POZ Community Forums
Main Forums => Living With HIV => Topic started by: a2z on March 11, 2009, 10:25:15 am
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I've noticed over the last couple of years or so, but particularly since I started HAART (Reyataz, Truvada and Norvir) that I have a great deal of difficulty in creating new memories. I'm in a constantly changing profession with lots of new stuff to learn each year and it's getting to the point of being intolerable.
Does anyone take or know of any drugs to help restore, at least partially, memory-making functions of the brain? The only memory drugs I've seen out there are for Alzheimers.
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I read in the LA times a few years back, if you do crossword puzzles nightly before bed, the stimulation would improve short term memory. I am sure the study is still on their web site archives.
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Math problem solving is recommended to keep brain synapses in tune.
Mike
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I have chunks of years of my life I have totally no recollection of. Of course, I think this is due largely to some drugs I was on at the time. But, I feel ya on having no memory. It's extremely frustrating. And my memory doesn't work nearly as good as it used to.
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I know what you mean. My memory wasn't great before the meds and now that I am on them, I don't see any improvement. If anything my memory is getting worse and I'm only 24, lol. I am enrolled in an online math course but I haven't done anything in weeks. I might try Mike's suggestion and get back into the math. Good luck and if you find something that works for you, don't forget to let us know. :)
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I read in the LA times a few years back, if you do crossword puzzles nightly before bed, the stimulation would improve short term memory. I am sure the study is still on their web site archives.
Thanks for the suggestions. I guess it made me realize what I still do have. I play poker, do sudoku and hold a mentally challenging job (including lots of math at times.) I just can't seem to memorize new things and that worries me for my future.
I even take 120mg-240mg Gingko Balboa and 1.5 Acetyl-L-Carnitine daily for the last month...no improvment.
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Memory? What memory? My personal worst, is taking seven tries to transcribe a phone number from the answering machine. What were we talking about...
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I thought it was all because I was getting older! Well, which could also be part of the problem. I sometimes forget my coworkers' names! And numbers...good Lord, forget it. If I don't write it down, it never existed!
As a matter of fact, I had bought a book of cross word puzzles...at least I think I did.
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I get 'lost' driving into town sometimes. My mind wanders off and when I return .... I'm like, "Where was I going and how do I get there?"
Is it HIV related? Med related? Aging related (58 yrs)? Past drug use come back to haunt me?
Bit of all the above?
Yes.
Mike
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:)may be age as a forgetful 50 year old mysellf worst case parking car in large carpark spent an hour and half looking for it with trolley of shopping with the remote i rang my son who reminded me he dropped me to the store and was waiting for me to ring him for a lift back my car was outside my house.
was it menopause who knows
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Hello ,
Long term memory seems fine. It's the short term that gives me trouble sometimes. Having conversation can also be trying. I will be talking and suddenly loose my thought, and go blank in the middle of a sentence. Have to sit there for a few seconds and try to remember. I also seem to be typing faster than my thoughts permit, so I am constantly having to go back and make corrections. Words missing from sentences etc... 57 years old here !
Ray
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Mim has some serious memory issues. There are many times we'll have a conversation, she'll walk away, and then come back and ask what we said, where she was going, or what she was supposed to be doing. Her conversations go fine unless she's interupted. Then, she has to ask what she was saying.
Anything she has to commit to "muscle memory", ie dance, is extremely hard for her. Information that she has to learn and retain takes a lot of time, tons of repitition, and fatigues her quickly. In the middle of a lesson, we watch her eyes glaze over - a sure signal that her brain has shut down. Multi-step tasks and multi-tasking never go well. Neither does a "laundry" list of things she needs to accomplish. Too much info = too much confusion.
Not sure if this has to do with her HIV or her meds. I tend to lean towards a combination of both. Of course she doesn't have age to blame - she's only 8.
Mum (who is old and forgetful)
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I usually try to do a couple Sudoko puzzles a day. I always liked math and find this to be an enjoyable little hobby of mine.
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Well, F oh dear... you all aren't very encouraging to someone who hasn't started meds yet, but will at some point. lol. heheh :o
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HIV and the Brain...
http://www.aidsmeds.com/articles/hiv_neurocognitive_letendre_1667_16177.shtml
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Well I'll add an encouraging note, not in the main stream experiences.
I personally feel I have gained ability, especially detail memory, but only after being on meds for
a year or so. I've been med-ish since oct 2005. When I was younger, my hobby was detailed wiring
and circuit building (electronics), as well as building pc's.
I have certainly re-gained and actually surpassed my youth detailed memory capacity, in the last few years (on meds). I kinda gave up a lot of my hobby because I found it too taxing to plan and design circuits, wiring mazes, and the likes. And this was my pre-aids era Im speaking of.
Now, I once again find it easy and fun to mess with all this, my hobby of old.
Other than the side effects of fatigue and the sustiva dreams, for me its nice to have rejoined my hobby of old, that keeps me busy, happy and engaged. And its a hobby that daily fatigue doesn’t have an effect on.
I know this is not the norm with hiv and meds in general, but so far so good...
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I have a terrible time focusing and staying on one project at home. I was being interviewed on the phone for some free therapist help, they started with the worst, drug abuse or psychotic episodes. No, No , No. they then asked about being distracted and hard time focussing HELL YES! I'll start doing the dishes and find myself in the bathroom, then get that blanket off the couch and OH YEAH back to the dishes.
I hate puzzles, I hated math, I always seemed to come up with the wrong answer. I can't remember a phone number from just having looked at it. I'm an artist at heart I can remember colors, visuals, pictures. Lots of UBIs...... Useless Bits of Information.
I used to know hundreds of latin names for plants, now I"m lucky to remember a handful. Often I have to say I'll come back to that, and it does pop up.
I read some info a few years back and they were saying the best thing for the mind is exercise, walking, stretching etc. My 87 yo father now has dementia and it's tough, he takes it well and relies on mom and me to keep him together. Watching him decline is tough.
Also years ago there was a book review of a researcher trying to understand memory and it turned out that the hands and touch have a lot to do with remembering things. Which is why I had to write those latin names 50 times. Try Dizygotheca elegantissima or Gleditsia triacanthos inermus (honey locust). As a kid I used to tear apart leaves, feel the bark and break twigs to see how resistant they were, that helped tremendously.