Memory Loss And Their Causes

Short Term Memory Loss

When you are wondering about the causes of memory loss, it is important to understand what memories are and where they are stored.Suffering from memory loss can be symptom of aging or another underlying problem.  The causes of memory loss can be serious so it is important to understand how memory loss occurs. 

Your memories are a part of you.  Crucial memory have helped to form your personality.  Memories play a huge part in our daily life because of their significance in everything that we do.  We have to use our memory to phone to call each other or to decide what we want to have for lunch.

Your Memory, Senses, and Brain

Your memory is stored in your brain.  You experience the world with your senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.  In this way, your memories are associated with your senses.  You remember seeing a place, hearing a voice, smelling a fragrance, tasting a food or touching something.  If you see a place where you have had a previous experience, it can jog a memory. 

Short Term And Long Term Memory

Your memory, being either long or short term memory, is typically stored in two ways.  Your short-term memory is easily invoked.  You can remember whether you kissed your spouse goodbye or not because this short-term memory is easily retrieved. 

Your remote memory will keep memories that are important to you.  Despite the distance in time of events that happened in the past, memorable moments such as the day that your child was born or the first car that you bought.  Some memories will remain in the memory until we are ready to let them go. 

Causes of Short Term Memory Loss

If your brain changes or is injured from sickness or an injury, your memory can be affected.Memory loss can be caused by Alzheimer's disease, alcoholism, low blood sugar, diabetes, depression, strokes and dementia. 

Head injury, free-radical damage, chemical poisoning, brain inflammation, infections in the central nervous system, and effects of drugs can also cause memory loss.  Oxygen deprivation, such as that suffered because of heart attack, surgery, stroke or head trauma, can cause memory loss.  Other causes of memory loss include nutritional deficiency, structural abnormalities, stress, sensory overload, genetic factors, seizures and severe emotional trauma. 

Understanding the causes of memory loss will help you to determine the cause of memory loss when it occurs.  The causes of memory loss are varied and your awareness of the types of causes will help you to recognize memory loss.