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Are Your Memory Lapses Normal?
Some memory change is normal as you age. Even if differences in your memory performance are noticeable, there’s no cause for alarm—they may be within a normal range for your age, and may not affect your ability to perform activities of daily living and communicate with others. It also is possible that your memory lapses are caused by health issues that are treatable, or medications you may be able to avoid. What should you expect from your memory as you age, and what can you do to improve your memory?
Cognitive Changes Just as your body gets older, so does your brain. While it may be memory lapses—what we often refer to as “senior moments”—that are the most obvious age-related changes, your older brain’s processing speed also may slow, making it harder for you to multitask, perform mental math, and encode and/or retrieve new information. “Your brain is, in a sense, less agile,” says Mount Sinai geriatrician Patricia Bloom, MD. “More repetition is needed to learn something new. While someone in their 20s might learn a list of words after hearing it just once or twice, someone in their 70s might need to hear it many more times to learn it. The good news is that you likely can learn it, if you keep studying the list—and the things you learned when you were younger, like riding a bike, are still deeply embedded in your memory.”
Mention Consistent Problems to Your Doctor Some memory problems may be more profound than senior moments, but even then, they may not necessarily be a cause for alarm. “For example, not being good at putting names to faces doesn’t signal impending dementia if you’ve never been particularly good at remembering faces,” Dr. Bloom explains. What may warrant medical evaluation is a pattern or consistent problems with your memory—for example, forgetting things you normally wouldn’t; being confused by tasks that are routine; getting lost in familiar surroundings; being unable to follow and take part in conversations; and feeling overwhelmed by relatively simple decisions. “So: forgetting the name of an acquaintance but remembering it a minute later is fine—forgetting you ever met that person in the first place likely isn’t,” Dr. Bloom says. “Not being able to recall who wrote a book you recently read isn’t something to panic about—but if you read the same book again from cover to cover without realizing that you read it before, that could suggest a problem.” (Also see What You Should Know.)
Is There a Treatable Cause? Keep in mind that memory lapses can be caused by conditions like depression and delirium. “Depression often affects a person’s ability to concentrate,” Dr. Bloom observes. “This means that memory problems associated with depression tend to impact executive function, which is the ability to plan, organize, and problem-solve.” Research suggests that in cognitive testing, people whose memory issues are linked to depression are more likely to reply, “I don’t know,” to the questions they are asked.
Depression is a treatable condition, so if you have symptoms (these include feelings of intense sadness and/or worthlessness, decreased pleasure in usual activities, irritability, and fatigue) speak to your doctor.
Delirium is caused by an underlying medical issue, such as a urinary tract infection, and manifests as sudden mental confusion that may come and go. People with the condition also may be unusually drowsy, and their verbal fluency may be affected. “Delirium is reversible once the underlying cause is diagnosed and treated,” Dr. Bloom says. “This needs to happen as quickly as possible since there is evidence that the longer delirium lasts, the less likely it is your cognition will fully recover.”
Medications also can underlie memory issues in old age. Be especially cautious about anticholinergic drugs. These work by inhibiting the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which relays signals between brain cells. Anticholinergics include common drugs for movement disorders, urinary incontinence, peripheral neuropathy, and insomnia. Ask your doctor or pharmacist if any of the drugs you take have anticholinergic properties (see our November 2018 issue for more information on this). Also be wary of benzodiazepines, which include sleeping pills, anxiety medications, muscle relaxants, anti-seizure medications, and tranquilizers. “But don’t stop taking any prescribed or doctor-recommended drugs without first discussing any memory-related side effects with your doctor, since abruptly withdrawing some drugs also may cause memory problems,” Dr. Bloom adds. “If you are taking drugs that are known to affect memory, it may be that reducing the dose or substituting another drug will help.”
Be Patient With Your Brain There are things you can do that may help improve your day-to-day memory. “It’s also important to be patient with your brain,” Dr. Bloom concludes. “Accept that it will take longer to learn new things, and try not to get too frustrated by your forgetfulness.”
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