Saint Agnes Medical Center

SUM 2015

Spirit of Women magazine is a national publication presented to women by hospitals and their physicians. The magazine provides up-to-date, evidence-based healthcare information and promotes our hospitals as leaders in women's health excellence.

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14 H E A LT H Y S P I R I T S U M M E R 2 015 w w w. s a m c . c o m T here's one thing that's crucial to remember about memory loss: It doesn't have to happen to you. Experts agree that just because you hit a certain age—60, 65, even 85— doesn't mean you are going to lose your ability to remember things, especially if you continue to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle. "Our culture now has become so incredibly sensitized to the issue of memory loss, so as people get older, they think they're cognitively doomed, which is not the case at all," says Dr. Bill Burke, director of the Stead Family Memory Center at Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Phoenix. Memory recall does peak in your 20s, he says, and the speed with which you can perform certain mental operations will gradually decline. But on the flip side, many mental abilities like vocabulary and social judgment will stay the same or even improve with age. KEEPING IT ALL TOGETHER There's no magic formula for maintaining your memory in peak form, says Dr. Burke, who is affiliated with Banner Health Arizona in Phoenix. But eating a healthy diet, not smoking, keeping your brain active, socializing and exercising all work together to aid memory recall as you age. MEMORY By Stephanie Thompson after 60 : LOSS f t 0 ? Is it really inevitable? Memory is like muscle strength in that if you keep exercising it, it gets stronger. " ~ Dr. Vaishali Saini, Parkview Medical Center, Pueblo, Colo. " M E N T A L H E A L T H

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