In life, elderly friends will complain from time to time that their memory is getting worse and worse. Is the memory really worse when older people start to complain? How to deal with it correctly?
"Memory Complaint" indicates atrophy of the brain's gray matter. It mentions memory decline in the elderly, and many people will think of Alzheimer's disease . In fact, patients with Alzheimer's disease show obvious memory loss, which may affect limb activity and make it difficult to take care of themselves. The main physiological lesions in patients with Alzheimer's disease occur in the brain.
Our brains include gray matter and white matter. Among them, gray matter is the cerebral cortex, which plays a decisive role in thinking, cognition and other activities, while white matter is mainly responsible for transmitting information and connecting different areas of the cortex.
The brain gray matter in patients with Alzheimer's disease is significantly atrophy, the brain gyrus on the cortex becomes narrower, and the brain sulcus becomes looser. Studies have found that patients with Alzheimer's disease have atrophy of gray matter in their brains, and similar changes have been found in elderly people who often complain about their memory loss. Compared with the elderly who think they have normal memory, the brain gray matter of the elderly who often complain in their lives does shrink more, which means they are closer to the state of Alzheimer's disease. Individuals with “memory complaints” have a 2.5-fold risk of developing dementia in the future (including Alzheimer’s disease and other similar diseases) than other individuals.
Of course, "memory complaints" do not necessarily mean you will get Alzheimer's disease, but most elderly people with Alzheimer's disease may indeed go through the stage of memory complaints.
Researchers divide the course and development of Alzheimer's disease into three stages: preclinical, prodromal, and dementia. Among them, the preclinical stage is that the objective memory level remains unchanged, but the subjective memory level decreases. That is to say, the results of the clinical memory test have not changed, but I feel that my memory has decreased in life.
In addition, studies have shown that the decline in subjective memory levels in the elderly is related to the levels of negative emotions such as depression and anxiety. In other words, if you feel that your memory is worse, the elderly may feel worried and anxious. In fact, such worries are unnecessary, otherwise they will bring new health problems with worry and anxiety.
What should I do if my memory is declining
If you want to have a healthy body, we should have a healthy lifestyle. Healthy life here not only refers to participating in physical exercise, but also includes exercise in the brain. As long as you have the awareness to train your mind and pay attention to it in your daily life, it will help your memory.
In general, a healthy lifestyle can be summarized into three points:
1. Actively participate in physical exercise: There are many types of exercises - Walking , Tai Chi , or ball sports with smaller exercises, such as table tennis, are all good exercise methods.
2. Maintain social networks: Studies have found that the number of friends is related to the health of the elderly. Maintaining the scale of social networks, visiting old friends, and meeting new friends will not only help relieve loneliness in the family, but also simple conversations and chats between friends can also be used as a way to exercise your brain.
3. Learn new knowledge: The scope of learning is very wide. You can learn from your family how to use your mobile phone, WeChat , you can go to the community activity center to learn calligraphy and musical instruments, or you can recite ancient poems and learn foreign languages at home. Such learning is a training of the brain. If you regularly exercise your memory, you will naturally feel that it is not that difficult to remember something. Moreover, the learning process is also a good opportunity to meet new friends and a good way to kill two birds with one stone.
