
deep sleep, he explains.
“Anything that disrupts
Locomote
Boosting your activity level
can increase brain volume
and enhance cognitive function. In an Australian study,
people with mild memory
impairments performed
better on cognitive tests
after walking 150 minutes
a week for 6 months. Exercise increases the flow of
blood to the brain, and it
controls insulin and other
chemicals linked to cognitive problems, notes John
Murphy, M.D., president of
Fin-tastic Food
Eating fish might
prevent cancer, say
Columbia and Harvard
researchers. In a 22-
year study, men who
ate fish five or more
times a week had a
colorectal cancer risk
almost 40 percent
lower than those who
ate fish less than once
a week. —M.G.
