What do you think is the number one issue that people have with their memory?

Remembering names.

It’s something many of us struggle with even though we are perfectly capable of remembering other pieces of information as someone’s birthday, a doctor’s appointment or meeting a friend for a coffee.

So why is it so many of us find remembering names so hard, and why does it matter?

Remembering another person’s name is important in both social and business situations. We all have a given name that we like to be known as. Being greeted by your name makes you feel more connected to the other person and their equal.

Have you ever been in a situation where you have recognised someone, spoken to them, used their name and after you’ve moved on, had that little sneaky suspicion that you might have used the wrong name by mistake? Ooops.

Or perhaps you have bumped into someone you know really well and your mind does a complete blank, while another person you know is making a beeline towards you and you know you will be expected to do the introductions. Oh Oh, embarrassing isn’t it.

What are the reasons some of us find remembering names so hard?

• We don’t pay attention or focus on the name as we are being introduced. Sometimes we get so hooked up on having to say our own name we forget to listen or take in the other person’s name. I recently had to facilitate a meeting where I had to introduce a guest speaker and spent a fair amount of time with her. My thank you note I received the following day was addressed to Bianca! The other time I will forget a person’s name very easily is if I am in the middle of something and I don’t give my full attention to someone being introduced.

• Introductions are often done at speed and we have insufficient time to register the information. This is especially likely in group situations when the person making the introductions does a quick round robin.

• We tell ourselves we are bad at remembering names, so stop even trying. So maybe it is time to stop using this old excuse and start making an effort. We all have to find a way to make this work. I’ve seen teachers memorising photos with names in order to learn their students identity or seated then in a certain way in the class, again to facilitate their learning.

• If the setting is noisy, it is harder to hear the name being spoken, which increases our chance of either missing it altogether or getting it wrong. I am often called Penny or Jane because of this. Which is ok if I realise they have made a mistake and they use the wrong name in conversation. I can simply correct them.

• If you are feeling stressed or anxious taking in new information such as a person’s name is going to be harder. Especially if the stress is about not forgetting their name! if you are stressed, it won’t be just someone’s name you find hard to take in, any new information will be difficult.

Tips to helps us remember names more easily.

• Repeat the other person’s name, preferably out loud. When you introduce yourself, you could say “Mark, it’s so nice to meet you.” Look for opportunities to repeat their name several times during the conversation and always use their name when saying goodbye.

• When you have their name, try to make an association with it. You may know ten John Smiths, so what differentiates this one? How about “Nice John”, “Naughty John” or “John who builds aeroplanes”

• If you are a visual person you could visualise the person’s name written on their forehead, or on a little signpost on top of their head or see John (who builds aeroplanes) with flying goggles on.

• Some people make up a short story with the person. There could be Jane with the purple jacket and three dogs. Or Tony with the red hair who likes anchovies whom we met at the Chinese restaurant.

• If all else fails, then you can simply ask the person their name. Dress it up with an apology if you feel you must, but most people don’t mind being asked. It also reassures them that they are not the only ones who forget names!

• At networking functions where you may be meeting quite a few new people, ask for their business card to help you jog your memory for future reference. Also as their name is likely to be written down on it, if necessary hold the card in front of you (disceetly of course!) as a prompt during the conversation.

• If going to an event or function where you will be expected to remember names, try rehearsing or confirming with others beforehand. If you can remember the name of Auntie Ethels’ cousin twice removed at the family gathering, you could be earning yourself extra brownie points.

• Most importantly relax. If you your mind has gone blank, try not to panic. As soon as that surge of anxiety rises, you have definitely lost any chance of the name popping back up. Let your mind pause, then look for associations, other friends, or events you may both have been at and hopefully their name will slip into your mind and you can casually use it while talking, as if you knew it all along in the first place.

• A tip to help others to remember your name when wearing a name- tag, is to always pin it onto the right side of your upper body. Many of us when greeting someone for the first time will proffer our right hand to theirs for a handshake, which means they scan our face and upper right side of the chest first if nothing else. If the name-tag is there, bingo, they are more likely to remember your name.

So, in relation to remembering names, don’t stress, because we all find it hard to a greater or lesser extent.
Find your own way or ways to help manage and just practice.
Practice, practice, practice.
Because as with many things in life, the more we put in, the more we are likely to get out.

Let me know, what have you found works for you?
We may be able to compile an even longer list of tips and strategies.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Why Staying Connected Is Vital to Good Memory and Brain Health.

I just got back from a three-day seminar where I sat in a large room with a whole bunch of other people listening to a series of presentations.

As I was sitting there, I was asking myself a couple of questions. What is it that draws people to these types of events?
And what is one of the key reasons for attending en masse?
Because much of the information being presented is readily available in other forms such as books, articles and the Internet.

Much of the answer could be found in the breaks between talks, when the gathered throng would meet up and introduce themselves to other people, chat about the event, their learning, their purpose for being there and generally sharing information with each other.
The noise level of the chattering voices (deafening!) demonstrated that there were a lot of people intent on communicating to their fellows. At the end of each break, the organisers were shepherding/dragging/encouraging people back to the room, having to break up conversations in order to allow the event to keep to its time schedule.

As much as I enjoy learning new things, it is the social engagement with others that I actually enjoy the most, forming new connections with other human beings.

Why is this important to having good brain health and better memory skills?

I think many of us understand that loneliness is not good for us. People on the whole are social beings and thrive on contact and interaction with others.

How vivid is that image of an older person living alone, with little or no social contact.
Apart from the disadvantage of being socially isolated, that person is also seriously disadvantaged in terms of increased risk of physical and mental ill health and is likely to age faster and die earlier.

The incidence of mental illness including depression is more common in those living alone.

Other studies have also demonstrated that people on their own are less likely to be engaged in maintaining good cognitive function and have a higher risk of dementia.
Less external stimulation means less engagement with what is happening in the rest of the world, less likelihood of expanding or learning new mental skills, or of remaining interested or curious about what other things are going on.

Having to use your brain in a social sense means you are using your memory to remember, you are controlling your emotions (both positively and negatively) and are being attentive and focussed.

Neuroscience has taught us in order to remain brain fit we need to be actively using all of our mental muscle.

Back in 2007 Prof Oscar Ybarra and colleagues released a paper, which looked to prove that a correlation existed between social engagement and better brain function. His study included 3600 people aged between 24 and 65 yrs.
Having proved that, he then went on to do a second study using a group of 18 to 21 year olds, and demonstrated that social interaction

caused

better cognitive performance.

In his study he had three groups of people.
The first group were engaged in a discussion for 10 minutes.
The second group performed brain-training activities (crossword puzzles/Sudoku) for 10 minutes.
The third group sat and watched a 10 minute Seinfeld clip.

The groups were then tested on speed of processing information and working memory.
The results showed that even after only a 10 minute exercise, the group involved in the discussion did far better in working memory tests than those who had watched the video clip.
The brain-training group were a close second to the conversation group.

So talking and social interaction with your fellow human beings appears very important in being able to maintain good cognitive function, even more than doing the brain training programs. Although they are of course also recognised for contributing in a big way to our continuing good cognitive function.

It looks as if we have another good reason to turn off the TV.

What is the Concern for the Future of Reduced Social Contact?

It appears that the need for human beings to remain connected to each other is going to be of increasing importance for the following reasons.

The above study suggests that having better social skills means a likely better cognitive outcome. Which means that if our kids are taught good social skills from an earlier age then they are likely to perform better academically.

In the workplace it supports the ideas of encouraging employee interactivity as a way to help them work better.

But, our changing lifestyle means many more of us now choose to live alone. The family unit is being replaced by an increasing number of single person units.
There has been an increase in the number of people choosing to work from home as solopreneurs, as virtual assistants, as online businesses, without actual contact with other staff or related personnel.

There are a rapidly increasing number of baby boomers reaching retirement who, either through choice, or divorce or death of their partner are likely to end up living alone.

Which to my mind means it is crucial that we all look to either maintain or increase our social networks, if we want to keep our brains working better and reduce the risk of losing our memory skills, our physical and our overall mental health.

Younger people living alone are perhaps more likely to continue to engage with other younger people, but watch out for the shy, the geeks or socially introverted.

For people living and working from home, it is going to be really important to actually interact with others, to have face to face meetings, to get out and engage with friends, to go to restaurants, café’s and other social gatherings, beyond standing in the check-out queue of the local supermarket.

For the elderly, physical infirmity can be a major issue making it harder to remain connected.
There were a number of people I looked after as their general practitioner, and often I or the Silver chain nurse would be the only people they would see from week to week.

There are of course a number of other things to consider to remain socially connected such as:

• Joining community groups
• Maintaining regular social contact with existing friends
• Going out to social functions, clubs.
• Travelling and going on holiday
• Enrolling for courses at your local Tafe college or University
• Being a volunteer for a charity or other community group
• Having a dog that requires a walk outside.

Even the telephone can provide a means of at least speaking to another person, as can the newer social media channels of Facebook, MySpace and Skype.

So next time I am thinking I need to encourage our daughter to get off the phone/mobile/Facebook to get back to her studies, I shall have to remind myself that that social interaction is going to help her memory and test performance.

There is nothing that can replace the invaluable act of simply being with and interacting with another person every day to provide great mental exercise.

Ref: University of Michigan (2007, November 1). Ten Minutes Of Talking Improves Memory And Test Performance. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 23, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2007/10/071029172856.htm

Ladies,

If you could pop along to your local GP’s office and get a blood test which could reveal if you have a higher risk of dementia or not, would you have it?

The results are in from a prospective study, which found that looking at a woman’s level of homocysteine in their blood might be a useful predictor of your relative risk of developing dementia in subsequent decades.

The good news too is that high levels of homocysteine can be treated using folate, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12.

What isn’t known, is whether treating high homocysteine levels would prevent dementia from developing or defer it. More studies would have to be carried out to show if that is the case or not.

But the evidence is now in that having a high homocysteine level is a risk factor for dementia.

What is homocysteine?

Homocysteine is an amino acid that is very important to the body’s metabolism.
It depends on the presence of folate, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin B 12, which we take in with our diet to be kept to a normal range.

Having too much homocysteine has long been known to be associated as a risk factor for heart disease. It appears that some of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s are the same, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, alcohol and obesity.

Other studies have linked dementia and poor cognition with elevated plasma homocysteine levels.
An 8-year study in the Framingham Study again found a doubling of risk of developing Alzheimer’s in those found to have elevated homocysteine.

What hasn’t been determined is whether it is the high level of homocysteine itself or associated vitamin deficiencies, that causes the damage.

But what is known, is that levels of B12 and folate are commonly found to be deficient in the elderly, as is the increased incidence of neurological disease.

In animal studies, folate and Vitamin B12 and 6 deficiencies were linked to poorer memory and spatial learning, and reduced blood supply to the hippocampus, the specialised area in the brain associated with memory.

What are dietary sources of folate and vitamin B12?

Vitamin B12 is found in a variety of commonly eaten foods including meat, fish, milk, eggs and chicken.
Folate is found in green leafy vegetables such as spinach, peas and grains that have been fortified. Many breads and breakfast cereals now have added folate.

Why is this only about the risk for women and not men?

Well basically it is because the study only included women.
So, simply, the results can’t be extrapolated to men.

This was a prospective study that began in the 1960’s on 1500 women (aged between 38 and 60 yrs) who had blood tests done including recording homocysteine levels and filled in a health questionnaire. Thirty-five years later the data is now in, on discovering which of those women subsequently went on to develop dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

It was those women who had high homocysteine levels, that had twice the risk of developing Alzheimer’s and their relative risk of developing any form of dementia was 70% greater than normal.

We may now be looking at the possibility of being able to use a simple blood test as part of the risk analysis for determining future dementia or Alzheimer’s risk in middle aged women.

And a simple remedy using folate, vitamin B6 and B12 to reduce the levels of homocysteine.

Magnesium is a mineral that is essential for our health.

It is involved in over 300 biochemical reactions in our body and is essential for normal functioning of our muscles and nerves, for building bone, promoting normal cellular function, protein synthesis, regulating blood sugar levels and blood pressure and more.

In our body half of what we have is found in bone.
The other half is mostly in our cells and just a tiny fraction circulates in our blood.

The new information we now have is that it is also really important in helping us to maintain our ability to learn and keep our memory working well, especially as we age.

That’s according to a new study published in the Jan 28th edition of the journal Neuron.

Boosting our brain with magnesium
Six years ago Professor Gusong Liu and Inna Slutsky published their findings from a study, which revealed that magnesium plays a key role regulating a particular brain receptor that was important for learning and memory.
They also found that magnesium promoted the formation and density of new synapses (the connections between brain cells) especially in the area of the hippocampus, the area of the brain associated with spatial awareness and memory. This supported the idea that a deficiency of magnesium could be linked to decreased memory and learning ability.

From these earlier studies, Professor Liu and his team at Tsinhua University, Beijing have now published the results of a new study looking into whether using supplementation to increase brain magnesium improves learning and memory in young and old rats.

To do this they first had to develop a new compound of magnesium called Magnesium L-Threonate, which can be taken up by the brain.

This is because it is very difficult to adequately boost brain levels of magnesium using traditional magnesium supplements.

The control group of rats received a diet containing an adequate amount of magnesium. The second group received a supplemented diet containing magnesium L Threonate (MgT)

The results showed improved learning and memory in both younger and older rats in the supplemented group with improved learning ability, working memory, short and long-term memory.

The exciting conclusion from this is the suggestion that using this new synthetic magnesium may prove useful in the future to help treat or reduce age related cognitive decline.

The other conclusion is that a deficiency of magnesium could be associated with age dependent memory decline and supplementation with the appropriate type of magnesium may help to prevent this.

We get our magnesium from our diet.
Good sources of magnesium include dark green leafy vegetables, broccoli, apples, lemon, grapefruit, cereals and legumes and nuts such as cashews and almonds.

Unfortunately the vast majority of us fall short of our daily requirement. It is estimated that around 30% of Americans fail to reach their daily recommended intake.

The current recommendation for a dietary intake of magnesium is around 400mg per day increasing with age to 420mg per day.

But before you reach for the commercially available magnesium supplements, remember that’s not going to help your brain in the current available forms.

We are going to have to wait until the new supplement of magnesium L Threonate becomes available.

Until it is commercially available and more studies have been done to look into this, we would be well advised to do as our mothers told us and eat all our green leafy vegetables to help keep our minds and memories working well.

And look out for that bunch of really canny rats with super learning ability skills and enhanced memory.

Reference: Enhancement of Learning and Memory by Elevating Brain Magnesium. Neuron, Jan 28th 2010 Inna Slutsky, Nashat Abumaria, long_Jun Wu, Ccao Huang, Ling Zhang, Bo Li, Xiang Zhao, Arvind Govindarajan, Ming-Gao Zhao, Min Zhuo, Susumu Tonegawa and Guosong Liu.