Tips to help preserve your memory

Just as physical exercise strengthens your body, mental activity helps your mind stay sharp and resist effects of the cognitive aging process.

While challenging your IQ certainly keeps your brain healthy, there are also other lifestyle choices you can make that benefit your noggin.

Here are some tips for honing your memory as you go about your day:

• If you find yourself forgetting things more frequently, remember to slow your thought process and focus. Get rid of distractions and avoid multitasking when doing something important.

• Get more sleep, especially if you have a mentally strenuous job or lifestyle. Sleep allows your brain to refresh its neurons — it is a scientific fact that more or better-quality sleep improves memory.

• Write down important details. If you find that names, dates, figures and other specific materials elude you, keep a pen and notepad with you to record them for later.

• Regular exercise helps keep your thinking, learning and judgment skills sharp and fights diseases that impair memory such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

• Try to make whole and unprocessed foods a large part of your diet, and don’t skip meals.

• Maintain regular social contact through community meetings, sports or just spending time with friends. Even time spent with animals has been shown to improve mental alertness.

If you find that your forgetfulness is becoming severe and interfering with your daily life or that it is accompanied by mood swings, personality changes or repeated speech, it could be the sign of a more serious illness.

Even if your forgetfulness is merely annoying, it never hurts to ask your doctor if your symptoms are abnormal.