What Causes Memory Loss?

Memory deterioration is a problem that people start to suffer from as they get older. The brain is an incredibly complex part of the human body and there’s still so much that people can learn from studying it. One particular area of interest is what causes memory loss. Why do people suffer from memory issues? There are many reasons why people start to suffer from memory loss, which will be closer looked at in this article.

Causes of Memory Loss

There are plenty of reasons that you may be suffering from memory loss, and not just serious conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. These are some of the major causes for memory loss:

Aging

It’s only natural that as people get older that they will have some level of memory loss. Problems like forgetting where you put your glasses often are part of this typical aging process. Memory loss associated with aging is completely normal and won’t impact how you live your everyday life.

Dementia

Dementia is really a blanket term that covers a broad range of conditions like Alzheimer’s. This refers to not just progressive memory loss, but it can also lead to cognitive impairment. Dementia can have a significant impact on your daily activities, but it can be caused by so many things including substance abuse, damage to the blood vessels in the brain, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Strokes

When a stroke happens, your brain loses blood supply. For the most part, strokes generally just cause short-term memory loss. This means that a person can remember some lasting memory but struggle to remember the events of the day.

Head Trauma

Any time there is trauma to the brain, such as a head injury caused by a car crash, memory can be significantly impacted. Depending on the injury, you can suffer from either short-term memory loss or long-term memory loss.

Lack of Sleep

Not getting enough sleep, or not getting enough quality sleep, can lead to fatigue. When you are fatigued, your brain has a hard time with consolidating and retrieving information, which can impact your memory.

When to Seek Help

You should always seek help for your memory loss if you notice that the issue is getting increasingly worse over time or if it interferes with your daily activities. Your doctor can work with you to evaluate your history, perform specialized evaluations, and look at scans done on you to determine a cause for your loss of memory. Then, the doctor can work with you on a treatment plan that can help slow or reverse memory loss, depending on the cause for your memory issues.

Conclusion

There is some good news here. For one thing, not all memory loss is caused by a serious condition. It’s also good that they have made significant advances in this field and can improve your quality of life for longer depending on your specific situation. Not all memory loss is something that you should be concerned with, but if you do have any concerns you should seek medical attention as soon as possible.