If you or someone you know is dealing with symptoms of dementia, a doctor may very well bring up testing the patient with a neurological exam called the mini-mental state examination, or the MMSE. This test, also referred to as the Folstein test, is a questionnaire that is used by doctors to test cognitive impairment and to screen for issues such as dementia. It takes about ten minutes and can cover areas such as the person’s understanding of orientation, their memory recall and their arithmetic abilities.

The mini mental status examination is a simple test that can be used not only to screen for dementia and other mental issues, but it is also used over longer periods of time to determine the effectiveness of certain treatments. By tracking the patient’s responses and score of the test over a period of time, a doctor can determine whether certain medical treatments are working for the patient, and can assist in keeping progression of mental disorders at bay.

The MMSE will typically test certain concerns, such as one’s attention span, arithmetic calculations, memory recall, language abilities, ability to repeat spoken phrases, their orientation in terms of time and place, and their ability to perform certain commands, such as drawing a certain item or scenario. By assigning points to each of these tests and abilities, a doctor can determine the cognitive abilities of a patient in a short period of time, without having to rely on expensive technological tests such as CAT scans and MRIs.

Memory loss can be caused by a variety of things, but when you are dealing with memory loss caused by a stroke, you may have a more serious issue to attend to.

According to the National Stroke Association, strokes are the third leading cause of death in Americans, and can cause adult disabilities such as dementia. Strokes can be avoidable–they are typically caused by high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Other dietary causes may be salt intake and high fat intake. Smoking can also increase your risk for a stroke.

Strokes occur when an artery in your brain is blocked by a blood clot. This causes an interruption in the blood flow to the brain, and causes brain damage by causing brain cells to begin dying off. This, in turn, can affect numerous portions of your brain and your physical abilities, depending on the source of the blood clot in the brain. Your memory, speech or physical movements may be affected.

Strokes vary from person to person, but even small, less severe strokes, which can go unnoticed, can cause memory loss. Memory loss is typically a sign of a less severe stroke, and can sometimes be the first major symptom that friends and family members might pick up on. Dementia can sometimes occur in those who have suffered a stroke.

80% of strokes are preventable, so by living a healthy lifestyle and by eating a low fat, low sodium diet, you can help increase your chances of avoiding a stroke. By monitoring your blood pressure and cholesterol, you can take the steps to prevent strokes and protect yourself from any permanent damage that may result from one.
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When you start to realize you are suffering from memory lapses and significant memory loss, it’s time to see a doctor for some neurological exams. By assessing your mental state and memory with neurological exams, a doctor can accurately diagnose any short-term or long-term issues you may be experiencing in terms of your memory.

There are many tests that doctors use in order to diagnose memory loss issues and disorders. The most common way of diagnosing issues caused by memory loss, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease, and Parkinson’s Disease, among others, is by testing you with a CAT scan or an MRI. This shows the doctor’s how your brain is functioning, and can sometimes be the only test they need in order to diagnose a disorder or mental illness.

In some cases, doctors will use an abbreviated mental test score, or AMTS, especially in the elderly. This is more for confusion and dementia, and covers simple questions that should be stored in one’s long-term memory. The abbreviated mental test score focuses on the patient’s ability to recall data, such as the year of their birth, their name, etcetera. The mini-mental status examination, or MMSE, is used with patients that are coherent enough to participate in repeating words, and testing them on their attention, calculation skills, and orientation.

There are some other tests that doctor’s may use in certain circumstances, such as a Sternberg Memory Scan or the California Verbal Learning Test, or CVLT.

No matter how your doctor decides to determine and diagnose your mental loss reasoning, it is important to trust that your doctor is competent in figuring out what is causing your memory lapses and memory loss.

It can be annoying and even a little scary when you forget something important, but it’s not uncommon to be a little forgetful from time to time. Forgetting to bring the present to the birthday party, or being unable to recall where you left your car keys are common forms of forgetfulness that we all experience, no matter what age we are. But when is it time to be concerned? What are the most common symptoms of more severe memory loss?

First, it’s important to understand the different between short-term memory and long-term memory. Long-term memory includes memories from the past. For example, your wedding day 20 years ago would be considered a long-term memory. A short-term memory is something that you store in your memory recall for a short period of time, such as what you ate for lunch yesterday.

You also need to consider the progression of the memory loss. If you are getting considerably worse in remembering either long-term or short-term memories, you may want to seek medical attention. Memory loss caused by alcohol and drug abuse or stress is reversible, and shouldn’t get progressively worse. Progressive memory loss is generally a sign of something more serious, and should be checked out by a doctor.

Also, determine whether your memory loss is permanent or temporary. Do you remember the item later on, or have you forgotten it entirely? Amnesia and dementia can be complicated issues, so a doctor’s advice is highly recommended in cases of extreme memory loss.

Whether you’re experiencing temporary memory loss or are dealing with daily, even hourly, forgetfulness, it’s important to discuss these changes with your primary care doctor to determine when it’s time for a neurological evaluation.

One reason someone could experience memory loss is due to an inflammatory issue called meningitis. Meningitis is defined as inflammation of the membranes that cover your spinal cord and brain. These protective membranes, called “meninges,” can become inflamed for a variety of reasons, but is considered a life threatening, medical emergency due to the fact that it can easily effect one’s brain and spinal cord due to its proximity. Either way, it is definitely something that should be diagnosed as soon as possible.

Meningitis can cause a handful of issues after it has been diagnosed and treated. It can cause some permanent and temporary issues. In addition to causing changes in one’s sight, hearing problems, epilepsy, and sometimes paralysis of certain parts of the body (after affecting one’s spinal cord), meningitis can also cause considerable memory loss, confusion, and the inability to concentrate and focus. Along with speech impairments and other mental impairments, the after effects of meningitis can stay with you for a long time. Most problems progressively get better with time, but not always, so it is important to monitor your physical and mental well being during and after being diagnosed and treating your meningitis.

Everyone responds to meningitis differently, but if you are experiencing severe headaches, neck aches, fever, stiffness, and confusion or memory loss, you may be suffering from the symptoms of meningitis. If not promptly attended to, meningitis can be life threatening, so understanding the symptoms and notifying your doctor are ways to stay on top of this inflammatory issue.

It’s nothing new to learn that sadness and stress can lead to depression, but what else does depression and other mental illnesses do to your body?

Depression, anxiety, and stress are three of the most typical mental illnesses and disorders that are associated with the loss of memory and decline in memory recall performance. When one is stressed (which occurs typically in those experiencing depression and anxiety symptoms), your body produces the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol is the hormone responsible for one’s “fight or flight” responses, and stress can force our body to produce more cortisol than we need. This, in turn, makes it harder to remember new things, recall old events and can even effect our abilities to concentrate and focus on everyday tasks.

It’s important to keep your stress in check if you are concerned about the effects that it can have on your memory. If you’re concentration is dwindling and you are having difficulty bringing up old memories and knowledge, you may want to lower your stress. Excessive stress can lead to mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety, so it’s important to monitor events that bring on stress and can overproduce cortisol hormones in your body.

In order to keep your stress levels in check, it’s a good idea to learn how to channel your stress. Yoga, meditation, and regular exercise will allow you cool off, calm down, and keep stress at bay. Depression and anxiety can also be controlled with medication that can be prescribed by a family doctor or psychiatrist, and is another way to increase endorphins that can help boost your mood and spirits.

There are many different learning styles out there. You yourself may find that you do better at writing down material than you are listening to it, or perhaps you love getting down and dirty and find opportunities to dissect frogs or plants are more fulfilling and memorable to you than a lecture given by your teacher. It’s important to understand that everyone has a different way of learning, and by understanding your learning style, you will be able to better approach the way you train your brain to learn!

Auditory learners do best with information that they can hear. They enjoy listening to music, hearing rhymes and rhythm, and tend to talk while they write and discuss their information with others in study groups. They are easily distracted, but when it comes to studying, they will easily focus on anything information that they can gather and retain that is audible. They do well listening to lectures on tape or by participating in verbal discussions and debates.

Visual learners like to have something they can see. They love diagrams, charts, pictures and images that they can use to store in their memory to enable them to remember pictures, places and other things that may be of importance. Information is best absorbed by visual learners through anything that they can use their eyes to take in.

Kinesthetic learners are those who enjoy some hands-on experimentation or lab work to help them fully comprehend the information in front of them. They’ll enjoy dissecting a frog in science or role playing and field trips. They are typically considered restless learners, since they need to keep their hands AND brains busy in order to function at their best. Anything that requires moving around, instant feedback and touch will work wonders for the kinesthetic learners.

What’s your learning style? Do you find that you have more of one learning style than the others, one that is more prominent?

It has been proven over time that stress can cause lapses in memory, and can also cause you to become more forgetful and less accurate in your memory recall. Why is this? Because stress affects certain parts of your brains that will hinder the growth and formation of new neurons, which makes it difficult to retain certain memories. Chronic, high stress levels can affect the brain and cause damage to certain parts of it that will cause degeneration in the memory levels themselves.

Exercise in general is beneficial for not only keeping a healthy body, but it can help keep your brain in good shape too. It does this by lowering the levels of stress you experience, and therefore can help make situations and memories easier to keep stored in your brain. Whether it’s calm, relaxing meditation or complex poses in yoga, certain exercises are perfect for creating peace and relaxation for you, and thus, reduces the amount of stress hormones you experience.

Although stress is something that we will always experience, you can do certain things to control the amount of stress you deal with which will in turn assist you in improving your memory and relaxing yourself in order to function at your best!
Meditation and yoga are not performed strictly for their memory benefits, but that shouldn’t stop you from consideration such practices in your daily life. Relaxing exercises such as these can help the formation of neurons in your brain to not only help you remember things, but to help you “build a better brain.”

Memory loss and memory lapses, whether short-term or long-term, can be very frustrating for those of us that deal with it. But if you are finding that your memory loss is becoming more permanent than temporary, and is getting progressively worse, it’s time to see a doctor for some neurological exams in order to find out what is going on. By catching neurological disorders in the early stages, you can get the treatment you need in order to improve your conditions dramatically. Early diagnosis can result in a more fulfilling quality of life.

In order to accurately diagnose your memory loss issues, doctors will probably perform a variety of neurological exams. These exams, which test your cognitive abilities, memory recall, and look for nerve damage in the brain, will help a doctor determine what is causing your memory loss and any memory lapses that may be occurring.

First, a doctor may perform some more simpler tests in order to get an idea of where the memory loss issues seem to be appearing. By performing a mini-mental status examination, or MMSE, or an abbreviated mental test score, or AMTS, a doctor can test you on common knowledge recall, long-term memory storage, and other issues that can be diagnosed immediately without using more high-tech, expensive options.

When there is still confusion as to the reasoning for the memory loss, doctors will turn towards technology to assist them in the diagnosis. A doctor may order to have a CAT scan performed, or an MRI, in order to watch how the brain is functioning while trying to recall memory or perform memorized tasks. This is generally the most thorough way of determining the causes for mental illnesses.

Doctors may use a variety of tests in order to determine the reasoning behind any memory loss, long-term or short-term, that you may be experiencing. These neurological tests can help assist doctors in gathering the information to make an accurate diagnosis.

As you age, memory loss is typically inevitable. But among the things that you can do to help prevent memory loss, such as increasing one’s vitamin B-12 intake, lowering stress levels and participating in brain-engaging activities, a healthy habit that can also help keep your mind sharp is exercise.

Exercise, which is something that everyone should wind into their daily routine, has been clinically proven to help aid in memory loss prevention and to help improve one’s learning abilities. In fact, studies performed by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute show that voluntary running can actually produce new neurons and nerve cells that can help improve one’s learning and memory capabilities. Previously, it had not been discovered that new neuron growth was capable of happening in an adult’s brain, but research has shown otherwise.

While a person performs aerobic exercises, they increase the blood flow to the area of the brain that deals with memory and learning. In addition to allowing your brain to regenerate nerve cells, exercise also helps increase the level of endorphins within your body, and also helps to relieve stress, which is another factor that has a negative effect on one’s memory. Stress increases the production of the hormone cortisol, which can affect one’s cognitive behavior and memory processes. In addition to a nutritious diet and happy lifestyle, exercise can provide a number of benefits that can lead to a long, healthy life.
So go ahead and lace up those running shoes, and hit the pavement–not only for your physical well-being, but for your mental well-being as well.