(HealthDay News) -- If you are frequently forgetting appointments, names and items from your "to do list", it's time to give your memory a boost.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine offers these suggestions to help strengthen your memory:
- Make associations between words or names. As the NLM puts it, "If Alex introduces you to Patty, you might remember them as A and P."
- Relax if you forget something, and try again to think of it or let it come to you.
- Read, do crossword puzzles and play games to keep your brain active.
- Limit how much alcohol you drink.
- When you want to remember something, repeat it out loud.
- Associate names with faces.
- Ask your doctor if any medications you take could be impairing your memory.
