Stroke and Memory Loss

Many people are not aware of the fact that multiple strokes, or mini-strokes, can make a person completely lose touch with her memories. What's worse, the damage can sometimes be so bad that it causes a person to lose touch with reality, and with the outside world. Obviously, this can happen when strokes are so large that a person is left comatose. However, in some cases the only hint that a person had a stroke is that she acts as though she has Alzheimer's Disease.

Some parts of the brain are critical for appropriate cognitive function, and damage to any of these areas, or their connections with other similarly important parts of the brain, due to a stroke, can significantly impair a person's ability to remember, and even to think.

This is a rare event, however. Milder forms of the same phenomenon can also make someone lose a significant fraction of their ability to remember things. In some cases the damage can be significant enough to make someone quit their job, or to significantly change their interactions with others. Obviously, this phenomenon, known as vascular cognitive impairment, is driven by the same risk factors that cause strokes, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. This is yet one more reason to keep your stroke risk factors under control.

Recommended reading:
Who is at risk of stroke?
All about stroke risk factors
Long term effects of stroke