The mind's missing pieces

Cathryn Jakobson Ramin, author of a new book on midlife memory loss, discusses new discoveries about Alzheimer's disease, foods that feed the brain, and the curative powers of ballroom dancing.

By Helaine Olen

Read more: Life

April 2, 2007 | Memory, as Oscar Wilde wrote, is the diary that we all carry about with us. Open one volume, and you recall a summer picnic from childhood. Open another and there's a grocery list from last week. But what happens when the journal pages get stuck together? Or, even worse, tear loose and vanish entirely?

Thanks to advances in medicine and ever-lengthening life expectancies, most of us will live to find out just how ephemeral memory can be, says Cathryn Jakobson Ramin, author of the new book "Carved in Sand: When Attention Fails and Memory Fades in Midlife." Beginning in our 40s or 50s, we may begin to misplace words -- not to mention our house keys -- with greater frequency. And for some, that forgetfulness will turn pathological, leading gradually down the path toward dementia: According to the Alzheimer's Association, adults who survive past the age of 85 currently have a 42 percent chance of suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Ramin, now 50, embarked on an investigation of the causes and possible cures for middle-aged absent-mindedness after she began having her own brushes with forgetfulness. "My mental calendar, once easily summoned, grew elusive and developed blank spots," she recalls. "Life became billowy, amorphous, as if someone had removed the support poles from my tent."

Determined to beat back the fog, Ramin turned into a human guinea pig, experimenting with everything from memory-enhancing tests to cutting-edge pharmaceuticals and sleep research. She altered her diet, cut back on multitasking, reduced her stress levels and visited experts who study how memories are formed and retained. Her conclusion: We can't stop time, but we can hinder its effects by taking better care of both our bodies and minds.

Salon sat down with Ramin in San Francisco, where she talked about the nature of memory, the curative powers of ballroom dancing, and why so many of us are scared to even say the word "Alzheimer's."

When did you realize you were losing your memory?

I noticed I'd started to forget things that I should have been able to remember. Once I went to a movie with my husband and five minutes out of the movie theater, I realized I did not know the name of the movie or the name of the main character. It was just gone, a blank.

Suddenly there were sinkholes, as if the information had just been sucked down the drain. And I started to notice a tremendous amount of what I called "content-less conversation." I would exchange information, decide on a plan and then it would be as if nobody remembered what had been said. People were relating these stories over and over to me.

Do you think age-related memory loss is more shocking now because we view people in their 40s and 50s as relatively youthful?

Sure. Twenty-five years ago, someone in their mid-50s was entering a slower, more relaxed time of life. That is not the case now. Our concept of middle age has changed totally. It's a boomer thing. We've never been willing to accept what comes along with any age.

Yet even though we do all these things to keep ourselves physically in shape -- diet, exercise, you name it -- no one has really dealt with the brain. People haven't thought about keeping their brains in shape. To people, brains are not organs. But it's not that different than your heart. You need to build up your cognitive reserve.

So along with aerobics, we should be doing crossword puzzles?

As long as you're not too good at it! To keep your brain at top notch, you have to be challenged. You need to get out of your field and do something that works different parts of your brain. Ballroom dancing is fantastic for your mind. You need to remember all the steps. You need to deal with yourself in space, you are propelling yourself around a room in the hands of a partner, you can't crash into other people. You can always add new and challenging steps. We're not just talking about putting yourself in an armchair with crossword puzzles.

You write that one of the first things we lose with age is the ability to multitask, yet that skill seems to be more important to us than ever.

Multitasking is quite a complicated neurological process, but generally it has a great deal to do with the frontal lobe's ability to switch from one task to another. And your frontal lobes are in far better shape when you're 20 than 40.

But aren't there reports that people in their 20s have begun experiencing problems multitasking, too?

Yes, there's a Japanese researcher who studies people who use various technologies to aid memory. And apparently, the more people use those technologies, the less they're able to actually retrieve from their own brains. It's as if memory is moving off-line. High school students are not called upon to memorize in the way that we did. All you need is a keyboard or a hand-held if you want to know what year the French and Indian War ended.

What were some of the techniques you used to improve your memory and focus?

I saw a psychopharmacologist who said, "I don't know if you have adult ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder] but I think you should give Adderall a try." It made me a lot faster and a lot sharper. I was able to juggle more. But I found I was thinking of work, work, work all the time and I simply wasn't able to enjoy my life. It was as if I had been possessed.

In the course of my research, one of the drugs that surprised me was Provigil. Provigil was invented to treat narcolepsy. Then some scientists started to look at it in terms of improving attention. When I took it, I found what I call "the clear windshield effect." It had a lot of the benefits of Adderall without the side effects. It worked very well with my word-loss issue. It also allowed me to do a little more multitasking. I had more working memory available.

But you don't seem to think all drugs are a magic cure; in fact, you have a lot of unflattering things to say about antidepressants and their potential impact on memory.

Depression itself can have an effect on memory but I found that there is an uncorroborated and unscientific anecdotal relationship between specific antidepressants and memory loss. It's not based on studies. And it will not be corroborated and I will tell you why. It is because the drug companies will never do those studies. They're not pressured to. It's not required of them by the FDA and it is to their extreme disadvantage.

Next page: A link between parent-child attachment and memory loss?