One of my favorite things is drinking a nice cup of hot chocolate. It’s a treat I don’t indulge in very often, but it always hits the spot and puts me in a good mood.

I used to get that same mood lift in medical school after checking out my exam scores, but afterwards all I wanted to do was sleep. Drinking the hot chocolate revs me up and motivates me to accomplish whatever it is I have been putting off …

I was reading my local paper yesterday when I came across a story that piqued my interest. Strange how you can sometimes find interesting news items in local rather than national newspapers.

There’s a competition called the USA National Memory Championship, started in 1997 by Tony Dottino, President of the Dottino Consulting Group. While Tony’s consulting group applied neuroscience to pragmatic applications in the business world, he was amazed to discover that most people were unaware of the amazing potential of their own brains.

As he discussed their unlimited and amazing brains, he discovered that most were deathly afraid to talk about the subject, especially as it related to memory.

Their number one concern: That as you get older, you’ll lose your memory.

Tony was on a mission to educate people about aging and memory. He said, “Be aware that your brain is like a muscle — it requires exercise. When you train and exercise your brain it gains strength, and age is not a factor.”

He hooked up with another Tony (Buzan), who had a little thing going in an English pub, where people competed with each other to demonstrate their powers of memory.

The partnership between Tony Dottino and Tony Buzan resulted in the creation of the USA Memory Championship.

You may be wondering: what is Chester’s secret?

I’m getting to that.

Contestants in the Memory Championship compete in events like this:

1. They must memorize 99 faces and names.

2. They are required to memorize the order of a shuffled deck of cards.

3. They are required to commit poems to memory.

4. They must memorize numbers that are given out very fast.

5. They are required to memorize 1000 random numbers or a list of 500 words.

Wow, the list alone was enough to humble me.

For the last seven years Chester has competed in the National Memory Championship, and he is the defending champion.

Chester takes fish oil every day, along with his 3 hours of memory exercises. He firmly believes that fish oil increases his brain function, and he takes a B-complex vitamin as well, which he credits with increasing his powers of concentration.

You may ask, “How does fish oil assist Chester’s memory?” It’s because at least 30% of the brain is made up of DHA, and DHA is one of the omega-3 fatty acids that fish oil contains. DHA functions in maintaining brain cell membranes and is also credited with increasing brain power. So that’s why Chester firmly believes that fish oil enhances his memory.

If you eat a proper diet, get a good amount of physical exercise and take a daily dose of high-grade fish oil, your brain will reward you by working at an optimal level, just like Chester’s. Taking pharmaceutical-grade, ultra-pure fish oil manufactured from fish that are taken from the clean arctic waters of Norway will most definitely give a boost to your brain.

Baby boomers rate memory loss and Alzheimer’s as their number one health care concern. Pharmaceutical grade fish oil, along with a good diet and exercise can help keep your mind clear and sharp for a long time to come.

So while we may not win the National Memory Championship, we have an excellent chance of remembering where our car is parked in the shopping mall.