Common Memory Issues not a Sign of Dementia

“Oh, it’s on the tip of my tongue” We have all had that feeling from time to time, where we can’t quite remember something… a name, a favourite singer, a book title.  We know that we know it, but it remains tantalizingly out of reach.  As Dementia awareness grows, so too does our fear that such slips of the memory may be early signs on the condition.

The good new in this instance is that this particular struggle with memory isn’t linked to Alzheimers or Dementia.

A recent study by the University of Virginia showed that while an inability to recall common nouns such as place names or celebrities does increase with age, there doesn’t seem to be a correlation with instances of serious memory impairment disorders such as Dementia.

The 700 participants in the study were asked questions where they had to recall names.  A poor performance on this test did not correlate to poor results on standard memory tests used to diagnose Dementia.