While subjective memory loss seems unavoidable as we age, Rise can measure your mental clarity and take steps to keep your mind sharper for longer.

Like most neurological conditions, subjective memory loss (or subjective cognitive decline) is a mystery to medical professionals. Nevertheless, it massively impacts our health and well-being as we age.

How can someone stay ahead of cognitive decline when standard tests can’t accurately identify the symptoms?

The answer is in the word Subjective. A patient with this kind of memory loss may notice worsening thinking abilities over time, but their symptoms aren’t severe enough to interfere with daily activities.

The lack of pressing symptoms often leads to doctors dismissing their patient’s concerns as a mental illness. While mental illnesses like depression or anxiety are risk factors for memory loss, the root causes run much deeper and have far-reaching consequences if not managed.

Knowing all this, how can we spot the signs and encourage proactive interventions? First, we must understand what subjective memory loss is and the long-term implications.

What is Subjective Memory Loss

The CDC defines subjective memory loss as the self-reported experience of frequent memory loss or confusion. It’s a cognitive impairment that diminishes the brain’s ability to learn, remember, and make judgments.

The decline from this condition can range from mild to severe — and many cases lead to dementia.

Slight cognitive decline is expected as adults age, but subjective memory loss isn’t as simple as occasional brain fog. If you forget how to perform simple daily tasks that help you function independently, such as cooking a meal or taking medication, poor health outcomes are inevitable.

What are the Signs and Symptoms?

As we mentioned in our last blog about the common causes of death, recognizing the signs early is the key to slowing mental decline. However, mild cognitive impairments can quickly become severe if medical professionals don’t accurately diagnose their patients.

The first symptoms of cognitive decline are tough to pinpoint, but those who report subjective memory loss exhibit the following signs:

• Memory lapses
• Attention problems
• Challenges in clearly expressing thoughts or recalling words
• Frequent confusion
• Trouble remembering conversations, names, dates, or events
• Difficulty following the plots of books, movies, or TV shows
• Feeling overwhelmed when planning or making decisions
• Depression
  

So, why do doctors miss the characteristics of subjective memory loss? There are a few reasons:

• Lack of Patient Awareness: The patient may notice that they’re forgetting essential daily tasks frequently. But in the time between noticing the forgetfulness and their next doctor’s appointment, their brain won’t retain that information. Also, in many cases, the patient might fear the diagnosis as it could indicate a dementia diagnosis later.

• Symptom Subtlety: The red flags of cognitive impairment are often mild and mistaken for simple slip-ups, such as forgetting events, repeating yourself, losing your train of thought, or misplacing items. Since primary care doctors only see us a couple of times a year, the early signs of subjective memory loss may be unnoticeable between visits.

• Not Enough Time in Appointments: Think of your brain as the ocean of your body. Scientists understand how brain cells develop and their role in memory, but they still don’t know how the information is processed. With this in mind, it is difficult to evaluate a complex organ like the brain and get a clear picture of symptoms during the average appointment time.

• Misdiagnosis: Since the early symptoms can be vague or hard to interpret, physicians often mistake subjective memory loss for several conditions such as psychiatric disorders, thyroid irregularity, or vitamin b12 deficiency.
  

What are the Long-Term Effects?

Naturally, everyone expects a slight decrease in their mental capacity over time. More time means more memories and less brain space to store all of them.

The problem comes when a person forgets how to perform the daily tasks that keep them alive. While dementia is not always a certainty, The Mayo Clinic suggests that 10-15% of patients with subjective memory loss go on to develop dementia within a year.

Dementia is one of the CDC’s most common causes of death because of the damage it causes to the brain and its ability to drive breathing, coughing, and blood circulation.

If subjective memory loss goes unmanaged, the best case scenario is needing assistance to carry out basic tasks — which still means a loss of independence. The worst case is slowly losing control over instinctive functions needed for survival.

Is Subjective Memory Loss Preventable?

As we mentioned above, scientists are still discovering what causes cognitive decline. A study from the Allen Institute states that the brain has around 86 billion neurons with different molecular switches.

We’ll have a more concrete answer once we understand the neural pathways and how they communicate better. As for now, the signs suggest that subjective memory loss is not preventable. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t lower our risks!

Subjective memory loss doesn’t have a single cause, but it often demonstrates the same brain changes as dementia:

• Reduced blood flow through brain vessels (caused by plaque deposits contributing to heart attacks and strokes).
  

• Decreased hippocampus size (the region of your brain responsible for memory that is damaged by unmanaged stress and depression).
  

• Reduced use of glucose in key brain regions (AKA the sugar your cells use as their main source of energy).
  

The studies of how subjective memory loss affects the brain suggest that there are modifiable factors that can reduce the risk of developing cognitive impairments.

The Mayo Clinic compiled several studies and recommends the following lifestyle adjustments that may help lower subjective memory loss risks:

• Limit your alcohol intake
• Practice caution around or limit your exposure to air pollution
• Protect your head during high-contact sports or activities like bike riding
• Don’t smoke
• Manage conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, or obesity proactively
• Practice good sleep hygiene
• Eat a nutrient-rich diet and avoid food with saturated fat
• Exercise regularly at a moderate or vigorous intensity
• If you have chronic depression, stay social with family and friends to reduce feelings of isolation
• Wear hearing aids if you have hearing loss
• Stimulate your mind with puzzles, memory-training, or problem-solving games
  

Protect Your Memories with Rise

Losing your mental faculties (or just not feeling as sharp as you used to) is a scary thought, but you’re not alone. About 1 in 9 Americans are currently dealing with subjective memory loss. It’s a growing public health issue, and Rise is determined to do something about it.

Whether you’re worried about subjective memory loss or the thought hasn’t crossed your mind yet, it’s never too early to get ahead!

Rise’s Lifestyle and Fitness Training services supercharge how every system in your body functions, including your brain. Our cognitive tests target key neurological processes from attention to memory — identifying potential issues early and enhancing your focus with each visit.

Don’t let your primary care provider write off your memory problems as a mental slump. Whatever’s causing your brain fog, we want to get to the root of it and help you preserve your memories for as long as possible. Book a cognitive test with a Rise Specialist today!