Tag: Mid-life

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Health Menopause

Mid-life Memory Problems – Part 3

Brain “overload”

One factor that is problematic for our generation, is the level of information and distraction we are exposed to every day. Advertisements compete for our attention constantly – advertisers are expert at stealing our focus from what it is we want to accomplish.

We know that to remember something, we need to pay attention, take the information in, process it and store it properly. Studies have shown that multitasking, doing two or more things at once, takes longer than doing each separately. The brain can only focus on one thing at a time and switching between tasks wastes time as we refocus on the new activity.

At least some of the large companies that have been so successful at grabbing our attention, like Facebook, Instagram and Amazon, are realizing the damage they are doing and have started to talk about changing their strategies. Both have recently rolled out programs to meter your time on their platforms to enable us to regain some control.

So, if you want to remember something, turn off the social media and its advertising, give it your full attention and only take on one task at a time.

Medications

Sleeping pills and tranquilizers are known to decrease memory and can even cause periods of amnesia in some people. While this may be due to the drowsiness they cause, slowing brain function, it could also be because of the receptors for messaging chemicals (or neurotransmitters) that they block in the brain.

Receptor blocking is thought to be the problem with anticholinergic drugs that can cause marked memory decrease in some people. These drugs block the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, from doing its work in the hippocampus memory center, either as their mode of action or as a side effect. Anti-nausea drugs, antihistamines and some anti-depressants have this anticholinergic effect; the more drowsiness the drug causes, generally the greater the anticholinergic effect it has.

Beta-blockers, a class of drugs used for blood pressure and after a heart attack, can also reduce memory, as can some stomach drugs, in particular, Zantac and Pepcid.

Corticosteroids such as prednisone, which mimic our cortisol, can decrease memory by the same mechanism that high natural cortisol levels can when we have a lot of stress, as described in last week’s blog.

And chemotherapy can cause a general brain fogginess, due to its toxicity, that is nicknamed “chemo brain” by some patients.

Diseases and medical conditions

Lastly, some medical conditions can reduce brain function. Weight loss, where sugar intake is reduced, results in a decreased supply of the brain’s favourite food.

Lyme Disease, caused by a bacterium that is carried by infected ticks, can eventually affect brain function and memory if the initial infection is not detected and treated.

Insulin resistance is a condition where the body becomes insensitive to insulin, requiring higher amounts to be released into the blood to move blood sugar into muscle and storage sites. It is present in people with Type 2 diabetes (adult onset) and pre-diabetes. Researchers have found a strong association between people with insulin resistance, those with declining memory, and risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Minimal Traumatic Brain Injury

Next, we know that concussions cause brain damage, but minimally traumatic brain injuries can cause problems too, especially if repeated. These are bumps or sudden direction changes that don’t cause loss of conscience but are still traumatic enough to create microscopic tears and bleeding in the brain. Sometimes the results of this damage only show as headaches or dizziness but can return in mid-life, as memory loss.

How can you know if it’s more than just “age”?

Doctors will often use a simple test, called the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) to evaluate brain function. It consists of 30 questions that assess language, orientation, calculation, attention, recall and visuospatial function (the ability to analyze space and visual forms). However, the test is really geared to detect people with overt dementia. It isn’t sensitive enough to detect early stages of a dementia like Alzheimer’s. A person with high mental functioning can drop to normal – a serious change for them – but still test out as having nothing wrong, especially when the various test results are totalled and averaged.

Specialized centers, however, can conduct in-depth memory and brain function tests that can detect changes in individual areas of the brain by testing the memory and cognitive functions specific to each area of the brain. These tests are expensive and time-consuming, however, and are not commonly done.

Generally, though, you don’t need to worry if you’ve just misplaced your keys or lose your train of thought occasionally. Being unable to find your way home when doing errands, for example, is likely to suggest a more serious problem. However, if you notice a dramatic change in your memory or ability to accomplish daily tasks, it’s reason to have a discussion with your doctor.

I hope this series of articles has given you some ideas for changes you could make to improve your memory or perhaps has helped you detect an underlying cause of your forgetfulness!

References:

Finding it hard to focus? New York Times

Insulin Resistance May Boost Risk of Memory Loss

Categories
Health

Mid-life Memory Problems – Part 1

Have you ever gone to the kitchen or bedroom, only to completely forget what you wanted to do once you’d arrived? Have you ever been unable to find a common word or lost your train of thought, mid-conversation? It’s enough to make you worry you might be losing your mind… and it happens to too many of us after age 50 or even 40…

Yes, it’s happened to me too – so embarrassing and frustrating – and to many of my friends and family. We try to laugh it off as an “old-timer moment” or a “brain fart” although secretly we worry it might be an early sign of serious memory problems. But how would you know? I decided to do some reading to see what I could learn…

Like every part of the body, your brain cells age over the years. Researchers once thought we were born with all the brain cells we would ever have, but in more recent years they’ve realized this isn’t correct. Your brain is “plastic” – it grows and changes with use, creating new nerve cell branches and connections as you make new memories and learn new skills. And new neurons are created too, a process called “neurogenesis”.

“Use it or lose it”

So, the first piece of advice for maintaining a good memory, is to continue to learn throughout your life so you will constantly create new brain nerve cells (called neurons) and new connections between these neurons in your brain. If you aren’t building new connections and reinforcing old ones by using them, the number of connections (and the efficiency of your brain!) will gradually decrease over time. And it’s never too late to start…

The more complex the skill is that you are learning and the less familiar you are with the concept, the better it is for your brain function. For example, learning a new language is highly recommended to keep your overall brain function sharp. I guess I made a good decision when I started learning Spanish several years ago. Trying something that is out of your comfort zone is also recommended, as you will need to work harder at learning – presumably creating more new brain pathways in the effort.

Another approach you could consider, to use and build your brain, is one of the online “brain exercises”. One I came across, MyBrainTrainer.com, is worth looking at, especially if you have frequent memory problems and want an easy way to start rebuilding. It uses a gaming format and compares your scores with their average user, so you can track your improvement. It’s free for the first 3 months to see if you find it useful.

Diet

The second piece of advice I learned, is to look at your diet. While a healthy, balanced diet is recommended to support all parts of the body, fats are needed for healthy brain cells, and specifically omega-3 fats. Nerve cells in the brain have a fatty coating called myelin, that you could think of as “insulation”. When it becomes damaged, the nerve can short-circuit. In Multiple Sclerosis, many nerves lose their myelin protection, and nerve signals to muscles and organs (such as the eyes) can completely fail resulting in inability to move or blindness. In the brain, with its billions of nerve cells, the loss of function of individual neurons is not always so obvious.

Omega-3 fats are found in seafood but be aware that some fish contain methyl mercury which can harm your memory, especially large lazy fish like tuna (albacore and ahi tuna), swordfish and shark, that eat smaller fish, concentrating the mercury or those caught in lakes that contain large amounts of run-off surface water (the Great Lakes, for example). Salmon, shrimp, tilapia, canned light tuna and catfish are said to generally have lower mercury levels. And little fish like sardines, anchovies, and scallops tend to be low, being lower in the food chain that concentrates mercury. An omega-3 supplement that has been tested for methyl mercury content might be a good choice to increase your intake, unless you can verify the mercury content of the seafood you purchase.

The main fuel for your brain is glucose, so eating complex carbohydrates is thought to be helpful for memory. These foods – whole grains, beans, peas and vegetables – release their glucose more slowly, keeping your brain supplied with its favourite fuel much longer than simple sugary foods do.

You also want to avoid “brain rust”, oxidation damage to your brain cells. Oxidation is a natural process: oxygen radicals, that are produced as a by-product of our metabolism, cause damage to healthy cells. As we age, we become less efficient at repairing the damage they cause. Eating anti-oxidant foods can help prevent as much damage from occurring. Colourful fruits and vegetables contain lots of antioxidants, hence the recommendation to serve a colourful plate. But other foods can contain high levels of antioxidants too. These include onions, artichokes and russet potatoes; green and black tea; red wine, grape juice, and pomegranate juice; nuts, such as peanuts with their skin, almonds and pecans; and spices, such as cinnamon and turmeric. It’s been reported that in India, where the average diet contains plenty of turmeric-containing curry and seafood, the occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease is one-quarter of the rate in North America.

I have more to say about helping your memory, but it’s August and I know there are too many things to do outside to spend time reading a long article… So, I’ll continue this topic next week with other information I learned about how to keep your brain at its best!

If you haven’t already, sign up to my mailing list to make sure you don’t miss Part 2 of how to improve your Mid-life Memory Problems… just click the red button beside or below!

References:

Carved in Sand – Cathryn Jakobson Ramin

Mercury guide

Progesterone: The Multiple Roles of a Remarkable Hormone – Dr. John Lee