Word: dementia
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Thank you for raising awareness about memory loss in later life. Those concerned about significant memory loss need to seek evaluation by specialists who are experienced in the diagnosis of depression and dementia. Remember that depression is quite prevalent among geriatric populations and is nearly always associated with reduced attention. Poor attention to one's environment prohibits registration, and long-term consolidation, of important information into memory. MICHAEL M. KEIL Yorba Linda, Calif...
...disease, the number leaps to a range of 30% to 47% for those over 85, and we all know that we're going to live longer than our parents. Boomer watcher Dychtwald, in his list of 10 physical, social, spiritual, economic and political crises just ahead, puts "mass dementia...
...that I can't remember if I came in for a dictionary, a soup spoon or a socket wrench? After a certain age, does everyone's cranial zip disc start to fill up? Or worse, can mundane, mid-life memory glitches actually be warning signs of such later-life dementia as Alzheimer's disease...
...formation. In general, once the chemicals are cleared out of the system, the problem reverses itself--but not right away. Heavy drinkers may need five full years of sobriety before all their memory breakers are re-engaged. Even then, "they may remain at long-term risk for later-life dementia," says Gayatri Devi, a psychiatrist and memory specialist affiliated with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City...
...older people too, memory problems may be the result of poor diet, vitamin deficiencies or glandular imbalances (all reversible with treatment) rather than the classic types of dementia associated with old age. Even if a physician ultimately diagnoses Alzheimer's disease--which is done by eliminating other possibilities rather than by a direct test, because none is available other than a brain biopsy--the news needn't be as bleak as it once might have seemed...