I was sent this news report today. I am not sure of the web source, if I can find it I will append it and reference it properly. I can say that I am totally at one with this, I have so struggled with memory loss since I became diabetic, and I can assert that when I was unregulated, my blood sugar I mean, my memory was terrible and contributed to my eventually losing the job I loved. My memory is better now, but nowhere near as good as it used to be. I am trying to keep my brain exercised - but it is so tiring.

Blood sugar control linked to memory decline, study says
Spikes in blood sugar can take a toll on memory by affecting the dentate gyrus, an area of the brain within the hippocampus that helps form memories, a new study reports.
Researchers said the effects can be seen even when levels of blood sugar, or glucose, are only moderately elevated, a finding that may help explain normal age-related cognitive decline, since glucose regulation worsens with age.
The study, by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and funded in part by the National Institute on Aging, was published in the December issue of Annals of Neurology.
"If we conclude this is underlying normal age-related cognitive decline, then it affects all of us," said lead investigator Dr. Scott Small, associate professor of nememory lossurology at Columbia University Medical Center. The ability to regulate glucose starts deteriorating by the third or fourth decade of life, he added.
Since glucose regulation is improved with physical activity, Small said, "We have a behavioral recommendation — physical exercise."
In the study, researchers used high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging to map brain regions in 240 elderly subjects. They found a correlation between elevated blood glucose levels and reduced cerebral blood volume, or blood flow, in the dentate gyrus, an indication of reduced metabolic activity and function in that region of the brain.
By manipulating blood sugar levels in mice and monkeys, researchers said, they tried to confirm a cause-and-effect relationship between the glucose spikes and the reduced blood volume, Small said.
Bruce McEwen, who heads the neuroendocrinology lab at Rockefeller University in New York and was not involved in the research, said the study's findings were "compelling," with important implications not just for the elderly but for the growing number of overweight children and teens at risk of Type 2 diabetes.
"When we think about diabetes, we think about heart disease and all the consequences for the rest of the body, but we usually don't think about the brain," he said. "This is something we've got to be really worried about. We need to think about their ultimate risks not only for cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, but also about their cognitive skills, and whether they will be able to keep up with the demands of education and a fast-paced complex society. That's the part that scares the heck out of me."
Previous observational studies have shown that physical activity reduces the risk of cognitive decline, and studies have also found that diabetes increases the risk of dementia. Earlier studies had also found a link between Type 2 diabetes and dysfunction in the dentate gyrus.
Sheri Colberg-Ochs, an associate professor of exercise science at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, said her research has found that regular exercise, even light physical activity, can offset the potentially negative effects of Type 2 diabetes on cognitive function. It is not clear what the mechanism is, she said, but may have something to do with the effect of insulin.
"This new study is interesting in that it allows for a greater understanding of which region of the hippocampus is likely most affected by poorly controlled diabetes," she said.
But the elevations in blood glucose seen in the new study are more subtle and would not be considered a disease state, Small said.
"It's part of the normal process of aging, much like wrinkling of skin," he said. "It happens to all of us inexorably, and it worsens progressively across the life span."

I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me God.

Gabapentin, so they tell me, has a side effect that affects memory. There are, genuinly, things that my familiy have said to me recently that I have absolutely no recollection of them saying.
But is it the gabapentin? I remember doing a training course on Human Performance a few years ago. We were all shown a short film and then asked a number of questions on it. There were twenty of us doing the course, and twenty of us all saw a different film. MOST of us did not see a man with a banana, some did but thought it a knife, and so on. I performed no better or worse than anyone else, but i have a long lasting memory of a question, What is the truth?
Is it what I remember?
Is it what someone else remembers?
Is it what mattered what happened?

Do you remember driving to work yesterday? What colour was the second bus you saw? What car was behind you at the third set of lights? Did a car cut you up? Was the driver young or old, male or female. What car did you park next to in the car park. What dress/tie was a c0-worker wearing? And so on. You can't remember some key issues can you?
'But they are not key' you might rebuff, but what if you read the local paper tomorrow and discover that the car that cut you up was fleeing from a crime, perhaps a murder? I grew up with the Birmingham bombings, and I know what I remember seeing on TV, but what do I remember of the actual events as they unfolded. How reliable would I be if I were called as a witness 40 years on? How reliable would you be, I day, 1 month, 1 year on from an event.
How reliable a witness could you be? And you probably are not taking gabapentin. Just think about it next time there is a report of a big trial on TV, perhaps a terrorist bombing.

Perhaps it ought to be

I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as my memory remembers it, so help me God.

Gabapentin. It is my prescribed pain killer at the moment. It wasn't yesterday, but it is today. Let me explain.

I went to a Pain Clinic group hug the other day. Following on from the nerve killing (more like nerve irritating and getting them jolly mad!) injection, my follow up appointment was a group session in the Centre for Pain Management. A sort of group hug if you like, but we were presented details of how they (the Pain Clinic) could help us manage our pain. We were told in no uncertain terms that they would not get rid of our pain, but help us come to terms with it. Good Grief! I've been in pain since I was 14, 38 years ago, I think that I have learned to come to terms with it by now. But anyway, I will try anything, I have nothing to lose. Back to the hug, there was a psychologist there (!), a nurse and a previous 'graduate' of the programme. I listened, but mostly to the other patients. I had to suppress my smiles at one other inductee when she complained about her co-codamol. Good Lord, I mean, my pain went beyond co-codamol twenty years ago. Bless, she was new to it all.

One snippet did make sense though. A fellow inductee mentioned that she wouldn't take gabapentin because it caused memory loss. PING!!! Yvonne and Hannah have 'complained' to me recently that I haven't done things they asked, such as use up some specific food stuffs when I make tea. I had completely forgotten it, and on several occasions too. The nurse confirmed that memory impairment was a major side effect of Gaba.

Right, so I came straight off it. That was Tuesday. Wednesday was okay, and I thought, hey, I can handle this. Thursday I hurt and ached in places that I had forgotten existed. Yesterday, (Friday) I could hardly move with the pain. It obviously takes a few days to work out of the system, and boy, do I now know how much pain it suppressed.

Sod the memory loss, give me my gaba!

Sorry, what was I saying?