From tying your shoes and cooking dinner, to driving to work and reading a story to your kids, memory plays an important role.

“Memory informs us on how to adjust our behavior for current activities and events — where do you find food, don’t touch that because it’s hot, this person is a friend of mine,” said Dr. Brian Harrington, a family medicine physician in Steamboat Springs and a member of the medical staff at UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center. “Memory is crucial to survival.”

Memory basics

The process of forming and storing memories involves four distinct activities: perceiving, encoding, retaining and retrieving. Various parts of the brain are involved in each stage.

“It’s a complex thing – you can remember a fact, an action, an emotional response,” Harrington said. “Injuries or diseases that affect certain parts of the brain can affect aspects of memory formation and retrieval.”

There are various types of memory: for instance, short-term memory holds information for a few seconds to minutes, like a phone number. Long-term memory can hold information for years, like where you went to school.

Memory is not static but can change over time. Even the process of retrieving memories can alter them. “Some psychotherapy approaches have you retrieve memories and alter the memory, so it no longer triggers a debilitating emotional response,” Harrington said.

Better memory building

While memories are made naturally, certain steps can help enhance the process.

For instance, when more senses are involved in perceiving the event, such as smell, taste and touch, you may be more likely to remember it. Emotional connection and personal significance can add weight to memories as well.

When trying to remember something, give it your full attention and remove distractions, especially phones.

“Our world has more distractions than ever,” Harrington said. “When trying to learn something, we should not be engaging with our phones.”

Tricks such as visualizations, breaking the information up into small chunks, using a mnemonic and even singing can all help build a memory.

Don’t forget to repeat the material often.

“I often say repetition is the key to adult learning,” Harrington said.

It’s also important to stay organized. “Disorganization leads to difficulty remembering things,” Harrington said. “When you’re organized, the more things are in patterns and the less random it is, the more likely you are to remember.”

Lifestyle factors

Overall health plays a big role in memory. In fact, one of the highest risk factors for developing dementia later in life is chronic sleep trouble.

“I’m struck that very often at the top of the list for improving memory are things like daily exercise and good sleep,” Harrington said.

Social interaction is strongly linked to better cognition and memory, and even diet may play a role.

“There are theories that certain foods might be helpful with memory, for instance, the flavonoids that give color to fruits and vegetables,” Harrington said.

Drugs, smoking and regular alcohol use can all be detrimental for memory, while chronic health problems may also have a negative impact.

“With vascular disease, the same process affects arteries in the brain and may affect brain health as well,” Harrington said. “Taking care of issues such as hypertension, cholesterol and diabetes matters for memory in the long term.”

While stress can harm memory, practices such as meditation and prayer may help by decreasing stress, increasing attention and improving brain health.

Use it or lose it

As people age, the brain starts to shrink slightly, but that doesn’t mean older adults lose cognition. Age alone doesn’t determine memory health.

“For a healthy person, their memory will remain really strong well into their 70s and beyond,” Harrington said. “Some studies show that certain 80-year-olds can perform as well as 20-year-olds.”

Learning a new language or skill, completing puzzles or other engaging tasks, and even traveling can help contribute to brain health.

“If you keep your brain active, stimulated and engaged in the world around you, there’s less decline in dendritic connections between cells,” Harrington said. “Like any other part of the body, if you don’t use it, you lose it.”

Susan Cunningham writes for UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center. She can be reached at cunninghamsbc@gmail.com.