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Hey there, welcome to Life Noggin.
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“Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.”
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So says Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest.
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It’s a pretty accurate metaphor.
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Memories hold our secrets, our feelings, and our experiences.
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But what she doesn’t point out is that memories, just like diaries, can be lost.
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Our thoughts and recollections of the past can be gone in an instant.
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What we tend to picture when we think of memory loss is what’s known as retrograde amnesia.
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Someone with retrograde amnesia can’t remember certain aspects of the past and things they
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already knew.
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Generally, amnesia affects a person’s short-term memory.
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They’ll remember the name of their childhood dog, but might not remember what day it is
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or what they were doing immediately before they lost their memory.
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Amnesia can be caused by a stroke, heart attack, or head injury, just as a few examples.
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Fortunately, amnesia usually resolves itself without treatment.
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However, millions of people will experience some form of incurable memory loss in their
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lifetime.
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In fact, this year an estimated 5.5 million people in the US live with Alzheimer’s disease,
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a disease that impacts the brain’s ability to form memories.
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Essentially Alzheimer’s starts with a buildup of bits of a protein called beta-amyloid,
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also known as plaque, in the brain.
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The plaque gets in between nerve cells, and as more and more of it builds up, it damages
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and kills brain cells, and Alzheimer’s progresses.
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According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 1 in 10 people over the age of 65 has Alzheimer’s.
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That’s a lot of people.
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But what does memory loss mean for a person?
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Is their personality gone too?
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And what can be done for them?
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Many researchers are asking, and answering, these questions.
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Research shows that losing your memory to a disease like Alzheimer’s isn’t just
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about forgetting facts you learned in school or the name of the street you grew up on.
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It can progress into forgetting how to go through your daily routines like eating and
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getting dressed.
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Side effects of Alzheimer’s also include personality changes, ranging from apathy to
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paranoia to indecision.
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However, in an interview about his experience with the disease, one man who has been living
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with Alzheimer’s for several years said “we’re still in there.”
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But researchers’ understanding of the disease can only go so far.
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They can see the effects that Alzheimer’s has on people, but typically they don’t
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fully comprehend the feeling of forgetting their own life.
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According to a firsthand account from one individual who was diagnosed with early-onset
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Alzheimer’s, in order to imagine the disease, you should imagine waking up after a dental
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procedure or a surgery—some event that involves drugs that erase your short term memory.
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But also imagine that you’ve woken up in a building you don’t recognize, surrounded
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by things you’ve never seen before, and you’re all alone.
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Soon, people start coming into the room with you and talk to you like you’ve always known
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them.
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Maybe they’re your best friend or your kid or your spouse.
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But you have no idea who they are.
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This is terrifying and heartbreaking to imagine.
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I don’t like to think about it.
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But it’s reality for so many people, and it’s incredibly important to think and talk
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about.
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Alzheimer’s has no cure.
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But we have many scientists and researchers to thank for devoting their time and work
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to looking for
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a cure.
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As always, my name is Blocko and this has been Life Noggin.
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Don’t forget to keep on thinking!
