Slipping Your Mind: What Are You Doing About Your Memory Loss?

You walk into a room in your house and promptly forget why you did so. Or you start an online purchase and forget your zipcode when prompted. Or maybe you’re out running an errand and momentarily forget the name of the acquaintance you bump into. Are you losing your mind? Or maybe just your memory. Is this normal, or should you start worrying? Experts claim that memory loss affects more than ⅓ of adults over age 70. So some memory loss can be normal, and if prompted, you likely recall what you forgot. If it becomes more consistent and begins to disrupt your daily activities, then you may be on a more worrisome path, including a potential dementia diagnosis. But sliding into dementia involves more than just memory loss. It includes poor judgment, disorientation in familiar places, personality changes, and potentially financial mistakes, among other signs. It is possible to experience memory loss without necessarily progressing to a more worrisome dementia phase. How do you know when it’s time to seek out professional help to discern what’s going on with your memory? You may want to first test yourself at home with some easy-to-access quizzes and tests. Your memory could be problematic for a range of reasons outside of dementia, including stress, insufficient sleep, nutritional deficiencies, medication side-effects, or mental health challenges such as depression or alcohol abuse. Before contacting your physician, consider trying out some recommended assessments to better understand the nature of your memory lapses. Available tests and assessments include an online Mini-Mental Status Exam; the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation Memory Quiz; the SAGE memory test; a word recollection quiz from Very Well Mind; or a memory assessment published by Psychology Today. A worrisome result should be your impetus to take the next step in contacting your health care provider for further assessment. As we said, memory lapses may not mean you are heading for a dementia diagnosis. There can be many remediable reasons why your memory is coming up short, but it’s important to follow up to identify what is going on.

One new study reports a direct link between memory problems and an unhealthy diet. According to this new research published in the journal Neuron, ultra-processed junk food can put your memory at risk and rewire your brain. Even the short-term consumption of a high-fat, processed diet can rapidly affect your brain health. Researchers were able to determine that brain cells in the hippocampus (the region of the brain most connected to memory) become overactive when exposed to a high-fat, saturated diet, thereby impairing the functioning of the hippocampus. The negative impact can show up even before this unhealthy diet results in weight gain or insulin resistance. Correcting the diet or taking targeted medications can restore functioning and prevent long-term damage, but it underscores how susceptible the brain and its memory capabilities are to diet and nutrition. Other nutritional influences can also impact memory. For example, a B12 deficiency can interfere with memory functioning, as can low levels of vitamin D, Vitamin B1, and Omega-3 fatty acids. Older adults and those who stick to a plant-based diet are especially susceptible to low levels of Vitamin B12, so those experiencing memory issues would definitely want to have their vitamin levels checked to discern if something reversible is going on.

Other recent scientific advances have broadened our understanding of aging and memory loss.  A new study published in Nature Communications examined the brain scans and memory tests from over 3700 cognitively healthy older adults to better understand the connection between memory loss and brain shrinkage. While the research confirmed the important role of the hippocampus in preserving memory, many other areas of the brain were also implicated, suggesting that multiple neural networks in the brain play a role in a faltering memory. In fact, the research underscored that preserving memory function may require more fulsome efforts at supporting brain health years or even decades before memory problems arise. The brain appears to have some sort of threshold that, once breached, can lead to rapid memory decline, especially as one reaches their 80s and beyond. In essence, it’s not just brain shrinkage that impacts memory recall, suggesting that brain health, resilience, and aging interact in a complicated, non-linear manner, rather than a logical progressive loss of memory function. For more on this research, click here and here. While memory loss can be frustrating or even scary, gaining a better understanding of your situation can lead to potential reversals of the problem or at least better insights as to how to protect and preserve your memory as you get older.