- Minor head injury or trauma. Even if your head injury did not lead to a loss of consciousness, it still may interfere with memories.
- Vitamin B12 deficiency could cause memory problems. This vitamin helps to maintain healthy nerve cells and red blood cells. This deficiency is common in older adults.
- Tumors may cause memory problems or other dementia-like issues.
- Stress and anxiety make it difficult to concentrate and get information solidly into one’s brain. It interferes with attention and can block retrieval of old memories as well as newly formed ones.
- Depression can cause difficulty concentrating, confusion, forgetfulness and other disruptive symptoms. Depression is characterized by smothering sadness, lessening of everyday pleasures and lack of drive. Forgetfulness is either a sign of depression or a consequence of it.
- Hearing or vision loss or diminishment makes communication difficult and may result in seemingly forgetful behavior.
- Smoking increases your risk of vascular disorder that cause stroke or constrict arteries that deliver oxygen to the brain.
Mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, occurs as people get older. Some have a greater problem with memory than others their age. This doesn’t disrupt daily living, and it is not inevitable that person will develop Alzheimer’s. The notable change is limitations of certain skills pertaining to a narrow set of problems. An example would be impairment only with memory issues or problems understanding a specific set of instructions. Many times as we age, small glitches show up and cause delays of information retrieval, but the memory is not actually lost. After some time, the appropriate piece of info may come to you.
Progressive Brain Damage and Dementia
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia there is. There are also other forms of dementia, but we'll focus on Alzheimer's. Dementia is marked by a decline in two or more intelligent abilities, such as language, abstract thinking, memory and judgment.