- For all the students cramming for big tests, for all
the baby boomers who stop in blank embarrassment trying to recall whether
they're headed for the coffee pot or the potty, for all of us who can't
conjure up the names of people we know we know, new help is here -- and
it's gone high-tech.
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- Anxiety about forgetfulness has spawned a multimillion-dollar
industry of memory aids, consisting of books, playing cards, board games,
videos, manuals and dietary supplements.
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- And in cyberspace, dozens of online sites are jockeying
to help remind customers of important dates through e-mail -- much less
Luddite than a string on the finger. The Internet has also spawned cyberspace
"brain gyms" that claim they can make your mind stronger by offering
a dizzying array of mental calisthenics.
-
- Robert Thompson, an expert on popular culture at Syracuse
University, says interest in memory is rising because almost everyone has
so much more to forget: passwords, appointments, cellphone numbers.
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- "We're all overwhelmed with information," he
says. "When you have a culture that is packaging all this [data],
inevitably you're going to have another culture based on how you're going
to retrieve all this stuff you cram into your head."
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- Paula McLaughlin, 53, of Conyers signed up recently as
a client of MemoryConcepts.com, a new New York-based company that offers
a slew of mind-bending online interactive exercises.
-
- "I'm always writing notes to myself, and then I
forget the notes," she says. "I came home one night, and my girlfriend
down the road was having a party... I'd completely forgotten, even though
she had reminded me three times that day. I think it's overload."
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- She heard about MemoryConcepts, which went online last
month, from a friend. And already, she feels it's helping, though she concedes
that might be wishful thinking.
-
- "I just think this kind of thing must work,"
she says.
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- Not as sharp as you used to be?
-
- Everything we experience and feel is processed by the
brain and then stored in the temporal lobe, specifically the hippocampus,
says Dr. Allan Levey, chairman of neurology at Emory University.
-
- But much of how memory stores and retrieves information
remains a mystery.
-
- "We know an awful lot about how the brain works,
but we have a long way to go," he says. "We know about the circuits
in the brain that are necessary for memory, and we even know some of the
molecular basis for connections between neurons, which underlie memory."
-
- But no one is really clear why memory starts to fade
during early middle age, he says. "There are probably many factors
that contribute to decline, which vary in different people."
-
- Some people start losing memory about age 25, and by
40, almost everybody starts fading, he says. But unless they impede daily
functions, moments of forgetfulness likely don't mean much, if anything,
Levey says.
-
- However, a growing body of research suggests that a variety
of lifestyle choices can sharpen people's mental acuity. For example:
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- * California researchers reported at a conference last
month that a diet rich in vitamins and antioxidants could slow down or
reverse mental decline in old age.
-
- * The journal Archives of Neurology reported that people
who consume large quantities of saturated fats are twice as likely as those
who don't to have memory problems.
-
- * A study in Neurology reported that formal education
significantly diminished memory problems among people with Alzheimer's.
-
- * And finally, a study last year in the New England Journal
of Medicine found that leisure activities like chess, checkers, crossword
puzzles, playing a musical instrument and ballroom dancing seem to stave
off memory loss.
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- Marilyn Margolis, 55, of Sandy Springs -- who admits
to frequent "senior moments" -- says she thinks such things help.
"Anything that stretches your mind," says the Alzheimer's Association
volunteer. She and her husband are avid Scrabble players.
-
- But many experts like Levey say it's too early to take
such studies to the brain bank.
-
- It's possible and even logical to think that mental workouts
might tune up the brain, but to what extent, if any, hasn't been shown
conclusively.
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- Pills and potions
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- Uh, where were we?
-
- Oh right. Despite what researchers say, Americans are
aggressively fighting forgetfulness -- spending about $250 million a year
on dietary supplements alone, not counting books and other tools.
-
- And it's clear that as America's 77 million baby boomers
age, more companies will try to capitalize on people's desperate search
for the Fountain of Youth (or their car keys).
-
- Already, thousands pop pills like Ginkgo biloba or Focus
Factor. Some regularly chew on ginseng root.
-
- Others are flocking to their computers for help. Computers
that would laugh like HAL of "2001: A Space Odyssey" if they
could at humans' puny memory recall. Computers with enough megabyte memory
to instantly conjure up hundreds of thousands of birthdays, appointments
and a host of important events, and then send us reminders by e-mail, pager
or cellphone.
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- The result: a growing number of Web sites like MemotoMe.com
and Rememberit.com. So far, most are free, but they probably won't be for
long.
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- MemotoMe.com has about 70,000 members and charges only
for its "platinum" edition. It'll send reminders on any day you
specify to tip you off about Mother's Day, a spouse's birthday or a big
meeting with the boss.
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- "I originally developed Memo to Me to help me personally,"
says Joel Johnstone, whose company is based in San Diego. "I still
get lots of 'wife points' for remembering the anniversary of our first
date every year."
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- Then there's 101-reminders.com, owned by Simon Conroy
in England, who set it up "as a hobby" because he thought forgetful
people like himself would find it useful.
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- "I'm 35," Conroy says, "but I'm terribly
disorganized, and I used to always forget birthdays, anniversaries, appointments."
-
- California-based Birthdayalarm.com vows to send e-mails
for free to remind subscribers about birthdays. Its revenue comes from
ads and gifts subscribers can buy on the site. And for $24.95 a year, REMINDRx,
at www.personalmd.com, reminds subscribers to take their medicine and keep
appointments, in Greek if you choose.
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- Other services include BigDates.com, DiarySmart.com and
Rememberit.com, which is based in Atlanta and has about 50,000 subscribers,
says co-founder Mike Lynch.
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- Brain twisters
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- But in cyberspace, "brain gyms" rule as the
hottest memory trend.
-
- MyBrainTrainer.com, the brainchild of Bruce Friedman,
a 54-year-old Los Angeles entrepreneur, bills itself as the world's first
"virtual mental gymnasium" and offers nine types of brain-twisting
exercises and all sorts of memory-improving tips.
-
- And unlike a host of other low-tech aides, MyBrainTrainer.com
is not just after the baby boomer market, but youngsters headed to college
or graduate, law or medical school.
-
- MyBrainTrainer.com was endorsed just last month by New
York-based Kaplan Inc., the testing company that administers all sorts
of standardized examinations to millions of students, from high schoolers
to college grads taking tests for law or medical schools.
-
- Kaplan Inc. sent out 40,000 e-mails to students who've
signed up to take the medical school test, telling them it had reached
an agreement with Friedman to let the youths do the MyBrainTrainer.com
exercises for free.
-
- "Certainly, we think MyBrainTrainer offers a creative
approach to promoting mental acuity," says Kaplan spokeswoman Carina
Wong. "As Kaplan serves individuals who seek higher achievement, we're
always interested in technologies that can potentially help our students."
-
- The cerebral exercises offered on the Internet through
such "brain gyms" often measure reflexes, perception, mental-processing
speed and agility, analytical skills, concentration, visual recognition,
memory capacity and vocabulary.
-
- And they offer immediate feedback, letting you know how
you did compared with others in your age range. And you can also track
whether you get better the more you work out your mind --- in effect using
your computer like a bodybuilder uses a mirror.
-
- "I'm not injecting Botox into anyone," says
Janet Walsh, 48, founder of MemoryConcepts. "What we offer is a nontoxic
way to keep your mind sharp. And hopefully this will reduce your risk for
these later neurological disorders like Alzheimer's, and stave them off.
There's some evidence that thinking hard strengthens the mind."
-
- Says Friedman: "Our exercises help you think quicker,
retrieve information faster. It's not a bunch of video games."
-
- 'Tickle your mind'
-
- But you don't have to know the difference between RAM
and sheep to practice brain benders. From crosswords to Scrabble to playing
cards, there is a host of low-tech methods designed to do the same thing
as the computer programs.
-
- In Decatur, for example, a course called "Memory
at Emory" offers such methods, like memory-honing playing cards and
written exercises.
-
- The point, says instructor John Thames, 60, is to "tickle
your mind in different ways." The next course starts April 6.
-
- An educator for the Alzheimer's Association, Thames says
he has been surprised by young people who seem as worried about their memories
as older ones.
-
- "I'm getting some students in their 20s and 30s,"
he says of his "Evening at Emory" course. "They get a job
where they have to multi-task, and when you do that, people start forgetting
things."
-
- The course gives tips about what students can do to improve
concentration. And Thames is convinced that any system that challenges
the mind will strengthen memories.
-
- One of his students, Gloria Stuchlik, 36, says the course
helped her and that she practices mental exercises often. She took the
course because she felt a stronger memory would make her better at remembering
faces, important in her job as sales manager for the Emory Conference Center.
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- "I wanted to get better at that, and I have,"
she says. "You have to concentrate. You have to work at it."
-
- Or you can forget all of this and just revert to the
lowest rung of "remembering." Put a rubber band around your wrist.
Slap Post-it notes around the house or e-mail your own to-do reminders
from home to work and back again. Stuchlik still does that.
-
- You can still write on the mirror with toothpaste and
put your keys on top of your wallet. And, most importantly, you can stick
your scribbled to-do lists in your pockets.
-
- After all, you'll remember them -- days later at the
dry cleaner.
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- © 2004 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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- http://www.ajc.com/sunday/content/epaper/editions
- /sunday/living_04351d00762ec10b0037.html
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