Loosing Memory

[Roxie]

It effects me here.

So,boss, who's in charge of telling ya if that ever happens?  Asking for a friend. 

[Jeff]

Whoever cares enough i guess. I dunno. Its a conundrum.  

[JJ]

Maybe if you could just get some good sleep, things will improve.

         JJ

[petefrom bearswamp]

Jeff I have the same family type issues.
My mother her mother and sister all went the Alzheimers route and it gives me pause when I forget stuff names especially. 

[Jeff]

Maybe if you could just get some good sleep, things will improve.

        JJ

I honestly think that has much to do with it.

[BradMarks]

Jeff:  You have been very open about your health issues, in detail, as they occur, things I never ever considered. That says a lot about your character and your thought processing.  Seems clear to me. A recent "Pluggers" pinpointed the reason:  It's the doorway opening that causes memory loss when you enter a room and forget why ;D.  Kidding aside, my wife's parents both passed from Alzheimers, painful to watch. And certainly when forgetfulness happens with her I stop and think about it. But, forgetting and memory loss are not the same. Age does play a factor.

[Gary_C]

Jeff, I have not posted anything about my situation yet but I have been dealing with being a caregiver to my wife for the last two years or so as she has now been formally diagnosed with Alzheimer's. There is no definitive way to diagnose Alzheimer's other than with an autopsy but her recent brain scans show indicators that are consistent with others that have been confirmed with the disease. She has an upcoming MRI in December but I am uncertain what more we may learn from that test.

I would strongly suggest you read some books on Dementia/Alzheimer's and a very informative book that may help you understand some of the things you should be looking at is "The End of Alzheimer's"  by Dale Bredsen. The doctors at Mayo do not agree with his treatment method (they say it's far more complicated than he describes) but he accurately describes many of the factors that are important for your lifestyle.

At our last visit with the doctor in Neurology he emphasized twice that nothing is more important for retaining memory than getting a good nights sleep which is somewhat difficult with my wife as she also has sleep apnea and forgets to use her machine at night or takes it off after I go to sleep.

As far as how anyone gets Alzheimer's, the doctor told us that everyone he sees is somewhat uncertain where the disease came from. Genetics is not the only answer and my wife was also tested thru 23 and me and is negative for that APOE4 gene that is an indicator for Alzheimer's and has zero family history for dementia of any kind. The only other prime cause would be lifestyle but as the doctor told us it's far more complicated than one factor and they still do not know.

As far as treatment, there is still nothing significant. There was recently another spectacular failure of another amyloid plaque drug where hundreds of millions of dollars went down the drain. All of these drug failures to date have either not helped or made things worse and the drug companies have now been cured of trying to block the formulation of the amyloid plaque as a cure.

So the only advice I can give you is to read up on the lifestyle choices they believe will slow or prevent additional memory loss with the first thing is getting good sleep.        

[Magicman]

I have knee replacement surgery scheduled for the 18th so I needed to make a trip to the Cabin to get my Dad's walker to keep from having to buy one.  I hated to make a 90 mile round trip just to get the walker so I managed to squeeze in a half day on the tractor bushhogging, etc.

Yup, forgot to get the walker. 

[doctorb]

The important question is.....how many of those 90 miles were covered while bush hogging?   ;)

[thecfarm]

The way my mind works,or don't work,the walker goes in as soon as I get to the cabin. :(

[Brucer]

A comment I read a couple of years ago by a neurologist.

"If you're worried about your memory loss, you're probably OK. If your caregiver or spouse is worried about your memory loss and you aren't, then you have a problem."

[ponderosae]

The only other prime cause would be lifestyle but as the doctor told us it's far more complicated than one factor and they still do not know.

Right, there are at least a few factors, for example I came across a study about how the Japanese have had a significant increase in the rate of Alzheimer's disease since their diet has become mixed with Western influence. One of the things noted was an increase of iron in their diet.

Related to that, I've read that monosodium glutamate should not be fed (as an ingredient) to dementia patients, and that MSG is used to induce Alzheimer's symptoms in lab rats.

Those two may be compounding factors together, because glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter which can cause neurotoxicity (especially in dementia patients with impaired iron metabolism), and it can also cause iron to be concentrated in the brain (which is 'a hallmark in several neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s (PD) and Alzheimer’s (AD) diseases, multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and neuroferritinopathies').

Sugar is also known to cause memory problems, especially fructose (as in high fructose corn syrup). Either hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia can affect memory, because sugar(s) are involved in brain metabolism ('recent studies indicate that the hippocampus may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of fructose, with impaired synaptic plasticity and consequent decreased working memory performance after high-fructose diets').

As far as "loosing" goes, masticatory deficiency (especially tooth loss) has been associated with memory problems (in the development of dementia). Eating less at a time and less often can help in that case (and in general for preventing metabolic syndrome).

Other things that are said to help counter such issues are exercise as a lifestyle, and lycopene in the diet (eating more tomatoes for example). Dark chocolate was mentioned too (relative to counteracting MSG when used to induce neurotoxicity), but I'll note that cocoa is known to be one of the most commonly adulterated foods (and may contain excess heavy metals), something to consider before going on a chocolate diet (or you might want to prepare the cocoa beans yourself there).

Food for thought...

Here's a little bibliography of what I was referring to (and several other studies are interrelated as well--each of these articles has a bibliography too, aside from the abstracts):

Trends in diet and Alzheimer's disease during the nutrition transition in Japan and developing countries

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24037034

Foods that dementia patients should avoid

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https://braintest.com/5-foods-dementia-patients-should-avoid/

The Neuroprotective Effect of Dark Chocolate in Monosodium Glutamate-Induced Nontransgenic Alzheimer Disease Model Rats

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26673833

Effect of Glutamate on Brain Iron Metabolism and the Regulation Mechanism

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https://www.longdom.org/open-access/effect-of-glutamate-on-brain-iron-metabolism-and-the-regulation-mechanism-2157-7609-1000190.pdf

Iron and Mechanisms of Neurotoxicity

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https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijad/2011/720658/

Acute Effects of Glucose and Fructose Administration on the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Functioning in Healthy Subjects

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5857887/

Fructose alters hundreds of brain genes, which can lead to a wide range of diseases

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http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/fructose-alters-hundreds-of-brain-genes-which-can-lead-to-a-wide-range-of-diseases

Masticatory Deficiency as a Risk Factor for Cognitive Dysfunction

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3894406/

Impact of diet on adult hippocampal neurogenesis

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2775886/

Metabolic Syndrome and Neuroprotection

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5919958/

Resistance exercise reduces memory impairment induced by monosodium glutamate in male and female rats

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28436061

A review for the pharmacological effect of lycopene in central nervous system disorders

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30616078

Are the Chocolates We Consume Contaminated or Adulterated?

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https://foodsafetyhelpline.com/are%2Dthe%2Dchocolates%2Dwe%2Dconsume%2Dcontaminated%2Dor%2Dadulterated/

Let's not forget that life is a box of chocolates, though (I mean that the finer things in life are free, like the memories).

[Magicman]

Loosing my memory?  Nope, not me.  I remember last year like it was only yesterday.  

I intended to quote this original post "spoof" yesterday.....but I forgot.  :

[kantuckid]

My wife once had a meeting with a well known US senator from KY, Wendell Ford,  who told her he though he had "half-heimers" given that he could remember about half of what he knew he ought to know.

[EOTE]

Loosing my memory?  Nope, not me.  I remember last year like it was only yesterday.  

I intended to quote this original post "spoof" yesterday.....but I forgot.  :

Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.
There are two things I hate...brain farts when I can't remember something specific, and when the air clears a few minutes later, I remember what it was but now I can't remember why I needed to remember it.
I'm not loosing my memory, just flushing the hard drive of unneeded data.  I also need a RAM upgrade.  :D

[Magicman]

I just ran across an older topic on: Memory Loss in Health and Safety

[Al_Smith]

I've done some really odd things ,thinking one thing and doing the other .Drove a half mile down the road and realizing my "China clippers " were still in the cup and not in my head for one example .I misplace things on a regular basis but I always have .Forget peoples names,which I also always did .So from that aspect nothing has really changed just continued .

[kantuckid]

Memory is a funny thing. I've never been great with names but do remember facts from all over my life back to age 3 and techy information well too. I had a secretary at my old tech school job who was as poorly organized as anyone you'd ever met but she could remember students from 20 years previous.
I was once getting certified to give IQ tests, etc., and with permission I tested co-workers and their kids as they were handy. I did my own kids as well. I can assure you that IMO, IQ and being an organized, useful person or having great memory doesn't always go together.
My wife's gone on her two days a week alzheimers duty with her mom 150 RT miles away and she'll come home with yet another memory story about her Mom who hasn't known her for several years now. Last week she thought her oldest daughter was her cousin. Of course it's routine for them to live in their childhoods. Imagine a 95 year old worrying over having to get ready for school. Or "mommy's not come back from the outhouse", where is she...
We had left over sandwich wraps from eating out for my wife to take for supper but my MIL cannot eat them as she'll tear that type of food apart before ever trying a bite and by then it's become worthless. The other issue is she'll ruin her food with large dumps of milk, papper , salt water, you name it. Has to watched 24/7, they have a camera on her bed like a baby in her home. My MIL is a retired postmaster on a great pension but runs out of in home care money ~ a year from now. The it's the government takes her home & land time, stupid world we live in.