Allergies can definitely affect your memory. If you feel like you’re becoming senile at age 20, then it could be an allergy symptom.
I have a better memory now, since eliminating allergens, than I did when I was 20, even though many years have passes since then.
There are two aspects to memory: storing the memory and recalling the memory.
There are also two types of memory: short-term memory and long-term memory.
In this article, I speak largely from my own experiences. Your experiences may be different. Allergies may not affect your memory at all, or they may affect your memory in a different way from what is described here.
Imagine this scenario: you’re playing a game with your friends, a variation on football with just three people – two on one team and one on the other. The goal is for the team of two to cross the goal line, with the third person defending the line.
You rotate partners to keep the game fair. One of the three is invincible, no one can get past him.
So you think of a strategy. You suggest to your friend that he starts running for the goal line, you fake a pass, and then run past the line yourself.
The only trouble is that 10 seconds later when you start play, you forget your own brilliant strategy, and instead of faking a pass, you actually pass the ball to your team mate, and lose again.
That’s exactly what happened to me when I was at university years ago. I used to do dumb things like that all the time, forget the most obvious things.
At the time, I knew something was wrong, but had no idea what it was.
When I cut wheat and gluten out of my diet, my memory magically improved.
Mold allergies also greatly affect my memory and concentration. Mold can be hard to avoid – it is very dependent on you environment – both inside and outside.
Now my short term memory is excellent for most things. Its about normal – not perfect, and I remember certain types of things better than others, just like most other healthy people.
If you think you are loosing your mind, and find your memory has deteriorated, it could definitely be a sign that you have allergy problems.
As with any other allergy symptom, there is no one symptom that goes along with all allergies for all people. You may find that of the various allergies you have, only some things affect your memory. Or you may find allergies do not affect your memory at all.
On the other hand, if you know you have allergies, but think you can live with the symptoms, you may find that avoiding the things that make you sick is well worth it, just so that you can improve your memory.