Experts say that mild memory loss is perfectly normal -- especially as we age.
That's right, if you sometimes forget simple things, you're not necessarily
developing Alzheimer's disease.There is a gang of people walking around just
like you who occasionally misplace their keys, have that deer-in-headlights
look as they search for their cars in parking lots, and can't recall the name
of one new person they met at their last office party -- yes, the one from
last night. And there's a reason for those character-themed floors coupled
with the happy-go-lucky music in Disney amusement park parking garages.
"If we have forgotten an appointment, we begin thinking, 'Uh oh, is this
the first sign of Alzheimer's disease?' and we become much more conscious,
and it gets kind of a disproportionate amount of attention when it really
may be something quite benign," Stuart Zola, PhD, professor of psychiatry
and behavioral sciences at the Emory School of Medicine and director of Yerkes
National Primate Facility in Atlanta tells WebMD.