
Ask HN: Increasingly Forgetful? - jyu
I seem to be increasingly forgetful. I remember clearly in my younger years (high school and younger) that I could just glance at some reading material or tv show and have perfect and fast recall of events. Now my memory seems more patchy and takes more time to recall events both old and recent. While this could be just a natural process in aging, I seem to be increasingly more forgetful than some of my other friends and I'm wondering if this is something I should be concerned about. And if it's a concern, who I should go to.
======
gexla
Maybe you should keep a diary or something like that for events you feel are
memorable.

As a developer, my memory is trashed. I feel like I'm constantly trying to
load so much info in my head that there's no way I can keep much in memory. My
method of dealing with this is repetition of the important stuff, writing down
the things that I know I will forget and allowing everything else to
disappear.

This requires excellent organization of your info, but it's far better than
trying to remember everything. I would rather do without the baggage anyways.
Garbage in, garbage out.

------
Rickasaurus
At 31 my memory isn't nearly as good as it was at 18. I remember I could sit
through my classes, do none of the reading and still get perfect scores on my
tests (as long as the material was covered). However, my ability to
internalize and relate complex ideas is MUCH improved. I'm way better at
abstract math now, I'm not sure I would have even had the patience for it
previously.

Another thing to consider: many people get minor bouts of depression in the
winter. Generally your memory is worse while depressed.

------
anon001
I used to have the same exact issue. There were two things that I did that
returned me back to the level that I was accustomed to operating at.

1\. High-quality supplementation. I take Total Balance Men's Premium and Omega
3/QH from Xtend-Life. Please note that "regular vitamins" from your corner
drug store or GNC are "McDonalds"-grade vitamins and are simply not sufficient
as they contain low-quality nutrients and--pardon the vulgarity--they just get
urinated right out instead of being fully absorbed. The downsides with Xtend-
Life is that they are pricey and the shipping takes a longer that I'd prefer
(they are in New Zealand) but, ultimately, they are absolutely worth it:
<http://www.xtend-life.com/>

2\. Sign up for Lumosity. It's a cognitive training web site based on sound
science from research Universities. They have plenty of working memory and
even dual n-back exercises: <http://www.lumosity.com/>

I can assure you without any doubt whatsoever that if you do both of these
things, you'll be feeling tremendously improved--if not even better than the
level that you were originally operating at--quickly.

~~~
AznHisoka
Ditto on the Omega 3/fish-oil. It's a must-have daily drug for me. If I don't
take at least 3 capsules a day, I start acting all jittery and crazy.

Also to the OP: If you're drinking coffee, I suggest gradually stopping. It
can cause seizure-like sensations for some people who can't tolerate it well.

Everyone else has some good suggestions: exercise regularly! sleep early, and
cut down on the processed foods, and eat more veggies. Also, I recommend
adding in some spirituality for good measure. All of these are prudent ways to
prevent mental breakdowns as you get older. Programmers are especially prone
since some of us don't get much social interaction everyday

------
sachingulaya
Medical doctor here(well, almost!). One huge misconception I want to clear up
is that memory loss is not a normal feature of aging.

I don't have a lot of information to go off of here(when did it start?, is it
getting worse?, did you notice it yourself or did others around you notice
it?) but the common causes of memory loss in the below 50 demographic are
hypothyroidism and B12 deficiency. If you're a vegetarian B12 def. is the
likely culprit.

What to do: Go see your general practitioner. He/She will run all the usual
labs and check your thyroid and B12 levels as the first step in your workup.

Another possible factor is depression. Depression and memory loss go hand in
hand. (Sidebar: If I see a geriatric patient with memory loss I'm thinking
either Alzheimer's or depression. The differentiating factor is that
Alzheimer's patients don't know that they have memory loss.)

Go get checked out. B12 deficiency is reversible in the short term but can
cause permanent damage.

~~~
jyu
I think it started after college and I am almost 29 now. I have had depression
and my memory retention was really bad during this phase. I started getting
treatment and therapy for it nearly 1 year ago. I think I have always been
kind of oblivious at times, but now it seems like I need to use repetition
tricks remember important things.

I'm not a vegetarian, smoker, drinker, and exercise at least weekly. It could
be bad sleep hygiene, but I'll definitely check out B12 and thyroid problems.
Thanks!

~~~
sachingulaya
Glad to hear that you're getting help. You can email me(check my profile) if
you have any questions down the line. Take care.

------
msie
Too much web surfing and tv watching? Too much multitasking? Stop surfing the
web for a week and see what happens. On HackerNews I will often looked at
10-20 articles and soon forget the first articles I looked at.

~~~
tstegart
Yeah, I had this problem at my last job. I had to read around 1000 pages a day
of material. I couldn't remember people's names 10 seconds after meeting them.
I stopped remembering phone numbers completely. Since I stopped that job life
is a lot easier, my brain has so much more space.

------
Mz
There are actually things you can do, nutritionally, to support brain health.
Most folks are not really interested in hearing that, so I won't waste my time
elaborating.

------
samstave
Look into your diet. Are you eating a lot of processed food and a lot of food
from aluminum cans (soda) - as well as cooking in aluminum pans?

Aluminum causes Alzheimers.

~~~
nate_meurer
There is no evidence that aluminum causes Alzheimers. Some early studies
indicated a very faint correlation at the population level between aluminum in
brain tissue and alzheimers. Some of those studies explicitly noted the
likelihood that amyloid plaques were incidentally prone to aluminum
accumulation, meaning that Alzhiemers might aluminum buildup, not the other
way around. Subsequent research has largely failed to corroborate the
correlation, and no causative relationship has ever even been proposed to my
knowledge.

If aluminum did cause Alzheimers, then we'd all be screwed, regardless of
whether we drink from cans. Aluminum is widely used to treat potable water.
You consume large amounts of aluminum in your fruits and vegetables, tea,
bear, and grains. You eat aluminum in antacids and pickles. The list goes on.

------
jurre
Maybe you should add how old you are.

------
FellowTraveler
Maybe you should quit smoking marijuana.

------
crawfordcomeaux
TL;DR version: If you're experiencing something that you don't like, look to
fix it, ESPECIALLY when related to your health! Your quality of life
decreasing due to memory loss is enough of a concern to justify getting it
checked out. Issues w/memory that I've experienced at different points in my
life were related to diet, sleep deprivation and thyroid problems.

Are you experiencing any other issues? How's your mood stability? Do you get
enough to eat/drink/sleep (7-9 hours) each day? Memory issues can be tied to a
lot of issues, but some things may not be the root cause. Sleeping/eating
disorders could be affecting your memory, but the disorders themselves could
be caused by other underlying issues.

Personally, I had memory issues related to chronic sleep dep (driven by a
"sleep is for the weak" mentality and a firm insistence for years that I only
needed 4-5 hours a night). Getting onto a regular sleep cycle fixed the memory
problems and a host of other issues. Having sleep deprived myself from age 14
to 25, the impact it had was incredible. I became much more creative &
productive.

I started having sleep/memory issues again in the past year (along with mood
issues and irregular appetite) with increasing frequency. I've got a currently
undiagnosed (waiting on blood work) thyroid issue, but started taking
synthetic thyroid hormone a few months back. The fact that it's resolved all
problems points to hypothyroidism, so now I'm hunting down its cause.

Thyroid issues can be notoriously difficult to diagnose, since (I think) all
tests could come back inconclusive/negative & most doctors use the TSH test to
rule it out. The TSH test usually only reports thyroid issues in extreme
cases, though, which is why there's a growing movement in medicine to educate
doctors against using it as a thyroid litmus test. As my mom puts it (thyroid
problems run deep and wide in our family), "it pretty much just tells you if
you're alive".

If you suspect a thyroid issue, you'll want all thyroid blood tests run,
especially thyroid antibody tests. If a doctor isn't willing to order them
all, find another that will. I saw an endocrinologist who repeated incorrect
thyroid information related to my test results that I've both read about and
have been told about by my GP & a dermatologist friend of the family (both are
excellent diagnosticians & doctors). I won't be seeing the endo again.

One thing that makes thyroid issues difficult to pin down is that it requires
the patient to be knowledgeable & assertive about their own treatment in order
to properly gauge their doctors. Here's a collection of links w/info on
different thyroid aspects:
[http://thyroid.about.com/od/gettestedanddiagnosed/Get_Tested...](http://thyroid.about.com/od/gettestedanddiagnosed/Get_Tested_for_Thyroid_Disease_and_Properly_Diagnosed.htm)

Sorry to go a little offtopic on thyroid stuff. That little gland has plagued
my family for generations, so I'm pretty adamant about pointing it out as a
potential cause of things.

~~~
jyu
Sounds like something I definitely need checked out and look into the thyroid
issue, although my family doesn't have a history of thyroid problems. I don't
think I have any of the issues with diet (mostly cook for myself), but it
could be bad sleep hygiene/routine and lack of regular exercise. Definitely
I'll check in with a doctor now. Your response on the thyroid issues sound
scary and really informative, thanks a lot!

