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In reply to the discussion: Three years ago, I was told by my Dr. that I had Alzheimer's. [View all]wnylib
(25,183 posts)He lived to age 86. I got info on his mental diagnosis 2nd hand from my brother who lived near my parents when they moved to Florida (I'm in NY), so I'm not sure if it was dementia or Alzheimer's.
So I worried when 12 years ago I developed noticeable memory problems. My doctor kept writing it off as normal aging but I knew it wasn't because 1) I forgot functions, like the time I couldn't remember how to use my phone to call someone, and 2) I had physical symptoms like lights dimming and then going back to normal.
I thought it was TIAs but the doctor laughed that off instead of doing testing. When I lost a job due to a memory lapse, I demanded that my doctor find out the cause. He sent me to a neurologist. The neurologist discovered that I had a severe vitamin D deficiency, that my BP medicine was not controlling my BP well enough, and that the dosage for my hypothyroid medicine was not correct. (Hypothyroidism can cause forgetfulness.) A brain MRI confirmed that I'd had a series of TIAs.
So the neurogist put me on a megadose of vitamin D and recommended to my primary care doctor that he change my BP med and the dosage of the thyroid med. Since then no more dizzy spells, no more lights dimming and coming back on for me, no more forgetting functions. I take a daily maintenance dose of vitamin D and keep my BP under control with a more effective med.
I do have occasional memory lapses, like remembering names. Sometimes, but not often, I forget a specific word that I want to use, but if I pause and relax, it comes to me. I don't know if that's due to an age related decline in memory, or if the TIAs (mini strokes) damaged some neural pathways. My brain seems able to overcome the lapses when I pause and relax. Maybe the brain is compensating by finding another pathway connection to my word memory.
Oh, I also changed my primary care doctor since the problem had continued needlessly for 2 years before he took it seriously enough to refer me to someone, and then only because I angrily demanded it.
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