Norma Kastien and Margarita Suarez, elders;

Beth Williams, deacons' moderator;

Barbara Carlsen, representing the Presbyterian Women;

Jan Cox, who also works with the Health Care Team (they published the monthly Healthcare Team article in this newsletter); and

Penny Hickman, Priscilla Stephenson and Natalie Sarantos.  

Presbyterian Women Spring Gathering on March 31

Save the date of March 31. On that day our Lake Burien Presbyterian Women will host all the Presbyterian Women in the Seattle Presbytery at our church. Our special speaker is Kathy Matlin. Kathy represented the Alaska-Northwest Synod in the Presbyterian Women's Global Exchange that occurs every three years. Representatives from each Synod travel together to countries in the world where women and children are suffering. Last October, this team traveled to India. Kathy will be sharing the experiences she had with the Global Exchange Team along with her own travels as she spent some additional time in India. Watch for more details in the next newsletter. Call Gail Lane or Lucille Wheeler if you have questions.

Health Care Team

6 Simple Steps To Keep Your Mind Sharp At Any Age

Everyone has the occasional "senior moment." Maybe you've gone into the kitchen and can't remember why, or can't recall a familiar name during a conversation. Memory lapses can occur at any age, but aging alone is generally not a cause of cognitive decline. When significant memory loss occurs among older people, it is generally not due to aging but to organic disorders, brain injury, or neurological illness.

Studies have shown that you can help prevent cognitive decline and reduce the risk of dementia with some basic good health habits: staying physically active, getting enough sleep, not smoking, having good social connections, limiting alcohol to one drink a day, and eating a balanced diet low in saturated and trans fats. Certain health conditions that impair cognitive skills include diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, depression, hypothyroid ism, and high LDL (bad) cholesterol. If you have any of these health issues, you can help protect your memory by following your doctor's advice carefully.

Memory changes can be frustrating, but the good news is that thanks to decades of research, there are various strategies we can use to protect and sharpen our minds. Here are several you might try:

Keep Learning

A higher level of education is associated with better mental functioning in old age. Experts think that advanced education may help keep memory strong by getting a person into the habit of being mentally active. Challenging your brain with mental exercise is believed to activate processes that help maintain individual brain cells and stimulate communication among them. Many people have jobs that keep them mentally active, but pursuing a hobby, learning a new skill, or volunteering for a project at work that involves a skill you don't usually use can function the same way.

Use All Your Senses 

The more senses you use in learning something, the more of your brain will be involved in retaining the memory. In one study, adults were shown a series of emotionally neutral images, each presented along with a smell. They were not asked to remember what they saw. Later, they were shown a set of images, this time without odors, and asked to indicate which they'd seen before. They had excellent recall for all odor-paired pictures, and especially for those associated with pleasant smells. Brain imaging indicated that the piriform cortex, the main odor-processing region of the brain, became active when people saw objects originally paired with odors, even though the smells were no longer present and the subjects hadn't tried to remember them. So challenge all your senses as you venture into the unfamiliar.

Believe In Yourself

Myths about aging can contribute to a failing memory. Middle-aged and older learners do worse on memory tasks when they're exposed to negative stereotypes about aging and memory, and better when the messages are positive about memory preservation into old age. People who believe that they are not in control of their memory function - joking about "senior moments" too often, perhaps - are less likely to work at maintaining or improving their memory skills and therefore are more likely to experience cognitive decline. If you believe you can improve and you translate that belief into practice, you have a better chance of keeping your mind sharp.

Prioritize Your Brain Use

If you don't need to use mental energy remembering where you laid your keys or the time of your granddaughter's birthday party, you'll be better able to concentrate on learning and remembering new and important things. Take advantage of calendars and planners, maps, shopping lists, file folders, and address books to keep routine information accessible. Designate a place at home for your glasses, purse, keys, and other items you use often.

When you want to remember something you've just heard, read, or thought about, repeat it out loud or write it down. That way, you reinforce the memory or connection. For example, if you've just been told someone's name, use it when you speak with him or her: "So, John, where did you meet Camille?"

Repetition is most potent as a learning tool when it's properly timed. It's best not to repeat something many times in a short period, as if you were cramming for an exam. Instead, re-study the essentials after increasingly longer periods of time - once an hour, then every few hours, then every day. Spacing out periods of study is particularly valuable when you are trying to master complicated information, such as the details of a new work assignment.

Harvard Medical School, Healthbeat , May 24, 2011

Ideas: Estate Planning

Patrick Marshall, in a Special to the Times makes these suggestions provided by James D. Lamm: When you are doing estate planning, remember to do a complete inventory of all your digital accounts and assets. Assemble a list of all passwords and select a personal representative to whom you give the proper power of attorney. Make sure you include all your digital assets such as a home-security system, smartphone/s, computers, voice mail, email accounts, cloud storage, social-network accounts, web pages and blogs, financial accounts (banks, stock trading, tax, etc.) online sales and purchasing accounts, domain names, intellectual-property rights (manuscripts, music, photographs, etc.) video games and virtual worlds." (Source attribution: Materials provided by James D. Lamm)

In the digital age there is much more to a person's estate than paper records. Many a personal representative (family member, friend or professional power of attorney) cannot access the digital estate because the deceased has not provided access information. This is a reminder to have a safe, secure place for passwords that someone (with prior knowledge) can access to get the information to the proper representative.

For further information and the entire article "Digital estate planning often forgotten" see the Seattle Times Sunday January 8, 2012. 

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