Memory loss

For guiding  thoughts this Lent,  my good friend lawyer Dave Aguila sent this message taken from The Upper Room, April 16, 1982 issue. “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for; to be certain of the things we cannot see.” With this biblical text is this message:

“One day as I was reluctantly practicing scales at the piano, my mother sat nearby reading her Bible. I heard her sigh and turned to see her with her hands folded over her Bible, her eyes closed.

“Do you always understand everything you read in the Bible?” I asked.

“Not always,” Mother replied. “But I stop reading and ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten me. After that I am not sure about. It’s like practicing the scales, Mother said. “You know you’re doing what is necessary even though you stumble along. But if you keep at it, a day will come when you do understand.”

“I kept practicing the scales and I understood the necessity of seeking that discipline. I have learned too the necessity of seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit in bible study and meditation.”

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A number of readers have reacted to my column on the sensitive topic “When Life Begins.” To put our minds at ease, to be less feeling aggravated,  today being Maundy Thursday, I’ve decided to write about something that has us people above 40 complaining about. Memory loss.

Many of us experience such predicaments as: going upstairs to pick up a document, and at the top of the stairs, not  remembering  what we had gone  up for, so we have to go down to remember what we went upstairs for; not finding our eyeglasses and realizing we’re wearing them, or have used them as a headband; not remembering the names of  close friends we meet at church or meetings.

A friend of mine who lives just minutes away from the Harvard U campus in Massachusetts could not find a student’s paper she had put away to prepare dinner. She asked her husband if he had stashed the paper some place. No, he said. The search ended with the couple   going to bed without speaking. At midnight, my friend woke up and walked to the kitchen for a glass of water. Lo  and behold, the term paper was inside the refrigerator; she must have placed it on top of a bowl while looking for a bunch of lettuce inside the chiller.

Yesterday morning, hubby forwarded me an article that his Upsilon brod Pietro E. Reyes III  had forwarded him and which had been forwarded to him  via the Internet.  For your pleasure, I’m reproducing the article, titled, “Why We Keep Losing Our Keys —

Everyday Memory Lapses Hit at Any Age; Train Your Brain to Find Things Faster.” It’s written  by Sumathi Reddy, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who writes a weekly consumer health column called “Your Health”  which runs every Tuesday in the Personal Journal section.

“Misplacing keys and phones are the result of every day memory or cognitive lapses — the result of a failure in our working memory — that are the norm. What are some of the factors that can affect our propensity to lose or misplace things?

“’ You’ve put your keys somewhere and now they appear to be nowhere, certainly not in the basket by the door they’re supposed to go in and now you’re 20 minutes late for work. Kitchen counter, night stand, book shelf, work bag: Wait, finally, there they are under the mail you brought in last night.

“’Losing things is irritating and yet we are a forgetful people. The average person misplaces up to nine items a day, and one-third of respondents in a poll said they spend an average of 15 minutes each day searching for items — cellphones, keys and paperwork top the list, according to an online survey of 3,000 people published in 2012 by a British insurance company.

“Everyday forgetfulness isn’t a sign of a more serious medical condition like Alzheimer’s or dementia. And while it can worsen with age, minor memory lapses are the norm for all ages, researchers say.

“Our genes are at least partially to blame, experts say. Stress, fatigue, and multitasking can exacerbate our propensity to make such errors. Such lapses can also be linked to more serious conditions like depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders.

Reddy cites experts on memory loss. He writes that Daniel L. Schacter refers to memory loss as “the breakdown at the interface of attention and memory” in his book “The Seven Sins of Memory.” Schacter is an American psychologist who teaches at Harvard University.

Kenneth Norman, a psychology professor at Princeton University says, “That breakdown can occur in two spots: when we fail to activate our memory and encode what we’re doing — where we put down our keys or glasses — or when we try to retrieve the memory. When you encode a memory, the hippocampus, a central part of the brain involved in memory function, takes a snapshot which is preserved in a set of neurons.” Those neurons can be activated later with a reminder or cue.

 â€œIt is important to pay attention when you put down an item, or during encoding. If your state of mind at retrieval is different than it was during encoding, that could pose a problem. Case in point: You were starving when you walked into the house and deposited your keys. When you then go to look for them later, you’re no longer hungry so the memory may be harder to access.

“The act of physically and mentally retracing your steps when looking for lost objects can work. Think back to your state of mind when you walked into the house (Were you hungry?). “’The more you can make your brain at retrieval like the way it was when you lay down that original memory trace,’” the more successful you will be, Dr. Norman says.

“In a recent study, researchers in Germany found that the majority of people surveyed about forgetfulness and distraction had a variation in the so-called dopamine D2 receptor gene (DRD2), leading to a higher incidence of forgetfulness. According to the study, 75% of people carry a variation that makes them more prone to forgetfulness.

“’Forgetfulness is quite common,’” says Sebastian Markett, a researcher in psychology neuroscience at the University of Bonn in Germany and lead author of the study currently in the online version of the journal Neuroscience Letters, where it is expected to be published soon.

“The study was based on a survey filled out by 500 people who were asked questions about memory lapses, perceptual failures (failing to notice a stop sign) and psychomotor failures (bumping into people on the street). The individuals also provided a saliva sample for molecular genetic testing.

“’About half of the total variation of forgetfulness can be explained by genetic effects, likely involving dozens of gene variations,’” says Dr. Markett .

 â€œThe buildup of what psychologists call proactive interference helps explain how we can forget where we parked the car when we park in the same lot but different spaces every day. Memory may be impaired by the buildup of interference from previous experiences so it becomes harder to retrieve the specifics, like which parking space,’” Dr. Schacter says.

“The best way to remember where you put something may be the most obvious: Find a regular spot for it and somewhere that makes sense, experts say. If it’s reading glasses, leave them by the bedside. Charge your phone in the same place. Keep a container near the door for keys or a specific pocket in your purse.”      

Doug Scharre, a neurologist at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center, says an increase in minor memory lapses can be related to other conditions such as stress, depression or conditions like sleep apnea, which results in fatigue. Medications can also impact memory.   

But not to worry. Remember we are   human,  wont to be forgetful, and not yet on the verge of Alzheimer’s.

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My email:dominitorrevillas@ gmail.com