My grandmother is almost 100 years old. She's still mentally sharp and has stayed that way by reading the newspaper from start to finish every day. She also remembers the birthdays of most of her 22 grandchildren and great grandchildren. My father, her son, is 73 years old. He sometimes suffers from short term memory loss, forgetting peoples' names and losing his place in conversations. We were worried that he might be showing signs of early Alzheimer's disease. He recently underwent a battery of tests at Duke University; the results of which, luckily, did not indicate that my dad has Alzheimer's disease. But we were right to be concerned about his somewhat frequent "senior moments".

CNN.com reports that occasional forgetfulness in older people can be a sign of Alzheimer's disease. A group of scientists in Chicago performed autopsies on 134 older people who were apparently normal aside from occasionally being forgetful. The scientists found that the brains of more than one-third of their research subjects had "waxy protein clumps and other signs of degeneration that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease". These findings are causing the scientists to question whether minor memory loss really is as "normal" as it's always been believed to be.

It seems that my grandmother has found the most effective way to stave off short term memory loss. Many researchers believe that performing mentally stimulating tasks like reading, working crossword puzzles, or taking classes can help older people maintain their short term memory. And some researchers also believe that performing those same tasks might also help the brain compensate for the disease.

A write-up of the actual study appears in a recent issue of Neurology, the American Academy of Neurology's scientific journal.

About the author: In her spare time, knotheadus writes for Epinions.com and maintains her own Web site, knot-heads.com.