Page 217 - Mind Games The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy

Regain an Agile Brain • 201

minutes of sitting down. Three doctors, including a geriatric
specialist, did not find an underlying condition that might
cause the symptoms and just prescribed more medication.
After all, she thought, she wasn’t 29 anymore. Within 10
minutes of meeting her, a cardiologist using only a stetho-
scope determined that both carotid arteries (which feed the
brain) and the arteries to her kidneys (which elevated the
blood pressure) probably were blocked. Further testing con-
firmed his diagnosis. Surgeries to remove the blockages re-
duced Virginia’s blood pressure and improved her memory,
and she no longer falls asleep whenever she sits down. That
was two years ago when she was 79. She is now 81, and a
stronger, more vigorous woman you will never meet.
We tell you this story to illustrate our assertion that you
know your body. You’ve lived in it your whole life. If you
don’t feel your doctor is meeting your needs, find another
one. It only takes one right opinion to start you on the road
to better health, happier spirits, and clearer thoughts.
Now let’s address medications. Many medications slow
the brain. Simple over-the-counter antihistamines come
with the warning not to operate heavy machinery while tak-
ing the medicine. That’s because it slows the speed of your
mental processing and reaction time. Heavy machinery, by
the way, includes your car and the riding lawn mower.
Other medication, as previously mentioned, can disrupt
your sleep patterns, dull the senses with which you input
information, or affect your nutritional intake.
Read the labels. Become a more careful consumer of
your medications. Check with your pharmacist and doctor
for side effects. Perhaps, if you feel like your brain is packed
in cotton or are experiencing other side affects, you can
switch medications. Another consideration is medicinal in-
teractions. My husband, for example, who has had a severe
heart attack, takes numerous medications. The doctor and
pharmacist were keeping an eye on everything, and the
pharmacist’s computer was programmed to flag for various
interactions (including this particular one). But things some-
times slip through the system, and it wasn’t until two of my