Carved in Sand: When Attention Fails and Memory Fades in Midlife
Author: Cathryn Jakobson Ramin
Acclaimed journalist Cathryn Jakobson Ramin takes readers on a lively journey to explain what happens to memory and attention in middle age.
Anyone older than forty knows that forgetfulness can be unnerving, frustrating, and sometimes terrifying. With compassion and humor, Jakobson Ramin sets out to discover what midlife forgetfulness is all about—from the perspectives of physiology, psychology, and sociology. Relentless in her search for answers to questions about her own unreliable memory, she explores the factors that determine how well—or poorly—one's brain will age. She consults experts in the fields of sleep, stress, traumatic brain injury, hormones, genetics, and dementia, as well as specialists in nutrition, cognitive psychology, and the burgeoning field of drug-based cognitive enhancement. The landscape of the midlife brain is not what you might think, and to understand its strengths and weaknesses turns out to be the best way to cope.
A groundbreaking work that represents the best of narrative nonfiction, this is a timely, highly readable, and much-needed book for anyone whose memory is not what it used to be.
Publishers Weekly
Memory loss and other cognitive problems are increasingly the bugaboo of aging baby boomers, as well as many of their elders. In her first book, veteran journalist Ramin turns herself into a guinea pig as she seeks ways to restore her own failing memory and growing inability to concentrate. Looking at a wide variety of genetic, biochemical and environmental factors that slow the connections among the brain's 100 billion neurons, especially in the hippocampus, Ramin undertakes 10 interventions, methods of achieving her cognitive enhancement. She logs the ups and downs of medications such as Adderall and Provigil; she looks at dietary supplements and biofeedback. She ends with discussions with experts, such as Nobelist Eric Kandel, about what keeps some people mentally young into old age; the key seems to be having the "mental reserves" gained from challenging one's mind with new kinds of learning—such as learning a new language or studying art—that use different parts of the brain; the right diet and exercise also help. Overall, the variety of perspectives and the wealth of scientific information Ramin provides, as well as her warm personal style, will reward readers and may well help them stay mentally sharp. (Apr. 1)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationTable of Contents:
Preface: Most Precious Possession xi
Your Unreliable Brain: Midlife Forgetfulness Is Embarrassing and Frustrating, but What Does It Mean for the Future? 1
Glitches, Gaps and Gaffes: The Memory-Hungry Crowd Speaks Candidly About Screwing Up 11
Frontal-Lobe Overload: "Too Much Information" Is Just One of the Reasons You Feel Like You're Drowning 23
Blocking, Blanking and Begging for Mercy: Why Words and Thoughts Flee Without Warning 36
Into the Doughnut Hole: What a Brain Scan Can (and Cannot) Tell You About What's Going on Upstairs 45
Swallow This: The Feeding of a Midlife Brain: Essential Fatty Acids, Vitamins, Supplements and Plenty of Glucose 58
Mental Aerobics: From Tedious to Addictive: Options for Exercising Your Neurons 72
Bathing in Battery Acid: Elevated Cortisol Associated with Chronic Stress Is No Friend to Your Hippocampus 85
Yearning for Estrogen: Rejecting Hormone Therapy Could Leave Your Neurons in the Lurch 98
The Vulnerable Brain: The Repercussions of Concussions You Never Knew You Had 109
Cosmetic Neurology: The Potential for Pharmaceutical Cognitive Enhancement Is Vast and Possibly Irresistible 123
Meditation and Neurofeedback: Going in for a Tune-up: Why Tinkering with Brain Waves Can Improve Attention 139
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: Sacrifice Your Slumber andYou'll Perform as Well as if You've Had a Few Stiff Drinks 151
Recreational Drugs, Alcohol and Other Neurotoxins: The Cognitive Consequences of What You Smoke, Drink, Eat and Breathe 165
What Your Doctor Forgot to Tell You: Prescription Drugs and "Safe" Over-the-Counter Meds May Account for Your Fogginess 177
The Last Place You Look: Thyroid Low? Blood Pressure High? A Host of Common Midlife Disorders Pack a Cognitive Wallop 189
Staring into the Eye of the Tiger: Deep in the Grip of Alzheimer's Disease at the Age of Sixty, Joanna Graciously Invites Us into Her World 204
Do You Really Want to Know?: As Opportunities for Early Assessment and Intervention Become Available, Will You Embrace Them? 217
Emerging Triumphant: How to Stockpile Neurons: The Habits of the Cognitively Well-Endowed 228
Conclusion 253
Acknowledgments 259
Resources 267
Notes 269
Selected Bibliography 297
Index 301
New interesting book: Emergency Psychiatry or Moser on Music Copyright
Migraine: The Evolution of a Common Disorder
Author: Oliver Sacks
In recent years the bestselling Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat have received great critical acclaim, but Oliver Sacks's readers may remember that he began his medical career working with migraine patients. In this new edition of Migraine, he returns to his first book and enriches it with additional case histories, new findings, and practical information.
For centuries physicians and migraineurs have been fascinated by the visual hallucinations, or auras, which often precede a migraine and which are similar to those induced by hallucinogenic drugs or deliria. In a remarkable new chapter, illustrated with startling full-color paintings by migraine sufferers, Dr. Sacks draws on recent advances in chaos theory and neural simulation to describe these "hallucinatory constants" and what they reveal about the working of the brain.
Another important addition to the 1992 edition discusses newly developed drug therapies for migraine, as well as alternative, nondrug approaches. Only Oliver Sacks's boundless curiosity and rich imagination could yield such a fresh, comprehensive view of one of humankind's oldest afflictions.
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