Stress is a powerful component of daily life. Though good stress can help seniors achieve their greatest potential, bad stress can have detrimental effects on their health, including a significant impact on short-term memory. Many studies have made connections between having too much stress in life and a limited short-term memory. Here are a few of these connections.
Stress Has a Potentially Long-Lasting Impact
A 2002 study performed by Kevin B. Baker and Jeansok J. Kim, researchers at Yale University, revealed rats that were exposed to stressful situations showed more problems with short-term memory three hours after the stress occurred but had normal memory five minutes after the stress. These findings seem to indicate short-term memory isn’t affected when the stress is happening or immediately after. Instead, the stress builds up and significantly impacts the ability to remember things for quite some time after the stress ends.
Information May Become Difficult to Process
Some studies have shown a link between stress and less effective processing of information in the brain. If your elderly loved one isn’t processing information effectively, he or she may have difficulty learning new concepts and keeping up with daily life. For instance, your loved one may look up a number in the phone book and not remember the number long enough to place the phone call. If your loved one is experiencing stress, this likely means the stress affected his or her memory processing and prevented his or her short-term memory from holding on to the series of numbers it needed to remember.
Aging adults who need help managing mental and physical health issues can benefit from the assistance of highly trained professional caregivers. If your senior loved one has been diagnosed with a serious condition and needs help with tasks like meal prep, transportation, bathing, and grooming, reach out to Assisting Hands Home Care, a leading provider of in-home care families can trust. We also offer comprehensive care for seniors with dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s.
Learning New Things Can Become a Challenge
When experiencing stress, short-term memory doesn’t work as effectively to convert information to long-term memory. Short-term memory only retains information for a few seconds to a few minutes, but short-term memory is also responsible for moving information into long-term memory. However, stress significantly impacts and impairs the short-term memory’s ability to do this job effectively.
Seniors aren’t the only ones with high stress levels. Sometimes family caregivers are overwhelmed with the responsibility of caring for loved ones. Whether you need respite from your caregiving duties or your aging loved one needs live-in care, Richmond, VA, Assisting Hands Home Care can meet your family’s care needs. Our dedicated caregivers are available around the clock to provide transportation to doctor’s appointments, ensure seniors take their prescribed medications, and help with a variety of tasks in and outside the home.
Chronic Stress Has a Larger Impact
New studies are emerging that show acute types of stress caused by traumatic events don’t have a large effect on short-term memory. Instead, these studies indicate residual chronic stress has a much bigger impact on short-term memory. Small stressors that build up over time and are lasting, such as loneliness or worrying about finances, can actually be more detrimental. According to the CDC, seniors are at high risk for consistent levels of chronic stressors. Check in with your loved one and try to mitigate ongoing stressors to prevent the effects they can have on his or her short-term memory.
Professional caregivers can help seniors alleviate stress and enjoy a higher quality of life. Not every senior has the same care needs, which means they don’t all need the same type of homecare services. Henrico families can rely on Assisting Hands Home Care Richmond to provide individualized care plans to meet their elderly loved ones’ unique care needs. Our caregivers help seniors focus on healthy lifestyle habits such as eating nutritious foods, exercising regularly, and maintaining strong social ties, and we offer mentally stimulating activities that can boost cognitive health and delay the onset of dementia. Trust your loved one’s care to the professionals at Assisting Hands Home Care. To create a customized home care plan for your loved one, call (804) 600-0002 today.
