Some things in life are less than fair. Not only do many women experience “Pregnancy brain” and “Mummy brain” when our ability to retain relevant information sometimes appears to go to mush, it also appears we can joyfully expect to experience “Menopause brain” when transitioning from being fertile to becoming infertile.

“Menopause brain” is nothing new, in fact 60% of women going through menopause will report memory problems, yet this has remained an area where fabulously little research has been undertaken to try and understand what is really going on with our brains at this time in our lives.

What has been reported, is that not only do many women experience significant changes with their memory, but because these changes occur typically in our late forties and early fifties, we become frightened that these changes could herald the first signs of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. That fear of course then compounds the brain’s inability to think clearly and a vicious cycle can ensue.

So first things first: there are brain changes, which occur in the menopausal brain that can affect memory.
These changes reflect a physiological change and are not the first signs of neurodegenerative disease i.e. Alzheimer’s.

So what is going on here?

Back in 2009 a study on 2362 women aged between 42 and 52 looked at

• Verbal memory
• Working memory (short term)
• Speed of processing information

The women were tested at four different stages of transition through menopause i.e. pre- menopause (regular periods), early peri- menopause (some irregularity of periods), late peri-menopause (no period for 3 – 11 months) and post menopause.

As I mentioned earlier, up to 60% of women will report memory difficulties during menopause and this study confirmed that during the early and late peri menopause, women do not learn as well as when they are in the other stages.

The good news is that this effect appears to be temporary. Our ability to learn returns to pre menopausal levels once we become post menopausal.

Phew!

The other interesting note here is the role of hormones (or rather HRT) on our verbal memory and processing speed.

Taking HRT before menopause appears to help verbal memory and processing speed.
But taking HRT postmenopausally has no effect on these skills.

This suggests there is a critical window of opportunity for the benefit of oestrogen and progesterone supplementation here. However much depends on the individual and their relative risk factors for consideration of using HRT at all.

Another study in 2009 examined the relationship between peri menopausal memory complaints and performance in relation to other relevant factors such as hormone levels, mood state, and sleep quality. In this small study of 24 women, there was no association of memory complaint and performance on tests of retentive memory. What they did show was memory complaints were linked to poorer memory encoding (i.e. learning) and depressive symptoms.

Miriam Weber PhD a neuropsychologist at the University of Rochester Medical Centre has now published the findings of a new study in the journal Menopause. In this study 75 women aged 40 to 60 who were in early peri menopause underwent a series of cognitive tests to look at their

• Ability to learn and retain new information (encoding memory)
• Ability to mentally manipulate new information (using working or short term memory)
• Sustain attention over a period of time (paying attention)

They were also asked about any symptoms associated with menopause such as hot flushes, depression, and anxiety and sleep difficulty. Plus they underwent blood tests measuring oestrogen and FSH levels.

The study showed that those women who had noted memory problems were the ones who demonstrated difficulty with learning, retaining and manipulating new information.

The examples given of difficulty experienced included

“Calculating the tip after a meal at a restaurant, doing mental math, or adjusting a flight itinerary for a journey”

They were also noted to have difficulty staying on task i.e. paying attention.

Remembering specific items for example on a grocery list and recalling them when in a shop were not an issue.

The actual hormone levels were found to have no association with the memory complaints, though experiencing difficulty sleeping or anxiety and depression symptoms did.

What can we do to help?

The best thing to do if you are experiencing memory difficulty associated with the peri menopause would be to

1. Address any sleep problems. Talk to your GP. Follow good sleep hygiene practice.

2. Address anxiety or symptoms of depression. Talk to you GP about the different options you could choose to ameliorate these.

3. Find and use strategies to help you with encoding and retaining information. This could include simple tricks such as
• Repeating a new price of information out loud
• Saying it back to another person for confirmation
• Practice attention building skills such as meditation to help stay on task for longer.

And of course relax, it’s only your “Menopause brain” playing up and the good news is that by the time the post menopausal state is reached, your brain fog will have cleared and you can then enjoy the wisdom and serenity that being post menopausal will bring.

Refs:
1. Miriam T. Weber, Mark Mapstone. Memory complaints and memory performance in the menopausal transition. Menopause. 2009 Jul-Aug;16(4):694-700.

2. American Academy of Neurology (2009, May 25). Menopause Transition May Cause Trouble Learning. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 18, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2009/05/090525173427.htm

3. Miriam T. Weber, Mark Mapstone, Jennifer Staskiewicz, Pauline M. Maki. Reconciling subjective memory complaints with objective memory performance in the menopausal transition. Menopause, 2012; 1 DOI: 10.1097/gme.0b013e318241fd22

It took probably all of 10 – 15 minutes to eat that sultana. Mindfully.

As I sat in the mindfulness class being encouraged to use all of my senses to really experience eating it, I realised several things.

Firstly, that sultanas are really interesting to look through – like squishy pieces of amber revealing hidden treasures. They also make a crackling noise when held close to your ear and rolled between your fingers.
Secondly, that eating a sultana really slowly, to feel it’s texture in my mouth, to actually taste it, to experience biting into it, made me realise I’m not that keen on sultanas.
Thirdly and most importantly though, is that for many of us eating our food has become a secondary activity devoid of pleasure and mystique.

The role of mindfulness.

Mindfulness is a way of engaging fully in the present moment. It is a way of quietening down the frenetic mind, which is forever busy thinking about the past and predicting the future. It is a way of just “being”.

It is a way of enhancing attention and focus, skills, which in our distracted modern world are at risk of being ever diminished.

I recently caught up with friends for dinner at a restaurant. We had so much to talk about. There was much discussion and laughter. It was only as we said our goodbyes that it dawned me that I had paid virtually no attention to the food that had been ordered and eaten – I had been so busy focussing my attention on my friends. The food had been good I am sure, but had I really enjoyed it, savoured it, yet alone tasted it?

Eating that sultana reminded me that I am as guilty as many others, of ignoring the present in the rush for the future: the next meeting, the next task, the next idea.

When eating alone, how many of us use that time to catch up on reading the newspaper or a magazine, or tuning in to the T.V.? How many of us sitting down to eat as a family, plonk down in front of the telly?

As a teenager I was addicted to those chocolate crème eggs that were sold in the lead up to Easter. The trick was to see just how long you could make the egg last. I think forty minutes was my record. That was probably my first (and unintentional!) experience of eating mindfully.

The advantages of paying attention to what we eat.

Paying attention to our food allows us to really notice (i.e. pay attention to) what we are eating, as well as whether we like the food or not. It also allows us to recognise other cues such as satiety. If we eat on the run, cramming the next snack into our mouth as we hurtle out of the door, we deny our body and brain the opportunity to tell us that what we have eaten was good, bad or indifferent and we ignore those signals indicating we have actually eaten enough.

Fast food is often poor quality, cheap food that may contain far too much fat, salt or sugar. But because we often consume it fast, we are less likely to notice that it actually doesn’t taste very good.

If I had to sit and eat a chicken nugget mindfully instead of a sultana, (which is not something I would want to do!) I think it would really highlight the nastiness of the nugget, being overly fatty, devoid of any real chicken taste or any other particular taste for that matter.

Traditionally food has played a major role in our society. Special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, weddings are still marked with special feasts. But everyday meals are often rushed, slapped down on the table and eaten quickly so that we can return to other “more important” items.
Today eating is perceived more as an interruption to the busyness of our day. Something we have to do, to refuel our body and mind, rather than enjoy doing.

So why not have a go at eating a food mindfully, as an exercise in reconnecting with the simple pleasure of enjoying good food. It could be a strawberry, a tomato, an apple, even a sultana – just take your time to hold, look at, smell and taste.

Remember, by pausing to enjoy the moment, we enhance our ability to pay attention. So if you want to improve your attention skills this is a great way to start.

Some questions to ask ourselves.

• Would eating more mindfully allow us to reconnect in a good way with food?

• Would paying attention to our food, it’s taste, texture and aroma make us more open to trying different foods?

• Could mindful eating, by leading us to eat less, be one way to start tackling the obesity problem?

What do you think?

Over the centuries, meditation has been used to reduce stress, improve focus, attention and memory.

A few years ago when going through a period in my life that was proving to be somewhat stressful, I enrolled in a six-week meditation course.
And I have to say it was hugely beneficial.
Having to mentally and physically stop for that one brief hour each week, was very calming and it did help me cope.
I can’t say it was easy either. Being a person always on the go, never allowing myself the luxury to step back and stop the endless mind-chatter was quite a challenge and it took a while to get the hang of it.
But then I would start to look forward to that time, and little by little I did learn how to focus on the breath, to be more “present” and just take in the sounds around me with out allowing my thoughts to rudely intrude and distract.
I could actually just acknowledge them and let them float off somewhere else.

Whilst there of a lot of awareness of the beneficial physiological changes associated with meditation for some time, it has only been over the last few years that scientific studies have been able to show more of what is going on in the brain when we meditate and the promise that further research may have, for future brain health benefits.

The brain itself actually undergoes physical change in response to meditation.
A study by Sara Lazar, research scientist from the Massachusetts Hospital Boston showed that regular meditation causes thickening of the cerebral cortex in those areas of the brain associated with decision-making, attention and memory.

The question arising from her study is: Would regular meditation slow the natural thinning of the cortex that occurs with age?

The cortex is associated with higher brain function. So, can meditation be shown to increase attention span, sharpen focus and improve memory?

The proponents of meditation say it can:

In 2007 a study by Amishi Jha and Michael Baine at Penn’s Stress Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania looked at how meditation affected the three separate components of paying attention ie:

• The ability to prioritise and manage tasks and goals.
• The ability to voluntarily focus on specific information.
• The ability to stay alert to the environment

They had two groups. The first group was new to meditation and undertook an 8 week course, which included 30 minutes daily meditation.
The second group was experienced in meditation and went on a full time one-month retreat.
Both groups underwent computer-based tests on response speeds and accuracy and both groups showed improved performance in attention and ability to focus. The experienced group did better overall but the new group demonstrated significant improvements over just a course of weeks.

The implications here suggested it would be worthwhile teaching employees to meditate, because even 30 minutes a day produced improved attention and focus.

Attention is the key to learning. So it would appear that meditation allows you to improve your attention and hence learning capacity.

The Deutsche Bank, Google and Hughes Aircraft now offer meditation classes for their workers because of the perceived benefits to their employees
with:

• Increased productivity
• Reduced stress related illness
• Reduced absenteeism
• Reduced number of errors or mistakes
• Improved recall and memory due to having a relaxed and clear mind.

Mental activity in meditation is wakeful and relaxed. Professor Jim Lagopoulos from Sydney University used EEG testing to look at the difference in the brain when mentally active, resting, asleep or meditating as the brain has some form of electrical activity in all of these.

What he found was that those engaged in non-reactive meditation produced more marked changes in electrical brain wave activity associated with wakeful relaxed attention, compared to those who were just resting without any specific mental technique.

What about meditation as a tool to prevent memory loss?

The results of a small pilot study into use of meditation to prevent memory loss was published in March 2010 by Dr Dharma Singh Khalsa and Andrew Newberg Associate Professor of Radiology Pennsylvania University School of Medicine

They had 15 subjects age 52 to 77 years. with known memory problems.
They undertook 8 weeks of Kirtan Kriya mediation for 12 minutes a day.

All the subjects underwent cognitive testing and brain imaging at the beginning and end of the 8-week period.

The meditation used was very simple.
The subjects had to repeat four sounds SA, TA, NA, MA while touching their thumb to index, middle, ring and little finger.

They had to perform this out loud for 2 minutes,
At a whisper for 2 minutes
In silence for 4 minutes
Then a whisper for 2 minutes
And finally out loud again for 2 minutes

They were all given a meditation CD to play at home.

In the control group with memory loss, they were asked listen to two Mozart violin concertos for 12 mins a day.

Of the 15 in the meditation group;
7 had mild age associated memory impairment
5 had mild cognitive impairment
3 had moderate impairment with Alzheimer’s disease.

Of the 5 in the control group;
2 had mild cognitive impairment
3 had age related memory impairment.

The results found that those in the meditating group showed increased blood flow to frontal and parietal lobes (areas associated with memory retrieval) on scanning. In cognitive testing they all had improved performance in general memory and attention.

Those who had listened to music, showed some increased blood flow in different areas of brain but of less significance and they showed no improvement in cognition.

The suggestion from the study is that meditation may be useful in those with mild memory impairment to slow down or inhibit progression of memory loss by “strengthening” the brain.

Whilst interesting, it has to be noted that this was an extremely small study, but certainly warranting further investigation with larger studies to see if this finding can be replicated.

Other researchers have also looked at the question of whether meditation can assist focus and thereby allow better memory

Dr Gary W Small, Director of Memory and Ageing Research Centre, University of California has found that exposing older people to technology such as the internet changed their brain activity in just one week. He found that the older subjects showed an increase in frontal lobe activity in their brains and where short term memory and decision-making is important.

Meditation appears to be a useful tool not only for the workplace but also to perhaps assist us to maintain our cognition, as we get older.
It may not be too long before meditation is offered more widely as a strategy to keep us brain fit.

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.