Improve your memory now

Meant to reassure and empower, these lectures offer insight into how to improve memory performance and slow brain aging. The first disc provides an overview into how memory loss, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease develop; it also offers a look at current research. The second disc gives specific strategies for developing a healthy brain/memory program. Small, the director of UCLA's Memory and Aging Research Center, uses language and concepts geared toward a lay audience. He recommends stress reduction, correct diet, and aerobic exercise (both mental and physical). The author demonstrates specific stress reduction strategies and mental activities with the caveat that many of them should not be done while driving a car. He encourages listeners to develop a personal program based on individual needs and preferences. There are minor problems here: Small is obviously speaking extemporaneously from notes, so his lectures are not as polished as audio listeners have come to expect; he also refers repeatedly, and too often, to his book The Memory Bible. Still, the author offers an expert's reassurance that while some memory loss is normal, there are steps that will improve brain performance for people of any age. Recommended for consumer health collections.-Kathleen A. Sullivan, Phoenix P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.