Health Tip: Suggestions to Help Improve Memory

Exercise your brain

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(HealthDay News) -- If you are frequently forgetting appointments, names and items from your "to do list", it's time to give your memory a boost.

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The U.S. National Library of Medicine offers these suggestions to help strengthen your memory:

• Make associations between words or names. As the NLM puts it, "If Alex introduces you to Patty, you might remember them as A and P."
• Relax if you forget something, and try again to think of it or let it come to you.
• Read, do crossword puzzles and play games to keep your brain active.
• Limit how much alcohol you drink.
• When you want to remember something, repeat it out loud.
• Associate names with faces.
• Ask your doctor if any medications you take could be impairing your memory.

-- Diana Kohnle