It’s an honor to have been asked to take the lead on today’s BigLittleMeals blog while Ann moves to the corner – AnnD’s Corner that is. While I find her contribution for today to be complete B.S., I think you will find it to be good “B.S.” Visit AnnD’s Corner to see why.
I wish I could recall just why Ann asked me to take the lead today. But then, being somewhat memory-challenged, there are many things I don’t recall.
My limited memory capacity isn’t something that crept up on me and settled in as I got older. I’ve been quite active in the forgetfulness department for about as long as I can remember (irony intended).
Take for example my struggle to match names with faces, an occupational hazard that I endured for 37 years behind a podium. At the beginning of each semester I always made a point of taking roll and making eye contact as I called students’ names. I assured them that they were not merely numbers to me; they were unique individuals who deserved my respect. Despite my good intentions, I inevitably ended up dealing with them as numbers after all because I could never remember their names. I often wondered how much emotional damage these students suffered from this unintended anonymity.
Not surprisingly for an aging population like ours, concern about memory issues is widespread. A google search for “memory loss” came up with 891 million results [editor’s note: while this may seem like an impressive amount of interest in the topic, a google search for “sex” yielded 13.69 billion results. I don’t know what this has to do with today’s blog, but it certainly did give me an idea for a future topic that could measurably increase our blog readership.]
Most of the gazillion web items concerning memory issues deal with how to explain and/or cope with our fading memory as we age. After struggling to understand research reports with undecipherable titles such as Mechanisms of synaptic transmission dysregulation in the prefrontal cortex: pathophysiological implications I was relieved to finally come across a title I could relate to: A Neurologist’s Tips to Protect Your Memory. This NY Times piece by Hope Reese offers some insights from a recent book by Dr. Richard Restak, a professor at George Washington Hospital University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Restak claims that memory decline is not inevitable and suggests ways to overcome problems with memory loss and forgetfulness. I was stoked to think that I finally was about to find some relief from my mental curse. But my anticipation of finding relief was short-lived. It turns out that many of the “tips” suggested by Restak have been in my memory-repair tool box for some time. Let me share just a few examples.
Tip Number 1: Pay more attention
Restak suggests that when you learn new information such as a person’s name it helps to come up with a mental image of something associated with that name. He claims that having a picture associated with the word can improve recall.
Unfortunately, this visualizing-a-name business doesn’t always work and can lead to some embarrassing social encounters. As a fledgling faculty member at LSU I met a senior professor from another department named Soileau (pronounced swallow, a rather common surname in Louisiana). Not wanting to forget his name I pictured him as a swallow bird. A short time later I chanced upon him in the faculty club and introduced him to a colleague as Dr. “Sparrow.” So much for visualizing names!
Tip Number 2: Find regular everyday memory challenges.
One of the “memory challenges” Restak suggests is to try cooking meals from recipes you have memorized. While this may be ok for some folks in the kitchen, as I confessed in an earlier Andy’s Corner, I have a lock on culinary mishaps in our family, most of which occurring while closely following printed recipes. Just imagine what might happen if I were to try cooking without a recipe. Clearly, Restak’s claim that “ frequent cooking is actually a great way to improve working memory” hasn’t had much traction in my experience.
Tip Number 3: Play games.
I love to play games, even though I pretty much suck at chess (recommended by Restak) and never could learn how to play bridge (also recommended by Restak). Each morning for the past couple of years Ann and I try to outdo each other playing The New York Times Spelling Bee (usually only to figure out the “long” word) and the word game Wordle. Although we literally have played these games hundreds of times, my mental dexterity remains stubbornly stable. Recently we have been playing a new game that Ann discovered entitled “I Should Have Known That.” Frankly, playing that game is an exercise in masochism for both of us. After each round we come away wondering if we are candidates for professional help with our memory.
Tip Number 4: Read more novels
Restak tells us that reading novels is a good brain exercise because “…you have to remember what the character did on Page 3 by the time you get to Page 11.” This is problematic for me because I do my book reading in bed at night and often fall asleep before I even get to page 11. And remembering which character is which? I have trouble remembering the main protagonist’s name in an autobiography. At dinner parties I dread the inevitable question, ”’What are you reading now?” Not only do I seldom remember the title of that book sitting on my nightstand, I often can’t recall the author’s name.
Tip Number 5: Eat More Dark Chocolate
While eating more chocolate is not one of the tips mentioned by Hope Reese, Restak does bring it up in his book – and since this is a food blog I thought it appropriate to include it as a tip. Plus, I’m a big fan of anything with dark chocolate in it.
Restak points out research that has shown that the cocoa flavonoids in dark chocolate (and cocoa powder) improves memory function – probably due to increased blood flow to the brain. This surprised me because I eat so much dark chocolate that my brain is surely flooded with blood and yet I’ve noticed no improvement in the memory department (although I have noticed an elevated sense of happiness and well-being whenever I get my hands on dark chocolate).
Tip Number 6: Learn to Live With It
The final tip is my own personal recommendation to those concerned about their memory. Years of dealing with memory lapses in the trenches of everyday life have made me well qualified to offer this tip. It is simply learn to live with it. And learn not only to live with memory lapses, but to laugh at them and embrace them as a part of who you are. Instead of feeling diminished because you couldn’t remember the name of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s daughter, consider such lapses as opportunities to show that you are human with a sense of humor. I’d take a sense of humor any day over perfect recall.
Though I don’t have a recipe for today’s blog, AnnD’s Corner does. In lieu of a recipe I have decided to provide links to our BigLittleMeals recipes that include dark chocolate or unsweetened cocoa powder (ingredients which contain memory-enhancing flavanoids). I can’t guarantee that consuming any of these will help you remember the name of Hillary and Bill Clinton’s daughter, but I can guarantee that any of these will bring you an elevated sense of happiness and well-being.
BigLittleMeals Recipes with dark chocolate or cocoa powder:
Hi Andy
“One of the “‘memory challenges’ Restak suggests is to try cooking meals from recipes you have memorized. For me, this only works for boiling eggs.
Sometimes I draw a complete blank when I see a familiar object, like a banana. It’s perplexing. Now, I write “banana” on them with a magic marker.
There’s a joke about a lawyer questioning a woman on the witness stand.
When did you begin to suspect your husband was cheating on you with another woman?
He woke up one morning, turned to me and said “Good morning, Judy.”
Why did that make you suspicious?
My name is Susan.
I’d love to get your boiled egg recipe. And, I appreciate your tip on how to recognize bananas, although I wonder if when the banana peel starts to get black the magic marker would be difficult to read.
I’m waiting for the day when Google is asked to search for ‘memory loss,’ it spins for a moment and comes back with, “What did you ask about?”
That why machine intelligence will never replace the human mind – it doesn’t forget nor laugh at itself.
Your comment about the number of hits returned when googling “sex” made me laugh out loud, and now Charlie and I are eagerly awaiting your blog on THAT topic!
I’ll get to that topic once I complete my literature review. It may take a while.
reminded me of my 92 year old neighbor telling me he was very worried about ‘the here after’. he never struck me as religious so I questioned his new found spirituality to which he clarified that his concern was about walking into a room and wondering what he was ‘here after’.
I think many of us are practicing that kind of religion. A very appropriate joke given the blog topic.