How Is Your Memory?

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How Is Your Memory?
Some Information and Self-tests From Use It or Lose It

We are all aware of the problems faced by a graying society as the baby boomer demographic bulge moves towards retirement age. With the increasing numbers of old people, health care costs are starting to spiral and Social Security payments to balloon. One of the most prominent health care concerns these days is Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Just 30 years ago it was considered a rarity. Now, four million people have it in the U.S. alone. According to public health authorities, that translates into an annual financial burden of $100 billion. We can predict that, over the next 20 years, the numbers of people with the disease, and with it the financial burden, will go up by a factor of three.

On a more personal level, each one of us finds it unbearable that, simply by aging, we could lose our personality, our enjoyment of life, our memory, and ultimately our social acceptability. Fortunately, research into the biochemistry of aging and technology for manipulating that process are advancing rapidly. New technologies allow researchers to watch what parts of a living human brain are activated when its owner responds to test questions.

Research results are accumulating daily identifying new roles for the brain’s chemical messengers. We discover how identified groups of brain cells work together to process information. We uncover the actions of “stress” hormones, growth hormones, and other crucially important elements of the brain’s complex and flexible support system. Forget something?

It has become possible for scientists to identify specific genes that trigger memory storage, addiction, and other responses to the environment. These discoveries are being published in scientific journals today; they will change the way humans live in the next generation. But what can we do now? The baby boomer generation is turning 50 years old at the rate of six people per second as you read this. What can they do now to keep their lives interesting as their old age stretches out before them? How can they avoid losing their awareness of themselves and becoming an institutionalized burden on their families?

Warning signs

Often, symptoms that seem alarming signposts to dementia are typical of what is considered normal, healthy aging. All old people tend to experience memory loss or forgetfulness, occasional difficulty remembering a word or a name, and difficulty learning new tasks (how to use a personal computer, for example). Middle-aged and older people who are perfectly healthy may misinterpret insignificant mental lapses as dementia symptoms. The chart, below, has been compiled by the Alzheimer’s Association, to describe the most useful points of distinction between normal aging and dementia.

Age is the main risk factor The single most important risk factor for AD is age. At age 65, only about two out of 100 people have serious mental disabilities that turn out to be AD. By age 80, some current research shows that the ratio rises to at least 20 in 100 — one in five. By age 90, about half of all people have the disease. Four million older, adult Americans now have AD, and as the over-65 population increases over the next 20 years, the number is expected to triple

Normal Aging versus Dementia Very early symptoms of progressive dementia, including AD, are mild — the sort of forgetfulness common among most older people, and even among some middle-aged ones. As the disease progresses, it becomes more easily distinguished from simple benign forgetfulness.
		Normal	Dementia
1) Memory loss at work		Occasionally forgetting an assignment, deadline, or colleague’s name	Frequent forgetfulness and unexplainable confusion
2) Difficulty with familiar tasks		Occasional distractedness — forgetting to serve a dish that was intended to be included with a meal, for example	Severe forgetfulness — forgetting that you made a meal at all, for example
3) Language impairment		Occasional difficult finding the right word	Frequent and severe difficulty finding the right word, resulting in speech that does not make sense
4) Disorientation		Occasionally forgetting the day of the week	Becoming lost on the way to the store
5) Judgment problems		Choosing an outfit that turns out to be somewhat warm or cold for the weather; for example neglecting to bring a sweater to a baseball game on a cool September evening	Dressing blatantly inappropriately; for example, wearing several layers of warm clothing on a hot summer day
6) Abstract thinking difficulties		Occasional difficulty balancing a checkbook accurately	Inability to perform basic calculations, such as subtracting a check for $40 from a balance of $280
7) Misplacing objects		Misplacing keys or a wallet from time to time	Putting things in inappropriate places; for example, a wallet in the oven
8) Mood or behavior changes		Changes in mood from day to day	Rapid, dramatic mood swings with no apparent cause
9) Personality changes		Moderate personality change with age	Dramatic and disturbing personality change; for example, a traditionally easygoing person becoming hostile or angry
10) Reduced initiative		Temporarily tiring of social obligations or household chores	Permanent loss of interest in many or all social activities or chores
	(Source: Alzheimer’s Association Web site: www.alz.org.)

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