Memory Archive

Ask these questions to get to the root of the problem.

Do you think you've been having more memory slips than usual lately? Annoying but essentially harmless age-related memory impairment is common, but pinpointing the cause isn't easy. Start by considering common and often reversible causes of memory problems. This could lead to a more productive discussion with your physician.

"Anyone concerned about memory should talk with a doctor for further evaluation," says Dr. David Hsu, a geriatric psychiatrist with the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Having an honest discussion about memory and getting tested may help open up discussions about other areas of health too."

Researchers from the biotechnology company Biogen have reported that a new drug reduced the amount of amyloid plaques—the brain deposits associated with dementia—and slowed cognitive decline in people with early Alzheimer's disease. They presented the report March 20, 2015, at the International Conference on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases in Nice, France.

The researchers studied 166 people ages 50 to 90 who had been diagnosed with mild Alzheimer's. The participants were randomly assigned to receive either a placebo or one of four different doses of the drug aducanumab—an antibody that attaches to amyloid deposits and turns the immune system on them.

Harvard researchers Joshua Hartshorne and Laura Germine have added to the growing body of research indicating that, in some respects, our cognitive function is improving, not declining, as we age. Their report, published online March 15, 2015, by Psychological Science, indicates that our vocabulary skills keep improving past retirement age.

The researchers wanted to understand how and when reasoning and memory change over the life span as a basis for distinguishing normal from abnormal aging. They recruited 48,000 volunteers of all ages and had them complete online tests that measured brain processing speed, memory, emotional intelligence, and vocabulary.

Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, as the 17th-century poet William Congreve wrote. In fact, music might soothe your heart by relaxing your arteries, a small study hints.

Researchers measured arterial stiffness in 20 healthy young adults before and after they listened to 30 minutes of classical music, rock music, or nothing (as a control). They used a technique called carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV). This measures the time it takes for the pulse to travel to the carotid artery in the neck versus the femoral artery in the leg. Longer pulse times suggest stiffer arteries, which translates to a higher risk of cardiovascular problems. Higher "wave reflections" (another measure of artery health) are also linked to heart disease risk.

Stay well when caring for a loved one by maintaining your physical and emotional health. Caring for yourself means you'll be able to care for another.

Can a Mediterranean-type diet with extra servings of nuts and extra-virgin olive oil help protect memory and thinking skills with age? A study in this week’s JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that it might. The findings come from a small substudy done as part of the PREDIMED trial, which showed that a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts reduced heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular problems among people at high risk for them. Although the results of the new PREDIMED study are promising, its small size and the fact that it wasn’t designed to look at connections between diet and brain health mean the results need to be taken with a grain of salt. That said, since there’s no downside to following a Mediterranean diet, an added bonus beyond great taste could be protecting memory and thinking skills.

Relaxation, meditation, positive thinking, and other mind-body techniques can help reduce your need for pain medication.

Drugs are very good at getting rid of pain, but they often have unpleasant, and even serious, side effects when used for a long time. If you have backache, fibromyalgia, arthritis, or other chronic pain that interferes with your daily life, you may be looking for a way to relieve discomfort that doesn't involve drugs. Some age-old techniques—including meditation and yoga—as well as newer variations may help reduce your need for pain medication.

Distracting background music could make certain memory tasks more challenging for aging brains, suggests a study in The Gerontologist. The study involved one group of participants ages 18 to 30 and another ages 60 to 75. They studied images of faces paired with names on a computer screen, either in silence or while listening to instrumental music. Later they had to recall the name-face pairs while listening to music.

The music had no effect on test scores in the younger people. In contrast, the older people remembered 10% fewer names learned when listening to background music, compared with studying in silence.

Is brain damage an inevitable consequence of American football, an avoidable risk of it, or neither? An editorial published yesterday in the medical journal BMJ poses those provocative questions. Chad Asplund, director of sports medicine at Georgia Regents University, and Thomas Best, professor and chair of sports medicine at Ohio State University, offer an overview of the unresolved connection between playing football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a type of gradually worsening brain damage caused by repeated mild brain injuries or concussions. The big question is whether playing football causes chronic traumatic encephalopathy or whether some people who play football already at higher risk for developing it. The Football Players Health Study at Harvard University hopes to provide a solid answer to that and other health issues that affect professional football players.

You can't see your blood pressure or feel it, so you may wonder why this simple reading is so important. The answer is that when blood pressure is high, your heart is working overtime to pump blood through your body. This extra work can result in a weaker heart muscle and potential organ damage down the road. Your arteries also suffer when your blood pressure is high. The relentless pounding of the blood against the arterial walls causes them to become hard and narrow, potentially setting you up for stroke, kidney failure, and cardiovascular disease.

A healthy lifestyle — not smoking, losing excess weight, eating nutritious foods, and exercising regularly — is the cornerstone for preventing and treating hypertension.