You're Never Too Young for a Senior Moment

You may think that memory loss is just a senior issue, but you don't have to have voted for Lyndon Johnson or Barry Goldwater to have senior moments. All of us have them: Memory loss starts at 16 and is relatively common by age 40. Especially if you've taken a few hard hits on your head -- you know, like that time your feet went flying on the ice.

That doesn't mean it's all downhill. In fact, you can reverse some memory loss. Yes, there is hope for stanching the brain drain. It's a happy offshoot from a new study of head injuries. Granted, the research was done on animals. But the researchers found that making the right fat choice -- not avoiding fat, but instead choosing a good fat -- can restore or prevent memory loss in rats after concussions.

A whack on the head that's severe enough to cause a concussion can do a lot of damage, but even cracking your head on a cupboard door so hard that you see stars for a moment -- who hasn't done that? -- can lead to memory loss 20 to 40 years later. Not to mention what years of playing soccer, hockey, or football can do (and don't even think about boxing).

What causes the trouble? Your brain floats in a sea of liquid. When your moving head comes to a sudden stop (as it does when it hits an immovable object), your brain gets jolted from the sea, hitting the skull, which can damage the delicate sheaths that protect individual neurons. And those traumatized neurons are what can make you occasionally forget your spouse's middle name or the lyrics to "Hound Dog." Accumulate damage from repeated minor head bumps and bangs -- no matter how inconsequential they seem at the time -- and those dented neurons can lead to memory lapses.

But this new research suggests that some of the damage may actually be undone with the help of a specific type of healthy omega-3 fat known as DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). Got a history of banging up your head? Just getting some extra DHA omega-3s into your system may shrink your senior moments.

In the study, researchers found that rats had a dramatic decrease in memory loss after a concussion when they were given the equivalent of 600 milligrams (mg) of DHA omega-3. (They measured the animals' memory loss by testing their ability to navigate a maze -- the lab-rat version of remembering where you parked your car at the mall.)

You can get DHA from supplements and from certain foods (not all) rich in omega-3s: fish oil; omega-3 eggs; and fatty coldwater fish, such as salmon, tuna, and herring -- but avoid long-lived fish, such as king mackerel and shark, since they tend to be high in mercury.

If saving your neurons isn't quite enough to ensure some DHA gets into your diet, how about this: There is strong evidence from population studies that DHA also decreases the risk of Alzheimer's disease and macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness later in life. Okay, that's three good reasons why you ought to take capsules of fish oil (2 grams) or DHA omega-3 (600 mg) daily. We YOU Docs do, and we tell our families and patients to as well.

That's not all you can do for your brain. Here are five more ways to decrease inflammation and a buildup of destructive amyloid plaques in your gray matter:

1. Vitamin D -- 1000 international units (IU) a day
2. A flu shot -- annually
3. Walking -- 30 minutes every day
4. Coffee -- up to 6 cups a day if it doesn't bother you sleepwise or otherwise
5. Curcumin (found in turmeric, a spice used in most curry dishes and many mustards) -- 6 times a week, from either a curry dish or a teaspoon of yellow mustard made with turmeric (check labels)

Put these on a list, especially keeping active, and check them off daily. Soon you won't need more lists.