Yesterday you couldn’t recall the name of that restaurant you enjoyed so much. This afternoon you searched frantically for your keys for 15 minutes before you realized they were in your pocket. And more often than you’d like to admit, you find yourself standing in the middle of a room wondering what on earth made you go there.
What’s going on here? Are you really losing your memory?
The not-so-great news is that if you’re a normal person over 50 you probably are a little more “forgetful” than you were 20 years go. But the absolutely excellent news is that it’s 100% normal and doesn’t mean you’re losing your memory.
A lot of what we tend to identify as middle age memory problems actually has more to do with the way we process information than how well we remember. Around midlife the brain’s frontal lobes become less adept at automatically blocking out information that isn’t important to the task at hand. Distractions like noise, being interrupted in the middle of something, etc. can be more difficult to ignore or overcome, and that makes it harder to maintain attention or focus. In distracting situations our short-term memory (which is what’s responsible for prioritizing information) may be overwhelmed by all the input.
The result? What we generally call “forgetfulness” – misplacing things, being unable to recall names, or finding it difficult to learn something new. Annoying as these events are, they’re temporary, not seriously life-disrupting, and don’t mean you’re losing your intelligence or are on the road to dementia. Middle age memory can occasionally be maddening, but it’s nothing to worry about.
Serious memory loss, which is often defined as memory loss that affects your ability to carry out everyday life activities is rare in midlifers. Generally associated with conditions like Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia, serious memory loss actually affects a relatively small percentage of the elderly. It has been estimated that only 15% of older Americans experience serious memory loss, and less than 20% of people over 65 experience even mild cognitive impairment.
Fortunately there are many things mid-lifers can do to keep our brains sharp. Studies have shown that the most effective memory-maintainer is exercise for both body and mind. If you continue to challenge yourself mentally your brain literally continues to grow. An active brain produces new connections between nerve cells, which helps your brain store and retrieve information more easily no matter what your age. Challenging yourself physically with exercise and activity increases blood flow to the brain, promoting cell growth and offsetting normal age-related cellular decay.
