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  • #31
    Quoth Jester View Post
    So, IS there a mild form of Korsakoff's Syndrome? And conversely, is possible to take a vitamin supplement of thiamine to counteract it (or to counteract bad memory in general)?
    As a general rule, deficiency diseases can be corrected by correcting the deficiency. However, if alcohol causes malabsorption of thiamine, you may need to reduce alcohol as well as increasing thiamine to get the effect. Check with your doctor.

    However, something that has similar symptoms to a deficiency disease but a different cause isn't (necessarily) going to be corrected by 'correcting' a non-existent deficiency.

    So ... see a doctor. Get your thiamine levels checked, get your thiamine absorption checked. If it's normal/normal, then your memory problems likely have a different cause. If not, listen to the doc's suggestions about correcting the deficiency.
    Seshat's self-help guide:
    1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
    2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
    3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
    4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

    "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

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    • #32
      I've been meaning to get a full physical for a few years now, for a few reasons: I'm 41, my father died of a potentially hereditary kidney disease, cholesterol (which I should be fine with but my family tends to run slightly high with this), to calm my mother's worries, unusually sore feet unusually often, and now this.

      Should be getting this done sometime soon, I hope. You know, when everything else in my life calms down.

      That being said, if part of the solution is to cut down or eliminate alcohol, the doctor and I may not see eye to eye....

      "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
      Still A Customer."

      Comment


      • #33
        B vitamin supplements are a fairly safe thing to try as far as I've been able to discover. (I'm not a doctor, do your own research, etc!!) They're water soluble so anything you don't need just goes through (creating amusingly neon coloured pee, just to warn you!)

        If your memory issues are stress related then you may see some difference. B-complex supplements are often touted as "stress vitamins" and they do seem to help a lot of people feel more resilient to stress (myself definitely among them!). If, on the other hand, you have an *attention* problem (as I also do), then things simply aren't making it into memory in the first place, and you're SOL.

        TL;DR: You're probably fine, but go get checked out. And try some B-complex even if it's just to watch your pee turn fluorescent yellow.

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        • #34
          My pee turns yellow enough when I'm drinking.

          And my memory issues are neither stress-related (I'm not overly stressed) nor an attention problem...I just don't always remember shit.

          "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
          Still A Customer."

          Comment


          • #35
            Quoth Shalom View Post
            I was wondering if she'd been singing crystal somewhere...
            I was going to reply that I thought that was entirely too obscure a reference for here, but Seshat shot that one down. Also, she's right!
            "English is the result of Norman men-at-arms attempting to pick up Saxon barmaids and is no more legitimate than any of the other results."
            - H. Beam Piper

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            • #36
              Quoth Andara Bledin View Post
              Doorways. Some study found that going through doorways has an odd effect on memory. This is why you go to another room to get something, can't remember what you wanted when you get there, but as soon as you get back the room you started in, you remember again.
              It has to do with how your mind compartmentalizes memories. Those folk who seem to have amazing memories often use a "room" method on purpose to store information.

              I'll stop now, as I can go on and on about people's inner workings. I can read that kind of stuff for fun.
              The Rich keep getting richer because they keep doing what it was that made them rich. Ditto the Poor.
              "Hy kan tell dey is schmot qvestions, dey is makink my head hurt."
              Hoc spatio locantur.

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              • #37
                I can't speak for everyone, but personally, I would like to hear more.

                "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
                Still A Customer."

                Comment


                • #38
                  Long Off-Topic Science Ahead--no thread info will be missed if you skip it.

                  Quoth Jester View Post
                  I can't speak for everyone, but personally, I would like to hear more.
                  Trying to keep it short, and not hijack the whole thread, most people's minds don't just keep information around like single pieces of paper, but it ties all the input together at the moment you make the memory. While it is possible to remember individual bits of data, you're more likely to remember something if you are in the same environment where you learned it. Even just hearing a song that was on in the background when you learned what you want to remember can help recall it.

                  Your brain automatically notes a doorway as a barrier, so limits itself to grabbing everything is an enclosed area, like the room you're in. So, by the theory, when you walk into another room, your brain doesn't assosiate the input it has from that room with what you're trying to remember, so you have a harder time remembering it. Returning to the other room allow the brain to grab more connections to the information, so you have a better chance of remembering what you went to the other room for.

                  So idealy, assuming the theory is correct, when studying for a test in school, you'd want to actually study in the classroom where you'll be testing, or one very like it. Even studying with the same pencil you'll use to write the test in your hand can show a small increase in memory recall.

                  For the really wierd stuff, some speciallists use this to really mess with people's minds. In one show I was watching, the fellow placed some chosen numbers in the local area on posted flyers or a single phone number on his desk. After he had talked to the subjects a couple of minutes, he placed an envelope on the table and asked for the subjects to jot down some random numbers of specific length. Most of the time, those numbers matched up to what was posted around the room, even though the subject could not tell you, say, the number on the flyer without looking directly at it. Of course, they also matched up to what the specialist had put inside the envelope, making it appear he had predicted the future.

                  It works because your brain takes in all kinds of information without you really noticing. When you need something random, like a number, your brain will actually grab what it has recently at hand, mainly all that information your brain has in short term memory. All the specialist has to do is control what is available for the brain to take in, making it much more likely you'll pick certain numbers so he can "predict the future" and amaze you.

                  Some of the people with excellent memory sort of do the reverse. They force an association with an environment, sometimes even imaginary. One guy reported setting items up in a room, and remembering is like looking around the room. He also said he trained himself over years before he got very good at it.

                  Now back to your regularly schedualed thread, already in progress.
                  The Rich keep getting richer because they keep doing what it was that made them rich. Ditto the Poor.
                  "Hy kan tell dey is schmot qvestions, dey is makink my head hurt."
                  Hoc spatio locantur.

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    Quoth Seshat View Post
                    As a general rule, deficiency diseases can be corrected by correcting the deficiency. However, if alcohol causes malabsorption of thiamine, you may need to reduce alcohol as well as increasing thiamine to get the effect.
                    Unfortunately, this isn't always case... Korsakoff's Syndrome is a type of irreversible brain damage. Thiamine deficiency in the long term (i.e. years) damages parts of the thalamus and hypothalamus.

                    You really do have to work quite hard at avoiding real food to wind up with that kind of damage though!

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                    • #40
                      Just pointing out that it is in fact possible to have an overdose of B₆ (pyridoxine). Long term (as in years) overuse of B₆ can cause neuropathy, even though the excess is being excreted. It's the only one of the water-soluble vitamins that will do this, though.

                      Comment


                      • #41
                        Quoth Jester View Post
                        So, IS there a mild form of Korsakoff's Syndrome? And conversely, is possible to take a vitamin supplement of thiamine to counteract it (or to counteract bad memory in general)?

                        Just wondering.
                        I don't know about Korsakoff's, but there is also a line of thought that B12 deficiencies can cause memory problems. You can get a B12-only supplement (doesn't do the neon yellow thing Again, getting a full physical would let a doctor look for common vitamin deficiencies. I just thought I'd mention that as another area of research for you to look into

                        I've been on B12 for over a year (not related to memory problems - I had a documented deficiency, probably caused by malabsorption because of diabetes meds) I found a nice sublingual one made by Source Naturals - it's raspberry flavored Sublingual works better for B12, because it tends to be destroyed by stomach acids. HTH!
                        Smile, or I'll smack you silly!
                        At what age does a vampire become a crazy old bat? :[

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                        • #42
                          When I started at my favorite gas station, Awesome Boss told me that I could be held liable if someone I had sold beer to got into an accident and injured/killed someone.
                          I'm bringing disdain back...with a vengeance.

                          Oh, and your tool box called...you got out again.

                          Comment


                          • #43
                            Quoth Buglady View Post
                            Unfortunately, this isn't always case... Korsakoff's Syndrome is a type of irreversible brain damage. Thiamine deficiency in the long term (i.e. years) damages parts of the thalamus and hypothalamus.

                            You really do have to work quite hard at avoiding real food to wind up with that kind of damage though!
                            That's true: similarly if you have scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) and lose teeth due to it*, you won't grow the teeth back once you start eating oranges.

                            The damage from a deficiency disease won't reverse itself. The disease itself will. I agree, however, that I should have made that more clear.


                            * scurvy destroys connective tissue. Or rather, lack of vitamin C prevents the body from maintaining connective tissue. So old scars re-open. Teeth loosen. Joints loosen. Old broken bones start to re-break. It's NASTY. Eat your fresh (or snap-frozen) fruit and veg, people!
                            Seshat's self-help guide:
                            1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
                            2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                            3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                            4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

                            "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

                            Comment

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