Noontropics Don’t Help Age-Associated Memory Impairment
Tom Crook conducted a number of studies with nootropics in subjects with age-associated memory impairment. After investing a great deal of time, energy, and pharmaceutical industry money, he concluded that nootropics like piracetam and pramiracetam cannot be recommended as a treatment for mild memory loss during the aging process. I agree and am not including this class of compounds in my recommended list of promemory medications.
CHAPTER 19
Estrogen
Cynthia’s Story
Cynthia Holmes, an elderly African-American woman, began with the statement that she was not sure if she was coming to the right place. Her sister thought she was getting depressed and her friends told her she was not as mentally sharp as she used to be, but Cynthia herself felt that her problems were too minor to merit seeing a doctor. The ravages of osteoarthritis had reduced her height from six feet to five feet nine inches, and she shuffled into my office looking as if a strong
wind was behind her back, bending her over. Her face was heavily lined with wrinkles, and she displayed a listless, apathetic look. I guessed that she was around eighty years old, but in fact she was only sixty-four. She said she was forgetting names more often, found it difficult to keep track of her checks and monthly bills, and tended to forget the sequence of cards during games that she occasionally played with friends. She also reported low energy and fatigue, and a loss of interest in crocheting and other hobbies that she used to enjoy. She had retired at the age of sixty from a clerical job, and since that time she had developed a somewhat negative, pessimistic outlook on life. She did not have any difficulty in sleeping, there was no change in her appetite, and her interest in sex was lower than what it used to be, a change that she attributed to the loss of her husband from a stroke
eight years earlier.
She did not feel that she had significant memory loss or depression because, as she put it, “You know, I think it’s normal to lose your memory a little, to feel a bit low about getting old. My body doesn’t function the way it should. Many in my family have died, and some of my friends have passed away too. At my age, I don’t see how things are going to get better for me.”
She had come to our Memory Disorders Center at the insistence of her sister Myra, who had become worried about the changes that she had observed. When Myra walked into the office a few minutes later, the contrast between the two women was so striking that I momentarily wondered if the two were even related. Myra was well built, bouncy on her feet, and had a jovial, lively manner that lit up her face and was quite endearing.
Taken From: The Memory Program How to Prevent Memory Loss
and Enhance Memory Power
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 2:05 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
