When you forget things, you fall short: What time was that meeting tomorrow? Was it April who said she might want to become a customer in August, or was it August who said to call him next April? Wait, what was the third thing? If there’s one thing many business leaders worry about, it’s whether their memories have suffered
Walk backward
Researchers from the University of Roehampton in London divided their subjects into three groups.
- In Group 1, participants were asked to watch a short movie, memorize words, or study a set of pictures while walking forward. In Group 2, participants completed the same tasks while walking backward. Finally, in Group 3, participants acted as a control group, doing the same things but standing still.
Try intermittent fasting
Researchers wanted to determine if intermittent fasting might spur hippocampal neurogenesis and improve memory performance in lab mice.
- Three groups of mice were tested: control group, calorie-restricted group, intermittent fasting group, and an “intermittent fasting group”
Don’t worry
Forgetfulness may be a functional feature of the brain, allowing it to interact dynamically with the environment
- Best advice here might simply be not to worry about normal memory loss. Instead, accept it as a normal, healthy part of brain function and shore up your important memories with checklists, calendars, and other tools.
Eat fruits and vegetables
Research has found a link between diet and memory.
- Consumption of vegetables while young is important because it’s a long-range study and you cannot live on unhealthy food for 50 years and then make up for it in your later years
- Best advice for the next generation
Get better lighting
Dim lighting can change the brain’s structure and hurt one’s ability to remember and learn.
- One “lab rat” study found that in a group of Nile grass rats kept in dim lighting, they lost 30% of capacity in the hippocampus, a critical brain region for learning and memory.
