It's National Poetry Day today

Safely stored in memory, poems reappear to strengthen us in times of trouble and take us back to happier days.

When I was little and it was bedtime, my mother used to read/recite a poem to me about all nature's little ones going to bed. My favourite verse began with the butterfly drowsy. I often used to think about the butterfly drowsy. The words were heady with sleep and mystery.

The butterfly drowsy has folded its wing,
The bees are returning, no more the birds sing;
Their labour is over, their nestlings are fed,
It's time little people were going to bed.

Very low carbohydrate intake may improve your memory

See this article.

Chromium picolinate may improve memory in elderly people

Supplements of chromium picolinate may boost memory function in the elderly, says a new placebo-controlled, double-blind study. Writing in the findings published in Nutritional Neuroscience, scientists by University of Cincinnati College of Medicine report that daily supplements of the compound improved learning, recall, and recognition memory tasks.
Read article at nutraingredients-usa.com

Deaths of Alan Sillitoe and Peter Porter

So Alan Sillitoe and Peter Porter have left us. Their deaths have evoked memories in me.

I remember years ago going to stay in Cambridge for a few days at the invitation of a friend who was reading chemistry at Newnham College. She was there for some weeks in the summer; I think it was known as the Long Vac term. Specific memories of that time: sitting on a river bank on a warm, heavenly evening as the strains of "Dido and Aeneas" reached us from a concert performance somewhere, and discovering a copy of Sillitoe's newly published "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" in the College library and borrowing it and devouring it at speed. When the film of the book came out later it was as riveting and eye-opening as the book and I became a lifelong admirer of Albert Finney's acting.

In the 70's I went to hear Peter Porter read from his poetry and answer questions and it was great...(o: Such a friendly, enjoyable evening. Afterwards I had a long chat with him about Philip Larkin, who was my favourite poet at the time, and for whom I had coveted the Poet Laureateship. Strangely, Porter had recently spent an evening with Larkin ("last Saturday evening", was what he said, if I remember correctly). He was so easy to talk to and unhurriedly generous with his time.

In those days it was easy for me to get about, as it is for most people, and easy for me to read books and to go to lectures and the like, because those were the days before the long, cruel negligence of the National Health Service transformed my life into a dystopian microworld of exhaustion and difficulty. Largely housebound, scarcely able to hold a book because my hands are so delicate - courtesy of the 'caring' professions - and struggling to concentrate on the text, reading is now a rare and painful pleasure.

Aerobic exercise is good for your brain

Aerobic exercises such as running or jogging have long been known to be good for the health, but now new research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has shown that it also stimulates the growth of new brain cells and improves the memory and ability to learn.
Read article at physorg.com

Millions of workers are being put at greater risk of dementia by Britain's long working hours culture, research has found.

Long hours put workers at risk of dementia, according to research into damage to brain
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Extreme tiredness and stress could be as bad for the brain as smoking, according to the study.

The report, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found middle-aged workers clocking up more than 55 hours a week have poorer mental skills, including short-term memory and ability to recall words, than those working fewer than 41 hours.

The findings suggest the long-term damage to the brain caused by excessive time at work has been underestimated.

One in eight British workers puts in more than the supposed European maximum of 48 hours a week.

Researchers, led by Dr Marianna Virtanen from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, monitored 2,214 British civil servants from the 1980s."

You can reduce fatigue, improve memory and concentration, and lower your risk of developing dementia by avoiding salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free. I am not a doctor or a dietician or a nutritionist. My website does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

A woman who has baffled doctors with her ability to remember every detail of every day has broken her anonymity to speak of her condition.

The woman who can remember everything

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Jill Price, 42, can remember every part of her life since she was 14 but considers her ability a curse as she cannot switch off.

She described her life as like a split-screen television, with one side showing what she is doing in the present, and the other showing the memories which she cannot hold back.

Every detail about every day since 1980 - what time she got up, who she met, what she did, even what she ate - is locked in her brain and can be released to come flooding back by common triggers like songs, smells or place names.

Mrs Price, a widow who is a school administrator, sometimes struggles to sleep because the vivid memories crowd her mind and stop her relaxing.

Her condition is so rare that scientists had to coin a term for her condition - hyperthymestic syndrome from the Greek thymesis, for remembering, and hyper, meaning well above normal.

For years she remained anonymous, referred to only by initials in scientific journals while experts at the University of California-Irvine tested her ability."

Blueberries and some other fruits 'improve memory' - possibly because of their bioflavanoid content.

Blueberries 'improve memory'
article in the Telegraph

Brain surgery and memory recall.

Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory

Extract from the Independent:

"Scientists performing experimental brain surgery on a man aged 50 have stumbled across a mechanism that could unlock how memory works.

The accidental breakthrough came during an experiment originally intended to suppress the obese man's appetite, using the increasingly successful technique of deep-brain stimulation. Electrodes were pushed into the man's brain and stimulated with an electric current. Instead of losing appetite, the patient instead had an intense experience of déjà vu. He recalled, in intricate detail, a scene from 30 years earlier. More tests showed his ability to learn was dramatically improved when the current was switched on and his brain stimulated.

Scientists are now applying the technique in the first trial of the treatment in patients with Alzheimer's disease. If successful, it could offer hope to sufferers from the degenerative condition, which affects 450,000 people in Britain alone, by providing a "pacemaker" for the brain.

Three patients have been treated and initial results are promising, according to Andres Lozano, a professor of neurosurgery at the Toronto Western Hospital, Ontario, who is leading the research.

Professor Lozano said: "This is the first time that anyone has had electrodes implanted in the brain which have been shown to improve memory. We are driving the activity of the brain by increasing its sensitivity – turning up the volume of the memory circuits. Any event that involves the memory circuits is more likely to be stored and retained.""

Muscular exercise can help your memory

Boost your brain... use your brawn - Telegraph

Extract:

"Were you one of those forever leaping about on the tennis court at school or were you more likely to be found huddled around the Bunsen burner? Sporty or swotty, the two tribes have, by tradition, rarely crossed - save for the odd all rounder, who managed to be captain of games while studying advanced maths. Now, new research from America is confounding the old stereotypes, with the finding that exercise actually makes your brain bigger and more capable of learning.

The study, carried out at the Columbia University Medical Centre in New York, has shown that working out the muscles could simultaneously be pumping up the brain - and specifically the memory.

Exercise appears to directly affect a region of the hippocampus, the area of the brain concerned with memory and learning, called the dentate gyrus, one of the few areas of the brain where neurogenesis - the creation of nerve cells - takes place. Building up the number of nerve cells (neurons) and the connections between them in the dentate gyrus is vital to the prevention of memory decline that typically begins at around the age of 30. So does this mean that aerobic exercise can help anyone increase their learning potential?

Cell production is a complex affair relying on a ready supply of proteins and hormones, particularly a hormone called Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1). IGF-1 is known to be crucial in child growth and the development of every cell in the body. It is released into the bloodstream every time you contract and relax a muscle and so levels rise when you exercise."

I feel sure that optimising your nutrition is also a help in keeping the memory working well. Certainly nutritional deficiencies and 'slimming' can impair memory. Reducing salt/sodium intake also improves mental alertness.