Memory loss, also known as amnesia is a disease that many people around the world suffer from. Many studies have been conducted to find out the main causes of memory loss and how to treat them. Studies have revealed that dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are the leading causes of memory loss. Other also believes that conditions such as brain damage, trauma, and depression among other psychological factors may also cause memory loss. Therefore, this study aims to conduct research to find out causes of memory loss. The study will rely on published literature to find out the relationship between Alzheimer's diseases and memory loss. The hypothesis of the study is that different factors such as dementia and Alzheimer’s diseases cause memory loss.
A research study by Gilbert (1941) states that the main causes of memory loss include dementia, stress, anxiety, and depression. The study conducted an analysis of ten patients who had developed memory loss issues through medical observation. Its result findings showed that those a demented condition slowly deteriorated into memory loss. Several studies have stated that dementia is a factor that occurs following effects on the neural functions of the brain. Its effects are that it causes a slow reduction in the ability to remember things and familiar faces among other things. This inability to remember things effectively leads to memory loss, especially in adult patients. The author of this article states that if someone is demented the person has high chances of progressing to memory loss.
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The article also reports that some of the most common causes of amnesia may include factors such as Alzheimer’s disease, poor nutrition, silent stroke and sleep apnea. Similarly, the study reveals that some medication may also lead to memory loss. A factor such as poor nutrition leads to lack of or insufficient amount of food that are necessary for brain development. Silent stroke also works to interfere with the brain functions. A stroke usually leads to deterioration in brain development and functions hence leading to slow and progressive onset of memory loss. Some medications such as certain painkillers, antidepressant, sleeping pills, antihistamines, diabetes medication, and cholesterol-lowering medication may also lead to memory loss. This article has reported that many people in their advanced age use different types of medication to prolong life. In fact, it is possible to find that a person is often different types of prescription medication. Despite the fact that these drugs are beneficial in prolonging life and improving health conditions, they are also detrimental to the people taking them. Similarly, the study also reveals that approximately over 99,000 memory loss cases that result from prescription medication used by people aged 65 years, and above are reported annually in the US. The study also reveals that other factors such as substance abuse, head injury, tumors, and infections in the brain may also lead to memory loss. On the other hand, amnesia is a factor that is related to older people aged from 65years and above. The study also states that memory loss can be a short or long term. Short-term memory loss is the type that can heal or revert over time.
Another study by Buck Institute for Research on Aging, (2016) reported the existence of a grave loss of memory between two patients. The study used a systems approach that involved using a sophisticated, 36-point therapeutic program that entailed comprehensive changes in diet, exercise, brain stimulation, optimizing of sleep, using specific medications and vitamins, and the application of multiple additional steps that affected brain chemistry. The researcher stated that the first patient had two years of progressive memory loss and it was affecting her career. In that case, the patient was considering quitting her job in which she was tasked with analyzing data and writing reports. The memory loss also caused the first patient to mix up the names of her pets and was disoriented while driving. In the second patient, the researcher found that he had forgotten his locker combinations to the gym, had to constantly have his assistant remind him of his work schedule and regularly forgot familiar faces. The Institute also studied a third patient whose memory was so bad that she had to use his iPad to record everything. After studying the two plus ten other patients, the researchers from Buck Institute found out that their memory loss were related to n onset of Alzheimer’s diseases. The study reported that Alzheimer’s diseases (AD) are a debilitating condition that leads to degeneration in brain activity. The article further revealed the fact that any person with the issue of onset AD also had a constant habit of forgetting familiar faces, losing train of thought mid conversations, and became disoriented about everything including time. This aspect leads to acute memory loss, which also caused many aged people to quit their job at an early age just after achieving their sixty-fifth year. The research reported that AAD had not had any effective treatment since it was discovered over 100 years back. Many people with AD also had progressive memory loss and reached a point when everything was done for them because they could remember a thing. Thus, the disease had completely taken over leading them to have a totally paralyzed life. In the study, the Buck and UCLA instituted decide to reverse the effects of AD using the systems approach to memory disorder among ten patients. The patients were on follow-up for two years and one month after the start of the treatment.
The study by Buck Institute reported an improvement in memory of all the patients who went through the systematic study. In fact, they reported that 3-6 patients who had struggled with memory loss and were considering quitting their jobs or were already at work had returned to their jobs and showed improved performances. On the other hand, the other four who seem to be losing their trains of, though, forgot family faces and mixed the names of their pets also gained their memory of this part of their lives. On the fact of the study conducted jointly by Buck Institute for Research on Aging and Mary Easton Centre for Alzheimer’s disease, also reported that at the beginning of the survey, the term patients showed memory loss associated with AD. Similarly, others had an amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), or subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) which were noticeable in patients who reported cognitive problems at the beginning of the study. The research further observed their patients for two years and one month and reported that one patient diagnosed with late-stage Alzheimer', did not improve after the study. In this case, the study proved that it was possible to revert issue of memory loss in the patient if they could report the cases at the onset of AD, SCI, and aMCI. However, any progressive memory loss that occurred after an extended period of AD was not curable.
Another study by Hayden (2016) conducted a study that has shown the ability to improve the negative effects of Alzheimer's disease. This article states that Ad is caused by the protein known as amyloid plaque which builds up in the nerve tissues in the brain hence leading to the development of Alzheimer's disease in humans. The article reported that the use of a drug known as aducanumab might be used to remove the toxic proteins amyloid plaque thought to trigger the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain as suggests by the findings from a small clinical trial.
Many clinical tests have tried and failed to avert the issue of Alzheimer's diseases for a long time. However, this article reports that latest study, which involved a clinical trial of 165 people split into different groups, gave profound and reliable results, which could shed light on the future of treating the disease. During the study, some people were subjected to the use of the drug and another group, which received a placebo. The study found out that the people in the group that had received infusions of aducanumab, 103 patients were given the medication once a month for 54 weeks. The study showed that these people experienced a reduction for amyloid-β in their brains. These results were similar to the findings of a pre-trial study conducted using the mouse in which the drug seemed to amyloid-β. Similarly, the study done using mouse reported a similar reduction in the amyloid-β plaques from the animals’ brains suggesting that using aducanumab could play a role in helping humans to reverse the onset of Alzheimer’s diseases and hence leads to the eradication of memory loss and other debilitating conditions caused by the same.
While undertaking the study, the researcher decides to increase the dosage of the aducanumab drug; they further reported that the people who got a higher dosage of the medication also showed higher rates of improvements in the reduction of the amyloid-β protein build up in the brain. Similarly, the study reported that a group of 91 people treated for the 54 weeks with the medication revealed slower cognitive declines than did those who received placebo infusions type of medication. Similarly, the researcher also reported that the drug had a more profound effect in reversing or reducing amyloid plaque buildup problem than the doctors had seen to date.
On the other hand, other studies have strongly suggested that other medication aside from dementia may cause memory loss in people both young and old. The study conducted by Emily, (2015) suggests that other factors may be responsible for the onset progress and permanence of memory loss. The article states that depression is one factor that many clinical studies have overlooked yet it plays a significant role in brain functions if depressions are not treated early, it leads to deterioration in memory hence causing memory loss. Similarly, the study suggests that a lack of Vitamin B12, which is critical for brain development, may lead to causes of memory loss, as one grows older. The existence of tumors in the brain and thyroid disorders lead to the display of symptoms common to dementia which is indicative of the onset of memory loss. On the other hand, the study suggests that the many medications taken by both the young and the old people may lead to memory loss. The study suggests that some of the drugs that may be responsible for causing dementia-related symptoms include antidepressants, which function in causing memory loss by reducing brain activities. As this continues, the patient slowly develops dementia-related symptoms which cause brain damage and hence memory loss. Another medication such as sedatives may also cause memory loss in the sense that when consistently put under a sedative, the brain might stop working temporarily. Some strong sedatives cause momentary stoppage of brain activities. If these sedatives are used on a patient regularly, then chances of that patient developing memory loss are very high.
Antihistamines are medications that people use to reduce swellings or deal with some types of allergies. These drugs react poorly with the brain, and their continued use may lead to the degeneration of brain activities hence causing memory loss. The study is another one to suggest that younger adult is less prone to the issue of memory loss compared to older adults at the age of 65 years and above. Similarly, the study suggests that the main causes of memory loss in young adults include factors such as constant abuse of alcohol and other substances, which interfere with brain function. The study also cites other factors such as traumatic brain injury and poor cognitive development as some of the factors that may lead to memory loss issue in young adults. The research also reports that anticonvulsants and corticosteroids as some drug that are responsible for memory loss in young and older adults.
Based on memory issues, a study by Squire and Reed (1998) states that the human brain consist of two types of memory loss. The first is called the retrograde amnesia and the second is the anterograde amnesia. According to this article, anterograde amnesia refers to the inability to form or create a new memory. The study states that the ability to memorize new thing may be impaired or lost because the data fails to flow from short term memory to long term memory hence causing anterograde amnesia. The article reports that retrograde amnesia is when existing memory is lost due to the functions of the newly developed recollections which works to cancel old memory. Retrograde amnesia only allows the person to remember new things but not older things. In this sense, the old memory becomes blocked or erased from existence while the new memory takes precedence.
The authors state that anterograde amnesia is usually the most common one of the two. According to the study conducted by literature analysis of existing journals, the author states that various factors are responsible for causing anterograde amnesia. The first common cause of anterograde amnesia is poor brain development. If a person was born with a brain that does not have the ability to develop accordingly, then it is possible that the person will develop anterograde amnesia due to poorly developing anterior lobe. The anterior lobe is the part of the brain that is responsible for taking in new information and-and converting them into short and long term memory depending on their importance and how frequently a person uses the kind of information.
Similarly, the study also states that brain or cognitive injury may also lead to the existence of anterograde amnesia. When the brain is injured, the injury frequently affects the stored knowledge hence causing amnesia. Brain damage also functions mainly in the impairing ability to receive and store new information hence causing anterograde issues. Another factor such as an insufficient diet rich in vitamin B12 may also lead to the existence of anterograde amnesia. Vitamin B12 is essential for the development and renewal of the brain tissues hence making it possible for someone to receive and process new information as well as store the same for future use. If the vitamin is lacking in any food, then the chances are that the person will suffer from anterograde amnesia.
Future of memory loss
Many studies have revealed that there are two types of memory loss namely anterograde and retrograde amnesia. Of these two, anterograde amnesia which is the lack of ability to acquire and store new information either in the long or short term memory is the common one. Studies have also revealed that dementia is one condition that has been associated with memory loss activities for a long time. Dementia is the condition in which a person loses recognition and is unable to recognize familiar faces. Similarly, the condition also makes it impossible for someone to remember other daily activities such as keeping one's schedule and other daily occurrences in a person's life. Studies have also revealed that Alzheimer's disease is another leading cause of memory loss in older people. Several studies have been conducted that have shown that the use of medication can revert the occurrences of memory loss.
Several articles have shown that many research studies have been conducted with the aim of reversing memory loss through Alzheimer's disease unsuccessfully. However, a recent study by Buck Institute showed that the ability to focus on factors such as medication, food, exercise and other normal human functions might work in helping revert the progress of memory loss. The study also revealed that it is possible to revert memory loss significantly is the development of Alzheimer's is found at its onset stages (She, et al., 2002). Researchers still need to come up with effective medical conditions that can be used to eradicate the amyloid build up the protein in brain tissues. This is because; the protein is responsible for causing Alzheimer's disease which also leads to massive memory loss. Similarly, successful studies that can document how to reduce the amyloid protein can also help doctors to come up with methods of eliminating Alzheimer’s hence lessen the existence of memory loss.
Similarly, researchers need to come up with various medication that can inhibit the spread of the protein that builds up in different areas hence reducing the existence of memory loss issues (She, et al., 2002). Many facts about memory loss in older people have been documented. However, fewer materials exist for amnesia in young adults and children. Therefore, researchers should conduct studies about memory loss in young adults and children and come up with treatment procedures that can be useful for both populations. They should consider factors that can lead to memory loss in young adults and formulate effective medication that can help in reverting the issue at an early stage of development.
References
Buck Institute for Research on Aging. (2016). Memory loss associated with Alzheimer's reversed for the first time. Chicago: Buck Institute.
Emily, H. (2015). Are your medications causing memory loss? Journal of Neuro Science .
Gilbert, J. G. (1941). Memory loss in senescence. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. Vol 36. Issue No 1. , 73-86.
Hayden, E. (2016). Alzheimer's treatment appears to alleviate memory loss in a small trial. International weekly journal of science , 21-42.
She, K., Youkin, S., Younkin, L., Hayman, B., Karawabayashi, T., Western, M., et al. (2002). Reversible Memory Loss in a Mouse Transgenic Model of Alzheimer's Disease. Journal of Neuroscience. Vol, 22 issue. 15 , 6331-6335.
Squire, L., & Reed, J. (1998). Retrograde Amnesia for Facts and Events: Findings from Four New Cases. Journal of Neuro Science. Vol 18 Issue 10 , 3943-3954.
