Memory Maximizers: Hydration & Brain Health; Making Mistakes

Hydration: The Bottom Line for Brian Health and Functioning

Adequate hydration is an essential prerequisite for ensuring the proper functioning of brain cells, and is an especially important matter for older adults. Age-related changes lead to lowered sensitivity to thirst, a reduced ability to conserve water, changes in kidney function, and greater likelihood that an individual is taking medications (such a diuretics) or experiencing medical conditions (such as diabetes or swallowing disorders) that will interfere with adequate hydration. Research suggests that as little as a 1.5 percent loss in normal water volume in the body can negatively affect cognition, mood, energy levels, and brain functioning.

To minimize your risk for dehydration and protect your brain, experts recommend that you aim for a total fluid intake equivalent to eight to 10 eight-ounce glasses of any non-alcoholic liquid. Increase your fluid intake if you notice these signs of mild dehydration:

• Decreased urine output (urinating fewer than three times per day)
• Urine that is dark yellow or amber in color
• Dry lips, sticky tongue, or dry skin
• Fatigue
  Seek immediate medical attention for signs of severe dehydration, which include:
• Lack of sweating; lack of urination
• Rapid heartbeat; low blood pressure
• Sunken eyes; shriveled skin
• Extreme thirst
• Dizziness; mental confusion

Want to Fix New Information in Your Mind? Make Mistakes!

Making the right kind of errors while you’re learning can improve your ability to embed new information in your memory, but the mistakes must be related to what you want to learn, not just random guesses. Research published online Oct. 27, 2014 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition suggests that both younger and older adults are better able to learn information if they have worked out the answer through trial-and-error guesses that have something in common with the correct answer. For example, participants who were asked to remember a target word (“a rose”) by being presented with its category (“flower”) and asked to guess at the possible answer were much better able to remember the word later than those who had been given the correct answer right away.

The study authors theorize that by guessing first, rather than reading the answer, participants had to think harder and make connections that made it easier to remember the correct answer later. Even making wrong guesses helped recollection, as long as the information was closely related. On the other hand, the research suggests that when guesses are not meaningfully related to the information to be remembered (such as guessing at “a word that begins with ro…”) and result in random guesses (“road, rope”), guessing appears to clutter up memory.

The post Memory Maximizers: Hydration & Brain Health; Making Mistakes appeared first on University Health News.

Read Original Article: Memory Maximizers: Hydration & Brain Health; Making Mistakes »

Powered by WPeMatico