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Mind & Mood

Bring a fuzzy memory back into focus

February 1, 2023

Treating underlying conditions, living a healthy lifestyle, and doing crossword puzzles may help.

photo of a grandfather and grandson working on a newspaper crossword puzzle together

If you’re like most people ages 50 or older, your power of recall has lost a little wattage. That becomes clear if you often forget where you left your glasses or can’t remember why you walked into a room. Those everyday lapses in memory are normal in middle and older age. Why is that, and can you do anything to change it?

Age-related brain changes

Subtle changes occur everywhere in the body as we get older, including in the brain. Some of those changes affect memory.

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About the Author

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Heidi Godman, Executive Editor, Harvard Health Letter

Heidi Godman is the executive editor of the Harvard Health Letter. Before coming to the Health Letter, she was an award-winning television news anchor and medical reporter for 25 years. Heidi was named a journalism fellow … See Full Bio
View all posts by Heidi Godman

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No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.

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Improving Memory: Understanding age-related memory loss

By age 60, more than half of adults have concerns about their memory. However, minor memory lapses that occur with age are not usually signs of a serious problem, such as Alzheimer’s disease, but rather the result of normal changes in the structure and function of the brain. This report, Improving Memory: Understanding age-related memory loss, describes these normal age-related changes and other more serious causes of memory loss — and how to distinguish between them.

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