As I age, I’m noticing more and more people who seem to have issues with their memories. That’s a bit unsettling, especially when you know that memory loss diseases have been in your own family.
“A new report estimates 6.9 million older Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease in 2024, an increase of about 200,000 cases of the mind-robbing disease from 2023 and “a significant public health crisis,” according to an expert.
“Another 5 million to 7 million adults have mild cognitive impairment, a set of early changes to memory and thinking linked to Alzheimer’s, according to an Alzheimer’s Association’s annual facts and figures report released Wednesday.
The report also highlights good news. Other studies indicate that dementia rates have declined over the past 25 years as more adults are achieving higher levels of education, staying active and exercising, reducing their blood pressure, avoiding cigarettes and staying socially engaged.”1
We often joke about how easily we forget basic things like names, where we put our keys, our glasses, or a word that escapes us. There is an old joke about two men talking and the one man says to the other, “The older I get, the more I think about the hereafter.” His friend commended him for such a spiritual way of thinking but was quickly surprised when his friend continued, “Every time I enter a room, I think, “What am I here after?”” With nearly 5% of Americans suffering from cognitive issues, though, memory loss is no longer funny. It’s serious and it could be the harbinger of worse things to come.
Researchers are looking for answers! Most blame our diets, exposure to metals like aluminum, lack of exercise, and medications. The medications being developed seem to have limited remedy but excessive drawbacks. For instance, two new medications have been developed which may help the person with Alzheimer’s or dementia live independently for a few more months. However, the “risks include the possibility of serious side effects, such as brain swelling and bleeding, as well as the substantial
financial costs associated with treatment, even if you have insurance coverage,” says Dr. Chris Vercammen, a board-certified internal medicine physician who specializes in geriatrics and palliative care.2
If the diseases aren’t bad enough, research just released has discovered that “certain types of antidepressants may accelerate the rate of cognitive decline seen in people with dementia… Antidepressants are commonly used to help relieve such symptoms as aggressiveness, anxiety, depression and disrupted sleep in patients with dementia.”3 Those suffering are plunged deeper and quicker into the debilitating effects of the diseases.
While it is devasting to watch someone ravaged with Alzheimer’s or dementia, there is a memory loss that is far more serious.
Psalms 106:6-8, 13-14, 21-22 says, “We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. (7) Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea. (8) Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known… (13) They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: (14) But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert… (21) They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; (22) Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.”
This seems to have been an ongoing problem for the Israelites. Back in Judges 3:7, we read the first occurrence of this spiritual dementia. “And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves.”
Interestingly, Deuteronomy is loaded with warnings about forgetting God. The earliest warnings are in Deuteronomy 4:9, 23. “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons … (23) Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any 
thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee.”
Many warnings are given to us as well. Today, let’s check our memory. Are we living as if we have forgotten the God who saved us and called us to live holy lives? Are we forgetting all the ways He has poured blessing into our lives through the years? Are we forgetting the powerful truths He has taught us in His Word?
May we declare with the Psalmist, “I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.” (Psalms 119:16)
1https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/03/20/alzheimers-association-disease-report/72963017007/
2https://www.foxnews.com/health/two-alzheimers-drugs-help-patients-live-independently-home-longer-periods
3https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/dementia-some-antidepressants-may-speed-up-decline-neuroscientists-warn/
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