Causes Of Memory Loss

Causes of memory loss abound, which is a frightening or at least sobering fact about our fragile lives. Causes of memory loss can range anywhere from aging to alcoholism, from drug abuse to long-term smoking, from lack of physical fitness to cognitive diseases like Alzheimer’s, from head trauma to clinical depression.

Many causes of memory loss are thought to have their origins in our youthful years, but their symptoms take a long time to build so that they don’t show up for most people until between around 45 to 55. So, some of these would include the gradual loss of brain energy with aging, gradual loss of physical fitness with aging, compounding effects of prolonged substance abuse, the effects of smoking, poor nutritional habits, and the “wear and tear” of living.

But many causes of memory loss can be stopped or their effects can be mitigated. If we look at alcoholism, we learn that there is nothing inevitable about it. It’s well known that there’s no such thing as a born alcoholic, there is no “one cause” of it, there is no “alcoholic gene”. At most there are those who have more risk factor to turn into an alcoholics–possibly suffer impaired memory powers as a result. So, what does this all mean? It means a person has to recognize the warning signs that s/he may be slipping into alcoholism. Alcoholism is defined as a need to consume alcohol so often and/or to such a great extent that this interferes with physical and mental health, with work, and with family or social life. It should be noted that there is such a thing as a “functional alcoholic”. This is somebody who has a drinking problem, however they never permit their drinking problem to interfere with their professional work.

Functional alcoholics may therefore have a more difficult time admitting their problem, since they will also find it harder to connect their drinking problem with memory loss as they probably have a well-functioning mind to continue doing their job with all responsibility. Yet, their problem will manifest in relationship interference and in physical health problems or off-the-job mental problems like blacking out.

What other causes of memory loss can be mitigated or evaporated? Well, it used to be taken for granted that along with age-related memory and mental powers loss came age-related physical deterioration. Once you reached the depths of middle age, you “had to” become weaker, slow in speed and reaction time, more brittle-boned, and more susceptible to a vast array of diseases and illnesses. But there are now countless examples of this just not being the case. There are people running five-minute miles in long-distance races past the age of 50, and doing triathlon competitions even as they are close to 60. There are men and women skiing, cycling, jogging, doing Pilates, hiking in the mountains, and looking sexy to people less than half their age in their 50s, 60s, and even 70s. These physically active lives require great mental acuity as well as fit bodies. So much for the “inevitability” of fading away with aging, at least when we’re still as young as we’re “supposed to be” when this is supposed to start happening to us.

Advances in medical science, neurophysiology, psychology, fitness wisdom, and nutrition should continue to allow more and more for the mitigation, even the reversal, of the causes of memory loss.