Forty percent of us will experience some form of memory loss by the time we turn 65. For many people, it’s just something that comes with old age, but there’s more to it than that. Lifestyle choices, medications, chemicals, and more can play havoc with our minds and our ability to create or access memories. There are probably far more things linked to memory loss than you ever realized.
10. Mountain Dew Has Been Linked to Memory Loss
Food additives are a touchy subject all over the world. There is no end of misinformation about what might be dangerous in what might not be. Much of it is fueled by a lack of understanding, strange conspiracies, laziness, and outright lies. Consider the case of MSG, which was demonized for years based on faulty research. The same thing, to some degree, has happened to Mountain Dew.
The famous soft drink has been banned in Europe and Japan because it contains brominated vegetable oil. Some reports claim that brominated vegetable oil is a flame retardant, a carcinogen, and a dozen other horrible things.
In soda, brominated vegetable oil is an emulsifier that has been used since the 30s. It just holds Mountain Dew together so that the citrus won’t separate. But it has been recognized as potentially harmful in large amounts, and both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola claimed to be removing it back in 2014, which they didn’t do at the time but have done in the years since.
Though it’s not really a flame retardant any more than table salt is bleach because of the chloride in its name, it has been linked to memory loss in people drinking more than two liters of soda daily.
9. Extensive Use of Benadryl is Linked to Dementia
If you suffer from chronic allergies and take Benadryl to manage it regularly, you might want to rethink your strategy. Extensive use of Benadryl has been linked to early dementia and other memory loss issues. Drugs like Benadryl block the action of a chemical called acetylcholine, which transmits messages through your nervous system. In your brain, it’s also linked to learning and memory.
Though the link is not a proven one, just an observed one, these drugs have been shown to cause confusion and increase fall risks among older adults.
Specifically, diphenhydramine seems to put patients at risk for dementia. This is the antihistamine in Benedryl in most, but not all, countries where it is available. Taking these drugs for three years or more increases dementia risk by 54%.
8. Taking Photos Impaires Your Ability To Remember What You Photographed
It’s been estimated that 1.81 trillion photos are taken yearly. Anyone who’s been on social media in the last decade has seen just how popular selfies are. And with 15 billion cell phones and mobile devices worldwide, that’s nearly two for every living human. Almost all of us have access to a high-quality camera all the time. But that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Photos make our memories worse. Taking multiple pictures of the same thing doesn’t change this, either. Our memory of what we photograph is impaired the moment we take a picture. The irony of people taking photos to remember people, places, and events is worth noting.
One theory for why this happens is that our brain essentially hands off the job of remembering the moment to the photograph. You understand what the photo will be, so your mind doesn’t need the memory; it has the picture.
7. Sometimes Sex Can Cause Short-Term Amnesia
This one’s going to get a little personal, so buckle up. Sex has been linked to short-term amnesia but only in certain cases. For the effect to happen, you have to have good sex. As in the mind-blowing sort. Almost literally, as it happens.
Known as transient global amnesia, it most often affects people in their 50s and 60s. Once it sets it, it can remove an entire 24 hours from your memory. Any strenuous physical activity could cause it, but sex seems to be a common one.
The effect is short-term, lasting just a few hours. Though it only happens once for some patients, others have reported multiple instances. The man in one couple had had it happen five times in a span of nearly 20 years.
6. Shift Work Leads to Major Health Issues Including Memory Loss
Someone once said if work were fun, they wouldn’t call it work. Most people would agree that work isn’t fun, so it’s not usually an issue. Worse than that, a lot of work can be detrimental to your health. There’s even evidence that shift work can lead to memory loss. That means you can hate your job and not even remember why.
Shift work leads to lower levels of focus, alertness, impulse control, sleep disorders, cardiovascular disease, mood disorders, substance abuse, and much more. Sample sizes for determining this were not small, either. Eighteen studies of over 18,000 participants concluded shift workers were much worse with cognitive function and working memory.
Half of the participants in the study were from the healthcare field, while the other half were made up of a mix of professions ranging from IT to law enforcement. Across the board, shift workers performed more poorly than those who stuck to traditional schedules. This is especially unsettling news when you factor in how many of them are healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses, who may try to treat you one day while their brain is messed up from doing shift work.
5. First-Person Shooters Lead to Hippocampus Damage and Memory Loss
What are the most frustrating things about medical news is when it’s contradictory. For instance, have you ever heard that playing video games can help cognitive function and memory in children? There have been a lot of stories about it over the years. But this is about the opposite effect, isn’t it? It sure is, so let’s focus on the researchers who say first-person shooters can damage your hippocampus and cause memory loss.
Gamers who play FPS games more than 6 hours per week were tracked over four years. The results showed a decrease in the part of the brain where short-term memories are stored.
FPS gamers come in two types. Those who navigate the game with spatial memory strategies and those called response learners who manage to navigate using a part of the brain called the caudate nucleus. Most chronic gamers are this type, and after 90 hours of play, scans of their brains showed significant loss to the hippocampus.
Before you hang up your Call of Duty dog tags, it’s worth noting that even the author of the study says more research is needed before anyone can confirm there’s a long-term danger to worry about.
4. Some Algae Blooms Cause Brain Damage and Memory Loss
In most towns that have beach access, if algae blooms show up in the water then a sign will be put out warning you not to go swimming. Most people know that an algae bloom can be dangerous, but probably not the extent to which these things cause harm. There are also multiple toxins that you need to watch out for.
One toxin called domoic acid forms in algae blooms and infects anything that may eat it. These toxins can then work their way up the food chain. A number of sea lions were affected in 2015, leading to brain damage and memory loss.
Another toxin, Pfiesteria piscicida, gained infamy in the 1980s when fishermen exposed to it began exhibiting signs of cognitive dysfunction, and then the scientists studying it suffered the same fate.
The microbe has not been studied well, nor has its effect on humans. Some people report confusion or nausea. One of the scientists studying it lost the feeling in his legs and had to crawl out of his lab to get help. When fish are infected with it, the result is death. Large lesions form on their bodies, and it looks like they’ve been burned by acid.
3. A Study Linked SpongeBob to Poor Brain Function in Children
Over the years, people have found a way to demonize almost anything under the guise of protecting children. You can go all the way back to antiquity and read about how Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth. Elvis Presley did the same thing with his gyrating hips, and heavy metal music, violent video games, and sugar in soda are all in the same boat. They have all been accused of being bad for children in one way or another. But how many of those can be accused of damaging children’s brains on a fundamental level?
In 2011 a study concluded that SpongeBob SquarePants was hurting children’s brains and harming higher cognition. According to the study, 4-year-olds who sat down to watch 9 minutes of SpongeBob showed “less self-control, a reduced ability to delay gratification, and poorer working memory skills” than kids who did something else.
One of the conclusions drawn here was that kids who watch SpongeBob are overwhelmed by having to keep up with the fast pace, frantic cartoon. Obviously, the fact that these were four-year-olds did factor in, and no long-term conclusions were drawn suggesting they would have chronic memory issues. That said, if you ask a four-year-old to remember a phone number right after watching Spongebob, you’ll probably not be happy with the results.
2. A Bad Sex Life Can Lead to Memory Loss in Later Life
Sex has been shown to provide multiple health benefits. From lower blood pressure to an improved immune system, pain relief, and depression relief, a healthy sex life boosts your well-being. You can add protecting your memory later in life to the list, also.
Sexually active patients between 50 and 89 score higher on memory tests than those who are not engaging in sexual activity. In another study that spanned 12 years, over 800 men were tracked, and those who experienced a lack of sexual satisfaction or erectile dysfunction also had higher instances of memory decline. The study was not concerned with how often a person had sex or how many partners they had, just their overall level of satisfaction. And if you are satisfied, you’ll probably suffer less memory decline in later years.
1. Social Isolation Has Been Linked to Memory Decline
Being alone is not considered good for your health. One reason it’s good to keep in touch with others and maintain a social relationship is for the sake of your memory. Social isolation has been linked to memory loss, and it’s been determined that memory loss precedes social isolation, not the other way around. If you consider yourself a lone wolf, you might want to look into getting some friends to add to your wolfpack.
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, doctors saw the effects of social isolation firsthand. People who normally engaged with family and friends had to cope with being more alone, and the effects were profound. Studies during the pandemic were small, but associations were drawn between isolation and issues with memory. 60% of patients in one study who already had Alzheimer’s or mild memory impairment experienced worse issues.
It’s believed lack of socialization can cause cognitive decline and poorer resilience in your brain simply because your brain is getting so little stimulation.