5 Signs of Short Term Memory Loss

Short Term Memory Loss

Your elderly loved one has undoubtedly changed over the years, perhaps they are not as active or as healthy as they once were. For many individuals, Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease are major concerns, and these illnesses and others often manifest themselves in the form of short term memory loss.  To help keep your elderly loved one as healthy and happy as possible, it is crucial that you pay close attention and catch short term memory loss right when it begins. The following are five signs that short term memory loss may be present.

Decline in Cognitive Capabilities

1. Forgetting recent events or activities can be difficult to pinpoint at first, but this symptom of short term memory loss can quickly escalate and even cause dementia. Individuals with this symptom may have a difficult time planning or organizing, may forget to take their medicine, or may not pay bills on time.

Speech Confusion 

2. Speech confusion. When elderly individuals have a difficult time finding the right words, or mix up the meaning of common words, this may be a sign of short term memory loss.

Changes in Mood or Personality 

3. Individuals who suffer from short term memory loss may have the constant feeling that something is… off. This can prompt them to act in a different way than normal, and may cause anxiety or other distress.

Disorientation 

4. Though visiting a new place can be disorienting for anyone, it is something that most people can navigate. For individuals who have short term memory loss, coping with unfamiliar surroundings can be difficult because they may not remember how they arrived in this new place.

Repetitiveness

5. Elderly individuals who suffer from short term memory loss may ask the same question several times, or repeatedly make the same observation.

Though there really is no cure for memory loss, mild cases can be treated. The key is to address the issue quickly, before it becomes too severe. By watching out for these five signs of memory loss, you may be able to pinpoint short term issues and have them treated quickly. Additionally, paying close attention to the behavior of your elderly loved one will also allow you to better care for their needs.

How does the aging process affect driving ability?

by Julia Layton

The fact is, human beings age at different rates. Some drivers are as safe at 80 as they were at 40, while others probably should give up driving at 65. There are countless factors affecting an older person’s safety behind the wheel. Driving is a complex task, and it involves many systems, both physical and mental, all of which need to be in top form in order to handle the quickly changing environment of the road.

One of most drastic physical changes that occurs with age is vision deterioration. Light reception is what enables us to see, and as we age, our eyes become less sensitive to light. Also, refocusing from one object to the next takes longer, so the “simple” task of checking the speedometer and then moving our attention back to the car ahead of us becomes a lot less simple. Older eyes are also more susceptible to glare because the lenses of the eyes thicken and the pupils shrink as we get older. According to the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation, someone who is 55 takes eight times longer to regain normal vision after exposure to bright light than someone who is 16. Other visual systems affected by aging include peripheral vision, depth perception and color perception. An older person may have trouble distinguishing red lights from yellow lights or brake lights from running lights. Also, many seniors suffer from vision disorders like cataracts and macular degeneration.

All of this makes it more difficult to read road signs, react quickly to busy road conditions and accurately determine distance and speed.

Another function affected by the aging process is hearing. Hearing is an important part of safe driving — it allows us to react properly to ambulance and police sirens and the honking horns of people trying to warn us of danger or mistakes. Thirty-three percent of people over the age of 65 have some degree of hearing loss. Over the age of 75, that number goes up to 75 percent. Motor skills also suffer with age. Muscles weaken, reflexes slow down and flexibility decreases. This all makes it harder to do things like turn your head to make sure it’s safe to change lanes and quickly turn the steering wheel to avoid a collision. Also, arthritis is very common among senior citizens, making quick and fluid motion and maneuverability even more difficult.

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Antidepressants Tied To Higher Risk Of Falls In Nursing Home Residents With Dementia

Compared to similar people who don’t take them, nursing home residents with dementia who take average doses of a class of drugs used to treat depression are three times more likely to have an injurious fall. These are the findings of a new study from The Netherlands published online in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology on Wednesday.
Falls are a serious health problem for nursing home residents with dementia, particularly as one-third of all falls in such establishments result in injury. (In this study, the researchers noted an average rate of 3 falls per resident with dementia per year).
Many nursing home residents with dementia also have depression. The type of drug most commonly prescribed for them is a class of antidepressants known as serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
Lead author Carolyn Shanty Sterke, from the Section of Geriatric Medicine at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, and colleagues, found the link between use of SSRIs and the risks of injurious falls in this group was present at low doses and rose steadily with increasing doses.

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New Way to Smuggle Drugs Into Brain May Lead to Better Alzheimer’s Treatments

 

by Valerie Ross in Health & Medicine, Mind & Brain |

What’s the News: A modified antibody can make its way into the brain and target the development of Alzheimer’s-inducing plaques, researchers reported today in two animal studies in Science Translational Medicine. The blood-brain barrier usually keeps drugs and other compounds from entering the brain in large enough quantities to be effective, but these studies show a way to trick the body’s own defenses into letting the drug in, demonstrating that this obstacle to treating Alzheimer’s could potentially be overcome.

How the Heck:

• Antibodies—immune proteins that attack disease-causers like viruses and bacteria—are far too big to fit through the blood-brain barrier under normal circumstances. But because of the brain’s need for iron, one protein is routinely ferried across the barrier: transferrin, which binds to iron in the blood.
• So, the researchers added a molecular structure to the antibody that essentially fooled receptors in the blood-brain barrier into treating the antibody as though it were transferrin, picking it up from the bloodstream and releasing it on the other side, into the brain. Ten times as much of the modified antibody made it past the barrier, compared to a version of the antibody without the add-on.
• The researchers tailored the antibody to bind to BACE1, an enzyme that contributes to the formation of Alzheimer’s-triggering plaques. The antibody successfully bound to BACE1, interfering with the formation of the plaques.
• The antibody reduced amyloid-beta levels in the brain by about 20% in some animal types and about 50% in others, the researchers found.

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9 Brain Foods that Prevent Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

Eat your way to a healthier mind with these essential foods for the brain

Repeating a question over and over again, having problem spelling commonly used words and losing control over one’s behaviors and emotions are some dementia symptoms that slowly destroy the life of the victim as well as the lives of those around him.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in people aged 65 and older. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, up to 5.3 million Americans are suffering from this disease and every 70 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s!

While it may seem that Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia is an inevitable side effect of aging, some studies are suggesting that dietary interventions may help protect against mental decline and even prevent brain-wasting diseases.

As the cause of dementia is linked to long-term inflammation in the body, foods that possess prominent anti-inflammatory effects may be able to delay age-related cognitive disorders when they are included into one’s diet. In this article, we look at nine commonly available foods that hold this promise.

1. Dark Chocolate
2. Red Wine
3. Clam
4. Asparagus
5. Wild Salmon
6. Walnut
7. Cherry
8. Termeric
9. Apple

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