Seniors with Alzheimer’s: Retaining Short-Term and Long-Term Memory
Alzheimer’s is known to be a progressive disease, that affects memory. Seniors with Alzheimer’s suffer from the worry of how the disease will affect them in the future. As a result, many seniors focus actively on how can they go about retaining short-term and long-term memory.
How Alzheimer’s Affects the Memory
Amyloid deposits on the brain progressively affect the brain and how it functions. Most medical literature considers the damage to the brain cells to be irreversible. There are, however, some scientists that have hope. They think that certain types of therapy create antibodies that can reverse some of the damage.
Otherwise, evidence of damage to the brain affects different areas in the brain progressively.
An example of damage to short-term memory is forgetting what was eaten in the prior meal.
Examples of damage to the long-term memory include forgetting the meaning of words, forgetting a meaningful event in a person’s life, forgetting how to do something that requires many steps.
Sharing memories with the next generation is one of the things that seniors want to do. Retaining short-term and long-term memory is needed for this.
Tips for Retaining Short-Term Memory
Tips for retaining shot-term memory for Alzheimer’s patients will be more medical and includes:
- Following the doctor’s direction for medical intervention, such as testing for brain tumors and any necessary treatment
- Checking blood flow and using medication to control bleeding and blood clotting.
- Therapy such cognitive behavioral therapy
- Prescribing, changing and managing medications
- Nutritional supplements and dietary additions
Other tips for improving short-term memory are many:
- There are many home remedies
- In addition, modifications to lifestyle to promote better short-term memory include: sufficient sleep, exercising according to the doctor’s recommendation, healthy eating with an emphasis on fresh fruit and vegetables, pulses and whole grains
- Keeping a tight ship – a clear home, means a tidy mind.
- Mental activities such as puzzles and games requiring mental effort.
- Singing and music
- There are also foods that nutritionists recommend that can help keep the brain healthy.
Tips for Retaining Long-Term Memory
These tips are collected from VeryWell Health. They were presented as part of a very readable article about how dementia affects long-term memory.
Read these classic tips, culled from an article about dementia. However, we can use these tips to improve the long-term memory.
- Repetition of information.
- Association, this means attaching relevant meaning to the information that you want to be remembered.
- Pay attention to the information. For example, block out distracting noises and send away other people so that two people can focus on each other.
- Tell over the information. For example, once you have told the senior what you want them to know, ask them to explain it back to you.
- Using mnemonic strategies helps everyone to remember things (for example “30 days has September…” ). It is a known tool to help with the memory of seniors.
Reaching a Conclusion
We presented ideas for retaining short-term and long-term memory. Of course, some will work better for some people than others. A person can pick a few ideas to work with and hope for the best. However, always discuss new ideas with your doctor before trying them out with a senior who has Alzheimer’s.
Most importantly, memory retention is one of the things that a senior will treasure, along with their independence. The loved ones and carers of a senior with Alzheimer’s care for him or her with due respect. Certainly, they will do their best for the senior. Above all, they will apply whichever strategies fit best for retaining short-term and long-term memory.
Photo by Laura Fuhrman on Unsplash