Forget Me Not

Forget About It!
"Senior moments" are not usually signs of Alzheimer's disease, you'll be glad to hear.

Experts in aging say those kinds of memory lapses; the where-did-I-put-my-car-keys moments are universal by late middle age. And they arise from a different part of the brain than the region involved in the forgetfulness that is symptomatic of Alzheimer's.

People with Alzheimer's usually cannot recall ordinary nouns , like a fork or radio and they're less aware of their forgetfulness, say the experts.

And the one test of what type of forgetfulness you experience involves your reaction when you finally remember where you put the keys.

If you have a sense of recollection, "Oh, yes, the phone rang and I put them on the table" chances are about 95 percent that you're normal.

On the other hand, "People in the early stages of Alzheimer's tend not to have that sense of recollection, even when they're reminded."

My forgetfulness usually is something like going into a room and then not remembering why I went in there or having a name or a word on the tip of my tongue but not being able to remember it until ten minutes later. Those are my "Oh Duh!" moments. I wonder what that says about me.