How Your Memory Works, and the
Surprising Implications of Impaired Memory Function
November 07, 2015
Story at-a-glance
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Your memory holds a record of your entire life and
shapes your identity, but the ability to form memories
does not occur until the age of about five. Prior to
that, lack of self-recognition prevents autobiographical
memory formation
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The same brain areas are activated during memory recall
and active imagination. Researchers believe the reason
for this is that you use memories to piece together an
imagined picture of the future
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Without memory, you also lose your ability to project or
imagine yourself in a future scenario
By Dr. Mercola
For most people, the ability to recall memories is an automatic
function, and the mechanics of memory formation is rarely given much
thought or attention. That is until something goes wrong, and their
memory begins to falter.
As noted in the featured video, your memory holds a record of
your entire life and shapes your identity. As your memories dwindle,
it can easily feel as if you're losing the very essence of who you
are.
The video reviews the fascinating topic of how your memory works,
and the surprising ramifications of memory loss.
How Your Memory Works
At birth, your brain begins to shape itself based on the
interactions you have with your environment. By branching and making
new connections, the neurons in your brain actually record your
experiences.
The "recordings" stored in these neural connections are your
memories. Interestingly, the ability to form memories and recall
past events does not occur immediately upon birth.
According to professor Martin Conway, an expert on childhood
amnesia, this is why most people do not have memories going further
back than the age of about 5, or in some cases 3.
He's been looking for the key event or change that occurs that
finally allows children to recall the past.
Pediatric tests designed to assess self-recognition — a child's
ability to understand that they are a separate individual from other
people — along with tests designed to assess memory, reveals a
fascinating insight.
Self-recognition is an essential ingredient for forming
autobiographical memories. This type of memory is different from
rote memory however, or the memorization of facts and data.
Living Without Memories
The film features John Forbes. Now 30 years old, he was born
prematurely, and his memory circuit was never fully developed.
As a result, he has trouble with even the most basic tasks
involving memory, such as navigating to a destination, even when
he's been there hundreds of times, remembering the names of people
he knows, or following instructions given just moments earlier.
What's more, each action you take on any given day is actually
dependent on your remembering to take it — whether it's to brush
your teeth each morning, or that you have an appointment that day —
and this is something John cannot do.
He has to rely on written lists for everything. He also cannot
recall anything that happened in his past.
The damage in John's brain is centralized around the primary
memory circuit, the hippocampus. When your hippocampus works well,
each moment of your life is registered.
When it is damaged, you will struggle to remember facts and events,
and in severe cases like John's, even the most basic memory
functions will suffer.
The Surprising Link Between Memory and Imagination
Research using brain imaging has revealed remarkable similarities
in the patterns of brain activity when you're remembering a past
event and imagining a future one.
In fact, the exact same areas are activated during these
two mental tasks, and researchers believe the reason for this is
that you use memories to piece together an imagined picture of the
future.
What this means is that as you develop the ability to remember
the past, from around the age of 5 onward, you also develop your
ability to reflect and imagine the future.
For most people, this ability to "time travel" in your mind is
honed by the age of 9.
John, on the other hand, cannot mentally project himself into the
future, so he's trapped in an eternal present, with neither future
nor past. As noted in the film, at first glance, this might seem
like a rather pleasant condition.
He doesn't worry as much, for example, because he cannot remember
that there are things to worry about. But on the flip side, he's
stumped when asked what he wants for his own future. In essence, his
lack of memory of the past has robbed him of the ability to imagine
himself in a future scenario.
The Benefits of Mental Time Travel
The ability to travel through time in your mind, backward and
forward, lies at the heart of our most sophisticated mental
abilities that define us as humans. One of the reasons why we care
about tomorrow is because we remember yesterday, and this allows us
to make plans to create a better future.
It also gives you the power of abstract thought, creativity, and
problem solving. If none of us had memory, no plans would ever be
made, and we'd all mull through each day at random. We'd have no
industries or modern technologies — projects that require a great
deal of planning, organizing, and follow-through.
Memory is the mental faculty that has allowed man to stake a
claim at the top of the food chain, as it allows us to learn from
past mistakes, and imagine what the outcome might be if we change
our actions.
In short, memory is essential for the survival of our species. It's
also thought that language and advanced problem solving skills are a
direct outgrowth of the human memory function.
Remembering What You'd Rather Forget...
Your memory reaches its peak potential at the age of 25. At this
point, your brain can recall 200 bits of information per second, all
while controlling your body at the same time.
For example, you don't have to relearn how to ride a bike as this
pattern is stored in your primitive reflexive brain. Similarly, most
of us can drive to work on "automatic pilot" as it were, without
needing to give reflective conscious thought to steering, breaking,
and navigating.
When it comes to memories, we tend to remember things better that
are important to us. Unfortunately, traumatic memories are also
usually recorded with incredible sharpness, making a distant event
seem as fresh today as it was right when it happened.
Memories cannot be deleted at will, which can have negative
consequences. It's been estimated that by adulthood, at least 10
percent of people will have experienced something they'd rather
forget. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the result of the
inability to forget a traumatic event that causes severe emotional
distress.
The film features Genevieve, whose violent sexual assault nine
years earlier left an indelible imprint in her mind. It shows her
participating in a research project to see if traumatic memories can
be dampened with the use of a medication called propranolol, a beta
blocker used for treating cardiovascular and anxiety disorders.
Changes in memory function was one of the side effects that emerged
when the drug was initially released, which led some researchers to
consider it for use in patients with painful memories.As reported by
Medical Daily:1
"Having analyzed data from a variety of studies,
researchers found that propranolol given before
memory consolidation reduced subsequent recall for
negatively-perceived stories, pictures, and word lists. Use of
propranolol before reconsolidation also reduced subsequent
recall for words with negative impact as well as the expression
of cue-elicited fear responses.
Considering the pivotal role of harsh and powerful experiences
in the development and persistence of mental disorders,
interfering with the consolidation or reconsolidation of any
memory naturally opens the door to new therapeutic approaches in
psychiatry."
Treating PTSD by Disrupting Memory Re-Formation
For over a century, scientists have known that memories are
stored in the connections between brain cells. The cells grow toward
each other in order to form these connections, through which signals
can be passed between them. What's still not understood is how
these connections actually represent the experience stored within
them.
Whatever the mechanism, it was thought that once stored, a memory
with all of its details was fixed. But recent research has found
that recalling a memory makes it malleable and fluid again, and it
is at this stage that the pain associated with a memory can be
reduced by propranolol. The drug appears to inhibit proteins that
enable the memory to be saved again. So by taking the drug, followed
by recalling the memory, the emotional punch that goes along with it
can be reduced over time.
This is actually likely why the
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), an energy psychology
approach, works so well as it is able to help repattern the
neurological circuits that store painful memories that severely
impair one's ability to live a fully functioning pain-free life.
Age-Related Memory Decline
Like the rest of your body, your brain changes with age. It's not
uncommon for changes in memory to occur as well, although most
people adapt and compensate quite well, allowing them to function
normally. Not surprisingly, the ability to form and recall memories
is dependent on healthy brain cells.
One factor that drives aging of your brain is blood flow. As blood
flow is decreased, your white brain matter, and the connections
between the different brain regions, begins to deteriorate. When
that occurs, thinking becomes impaired.
Information-carrying chemical messengers are also affected. By
the time you reach the age of 80 or 90, you will have lost about 50
percent of these chemical messengers, and this also impairs memory
and cognitive ability. Even then, it's remarkable how much of your
memory is retained, if you're healthy. The real problem is when your
poor lifestyle catches up with you, and your brain starts to
deteriorate beyond the norm.
This can also happen through neurovascular accidents like stroke
or neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. Thankfully science
has begun to more fully appreciate the neuroplasticity of the brain
to compensate for some of these challenges. I will be posting an
interview with Norman Doidge, MD in a few months. He is the author
of the fascinating book The Brain's Way of Healing, that
goes into extensive details on some of these healing strategies.
What Causes Devastating Memory Loss?
Alzheimer's disease, a severe form of dementia, is now the third
leading cause of death in the US, right after heart disease and
cancer. One of the hallmarks of the disease is the buildup of toxic
proteins in the brain, particularly in the hippocampal area, causing
memory loss. But what causes the buildup of these plaques? Modern
research has found a number of different risk factors that may play
a role in general memory loss and Alzheimer's, and most of them are
directly related to unhealthy lifestyle choices.
These include:
- Processed food diet. Mounting research
suggests our modern diet is playing a significant role in the
skyrocketing prevalence of Alzheimer's. Processed foods tend to
be nearly devoid of healthy fat, necessary for healthy brain
function, while being excessively high in sugar. This
combination appears to be at the very heart of the problem.
Fortunately, the solution is quite simple: eat REAL food, and
avoid processed food like the plague.
- Insulin resistance and diabetes.
Alzheimer's is sometimes referred to as "type
3 diabetes." Your brain actually produces insulin necessary
for the survival of your brain cells. A toxic protein called
ADDL removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, thereby
rendering those neurons insulin resistant, and as ADDLs
accumulate, your memory begins to deteriorate. Previous research
has also shown diabetics have a doubled risk of developing
Alzheimer's disease. According to neurologist Dr. David
Perlmutter, anything that promotes insulin resistance will
ultimately also raise your risk of Alzheimer's.
- Lack of exercise.
Exercise encourages your brain to work at optimum capacity
by causing your nerve cells to multiply, strengthening their
interconnections and protecting them from damage. John J. Ratey,
a psychiatrist who wrote the book Spark: The Revolutionary
New Science of Exercise and the Brain, says there is
overwhelming evidence that exercise produces large cognitive
gains and helps fight dementia.
He claims you can easily "push back cognitive decline by
anywhere from 10 to 15 years" by incorporating an exercise
regimen three to four times a week – even if you begin during
middle age, and exercise at a moderate rate.
- Sleep disturbances (such as sleep apnea, insomnia,
or chronically insufficient amounts of sleep). In one
study2,3,4
patients with sleep apnea and/or snoring were diagnosed with
mild cognitive impairment more than a decade earlier than those
without sleep apnea. On average, those with untreated obstructed
sleep apnea started experiencing cognitive impairment at the age
of 77, compared to 90 among those without breathing problems.
Onset of Alzheimer's disease was also more rapid among those
with untreated sleep apnea. On average, they were diagnosed
about five years earlier than those slept well.
Even if you don't have sleep apnea, chronic lack of sleep
also promotes Alzheimer's by preventing critical detoxification.
Your brain's waste removal system, known as the
glymphatic system, only operates during deep sleep.
The glymphatic system allows your brain to clear out toxins,
including the harmful proteins (amyloid-beta) linked to
Alzheimer's. Without proper sleep, harmful waste begins to
accumulate in your brain.
Key Dietary Considerations for Alzheimer's Prevention
Research5
from the Mayo Clinic has revealed that diets rich in carbohydrates
are associated with an 89 percent increased risk for dementia while
high-fat diets are associated with a 44 percent reduced risk. This
combination of very little sugar and carbs, along with higher
amounts of healthy fat is essential not only to address Alzheimer's,
but
diabetes and heart disease as well, since all of these
conditions are rooted in insulin and leptin resistance.
Understanding this can make your life a whole lot easier. You
don't need to memorize the dos and don'ts for each and every disease
you seek to avoid; all you need to do is shift over to a mindset
that is focused on optimizing health. Disease prevention then
becomes a beneficial "side effect." My
optimized nutrition plan can set you on the right path in this
regard. In summary, the following four dietary instructions are key
for maintaining brain health and staving off Alzheimer's:
- Eat REAL FOOD, ideally organic. Avoid
processed foods of all kinds, as they contain a number of
ingredients harmful to your brain, including refined sugar,
processed fructose, grains (particularly gluten), genetically
engineered (GE) ingredients, and pesticides like glyphosate (an
herbicide thought to be worse than DDT, and
DDT has already been linked to the development of Alzheimer's).
Ideally, you'll want to keep your added sugar levels to a
minimum and your total fructose below 25 grams per day, or as
low as 15 grams per day if you already have insulin/leptin
resistance or any related disorders. Opting for organic produce
will help you avoid synthetic pesticides and herbicides, many of
which are associated with neurological dysfunction.
Be sure to choose organic grass-fed meats and animal
products, as animals raised in confined animal operations
(CAFOs) are routinely fed GE grains contaminated with
pesticides, along with a variety of drugs. Some researchers have
even suggested Alzheimer's may be a slow-acting form of
mad cow disease, acquired by eating contaminated meats; and
mad cow disease originated in the CAFO system, which forces
herbivores to eat animal parts.
Research has also shown that vegetables in particular are
beneficial for slowing down age-related cognitive decline.
Nutritional intervention with vegetables may even play an
important role in reversing such conditions, courtesy of the
antioxidants they contain.
- Replace refined carbohydrates with healthy fats.
Your brain does not need carbs and sugars; healthy fats such as
saturated animal fats and animal-based omega-3 are FAR more
critical for optimal brain function. Healthy fats to add to your
diet include:
Avocados |
Butter made from raw, grass-fed organic milk |
Raw dairy |
Organic pastured egg yolks |
Coconuts and coconut oil (coconut
oil actually shows promise as an effective
Alzheimer's treatment in and of itself) |
Unheated organic nut oils |
Raw nuts, such as pecans and macadamia, which are
low in protein and high in healthy fats |
Grass-fed meats or pasture raised poultry |
Avoid all trans fats or hydrogenated fats that have been
modified in such a way to extend their longevity on the grocery
store shelf. This includes margarine, vegetable oils, and
various butter-like spreads.
- Avoid gluten and casein (primarily wheat
and pasteurized dairy, but not dairy fat, such as
butter). Research shows that your blood-brain barrier is
negatively affected by gluten. Gluten also makes your gut more
permeable, which allows proteins to get into your bloodstream
where they sensitize your immune system and promote inflammation
and autoimmunity, both of which play a role in the development
of Alzheimer's.
- Optimize your gut flora by avoiding
processed foods (sugar, GE ingredients, pesticides, and various
food additives all discourage healthy bacteria in your gut),
antibiotics and antibacterial products, fluoridated and
chlorinated water, and by regularly eating traditionally
fermented and cultured foods, along with a high quality
probiotic if needed. Dr. David Perlmutter explores the
compelling connection between the microbiome and brain health in
my interview with him, connecting it to a number of
neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's.
Other Alzheimer's Prevention Strategies
Besides the key dietary instructions just mentioned, and getting
enough restorative sleep, exercise also unquestionably helps prevent
Alzheimer's. It may also be an important component of treatment.
It's been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way
the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized,6
thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer's.
Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha.
Research has shown that people with Alzheimer's have less
PGC-1alpha in their brains and cells that contain more of the
protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with
Alzheimer's. Exercise also leads to hippocampus growth and memory
improvement.7
I would strongly recommend reviewing the
Peak Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations. The
following suggestions may also be helpful for the prevention of
Alzheimer's disease:
Intermittently fast |
Ketones are mobilized when you replace carbs with
coconut oil and other healthy fats.
Intermittent fasting is a powerful tool to jumpstart
your body into remembering how to burn fat and repair the
insulin/leptin resistance that is a primary contributing
factor for Alzheimer's. |
Eat a nutritious diet, rich in folate |
Vegetables, without question, are your best form of
folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies
every day. Avoid supplements like folic acid, which is the
inferior synthetic version of folate. |
Optimize your vitamin D levels with sensible
sun exposure |
Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper
functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation
that is also associated with Alzheimer's.
If you are unable, for whatever reason, to get enough
sensible sun exposure, make sure to take daily supplemental
vitamin D to make your blood level at least 40 to 50 ng/ml.
This is typically about 8,000 units of vitamin D for most
adults. |
Avoid and eliminate mercury from your body |
Dental amalgam fillings, which are 50 percent mercury by
weight, are one of the major sources of heavy metal
toxicity, however you should be healthy prior to having them
removed.
Once you have adjusted to following the diet described in my
optimized
nutrition plan, you can follow the
mercury detox protocol and then find a biological
dentist to have your amalgams removed. |
Avoid and eliminate aluminum from your body |
Sources of aluminum include antiperspirants, non-stick
cookware,
vaccine adjuvants, etc. For tips on how to detox
aluminum, please see my article, "First
Case Study to Show Direct Link between Alzheimer's and
Aluminum Toxicity."
There is some suggestion that certain mineral waters high in
silicic acid may help your body eliminate aluminum. |
Avoid flu vaccinations |
Most flu vaccines contain both mercury and aluminum.
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Avoid statins and anticholinergic drugs |
Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system
neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of
dementia.
These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers,
antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants,
medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic
pain relievers.
Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they
suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of
coenzyme Q10, vitamin K2, and neurotransmitter precursors,
and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and
fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the
production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as
low-density lipoprotein. |
Challenge your mind daily |
Mental stimulation, especially learning something new,
such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is
associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's.
Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up
your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions
associated with Alzheimer's disease. |
© Copyright 1997-2015 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
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