In order to find the door key, I turned the house upside down. I can’t remember the name of the familiar face in front of me on the party. The dentist who should have had a review six months later remembered to make an appointment three months later… Do these things often happen to you? Take it easy, scientists in the United States have found that the forgetfulness of most young people is not a serious matter. Lack of sleep, drug influence, bacterial infection, dietary structure, and even mental stress will all affect our memory performance. Fortunately, our brains are malleable. As long as you avoid those factors that erode your memory, your brain may recover its agility and acuity.
1. Thyroid dysfunction
When the thyroid function is dysfunctional, you will feel cold and hot, happy and worried, and your memory will also be affected. “Although the thyroid gland does not act on the brain, memory loss is one of the symptoms of thyroid dysfunction,” said Dr. fudushi of Duke University in the United States. This butterfly shaped gland in the throat controls most of the metabolic processes of the body. “Patients with hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism usually have poor memory and difficulty concentrating, which is very common in many women.”. If you are troubled by forgetfulness, you can go to the hospital to rule out whether the thyroid function is abnormal.
2. Lack of sleep
You went crazy too late the night before yesterday, which may directly cause you to forget the name of your new colleague today. “When we sleep, some parts of the brain are also at rest, while the deep parts related to memory and emotion are more active.” Allen, M.D., of New York neurology and sleep clinic, said, “people with insufficient sleep and irregular sleep will not only suffer from memory loss, but also fatigue, poor concentration and slow reaction.” The suggestion of eight hours of sleep a day may not be applicable to everyone. If you wake up tired in the morning or doze off repeatedly during the day, it means that you need more sleep time.
3. Anxiety and anxiety
Research shows that even being nervous just because you are about to give a report in front of the CEO will affect your memory. There is a lot of evidence that anxiety, anxiety, manic depression can affect the memory center. Serious forgetfulness often reflects serious mood swings. Being under stress for a long time will increase the level of cortisol in the brain, leading to the reduction of brain cell dendrites (bridges between brain cells), which will affect the ability to store and retrieve memory. But the good news is that when forgetfulness is caused by mood swings, it can be at least partially repaired. When the mood calms down, the problem of forgetfulness will be much better.
4. I don’t like sports
Yes, if you don’t move, your memory will rust. Experiments by American scientists have found that regular exercise every day helps keep memory sharp. “Exercise helps improve mood and sleep, and thereby affects cognitive ability and memory,” said Dr. fudushi of Duke University. Take the animal experiment published in the journal Brain, behavior and immunity as an example. After running for 12 weeks, the growth of brain cells has increased. Dr. fudushi recommends 45 minutes of aerobic exercise four times a week.
5. Some prescription drugs
If you suddenly become forgetful, it is necessary to check your medicine box: many common prescription drugs may also make you forgetful. Sedative drugs such as galatidine, valium and ativan can act on the brain, preventing short-term memory from being transferred to long-term memory. In addition, antidepressants have similar effects.
In addition, cardiac drugs such as statins, narcotic analgesics, sleep aids, and antiallergic drugs such as hellamine all have side effects that lead to forgetfulness to varying degrees. Bottom line: drugs can’t be stopped (especially life-saving drugs), but if you think that certain drugs cause serious forgetfulness, you can discuss with the attending doctor to see if there are other alternatives.
6. Vitamin B12 deficiency
Scientists have found that vitamin B12 is a necessary nutrient for maintaining the health of nerve and blood cells. It is usually found in animal foods, such as shellfish, meat, eggs and dairy products. Therefore, vegetarians have a higher risk of memory loss than people with normal diet. In addition to fatigue, poor appetite and weight loss, B12 deficiency can also lead to memory problems.
If you suspect that your vegetarian structure has affected your memory, you can have a blood test and ask your doctor to judge whether you need to supplement vitamin B12. Note: it is not only vegetarians who are at risk of B12 deficiency. Pregnant women, the elderly, pernicious anemia (a fatal B12 deficiency caused by malabsorption), or gastrointestinal dysfunction may all need vitamin B12 supplementation.
7. Smoking
If you are a smoker, this may be the reason why you forget things when you are young. “Smoking can reduce blood supply and thus damage brain function,” Dr. Allen said. The study, published in the archives of general psychiatry, collected data from more than 7000 men and women and found that smokers’ brain functions age much faster than non-smokers’. “Not only that, smoking will lead to the accumulation of abnormal proteins, which will reduce the brain’s ability to process information.”
8. High fat diet
Hamburgers and French fries will not only burden your weight and heart, but also affect your memory. One study showed that the learning and memory abilities of pubertal mice that ingested high fat for 8 consecutive weeks were relatively worse, while another experiment on middle-aged mice showed that the hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for short-term memory) was extremely vulnerable to damage under the influence of high-fat food.
It needs to be confirmed whether high-fat diet affects memory needs further research, but scientists have confirmed that the high-fat diet structure does promote type II diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, and will also affect our brain. Dr Allen said: “this began to happen early in life. Research shows that obese children do have limited attention range and can’t concentrate.”
9. Pressure
In an emergency, you may not even remember your home phone number. According to a study published in the journal Neurology, stress affects the part of the brain that controls working memory. Researchers have found that continuous stress stimulation reduces the sensitivity of receptors in the brain that are associated with thought processes. Although the experiment was done on animals, the human brain structure is similar. Experts believe: “continuous and chronic stress stimulation is harmful.
Specifically, regular exposure to glucocorticoids (a hormone secreted by the adrenal gland) will also reduce the number of receptors in brain cells and slow down the brain’s response to neurochemicals. ” Looking for ways to relieve stress can also help memory: a study by the University of California shows that practicing meditation not only clears stress, but also improves memory. For the students who practiced 8 groups of 45 minute meditation in two weeks, the average GRE score increased from 460 to 520.
10. Bacteria
Herpes labialis caused by a cold can also make your memory decline – according to a study published in the Journal of Neurology in 2013. Researchers found that people who were exposed to more germs, such as herpes simplex virus type I, were more likely to suffer from memory decline than those who were less exposed to germs. In the test involving more than 1600 people, those with a higher risk of virus infection had 25% lower risk than the control group in the cognitive ability test. Although there is no herpes labialis vaccine, a series of vaccines given in childhood will help in the future. Doctors believe that repeated infection with pathogenic bacteria will damage blood vessels, and high infection risk will also bring the risk of asphyxia and heart disease. Therefore, if you are infected with bacteria, you must seek the help of a doctor as soon as possible.
Finally, let me remind you that exercise and fitness can prevent memory decline! Generally speaking, people who are healthy, like sports and love life are energetic, strong in learning and memory. When people exercise, they can promote brain self-renewal. Experts believe that long-term cardiovascular exercise can reduce brain tissue loss due to age and reduce memory decline. Many studies have shown that to keep your brain active, you only need to exercise regularly. School children who exercise three or four times a week usually have higher test scores at the age of 10 or 11. Older people who walked regularly performed better on memory tests than their sedentary peers. By injecting extra oxygen into the energy consuming brain, exercise can enhance intelligence.
Leave a Reply