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The way you live, what you eat and drink, and how you treat your body can affect your memory just as much as your physical health and well-being. Here are five things you can do every day to keep both your mind and body sharp.

1. Manage your stress.ÌýThe constant drumbeat of daily stresses such as deadline pressures or petty arguments can certainly distract you and affect your ability to focus and recall. But the bigger problem is an ongoing sense of anxiety â€� that can lead to memory impairment. If you don't have a strategy in place for managing your stress, protecting your memory is one reason to get one. Deep breathing, meditation, yoga, and a "mindful" approach to living can all help.

The health risks of loneliness and isolation have been known for some time, but more recently research has shown the specific effects in the brain. Finding ways to make connections with other people is the best "medicine" to alleviate the mental and physical effects of loneliness.

If you are noticing problems in yourself or a loved one, here's where to turn for help and support.

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You're talking with a friend about a movie you saw recently, but can't remember the actor's name. Last week you found yourself upstairs, but couldn't remember what you came up to look for. Your keys are always missing. You worry: are these normal memory lapses or early signs of Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia?

"Because there has been so much attention paid lately to the aging baby boomer population, I think Alzheimer's disease is getting a lot of attention, which is leading a lot of people to believe they may have the condition," says Dr. Suzanne Salamon, associate chief of the gerontology division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Regardless of age, you're unlikely to have a flawless memory. People who can remember very long lists of numbers or recall the minutiae of their daily lives � right down to what they ate for lunch every day last year—are exceedingly rare. And frankly, such a memory can be a burden rather than a blessing. Memory, it seems, is inherently flawed—and in more ways than you might think.

Daniel Schacter, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, described the most common ways that normal memory fails us in his book The Seven Sins of Memory. Some of these memory flaws become more pronounced with age, but unless they are extreme and persistent, they are not considered indicators of Alzheimer's or other memory-impairing illnesses. They are simply the way that our brains work. The following is a brief summary of two of Schacter's seven memory "sins."

Your daily habits and lifestyle � what you eat and drink, whether you exercise, how stressed you are, and more � affect your mental health every bit as much as your physical health. A growing body of research indicates that regular exercise and a healthful diet can help protect your memory from aging-related decline.

Exercise

Physical fitness and mental fitness go together. People who exercise regularly tend to stay mentally sharp into their 70s, 80s, and beyond. Although the precise "dose" of exercise isn't known, research suggests that the exercise should be moderate to vigorous and regular. Examples of moderate exercise include brisk walking, stationary bicycling, water aerobics, and competitive table tennis. Vigorous activities include jogging, high-impact aerobic dancing, square dancing, and tennis.

News briefs

You've probably heard about tests to measure chemicals in the blood that indicate chronic inflammation in the body. They are sometimes used to estimate risk for heart disease. But what about using these kinds of biomarkers to gauge your risk for declining brain health? A study published Nov. 1, 2017, in Neurology found that having certain inflammatory markers in midlife was associated with brain shrinkage and poor memory in older age.

Researchers measured five inflammation biomarkers in about 1,600 middle-aged people and gave them brain scans and a memory test about 25 years later. Compared with people with no elevated inflammation markers, people with high levels of three or more biomarkers scored lower on the memory test and had about 5% shrinkage in the hippocampus and other parts of the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Feeling afraid about life issues is common as you age, but if it takes over your life, you may have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

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Everyone feels afraid or worried at times, but if these feelings begin to take over your life, then you may have crossed over into generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which is the most common anxiety disorder among older adults, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA).

"The issue with many older men is they often just endure the discomfort of GAD, or think it's normal, and do not talk about the problem," says Dr. David Mischoulon, director of the Depression Clinical and Research Program at -Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. "However, left alone to manifest, GAD may lead to serious health problems, such as high blood pressure, depression, and addictive behavior like excessive drinking."

If exercise were available as a pill, experts say, everyone would be taking it. One reason is that exercise is very good at defusing stress. If you exercise � especially right when the stress response is triggered � you burn off stress hormones just as nature intended, instead of letting them pile up.

What's more, just about any form of motion on a regular basis helps relieve pent-up tension. Rhythmic, repetitive movements, such as walking, running, swimming, bicycling, and rowing � and specific types of exercise such as yoga, tai chi, and qigong � actually elicit the relaxation response, too. Regularly engaging in these kinds of activities can help you ward off everyday stress.

Get through the season on your own by changing your perspective, creating new traditions, and reaching out to others.

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The holidays are traditionally a time for family and friends. But plenty of people find themselves alone at this time of the year, especially older adults who live by themselves, are unable to drive, or live far from grown children. "I think it's probably hardest for people who have recently lost a loved one," says Dr. Suzanne Salamon, associate chief of gerontology at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Emotional impact

A number of emotions may creep in when you face holidays alone. One is pressure to make the holiday an event. "There's a feeling that it's supposed to be a celebration. That may be stressful if you have no one to celebrate with," says Dr. Elyse Park, director of behavioral health research at the Harvard-affiliated Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine.

MCI can be tough to identify, but there may be ways to postpone, and possibly prevent, its impact on memory and thinking.

Everyone has the occasional bout of forgetfulness, whether it's misplacing your keys or blanking out on a name. But if these episodes become frequent or interfere with daily life, you may have mild cognitive impairment, or MCI.

MCI falls somewhere between the usual cognitive decline of normal aging and the more serious signs of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. An estimated 10% to 20% of adults older than 65 have MCI, according to the Alzheimer's Association. But this gray area of brain health is often difficult to detect.