I believe too many low blood sugars over the years have damaged my memory. Anyone else? Any ground breaking advances in the field of memory research ????
I've had T-1 for 30 yrs and have not lost any body parts, no heart attack or blindness yet. Lazer surgery on one eye in my early twentys, that was a wake up call. So here I am in my mid fourtys and everyone has better memory than me. Friends that have put abused their brains in every way possible remember things with such clarity that I no longer have. Memory is who we are; with out that what else matters.
Many times I've wondered the same thing! Also T1 30+ years with no significant complications to date (knock wood!!) My memory is horrible, like you, worse than friends and family.
im not sure about memory in general but the day after a bad low, my memory is shot. last month i had a bad low in the 40s and the next day i had to produce a document in spanish, a language i am fluent in, and i couldnt produce a thing. my ability to recall vocabulary was nil.
I've had really bad control over the years. My memory seemed alright while I was at school and college, but since I've had children it has gone to pot. I don't read or write as much as I used to so I've gone down hill. I think my memory has been affected but my husband has just said that I remember everything he has done wrong since 1996.
You are also getting older. Memory starts to fail in every one, a little bit. It would take a double blind study of say people in their 20s. some D and some not.
Then compare memory tests of before and after to really get an idea if Diabetes effects memory.
I know that my memory is effected when i am low though. I often can not remember anything about low sugars. I have to hear it from my family later on.
"hey dad remember that time......" No I don't really.
38 years on insulin for me. I also think that my memoey has greatly diminshed. I forget things all the time, which was never a problem a few years ago.
although i am on many (MANY!!!) psychiatric medications for schizophrenia, i started to notice a terrible memory loss. i couldnt remember the simplist things, names of friends and aquantances would completely escape me. my husband would have to repeat to me what he had told me less than an hour ago. I couldnt concentrate on anything. it was frustrating to say the least.
i am no doctor, but i remembered how when i was a child, my mother would always make me eggs B4 i had a test in grammer school. she called eggs "Brain Food."
anyhow, i started eating eggs every morning (i have researched this in regard to High Cholesteral and Blood Pressure and found no solid reason why eggs would be an unhealthy choice) so i began on my egg journey. And what i have found over the months is an incredible increase in memory AND concentration. I used to drift off when people were talking to me, but now i am much better at focusing on the conversations at hand.
all in all, i just wanted to put my 2 cents in: EGGS HAVE WORKED FOR MY MEMORY.
I;'ve wondered that too. I've had 39 years of insulin and I know that the lows affect my memory atthat time but I've wondered if it has kept affecting my memory. I tend to forget simple things and yesI'm getting older but it seems my g-mother who is 86 can remember more than me. Life huh???
I had had Type 1 for 50+ years, only complication have been some lasers on my eyes about 20 years ago. I am also now 60, so age plays a part. But my memory is not what it used to be. It drives my husabnd crazy--"I told you that..." I just don't remember a lot (or sometimes I don't pay attention to what he is saying)
Although retired, I stay mentally active, reading, teaching as a volunteer, etc. Low blood glucose numbers are surely a part of that problem.
Jethro,I think as we get older, we cannot hold as many things in our memory banks when we are trying to muli-task. I know I have to keep task lists posted while in EACH ROOM , so I can return to task after I am interrupted or after I answer the ringing phone. And yes, but I do not have to answer the ringing phone at that moment. That is why there is voicemail. I give myself a certain time to work on a task, set a time( yes and a timer) then stop; rest or exercise, then return to it , or go to the next task on my list. I am a retired ( now back to work part-time) speech/language pathologist for chidren with special needs, and I know that small-step paradigms work..My visual memory, which was never as efficient as my auditory language based memory is kind of age-impaired at 57 years old, and I am a bit ADD with moderate hyperactivity. I don't have a long history of severe lows, thus I cannot say that my diminished memory is due to that. I know that I just have to use memory tricks,the aforementioned lists and pnemonic devices, if I slow down enough to actually use them. I am ok. I know American sign language, so I finger spell peoples names, say the letters and repeat their names when I meet them so I can remember. I use some of the Jerry Lucas memory tricks to remember lists, but writing them in a note book,texting and alarms on my phone are better. I use my GPS ALL the time, as I am not at all proficient with location skills, even on return trips. I can easiy Lose my car in garages and mall parking lots if I do not stop and immediately associate the car with some sort of language based label, a sign, a name. I do not "feel" where objects are in time and space, so I misplace myself and objects more than I would like. But do I beat myself up for doing this? Naw. Not at all. IT IS JUST PART OF WHO AND HOW I AM. As with diabetes, So far it has not radically nor generally diminished what I want to do in life.
I have got to stop now. The alarm just went off for my 20 minutes on the internet break, and I believe my baked salmon is ready for dinner. A close friends mother used to tell her at mealtime, when she was a child<, "Eat it honey!!Burnt food makes you pretty.".. Well, I should be ravishing by now; but I am not trying for a beauty treatment today !! lol Have a good one and check up with your doc for MRI or cat scans, memeory testing if you really think you have nuerological, structural, or circulatory problems that could be a caustive factor in your perceived memory loss. God bless, Brunetta
Yeah Bruni is right, if it has been bothering you for a while go and get it checked out. No harm. The more I think about this the more I think my memory has gone down a lot these last few years, I used to be able to remember loads of historical facts, now I find I'm writing these notes and lists everywhere.
Hi, Jethro. I, too, have had T1 diabetes a longtime (going on 48 years) and have been very, very concerned about cognitive impairment due to many, many hypoglycemic instances where I passed out. My wife says I must have had at least 50 of these instances during our 37 years of marriage, not counting those I had when I was living at home with my parents. Most of the very severe instances occurred prior to the introduction of home glucose monitors in the early 80's. I've always had problems concentrating, remembering and processing information and for years I thought I just wasn't as intelligent as most people. However, over the years, I began to wonder if some of my memory issues were due to severe recurrent hypoglycemia, especially since these issues happened as early as junior/senior high school. Oftentimes people tell me things and what they say just goes right through my head and out the other side; it's very frustrating as I'm sure you know. This bothered me so much that in 2004 I went to a neuropsychologist and went through a two-day battery of tests. Enduring these tests was one of the most frustrating times I've had; it was very difficult and frustrating trying to comprehend and remember what was happening during the tests. In the end, it was determined that I did have coginitive damage done to years of extremely low glucose but also probably due to very high glucose. I'm very glad I went through the tests because now I know for sure why I have so much trouble remembering things and concentrating on things. I also did a lot of internet research where I did find some articles relating to cognitive impairment in diabetes but it wasn't until I went through the test that my diagnosis was confirmed. The bad thing is that it's not reversible (according to the doctor I saw) but shouldn't get any worse unless I have more extreme hypoglycemic instances. Unfortunately, this complication is not known among many endocrinologists because there are so very few T1's who've lived through the period prior to the introduction of BG meters and who also had severe recurrent hypoglycemia. It's just not a common complication and endocrinologists just don't see many patients with it. If you'd like to discuss this some, I'd be happy to do so. Hope this helps and that you're definitely not the only T1 who's had this happen to him; I'm sure there are many others, we just don't hear about this much.
First; THANK YOU FOR THE REPLIES. It seems that most of you share my concern about mem-loss.
When I was younger I didn't know the dangers of lows were so far reaching. I was more worried about damage to the circulatory system from high bs.
It's definitely easier to avoid lows with the CGM. For years the only reactions I've had were when I was asleep.....
I've asked my Endo about memory loss in the past and essentially his response was that there was no scientific data regarding it. He's not a bad doc but( unlike the my old doc that died in a fire,) he doesn't go the extra mile. My old doc when asked a question he couldn't answer would say "I don't know but I have a friend in that field I will contact him and give you more answers on our next visit." Good docs are hard to find.
So anyways, thanks again, I will research more and I hope you will also. I write fiction in my spare time and that's another reason I wish I had better memory.
Memory things that really bug me; Finding houses that my wife and I have been to; she can find them no-problem but I often cant / don't know for sure if I'm looking at the right house...I just can't remember.
Names; forgetting names should not be such a problem at 46 yrs old.
I'm sure there's more I just can't remember right now....ha ha ha....
I used to have a great sense of direction, twice this year on hols I got lost, not like me at all. Often forget names, even people I've known for years, I just say helloooooooooo, very obvious. I also can't seem to comprehend things as good as I used to, like the cooker and phones. I write everything down. I suppose it would be difficult to do a study on this but by no means impossible. I have also noticed that my concentration has really gone to pot.
I researched "Memory loss" on google. Found links to Clinical trials but most required participants to be older than 55. One of the drugs listed was Donepezil and though its listed for Alzheimers / 55 or older, what caught my attention was that it was derived from Ginko Biloba.
Anyone taken Ginko Biloba? IF so what's your opinion?
Oh I'm sorry I did not mean to be cheeky. What I meant to say is that Josephine IS getting older and I am not, but still I can understand what it must be like, being as young as I am, it is difficult to see that far ahead, but still. I am trying.
I hope this clears up any confusion in my earlier post.
