Title: Improving Memory: Lifestyle Changes | HowStuffWorks
Headings: Improving Memory: Lifestyle Changes
Improving Memory: Lifestyle Changes
To learn more about the various aspects of memory, see:
Improving Memory: Lifestyle Changes, Stress and Memory
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Improving Memory: Lifestyle Changes, Exercise and Memory
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Improving Memory: Lifestyle Changes, Sleep and Memory
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Improving Memory: Lifestyle Changes, Diet and Memory
B Vitamins
Vitamins C & E
Vitamins C & E
Magnesium
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Improving Memory: Lifestyle Changes, Alcohol and Smoking and Memory
Alcohol
Smoking
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Inhalants
Improving Memory: Lifestyle Changes, Supplements and Memory
Ginkgo Biloba
Coenzyme Q10
Huperzine A
Phosphatidylserine (PS)
Pregnenolone
Vinpocetine
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Improving Memory: Lifestyle Changes, Head Injuries and Memory
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Improving Memory: Lifestyle Changes, Medications and Memory
Anticholinergic Drugs (scopolamine, atropine, glycopyrrolate)
Anti-epilepsy Drugs (phenytoin/Dilantin)
Opiates (heroin, morphine, codeine)
Psychoactive Drugs
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Content: As your stress eases or as you employ coping techniques, you should find that your memory improves. On the other hand, there is some evidence to suggest that prolonged exposure to unmitigated stress may damage the hippocampus, making it less able to signal the body to turn off the stress hormones, leading to a vicious cycle of higher and higher stress-hormone levels and further decay of memory and cognition. In time, the hippocampus may actually shrink. There's another reason why you may not remember so well when you are under a lot of stress, and it has to do with paying attention. In order to record information well enough to form a memory, you have to be able to focus on the subject you want to remember. Anything that interferes with your ability to pay attention, therefore, will impair your memory. When stress is severe or prolonged, it can monopolize your attention to the point that you can't concentrate on anything else. You may become so obsessed with or distracted by the source (s) of your stress that you don't pay attention to what you're doing and what's going on around you. You may function much of the time on a sort of automatic pilot, going through the daily motions but not really focusing on your actions, not paying attention to where you put down your glasses or your car keys, not absorbing what you're reading, etc. ( Ever driven home distracted or upset after a stressful day of work and discovered, when you got home, that you had no memory of the drive itself and couldn't even say for sure whether or not you stopped at all the stop signs?)