Are you forgetting major appointments? Are familiar telephone numbers or names slipping out of your mind? If the answer is yes, you are probably over-stressed and suffering from high blood pressure, hypertension or even diabetes.

Incidence of dementia or loss of memory is fast rising in Calcuttans and doctors blame it on the change in lifestyle.

?High blood pressure, hypertension and diabetes affect the memory of a person. These ailments are on the rise in the city because of increased stress and other factors,? said R.P. Sengupta, chairman and medical director of National Neurosciences Centre (NNC) ? a joint venture of Neurosciences Foundation, Bengal, and Peerless Hospital.

NNC is setting up a memory restoration clinic at Peerless Hospital, in collaboration with a Japanese pharmaceutical company, to diagnose causes of memory loss and provide guidance to those affected by it. Such centres have been set up in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad, too.

The temporal lobe of the brain controls the memory of a person. The memory cells get affected because of various factors, a minor stroke being one of them.

Such strokes do not exihibit any symptom or cause any immediate damage to the body, but blood vessels in the brain of the affected person get blocked, resulting in disruption in the blood supply to certain areas, including the one that controls memory.

Acute dementia can lead to complicated ailments like Alzheimer?s Disease and some forms of Parkinson?s.

?Earlier, only people above 55 were found to be suffering from dementia. In their case, the brain cells got damaged because of the advancing age,? said L.N. Tripathi, neurosurgeon of Apollo Gleneagles Hospital.

?But now, blood pressure, diabetes and other lifestyle-related factors are increasing the chances of people losing their memories at an earlier stage,? he explained.

Excessive consumption of alcohol, food habits, lack of exercise and nutrition deficiency are also causing memory loss among the people, said NNC?s R.P. Sengupta. ?Preventive measures need to be taken early.?

According to neuro-psychologist Moushumi Mukherjee, memory loss caused by stress is reversible. ?At the NNC clinic, we will guide patients in cognitive training. Daily practice of simple basic calculations, scrabbles, and yoga can help. In other cases, medicines can be prescribed,? she said.

She stressed the importance of mental support for patients suffering from Alzheimer?s and other extreme cases of memory loss.

?Family members of the patients should be properly explained the situation and some daily routine can be set for them. If detected early, the ailments can be cured,? she added.