Forgetful After 60? 7 Habits That Help Protect Your Memory

Walking into a room and forgetting why you went there, or searching for a name or word that used to come easily, is often a normal part of aging. Some changes in memory are normal: our brains may process information a little more slowly, and retrieving something we know can take longer than it used to.

Those moments can be frustrating — and as we get older, it's natural to wonder whether they mean our memory is getting worse. But here's the encouraging part:

How our brains age isn't completely out of our control.

The way we move, challenge our brains, eat, sleep, and take care of our overall health can all influence cognitive health.

And that's one reason I talk so much about training the Body, Brain, and Balance together, and why exercise for brain health is such a big part of what I teach.

Can Exercise Improve Your Memory?

Yes, exercise can help: if you want to protect your brain, exercise matters. Exercise isn't just an investment in your muscles and heart — it's an investment in your brain too.

In a 2011 randomized study of older adults, a year of aerobic exercise increased the size of the hippocampus — an area heavily involved in memory — by about 2% and was associated with better memory performance.

Strength training also appears to benefit several areas of cognition, including executive function.

So keep walking. Keep getting your heart rate up. And keep lifting weights.

Your brain has a stake in that workout too.

Why Combine Brain Challenges With Movement?

Moving while you think trains your brain the way you actually use it in daily life. Crossword puzzles, reading, and other mentally challenging activities are worthwhile. But in real life, we rarely use our brains while sitting perfectly still.

We walk through a store while remembering what we need. We carry on a conversation while navigating stairs. We change direction while responding to what's happening around us.

Our brains and bodies are constantly working together.

That's why we combine cognitive challenges with movement during in-home personal training — recalling words while balancing, reversing a sequence of numbers while exercising, or making decisions while stepping in different directions. You can try a few of these brain-body exercises at home.

Research on combined cognitive and physical training suggests that this type of training can improve aspects of both cognitive and physical function in older adults.

Don't Forget Balance

Balance itself requires your brain to process a tremendous amount of information: what you see, what you feel under your feet, where your body is in space, and how you need to respond.

Add a thinking task to that, and your brain and body have to communicate under more realistic conditions.

What Foods Help Protect Your Memory?

An overall anti-inflammatory eating pattern, rather than any single "brain food," appears to matter most. What we eat may also influence how our brains age.

Researchers are increasingly studying the relationship between chronic inflammation, diet, and cognitive health. Diets that are more inflammatory have been associated with a greater risk of cognitive impairment and dementia.

The encouraging part is that an anti-inflammatory eating pattern doesn't require an exotic list of "brain foods."

Think:

• Vegetables and fruits
• Berries
• Beans and legumes
• Nuts
• Whole grains
• Fish
• Olive oil and other minimally processed healthy fats

Mediterranean-style eating patterns — which emphasize many of these foods — have shown promising effects on cognition in clinical research.

That doesn't mean blueberries or olive oil are magic memory treatments. The evidence points much more toward the overall pattern of how we eat over time.

In other words, feed your brain much the same way you would feed the rest of a healthy body.

Does Sleep Affect Memory?

Yes. Don't overlook sleep: it plays an important role in helping the brain consolidate memories — taking information from the day and helping store it.

So protecting your sleep is part of protecting your brain too.

Seven Habits That Help Protect Your Memory

• Move enough to challenge your cardiovascular system.
• Strength train.
• Give your brain something new to solve.
• Think and move at the same time.
• Challenge your balance safely.
• Choose mostly whole, minimally processed foods.
• Protect your sleep.

We can't stop every change that comes with aging.

But when it comes to keeping our brains healthy, there is a lot more we can do than simply hope our memory stays sharp.