Dementia And Memory Loss

885 Words4 Pages

Memories are everything. It is the ability to remember past experiences, and the power or process of recalling to mind previously learned facts, experiences, impressions, skills, and habits. They define who we are and they influence how we react to everything. Without memories, there would be little difference between each human. This is why losing your memory can be one of the toughest things to go through.
Your brain is taking in and processing thousands of facts, thoughts and experiences every single day. Some of these will be stored in the brain for a few seconds or minutes and then forgotten, others remain there for a few days, while some will be ingrained for many years or even a lifetime. Memories are stored in either the short-term …show more content…

People with dementia usually do have problems with their memory, but not all memory loss is caused by dementia. There are so many diseases that can cause short-term memory loss but Dementia is the most common so it usually gets confused.
Most memory loss is not serious. People misplace things, walk into rooms and don’t remember why they’re there, and forget things they have just read. These examples are not things you need to be concerned about. It can be hard to tell if your memory problems are serious and need to be dealt with, but friends and family can usually tell for you. Some examples of significant memory loss problems could be asking the same question repeatedly, not remembering whether or not you’ve eaten today, and getting lost when you’re close to home.
The most common causes of memory loss are brain diseases like dementia and alzheimer's. But sometimes it’s the drug treatment for a disease that causes the memory loss. Many Anticholinergic drugs are linked to memory loss because they block the action of acetylcholine, a chemical in the brain associated with learning and memory. It helps areas like the hippocampus function and if levels are low enough it causes major problems with making new memories and remembering old ones because the hippocampus acts as the bridge between short and long-term memory. Acetylcholine levels naturally decline with age, which is why you get much more forgetful with