As people age, some forgetting is natural and inevitable.
At what point should you consider the occasional memory lapse to be something more serious?
Symptoms of Alzheimer's disease include loss of memory, difficulty with day-to-day tasks, and changes in mood and behaviour.
People may think these symptoms are part of normal aging, but they are not.
Some of the mental faculties that can decline with age include:
Remembering people's names
Recalling facts and words
Recalling where you heard something and/or who told you
Remembering the location of household objects
Recalling events from recent past
The ability to multitask
Reaction time
Mental faculties that do not have to decline with age include:
Vocabulary
Decision-making
Creativity
Ability to learn
Word generation - being fluent and able to use language
Paired associate learning (A test of how well new information is remembered.)
Source: www.alzheimerbc.org
