BETTER MEMORY

Everyone knows someone who seems to never forget, that one person with a memory heads and tails better than everyone else's. Always on time, always there with the name of the host, always reliable for a birthday card � she of better memory is also she of many friends. These people are around.

But how do they do it? Is this "super" memory something they were born with, or is there some secret they know that you don't? The answer, usually, is a little bit of both. While genetics do appear to play a role in the brain's ability to remember, there are also certain practices we can all do that will result in clearer, more accurate, and all around better memory.

Often, achieving a better memory is as easy as treating remembering as something you have a hand in. That is, once we stop taking for granted our brain's process of memory, and therefore begin seeing it as something we can consciously control, we take the first steps to improving that process. Make no mistake: the human brain is a complex and beautiful machine, capable of wonders we might not fully appreciate for decades. Left to its own devices, a healthy brain will go about its business with rugged determination. Memory is part of this business. But that isn't to say the brain can do it all on its own. By actively trying to remember things better, we give the brain a head start in doing its job. Pausing and fixing the location of your car in a massive parking lot, for instance, will make it easier for your brain to connect the information once you ask it to. Using mnemonic devices to organize your own connections between names, creating rhymes, forming acronyms, all of these ease the work load for your brain, most times resulting in a better memory for you. The same is true of dietary supplements which aid your brain's processes, providing you with a better memory by giving your brain a boost.