risk of memory loss

How to cut your risk of memory loss

By David S. Martin, CNN

November 9, 2011 -- Updated 1635 GMT (0035 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Doctors who specialize in the aging brain say that dementia is not inevitable
• Making positive lifestyle changes earlier in life can lessen your chances, they say
• Alzheimer's is perhaps the best known and most feared form of dementia
• Even moderate exercise can actually increase the size of the brain's hippocampus

(CNN) -- When Darla Arni's mother began showing the first signs of dementia 16 years ago, Arni worried she was doomed to the same fate.

So Arni began reading up on what she could do to stay mentally sharp. Turns out, plenty.

Arni, now 55, grew up on a farm where her mother fried just about everything in lard. Today, she skips the fried foods and eats plenty of fruits and vegetables, takes fish oil pills, goes for regular walks and meditates during a weekly yoga class.

"I'm doing everything I can," says Arni, a public speaker and author who lives in Slater, Missouri./.../