Why ‘senior moments’ may be good sign

The time to worry is when you begin to stop noticing memory lapses, scientists have shown.

A study found that people with dementia tend to lose awareness of memory problems two to three years before the condition develops.

US lead researcher Dr Robert Wilson, from Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago, said: "Our findings suggest that unawareness of one's memory problems is an inevitable feature of late-life dementia, driven by a build-up of dementia-related changes in the brain.

"Lack of awareness of memory loss is common in dementia, but we haven't known much about how common it is, when it develops or why some people seem more affected than others.

"Most studies of memory unawareness in dementia have focused on people who have already been diagnosed. In contrast, this new study began following older adults before they showed signs of dementia."

The team tracked the progress of more than 2,000 older individuals with an average age of 76 who were free of dementia at the start of the study.

Over a period of 10 years, they were given annual tests of memory and thinking ability. Participants were also asked how often they had trouble remembering things, and how they rated their memory.

For the 239 volunteers diagnosed with dementia, memory awareness began to drop sharply an average of 2.6 years before they developed symptoms.

Several years of memory decline followed.

"Although there were individual differences in when the unawareness started and how fast it progressed, virtually everyone had a lack of awareness of their memory problems at some point in the disease," said Dr Wilson.

Surprisingly, loss of memory awareness appeared earlier in younger participants. The explanation may be that older people are more likely to expect their memories to fade as a normal part of ageing, said the scientists.

An examination of the brains of 385 individuals who died during the study revealed three dementia-relate changes associated with rapid decline of memory awareness.

The findings appear in the journal Neurology.

Dr Wilson added: "This study underscores the importance of family members looking for help from doctors and doctors getting information from friends or family when making decisions about whether a person has dementia, since people may be unable to give reliable reports about the history of their own memory and thinking abilities."

Pam James, from Bingley, always had a photographic memory and a clear recollection so when she began forgetting certain things she decided to seek medical advice.

"The doctor says I don't have dementia or Alzheimer's but there is too much in the brain and it falls out," exlains the 79-year-old.

Considering Pam is involved in countless committees and organisations including the Soroptomists and Inner Wheel, and she also runs Open House for Seniors in Bradford and is a director, vice chair and trustee of Age UK Bradford, is isn't surprising she forgets some things.

"At a conference a couple of years ago we had a speaker on this and she said you need to liken it to a pile of boxes. In your memory you put one box on top of another and eventually it gets to the top and it cannot take any more and it falls off and I thought that was a very clear way of that suiting a lot of people.

"It is very strange and it is quite worrying even though the doctor has reassured me," says Pam, who underwent a memory test.

"We hear so much about Dementia and Alzheimers that I think sometimes you get yourself quite concerned with 'is this the road I am on? especially at my age.

"But I don't think it is just in my age group. I work with people of all ages and a lot of people are saying the same thing, with mobile phones, iPads and emails your life is full of all sorts of things that were never there before," explains Pam.

Put simply, we are probably storing much more information in our heads so forgetting the odd thing is quite acceptable - whatever your age!