Normal Forgetfulness - Is It Forgetfulness Or Dementia: Alzheimers

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Normal forgetfulness

Normal forgetfulness is neither progressive nor disabling. Such memory problems are likely to surface when you're under stress, fatigued, ill, distracted, or overloaded. Typically, you remember the forgotten information later. Like most people, you probably rely on written reminders and other memory-jogging techniques to overcome this kind of forgetfulness.

A certain increase in forgetfulness seems to be a normal by-product of aging and is perhaps a result of changes in the brain that begin around age 50, such as a gradual loss of receptors on brain cells and a decline in certain neurotransmitters. Blood flow to the brain cells falls after age 30, and this decline could also impair memory. Researchers have found that half to two-thirds of people age 50 or over have some degree of memory loss.

Researchers disagree over how much deterioration is normal. Comparisons of younger and older people's scores on memory, learning, and intelligence tests suggest that mental sharpness declines only slightly with age. But whether such comparisons are valid is questionable because timed tests may favor the younger person. The older person's information processing is a little slower: In one study, elderly people took 20–40 milliseconds longer than younger people to detect gaps in circles.

Thus, the lower scores of older persons may simply reflect a slowing of their responses, not a reduction in their mental sharpness. People may require more time and effort to learn new information as they age, but once they've learned it, they retain it as well as younger people. In practical terms, slightly slower thinking is not necessarily a disadvantage. It may actually reflect more thorough reasoning and result in fewer mistakes.

It's important to note, though, that memory loss isn't inevitable. There are many things you can do to preserve or sharpen your memory, including learning memory-enhancing techniques, reducing stress, and improving your organizational techniques (for example, always writing down appointments or having a designated spot for belongings such as keys and eyeglasses). It's also important to regularly challenge your mind with activities such as reading, doing crossword puzzles, playing chess, or taking classes. Experts believe that these kinds of activities help build and maintain synapses, the small gaps between neurons that enable them to communicate with one another.

Much age-related mental decline is due to poor vision or hearing, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, sleep disturbances, alcohol abuse, depression, or medications that interfere with the mental processes. Addressing these conditions can also make a difference. In the final analysis, changes people see in themselves or a relative are far more likely to be signs of some other health problem, not early dementia.

Last updated:	January 23, 2007