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Extreme skiing could trigger amnesia

For all you really extreme backcountry skiers out there...beware! Ever heard of transient global amnesia? Well, it's a form of short-term memory loss that's pretty frightening. Common triggers include sex (doh!), strenous exercise (ahem), changing body temperature too quickly, and other forms of strenuous activities. CNN just did a report on a couple who had sex, and then the wife promptly forgot all about it. She also forgot what year it was, and what the Olympics were.

OK, so usually this only happens to people over 50, so if you're under that age, you probably don't have to worry. But what is it about all those strenuous activities that links to TGA (transient global amnesia)? "The unifying thing about each of them is they produce a sudden and significant change in blood flow," said Dr. Louis Caplan, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.

If the blood is restricted to your hippocampus (the part of your brain where short-term memory is located), the brain cannot record the memory and thus cannot recall it.

So, the moral of the story is, if you're over 50...don't have rough sex and only ski bunny hills. OK?

photo courtesy of grepicture.files.wordpress.com

 

 

Related tags (1): , olympics

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