Ask HN: What lifestyle choices have led to improved cognitive function/memory?
I’ve got a terrible memory compared to some people I know, and am looking for ways to improve general memory, not with something like Anki
There are also various memory tricks. For instance, the people who memorize decks of cards assign each number/suit to something, then develop a scene in their head that goes with the cards. So maybe they see a red banana flying over a purple rainbow, and that would mean the 4 of spades comes after the 6 of hearts... or whatever it may be.
Another thing is changing up locations. Make your locations interesting and novel and you'll be able to recall stuff you learned in various locations. I remember once I listened to an audiobook while on a long walk. When I tried to recall things, I would remember where I was on the walk, and that would remind me what the content was I was trying to remember. It was wild. I find physical books help for that as well. They give context of where you are in the book instead of just a percentage.
Spaced repetition is another thing. Going over the stuff over and over again, over a period of time (days, weeks) helps to lock it in.
If you can, get someone to help teach you proper form when you start. It’s much easier to learn once, without needing to break bad habits.
My quick advice is (1) go light at first [nobody cares how much you lift] (2) go slowly and try to feel tension in the correct muscles for the exercise if you don't know which muscles you should be feeling you should look it up (3) go over form very carefully with videos or a trainer
Because I work out three times a week my life is better on multiple fronts, including my concentration and coding.
Two years on I’m down 27 pounds and can do push-ups. I have never been able to do push-ups.
If you can't afford to hire a trainer, start with going to a weightlifting group class to learn technique. Even Crossfit is good for that (just don't learn your pull-ups there :)). At least you will have someone correcting you. Once you're confident in your technique you can quite and start following your own program.
Also - CrossFit-style pull-ups might be a little goofy, but CrossFit burpees are the way to go. :)
https://aasgaardco.com/store/books-posters-dvd/books/startin...
He also has videos on youtube demonstrating proper form.
Funnily enough, when I tried couch-to-5k it I had to pause to recover from shin-splints aka tendonitis.
Now I've started bouldering more than usual, I'm getting climbers elbow (tendonitis) as well as other pains in the wrist and forearm that are not muscle-related.
The problem with both is that they overindex on squats and on 5 rep sets. You want to get a mixture of the number of reps you do per set, and doing squats as often as they recommend will turn you into a t-rex. Plus, when you fail at a certain weight (which you're bound to do), then there's not the flexibility necessary to help you push through and so you get frustrated. I know--I've been in that situation with both programs.
I've recently taken up GZCLP[1] and I'm very happy with it. I'm already doing, 3 months in, more weight than I was doing on either SL5x5 or Starting Strength, and I'm over a decade older than I was when I did this programs.
These people are effectively using and getting dependent on opioids.
While it may seem healthy at first, the cravings for more lifting can increase until one cannot control themselves any more, leading to constant overtraining, muscle/skeletal injuries, and eventually PAIN which requires actual opioids prescribed by a doctor.
Do you want to guess what happens after a person, unbeknown to themselves an endogenous opioid addict, gets a hold of exogenous opioids?
What the parent is noticing after a couple days of not working out are the withdrawal symptoms.
Sure, you do go through a form of withdrawal once you stop doing it, but it has nothing to do with opioid abuse.
Same thing makes fast food "addictive" (unnatural levels of salt and fat), caffeine, and capsaicin (peppers).
Some do anything for a fix.
Many vehemently deny this and that they like getting high from it.
Interesting that you would compare ”unnatural” food ingredients to the exercise high.
Cardio is definitely good for you, even though it releases the same peptides. In cardio you progress by going longer.
Lifting is a different beast. In it you progress by increasing weights, because increasing reps does not gain muscle as fast. Each trip to the gym causes muscle damage, which also releases opioids, and it is completely possible to become dependent on that in the same manner that someone cutting themselves becomes dependent on the opioids released by cutting.
1) using illegal drugs to treat debilitating illness, such as autoimmune disease?
2) using nootropic drugs to increase cognitive performance?
3) using illegal drugs to increase general physical and cognitive performance?
4) parking in a handicap spot to shop quicker and with less stress?
5) speeding on the highway when you know it’s gonna be okay and it’ll cut down an hour of your daily commute that you’d rather spend with your family?
6) smuggling conflict diamonds and stolen gold bars in your rectum to get away from the rat race once and for all?
Addiction and dependence are not matters of how much drugs someone has in their bloodstream; they are matters of why there is drugs in the bloodstream.
A terminal pain patient could be having a daily dose of morphine equal to an opioid abuser’s, but we usually don’t consider them addicts, because they have a reason to use opioids for pain management.
An opioid addict could be consuming a quarter of a codeine tablet a day and still be considered an addict, because emotion management is not usually considered a valid reason to use opioids.
For some reason, a lot of people recommend going to the gym as a first-line treatment for various emotional issues. I find this doublethink hilarious.
The only “doublethink” is how you claim not to be opposed to exercise in one comment while denigrating the very thought of going to the gym in another, in spite of clear evidence that lack of exercise is broadly detrimental to one’s mental state, rather than your narrative of “self-medication with endorphins that induces dependence and withdrawal symptoms where none existed before”. And claim that some source of endorphin release is good when that contradicts your only rationale for equating exercise with opiate abuse.
It is a fact that power lifting can be addictive, for the very reasons I’ve mentioned. It is not for all people. Those with genetic and psychiatric predispositions (work stress included) are much more at risk.
The risk, however, is very real, and some don’t realize it before they have made permanent damage to their musculoskeletal system and are forced to deal with serious pain issues—and some turn to opioids. THAT is the real apogee of why ”exercise can be a dangerous drug (for some people)”.
Your love for your family is chemically mediated, as is your desire to eat food or get out of bed in the morning.
Since I don't see a reply explaining why, and it's at least an interesting point of view, I upvoted it.
The problem with powerlifting is it really beats up your body over time and as you age. Once you get past 405lbs or so for squat you are almost insuring future disc herniation. Disc herniation is a concern with aging even without constantly loading 400lbs+ on your spine. This is patently obvious but when young and indestructible hitting PRs becomes completely obsessive and that is another problem. There are not many things that give the rush of hitting a new PR or milestone with strength. Your strongest pound for pound in powerlifting weight classes relative to your height at much higher body weight than what is healthy. Pull up a group photo of any hardcore powerlifting gym and that will be super obvious. Instagram and people posting PR videos has caused this explosion in powerlifting popularity and conventional deadlift popularity along with Rippetoe. It use to be an almost deviant aspect of bodybuilding for guys obsessed with strength with a disregard for aesthetics. If I could start over I would never powerlift. I would train absolute strength still but I would also focus on relative strength. Relative strength as displayed by the number of pull ups or muscle ups you can do. I would always want to be able to pass the army running/situp/pushup standards. I would mostly squat with a belt squat and trap bar and be very careful about loading the spine instead of the ridiculous powerlifting game of seeing if you can get your legs strong enough to break your spine over time.
I also stretch religiously, run, and hang on the pullup bar to decompress.
You made a very good note about army standards - they are actually pretty good at ensuring overall health. Especially if you go to SOF with the swimming requirements (Pararescue, SEALs). If someone has anything against the military, Iron Man standards are pretty much the same thing.
As a side note, I take glucosomine for joints. Jury is still out on it, but most doctors feel like it at least doesn't hurt.
edit: Another thing to worry about here is posture. If you are lardotic and you squat or OHP, you put way more pressure on your spine than someone with ideal posture. Contrary to popular belief, I don't believe lifting fixes this. At the very least, you have to worry about form way more.
Find a good trainer (there are A LOT of bad trainers out there) and start working through a routine with simple movements (literally hinge movements).
I’ve been lifting weights for almost my entire life with supervision and coaching by trainers that are former NCAA athletes and Army Special Forces (Green Berets) and I’m still not completely comfortable with complex movements approaching any challenging weight.
I’ve drastically increased strength, avoided plateaus, benefited from increased focus, emphasis on diet, higher resting metabolic rate and the resulting body fat composition benefits while not experiencing a single injury.
Injuries are devastating, especially for beginners and even more so for beginners starting later in life.
Speaking of injuries, I’d question starting with CrossFit as has been mentioned by others in this thread. Like trainers there are a lot of bad “boxes” out there and until you learn the basics and your limitations I’ve been to many CrossFit gyms where the experience, fitness level, and routines have been downright terrifying to witness. I’m convinced that many of the horrors I’ve seen have resulted in people suffering debilitating injuries. Having a beginner fresh off the “couch” be encouraged to stack up weight while doing their first ever snatch (or whatever) is criminal IMO.
Also - remember your heart! I run a 5k (in intervals) at least once a week to not only make sure I can still do it but also to experience the resulting benefits from what is essentially HIIT training. I also believe that as humans running is essentially in our DNA (as bad as the mechanics are - knees, etc). Of course this is another aspect to work on in terms of technique and equipment (shoes).
There are also ways to do HIIT combined with low to moderate resistance training but that’s a bit more involved.
That's why I would still recommend CrossFit especially to beginners - the program that works for you is the one you can stick with. After you've built a habit of working out and lifting weights it's much easier to create your own program and stick with that.
Finally, I have also observed some people have exceptional memories, like my wife. She is just wired better than me in this regard. My stance is to look after what you got, not worry about comparison too much.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leitner_system
I liken a spaced repetition system to any other tool that helps you improve basic functions. For example, while you could brush your teeth using your finger, it's infinitely more efficient with a toothbrush and even better with an electric toothbrush. It's just a tool to accomplish a particular physical task (in your case, improving your memory), so why not pick the best tool?
Otherwise, I've read a lot about the benefits of blueberries. And you really can't go wrong with sleep.
I’ve found it’s improved my general recall ability, not just for things I’ve scheduled into a spaced-repetition program.
It’s like the program trains my brain on how to recall things, and then I can use that skill on anything.
I’ve also found that if I slack off my training schedule, my general recall ability gets worse too.
Also, alcohol for sure impacts my memory. I find even one drink will make it harder to recall things
Sleep/exercise has been fine, diet could use some work. Maybe another crack at spaced repetition is the answer.
Stress reduction and or getting hold of and managing down an over demandng job is #2
Be sure and play! #3 easy.
For #2, walking, good diet, good match of working hours to life and people who matter.
By the way, how do you know that these others have a better memory? Anecdotes and subjective impressions?
Apart from that, there is nothing better for an otherwise mentally and physically healthy person than moderate sleep, moderate exercise and a balanced diet.
Disclaimer: If your memory has suddenly deteriorated, you'd better talk to a doctor. In combination with other symptoms, this can be an indication of mental and physical illness.
Oh, and never ever just take for granted what some stranger writes on some random newsboard.
Unfortunately, I am an obligate coffee drinker. I find that need it to keep pace with work, so I am not running optimally under my own framework, but it's a locally bound sacrifice I make. To try to keep "modalities" stable, I just drink much less and only at a specific hour in the morning, and with food to slightly decrease uptake. It's a work in progress, but it has helped tremendously, specifically with memory.
That's an interesting idea. By this hypothesis, [method] actors should have abysmal memories but is that true?
There are other tricks that I have heard of like the 'memory palace' [1], or mindfulness meditation, but those I don't think really worked for me personally, YMMV.
Have always been interested in nootropics, but I'm a dot the i's cross the t's kind of person, so haven't had anything to do with those.
Anecdotally, one can also search for engineer on the aphantasia subreddit to find many threads with engineers chiming in.
I still consume caffeine and nicotine. I’ve found that my cognition is improved by them; in the case of nicotine, I might just as well have regular pauses from work, though.
Coffee and tobacco, however, contain a host of other psychoactives which tend to bring about an easily distracted, impulsive frame of mind.
So many impulse buys are connected to a craving for the bitter, MAO-inhibiting alkaloids in coffee and tobacco smoke… it’s good for the economy, but not for your bank roll.
Black tea, however, contains considerable amounts of tannins which have similar psychoactive effects as the MAOIs in coffee.
The best thing about caffeine pills is you can actually know how much caffeine you are getting. I limit myself to 100-200mg a day. I wouldn't even want to know what I use to take drinking coffee but it was quite a bit. I will just drink coffee now as a treat.
Cutting down on screen time (i.e. this thing you're looking at right now), in favor of book time, or just-about-anything-time if its happening, you know, outdoors and in beautiful scenery, helps also.
To do that you need to be able to encode information into objects and decode objects back into information. You also need to put the encoded information in storage - a spatial context. Once you've written an object to this spatial storage, you can read it back out again by remembering that space. You can also move through the space in a predetermined way. Your mind will recall the other objects you told it were in that space. So you'll see them there as you move through the space.
There is literally a part of your mind dedicated to handling this type of spatial association. You will need to practice it so you can build connections to it so your memory can improve from it. You can get an MRI and see the difference between people who practice this technique and those who don't, because they have more connections to this region than those who aren't winning memory competitions.
The trouble is that the encoding and decoding step are hard to learn. You'll be really slow at doing that part until you practice it a lot.
You've probably heard of this technique of memorization by using your spatial memory. This is the method of loci or the memory palace technique. It was once more well known that it is now. Writing and reading supplanted it as the dominant way to memorize things.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014976342...
I take melatonin for sleep, but this article was why I continue
It feels like taking out the trash for your brain. It gives you some time where you don’t need to focus on anything.
I am sure running does the same thing for a lot of people but I live in a suburb and that is too overstimulating for me.
Sleep is incredibly important also. Earplugs and a face mask help with sleep in disrupting conditions.
Anecdotally I think so. Stress and anxiety are the worst things you can do to your mind so I’m always better at conversations on my frequent sabbaticals.
1) exercise. 6 days a week (2 good cardio days, two stretchy (Pilates/yoga), and two sports/outside/weights)
2) eat healthily a) 90% plant no carb plant based (salads etc) 10% whatever you want. Extremely limited drugs (alcohol) (like once a month)
3) adequate sleep ( #1 and # 2 help a lot)
4) spend at least an hour a day outside (bike to work, have lunch in the park, go for a walk)
5) use your calendar to create time for yourself
6) challenge yourself to learn new things that do not come easy I’ll to you (for many of the people that are stem oriented here, that means dancing and watercolors)
7) put your phone away
Also core friends and people to "hang out with" you'd be surprised how much you get sucked up by just the Internet and meta of it.
With the 2-3 hour of daily cardio and diet changes, most of my issues disappeared - inability to focus, irritability, fear of missing out and it helped analyze things in my life e.g. am I in the right place/environment?
Really makes you wonder.
Weed helps too -- specifically sativas high in CBG and limonene seem to help with concentration issues that stem from anxiety or depression, paired with indicas high in Myrcene in the evening.
(CBD is kind of useless.)
Good diet
Moderate exercise/physical activity
Plenty of basic fluids (especially water)
Interacting with nature (hikes, gardening, even mowing your lawn (sans being tethered to a phone for a podcast or Pandora))
Read more
Use a screen less
Explain to others what you're learning/interested in
Converse with other humans face to face often
I think of Magnus Carlsen holding 10 chess games in his head and doing it perfect enough to beat everyone he was playing against. Of course, that is extreme but there are many people who have above average memories.
I am spot on with hydration, sleep, cardio, weightlifting but I don't think any of this really makes my memory better. Mood and energy but not memory. The only thing I have found that makes my memory better is trying to memorize things like a daily exercise. Learning another language is really the way to go.