Three ways to...
BOOST YOUR MEMORY POWER
This approach was used in a Canadian study where a group of younger and older people were given a list of words to learn and remember.
Half of them were asked to draw the words, the other to write them down. Older people who drew became as good as the younger people at recalling the words. Drawing even made a difference in people with dementia.
Volunteers experiencing amnesia after a stroke were given a list of 15 words to memorise and to complete a task at the same time. When tested as part of this Edinburgh University study, they could only remember 14% of the words. But in the second round, when they sat in a dark room for 15 minutes doing nothing, they could recall almost 50% of the words afterwards.
In a study, researchers at the University of Roehampton showed volunteers a staged crime video of a handbag being stolen.
Then the volunteers were asked to walk either forwards or backwards in time with a metronome. When they were tested, in each test the backwards walkers remembered more.
DOCTOR’S NOTE
ATOPIC eczema is a common skin condition that affects up to 15million people in the UK.
It’s triggered by all sorts of things, from stress and eating dairy to pet fur. Your GP may prescribe a topical steroid cream to treat eczema.
But you can help prevent flare-ups by using emollient cream to keep skin hydrated.
£4.99 (boots. com), absorbs quickly. “It’s important to moisturise the whole body, not just where you can see eczema, as this will help reduce flare-ups elsewhere,” says dermatologist
Dr Mary Sommerlad.