Page 58 - The Memory Program How to Prevent Memory Loss and Enhance Memory Power

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Taking preventive action in your forties and fifties is a whole lot better than waking up for the first
time in your sixties or seventies to discover that you've developed memory loss, a condition that
gradually crept up on you while you ignored it. After age-related memory loss has set in, taking
action at a late stage is not very effective because the death of nerve cells in the brain is largely
irreversible. All that can be done is to prevent further damage, not rescue what has already been lost.

The Lessons of Osteoporosis and High Blood Pressure

The majority of older people, especially most women, gradually develop osteoporosis, which is a
thinning and weakening of bone structure. If everyone said that there was no point in trying to
prevent osteoporosis by using medications (estrogen, calcitonin, Fosamax, Evista) because it was,
after all, “normal aging,” you can imagine how frail and stooped most elderly women would be and
how many more falls and fractures would occur. Hypertension is another such example: a mild to
moderate rise in blood pressure was usually left untreated on the grounds that it was quite “normal”
for an older person. After doctors began to treat even mild hypertension routinely, using diet,
exercise, and medications if necessary (this practice began barely two to three decades ago), the risk
of heart disease, stroke, and death in these people diminished steadily over time. Mild hypertension
is now considered a treatable, and not just normal, part of the aging process. The same holds true for
high cholesterol levels. The next sea change: preventing memory loss due to the aging process.

Grandma Still Has a Great Memory

But what evidence is there to support the dim view that most people will suffer from memory loss as
they grow older? As a matter of fact, there has been considerable research on this topic. While a few
people retain a stellar memory into their eighties and nineties, studies of middle-aged and older
people consistently demonstrate that the vast majority show a gradual decline in their memory over
time. When someone says that his or her grandmother has an outstanding memory, it usually means
that her memory is much better than that of other people of her age, but it may still represent a
decline from when