PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Many of us have just spent our first holiday with family members since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. People have changed — health, maybe weight gain — but severe cognitive adjustments should raise red flags.
Senior moments certainly exist, according to Katie Reilly, care adviser for the Abramson Senior Care Healthy Brain and Memory Center in Bryn Mawr. We all forget things sometimes, but there are differences between normal memory loss and what should be considered a problem.
“An example of age-related change might be forgetting an ingredient one time of a recipe we’ve committed to memory. That one time we kind of had a blip, one time we forgot the salt,” she said. “Something a little more significant would be someone who has to break out the recipe card and really follow that step by step because they no longer can recall the steps to that old family recipe.”
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Some modest memory change is a normal part of the aging process, she added.
“Just as our bodies age and get older and slow down, so do our brains,” she explained. “The amount and severity of that memory change, though, is really key. Age-related memory change should not disrupt daily life, impair functioning or prohibit us from getting from point A to point B and living our lives.”
If you’re concerned, Reilly said to start with the family physician. There are therapies and medications that may help.
We can all do more for our own cognitive well-being too, by eating healthy, exercising, getting plenty of sleep and spending time with others.