Many people after forty years begin to complain about their memory: what can you do, age... However, years have nothing to do with it. Memory can and should be developed.

First, test yourself with a small test. Read 25 words for 1 minute, then close them and write down what you remember in 5 minutes. Hay, key, plane, train, picture, month, singer, radio, grass, pass, car, heart, bouquet, sidewalk, century, film, aroma, Carpathians, Himalayas, stillness, calendar, man, woman, abstraction, helicopter.

Count how many words you remember.
1) 6 words or less - your memory (primarily visual) is not in the best condition, you need to train it;
2) 7-12 words - your memory is not that bad, but you apparently don’t know how to concentrate, and this interferes with memorization;
3) 13-17 words - the results are quite decent, and you can count on your memory not letting you down in most cases;
4) 18-21 words - an excellent result: you have an outstanding memory;
5) over 22 points - you have an excellent memory.

Our lives are overflowing with information. Scientists have calculated that just one issue of the New York Times contains more information than an 18th-century man received in his entire life. The brain is loaded with images and sounds that bombard us every day. The older we get, the more “cluttered” our heads become.
To avoid forgetting anything, we use electronic organizers, mobile phones, diaries, and reminder stickers. And thereby we do a disservice to our memory: it is deprived of daily training.
In addition, after forty, a person, as a rule, has already completed his studies: he received the necessary education a long time ago, mastered all the intricacies of the profession, and does a lot automatically. The brain just doesn’t need to strain. And the memory weakens and fails more and more often. The same people who, due to their profession, need to memorize something, actors, for example, even at an older age memorize huge texts.

“I forget everything”...
At the age of 40, Natalya gave birth to her second child. The first one was also small - 4 years old. In addition, she constantly had to think about her mother, who was increasingly feeling unwell. “Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy. I can’t find my keys, mobile phone, glasses, or rent receipts at home. I go to the kitchen and forget why I came. The apotheosis was in the winter when I took my child out for a walk, put him in the snow and discovered that I had not put on his felt boots. What is this - sclerosis, senile dementia? - Natalya is perplexed.

In fact, the reason for such forgetfulness is not only caused by illness, but not even by memory problems. It's just an overload of consciousness - when you have to think about a hundred things at once. It is enough to more or less organize your life, and your memory will return to normal. Fear of forgetting is itself the cause of memory failure. The mind dramatizes the consequences of such failures and suppresses even attempts to remember something. It is important to get rid of anxiety, relax, and the memory will be unblocked.

What to do?If you live in a state of time pressure for a long time, forgetfulness and absent-mindedness are inevitable. This is a protective reaction of the body. Give yourself a break. Get some sleep. Learn to shift some tasks to others. Get more organized. Items you need every day - keys, glasses, watches, phone, slippers - always put them in the same place. Create special folders for bills, receipts and documents - then you won’t waste time searching and scolding yourself for “sclerosis.” You shouldn’t use a diary all the time, but if you’re going through a stressful period in your life, it’s better to write down all your upcoming tasks - this will structure your life and make it more orderly. If you have lost something, do not rush around the apartment, on the contrary, stop, remember when and where you last saw this item, what you did with it. Most likely, such reflections will allow you to find it. You came into the room and forgot why? Return to the place where you started and you will probably remember. If this is not possible in reality, do it in your imagination. And most importantly, put things in order in your head: try not to think about several things at once. If you feel overwhelmed by thoughts, tell yourself: “Stop! I’ll think through one topic to the end, then move on to another.”

"I don't want to remember"
Sveta always forgot to congratulate her older sister on her birthday. No, she remembered that this had to be done on September 7, she wrote it down in her diary in advance, and hung up pieces of paper with a reminder. But every year this day passed, and Sveta was horrified to discover that she had not called again. While working with a psychoanalyst on another problem, the girl remembered: as a child, she was terribly jealous that her sister’s birthday was in early September. Friends and girlfriends who returned from vacation always celebrated it noisily and cheerfully. Sveta herself had a birthday in the middle of summer, and only relatives gathered for it...

This is also a kind of psychological defense. Everything that we once experienced, everything that caused us a feeling of discomfort, fear, anxiety, we repress into the subconscious. But from time to time this breaks out in a symbolic form - for example, in the form of forgetting a sister’s birthday, like Svetlana.

What to do?If you notice that in your life there are repeated lapses in memory on the same topic - you often lose the keys to your apartment, constantly forget the name of one person you know well, hide some thing in a place where it is difficult to find it - think: maybe there is something unpleasant connected with this? It’s better, of course, to find out this with a psychoanalyst, but you can try and figure it out yourself. If you can figure out the reason for the forgetting, the problem may be solved.

Remember everything? What for?
Ask yourself a question: why do you need a good memory? Are you going to perform on stage and deliver multi-page monologues from Shakespeare? Do you want to become a walking encyclopedia and remember in what year Darius the Great conquered Babylon? Learn to write in Chinese? These are not idle questions. The fact is that the main thing for remembering is motivation. A well-known example: a woman studies English at school, at college, and completes courses more than once. But he never masters the language. Suddenly she has an Italian admirer, and within a year she learns to speak his native language perfectly. We don’t remember or forget a lot simply because we don’t need it. After 40, the brain begins to work more rationally: it does not store information “just in case.” Some information is not used - it is erased or sent to long-term memory. Finding herself in a critical situation, this lady will probably remember English. But until she needs him, it will be difficult to teach him.

Three pillars of memorization
Each of us has our own individual differences in pace, accuracy, and strength of memorization. Some people remember better what they saw, some remember what they heard, some remember what they wrote down. Therefore, first find out what type of memory you have. Take four passages from a prose work. Read one to yourself (visual memory), read another out loud (auditory), rewrite the third (motor), ask someone to record the fourth and listen to it (figurative). And then try to play all four passages. Which one do you remember more accurately? This way of perceiving information will be your main one. However, if you need to learn something well, you need to use all types of memory. For example, foreign words must not only be read and written down, but also listened to, repeated out loud, and correlated with the images that they mean.

Remember the proverb: “Repetition is the mother of learning”? Unfortunately, this is still the main method of memorization. All newfangled methods such as learning in a dream, according to the principle of the 25th frame, remain very controversial. Perhaps the foreign words that you tried to remember in this way have settled in your memory somewhere, but you will not be able to turn to them consciously and purposefully. Remembering requires a certain level of conscious activity. But getting some sleep after an intense workout, or at least relaxing, is very beneficial. We learn not only when we do something, but also during a break - when we consolidate the acquired knowledge.

And finally, the third condition for memorization is the ability to create associative connections, and the more absurd they are, the better they are learned. For example, you need to remember that the new employee’s name is Marina Viktorovna. Marina was the name of your girlfriend when you played in the sandbox, and Victor was the name of your cousin. Now imagine your cousin with Marina in his arms. Men's names can be remembered by focusing on the classics and famous heroes. For example, Vasily Mikhailovich. “Vasily” was Chapaev’s name, “Mikhail” was Lomonosov’s. Imagine the picture: ahead is Chapaev on a war horse, and behind him is the pompous Lomonosov. Consistency is very important here, otherwise you can call a person Mikhail Vasilyevich.

Aerobics for memory
To strengthen memory, scientists suggest doing special exercises for the brain, which is called “neurobics”. Try to perform some familiar actions - wash your face, get dressed - with your eyes closed. If you are right-handed, brush your teeth with your left hand and pee with it several times a day. Change the route of your usual walk or route to work. Change your entertainment - if, say, you like to solve crosswords, start playing computer games. Prepare an unusual dish, go on a trip to an unfamiliar country. In a word, do everything to prevent your brain from “atrophying.” And then no age will be an obstacle to good memory.

Natalia Barantseva

Memory deterioration is possible even in young people - there are several reasons: overwork, bad habits, uncontrolled flow of information.
Our memory needs constant work. To prevent it from withering away, constantly learn something new, memorize poems by unfamiliar authors, create your own crosswords and puzzles.

Constantly control yourself. When leaving home, be sure to check that you have turned off the lights, electrical appliances, and water in the kitchen. Observe the failure. A warning sign for you should be a lack of desire to learn something new and the ability to make plans for the future.

Memory impairment is sometimes a consequence of health problems. Then you need to see a doctor. But there is also forgetfulness. You can and should fight it too. Start by choosing a hobby. Sign up for a drawing or bead weaving class, start learning a new language, sing, dance. The results will appear soon.

After the death of a loved one, a person feels cold and empty - a lot of problems fall on a lonely person. By closing ourselves off from the whole world, we risk losing our attention and losing control of our actions. You need to clear your brain of gloomy thoughts, force yourself to believe in the future.

In older people, the mind needs to be rebooted, as it is full of outdated information.

How to improve memory and attention in adults

Often, after 40-50 years, new material is memorized with great difficulty and you need to work with it.
To strengthen your memory, you can do simple exercises every day:

1. Close your eyes and try to type any sentence on the computer. It is useful to draw and wash your face with your eyes closed.
2. When you read a book, try to braid your hair and massage your head and face at the same time.
3. Try brushing your teeth, combing your hair, and washing your face one day a week with your left hand if you are right-handed, and with your right hand if you are left-handed.
4. To forget all the bad things and start a new life, attach a blank sheet of white paper to the wall and start life “FROM A CLEAN SHEET”. Or stand with your back to the zero mark of the road post, take a step onto the road, and start your life “FROM ZERO”.

You only need to remember what is truly important. Ruthlessly remove everything bad, unnecessary, harmful, fleeting from your memory. This will not only save energy, but will also prolong your life.

> Memory deterioration after 40 years in women

Hello, dear readers. As sad as it may be, our body begins to age at the age of 25. And in the fifth decade (don’t let this expression scare you) comes menopause and the associated changes in a woman’s body. One of them is absent-minded attention, poor memorization of information. Modern medicine offers many pills and drugs to slow down aging, including improving memory. But do you need another item on your medication menu? In this post we will tell you how to improve your memory after 40 years without medication.

Long-term and short-term memory are influenced by many factors. In adulthood, it makes sense to talk about several groups of reasons, why does the process of memorization and recall deteriorate?:

• diseases of internal organs;
• unfavorable external environment;
• chronic intoxication of the body (this refers mainly to bad habits - smoking, alcohol, overeating);
• lack of sleep;
• cell aging.

Heart problems reduce blood flow to the head. As a result, the brain does not have enough nutrition to function normally. Metabolic disorders (including obesity) also give the same result. In this case, if you eliminate the disease, the ability to normally “work with your head” and extract the necessary information from your consciousness will return. In fact, it’s never too late to lose weight - here’s the real story of losing weight even after 50 years.

You may be used to dealing with large amounts of data at work, but gradually this information will break your memory. The human brain is daily overloaded with a huge amount of information, which is facilitated by advertising, the Internet, mobile communications and other modern inventions. All this, as well as stress at work and in the family, causes chronic fatigue, which is difficult to get rid of. “In order to rest tomorrow, you need to work harder today,” you tell yourself. The busy rhythm of life affects the processes of memorization, and not for the better.

Chronic intoxication over many years is also negative for memories. If you've smoked or drank alcohol all your life, your brain cells have atrophied. This is not critical if you quit the bad habit.

In addition, with age, the walls of blood vessels in the brain lose elasticity, and the lumen of the vessel decreases. This process is natural, and without triggering factors it will not greatly affect memory. But if you add to this one of the phenomena described above, the brain will quickly deteriorate its functioning.

In ordinary life, it is better to correct the functioning of memory, attention and activity of our brain using simple methods. We will introduce you to them.

The way to improve memory is to spend time naturally

Let's go for a walk! Daily walks in the green part of the city will help you relax, relieve stress and forget about your problems. In addition, sufficient oxygen entering the brain activates thought processes and the functioning of cells responsible for memory. And if you take up some simple and enjoyable sport (for example, Nordic walking), then not only your physical, but also your mental processes will speed up.

Don't have time for a good rest in the forest or park? Then take the long way home from work, look around and think about pleasant things.

There is another factor that greatly influences memories. Our gadgets, be it a smartphone with social networks, a tablet with your favorite game, or a laptop.

Firstly, they take up our time and steal our attention. Secondly, tons of unnecessary information enters the head through them. For example, you remember how many hours later you need to water the beds in the “Funny Farm” or what photo your ex-colleague put on your avatar, but the information about where you put the keys disappears from your head.

This happens because the “operative” memory of the brain is not infinite, and at the same time it contains things not in order of importance, but those that came first.

If you don’t stick to gadgets during your lunch break, on the road after a hard day, spending the evening with your family and on weekends, your memory will say “thank you” and get your work going.

Gift for memory - quality rest

Nerves on edge make it difficult to memorize new things and recall necessary information. Therefore, it is important to take time for personal relaxation. Aromatherapy, spa treatments, massage are good ways to calm your nerves. Meditation is indispensable for effective brain function.

One should not think that this is the lot of the enlightened, and meditation is difficult to learn. The simplest type of meditation is to focus on sensations in the body or your own breathing. Breathe slowly and think “inhale - exhale.” 1-2 minutes - and your nerves are calm, and your brain is ready for new great achievements.

In short, choose the relaxation option you like and spend time on it.

Proper nutrition is also important in the process of improving memory. We are not talking about a special diet, it is enough not to eat junk food - fast food, fatty, smoked, sweets and buns.

Brain training

There are many exercises on the Internet to improve memory, supposedly five minutes a day - and brain function will be restored and returned to full capacity. In fact, when returning to the previous level of memory, it is important to understand two basic things:

• brain and body function are connected;
• work to improve memorization and recall must proceed systematically, the brain must be kept in good shape.

Based on the first point, it is clear that physical activity, be it running in the morning and the gym or home exercises with a skipping rope, helps preserve and improve memory. Why? During exercise, you focus on your body and don’t think about information noise. Secondly, sport affects metabolism and blood flow in the body, in particular to the brain.

By the way, our brain is powered by two substances - oxygen and glucose. Physical activity (preferably in the fresh air) helps the brain to be saturated with oxygen and supply enough glucose along with increased blood circulation.

Any physical activity has a beneficial effect on memory. The main thing here is regularity.

The development of fine motor skills (fingers and toes), acupuncture activates the functioning of nerve cells. They, like communication channels, help us in memory processes. Therefore, after forty, you can find a new hobby: Lego, modeling, calligraphy. This way you will stimulate brain function through nerve endings.

So that the brain does not “relax” and the memory does not become like a sieve, it needs to be trained. At the same time, there are different approaches for RAM and long-term memory.

To preserve and improve short-term memory, participation in intellectual games, scanword puzzles, and association board games is suitable. Everything that requires extracting a specific fact from an array of memories.

A long-lasting memory will be refreshed and restored by a task, for the continuation of which you need to accumulate already learned knowledge. For example, a new foreign language, playing musical instruments, reading works of fiction. To continue reading the book, you will have to remember what happened earlier in the plot.

An important point in memory exercises is not to focus on the goal, but to make the activity a habit. When you solve crossword puzzles for fun, you will find the information you need faster than if you start thinking “I’m doing this to make my memory sharper.”

Change your environment more often - new impressions and emotions have a positive effect on brain activity.

Art therapy that trains memory

Another interesting and effective method is special drawing.

It is known that left-handers have a better developed left hemisphere (it is responsible for logic and analytical thinking), while right-handers have a better developed right hemisphere (it is responsible for creativity and our emotions). Of course, all these factors will be useful to us for a full life.

Drawing with both hands will help develop the activity of the hemispheres. To begin with, use your “non-dominant” hand to draw something simple - a cloud, a sun, a flower, perhaps even lines or letters. Then make it more difficult.

This way we will develop the so-called “motor cortex”, which will “pull up” parts of the brain.

Complicating the process, we can add another hand to the training, i.e. draw with them at the same time.

Power for memory

An important point is nutrition. Foods rich in Omega-3 acids - fatty sea fish and flaxseed oil - will help improve memory.

As a carbohydrate food, it is still better to choose slow carbohydrates, which release energy gradually and without sugar surges harmful to both the brain and the body. These include cereals, whole grain pasta and bread, most fruits (with the exception of the sweetest ones - figs, bananas, grapes, persimmons). Sweet fruits are also possible, but not in excess.

Good foods that contain tryptophan (this is like a precursor of serotonin, known as the hormone of happiness) are cottage cheese, cheese, and dairy products in general, poultry. By the way, bananas also contribute to the production of serotonin. So it’s ideal to combine a banana with kefir/cottage cheese/milk, so that carbohydrates from the sweet fruit are not absorbed quickly, and you get the full benefits of banana for memory and the body.

There are also special substances that are not drugs in the full sense of the word, but they help optimize both metabolism and brain activity. Mainly:

• Eleutherococcus, which improves cerebral circulation;
• tincture of ginseng, which is an adaptogen for all body systems;
• tincture of lemongrass seeds.

These herbs increase stress resistance, improve the functions of the nervous system and mental abilities of a person.

In short, proper nutrition, regular intellectual exercise and a healthy lifestyle will help prevent memory impairment.

We hope this post has provided some motivation for you. Want to read other interesting materials? Like and subscribe to the blog.

The causes of memory impairment can be divided into five groups.

1. Brain lesions

Everyone knows that memory “lives” in the brain. But where exactly?
It depends what we are looking for. If there is long-term memory, then the cortex is responsible for it. But in the hippocampus, located deep in the temporal regions, there are mechanisms for transferring information from short-term to long-term memory. In general, there are a lot of memory centers in the brain, so any damage to this organ can lead to memory impairment. Therefore, the most common causes in this group are:
a) traumatic brain injury. Everything is simple here: wherever the blow lands, the likelihood of its negative impact on any of the memory centers is very high.
b) stroke (cerebrovascular accident). Blood does not flow, memory centers cease to function fully. Moreover, a study by Dutch scientists from the St Radboud Medical Center showed that memory can deteriorate even if its area - usually the temporal lobe - was not damaged.
c) oncology. A formed neoplasm (even a benign one) puts pressure on the areas of the brain adjacent to it. In addition, cases of metastasis to other parts of the organ are not uncommon.
d) infectious diseases (encephalitis, meningitis). Inflammatory processes occurring in the brain negatively affect both individual memory centers and the entire brain as a whole.

2. Diseases of other organs

Memory can also deteriorate as a result of diseases of other organs:
a) Diseases of the heart and cardiovascular system in general (even if it is “just” an increase in blood pressure). The blood supply to the brain deteriorates, and consequently, it ceases to fully perform its functions.
b) Diseases of internal organs (kidneys, liver, lungs, etc.) We won’t dwell on all the organs, let’s just talk about the kidneys. Scientists from the USA have discovered that kidney disease is a cause of cognitive decline, incl. deterioration of verbal memory.
The study was conducted based on measurements of glomerular filtration rate ( GFR - determines the cleansing ability of the kidneys) and creatinine level ( end product of protein metabolism) in blood. After five years of observation, a pattern was noted: the volunteers’ memory deteriorated in direct proportion to the increase in the level of creatinine in the blood and the decrease in glomerular filtration rate, i.e. with the progression of renal diseases.
c) Metabolic disorders. For the brain to function well, it is necessary that it receives all the necessary substances. As soon as the metabolism of the entire body is disrupted, the brain begins to experience a shortage of them and redistribute its “resources”, and memory centers are far from being at the beginning of the “queue”.

3. Adverse environmental factors

These factors include:
a) information overload. Each person has his own “limit,” and as soon as the brain receives more information than it can process, it “freezes.” Moreover, information may not be purposefully received, but “chaotically bombing”: the environment is now completely permeated with information flows.
b) lack of vitamins. Of course, many vitamins are important for excellent brain function, but group B dominates. These vitamins:

support the functioning of the central nervous system;

protect brain cells from stress, overload and premature aging;

participate in oxygen exchange;

reduce blood clotting rates;

participate in the synthesis of certain neurotransmitters that trigger nerve impulses between neurons.
And if all this ensures the functioning of the brain as a whole, then the latter is directly related to memory: no impulse, no brain function, no memory.
c) stressful situations. The universities of Calgary and Exeter have proven that stress ( but not easy, but extreme) blocks physiological processes associated with memory. Despite the fact that the study was conducted on the snails Lymnaea stagnalis, the result is quite indicative: after enduring a huge number of irritating factors, the experimental subjects forgot absolutely everything that they had been taught earlier. In addition, if one stressful moment only reduces the quality of memory, then a “massive” stress attack creates a cumulative effect, and information generally ceases to be retained in memory.
d) lack of sleep. In a dream, the body, incl. the brain is restored: new cells grow to replace the dead ones. Accordingly, the better and longer the sleep, the longer and more effective the recovery. Otherwise, the brain does not have time to “rest” and loses the ability to both memorize and recall.
d) junk food. Many foods are stored and prepared in aluminum containers. Food dyes also contain aluminum. As a result, by consuming products of the “aluminized” industry, a person provides his body with excess aluminum, which, by the way, is excreted extremely slowly and difficultly. As a result, headaches appear, thinking becomes sluggish, and memory deteriorates.
“Stimulants” such as energy drinks and tonic drinks also contribute. Stimulation, of course, gives a short-term effect, but with regular use the brain becomes “lazy”.

4. Chronic intoxication

The reasons for this group include:
a) smoking. It practically “decomposes” the brain, impairs the ability to reason, learn, and impairs memory. Moreover, not only active but also passive smoking has a detrimental effect. Scientists from Northumbria University, who conducted a study on three groups of volunteers ( smokers who constantly breathe smoke and rarely come into contact with smoke), proved that normal memory characteristics were observed only in the healthiest group, while in smokers this indicator was reduced by 30% , and for passive smokers – by 25% .
b) alcohol abuse or complete abstinence from it. Experts from University College London have proven that drinking more than 36 g of pure alcohol per day leads to early memory impairment, but drinking up to 20 g of alcohol per day does not provoke such changes. It is also interesting that complete abstinence from alcohol is harmful to memory. Thus, the optimal “schedule” for drinking alcohol is 2-4 glasses of wine per week.
c) drug addiction. Even with a single dose, drugs can cause irreparable damage to the brain. For example, after a single dose of “harmless” ecstasy - the most neurotoxic synthetic drug - the serotonin system of the brain is so damaged that it can never fully recover. Some drugs continue to work after you stop using them. In any case, these substances disrupt the impulse transmission system itself, interfering with the order in which nerve cells receive, send and process information.
d) intoxication with heavy metals (lead, mercury, thallium, copper, manganese).
Lead occupies a leading position among the causes of industrial poisoning, because there are a lot of places where it is used: lead smelters, battery production, printing houses, production of lead paints, leaded gasoline, ceramic products, crystal glass, etc. In addition, there is a threat of lead damage nearby major highways.

Mercury has three main sources:

Amalgam ( in dental fillings). An average sized filling contains 750,000 mcg of mercury, of which 10 mcg is released daily. Plus, mercury is released faster if the amalgam is heated to the temperature of hot tea.

Vaccines. Merthiolate, an organic compound of mercury, is found in vaccines against influenza, hepatitis B, and DTP and is more dangerous than its vapor.

Fish. The mercury contained in it has already reacted with protective molecules and does not pose a significant health hazard. But still, you shouldn’t overeat tuna.
Additionally, thermometers, thermostats, mercury switches, and barometers are potential sources of mercury in the home.
e) drug abuse. Memory loss is a side effect of many medications. If these drugs are abused, a cumulative effect will be created, which is especially pronounced after taking tranquilizers and sedatives.
The list of such pharmaceutical groups also includes antipsychotics, anticholinergics, “heart” drops, barbiturates, anticholinergics, antidepressants, and antihistamines.

According to statistics, more than half of the Russian population experiences forgetfulness after reaching a certain age threshold.

Undoubtedly, in some people this problem manifests itself earlier, in others later, but both of them are looking for the causes of the disease and ways to improve memory after 40 years.

Why does memory deteriorate after 40 years?

The main reason for memory deterioration in people after forty years is age-related changes in neurons and neural connections.

The most important factor that influences the process of destruction of brain cells is alcohol consumption.

It has been scientifically proven that during hangover syndrome, which occurs after drinking large amounts of alcohol, brain neurons die much faster. Therefore, for lovers of strong drinks, by the age of forty, memory deteriorates significantly.

In addition to alcohol, there are other causes of memory impairment, in particular:

• smoking, drug and alcohol addiction;
• sleep disturbance;
• strokes;
• stress;
• traumatic brain injuries, brain lesions received at any age (i.e., an injury received at a young age can affect the state of memory already in adulthood).

Walking in the fresh air to improve memory

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People over the age of 40 can improve their memory by walking in the fresh air. This could be simple walks in the park or forest, or walking with the dog or jogging.

The benefit of walking is that the body is saturated with oxygen. This circumstance is very important for residents of megacities or those who lead a sedentary lifestyle.

With the lifestyle that every second resident of a big city leads, it is impossible to include long walks in the daily schedule. And because of this, the human body experiences a deficiency of oxygen.

So that this situation does not exist, You need to spend at least three hours a day walking. After all, for brain neurons to function properly, they need oxygen.

American scientists conducted a study in which two groups of people took part. One group did gymnastics in the gym, and the other walked for 45 minutes 3 times a week.

A year later, scientists examined people and concluded that in gymnasts, brain volume decreased by 1.5%, and in walkers, brain volume increased by 2% in areas that are responsible for memory and planning.

The indicators increased when walks were combined with mental arithmetic, logical thinking (problem solving), reading and memory training.

This experiment showed that prolonged exposure to fresh air helps rejuvenate neurons.

It is important to know! Walking in the fresh air helps not only improve memory after 40 years, but also get rid of other health problems. From such as fatigue, drowsiness, irritability.

Ventilation of the lungs increases. The functioning of the digestive and cardiovascular systems improves.

How to improve memory (after 40 years): brain training

There are quite a lot of memory training in game form. And they are considered the most effective.

You can improve your memory after 40 years with the help of training such as:

• Puzzles. Putting together puzzles is useful, as this process develops logical thinking, concentration and attention;
• Board games. Games such as chess and checkers develop logic and attention;
• Crosswords. This activity is useful because it makes you think about questions, remember long-forgotten terms, etc.;
• Drawing up a daily routine. This helps to structure the amount of work that needs to be done and not forget something important. First, you can write it down on paper, and then only remember and reproduce it in your head throughout the day.

When looking for an answer to the question of how to improve memory after 40 years, you should pay attention to kinesiological exercises.

Using kinesiology techniques, a person can improve health and optimize the most important mental processes: thinking, attention, memory, perception, imagination, hearing and speech. Mental performance also increases.

The simplest exercise is to use your non-dominant hand.

This means that if a person is right-handed, then he should try to write, draw, eat, brush his teeth, pick up objects, comb his hair, and turn pages with his left hand. And vice versa for left-handed people.

During training, the work of both hemispheres of the brain is synchronized and the efficiency of its activity as a whole increases significantly.

You can also draw mirror images. To do this, you need to take a pencil or pen in both hands, it is better if they are of different colors, and draw the same shapes, as if one shape is a reflection of another.

Shapes can be geometric, flat, three-dimensional, simple and complex. But you can also write numbers and even words.

There is also an exercise called “random words”. Its essence is that you need to write down the first words that come to mind and then connect them using a story. It will be difficult at first, but after a few practices everything will be easy.

Kinesiological exercises include drawing a mandala. You can draw it yourself and then color it, buy a book with mandalas for coloring, or print a picture downloaded from the Internet.

A combination of active and passive rest to improve memory

Problems with remembering information can arise from overexertion. To eliminate this risk factor, you need to learn how to dose work and rest.

Interesting fact! Many famous and outstanding personalities, such as Marietta Shaginyan, A. I. Herzen, V. A. Obruchev and others, preferred to engage in mental work only in the first half of the day, and in the early morning hours.

But besides work, they could arrange their schedule so that they had time to do everything they needed and not get tired.

The main thing that needs to be observed when resting is the correct ratio of passive and active rest.

Passive relaxation is a walk in the park, a trip to a cafe or restaurant, or relaxing on the beach. Such a vacation will help you relax and recuperate, think about problems and their solutions.

Active recreation is:

• travel to other countries;
• climbing mountains;
• diving;
• skydiving or bungee jumping;
• cycling and much more.

This type of relaxation will help relieve emotional stress, take your mind off problems, and learn something new.

But if your schedule does not allow you to frequently include trips to cafes and trips to other countries, then the best option would be to alternate between different types of mental work.

And also, following the example of the philosopher Voltaire, divide papers on different topics into different folders and boxes, that is, structure them.

Reading books to improve memory

Improving your memory after 40 years is quite possible, and doing it is not as difficult as it seems. For this You need to read as much interesting literature as possible.

When reading, the reader follows the plot idea, developing events, the brain remembers information about the characters, feelings, and fates of the heroes.

But in order for reading to bring greater effect, after reading a chapter or page, you need to reproduce in your memory everything that was discussed in the text you read. This improves memory, intelligence, and also develops vocabulary.

Besides everything else, Reading helps relieve emotional stress and relax.

Art therapy for memory training

Art therapy helps to cope with memory disorders associated with stress, depression and overexertion.

Art therapy techniques also help to cope with psychosomatic diseases: phobias, fears, self-doubt, isolation, resentment, aggression towards loved ones.

There are several types of such therapy.

Helps to harmonize your internal state and express emotions. Indicated for those people who cannot express feelings and emotions through speech, those suffering from severe depression and acute psychosis.

When drawing, the right hemisphere is involved, which stores non-verbal memory - the memory of things you have ever seen.

Music therapy

Many people have musical compositions associated with some pleasant memories from life.

The principle is that When listening to melodies associated with moments in life, the brain independently reproduces these moments.

Music helps both improve memory after 40 years and relieve emotional stress.

Imagotherapy

This is the reproduction (retelling) of stories and replaying situations from life.

This therapy trains memory by memorizing texts and dialogues, and also helps to gain life experience and behavior patterns in certain situations.

Foods that improve memory

For the brain to function properly, it needs oxygen and vitamins C, K, E, group B, Omega-3 and microelements such as phosphorus, selenium, iodine.

How to improve memory after 40 years and its functioning in general is also influenced by nutrition.

These substances contain the following products:

• Milk- a source of vitamin B12, which promotes better absorption of information. You need to drink 2 glasses a day;
• Garlic– accelerates blood circulation, as a result of which the brain receives more oxygen. Eating two to three cloves of garlic every day improves memory;
• Sea kale– a source of iodine, helps maintain a clear mind and in some cases increases IQ;
• Nuts– a source of vitamins B, E, magnesium and fatty amino acids. Develop thinking and stimulate brain function;
• Honey– source of glucose. The brain feeds only on carbohydrates, that is, glucose. Glucose is also found in dried fruits.

Medications to improve memory

There is a huge variety of drugs that improve memory. They are available both with and without a prescription.

The main drugs are:

• Preparations from extracts of Ginkgo Biloba leaves. They affect the vascular system of the brain, thin the blood, and the drug has an antidepressant effect. Fight memory loss, anxiety, sleep disturbances;
• Glycine. Preparations containing glycine saturate the brain matter with amino acids. Can be taken to relieve severe mental tension, stress, and sleep disorders;
• Preparations with Eleutherococcus extract– tones the body. Recommended for use to restore mental and physical performance, and in case of overwork. Increases blood pressure.

Be careful! You should take medications only after consulting a specialist.

If you follow a diet, do exercises to increase brain activity, go for walks, read books and take medications, then it is possible to improve your memory at any age.

From this video you will learn how to improve memory after 40 years, what you need to do for this:

This video presents 5 tips for improving your memory:

Memory is an important function of our central nervous system to perceive received information and store it in some invisible “cells” of the brain in reserve, in order to retrieve and use it in the future. Memory is one of the most important abilities of a person’s mental activity, therefore the slightest memory impairment weighs on him, he is knocked out of the usual rhythm of life, suffering himself and irritating those around him.

Memory impairment is most often perceived as one of the many clinical manifestations of some neuropsychic or neurological pathology, although in other cases forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are the only signs of a disease, the development of which no one pays attention to, believing that a person is this way by nature .

The big mystery is human memory

Memory is a complex process that occurs in the central nervous system and involves the perception, accumulation, retention and reproduction of information received at different periods of time. We think most about the properties of our memory when we need to learn something new. The result of all efforts made during the learning process depends on how someone manages to catch, hold, and perceive what they see, hear or read, which is important when choosing a profession. From a biological point of view, memory can be short-term and long-term.

Information received in passing or, as they say, “it went into one ear and out of the other” is short-term memory, in which what is seen and heard is postponed for several minutes, but, as a rule, without meaning or content. So, the episode flashed and disappeared. Short-term memory does not promise anything in advance, which is probably good, because otherwise a person would have to store all the information that he does not need at all.

However, with certain efforts by a person, information that has fallen into the zone of short-term memory, if you hold your gaze on it or listen and delve into it, will go into long-term storage. This also happens against a person’s will if certain episodes are often repeated, have special emotional significance, or for various reasons occupy a separate place among other phenomena.

When assessing their memory, some people claim that their memory is short-term, because everything is remembered, assimilated, retold in a couple of days, and then just as quickly forgotten. This often happens when preparing for exams, when information is put aside only for the purpose of reproducing it to decorate the grade book. It should be noted that in such cases, turning again to this topic when it becomes interesting, a person can easily restore seemingly lost knowledge. It’s one thing to know and forget, and another thing to not receive information. But here everything is simple - the acquired knowledge, without much human effort, was transformed into sections of long-term memory.

Long-term memory analyzes everything, structures it, creates volume and purposefully stores it for future use indefinitely. Everything is stored in long-term memory. Memorization mechanisms are very complex, but we are so accustomed to them that we perceive them as natural and simple things. However, we note that for the successful implementation of the learning process, in addition to memory, it is important to have attention, that is, to be able to concentrate on the necessary objects.

It is common for a person to forget past events after some time if he does not periodically retrieve his knowledge in order to use it, so the inability to remember something should not always be attributed to a memory impairment. Each of us has experienced the feeling when “it’s spinning in our heads, but it doesn’t come to mind,” but this does not mean that serious disorders have occurred in our memory.

Why do memory lapses happen?

The causes of memory and attention impairment in adults and children may be different. If a child with congenital mental retardation immediately has problems with learning, then he will come to adulthood with these disorders. Children and adults can react differently to the environment: the child’s psyche is more delicate, so it endures stress more difficult. In addition, adults have long learned what a child is still trying to master.

As sad as it may be, the trend towards the use of alcoholic beverages and drugs by teenagers, and even young children left without parental supervision, has become frightening: cases of poisoning are not so rarely recorded in reports from law enforcement agencies and medical institutions. But for a child’s brain, alcohol is a powerful poison that has an extremely negative effect on memory.

True, some pathological conditions that are often the cause of absent-mindedness and poor memory in adults are usually excluded in children (Alzheimer's disease, atherosclerosis, osteochondrosis).

Causes of memory impairment in children

Thus, the causes of memory and attention impairment in children can be considered:

• Lack of vitamins, anemia;
• Asthenia;
• Frequent viral infections;
• Traumatic brain injuries;
• Stressful situations (dysfunctional family, despotism of parents, problems in the team that the child attends);
• Poor eyesight;
• Brain tumors;
• Mental disorder;
• Poisoning, alcohol and drug use;
• Congenital pathology in which mental retardation is programmed (Down syndrome, etc.) or other (any) conditions (lack of vitamins or microelements, use of certain medications, changes in metabolic processes for the worse), contributing to the formation of attention deficit disorder, which, As you know, it does not improve memory.

Causes of problems in adults

In adults, the reason for poor memory, absent-mindedness and inability to concentrate for a long time are various diseases acquired during life:

1. Stress, psycho-emotional stress, chronic fatigue of both soul and body;
2. Acute and chronic cerebrovascular accidents;
3. Atherosclerosis;
4. Arterial hypertension;
5. Encephalopathy;
6. Osteochondrosis of the cervical spine;
7. Vertebro-basilar insufficiency;
8. Traumatic brain injuries;
9. Metabolic disorders;
10. Hormonal imbalance;
11. GM tumors;
12. Alzheimer's disease;
13. Mental disorders (depression, epilepsy, schizophrenia and many others).

Of course, anemia of various origins, lack of microelements, vegetative-vascular dystonia, diabetes mellitus and other numerous somatic pathologies lead to impaired memory and attention, and contribute to the appearance of forgetfulness and absent-mindedness.

What types of memory disorders are there? Among them are dysmnesia(hypermnesia, hypomnesia, amnesia) – changes in memory itself, and paramnesia– distortion of memories, to which are added the patient’s personal fantasies. By the way, those around them, on the contrary, consider some of them to be a phenomenal memory rather than a violation of it. True, experts may have a slightly different opinion on this matter.

Phenomenal memory or mental disorder?

Hypermnesia– with such a violation, people remember and perceive quickly, information put aside many years ago pops up in memory for no reason, “rolls up”, returns to the past, which does not always evoke positive emotions. A person himself does not know why he needs to store everything in his head, but he can reproduce some long-past events down to the smallest detail. For example, an elderly person can easily describe in detail (down to the teacher’s clothes) individual lessons at school, retell the literary montage of a pioneer gathering, and it is not difficult for him to remember other details regarding his studies at the institute, professional activities, or family events.

Hypermnesia, present in a healthy person in the absence of other clinical manifestations, is not considered a disease; rather, on the contrary, this is exactly the case when they talk about phenomenal memory, although from the point of view of psychology, phenomenal memory is a slightly different phenomenon. People who have a similar phenomenon are able to remember and reproduce huge amounts of information that is not associated with any special meaning. These can be large numbers, sets of individual words, lists of objects, notes. Great writers, musicians, mathematicians and people in other professions that require genius abilities often have such a memory. Meanwhile, hypermnesia in a healthy person who does not belong to the cohort of geniuses, but has a high intelligence quotient (IQ), is not such a rare occurrence.

As one of the symptoms of pathological conditions, memory impairment in the form of hypermnesia occurs:

• For paroxysmal mental disorders (epilepsy);
• In case of intoxication with psychoactive substances (psychotropic drugs, narcotic drugs);
• In the case of hypomania - a condition similar to mania, but not reaching it in severity. Patients may experience increased energy, increased vitality, and increased ability to work. With hypomania, memory and attention impairments are often combined (disinhibition, instability, inability to concentrate).

Obviously, only a specialist can understand such subtleties and differentiate between normal and pathological conditions. The majority of us are average representatives of the human population, to whom “nothing human is alien,” but at the same time they do not change the world. Geniuses appear periodically (not every year and not in every locality), but they are not always immediately noticeable, because such individuals are often considered simply eccentrics. And finally (maybe not often?) among various pathological conditions there are mental illnesses that require correction and complex treatment.

Bad memory

Hypomnesia– this type is usually expressed in two words: “poor memory.”

Forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are observed in asthenic syndrome, which, in addition to memory problems, is characterized by other symptoms:

1. Increased fatigue.
2. Nervousness, irritability with or without cause, bad mood.
3. Headache.
4. Meteor dependence.
5. Drowsiness during the day and insomnia at night.
6. Changes in blood pressure, heart rhythm disturbances.
7. Hot flashes and other vegetative disorders.
8. Chronic fatigue, weakness.

Asthenic syndrome, as a rule, is formed by another pathology, for example:

• Arterial hypertension.
• Previous traumatic brain injury (TBI).
• Atherosclerotic process.
• The initial stage of schizophrenia.

The cause of memory and attention impairments of the hypomnesia type can be various depressive states (there are too many to count), menopausal syndrome occurring with adaptation disorder, organic brain damage (severe head injury, epilepsy, tumors). In such situations, as a rule, in addition to hypomnesia, the symptoms listed above are also present.

“I remember here, I don’t remember here”

At amnesia It is not the entire memory that is lost, but individual fragments of it. As an example of this type of amnesia, I would like to recall the film by Alexander Sery “Gentlemen of Fortune” - “Here I remember - here I don’t remember.”

However, not all amnesia looks like in the famous movie; there are more serious cases when memory is lost significantly and for a long time or forever, therefore among such memory disorders (amnesia) there are several types:

1. Dissociative amnesia Events that caused psychological trauma are erased from memory. Severe stress causes a defensive reaction in the body, and it tries to hide away situations that a person cannot survive on his own. These events can only be retrieved from the depths of the unconscious using special methods (hypnosis);
2. Retrograde amnesia– a person forgets what happened before the injury (most often this happens after a TBI) – the patient came to his senses, but does not remember who he is and what happened to him;
3. Anterograde amnesia– before the injury (TBI or severe traumatic situation), everything is remembered, but after the injury – failure;
4. Fixation amnesia– poor memory for current events (a person forgets what happened today);
5. Total amnesia– all information leaves memory, including information about one’s own “I”.

A special type of memory loss that cannot be controlled is progressive amnesia, which is a sequential loss of memory from the present to the past. The cause of memory destruction in such cases is organic atrophy of the brain, which occurs when Alzheimer's disease And vascular dementia. Such patients poorly reproduce traces of memory (speech disorders), for example, they forget the names of household objects that they use every day (a plate, a chair, a clock), but at the same time they know what they are for (amnestic aphasia). In other cases, the patient simply does not recognize the thing (sensory aphasia) or does not know what it is for (semantic aphasia). However, one should not confuse the habits of “zealous” owners to find a use for everything that is in the house, even if it is intended for completely different purposes (from an old kitchen clock in the form of a plate, you can make a beautiful dish or stand).

You have to invent something like this!

Paramnesia (memory distortion) are also classified as memory disorders, and among them the following types are distinguished:

• Confabulation, in which fragments of one’s own memory disappear, and their place is taken by stories invented by the patient and presented to him “in all seriousness,” since he himself believes in what he is talking about. Patients talk about their exploits, unprecedented achievements in life and work, and sometimes even about crimes.
• Pseudo-reminiscence- replacement of one memory with another event that actually took place in the patient’s life, only at a completely different time and under different circumstances (Korsakov’s syndrome).
• Cryptomnesia when patients, having received information from various sources (books, movies, stories of other people), pass it off as events they themselves experienced. In a word, patients, due to pathological changes, engage in involuntary plagiarism, which is characteristic of delusional ideas encountered in organic disorders.
• Echomnesia- a person feels (quite sincerely) that this event has already happened to him (or saw it in a dream?). Of course, similar thoughts sometimes visit a healthy person, but the difference is that patients attach special significance to such phenomena (“get hung up”), while healthy people simply quickly forget about it.
• Polympsest– this symptom exists in two versions: short-term memory loss associated with pathological alcohol intoxication (episodes from the past day are confused with long-past events), and the combination of two different events of the same period of time, in the end, the patient himself does not know what happened In fact.

As a rule, these symptoms in pathological conditions are accompanied by other clinical manifestations, therefore, if you notice signs of “déjà vu”, there is no need to rush to make a diagnosis - this also happens in healthy people.

Decreased concentration affects memory

Impaired memory and attention, loss of the ability to focus on specific objects include the following pathological conditions:

1. Attention instability– a person is constantly distracted, jumps from one object to another (disinhibition syndrome in children, hypomania, hebephrenia - a mental disorder that develops as a form of schizophrenia in adolescence);
2. Rigidity (slow switching) from one topic to another - this symptom is very characteristic of epilepsy (those who communicate with such people know that the patient is constantly “stuck”, which makes it difficult to conduct a dialogue);
3. Lack of concentration- they say about such people: “That absent-minded person from Basseynaya Street!” That is, absent-mindedness and poor memory in such cases are often perceived as features of temperament and behavior, which, in principle, often corresponds to reality.

Undoubtedly, a decrease in concentration, in particular, will negatively affect the entire process of memorizing and storing information, that is, on the state of memory in general.

Children forget faster

As for children, all these gross, permanent memory impairments, characteristic of adults and especially the elderly, are very rarely observed in childhood. Memory problems that arise due to congenital characteristics require correction and, with a skillful approach (as far as possible), may recede a little. There are many cases where the efforts of parents and teachers literally worked wonders for Down syndrome and other types of congenital mental retardation, but here the approach is individual and dependent on various circumstances.

It’s another matter if the baby was born healthy, and the problems appeared as a result of the troubles suffered. So here it is You can expect a child to have a slightly different reaction to different situations:

• Amnesia in children in most cases, it manifests itself as memory lapses in relation to individual memories of episodes that took place during the period of clouding of consciousness associated with unpleasant events (poisoning, coma, trauma) - it is not for nothing that they say that children quickly forget;
• Alcoholization in adolescence also does not proceed in the same way as in adults - lack of memories ( polympsests) to events occurring during intoxication, appears already in the first stages of drunkenness, without waiting for a diagnosis (alcoholism);
• Retrograde amnesia in children, as a rule, it affects a short period of time before injury or illness, and its severity is not as distinct as in adults, that is, memory loss in a child cannot always be noticed.

Most often, children and adolescents experience memory impairment of the dysmnesia type, which is manifested by a weakening of the ability to remember, store (retention) and reproduce (reproduction) received information. Disorders of this type are more noticeable in school-age children, as they affect school performance, adaptation in a team, and behavior in everyday life.

For children attending preschool institutions, symptoms of dysmnesia include problems with memorizing rhymes and songs; children cannot participate in children's matinees and holidays. Despite the fact that the child constantly attends kindergarten, every time he comes there, he cannot independently find his locker to change clothes; among other items (toys, clothes, a towel), he has difficulty finding his own. Dysmnestic disorders are also noticeable in the home environment: the child cannot tell what happened in the garden, forgets the names of other children, each time he perceives fairy tales read many times as if he was hearing them for the first time, does not remember the names of the main characters.

Transient disturbances of memory and attention, along with fatigue, drowsiness and all sorts of vegetative disorders, are often observed in schoolchildren with cerebrasthenic syndrome of various etiologies.

Before treatment

Before you begin to treat the symptoms of memory impairment, you need to make a correct diagnosis and find out what is causing the patient's problems. To do this, you need to get more information about his health:

1. What diseases does he suffer from? It may be possible to trace the connection between the existing pathology (or suffered in the past) with the deterioration of intellectual abilities;
2. Does he have a pathology that directly leads to memory impairment: dementia, cerebral vascular insufficiency, TBI (history), chronic alcoholism, drug disorders?
3. What medications is the patient taking and is memory impairment associated with the use of medications? Certain groups of pharmaceuticals, for example, benzodiazepines, have side effects of this kind, which, however, are reversible.

In addition, during the diagnostic search, a biochemical blood test can be very useful, allowing one to identify metabolic disorders, hormonal imbalances, and deficiencies of microelements and vitamins.

In most cases, when searching for the causes of memory loss, they resort to methods neuroimaging(CT, MRI, EEG, PET, etc.), which help to detect a brain tumor or hydrocephalus and, at the same time, differentiate vascular brain damage from degenerative one.

There is a need for neuroimaging methods also because memory impairment at first may be the only symptom of a serious pathology. Unfortunately, the greatest difficulties in diagnosis are presented by depressive conditions, which in other cases force one to prescribe a trial antidepressant treatment (to find out whether there is depression or not).

Treatment and correction

The normal aging process itself involves some decline in intellectual abilities: forgetfulness appears, memorization is not so easy, concentration of attention decreases, especially if the neck is “pinched” or the blood pressure rises, but such symptoms do not significantly affect the quality of life and behavior at home. Older people who adequately assess their age learn to remind themselves (and quickly remember) about current affairs.

In addition, many people do not neglect treatment with pharmaceuticals to improve memory.

There are now a number of drugs that can improve brain function and even help with tasks that require significant intellectual effort. First of all, these are nootropics (piracetam, fezam, vinpocetine, cerebrolysin, cinnarizine, etc.).

Nootropics are indicated for older people who have certain age-related problems that are not yet noticeable to others. Drugs in this group are suitable for improving memory in cases of cerebral circulation disorders caused by other pathological conditions of the brain and vascular system. By the way, many of these drugs are successfully used in pediatric practice.

However, nootropics are a symptomatic treatment, and to get the desired effect you need to strive for etiotropic treatment.

As for Alzheimer's disease, tumors, and mental disorders, the approach to treatment should be very specific - depending on the pathological changes and the reasons that led to them. There is no single recipe for all cases, so there is nothing to advise patients. You just need to contact a doctor, who, perhaps, before prescribing drugs to improve memory, will send you for additional examination.

Correction of mental disorders is also difficult in adults. Patients with poor memory, under the supervision of an instructor, memorize poetry, solve crosswords, practice solving logical problems, but the training, while bringing some success (the severity of mnestic disorders seems to have decreased), still does not produce particularly significant results.

Correction of memory and attention in children, in addition to treatment with various groups of pharmaceutical drugs, includes classes with a psychologist, exercises for memory development (poems, drawings, tasks). Of course, the child’s psyche is more mobile and better amenable to correction, unlike the adult psyche. Children have the prospect of progressive development, while older people only experience the opposite effect.

Video: bad memory - expert opinion

Hello everyone, friends! Are you satisfied with the state of your memory and concentration? Maybe you've been seeing them getting worse lately? If so, do not be upset and do not rush to the pharmacy to buy medicine. First, it’s worth understanding the reasons for the deterioration of brain activity. Today I propose to talk about this sensitive topic, and at the same time find out what treatment methods to take note of if memory and attention have deteriorated. What to do in this case?

In fact, deterioration (sharp decline) of memory, absent-mindedness and forgetfulness indicate a violation of one of the functions of the brain. The general medical name for these diseases is asthenic syndrome.

Of course, if there is a sharp decrease in concentration and really poor memory, you should immediately go to your doctor. Even if you avoid drug treatment, a trip to the clinic is necessary at least for an accurate diagnosis of the disease. Don't neglect this.

It happens, on the contrary, that a person is too worried about his well-being and about poor memory as well. In this case, it is advisable to pause, calm down emotionally and think carefully about whether the object of memorization is of interest. After all, in essence, the problem of “bad” memory can be caused precisely by a lack of interest. Then it’s worth testing your memory on something more interesting.

An effective technique for improving memory and attention

Among the effective practices for the natural restoration of brain activity are correct repetition of information, associations and development of various impressions from it, and competent retrieval of information from memory. All methods can be roughly divided into levels - from simple to complex. The main thing is that it is possible to train your own memory; each of us can do it.

That's it, friends. Learn to manage your memory and share your experience on this topic in the comments. I look forward to your opinions on already tested drugs and various practices for the brain.

Also, for memory deterioration, it is recommended to take a course of vitamins. In the absence of contraindications, preparations with iodine concentration and these natural vitamin and mineral complexes will really help prevent the development of one or another disease of the nervous system.

Denis Statsenko was with you. See you

Blood pressure is an indicator of a person’s health status. Any deviations from the norm indicate the presence of pathological processes in the body, especially if these disorders are stable. Normal blood pressure (BP) in an adult is considered to be between 110–130 (upper) and 70–80 (lower). Let's figure out what to do if your blood pressure is low in the morning.

If you have low blood pressure in the morning

The dangers of low blood pressure

High blood pressure is hypertension, and low blood pressure is hypotension. Previously, it was believed that pathology was only hypertension, and that there was nothing wrong with lowering blood pressure. Now there is another point of view. The body strives to compensate for low blood pressure, which in the long term leads to vascular problems, impaired blood circulation in the brain and, after the age of 40, to hypertension.

There is such a thing as working blood pressure. Some patients claim that even with pressure levels of 90 to 60 they feel great. In most cases, this is still the body’s habit of insufficient filling of blood vessels. Sooner or later, vascular problems will have to be treated.

Symptoms of low blood pressure in the morning

If your blood pressure is low in the morning, it is difficult not to feel this phenomenon. Decreased mood, lethargy, fatigue, headache, dizziness - all this is familiar to hypotensive patients.

A hypotensive person is most often a person who feels ill in the morning. Mild nausea is sometimes added to the listed symptoms.

Of course, the patient has a question: “What should I do if my blood pressure is low?” Should I come to terms with this situation and run to the kitchen every morning for a cup of coffee, or should I bring my body back to a normal healthy state? – each person decides this question for himself.

Coffee on an empty stomach, especially in large doses, gradually worsens the condition of the stomach and leads to tachycardia, so low blood pressure in the morning is best treated.

Symptoms of Low Blood Pressure

In addition, hypotension gradually leads to:

• decreased visual acuity,
• absent-mindedness,
• forgetfulness.

This may be understandable in old age, but at the age of 25–35 such phenomena cause concern. Ultimately, the quality of life deteriorates.

Low blood pressure is a pathology. Of course, something needs to be done to cure her. But before you take any measures against hypotension, you need to understand why it appears.

Why does low blood pressure occur in the morning?

Low blood pressure in the morning can be due to various reasons.

Let's consider the provoking factors:

• Genetics. Hereditary vascular weakness and tendency to hypotension.
• Low hemoglobin. An altered blood formula can cause low blood pressure in the morning and overall poor health.
• Weight deficiency. Diets lead to problems with blood pressure. People who are underweight are more likely to suffer from low blood pressure.
• Prolonged nervous tension and fatigue.
• Physical inactivity. A sedentary lifestyle provokes congestion and hypotension.

Causes of low blood pressure

• Diseases of the spine, especially in the thoracic and cervical region.
• Metabolic pathologies (diabetes, diseases of the thyroid gland, adrenal glands).
• Diseases of the heart and blood vessels.
• Any chronic disease. This group may include bronchitis, asthma, angina, VSD and other pathologies.
• Oncological diseases.

Proper treatment of low blood pressure includes therapy for the triggering factor.

What to do when blood pressure is low?

To normalize blood pressure, you need to contact a therapist, cardiologist, neurologist or endocrinologist to undergo diagnostics and prescribe the necessary treatment.

To do this you need:

1. Normalize nutrition. You should definitely have breakfast, even if you are not used to it. When the digestion process starts, blood pressure usually rises, both intra-abdominal and arterial.
2. Fundamentally reconsider your eating habits, because very often low blood pressure results from poor nutrition and addiction to various diets. Food should be complete, rich in proteins, vitamins, and minerals.
3. Accustom yourself to moderate physical activity; this has a very beneficial effect on the overall tone of blood vessels and general well-being. Swimming, exercise, fitness, hiking, yoga are suitable.

Dependence of pressure on weather conditions

For normal blood pressure you need to get enough sleep. Each person has their own sleep norm, but the average is 7–8 hours. Chronic lack of sleep can cause vascular weakness and low blood pressure.

There is an opinion that to fill the vessels you need to drink a lot of water. If there are no problems with the renal system, then you can try to increase your usual fluid intake.

How to alleviate your condition

Very low blood pressure in the morning requires a certain awakening ritual:

1. To avoid nausea and loss of consciousness, you need to train yourself to get out of bed very carefully. After waking up, it is better to lie down for 3-5 minutes and only then get up. For a hypotensive person, only such an awakening is absolutely safe.
2. To increase vascular tone, it is very good to do hardening. For this purpose, air baths, dousing with cold water, and contrast showers are suitable. All these procedures should be started gradually so as not to cause exacerbation of concomitant diseases.
3. You can try to normalize blood pressure and have a positive attitude by getting a pet – a dog. This is an animal that requires daily walks in nature, at least twice a day. In addition to the positive emotions from communicating with a dog, the overall tone of the body and vascular tone in particular increases.

Drug treatment

As for medications, well-known tinctures help very well:

• Eleutherococcus;
• lemongrass;
• ginseng.

To normalize low blood pressure, they can be taken two to three times a day.

There are a number of homeopathic medicines that regulate blood pressure well:

• "Tonginal";
• "Cefavora."

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How is blood pressure measured?

Human health is determined by many indicators, among which blood pressure (BP) plays an important role. Its level indicates the functioning of the cardiovascular system. This parameter must be monitored at any age. To prevent the development of serious pathologies, it is important to know medical standards, how a person’s blood pressure is measured, and how to properly carry out the procedure at home.

What is blood pressure, its types

Blood pressure is the pressure of blood on the walls of blood vessels as it is pumped by the heart. Blood volume per unit of time is the determining indicator. With each heartbeat, the blood flow travels through different vessels, therefore venous, capillary, and intracardiac pressure are released. But it is the arterial criterion that is accepted as determining health.

To measure a person's blood pressure, heart rate plays a leading role. It is responsible for blood circulation between the heart and brain. To some extent, the indicators are affected by the quality of blood, the condition of blood vessels, and concomitant functional disorders.

Blood pressure is expressed in two values, which are shown by the numbers:

• systolic (upper) pressure - the moment the heart muscle contracts and blood is released into the arteries;
• diastolic (lower) – the moment of myocardial relaxation with minimal peripheral resistance.

In a normal situation, the upper indicator is greater than the lower one. The difference between them is called pulse pressure and is 30–50 units. With pathological changes in the circulatory system, the numbers can be completely different.

Blood pressure measurements should be taken at any age. The procedure is quite simple, but very important for preventing hypertension, heart failure, stroke, heart attack and maintaining good health.

In what units is pressure measured?

How is a person's blood pressure measured? For many ordinary people, this remains a mystery, because the main parameters are always stated simply in numbers, for example, 110 by 70. In fact, they mean “mm Hg.” Art., which stands for millimeters of mercury. This is a universal unit of measurement used not only in medicine, but also in meteorology and aviation.

In what units is blood pressure measured? The basis is atmospheric pressure, which is determined using a barometer. This device usually contains mercury because it has a high density and balances well. Blood pressure values ​​​​just show the excess of fluid pressure in the circulatory system over atmospheric pressure.

Pressure is measured in mmHg. Art. since the times when the device for monitoring indicators was mercury. It was a vertical glass tube with a millimeter scale; through this tube, the liquid rose or fell depending on the strength of the blood pressure. Now such devices are not used, but the unit of measurement has traditionally remained unchanged.

The international system assumes other units of measurement of pressure and their translation. Officially, modern science proposes kilopascals (kPa), which are rarely used in practice. For example, in France, blood pressure is expressed in centimeters of mercury, which makes it difficult to interpret the indicators. We still have the millimeters of mercury that are familiar to everyone.

Blood pressure standards: what they are measured in and how they are deciphered

Blood pressure, without exaggeration, is one of the main indicators of health. To determine physiological abnormalities, standards existing in medical practice are required. The starting point is considered to be 120 by 80 mmHg. Art. This is the average figure for an adult, which identifies pathological disorders of the cardiovascular system.

Most doctors agree that this arterial indicator is quite arbitrary. Comfortable numbers are different for each person. In everyday life they are called “working pressure”, at which a person feels good. In this case, the values ​​​​on the tonometer may differ significantly from the standard 120/80.

Blood pressure depends on many factors, primarily age. Therefore, the basis of medical standards is the age criterion:

• in newborns the pressure is usually 60 to 40 mmHg. Art.;
• in children from 1 month to 3 years it ranges from 90 to 45 to 105 to 65;
• up to 5–6 years it remains at the level of 110/60 mm Hg. Art.;
• in the period between 6 and 12 years – 110–120/60–70;
• in adolescence it can vary from 110 to 70 to 130 to 80;
• from 14–16 years old it approaches an adult – 120–125/75-80;
• after 40 years it increases to 130–135 by 80–85;
• from 60–65 years old – 135 to 85 mm Hg. Art. and higher.

Depending on these average indicators, a diagnosis of hypotension (below 100 by 60) and hypertension (above 140 by 90) is made. In this case, there are usually unpleasant symptoms in the form of headaches, dizziness, insomnia, and rapid heartbeat, which force you to go to the doctor. It is important to listen to how you feel and measure your blood pressure so that complications do not develop.

How to measure blood pressure in a person: methods and techniques

How is blood pressure measured? The procedure for monitoring indicators is quite simple and does not require special skills. It is carried out at home using a special device - a tonometer (sphygmomanometer).

The device comes in several types:

• mechanical - the simplest and most accurate, consists of a cuff, a rubber bulb, a pressure gauge and a stethoscope;
• semi-automatic - an electronic (sometimes electronic-mechanical) device, the measurement of indicators is carried out automatically, the person is only required to inflate the cuff with air;
• automatic - an electronic device that is attached to the shoulder or wrist, independently inflates the cuff with a built-in compressor, records the pressure, and displays the values ​​on a digital display.

For self-monitoring, it is most convenient to use an automatic tonometer, but its readings are not always reliable, and there are significant deviations. The most accurate is considered to be a mechanical device, where heart sounds are listened to using a stethoscope. But it is difficult to carry out the procedure with him without outside help. The best option is to select a sphygmomanometer individually.

How is pressure measured? The accuracy of blood pressure readings largely depends on correctly taken measurements. In automatic mode, just attach the sensor to your hand and wait for the result.

With mechanical things it’s a little more complicated:

• the cuff is fastened tautly, slightly above the bend of the elbow;
• the hoses are located approximately in the middle of the hand, on the front side;
• the stethoscope is inserted into the ears, the membrane is placed on the bend of the elbow;
• the release valve on the bulb is screwed in until it stops;
• the pressure gauge is taken in the hand (sometimes attached to the cuff) or placed on the table so that the dial is clearly visible;
• gradually, without sudden jerks, air is pumped into the cuff using a rubber “bulb” (to the required upper values);
• the valve is slowly unscrewed, the arrow moves in the opposite direction at a speed of approximately 2 units per second;
• the upper indicator is recorded when the first beat is heard, the lower indicator is recorded when the last audible tone is recorded.

The mechanical method remains the most revealing and accurate and is used in most medical institutions. At home, it is most convenient if another person takes the measurements. Some especially well-coordinated people manage to get the hang of measuring blood pressure on their own by holding the stethoscope membrane on the elbow with one hand, pumping the air with a “pear” with the palm, and rotating the valve wheel with the free fingers of the same hand. But such “circus tricks” can lead to inaccurate measurements. And older people, as a rule, cannot do it.

Rules for taking measurements

We figured out what units pressure is measured in. Now it is necessary to consider the rules of the procedure. The accuracy of the indicators and the selection of adequate therapy depend on how correctly the measurements are taken. It is especially important to follow the technique for people suffering from cardiovascular pathologies. Timely control can, without exaggeration, save lives.

To determine your blood pressure level as accurately as possible, you must:

• calm down, relax, take the correct body position;
• in a sitting position there should be support for the back, in a lying position - the arm is located along the body on a slight elevation;
• half an hour before measurements, it is advisable not to eat, not to smoke, and to limit physical activity;
• You cannot move or talk during the procedure;
• for the accuracy of the result, especially on an automatic tonometer, it is advisable to take several measurements in a row with an interval of a minute;
• The numbers may differ slightly on different hands, so larger numbers are used as a basis.

In case of chronic hyper- or hypotension, monitoring should be regular, at least 2 times a day, to prevent sudden surges in blood pressure. It is also important for a healthy person to periodically measure indicators in order to avoid the development of cardiovascular pathologies.

Measuring blood pressure is an absolutely painless, quick and simple procedure. Every person should be able to take measurements correctly. This simple skill helps you cope with blood pressure surges on your own, improve your well-being at home, and sometimes even save the life of a loved one.