10 Tips to Improve Your Memory

Having trouble remembering appointments, items you need at the grocery store, or where you put your keys? Everyone has moments when something slips their mind. If this has been happening to you with increasing frequency, try doing a few easy brain exercises each day to help improve memory.
Luckily, mental workouts can be just as effective for your brain as physical workouts are for your body.
10 Ways to Improve Memory
Start with the first tip and then add one more idea each day to help improve your memory:

1. Focus on what you're trying to remember: Take time to think about what you need to remember, whether it's a list of names, chores, or items to buy. Spending a few moments actively processing your thoughts can make it easier to recall what you need to remember in the future.

2. Link your list: Try to remember several things or ideas at once by linking them together in your mind. If you want to memorize your grocery list, for instance, connect the items you need together with a specific image or action in your head. Imagine you're in your laundry room holding a container of detergent, then walk into your kitchen to get some bread and milk, then move to the bathroom to replenish the toilet paper.

3. Personalize your list: Organize lists into short, manageable sections, and try to connect items to something that's easier for you to remember. Improve memory by linking lists of numbers, for example, to personally relevant dates like your birthday or interesting historical dates.

4. Create a visual image: If you're trying to remember someone's name, visualize an object that will help remind you in the future. Think of summer for a woman named June or a cat for someone named Catherine.

5. Create an acronym: Train your brain to remember items in a specific sequence by creating a word to represent the objects. Try using the first letter of each item on your shopping list to form a word. For instance, MOST can stand for milk, oranges, soap, toilet paper.

6. Use all of your senses to help improve memory: Afraid you're going to forget your next hair appointment or dinner with a friend? Verbally list your appointments out loud and then think about the softness of your hair after a salon visit and the aroma of the food at your favorite restaurant to help solidify the dates in your mind.

7. Write it down.: Even if you don't actually use your list or a note to remind you of an appointment, simply writing the information down will help your brain retain it.

8. Create a rhyme: How did you learn the alphabet or the number of days in each month when you were little? You probably learned them with the help of a song or rhyme. Try doing the same thing with names, appointments, and lists.

9. Make it manageable: Organize a long list into shorter lists that are easier to remember. Instead of trying to remember a dozen different items, create four mini-lists with only three things you need to remember from each.

10. Be positive.: Don't doubt yourself , our brains can often do more than we realize. Regularly practice these tips to help improve memory, and you'll be amazed by how much more you can remember.

Brain Exercises
There are a number of other ways you can strengthen your memory. Try these strategies and exercises to keep your brain and memory sharp:

1. Be organized. Keep lists and notes, and maintain an appointment book.
2. Challenge your mind and body. Try new physical and mental activities like yoga, ballroom dancing, tai chi, or chess.
3. Play mind games. Do crossword puzzles, read as much as possible, and play games like Scrabble or sudoku.
4. Keep yourself guessing. Stimulate your brain by taking an unusual route to work or by using your opposite hand to do simple activities like placing your key in the door, putting on makeup, stirring your food, or brushing your teeth.

Forgetting things can make you feel flustered and disorganized. But regular workouts for your mind can improve memory and boost your overall brain power. Once you figure out which memory tips work best for you, it’s possible that you’ll never forget a name, birthday, or that last item on your grocery list ever again.
Try these ideas on your memory to give yourself a brain boost.

Source: Everyday Health
Have a nice day! :)

What Do Your Teeth Say About Your Health?

Though it can be very neglected at times, our mouths are connected to the rest of our bodies.
"Our teeth, gums and surrounding tissue have plenty to say"

"What we see in the mouth can have a significant effect on other organ systems and processes in the body. And the reverse is also true: things that are going on systemically in the body can manifest in the mouth."
So what are some of the thing your mouth is trying to say?

• Dental Warning: Flat, Worn Teeth & Headache

Sign of: Stress
Many people are surprised to learn they are grinding their teeth. After all, they do this in their sleep, when they're not aware of it. And they underestimate the physical toll that stress can place on the body.

"Crunching and grinding the teeth at night during sleep is a common sign of emotional or psychological stress,". You can sometimes see the flatness on your own teeth, or feel it with the tongue. Or the jaw may ache from the clenching. The reason for your headaches are spasms in the muscles that are doing the grinding. Sometimes the pain can radiate from the mouth and head down to the neck and upper back, Iacopino says. Mouth guards used at night can relieve the symptoms and protect teeth.

• Dental Warning: Cracking, Crumbling Teeth

Sign of: Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)
Older adults, especially, are vulnerable to teeth that appear to be cracking or crumbling away. The enamel becomes thin and almost translucent. But this erosion isn't a normal consequence of aging. In fact, it can happen at any age.
Disintegrating teeth are usually caused by acid that's coming up from the stomach and dissolving them,. The cause: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD, also called acid reflux disease). GERD causes stomach acid to back up into the esophagus and from there, it's a short distance to the mouth for some of the damaging acid. GERD is a chronic disorder caused by damage or other changes to the natural barrier between the stomach and the esophagus. Dry mouth and heartburn are also related GERD symptoms that you should look out for.

Cracking or chipping teeth in a younger person is also a telltale sign of bulimia. Over time, stomach acid washes up into the mouth, disintegrating the tooth enamel.

• Dental Warning: Persistent Sores

Sign of: Oral Cancer
Suspicious oral ulcers tend to be raised sores and often have red or white (or red and white) borders. They may lurk underneath the tongue, where they're hard to see. But when an open sore in the mouth doesn't go away within a week or two, it always warrants showing to a dentist or doctor (especially if accompanied by bleeding and numbness).

"Though, sometimes the only sign is a sore that doesn't seem to go away," says Susan Hyde, an associate professor of clinical dentistry at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Dentistry. "We all injure our oral tissues, but if an area persists in being white or red rather than the normal healthy pink, this needs to be evaluated to rule out oral cancer."

More than 21,000 men and 9,000 women a year are diagnosed with oral cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. Most are over age 60. Oral cancer has a survival rate of only 35 percent,  but this is mainly because cases are often detected too late. Smokers are six times more likely to develop oral cancer, but one in four oral cancers develop in non-smokers.

• Dental Warning: Gums Growing Over Teeth

Sign of: Medication Problems
If you notice your gum literally growing over your tooth, and you're taking a medication for heart disease or seizures or you take drugs to suppress your immune system (such as before a transplant), it's well worth mentioning this curious development to your prescribing doctor.

"A swelling of the gums to where it grows over the teeth is a sign the dosage or the medication need to be adjusted,". Certain drugs can stimulate the growth of gum tissue. This can make it hard to brush and floss, inviting tooth decay and periodontal disease.

• Dental warning: Dry Mouth

Sign of: Sjogren's Syndrome or Diabetes
Many things can cause dry mouth, from dehydration and allergies to smoking and new medications. But a lack of sufficient saliva is also an early warning of two autoimmune diseases unrelated to medicine use: Sjogren's syndrome and diabetes. But because its symptoms mimic other diseases (such as diabetes), people are often misdiagnosed and go several years before being properly diagnosed.

Other diabetes symptoms include excessive thirst, tingling in the hands and feet, frequent urination, blurred vision and weight loss. In Sjogren's, the eyes are dry as well as the mouth, but the entire body is affected by the disorder.

In Sjogren's, the white blood cells of the body attack their moisture-producing glands, for unknown reasons. Four million Americans have Sjogren's, 90 percent of them women. Twenty-four million people in the U.S. have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, a metabolic disease caused by high blood sugar.

• Dental Warning: White Webbing Inside Cheeks

Sign of: Lichen Planus
The last thing you might expect to discover while brushing your teeth is a skin disease (Lichen planus, whose cause is unknown, is a mild disorder that tends to strike both men and women ages 30 to 70. The mucus membranes in the mouth are often a first target, and not only can it occur in the mouth, but in the vagina as well.

Oral lichen planus looks like a whitish, lacy pattern on the insides of the cheeks. (The name comes from the same roots as tree lichen, a lichen that has a similar webbed, bumpy appearance). Seventy percent of lesions appear in the mouth before they strike other parts of the body, says professor Anthony Iacopino.
While Lichen planus often goes away on its own, sometimes treatment is necessary.

• Dental Warning: Crusting Dentures

Sign of: Potential Aspiration Pneumonia
Most people don't connect dentures (false teeth) with pneumonia, other than to think they're both words that often refer to the world of the elderly. And yet the two have a potentially deadly connection.
"A leading cause of death in older people is aspiration pneumonia, often from inhaling debris around the teeth and dentures, but what's amazing is that you can get a 100-percent reduction in what's otherwise a leading cause of death for denture wearers just by brushing your teeth. With proper cleaning, though, you don't have to worry about other red flags. "

In aspiration pneumonia, foreign material is breathed into the lungs and airway, causing dangerous (even fatal) inflammation. Too often, the problem stems from people in the care of others  those in nursing homes, for example who fail to clean dentures properly. Dentures need to be removed daily from the mouth, cleaned with a special brush, and stored in a cleansing solution.

So, next time you notice your mouth saying something, take the time to listen!

Have a Nice Day! :)