Client Education

Memory Issues

Memory Loss: An Overview

By: Denise Hamilton, Special to AccentCare

By the time you finish reading this story, you may have forgotten the name of the memory expert quoted below. And when you turn off the computer and head off to run some errands, you may not remember where you left your car keys. Should you be concerned? It depends.

People in their 20s usually have the best memories. In fact, doctors use the memory scores of that age group as a barometer in testing the recall capabilities of older people. After that, the decline in memory capacity varies greatly, depending on the individual and can be affected by nutrition, health, drug interaction, mental activity and other factors.

Doctors are quick to point out that memory loss is a natural consequence of aging and can start as early as one? 30s, when it manifests itself in small and annoying ways, such as the inability to remember names. But what people in their 30s dismiss as mere absent-mindedness often rings alarm bells for those in their 70s who fear it portends loss of their mental faculties.

"We are all afflicted by it," says Dr. Ali Tabatabai, an internist at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center whose practice is overwhelmingly composed of seniors from nearby Leisure World in Laguna Woods, Calif." Some people start having memory loss early in their lives, and others are intact into their 90s. There's no magic age when memory loss begins. It's a slow, chronic process."

It is also a complex and dynamic one. Scientists divide memory into three components:

• Short-term memory means remembering information for a few minutes, say, just long enough to dial a phone number after you?e called directory assistance information.
• Long-term recent memory involves recalling what you fixed for dinner last night or what you did last weekend.
• Long-term remote memory means being able to recall events from years ago, such as when you were a child.

Scientists also talk about the "three R? of memory": registration, retention and retrieval. An example of this would involve being introduced to someone at a social event (registration), committing that name to memory (retention) and being able to recall it later when you run into that person on the street (retrieval).

Many people with memory loss have difficulty retrieving information, especially that from long-term recent memory. If memory loss is combined with serious cognitive deterioration in a patient older than 40, doctors may suspect Alzheimer? disease.

While there is no specific clinical test to detect Alzheimer?, doctors will often diagnose the disease after ruling out other possible physical causes and applying a rigorous set of criteria. In addition to memory loss these include determining whether the patient exhibits personality changes, overall confusion and disorientation.

In general, people who occasionally misplace keys or glasses, forget why they walked into a room or have trouble remembering names as they get older aren? suffering from Alzheimer? but what doctors call "benign forgetfulness."

And in many cases, this isn't a life sentence. Scientists have discovered that people with simple age-related memory loss can take steps to improve their memory. These include eating right, exercising and stimulating their brains by playing cards, reading or going to the theater.

In recent years, doctors have also developed mental exercises to improve memory. A growing number of books lay out step-by-step instructions and visual-mental tricks that allow people of all ages to improve their memory.

And at universities around the nation, psychologists and gerontologists are drawing up multi-week programs — much like college-cram classes — that enable seniors to sharpen their mental faculties.

Dr. Skip Rizzo, a clinical psychologist at the University of Southern California's Andrus School of Gerontology, designed an eight-week memory course that he teaches at senior citizen centers throughout Los Angeles County.

"It's not magic," says Rizzo. "It's just a skill, and with practice, your memory will get better."