Memory and Old Age

Next July I will join the Octogenarian fraternity. I don’t like the idea, but it is certainly better than the alternative. Mentally, I feel like I am still around 50 or so, but my body keeps letting me know the truth! I must face the fact that I simply can’t do the things I once performed with ease. For example, I pick up a tree branch and wonder how I ever picked up and walked with a four foot, twelve inch diameter log, then threw it onto the back of a truck. Does anyone identify?

Memory is another problem. Around ten years ago my doctor asked me how my memory was doing. I said I was not happy with my increasing inability to remember things. He responded that, in that case, everything was fine. He went on to say that he had never met a person with Alzheimer’s that had any problem at all with memory (according to the patient, of course!). Actually, my memory is all still there, but it certainly often takes time to recall seldom used items. Names are a particular problem. It will sometimes be a day later before the name I am after suddenly pops up in my awareness.  Fortunately, my wife is good with names, so she can usually help out with an immediate need. Rarely used words are also a problem. 

As I talk to others, I find that I am not alone. My problems seem to be a function of aging – not experienced by all, but not avoided by many. As I have mulled over the problem, I have finally understood the problem. Computers are often compared to human brains, so let’s reverse the comparison. A computer contains two types of memory: random access memory (RAM) and read only memory (ROM). Things used regularly are held in RAM, and those things seldom used are normally placed in ROM. The primary reason your computer is sometimes quick and sometimes takes time to respond can be explained by where the memory you are accessing is stored. Those things stored in ROM usually take longer to access and bring forward.

What about the brain? It seems to also have a section for RAM and a section devoted to ROM. As you age, RAM gets filled up. Therefore, if something needs to be remembered a bit of memory needs to be freed, so something seldom used is transferred to ROM, becoming harder and slower to access. Those items transferred to ROM are most frequently names and words seldom used in day to day conversation. Not only do they become harder to access, but the less they are used the deeper they move into the ROM memory banks and the longer it takes to access them. 

So, there you have it. That is why you have (or will have) more and more problems with remembering things as you age. That is my explanation and I stick with it!