A Healthy Body = A Healthy Mind

Today we are going to start off and talk a little bit about memory and supplements that might help improve memory and the relationship between lifestyle and memory. In other words, things you might do to preserve memory. I think this topic is important this because everybody is worried about Alzheimer’s disease, especially when people find themselves having difficulty remembering names and maybe and other things as they get older.

SHIFTS IN MEMORY

I just want to say that there is a certain amount of deterioration that occurs with age, but you never want to blame anything on age. I know that sounds like a crazy statement, but you know an exaggerated loss of memory is abnormal. If you feel like you can’t remember anything, then that is a reason to talk about it with me or your physician. But more importantly, what I want to say is that there are some things you can do to preserve memory and prevent the loss of memory, but there are no easy fixes with this problem.

I was a speaker at a conference last fall called neuro-regeneration. So, what are the things you can do regenerate your brain, nerves and spinal cord and your eyes? I was obviously talking about the eyes at that conference. One relevant protocol from the conference dealt with preserving memory. 

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP MEMORY?

What’s interesting about the protocol is that it is simply a checklist of all the things we talk about over the course of these calls. It is a checklist of all the things you do to maintain good health. The protocol includes a clean diet, not drinking alcohol, not smoking cigarettes, dealing with stress, getting adequate exercise, breathing, meditation, detoxification, and doing things to engage your mind. Your mind is kind of a use it or lose it thing. In this case, you want to think of the brain as a muscle.

Then there are some more intangible things that help you preserve memory. One thing I noticed at this conference that works to preserve function is have purpose in your life. You need to have a reason to live, you need to have a reason to be healthy. For some people, the reason is taking care of their grandchildren, or watching their grandchildren grow up. Some people are very engaged in a career or a job they love, and that keeps them going.

OTHER METHODS

Some people get involved in other ways. They get retired from the job they had all their life and they apply their gifts, skills, time and energy to something else that means something to them, and that’s what keeps them going. If you’re retired from a job and think you’re going to just sit back, put your feet up and watch TV -and have your mind be healthy - you’re mistaken. 

It is this vague idea of purpose that’s a very important thing to your well-being. Purpose isn’t just about keeping your memory, it’s about keeping you going. Purpose keeps you out of depression, keeps you engaged and lithe and enthused and excited about life. I’m putting together a checklist, which wasn’t put together in the conference, of things to live with purpose. I’ll put that list up on the wall once I’ve settled on the most important parts. That’s probably going to be a few weeks.

SUPPLEMENTS FOR MEMORY

Since we are talking about memory, I think it is relevant to discuss supplements for memory. We had touched on this topic early, which was the inspiration for this topic. I know some of this is a little repetitive, but there are no supplements that anyone has ever found that will take a healthy mind and make it work better. Probably the only exception is speed, or other things like that, which enhance function, but are very corrosive and damaging. If you want to limit yourself to substances that might be allowed in professional sports or Olympic sports. Performance enhancing drugs, that are somewhat safe, that you might actually use, don’t really help memory much. 

MEMORY COMPETITIONS

There are professional and amateur memory competitions. I know that sounds a little crazy, but basically, they do things like try to memorize the order of a deck of cards in 60 seconds. Maybe you’re handed a list with names to remember. There are tricks to help you remember better. It is a skill that you can work to learn. 

Memory competitions are fairly big things. There are international competitions, and these people are very good and work very hard to be the best. If there is some way to get an edge in these competitions, they would use it. They try everything proposed, and so far nothing that has enhanced memory in a healthy brain. 

ENCREASING CIRCULATION

Having said that, there are things you can take if your brain is a little unhealthy. There are supplements that can help you if your circulation is compromised. Compromised circulation is a consideration for all of us who are worried about with eye disease, because degenerative diseases in the eyes and brain can cause the loss of healthy circulation in those areas. A few supplements like Vinpocetine and Ginkgo, that we’ve talked about in the past, very gently open circulation of the small vessels of the brain. Often with better circulation, everything in the brain works better. Regeneration works better. Healing works better. Memory works better. Even cognition, thinking and problem solving, work better. 

If your brain is a little compromised, there are also herbs and supplements that can help. They are quite safe, they don’t damage your liver, give you high blood pressure, do things that some other substances might.

CONCLUSION

But really, you probably should not worry too much about this unless it becomes a problem. All the things that you talk about that you can do to take care of your health, and take care of the health of your eyes, are going to take care of the health of your brain. In fact, even the microcurrent stimulation can improve your brain functioning. There is a resurgence in something called cranial, electrical stimulation, which we’ll discuss more in a future talk. Just so you know, the unit you have for your eyes is appropriate for cranial electrical stimulation or CES. That’s not going to make your memory a lot better, but there are different ways to use CES that can help your brain. Again, we’ll talk about that in the future. That’s about all I want to say about memory for now, so let’s go to the Q&A session.