[Quiz] 10 Questions to Differ Dementia From Age Related Memory Loss?

Correct Answer: Normal ageing

The best answer? That tip-of-the-tongue feeling is most likely not a reason to worry. “When word-finding problems are a part of normal ageing, the problem occasionally happens in conversations and the word often ‘comes back’ after a few minutes,” says Kimberly D. Mueller of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute. With the mild cognitive impairment that kicks off Alzheimer’s disease, she says, these retrieval problems happen frequently and are so disruptive that they make your message hard to convey. Mueller’s new research showed that older adults who tested as cognitively healthy but showed subtle changes in their speech patterns and rate — from using more pronouns instead of the name they can’t remember to peppering conversation with lots of “ums” and “ahhs” as their brain struggles to retrieve a word — were more likely to later advance to mild cognitive decline than those with unchanged speech patterns.

Correct Answer: Warning sign of early dementia

We’re not just talking about being amazed at the crow’s feet, but not knowing your reflection. Difficulty recognizing everyday objects — including your reflection — is an early sign of serious memory loss, according to Michael Rafii, director of the Memory Disorders Clinic at the University of California, San Diego.

Correct Answer: Normal age-related memory loss

Consider using the GPS on your phone, but don’t worry that you’re losing your marbles. If you’ve always misplaced your keys or often get distracted while driving, you’re probably just absent-minded. This is usually due to gaps in attention rather than more serious cognitive conditions, and it often worsens with age. Luckily, this is something that can be improved — even when you are older — by working on your brain’s ability to focus. If you’ve always had an incredible sense of direction, but now can’t remember how to get to well-known places, then you may have a problem.

Correct Answer: Warning sign of early dementia

This kind of behaviour may sound humorous, but it’s more troubling than regularly misplacing keys and wallets. If you do find you are misplacing keys, wallets and phones more often — which is common as you age — you may be able to help the problem with more attention to “input,” Petersen says. Decide where these things will go and always put them in the same place. (Like Mom told you long ago.)

Correct Answer: Warning sign of early dementia

Problems organizing finances are a common early sign of dementia, Rafii says, and can be a sign that you are starting to have difficulty with executive function — the ability to solve problems. Talk to your doctor and consider finding someone you trust to help with the bills.

Correct Answer: Normal age-related memory loss

Forgetting a doctor’s appointment or hair appointment you made months ago is not a big deal. When you start forgetting about meaningful, important events you normally would have remembered, you should be more concerned, Petersen says. Use the calendar function on your phone to send reminders a day before or keep a wall calendar with appointments in red.

Correct Answer: Warning sign of early dementia

Telling the same stories at every party is fine (if sometimes irritating), but asking the same question or repeating yourself often within the same hour is more troublesome. You may just be distracted or having a bad day, but if you repeatedly forget what you’ve just said, you definitely should talk to your doctor. Family members are often the first to notice serious memory problems, Petersen says, so you should listen to your loved ones.

Correct Answer: Normal age-related memory loss

Grief, sleep deprivation and the stress of caregiving all wreak havoc on your memory. Although memory problems linked to mental stress and trouble sleeping are not signs of dementia, they are cause for concern. In the long term, all of these do increase the risk for dementia. New research has found that deep sleep, for example, is crucial for clearing toxic proteins that gunk up the brains of those with Alzheimer’s, and that chronic stress is linked to harmful inflammation that is a villain in many brain diseases.

Correct Answer: Sign of Alzheimer’s

There is a lot of grey areas here, and certainly not hearing someone in the first place is quite different from not being able to remember what he or she said. New research shows that hearing loss can be an early indicator of worsening cognitive performance in older adults. In one new study, for instance, 800 cognitively healthy 50- and 60-year-olds who were found to have hearing loss were up to three times more likely to have developed mild cognitive impairment (the earliest stage of Alzheimer’s) four years later than were those without hearing loss. And Taylor Francis, a University of Wisconsin researcher who conducted the study using 800 volunteer subjects, notes that a doubling of risk remained for the hearing loss group even after controlling for factors like depression, level of social interaction, genetic predisposition and hypertension. While Francis says it’s too soon to tell if treating hearing loss could prevent dementia, we’re going to mark this as a “Sign of Alzheimer’s”to motivate you to go get that hearing checked.