How much short-term memory loss is normal in the elderly? Not Alzheimer’s or stroke-related. I read it’s nothing to worry about, but I have several friends and relatives in their 80s and 90s who—though they can remember their youth like it was yesterday—blank out on a TV show they saw last week or what they had for dinner last night.
I’ve attended seminars on senior memory loss in conjuction with my training as a hospice volunteer. Some of the points that I found interesting:
It’s not always Alzheimers. In fact, we were taught, it’s not possible to be certain of Alzheimers without an autopsy. Many other forms of dementia are possible.
Of these forms of dementia, some are irreversable, but many are temporary or treatable. Depression is one factor, estrogen loss is another. (Too bad estrogen supplimentation can cause cancer while relieving dementia).
Just as you can keep your teeth into old age, it is possible to keep your wits, too. But as we age, we become less active, which slows down our minds, too. Continual mental stimultion, such as community college classes, can help. As you know, there’s more brain wave activity during sleep than while watching TV, so those seniors that are wheeled into the day room and left to be zombified by the television are at higher risk.
As for the people you describe, I might guess that as the body ages it supplies less energy to the mind, so the mind sluffs off mundane tasks such as keeping track of what they had for dinner or what was on TV.
Example:
A: You know it’s getting where I can’t remember anything.
B: Is that so?
A: What?
My mother worries about Alzheimer’s, but I calm her down by reminding her, “If you can’t remember where your keys are, that’s not Alzheimer’s. If you can’t remember what your keys are, that’s Alzheimer’s.”
That’s about right, Eve. It’s the loss of understanding of items or surroundings or relationships that point to Alzheimers, which is about something more than memory loss, though that’s a prime symptom of the disease. The first signs of Alzheimers are usually the loss of use recognition (you can properly name an item but not its use, or vice versa) failure to recognize familiar locations or feeling incapable of navigating places like grocery stores where the exit may not be visible, or not being able to work out sequential process – turning on the stove allows the food to cook – those are indicators of cognitive impairments, not just memory loss, something far more serious.
As for what’s “normal” I think that Slithy Tove really nailed it. There’s going to be some memory loss, but what is “normal” is really impossible to say. If someone who is active and physically well is very suddenly having a very noticable and marked decline in their memory functions, that’s cause for alarm. If someone who has slowed down a bit is occasionally dropping mundane stuff, I don’t know that it’s something terribly worrisome.