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Memory problem illness. Memory impairment at different ages, causes of pathology and ways to solve the problem

Something happened to my memory...(c)

In this article, we will consider the most popular causes of memory loss, by eliminating which you can achieve a noticeable result in its improvement. Read about what memory is and what types of human memory are known in psychology.

Of course, many of us look with admiration at people with phenomenal memories and secretly, or maybe openly, envy them. Most people believe that a good memory is a sign of great intelligence and intelligence. But it is not so. Therefore, I want to encourage those whose memory is not phenomenal and forgetfulness becomes a habit. Many outstanding personalities suffered from absent-mindedness.

Forgetfulness is not always a consequence bad memory. Often this is simple inattention or a strong passion for something. So strong that everything else just flies out of your head. In addition, our brain receives a huge amount of information and simply throws away everything that is unnecessary and unimportant in order to clear space for something more significant. So, if you forgot to turn off the light in the restroom a couple of times, don’t worry and sound the alarm. Most likely at these moments you were simply thinking about something else. It’s another matter when you notice signs of memory deterioration constantly, and this interferes with a full life. In this case, it is necessary to understand why memory began to deteriorate and take the necessary measures.

Causes of memory impairment

Memory problems occur in completely different people. Of course, the main risk group is people over 50, but according to some data, memory complaints from young people have recently begun to appear more and more often. The reasons may be different. From overwork to serious health problems. Therefore, if you notice constant memory lapses, you should contact a specialist and identify the reasons.

So, here are some of the most likely causes of memory loss:

— Stress, depression, anxiety. In an overexcited or, conversely, too melancholic state, a person cannot focus attention on anything other than those stimuli that drive him into this position. Forgetting something important in this case is as easy as shelling pears.

— Lack of sleep, chronic fatigue. Mode, mode and more mode! In I mentioned how important sleep is for remembering information for the long term. Well, chronic fatigue simply reduces concentration and attention.

— Bad habits(alcohol abuse, smoking). Everyone knows about this. Tobacco and alcohol reduce the level of attention, perception and memory.

— Vitamin deficiency. During periods of vitamin deficiency, the body is weakened, which can negatively affect memory. Fruits, vegetables or simple ascorbic acid with vitamin C will recharge the body.

— Information overload. This is a very pressing problem today. We are literally “bombed” with information shells. The Internet, TV, radio and other media strive to stuff us with their news and “sensations”. Reducing or at least filtering the incoming megabytes into the brain will help reduce the load and your bright head will not be clogged with excess garbage.

— Lack of oxygen. Fresh air and walking are, in principle, good for the brain and the body as a whole. If you live in a metropolis, it would be nice to at least sometimes find time to go out into nature.

In most cases, in order to improve your memory and restore it to its former strength, it is enough to simply eliminate the above reasons for its deterioration. However, if you want more, you can use simple exercises to develop memory.

Read about how you can in the next article.

A person’s ability to store and reproduce information, like all other abilities, is individual in nature: some people grasp everything on the fly, others need repeated repetition to remember. In addition, memorization also depends on the type of memory: some have better developed auditory memorization - they prefer to speak out loud or listen to information, while others have a visual one - in this case, a person remembers it better “from sight”. Different areas of the brain are responsible for these functions.

The occipito-parietal parts “supervise” visual and spatial perception, while the right hemisphere is responsible for color and optical-spatial, as well as face recognition, the left hemisphere is responsible for letters and objects. The supraparietal regions control speech and motor skills of the human hands, and the temporal regions control hearing and perception of the speech of other people.

Weak memory is considered a “privilege” of the elderly, but sometimes doctors have to hear complaints like: “Doctor, I’m losing my memory” from people of working age, and note that patients have memory problems at the age of 40 or even earlier. The causes of memory problems lie in the dysfunctions of the above areas. They may arise due to:

brain damage due to traumatic brain injury, stroke, cancer - such pathologies can cause serious disorders, including memory loss and amnesia;
damage to other organs and systems - the central nervous system, circulatory, cardiovascular, endocrine;
unfavorable external factors - improper work and rest schedule;
increased loads, stressful situations;
chronic intoxications caused by drug addiction, smoking, alcohol abuse, uncontrolled use of drugs that affect the brain and nervous system - hormonal and sedatives, tranquilizers;
lack of vitamins and microelements. For example, iodine deficiency causes thyroid dysfunction, and this can cause memory problems in young people and even children - usually short-term memory problems.

Also, a decrease in concentration and memory occurs with age, but the above reasons provoke an earlier weakening of memory. At the same time, everyone has a chance to retain excellent memory into old age.

As an example, I can cite the head of the design department, Vladimir Sergeevich, with whom I had the opportunity to work at one time. This man had an excellent memory, perfectly remembered the technical data of all devices and could easily understand the most complex drawing, as well as complete it himself. When he, upon reaching the age of 70, decided to retire, giving way, in his own words, to the young, for a long time, when any problems arose, we automatically uttered the phrase: “You need to ask Vladimir Sergeevich,” we called they came to his house with papers and drawings.

Thus, the main thing on which a person’s memory depends is the state of his health. Therefore, when persistent problems with memory and attention arise, the first thing to do is see a doctor and get examined.

The first stage of diagnosing memory disorders, which is carried out by a neurologist or neuropsychologist, includes an external examination, a survey to determine the nature of the complaints, and testing. To test each type of memorization, special tests are used.

For example, to study logical memory, an associative technique is used: a person is given a list of words, for each of which he needs to select a corresponding picture: for the word “ice cream” - a refrigerator, “light” - a light bulb, “tree” - a forest, etc.

When testing for visual memory ability, the patient is given a list of 10 words that must be read and memorized by looking at it for one minute, and then, without looking at the paper, reproduce as many of them as possible.

If the doctor concludes that the patient has a persistent memory loss that could be caused by pathological causes, he will prescribe an additional examination, including blood tests, as well as ultrasound of the brain, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (CT and MRI).

These diagnostic methods help to identify organic brain lesions, tumor neoplasms of various nature, and intracranial hemorrhages. Elimination of identified violations leads to normalization of memorization processes. If brain diseases that cannot be radically corrected (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's) are detected, specialized therapy will help slow down the progression of the pathology.

Ways to strengthen memory at home

If a medical examination does not reveal pathological causes of decreased concentration and memory, this means that it is most likely caused by unfavorable external factors.

Overwork, lack of sleep, stressful situations, unhealthy diet, lack of vitamins, lack of fresh air, as well as smoking and alcohol abuse have a negative impact on the state of mnemonic abilities and attention.

All these reasons are completely removable. Healthy sleep, normalization of work and rest schedules, daily walks in the fresh air, giving up bad habits, a nutritious diet rich in vitamins and microelements (recommendations regarding its composition can be obtained from a nutritionist) will quickly solve memory problems at a young age.

In addition, the ability to memorize can be trained with simple exercises. Among them:

A photographic method that helps strengthen visual memory. When looking at a natural landscape or painting, you need to remember as many small details as possible. Then close your eyes or turn away and try to describe what you saw in every detail. Open your eyes and list everything you forgot to mention.
An imaginary diary is not only an exercise for training mnemonics, but also an excellent way to combat insomnia. When going to bed, you need to recall in your thoughts all the events of the past day as accurately as possible, “scrolling the tape” in reverse order - from evening to morning. And when you wake up, try to remember what you dreamed.
Listening to music and songs, as well as singing along, helps train auditory memory abilities. It is known that poems set to music are remembered much better, since in this case melodic memory is also superimposed on semantic and rhythmic ones.
While observing those around you, it is useful to pay attention to what they say and how people behave, and then mentally reproduce everyday scenes, trying to remember not only the words spoken, but also the intonation.
Crosswords, scanwords and other puzzles are popular, exciting and useful training for memory and attention.
Reading and retelling the content of fiction, memorizing poems and passages of prose, as well as foreign words, are a good way to develop mnemonic abilities.
For elderly believers, such training is suitable for memorizing prayers - short ones at first.
When standing in front of a grocery store window and remembering what you need to buy, you don’t have to look at the cheat sheet you’ve compiled at home - it’s better to use an associative technique to facilitate memory. For example, if you need to buy bread, kefir, potatoes, sausage, eggs, vegetables, the word “okroshka” is suitable for this set. And so on. By choosing suitable associations, we develop our imagination at the same time.

Conclusion

Both young and old should not give up on themselves, quoting the words of the famous song: “Something has happened to my memory...” Remember that repetition is the mother of not only learning, but also memorization, and the brain can and should be systematically trained, so the same as the body. Figuratively speaking, your memory is in your hands.

Memory is an important function of our central nervous system to perceive received information and store it in some invisible “cells” of the brain in reserve, in order to retrieve and use it in the future. Memory is one of the most important abilities of a person’s mental activity, therefore the slightest memory impairment weighs on him, he is knocked out of the usual rhythm of life, suffering himself and irritating those around him.

Memory impairment is most often perceived as one of the many clinical manifestations of some neuropsychic or neurological pathology, although in other cases forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are the only signs of a disease, the development of which no one pays attention to, believing that a person is this way by nature .

The big mystery is human memory

Memory is a complex process that occurs in the central nervous system and involves the perception, accumulation, retention and reproduction of information received at different periods of time. We think most about the properties of our memory when we need to learn something new. The result of all efforts made during the learning process depends on how someone manages to catch, hold, and perceive what they see, hear or read, which is important when choosing a profession. From a biological point of view, memory can be short-term and long-term.

Information received in passing or, as they say, “it went into one ear and out of the other” is short-term memory, in which what is seen and heard is postponed for several minutes, but, as a rule, without meaning or content. So, the episode flashed and disappeared. Short-term memory does not promise anything in advance, which is probably good, because otherwise a person would have to store all the information that he does not need at all.

However, with certain efforts by a person, information that has fallen into the zone of short-term memory, if you hold your gaze on it or listen and delve into it, will go into long-term storage. This also happens against a person’s will if certain episodes are often repeated, have special emotional significance, or for various reasons occupy a separate place among other phenomena.

When assessing their memory, some people claim that their memory is short-term, because everything is remembered, assimilated, retold in a couple of days, and then just as quickly forgotten. This often happens when preparing for exams, when information is put aside only for the purpose of reproducing it to decorate the grade book. It should be noted that in such cases, turning again to this topic when it becomes interesting, a person can easily restore seemingly lost knowledge. It’s one thing to know and forget, and another thing to not receive information. But here everything is simple - the acquired knowledge, without much human effort, was transformed into sections of long-term memory.

Long-term memory analyzes everything, structures it, creates volume and purposefully stores it for future use indefinitely. Everything is stored in long-term memory. Memorization mechanisms are very complex, but we are so accustomed to them that we perceive them as natural and simple things. However, we note that for the successful implementation of the learning process, in addition to memory, it is important to have attention, that is, to be able to concentrate on the necessary objects.

It is common for a person to forget past events after some time if he does not periodically retrieve his knowledge in order to use it, so the inability to remember something should not always be attributed to a memory impairment. Each of us has experienced the feeling when “it’s spinning in your head, but doesn’t come to mind,” but this does not mean that serious disturbances have occurred in memory.

Why do memory lapses happen?

The causes of memory and attention impairment in adults and children may be different. If a child with congenital mental retardation immediately has problems with learning, then he will come to adulthood with these disorders. Children and adults can react differently to the environment: the child’s psyche is more delicate, so it endures stress more difficult. In addition, adults have long learned what a child is still trying to master.

As sad as it may be, the trend towards the use of alcoholic beverages and drugs by teenagers, and even young children left without parental supervision, has become frightening: cases of poisoning are not so rarely recorded in reports from law enforcement agencies and medical institutions. But for a child’s brain, alcohol is a powerful poison that has an extremely negative effect on memory.

True, some pathological conditions that are often the cause of absent-mindedness and poor memory in adults are usually excluded in children (Alzheimer's disease, atherosclerosis, osteochondrosis).

Causes of memory impairment in children

Thus, the causes of memory and attention impairment in children can be considered:

Lack of vitamins;
Asthenia;
Frequent viral infections;
Traumatic brain injuries;
Stressful situations (dysfunctional family, despotism of parents, problems in the team that the child attends);
Poor eyesight;
Mental disorder;
Poisoning, alcohol and drug use;
Congenital pathology in which mental retardation is programmed (Down syndrome, etc.) or other (any) conditions (lack of vitamins or microelements, use of certain medications, changes in metabolic processes for the worse), contributing to the formation of attention deficit disorder, which, As you know, it does not improve memory.

Causes of problems in adults

In adults, the reason for poor memory, absent-mindedness and inability to concentrate for a long time are various diseases acquired during life:

Stress, psycho-emotional stress, chronic fatigue of both soul and body;
Acute and chronic;
Discirculatory;
cervical spine;
Traumatic brain injuries;
Metabolic disorders;
Hormonal imbalance;
GM tumors;
Mental disorders (depression, schizophrenia and many others).

Of course, anemia of various origins, lack of microelements, diabetes mellitus and other numerous somatic pathologies lead to impaired memory and attention, and contribute to the appearance of forgetfulness and absent-mindedness.

What types of memory disorders are there? Among them are dysmnesia(hypermnesia, hypomnesia, amnesia) – changes in memory itself, and paramnesia– distortion of memories, to which are added the patient’s personal fantasies. By the way, those around them, on the contrary, consider some of them to be a phenomenal memory rather than a violation of it. True, experts may have a slightly different opinion on this matter.

Dysmnesia

Phenomenal memory or mental disorder?

Hypermnesia– with such a violation, people remember and perceive quickly, information put aside many years ago pops up in memory for no reason, “rolls up”, returns to the past, which does not always evoke positive emotions. A person himself does not know why he needs to store everything in his head, but he can reproduce some long-past events down to the smallest detail. For example, an elderly person can easily describe in detail (down to the teacher’s clothes) individual lessons at school, retell the literary montage of a pioneer gathering, and it is not difficult for him to remember other details regarding his studies at the institute, professional activities, or family events.

Hypermnesia, present in a healthy person in the absence of other clinical manifestations, is not considered a disease; rather, on the contrary, this is exactly the case when they talk about phenomenal memory, although from the point of view of psychology, phenomenal memory is a slightly different phenomenon. People who have a similar phenomenon are able to remember and reproduce huge amounts of information that is not associated with any special meaning. These can be large numbers, sets of individual words, lists of objects, notes. Great writers, musicians, mathematicians and people in other professions that require genius abilities often have such a memory. Meanwhile, hypermnesia in a healthy person who does not belong to the cohort of geniuses, but has a high intelligence quotient (IQ), is not such a rare occurrence.

As one of the symptoms of pathological conditions, memory impairment in the form of hypermnesia occurs:

For paroxysmal mental disorders (epilepsy);
In case of intoxication with psychoactive substances (psychotropic drugs, narcotic drugs);
In the case of hypomania - a condition similar to mania, but not reaching it in severity. Patients may experience increased energy, increased vitality, and increased ability to work. With hypomania, memory and attention impairments are often combined (disinhibition, instability, inability to concentrate).

Obviously, only a specialist can understand such subtleties and differentiate between normal and pathological conditions. The majority of us are average representatives of the human population, to whom “nothing human is alien,” but at the same time they do not change the world. Geniuses appear periodically (not every year and not in every locality), but they are not always immediately noticeable, because such individuals are often considered simply eccentrics. And finally (maybe not often?) among various pathological conditions there are mental illnesses that require correction and complex treatment.

Bad memory

Hypomnesia– this type is usually expressed in two words: “poor memory.”

Forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are observed in asthenic syndrome, which, in addition to memory problems, is characterized by other symptoms:

Increased fatigue.
Nervousness, irritability with or without cause, bad mood.
Meteor dependence.
during the day and insomnia at night.
Changes in blood pressure.
Tides and others.
, weakness.

Asthenic syndrome, as a rule, is formed by another pathology, for example:

Arterial hypertension.
Previous traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Atherosclerotic process.
The initial stage of schizophrenia.

The cause of memory and attention impairments of the hypomnesia type can be various depressive states (there are too many to count), menopausal syndrome occurring with adaptation disorder, organic brain damage (severe head injury, epilepsy, tumors). In such situations, as a rule, in addition to hypomnesia, the symptoms listed above are also present.

“I remember here, I don’t remember here”

At amnesia It is not the entire memory that is lost, but individual fragments of it. As an example of this type of amnesia, I would like to recall the film by Alexander Sery “Gentlemen of Fortune” - “I remember here, I don’t remember here.”

However, not all amnesia looks like in the famous movie; there are more serious cases when memory is lost significantly and for a long time or forever, therefore among such memory disorders (amnesia) there are several types:

A special type of memory loss that cannot be controlled is progressive amnesia, representing a sequential loss of memory from the present to the past. The cause of memory destruction in such cases is organic atrophy of the brain, which occurs when Alzheimer's disease And . Such patients poorly reproduce traces of memory (speech disorders), for example, they forget the names of household objects that they use every day (a plate, a chair, a clock), but at the same time they know what they are for (amnestic aphasia). In other cases, the patient simply does not recognize the thing (sensory aphasia) or does not know what it is for (semantic aphasia). However, one should not confuse the habits of “zealous” owners to find a use for everything that is in the house, even if it is intended for completely different purposes (from an old kitchen clock in the form of a plate, you can make a beautiful dish or stand).

You have to invent something like this!

Paramnesia (memory distortion) are also classified as memory disorders, and among them the following types are distinguished:

Confabulation, in which fragments of one’s own memory disappear, and their place is taken by stories invented by the patient and presented to him “in all seriousness,” since he himself believes in what he is talking about. Patients talk about their exploits, unprecedented achievements in life and work, and even sometimes about crimes.
Pseudo-reminiscence- replacement of one memory with another event that actually took place in the patient’s life, only at a completely different time and under different circumstances (Korsakov’s syndrome).
Cryptomnesia when patients, having received information from various sources (books, movies, stories of other people), pass it off as events they themselves experienced. In a word, patients, due to pathological changes, engage in involuntary plagiarism, which is characteristic of delusional ideas encountered in organic disorders.
Echomnesia- a person feels (quite sincerely) that this event has already happened to him (or saw it in a dream?). Of course, similar thoughts sometimes visit a healthy person, but the difference is that patients attach special significance to such phenomena (“get hung up”), while healthy people simply quickly forget about it.
Polympsest– this symptom exists in two versions: short-term memory loss associated with pathological alcohol intoxication (episodes from the past day are confused with long-past events), and the combination of two different events of the same period of time, in the end, the patient himself does not know what happened In fact.

As a rule, these symptoms in pathological conditions are accompanied by other clinical manifestations, therefore, if you notice signs of “déjà vu”, there is no need to rush to make a diagnosis - this also happens in healthy people.

Decreased concentration affects memory

Impaired memory and attention, loss of the ability to focus on specific objects include the following pathological conditions:

Attention instability– a person is constantly distracted, jumps from one object to another (disinhibition syndrome in children, hypomania, hebephrenia - a mental disorder that develops as a form of schizophrenia in adolescence);
Rigidity (slow switching) from one topic to another - this symptom is very characteristic of epilepsy (those who communicate with such people know that the patient is constantly “stuck”, which makes it difficult to conduct a dialogue);
Lack of concentration- they say about such people: “That absent-minded person from Basseynaya Street!” That is, absent-mindedness and poor memory in such cases are often perceived as features of temperament and behavior, which, in principle, often corresponds to reality.

Undoubtedly a decrease in concentration, in particular, will negatively affect the entire process of memorizing and storing information, that is, on the state of memory as a whole.

Children forget faster

As for children, all these gross, permanent memory impairments, characteristic of adults and especially the elderly, are very rarely observed in childhood. Memory problems that arise due to congenital characteristics require correction and, with a skillful approach (as far as possible), may recede a little. There are many cases where the efforts of parents and teachers literally worked wonders for Down syndrome and other types of congenital mental retardation, but here the approach is individual and dependent on various circumstances.

It’s another matter if the baby was born healthy, and the problems appeared as a result of the troubles suffered. So here it is You can expect a child to have a slightly different reaction to different situations:

Amnesia in children in most cases, it manifests itself as memory lapses in relation to individual memories of episodes that took place during the period of clouding of consciousness associated with unpleasant events (poisoning, coma, trauma) - it is not for nothing that they say that children quickly forget;
Alcoholization in adolescence also does not proceed in the same way as in adults - lack of memories ( polympsests) to events occurring during intoxication, appears already in the first stages of drunkenness, without waiting for a diagnosis (alcoholism);
Retrograde amnesia in children, as a rule, it affects a short period of time before injury or illness, and its severity is not as distinct as in adults, that is, memory loss in a child cannot always be noticed.

Most often, children and adolescents experience memory impairment of the dysmnesia type, which is manifested by a weakening of the ability to remember, store (retention) and reproduce (reproduction) received information. Disorders of this type are more noticeable in school-age children, as they affect school performance, adaptation in a team, and behavior in everyday life.

For children attending preschool institutions, symptoms of dysmnesia include problems with memorizing rhymes and songs; children cannot participate in children's matinees and holidays. Despite the fact that the child constantly attends kindergarten, every time he comes there, he cannot independently find his locker to change clothes; among other items (toys, clothes, a towel), he has difficulty finding his own. Dysmnestic disorders are also noticeable in the home environment: the child cannot tell what happened in the garden, forgets the names of other children, each time he perceives fairy tales read many times as if he was hearing them for the first time, does not remember the names of the main characters.

Transient impairments of memory and attention, along with fatigue, drowsiness and all sorts of autonomic disorders, are often observed in schoolchildren with various etiologies.

Before treatment

Before you begin to treat the symptoms of memory impairment, you need to make a correct diagnosis and find out what is causing the patient's problems. To do this, you need to get more information about his health:

What diseases does he suffer from? It may be possible to trace the connection between the existing pathology (or suffered in the past) with the deterioration of intellectual abilities;
Does he have a pathology that directly leads to memory impairment: dementia, cerebral vascular insufficiency, TBI (history), chronic alcoholism, drug disorders?
What medications is the patient taking and is memory impairment associated with the use of medications? Certain groups of pharmaceuticals, for example, benzodiazepines, have side effects of this kind, which, however, are reversible.

In addition, during the diagnostic search process, it can be very useful to identify metabolic disorders, hormonal imbalances, and deficiencies of microelements and vitamins.

In most cases, when searching for the causes of memory loss, they resort to methods neuroimaging(CT, MRI, EEG, PET, etc.), which help to detect a brain tumor or hydrocephalus and, at the same time, differentiate vascular brain damage from degenerative one.

There is a need for neuroimaging methods also because memory impairment at first may be the only symptom of a serious pathology. Unfortunately, the greatest difficulties in diagnosis are presented by depressive conditions, which in other cases force one to prescribe a trial antidepressant treatment (to find out whether there is depression or not).

Treatment and correction

The normal aging process itself involves some decline in intellectual abilities: forgetfulness appears, memorization is not so easy, concentration of attention decreases, especially if the neck is “pinched” or the blood pressure rises, but such symptoms do not significantly affect the quality of life and behavior at home. Older people who adequately assess their age learn to remind themselves (and quickly remember) about current affairs.

In addition, many people do not neglect treatment with pharmaceuticals to improve memory.

There are now a number of drugs that can improve brain function and even help with tasks that require significant intellectual effort. First of all, this is (piracetam, fezam, vinpocetine, cerebrolysin, cinnarizine, etc.).

Nootropics are indicated for older people who have certain age-related problems that are not yet noticeable to others. Drugs in this group are suitable for improving memory in cases of cerebral circulation disorders caused by other pathological conditions of the brain and vascular system. By the way, many of these drugs are successfully used in pediatric practice.

However, nootropics are a symptomatic treatment, and to get the desired effect you need to strive for etiotropic treatment.

As for Alzheimer's disease, tumors, and mental disorders, the approach to treatment should be very specific - depending on the pathological changes and the reasons that led to them. There is no single recipe for all cases, so there is nothing to advise patients. You just need to contact a doctor, who, perhaps, before prescribing drugs to improve memory, will send you for additional examination.

Correction of mental disorders is also difficult in adults. Patients with poor memory, under the supervision of an instructor, memorize poetry, solve crosswords, practice solving logical problems, but the training, while bringing some success (the severity of mnestic disorders seems to have decreased), still does not produce particularly significant results.

Correction of memory and attention in children, in addition to treatment with various groups of pharmaceutical drugs, includes classes with a psychologist, exercises for memory development (poems, drawings, tasks). Of course, the child’s psyche is more mobile and better amenable to correction, unlike the adult psyche. Children have the prospect of progressive development, while older people only experience the opposite effect.

Video: bad memory - expert opinion

The human brain is equipped with many impulses arriving at a speed of up to a trillion operations per second from the subcortical layer of the head to the muscles. What reasons lead to slow speed and memory loss, how to check it yourself and try to restore it, especially for older people suffering from disorders of brain function- Let's look at it in more detail in this article.

Memory types

There are different types of memory:

visual (visual);
auditory;
verbal-logistical;
emotional, when a person is able to remember many moments against the backdrop of emotions and experiences for the rest of his life;
genetic, some aspects of thinking can be passed on to new generations;
motor;
muscle due to prolonged physical activity, which resulted in the restructuring of cells and muscles.

Why does memory disappear?

The human brain is a complex and multifunctional organ. Impairment of memory functions, reduction up to complete loss is possible due to:

cranial injuries;
oncological diseases when the tumor is localized in one of the brain structures;
diseases against the background of infection (meningitis, encephalitis)
stroke with damage to the lining of the brain;
failure of cardio-vascular system;
violations metabolism;
stress, lack of sleep;
reception junk food, including endogenous;
age, memory lapses most often affect older people;
lack vitamins in the body, due to the lack of their supply to the brain in sufficient quantities;
smoking, alcohol, drug use, heavy metals (detrimental to brain structures);
bad ecology, which inevitably leads to memory deterioration with age.

What affects memory?

A person’s memory is influenced by many different external factors that can enhance or, conversely, reduce it. Memory disorders are caused by factors that negatively affect brain structures. Quite important information can be forgotten quickly and for a long time? It is important to find out why this happens and what exactly affects memory.

Memory disorders vary in nature. Psychological and gynecological ailments can lead to a decrease. For example, in women due to hormonal imbalance, thyroid disorder.

Some internal diseases contribute to the decrease, deterioration, and inhibition of memory. Negatively affects memory:

long-term being in a nervous tense state;
heavy life cases when future disorders are inevitable;
flaw sleep (gradually and irrevocably reduces memory functionality);
depression, which hurt and exhaust not only the soul. Constant negative thoughts in the head are reflected in the brain in the same way. Depression, according to doctors, is a disease that needs to be treated, otherwise memory can be lost completely and without the possibility of recovery.

Among the diseases leading to memory disorders are:

Memory test

You can test your memory using special tests. Many different ones can be found on the Internet today by entering similar phrases into a search engine. After passing the tests, everyone will be able to determine for themselves how successfully they were passed and what the state of memory is at the moment.

How to restore memory in adults and elderly people?

There are many different exercises, medications and folk remedies known to restore memory. A diet also helps improve memory; when chosen correctly, it has a beneficial effect on all cells and structures of the brain.

Medicines

For memory and thinking disorders, in order to increase brain performance, improve blood circulation and normalize sleep, experts advise taking:

cerebrum compositum to increase brain activity and immune system activity;
golden iodine to normalize blood circulation in the brain, also for older people with weakened memory, lack of sleep, frequent headaches and dizziness;
memorial, normalization of metabolic processes in brain activity;
polymnesin in order to improve the functioning of thought processes.

Plant-based preparations that are completely harmless for people of any age should be given preference:

periwinkle;
dietary supplements, the composition of which helps maintain memory in the elderly;
ginger to increase blood circulation, increase concentration;
black pepper to activate, revitalize the mind, increase the absorption of substances;
Plaunu to improve memory, supply the brain with oxygen, glucose and antioxidants.

The body (in particular, the brain) is unable to fully function if there is a lack of vitamins.

Intellan to increase intellectual capabilities, eliminate stress, depression, improve memory;
Tsikovit indicated for use by schoolchildren and elderly people to enhance mental capabilities (especially during the off-season);
Vitrum Memory, memory forte to enhance the assimilation of information entering the brain.

You can also learn more from another article from our website.

Diets

Diets(low-calorie ones in particular) are indicated for older people with memory problems. The right ones can increase brain function by up to 30%.

To retain information and improve brain performance, one cannot do without including glucose and sugar in the diet to rejuvenate memory, as well as spices to normalize brain function:

anise;
turmeric;
ginger;
caraway;
dill;
cardamom;
basilica

You can combine different types of spices.

The main thing is to achieve, by applying a diet developed by a doctor or nutritionist, equipping the supply of oxygen to the brain, normalizing your metabolic processes, and improving blood circulation.

Folk remedies

There are several good recipes you can prepare at home to improve your memory:

clover tincture. Dry the flowers and chop them. To 2 tbsp. l. add boiling water (0.5 l), let it brew for up to 2 days. Take 0.5 cups 3 times a day before meals. The course of treatment is 2 months;
rowan bark. Prepare a decoction of dry bark. 1-2 tbsp. pour boiling water (1 glass), leave for 2-3 hours, then drink 1-2 tbsp. l. up to 3 times a day;
pine buds. It is better to collect in the spring. You need to chew raw up to 4 pieces per day for 1 month.

Workout

Training is the best and most effective way to train and improve memory, this is:

solving crossword puzzles;
learning foreign languages;
also poems, songs, tongue twisters;
games of chess, for the development of logic and thinking.

In order to preserve and increase memory, the brain must be constantly loaded with work. Only a thinking and interested person is capable of diversified thinking. Unfortunately, with age, brain cells die, irreversibly reducing memory to 7% by the age of 65-70.

Sedentary, inert, withdrawn people often suffer from such ailments. Only constant brain training, reading, writing, studying a computer, solving logical problems, handicrafts, learning new previously unknown activities of various kinds will not allow degradation processes to begin in the brain.

From training, memory and thinking will only gradually improve. Medicines and diets can only speed up, revive and activate all important processes in the brain.

Physical training indicated for people over 40 years of age. Helps improve blood circulation and supply oxygen to the brain. Otherwise, psychomotor functions will gradually decline, and the aging process will only accelerate.

Elderly people are shown cyclic sports to saturate blood cells with oxygen, normalize thinking processes, and improve abstract thinking:

swimming;
easy running;
a ride on the bicycle;
walking.

The human brain needs constant nourishment:

For schoolchildren and seniors For people, not only good nutrition is of great importance, but also regular training and simple exercises to improve and restore memory.
Equally important is the settlement sleep schedule and work day.
To intellectual people If you lead an active lifestyle (especially if your work involves receiving large amounts of information every day), it is important to get a good night's sleep.

To help restore memory and increase mental endurance, today there are many different nootropic drugs and vitamin complexes on sale. Medicines for the brain and memory improvement are indispensable for schoolchildren during exam periods and for creative, intellectually charged people.

When choosing, of course, you first need to consult a doctor. Even the best nootropics have contraindications. It is important to understand that decreased memory and attention (which is often observed in older people) are symptoms of many serious internal diseases and often quite dangerous (brain cancer, diabetes).

25.09.2016

Memory is a function of the central nervous system that ensures the storage and use of acquired knowledge. This complex of complex processes is united under the general term “mnestic activity.”

It is disrupted for many reasons: from fatigue and overwork to serious illnesses. Memory impairments should not be ignored, as they may indicate organic brain damage.

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Causes of memory impairment

Memory impairment can result from many reasons.

Moreover, in patients of different age groups, a decrease in this function is caused by their own factors.

In children and adolescents

The following factors lead to memory impairment in childhood and adolescence:

Hypovitaminosis.
Anemia.
Asthenic syndrome. Frequent incidence of viral infections.
Injuries to the central nervous system.
Stressful situations (including a dysfunctional family, despotism of parents, a problem in the team that the child or teenager attends). A special case of stress is adaptation to the start of school in children of 6-7 years old, the transition from junior to middle school at 10-11 years old.
Visual impairment.
Tumor processes affecting the brain.
Mental disorders.
Intoxication, including as a result of drinking alcohol or drugs.
Congenital pathology characterized by mental retardation (for example, Down syndrome).
The use of certain medications that affect metabolic processes.

Severe, persistent, and uncorrectable memory impairments are unusual in childhood. Pathologies caused by congenital characteristics and anomalies require treatment.

The memory of children and adolescents has its own characteristics that can sometimes be mistaken for disorders:

the child forgets stressful situations faster;
amnesia in children is manifested by the loss from memory of individual episodes that occurred during the period of clouding of consciousness associated with unpleasant events (intoxication, coma, severe trauma);
with alcoholism, polympsest is noted even before the formation of addiction, in the first stages;
retrograde amnesia usually affects a minimum period of time before a stressful situation and is less severe than in adults; in some cases in children it may go unnoticed.

Memory impairment in early and teenage years is characterized by a type of dysmnesia. Severe disorders of this type can negatively affect school performance and adaptation in the team.

In children attending kindergarten, these disorders manifest themselves in difficulties in memorizing poems and songs, as a result of which they are less likely to participate in holidays and matinees. In the case of a severe violation, the child, despite visiting the institution every day, cannot find his locker, has difficulty finding his things among others, forgets the names of those around him, and cannot talk about the events of the past day.

In adults

In adults, the causes of impaired memory function, as well as the occurrence of absent-mindedness and loss of the ability to concentrate for a long time are often pathological conditions acquired during life:

Stressful situations, especially those that are repeated or prolonged.
Chronic fatigue, both physical and psychological.
Acute cerebrovascular accident (in patients over 40 years of age they occur more often than in young people).
Atherosclerotic lesion of the vascular bed.
Arterial hypertension (in some cases it also occurs at a young age).
Encephalopathy.
Osteochondrosis of the cervical spine and associated vertebrobasilar syndrome and insufficiency.
Traumatic brain injuries.
Metabolic disorders (for example, diabetes mellitus, hormonal disorders, pathology of the endocrine glands).
Tumors of the central nervous system.
Alzheimer's disease and other degenerative diseases (more common in older patients).
Mental disorders (in particular, depression, epilepsy, schizophrenia and others).

Attention disorder

A decrease in the ability to concentrate negatively affects the process of memorizing information. The disorder may manifest itself in the form of the following disorders:

Attention disorder	Description
Attention instability	With this disorder, a person is constantly distracted and switches from one object to another. Instability of attention is characteristic of disinhibition syndrome in children, hypomanic states, hebephrenia
Rigidity	Characterized by slow switching between topics or objects of attention. This symptom occurs in epilepsy and other mental illnesses. The patient gets stuck on one topic, which makes dialogue difficult
Lack of concentration	Such people look very absent-minded. This disorder is often mistaken for a character or temperament trait.

The ability to concentrate is reduced by all somatic diseases that manifest symptoms that cause pain or discomfort.

Types of memory disorders

Experts identify the following types of disorders:

dysmnesia - changes directly related to memory function;
paramnesia - distortion of existing memories due to the influence of the patient’s fantasies on them.

Dysmnesia

There are the following types of this pathological condition:

hypermnesia;
hypomnesia;
amnesia.

Hypermnesia

This condition is characterized by a person’s ability to quickly remember and perceive information, as well as reproduce information stored many years ago.

Patients often report that certain events pop up in their memory for no reason (“memories come flooding back”) and take them back to the past. In most cases, people say that they don’t know why this information is stored in their head and remembered right now. For example, an elderly person describes in detail individual lessons at school (down to the clothes of the teacher and classmates), and restores other details relating to his youth, professional activities or events in the family.

Hypermnesia itself, in the absence of other clinical manifestations, is not considered a disease. People who experience this phenomenon are able to remember and reproduce large amounts of information (numbers, sets of words not connected by meaning, lists of objects, musical notations).

But hypermnesia can be a symptom of pathological conditions:

paroxysmal mental disorders (in particular in the structure of epilepsy);
intoxication with psychotropic substances (both pharmacological agents and narcotic drugs);
hypomanic states; Patients experience bursts of energy with increased vitality and ability to work (often accompanied by attacks of hypermnesia, combined with emotional instability, anxiety, and inability to concentrate).

Hypomnesia

This condition is usually described by the expression “poor memory”. Forgetfulness and absent-mindedness are part of the clinical picture of asthenic syndrome.

The following signs are characteristic of this disorder:

Severe fatigue.
Increased nervousness.
Bad mood and irritability, including unmotivated ones.
Headache.
Meteor dependence.
Sleep disturbance in the form of daytime fatigue and insomnia at night.
Changes in blood pressure.
Heart rhythm disturbance.
Vegetative pathologies (including hot flashes in premenopausal and menopausal periods in women).
Physical weakness, chronic fatigue.

Asthenic syndrome occurs in the structure of the following pathological conditions, in which memory deterioration is noted:

Arterial hypertension.
Recovery period after traumatic brain injury.
Atherosclerotic lesion of cerebral vessels.
The initial stage of schizophrenia.
Recovery period after operations.
Severe intoxication.
Somatic diseases.
Taking certain medications.
Organic brain lesions (acute circulatory disorders, tumor processes).
Menopausal syndrome with adaptation disorders.
Depressive states.

Memory problems in these diseases are accompanied by characteristic symptoms.

Amnesia

With amnesia, the patient’s entire memory does not deteriorate, but the disappearance of its fragments is observed - certain periods of time, events, names, faces disappear.

Experts distinguish the following varieties:

Types of amnesia	Description
Dissociative amnesia	Events associated with psychological trauma disappear from memory. The mechanism of the phenomenon is due to the body’s protective reaction, which is caused by severe stress. As a result, the brain tries to get rid of a traumatic situation that is difficult for a person to survive. Such events can only be restored using special methods (hypnosis)
Retrograde amnesia	Most often occurs as a result of traumatic brain injury. In this case, the patient forgets what happened before her: she comes to her senses, but does not remember who he is, what happened to him
Anterograde amnesia	The “memory lapse” in this case refers to events that occurred after the trauma. A person remembers everything that happened before well
Fixation amnesia	This term refers to short-term memory disorders. The person has poor memory of current events. In such cases they say "short memory"
Total amnesia	In this disorder, the patient forgets all events, including information relating to his personality
Progressive amnesia	This disorder is characterized by the disappearance of events from memory, starting with the present, then recent, and then past. The cause of the pathology is the atrophic processes of the brain, which occur in degenerative diseases of the central nervous system, such as Alzheimer's disease or Pick's disease. Total amnesia also occurs in vascular dementia. Patients with this disorder forget the names of objects that they use constantly, or simply do not recognize the thing

Paramnesia

Paramnesia is a disorder that involves the distortion of memories and the addition of extraneous information to them. Experts distinguish the following varieties:

Type of disorder	Description
Confabulation	Fragments of your own memory disappear. In their place are stories and events invented by the patient himself. By retelling these false memories, a person believes what he is talking about. The plot of confabulations can be various events: exploits, achievements, crimes
Pseudo-reminiscence	Memories that have disappeared from memory are replaced by events that actually existed in the patient’s biography, but at a different time and under different circumstances (Korsakoff syndrome)
Cryptomnesia	Cryptomnesia is characterized by the fact that the patient passes off as his own memory and experience an event heard from other sources (films, documentary stories, people's stories). The disorder is characteristic of organic disorders in which delusional symptoms occur
Echomnesia	It seems to a person that this event has already happened to him, or he saw it in a dream. Similar situations occur in healthy people, but they quickly forget about it, while with pathological echonesia the patient attaches special significance to them and becomes fixated on them
Polympsest	In the clinic of paramnesia, two variants of this disorder are distinguished: 1. Short-term memory loss caused by pathological alcohol intoxication (episodes from the past day are confused with each other and with long-past events). 2. Combination of 2 situations of the same period of time - as a result, the patient himself does not know what happened in reality

Diagnostics

Often, the patient is advised by relatives and immediate circle to see a doctor in connection with memory disorders that should be treated. In this case, the specialist conducts an examination, specifying:

What diseases does the patient suffer from? In the process of collecting anamnesis, in some cases it is possible to identify a connection between existing or previously suffered diseases and the deterioration of intellectual abilities, including memory problems.
The presence or absence of pathology that is the direct cause: dementia, cerebrovascular insufficiency, traumatic brain injury, chronic alcoholism, drug intoxication, contributing to disorders in the mnestic sphere.
What medications does the patient take during this period of time? Benzodiazepine derivatives can lead to similar disorders. If memory impairment is caused by medication, it is reversible.

The following studies help in diagnosis:

Diagnostic technique	Identifiable disorders that contribute to memory disorders
Blood chemistry	Disturbance of normal metabolism, deficiency of microelements and vitamins, failure of hormonal metabolism
Neuroimaging methods (computer, magnetic resonance imaging)	Brain neoplasms, hydrocephalus, vascular lesions, degenerative disorders. In a number of diseases, memory impairment remains the only symptom for a long time, so neuroimaging methods must be used without fail, as they will help identify serious pathology
EEG (electroencephalography)	Pathological bioelectrical activity of nerve cells, convulsive readiness. Identifying such disorders helps diagnose epilepsy

Particularly difficult to diagnose are depressive states accompanied by apathy syndrome. Sometimes it is necessary to prescribe a trial of depression treatment.

Treatment

In case of memory impairment as a result of the natural aging process, along with drug therapy, it is recommended that older people learn to remind themselves of current affairs. It is effective to perform special exercises, for example, memorizing a sequence of numbers that are not related to each other in terms of the meaning of words or objects.

Pharmacotherapy is based on the use of drugs that have a nootropic effect and agents that can improve blood supply to the brain. Medicines from these groups are used not only in patients suffering from age-related problems, but also in pediatric practice. Such drugs should be taken in courses, the duration and frequency of which are determined by the attending physician on an individual basis. When prescribing nootropic and vasoactive drugs, it is necessary to take into account age restrictions, contraindications and their ability to interact with other medications that the patient is already taking (this is especially true for older people with concomitant somatic pathologies).

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