Brain boosters

Well, no problem there. Where are the car keys? Or for that matter, the parked car? That wonderful book you read last week, what was it called again? You know you walked into the kitchen for a reason, but what was it? All forgotten, at least momentarily.

Like the need for reading glasses, sudden blanking or forgetfulness often strikes otherwise high-functioning people in their forties and fifties (and yes, sometimes as early as their mid-thirties; it is thought memory loss actually begins in the 20s).

Memory lapses, such as suddenly blocking a neighbour's or colleague's name or forgetting a social engagement, are not only embarrassing, but can cause considerable anxiety. Once you start having trouble concentrating or remembering things, is this a portent of even worse things to come, i.e.... Alzheimer's disease?

Not necessarily, according to experts. Increasingly, scientists are finding that for the most part, memory problems encountered in midlife may not be predictive of the progressive degeneration that leads to dementia. Instead, the loss of mental acuity may simply reflect the symptoms of an aging brain.

The brain, as it ages, may gradually lose the material it needs for one region to communicate effectively with another region, according to a study at Harvard University. The study, published in Neuron, suggests this slowly undermines sophisticated "higher" cognitive functions such as memory and learning.

Normal, but not acceptable
Just because a certain amount of age-related forgetfulness may be 'normal', is it acceptable, or perhaps more importantly, inevitable?