Golden Nuggets

Author's Website:
http://donfrazier.com

Old Timers Is NOT Alzheimers

I used to love watching the old-timer’s games from Yankee Stadium. When they introduced men like Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizutto, or the other participants in this annual affair, I would remember how great they were in their prime. These guys, along with their teammates, won World Series galore with their great pitching, powerful hitting and solid defense. However, as I watched them now, their pitches looked like the Little League, not the Major League. They swung their bats like they weighed 30 pounds, and they trotted around the bases instead of running. I hate to admit it, but my heroes had gotten old!

It may come as a shock to you, but we’re getting old too. Our bodies do not function as well as they once did. Things we once did without hesitation now become a challenge to us. Sadly, some of our group may not be able to play in the “Majors” anymore. But thank God there is still a category called, “Old-timers.” At least, we’re still in the game. We may be slow, but we’re steady.
Another result of our aging continuum is that our minds, like our bodies, just don’t get us where we want to go as fast as they once did. The great anxiety that is spawned from this slow-down is the assumption that we are victims of one of approximately ten types of dementia, specifically Alzheimer’s. Just as our ballplayers slow-down cannot be assumed to be the result of some systemic disorder, so you cannot automatically assume that your mental slow-down means you have the onset of Alzheimer’s. The fact that you do not remember where you placed your keys does not mean you have dementia. Some things are simply the function of normal aging.

Perhaps you could better understand what is taking place with your minds and memories if you considered this comparison. When you were young, the amount of information you had gathered might fill a SHOEBOX. Finding things in a shoebox is relatively quick and simple. You just reach in, shuffle a few things around, and voila…it is right there. Retrieval of names, faces, places and facts is almost immediate.

The next stage of consideration is when you have reached your middle years. The amount of information you have been exposed to requires your storage facility to approximate a FILING CABINET. As you can readily understand, a filing cabinet requires more time for the retrieval of information you wish to recall. Often- used information will be in the top drawer, at the front. You will hardly hesitate to remember any of this information. Seldom-used data will fill out the drawers from front to back, and from top to bottom. The retrieval of this information will take a little more time, and the delays will be observable.

The last stage of the memory/retrieval challenge is when you have been blessed to live into what is considered old age. After 7, 8, or 9 decades of life, the enormity of information you have stored requires your memory bank to be a WAREHOUSE. As you can imagine, retrieval from a warehouse takes longer than retrieval from a shoebox or a filing cabinet. Instead of drawers, you are now confronted with aisles filed with shelves of data. The task of remembering information can seem overwhelming, but it is not impossible.

Many of my patients become alarmed when they can longer retrieve the name of the librarian at their elementary school, or some other obscure piece of information from their past. Instead of assuming the worst possible case of dementia suddenly attacking their brain, they need to relax and take a stroll through their warehouse of stored data. It may take minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months but, with some help, data can be retrieved. It will usually come to you around 2 a.m. when you are not consciously trying to remember it.

The simple message here is that you should not assume that a memory slowdown is an organic dysfunction. Just as Mickey Mantle could no longer hit tape-measure homeruns or run the bases at “break-neck” speed in his older years, you cannot rummage through your warehouse at the speed you once did through your shoebox. There is just so much more to sort through when you have the mental inventory you have amassed. Relax, you will find what you’re looking for. If this doesn’t work as quickly as you wish, then Google it! Remember, a short pencil is better than a long memory.

There is much more that can be added to this subject. If you need a little help getting started, I am here just for you…let’s talk.
****A Personal Word to Our Readers from Dr. Frazier****  Please feel free to share your questions, observations, or insights with our readers and me. Website: http://www.donfrazier.com