What’s REALLY causing your memory loss
Have you ever considered that maybe it’s not your age that’s making things slip your mind? Maybe premature senility isn’t what’s making you more forgetful these days. In fact, it could be those motion sickness pills you took. Or that medication for your stomach ulcer. That’s right: as if getting older wasn’t already complicated enough, a new study has discovered that common medications known as anticholinergic drugs may cause seniors to lose their thinking skills more quickly.
It’s an unnerving discovery given the fact that those who are up in years are often prescribed so many different medications. The drugs that appear to hasten memory loss and hinder thinking skills work by blocking the binding of a brain chemical called acetylcholine to its receptor nerve cells.
Dr. Jack Tsao, a neurologist from Uniformed Services University in Bethesda led the study that found that “being on these drugs does worsen your cognitive performance.” The research focused on the effect of medications on patients whose average age was 75. The study concluded that medications used to treat bladder problems and Parkinson’s Disease seemed to have the most degenerative effect on memory.
Tsao downplayed the effects of these drugs, however. “In the course of a few years, there is a small slippage. It’s a minor effect,” he said.
Minor or not, it should come as no shock that the law of unintended consequences is constantly at work when your body is full of prescription drugs. Not that you’ll ever hear that from the FDA
Fortunately, there are natural ways to boost your memory.
Boost your memory with this daily supplement
Ginko biloba has long been a staple herb for homeopathy. It’s chock-full of powerful antioxidants called flavoglycosides, which have been proven to have neuro-protective effects in animal models of spinal chord injury. And now, recent research has added a new skill to its resume: memory booster.
The report was published the journal Neurology, and said that the ginko biloba supplement had the potential to reduce the risk of developing mild memory problems by a whopping 68 percent in healthy older adults with no previous history of memory problems. Unfortunately, there’s no room for error with this strict regimen. The test subjects who strayed from the regimen and had different levels of compliance with the program had no benefits from the treatment whatever.
So it’s a case of “remember to take your supplements or else you’ll forget.”
However, the researchers cautioned that there was a potential downside to the ginko supplement – a big one. There was a slight increase in the risk of stroke or mini stroke. “Ginkgo has been reported to cause bleeding-related complications, but the strokes in this case were due to blood clots, not excessive bleeding, and were generally not severe,” said Dodge.
As is true with so many medications – natural and man-made – the key is taking them in the proper doses and at the proper time. Ginko biloba is no different. But I’m encouraged that there continues to be serious research done to prove that real-life medical problems can be healed through natural cures.
