Penyebab Susah Mengingat Sesuatu - Do you often forget your keys or motorcycle keys? Perhaps you've found yourself repeatedly worrying if you've misplaced something or forgotten essential items. Have these occurrences made you wonder, “Hey, do I have Dementia?”

Hold on! Before jumping to conclusions and self-diagnosing, let's understand Dementia.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, dementia is a general term that describes a range of symptoms, such as loss of memory, language, problem-solving, or other cognitive abilities.

These symptoms interfere significantly with daily life. Under this umbrella term are specific diseases.

Alzheimer’s vs Dementia

Often, when people hear the word "dementia," they think of Alzheimer’s disease. This might be because it's commonly discussed or perhaps due to personal experiences, like what the you remember hearing when the doctor diagnosed your grandmother.

However, dementia and Alzheimer’s are not synonymous.

Alzheimer’s refers to a specific brain disease, while Dementia describes the symptoms. There are several types of dementia, including Lewy body dementia, vascular dementia, and Huntington’s disease. It's essential to be well-informed before jumping to conclusions.

Why you’re so forgetful?

Your friends might often joke that your forgetfulness is just a part of who you are. And they might not be entirely wrong.

It could be in your genes. Research suggests that dementia might arise from single-gene diseases, but more often, it's the result of complex-gene diseases.

You must be confused by now, don’t worry brain science is not rocket science. Think of it like this. Everyone has DNA, they are the building blocks that make up genes . These genes are codes that determine what traits it will manifests.

Some individuals possess genes making them susceptible to certain diseases, termed 'risk variants'. In single-gene diseases, one of our gene may change or mutate to cause a disease, it is a linear relationship that’s rarely found in science.

Your forgetfulness could stem from complex or multiple-gene diseases. Not so straightforward; it’s where your genes and a combination of other interactions, that is environment, lifestyle and multiple gene variants may lead to the disease.

So the truth is, you are only ever partly forgetful. Fortunately, at the end of the day having these genes doesn’t guarantee you’ll develop the disease and as a bonus point, it is NOT possible to directly inherit Dementia.

What can we take from this? The next time your friends comment on your forgetfulness, answer with “yes I am, but only partly!”

One apple a day keeps the doctor away

“A conversation a day keeps Dementia at bay”

I’m sure you’ve never heard of this version. This phrase come from newest research, where it has been countlessly confirmed that this disease is the result of poor lifestyle, still in support of the multiple-gene disease, but emphasizing on the non-genetic factor.

Lifestyle is diet. Lifestyle is work. Lifestyle is hobby and lifestyle is people. The alternative to Dementia is a sharp mind and by now we should know that diet plays a major role in maintaining a sharp mentality with age.

It from choosing to eat a bowl of cranberries than popcorn, limiting cakes to a Sunday afternoon or alcohol when it’s a dinner date.

Hold your horses, because this discovery may surprise you. After evaluating 38 studies that have tracked the lifestyle of more than 2 million people and data from 500,000 people in the UK, researchers from Peking university in Beijing and Sichuan University uncovered some shocking facts about our boring daily buzz.

Facts for Dementia prevention:

1. 1. Watching television an listening to the radio can reduce risk of developing Dementia

   2. Listening to the radio engage us more and require our active participation, through imagination

   3. Being active in the community is beneficial, but far less than you think

   4. Doing household chores is more helpful as a preventive than visiting friends and family

The point in the phrase “ A conversation a day keeps dementia at bay” isn’t taken literally, but as lead researcher Lin Lu said “There are plenty of activities that are easy to incorporate into daily life that may be beneficial to the brain.”

It really comes down to the simpler choices we make in how we live our life. Dementia isn’t a random disease, it’s a an accumulation of the wrong interactions as we age and our body naturally weakens.

Day to Day Dementia

One of the most common problems for us forgetful folks is forgetting our words. One minute we may be ready to tell a whole story and BAM! the next our whole head goes blank.

It really is a nuisance to our day to day, but say no more! This part of the article is to uncover some misunderstanding and give advice on how to can stay alert with our words. It’s not limited to people with dementia, these are things we can easily do otherwise:

Tip of the tongue (TOT), a temporary experience of memory failure. That feeling of not being able to recall a name, word or movie title, for the older folks this might be a common case, but it happens to everyone, healthy or not, and sometime all too often.

The reality is that this just how our brain is wired. It isn’t an outcome of some anomaly or damage, but purely the workings of how memory is formed, saved and retrieved.

Explained in the book Remember: the science of memory and the art of forgetting “ All words have neural representations and associated connections in the brain; blocking occur when there is a partial or weak activation of the neurons to the word you’re looking for.”

Even for the elders, TOT is not always a sign of dementia ( if it is very worrying we suggest consulting to a doctor), but the natural thing that happens when your brain gets slightly weaker with age.

It is spontaneous, at times what you recall might be a nearly related word, the ugly sibling of the target that nobody’s ever satisfied with and trying to focus in does you no good - that’s still normal.

Either way, it good to have some tricks to keep our memory in check:

1. 1. Revisit, Reminisce, Rehearse and Repeat

   

   

   Think back to certain times or activities you’ve done and replay those scenes in your head. Recall past experience or events that has value to you to keep them fresh and retain their meaning to you.

   Practice doing a certain activity, like playing an instruments, writing or reading. It helps train your muscle memory. Do it routinely and don’t stop.

1. 2. Add Meaning

   

   

   Our brain values meaning, if you take what you want to remember and associate a story or emotion with it, it can make it more resistant to forgetfulness. Its like how you tend to remember the people you love more, because there goes a lot of positive and valuable stories and emotions with them.

1. 3. Make a List

   

   

   For important conversation or meetings, sometimes actively recalling may not be reliable. It’s best to write down the important things you need to go over so you don’t miss anything.

   Dementia, often misconstrued in its understanding, is more than just occasional forgetfulness. It's a complex interplay of genetics, lifestyle, and other environmental factors.

   While genes play a role, it's crucial to remember that our daily choices, from the food we eat to the hobbies we engage in, can greatly influence our cognitive health.

   Taking proactive steps, whether through diet, mental exercises, or simply meaningful conversations, can pave the way for a sharper mind as we age.