Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplements Improve Memory

Taken your omega 3 tablets today? A new study suggests that you need to get in the habit of taking omega-3 (specifically the omega-3 fatty acid, docosahexaenoic acid). Such supplementation benefited mice that were genetically engineered to produce the two different proteins that create the amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that characterize Alzheimer's disease in humans.

The study focused on testing the dietary ratio of omega-3 to another fatty acid, omega-6. People typically consume omega-3 from fish, eggs, and organ meats, while omega-6 is prominent in corn, peanut, and sunflower oils. It turns out that it is the ratio of the two fatty acids that is important, and the diet of most people does not have enough omega-3. A typical Western diet produces a ratio ranging from 1:10 to 1:30, where ideally it should be 1:5 to 1:3.

Previous mouse-model studies in other labs have shown some benefit from a variety of such dietary sources as green tea, fish, blueberries and from exercise and environmental enrichment.

Alzheimer's disease is a growing public-health problem as people live longer. Today, roughly 5% of the population over 65 has Alzheimer's disease, and as many as one half of the 80-year-olds have it. By 2050, predictions are that 20 million people in the U.S. will have Alzheimer's disease (it is 4.5 million now).

To learn more abut the actual experiment, go to my Web site on practical memory research.

Learning to Learn

Ever wonder why some people can learn like sponges, soaking up information in great gobs, while others struggle to learn? It is akin to the rich getting richer, while the poor get poorer.

Well, scientists have discovered that good learners have learned how to learn. This is especially evident for specific areas of expertise, where an existing expertise makes it easier to become even more expert. This principle was recently rediscovered (actually it was discovered at least twice before, dating back to 1932). The idea is being framed in terms of “schema,” or pre-existing knowledge that makes it easier to make associations with new information. The experiments actually focused on how having a schema speeds up the consolidation process.

So what is the take-home message for people? Just this: learn, learn, learn. The more you learn, the more schemas you are developing, making it easier to learn even more. My guess is that this principle is especially useful for learning such things as a foreign language, music, or an academic discipline. This richness really will become richer.

To learn more abut the actual experiment, go to my Web site on practical memory research.

Folic Acid Improves Memory

In a recent study of 818 normal middle-aged people,folic acid supplement reduced cognitive decline in general and specifically improved memory ability. The dose used was double the Recommended Daily Amount (RDA).

Learn more about it at my Web site on improving memory. Click here and follow the link in the "Medical Issues" category.

Teenage Angst Is Bad for the Brain

Remember being a teenager? ... and all the stress of boy-girl problems, over-bearing parent problems, bullies, worries about school and your future, and frustrated attempts to be popular? Scientists have long known that chronic stress can kill nerve cells. Now it seems that an especially vulnerable time is adolescence. It now seems clear that the brain is being re-built during teenage.

Read all about it at my memory improvement Web site. Click here. Follow the link to the "Emotions" category.

Remembering Names and Faces

Everybody has trouble remembering names and faces. The usual tricks don't always work, and may even be counter-productive. I have just posted a summary of a study that challenges the conventional approach to remembering names and faces. Click here for details.

More confirmation of sleep loss impairment of memory

I just wrote a summary of yet another study which showed that missing one night's sleep impairs memory of what happened the next day, even though the sleep loss was made up later. The test conditions involved losing sleep on one night, then learning stuff on the next day, followed by a normal night's sleep, and then being tested the next day. So this indicates that this is a "proactive" effect, where sleep loss before learning impairs learning. I have reviewed other studies that show impairment when sleep loss occurs at the same time as learning, as in cramming for exams. Click here for details.

Multi-tasking is the Wrong Way to Learn

Today's kids are in to multi-tasking. This is the generation hooked on iPods, IM'ing, video games - not to mention TV! According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study last year, school kids in all grades beyond the second grade committed, on average, more than six hours per day to TV or videos, music, video games, and computers. Almost one-third reported that "most of the time" they did their homework while chatting on the phone, surfing the Web, sending instant messages, watching TV, or listening to music.Kids think that this entertainment while studying helps their learning. It probably does make learning less tedious, but it clearly makes learning less efficient and less effective. Multi-tasking violates everything we know about how memory works. Now we have objective scientific evidence that multi-tasking impairs learning. See the summary at my Web site.

Distractability increases with age

Filtering out irrelevant stimuli is done more easily when you are young than when you are old. This has profound implications for age-related decline in memory ability. Read about what you can do to compensate at my Web-site discussion of recent research on this matter.
Click here.

And don't forget to get my book, so you can put all this in context and actually improve your memory - not just compensate for age-related decline.