A Trip Down Memory Lane: 3 How to Protect and Strengthen Your Memory as You Age

Professor Brodaty, author of over 60 books or book chapters and over 800 refereed journal articles and a leader in the prevention of dementia, said “that over 40-50% of the risk for dementia can be attributed to risk factors that we can all do something about such as exercising, eat healthily, keeping mentally and socially active, managing high blood pressure, and, if a hearing is declining, wearing hearing aids”. He challenges you to heed these recommendations, “It is never too late to start”.

My friend who has vascular dementia changed his lifestyle as he learned more about the challenges he would face. He was a big lover of McDonalds breakfasts and would go to the closest McDonald's every day for breakfast before he was diagnosed. Since his diagnosis, he has cut back and now only goes once a month or so. Habits are hard to break.

Larry has a good team working with him and discovered that lifestyle plays a huge role in memory health. Just as diet and exercise are important for heart health, lifestyle also the brain. A nutritious diet rich in antioxidants, healthy fats, and lean proteins can help protect or in Larry's case maintain memory function. Foods like leafy greens, berries, fish, and nuts are excellent for brain health.

As part of his treatment, Larry started to exercise regularly. Physical activity increases blood flow to the brain, which helps keep your memory sharp. Before my heart problems, I would walk every day, as I knew that a daily walk could make a difference not only to heart health but to brain health. Now that I am on a cardio rehab program, I don’t walk but I go to the gym twice or three times a week and when the weather gets warmer, I will go back to my walking regime. I am lucky I don’t have a problem sleeping, but getting enough sleep is crucial, to good brain health, because our brain processes and stores memories while we rest. Poor sleep can make it harder to retain information and recall details later, which may lead to memory loss.

Stress and anxiety can also affect memory. Activities like chair yoga, meditation, deep breathing, and spending time with loved ones can reduce stress and help keep your brain in top shape. Larry meets with us once a week to stay socially connected, which is just as important for brain health as eating well and exercising.

A sharp mind isn’t just about avoiding memory loss—it’s about maintaining cognitive vitality through small, consistent actions. Here are some simple easy everyday habits that can support brain health.

Make sure you drink enough water daily. Dehydration can cause confusion and memory lapses.

Eat Omega-3-rich fish, nuts, seeds, and antioxidant-packed berries, which can help protect brain function.

Whether it’s reading, taking a class, or learning a new skill, keeping your mind challenged builds cognitive resilience.

Get enough good quality sleep as this allows your brain to consolidate memories and clear out toxins.

Mindfulness, breathing exercises, chair yoga,  and socializing can reduce stress and support mental clarity.

Engaging in light activities ike stretching or dancing improves circulation which helps protect cognitive function.

To provide yourself with crucial mental stimulation, get involved with people, start conversations, participate in group activities, and stay engaged with family and friends.

Try puzzles, memory games, or even switching up daily routines (like brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand) can keep neural pathways strong.

By incorporating these habits into your routine, you’re actively taking steps to maintain a sharp mind and vibrant memory for years to come.

Memories are made of this 1

 As we think about good-news stories, it's important to remember that the stories from our past both the good and the bad are often tales woven from stories told by others and our own recollections, which can be inaccurate or colored by time. It doesn’t justify or excuse anything you do now. If it did, we’d all blame our current snack habits on that one time in kindergarten when someone took the last cookie. So, childhood memories—those delightful, occasionally cringe-worthy flashes of the past, as reliable as a game of broken telephone. 

Now, before I was six, my memories were hand-me-downs from family lore—mom, dad, uncles, and aunts filling in the gaps of my selective memory. They’re my memories now, but let’s be real: I didn’t personally RSVP to that birthday party I allegedly cried at. That story’s all theirs.

What I do "remember" (with a generous dose of revisionist history) is playing with my brothers in some small Kootenay Valley town. I didn’t like school, so I skipped it. Now, some might say I "failed" grade one, but I prefer to think of it as an exercise in self-directed education. You can call it marching to the beat of my own drum. A drum that was apparently playing hide-and-seek in the woods while everyone else was learning how to read. This, of course, led to a restart in school when we moved to Vancouver Island. Some might call it failing grade one, but I prefer to think I was just marching to the tune of my own drums.

From age six to ten, we lived in an Auto Court, a motel with long-term rentals, where the annual flooding of the nearby river was a highlight of my year. I loved it when the river flooded every year. It was like having front-row seats in nature's waterpark. I started delivering papers in grade three and remember that long bike ride down narrow rural roads, though I was occasionally rescued by my dad when I got spooked by herds of free-roaming horses. Nothing says "character building" like your dad having to rescue you from what can only be described as a real-life reenactment of The Stampede. It took me about three decades to realize why horses freaked me out and could stop me in my tracks.

By grade four, we moved again. This time to a much smaller, tight-knit rural community where the population was about 40 kids in grades 1 to 6. It was like being the new fish in a tiny, well-established pond. If you've ever moved into a small town, you know how this goes: everyone knows their place in the pecking order and new people? Bottom of the food chain. I spent a year proving I was tough enough to climb that social ladder. Some learned to make friends. I took the "friendship with benefits" approach—the benefit being not getting pushed into the mud. It was a tough first year, but I learned that making friends was far more enjoyable than fighting. The next couple of years were pretty smooth. I was a big fish in my tiny pond by grade six, even managing my first band. We played one show at school before breaking up due to creative differences. (Translation: we were 12, and someone got bored.)

In grade six, we took an IQ test that determined our class placements in Junior High. This test was designed to sort us for Junior High. So, on the first day of junior high our names were called out in mysterious order. Spoiler alert: they were called  by descending IQ score. I was in the second group called, which was a small victory until I realized all my friends were in the last group. Brilliant.

So, grade seven began with me in a new, much bigger school—alone in my class, with none of my old crew. This new school was a big change, where toughness gave way to intelligence and popularity as the metrics for success, and I was still operating under the "fight your way up" rulebook. Turns out, popularity is a whole different kind of battle. I was shy around girls and not very chatty with the guys, so I found my niche in the Drama class, hanging out with the troublemakers. We had our fun – staple gun fights in the cafeteria and crawling through crawl spaces making animal noises below different classrooms around the school. In grade 9 on Guy Fawkes Night, my friends and I made some fireworks (homemade, naturally) and were promptly ambushed by some other guys on our bikes. After a dramatic escape (cue slow-motion action movie sequence), I broke every finger in my hands, which was fortunate, considering the school strap session involving a spitball fight, the next week. My saving grace? My bandaged hands spared me from punishment. Silver linings, folks.

Sumertime and the living was easy

 As summer draws to a close, I think about the songs of the summer. Not the songs of today but the songs from my youth. I know these memories often evoke thoughts of carefree days spent by the beach, at the lake, or at summer barbecues. Here’s a list (In no particular order) of  classic summer songs from my youth that for me capture the spirit of those days:

1. "Summertime Blues" - Eddie Cochran (1958)
2. "Here Comes Summer" - Jerry Keller (1959)
3. "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" - Brian Hyland (1960)
4. "Let's Twist Again" - Chubby Checker (1961)
5. "Surfin' Safari" - The Beach Boys (1962)
6. "Misirlou" - Dick Dale & the Del-Tones (1962)
7. "Surfin' USA" - The Beach Boys (1963)
8. "Wipe Out" - The Surfaris (1963)
9. "Dancing in the Street" - Martha and the Vandellas (1964)
10. "Under the Boardwalk" - The Drifters (1964)
11. "California Girls" - The Beach Boys (1965)
12. "Summer in the City" - The Lovin’ Spoonful (1966)
13. "Sunny Afternoon" - The Kinks (1966)
14. "Sunshine Superman" - Donovan (1966)
15. "Hot Fun in the Summertime" - Sly & the Family Stone (1969)
16. "Here Comes the Sun" - The Beatles (1969)
17. "A Summer Song" - Chad & Jeremy (1964)
18. "Pipeline" - The Chantays (1963)
19. "King of the Surf" - The Trashmen (1963)
20. "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer" - Nat King Cole (1963)

These songs capture the essence of summer and are still loved today for their timeless appeal. Do you have any songs that I may have missed to add to this collection?  I have linked all the songs to YouTube and you might want to visit Remind Magazine for more nostalgia. Enjoy