As we age, our brain’s capacity declines, sometimes leaving us with the unpleasant feeling of memory loss. Neuroscience professor Bruno Dubois offers his advice for keeping our memories working.
Forgetting the location of our phone, our keys, the code to enter a building, a friend’s birthday… This memory loss and the resulting sense of confusion can be frightening and lead to fears of deteriorating brain health or even Alzheimer’s disease. . In fact, what we often confuse with memory disorders are attention disorders, says Bruno Dubois, professor of neurology at the Pitier-Salpetriere Hospital (Paris). Memory sometimes boils down to the simple ability to remember. “However, it has three functions: the capture of information by our perceptual system (our five senses), its storage in the brain (the hippocampus, a structure that plays a central role in memory) and recovery,” says the doctor. . Attention and recovery abilities naturally decline with age, and the hippocampus can be damaged by disease. Certain behavior can damage the machine.
Adopt a healthy lifestyle
Purposeful? Protect your brain from ill health. “The more oxygenated and healthy the organ is, the less quickly the effects of age or hippocampus disease will appear,” first of all, the neurologist insists. Optimal cognitive functioning is based on three pillars: The first is providing good quality nights. “Sleep is essential for the proper functioning of our brain circuits and the recovery of our attention resources,” explains Bruno Dubois. Second, eat a healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, which promotes good brain function. Specifically, we use seasonal fruits and vegetables, whole grains, eggs, fish, olive oil or even nuts, and low-fat dairy products.
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The last pillar consists of following the recommendations of the World Health Organization with regular physical activity. This helps optimize our cognitive performance, including learning, attention and memory. Therefore, 170 minutes of vigorous activity (aerobics) or 300 minutes of light activity (such as walking) per week is recommended. “Walking has a particularly interesting effect on slowing down the atrophy of the hippocampus, which plays a central role in memory retention,” explains the specialist.
Take care of your cardiovascular health
The fight against cardiovascular risk factors (overweight, sedentary lifestyle, excess cholesterol, etc.) helps to slow down the natural decline of our brain’s ability to recover information, the professor of neurology emphasizes. “High blood pressure actually impairs organ oxygenation in deep regions that are particularly useful for activating recovery strategies,” he elaborates.
Avoid stress and anxiety
Our memory is highly dependent on our ability to pay attention. For example: there’s a good chance we’ll forget where our glasses are if we drop them somewhere while talking to someone. “Certain factors especially weaken our focus,” continues Bruno Dubois. This is especially true for stress, anxiety, and depression.” Worries, ruminations, and mental overload can prevent us from capturing and recording certain information. And for good reason: the brain works in single-task mode. If he is overstimulated, he will forget some elements, – remembers the neurologist.
Certain factors, such as stress, anxiety, or depression, especially weaken our focus
Professor Bruno Dubois
To reduce these symptoms, Bruno Dubois recommends practicing meditation, “which frees us from overstimulation and allows the brain to clear any unnecessary information.”
Spend time with loved ones
“Social interaction sends a large amount of information to the brain, reactivating feelings, memories and certain images,” emphasizes the professor of neurology. You don’t need to force yourself to do Sudoku every day, family gatherings or dinner with friends are great ways to boost our attention and memory skills.
Boost your knowledge
The richer our semantic knowledge base, the easier it is to create neurons and memorize new information. “Such cognitive stimulation makes it possible to fight against the decline of intellectual activity,” notes Bruno Dubois. For example, it has been shown that a high level of education delays the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. In the same way, brain health can be maintained through professional activity. “At the European level, it has also been shown that in the countries where the retirement age was the highest, the cognitive decline was delayed,” says the neurologist. So it’s important to never stop learning and keep discovering new books, museums, movies…
Source: Le Figaro
