Surprising Causes Of Memory Loss Other Than Dementia

Do you forget where you kept your keys or usually forget your appointments? Now, it happens to a lot of us but it doesn’t mean we are heading toward Alzheimer’s or Dementia. Most of us misunderstand the cause of memory loss.

We tend to catastrophize things in life, and just like googling symptoms mostly ends up with cancer, our thoughts are no less. We fail to understand that everything/situations that we face can have an impact on our life, especially our memory.

An individual’s memory is influenced by a lot of things like feelings, experiences, attention span, thought processes, etc. Therefore, there can be a lot of causes of memory loss other than dementia.

Today, we are going to explore surprising causes of memory loss other than all the expected causes like Dementia, Alzheimer’s, etc.

Let’s get started…

What Are The Main Causes Of Memory Loss?

Memory loss is not bound to any age or gender, it can happen to anyone at any point in life. The cause of memory loss is also not confined to just a few medical conditions. In fact, according to the National Institute of Aging, memory loss is not dependent on age and is influenced by N number of reasons.

In the case of memory loss, the treatment has to target the underlying cause, therefore, it’s important to know the causes of your memory loss. Dealing with memory loss can affect the quality of your life because you miss out on important details just because you forget certain things.

Also read: The Psychology Of Memory: Formation, Duration, Types, And More

However, not many people talk about the causes of memory loss. Someone will tell you you’re not attentive enough or not serious about things and that’s why you easily forget things. We hardly realize that something deeper can be affecting our memory.

Let’s explore surprising yet important causes of memory loss;

1.Mental Distress

Your mental health has a lot to do with your memory. Some of the main causes of memory loss according to mental health experts is said to be stress, anxiety, and depression. Severe mental health conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s will obviously cause memory loss.

But daily stresses in life can also be responsible for your memory loss. When you are constantly dealing with anxiety or depression, memory loss is very much likely. If you are experiencing memory loss lately, stress, anxiety, and depression can be causing your memory loss. According to a 2022 study, chronic stress can affect brain functions leading to memory loss.

2.Sleep-related issues

Sleep is a very important part of your well-being. If your sleep is disturbed, you’re most likely to have the most disturbed days. No matter how hard you work, a sleep-deprived person will always find it hard to concentrate and focus on things.

One of the main causes of memory loss is sleep-related issues. In fact, according to research conducted in May 2022 by the journal of sleep research, people with sleep-related issues like insomnia or sleep apnea score less on measures of memory.

3.Medications or clinical drugs

There have been a lot of studies proving that some medications can cause memory issues. Sometimes we fail to realize that the medicines we have been taking are not really helping our memory. Therefore, these medicines need to be replaced.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, some medicines like Statins (used for cholesterol) can affect cognitive functions like memory. If you have started a set of medicines and you’ve been experiencing memory loss, perhaps some salts are not working so well for you.

4.Nutritional Deficiency

Cleveland Clinic says nutritional deficiency can have a huge influence on your brain functions and nerve functions. When you have a deficiency of important nutrients like B12, Omega, etc can affect your cognitive and executive functions.

Memory loss is just one of the difficulties that you might face when you have nutritional deficiencies. You can develop a lot of other problems because of not having enough nutrients in your body.

5.Physical disturbance to the brain

When an individual goes through traumatic brain surgery, stroke, brain lesions, etc can damage some part of the brain that controls memory. Some external factors disturbing brain functions can cause clots in the brain restricting and limiting your memory, according to the American Heart Association.

If you have been in a situation where your brain is disturbed externally, you have a high chance of experiencing memory loss. Therefore, physical disturbances to the brain can be one of the causes of memory loss.

That’s All Folks!

I hope you found this blog about causes of memory loss other than dementia helpful, interesting, and thought-provoking. Do share this blog with your friends and family so that we can focus on all possible causes of memory loss and target the right cause of memory loss during treatment.

Thanks for reading.

Take care and stay safe.