Memory Loss Not Always Alzheimer’s
Have you ever left a store and realized you can’t remember where you parked your car? Have you ever run into someone at the supermarket that you were recently introduced to and find that for the life of you, you can’t remember her name?
There’s the well-known joke about two older women who have met weekly for years to play cards. One day one of the women looks at the other and says apologetically “I know this is awful, we’ve known each other for years but for the life of me, I can’t remember your name. Can you please tell me your name again?” The other woman sits in dead silence for several minutes then turns to the first woman and asks “How soon do you need to know?”
In situations where we forget simple details or find ourselves standing in the middle of a parking lot with a dazed look, wondering where we left the car, we may be prone to worry if it is a sign of Alzheimer’s. But according to an article at WebMD, some memory loss is perfectly normal, especially as we age.
In fact, many people in their 20s and 30s experience exactly the same types of memory lapses. Time is memory’s worst enemy according to Stuart Zola, PhD. professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Emory School of Medicine and director of Yerkes National Primate Facility in Atlanta.
“If we have forgotten an appointment, we begin thinking, ‘Uh oh, is this the first sign of Alzheimer’s disease?’ and we become much more conscious, and it gets kind of a disproportionate amount of attention when it really may be something quite benign”
How can you tell is your memory lapses are normal or something for concern? What physical conditions other than Alzhiemer’s can cause memory problems?
Read Is Your Memory Normal at WebMD
It’s depressing that virtually everything in this section is about disabilities or problems associated with later age. I am 70, my wife 60, and we live in an adorable lodge deep in the frozen forest of Quebec. We heat with a wood-fired stove most of the time, and are in the lap of luxury in the midst of some of the world’s most spectacular mountainous beauty. We must clear the private road ourselves (snow more than a meter deep this week) riding our plow-mounted ATV (me) or trudging behind our 12 horsepower monster snow blower (her). We both drive high 4X4 vehicles, and are endlessly occupied by daily life in the forest, although I am a retired senior exec from Toronto and she is a retired medical biologist from Budapest. Last summer we bought a honking big VT1100 Honda Shadow, I passed the motorcycle learners tests and this summer I’ll get my full license so me and the ol’ lady’ll do us some cruisin’. Us older folks ain’t all incapacitated.
By Barry Rosenberg on March 7th, 2007 at 10:15 am
It’s me again, Barry! I do the technical stuff behind Golden Agers and occasionally write a post to help out Andrea - I saw your comment and couldn’t resist answering, especially as Andrea is away at the moment and so not able to answer for a while.
We are very much aware of what you’re saying and have tried to make the site interesting and informative without a concentration on ailments and so on. The trouble is, we also feel a duty to inform our readers of any new medical breakthroughs and research as this might concern some of them. It’s essentially a matter of getting the balance right - and I admit that there are times when we err on the side of too much medical info.
It would help us a great deal if readers were to comment more often, just as you have, and let us know where their interests lie and what they would like to read about. We have tried nostalgia in the form of old movies, humor, computer games (a whole series of posts by yours truly!), well known faces from the past, and all sorts of things but, when we have so little feedback from readers, it’s hard to know what is appreciated and what is not.
So thank you very much for your honest and full response - it gives us carte blanche to experiment even further!
You wouldn’t consider swapping lifestyles, would you?
By Clive on March 7th, 2007 at 2:14 pm