Your car keys are harder to find. Names and faces don't stick together like they used to. By lunchtime, you've forgotten what you ate for breakfast. Is the stuff between your ears loosing its mettle, slowing down, succumbing to the passing decades? Do you fear your prowess at Jeopardy is at stake? Or, on a far more serious note, are you worried about dementia? Is there anything a forgetful boomer can do?

Yes!

From the newfangled to the common-sense, there are plenty of habits and gadgets available to help your brain weather the years. Doctors say there's little, if anything, that prevents Alzheimer's disease altogether, but flexing your mental muscle can improve your mood, your daily life and, in many cases, your prospects of a healthy old age.

"It's use it or lose it," said Dr. Mildred LaFontaine, a Concord neurologist. "The brain is made up of many, many connections. Those connections, if they're not being used, will be lost. The more things you can do to keep those connections going, the better."

LaFontaine likes to cite a study of nearly 700 elderly nuns. Researchers, she said, suspect that dementia was slowed by their tight community, healthy lifestyle, and days filled with precise activities like writing and knitting. (Their faith may have been a factor too. Other studies indicate

that prayer, meditation and chanting may promote a healthy mind.)

But you don't need to enter a convent or visit an ashram to boost your memory. In fact, doctors say training your brain begins at the opposite end of your body, with your feet. Study after study suggests that regular exercise, paired with a healthy diet, does as much for your mind as it does for your muscles.

"One of the truisms is what's good for the heart is good for the brain," said Dr. Robert Santulli, director of the Dartmouth Memory Clinic.

Keep your cholesterol and blood pressure low, exercise, eat plenty of produce and avoid risk factors for diabetes and strokes, he said. It might not be easy, but it will make a difference.

"Even if you're not going to prevent Alzheimer's, you're going to help yourself in a lot of other ways," Santulli said. "You can't do anything about your age, that's the greatest risk factor. And you can't do anything about your genetics, but you can do something about these other factors."

It's also important to remember that dementia isn't a foregone conclusion of aging. One of the nuns in that study was still knitting mittens, holding nuanced conversations and cracking jokes when she died at 104. And retirement communities in the Concord area are full of octo- and nonagenarians who write books, protest on the State House lawn and volunteer.

The crew over at Havenwood Heritage Heights is a good example. Sue Buxton, vice president of health and support services, says residents there play bridge, try bongo drums, meditate and organize lectures on foreign affairs

"There are people in their 90s who are learning something brand new," she said.

As we grow old, memory lapses may become more frequent and some details may become harder to recall, but the early signs of dementia are usually far more severe.

"If you lose your car keys, then you're just like the rest of us," said Santulli. "If you find your car keys, but can't remember what kind of car you drive, or what the keys are for, then that's a problem."

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