Worried about your memory

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  Worried About Your Memory? Your guide to understanding memory loss by Dementia Australia (2025)

  Many of us have concerns about our memory, especially as we age. This booklet provides an overview of how memory works and what changes may occur as we age. While some memory changes can be a normal part of aging, major changes in memory are not. If you or someone you know is experiencing memory difficulties, start by talking to your doctor. This booklet covers the following topics: About the brain; How memory works; What happens to memory as we age?; What causes memory problems?; Strategies for improving memory; When you should be concerned; Memory concerns checklist; What you should ask your doctor; Common memory disorders; Ten signs of dementia; and Healthy brain, healthy Life.
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  Healthy Brain, Healthy Life: How to reduce your risk of developing dementia by Dementia Australia (2025)

  Keeping your brain healthy is essential for living a fulfilling, healthy and long life. In fact, scientific research suggests that a brain healthy lifestyle can reduce your risk of developing dementia later in life. Whether you are old, young or in-between, there are simple changes you can make to improve and protect your brain health. This book will help you get started in making changes to support your health. This booklet covers the following topics: Reducing your risk of dementia; Looking after your heart; Looking after your body; Increase physical activity; Maintain a healthy, balanced diet; Maintain healthy sleep patterns; Check your hearing and other senses; Protect your head; Looking after your mind; Creating and maintaining healthy habits; and What to do if you are worried.

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  Early warning signs by Dementia Australia

  The early signs of dementia can be very subtle. They’re also different from person to person. Listed here isn information on common early signs of dementia. If you notice any of these changes in yourself, or someone else notices them in you, talk to your doctor. The sooner you know, the more you can do.

• About dementia by Dementia Australia

  What is dementia, who gets it and some of its most common forms.

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  Reducing Dementia Risk: webinar

  In this webinar, Dr Marita Long, Dementia Australia Honorary Advisor and practising GP, discusses changes in thinking and how to monitor them, as well as dementia risk factors and strategies that can help to reduce them.
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  The mediterranean diet: webinar

  In this webinar, dietitian Emma Butler describes how you can incorporate aspects of the Mediterranean diet into your daily food habits. You will learn about: the Mediterranean diet; the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet; and practical ideas for healthy meals and snack options.

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  BrainTrack App

  BrainTrack is a free app developed by Dementia Australia that helps you monitor and understand changes in cognition over time, which you can use to start a conversation with your GP. The app will provide brain health information through fun, travel-themed games that test your cognition. The resulting conversation and monitoring may lead to an earlier diagnosis of dementia.
• CogDrisk - Cognitive Health and Dementia Risk Assessment

  CogDrisk is a free online tool developed by leading Australian researchers and uses the latest evidence to help you understand your dementia risk profile. The assessment gives you a personalised report that you can discuss with your doctor and takes approximately 20 minutes to complete.

• Memory wise: how memory works and what to do when it doesn't by Anne Unkenstein

  Publication Date: 2019

  It’s common to be concerned about memory lapses, but how do you know if memory difficulties are normal or the beginnings of something more serious? Can dementia be prevented? Memory-wise explains how memory works and the changes that can occur as we age. It explains the sort of health, attitude and lifestyle factors that can lead to fluctuation in memory and provides practical tips to minimise their effects.
• Remember : the science of memory and the art of forgetting by Lisa Genova

  Publication Date: 2021

  In Remember, neuroscientist and acclaimed novelist Lisa Genova delves into how memories are made and how we retrieve them. You'll learn whether forgotten memories are temporarily inaccessible or erased forever and why some memories are built to exist for only a few seconds (like a passcode) while others can last a lifetime (your wedding day). You'll come to appreciate the clear distinction between normal forgetting (where you parked your car) and forgetting due to Alzheimer's (that you own a car).
• The Memory Handbook by Robin Dynes

  Publication Date: 2017

  This handbook is full of practical ideas to use with anyone who is experiencing mild to severe memory difficulties. The suggestions and activities can be used when working with individuals or groups. The handbook includes;
  • Information about how memory works and different types of memory• An outline of what can affect memory• Strategies to aid memory• Activities to practice using the strategies• Activities to keep the brain active and maintain memory
• Is It Alzheimer's? 101 Answers to Your Most Pressing Questions About Memory Loss and Dementia by Peter V. Rabins

  Publication Date: 2025

  Has someone in your family been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease—or are you worried about developing dementia yourself? In this revised second edition of Is It Alzheimer's?, medical expert Dr. Peter V. Rabins educates both new and current readers with updated answers to often-asked questions about memory loss and dementia.
  Available as an audiobook and an ebook
• Practical Memory: A Simple Guide to Help You Remember More & Forget Less in Your Everyday Life by I. C. Robledo

  Publication Date: 2017

  This audiobook describes simple systems and exercises anyone can use to improve their memory.
• Coping with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) by Mary Jordan

  Publication Date: 2020

  Adults are being increasingly diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), and this book provides strategies for concerned individuals to help slow the onset of the condition. Around 50% of adults with MCI go on to develop dementia, but research shows that self-help through early intervention and preventative measures can hugely slow this down.
• Until My Memory Fails Me: Mindfulness Practices for Cultivating Resilience and Self-Compassion in the Face of Cognitive Decline by Sharon Lukert

  Publication Date: 2025

  Lukert offers specific ways to build resilience against the emotional swings and existential fear inherent in cognitive decline. The book includes: instructions for more than a dozen mindfulness and meditation exercises; practical advice on topics like understanding your diagnosis, how to talk to your medical providers, testing, dealing with bias, how to maintain communication, and managing new symptoms; and stories, advice, and encouragement from her peers in the MCI community and her “dementia ancestors,” those she worked with in her decades as a Buddhist chaplain in healthcare settings.

• Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission (2024)

  The 2024 update of the Lancet Commission on dementia provides new hopeful evidence about dementia prevention, intervention, and care. As people live longer, the number of people who live with dementia continues to rise, even as the age-specific incidence decreases in high-income countries, emphasising the need to identify and implement prevention approaches. We have summarised the new research since the 2020 report of the Lancet Commission on dementia, prioritising systematic reviews and meta-analyses and triangulating findings from different studies showing how cognitive and physical reserve develop across the life course and how reducing vascular damage (eg, by reducing smoking and treating high blood pressure) is likely to have contributed to a reduction in age-related dementia incidence. Evidence is increasing and is now stronger than before that tackling the many risk factors for dementia that we modelled previously (ie, less education, hearing loss, hypertension, smoking, obesity, depression, physical inactivity, diabetes, excessive alcohol consumption, traumatic brain injury , air pollution, and social isolation) reduces the risk of developing dementia. In this report, we add the new compelling evidence that untreated vision loss and high LDL cholesterol are risk factors for dementia.
  Livingston, G., [et al] (2024). Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission. The Lancet, Volume 404, Issue 10452, 572 - 628

• National Institute on Aging: Memory Problems, Forgetfulness, and Aging

  Information on memory changes with age, mild cognitive impairment, dementia versus age-related forgetfulness, and other things that can affect memory.
• Memory / Harvard Health

  On this page you'll discover:
  What is memory?
  What causes memory loss and forgetfulness?
  What is mild cognitive impairment?
  What is dementia?
  What is the difference between dementia and Alzheimer's?
  How to improve memory and concentration?
  How to avoid memory loss?