Gareth Moore - Stay sharp! : advice, puzzles and activities to keep our brains active in later life

GREEN TREE

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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First published in Great Britain 2019

This electronic edition published 2019

Copyright Gareth Moore, 2019

Illustrations David Mostyn, 2019

Puzzles Gareth Moore, 2019

Gareth Moore has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers

The information contained in this book is provided by way of general guidance in relation to the specific subject matters addressed herein, but it is not a substitute for specialist dietary advice. It should not be relied on for medical, health-care, pharmaceutical or other professional advice on specific dietary or health needs. This book is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering medical, health or any other kind of personal or professional services. The reader should consult a competent medical or health professional before adopting any of the suggestions in this book or drawing inferences from it.

The author and publisher specifically disclaim, as far as the law allows, any responsibility from any liability, loss or risk (personal or otherwise) which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and applications of any of the contents of this book.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication data has been applied for

ISBN: HB: 978-1-4729-6169-3; eBook: 978-1-4729-6171-6

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Contents

Your brain changes every day, and its a good thing it does or otherwise you wouldnt be able to learn, or do pretty much anything at all. But not all changes are good, and as we age our brains start to decline. Most of the time we dont notice this, since our greater experience of life can offset any reduction in our raw abilities. But one change we can observe is a reduction in our memory abilities, so lets start with that.

You might remember what you did yesterday, but what about a week ago, or a month ago? What did you do on this day five years ago? Unless you can work it out from a long-established routine, or the day was particularly memorable for some other reason, the chances are that you dont know. This isnt a change with age, however, but part of your brains natural process of forgetting.

Why do we forget?

Forgetting things is the brains way of allowing you to focus on whats important in life. When it comes to memory, your brain doesnt always get right whats important and what isnt but the chances are that you do remember parts of the most important days of your life. Your brain will have used your unusually high emotion on those days to identify their importance, and you may well have gone over those memories many times, further reinforcing them.

But what about day-to-day life? What about remembering your hotel room number, flight time, or what it was you originally went to the supermarket to buy? Do you sometimes forget why you just got up and went to the kitchen, or what you wanted to watch on TV? Life is full of forgetfulness, and its perfectly normal to forget these things from time to time. We all do it.

Getting older

As we get older, however, there is a general decline in both short-term memory abilities and our ability to learn and recall information over the longer term. And, just to add insult to injury, there is also a decline in our speed of thought, our ability to pay attention, and our general sensory perception.

Smarter living

If life brings these inevitable declines then whats this book all about? Well, luckily, there are many things you can do to help your brain. For example, there are various methods you can use to make it easier to remember things that you dont want to forget. Well introduce a range of such techniques in this book, all of which have the potential to help reduce the memory-related effects of ageing. Well also see why simply making better conscious use of your memory can make a real difference.

Well talk about looking after your brain in order to limit the effects of age-related decline, and consider why its important to keep on learning for as long as possible. Along the way well take a look at brain training, and find out what it is and whether its something you should do. Well cover everything from exercise and diet through to dealing with lifes little (and not so little) problems. Well also discover just how closely tied your physical and mental health are, and why its critically important to eat a balanced diet.

What well achieve

As you progress through this book youll learn a bit about the structure of your brain and your memories as you go, but these are steps on the journey to the ultimate target: a brighter, better you. Just like everyone else, you will still continue to forget things from time to time, but youll have more control over the things you really want to remember, and youll be better able to look after the whole of your brain.

What makes this book special

Ive written several previous books focusing on brain training and memory, but this one is unique. First of all, its aimed at someone who has already gone through lifes more formative experiences, so we wont talk about learning for exams, for example, or dealing with peer pressure. Secondly, in this book I take a joined-up approach to the subject that allows me to cover many related aspects of your mental well-being, rather than focusing on a single aspect such as memory loss.

A further unique feature of this book is that it includes a wide range of specially designed puzzles, all of which I have written to help complement the content and to give you the chance to immediately put into practice some of the things weve just covered in the preceding pages. These are carefully tuned for the target readership of this book, based on my experience in having written many other books of brain-training puzzles, with overall sales well into the millions. These books have earned me plaudits such as Britains King of Puzzles (the Sun ) and One of Britains most trusted brain trainers (the Sunday Telegraph ).

The puzzles form a core part of the book, and in order to gain the full benefit, I recommend that you dont skip over them. Even if you arent sure you can complete them all, give each of them at least a quick try you can always come back to them later as your confidence grows. As youll read in later chapters, challenging yourself with the type of puzzles Ive included is a great way to help look after your brain.