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Your Memory: How It Works And How To Improve It As A Result Of Improved Social Contact And Enriched Group Interactions
This is an article about your memory: how it works and how to improve it Study more and more often informs us that more human engagement delays memory loss as we age. This is not surprising because relating to other people exercises the memory at many levels. As we learn more about how memory works we discover that former experiences are continually being called up and combined with current perceptions and thoughts. When the resulting associations are themselves stored for future use, the memory is enhanced.
That is why strong social interaction with friends, family and community members can enhance our brain health as we get older. It also reinforces the insight that social separation is a important risk factor for mental and emotional deterioration for seniors. Recently the Harvard School of Public Health examined data from the Health And Retirement Study which observed adults who were 50 years of age or more. The subjects of the study worked on memory tests every two years. The investigators also calculated the social interaction of study participants based on marital status, volunteer activities and contact with parents, children and neighbors. The findings showed that persons in their 50s and 60s who engaged in a significant amount of social activity also had the slowest rate of memory loss. In fact, when they were compared with folks who were the least socially active, the seniors who had the best socialization scores had less than half the rate of memory loss.
When our aging love ones say, "I really want to know how to improve my memory," it is not hard for us to tell them to get out of the house more often. Ironically, the increasing importance of social interaction occurs at a moment of life when they are most defenseless to isolation. Diminishing health, ebbing traditional support systems, the increasing independence of younger children and relatives and cynical expectations about aging combine to produce loneliness and depression, which lead to accelerating health decline, and so forth. This is not necessary.
People who are dealing with these symptoms of aging are the least capable of assisting themselves to get free of the cycles that will inevitably take away the potential for a wonderful quality of life. It is highly important that those who care for and about them intervene, if necessary, to interrupt the cycle of aging, isolation, depression and physical decline. This is not always easy in a society that values self-sufficiency and non-interference. However, if we are interested in our aging community we must recognize that they are not as independent as they were, or as they think they are, or as they would like to be. We must find creative ways to help them preserve their socialization opportunities and, thus, their memories. There are many ways to address the problems of aging and memory. Technology is one such means, and community resources can offer many others. Nevertheless, it is probably going to be to be up to those of us who owe them so much to pay it back by considerately nudging them back into society when we see them wandering away.
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