Aging process can change the memory
Last week I began a discussion of age-related memory changes. Research on memory and aging is beginning to reveal interesting and useful information as to why we experience memory changes as we age. Although some of these changes can be attributed to disease, others are simply changes due to the aging process itself.
Knowing the difference between these two types of changes is important. Some of the changes that can be more serious include:
• A deterioration in vocabulary often resorting to the use of many clichés in conversation.
• The development of difficulty in articulating complex ideas.
• Consistently forgetting appointments, schedules or difficulty in learning new things.
• Friends and family becoming concerned about memory problems and lessening of one’s ability to function at work or socially.
• Not being able to remember things like the name of the president of the United States.
• The development of difficulties in dressing.
• Frequent irritability and being easily frustrated.
• Forgetting directions, becoming easily lost in familiar places or having difficulty remembering where you were 15 minutes before.
Are your symptoms changing? Some people have always been forgetful.
But do you or others notice that your memory problems are getting worse from year to year. A medical evaluation can rule out a serious brain disease or memory condition that can be reversed.
Cognitive changes in later life can be due to a combination of such influences as a slow down in the central nervous system’s processing abilities, physical changes in the brain, certain diseases, the use of certain medications and the simple fact that some older people don’t feel challenged to use their memories later in life and simply begin to have a difficulty because of disuse.
Studies show that in a healthy aging brain, any loss of brain cells is fairly modest and confined to specific areas of the brain.
Although brain changes do occur in the normal, healthy aging brains, authorities feel that because of a redundancy of interconnections among brain cells, the brain compensates for much of the loss.
Some experts in memory and aging point out that problems arise because we have to remember so much more than we did a generation ago.
Your phone number, social security number and address were often the extent of an individual’s memory obligations in years past. Now, we have all of the above plus fax numbers, cell phone numbers, e-mail addresses, tax I.D. numbers, etc.
We are all leading extremely busy lives, and we’re juggling much more information than we were 20 years ago.
Next week I will complete my discussion of memory and aging by discussing memory aids.
