Gary Small - The Memory Prescription: Dr. Gary Smalls 14-Day Plan to Keep Your Brain and Body Young

Chapter One
Welcome to My Office

Chapter Two
Rate Your Current Mental and Physical Fitness Level

Chapter Three
The 14-Day Memory Prescription

Chapter Four
Your 2-Week Checkup Gauge Your Success

Chapter Five
Pump Up Your Mental Aerobics

Chapter Six
Advanced Memory Training

Chapter Seven
Memory Prescription DietEating for Longevity

Chapter Eight
Focus on Stress Reduction

Chapter Nine
Physical Fitness Jump-Start

Chapter Ten
Drugs and SupplementsMyths, Truths, and Consequences

Chapter Eleven
Renewing Your Prescription A Lifetime of Quality Longevity

Appendixes

Many of todays health and conditioning programs emphasize physical strength and body image, but ignore the vital importance of brain fitness and mental acuitywhich direct all our efforts to remain youthful, mentally fit, and at the top of our game. Of course, maintaining low cholesterol, watching our weight, and preventing high blood pressure all help to increase life expectancy. But research has shown that it first takes a healthy and agile brain to motivate us to treat our bodies right and achieve our highest quality longevity throughout each new phase of life.

In The Memory Bible, I introduced my recent discoveries and techniques for improving memory and keeping our brains young. Several readers commented that not only did the books exercises and strategies improve their memory abilities, it made them feel youngerboth mentally and physically. I was particularly struck by how many people who had committed to my four-pronged approach of stress reduction, healthy brain diet, memory exercises, and physical conditioning reported almost immediate results.

At the same time, I have received letters, phone calls, and e-mail requesting an even more detailed, customized, and simple quick-start planin a sense, a doctors prescriptionto propel individuals toward a sharper mind, more youthful body, and overall quality longevityASAP.

The Memory Prescription will give you just thatan aggressive, step-by-step program that brings immediate results and long-term benefits. Readers will feel as if they have entered my office to get their own private consultation and personally designed program, with our UCLA studies to back it up.

The 14-Day Memory Prescription allows you to experience not only improved mental and physical fitness, but also increased vitality and reduced levels of stress. If you stick with the Prescription, youll notice enhanced recall abilities, feel younger and stronger, and look better overall. But wait, theres more! For no extra charge, Ill throw in a decrease in your odds of developing arthritis, heart disease, Alzheimers disease, diabetes, and several other illnesses associated with aging.

If its true that we are only as young as we feel, then every one of us can be younger in just 14 days.

Gary Small, M.D.

Los Angeles, California

May 2004

If you want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.

G IUSEPPE DI L AMPEDUSA

Youre at a party with your wife when you spot a familiar face across the room. He waves. You know the guy but you cant recall his name. He starts toward you as you run the alphabet through your headyoure up to L and still no name comes to mind. Hes two yards away with a giant grin on his faceM, N, O, P He pumps your hand and says, Gary! How the heck are you? You look great, Gary. Must be that clean living and Gigis good cooking, huh? Nice to see you again too, Gigi. Gigi, equally stumped, stammers, Nice to see YOU. Youre sweating. Hes already said your name three more times and you know that he knows that youve forgotten his. Just then your friend Sue walks up and youre saved! Surely shell get his name. Sue! you bellow as if she were the last sip of water in the Sahara. You turn to the guy, Have you met Sue? He smiles and shakes her hand, Havent had the pleasure. Sue mumbles something about spicy stuffed mushrooms and walks off. The guy wont give you a break, and youve gone too far to ask his name now. Embarrassing? You bet. Uncommon? Not in the least.

Although memory challenges affect people of all ages, most of us complain of increasing forgetfulness as we age. To date, no one has yet located an actual fountain of youth on this planet, but I am among the billions awaiting a first sighting. In the meantime, I have spent several years developing a scientifically sound program to help my patients keep their brains and bodies young, and I present that program to you in this book.

Of course no one can escape getting older, but we can slow down the process and avoid many age-related conditions that may interfere with lifes pleasures. My 14-Day Memory Prescription (Chapter 3) will keep you on track by helping you focus on the four major areas where we can and must take control of our lives in order to achieve the highest quality longevity. The 14-Day Memory Prescription combines memory training, stress reduction, physical conditioning, and a healthy diet allowing you to dramatically improve your memory, health, and vitality. You will look and feel younger and sharper in just two weeks time.

It would be impossible to literally see every reader in my office to personally design their program; however, this book is organized to provide you with a similar experience. The 14-Day Memory Prescription lets you instantly begin your program for achieving quality longevity, which I define as remaining healthy, mentally fit, and youthful looking throughout a long and productive life.

Many of my patients are stressed-out high-achievers with multiple responsibilities at home and on the job. They often consult me because they have heard about research breakthroughs on healthy aging or new memory techniques, and they want to keep their brains and bodies in peak performance. Some contact me because they have already begun to experience mild memory changes or concerns; or perhaps they have relatives with Alzheimers disease, prompting them to begin protecting their brains as early as possible.

People are sometimes mystified by how aging sneaks up on them. I often suggest imagining a slow-growing weed with four wily tendrilsstress, physical laziness, mental inactivity, and a bad fatty dietgrowing in your garden. Left untended, these nasty tendrils begin wrapping around your healthy plants, strangling the youth and vitality right out of your flowers. Unless you become a responsible gardener, the aging weed can take over. Take the case of Michael C.

Michael C. checks his watchonly 3:15 P.M . He rubs his tired eyes and pushes back from his desk. Its piled so high with briefs and depositions, he can hardly see the phone, which miraculously hasnt rung in over 30 seconds. He massages his neck, which feels like a rock from all the tension hes holding thereit kept him up half the night again. Glancing out the window, he sees two joggers turn the corner, and tries to remember where he put the number of that trainer Dr. Frank recommended. But hell, whos got time to work out anyway? Every lawyer on the eighth floor is vying for the partner promotion, and at 44, Michaels not the youngest rooster in the henhouse.