what causes memory lapse in older people?
537143
Memory lapse is known as Dementia in medical terms.Most common reason for Dementia in older people is because of a disease known as Alzheimer's disease.Another important cause is vascular dementia (stroke and related conditions).General medical conditions and Substance induced (Alcohol) problems are also some common causes.There are a long list of causes including Picks disease, Parkinson's disease, Vitamin B12 deficiencies,Hypothyroidism, Uraemia, heavy metal poisoning,electrolyte imbalance,.......
290162
every day when i was younger and after i reached my mid forties it slowed to every other day or two in a row and rest two. now in my fifties it's about twice a week but sometimes more. the longer i wait between sessions the better it is, but my wife still got it after all these years so it's not easy to skip too many days. we've been married twenty-three years.
478617
Senile dementia is a disease of old age.   The person's thinking and reasoning powers are damaged.  Sometimes the person seems to be rational and is in the here and now in their thinking and reasoning and other times they will go off on a tangent that is totally unrelated to what was talked about.   The psychosis can take many forms:  the senior may have misplaced the keys--and become paranoid that someone stole them or was hiding them from him/her. ; or the senior may be paranoid that the pills the doctor prescribed is really poison so that the relatives can get all his money.   etc
680899
A high stress level and depression can cause memory loss.  If he is having a lot of anxiety problems it could be an affect from withdrawal of smoking or maybe he simply has too many things going on at once.
751405
research suggests that the elderly who were good with crosswrod puzzles were less likely to get dementia, I would recommend this as the one, good luck
903587
People dont lose their memory when they drink.....why do you think that?
606337
There's nothing of that sort.\nOver the years, many scientists ignored déjà vu completely due to its frequent association with past life experiences, ESP and alien abductions. These associations gave the study of déjà vu a bit of a stigma. Recently, researchers have set aside some of those associations and have begun putting brain imaging technology to work. Firmly placing déjà vu within the study of memory, they hope to discover more about how memories are formed, stored and retrieved.\n\nThey have since determined that the medial temporal lobe is involved in our conscious memory. Within the medial temporal lobe are the parahippocampal gyrus, the rhinal cortex and the amygdala. John D.E. Gabrieli at Stanford University found in 1997 that the hippocampus enables us to consciously recall events. He also found that the parahippocampal gyrus enables us to determine what's familiar and what isn't (and without actually retrieving a specific memory to do it). While about 60 percent of people say they have experienced déjà vu, the rates are highest among people between the ages of 15 and 25. The upper age varies among researchers, but most agree that déjà vu experiences decrease with age. There have also been higher reported occurrences among those with higher incomes, those who tend to travel more and those with higher education levels. Active imaginations and the ability to recall dreams has also been a commonality among people who report déjà vu experiences.\n\nSome researchers also report that the more tired or stressed you are, the more likely you are to experience déjà vu. Other researchers, however, have seen just the opposite. They report that the more refreshed and relaxed you are, the more likely you are to experience déjà vu. Obviously, the jury is still out about a lot of things related to déjà vu.\n\nOne reported finding is that the more open-minded or politically liberal a person is, the more likely they are to experience déjà vu. However, this may also mean that the more open-minded you are, the more likely you are to talk about something potentially seen as "weird," like déjà vu. \n\nLeading Theories\nWhen we're on a cell phone and driving, our attention is divided. Déjà vu may work the same way.\nDivided Attention (the cell phone theory)\nRecent research by Alan Brown has attempted to recreate a process that he thinks is similar to déjà vu. In studies at Duke University and SMU, he and colleague Elizabeth Marsh put the idea of subliminal suggestion to the test. They showed photographs of various locations to a group of students, with the plan to ask them which locations were familiar. Prior to showing them some of the photographs, however, they flashed the photos onto the screen at subliminal speeds -- around 10 to 20 milliseconds -- which is long enough for the brain to register the photo but not long enough for the student to be consciously aware of it. In these experiments, the images that had been shown subliminally were familiar at a much higher rate than those that were not -- even though those students who had actually been to those locations had been pulled from the study. Larry Jacoby and Kevin Whitehouse of Washington University did similar studies using lists of words with similar results using lists of words.\n\nBased on this idea, Alan Brown proposed what he calls the cell phone theory (or divided attention). This means that when we are distracted with something else, we subliminally take in what's around us but may not truly register it consciously. Then, when we are able to focus on what we are doing, those surroundings appear to already be familiar to us even when they shouldn't be.\n\nWith this in mind, it is reasonable to see how we might walk into a house for the first time, perhaps while talking to our host, and experience déjà vu. It would work like this: before we've actually looked at the room, our brains have processed it visual
151428
Yes. I think it's because we were in similar-looking places or situtations in previous times and it's like that thing when you can't think of a word and it's just on the tip of your tongue. The memory's there, it's just a little screwed up. I don't think it has to do w/ previous lives
1164755
Likely for the same reason that the furniture shrinks as we get older - the growing itself is what does it.  \n\nAs we mature, we have longer and longer attention spans.  We are able to sit quietly and complete a time consuming task - where as when we were kids, we had short attention spans and so we would flit from activity to activity, getting to do many more things in the same amount of time.  I think that creates the illusion of time speeding up for us.
531518
It's called "Deja vu". It is when the neurochemical pathways responsible for the sensation of memory recall are triggered randomly; and so what is currently happening to you FEELS like a memory, but actually isnt. \n\nEveryone gets it.
443369
It's called Deja Vu, and is actually a borrowed word brought into English from the French language.\n\nAs far as I know, we're really not sure exactly why it happens.\n\nThere are several theories - 1 states that somehow our consciousness and our brain run momentarily out of sync, which cause our brain to take visual input from an experience but processes it a little later, so that by the time we realize what we've seen our brain has actually already "seen it" (but we're talking at very high processing speeds). \n\nAnother theory states simply that we have been in a similar situation before but have just forgotten, so when we are in it again it seems new to us but somehow just vaguely familiar.\n\nYet other esoterics say that it is actual memories from past lives.\n\nHappy researching!
437467
Perhaps.\n\nOr maybe it is some sort of dementia.  Dementia is very common in older people.
414015
During medical procedures along with anesthisia they also frequently give you a dose of medicine designed to cause short term memory loss while the drug is in your system. This is done to reduce trauma and normally only done on patients who are partially conscious at the time of the procedure. \n\nIf you have suffered memory loss that extended much beyond the procedure then you should be concerned about your medications first and start digging into other causes next as this is not a normal reaction.
811729
Devastating! My mum has it & cannot remember what sentence she has started to finish it! She's only had it a few years but she can't remember names - even mine sometimes. Distant memories can be good at times but it's the more recent that is very poor. It leaves them devoid of functioning memories in the end - like how to deal with day to day living. Very sad,.
362333
I read somewhere that your neurons in your brain fire, and register the information, then they fire again, registering the same information milliseconds later.  Your brain interprets this as a faint memory.
401448
this is a subject that i know all to well. I watched my grandmother go from a vibrant woman at the age of 71 to a woman with an IQ of a child at 73. It attacks the functions of the brain which controls all functions of the body. It slowly diterates the cells in the brain starting with memory first. Then it attacks motor functions like swallowing, chewing, moving the hands and feet, talking too. Then it goes into full scale where the body starts to chut down that's where they are in a vegetative state and bedridden. Then ultimately death. My grandmother started showing signs of it in the form of forgetfulness, then she started to go back in time and forget who or what she was talking about. It was the hardest thing when she would call me on the phone crying her eyes out because she was sitting in the bath tub and forgot how to turn off the water and it was running over all over the floor and into the rest of the house. To the families its expecially tough because you are watching someone you love dearly fall to pieces literally is front of your eyes. When they get to the point that they start to wonder off or get up during the midnight hour and walk off and get in the car or take a walk trying to go back home to when they were children it's scary and hard because it takes time out of your life. For me I had to put my life on hold almost and I was pregnant at the time, but I loved my granny so much it didn't matter to me. You have to understand that they are someone different now and that it's not pf their control they act the way they do. She also cussed us out, accused us of stealing or poisoning her. She hid things from us because she got to the point she didn't recognize us or trust us anymore. She would argue with us because she would forget things and she got frustrated easily. It's hard to take care of someone like that. Because they are unpredictiable. then when they get to a certain way they might only trust you to take care of them. Which for me was the case. it's a disease that changes not only the person suffering from it, it changes the person or people taking care of that person. After my granny died from this disease, I didn't want to become a nurse anymore. I couldn't take it again to see someone else go through that. It turn my world apart because she wasn't granny anymore. I had to take care of her like a 1 year old. Changing her diapers and cleaning up after her and feeding her. You go through so much. But I wouldn't have had it no other way. She raised me and took care of me, the least i could have done was do the same and for that i am grateful for because i was there the whole time. I loved her that much and will always.
537872
maybe you have amnesia. but probably not. maybe you have a thyroid problem. maybe you just have a short term memory. i kno i do. check it out with a doctor if  your really worried,if not i recommend a keychain if you don't already have one (=