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| Can't Remember What I Forgot: The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research | 
| Author: Sue Halpern
Publisher: Harmony
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $13.44
You Save: $10.56 (44%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (12 reviews)
Sales Rank: 99710
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0307406741
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.8523
EAN: 9780307406743
ASIN: 0307406741
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Release Date: May 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
An essential behind-the-scenes foray into the world of cutting-edge memory research that unveils ?ndings about memory loss only now available to general readers.
When Sue Halpern decided to emulate the ?rst modern scientist of memory, Hermann Ebbinghaus, who experimented on himself, she had no idea that after a day of radioactive testing, her brain would become so ?hot? that leaving through the front door of the lab would trigger the alarm. This was not the ?rst time while researching Can?t Remember What I Forgot, part of which appeared in The New Yorker, that Halpern had her head examined, nor would it be the last.
Halpern spent years in the company of the neuroscientists, pharmacologists, psychologists, nutritionists, and inventors who are hunting for the genes and molecules, the drugs and foods, the machines, the prosthetics, the behaviors and therapies that will stave off Alzheimer?s and other forms of dementia and keep our minds?and memories?intact. Like many of us who have had a relative or friend succumb to memory loss, who are getting older, who are hearing statistics about our own chances of falling victim to dementia, who worry that each lapse of memory portends disease, Halpern wanted to ?nd out what the experts really knew, what the bench scientists were working on, how close science is to a cure, to treatment, to accurate early diagnosis, and, of course, whether the crossword puzzles, sudokus, and ballroom dancing we?ve been told to take up can really keep us lucid or if they?re just something to do before the inevitable overtakes us.
Beautifully written, sharply observed, and deeply informed, Can?t Remember What I Forgot is a book full of vital information?and a solid dose of hope.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
Bulletin from the war front December 12, 2008
Because her father suffered some kind of not-clearly-diagnosed dementia near the end of his life, Sue Halpern was concerned that she might have inherited a predisposition to Alzheimer's disease. So she went to talk to neuroscientists. And took memory tests. And watched other people taking memory tests. And talked to nutritionists, and lots of other people in, around, and related to the "memory loss" field, including some who were making good money promoting various "how to" classes. The result is sort of a smorgasbord of what's out there, and the reader can meander around and pick and taste.
"Can't Remember What I Forgot" includes the promising, the questionable, and the dismaying, but spread out for our inspection are a lot of nuggets of interest. My favorite, and perhaps the hero of the book is Scott Small, who, using techniques he himself developed, came to the conclusion that the part of the brain that is impaired in Alzheimer's patients is not the same as the part impaired in "normal" forgetting that supposedly is a function of aging. Next nugget, not particularly in any order, is research that suggests that eating blueberries promotes the growth of new neurons in rats (and maybe in people). Next, the nugget of research that suggests that aerobic exercise is a good way of staving off memory loss. Another nugget of research suggests that people with a lot of education are less likely to develop Alzheimer's than people without. Since we're visiting a lot of booths at the bazaar, we also visit some people selling exercises that hopefully will increase the ability to memorize long lists of items, a skill that supposedly helps guard against . . . Against what? Mind deterioration? Memory loss? Alzheimer's?
Somewhere along the way I start having questions. Altzheimer's disease apparently involves the loss of personality and selfhood along with the loss of memory. These aren't quite the same things, or are they, and why does the book concentrate so much on memory? Does becoming more adept at remembering names make a person more adept at dealing with a doctor office mistake? More adept at driving one's way to a location not previously visited? It would be good to get an informed explanation on the connection between memory skills and other skills. And what about the research that says educated people are less susceptible to Alzheimer's--I can think of lots of counter examples, so what exactly does the research say, and how reliable is it? More important, what is it leaving out? What about all the programs selling memory loss prevention? Why am I reminded of the people who used to hawk glass knives at vacation resorts?
I find I'd like to ask these and other questions of someone really expert in the field, who works at it day by day, who has infinite patience and (since the answers will be in a book) excellent popular science writing skills. Someone like, say, Stephen Jay Gould or Stephen Hawking, only a neuroscientist instead of a paleontologist or a physicist. My imagined someone would have strong opinions on where the field is and where it might be going. This someone would be very authoritative, someone with lots of experience and, more important, lots of good sense, someone whom I could trust. In short, I read this book sort of wishing I were reading another book in the same field but a book that exists only in my mind's eye, unless it is out there and I don't know about it.
In the book's favor: (1) it gathers in one place all the items you think you came across in the science section of a good newspaper, plus some you missed and (2) plain and simple, it is very interesting.
 not practically helpful November 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I hoped this book would be practically helpful for a family member with pretty severe short-term memory problems. It was actually a sort of "travel book" - a tour of scientists who are studying memory problems generally.
This is unfortunate since I had hoped this book would be practically helpful for a family member with pretty severe short-term memory problems. It contained very few useful tips, most of which are already widely publicized, such as drinking red wine (apparently it's the flavanols, like green tea) and aerobic exercise as well as walking (two miles a day in one study, just one and a half hours a week in another) - also ballroom dancing is tops of all leisure activities. Chocolate, because of its flavanols, receives several pages; although it warns that the chocolate should not be processed in the usual way it doesn't suggest which chocolate brands are best - rather irritating but fortunately I have since learned elsewhere that we need to use the raw, organic cacao bean.
More helpful was "The Brain That Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge. One elderly doctor interviewed by the author recommended one of those computer-based programmes with mental exercises scientifically designed to improve memory which he personally had found beneficial and we bought it immediately. It's been a hard slog to get our loved one to use it though (memory problems tend to affect those who don't really use their minds that much - or who take certain types of drugs: read "Lipitor: Thief of Memory " and your blood will run cold).
Interesting but too light September 11, 2008
Theis book is about an area of importance to me. It lightly touches some very interesting concepts and ideas, but all too briefly. I was left wanting to know more . Sue needs to put more info in and leave more of the pondering and self-talk out.
 Can't remember what I forgot... August 15, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Gosh, I did forget what I forgot, I forgot the title of the book. All kidding aside, it's a book for everyone. It is not just for people who have a loved one with Alzheimers. We don't know who will or will not get this horrible disease.
 Hard to understand August 4, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Can't Remember What I Forgot: The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research I am not too pleased with this book because it is so technical. I thought it would be written for the average person, not a professional. I'm still reading it, but it doesn't seem to get any better.
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