HILLSBORO SCHOOL DISTRICT

Memory Enhancement
A Matter of Age Vs. A Matter of
Action


4/15/2014











Erasto-Cruz Lorena
Health Services
In America about 7.7 million people suffer from Alzheimer, while 24 million people are living with
some form of dementia worldwide (Label, 2009). Dr. Tim Kenny (2012) states that, Dementia can be
caused by various disorders which affect parts of the brain involved with thought processes. Most cases
are caused by Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, or dementia with Lewy bodies. This
demonstrates how although these diseases may be different from each other they are all linked to
memory loss. Memory loss can occur to anybody but it is more common in elderly people. As people
get old they may begin to have age-associated memory impairment which makes it harder for them to
remember things. Age plays a big role in memory lost but there are several activities and medication
that can help improve the memory.
We tend to start experiencing memory loss in our early twenties, but by the time we reach out
fifties seems that it got worst. The area that is called the hippocampus tends to lose up to 5% of out
nerve cells. And by the age of eighty adds up to 20% of out nerve cells. As your aging the brain itself
starts to shrink and become less efficient. Some researchers say that the average of seventy year olds
perform as well as a twenty year old on certain cognitive test. In other words the reason why you start
having memory is because your brain is used less.
The normally aging brain has lower blood flow and gets less efficient at recruiting different areas
into operations. Since we are aging and we start to lose brain cells that are encoding and retrieval the
process of the memory. Brain decreases among the cells that are lost and those that produce
neurotransmitters, causing the connections between the synapses to weaken. While aging it can also
cause changes in white matters. Its the part of the brain that contains the nerve cells relying on the
information. The circulatory system starts to work slower and it wont be able to pump enough blood
anymore.
There are several ways you can do to help improve your memory, one of them is sleeping. When
youre asleep, your brain cant operate at full capacity. Researchers say that sleep is necessary for the
memory consolidation and the key memory-enhancing activity during the deepest stages of sleep. Also
its good to socialize with friends and have some fun. People think that having fun and socializing with
friends is not important but it is. Its a good way to improve the memory. Laughing at yourself is also
something good for your brain. Its not good to always take everything so serious. Whenever you hear
someone laughing just say whats so funny? Always keep your stress under check. Stress is one of the
brains worst enemies. If your stress is unchecked (chronic stress) it destroys the brain cells.
Now heres how I experienced how aging affects the memory. Before we started with this
program we would volunteer at Avameres different events. I started observing elderly people closer.
Once we did that we started testing them. Once we were done testing them, we separated them by
how good and bad their memory was. The test was a little challenging. Even for me the test was
challenging and Im young. I had the lowest group so that means they had bad memory. Some of them
had bad memory because of their age and others because of illness they have. Every Tuesday after
school we would go to Avamere to do our classes. We first would do a warm up, once we they were
done working on the warm up I would go over it with them to see if they understood it or not. After that
I would have an assignment ready for them that they work on. The assignments were always different
and based on how it can help your memory/brain.
Since we divided them by groups my friend Marili had the highest level group and my other
friend Johanna had the medium level group. Sometimes Johanna and I would join our team together
because they would be times I would only have two people come to class, and she didnt have that
many students so we would just combine them together. Our students were pretty much in the same
level it just that her group were a little more advanced. There were times were we would teach them
some Spanish. We thought them how to pronounce and write the colors in Spanish. It was a bit
challenging for some of them because not most of them spoke Spanish. Even though it was challenging
for them they still enjoyed it.
Some of the assignments we would do were, I would find 12 different objects and I would put
them in the middle of the table but I would cover them up so they wont see them. When they were
ready I would uncover the 12 objects and give them ten seconds to remember the objects. Most of
them had a hard time remembering the objects. Some of them only remembered like two objects.
Others would remember more than 3. It sounded like an easy assignment but for them it wasnt. Being
older you always tend to forget things that moment. I mean it happens to younger people but its more
common for older people. This is something we did for almost two months. It was hard coming up with
different warms up, activities, and also homework ever week. And this is something we had to do for
every Tuesday. Im not saying it didnt enjoy doing this project because it did, but at time it was just
tiring at times.
Working with the senior citizens was a good experience because it thought me how to have
patience and also how the brain works and what things to do to have a healthy memory. I learned so
many new things and I got so much from it. I wasnt just a good experience for me but also for the senior
citizens. They learned new things to work with their brain/memory. Once in a while we would take a
break from all that learning and do some fun activities. During spring break we did a snack activity. They
all enjoyed the activity. We made them make the snack in the shape of a butterfly. Since it was during
spring season we thought why not fit the theme. After that activity we only had like 3 more classes to
go. It was getting to an end.
The official last day of the program we decided to do a completion ceremony. When they heard
that they were going to be getting a certificate they got all excited. Even the students that wouldnt
come to class every time showed up. Each of us handed them a certificate to the people that we had in
our group. We also gave them a little baggy with snacks. After that we gave a speech. I honestly thought
I was going to cry but good thing I didnt. Most of them gave us a speech telling us that we can get far in
life and that they really enjoyed our classes.
Having to pick a project was hard because I wanted to do something big, something that I knew I
was going to get something out of it. It was hard at first but then once I got into it I liked it. This project
got around and the other Avameres wanted to start this program as well. When they told me this I was
in shocked because I didnt think that this simple project was going to get big, but it also made me happy
because that means we did something good. When we were getting to end of the project I got sad. I got
attached to them. They would talk to me about their life and the things they enjoyed before they went
into that retirement home. One of them was named Kerry. She is only 42 years old. She has brain
damage; she was involved in a drunk driver accident. Other of the seniors has some other type of illness.
Its not something so big but they cant be independent. Just because were done with the program
doesnt mean I dont want to keep in touch with them because I do. They are such, nice caring people
that make me want to go visit them.