Mary it is the names that I fall down on every time. I am so embarrassed, I call people by brother or sister sometimes thinking I may be wrong. It is due many times to stress. I am in the same boat as you, burned out all the time due to job requirements as well as self imposed standards in maintaining my property.

I take a sub-lingual B-12 tab every day, in addition to a good daily multi which has B complex.

I think that it has helped memory a little, and it has certainly helped the nerves.

Best thing is less stress, and keeping active with reading and playing Trivial Pursuit, plus a couple of writing projects.

Use it or lose it.

i'm sorry.....what was the question again?

I see this is a rather old thread, and have no idea if the originator is still around. But this is such a common paranoia these days, I thought I would comment. Forgetting names is an extremely common experience as one ages....and is not necessarily a symptom of Alzheimer's. Geographical disorientation is much more symptomatic. (so if you don't know where you are, especially if you live there, maybe you should worry. But if you forget the name of the street you're on, it's not a big deal).

My best friend here in town is close to 80. She is in a constant panic about not being able to remember names. The other thing she seems to forget is that she has been telling me this since we first met in 1977! And she is no worse now. Honest. She says her husband no longer can remember where he left his glasses or his keys. Well, he has NEVER been able to remember where he left his glasses and his keys.

My 90 year old father and 60 year old me sometimes have funny conversations these days, having to fill in each other's word memory lapses in sentences. But neither of us has a degenerative memory loss. I'm convinced the memory bank just gets full eventually. I know the name of every one of the almost 600 daylily varieties in my yard....so who cares if I sometimes forget what the name of that utensil you use to move a fried egg to your plate is? (spatula, for those who were panicking, there)

I often think there is just too much information about all our potential ills out there in the media today.....More than we need to know.

I do not at all mean to belittle anyone who is truly battling a real problem with memory loss. These are terrible diseases, especially when they strike someone at a relatively early age. But the majority of us who can't remember a coworker's husbands name or what the name of that yellow stuff we like on hot dogs is need not worry too much.

Kay

Encouraging words, Kay, thank you. I can remember my mother when she was in her early 80's. My sister, having heard the same story for the umpteenth time would say, mom, you've already told me that. My mom would humph and say it was pretty sad when someone had to mention that a story had been told more than once. After my mother passed away, my sister and I often chuckled over that. Now, when I'm telling something to my grown children, I often wonder if I've already told them the same story at another time. Names, I have a hard time with, try to repeat it when I'm first introduced, but still have a hard time. I think we should all wear name tags, or respond to any 'hey you' :-)

Well the originator of this thread is still around folks...just couldn't remember how to get back here! J/K

TarHeel, my purpose in starting this thread was two-fold. Number one, we were trying to expand this sub-forum and this is a topic of interest to many people 'our' age. At the time I posted it there were only 3 or 4 threads on here total.

The second, and most important, reason was because I was left with many holes in my memory banks from heart stoppage and the meds from surgery. With by-pass surgery being so prevalent these days I figured there were other people like myself who had legitimate concerns about those 'holes'. I was hoping that between all of us we could come up with a variety of coping mechanisms for when our memories let us down.

The devastating diseases like dementia and Alzheimers are in a totally different category to what I was referring to. I must have failed to make that clear. My apologies for that. I still hope that all of you will share little tricks on how you manage those times when our memory banks misfire.
Nance

TarHeel~

...who can't remember...what the name of that yellow stuff we like on hot dogs is need not worry too much.

Whew! Thank you for that!!

I worry more about concentration power then work memory
I have a hard time staying on task.