IF The neurologist Dr Daniel Lesley sees 10 patients per day, at least half asks him the same question: the brain towers they know a normal part of aging? Or should they be worried?
“People have an absolute terror of losing their memory and thinking that they are lost,” said Lesley, who works at Remo Health, a virtual care company. “They don't know what is normal, what is potentially a sign of something bad and what is reversible.”
Like all other body organs, the brain changes as you age. Occasional and subtle memory problems – as do not remember where you parked in Costco – are generally not a problem. “A part of normal aging is to pay less attention to details and more attention to models and dynamics,” explains Lesley. “It can also become more difficult to quickly access things”, such as names and certain words.
However, when sporadic problems become a regular event, and other memory problems appear – like repeating questions or missing meetings – it is time for an assessment. If you are not sure, ask a spouse, a friend or an adult child, suggests Dr. Zaldy S. Tan, director of the health and healthy aging program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. “Have a conversation:” Have you noticed to repeat anything or ask the same questions? ” Have you noticed things more often? Because we are not necessarily the best judge of our memory – we do not remember what we forget, “he says.
If you decide to make an appointment, it is useful to be prepared. Do not just tell your doctor that you are forgetful, advises Tan; Everyone has the occasional senior moment, regardless of their age. Record your memory problems in a newspaper you are visiting. In this way, “you can be precise on what you forget, how often it happens and how consecutive these things are,” he said.
We asked the brain health experts to share the signs that it is time to take your memory problems seriously.
You have problems with familiar tasks
Young people often love multitasking, jump between texts and watch Tiktok videos and cook dinner. It is perfectly achievable, because their brain is more plastic – to change easily and to adapt – than those of the elderly, and that their duration of attention tends to be more robust, says Tan. Once you arrive at the average age, your ability to pay attention to decrease; In addition, you will probably have much more on your plate. This means that one day, when you prepare breakfast, you could empty how to use the toaster. “I compare to having a lot of bullets in the air,” he says. “I used to be able to juggle five balls, and now I am only able to juggle four. Guess what? The fifth is toast, and it is burned. ”
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If you are not multitasking, however, and you suddenly do not remember how to use the washing machine, or if you forgot to turn off the stove and it caused a small fire, it is more worrying. “If you were distracted, I would say,” Hey, maybe you should pay more attention to what you do, “said Tan. But if this task was your only goal and you have always ruined clothes because you have washed it in Javel, plan to seek an assessment.
You miss your usual commitments
If you are starting to drop the ball on routines or activities that you have done for some time, something more serious than normal aging could be at stake. One of Tan's patients, for example, had picked up his grandchildren at school for years, but suddenly forgot to do it one day. “I think she thought it was a Saturday, not Friday,” he recalls. “In itself, it's not like:” Oh, you have dementia “. But it is certainly something to note. »»
When worried depends on your reference, he adds. For some people, forgetting an important commitment could be so out of character that it deserves to mention at least to a primary care doctor. Others, however, can realize that they were stressed or particularly busy when it happened, and probably does not need to take it too seriously until it becomes a model.
Your personality or your mood changes
Several Symptoms that are not related to memory are associated with early Alzheimer's disease and dementia, including irritability, depression, anxiety and apathy. “You can see some of these changes from the years before the diagnosis of dementia,” said Dr. Gary Small, president of psychiatry at Hackensack University Medical Center. “People tend to consider this as a cognitive disease, but it is also a behavioral disease.”
Putting you bad effects
If you enter the door and talk to the phone – while going to the refrigerator for a snack, you can put your keys and forget exactly where you put them. This is because you were multitasking, said Tan. Integrated things become much more worrying, he adds, if this happens frequently, which depends on your reference. Some people are naturally dispersed, while others are very organized, so if they suddenly start to lose things, it is a red flag.
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Tan always asks patients: have you forgotten something important? For example, you may have left your credit card in a restaurant or alliance with Pilates Studio. Get into the habit of rekindling these types of articles, to which people generally pay special attention, is more alarming than forgetting where you have thrown your keys, he said. Once this happens several times, or enough for it to cause real headache in your life, bring it with your doctor.
You repeat certain questions
Some people are known to tell the same stories again and again – and in these cases, it may not be more than a personality trait (sometimes boring). However, one of the most common complaints that Tan hears is that people ask the same questions or repeat the same stories – and this generally comes from their adult spouse, friend or child. “They will say:” My mother continues to repeat the same questions or tell me the same stories, “says Tan. He replied by asking what the allegedly forgetful person was the first time. If they were driving and listened to a podcast by asking for what time the birthday party at Cousin Tom was next weekend – then they asked again a few days later – it is generally not a problem. “But if there is no reason to believe that they were not paying attention, then it is worrying,” he said. It really comes back to their usual state: if your mom has always been a repeater, it's just her. But if it is a new development, it is worth investigating.
You get lost in familiar places
The following instructions are based on visual-spatial memory. As Tan explains: “To go to the grocery store, I know that I have to turn here, then to the left there, then there is a pharmacy at the corner, and that's when I make a sharp left.” When people start to get lost in familiar places, it is generally because their visual-spatial memory is affected. As long as you pay particular attention to the place where you drive, “it's a red flag, unless a place has changed much,” he said.
Your parent has developed Alzheimer's disease at the same age
The age of the start of symptoms tends to be coherent in families. If your mother has developed dementia at 85 years old and you are sometimes given your keys at the beginning of sixties, you probably feel normal aging, says Small. If it has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's at 62, however, there are more reasons to take your take -ups seriously.
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Over the years, Small has dealt with many people with a slight cognitive impairment, and many remain relatively stable with interventions such as lifestyle and medication changes. “There is a lot of perspective to discover,” says Small. “But you can do a lot to keep your mind healthy, and even if you have a diagnosis of early dementia or light cognitive disabilities, it is not a reason to run away. It is really a reason to be proactive.”
