What Causes Age-Related Memory Loss and 4 Ways to Fight It

Ever been to a party and can’t remember the name of the person you’re talking to? Or do you find yourself tearing up your house trying to find your keys? Your first thought may be, “What’s wrong with me? “And you could even skip ahead to the question” Could I develop early-onset Alzheimer’s disease? “

The good news is that these kinds of memory problems can occur at any age, reassures Gary Small, MD, president of psychiatry at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey and author ofThe memory bible.

In fact, they may look slightly worse now due to months of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, says Dr Small. (This should resolve as we resume our regular activities and life returns to normal, however.)

But it’s also true that subtle changes in memory can occur as early as your twenties. Here’s a look at how memory declines with age, and what you can do about it.

It’s a dirty little secret that your memory naturally declines by about 2% in every decade of life, which means your memory is worse at 30 than at 20 (sorry!).

But there is a bona fide scientific explanation: “It’s due to the narrowing of your hippocampus, the part of your brain that stores memories,” says neurologist Majid Fotuhi, MD, PhD, medical director of the NeuroGrow Brain Fitness Center at McLean, Virginia.

High blood pressure, especially in middle age, is associated with a higher risk of dementia later in life, according to the American Heart Association. Untreated high blood pressure narrows and blocks arteries everywhere, including your brain, says Dr. Fotuhi.

High cholesterol is also toxic to your brain: it triggers the formation of beta-amyloid protein, a key player in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a May 2018 study inChemistry of nature.

Other conditions, such as untreated sleep apnea or depression, can also harm your brain, notes Dr. Fotuhi.

And if you have hearing issues, get it checked out: September 2019 research inThe hearing diaryshows a link between hearing loss and dementia. (It’s not yet clear whether one causes the other, but it can’t hurt to see a doctor for hearing problems.)

You may notice that you are especially forgetful when you are pregnant or in your 40s or 50s during menopause. This is due to the temporary drop in estrogen, says Dr. Small. Once your hormones regulate, your memory should return to normal.

As short-term memory begins to plummet around age 35, crystallized intelligence, or the accumulation of facts and knowledge, peaks in the late 1960s or early 1970s, according to a Harvard study by april 2015Psychological sciences.

“It’s very different from what we expected to see, say, 30 years ago, and that’s due in large part to the fact that today’s seniors, aka baby boomers, are older. likely to have a college education, professional white – collar jobs that involve a lot of reading and thinking, and which are just more intellectually stimulated in general, ”says Dr Small.

And while younger people can remember things faster or grasp new concepts faster, older people have an advantage because they are sometimes able to take shortcuts.

“The older you are, the more likely you are to rely on your past experiences or extensive social media to solve a problem,” says Dr Small.

While there are parts of age-related memory decline that are beyond your control, there are many things you can do to help maintain healthy memory during your golden years.

“One third of your brain is made up of blood vessels, so it’s no surprise that there is a link between physical form and brain volume,” says Dr. Fotuhi.

He mentions the research of February 2011 inPNAS, In which the elderly briskly walked for 40 minutes three times a week for a year. The result? Their seahorses grew by about 2 percent (the hippocampus normally shrinks by about 0.5 percent per year).

“Basically, they’ve gone back to four years of brain aging,” says Dr. Fotui.

Here is another one: A study from June 2017 inGerontology journals: series Afound an association between low physical activity and the risk of dementia. Researchers performed MRI scans on around 2,000 people over 60 and found that the more active they were, the larger their hippocampus – the most protective effects seen in people over 75.

In other words: “It’s never too late to start [exercising]”says Dr Fotuhi.

It’s also important to avoid over-sitting during the day, even if you tend to be physically active.

An April 2018 study (published by Dr Small) inPLOS AExamined adults aged 45 to 75 and found that those who sat three to seven hours a day had substantial thinning of their median temporal lobe (MTL), where the brain forms new memories. It also usually precedes dementia, notes Dr. Small.

Stress itself is toxic to brain cells: “It kills them and shrinks both the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, two areas of the brain responsible for memory and learning,” says Dr. Fotuhi.

An April 2018 review of studies inBMJ Openwhich followed nearly 30,000 people for at least 10 years found that people who reported “clinically significant anxiety” were more likely to develop dementia later in life.

But practicing mindfulness techniques such as meditation or yoga can help. A UCLA study in May 2016 in theAlzheimer’s Disease JournalPeople over 55 were enrolled in a 12-week program that included one hour of meditative yoga once a week as well as 20 minutes of home meditation. They exhibited significant improvements in both verbal memory (measured by the ability to remember word lists) and visuospatial memory (measured by the ability to find and remember locations).

These mindfulness techniques “appear to enhance the production of brain-derived neurotrophic growth factor, a protein that stimulates connections between your brain neurons,” says Dr. Fotuhi.

Even if dog upside down or sayinguhis not your thing, you can reap benefits by simply including 5-10 minutes of deep breathing exercises in your daily routine, says Dr. Fotuhi.

The Mediterranean diet – which is packed with fruits, vegetables, healthy fats like olive oil and fish, as well as legumes and whole grains – offers heart health benefits. But the Mediterranean way of eating also appears to benefit your brain, for many of the same reasons.

“It makes sense that any diet that also helps lower your blood pressure and cholesterol also helps your brain,” Dr. Small said. “The healthy fats in the diet also reduce inflammation in the brain, while the antioxidants in many foods help protect brain cells from wear and tear.”

In fact, following the Mediterranean diet is linked to a 35% lower risk of dementia in older people, according to an August 2017 study from the University of California at San Francisco in theJournal of the American Geriatric Society. (Most of the people in the study were in their sixties or sixties.)

It’s also a good idea to try and eat foods as completely as possible and avoid processed foods, adds Dr. Small. A study of nearly 500,000 people in the UK found that those who ate 25 grams of processed meat per day – the equivalent of a single slice of bacon – had a 44% increased risk of developing dementia. The results were published in July 2021 in theThe American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

While you are sleeping soundly, your brain is busy strengthening the connections between its cells, transferring information from your hippocampus (responsible for short-term memory) to your neocortex (responsible for long-term).

“This process essentially shifts memories and skills to a more efficient region of the brain so that they become more stable and you can easily remember them, a process called memory consolidation,” says Dr. Small.

When people were told an unfamiliar, invented word, and then asked to remember it 12 hours later, after a period of sleep or wakefulness, those who had rested were more likely to remember, according to a January 2016 study inCortex.

Sleep also allows your brain to eliminate wastes like beta-amyloid that increase Alzheimer’s risk, adds Dr. Small.

If you have trouble sleeping, you may be tempted to ask your doctor for a prescription for anti-anxiety or sleeping pills. But try to avoid it if you can, says Dr Small. People who regularly take a benzodiazepine – drugs such as diazepam (Valium), lorazepam (Ativan), or alprazolam (Xanax) – are about 50% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, according to a January review. 2019 in theJournal of Clinical Neurology.

Another study from November 2017 in theJournal of the American Geriatric Societyhas found a link between long-term use of the sleeping pill zolpidem (Ambien) and Alzheimer’s disease. Although this study looked at older people, the effects can likely be felt at any age, notes Dr. Small.

Instead, develop good sleep habits, including going to bed and waking up at around the same time each day and avoiding screens (like your phone or TV) for a few hours before bed.