How to Improve Your Memory with Food and Activity

By Elizabeth Renter+ on June 3, 2013

In this day and age, any affliction has a corresponding prescription (or several). It’s the age of big pharmaceutical companies and diagnoses for every possible “symptom” under the sun. Still there is a world of natural health remedies that can often go far beyond traditional pharmaceutical benefits. And if memory is your problem—these remedies are many. We all experience forgetfulness from time to time. As we age, it tends to get more common. We have a more difficult time retaining facts or names, for instance. We may also take longer to learn new events or recall recent or long-passed ones. For some, memory loss goes much further and can start with simple forgetfulness but slowly build up to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Amnesia, where someone suddenly forgets who they are and all events of their past is quite rare, and that’s not what we’re talking about here. We are discussing memory loss related to age-related decline and the changes within the brain that trigger this loss.

Exercise for Memory Loss

Perhaps one of the greatest pieces of advice you can take from any health article, website, or even doctor is to stay active. Not only does regular exercise help reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and even some cancers—it can also help stave off cognitive decline including memory loss.

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One study that demonstrated the link between activity levels and brain health followed 65 adults between the ages of 59 and 80. All were sedentary before the study. Some of the subjects were placed on a stretching and toning program, while others were placed in a walking group. After six months and a year of their prescribed exercise, their brains were scanned to analyze activity. Those in the walking group had the most improvement—significantly enhancing connectivity in the part of the brain used for cognitive function.
“The higher the connectivity, the better the performance on some of these cognitive tasks, especially the ones we call executive control tasks — things like planning, scheduling, dealing with ambiguity, working memory and multitasking,” said the lead author on the study Art Kramer of the Beckman Institute.
A similar study from the University of Illinois found that elderly adults who are most active have larger hippocampus. The hippocampus is a part of the brain responsible for memory and special navigation. It generally shrinks with age.

Nutrition and Natural Foods for Memory Loss

In addition to staying active, you can include certain foods to boost your brain power and reduce memory loss. Exciting new research on the benefits of coconut oil, for instance, suggests that it may be able to prevent or even reverse certain symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. More research is needed to conclude with certainty that coconut oil is a memory-boosting food, but one expert, Dr. Mary Newport, suggests that coconut oil acts to improve the brain’s usage of glucose—something that suffers in Alzheimer’s patients.
More research has been done on the benefits of cinnamon in Alzheimer’s patients. One study published in the online journal PLOS One indicates orally administered cinnamon extract has the ability to correct cognitive impairment. Simply stated, cinnamon could actually reverse the age-related brain damage that leads to memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease.
Even the scent of cinnamon could have a beneficial impact on alertness and subsequently on memory. One professor with Wheeling Jesuit University found that cinnamon and peppermint odors both have the ability to reduce fatigue, increase alertness, and stimulate the nervous system when inhaled.
Researchers with the University of South Florida found your morning cup of coffee could do more than wake you up. For patients with existing mild cognitive impairment (MCI), caffeine and coffee intake was directly related to a reduced risk of dementia. In other words, coffee could delay or possibly prevent dementia and age-related memory loss.
But if coffee isn’t your thing, perhaps chocolate is. Italian researchers studied the impact of cocoa flavanols in chocolate on older adults with early memory decline. They found that older adults who were given both intermediate- and high-flavanol containing chocolate beverages had significant mental improvements in a variety of areas, including their working memory. Dark chocolates contain the highest flavanol levels and this study should not be seen as an excuse to indulge in otherwise unhealthy amounts of sweets.
As with most disease and illness prevention, the key to fighting memory loss and cognitive decline rests with an active lifestyle and a proper diet. Keeping your brain active with games, reading, writing, and other similar activities can help as well.